Be aware when booking onboard

[shelbird]

While onboard the Dec. 3 Connie sailing we booked our next sailing on the Eclipse in Jan. 2013. We paid the $200 deposit and picked our 1A balcony and were told we were given the price of a 2A stateroom. We received no invoice but were told one would be sent to my e-mail address.

 

While wading through 2 weeks of e-mail there was nothing from Celebrity so I called first thing this morning and inquired if the invoice had been sent out. I was assured it had been, to the TA I had booked the Connie cruise through. This was never mentioned at the time I booked onboard.

 

I received a call from my TA soon after requesting a bit more information so she could e-mail the invoice and confirmation. While chatting with her I confirmed we were booked at a 2A price but it was actually higher than the 1A price. She took care of having it adjusted. A small matter......but!

 

For those booking onboard I would suggest printing out the catagory pricing before sitting down with the future cruise consultant. Also, I had planned on doing some TA comparisons before transferring my reservation and was a bit surprised I was never consulted on this.

[jcrandle]

While onboard the Dec. 3 Connie sailing we booked our next sailing on the Eclipse in Jan. 2013. We paid the $200 deposit and picked our 1A balcony and were told we were given the price of a 2A stateroom. We received no invoice but were told one would be sent to my e-mail address.

 

While wading through 2 weeks of e-mail there was nothing from Celebrity so I called first thing this morning and inquired if the invoice had been sent out. I was assured it had been, to the TA I had booked the Connie cruise through. This was never mentioned at the time I booked onboard.

 

 

I received a call from my TA soon after requesting a bit more information so she could e-mail the invoice and confirmation. While chatting with her I confirmed we were booked at a 2A price but it was actually higher than the 1A price. She took care of having it adjusted. A small matter......but!

 

For those booking onboard I would suggest printing out the catagory pricing before sitting down with the future cruise consultant. Also, I had planned on doing some TA comparisons before transferring my reservation and was a bit surprised I was never consulted on this.

 

The assignment of the on-board booking to the current agent appears to be standard procedure for all cruise lines I've traveled with. In fact, in one case I had such terrible service from a TA, I asked when booking to have the reservation assigned to the cruise line. I had to sign a form indicating that was my specific intent.

 

Consider it from the line's perspective. They cannot afford to appear to be pirating a client from an agency. The agencies are their life blood.

[Happy Cruiser 6143]

Michelle, sorry to hear of your bad experience with the FCC.

 

For future reference, you should never leave their office without a printout of what you have booked. That gives you an opportunity to correct their errors. You can choose to assign your booking to a TA or not. And I agree with your point that it's a good idea to know the prices going in.

 

At least you got the cabin you wanted!

[mcrcruiser]

While onboard the Dec. 3 Connie sailing we booked our next sailing on the Eclipse in Jan. 2013. We paid the $200 deposit and picked our 1A balcony and were told we were given the price of a 2A stateroom. We received no invoice but were told one would be sent to my e-mail address.

 

While wading through 2 weeks of e-mail there was nothing from Celebrity so I called first thing this morning and inquired if the invoice had been sent out. I was assured it had been, to the TA I had booked the Connie cruise through. This was never mentioned at the time I booked onboard.

 

I received a call from my TA soon after requesting a bit more information so she could e-mail the invoice and confirmation. While chatting with her I confirmed we were booked at a 2A price but it was actually higher than the 1A price. She took care of having it adjusted. A small matter......but!

 

For those booking onboard I would suggest printing out the catagory pricing before sitting down with the future cruise consultant. Also, I had planned on doing some TA comparisons before transferring my reservation and was a bit surprised I was never consulted on this.

 

Thanks for the information :).We will be aware next time we book on board .However ,some times we just take the open booking to select the cruise at a later time. ;)

[Christine Frances]

Thanks for the information :).We will be aware next time we book on board .However ,some times we just take the open booking to select the cruise at a later time. ;)

 

But if you don't request the "Open Passages" to remain with Celebrity they will also assign that to you TA of record.

[ariawoman]

Thanks for posting this. I never would have known! :-)

[fleckle]

While onboard the Dec. 3 Connie sailing we booked our next sailing on the Eclipse in Jan. 2013. We paid the $200 deposit and picked our 1A balcony and were told we were given the price of a 2A stateroom. We received no invoice but were told one would be sent to my e-mail address.

The Connie is the only ship where we were not given a computer generated, detailed invoice when we booked a future cruise onboard. We were very surprised to get some lame excuse claiming that it was no longer being done.

 

We received nothing official to prove that we had even booked the cruise. All we got was a little folded card where she hand-wrote the confirmation number, ship name, sailing date, and total amount on the inside.

Anyone could have written in anything at all on one of those little cards.

 

We were not given the detailed breakout of the pricing, the final payment date, the various penalty dates, or any of the other additional information that has always been given to us in the past when booking a cruise on other ships.

 

I received a call from my TA soon after requesting a bit more information so she could e-mail the invoice and confirmation. While chatting with her I confirmed we were booked at a 2A price but it was actually higher than the 1A price. She took care of having it adjusted. A small matter......but!

Upon returning home, we checked out our new booking online on our Celebrity account. The price shown on our account was higher than the price we had been quoted on the ship!

 

So we called Celebrity and had it adjusted. As you say, it was a small matter...... but!

 

We have never had a problem with a pricing discrepancy in the past when we were given a complete computer generated printout of the booking confirmation when we booked a cruise onboard. The information on the printout always matched the information that showed up on our Celebrity account.

 

Coincidence???

 

Also, I had planned on doing some TA comparisons before transferring my reservation and was a bit surprised I was never consulted on this.

When the woman mentioned that she was assigning our cruise to the same travel agent we had used the last time, we told her not to do that because we wanted to keep control of the booking ourselves.

 

I don't think it is right for them ever to make an assumption about who should get the booking assignment without obtaining the consent of the customer who is paying for it.

[cruiseacecat]

I miss the days when one could go to the Celebrity site for free and do research before going to see the future cruise sales person. Seems wrong to have to pay to research a booking while on a ship. But I do. :o

 

Anne

[Orator]

I miss the days when one could go to the Celebrity site for free and do research before going to see the future cruise sales person. Seems wrong to have to pay to research a booking while on a ship. But I do. :o

 

Anne

 

I was able to use the free Celebrity site before I booked on board in Novemebr. Must say that the site was not working well and I had to reboot it several times. I insisted that I receive a full printout and received it. I've always tell the representative what agent, if any will be assigned the reservation. Have never had a problem.

[shelbird]

Just this past January I booked this December cruise while onboard the Connie. The reservation was not given to the TA I used in January but remained with Celebrity until I transferred it to my current TA. Also I was given a printout. I guess I assumed the printout was inside the envelope.

 

On the next cruise I will be paying for internet access to check those prices before my appointment.

 

Also I spoke with a friend yesterday who bought an open passages certificate a few years ago.A few months ago he called Celebrity and booked a Solstice cruise for this March. He was quite surprised when the TA he had booked the cruise with two years ago called him saying Celebrity had transferred the booking to her as he had planned on using my TA this time. :(

[Blue_Flame]

While doing a future booking on Summit a few months ago, we were first given a printout on a "Future Cruise Quotation" form. I had done my research on the Celebrity site so I knew what price to expect. The quotation price seemed to be lower and I was excited to possibly have hit a price drop. However be aware that the quotation price has the "NonComCruiseFare" on a separate line. You don't see this broken out on the Celebrity site. So by adding the two amounts together, the cruise fare was what I expected.

 

The final confirmation printout we left with had only minimal information: names, cabin #, dining time, deposit amt. (hand written at $200 because the printout said $500), final payment date, OBC, and the gross amount of the cruise. As soon as I got home, I called Celebrity and had them email me a copy of the booking confirmation which contained the details.

 

And yes, I agree, tell the consultant up front that you want to keep control of the booking if you want to come home and take the next 60 days to shop around for a T.A.

[cruisestitch]

Aboard Connie now. Free site which had been broken earlier is now2

Working again. On board booking agent gave me a printout and also a separate "confirmation card " with all info. I think you (op) just suffered through an unfortunate oversight but always good to make sure you have copies of all paperwork before you leave the ship!

[cadcruiser]

The Connie is the only ship where we were not given a computer generated, detailed invoice when we booked a future cruise onboard. We were very surprised to get some lame excuse claiming that it was no longer being done.

 

We received nothing official to prove that we had even booked the cruise. All we got was a little folded card where she hand-wrote the confirmation number, ship name, sailing date, and total amount on the inside.

Anyone could have written in anything at all on one of those little cards.

 

We were not given the detailed breakout of the pricing, the final payment date, the various penalty dates, or any of the other additional information that has always been given to us in the past when booking a cruise on other ships.

 

Upon returning home, we checked out our new booking online on our Celebrity account. The price shown on our account was higher than the price we had been quoted on the ship!

 

So we called Celebrity and had it adjusted. As you say, it was a small matter...... but!

 

We have never had a problem with a pricing discrepancy in the past when we were given a complete computer generated printout of the booking confirmation when we booked a cruise onboard. The information on the printout always matched the information that showed up on our Celebrity account.

 

Coincidence???

 

The same thing happened to us on the Connie a few months ago. We booked three cruises onboard and were told that detailed invoices were no longer being used. I used my own internet minutes onboard to check my online account and noticed we were charged higher prices for all three cruises. I had the prices corrected onboard and insisted on a printout which I was given this time only because of the circumstances I was told.

[shelbird]

The same thing happened to us on the Connie a few months ago. We booked three cruises onboard and were told that detailed invoices were no longer being used. I used my own internet minutes onboard to check my online account and noticed we were charged higher prices for all three cruises. I had the prices corrected onboard and insisted on a printout which I was given this time only because of the circumstances I was told.

 

Very very interesting..............:confused:

[FrankinPA]

We booked a cruise while on Infinity last month and received a hard copy printout of the booking showing all the financial details. Was immediately transferred to our TA by Celebrity and the TA gave us additional booking credits. Worked great.

[florisdekort]

Aboard Connie now. Free site which had been broken earlier is now working again. On board booking agent gave me a printout and also a separate "confirmation card " with all info. I think you (op) just suffered through an unfortunate oversight but always good to make sure you have copies of all paperwork before you leave the ship!

 

Thanks for checking in from the ship. Case closed.

 

To the Op - Unfortunate incidents/oversights do happen. Also, I wouldn't automatically assume you were quoted a too high price. In the two weeks between making your onboard booking and your travel agent getting involved, prices could have changed/dropped.

 

I have never been quoted anything else than the X website prices when booking on board.

 

Floris

[dmk]

I miss the days when one could go to the Celebrity site for free and do research before going to see the future cruise sales person. Seems wrong to have to pay to research a booking while on a ship. But I do. :o

 

Anne

 

Just off the Solstice. You can still go to the Celebrity web site for free!

[Jade13]

Just off the Solstice. You can still go to the Celebrity web site for free!

 

On some cruiselines you can do this on your own computer, and on others only in the internet cafe.