Selecting our first tranatlantic for October

[blueskadoo]

Hi everyone! We have decided to check an item off the hubby's bucket list and go for a transatlantic this October. I'm quickly learning that we are arriving pretty late to this party as it goes for these cruises. Since its bucket list, we want to do a suite...and man there is nothing out there!  I called and spoke with Celebrity who said they've only released about 30% of the rooms for booking as of yet, and I should keep checking. Anyone else heard this? We are S-class fans, so that's really what we'd prefer. Open to any and all thoughts and suggestions as we start planning this adventure! Thank you in advance.

[WestLakeGirl]

Yes that seems to be true. Currently they are keeping the number of   passengers down by not releasing all stateroms and  shpss are Sailing at 30% capacity or so

[Ex-Airbalancer]

On the Apex April TA, there is about 1500 cabins , at the moment there are about 500 empty cabins 

 

also you will hate a TA , there is nothing to do but go for 3 breakfasts, , a couple of lunches and dinner 

 

you do nothing but sit around Sunset Bar and have a person serve you drinks 

 

people need to stop taking TAs , they are terrible! 🙄😉

 

[mfs2k]

1 minute ago, Airbalancer said:

people need to stop taking TAs , they are terrible! 🙄😉

So when a ship repositions from Europe to the Caribbean or the other way, you’re suggesting they sail empty?

[mfs2k]

28 minutes ago, blueskadoo said:

  I called and spoke with Celebrity who said they've only released about 30% of the rooms for booking as of yet, and I should keep checking.

Why wouldn’t they hold back the cheaper rooms if the goal is to reduce occupancy?

im guessing if there’s demand for expensive suites they’d sell them first because they’re the most profitable. 
If suites and the retreat is sold out, it likely is. 
I would check back on the final payment due date and see if you can book a cabin someone decided to cancel. 

[Maggie North]

If you love sea days, you will enjoy a Transatlantic. We've only done one: Silhouette from Southampton and totally enjoyed it! The one October 2022 stops in Madeira (where we honeymooned) so looks like a great itinerary. Tenerife looks very interesting as well. Bermuda is a cool stop...especially watching the captain maneuver the ship through the coral reefs heading to port. The island is beautiful.

We sailed in Aqua Class and enjoyed Blu every night; I'm sure being in a suite with Luminae will be even more special for you.

Whichever class of ship you select, you will enjoy. Celebrity is always top notch; regardless of the length of cruise! Enjoy!

 

[WestLakeGirl]

Was it an attempt to bbe funny?

[Mimiya11]

There is a general transatlantic cruise forum that may help you out.   Contrary to what some posters here have responded, there are some very avid transatlantic cruisers.

 

We booked a sky suite for November 2023 and many cabins were already booked.   We cannot wait!    

[blueskadoo]

Right now, there's a sky suite available on Constellation. The agent wasn't super complimentary about it and made a point to say "its our oldest ship" which dissuaded me from doing too much more. Compared to Equinox, would it be a disappointment? 

[cruisestitch]

That agent probably cannot be trusted because Constellation is not the oldest ship in the fleet

[southernbreezes]

1 hour ago, blueskadoo said:

Hi everyone! We have decided to check an item off the hubby's bucket list and go for a transatlantic this October. I'm quickly learning that we are arriving pretty late to this party as it goes for these cruises. Since its bucket list, we want to do a suite...and man there is nothing out there!  I called and spoke with Celebrity who said they've only released about 30% of the rooms for booking as of yet, and I should keep checking. Anyone else heard this? We are S-class fans, so that's really what we'd prefer. Open to any and all thoughts and suggestions as we start planning this adventure! Thank you in advance.

When I booked my Transatlantic cruise for this April same thing (no suites), I booked a Aqua Class and checked every week found a S1 in about 3 weeks. To day they have 23 suites available so you should have no issue in getting what you want. This will be our first, love sea days, we do not sit and drink all day, but love the entertainment, being waited on, the food, meeting new people, reading, etc. I do not think we will be bored for one minute. What a great way to just spend a lot of time just the two of us together.

Edited March 3, 2022 by southernbreezes

[Ex-Airbalancer]

People stay away from TAs , to many people are booking them ! 
the prices are increasing 

I miss the days of booking a balcony for $600 for the cruise 🤣

[canderson]

21 minutes ago, blueskadoo said:

Right now, there's a sky suite available on Constellation. The agent wasn't super complimentary about it and made a point to say "its our oldest ship" which dissuaded me from doing too much more.

We spent 15 nts on Connie in November, and thanks to a bit of an overhaul in July and a lot of work before the November restart, the ship was in great shape.  Not as many 'specialty' dining options as an S class ship, though.  And as someone noted, not the oldest.  Actually the newest of the 4 M class ships, for what it's worth.

[canderson]

1 hour ago, mfs2k said:

Why wouldn’t they hold back the cheaper rooms if the goal is to reduce occupancy?

im guessing if there’s demand for expensive suites they’d sell them first because they’re the most profitable. 

Bingo.  And suites sell out early on the TAs anyway.  Lots of 'hard core' cruisers flock to these itineraries.  We had to wait list for a RS in Jun 2021 for an Oct 2022 cruise.

[PTC DAWG]

2 hours ago, mfs2k said:

So when a ship repositions from Europe to the Caribbean or the other way, you’re suggesting they sail empty?

Yeah, he was being dead serious.  🙂

[PTC DAWG]

I definitely want to try one...Westbound from Europe will be the one I finally try out.  Get the long flight out of the way.  

[canderson]

35 minutes ago, PTC DAWG said:

I definitely want to try one...Westbound from Europe will be the one I finally try out.  Get the long flight out of the way.  

Definitely something to be said for that, along with a couple of nights with an extra hour of partying or sleep.

[Ex-Airbalancer]

44 minutes ago, PTC DAWG said:

Yeah, he was being dead serious.  🙂

Only been on 6 TAs , boring boring boring 😁

[Jim_Iain]

I had something similar on  August Greenland cruises B2B.   It's very popular and only inside and ocean view are now available.   Not sure if rooms are held back but I initially booked a AQ Guarantee and wait listed for a Sky Suite.     I checked daily and one day a SS2 Guarantee popped up so I put it on hold and called in to upgrade my cabin.  

 

The reason I'm not sure is that on both of the curies I have had guarantee cabins for the past 5 months.  A couple days ago on one of the cruises an S1 with a room popped up and I upgraded for a couple hundred more.    The Guarantee I had has never shown up for sale.  

 

My belief is Celebrity has held cabins back but not the suites and the closer you get to sailing people will start cancelling.   There is usually a number of rooms the open the week or 2 before final payment. 

[kittencruiser]

46 minutes ago, PTC DAWG said:

I definitely want to try one...Westbound from Europe will be the one I finally try out.  Get the long flight out of the way.  

We are doing our first one in April and getting long flight out the way first too, fly out to fort lauderdale and then sail back to southampton. We're very much looking forward to a more relaxing cruise and not feeling like we have to get off at ports every day lol. Lots of eating, drinking and relaxing to be done, sure you will have a lovely time.

[canderson]

2 minutes ago, Airbalancer said:

Only been on 6 TAs , boring boring boring 😁

Same here.  We've done 7.  Had 3 cancelled due to COVID.  NO idea why we're putting ourselves through that misery again thus next October 😳

 

Don't book these cruises, people (save those cabins for us!!)

[Denny01]

OP - whoever you spoke to at Celebrity is completely wrong on their statement that only 30% of the SRs have been released for booking. No idea what that was about. I’m on the Edge Oct ‘22 TA (yes, one of those who love to be completely bored and have done 4 TransAtlantic‘s prior!), and that cruise has 62% of the SRs booked as of today. If that person was right, then the ship would show over 70% booked if only 30% were available and the rest appeared as booked. And I’ve been tracking this since I booked this back in Nov ‘21 and it moved from a bit less than 40% to over 60% now. 

 

That statement just doesn’t track at all, and the Line wouldn’t have all the Retreat SRs and Aqua Class as booked as they show for this cruise, and not accept bookings now, but have many less expensive Veranda and OV’s still open. A very dumb thing to do. 

 

And yes, Travel Agencies book blocks of SRs to use and then release them back to the Line when they haven’t booked them yet, but we are now 7-8 months from the TA’s and they are popular so again, that statement doesn’t make sense. 

 

Watch for Retreat SRs to open up as we approach final payment and so on if someone drops their bookings, or a company releases their holds. A true TA can correct me on that.

 

But instead of you calling or going on line over and over trying to get a SR you want, I’d strongly suggest you sign up with a professional TA who has better tools than you do to watch for open SRs and will jump on one as soon as it opens. You will most likely miss a SR opening up, especially a Retreat one that are Very popular on TAs - I’ve never booked a Retreat SR but did it for this TransAtlantic because of the high number of sea days. 

 

Good Luck, and again, suggest you go with a professional.

 

den

 

[cluso]

3 hours ago, blueskadoo said:

Right now, there's a sky suite available on Constellation. The agent wasn't super complimentary about it and made a point to say "its our oldest ship" which dissuaded me from doing too much more. Compared to Equinox, would it be a disappointment? 

 

We are on the Connie for this October TA, our 5th I think. Always enjoyable! I don't think the agent made a correct statement about the ship.  No, I don't think it would be a disappointment.

Edited March 3, 2022 by cluso

[Jim_Iain]

I'm sitting her chuckling.   No,  not at any individual but the differences between those that LOVE TA's and those that HATE them.  

 

I happen to be one of those that LOVE them and find them the most enjoyable cruises.   We are booked on a B3B Greenland ( kinda TA combined with a NE Canada) and will be on Summit for about 40 days. 

 

We are also on Silhouette east bound next month.   This TA will only stop in Bermuda, Azores and Lisbon.    I've never been bored and have always found more than enough to do or as little to do as I desire.   We are not the type of cruiser that needs to be entertained and rarely participate in the games and competitions.   I do like many of the Behind the Podium speakers and often attend their talks.

 

For those that like the Cruise Directors activities there are probably 3-4 things going on at any particular time. 

 

This comes from someone that when Iain first talked me into taking a Cruise 25 years ago,  I thought he would have to hog tie me to keep me from jumping ship suffering from boredom.     I fell in love with cruising instead.

 

 

 

 

[MarKay525]

16 minutes ago, Jim_Iain said:

I'm sitting here chuckling.   No,  not at any individual but the differences between those that LOVE TA's and those that HATE them.  

<snip>

This comes from someone that when Iain first talked me into taking a Cruise 25 years ago,  I thought he would have to hog tie me to keep me from jumping ship suffering from boredom.     I fell in love with cruising instead.

 

 

 

 

Jim - so glad that Iain persisted to get you on that first cruise. You are such a wealth of cruising information and always so willing to share your knowledge. Not to mention, a total gentleman!

Edited March 3, 2022 by MarKay525