best place to purchase celebrity cruise?

[hackette]

Hi,

I dson't think this applies to the UK.

RCCl/Celebrity has a registered office at Southampton and I book direct with them and have had no difficulty whatsoever in getting price drops/upgrades.

The UK website is slightly different from the US one. For instance cruises are priced in pounds sterling not dollars but the main essentials are exactly the same. I usually compare the two websites before making a booking to ensure I'm geting the best possible deal and so far haven't felt I've missed out in anyway by booking directly with the company.

I hope this helps UK cruisers who may be worried that they would be losing out by booking direct with Celebrity/RCCL/Azamara.

[sheeng]

I book directly with Celebrity on-line from here in Brussels. I was on Solstice in January -- booked from here -- and am on Century in August. In 2008 we cruised twice -- both booked from Brussels.

Sheila.

[AloraDanin]

Well, we're fairly newby cruisers...the one coming up on May 2nd will be our 8th. I didn't know you could get the reduced price if the price dropped before you sailed...very good thing to know. I don't like to book too early in case I pay too much, but knowing I can monitor the prices, pick my cabin, and get the later lower price is good to know.

 

Barbara

[CLEMM]

I always use a TA and I always monitor on my own for price drops. I feel like this is the best of both worlds. On our last cruise the TA arranged for the most spectacular private tour for us that enabled us to go where others tourists were not permitted. I kid you not. Our tour guide actually had to drop the rope that was barricading off one area, let us throough, and then re attach the rope. All of this was a gift from our TA! Needless to say, I am using them again. I have already seen one price drop and my TA cheerfully arranged for the new price. No problems.

[ghstudio]

I always use a TA and I always monitor on my own for price drops. I feel like this is the best of both worlds. On our last cruise the TA arranged for the most spectacular private tour for us that enabled us to go where others tourists were not permitted. I kid you not. Our tour guide actually had to drop the rope that was barricading off one area, let us throough, and then re attach the rope. All of this was a gift from our TA! Needless to say, I am using them again. I have already seen one price drop and my TA cheerfully arranged for the new price. No problems.

 

Now that's the type of TA that deserves repeat business....even if it means giving up a small discount.

 

Nice find....wish you could post their name :)

[cvaty]

I book directly with Celebrity on-line from here in Brussels. I was on Solstice in January -- booked from here -- and am on Century in August. In 2008 we cruised twice -- both booked from Brussels.

Sheila.

Hi Sheila,

I would like to thank you for the information!

For us (in Vienna) it is not working.

You will find a contact person listed.

[sheeng]

Hi Sheila,

I would like to thank you for the information!

For us (in Vienna) it is not working.

You will find a contact person listed.

 

Hello again CVATY

 

Go to Celebrity home page. On the lower left you will see a picture of a Celebrity brochure and a box you can click on to order.

Below this it says "Not from Austria click here"

It then tells you to select your country of residence - scroll down to US

You can now make a US booking. However, I do have a US credit card. Perhaps you will not be able to complete a booking without that. I also have a US Post Office box.

 

Good luck and happy cruising.

[CruiseDad-NYC]

I booked directlly with Celebrity for our trip on the Millenium last year. The rep was snotty when I asked if there were any OBCs or discounts available (I was getting 2 CC cabins for 4 people). In fact, I've almost always found Celebrity/RCCL onshore reps not very customer service friendly and I've wondered why there is such a disconnect between the on-board experience with Celebrity (where they go "overboard" trying to make sure you have a great trip) to the on-shore experience (where they act like they could not care less whether you cruised with them or not).

 

This year, I booked through the travel department of a "membership warehouse club." I booked 2 CC cabins for 4 people at $1099 each and received an OBC of $275 per cabin (so that's $550 - not an insignificant amount - if my math is right, that's a 12.5% discount). They were also nice and helpful. If the price went down before I had to make the final payment on the tickets (it didn't), I would have received an adjustment. I'll never book directly with Celebrity again.

[aandjw]

OK - this could open me up to much criticism, but....

 

All things being equal, isn't it good to have someone local to assist you? Now in rural ares of the country this may not be possible, but in most suburban areas this is still fairly easy, and gets you a TA with some vested interest in your reservation.

 

In addition, you are adding $$ to your local economy. The commission earned by a local TA gets turned into salaries for employees, rent to local shopping centers/office buildings, goodwill (sponsorships of local charities/sports/schools is one example), etc...

 

The pricing rules are the same for all agencies so your pricing shouldn't vary much at all.

 

As an owner of a small(er) travel agency, I can't always compete on the OBC side. My overhead is higher than an online agency. However, the money that my company earns is turned back over to the local economy in many ways that I can't even think of!

 

If you've had a bad experience with your local agency - throw them out. I am sure we've screwed up in the past and lost customers - no one is perfect. But we appreciate the business we get from our community and try to return the favor in spades.

 

In the end, you have to feel that you've gotten value for your vacation dollars. I just wanted to throw out another suggestion.

 

Just my $.02 (or $.01 in this economy!)

[cvaty]

Hello again CVATY

 

Go to Celebrity home page. On the lower left you will see a picture of a Celebrity brochure and a box you can click on to order.

Below this it says "Not from Austria click here"

It then tells you to select your country of residence - scroll down to US

You can now make a US booking. However, I do have a US credit card. Perhaps you will not be able to complete a booking without that. I also have a US Post Office box.

 

Good luck and happy cruising.

Hi Sheila!

Thank you very much!

I have now the information how it can be done!

 

No,I don´t have a US post box and credit card.

The first one would be nice for shopping.

The second one for fuss-free bookings.

 

I hope you will like your cruise on Century!

[devnull]

OK - this could open me up to much criticism, but....

 

All things being equal, isn't it good to have someone local to assist you? Now in rural ares of the country this may not be possible, but in most suburban areas this is still fairly easy, and gets you a TA with some vested interest in your reservation.

 

In addition, you are adding $$ to your local economy. The commission earned by a local TA gets turned into salaries for employees, rent to local shopping centers/office buildings, goodwill (sponsorships of local charities/sports/schools is one example), etc...

 

The pricing rules are the same for all agencies so your pricing shouldn't vary much at all.

 

As an owner of a small(er) travel agency, I can't always compete on the OBC side. My overhead is higher than an online agency. However, the money that my company earns is turned back over to the local economy in many ways that I can't even think of!

 

If you've had a bad experience with your local agency - throw them out. I am sure we've screwed up in the past and lost customers - no one is perfect. But we appreciate the business we get from our community and try to return the favor in spades.

 

In the end, you have to feel that you've gotten value for your vacation dollars. I just wanted to throw out another suggestion.

 

Just my $.02 (or $.01 in this economy!)

 

You make some good points, especially regarding supporting our local economy, however my personal experience the last 10 years has led me to go with a non local TA. I can only tell you why I ended up leaving my local TA for a non-local one and a better OBC or credit wasn't the main reason.

 

The local TA never caught the price decreases, I either read about them here or kept checking and finding them on my own. I don't think it was intentional on their part. They had a policy that if you had to cancel a cruise before final payment, there was a $100.00 fee. Thanks to this message board and others online I always knew more then them about private tours, the latest news on the ship or hotel I was using, airline changes, etc...I had informed them about this site and others but as far as I know they never had time to read them. I found out my cruise in 2001 was canceled here first, I was the one that let my local TA know they hadn't heard yet. They were not as quick as the current east coast TA I'm using in grabbing the stateroom I want when a cruise in demand first opens up, of course my local TA was on west coast time, so I'm sure that was part of that problem. The local TA did make a nice gesture of a gift worth $30.00pp for dinner at the specialty restaurant

 

My current east coast TA which is a agency that has been in business for 12 years and does a big volume with Celebrity and other lines, is somehow able to give me more valuable gifts for booking (I don't ask for them, I just tell them what cruise I would like to book next and they volunteer that they will be able to do such and such for that cruise). They don't charge any cancellation fee if I have to cancel before final payment, this happened recently and they were quick to process my deposit refund without me first booking another cruise. Last cruise we took on Celebrity's Solstice in a SS they found the price decreases before I could, which really surprised me.

 

I suppose I wouldn't have tried my current TA when someone on one of my cruises recommended them to me if my local TA had been doing a stellar job. I have to say the local agency was always friendly. If I needed a lot of hand holding planning my trips and wasn't used to researching them online, it would likely be a different situation and I suspect that local TA that can't always compete with the larger agencies need to really promote themselves more to a demographic that doesn't like to be involved in any part of their trip and wants someone else to handle every little detail for them. While the larger agency is giving me better service then my former local TA, I suspect they wouldn't be able to give the detailed type of service that the demographic I just mentioned would need.

 

I do sympathize with all TA's that find it hard to compete with the large ones. Years ago I owned a local bookstore that gave very personal service, and while some customers were very loyal, in the end the discounts that the chain bookstores and then later companies like Amazon could provide made it very difficult for me to retain most of them, especially during a downturn in the economy.

[ghstudio]

I agree with the above....especially the information handholding advantages of having someone local. I know there are some that will use the local TA for information and then book online...that's scummy in my book. If I'm getting good information from someone, then I deal with that person.

 

However, I won't deal with a local TA who knows nothing about where I'm going, hasn't been there, doesn't know the ships or the airports and is fundamentally just someone who will sit at the computer and look up the same information I can find myself. I said earlier, I tried to arrange a china trip with a local TA and it was incredibly frustrating. I then tried to arrange another african trip with a different local TA and they admitted up front that they really had no one who knew Africa...which gained them some points, but I didn't use them.

 

A good local TA is worth whatever they charge. A local TA who books cruises and uses the cruise line's transportation, hotels and excursions isn't providing any value, at least to me....so I seek out the deals.

 

We found a TA that I felt I could trust and did a china private trip. It cost twice what I could have booked it for at other online agencies...but this TA knew the cities, knew how long to stay in each and what to do, knew the hotels, worked out a schedule so we could visit some sites that are only open certain days of the week and she was able to hand pick our guides. I was glad to pay for those services.

 

Putting money into the local economy sounds elegant and noble....but it's service based on experience that gets my dollars.

[frisbeeace]

I also agree. My local Celebrity rep does not offer any OBC or bonus and they charge VAT on their commission so the price is actually much higher than the big online companies. As I commented before they don't respond promptly to any price drop or booking changes. On the other hand, I can follow prices and available cabins at this big online company web site in real time.

[aandjw]

excellent points - East Coast hours vs. West coast hours can make a difference on getting what you want. Also - any agency that isn't at least LOOKING at outside airfares and hotels (vs. cruise line packages) needs to get with the times!

 

I think a checklist for evaluating an agency (either online or brick and mortar) would be very helpful for the consumer - asking about their destination knowledge, cruise line honors/experience, cancellation costs over the cruise line, service fees, years in business, etc. Then they have some other criteria besides just the "bottom line".

[wally8]

I've booked a cruise for Feb 2010 in a FV on the Millinium through Celebrity. My agent has said she will continually look for price drops yet when I go to their web site, it states that my cabin category is sold out. Would one assume that if this is the case then there would be no future price drops for that category so it would be better to go to a TA and get the credits? Wally8

[cvaty]

OK - this could open me up to much criticism, but....

 

All things being equal, isn't it good to have someone local to assist you? Now in rural ares of the country this may not be possible, but in most suburban areas this is still fairly easy, and gets you a TA with some vested interest in your reservation.

 

In addition, you are adding $$ to your local economy. The commission earned by a local TA gets turned into salaries for employees, rent to local shopping centers/office buildings, goodwill (sponsorships of local charities/sports/schools is one example), etc...

 

The pricing rules are the same for all agencies so your pricing shouldn't vary much at all.

 

As an owner of a small(er) travel agency, I can't always compete on the OBC side. My overhead is higher than an online agency. However, the money that my company earns is turned back over to the local economy in many ways that I can't even think of!

 

If you've had a bad experience with your local agency - throw them out. I am sure we've screwed up in the past and lost customers - no one is perfect. But we appreciate the business we get from our community and try to return the favor in spades.

 

In the end, you have to feel that you've gotten value for your vacation dollars. I just wanted to throw out another suggestion.

 

Just my $.02 (or $.01 in this economy!)

 

I can´t say how it works explicit for Americans using a TA.

 

In Europe you will have a small TA this will call another agency,the agency will call the partner of Celebrity.

 

Online TA in the States have longer bussiness hours and more faster information

[Mysticks1]

I've booked a cruise for Feb 2010 in a FV on the Millinium through Celebrity. My agent has said she will continually look for price drops yet when I go to their web site, it states that my cabin category is sold out. Would one assume that if this is the case then there would be no future price drops for that category so it would be better to go to a TA and get the credits? Wally8

 

The FV cabins on Solstice have always shown sold out. It is because they require a certain number to book them. You have to go through a TA or direct through Celebrity (depending upon your method of booking) to check those cabins. With the low numbers of FV cabins though I would think the chance of price drops on those might be slim. JMHO

Another thing to take into consideration is if you are cruising in Europe that there is a at least a 6 hour time difference. (from the East Coast of US) You could need help with a problem and be unable to contact a brick and mortar agency due to the time difference.

[sasset]

I've booked a cruise for Feb 2010 in a FV on the Millinium through Celebrity. My agent has said she will continually look for price drops yet when I go to their web site, it states that my cabin category is sold out. Would one assume that if this is the case then there would be no future price drops for that category so it would be better to go to a TA and get the credits? Wally8

 

Check everyday. We started watching a November Summit cruise in January. FV was listed as sold out. In early February two FV's opened up. Ever since it has been listed as sold out.

 

Last year we were booked on the Summit for a March transatlantic. Watching everyday for a fare drop I saw FV's appear then disappear and reappear. People likely putting a courtesy hold on them and then letting it expire. This continued well after final apyment date.

 

Regards

[mlmagic]

Celebrity, or RCCL do not discount their fares, but putting some effort into looking for a good ESTABLISHED TA is worth it, as you can get CC and other perks...

[carnivalman]

Having booked both ways, I prefer to only book direct with the cruiseline. All changes can be made online versus going thru a TA for some of them. A TA got my wife's name wrong and it took many calls to correct it. If the cruise was booked directly with Celebrity, I could have made the changes with them & not wasted a week getting the mistake resolved.

 

Also, when I'm several thousand miles from home and ready to get on a ship, I don't need to call my TA if there's a snafu at the dock during check-in and find out it's after hours back home. OBC is nice, but the downside can be far worse.

[Cruise Junky]

Having booked both ways, I prefer to only book direct with the cruiseline. All changes can be made online versus going thru a TA for some of them. A TA got my wife's name wrong and it took many calls to correct it. If the cruise was booked directly with Celebrity, I could have made the changes with them & not wasted a week getting the mistake resolved.

 

Also, when I'm several thousand miles from home and ready to get on a ship, I don't need to call my TA if there's a snafu at the dock during check-in and find out it's after hours back home. OBC is nice, but the downside can be far worse.

 

You're giving up a lot of OBC for "what-ifs"

[Tugboatbob]

I live in Canada and booked my next cruise with Celebrity direct. I was billed in Canadian dollars, I requested and received two price drops totaling $2,000 and I was offered an upgrade to a suite for US$250 p/p , which I gladly accepted. How's that for service ?

[ghstudio]

Having booked both ways, I prefer to only book direct with the cruiseline. All changes can be made online versus going thru a TA for some of them. A TA got my wife's name wrong and it took many calls to correct it. If the cruise was booked directly with Celebrity, I could have made the changes with them & not wasted a week getting the mistake resolved.

 

Also, when I'm several thousand miles from home and ready to get on a ship, I don't need to call my TA if there's a snafu at the dock during check-in and find out it's after hours back home. OBC is nice, but the downside can be far worse.

 

What do you think calling celebrity from the dock will do. They will most likely tell you it's out of their control, you have to deal with the folks on site or on the ship. In reality, there really is no real advantage at all in dealing with Celebrity direct. In fact, when you have a problem, you will find that you have no one to go to bat for you.....they work for the cruise line..they are not going to escalate a problem....

 

You are probably more likely not to resolve problems if you use the cruise line directly. Think about it...

[The_Big_M]

In fact, when you have a problem, you will find that you have no one to go to bat for you.....they work for the cruise line..they are not going to escalate a problem....

 

You are probably more likely not to resolve problems if you use the cruise line directly. Think about it...

 

The other side of the coin is that a particular travel agent may not be as competent, or as keen to do relevant activities and therefore obstruct the process. Add to that other issues such as negotiating price drops, where it means a reduction in their commission and that may also discourage them to be helpful. In that case, you could say that getting paid by the cruise line means that they'll be unwilling to assist.

 

The reality is it comes down to the individual. Some travel agents will still be helpful, even if it means a reduction in commission, as they value service and/or want to keep the relationship. The very same thing can be said for the Celebrity employee. Neither are general arguments for or against, but where a travel agent is unknown, removing that middleman eliminates one potential obstacle.

[Bridge Maven]

I have booked cruises directly through Celebrity, NCL, Carnival, Holland America, and Royal Caribbean. Every experience I had with booking directly through a cruise line was excellent, so I prefer doing it this way.