Effective Mar 2 2023: Changes to Non-Refundable Deposit Policy

[kirtihk]

On 3/1/2023 at 6:28 PM, Ken the cruiser said:

Personally, I wish they would just get rid of the nonrefundable deposit option and have just one price for each category, with the option to add All Included if so desired. But that's just me. 

They might increase the spread (even more higher price vs NRD than now for any given booking) for refundable to still keep attracting people for NRD.

[HMR74]

3 minutes ago, kirtihk said:

They might increase the spread (even more higher price vs NRD than now for any given booking) for refundable to still keep attracting people for NRD.

imho, they are marketing it all wrong. THey were okay at the beginning. Early on they told you the price, but if you were willing to do non refundable you saved money

 

 Now here is the price but for much more money you can get refundable.

The con if you will, is they have raised the  base price quite significanlty,  which used to be refundable , and not its also non refundable, nbut for even more its refundable. and when it started a 900 deposit was refundabke but if you choose a non refundable the price went down 900.

 

Now they ask for 1,000, 1500, 2,000 for refndable.-they want everythign non erfundable.

I coudl be okay with that if for example they gave you a free look for a couple of weeks or more if its a cruise say two years from now.

 

Its also why I used to wait to buy insurance till the final payment dates. now with non refundable I have to spend $$  to buy the insurance early.

 

And as a bonus, I will throw in this, RCL is holding 4 billion of deposits. THey save money as they do not pay interest of 7% on 4 billion which is a cool 280 million a year, Worst , we are the  creditors. Think about that.

 

 

 

[mahdnc]

10 minutes ago, HMR74 said:

Worst , we are the  creditors. Think about that.

 

Unsecured (and may be insecure) creditors.

[kirtihk]

14 minutes ago, HMR74 said:

imho, they are marketing it all wrong. THey were okay at the beginning. Early on they told you the price, but if you were willing to do non refundable you saved money

 

 Now here is the price but for much more money you can get refundable.

The con if you will, is they have raised the  base price quite significanlty,  which used to be refundable , and not its also non refundable, nbut for even more its refundable. and when it started a 900 deposit was refundabke but if you choose a non refundable the price went down 900.

 

Now they ask for 1,000, 1500, 2,000 for refndable.-they want everythign non erfundable.

I coudl be okay with that if for example they gave you a free look for a couple of weeks or more if its a cruise say two years from now.

 

Its also why I used to wait to buy insurance till the final payment dates. now with non refundable I have to spend $$  to buy the insurance early.

 

And as a bonus, I will throw in this, RCL is holding 4 billion of deposits. THey save money as they do not pay interest of 7% on 4 billion which is a cool 280 million a year, Worst , we are the  creditors. Think about that.

 

 

 

True, but only if you invest what they hold from you (if you don't pay that amount to them).  Otherwise, it wouldn't matter what they do with your money unless you are unhappy with it just because of displeasure of that matter.

Edited March 7, 2023 by kirtihk

[HMR74]

7 minutes ago, mahdnc said:

 

Unsecured (and may be insecure) creditors.

Yeah, I did not want to say that. I woudl hope that a succeeding company or restructured company would take care of us with deposits being made whole. The creditors committee would take sure ot that.

 

Here is a trivia question.

If FDIC was unable to take care of failed banks, what would happen to our checking and savings accounts, where we are general unsecured creditors of the bank.

 

Edited March 7, 2023 by HMR74

[Ken the cruiser]

39 minutes ago, kirtihk said:

They might increase the spread (even more higher price vs NRD than now for any given booking) for refundable to still keep attracting people for NRD.

That’s ok. We have choices and Celebrity is definitely not on the top of our list. But if they do offer an itinerary we like, we’ll book it the day it’s made available to hopefully get the best price. 

[Jeremiah1212]

36 minutes ago, HMR74 said:

imho, they are marketing it all wrong. THey were okay at the beginning. Early on they told you the price, but if you were willing to do non refundable you saved money

 

That does not work. When All Inclusive rates were rolled out with no option for Cruise Only, bookings dropped substantially. People can't or won't think through their actual spend. If they base price is $1,500 on Celebrity for All Included and $899 on RCL, they will book Royal then turn around and pay a la carte for their drinks, tips, WiFi, etc. I can't tell you how many times I've made people a detailed side by side cost comparison of two cruises and they don't get it. 

 

36 minutes ago, HMR74 said:

Now they ask for 1,000, 1500, 2,000 for refndable.-they want everythign non erfundable.

I coudl be okay with that if for example they gave you a free look for a couple of weeks or more if its a cruise say two years from now.

 

 

A decent travel agent will solve both of these concerns. I'm surprised so many cruise-savvy people on here do not take advantage of this. You can get a refundable rate and a hold on a specific cabin for far more than 24 hours. 

Edited March 7, 2023 by Jeremiah1212

[HMR74]

2 minutes ago, Ken the cruiser said:

That’s ok. We have choices and Celebrity is definitely not on the top of our list. But if they do offer an itinerary we like, we’ll book it the day it’s made available to hopefully get the best price. 

we do not look as frequently as you , but I have been getitng calls from Seaborne and Oceania recently whereas before all I got was mailings and as well on the maiingsViking. Its as if they are trying to poach celebritys customer list.

 

For the time being,  we wil be doing land trips for the sightseeing aspect, and winter cruises in carribean just to be in consistent 75-85 degree sunny  temps

[HMR74]

1 minute ago, Jeremiah1212 said:

 

That does not work. When All Inclusive rates were rolled out with no option for Cruise Only, bookings dropped substnatially. People can't or won't think through their actual spend. If they base price is $1,500 on Celebrity for All Included and $899 on RCL, they will book Royal then turn around and pay a la carte for their drinks, tips, WiFi, etc. I can't tell you how many times I've made people a detailed side by side cost comparison of two cruises and they don't get it. 

 

 

A decent travel agent will solve both of these concerns. I'm surprised so many cruise-savvy people on here do not take advantage of this. You can get a refundable rate and a hold on a specific cabin for far more than 24 hours. 

I put one of our recent bookiing on a 10 day hold.

But in the event of say a 2025 cruise I woudl like a long time not so much to make up y mind but so seemore time til I have to lock it in. Money is money.

 

on the first matter I showed family-and this was last year, how a decent cabin on X vs RCL was no more than 100 apart when you finished with drinks grats and OBC and a TAs extra credit.

The real issue was we went on Oasis and the play things there were great for the grandkids and nowhere on X.

I am not sure why folks goling on RCL do so when there are no kids. The feel on the 2 lines obviously is totally different including cabins being sufficiently larger .

 

[HMR74]

9 minutes ago, Jeremiah1212 said:

That does not work. When All Inclusive rates were rolled out with no option for Cruise Only, bookings dropped substantially.

there have been too many changes in the schemes that its easy to forget.

KISS method is being lost in the shuffle.

 

I need fast intenet but want premium drinks, When they were packaging fast internet and premium drinks with a discount  (from outreageous prices) it was easy to take I think indulge package over the upgraded package in aqua. 

Now I do not care-they are not using my fav orote whiskey in premium anymore and I am not sure if my fav upgraded wine is still there . They make it too difficult to make an informed decision .

 

Its only money. Hate to say it but most of our balance sheets may be smaller than RCL's but better. I confess I do not supprt 20 billion of assets with 20 billion of debt.

 

[Ken the cruiser]

1 hour ago, HMR74 said:

we do not look as frequently as you , but I have been getitng calls from Seaborne and Oceania recently whereas before all I got was mailings and as well on the maiingsViking. Its as if they are trying to poach celebritys customer list.

 

For the time being,  we wil be doing land trips for the sightseeing aspect, and winter cruises in carribean just to be in consistent 75-85 degree sunny  temps

That makes sense as there are a lot of disgruntled Celebrity loyalists who have been quite vocal on social media. However, those "small ship" cruise lines just don't excite us anymore. We had a couple different Seabourn cruises booked to Antarctica and then to the Med this past year, but both were cancelled by Seabourn! But we're glad they did as I have no desire to wear a coat to dinner every night and my DW didn't like it when she read their dinner meals start at 7 pm as she needs to eat early. Plus, it's hard to get "lost in the crowd" like we enjoy doing on a smaller ship. 

 

As far as winter cruises go, if you like wildlife I highly recommend checking out the Celebrity Galapagos cruises. But you need to book them as early as possible. We booked our Dec 2023 early on and it has since jumped $1,600 per person, and that was for the cheapest cabin on the Flora!

 

[HMR74]

16 minutes ago, Ken the cruiser said:

That makes sense as there are a lot of disgruntled Celebrity loyalists who have been quite vocal on social media. However, those "small ship" cruise lines just don't excite us anymore. We had a couple different Seabourn cruises booked to Antarctica and then to the Med this past year, but both were cancelled by Seabourn! But we're glad they did as I have no desire to wear a coat to dinner every night and my DW didn't like it when she read their dinner meals start at 7 pm as she needs to eat early. Plus, it's hard to get "lost in the crowd" like we enjoy doing on a smaller ship. 

 

As far as winter cruises go, if you like wildlife I highly recommend checking out the Celebrity Galapagos cruises. But you need to book them as early as possible. We booked our Dec 2023 early on and it has since jumped $1,600 per person, and that was for the cheapest cabin on the Flora!

 

No way I take a sport coat. 
and we dine late on vacation. 
except with the grandkids with us.

 

the kids were on Regency  for their honeymoon Med  trip years ago. They  said there were too many old people like us. I understood. But other than that, perfect. 

 

Galapagos the last on our buckets list, but there.  We want to do more with the kids and grandkids but need a couple more years to get away from the RCL big ship sh#$ show.

 

 

 

[Nyhawkeye]

22 hours ago, tschwa2 said:

I think this is because they are still in their covid error change policy.  I expect them to revert back to their $100-$150 penalty sometime in the next year.  

 

As far as the airlines, the main driver for eliminating change fees was the decline in business travel during COVID.  Business travel continues to be below pre-COVID levels so there is not as much need for price segmentation between leisure (change fees) and business (flexible) travel.  Moving forward we will probably see a growing price difference between "Economy" (change fees) fares and "Main Cabin" (no change fees) fares.  If the airlines continue to recover it will cost more and more to buy a Main Cabin fare with no change fees.

 

I personally feel that given the poor state of Celebrity's IT system that they just want to get away from FCC management as soon as possible.  The airlines struggled a bit in the beginning but now have pretty decent IT solutions for managing credits for future bookings.  Celebrity can also continue to tweak the premiums required for refundable deposits as needed based on business performance.

 

[Ken the cruiser]

36 minutes ago, HMR74 said:

No way I take a sport coat. 
and we dine late on vacation. 
except with the grandkids with us.

 

the kids were on Regency  for their honeymoon Med  trip years ago. They  said there were too many old people like us. I understood. But other than that, perfect. 

 

Galapagos the last on our buckets list, but there.  We want to do more with the kids and grandkids but need a couple more years to get away from the RCL big ship sh#$ show.

I have to admit we’ve gotten spoiled by booking aft-facing Vista Suites on Grand class Princess cruises. We also feel very special when we’ve at least booked in a cabin which includes access to club class dining. Combine that with Princess having the funniest AND most engaged on the high seas, Princess has become our goto cruise line. Oh, and then there’s the unlimited laundry that comes with the suite cabins. 😁

 

[mahdnc]

14 minutes ago, Ken the cruiser said:

Oh, and then there’s the unlimited laundry that comes with the suite cabins. 😁

 

 

Laundry is self service? 

[Ken the cruiser]

24 minutes ago, mahdnc said:

 

Laundry is self service? 

If you book a suite on a Princess cruise it includes unlimited free laundry, which really comes in handy on 21+ day cruises! 😁

[mahdnc]

51 minutes ago, Ken the cruiser said:

If you book a suite on a Princess cruise it includes unlimited free laundry, which really comes in handy on 21+ day cruises! 😁

 

I figured.  I just wanted to point out that everyone on Princess get unlimited laundry!

[Ken the cruiser]

16 minutes ago, mahdnc said:

 

I figured.  I just wanted to point out that everyone on Princess get unlimited laundry!

That’s not true. That only happens once they reach Elite status, which happens after going on 15 cruises or accumulating 150 cruise days.
 

But I will say if someone is a military veteran, they will get up to $250 in OBC depending on the cruise length. In our case as both my DW and I are retired military, we each get the perk. With Celebrity we each only get $100 in OBC regardless of length.

[mahdnc]

1 hour ago, Ken the cruiser said:

That’s not true. That only happens once they reach Elite status, which happens after going on 15 cruises or accumulating 150 cruise days.
 

But I will say if someone is a military veteran, they will get up to $250 in OBC depending on the cruise length. In our case as both my DW and I are retired military, we each get the perk. With Celebrity we each only get $100 in OBC regardless of length.

 

It is true if the word "free" is not in there.  I am allowed to do as much self service laundry as I want?

[Ken the cruiser]

1 minute ago, mahdnc said:

 

It is true if the word "free" is not in there.  I am allowed to do as much self service laundry as I want?

That is very true. Princess does have laundromats on their ships whereas Celebrity does not. 

[Bobsgonecoastal]

On 3/1/2023 at 10:28 AM, foodsvcmgr said:

It’s a tough call for Celebrity and Royal, clearly the intent is to reduce the speculative multiple bookings that many people make then cancel prior to final payment.

But people who are not 100% certain of traveling may simply book with other lines with less onerous terms.

Tightening the rules while continuing to raise fares and cut back food and service may be the straw that breaks the camels back, for some at least, and on highly competitive routes with lots of other choices like the Caribbean.

Not sure about it being a tough call.  We’re booking Princess for $100pp fully refundable and for each $100 deposit we get $50 back in OBC.  We’re booking HAL with $25 deposits.  X is aware of this, so I don’t think their decision is tough, I think it’s business suicide.  

[suzyluvs2cruise]

On 3/2/2023 at 5:11 AM, paulh84 said:

Just use a travel agent with group space. You get a refundable deposit + all included at a less expensive rate than the non-refundable cruise only price booked direct with Celebrity. It can save thousands of dollars. 

Group space/rates are great if you're booking a baloncy category or lower cabin. It's not available for Sky Suites and higher cabin categories

[Keys Kathy]

On 3/1/2023 at 11:30 AM, NorthStarStateCruiser said:

I was thinking the same thing, but the only difference that this policy change makes is that you have to choose the new ship & sail date at the time of cancellation versus having 1 year to decide with the FCC.  Whether you book onboard or at home, there's really not any difference besides the upfront cost of the deposit.

We had 6 months, and I have heard 90 days. It is not a year anymore.

[Jeremiah1212]

On 3/11/2023 at 6:56 PM, suzyluvs2cruise said:

Group space/rates are great if you're booking a baloncy category or lower cabin. It's not available for Sky Suites and higher cabin categories

 

Not exactly. Group space for suites is available however it costs the TA a lot more to hold it so it is less commonly found. 

[wrk2cruise]

@Jeremiah1212  Can a suite be brought into the group when someone is ready to deposit it?  In that situation is there a downside for the TA?   My TA only does a limited number of group categories and always tells me he can't add the suite.