Should I just forfeit my Japan 2024 deposit now to avoid possible future losses?

[Bo1953]

8 hours ago, NMTraveller said:

Yes but not a good solution or one that I would be proud to do business with Celebrity...

 

If the fish stinks, toss it out.

There was no solid evidence presented, IMO, that the OP's sailing was going to be cancelled so panic ensued, yet I do not blame them at all to salvage or change what was perceived to be an impending challenge.

 

Thus the value of a good TA to go to bat for the passenger and not worry about it.

 

A case where the refrigeration has not gone out, or yet and I panic about "what if"... something which may not happen so soon... LOL

 

Thank you and bon voyage

[NMTraveller]

3 minutes ago, Bo1953 said:

There was no solid evidence presented, IMO, that the OP's sailing was going to be cancelled so panic ensued, yet I do not blame them at all to salvage or change what was perceived to be an impending challenge.

 

Thus the value of a good TA to go to bat for the passenger and not worry about it.

 

A case where the refrigeration has not gone out, or yet and I panic about "what if"... something which may not happen so soon... LOL

 

Thank you and bon voyage

Agreed.

 

I was referring to Celebrity's lack of communication on this matter causing people to question if their cruise would go.  I am a little concerned about mine,  but will hold on.

[Bo1953]

4 minutes ago, NMTraveller said:

Agreed.

 

I was referring to Celebrity's lack of communication on this matter causing people to question if their cruise would go.  I am a little concerned about mine,  but will hold on.

My thinking is, if the ship is chartered it is usually done far enough ahead where passengers can often times make other arrangements with OBC and refunds and etc. to accommodate the inconvenience.

 

Not that one wants to do that, yet there is time to adjust and make alternate arrangements if desired.

 

While I have not read the threads where others have complained about this (I will look for them) I cannot comment or say that X did not communicate in a timely manner AND/OR offer alternatives AND/OR offer other accommodations to remedy the situation.

 

As such, I do believe X has communicated to some degree and possibly the passengers did not like what they heard?

 

As such, I can believe that X may not have communicated, to a great degree, in a timely basis for passengers to turn on a dime to make alternative arrangements for a bucket list trip and etc...

 

Timing on both???

 

bon voyage

[NMTraveller]

 

[tscoffey]

An advantage to switching from Japan to a cruise out of Athens is that we can add on a 4-day post cruise trip to Rome, then back to Athens. The total airfare for home<->Athens, with Athens<-> Rome also, is less than the airfare would have been for home<->Tokyo.

 

Also factor in that hotels in Rome in April are far cheaper than hotels in Tokyo (3-4 nights), and this is turning out to be a big cost saver - and to cities that are quite amazing to visit too!

[mahdnc]

2 hours ago, tscoffey said:

An advantage to switching from Japan to a cruise out of Athens is that we can add on a 4-day post cruise trip to Rome, then back to Athens. The total airfare for home<->Athens, with Athens<-> Rome also, is less than the airfare would have been for home<->Tokyo.

 

Also factor in that hotels in Rome in April are far cheaper than hotels in Tokyo (3-4 nights), and this is turning out to be a big cost saver - and to cities that are quite amazing to visit too!

 

That sounds great.  We flew to Rome last year for our Constellation TA and I finished shopping for airfare for our Southeast Asia sailing.  Flying to Asia (especially Hong Kong) is ridiculously expensive while our airfare to Rome was cheap.

[Midpacpl]

On 4/19/2023 at 11:02 PM, tscoffey said:

 

I originally paid my cruise deposit in mid-December, 2022. I don’t have trip insurance yet, so I assume I can’t insure any future flights or hotels associated with this cruise that are purchased in the future, correct?

I use the online broker insure my trip dot com. You can normally insure everything at  once cruise, hotel, air, etc and virtually up till the day of travel. You can also add to your insurance if you add items to your trip. The booking date, in my experience anyhow, normally only impacts things like cancel for preexisting conditions. 
So, I’m not clear why you are saying you can’t insure future flights, etc Even if you already purchased your insurance or need to change anything like dates you just notify the insurers and if necessary they reprice and either charge you the difference or refund the difference. You can even move insurance to a different trip sometimes - I won’t bog you down with details. 
 

Edited April 21, 2023 by Midpacpl

[the penguins]

On 4/20/2023 at 4:02 AM, tscoffey said:

Getting nervous reading the various threads about Japan 2024 cruise passengers on Millennium being cancelled. If the reasoning is correct, and it seems quite likely to be, the cancellations are the result of Japan requiring each cruise to have a minimum number of cabins set aside for Covid isolation purposes. Further, the cabins being cancelled seem to be in the lower decks, nearer to  medical.

My cruise is in late May, and I have an inside cabin on deck 3. A prime candidate for being cancelled if the above scenario is correct.

 

If I keep this cruise, I will soon need to start booking some very expensive roundtrip flights to Tokyo. Plus, 3-4 hotel nights there (as well as post-cruise sightseeing expenses in Tokyo). These expenses would likely exceed $3500, minimum,  in addition to the cruise charges.

 

I originally paid my cruise deposit in mid-December, 2022. I don’t have trip insurance yet, so I assume I can’t insure any future flights or hotels associated with this cruise that are purchased in the future, correct?

 

So - lose $900 now, guaranteed, and avoid any chance of losing a future $3500?

(We are new cruise travelers, so these kinds of situation, risks are all new to us).

 

 

 

Always buy the insurance at the earliest possible moment then relax.

[ReubenR]

On 4/21/2023 at 6:05 AM, NMTraveller said:

 

This is not accurate. Some Asia cruises on Millennium have been oversold, resulting in some passengers' individual reservations getting cancelled by Celebrity. The entire season has NOT been cancelled (...yet?). The confusion is all Celebrity's fault for poor (or nonexistent) communication, but so far the season is still scheduled. Granted, I'll feel better when I see the Millennium scheduled to dock at the relevant ports...

[CU64]

On 4/19/2023 at 8:02 PM, tscoffey said:

Getting nervous reading the various threads about Japan 2024 cruise passengers on Millennium being cancelled. If the reasoning is correct, and it seems quite likely to be, the cancellations are the result of Japan requiring each cruise to have a minimum number of cabins set aside for Covid isolation purposes. Further, the cabins being cancelled seem to be in the lower decks, nearer to  medical.

My cruise is in late May, and I have an inside cabin on deck 3. A prime candidate for being cancelled if the above scenario is correct.

 

If I keep this cruise, I will soon need to start booking some very expensive roundtrip flights to Tokyo. Plus, 3-4 hotel nights there (as well as post-cruise sightseeing expenses in Tokyo). These expenses would likely exceed $3500, minimum,  in addition to the cruise charges.

 

I originally paid my cruise deposit in mid-December, 2022. I don’t have trip insurance yet, so I assume I can’t insure any future flights or hotels associated with this cruise that are purchased in the future, correct?

 

So - lose $900 now, guaranteed, and avoid any chance of losing a future $3500?

(We are new cruise travelers, so these kinds of situation, risks are all new to us).

 

 

 

Move your $900 deposit to another celebrity cruise. It might cost you $200.

[CU64]

On 4/21/2023 at 3:55 PM, Midpacpl said:

I use the online broker insure my trip dot com. You can normally insure everything at  once cruise, hotel, air, etc and virtually up till the day of travel. You can also add to your insurance if you add items to your trip. The booking date, in my experience anyhow, normally only impacts things like cancel for preexisting conditions. 
So, I’m not clear why you are saying you can’t insure future flights, etc Even if you already purchased your insurance or need to change anything like dates you just notify the insurers and if necessary they reprice and either charge you the difference or refund the difference. You can even move insurance to a different trip sometimes - I won’t bog you down with details. 
 

I insured cruise cost at time of booking. About 3 months later, I purchased very expensive direct flights to Sydney. I insured the flights with Delta separately. The combined costs of the 2 was $600. If I had insured the cruise + airfare with the original insurance, the cost was $900.

 

[Mark_T]

On 4/21/2023 at 5:03 AM, NMTraveller said:

And yet this further illustrates why Celebrity could have asked for volunteers first before CANCELLING cabins.

 

Perhaps they could HIRE Captain Obvious?

I can't help thinking that they did not do this as it was more likely that those volunteering would be more recent bookings at higher prices, whereas the path they have chosen gives them a good chance of being able to refund a majority of much older bookings at much lower prices...

[Jim_Iain]

I really don' think you have much to worry if you made a reservation and have a room assigned.   While I could be totally wrong, but I would say that cruisers that were "OverBooked" had Guarantee Cabins of various classification.    This is of course being my assumption that if you had a room assigned it would be difficult to double book a room.   

 

Maybe someone who was affected could confirm if they had a room booked or a Guarantee.

[Mark_T]

39 minutes ago, Jim_Iain said:

I really don' think you have much to worry if you made a reservation and have a room assigned.   While I could be totally wrong, but I would say that cruisers that were "OverBooked" had Guarantee Cabins of various classification.    This is of course being my assumption that if you had a room assigned it would be difficult to double book a room.   

 

Maybe someone who was affected could confirm if they had a room booked or a Guarantee.

Jim, no, from the reports on the Japan thread it wasn't guarantee cabins, it was the result of several botched 'Lift & Shift' operations which failed to take the cabins out of inventory resulting in double or triple booking the same cabin...They had cabin numbers assigned...

 

Monumental error on the part of Celebrity obviously.

Edited May 1, 2023 by Mark_T

[tscoffey]

5 hours ago, CU64 said:

Move your $900 deposit to another celebrity cruise. It might cost you $200.

Done, and it did.