Sold Out?? Really???

[Danny Ocean]

I tried to book on the April 23, 2007 Constellation Transatlantic. When I checked earlier in the week, there were cabins in every category. Today, all are SOLD OUT. I called and spoke with Dwayne at Captain's Club who confirmed the ship is totally sold out and we cannot be waitlisted in any category. I asked whether it was a 'chartered cruise' and, if so, who I could contact for space. I was told it is just a regular sailing and definitely NOT a charter but that there are no cabins. Does this seem strange to any of you out there? Any suggestions or recommendations?

 

Thanks!

 

Danny

[mrjim]

Hi Danny,

 

I contacted Celebrity Cruises in Germany today and the representative told me, that she can't view the cruise with her computer. According to her, it is highly unlikely that the cruise is sold out. She speculated about modifications to the ports or something like that. I'll try to book the cruise again in two weeks. Maybe we'll meet next year.

 

Greetings from Germany

 

Joachim

[dprice70]

And when I called, I was told there were plenty of cabins available but revenue has this cruise and the next unavailable. He thought it was likely to be a price change or an itinerary change.

 

Since DH and I are on both, we are a little anxious to see what is happening.

 

Debra

[hajekfam]

Could be an itinerary change - this happened to us with our 2005 Millie trans - it turned out that they were putting the ship in drydock between the last Med cruise and the trans so the trans was pushed back. It took quite a while for the cruise to appear with the new dates. We were first told that it was sold out, then that it was pulled for inventory, and finally we were told that the dates were changed. Finally it was listed with new dates and ports but pricing was not available. Before they put it out for new bookings, they gave their booked trans passengers the right of keeping their reservation.

[florisdekort]

If my memory serves me right, there was a topic on this on Cruise Critic a few days ago. The conclusion was that bookings are temporarily closed because "operations is working on the itinerary". The cruise right before the Transatlantic (or right after, I don't remember), is closed as well, causing speculation about a potential dry-dock.

 

Check out the Millennium itinerary for the 3/18 transatlantic... It includes Bermuda!

[Jimsgirl]

Why do cruiselines tell such obvious "bad lies" ?

If they were up front and gave the true reason - no matter what - charter, drydock , change of ports or prices, they would not cause so much stress and anger amongst their passengers.

 

They are like 5 year olds!

 

They seem to forget we have paid our (in some cases hard earned ) money, for the cruise we deserve their respect.

[bububr]

I booked a caribbean itinerary on Century, a few weeks later when my friends trie to book it showed 'sold out'. After calling and getting various excuses and reasons, the cruise was cancelled and we were put on a special itinerary that included two stops in Jamaica....Sorry, I've done Jamaica and won't do it again. We had paid in full so they actually credited the difference to our Credit card before they even notified us. Not wanting to go "to that place" again we opted for the now almost famous March 17th bleach cruise. They did however match the cabin prices and offer us a 'small' cabin credit ($75.00). Of course we had to change the airfare from Ft. Lauderdale to San Diego. and lost our hotel we booked at Expedia. Needless to say we were finally told it was because Century was going into dry dock, the problem was it did 4 more cruises After the one they had cancelled on us...before it went into drydock.

 

Dave:eek:

[florisdekort]

Why do cruiselines tell such obvious "bad lies" ?

If they were up front and gave the true reason - no matter what - charter, drydock , change of ports or prices, they would not cause so much stress and anger amongst their passengers. They are like 5 year olds! They seem to forget we have paid our (in some cases hard earned ) money, for the cruise we deserve their respect.

 

Euh... in a bad mood or something?

[hajekfam]

And the worse thing is that when you call to find out what is going on, each time you call and speak with a different person you get a different answer. My husband and I each called about our Millie 05 trans within minutes of each other and were told two different things. I think the problem is that customer service doesn't know what the problem is so they give any answer that sounds reasonable.

That was part of our complaints to the Celebrity rep who was sent on our transatlantic (after the initial change a year out, Celebrity realized the ship was going to be late out of drydock and the cruise again was changed a week and a half before most of us left for Barcelona) to answer questions.

We also had a suggestion that if customer service doesn't have a certain answer, they should just admit it and give us a time frame in which the answer will be known (for example: We are sorry but our computer shows booking closed for now. The reason is not stated. We will check into it and should have an answer in 2 weeks. Could you call back then?)

But even with the problems with the land people, we knew that once we got on the ship we would be treated with the "Celebrity" flair and still booked another Celebrity cruise.

[jaxon41]

Why do cruiselines tell such obvious "bad lies" ?

If they were up front and gave the true reason - no matter what - charter, drydock , change of ports or prices, they would not cause so much stress and anger amongst their passengers.

 

They are like 5 year olds!

 

They seem to forget we have paid our (in some cases hard earned ) money, for the cruise we deserve their respect.

 

Agree 100% -- just the truth, and we will cope with it.

[npb]

I had this experience. I Googled "sold out cruises" . I signed up and a request was sent out to various travel agents. I received email from 5 travel agencies, one had an available cabin. It ended up being a great experience. The room was great. Later, the cruise line had cabins, but I saved about $500 and had a free dinner in the specialty restaurant

[chessbriar]

The cruise before and after are closed as well. There is a number of things that could be going on, charter, dry dock, relocation, large groups have bought the remaining cabins. Who knows. I'm on the sailing before. The price jumped $450/pp before they closed the bookings. We'll see.

[florisdekort]

The 7-day September 2007 Transatlantic on Connie, from Southampton to Cape Liberty, is closed as well as of today.

[Andy]

Hi Floris !

 

I am booked on the 4/13/07 Constellation sailing. I noticed today, that there is no availability. It must be code red for now. I am curious as to what is going on. If you hear anything, please post it here.

 

I will probably call Celebrity in the AM, but they never seem to give you any detailed information. Fortunately, there is still plenty of time to book something else if need be.

[Andy]

The cruise before and after are closed as well. There is a number of things that could be going on, charter, dry dock, relocation, large groups have bought the remaining cabins. Who knows. I'm on the sailing before. The price jumped $450/pp before they closed the bookings. We'll see.

 

Hi Rick !

 

I remember seeing the same thing on my Century Summer sailing 2 years ago..... the prices jumped like crazy a few days before it was closed. The next thing I knew, Century was redeployed to Europe, and my Summer Cruise did not happen.

 

Please DONT tell me, we are finally on the same sailing, and it **might** be cancelled ? Let's hope it doesnt happen.

[chessbriar]

Andy,

 

It doesn't look good. We seem to have a real good group on our RC as well. Let's keep our fingers crossed.

[CruisingChick]

I can't believe this. I am so upset. April 13 is the only time we can sale as that is my son's Spring Vacation from school. On top of that I JUST booked our airline tickets yesterday afternoon to find this out this morning. That stinks.

 

Don't they know way in advance if they are sending a ship into drydock or not? Why would they open up sailings, have people book and then decide to cancel it due to drydock?

[chessbriar]

Anne Maria,

 

Unfortunately, that's the disadvantage with making the itineraries 2 years in advance. Everyone wants them earlier and earlier, but this is the result.

 

Let's see what the change is. Maybe you'll get lucky and they'll move her to NY.

[CruisingChick]

Rick,

 

Moving her to NYC would be great, except what then do I do about the $625 dollars I shelled out yesterday for roundtrip airfare NY to FLL for 3 people?

 

Does anyone know if AA have a 24 hour refund policy?

[C 2 C]

On top of that I JUST booked our airline tickets yesterday afternoon to find this out this morning. That stinks.

 

You normally have 24 hours to cancel air arrangements without penalty. Perhaps you can call to see if you can save that cost anyways??

[C 2 C]

Will Connie be replacing Infinity? Did not Summit do Infinity's itineraries last year due to a pod problem. Perhaps it's one of the ships that will have to go into drydock and complete the European runs after rejuvenation.:confused:

[CruisingChick]

Well I'm on the telephone with American Airlines and they are canceling my flights and refunding my money on my credit card. Of course you know that now the cruise won't be cancelled and when I go to re-book the flights they will be cost MORE!!!

 

It's only fair they let you cancel within 24 hours anyway since you can hold reservations for 24 hours.

 

Maybe that's what I'll do just go on-line every day and hold my reservation at the lowest price. Too much work. I knew it was too good to be true that I got flights from NYC to FLL for $188 roundtrip per person.

[CruisingChick]

This just in from my TA:

 

Hello Anne Maria,

This is interesting. I did look up that sailing date again and it is on a stop sell status. I called the Cruise Line and they said" It is under a internal maintenance status" which means they are not allowed to sell it. Now they have not contacted any Travel Agents and told them that the sailing has been canceled.

The way it is sounding, I would think that it will be in dry dock for renovations at that time. We might want to start looking at something else.

 

Not good news for us!!!!

[dprice70]

OK,

 

Celebrity is now telling me that the Constellation is scheduled for drydock in May but she did not have the exact dates. The web site is showing the TA moved up to April 13th, but is not bookable. The TA ends in Southhampton with a couple of port changes. The Celebrity rep insisted that was a mistake and the TA is still April 23rd. The site does not even show an April 23rd cruise.

 

 

Hopefully everything will be finalized soon. The waiting and not knowing is driving me nuts.

 

Debra

[florisdekort]

This is what very briefly appeared on www.celebrity.com but then was taken off again:

 

Fri, Apr 13 Fort Lauderdale

Sat, Apr 14 At Sea

Sun, Apr 15 At Sea

Mon, Apr 16 At Sea

Tue, Apr 17 At Sea

Wed, Apr 18 At Sea

Thu, Apr 19 At Sea

Fri, Apr 20 At Sea

Sat, Apr 21 Cork, Ireland

Sun, Apr 22 Dublin, Ireland

Mon, Apr 23 Cornwall (Falmouth), England

Tue, Apr 24 Paris (Le Havre), France

Wed, Apr 25 Southampton, England

 

There is nothing from April 25 to May 5. I assume this will be the drydock period.

 

On May 5, the first Northern European cruise is in the schedule.

 

The cruise before the Transatlantic is a 11-night Ultimate Caribbean from/to Ft. Lauderdale departing 04/02/07.

 

Although Celebrity CS is apparently denying it, I am pretty sure this is how it will all work out. CS reps most likely haven't been informed yet by Ops/planning.

 

Still wondering why the September Transatlantic is closed for bookings as well.

 

Cheers,

Floris