final payment - ? price drop

[WASUP]

Now that we have made final payment, just this past week, will Celebrity have a fire sale on the remaining cabins? We are looking to upgrade from an inside to an oceanview, but we are waiting to see if they offer any incentives.

 

Thanks

[teedee]

If Celebrity drops the price as part of their "Happy Hour" specials to TA's then you are out of luck. If they just have a general price drop then they will refund the difference or sometimes they will let you upgrade to a better cabin. This doesn't happen near as much as it used to though. I always pick a cabin I know I'll be happy with from the beginning, but you never know, you could get lucky.

Terri

[Andy]

Terri is right. If what you are seeing is a "Happy Hour" Special, you will be out of luck. Celebrity will not reduce their price against the Happy Hour pricing. If it is some sort of other reduction, you may have a chance.

 

Keep in mind, that once you go past final payment, that you are pretty much at Celebrity's mercy, so I would not count on a price reduction happening. You can certainly try though.

 

Let us know what happens, and Enjoy your Cruise !

[Irishwhiskey]

You could ask your TA to check for any " guarantee bookings " for your cruise.We were booked and paid in full for Oct.29th on the Constellation since March.We check with our TA every couple of months for any price reductions and only found out last month that my cruise was offering guarantee bookings.I went from an outside cabin with a window category #4 to a balcony cabin in category#8 and also saved $300.on top of it.Go figure.It pays to keep checking.Happy criusing

[lindasuej]

With the increase in fuel prices I doubt that will happen.

 

Linda & Tom

[DOGS]

:p Just looked up today the prices on the millennium cruise date oct 25 2005 going on the 12 day venice ended in barcelona we already made our final payment and today they dropped the price on the guarantee category (9) we saved $1690.00 :D . So call your travel agent and see if your category have change or not can't hurt. happy cruiseing ;) ;)

[mlbcruiser]

We are booked on the Galaxy for next summer and it's our first time on Celebrity, though we have the past cruiser status we have on RCCL (10 cruises or more on them). This is also the first time we have booked directly w/the cruiseline. The reason was to insure that IF the price drops after final pymt., we can take advantage of the decrease. But it sounds like there will be all these "ifs, ands and buts". I SPECIFICALLY asked their rep. if we could FOR SURE take advantage of any adjustments, and what about other "perks" we might see offered on cruise booking sites or w/other T/As. The agent indicated that we could get any price adjustments after final pymt. and that they could "probably" match most incentives. But I am VERY skeptical about this. Any of you out there have experience w/this on Celebrity? And there is nothing I can do if they won't. It's not like I have a recording of their agent telling me that stuff. I've already seen things such as gas or travel insurance perks, but didn't bother to try for those. Don't know how different Celebrity is from their parent co. (RCCL), but I've learned over the yrs. that very seldom do they give you anything extra or make price adjustments once that final pymt. is made.

[geoherb]

Another thing Celebrity does is sell guaranteed W, X, Y, and Z categories after final payment (with W for suites, X for balconies, Y for outsides, and Z for insides). If you booked the the lowest level of balcony cabin, for instance, and then see a better price for a cat X on your cruise, you may be out of luck since technically it's a different category of cabin--even though you know you can't get anything lower than your current category.

[ts548]

Hi...We are sailing on the Zenith 10/1 and have had 2 price reductions since paying in full...both times my TA was able to get a price adjustment & Celebrity has refunded back the money promptly. I think that is fair business & just great on their part.

Trish

[fabnsab]

We just booked and paid for our cruise last thursday. I saw on Sunday that the price went down so I called and they gave me the adjustment, no questions asked. That's good business.

[canderson]

Hi...We are sailing on the Zenith 10/1 and have had 2 price reductions since paying in full...both times my TA was able to get a price adjustment & Celebrity has refunded back the money promptly. I think that is fair business & just great on their part.

Trish

Just curious -- were these price reductions reflected in Celebrity's regular web page pricing at celebrity.com?

[canderson]

We just booked and paid for our cruise last thursday. I saw on Sunday that the price went down so I called and they gave me the adjustment, no questions asked. That's good business.

Ditto for you, Fabnsab -- were your new (and lower) prices shown on Celebrity's regular on-line booking site?

[hedyc]

Or did it come up as specials on an internet travel agent site?

[fabnsab]

We booked the guarantee inside stateroom last thursday. I checked on a travel site(for the heck of it) on sunday and it had our fare $100pp lower so I went to Celebrity.com and their price was lower too(same as travel site). I called on a lark and he adjusted it. He even congratulated me on finding such a deal.

 

They also put us in an obstructed view ocean view. We're extremeley grateful for the good service but we are actually thinking of asking for our inside room back. We are weird people where we like it as dark as possible and we like to feel the sway of the ship. Best sleep around!

[WASUP]

We got a great deal on an inside cabin on the millie for 11-18 transatlantic, it was around the 4th of July and there appeared a wonderful deal of 950 a person for an inside. We took it. We already have a cabin assgined and it is an adjoining room and I am hearing nightmare storie about the thin walls and also the smoke from the other cabin if there is a person that smokes.

 

I called the TA and wanted to change to a GTY, he said I couldnot, that once Celebrity gives out a cabin #, there is no way to go to a GTY status. Is this true? I have gone on the Celebrity web site and there are plenty of cabins that are not adjoining.

 

Advice?

[mlbcruiser]

Fabnsab, I was really pleased to hear you were able to get your adjustment from Celebrity w/no hassles. That gives me hope, although unless there is some int'l. problem next spring or summer, I have a feeling our cruise in the med. will only go UP! But you never know . . . Like you, we LOVE the darkness and coziness of an inside cabin. And esp. the savings $. We started out on 3 day cruises in inside cabins years ago and are just so used to them. Not that we wouldn't enjoy an balcony if the prices were w/in our budget. But usually they are not. We have had a balcony only once - on the Tahitian Princess - and really did enjoy it. Great itinerary for it! But as for the diff. between a regular outside cabin and an inside, we're not in our cabin that much to want to spend more money for the window.

[TriciaAnn]

WASUP, even though you may not go back to a gty status you CAN change to a different cabin as long as it's in the same catagory as the cabin originally assigned to you by Celebrity. I have done this before with no problem.

[sweetmelissa]

WASUP,

 

Your agent can get you switched back to GTY status. We booked a guarantee outside cabin. They assigned our cabin very quickly (about 3 days) after we booked. We were hoping it would take a little longer (hoping for a slight upgrade). So our travel agent had them switch us back to GTY. Again, we were assigned right away. So we requested that she do it again. She did, and when our cabin was re-assigned we ended up with a 5 category upgrade to a deluxe OV for our cruise this November.

 

Good luck,

Melissa

[ahoymatey3]

We got a great deal on an inside cabin on the millie for 11-18 transatlantic, it was around the 4th of July and there appeared a wonderful deal of 950 a person for an inside. We took it. We already have a cabin assgined and it is an adjoining room and I am hearing nightmare storie about the thin walls and also the smoke from the other cabin if there is a person that smokes.

 

I called the TA and wanted to change to a GTY, he said I couldnot, that once Celebrity gives out a cabin #, there is no way to go to a GTY status. Is this true? I have gone on the Celebrity web site and there are plenty of cabins that are not adjoining.

 

Advice?

 

You will hear of people who have gotten great upgrades, BUT, when you book a GTY you have to be willing to accept the worst cabin in that category. It is worth a try to get your TA to switch you within the same category. I checked the prices (we are on the same cruise) and the least expensive inside, non GTY is now a cat 10 for $1550/pp (no connecting door, no upper berths, #3086).

 

Question - did they explain what a GTY was? When I booked a GTY, they didn't. When I found out what that really meant (I had booked directly with the cruiseline, in this case it was HAL), I ended up buying a higher category. It was money well spent.

 

When I tried to upgrade my 2b to a CC on this cruise the pricing was ridiculous. Like you, I too got a great price on the 2b (much less than an inside GTY at today's price) and they calculated the upgrade price as the difference between today's CC rate - my original price.

[Begete]

I strongly urge you NOT to book a Guaranty as we did. Those who said that Celebrity gives out the very worst of the worst to the guaranty catagroy were not joking.

 

We did not sleep for the entire two weeks we were on the Baltic cruise. We booked a guaranty inside cabin. Not only did we get lumpy, hard, thin mattresses, but the beds were broken/uneven and tilted on one side. Further, the temperature controls did not work. I have an illness that keeps my body from regulating temperature normally. I phoned special services BEFORE we booked to ask if we would be able to keep the cabin temperature at 65 degrees or less at night. I was assured that was "standard." Guests in an inside cabin 10 rooms down the hall from us had a thermometer and they were able to keep their cabin at 65. Our cabin stayed above 70 all night, as per that thermometer.

 

We asked guest services to fix both problems, but they were unable to do so.

The only thing they did "fix" was the dirty conditions in the cabin when we arrived.

 

We would never take another Celebrity Cruise.

 

When you consider which flame to post, please understand that I did speak to both our travel agent AND Celebrity's Special Services department before finalizing our arrangments and was given all kinds of assurances that the things of important to us would be fine.

[roboref]

I booked an inside GTY transatlantic trip on Galaxy in February for October. At a very good price through an on-line agency. When final payment rolled around in August there were no lower prices, then 6 weeks before sailing on Celebrity's regular web site they offered outside GTY for $25 less per cabin. After calling Celebrity about upgrading they said no problem, just go through your TA. The TA said they couldn't do the upgrade because X would not allow it. After some more discussion, the reason I was turned down was the agent had booked us on a group discount with more restrictions. I don't believe the TA worked as hard a s they could. After calling X and finnally getting with a supervisor who was extremely helpful, he actually called a gruop bookings supervisor and ask for an upgrade, after some hemming/hawing they said no problem, have your agent call this person and we will doit. My agent couldn't believe I was able to get them to do this. It took a week and probably 3 hours on the phone, but the end result was we went from an inside GTY to an outside GTY for no additional cost.

 

The person who earlier suggested that you would get the worst of the worst, would be extremely wrong in my case. I wnet form an inside to an outside and both cabins are mid-ship without any problems. I always book a GTY and so far have not had any problems.

[ahoymatey3]

For the record, I never said one WOULD get the worst cabin, only that it is POSSIBLE. That’s why I switched from a GTY on HAL.

 

 

I feel for you WASUP. Do what you can, because we are going to be on that ship for 2 weeks, and that is a long time to be unhappy.

 

 

I read somewhere on these boards that the cabin stewards can seal the cracks with tape. If all else fails, there is that option. Which cabin did you get? It might not be all that bad after all.

[PAISANO]

Just curious -- were these price reductions reflected in Celebrity's regular web page pricing at celebrity.com?

 

Yes, just logon just as if you were booking your same cruise and if there are rooms in your same catagory for less money (even after final payment) you will get the difference. I just got a refund 2 days ago. I don't know if celebrity would have refunded me the difference if I haden't caught it. Thanks to everyone on these boards, I might not have caught it. It was a drop of $800.00pp. I still can't believe it but i'll take it.:D

[canderson]

Yes, just logon just as if you were booking your same cruise and if there are rooms in your same catagory for less money (even after final payment) you will get the difference. I just got a refund 2 days ago. I don't know if celebrity would have refunded me the difference if I haden't caught it. Thanks to everyone on these boards, I might not have caught it. It was a drop of $800.00pp. I still can't believe it but i'll take it.:D

Good catch, Paisan! A good TA will watch for things like this, but it does take some time if they've got a lot of bookings, so it always pays to keep your own watch on pricing changes. Unfortunately, my experience is typically that the prices go the other way (up!), so while I'm happy that I book early enough to avoid the increases, I never seem to get a break in the other direction!

[Lou33]

I called the TA and wanted to change to a GTY, he said I couldnot, that once Celebrity gives out a cabin #, there is no way to go to a GTY status. Is this true? I have gone on the Celebrity web site and there are plenty of cabins that are not adjoining.

Advice?

 

WASUP,

 

You have a really bad TA. They are lying and they are doing a terrible disservice to you. It appears that you haven't made final payment. If so, just cancel and rebook with a good TA.

 

There is no reason that you can't switch cabins or categories, people do it all the time. This is regardless of final payment, but it appears that you didn't even make your final payment if you are >60 days out.

 

One question, if you are so fussy about your cabin choice, why do you want a GTY, when you would have absolutely no control over what cabin you would receive. What is stopping them from giving you another adjoining room next to a smoker?