Re: honouring price drops?!

[Denny01]

I agree with AK1004, most customers don’t focus on what SR except general types. Even many of ‘us’ experienced cruisers who spend a lot of time talking (and posting!) about cruising, don’t make specific SR’s a big deal. 

 

Maybe it’s because I’ve done lots of X cruising, I have a good feel of locations and SR types, but when my TA gives me a SR, I’ll give it a glance, but that’s about it. 

 

I do focus a bit on a few ‘SR wants’ that I like. I’ll shoot for one of the balcony SRs that has a bit bigger balcony because of a bump out but there are few and usually gone early; and for M-Class, I try for a deck 9 or 8 SR up forward because I like to zip up to the T-spa pool in the AM. Neat. But aside from a few such as that, I love a balcony and if a concierge is not much more than a standard SR, thats my range. 

 

By the way, I’ve never shot for an upgrade that gets us into a Suite. Use to go with Oceanview SRs, then they offered me a balcony for just a few bucks more and I went for it.....and like so many others, I’ve never gone back, which is the reason Lines do that! And I don’t want to get hooked on Suites!! 

 

Den

[ellie84]

8 hours ago, ak1004 said:

You might be surprised, but most people actually don't really care what cabin they get. Unless of course they have specific needs like accessible cabin. We have been in alt cabins, forward cabins, high decks, low decks. Couldn't care less. I know that on this forum, there are topics specifically dedicated to cabins, with hundreds of posts, but most cruisers would laugh if you tell them that people spend all the energy and time researching different cabins.  

 

My point is that for most people, cancelling and rebooking would be no issue at all if they can do it at lower price. 

 

Again, if you have some specific issues like sea seakness and prefer to be on mid ship, that's a different story.

 

I totally get what you’re saying, and I definitely agree in normal circumstances this wouldn’t necessarily be a massive deal, as could easily cancel and rebook same category rooms especially this far out form sail date. But because one of our cabins has to be fully accessible, that is where the problem lies, given there are so few on board the ships! Hence the risk factor for cancelling and rebooking! In some categories there are literally only 2 accessible cabins available in the first place!

[ellie84]

4 hours ago, Denny01 said:

I agree with AK1004, most customers don’t focus on what SR except general types. Even many of ‘us’ experienced cruisers who spend a lot of time talking (and posting!) about cruising, don’t make specific SR’s a big deal. 

 

Maybe it’s because I’ve done lots of X cruising, I have a good feel of locations and SR types, but when my TA gives me a SR, I’ll give it a glance, but that’s about it. 

 

I do focus a bit on a few ‘SR wants’ that I like. I’ll shoot for one of the balcony SRs that has a bit bigger balcony because of a bump out but there are few and usually gone early; and for M-Class, I try for a deck 9 or 8 SR up forward because I like to zip up to the T-spa pool in the AM. Neat. But aside from a few such as that, I love a balcony and if a concierge is not much more than a standard SR, thats my range. 

 

By the way, I’ve never shot for an upgrade that gets us into a Suite. Use to go with Oceanview SRs, then they offered me a balcony for just a few bucks more and I went for it.....and like so many others, I’ve never gone back, which is the reason Lines do that! And I don’t want to get hooked on Suites!! 

 

Den

 

Thanks for your reply 🙂 Totally agree that for normal circumstances where there are multiples and multiples of the same stateroom in a category, that one stateroom is the same as another so it really doesn’t matter! But with the requirement of an accessible cabin as part of a booking of 3 cabins (2 regular and 1 accessible) it puts a completely light on the situation. Due to how few there are on board, especially in certain categories such as Concierge or Aqua. And then the step up to an accessible suite is a

massive increase, so can’t go down that route really! So if there are zero accessible cabins left in concierge and you cancel your concierge accessible  cabin, it’s taking a massive risk that you don’t get it back upon rebooking! Hence the issue!

[ellie84]

12 hours ago, CHEZMARYLOU said:

On Celebrity's US web site you can see the available accessable cabins by doing a dummy booking and selecting "I need a wheel chair accessible cabin" On an Equinox sailing in September 2020 it is showing 7 out of 8 available.  If you cannot do this from the UK site, post your ship, sailing date and category and someone can check the US site for you to give you an idea of what is available.

 

Thanks so much for this advice, not really sure why I didn’t of going down that route in the first place! I think it’s because our TA is as far from proactive as you can imagine! Have just read a reply that someone wrote to your post, about also garnering the information from phoning Celebrity in the UK itself. So I will try that first before bothering anybody on here to do my dirty work! Thank you for the heads up! Wish we were able to view the Us site here in the UK too!! 

[ellie84]

11 hours ago, NewWestwardbound said:

Alternative, one should be able to obtain the same information from a telephone call to Celebrity. A little gentle subterfuge might be required: perhaps a group requiring a number of accessible cabins is considering booking the same cruise as you. The organiser would need to understand the availability of such cabins before finalising the booking.........

 

We are talking about £1800 here.......

 

I’m planning on using the subterfuge approach with Celebrity UK today, following your suggestion! Thank you so much for the advice 🙂 Fingers crossed that there are still accessible cabins left in our category!

[helen haywood]

12 minutes ago, ellie84 said:

Wish we were able to view the Us site here in the UK too!! 

 

Are you sure you can’t?  I’m in the USA and I just Googled Celebrity Cruises UK and got the U.K. website.  Couldn’t you do the reverse?

[ellie84]

12 minutes ago, helen haywood said:

 

Are you sure you can’t?  I’m in the USA and I just Googled Celebrity Cruises UK and got the U.K. website.  Couldn’t you do the reverse?

 

Tried it on several devices, and every time you type in the US one it automatically changes it to the UK version 😞 I’m presuming the US one is www.celebritycruises.com? If so everytime  I type that here, it just then sends you straight to the .co.uk version! 🙈

[helen haywood]

Well, I’m no techie!  Maybe try a different browser?  Or ask on Cruise Critic if anyone from the UK knows how to get the US site.

[NewWestwardbound]

5 hours ago, helen haywood said:

Or ask on Cruise Critic if anyone from the UK knows how to get the US site.

 

The OP will need to access the US site via a VPN to overcome the geographic divert. 

[Cruise Junky]

OP, Can I ask which September cruise had such a huge price drop?  I'm actually finding Azamara cheaper in the Med than Celebrity in September.  Thanks

 

Edited June 4, 2019 by Cruise Junky

[ellie84]

On 6/2/2019 at 6:34 AM, NewWestwardbound said:

 

The OP will need to access the US site via a VPN to overcome the geographic divert. 

 

Thank you for this advice! This is exactly what I ended up doing! Still recovering from the shock of just how much better the US version of the website is, in comparison to our UK one!!

[ellie84]

On 6/4/2019 at 5:07 PM, Cruise Junky said:

OP, Can I ask which September cruise had such a huge price drop?  I'm actually finding Azamara cheaper in the Med than Celebrity in September.  Thanks

 

 

Hi so sorry for the delay in reply, was ill for quite a few days! The cruise was on the 16th September Apex sailing! 

[Mynki]

On 5/31/2019 at 4:28 PM, ellie84 said:

Booked a cruise for September 2020 a few weeks ago, so only deposit paid. This week noticed a significant price drop on that sailing! Booked though a UK travel agent. They contacted celebrity to ask them to honour the price drop. And were met with a resounding no. They claim you have to cancel entire booking and then rebook. But they won’t hold the cabins. In our situation, we have quite specific requirements, so that would be extremely risky! I’m pretty sure on the boards I’ve read about people asking for price drops to be honoured and they were able to do that without cancelling. Has anybody been met with a no, like us? Does anyone know whether we can take it further?

If you plan on booking future cruises run a search on here for US vs UK bookings. There is a lot of information. Both have pros and cons. The best advice I can give you is to treat each individual cruise on its own merits and avoid advice from anyone who makes sweeping statements on this subject.

You can have more flexibility booking in the US but pricing can be cheaper or better value if booking in the UK. The last three cruises I looked at were cheaper if booked in the UK as opposed to our regular big box US travel agent by around £100 to £220 per person. But just to illustrate the details I have seen sailings where one stateroom type is cheaper in the US and another stateroom type is cheaper in the UK, ON THE VERY SAME SAILING! 

Price drops can be disappointing, but they're all part of the game I'm afraid. If you're happy with the price you paid though enjoy your cruise and forget all about it. It's a good idea not to check pricing after final payment date if you've already booked. That said you got the cabin you wanted so it's all good. 

There is a possibility of you losing a cabin if rebooking. However when we have done this our agent has simply cancelled our existing booking and then rebooked a new cabin whilst we've been on the phone to them. It is unlikely that within that short period of a minute or so that someone else would book the room you have just given up, but not impossible. You'd be very unlucky to lose it though IMHO. 

Incidentally if you are wanting to view the US Celebrity website you need to use a VPN with a US based IP address. This may sound daunting to many non techies, but google is your friend. :) 

[Cruise a holic]

On 5/31/2019 at 11:28 AM, ellie84 said:

Booked a cruise for September 2020 a few weeks ago, so only deposit paid. This week noticed a significant price drop on that sailing! Booked though a UK travel agent. They contacted celebrity to ask them to honour the price drop. And were met with a resounding no. They claim you have to cancel entire booking and then rebook. But they won’t hold the cabins. In our situation, we have quite specific requirements, so that would be extremely risky! I’m pretty sure on the boards I’ve read about people asking for price drops to be honoured and they were able to do that without cancelling. Has anybody been met with a no, like us? Does anyone know whether we can take it further?

Had an issue once like that.  We were on a ship and booked with Celebrity.  The agent immediately cancelled the reservation and grabbed the cabin making a new reservation for us at a discounted price.  We had no problem-but booked directly, no TA involved.  We were able to get the new price and perks.