Dropping down from the Retreat to Aqua (deposit question) Millennium 2025

[zitsky]

Has anyone had any experience changing a booking that was originally in the Retreat and going down to Aqua?  Without losing their deposit and having it moved to a new booking and/or category?  We put down a 10% deposit, Millennium, January 2025, but I see that Aqua is about 50% of the Retreat price for a Sky Suite.  I'm starting to wonder if the Retreat is worth the price.  Less storage, tricky to navigate bathtubs, no dedicated butler, etc.

[RichYak]

3 minutes ago, zitsky said:

I see that Aqua is about 50% of the Retreat price for a Sky Suite.

I don't know the answer to your question, but want to make sure you're factoring in the loss of the premium beverage package, premium wifi, and assuming you booked before 10/4, pre-paid gratuties and OBC.

[zitsky]

Just now, RichYak said:

I don't know the answer to your question, but want to make sure you're factoring in the loss of the premium beverage package, premium wifi, and assuming you booked before 10/4, pre-paid gratuties and OBC.

 

Sure.  Even if you factor those in, there's a big difference in price.  When I booked I'd say Aqua was 70% of the price of the Retreat (Sky Suite).  Now it's more like 50%.  Again, even if you factor in those other perks.

[jelayne]

We just changed from a SS to a SV at a cruise only rate this week same cruise.  Our TA modified the booking, there was no change fee and no change in our deposit.  We lost the Suite OBC, the prepaid gratuities, beverage package and wi-fi but we didn't need beverage pkg or wi-fi.  

 

The only thing that changed monetarily was a total due - down by $13K.

[hcat]

We always referred to our AQ Class bookings as the " poor man's suites!"

 

When we tried  suite class, we did not feel we missed much being in AQ Class other than a larger room,  &  priority on and off the ship.

 

See what happens to your pricing and perks  if you try to drop down!

 

[zitsky]

7 minutes ago, jelayne said:

We just changed from a SS to a SV at a cruise only rate this week same cruise.  Our TA modified the booking, there was no change fee and no change in our deposit.  We lost the Suite OBC, the prepaid gratuities, beverage package and wi-fi but we didn't need beverage pkg or wi-fi.  

 

The only thing that changed monetarily was a total due - down by $13K.

Wow that’s a big difference.  Our Sky Suite was about $14K for a 12 night Bali cruise.  And Aqua is maybe $7-8K.

 

Good to hear there were no problems changing it.

[jelayne]

27 minutes ago, zitsky said:

Wow that’s a big difference.  Our Sky Suite was about $14K for a 12 night Bali cruise.  And Aqua is maybe $7-8K.

 

Good to hear there were no problems changing it.

Ours was 18N at $17.7. Adding gratuities to the SV it priced at $4572.  With the Retreat changes when a SV opened up it was an easy decision. 

[wrk2cruise]

There should be no charge to change categories on the same sailing.   In addition you should be able to change the ship and/or sailing date for the $100 pp admin fee.

[zitsky]

22 minutes ago, wrk2cruise said:

There should be no charge to change categories on the same sailing.   In addition you should be able to change the ship and/or sailing date for the $100 pp admin fee.

Sorry to be pedantic.  How do you know?  Have you done this recently?  Thanks.

[wrk2cruise]

39 minutes ago, zitsky said:

Sorry to be pedantic.  How do you know?  Have you done this recently?  Thanks.

 

65+ Celebrity cruises, I've done just about everything you can do to a reservation and understand their booking rules, many times better than the Celebrity agents. 

 

Now there are some fares that you may not be able change to like Exciting Deals or New Bookings Only but for generic Cruise Only or All Included fares you can do this without an issue.

 

And yes I have change ship and sail date to a different category in the last month.  It was a refundable deposit rate that I moved to a NRD rate on the new sailing so there was no $100 pp admin fee.   If my original sailing was NRD there would have been the fee because I was changing ships and date.

Edited October 11, 2023 by wrk2cruise