Celebrity Equinox: many unsold cabins lead to price decreases?

Hi All -- We just booked our family for our first Celebrity cruise on the Equinox August 11-18. (We've previously cruised on RC 3 times and 2 times on NCL...) We booked this cruise because we had only specific dates we can sail (the youngest of us is off to start college!), specific departure ports (Port Everglades or Miami) AND the prices were quite a bit less than on RC (surprisingly less - and we booked Concierge class balconies). We are a little nervous - our favorite cruises have been not the Oasis class because we love the entertainment - but the goal is to be together, so I can't imagine we won't enjoy it.

I've noticed there are what seems to be A LOT of open rooms - more open rooms at this point than I remember when we booked on the Oasis 2 years ago. More specifically, it seems like there are a lot of Aqua Class rooms.

Here are my questions:

1. Is this usual for the Equinox/Celebrity - or am I just completely misremembering previous bookings? I would assume these rooms would mostly fill - but is this assumption incorrect?

2. Given the number of open rooms, should we be vigilant about watching price decreases? (Of course I will monitor until final payment (Apr 29 for us), but I mean even after that.)

3. If the prices go down after final payment, and we booked through a a big box store travel agent, is there anything we can do - can we ask for an upgrade or anything?

If the answer to #3 no, I'll just stop monitoring on April 29. But I figured I ask these questions anyway.

Thank you in advance!

Until final payment you should be able to get any price decreases -- or take advantage of the soft prices to upgrade (and maybe still save money). After final payment you may still be able to get an upgrade if the new lower prices on a higher category are less than you paid. In 2016 in the Med we went from AQ to Sky Suite before FP, and then to Celebrity Suite after FP -- and still paid less than the original price!

Until final payment you should be able to get any price decreases -- or take advantage of the soft prices to upgrade (and maybe still save money). After final payment you may still be able to get an upgrade if the new lower prices on a higher category are less than you paid. In 2016 in the Med we went from AQ to Sky Suite before FP, and then to Celebrity Suite after FP -- and still paid less than the original price!

Thanks? Is this possible with an impersonal TA? (I'll call and ask of course...)

More importantly: is it odd to have so many rooms still available for a cruise in mid-August, this summer? IT seems odd, but maybe I don't have enough experience with this line or this ship.

Never booked thru the warehouse store but my online TA has never had any issues making changes for me (up or down). We got a smoking deal on a 7-day on the Equinox last summer. We did a concierge cabin with the go best perks for $1200, we put our daughters in a regular veranda with the go best perks for $1050. If we backed out the cost of 4 perks the actual cruise price was about $500. We too were looking at an Oasis class cruise but the Equinox worked out way cheaper since out onboard charges were zero.

Thanks? Is this possible with an impersonal TA? (I'll call and ask of course...)

 

More importantly: is it odd to have so many rooms still available for a cruise in mid-August, this summer? IT seems odd, but maybe I don't have enough experience with this line or this ship.

You have to find a person at the TA who will go to bat for you. In my personal experience with a different online TA, I have had better luck with the customer service department than with the person who sold me the cruise. The sales person doesn't care, and would rather be selling cruises. But the customer service person's job is to handle issues like this. Mine spent an hour on the phone with Celebrity, on my behalf, until she could finally find someone who could understand what should have been a fairly simple point: the price of the S1 with all 4 perks is now less than the price I paid for an S2 with all 4 perks. Therefore, they should upgrade me for free. (This was after final payment.) The TA customer service person finally got this done, and I was impressed that she stuck with it rather than throwing in the towel.

Tom & Judy

You have to find a person at the TA who will go to bat for you. In my personal experience with a different online TA, I have had better luck with the customer service department than with the person who sold me the cruise. The sales person doesn't care, and would rather be selling cruises. But the customer service person's job is to handle issues like this. .... The TA customer service person finally got this done, and I was impressed that she stuck with it rather than throwing in the towel.

 

 

 

Tom & Judy

Thanks! I'll keep tracking and see what happens.

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Thanks? Is this possible with an impersonal TA? (I'll call and ask of course...)

 

More importantly: is it odd to have so many rooms still available for a cruise in mid-August, this summer? IT seems odd, but maybe I don't have enough experience with this line or this ship.

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Believe it or not, August is pretty far out. Our Summit sailing April 21st was half empty after final payment, but is now sold out. Celebrity will move staterooms at rock bottom prices to sell them. Unfortunately if it’s after final payment are due, there are no refunds and moving rooms can be complicated.

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Celebrity doesn’t attract nearly as many families and kids as a line like RCL so there isn’t the rush for summer vacation sailings. You’re also near the end of prime summer travel season in general. And a lot of people aren’t interested in visiting the Caribbean in August. Aqua cabins are the highest priced balcony cabin categories so they do sell slower at first. You can count on the ship sailing nearly full though.

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Believe it or not, August is pretty far out. Our Summit sailing April 21st was half empty after final payment, but is now sold out. Celebrity will move staterooms at rock bottom prices to sell them. Unfortunately if it’s after final payment are due, there are no refunds and moving rooms can be complicated.

 

 

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Celebrity doesn’t attract nearly as many families and kids as a line like RCL so there isn’t the rush for summer vacation sailings. You’re also near the end of prime summer travel season in general. And a lot of people aren’t interested in visiting the Caribbean in August. Aqua cabins are the highest priced balcony cabin categories so they do sell slower at first. You can count on the ship sailing nearly full though.

 

 

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I agree with these observations. On our upcoming Hawaii cruise, there were a lot of open cabins after FP but after 2 weeks Celebrity steeply reduced prices and the rooms filled up quickly. I was able to upgrade from a standard balcony to an Aqua balcony at no additional cost just by calling my (big online cruises only) TA and asked for a free upgrade. Took less than 5 minutes for the offer to come back.

The point of this is to keep watching the prices after FP. You can either get a free upgrade or pay for one at a much reduced price.

You don't say how big your group is or how many cabins you have booked. Keep in mind, Aqua Class limits each cabin to two guests. One big draw of Aqua Class is Blu dining room available only to those sailing in AC, or suites on a space available basis. If some of you are in CC and some in AC you would need to arrange to eat in the main dining room.

Thanks, this is helpful.

We have three rooms, two people each. It might be hard to move all three if prices go down, but if they do and I am successful, I’ll report back.

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Could the number of AQ cabins open be perhaps due to the crazy high differences that Celebrity now uses for AQ vs Concierge these days? There are some other AQ specific threads where many folks point out that they book a regular Veranda and then buy the dinner packages instead of over paying for AQ.

I for one am not surprised and that's coming from someone who has done many AQ cruises but we have had to play the short duration "price drop game" to keep it affordable.;)

2. Given the number of open rooms, should we be vigilant about watching price decreases? (Of course I will monitor until final payment (Apr 29 for us), but I mean even after that.)

BTW, for pricing purposes, your final payment date is NOT April 29th (a date set by your TA), but May 13th, the final payment date set by Celebrity. Many TAs will ask for payment early so that they can make sure they get the payment to Celebrity on time.

Also, a note of caution, many online and big-box TAs may charge you to change pricing, cabins, or cruises. make sure you understand your TAs policies before you ask to have a change made. You may have to pay more in fees that you would gain by repricing.

Steve

There are still quite a few people that are a bit scared away from booking the Caribbean during hurricane season after last year. The memory is still too fresh. Several of my friends mentioned they want to go down there but are just waiting another year, maybe two. Add that to the sheer number of inventory that is now in the Caribbean (remember, the Equinox was previously scheduled for Europe when they switched the itinerary over to the Caribbean last year.

You can get some smoking deals for these sailings and you are smart to keep your eyes peeled for price drops. But, be aware that not all price drops will include the perks that you may have gotten with your original booking. And, if there are price drops after final payment, it is pretty difficult to get money back, even in the form of OBC, but have read on here that it does happen from time to time. It all depends on how desperate they are to sell the available inventory. More likely, you will be able to upgrade to a better stateroom for the same price or very little more. Call your travel agent if you see it drop and see what they can get for you. I have been successful in getting some awesome upgrades over half the time.

Could the number of AQ cabins open be perhaps due to the crazy high differences that Celebrity now uses for AQ vs Concierge these days? There are some other AQ specific threads where many folks point out that they book a regular Veranda and then buy the dinner packages instead of over paying for AQ.

 

I for one am not surprised and that's coming from someone who has done many AQ cruises but we have had to play the short duration "price drop game" to keep it affordable.;)

Could be, I got a AQ on my last cruise for less than the Verandas/CCs were selling for and that was 9 or 10 months prior to sailing. I sure don't understand the pricing logic of the CC or AQ cabins but if people keep booking them I guess Celebrity will keep pricing them like they are.