Celebrity Century Rudder Saga Continues

Problems with Celebrity Century's rudder caused chaos in October.

Pictured here is the stern of Celebrity Summit.

Photo © 2010 Aaron Saunders

 When Celebrity Century suffered an issue with her rudders in October, passengers found themselves suddenly having to leave their cruise - and their ship - in the French port of Villefranche.  Along with nearby Nice, they are some of the most expensive ports in the Mediterranean.  None of which is Celebrity's fault - they felt it would be unsafe to attempt to sail the vessel elsewhere.  As such, passengers were disembarked from the ship in Villefranche.

Without flights, during a massive rail strike, and at the peak before the official end of tourist season. 

If passengers wanted to get home, simply booking a return flight or even a hotel room could be an exercise in futility.  If successful, some very hefty prices were their reward.

While the line initially refused to compensate passengers for out-of-pocket travel expenses, after some intense backlash by passengers and the media Celebrity did announce they intended to further compensate passengers.

Today, almost two months later, CruiseCritic reports passengers are having a tough time getting much of anything from the line.

While there are definitely passengers who have received their compensation already, a whopping seventy-five page thread details the full extent of the runaround being given to some passengers by both Celebrity and travel insurance companies, with the chief complaint being an almost total lack of information provided by the line.

Celebrity, for its part, states the claims are "taking a bit longer than guests would prefer." 

Clearly, the company will be compensating all affected guests, and stated its compensation policy had not changed and that the promised reimbursements were still on the table.  

Affected passengers, however, are once again left to put their complete trust in a line that has shattered it once before.