Extremely Disappointed with Celebrity

[cruising deacon]

I am a lifelong Princess cruiser, but our son cruises with Celebrity exclusively except when cruising with us.  He talked to me the other day about a 'good deal' cruise that he was going to take on Celebrity, and wanted to know if we wanted to join them.  As it turned out we decided not to go.  But, when looking online at the Celebrity website a different cruise interested me,  I went on their website  this morning and brought up the cruise, selected a 'Aqua Class Cabin', for 2 people, made the cabin selection, and a screen popped up saying I could choose 3 of their 4 perks, which I did, then it came up with the 'Final Price Screen' showing the price with the 3 perks with a button on the bottom to push that said LOCK IT IN.  Before hitting the button, I called Celebrity to book it (1-888-751-7804).  Their representative told me his computer wasn't showing him the same pricing, so he went in via the web and came up with the same DEAL that my screen was showing.  He put me on hold to talk to their RESOLUTION department, and came back to the line about 30 minutes later and told me they would NOT give me the deal that was online, instead they offered my 2 specialty dining dinners.  To say the least, I was totally disappointed in the way they handled this situation, and I have learned not to trust Celebrity with any future booking considerations.  If they won't honor their online advertising offerings, then why would I ever trust them cruising.

[cruisestitch]

Alas you have learned what many of us know....their IT department is to put it mildly, terrible.  On board, their staff and service are top notch but IT is apparently not a corporate priority.

[Cruise a holic]

Sorry you had a bad experience- perhaps you should call a third party TA- a big box store- that might give you a great deal.  Never had a problem with them not honoring an advertised special- 

 

However having sailed on princess multiple times, and Celebrity and Royal many more- you definitely should consider a Celebrity cruise- especially on a solstice class or edge class ships.  A real treat from princess.

 

Enjoy.

[davekathy]

6 minutes ago, cruising deacon said:

I am a lifelong Princess cruiser, but our son cruises with Celebrity exclusively except when cruising with us.  He talked to me the other day about a 'good deal' cruise that he was going to take on Celebrity, and wanted to know if we wanted to join them.  As it turned out we decided not to go.  But, when looking online at the Celebrity website a different cruise interested me,  I went on their website  this morning and brought up the cruise, selected a 'Aqua Class Cabin', for 2 people, made the cabin selection, and a screen popped up saying I could choose 3 of their 4 perks, which I did, then it came up with the 'Final Price Screen' showing the price with the 3 perks with a button on the bottom to push that said LOCK IT IN.  Before hitting the button, I called Celebrity to book it (1-888-751-7804).  Their representative told me his computer wasn't showing him the same pricing, so he went in via the web and came up with the same DEAL that my screen was showing.  He put me on hold to talk to their RESOLUTION department, and came back to the line about 30 minutes later and told me they would NOT give me the deal that was online, instead they offered my 2 specialty dining dinners.  To say the least, I was totally disappointed in the way they handled this situation, and I have learned not to trust Celebrity with any future booking considerations.  If they won't honor their online advertising offerings, then why would I ever trust them cruising.

I'd call Celebrity back to see if I get the same response from a different Celebrity booking agent. 

Edited February 20, 2020 by davekathy

[wrk2cruise]

This unfortunately happens more frequently now with their ever changing promos.  The promo changed today from "double savings" to "it's all included".  Their website is not up to the challenge of their complex pricing structure.  In my opinion they shouldn't have such a structure until the website can support it.   Most good online booking sites clearly show all pricing combinations for Celebrity and are more reliable.

 

Also some us familiar with these facts will continue on from the summary page and put the booking on a 24hr hold.  When the guest invoice is emailed review it carefully to make sure it matches what you booked.  If it does then I call and finalize the booking.   Since that is an actual reservation it's much harder for them to not "honor" it.

[marycruz]

49 minutes ago, cruising deacon said:

I am a lifelong Princess cruiser, but our son cruises with Celebrity exclusively except when cruising with us.  He talked to me the other day about a 'good deal' cruise that he was going to take on Celebrity, and wanted to know if we wanted to join them.  As it turned out we decided not to go.  But, when looking online at the Celebrity website a different cruise interested me,  I went on their website  this morning and brought up the cruise, selected a 'Aqua Class Cabin', for 2 people, made the cabin selection, and a screen popped up saying I could choose 3 of their 4 perks, which I did, then it came up with the 'Final Price Screen' showing the price with the 3 perks with a button on the bottom to push that said LOCK IT IN.  Before hitting the button, I called Celebrity to book it (1-888-751-7804).  Their representative told me his computer wasn't showing him the same pricing, so he went in via the web and came up with the same DEAL that my screen was showing.  He put me on hold to talk to their RESOLUTION department, and came back to the line about 30 minutes later and told me they would NOT give me the deal that was online, instead they offered my 2 specialty dining dinners.  To say the least, I was totally disappointed in the way they handled this situation, and I have learned not to trust Celebrity with any future booking considerations.  If they won't honor their online advertising offerings, then why would I ever trust them cruising.

 

Personally, I would not put up with the answer you received.   I just had a similar situation where the agent told me I could not get a reduction in price (shown on their website) because it was a non-refundable deposit and we had a refundable deposit.   What?  I called back and got someone else who gladly gave us the reduction!

 

So you may (as someone else just suggested) call and see if you get someone else on the phone or call their customer service and speak with them.

 

Good luck.

[terrydtx]

Your experience is why we ALWAYS use a TA instead of dealing with cruise line directly.  We found the cruise on the Infinity we are booked on for next year online and then called our TA because we  wanted a specific cabin with the 3 perks deal.  She contacted X and negotiated a deal for us $400pp less than what was showing online. This was the week of Thanksgiving last year. She got us the AQ aft facing cabin we wanted with the CBP, $200 OBC and prepaid gratuities for $100pp more than the online price with no perks at that time. The price online for the 3 perks was $400pp more than the TA negotiated price. That same cabin today with the choose 1 perk deal is $100 more than we paid for the 3 perks. I have used this TA for the last 15 years and will continue to in the future. This is not a big box store but she is part of a cruise specialty franchise.

Edited February 20, 2020 by terrydtx

[PTC DAWG]

1 hour ago, cruising deacon said:

I am a lifelong Princess cruiser, but our son cruises with Celebrity exclusively except when cruising with us.  He talked to me the other day about a 'good deal' cruise that he was going to take on Celebrity, and wanted to know if we wanted to join them.  As it turned out we decided not to go.  But, when looking online at the Celebrity website a different cruise interested me,  I went on their website  this morning and brought up the cruise, selected a 'Aqua Class Cabin', for 2 people, made the cabin selection, and a screen popped up saying I could choose 3 of their 4 perks, which I did, then it came up with the 'Final Price Screen' showing the price with the 3 perks with a button on the bottom to push that said LOCK IT IN.  Before hitting the button, I called Celebrity to book it (1-888-751-7804).  Their representative told me his computer wasn't showing him the same pricing, so he went in via the web and came up with the same DEAL that my screen was showing.  He put me on hold to talk to their RESOLUTION department, and came back to the line about 30 minutes later and told me they would NOT give me the deal that was online, instead they offered my 2 specialty dining dinners.  To say the least, I was totally disappointed in the way they handled this situation, and I have learned not to trust Celebrity with any future booking considerations.  If they won't honor their online advertising offerings, then why would I ever trust them cruising.

Go back online, if you see the same deal as you saw before, book it online. Unless it is obviously wrong, way too cheap etc..you shouldn't have any issues.  I never have.  Good luck..

[alwaysonaship]

Am I missing something? Why didn’t you book it online?

[Jeremiah1212]

I understand the frustration, but what prevented you from just booking online with the deal you were seeing? 

[Mimiya11]

We had a cruise booked (pre final payment) through a TA who did not get a Celebrity promotion that was part of Celebrity's daily inundation of "deals" to previous cruisers.    I took a screenshot of the deal and sent it to my TA.  It was to upgrade from Concierge to AQ with all perks including premium for about $200 more than our initial booking.  Bottom line our TA had to escalate to a Celebrity supervisor and spend hours with the supervisor before they gave us the premium package which had changed back to a regular beverage package by the time I looked at the site again. RIDICULOUS!!!

As others say, I would not accept no for an answer by a Celebrity booking agent and always hold a deal you see on line before it miraculously disappears.      

[luckyinpa]

try a few times a day, you may get different things on the website. i knew a sale was changing  and sure enough after the sale the price went up. was like from 5200 to 6200...checked the next day..8200..crazy!..right back down the following day to mid 5K range somewhere. one thing i learned is it pays to research on here when sales will change so you know not to get caught up in the day or 2 around the change.

 

also it took me a bit to realize the non/refundable choices. but half the time you arent even given non refundable choices

 

now that i think about it, my TA never even warned me it was non refundable but i knew because of this forum it wasnt.

[wrk2cruise]

Given the frequency of the web site being wrong I would never go through and pay the deposit online.  That's why I recommend placing the 24hr hold then reviewing the invoice before depositing.   I personally always call and agent to deposit the reservation but I guess you could do that online if so desired (but again I don't trust their website).

[gek]

Sometimes the problem is caused by cabins in a particular category being sold out. There might be one available at the start of your booking but it might get booked before you finalise (or in this case, call Celebrity). This happened to me recently when I was trying to get a better price on an existing booking. I had a price on the screen, but when I went to book I got thrown out back to the start and then there were no cabins available  when I tried again.
In the end I just persisted daily until I got a chance to put a cabin on courtesy hold, then rang Celebrity to complete the booking.  They couldn't refuse once I'd received the email with the offer and I saved a considerable amount of money.

[TMLAalum]

It is so frustrating when the website shows a great deal but when you try to snag it, the professionals (either TAs or Celeb reps) can't seem to find it.

 

The Sunday after Thanksgiving 2018, I noticed that Celebrity's website indicated one free perk for our upcoming Chile to San Diego repositioning cruise. Great find since repositioning cruises rarely if ever include perks. Well, the big box TA rep couldn't find it, nor could the Celeb rep she called. But it was still up on my laptop screen. God bless the TA rep, who called it up and saw it on her personal cell phone too. Lots of back & forths between the rep & Celeb with me on hold for @3hours!  In the end, we were offered $400 OBC as a "goodwill" gesture which I gladly took even though it was less than the prepaid grats perk would have been for 15 nights.

 

Persistence pays!

[Pushka]

Their Agents can be useless. We had a cruise booked then a few months later saw a stunning deal because there was a charter possibility that fell through - we’d booked before the charter block and it was stopped being advertised. The charter dates changed and the cruise was again released with some great deals (nothing from celebrity to advise this but we worked it out ourselves). Not wanting to lose our deposit if the new price fell through, I called celebrity and asked them what would happen if I’d booked two cabins in our name and would cancel one of them later. He advised we couldn’t do it and one would automatically be cancelled by Celebrity. We decided their IT wasn’t up to that chore, so we did it anyway online. Great move, ended up with Aqua for much less than the cost of our original verandah. 
 

Im not sure why you rang? We also found a great deal for a suite on Edge next July where again the cost online was less than the SV we’d already booked. Clicked on the button and it was booked and has been honoured. Price now up back to normal which is an extra $2000. 

Edited February 20, 2020 by Pushka

[cruising deacon]

20 hours ago, wrk2cruise said:

This unfortunately happens more frequently now with their ever changing promos.  The promo changed today from "double savings" to "it's all included".  Their website is not up to the challenge of their complex pricing structure.  In my opinion they shouldn't have such a structure until the website can support it.   Most good online booking sites clearly show all pricing combinations for Celebrity and are more reliable.

 

Also some us familiar with these facts will continue on from the summary page and put the booking on a 24hr hold.  When the guest invoice is emailed review it carefully to make sure it matches what you booked.  If it does then I call and finalize the booking.   Since that is an actual reservation it's much harder for them to not "honor" it.

How do I make a 24 hour hold on their website (the cruise is 60 days from sailing)

[cruising deacon]

How do I make a 24 hour hold on their website (the cruise is 60 days from sailing)

[hiccups]

4 minutes ago, cruising deacon said:

How do I make a 24 hour hold on their website (the cruise is 60 days from sailing)

If you go through a mock booking, and then click on the "Celebrity Cruises" logo in the upper left, you should get a pop-up box asking if you "really" want to leave, or put the cruise on a 24-hour hold.

However, and someone please verify because I've never done a booking that way, are you guaranteed that price within the 24-hour period if the price or promotion changes?  I've read here it is guaranteed, and also that it's not.

[sippican]

There is a glitch currently in their system (SURPRISE!). It is a discrepancy in the pricing options,. I am able to get a much lower price when I click on the "lowest price" option, (rather than the 3 perk tab), then add the 4 perks after for only $280 pp, it came out much less than 3 perks.  When I went into the agent portal, I was unable to duplicate the pricing, so I called, and the Celebrity rep told me she had no idea how I was seeing that rate.  So I just booked it then transferred it to myself. Easy!

 

Curious why the OP wouldn't just book online?

[pink845]

It isn't only Celebrity where we have encountered the identical issue as the OP, it is in fact a Royal Caribbean Company issue.  And it is even worse for us Canadians who enter through the Canadian site.  At the very top we click Canada, very seldom agent on either Celebrity or RCCL sees and entirely different price that what is immediately in front of us.  We have found that doing a print screen of our price and then emailing it them RCCL usually resolves the issue.  They usually own up to the price we see.  We never book online.  Always with the agent on the phone.  Yeah, we will put the cruise on hold for 24 hours and then contact them.  I like a live agent whose conversation I know is taped.  Works out very well to sort out any issue.

[wrk2cruise]

2 hours ago, hiccups said:

If you go through a mock booking, and then click on the "Celebrity Cruises" logo in the upper left, you should get a pop-up box asking if you "really" want to leave, or put the cruise on a 24-hour hold.

However, and someone please verify because I've never done a booking that way, are you guaranteed that price within the 24-hour period if the price or promotion changes?  I've read here it is guaranteed, and also that it's not.

 

It's a reservation with the booking date of the date you put it on hold.  It's just not deposited.  I've never had it suggested to me that it's not a quote and have always been able to either deposit it or release it.    I've on occasion contacted Captains Club and asked to have the 24 hrs extended which has always been accommodated for the types of reasons I provided.

Edited February 21, 2020 by wrk2cruise

[mandream]

4 hours ago, sippican said:

There is a glitch currently in their system (SURPRISE!). It is a discrepancy in the pricing options,. I am able to get a much lower price when I click on the "lowest price" option, (rather than the 3 perk tab), then add the 4 perks after for only $280 pp, it came out much less than 3 perks.  When I went into the agent portal, I was unable to duplicate the pricing, so I called, and the Celebrity rep told me she had no idea how I was seeing that rate.  So I just booked it then transferred it to myself. Easy!

 

Curious why the OP wouldn't just book online?

 

I think this is the difference between booking with a refundable vs non-refundable deposit.   If you are talking about the two boxes, see this post for more information:

 

[az_tchr]

On 2/20/2020 at 10:46 AM, cruising deacon said:

I am a lifelong Princess cruiser, but our son cruises with Celebrity exclusively except when cruising with us.  He talked to me the other day about a 'good deal' cruise that he was going to take on Celebrity, and wanted to know if we wanted to join them.  As it turned out we decided not to go.  But, when looking online at the Celebrity website a different cruise interested me,  I went on their website  this morning and brought up the cruise, selected a 'Aqua Class Cabin', for 2 people, made the cabin selection, and a screen popped up saying I could choose 3 of their 4 perks, which I did, then it came up with the 'Final Price Screen' showing the price with the 3 perks with a button on the bottom to push that said LOCK IT IN.  Before hitting the button, I called Celebrity to book it (1-888-751-7804).  Their representative told me his computer wasn't showing him the same pricing, so he went in via the web and came up with the same DEAL that my screen was showing.  He put me on hold to talk to their RESOLUTION department, and came back to the line about 30 minutes later and told me they would NOT give me the deal that was online, instead they offered my 2 specialty dining dinners.  To say the least, I was totally disappointed in the way they handled this situation, and I have learned not to trust Celebrity with any future booking considerations.  If they won't honor their online advertising offerings, then why would I ever trust them cruising.

Two mistakes. The first is you not understanding that cabin deals and pricing change continuously. If you had placed a courtesy 24 hour hold you would have been fine.

The second is not using a TA. They don't get paid unless you book. They have the same deals, lots of clout as the biggies book thousands of cabins a MONTH, and last a TA will often find a promo of theirs to give you 5-8% of so in additional cash back.

[sippican]

10 minutes ago, mandream said:

 

I think this is the difference between booking with a refundable vs non-refundable deposit.   If you are talking about the two boxes, see this post for more information:

 

 

Nope, not in this case - both NRD.