2014 / 2015 Deployment Update

[smoosh21]

Yippeee! They've just shown up on the Celebrity website this hour and they're bookable on line! http://www.celebritycruises.com/search/vacationSearchResults.do#isWidget=false&dest=T.ATL&sailStartDate=201403&sailEndDate=ANY&ship=ANY&port=ANY&duration=ANY&includeAdjascentPorts=Y&promoid=&promoType=&promotionTypeId=&priceProgram=&sortBy=4&startRow=0&count=10&cruiseType=CO&cruiseInt=Y&isCrieriaExcluded=false&facebook=

 

Wow, you are right. I also confirmed that I did get a discount for booking early :D

oh, and in other good news my reservation is finally showing up online. Maybe this 'pre-sale' thing had something to do with all the problems. If so, then i don't know why I was told it was a known bug.

Oh well. I am happy now

[May B]

You could just have your TA do the booking

 

I AM my travel agent. I tried three times to get them to book it for me for myself. No dice. Kept saying that sailing isn't available yet. I kept saying, yes it is, for Captains Club.

 

What can I say? I must be losing my touch, can't communicate with anybody.

 

And why has some kind of cruise specialist person called me from Royal and from Celebrity, DURING DINNER, when I didn't ask for anybody to call me?

 

I do not know why, with telephone incoming call phone numbers available, they need something faxed or mailed from the cruiser, assigning a booking to a TA. If the home phone matches the Captains Club info, who the heck do they THINK is calling??? My TA broke into my house to steal my booking????

[Andy]

Hi Everyone,

 

Slightly off-topic, but there was interesting 2014 deployment news on the Princess Forum.

 

Princess will be offering Year Round Caribbean in 2014. Caribbean Princess will offer a Summer Caribbean product, sailing 7 night itineraries from Ft Lauderdale in June, July and most of August 2014. She returns to 4 & 5 night sailings beginning on 8/23/14, for the balance of her 2014/2015 Caribbean season.

 

It's exciting to see that Princess apparently agrees with what I've mentioned on this forum for some time... that Europe may not have a great 2014 - something which Celebrity (for the time being) seems unwilling to consider. I wish Celebrity had offered a Summer Caribbean product in 2014 on one of their ships. However, at this point, it's not happening, as all Celebrity ships are deployed elsewhere.

 

Unless there's a deployment change at Celebrity, we may be sailing with Princess in Summer 2014. I'm looking forward to experiencing Princess again, as it's been several years since we've sailed with them.

[Andy]

So this is new that Captains Club members can call in for pre-release? I thought that they had done that in the past as well, at least for Elite Captains club.

 

Hi Smoosh,

 

Celebrity offered an early booking window for Captains Club members last year as well.

[Cruise Junky]

I AM my travel agent. I tried three times to get them to book it for me for myself. No dice. Kept saying that sailing isn't available yet. I kept saying, yes it is, for Captains Club.

 

What can I say? I must be losing my touch, can't communicate with anybody.

 

And why has some kind of cruise specialist person called me from Royal and from Celebrity, DURING DINNER, when I didn't ask for anybody to call me?

 

I do not know why, with telephone incoming call phone numbers available, they need something faxed or mailed from the cruiser, assigning a booking to a TA. If the home phone matches the Captains Club info, who the heck do they THINK is calling??? My TA broke into my house to steal my booking????

 

That's crazy. My TA had me booked in about 2 minutes.

[Project_gal]

Sue,

 

I can see the cruises, but I don't see any Captain's Club promotions for next year's itineraries i.e. OBC or money off promotions? Is the price that showing inclusive of any deals? Usually, on the screen with the promotions, there's a box for early booking incentives - don't see that at all because it just takes me back to this year's deals?

 

TBH, I think I may wait and see if the 123 promotion comes on offer for next year's itineraries - appears to be a great deal. Wish I could pre-empt the situation (to wait or to book); I'm sure many others feel the same. We could all do with a crystal ball....lol :D. Now that's a thought - I'm sure Host Andy would love to purchase a few :rolleyes:.

 

Hi Villauk,

 

I do not see speicific itineraries either. What I see, is a list of ships, dates, and a whole bunch of ports all rolled into one. I'd would have liked to see specific detailed itinerary information for each ship, on the Captains Club page. Guess it's not on their agenda.

 

And yes - I'm always in the market for an "upgraded" Crystal Ball, but I'm extremely happy with my predictions over the years. :D

 

That is really weird because I can actually book a cruise - i.e. the Eclipse Broadway and Beaches TA - from the 2014/15 releases. It has all the detail that you would normally expect if you book a cruise. I cannot understand why I should be able to see what others are not!

 

villauk

I did not think that there was a OBC offer this year. I thought it was just a discount and assumed that it is included in the price shown. I am sure details of the Captain's Club offer was somewhere on CC, perhaps at the start of one of the 2014/15 Deployment threads?

 

Sue

[SoBe2010]

Hi Everyone,

 

Slightly off-topic, but there was interesting 2014 deployment news on the Princess Forum.

 

Princess will be offering Year Round Caribbean in 2014. Caribbean Princess will offer a Summer Caribbean product, sailing 7 night itineraries from Ft Lauderdale in June, July and most of August 2014. She returns to 4 & 5 night sailings beginning on 8/23/14, for the balance of her 2014/2015 Caribbean season.

 

It's exciting to see that Princess apparently agrees with what I've mentioned on this forum for some time... that Europe may not have a great 2014 - something which Celebrity (for the time being) seems unwilling to consider. I wish Celebrity had offered a Summer Caribbean product in 2014 on one of their ships. However, at this point, it's not happening, as all Celebrity ships are deployed elsewhere.

 

Unless there's a deployment change at Celebrity, we may be sailing with Princess in Summer 2014. I'm looking forward to experiencing Princess again, as it's been several years since we've sailed with them.

 

I remember you predicting this the last two years, too. However, Celebrity´s presence in Europe is the biggest ever this year.

I think they are doing pretty fine in Europe although I would like to see them at least earlier, or even in the Summer, in the Caribbean.

But the fact is, the Europe fares are (including marketing activities which are happening around the globe) far beyond the Caribbean fares even thru high season. Princess may deploy a ship in the Caribbean simply because they have a huge fleet. Celebrity though seems to see it differently.

 

At least it´s nice to see, that Celebrity is pulling their ships back to Florida a little earlier in fall 2014.

[TIMETOGOAGAIN]

This is what I see as well. I'm waiting to see what the Med itinerary pricing looks like. I know I can call but I would rather be able to see it all in one place.

 

Me too! I'm finding this rather frustrating. This morning I get an "Oops" message and nothing is coming up. I'm typically patient with the CC website but come on!!!

[Sailaway487]

Me too! I'm finding this rather frustrating. This morning I get an "Oops" message and nothing is coming up. I'm typically patient with the CC website but come on!!!

 

I'm glad I'm not the only one getting the 'Oops' message. I thought it might just be the UK site. They were on earlier this morning, as I was looking at Silhouette's sailings, but an hour later nothing is working. It's been down for about 2 hours now.

[Sailaway487]

This has just appeared on the homepage for the UK site:

 

WEBSITE TECHNICAL ISSUE

Wednesday 27th March 2013

 

Please be aware we are currently experiencing technical issues with cruise search results.

 

We will remove this message once the problem is fixed. Apologies for any inconvenience this may cause.

 

Please contact our Personal Cruises Specialists on 0844 493 2043 (UK) or1800 932 662(Republic of Ireland) to book a cruise.

 

Looks as though I'll have to wait a while then... :rolleyes:

[Cruising89143]

Hi Everyone,

 

Slightly off-topic, but there was interesting 2014 deployment news on the Princess Forum.

 

Princess will be offering Year Round Caribbean in 2014. Caribbean Princess will offer a Summer Caribbean product, sailing 7 night itineraries from Ft Lauderdale in June, July and most of August 2014. She returns to 4 & 5 night sailings beginning on 8/23/14, for the balance of her 2014/2015 Caribbean season.

 

It's exciting to see that Princess apparently agrees with what I've mentioned on this forum for some time... that Europe may not have a great 2014 - something which Celebrity (for the time being) seems unwilling to consider. I wish Celebrity had offered a Summer Caribbean product in 2014 on one of their ships. However, at this point, it's not happening, as all Celebrity ships are deployed elsewhere.

 

Unless there's a deployment change at Celebrity, we may be sailing with Princess in Summer 2014. I'm looking forward to experiencing Princess again, as it's been several years since we've sailed with them.

 

I agree completely. X should have pulled one of the Solstice class ships out of Europe and kept her here year round. May have to look at Princess for next summer.

[SoBe2010]

Yippeee! They've just shown up on the Celebrity website this hour and they're bookable on line! http://www.celebritycruises.com/search/vacationSearchResults.do#isWidget=false&dest=T.ATL&sailStartDate=201403&sailEndDate=ANY&ship=ANY&port=ANY&duration=ANY&includeAdjascentPorts=Y&promoid=&promoType=&promotionTypeId=&priceProgram=&sortBy=4&startRow=0&count=10&cruiseType=CO&cruiseInt=Y&isCrieriaExcluded=false&facebook=

 

Now I am really curious what the Caribbean Cruises will look like with so many ships coming back early to Florida.

[XFans]

Has anyone noticed, that there's a gap for the sailing dates of the Equinox in Spring 2014?

 

The last carribean cruise departs from Fort Lauderdale on 4th of april. The next cruise on the Equinox starts on may 20th departing from Venice... :eek:

 

There's enough time for a transatlantic and another cruise between these two dates. Anyone got any idea what is happening there? :confused:

[jveevers]

Hi Everyone,

 

Slightly off-topic, but there was interesting 2014 deployment news on the Princess Forum.

 

Princess will be offering Year Round Caribbean in 2014. Caribbean Princess will offer a Summer Caribbean product, sailing 7 night itineraries from Ft Lauderdale in June, July and most of August 2014. She returns to 4 & 5 night sailings beginning on 8/23/14, for the balance of her 2014/2015 Caribbean season.

 

It's exciting to see that Princess apparently agrees with what I've mentioned on this forum for some time... that Europe may not have a great 2014 - something which Celebrity (for the time being) seems unwilling to consider. I wish Celebrity had offered a Summer Caribbean product in 2014 on one of their ships. However, at this point, it's not happening, as all Celebrity ships are deployed elsewhere.

 

Unless there's a deployment change at Celebrity, we may be sailing with Princess in Summer 2014. I'm looking forward to experiencing Princess again, as it's been several years since we've sailed with them.

 

 

See my thread in regard to Celebrity's very high europe cruise pricing.

It appears they can increase revenue substantially if they have ships in Europe as opposed to Carribean..

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1816232

[Andy]

See my thread in regard to Celebrity's very high europe cruise pricing.

It appears they can increase revenue substantially if they have ships in Europe as opposed to Carribean..

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1816232

 

Hi Jveevers,

 

I think there's more to it, than saying they can get more $$$ in Europe. Celebrity is getting higher pricing due to promotions like 123 GO. That's what is getting guests to book, and keeping bookings stronger than usual. No doubt, this helps their pricing. While I'm not thrilled with free drinks for a number of reasons, 123 GO is a smart *marketing* promotion, as it encourages folks to book earlier than they might typically book, and... retain their booking.

 

We all know there's a huge markup on drinks, and costs them a fraction of the $44 per person per day retail price. While I suppose that Celebrity is losing a ton of revenue at their bars, they are keeping their cabin pricing much higher than normal, which may be just as good.

 

Based on what we paid for our Eclipse sailings this season, prices appeared to be much higher for Caribbean sailings this year, over last year. Most all of the longer sailings had significant price increases, and Celebrity was able to avoid dropping the pricing for many sailings... again, quite possibly due to 123 GO. That I could see, there was strong demand for Caribbean this season, while Celebrity had one of their shortest seasons ever. I'm sure if they could get a do-over, they would have made some different decisions.

 

IMO, the higher than normal pricing is more about the marketing/promotions currently offered, and not necessarily the region. With all of the turmoil in Europe, and my belief that things may get much worse before it gets better... I'd be very surprised if Europe 2014 will be a huge success. The only thing that may keep it respectable, is 123 GO.

[SoBe2010]

Calling it turmoil may be a bit over the top.

[Andy]

Calling it turmoil may be a bit over the top.

 

Sorry, but as I watch the world financial markets 18-20 hours a day, I dont think it's over the top at all. We'll see how it plays out over the next few months. Let's hope it will have a positive outcome.

[Andy]

Hi Everyone,

 

Celebrity has posted a document with detailed itinerary information for Europe 2014 & Transatlantics : http://www.creative.rccl.com/Sales/Celebrity/Europe/Cruises/Flyers/13033535_CEL_2014_Europe_Deployment.pdf

 

The 2014 Northern Europe itineraries are located here : http://www.creative.rccl.com/Sales/Celebrity/Europe/Cruises/Flyers/13033429_CEL_2014_Northern_Europe_Deployment_Flyer.pdf

 

I hope this is helpful !

[Tommy3putts]

Thanks Andy

 

Exciting times. Booked an 11 day Med cruise on Reflection for June 23, 2014 yesterday!

[Andy]

Thanks Andy

 

Exciting times. Booked an 11 day Med cruise on Reflection for June 23, 2014 yesterday!

 

My pleasure Tommy. Happy to hear you are booked - I'd love to visit the Med someday.

 

I hope the deployment season updates are helpful to our community.

[Ex-Airbalancer]

I wonder if Celebrity goes the all inclusive route, will they honour the price today and give you the all inclusive. Or have two price for a while ?

[Ex-Airbalancer]

Hi Everyone,

 

Celebrity has posted a document with detailed itinerary information for Europe 2014 & Transatlantics : http://www.creative.rccl.com/Sales/Celebrity/Europe/Cruises/Flyers/13033535_CEL_2014_Europe_Deployment.pdf

 

The 2014 Northern Europe itineraries are located here : http://www.creative.rccl.com/Sales/Celebrity/Europe/Cruises/Flyers/13033429_CEL_2014_Northern_Europe_Deployment_Flyer.pdf

 

I hope this is helpful !

It is also on their website , and you can book the trips

[Orator]

Spoke to a 4 striper on one of the ships about pricing. Told me that Celebrity has been woking on about a 3% profit margin making it one of the lowest in the business. I suggested that there were at least 2 ways to increase margins: (1) reduce cost by cutting staff and service; or (2) raising prices. I suggested that I would be willing to pay more if there is a marked improvement in the overall experience. I believe that either cutting cost by reducing staff and sevices or raising prices without improving the experience would be counterproductive and cost revenue in the long run. He appeared to agree adding that raising cost might also "improve the quality of passengers" (his words, not mine). He indicated that they seem to experience more problems when prices are lowered. I know that this statement could cause a great debate and I'll not make further comments. Suffice it to say that I believe that we are just seeing the tip of the price rise trend and this will have an impact on all aspects of cruising including ship deployments.

[C-Dragons]

Spoke to a 4 striper on one of the ships about pricing. Told me that Celebrity has been woking on about a 3% profit margin making it one of the lowest in the business. I suggested that there were at least 2 ways to increase margins: (1) reduce cost by cutting staff and service; or (2) raising prices. I suggested that I would be willing to pay more if there is a marked improvement in the overall experience. I believe that either cutting cost by reducing staff and sevices or raising prices without improving the experience would be counterproductive and cost revenue in the long run. He appeared to agree adding that raising cost might also "improve the quality of passengers" (his words, not mine). He indicated that they seem to experience more problems when prices are lowered. I know that this statement could cause a great debate and I'll not make further comments. Suffice it to say that I believe that we are just seeing the tip of the price rise trend and this will have an impact on all aspects of cruising including ship deployments.

I agree with you about price increases. From my experiences on recent X cruises, there is no way they can cut staff. It seems they have a shortage of staff already in certain venues and the staff in place are already overworked.

[ISABELLA]

Hi Everyone,

 

Celebrity has posted a document with detailed itinerary information for Europe 2014 & Transatlantics : http://www.creative.rccl.com/Sales/Celebrity/Europe/Cruises/Flyers/13033535_CEL_2014_Europe_Deployment.pdf

 

The 2014 Northern Europe itineraries are located here : http://www.creative.rccl.com/Sales/Celebrity/Europe/Cruises/Flyers/13033429_CEL_2014_Northern_Europe_Deployment_Flyer.pdf

 

I hope this is helpful !

 

Andy,

there is no TAs for Equinox listed....Wonder why?