Infinity 5 night Jan 28 2019 disappeared from celebrity website

I booked this cruise a month or so ago at a great rate but when I went to look for the roll call some other members mentioned that several cruises in Jan and Feb 2019 are now no longer showing on the celebrity website and have likely been chartered. I contacted the large online travel agency I booked it through to ask if this were the case but when they contacted Celebrity they were told no.

The cruise is still showing on the online agencies website but still not on the Celebrity website. I was getting ready to book non refundable accommodation for the week before the cruise but now am nervous that it will be cancelled at some point in the future.

Does anyone have any experience with this sort of thing happening?

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It is far too early to commit to no -refundable accommodation now. In a situation like this, I would wait a while to book anything as it is possible this could be a charter and you won't know for certain for a while.

I have the same problem with a 5 night West Caribbean cruise on the Infinity sailing 25 March 2019 booked a few weeks ago. This cruise along with others between the period 25 March and 13th April have all disappeared from every web-site and cruise schedule web-sites. Both my TA and myself have called Celebrity (UK) separately and have been told that my cruise "is now fully booked and on stop sale". I directly asked if it had been "chartered" and was unequivocally told "no it has not been chartered". When I advised that this seemed strange as every other cruise in the Caribbean around this date had well over 50% of their staterooms still available, as was the case when I booked only a couple of weeks ago (I had the choice of virtually any stateroom at that time), after Celebrity representative putting me on hold for a few minutes, she came back saying "there is no charter but there may have been a large group booking". Having read other past posts, I am concerned that there has been a very large group booking that has taken over the majority of the ship, and that this will significantly re-strict on-board activities and freedom of dining etc. Previous posts have mentioned that when a large group booking is on the ship (i.e. the ship being used for a Corporate conference venue) the MDR late sitting was completely taken over, and that the large lounges and theatre were closed to general passengers throughout the day, and in the evenings, even most of the theatre seats were "reserved". I am still trying to find out more, but Celebrity seem to be holding back information on this subject. All I am seeking is clarity so that if necessary I can change the cruise to another Celebrity cruise if necessary. My TA has advised that I should wait and see if they do cancel as I may be offered a good deal on changing the booked cruise to another, but I am concerned that at a later date I would have a greatly reduced choice of cabin.

I have a cruise this November that stopped showing on the Celebrity web site in September.

The cruise still exists, but will not show up in any Celebrity search.

Other cruise lines will still list a sold out cruise, but will mark it as sold out.

We are booked on the February 11 sailing and got an incredible deal a few months ago. I check prices almost every day when I have a cruise booked. I noticed a few weeks ago the sailing showed up, but when you tried to book it, a message popped up saying nothing was available. A few days later, the sailing just disappeared. If you do a search for the ship, there is nothing from January 19 through March 16. I can't imagine that a large group booked the entire ship for that long. It is also highly unlikely those cruises are all sold out this far out. My agent called and was told the sailings were on "code yellow" and not accepting new bookings at this time. The Celebrity agent came up with potential solutions: dry dock, moving ships, charters, etc. and noted there are no changes as of yet, but the revenue department is definitely looking at this and the other sailings…

To me, it seems like a long dry dock, but the new modernization of the entire fleet may explain it.

My next sailing was supposed to be on the Summit in March. I booked it way in advance. A few months after booking, they announced the ship was being chartered for a couple of sailings. I was offered a very sweet deal on top of an already good deal I received from booking on board to change sailings.

I am impatiently holding out for a sweet deal on this one!

It looks like “the Smooth Jazz Cruise” has chartered the ship for two weeks in February 2019. Couldn’t find any other info.

I would be okay if they cancel and offer me ‘a sweet deal” as I don’t care about cabin selection.

How far out do you usually get notification of something like this? We live on the East Coast of Canada and getting good deals on flights is an issue at the best of times.

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I have the same problem with a 5 night West Caribbean cruise on the Infinity sailing 25 March 2019 booked a few weeks ago. This cruise along with others between the period 25 March and 13th April have all disappeared from every web-site and cruise schedule web-sites. Both my TA and myself have called Celebrity (UK) separately and have been told that my cruise "is now fully booked and on stop sale". I directly asked if it had been "chartered" and was unequivocally told "no it has not been chartered". When I advised that this seemed strange as every other cruise in the Caribbean around this date had well over 50% of their staterooms still available, as was the case when I booked only a couple of weeks ago (I had the choice of virtually any stateroom at that time), after Celebrity representative putting me on hold for a few minutes, she came back saying "there is no charter but there may have been a large group booking". Having read other past posts, I am concerned that there has been a very large group booking that has taken over the majority of the ship, and that this will significantly re-strict on-board activities and freedom of dining etc. Previous posts have mentioned that when a large group booking is on the ship (i.e. the ship being used for a Corporate conference venue) the MDR late sitting was completely taken over, and that the large lounges and theatre were closed to general passengers throughout the day, and in the evenings, even most of the theatre seats were "reserved". I am still trying to find out more, but Celebrity seem to be holding back information on this subject. All I am seeking is clarity so that if necessary I can change the cruise to another Celebrity cruise if necessary. My TA has advised that I should wait and see if they do cancel as I may be offered a good deal on changing the booked cruise to another, but I am concerned that at a later date I would have a greatly reduced choice of cabin.

Not sayang it is the case in this instance, but you usually find the U.K. stop selling the cruises if they are chartered before the US. A couple of times in the past, a cruise has gone off sale over here and yet is still being sold over the pond e.g Equinox a few years ago ;). When they have a few charters around the same time, they may make changes to other cruises to accommodate the charters, as was the case with Reflection in the Med next year.

The weeks of 2/2 - 2/9 and 2/23 - 3/2 have been chartered by the Smooth Jazz cruise. The company that charters these also does other cruises (other Jazz weeks) and they may during the remaining weeks. My guess if the weeks look 'booked' they're chartered.

My cruise is supposed to be in between the 2 Smooth Jazz Cruises. If the first one comes back on 2/9, that would leave 2 days before my cruise is supposed to leave. I'm convinced it isn't going to happen, but it would have to be a very good deal to beat the deal we already have!

Our last cruise was booked in April of 2016 for a 3/31/18 sailing on the Summit. They notified us in August of 2016 and offered us a few different sailings. We went from M Class to S class for the same price, plus an extra $200 OBC.

Doubtful you'll be on that one you've booked. These will not go out to the general public as they're chartered (the entire boat) and always sell out months in advance.

For future - the company always uses Feb/Mar for their sailings. Good luck with changes/better deals!

I ran into the SAME issue earlier last year for a January cruise on the Eclipse. Apparently, the Moody Blues and other bands offered Celebrity more money than the deposits that they currently had - so Celebrity Chartered the sailing to the Moody Blues. Anyway, I had a great rate w/OBC and Celebrity would not honor this on another sailing. The representative was insistent that my wife and I had to travel on THEIR terms.

Anyway, I cancelled the booking and wrote a strong letter to the Better Business Bureau regarding my experience. Sure enough - once Celebrity found out that we were repeat customers (5 previous sailings) they stepped up and offered $500 off of any other sailing over the next year.

That was nice of them BUT they did inform us that until the ship sails they have the right to make other arrangements and or cancel a sailing.

I did learn a valuable lesson - make sure that you purchase your air through Celebrity as they will refund you if they cancel the sailing.

Michael