Nobody Sleeps on Celebrity! Choose another cruise line
Celebrity Equinox Cruise Review to Europe - Mediterranean
7 Night Greece & Italy (Athens To Rome)
Sail date: June 20, 2015
Ship: Celebrity Equinox
Cabin type: Balcony
Cabin number: 6221
Traveled as: Family (older children)
Reviewed: 9 years ago
Review summary
Never again. We have one RCCL cruise booked for OCT2016 but we have decided that, based on our poor experience on Equinox, that will be our last cruise ever. Equinox has taught even our frequent cruiser kids that cruising is not for them. A simple service failure is easy to forgive. Stuff happens. But a strategic decision made by a high-level Celebrity manager in Miami is no accident. So putting a &@#!&$ late-night band in the atrium is a loud and clear message to the market that "Nobody sleeps on Celebrity." That should be their new marketing tagline. The advertisements could say, "Are you someone who goes on vacation to get rejuvinated? Nobody sleeps on Celebrity." Or the ad could say, "Are you a family with children? Nobody sleeps on Celebrity." One more option, "Do you like to explore new places while full of energy and focus? Nobody sleeps on Celebrity." That tagline is versatile, although too long, so most people will abbreviate it to, simply, #CelebritySucks. Or maybe #WhatIdiotPutsALateNightBandInTheAtrium. We have cruised a lot, on several cruise lines. So we always take special care to work with our travel agent to choose a quiet cabin. We watch out for noisy venues above or below. We thought our Equinox cabin was perfectly located. But neither we nor our travel agent anticipated that a high-level Celebrity manager in Miami would approve a $&*@#$ late-night band in the atrium where it would efficiently prevent sleep for every cabin on every level. A string quartet until 9pm? Sure. But a &*#$@# late-night band until 11pm or even techno DJ until midnight? That is definitely a message that Celebrity doesn't want families onboard. Celebrity doesn't want busy, hard-working people who now want to relax. Celebrity doesn't want adventurous people who want to explore the ports well-rested.
The late-night music and thumping bass was actually louder inside our 6th floor cabin that you'd have the volume turned up in there if you actually wanted to listen, let alone if you wanted to sleep. Not just a faint distant band, but right outside our door, until midnight almost every night. At the Guest Services desk in the atrium the passengers would lean over and put their mouths next to the crew's ears to shout what they needed help with. I asked one crew, while I was there exchanging some leftover Turkish money, "Doesn't the loud band make it hard to do business here?" She said, "What???" No joke.
"Nobody sleeps on Celebrity." Message received. As a long-time customer of Celebrity I promise to help them spread their new tagline everywhere on social media, on cruise forums, and with everyone who asks me for travel advice. I only wish someone had told me about the &#@$*& late-night band in the atrium before I booked this trip. It took Equinox to help me understand that I am not Celebrity's target market. Never again. "Nobody sleeps on Celebrity."
PS: During my cruise itself I submitted this to Captain's Club online (using my expensive onboard internet minutes) and got an automated email back from Celebrity saying they'd contact me. They never did (and haven't yet). However, throughout the cruise I kept getting voice messages from the Captain's Club rep onboard inviting us to the social things, encouraging future cruise, etc. I was blown away that they are so disconnected as a company that a passenger currently onboard isn't immediately responded to so things don't stew and get worse. Other customer-focused companies have whole departments following Twitter and Facebook posts searching for complaints so they can nip problems in the bud. Apparently not Celebrity/RCCL, who didn't ever follow up. Book elsewhere, folks. Or plan to be a physical wreck after a week of no sleep.
-----------------------------
UPDATE: Got a call 06JUL (which was 13 days after I sent the complaint to their frequent cruiser program's Contact Us) from a low-level customer service agent in Kansas. She was very nice. asked me to repeat everything I had written, and said she would look further into it. I'm not holding my breath. I asked and she confirmed that she was responding specifically to my Facebook post, not to my emails to the frequent cruiser group. Apparently the Captain's Club is a dead-letter office. If you want a response, you have to go public on Facebook. Makes no sense, but neither does a late night band in the atrium.
-------------------------------
UPDATE 09JUL: My CruiseLine post got tweeted out by a travel blog today. And, right on cue, Celebrity calls me again today after the travel blog tweeted my complaint. Coincidence?
Sadly, the response--however politely and professionally stated--was that Celebrity has a detailed specification for which bands, hours, locations, and even decibel levels, and what I experienced was likely within those specifications. So they are sorry I'm unhappy but not sorry they chose those specifications. I closed the call with just one thought: It would seem that the cabin would be the last and most valuable bit of control a passenger would have, so whatever Celebrity does outside the cabin is their choice, but whatever the passenger does inside is his choice. By putting a late-night band in the atrium, they took away my cabin. On a cruise ship, that leaves a passenger nowhere to run. Dumb choice for any service organization, but especially a self-described luxury brand.
Anyway, I'm sure by now Celebrity is done with my complaining. And I accomplished no change. Lose-lose.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
Onboard Activities
Entertainment
Children's Programs
Service and Staff
Ship Quality
Cabin / Stateroom
Ship tip
If you prefer American Diet Coke over European Coke Light (very different flavor), ask either for Decaf (which is always Diet Coke) or ask the bar to look for cans. The standard offering was Coke Light, but I never had trouble finding American Diet Coke if I asked the bartender nicely.
Ports of call
14 Comments
ToddWarrenBeck 9 years ago
CelebrityFun: You make a smart choice! Thanks for your conversation on this. PS: Sorry, it looks like Cruiseline edited out my link. The article I referred to was on Beyondships2 called "Entertaining Equinox." The cruise director talks about moving entertainment to the grand foyer to get it where the people are, instead of in the soundproof clubs. ;-)
ToddWarrenBeck 9 years ago
PJMarston: Good question. Celebrity responded to my Facebook post with a request for me to private message them my telephone number. To date, I have not heard back in any way from Captain's Club, and the person I spoke with by phone said she is unaware of that communication (a separate department).
ToddWarrenBeck 9 years ago
FYI to CelebrityFun: Now that I know specifically what I'm Googling for, this article is interesting. Check it out. The Grand Foyer was not intended as an entertainment venue (presumably for noise reasons). But they began moving more stuff there because it was highly trafficked. The architects (not party people) put the noise up on Deck 14 forward, and the cruise director(s) moved the noise to where the people are. Makes sense if your target is party people. Not so much sense if you want to allow each passenger to choose.
http://www.beyondships2.com/celebrity-equinox-cd.html
ToddWarrenBeck 9 years ago
Great link! We read it backward and forward before booking, and I'm glad stuff like this is out there. But sadly for me--call me dense--I still don't see the relevant warning for cabin 6221 for atrium bands. We worried a bit about the entertainment venues on 5 immediately below our cabin, but those were quiet throughout the cruise (which was a pleasant surprise). I need to get CruiseAdvice.org to add a warning for all cabins about atrium noise clear up from Deck 3. Please help me spread the word.
CelebrityFun 9 years ago
ToddWarrenBeck:
never called you a liar, just have not completed your homework. Just google for "celebrity equinox best cabins" and you will get that the best ones are on decks 9-11, and the worst one on decks 3 and 6. I quote:
Deck 6 -- Continental Deck***CruiseAdvice.org Warning ***
Some cabins on this deck with potential problems.
Along this entire deck, you should be aware that the Entertainment Deck of the Celebrity Equinox is right beneath your cabin. That said, it should also be noted that most of the venues, such as the boutiques, art gallery, the bistro and other restaurants, are not open into the wee hours so it is possible to find a little peace and quiet.
ToddWarrenBeck 9 years ago
CelebrityFun (no bias showing there): Please help me understand the point of your comment, other than to call me a liar and criticize me for not doing things I said in my original post that we did. We looked at deck plans and cabin reviews on cruise forums, and worked with our long-time, cruise-focused travel agent to find a quiet cabin. We found no warnings--until mine--of late-night atrium bands. Researching those sites could have been a productive suggestion for you to make for other cruisers, leaving off the snitty criticism of me. But I'm glad you enjoyed the music. We wanted to sleep. I wish we had both been able to choose.
ToddWarrenBeck 9 years ago
PJMarston: Yes, until this cruise, we considered Celebrity our favorite line, and have cruised there often. Nothing on any of the deck plans or cabin reviews mentioned atrium bands, so it was a surprise to us and to our experienced cruise-centric travel agent. Spread the word. And, yes, Celebrity specifically told me that they got but didn't respond to our Captain's Club complaint, only focusing on social media posts. You can doubt that, but it was what they said, and what I experienced. To me, it's not about how a business handles day-to-day, but how they handle service problems. Celebrity blew this response.
CelebrityFun 9 years ago
I am sorry ToddWarrenBack but I was on the same cruise and it the atrium band was not loud at all. And very enjoyable as well (at least for somebody under 70 yo)
And sorry it was just your mistake choosing the room. You wrote "we always take special care to work with our travel agent to choose a quiet cabin." Sorry again but your cabin 6221 (just above the atrium) - is the loudest cabin ever. You should look at deck plans on the Internet and choose quieter cabin next time, takes 5 mins.
pjmarston 9 years ago
ToddWarrenBeck 9 years ago
Good points, glomarrone! What blew me away, though, is that this wasn't a one-time service error--like a crowded tender line or whatever. This was a conscious decision by a high-level executive to program the late-night band in the atrium. We are (rather were) frequent Celebrity cruisers for the very reason that Celebrity had the reputation of being upscale, not a party boat. Clearly Celebrity has chosen to go another way, and so will we. #NobodySleepsOnCelebrity
glomarrone 9 years ago
I hope that just because Celebrity had loud music at night, you don't discount all cruise lines. There are plenty who don't and HAL is one. Most passengers complain that there is nothing to do at night so this cruise line went overboard. I can imagine how it feels to try to sleep with that noise going on. We always go to bed by eleven and that would bother me, too. We took a cabin near the atrium on a Celebrity and luckily that did not happen to us. It is also regrettable that the staff did not get back to you to discuss your irritation with the noise. That was poor public relations and I am surprised at Celebrity. I always considered them to be one of the better cruise lines. Enjoy your next scheduled RCCL cruise. Perhaps you be will surprised and will reconsider cruise some more. I hope so.