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How Do You Book Your Cruises?


Chef Heather
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Just wondering how most people book their cruises; do you typically book with Celebrity (or another cruise line) directly? Personal travel agent? Online cruise agent?

 

Advantages or disadvantages of any of the above? Especially if cruise itinerary is international?

 

Thanks,

Heather

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We often book on board if they offer good perks. But the booking is handed over to our travel agent. We book other cruises through her as well. I like having someone who will go to bat for me if help is needed with the cruise line.

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I have booked every cruise we have taken (except DCL--that was MIL Xmas gift) thru a large online TA.

We have always gotten great deals & perks.

And I have always been happy with customer service as well!

This time is the only time I have been a bit annoyed; I booked a great deal, but we have been trying to upgrade the room but were told we would lose all our perks if we did that! (we were willing to pay more for the upgrade...) And Celebrity said we have to do it thru the TA.

Oh well, we were fine with what we booked--we will STILL have a fantastic time!

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We will book onboard whenever we have the opportunity. When we don't - I always call Celebrity and book over the phone to take advantage of the Captains Club 1 category upgrade - that can't be done online.

 

In either case - we always transfer to a TA within 60 days to take advantage of the additional "incentives".

 

Mike

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We will book onboard whenever we have the opportunity. When we don't - I always call Celebrity and book over the phone to take advantage of the Captains Club 1 category upgrade - that can't be done online.

 

In either case - we always transfer to a TA within 60 days to take advantage of the additional "incentives".

 

Mike

Any TA can get you the CC one category upgrade. However, it is usually considered a perk and may disqualify you from more valuable perks if you take it. Usually book on board to get the perks and transfer to a TA for more perks.

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Any TA can get you the CC one category upgrade. However, it is usually considered a perk and may disqualify you from more valuable perks if you take it.

 

Do you mean the TA's consider it a perk or Celebrity does? I've never had Celebrity say that the upgrade couldn't be combined with any other offer. Not saying it doesn't happen - just hasn't happened to me.

 

I agree in many cases the upgrade isn't very valuable - but there have been a few of times its saved a few hundred dollars.

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Although we have booked directly with the cruise line, we usually use a online travel agent because we get the best price and perks.

 

Sometimes we book with the cruise line and move the booking to a TA.

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What is 1 category upgrade - eg OV to Veranda, or V2 to V1

 

It has to be within a category. If we're booking an Aqua Class on an M-Class ship, we pay for AQ2 but get an AQ1 cabin. We don't take advantage of the upgrade on S-Class since we prefer the AQ2 cabins there.

 

And to answer the OP's question, we always find what we want on the Celebrity website then contact a local TA to book it for us. He's given us great service over the years.

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Any TA can get you the CC one category upgrade. However, it is usually considered a perk and may disqualify you from more valuable perks if you take it. Usually book on board to get the perks and transfer to a TA for more perks.

 

In 22 cruises on X the 1 category upgrade has never been considered a perk and has not stopped us from getting the perks that are offered for the cruise. If anyone tells you the 1 category upgrade disqualifies you from receiving booking perks they don’t know what they are talking about.

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In 22 cruises on X the 1 category upgrade has never been considered a perk and has not stopped us from getting the perks that are offered for the cruise. If anyone tells you the 1 category upgrade disqualifies you from receiving booking perks they don’t know what they are talking about.

 

 

 

What level of CC one needs to be in order to be eligible for this upgrade?

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

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In 22 cruises on X the 1 category upgrade has never been considered a perk and has not stopped us from getting the perks that are offered for the cruise. If anyone tells you the 1 category upgrade disqualifies you from receiving booking perks they don’t know what they are talking about.

 

We’ve only done 21 cruises on X and we’ve had the same results.

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What level of CC one needs to be in order to be eligible for this upgrade?

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

 

You only need to be in the classic level (only one previous cruise to qualify).

 

We've gotten the 1 category boost on every cruise since our first. And have gotten all of the perks advertised at the time.

 

We find the cruise we want on the Celebrity site, then book through our TA. He has handled all of our vacations for over 10 years (a brick and monter agency in our town), and has consistently gotten better prices than we could on our own. And there is always a couple of bottles of wine, a fruit basket, and flowers from him in our stateroom.

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We now try to book onboard and then transfer to one of the bigger online TAs to gain a few more perks. Sometimes booking onboard does not fit our time frame and we book directly with the TA of choice. I do shop at least 3 of them to see who is offering the best deal for the cruise I want at the moment. If I can add an extra couple of hundred dollars for booking onboard that is great, but sometimes the time frames don't work, ie, we are looking at a family trip to Alaska in 2020 but those itineraries won't be out in time to book onboard during our Med cruise in October and they will like have been out too long to book on our Cuba cruise in January. I want to snag a FV cabin for my son and his family and those book up pretty quick, especially on Alaska in June/July so I am still working on a plan for that one.

 

The one catagory upgrade. There has only been one time we did not get it working with a TA. They had a group booking, big block of cabins and to put us in the group and save a fair amount of money they could not do the one category upgrade and they could not do the reduced deposit we normally get. BUT, I saved a lot of money and got some other perks from them. You do have to ask for the upgrade. Many pretend to not know about it but just tell them, the TA, the Celebrity agent, who ever. It is normally there so ask for it.

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We will book onboard whenever we have the opportunity. When we don't - I always call Celebrity and book over the phone to take advantage of the Captains Club 1 category upgrade - that can't be done online.

 

In either case - we always transfer to a TA within 60 days to take advantage of the additional "incentives".

 

Mike

 

Exactly what we do. I've never see a TA that could beat Celebrity's prices, usually identical so I book online then transfer for the extra perks. Once in a while a TA will have a block of cabins but not the ones we want.

 

And this last time I forgot to call and booked a 1A online so no upgrade.

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We always book onboard, always taking the obc on the current cruise thereby the deposit is free.

Our onboard booking has unlimited FREE changes to a new ship/sail date so its a no brainer for anyone.

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We have never booked a cruise when onboard because we don't know when we might want to cruise next. We always book through our regular TA who does all our vacation bookings, whether land or sea.

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We also always book on board You can't beat the perks you receive on board.

We have also booked extra cruises when not on board directly with Celebrity

Once when we booked on board, we had it transferred to a travel agent because so many people said "you will get extra stuff" Well we did get some extra on board credit, the TA wanted to charge us more $ than what Celebrity quoted us . They gave some lame explanation for this. Never again ( Did not pay the extra $ by the way)

We have always had really great service with Celebrity. They have changed rooms for us, upgraded etc.

It really is just a personal preference. Probably pros and cons to each

 

Happy Cruising

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We have never booked a cruise when onboard because we don't know when we might want to cruise next. We always book through our regular TA who does all our vacation bookings, whether land or sea.

 

You can book any cruise while onboard and then later transfer the booking to a different cruise once you decide. The extra perks you get for booking on board (typically reduced deposit and extra OBC, but sometimes more) will transfer to your new cruise - but the "regular" perks you get for the booking will be based on whatever the regular offer is for your new sailing at the time you transfer. This is in the US - as you are in Canada - not sure if the rules are different.

 

Mike

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You can book any cruise while onboard and then later transfer the booking to a different cruise once you decide. The extra perks you get for booking on board (typically reduced deposit and extra OBC, but sometimes more) will transfer to your new cruise - but the "regular" perks you get for the booking will be based on whatever the regular offer is for your new sailing at the time you transfer. This is in the US - as you are in Canada - not sure if the rules are different.

 

Mike

Same rules for Canada and the USA

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Travel agents can deliver perks whose value can be from 7 to 10% of the cruise cost, so we'll always use them. When we book onboard, we'll call a TA before and have everything set up and Celebrity or any other cruise line will name that travel agent as the booking agent. I don't understand why anyone wouldn't want the extra savings.

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