First time cruiser Celebrity Christmas cruise questions

[M.R.X.]

Hi all, my wife and I are planning our first cruise, and after research, and a lot of great advice that I've seen on this site, it appears that we will be choosing a Celebrity cruise of the Caribbean during the Christmas holidays. We are aware that the crowd will vary a bit, but feel fairly comfortable that the truly hardcore partiers will wind up with different cruise companies. We want to relax and Celebrity seems to be right for that.

 

Our first questions are regarding staterooms and the pricing. From what I've gathered, unless we go for a suite, which we don't need, most of the staterooms on the Eclipse are the same size. We want a veranda - this is not a frill, but an absolute want as my wife and I do like to spend some time alone outside our own bed sometimes, and my wife will want to read there (she can be fairly shy). Celebrity has Deluxe Ocean View Veranda staterooms listed as class "x" for about $600 less than the first similar cabins that we get to choose ourselves - and those cabins include class 2C & 2D which are obstructed or partially obstructed views. The catch with the X class cabins is that we will be assigned whatever is available on board right before the cruise. How much of a gamble are we taking here? What could go wrong? And how likely are we to be right over the smoking deck, across from the elevator, with a maintenance closet attached to our cabin?

 

My parents have generally had luck in these situations on smaller boutique cruises where they got fairly nice upgrades to great cabins and suites.

 

I'd love to hear your opinions... Then we may have some more questions later! Thanks for helping a newbie.

[MrsKruse]

We booked a guarantee on RCI for our April cruise and got a very nice upgrade. It was a Med/Holy Land itinerary where we weren't spending much time in the room so it was worth the gamble for us.

 

We're taking Celebrity on a Caribbean cruise in March and we're not doing a guarantee this time. With three full days at seas on a 7 day itinerary, and wanting to enjoy the Caribbean view, we didn't want to chance potentially getting a bad room. We booked 2Bs on Eclipse and are very happy with our room placement (close enough to our travelling family members down the hall, but not too close).

 

You are most likely to be upgraded to a nicer room within the guarantee band if they are quickly selling out of the cheaper rooms. On our sailing, the inside cabins flew like hotcakes, so we got an upgrade to Promenade and I heard plenty of rumblings on our roll call of people being upgraded into outside/balcony rooms, just so RCI could keep up. Without the upgrade, we could have been gotten some pretty horrible rooms (we met people who had them and regretted it).

 

We would do a guarantee again, depending on the ship & the itinerary. But on a sailing where we plan to spend a lot of time in the room, I just wouldn't chance it.

[M.R.X.]

Thanks for the quick reply. I am trying to figure how we could gauge how quickly cabins are selling.

 

(also sorry about the multiple postings of this thread - how do I contact a moderator for clean up?)

[MrsKruse]

There are several travel agencies online that will show you what's available currently (I find it nearly impossible on the Celebrity website). Can't mention names due to CC policy, but just dig around.

 

Also, if you aren't super picky about a room and aren't concerned even about a specific sailing (and live close to a cruise port), you could always try to book after final payment. It's a total shot in the dark and you could end up vacation-less, but there are sometimes some crazy good deals after final payment if the ship is still pretty empty. We had already gotten a really good deal on our trip last year, but shortly after final payment, we could have gotten a balcony room for our 12 night cruise for only $50 more total. But by then, the airfare costs would have been so crazy that it wouldn't have been feasible for us . And sometimes there is no price drop at all and you are stuck with low inventory & bad prices.

[ghstudio]

If you book a guarantee cabin, you have to assume that you may get the least desireable cabin...but most often, that does not happen.

 

Obstructed view on the solstice class ships means that there is a lifeboat under your balcony so that if you look down, you may not see the water...but if you look out, you won't see any obstruction at all...so even an obstructed view isn't so bad.

 

Once your cabin is assigned, and generally that is well in advance of your trip, you should be able to change the assigned cabin to any other available cabin in the same category. If they assign you a 2c cabin, you should be able to change to any other 2c cabin at no charge (call your TA).

 

Occasionally we have found guaranteed concierge veranda cabins offered (we actually have two cruises with this booking right now). In this case, they will not assign you anything below a concierge level cabin.

[M.R.X.]

We would be flying from NYC to Miami, and I have a very limited vacation schedule, so we will be very specific about the cruise itself - so we aren't that flexible, Ms. K.

 

 

GHstudio, thank you, that is good news regarding the obstructed views!

[Cruiseorr]

Our very first cruise ever was a Christmas in the Caribbean cruise on the Zenith, one of our favorite ships ever. We were hooked on cruising forever after that!

I'm sure you will enjoy your holiday cruise wherever your stateroom is located, as long as you are fine with being placed within the category you start with. Did I understand you to say it's a 2D guarantee? There's the chance that a 2D is what you will get. There is no guarantee on any cruise that you will be upgraded, and in fact, the holiday cruises sail fully booked, and therefore may have less options for moving you around. However, $600 (pp or total?) is a pretty hefty savings! If your priority is number one, a balcony and this is guaranteed, would you be OK if it were partially obstructed or way forward or aft? The Caribbean in December can be a little rough in places and some people really want to be midship, where you feel less movement. For what it's worth, we've been on the Equinox (sister to Eclipse) and found it not only an amazing ship in every way, but extremely stable in heavy seas.

We did a guarantee stateroom once on a Princess cruise and were pleased when we were upgraded one category. The upgrade was from an ocean view to a balcony stateroom. The catch was it was a balcony stateroom as far forward as you could get. We were delighted, and since it was an inside passage to Alaska, the issue of heavy seas was not a factor.

[M.R.X.]

The only guarantee that the Celebrity website says is that it's going to have a veranda. It did NOT mention class. I mentioned class, as I saw that those were the two mentioned with potential view problems. The $600 would be total, not pp...but it's still a couple of on board spa treatments or such.

 

Thanks for the info regarding the ship and it's stability, I actually think that we won't mind the motion of the ocean too much, my wife did the Galapagos on a 55 foot long boat and I was a boat pilot out in Maui for years. Then again, you never know when it's your turn to give your lunch back to Neptune.

[Cruiseorr]

The only guarantee that the Celebrity website says is that it's going to have a veranda. It did NOT mention class. I mentioned class, as I saw that those were the two mentioned with potential view problems. The $600 would be total, not pp...but it's still a couple of on board spa treatments or such.

 

Thanks for the info regarding the ship and it's stability, I actually think that we won't mind the motion of the ocean too much, my wife did the Galapagos on a 55 foot long boat and I was a boat pilot out in Maui for years. Then again, you never know when it's your turn to give your lunch back to Neptune.

Thanks for my laugh of the day....my late father was a lifelong sailor, and we grew up on (small) boats. I've donated more than a few lunches to Neptune myself, but oddly enough never on a cruise ship, even in gale force winds at Cape Horn.

$600 is serious coin and I know my husband would say as long as we have a balcony, let's take the money.

Happy sailing! You are going to love the Eclipse!

[foxman23]

We are looking at booking a Celebrity cruise and was wondering how often the line gave upgrades. Is it fairly common - or rare. Thanks?

[ghstudio]

In our experience, you have a better chance winning the lottery twice in a row.....