Thumbs down for Celebrities 2 day sale

[spongerob]

Several of the prices we'd been looking at this past week for clients did go up in the last 2 days. What I'm telling people is to watch, as I have a sneaking suspicion they'll go back down, then we can apply the reduction. Celebrity may be banking on catching those who don't monitor pricing. I could be wrong on that, but I'm definitely going to be watching these bookings very closely.

Well, this isn't a good start to our Celebrity experience. The better half just informed me that she has booked a Celebrity cruise for us - anniversary present for me. Now we're going to have to monitor pricing right off the bat just to make sure we aren't being hosed. Great...

[cruiseorbust]

The other thing about this cruise sale, is that if the price of your cruise comes down, you can't take advantage of it. If I am mis-informed, I apologize. I think I will take my chances and wait for the cruise price to drop.

 

Book a cruise on any Celebrity ship sailing to any of our exciting destinations from September 1, 2007 through September 30, 2008 and you’ll receive up to $250 off your booking – plus a 50% reduced deposit. There’s no better time than now to book your cruise vacation and experience the extraordinary feeling of... ahhh.

 

Savings offer is for new individual bookings only and cannot be combined with any other discount, promotional offer or Captain's Club certificates.

[cali-croozer]

You can not purchase online you have to call. .

 

 

You can purchase on-line but the "savings" won't be posted for a couple of weeks (there's a notice at the bottom of the sale details regarding this; confirmed it with a phone call.......but I printed out everything to make sure I get the discount).;)

[cali-croozer]

After I made my reservation the Celebrity guy said if the price goes down you can take advantage of it. We will see:eek:

 

 

Why would we not be able to take advantage of it? (new to Celebrity.......)

[cali-croozer]

The May 5th Alaska from SFO did not change in price. I got the $250 reduction in the cabin fare BUT my $250 Shareholder Benefit cannot be used. So, no savings to me. I'll file for the Shareholder benefit anyway because you never know if the sales people know what they are talking about.

 

 

Maybe certain stateroom categories didn't increase because the insides for that sailing went up $100pp from last night. IF I get the $250 off (it's supposed to be credited within a few weeks, as I booked on line), then I saved $50. That's too bad about the shareholder benefit--------it's always something!:rolleyes:

[C 2 C]

I don't know if my previous post concerning this topic got zapped or that I hit a back arrow and negated to post.

The discounts offered seem to be the same amounts as the previous "on-board" booking discounts. I for one gave up on booking new cruises while on board our most recent cruises because the offer was insulting: a $900 booking on an inside will get a $50 credit for lending Celebrity money for a year. Does this mean there are enough cruisers who felt the same and Celebrity is trying a new way to boost bookings?

Yesterday there was a link to Senior Specials and I entered the X website to hold a cabin while I contemplated the travel arrangements that needed arranging. I called Captain's club today about special pricing and they said no way could I book that cruise to get the savings.

I have three Solstice bookings, the inaugural and two in January. I can cancel my bookings and get the same cabin with a discount for a later sailing. Since I expect the winter to be the traditional long one, I will play their game and cancel and travel later.

I have been watching the price of Infinity's sailing to South America in November with interest because the price normally drops. Two weeks ago, an inside was $1,209. It has been creeping up every day. I finally booked for March and took advantage of the "discount" and the lower deposit. Now I have to wait for the price to drop as it did last year.

It is normal for prices of every cabin type to increase as the sailing fills up. I just wonder if the Millennium rebooking credits is causing all other sailings to increase in price.

I found my sale prices, circumvented the crazy "holding" decision and I'm ready to sail.

[cruzerfornow]

Well, this isn't a good start to our Celebrity experience. The better half just informed me that she has booked a Celebrity cruise for us - anniversary present for me. Now we're going to have to monitor pricing right off the bat just to make sure we aren't being hosed. Great...

 

Not to worry Sponge, if you booked at a price acceptable to you then your good to go!!! Just keep checking though, prices may go down but my experience with Celebrity has been they usually go up....sometimes WAYYYY up depending on itenerery!

[Host Walt]

the sale is through Celebrity's web site but through CruCon which is connected to Cruise Critic. I don't think this was advertised by Celebrity but a private cruise agency...

Just to clarify, CruCon is a major advertiser on, and arranges many cruises for, Cruise Critic but is in no way affiliated with Cruise Critic.

 

Cruise Critic is affiliated only with Independent Traveler and TripAdviser.

[cruiserchuck]

I agree that the "sale" appears to be bogus, but I am somewhat happy about that. I booked a cruise last week, and under the two day sale promotion, would have been eligible for a $250 discount. My travel agent told me earlier this week that I was not eligible for the discount since I was already booked. I then called Celebrity to complain, and was told that I would not have been eligible for the discount in any event, since I was receiving a special discounted airfare, and the promotions could not be combined.

 

I noticed later that day that the rate had gone up $200 a person since I booked, so the "sale" price would actually be $150 more. From a quote I was able to obtain from an online site, it appears that the sale price can be combined with the air promotion. It will be interersting to see if the price goes back down next week.

[4cats4me]

My cruise is listed at the same exact price today as it was yesterday

and the day before and the day before.

I'm always leery of when there is a sale.

You just have to know your prices and be extra cautious before

proceeding.

 

You need to ask yourself the question, what is the cruise worth to

you --

It's like the airlines -- everyone is paying a different price for the

same experience.

[Host Kewlguy]

many moons ago when I was in college I worked for a small jewelry store in the mall. Every 6 months the owner would have us mark all the prices up by 70% so that he could then advertise that he was having a 70% off sale. Well you can imagine the uproar when people who had been "watching" a specific piece of jewelry came in to find out that the 70% off would get them the exact same pricing as before the sale.

 

While I understood a very small business doing this (didn't agree however!) I never imagined a HUGE corporation would pull the same stunt!

 

All businesses, both large and small do this type of thing all the time. It doesn't surprise me at all. It's all about the bottom line. A couple of years ago we visited a local Omaha Steaks store. While the store was empty of customers the Woman behind the counter told us to come back next week as they were having a 50% off sale. So we returned the following week to find everything in the store marked as 50% off yet the prices of all the items were exactly the same as they were the previous week. Yet now the place was full of customers taking advantage of this imaginary sale buying up everything in sight. You literally couldn't get in the door it was so crowded. People were fighting over boxes of hamburgers. We noticed the employees behind the counter were laughing quietly to themselves at the ignorance of the customers. It was quite a sight to see. We just walked out in disgust never to return again. This so called sale by Celebrity is no different than what the steak store did as well as hundreds of other companies.

[dutchess43]

The first day of the sale my cruise went up 400.00 for the two of us. I would of received 100.00 off the cabin therefore it would of cost me 300.00 more. Some sale!

[Captain Jake]

Since my next sailing with X is planned for 2009 I didn't look into things.I wonder if this sale is bogus or the prices went up because the number of rooms on certain sailings went down.There is no such thing as a real sale anyway.A unnamed dept store regularly has 40% off sales and at the times when you save 10-!5% for using their credit card the same items are 30% off.The only advantage I saw in this sale was the reduced deposit-----BT

[Circusboy354]

The price on the cruise I was watching went down $50 the day before the sale. Could it just be fluid pricing?? I have noticed a number of price changes both up and down over the past few weeks on the Millie TA this year.

[twocc's]

Hflors-thanks We did not book yesterday when they told us the price and we seemed to know what the price should be, called back today and the price was what we thought it should be so booked it. Probably would not have done that but we read your post and thought lets see what the price is today.

 

Thanks Celebrity for doing the right thing.:)

[ReadyToCruiseAgain]

Just a note: I was ready to book my Celebrity Galaxy cruise for next year. I went to their website this morning and guess what the price for the cruise is exactly $100.00 pp more than the price pp yesterday!!!!!! So I called them up and asked on the phone for the price of my cabin. Yep! $100.00 more pp than yesterday, but wait remember this day is the start of the sale and I get $100.00 discount. That really made me mad. I explained to the rep that I had checked the price yesterday and now the price was $100.00 more. Their response was that there was nothing they could do. So I asked to speak to the supervisor. I did and she also told me there was nothing she could do. I told her I knew that there wasn't, but I just wanted to lodge my complaint. She said she had talked to a number of people already this morning who were upset with the increase/sale. I told her that I felt Celebrity was tacky, tacky, tacky. It is a shame that Celebrity who bills themsleves as a notch above the rest should treat their customers so poorly. Anyway I feel better now that I have talked to the supervisor at Celebirty and now written this message on my favorite message board.

 

Did I book my cruise, NO, will I, I still don't know. It really took all the excitement out of it for me. There is something that holds me back from booking with a cruiseline that would do that to their customers.

 

Anyway thanks for reading my rant!

 

Hay maybe Celebrity will read this thread and any others that will be posted and do the right thing and reduce the price back to the pre sale price!

 

The CC Class are up several hundred from before sale announced. These people remind me of the siding salesman I heard about when growing up

[ReadyToCruiseAgain]

Not to worry Sponge, if you booked at a price acceptable to you then your good to go!!! Just keep checking though, prices may go down but my experience with Celebrity has been they usually go up....sometimes WAYYYY up depending on itenerery!

 

Cabin selection if it means anything to you gets worse and orse on many of the good trips

[dutchess43]

I checked on a cruise I have booked for April. When I first looked at the CC cabins they were 1299.00 per person, last week they upped them to 1499.00 per person. Today they are priced at 2399.00 per person. Um makes you wonder!

[bobbyleduck]

I'm not sure what you're all talking about. Are you all comparing Apples to Apples? I found the sale to be a sale and am quite content with the cruise I booked today, which is at least $125 per person cheaper than each time I checked it for the past three months, plus we picked up a $125 onboard credit. I'm all set for the TA aboard Millenium in December and I can't wait to visit with all the friends I made on Infinity, last March, who will also be on the same cruise.

 

Happy cruising to all!

 

Bob

[Daffydd]

I'm not sure what you're all talking about. Are you all comparing Apples to Apples? I found the sale to be a sale and am quite content with the cruise I booked today, which is at least $125 per person cheaper than each time I checked it for the past three months, plus we picked up a $125 onboard credit. I'm all set for the TA aboard Millenium in December and I can't wait to visit with all the friends I made on Infinity, last March, who will also be on the same cruise.

 

Happy cruising to all!

 

Bob

We will be Bob and our travel Agent aquired a reduction on the original price listed for us

David

[dutchess43]

I'm not sure what you're all talking about. Are you all comparing Apples to Apples? I found the sale to be a sale and am quite content with the cruise I booked today, which is at least $125 per person cheaper than each time I checked it for the past three months, plus we picked up a $125 onboard credit. I'm all set for the TA aboard Millenium in December and I can't wait to visit with all the friends I made on Infinity, last March, who will also be on the same cruise.

 

Happy cruising to all!

 

Bob

 

It depends on what cruise you are booked on, or checking pricing on. I also looked at 3 cruise's in Europe for 2008 1 stayed the same price & 2 went up. I usually book a cruise & keep watching to see if the price drops once I book it.

This year my X cruise to Hawaii ended up costing us 1899.00 for a CC Aft cabin down from the original pricing of 3099.00. It pays to keep an eye on your booked cruise.

Happy to hear that your cruise was an actual sale.

[koolforkatz]

I booked yesterday and was quite happy to get both a sale price (I had also beeing watching the fares) as well as prepaid grats. Although Celebrity's website still did not reflect the actual sale price, the price quoted by my agent did.

 

I don't know, I'm no expert but prices seem to fluctuate all the time with cruiselines. For instance, we're booked on the Quest in February and the price we originally paid several months ago had doubled just before it sold out.

[Maraprince]

A lot depends on the sailing. Last year around this time the 13-day cruise to Canada/N.E. for an outside cabin on Connie was $1759. Then it went up to $1849 -- the price I booked it at in February. Just before the 2-day sail it dropped down $1749 and seems to be remaining at that price. I was able to lock in the $1749 price prior to the sale. Plus, our sailing was listed in the "specials" section of Celebrity's website as being on sale at the same $1749 for an outside cabin.

 

If you were looking to book, the price might be a determining factor as to which sailing you would choose if you had the flexibility of dates. It could mean as much as $1,000 difference if you pick one date over another.

 

 

MARAPRINCE

[Rick-cruiser]

Hi, I was just wondering where you monitor the price of cabins on a regular basis. Is it on the Celebrity Website itself? Or do you use some other source? Thank you in advance for answering this... :)

[NorCalCruiseGuy]

Am I seeing things? Didn't I read all kinds of 'blather' on here not too long ago about how there is aboslutley positively no more discounting on Celebrity cruises? That the LIST price is THE price, and etc etc.? (ps, this is being posted, mostly, tongue in cheek, as I knew that was a bunch of baloney anyway... :D )

 

 

The prices on the website change constantly, thanks to their inventory management software. If a particular sailing, or class of stateroom isn't selling well, they will reduce the fare. If there is a heavy demand, they will raise it. Long gone are the days of printing prices in brochures which had an inflated "brochure price" to handle potential increases in fuel, food, labor, etc, since the brochures were printed many months prior to the sailings. Prices are altered constantly based on demand.

We booked our SNovember 2007 South America cruise in a 2A Veranda stateroom, including airfare in May of this year. By June the fare for a Concierge Class stateroom on the same sailing, with airfare was about $1,200 LESS than we were paying for the 2A. Needless to say we called our travel agent and opted for the CC stateroom for $1,200 less. The difference was in a special airfare promotion they were running for a few days, and we just happened to see it. The next week, the fares were back near the original price. Go figure.