Involuntary Cancellation

[JAS15226]

I was one of 5 friends booked on the Celebrity Ascent for a Mediterranean cruise departing from Barcelona on May 27, 2024.  This trip was booked several months ago, but this morning we all received notification that our reservations were being cancelled due to unexpected demand by large groups.  I was astounded!  Not only is this extremely inconvenient, but it is incredibly disappointing. This itinerary was specially selected and it is only offered twice.  The second date did not work for our group so we ended up with a completely different trip than the one we wanted. 
 

I know that airlines routinely bump passengers when they are overbooked, but does this happen often on cruise ships?  I’m afraid to rebook my airline reservations for fear that we’ll be bumped off the next cruise too. 

[Pushka]

23 minutes ago, JAS15226 said:

I was one of 5 friends booked on the Celebrity Ascent for a Mediterranean cruise departing from Barcelona on May 27, 2024.  This trip was booked several months ago, but this morning we all received notification that our reservations were being cancelled due to unexpected demand by large groups.  I was astounded!  Not only is this extremely inconvenient, but it is incredibly disappointing. This itinerary was specially selected and it is only offered twice.  The second date did not work for our group so we ended up with a completely different trip than the one we wanted. 
 

I know that airlines routinely bump passengers when they are overbooked, but does this happen often on cruise ships?  I’m afraid to rebook my airline reservations for fear that we’ll be bumped off the next cruise too. 

 

Sounds like you may have been bumped for a full on charter cruise. 

[Cap_D]

What type of room?   Any price protection, special number to call, OBC, notice about the all included changing in October?  

[Northern Aurora]

Did your group book this with a travel agent?  Was this a group rate through a travel agent?

[Honolulu Blue]

5 hours ago, JAS15226 said:

I was one of 5 friends booked on the Celebrity Ascent for a Mediterranean cruise departing from Barcelona on May 27, 2024.  This trip was booked several months ago, but this morning we all received notification that our reservations were being cancelled due to unexpected demand by large groups.  I was astounded!  Not only is this extremely inconvenient, but it is incredibly disappointing. This itinerary was specially selected and it is only offered twice.  The second date did not work for our group so we ended up with a completely different trip than the one we wanted. 
 

I know that airlines routinely bump passengers when they are overbooked, but does this happen often on cruise ships?  I’m afraid to rebook my airline reservations for fear that we’ll be bumped off the next cruise too. 

 

I'm sorry this happened to you.  Yes, cruise lines DO bump paid passengers from booked cruises, but not that often.  They also usually give 12 months or more notice.  Chartering companies also usually don't target big, new ships.  The group(s) that caused the cancellation must have paid a pretty penny for the ship.  I'm curious about why they did this.  It's a little early for the Olympics.  Formula 1 and Monaco?

[CunucuMom]

This is so disappointing for you and your group and a logistical pain as airline flights are also involved. If there's a bright side, perhaps it's a clothing-optional or Bliss charter so the Med cancelation may be a blessing in disguise.  Best wishes that you and your group enjoy a fantastic sailing.

[Jeremiah1212]

It's a full ship charter so it's not just your group of individuals. The next steps and comp have been released to who you booked with.

 

It is strange to do this so late but it also explains the extremely high prices on this itinerary that some people thought were a mistake. Assuming they had some delay in getting the charter buttoned up and sent prices way up to discourage bookings. 

[miched]

It is nothing new.   We had cruises booked on X that were canceled and also shortened by a few days because of them getting chartered.  Also for earlier than scheduled dry dock or after because it took longer than expected.  

On the canceled cruises we were offered $200 OBC if we booked one of the 2 cruises after on the same ship.  No thanks as our cabin that we wanted wasn’t available and the cost of the cruises were considerably higher.  
 

We booked another cruise line during the same period so we didn’t lose out on our travel arrangements.    
 

You never know what any cruise line will do. 
 

Happy cruising 🌊🚢🇺🇸🌅

 

[jsn55]

1 hour ago, miched said:

It is nothing new.   We had cruises booked on X that were canceled and also shortened by a few days because of them getting chartered.  Also for earlier than scheduled dry dock or after because it took longer than expected.  

On the canceled cruises we were offered $200 OBC if we booked one of the 2 cruises after on the same ship.  No thanks as our cabin that we wanted wasn’t available and the cost of the cruises were considerably higher.  
 

We booked another cruise line during the same period so we didn’t lose out on our travel arrangements.    
 

You never know what any cruise line will do. 
 

Happy cruising 🌊🚢🇺🇸🌅

 

Wow, I had no idea.  it would be heartbreaking for this cruiser.  But the air prob not as bad as before, since many airlines have eliminated change/cancel fees.  I just added a day to a France river cruise next spring, took about 5 minutes on UA and the fare was $500 less.  Thanks to all for the excellent intel.  

[Traveling Fools]

Wow, that's astounding! Just think about all those who had booked the cruise and are now SOL.  Some may have booked for a special occasion to celebrate on that specific itinerary.  Others for the itinerary.  Think about all the relative factors involve in booking a foreign cruise that need to addressed.

 

We have booked an "Intensive Greek Island" cruise next September with X.  We chose that cruise because of 1) Itinerary and 2) Timing.  We will be celebrating our 50th anniversary and have booked a specific suite.  I continue to track other lines who sail out of Athens and they don't make many Greek port calls and instead focus on ports that we have visited by land and have stayed for days.  And, because cruise in this part of Mediterranean tend to book out early, the inventory of suites is limited. If X involuntarily canceled our reservation it would be really disruptive to us!

[Szt]

This same thing happened to us on our first cruise in 1991. It was our honeymoon. We had it booked for mid December. The only choice we had was to move it to early Nov. Little did we know that’s rainy season in the Caribbean. It was a miserable, rainy, disappointing cruise. We still enjoyed it. But it wasn’t what we hoped and saved for. I’m sorry they are still doing this. I hope they compensate you very well. 

[Cruise till you drop]

It’s hard to believe that it’s a 3,000 person charter booking these cruises so I’m guessing some may not get bumped.  I wonder how they decide who gets bumped and who doesnt

 

If this happened to me, I’d be pissed for sure

[Sailor75]

Wow, I guess Celebrity only cares about money, not necessarily the repeat cruisers that keep them in business. I have my first cruise booked with them for Christmas, I hope they don't cancel it.

[wrk2cruise]

Charter cruises are very lucrative for the Cruise Line.  As said previously they generally do this prior to the 330 days when airline reservations open to avoid that issue.   They used to at least offer to pay change fees but that is generally not too helpful since the resulting airline credit is generally only good for 1 year from the original booking date.

[1Virgo]

that is NOT good business or customer building rapport.  

[SeaHunt]

CC has a good article explaining this:

 

https://www.cruisecritic.com/articles/could-you-be-bumped-from-your-next-cruise

[Pushka]

6 hours ago, Cruise till you drop said:

It’s hard to believe that it’s a 3,000 person charter booking these cruises so I’m guessing some may not get bumped.  I wonder how they decide who gets bumped and who doesnt

 

If this happened to me, I’d be pissed for sure

The cruise after ours on Equinox involved a charter of the whole ship. The last days we were there all the toilet signs were changed to be non gender specific. They were clearly trying to run down supplies on board as the charter brought on all their own food and drink. So alcohol started running very low on ours. 

[karmamule]

It's happened to us twice out of 13 cruises. The first time was NCL chartering the Prima and we lost a wonderful aft-facing suite at a great price. (We booked as soon as it became available) They offered us 125% credit but the room was still significantly more on available cruises, so we just refunded. That led us to our first cruise with Celebrity on the Apex and we had an excellent time.

 

The second time was on Virgin Voyages when they decided to delay the rollout of Resilient Lady. We had booked (and already fully paid for) a nice suite on that. They offered 200%(!!) credit for any money you'd already paid and that left us with so much credit we got their biggest suite on the Valiant Lady and had an amazing time.

 

Each time we were initially very disappointed but they both turned into great experiences. Even if you just get a full refund I hope something similar happens for you too.

[Jeremiah1212]

12 hours ago, Cruise till you drop said:

It’s hard to believe that it’s a 3,000 person charter booking these cruises so I’m guessing some may not get bumped.  I wonder how they decide who gets bumped and who doesnt

 

If this happened to me, I’d be pissed for sure

Everyone booked gets cancelled. The ‘partial charter’ that gets mentioned here is not a thing. A charter is the full ship. Anything else is a group.
 

Disappointing for sure, but this is very uncommon especially within a year from the sail date and since the sailing was relatively full. Someone paid a huge amount of money for this. They are paying for the ship + meeting revenue goals for the ship + canceled guest compensation. 

[budmeister]

Sad for you. It happened to me once, but at least it was a Caribbean cruise and almost a  year out. I had no truly comparable choices at time of re-booking- I ended up paying a lot more for a day shorter. 

[Szt]

At the risk of revealing my guilty pleasure- I know there was a season of the Bachelorette tV show that had an entire cruise ship for the whole shooting season. I’m sure they paid top dollar for it. 

[Otton60]

My hubby and I got email as well this am canceling trip..  2nd cruise canceled by Celebrity we were on the Beyond May 2023. Here we go again.

[JAS15226]

I guess I’m naive.  I never realized that this could happen. I’ve only been on 5 cruises before - all Celebrity. We rebooked for a cruise earlier in the month. Longer cruise that will substitute Greece and Turkey for Spain and Gibraltar. Celebrity is honoring the price we paid for the first trip, so the second booking won’t cost us more.   Still somewhat disappointed, but the new itinerary is a good one.  At this point it is more of a colossal inconvenience. 
 

Each of us booked directly on line through the Celebrity site. Concierge class. No travel agents involved.  No deep discount price.  Do you think they would have been less likely to bump us if we had gone through an agent? They didn’t say anything about a “charter” - just “high demand.”

[twins_to_alaska]

Sorry it happened to you. I was also bumped off a cruise that became a full charter a few years ago.

[Stockjock]

I had this happen a few years back.  I had a sunset veranda and due to a charter, Celebrity moved my reservation to another sunset veranda on a sailing a week or two later, and price protected me.

Unfortunately, that alternate date didn't work for us, so they offered a relatively modest OBC, along with a comped specialty restaurant reservation.  I was underwhelmed by the offer, but accepted it anyway and used it on a different ship and itinerary.

Edited October 1, 2023 by Stockjock