Will the cost of cruises go down today?

[Lena11033]

7 hours ago, Jim_Iain said:

 

Yikes... you could book a second cabin for the all included.   Have you calculated by adding perks al la carte?

 

I have a spreadsheet for that (I started making this to keep track and do estimates on things for if certain products were worth it)

 

Adding on everything after it would be an additional $1,432 which is less than half of what they were applying for AI and it's not even the premium upgrades their either.

[Pushka]

4 hours ago, vjmatty said:

Just checked our Infinity sailing for Feb 23, 2024, we’re in a SV with AI booked a year ago. I can’t see if there are price changes for SV because the category is sold out, but Aqua prices have dropped so they are now US$550 less pp than our current SV w/AI fare for standard Aqua and about the same price for Prime. The $450 total OBC is gone. Can’t calculate what grats would be since it’s not on my reservation. 
 

My question is whether a cabin change, category change or repricing, while keeping the same booking number, would trigger the loss of grats on either the AI or the Aqua cabins. I’m not sure if they can call it a “new booking” if it’s the same reservation.  I know whenever a new promotion comes out for “new bookings only” they sure don’t consider an existing refared booking as “new”. 

We changed our room, same cabin grading, and lost the OBC from the original booking. 

[tnm6217]

11 hours ago, tnm6217 said:

I check all of my cruise fares daily. Yesterday, my 5 night cruise on Summit in January 2024 in a Sky Suite was $4,411 (NRD, including military discount, I forgot to look at the OBC).

Today, I priced it with gratuities included and it is $4,596 - no OBC.

I paid $4,406 at the end of June and got $600 in OBC from Celebrity.

 

Because of the additional $200 discount applicable today, it's now $4,476 with tips included and no OBC -- $120 less with the $200 discount...

 

6 hours ago, Keys Kathy said:

I was shocked to find out that Fla resident rates are cheaper than military rates. Be sure you check it all ways, including senior rates if applicable.

 

Thank you @Keys Kathy! The friends I often travel with are Florida residents so I will make sure to check this for them!

 

2 hours ago, Lena11033 said:

 

I have a spreadsheet for that (I started making this to keep track and do estimates on things for if certain products were worth it)

 

#lifemotto

[CruseKrazy]

The two cruises I am monitoring, one in 2024 and one in 2025 have now gone up a few hundred dollars each for a standard balcony net of removing the prepaid grats from the all included fare. It’s only a few percent but a fare increase nevertheless.

Edited October 5, 2023 by CruseKrazy

[gerelmx]

today the promo includes extra $200 savings, saved $100 in my Silhouette TA

Edited October 5, 2023 by gerelmx

[JaneStarr]

2 hours ago, gerelmx said:

today the promo includes extra $200 savings, saved $100 in my Silhouette TA

Did you have gratuities included or AI? Did you lose anything by doing that?

 

[gerelmx]

6 minutes ago, JaneStarr said:

Did you have gratuities included or AI? Did you lose anything by doing that?

 

 

No perks, prepaid gratuities

[The_Big_M]

14 hours ago, Pushka said:

Cruises booked from Australia must be price inclusive as per our federal legislation. And that includes compulsory charges like tips. So the changes made in USA are not relevant. 

 

Price inclusive of anything mandatory. Since tips officially aren't, they don't need to be included in the price.

 

Hence that's why a number of cruise lines, including Cunard don't include tips in the price.

[vjmatty]

7 hours ago, Pushka said:

We changed our room, same cabin grading, and lost the OBC from the original booking. 

 

Thanks for the warning…so assuming we lose the OBC and pay for grats, we can upgrade to Aqua guarantee with a major price drop, which after factoring in the loss of OBC and paying grats still nets US$652 total savings.  Not sure on this since the Blu menu didn’t really impress and I really don’t want to give up the SV balcony. However it’s a port intensive cruise with overnights in Israel and Egypt so how much time will we spend on it?

 

Decisions, decisions…*sigh*

[Pushka]

6 hours ago, The_Big_M said:

 

Price inclusive of anything mandatory. Since tips officially aren't, they don't need to be included in the price.

 

Hence that's why a number of cruise lines, including Cunard don't include tips in the price.

Thanks for that explanation. So unless it states that Tips are included in All included, then they aren't. That's really good to know. So in the above picture I posted, no tips are included in the AI.   I reckon it will get sticky for those booked in the Old deal where All included (in my booking anyway) included tips but someone booking the new AI tips won't be. Must keep dated screenshots of my booking. And also that changing cabins removes any previous inclusions. I also see that if I change my cabin then I can only book Cruise Only, there's no provision to rebook any kind of AI. 

Edited October 5, 2023 by Pushka

[Baynanno1]

27 minutes ago, Pushka said:

Thanks for that explanation. So unless it states that Tips are included in All included, then they aren't. That's really good to know. So in the above picture I posted, no tips are included in the AI.   I reckon it will get sticky for those booked in the Old deal where All included (in my booking anyway) included tips but someone booking the new AI tips won't be. Must keep dated screenshots of my booking. And also that changing cabins removes any previous inclusions. I also see that if I change my cabin then I can only book Cruise Only, there's no provision to rebook any kind of AI. 

And keep an eye on your account each day to ensure you are not being charged again for the gratuities included in bookings made prior to 4 October..

Have a great cruise!

[Boatharbour]

On 10/5/2023 at 8:21 AM, Pushka said:

This is only a recent thing. I've been on several Cunard cruises in Australia until about 2017 and tips were not included in the price. They were added onboard. 

I just did a mock booking for the cruise before ours (Edge, NZ) in March 2024. Same category of room but now AU$ 4000 more than we paid. Premium wifi and drinks are listed as an inclusion, but not the gratuities. I’m pretty sure I’m on the Australian website as the final cost is in Australian dollars. 

[Pushka]

5 minutes ago, Boatharbour said:

I just did a mock booking for the cruise before ours (Edge, NZ) in March 2024. Same category of room but now AU$ 4000 more than we paid. Premium wifi and drinks are listed as an inclusion, but not the gratuities. I’m pretty sure I’m on the Australian website as the final cost is in Australian dollars. 

I costed the full premium drinks package for our cruise and it was something like $2500. We upgraded from basic to premium drinks and wifi. I'm not touching my booking again in case it goes amok with all these changes. 

[kiwichick62]

Just priced our May 2024 cruise and the price has actually gone down a fair bit.  What we booked in April for a deluxe verandah would now get us Aqua class! Guess I can't do anything to re-book as we booked on Celebrity's website,  non-refundable fare.

[Pushka]

2 hours ago, kiwichick62 said:

Just priced our May 2024 cruise and the price has actually gone down a fair bit.  What we booked in April for a deluxe verandah would now get us Aqua class! Guess I can't do anything to re-book as we booked on Celebrity's website,  non-refundable fare.

The website is flakey but sometimes you can select Change Cabin and upgrade. 

[The_Big_M]

14 hours ago, Pushka said:

Thanks for that explanation. So unless it states that Tips are included in All included, then they aren't. That's really good to know. So in the above picture I posted, no tips are included in the AI.   I reckon it will get sticky for those booked in the Old deal where All included (in my booking anyway) included tips but someone booking the new AI tips won't be. Must keep dated screenshots of my booking. And also that changing cabins removes any previous inclusions. I also see that if I change my cabin then I can only book Cruise Only, there's no provision to rebook any kind of AI. 

 

In the case of Celebrity though, they included tips in Australian bookings only prior to the global launch of All inclusive for bookings elsewhere, where it included them for other countries. i.e. Celebrity Australia has long included tips when other countries didn't.

 

Given Celebrity websites aren't always perfect/correct and that they don't appear to have updated their Australian booking terms (as posted earlier) so say that Australian bookings still have service charges included (clauses 4 and 22), which matches their long standing local practice of including them, I'd expect that tips alone are still part of Australian bookings (as they'd need to be since those are the terms that apply to your booking).

 

Basically they updated the websites globally to remove tips and forget the exception for Australia.

[The_Big_M]

9 hours ago, kiwichick62 said:

Just priced our May 2024 cruise and the price has actually gone down a fair bit.  What we booked in April for a deluxe verandah would now get us Aqua class! Guess I can't do anything to re-book as we booked on Celebrity's website,  non-refundable fare.

 

As Pushka said, you can still make changes, at a cost. If you can't do it via the website, you can also contact Celebrity directly.

 

Not sure if you're booked under the AU terms or NZ, but if AU, clause 31 covers this:

If you book a promotion cruise which stipulates that the deposit is non-refundable, a change fee of AU$100 per person per change will apply up to 151 days prior to departure. Inside of 150 days, ticket contract cancellation conditions will apply.

 

This means you could make changes until around Christmas Day (at a cost of $200 for 2).

Edited October 6, 2023 by The_Big_M

[kirtihk]

I compared today after adding separate tips (as an option as of today) and yesterday prices for 12-night Asian ocean-view cruise on March 3, 2025 for 2 people, and today's total with tax is almost $1,000 less.  However, it's possible Celebrity reduced price today for that particular itinerary as a promotion, and if it's true, it's impossible to see whether tips are extra versus yesterday's price, or price was reduced just for tips.  An extra tip today is shown as $432 for 2 for that particular cruise (which is $18 per person per night for ocean-view category).

[kirtihk]

On 10/4/2023 at 3:04 PM, verizon said:

This is what we called inflation.

With this pace, 10 years from now the rice per night per person for citated cabin type would be around $3,000 ($60,000 for 2 for 10-day cruise).  A nice so to speak "inflation" it is!

[kirtihk]

On 10/4/2023 at 8:07 PM, tnm6217 said:

I check all of my cruise fares daily. Yesterday, my 5 night cruise on Summit in January 2024 in a Sky Suite was $4,411 (NRD, including military discount, I forgot to look at the OBC).

Today, I priced it with gratuities included and it is $4,596 - no OBC.

I paid $4,406 at the end of June and got $600 in OBC from Celebrity.

That' a commitment!

 

Voyage, Voyage!