Celebrity Price Drop

[Mialias]

happens with airfare as well - just stop looking and enjoy!

[ak1004]

@Kalasi Our cruise price dropped by almost 40% at some point (paid $9,200 CAD for three of us for balcony, and the price was $5,600 CAD at some point). We were offered an "upgrade" from balcony to concierge (which to me is not really an upgrade, the cabin is the same size).

 

Celebrity loyalists will continue telling you that Celebrity owes you nothing, and just be grateful that they let you sail on their amazing ships. The truth is that all cruise lines play games with prices, but Celebrity turned it into an art. They are really good at dropping prices after the final payment, and they will always do it gradually so it doesn't make sense to you to cancel and re book at lower prices. I have never experienced such drastic price changes on other lines, definitely not on lines like Oceania or Crystal.

 

It is what it is.  

[iana1212]

42 minutes ago, ak1004 said:

@Kalasi Our cruise price dropped by almost 40% at some point (paid $9,200 CAD for three of us for balcony, and the price was $5,600 CAD at some point). We were offered an "upgrade" from balcony to concierge (which to me is not really an upgrade, the cabin is the same size).

 

Celebrity loyalists will continue telling you that Celebrity owes you nothing, and just be grateful that they let you sail on their amazing ships. The truth is that all cruise lines play games with prices, but Celebrity turned it into an art. They are really good at dropping prices after the final payment, and they will always do it gradually so it doesn't make sense to you to cancel and re book at lower prices. I have never experienced such drastic price changes on other lines, definitely not on lines like Oceania or Crystal.

 

It is what it is.  

Like many others in this thread i keep an eye on price movements but tend not too look too often after i have made final payment as it can be depressing but I have found that as often as prices have gone down they also go up. We booked in the Infinity in August last year and the equivalent booking is now about 20% more expensive but we tend not to complain when the movement goes in our favour. We booked a Princess cruise  s few years ago that offered big discounts for a period before final payment was due so contacted them to see if they would reduce price but they wouldn't budge so cancelled and we booked same cruise but lower cost than we would have paid even though lost deposit we still made a decent saving just seemed a pity we had to go through the hassle rather than them just adjusting price or giving on board credit.

 

Other factor to bear in mind is that if you are like us and always have to book a flight to get to port by booking cruise early you can book flights when they are on sale rather than shortly before cruise and this can more than offset any late book ing  discount. We have booked flights before booking cruise but only where there are alternative cruises available that we are happy to take if we don't get first choice but not very often as we tend to book cruises by  destinations so can be difficult to do this.

[freddiebud]

On 5/29/2019 at 5:42 AM, Kalasi said:

I have booked to sail with Celebrity in a few weeks, and last week, in a moment of boredom, I looked up my cruise. 

Upon doing this I saw that the price of my cruise had dropped by £380 (£190 each). This annoyed me because when I booked on the Celebrity website at Christmas there was a lot of spiel about the price I booked being the "best" and "once a year offer". The cruise I booked comes with the Classic Drinks Package as it would do if I booked the cruise last week at the cheaper rate. Both cabins (the one I did book at Christmas and the one I could of booked last week) are Concierge Class. I.e. it's like for like. 

I've only been on one other cruise thus, I am new to all of this, so I (still in a moment of boredom) looked up what happens if one has booked a cruise for a "best price" which later comes down. I found that many cruise lines will either refund one in cash or give onboard credit. With this info, I emailed Celebrity telling them about my bitter discovery.

I had a nice email back that just said sorry and told me that I was lucky to get the cabin of my choosing.

I replied saying that my aft cabin on Deck 9 was hardly prime position and,  that I felt like if I have been sold a product under the title "best price" etc. then that is what it should be.

Another email comes back to me, saying that Celebrity do not offer price drop guarantees and that promotions change all the time. However, as a "gesture of good will" I may have a complementary meal in a speciality restaurant.

Dear more experienced cruisers, what do you think of this offer? Please do not berate me, but rather suggest if you think I'm being given a fair compensation or if I should be offered more. 

Thank you. 

It's part of the cruise world, just like airlines.  Also, being nice and just asking gets me alot.  This happened to me when I booked prior to Christmas and when i called, I asked if they could match or give me perks or whatever and I got everything I wanted.  Same thing with my air.  

 

[Denny01]

2 hours ago, ak1004 said:

@Kalasi Our cruise price dropped by almost 40% at some point (paid $9,200 CAD for three of us for balcony, and the price was $5,600 CAD at some point). We were offered an "upgrade" from balcony to concierge (which to me is not really an upgrade, the cabin is the same size).

 

Celebrity loyalists will continue telling you that Celebrity owes you nothing, and just be grateful that they let you sail on their amazing ships. The truth is that all cruise lines play games with prices, but Celebrity turned it into an art. They are really good at dropping prices after the final payment, and they will always do it gradually so it doesn't make sense to you to cancel and re book at lower prices. I have never experienced such drastic price changes on other lines, definitely not on lines like Oceania or Crystal.

 

It is what it is.  

Kalasi, Experienced Cruisers are giving the OP advice, not Loyalists. This is how it works with cruise lines......and most any business. And your description of Celebrity gradually dropping prices to hide it from those already booked makes no sense, since those who have prepaid can’t get the new price. Celebrity is trying to advertise to get SRs filled, that’s their business. 

 

Some will get a few goodies by calling and certainly can get upgrades for equal or more costly SRs, but all of that is to the advantage of Celebrity......and every other Line, including Oceania and Crystal, the ones you say you haven't seen such price drops. Well, I assume you don’t track every final payment cost drop of those Lines unless you track them every day for every class SR for every cruise. 

 

There is someone on every cruise we take that paid less than we did, and if that bothers you, then Dont Discuss Pricing! I loved the post by cruiseerf about someone complaining about what they paid and giving the price and they had paid less, but stayed quiet. Classy!

 

And by the way, no matter what great deal you think you got, there will be someone telling you they did better....and probably lying about it. And that’s what happens when you go around telling people what you paid. 

 

Den

 

Edited May 30, 2019 by Denny01

[bEwAbG]

2 hours ago, ak1004 said:

Celebrity loyalists will continue telling you that Celebrity owes you nothing, and just be grateful that they let you sail on their amazing ships.

 

Has nothing to do with Celebrity or being a "loyalist".  All of the cruise companies at this level and below have put the kibosh on most adjustments after final payment.  They were much more generous a decade ago but that was because the economy was in the toilet.  I have no experience with the upper tier lines but that base pricing is so much higher that I'm sure they have more flexibility to make adjustments.  I'm still not sure why you think it's ok for them to not hold to the contract you agreed to when you booked.  IF they make an exception...great!  If not, you were already warned up front.  Do they not teach contract law in Canada? 

Edited May 30, 2019 by bEwAbG

[ak1004]

6 minutes ago, Denny01 said:

Kalasi, Experienced Cruisers are giving the OP advice, not Loyalists. This is how it works with cruise lines......and most any business. And your description of Celebrity gradually dropping prices to hide it from those already booked makes no sense, since those who have prepaid can’t get the new price. Celebrity is trying to advertise to get SRs filled, that’s their business. 

 

 

Gradually dropping the price means they drop it by less than 25% during the period when your penalty to cancel and rebook is 25%. After your penalty goes up to 50%, they drop the price more - again, in a very calculated move so it makes it not economical to cancel and re book. As I said, they really turned it into art.

 

2 minutes ago, bEwAbG said:

 

Has nothing to do with Celebrity or being a "loyalist".  All of the cruise companies at this level and below have put the kibosh on most adjustments after final payment.  They were much more generous a decade ago but that was because the economy was in the toilet.  I have no experience with the upper tier lines but that base pricing is so much higher that I'm sure they have more flexibility to make adjustments.  I'm still not sure why you think it's ok for them to not hold to the contract you agreed to when you booked.  IF they make an exception...great!  If not, you were already warned up front.  Do they not teach contract law in Canada? 

 

Thank you for a civic lesson. But no, it's not matter of contract. It's matter of respecting your customers. Look how many people complain about those price drops on Celebrity board and compare it to other boards.

 

btw, you might be surprised, but many times prices on lines like Oceania are not "so much higher" when you consider all inclusions. And with Oceania, you will never see those dramatic price drops. They prefer to keep their brand name even if it means empty cabins. 

[bEwAbG]

7 minutes ago, ak1004 said:

Thank you for a civic lesson. But no, it's not matter of contract. It's matter of respecting your customers. Look how many people complain about those price drops on Celebrity board and compare it to other boards.

 

btw, you might be surprised, but many times prices on lines like Oceania are not "so much higher" when you consider all inclusions. And with Oceania, you will never see those dramatic price drops. They prefer to keep their brand name even if it means empty cabins. 

 

Plenty of people complain about it across other boards, too.  It's not unique to Celebrity.  I have the same opinion about those people: know what you're buying before you buy it, and then don't be petulant about it when they hold you to it. 

 

And we won't rehash your Oceania sales pitches as we know you stay in inside rooms and refuse to compare like for like.  

[ak1004]

13 minutes ago, bEwAbG said:

 

Plenty of people complain about it across other boards, too.  It's not unique to Celebrity.  I have the same opinion about those people: know what you're buying before you buy it, and then don't be petulant about it when they hold you to it. 

 

And we won't rehash your Oceania sales pitches as we know you stay in inside rooms and refuse to compare like for like.  

 

I don't compare just inside cabins. If you want to compare apples to apples, you need to compare Oceania veranda to Celebrity Sky Suite as they are almost the same size. 

[Denny01]

30 minutes ago, ak1004 said:

 

Gradually dropping the price means they drop it by less than 25% during the period when your penalty to cancel and rebook is 25%. After your penalty goes up to 50%, they drop the price more - again, in a very calculated move so it makes it not economical to cancel and re book. As I said, they really turned it into art......

I doubt very much this is occurring and you are making this up. You’d have to track price drops between 89-75days, then 74-61 days, then 60-31 days to see the ‘trend’ of price drops are connected with cancellation payments percentages. And you’d have to know this was occurring prior in order to ‘track’ the price changes since Celebrity along with all other Lines do not make their their previous prices public. There’s no documentation that would show this and you’d have to know its occuring prior and then track it. 

 

This assertion would be almost impossible to see occurring, and doesn’t pass the ‘smell test’. 

 

With that said, I have a feeling these posts will be removed, and maybe the whole thread will get shutdown. How about just saying you are mad someone is getting a better price then you did and stop there.  

 

Den

[Luvcrusn]

40 minutes ago, ak1004 said:

 

Gradually dropping the price means they drop it by less than 25% during the period when your penalty to cancel and rebook is 25%. After your penalty goes up to 50%, they drop the price more - again, in a very calculated move so it makes it not economical to cancel and re book. As I said, they really turned it into art.

 

 

Thank you for a civic lesson. But no, it's not matter of contract. It's matter of respecting your customers. Look how many people complain about those price drops on Celebrity board and compare it to other boards.

 

btw, you might be surprised, but many times prices on lines like Oceania are not "so much higher" when you consider all inclusions. And with Oceania, you will never see those dramatic price drops. They prefer to keep their brand name even if it means empty cabins. 

There have been a number of reasoned responses to the original question that have disagreed. You are absolutely entitled to your opinions and beliefs as are those whose opinions differ from yours. Why not just agree to disagree and leave it at that? I for one have benefitted from X price drops, had my original price adjusted (downward), had my cabin upgraded (at no additional charge) and maintained my perks. Those things happened through my observing price differences, contacting my TA, carefully questioning what the price adjustment ramifications would be and making careful choices.

[ak1004]

17 minutes ago, Denny01 said:

I doubt very much this is occurring and you are making this up. You’d have to track price drops between 89-75days, then 74-61 days, then 60-31 days to see the ‘trend’ of price drops are connected with cancellation payments percentages. And you’d have to know this was occurring prior in order to ‘track’ the price changes since Celebrity along with all other Lines do not make their their previous prices public. There’s no documentation that would show this and you’d have to know its occuring prior and then track it. 

 

 

I don't need Celebrity making their previous prices public. I know how much I paid. I have see the prices drop in direct connection with cancellation schedule. Yes, I did track it. But you can believe whatever you want.

[Denny01]

You came to your conclusion that Celebrity was deliberately modifying the costs to not allow those that previously paid to take advantage of the price drop based on one cruise, one SR type, which is called a single datapoint......Got it. 

 

I cruised on Crystal and loved it, but we ran into a terrible storm and it was colorful. I’ll not cruise on Crystal again because they cruise into storms.....yeah, got it. 

 

Den

[ak1004]

15 minutes ago, Denny01 said:

You came to your conclusion that Celebrity was deliberately modifying the costs to not allow those that previously paid to take advantage of the price drop based on one cruise, one SR type, which is called a single datapoint......Got it. 

 

 

Actually, no. I tracked several cruises and several cabins. There is a very clear pattern. In fact, many people on this board have mentioned it. I also tracked few cruises by Oceania and Crystal. Price drops are very rare, and when they happen, they are no more than $100-200.

[jimmieg]

Oceania doesnt drop prices after final? Just out of curiosity I checked that "ticker" site and looks like every Oceania cruise over next two months (after final) is significantly discounted. Hmmm?

Edited May 31, 2019 by jimmieg
Clarity

[Creekside89]

My last Celebrity cruise went down $600, got nothing. Wasn't expecting anything, but it doesn't hurt to ask. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

But at the moment my Oct 2020 cruise has gone up $7000 since I booked a few months ago as that cruise is nearly sold out. So I feel compensated in that. But I will look sometime later and see what the price difference is then.

Enjoy your dinner.

[yorky]

How much are the price fluctuations due to the ability to book a cruise and then cancel without penalty in areas like the USA ? We have posters on here state they book multiple cabins and then cancel them later. Surely when there are suddenly lots of extra cabin availability it’s effects prices. If everyone paid a none refundable deposit i’m Pretty sure we would see a huge drop in cancellations and better price stability.

Edited May 31, 2019 by yorky

[Greenymac]

9 hours ago, ak1004 said:

 

Actually, no. I tracked several cruises and several cabins. There is a very clear pattern. In fact, many people on this board have mentioned it. I also tracked few cruises by Oceania and Crystal. Price drops are very rare, and when they happen, they are no more than $100-200.

I'll say this. I've been price watching strongly for the last 3 months or so and so far, this statement holds up pretty well. Just my opinion from my observations.

[Cruise a holic]

We considered booking Oceania- but after a careful analysis, reading reviews and ship information, we realized most of the Oceania ships were small and didn't offer the same features as celebrity.  So if you don't mind a small old ship  and maybe those who only look at price will enjoy Oceania.   Also, we like to sail "on this side of the pond" and can sail at very specific times of the year, so Oceania doesn't work for our criteria.  

 

 We prefer the newer larger Celebrity and Royal ships. They work for us.  

 

 

Edited May 31, 2019 by Cruise a holic

[ak1004]

1 hour ago, Cruise a holic said:

We considered booking Oceania- but after a careful analysis, reading reviews and ship information, we realized most of the Oceania ships were small and didn't offer the same features as celebrity.  So if you don't mind a small old ship  and maybe those who only look at price will enjoy Oceania.   Also, we like to sail "on this side of the pond" and can sail at very specific times of the year, so Oceania doesn't work for our criteria.  

 

 We prefer the newer larger Celebrity and Royal ships. They work for us.  

 

 

 

Oceania Riviera and Marina are from 2011 and 2012. Hardly old ships. They have 1,250 passengers and pas/crew ratio of 1.5, compared to 2.5 on Celebrity. A different league. But of course each its own.

[ak1004]

7 hours ago, jimmieg said:

Oceania doesnt drop prices after final? Just out of curiosity I checked that "ticker" site and looks like every Oceania cruise over next two months (after final) is significantly discounted. Hmmm?

 

I wish it was true. Even cruises sailing in 2-3 weeks are still full prices or sold out. Of course you need to compare apples to apples - Marina and Riviera will always be more expensive than the older ships (exactly like Celebrity S class are more expensive than the older ships).

[cruisinagain1960]

We had a similar situation - booked an interior cabin about 4 or 5 months ago - when I price checked it about 3 weeks ago, an interior cabin had dropped about $300/pp from the price we paid.  In fact, a Verandah was currently selling for what we paid for our interior cabin.

 

We contacted our travel agent and she was able to get us upgraded to the Verandah cabin at no additional cost to us.  This is our first time in a Verandah, so we are really looking forward to it.

 

May not work every time, but it was an awesome outcome for us.

 

[jimmieg]

4 hours ago, ak1004 said:

 

I wish it was true. Even cruises sailing in 2-3 weeks are still full prices or sold out. Of course you need to compare apples to apples - Marina and Riviera will always be more expensive than the older ships (exactly like Celebrity S class are more expensive than the older ships).

😂

[mickeysgal]

OP,  I have nothing to add that hasn't already been said.  I do wish you a happy cruise.  Enjoy.  Once you get on that ship hopefully all this pricing frustration will melt away and you will have the time of your life.

[sandancer]

We decided some time ago that booking with a TA in the US was the way to go for us. It won’t suit everyone though as it is a gamble with currency fluctuations. Mostly we have found even with the strength of the dollar against the pound, with the perks given by the TA and the option to cancel without losing the deposit, we have been able to get the best deal for us. Our last cruise we were able to get a $300 price drop before final payment. Paid the balance and “boom” down went the rates.  

 

Now our next b2b has gone up by $3900 since we booked. There is every chance that once again prices will drop after final payment. If they do I know our TA will go to bat for me and try to get me some OBC.  We might not get anything and if that’s the case we’ll know we got the cabin we wanted, at the rate we were happy to pay. One thing I will say is that I refuse to discuss with other guests the cost of the cruise. There is nothing worse than someone smugly telling you that they paid 30% less than you. 

So Kalasi, go on your cruise and enjoy yourself. 

Edited June 9, 2019 by sandancer