How do you book the family cabins?

[chessbriar]

Cruise Junky,

 

You will be very happy with the Solstice class ships, the FV have been moved to the front of the ship. You can have all the afts you want.

 

I think they have worked to make the afts on the C class easier to get as well. But for the time being, things are as they are on the M class.

[Luxuriate]

What I think I am hearing is that Celebrity puts "holds" on certain staterooms, such as the HC rooms and the FV rooms. They can be booked by a travel agent if certain needs arise. If they aren't booked they, sooner or later, will open for anyone to book. Right?

 

I just noticed that when I looked at specific cabins for my Connie 2009 cruise I could not find any open FV rooms. HC rooms either.

 

Cheryl

[Cruise Junky]

Don't give them any ideas. You may find other cabins you want put on hold.

 

How would you feel if for those aft FV cabins, as soon as they came out they put a price on them and left them open, but the price was equivilent to the what you would expect for 2 people plus the 3 extras. Would he be willing to pay and extra $1500-$2400 on top of what you would expect to pay for 2 people. That's what a family of 5 is paying.

/QUOTE]

 

Honestly, yes I would for some trips, depending on the length and the amount of Sea Days. I totally get the economics, that is why my original argument was based on "If I'm Willing to Pay, I should be able to book" and I should have clarified that meant pay the same as a party of 4 or 5 not scheme my way in by cancelling three people at the last minute. You don't see hotels holding back their largest suites for larger groups, if you want it and are willing to pay the price, you can book them, if all that's left is a single by the time the family decides, sorry, you missed out.

 

In an ideal world, they should be open for six weeks when cruises open, if they're not grabbed by families at that time, open them up, that way the people that really want them won't be faced with huge price increases as it's so close to sailing date.

[chessbriar]

 

Honestly, yes I would for some trips, depending on the length and the amount of Sea Days. I totally get the economics, that is why my original argument was based on "If I'm Willing to Pay, I should be able to book" and I should have clarified that meant pay the same as a party of 4 or 5 not scheme my way in by cancelling three people at the last minute. You don't see hotels holding back their largest suites for larger groups, if you want it and are willing to pay the price, you can book them, if all that's left is a single by the time the family decides, sorry, you missed out.

 

In an ideal world, they should be open for six weeks when cruises open, if they're not grabbed by families at that time, open them up, that way the people that really want them won't be faced with huge price increases as it's so close to sailing date.

Hotels don't open bookings up as far in advance a the cruise lines do. They are usually about a year.

 

One last question. If X were to change their policy regarding FV cabins allowing people to book them and pay for 5 as you are willing, if they put in their policy they would bump you to a CC for 2 if the cabin was needed for a family of 5. By X's way of thinking, a CC is an upgrade from FV. Most of us wouldn't agree.

 

Before you say this can't happen, I've know people who were allowed to book a HC room only to be bumped when needed by a handicapped person

[Cruise Junky]

Hotels don't open bookings up as far in advance a the cruise lines do. They are usually about a year.

 

One last question. If X were to change their policy regarding FV cabins allowing people to book them and pay for 5 as you are willing, if they put in their policy they would bump you to a CC for 2 if the cabin was needed for a family of 5. By X's way of thinking, a CC is an upgrade from FV. Most of us wouldn't agree.

 

Before you say this can't happen, I've know people who were allowed to book a HC room only to be bumped when needed by a handicapped person

 

No arguement from me, I know it can happen..and heaven knows how they think a CC is an upgrade, that's insane.

 

I'm a Starwood girl, you can usually book around 18 months in advance for Westins, W, Sheratons etc. Around the same as a cruise.

 

Anyway, that's their policy, I don't like it and I'm free to book elsewhere, I was just stating my opinion that I didn't like not being able to book them for the two of us.

[Drew B]

FV cabins cannot be booked online at any time. You must either call Celebrity or go through a travel agent. There are supposed to be a minimum of 5 passengers to book. Some people will book with less than that (there are ways to do it), but especially far out from the sailing, you need to think if that's really the right thing to do, as there are families who need the space and to be together, rather than just wanting it.

 

I booked one online for just two people. Dozens of other times, I've seen them available for booking online. I think that at a certain point, they simply release the cabin to whomever wishes to book it. If your timing is lucky, you can snatch one up.

[Drew B]

No it's not. There are limited number of HC cabins and a limited number of FV cabins. Some HC people cannot use standard rooms. Some larger families cannot fit into standard rooms.

 

There are people out there who can't afford 2 cabins, or have enough small kids to not want to leave them alone. They may not have the disposible cash to have it held for 2 years. They may not know until a year out if they can get the time off work.

 

I think in nearly any case, 2 insides for 2 and 3 are going to be cheaper than 1 FV for 5!

 

It's a totally different scenario for the HC rooms. First of all, there are laws protecting the rights of people with disabilities. Secondly, disabled people don't have other choices. They CAN'T cruise if their cabin is not handicap accessible. Families can. They just need to make different choices and perhaps end up with a less desirable cabin situation.

 

Well, if either the family of 5 or the smaller party is going to have to settle for less than their most desirable cabin choice, why should the family automatically win? I have NO PROBLEM leaving that to the rule of "First come, first served". However Celebrity chooses to charge in order to make their finances work out is completely up to them. If smaller parties are willing to pay what it takes to make it worthwhile to X to sell them the room, I don't see any problem with it...

[chessbriar]

I think in nearly any case, 2 insides for 2 and 3 are going to be cheaper than 1 FV for 5!

 

It's a different situation when you have small children though.

 

I think that's one reason for the setup of the Solstice. Notice how many connecting cabins they have. It kind of reminds me of the new way they do two bedroom timeshares, a one bedroom with a lockout. I think they only have 4 of the FVs on the S class. But they don't need them with all the connecting cabins.

 

It would be even better if they gave the balcony discount RCCL does for their highest level repeat cruisers.

[Drew B]

It's a different situation when you have small children though.

 

 

Not if there are at least two adults/parents -- Dad goes in one cabin with one kid and mom in the other cabin with the other two kids. If it's a third adult, then mom and dad can even stay in the same cabin! Not ideal, but feasible. The only way it's NOT possible is with one parent and four kids, and I hope that doesn't happen often. I don't think it would be SAFE to have one parent and 4 young kids in an FV, either.

[BurBunny]

What I think I am hearing is that Celebrity puts "holds" on certain staterooms, such as the HC rooms and the FV rooms. They can be booked by a travel agent if certain needs arise. If they aren't booked they, sooner or later, will open for anyone to book. Right?

 

I just noticed that when I looked at specific cabins for my Connie 2009 cruise I could not find any open FV rooms. HC rooms either.

 

That's exactly right. Until a certain point in the booking process, the cabins are held back by Celebrity and aren't shown, even when you do a search by cabin. They have to be released to a booking by a Celebrity agent, either by direct booking with Celebrity, or through an agent.

[CRUZINSUZI]

Just wondering if anybody has had any luck booking a FV guarantee and ending up with a corner FV?

[critterchick]

That's exactly right. Until a certain point in the booking process, the cabins are held back by Celebrity and aren't shown, even when you do a search by cabin. They have to be released to a booking by a Celebrity agent, either by direct booking with Celebrity, or through an agent.

 

They must have changed their policy. We booked one online for late 2008.

 

It's a totally different scenario for the HC rooms. First of all, there are laws protecting the rights of people with disabilities. Secondly, disabled people don't have other choices. They CAN'T cruise if their cabin is not handicap accessible. Families can. They just need to make different choices and perhaps end up with a less desirable cabin situation.

 

Agreed.

[Moeve]

What really infuriates me is people booking those FV with the full intention of cancelling the other 3 just before final payment. That however only works for US bookings since they are the only ones without cancellation fees up to final payment.

 

Just as an example while on the Connie in Feb 2006 3 of us booked a Hawaii cruise on X but continuning Itin chnges turned it into a cruise which was no longer interesting to us so we paid a penatly to transfer our booking to the downunder cruises the day they opened. In the mean time a friend of mine "caught the cruisebug" and wanted to come along. The Mercury Standard cabins are just tooo small for 4 so I asked for one of the then still FO which are much bigger and doable. X said no needed to be 5. No there was no such thing as a waitlist. An extra cabin was not an option since we would have had to cancel our whole cruise loosing the 200.- USD OBC plus the cancelation fees of over 100.- Euros per Person. A couple of months later the Mercury went to dry dock and added those balconies and then X sells those cabin as a Cat 2 garantee most of which went to pax with 2 poeple. This really got my knickers in a knot because I had asked for one of those cabins from day one and had been given the NO story for months. And NO X will not bump a couple out of one of those cabins for a family at all. In our case the end of the story is our friend cannot come on the cruise downunder!!

 

See why this is often not such a cut an dried thing and why these few cabins should be kept for families......

[MiddleagedM]

Just wondering if anybody has had any luck booking a FV guarantee and ending up with a corner FV?

 

I booked a FV last September for a New England/Canada cruise this September for my wife and our mothers (4 in a FV room) We took the only available FV open at that time, but we called Celeb later and asked if we could change it to a corner FV room. They were very accomodating and since the room was available, they switched us to the corner room.

 

I didn't play any games, told them upfront we only had 4 people and had absolutley no problems gettign what we wanted

[Daffydd]

Our family of 5 sure fit nicely in it. The "couch" folds out to a bed, where both of our adoring children fit nicely. My mom slept on the other "couch", which conviently turns over to reveal a comfy bed there, too.

 

Donna

 

Last April I managed to book a GTY Family Cabin for 4 on Millenium T/A for Dec 2nd when my son could not come I felt it was correct to Book A cc for ourselves and an Inner for my daughter, then the cabins still stayed available from GTY to actual numbers phoned Celebrity and they changed us back ane even gave us the reduced price plus a reduction for 55 year olds

so now I am next door to the Cajun Liner

David

[6502programmer]

You will be very happy with the Solstice class ships, the FV have been moved to the front of the ship. You can have all the afts you want.

 

Yep, but now the corner afts are all SS, and carry the suite prices. Good for nothing cruise lines, charging premium prices for the most desirable cabins. ;)

[pegpowell]

We booked a FV because Celebrity doesn't show it as an FV and when we questioned them about it, they assured us that it is not an FV. A friend who recently sailed in these cabins knows that it is. The bottom line as far as I'm concerned is that Celebrity doesn't even know what they are selling.

[mahdnc]

peg,

 

which ship are you talking about? The Millennium class FVs should be pretty well known. However the Century class Cat 3 or FO's are being changed over and re-designated as FVs so I could see a problem during the transition. I cannot comment on the Solstice class FVs.

[pegpowell]

It is the Century Class. The diagrams of the rooms have a choice for your sailing date, but neither one shows the rooms as it is.

 

Mercury...

[Moeve]

The ones on the Mercury are currently not protected and are being sold as 2A later they are supposed to become SV (sunset verandas) but so far still not protected which I see being a problem.