Please help! Need advice....

My husband and I booked a IB cat with a great $100 air promotion for the Infinity Sep 26 sailing. I talked my Grandmother and her friend into coming along, and they booked thier own oceanview cabin with $400 promotion air (leaving from a different departure city.)

Now, my Grandmother's friend is terminally ill and will not be able to go. My grandmother is trying to find a last minute replacement, but it's not certain she will be able to.

I called my TA to see if I could add her to our stateroom as a 3rd person, but they told me that they would have to re-price my entire booking which would increase my price more that just paying for both fares on my Grandmother's reservation!

I need some advice here.... Has anyone ever run into this problem? Can they partner her up with another single cruiser is needed? I can't just let her cancel her trip, since it's all her and I have been looking forward to since November!

Neither one of them has purchased insurance for the trip (despite all of my urging)and even if they did Celebrity tells me that my Grandmother could not sail alone without paying double.

Any suggestions would be SO helpful!

Thanks,

Melanie

Summit - Alaska 7/4/03

Infinity - Hawaii 9/26/04

Melanie..my advice would be to check with several other TAs. Sounds to me like you could back out with no penalty and rebook with your grandmother in the room. Also research the fares on the web. Good luck.

Yes- my suggestion also- search what current pricing and availablitiy is?? AND rebook if necessary- you should be outside of the penalities aren't you?? Worse case- your grandmother may have to cancel?? If there are no "thirds" left, you have a tough choice- isn't there someone else who could go??

as far as not having insurance, you are well within the cancelation period to not get hurt financially

Well, she can cancel and rebook without penalties.... so can I.

However, the price has gone up so much that it would be cheaper to keep the 2 cabins. I was just hoping that she could cancel hers and I could rebook mine but at the current prices it would be more expensive that way.

I thought that I could just add her on to my cabin (without having to reprice everything) and pay the 3rd person rate, but apparently, they won't let me do that.

I guess that if she can't find another person to take her friend's place I will just have to pay for her friend's portion and let her sail alone. Will they allow that? I sure don't want to pay the $1600, but I can't imagine going without her now; not when all she has talked about for months is going to Hawaii. She has never been there and she has been so excited about going.

Summit - Alaska 7/4/03

Infinity - Hawaii 9/26/04

I think what the OP is referring to is that to cancel her grandmother's booking and add her to her own cabin (as the third passenger) requires an entirely new booking. And it appears the prices have gone up significantly. If the OP had a cabin that held 3 (and I'm not sure whether she does or not), then she should be able to just add the third person without the price of passengers No. 1 and 2 being affected. However, if it's only a double occupancy cabin, and it would mean their switching cabins entirely to a triple, then they probably have to pay whatever the current fare is, which the OP has alluded to is more than what they paid originally.

caribbeanqueen3@comcast.net

My current booking is for 2 people. My cabin will accomodate 3 people, but like jerseygirl said, I would have to create an entirely new booking at current prices. Instead of my cabin costing $3300, it would be $6200! I would rather just pay for her friends portion if it came to that. I'm just dissapointed that Celebrity won't let me add a 3rd person to my original booking without re-pricing all 3 of us at the higher, current rate. Do you know what I mean?

Summit - Alaska 7/4/03

Infinity - Hawaii 9/26/04

Jerseygirl, are you saying that I should be able to just add another person to my cabin without affecting the 1st two passenger's rates? That what I thought I could do, but my TA says that is not the case. Hmmm, I wonder if I should just ask Celebrity?

Summit - Alaska 7/4/03

Infinity - Hawaii 9/26/04

Again, I would suggest you call another TA. Get someone else's input.

Thanks for all of your input!!!

I called my TA again and spoke with a different person. They called Celebrity and said that I could add another person without changing my or my husband's rate. Which is great news!!!

Oh course, now I'm really upset at the other person I spoke with the first time. He really should learn to know what he's talking about. He could have cost me a lot of money if I hadn't questioned it.

Thanks everyone....

Summit - Alaska 7/4/03

Infinity - Hawaii 9/26/04

good news!!!

thats why a good ta is priceless

Cozy...A good TA is one thing, but this board is what is priceless

I just saved myself $125 this week from the board's advice. Don't know what I would do without you guys/gals.

I agree! This board has helped me many times. I hope I can repay the favor when someone asks me something I can give advice on!

Summit - Alaska 7/4/03

Infinity - Hawaii 9/26/04

Yes as Duck says A good T.A. is priceless and a bad T.A. is WORTHLESS. I love the input from the C.C. boards. They will never let you down.

Until I am back on the Infinity

Coz, so glad it worked out okay. I couldn't understand why you would have to be repriced if you were in a cabin that held 3 passengers in the first place. I do know I've run into problems when I had to switch cabins because our original cabin didn't hold more than 2; I then had to pay the higher price.

It seems whenever we plan a family cruise, our kids always decide they want to bring friends along (of course, they tell us this after we book). Since we have four boys, we now always book two quad cabins for the boys so they have two extra berths per cabin in case friends decide to come (and trust me, they always do). Last May we had our four boys plus four of their friends; I felt like I was on a class trip!

Sometimes the cruiselines balk at booking a quad cabin for two, but my TA always manages to get them to agree by letting them know we are more than likely to fill it. However, if we found we weren't going to, we'd just cancel out one cabin and then move the other two into the other cabin and fill one quad cabin.

caribbeanqueen3@comcast.net