Celebrity cruises booked in the US from AU

[Kaylacool]

Noticing significant differences in prices and benefits from the US Celebrity website to the AU Celebrity website. 

Has anyone successfully booked a cruise on the US site from Austrailia.  Even with the dollar conversion seeing much better deal in the US.  If you've been successful are then any pitfalls or issues I should be aware of in going down this path?

thanks

K

 

[Big Kev]

1 hour ago, Kaylacool said:

Noticing significant differences in prices and benefits from the US Celebrity website to the AU Celebrity website. 

Has anyone successfully booked a cruise on the US site from Austrailia.  Even with the dollar conversion seeing much better deal in the US.  If you've been successful are then any pitfalls or issues I should be aware of in going down this path?

thanks

K

 

Be aware that in USD, Port taxes/fees are added later, as are gratuities when on-board.. In AUD, the bottom line you get to, is the real bottom line..  HAve found that in recent years, after conversion, everything very close apart from final payment and cancellation windows.

 

S and P

[Kaylacool]

20 minutes ago, Big Kev said:

Be aware that in USD, Port taxes/fees are added later, as are gratuities when on-board.. In AUD, the bottom line you get to, is the real bottom line..  HAve found that in recent years, after conversion, everything very close apart from final payment and cancellation windows.

 

S and P

Thanks for your response.  Will be sure to factor in taxes when caluculating final price.  As this is an international cruise wouldn't i be paying gratuties anyway whether booked in Oz or US but if it was an Australian cruise grats would be factored into pricing??

[Pushka]

In Australia gratuities are factored into the prices for all cruises anywhere. We are cruising the Med and Oz price includes gratuities. 

Edited May 12, 2020 by Pushka

[lyndarra]

1 hour ago, Pushka said:

In Australia gratuities are factored into the prices for all cruises anywhere. We are cruising the Med and Oz price includes gratuities. 

Not all. Holland America and MSC not included. Or are you referring to Celebrity only?

[GCHAN]

6 hours ago, Kaylacool said:

Noticing significant differences in prices and benefits from the US Celebrity website to the AU Celebrity website. 

Has anyone successfully booked a cruise on the US site from Austrailia.  Even with the dollar conversion seeing much better deal in the US.  If you've been successful are then any pitfalls or issues I should be aware of in going down this path?

thanks

K

 

i have booked quite a few Celebrity cruises from a U.S. agency and every time we did we achieved better prices and sometimes substantially better.

 

The main problem is the currency risk as the rate can change after you book. You can buy U.S dollars at the time you book to eliminate this risk if you are worried about this.

 

Everything else is known as the quote you get should have the total price and then you just add gratuities to work out the total cost. 

 

We would just about always get an extra obc  as well.

 

The other thing is the deposit is mostly refundable if you had to cancel before the final payment date whereas i am not sure that is the case with local agents.

Edited May 12, 2020 by GCHAN

[Gwendy]

We booked a cruise leaving from South America a few years ago.  Booked on a Us site as Australian site said cruise was booked out, no cabins available.

Celebrity notified us that we may not be able to board due to Aus passports but booked from US.  Lots of to and fro and eventually said it was ok, but I was a bit nervous until I actually boarded the ship.  I had already planned, in my head, how I was going to spend the 14 days of the cruise in Argentina if we couldn’t board.  Too stressful.  

[MMDown Under]

26 minutes ago, Gwendy said:

We booked a cruise leaving from South America a few years ago.  Booked on a Us site as Australian site said cruise was booked out, no cabins available.

Celebrity notified us that we may not be able to board due to Aus passports but booked from US.  Lots of to and fro and eventually said it was ok, but I was a bit nervous until I actually boarded the ship.  I had already planned, in my head, how I was going to spend the 14 days of the cruise in Argentina if we couldn’t board.  Too stressful.  

We booked late our only Celebrity cruise on a well known US travel website years ago.  Ended up in a suite for less than the cost of an inside cabin originally.  No problems. 

[Gwendy]

Good to hear.  In retrospect I think Celebrity Australian office were a bit p****d off that we went elsewhere and tried to make it stressful for us.

We also had a balcony for less than the inside price that was quoted in Aus site but was not available.

[peter1956]

After the run around with TA her, with the latest problems I am tempted to direct to Celebrity in the US to book. I would also be tempted to try an American TA if I know of a good one.

[pacificlover]

If you are happy 2 Go on a Vacation you should book

 

[MicCanberra]

As mentioned, initial pricing with a US agent means no taxes, fees or port charges, or gratuities as well as a currently miserable currency conversion. However, if they still have a better deal and you are willing to risk a further currency fluctuation  before final payment, then go for it.

[nanaof2]

We have used a US TA for years. Never had any problems with the Australian passports regardless of the warnings. Better price and service as well as good OBC. Normally buy a USD travel card when the rate is acceptable and pay for the cruise with it.  The only problem we have had was the amount our bank allows to use from the card in one transaction. Last time we got separate cards to overcome this issue.

Having said that, our last booked cruise on the Med, now cancelled due to COVID19, was a better price here than our US TA's even with the OBC and shore excursion included by her. 😀

 

 

 

[MicCanberra]

Should always shop around, just because a TA may be offering the best deal a lot of the time does not meant they do it all of the time.

[Kiwi Kruzer]

13 hours ago, MicCanberra said:

Should always shop around, just because a TA may be offering the best deal a lot of the time does not meant they do it all of the time.

Yes shop around and don’t settle on the first quote. We always told the agent what deals were being advertised overseas and whether they could meet or better the deal . In some cases they had no idea of the prices overseas where as others said , if they can get that price then so should we be able to as well . 
It depends on your agent . If working as an independently owner operated business they should be able to negotiate , but if part of a large corporate agency they are only booking bunnies and can only do what the screen tells them .

[MicCanberra]

Also look at booking direct, sometimes there is no advantage, other times there is.