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On 12/10/2020 at 5:51 AM, WesternBroncoCruiser said:

In Feb we did Puerto Madryn on our own,  We got a Taxi to Trewlew to see the Paleontology Museum and then had a fabulous lunch in town, walked along the beach front.  

 

Just curious how much it cost for the taxi for the day?

I had booked a C1 in Feb 2022 on Infinity. Looks like that one has not been reclassified as SV. 

I looked at a Jan 2023 cruise and even the day it came out all the aft cabins were booked. I found that odd and even checked to see if they were available as SV (that was over a month ago). Today as I check there is the "black box" with several of the aft cabins available. 

I'm wondering if my Feb 2022 will be reclassified (and repriced?) as an SV, although with none available it's impossible to tell what pricing might be.

2 hours ago, prish said:

If the Infinity and Connie are indeed transferred to Pullmantur, any idea which ships might replace them? Especially the South American itineraries  we’re talking about now? Would love for the Silhouette to be brought back as per the original deployment...

Speculation--Celebrity sells smaller ships and SilverSea becomes the only small ship option of RCCL. 

Do the smaller ships still fit the future of the Celebrity brand? Can they be operated profitably in the future of cruising?

6 minutes ago, Spif Barwunkel said:

When Infinity takes over 2022 cruises from South America, she will indeed be a revolutionized version of her former self.

the "revolutionization" was supposed to happen in November 2020 but was put off. is there any information that it will still happen before 2022?

11 hours ago, Flatbush Flyer said:

These "4 category" sales come along every once and awhile. Hopefully, you understand that it would be along the lines of B3 to A3. So, you'll get some concierge perks for whatever is the B price (starting next week). 

Of course, the overall prices may go up as well, which could make it not much of a "sale."

Last sale in the summer prices remained the same and I was able to get a B2 veranda for the price of an inside cabin. saved several thousands of dollars. who knows what Monday will bring?

4 hours ago, ECCruise said:

Got it.

Just a word of advice re: Antarctica.  Make sure you compare prices on Excursion Trips (if you are up to it--many prefer to watch from a distance).  We did a 12 day excursion on a brand new 400 pax ship (with only 200 aboard) for prices comparable to some of the Drive By prices on =X=.  Many are considerably more expensive, but if you can snag a deal as we did, the experience is totally different.  We did 13 landings while we were on the Peninsula. 

I had looked into some of those ships. so far all I could find was about 3x what Celebrity has. also not sure my wife would be up for the expedition excursions, so a "drive by" might be all we could hope for at this point. I still have a year before final payment to keep looking though!

got a brochure in the mail promoting the black friday sale, with "up to" 4 category upgrade. fine print says the sale runs 23 Nov-2 Dec.

the brochure didn't list anything I'm interested in, but last time they had a 4 category upgrade sale there were some good prices. I guess we'll have to wait until Monday to see which cruises will have those sale prices applied.

21 minutes ago, ECCruise said:

You must have been paying a lot at first.

Just looked at our sailing, 14 day round the Horn went to 12 day round the Horn.

Price more than doubled.  Caveat:  Refundable.  Will never book non-refundable again.  Once and done with that.

we are doing the Antactica trip. on average, they are more than the around the horn trips. I had priced it out back in October, then prices went up, so I went ahead and booked in case the All Inclusive made the prices go up even more. final payment isn't due for a full year still--I think we'll be cruising by 2022, but I figured I'd book and lock it in but have a full year to cancel. and I can still take advantage of the cancel within 48 hours for a FCC if I wanted to extend beyond final payment and still wasn't totally sure about going. 

looks like all South American sailings of Silhouette in 2022

we were booked on the Silhouette in South America in 2022, but all itineraries now show Infinity. when I called to rebook, they had both cruises still showing...

had booked a cruise for 2022 the other day. today, the ship had changed from Silhouette to Infinity, and the All Inclusive had started. rebooked from a VS to a C1, added the Elevate package (pay $168 get $200 pp shoreex) and ended up saving $1400. not sure if better pricing is from the ship change or the new All Inclusive but I'll take it. there is an option to make the booking refundable, it was $658 total for the booking. the other day the non-refundable pricing was about $2000 more. 

18 minutes ago, wrk2cruise said:

 

The penalty is only if you cancel or change sailing ship/date.   I've repriced NRD a few times with no penalty.

I suppose if you wanted to, you could book refundable deposit and sometime down the road reprice it to non-refundable if those choices work the way you want. Since final payment on the cruise I'm looking at isn't due for a year, I could easily switch to non-refundable if the price is right and things look like they'll be sailing by then.

14 minutes ago, wrk2cruise said:

 

Did you click to the next screen where it offers 2/4 perks as well.  If you select 2 perks it's $0 and you can select any 2 of the 4.   Really bad IT.

I see what you mean, maybe they hope people will miss the "2 perk" option. 

selecting internet and prepaid gratuities I end up paying $1200 more for the non-refundable privilege. 

I'd prefer to just get gratuities with the non-refundable price. perhaps again I'll just have to book it that way and maybe a better offer comes up that lets me choose something other than drinks. 

On 10/16/2020 at 9:34 PM, alcpa1 said:

Booking a 2022 cruise this far out without the perks you want could create a problem. Often the offers are for new bookings only. 

with Celebrity promoting their best price guarantee, I wouldn't expect them to adhere to "new bookings only" and allow you to take advantage of any upcoming promotions. I would also expect that changing to better pricing with the nonrefundable pricing would not trigger the penalty. 

On 10/17/2020 at 8:08 AM, Purplsmurf said:

If you book a refundable deposit you are able to pick 2 perks at no extra charge.

on the cruise I'm looking at, only the drink package still for refundable--plus it's about $1700 more. depends on the cruise I guess.

4 minutes ago, gerelmx said:

 

Promotions Calendar

https://www.celebritysalescom.com/1080/

that's helpful.

I could I guess book now and change later if the perk offerings change without affecting the price that much. I usually find prepaid gratuities being of greater value to me than a drink package. 

I haven't been paying attention to what Celebrity's been up to all year. Thinking about booking a 2022 cruise, but right now the promotion is "free drink package" without a choice for anything else. Has that been common recently, or do we just wait for the next promotion to come along and then we might get to choose something else? Have they been offering anything but drink packages recently?

18 minutes ago, KroozNut said:

Personally, I would caution against initiating a dispute with your credit card and encourage more patience. We just recently received our refund for a HAL cancelled 14 March sailing.

 

Filing the dispute may 'muddy up the waters' so to speak.. JMHO.

IMHO, filing a dispute puts a credit back on your card, which you can use to delay payment of other charges. 

the credit card knows how to handle it. it may be confusing watching credits post, then refunds post, then charges reposted to reverse the double credit, but not sure what "muddy the waters" means. either HAL gives you a refund or the credit card company makes it permanent. in the meantime you have a credit that can offset some other bills. 

3 minutes ago, Alibaster McGillicutty said:

When was your cruise?

When did you or HAL cancel?

Curious so I know how long to wait before contacting the cc company.

 

Does it matter that is was a Carnival cc 😁

I had 2 cruises booked with HAL--one for June that I canceled 10 days before they did, and another in August. 

I do not believe it matters how long you give HAL before contacting the credit card company. there is nothing on their process that tells you to wait a certain amount of time. 

the best thing about disputing is I did get "conditional" credit for everything, so now I don't have to pay my credit card bills this month (or the next and maybe the next). sure they can take back the credit, but the cruises are really canceled and there is no reason for them to not grant the refunds permanently.

rather than wait for HAL to keep my money interest free (when they are giving 12.5% to investors for their funding and bonds), I disputed 6 charges on two cards last week. two $50 charges for small deposits were immediately and permanently refunded. the remaining are now "in process" and waiting for feedback from HAL, but should resolve within 45 days. 

HAL's primary interest is for the shareholders, not the customers. they will do what's necessary to keep the company afloat (pun intended) first, then pay out to customers as they can. disputing the charge is kind of like going to the front of the line I guess. either they address it within 45 days or it's resolved in my favor. I do not feel bad for asserting my rights to money I've paid and is due back to me. 

North American crew members on HAL are not yet disembarking. A recent article stated from HAL that the CDC requirements were too onerous to comply with. Those included having to charter flights or provide private transportation, but apparently the biggest problem is the cruise line executives must legally certify that the ship does not have an infection. Cruise leaders are hesitant to bind themselves legally to this. Just yesterday several cruise lines went ahead and made those certifications allowing NCL, Disney, and some RCL crew to schedule disembarkation. 

https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/cruise-ship-crew-stuck-at-sea/index.html

I would bet the first step to getting North American crew off is to do a 2 week lockdown to verify there is no spread of the virus (which apparently they have already started). Since they just transferred some new crew to ships off the coast, I'm not sure if that 2 weeks would start again or whether isolation for individuals is sufficient. 

1 hour ago, SJSULIBRARIAN said:

Same day cancel as OP. Nothing yet. I think all cruise lines have severe cash flow problem. May not see cash refunds for several months IMO.

 this. 

only 2 reasons for refunds to take a long time. either it's a manual process that requires some approval (I doubt that), or it's a cash flow issue (not enough cash to keep the company alive and refund everyone all at once). 

On 12/2/2019 at 11:41 PM, MisterBill99 said:

 

When is your cruise? I think I read that you can even buy OBC while you're on board, although I wouldn't want to chance that.

technically the american express offer must be made from the hal website, not onboard. that doesn't mean it won't work, but just do it ahead of time to be sure. 

for those buying obc, is it refundable if it's not all used?

On 11/19/2019 at 7:32 PM, MisterBill99 said:

Also, the offer does not say "in a single transaction" which is would if that were a requirement. On the other hand, it also did not say "in one or more charges" as it has in the past.

Update on my offer. Booked 2 shore excursions and 2 bus transfers at the same time. Two different charges posted to my account based on the purchase category I guess. One cleared 2 days before the other, neither was over $500 by themselves, but both together were over $500. Eventually got the $100 credit once the second charge cleared. 

I have a second offer for 10,000 points I'll likely just pay $500 on the cruise as I haven't hit final payment yet.

On 11/16/2019 at 7:42 AM, Homosassa said:

Like Dave said, HAL's practice has been that OBC can only be used on board.

Any excursions booked before the cruise is charged to the credit card used.

The charge can not be removed from the card and the OBC applied when on board the ship.

It seems some are able to get a refund for the shore excursion they booked and then use the OBC to pay for it onboard. The policy is that any "refunds" of pre-paid excursions have at least a 10% cancellation fee while onboard (no fee if cancelled before you board). Refunds go to your shipboard account as refundable OBC, then at the end of the cruise put on the card you gave them for the cruise (not necessarily the same card you used to book the excursion originally).