Signiture Event Cruise - Military Tatto 2016 sailing

[cheriooo]

On a recent Celebrity cruise we booked a British Isles cruise for Aug 2016 which is advertised as a Celebrity "Signature Event" cruise. Its big event is the Military Tattoo. When we booked it we asked about making sure we could get tickets to this event and they said it was too early but dont worry. My wife called Celebrity guest services this past week about something else and mentioned we were booked for this "signature event" and asked when we had to buy tickets. She was told that the Military Tattoo event (for 2016) was sold out and after a few checks by the customer service rep that at best they could put us on a wait list for tickets. The cruise itself is not sold out just their event allocation. We were both shocked by this. First of all the 2016 tickets for the actual event are not available until after the 2015 event is over(august 2015) per the event web site and you cant buy celebrity excursions until you make final payment. The celebrity web site still advertises the sailing as a Signature event and I cant imagine that those who booked the cruise made final payment a year in advance to be able to buy the excursion. My wife thinks that maybe some agency booked a number of rooms and took up the Celebrity allocation.

So the bottom line of this post is all about ethical advertising. If they advertise this as a cruise that focuses on a specific event (ie British Open, Mardi Gras, Military Tatto etc) and you don't have tickets for the event, is this miss leading? Do they have an obligation to tell buyers of the cruise that tickets for the focused cruise event aren't available? To me this boarders on false advertising. Our current course of action is to wait till the current year event is over and then try Viator which also does escorted shore excursion for the event. If we cant get a booking that way then we will cancel the cruise since it was the primary purpose of the cruise. So the bottom line here is what is a sellers responsibility to buyers that the "featured event" of the cruise is not available anymore more than a year before the sailing? I am sure for those who wait until final payment to try to book the excursion and find out that there are no tickets available will probably be too late to cancel flights and possibly the cruise without significant loss and just be disappointed. As an elite +, Celebrity has lost a of respect in my eye and "let the buyer beware" has crept into my purchase decisions. We are on a cruise next month and hope face to face conversions with Celebrity reps will lead to something positive.

[lucinjo]

Tickets for 2016 Military Tatoo have not yet gone on sale. The 2015 Tatoo still has some tickets available for some dates. I think the person you talked to at Celebrity was confused. My sister is going this year -2015 (not with Celebrity, just her family) but she had no trouble getting tickets last month, from the vendor directly. The only reason to buy direct from Celebrity would be included transportation and a refund if the weather doesn't allow you to port at Edinburgh. I know that was a problem due to extreme winds during the Open last week.

[twoflyers]

On a recent Celebrity cruise we booked a British Isles cruise for Aug 2016 which is advertised as a Celebrity "Signature Event" cruise. Its big event is the Military Tattoo. When we booked it we asked about making sure we could get tickets to this event and they said it was too early but dont worry. My wife called Celebrity guest services this past week about something else and mentioned we were booked for this "signature event" and asked when we had to buy tickets. She was told that the Military Tattoo event (for 2016) was sold out and after a few checks by the customer service rep that at best they could put us on a wait list for tickets. The cruise itself is not sold out just their event allocation. We were both shocked by this. First of all the 2016 tickets for the actual event are not available until after the 2015 event is over(august 2015) per the event web site and you cant buy celebrity excursions until you make final payment. The celebrity web site still advertises the sailing as a Signature event and I cant imagine that those who booked the cruise made final payment a year in advance to be able to buy the excursion. My wife thinks that maybe some agency booked a number of rooms and took up the Celebrity allocation.

So the bottom line of this post is all about ethical advertising. If they advertise this as a cruise that focuses on a specific event (ie British Open, Mardi Gras, Military Tatto etc) and you don't have tickets for the event, is this miss leading? Do they have an obligation to tell buyers of the cruise that tickets for the focused cruise event aren't available? To me this boarders on false advertising. Our current course of action is to wait till the current year event is over and then try Viator which also does escorted shore excursion for the event. If we cant get a booking that way then we will cancel the cruise since it was the primary purpose of the cruise. So the bottom line here is what is a sellers responsibility to buyers that the "featured event" of the cruise is not available anymore more than a year before the sailing? I am sure for those who wait until final payment to try to book the excursion and find out that there are no tickets available will probably be too late to cancel flights and possibly the cruise without significant loss and just be disappointed. As an elite +, Celebrity has lost a of respect in my eye and "let the buyer beware" has crept into my purchase decisions. We are on a cruise next month and hope face to face conversions with Celebrity reps will lead to something positive.

 

A few years ago my husband and I were on a Seabourn cruise and one of the tours on the Edinburgh stop was the Military Tattoo. When I contacted Seabourn they said that their tickets were sold out, so I went online and found a company who said they had two tickets left. Being from the Northeast, I was a bit apprehensive - "I am going to get taken on this" - but went ahead with the purchase. Long story short, the tickets arrived on time, and included plastic ponchos (yes it does rain in GB). We took the bus over to the stadium, had a beautiful night, and better seats than our Seabourn shipmates (yes, we did get jealous looks). Oh, and our tickets were about half of what Seabourn was charging.

Let me know if you would like the name of the company. I cannot put it on this message board, but will share if you need it.

[DrKoob]

On a recent Celebrity cruise we booked a British Isles cruise for Aug 2016 which is advertised as a Celebrity "Signature Event" cruise. Its big event is the Military Tattoo. When we booked it we asked about making sure we could get tickets to this event and they said it was too early but dont worry. My wife called Celebrity guest services this past week about something else and mentioned we were booked for this "signature event" and asked when we had to buy tickets. She was told that the Military Tattoo event (for 2016) was sold out and after a few checks by the customer service rep that at best they could put us on a wait list for tickets. The cruise itself is not sold out just their event allocation. We were both shocked by this. First of all the 2016 tickets for the actual event are not available until after the 2015 event is over(august 2015) per the event web site and you cant buy celebrity excursions until you make final payment. The celebrity web site still advertises the sailing as a Signature event and I cant imagine that those who booked the cruise made final payment a year in advance to be able to buy the excursion. My wife thinks that maybe some agency booked a number of rooms and took up the Celebrity allocation.

So the bottom line of this post is all about ethical advertising. If they advertise this as a cruise that focuses on a specific event (ie British Open, Mardi Gras, Military Tatto etc) and you don't have tickets for the event, is this miss leading? Do they have an obligation to tell buyers of the cruise that tickets for the focused cruise event aren't available? To me this boarders on false advertising. Our current course of action is to wait till the current year event is over and then try Viator which also does escorted shore excursion for the event. If we cant get a booking that way then we will cancel the cruise since it was the primary purpose of the cruise. So the bottom line here is what is a sellers responsibility to buyers that the "featured event" of the cruise is not available anymore more than a year before the sailing? I am sure for those who wait until final payment to try to book the excursion and find out that there are no tickets available will probably be too late to cancel flights and possibly the cruise without significant loss and just be disappointed. As an elite +, Celebrity has lost a of respect in my eye and "let the buyer beware" has crept into my purchase decisions. We are on a cruise next month and hope face to face conversions with Celebrity reps will lead to something positive.

 

As I mentioned on the roll call (hope you come by and introduce yourselves :)):

 

I am assuming by "signature event" you are referring to the Military Tattoo in Edinburgh? If you read back through this roll call you will find that most of us have discussed this. Never fear. You can always get tickets to the Tattoo when they go on sale in December. This year (as of today) there are still tickets available for the show. That performance is less than three weeks away.

 

We are holding two of X's shore excursion seats that we bought as insurance and as soon as we book six of us on private excursion to the Tattoo when the tickets become available in December, we will release them. I think lots of people are going to do that.

 

I am not sure where you got the impression that you couldn't book shore excursions before final payment. X is happy to have your shore excursion money.

[florisdekort]

I just bought tickets for 2015 (2 weeks from now) yesterday so there's no need to worry. The rep you spoke to probably interpreted no tickets (because 2016 isn't on sale yet) as sold out. Hey ho. Regardless of how Celebrity markets it, this is not a super special once in a lifetime must see event that quickly sells out, you can typically even get tickets on the day.

[jelayne]

I would not be surprised if the customer service rep was mistaken. I would call the Captains Club and check with them.

 

I am confused as to why you can't buy Celebrity excursions until after final payment. I am certain we have booked excursions prior to final payment. We are booked on a cruise for Feb/Mar 2016 and others on the Roll Call have booked Celebrity excursions, one excursion in particular is quite popular and will probably sell out.

 

We are booked on a Rio at Carnival cruise for 2017, based on the price of the Celebrity excursion a group from our Roll Call are getting our own tickets & transportation and saving quite a bit.

If you haven't checked your Roll Call you may want to see if there are others who would like to get tickets on their own and share transportation to the event.

[cruisecam1]

You absolutely can buy shore excursion tickets prior to final payment. It's always been that way on Celebrity. We are scheduled to do the same voyage and bought the tattoo tickets as soon as they were available from celebrity. However, you can get tickets directly from tattoo website as well. Don't worry!

Edited July 27, 2015 by cruisecam1