Suzy Smith

Thanks to everyone for the useful information on the pros and cons of booking with a US TA. The protections you get when booking in the UK (which I think we take very much for granted) will be very significant for some cruisers, whereas others will be prepared to take a small risk to obtain the lowest possible price. The US prices do seem considerably lower, but my understanding is that the US TAs show prices before tax, but prices quoted in the UK have to include all fees and taxes, so the difference is not as great as it seems at first sight.

We have always played safe and booked in the UK, as we like the peace of mind it gives us and we don't have to worry about fluctuating exchange rates (we generally book about eighteen months in advance), but friends who regularly book with a US TA are very happy with the prices and the additional perks they are able to get (they tend to go for last-minute deals). I don't think there is any right or wrong decision on this, it is just a case of making the decision that is right for you.

One more point about duty free: Duty free means the price does not include duty. It does not mean you don't have to pay duty if you bring it back into the country. There is no such thing as duty free as far as bringing items back into your home country. With that said in the USA there is a personal, or family exemption, and you only have to pay duty if the items exceed the exemption but you need to declare them on your form even if under.

 

And if you make an expensive purchase on the ship which you're considering not declaring then forget it as you WILL be caught. The ship turns over a listing of all sales over a certain amount to customs at the end of the voyage. Customs will be looking for you to declare those items. I noticed them checking declarations off a list once when I went to declare some purchases at the end of a cruise a few years ago.

The situation is a little different in the UK. If you have cruised within the EU, there is no limit on the goods you can bring back, provided they are for your personal use. If you are carrying large quantities of alcohol or cigarettes, you may be questioned by Customs, so they can satisfy themselves that you are not bringing the items into the country with the intention of selling them, but anything that is just for your own use is allowed.

For travel outside the EU, there is a duty-free allowance for alcohol, cigarettes, etc and you will be charged if you are found to have exceeded the allowance.

Do we get the same protection though as we do when booking with a UK agent ?

 

I was told it can be done by getting around the system, but we have no protection if the US agent goes bust, do you also have to provide a US address ?

 

I have never booked with a US agent so I don't know if that is just said to put people off.

If you are sailing from Southampton, you are not taking too much of a risk by booking in the US, but if you are booking a fly/cruise, you lose the protection given under EU law for package holidays. If anything goes wrong with your travel arrangements (e.g a flight delay causes you to miss the ship) and you have booked a fly/cruise package in the UK, Celebrity (or your TA) has to take responsibility for getting you to the ship. Many Brits who book with US agents fly to the departure port a day or two early to avoid any possible problem, but you then have allow for hotel costs, etc when working out how much you are saving on the total cruise price. Of course, it may work out well if you are departing from a city you would like to spend some time in anyway.

Only you can decide whether price is the only thing that matters or if peace of mind is more important. For us, peace of mind always wins, but you may be comfortable taking a small risk to get a rock bottom price. You also have to bear in mind that you will be paying in US dollars, so the price may go up or down, depending on the exchange rate.

I don't know when you are planning to cruise, but we have just booked a 2015 cruise with Celebrity UK, and any 2015 bookings made before 30th April are covered by their cruise fare price promise. This means that if the cruise price goes down, they will give you the lower price and there is no limit to the number of reductions you can take advantage of. This works for us, as a straightforward low price is what we are looking for and we would get very little value from a drinks package - but if they offer extra OBC or free gratuities in the future, without a significant price rise, we have the opportunity of changing our booking.

Hope this helps.

We are with you .....absolutely zero OBC and this summer we will have our 9th Celebrity cruise in 6 years. We used to get a 10% discount from our TA which was worth quite a bit and we were far happier to do these but about 2years ago Celebrity stopped UK travel agents discounting their prices and the most you can get now is approx. £50 per cabin. To us this is not enough and we now book with Celebrity to allow us to price watch.

We also no longer use a TA since X stopped British TAs discounting fares. It doesn't seem to have occurred to travel agents here that giving OBC in place of a discount would bring business back to them - unless Celebrity won't let them do that either. I would be interested to know if any UK cruisers have been successful in getting OBC from a TA (although I know we are not allowed to name the particular company).

Rubydoobydoo - some UK TAs who specialise in cruises take blocks of cabins and sell them at a lower price - is your TA one of those?

My experience of Celebrity UK has been that they will let you upgrade if the price drops, but you have to take the current deal in its entirety, you can't pic'n mix previous perks with current pricing, or previous pricing with current perks. The deal being offered in the UK at the moment is Choose & Cruise, and it is possible they will bring back 123 Go before you sail, but of course the prices may go up again in the meantime.

There have been reports that Celebrity does not always apply their policy consistently, so it may be worth calling them and asking the question - you might be lucky!:)

I believe teapots are only available on the Eclipse when she sails in England. No other ships.

Don't worry. Little Nell, you will get your cuppa!:) I don't think Celebrity have teapots on any of their ships, but kettles, cups and teabags were provided on last years sailings on Infinity from Harwich, as well as the Eclipse departures from Southampton. There is also instant coffee, sugar and long-life milk, so you will be all set!

It is a safety issue in the States because some passengers have oxygen in their rooms

It doesn't seem to present any problem here. The Celebrity UK website says:

All types of oxygen are permitted on board. Please notify us as to quantity, type and delivery schedule. Each ship has a different storage policy; however, you will be able to keep some or all of your cylinders in your stateroom.

No kettles, no irons etc. Celebrity is extremely careful about heat producing items; partly due to the limits of the electrical system, and partly due to the chance of an accidental fire.

There is no safety issue, as Celebrity provides kettles in all cabins on all sailings out of UK ports. It is something British passengers expect and most cruise lines here provide, so Celebrity does the same.

However, Celebrity does not feel the need to provide this amenity to passengers in any other part of the world, so at the end of the season, the kettles are stored away in a secret place;) and they magically re-appear when the ships return to British shores!:)

Lots of good advice on this thread for US residents, but the OP lives in Northern Ireland and if she bought the iPad before she left, she would be paying UK prices, which are usually higher than in the US. Also (unless she is using OBC) any purchase on the ship will be in foreign currency, so the exchange rate at the time she cruises will affect how good a deal it is for her.

I would suggest waiting until closer to the cruise, then checking what the US price (without tax) is for the model she is interested in and converting to pounds at the exchange rate operating at that time. The OP can then work out how the onboard price would compare with buying locally before they sail.

We bought an iPad on our last cruise and are very happy with it. The prices may not be much cheaper for US and Canadian citizens, but we used the ship's internet to check the UK prices for the iPad and the cover that we were interested in and found we were getting a very good deal. It does come with a US plug, but Apple make a UK plug specifically for the iPad, which we bought at the airport (for less than £10) on our way home.

We bought our iPad half way through a two-week cruise. The guys on the ship set it up for us and it was great to have someone available for the next few days to give us advice while we were getting the hang of it. We also attended a couple of iPad classes during the cruise, which were fun and very informative.

The only advice I would give is not to let them pressure you to make a quick decision - they like to give you the impression that they have only one or two left, to encourage you to buy right away; but we took our time making our decision and checking prices and when we were ready to purchase they found they actually had one left after all!;)

I also hate organized tours. I wanna be on my own- or with my partner, friend, whoever I am traveling with - I did one or two organized ones- I hated it! Those ambitous tour guides let no stone unturned, which sometimes bored me to tears! I learned my lesson so be it! LOL!

I also love to meet people and chat and isn´t it a nice thing when you walk around the ship and run into different people you know from your Roll Call , share storys , just say hello and such. Hello Texed...! !!!

I hope your back is gong better by the day Andrew-

Greetings

Michael

I'm another who doesn't have any interest in private tours (or cabin crawls, slot pulls, etc) but I love chatting on the roll call as it is a fun part of my anticipation of the cruise. If you don't like my silly posts, then just skip them - as I do with posts about tours, etc. I look forward to meeting posters in person at the Connections party and it is lovely to bump into them from time to time on the cruise and stop to say "Hi". That is all we are looking for from a roll call, but folks who want to have much more involvement with other roll call members can also find what they need and I don't believe there is a right or wrong way to run a roll call, it just naturally develops its own character, depending on the particular people who have signed up. Some are looking for a deep meaningful relationship and my style is more a brief holiday fling;):) but I hope no-one would be discouraged from posting on a roll call just because they don't have something "important" to say.

We have had itinerary changes on several cruises, including 2011 Holy Land when the Egypt stops were cancelled and different ports substituted. The cruise just before ours also had to miss out Ashdod in Israel and we knew it was possible that we would not be able to stop there either.

There is never a guarantee that you will get to a particular port and sometimes itinerary changes happen when you are actually on the cruise. If the main reason for your trip is to see Egypt and Israel and you would be disappointed if the itinerary was changed, then a cruise may not be your best choice, particularly at the moment when events in that part of the world are so unpredictable.

I have also noticed the change since the weekend.

There may well be a connection with the fuss about the 123Go promotion as it has probably prompted many UK citizens to book with a US TA, which will not have gone down well with TAs here, who must feel they are being put at a disadvantage by Celebrity. Perhaps this is part of a tightening up process to make it more difficult to book anywhere except your country of residence.

We have had the day room as part of the Celebrity package on several occasions. It isn't always included - it depends on the departure time of your return flight to the UK.

It is a normal hotel room, but your reservation is for early morning until mid-afternoon, instead of overnight, and you have use of all the hotel facilities. Sometimes there is a hotel shuttle which will take you to a shopping mall if there is one nearby. We usually just relax by the pool, have a late lunch and then get showered and changed ready for our transfer to the airport. It is a nice way to end your cruise.