I just got an upgrade!!

[jagoffee]

They were asking too much for them originally. Same case for our cruise in September, although there are many cabins in all categories that remain unsold including AQs. Now they are fire selling them and this seems to be the order of the day with current pricing policy. There will be some happy people who got upgrades, but of course there are losers too. Those that paid for a suite early on taking advantage of the "early booking discount" only to see them sold off cheaply at the end as guarantees and some of those buying these lower priced GTY cabins being given the higher end suites that are left, leaving the early bookers out of luck.

 

My booking strategy is going to change and I'll book after final payment in future and take my luck with a European flight booked last minute. The price drops are often huge. It all seems to be a game with prices and incentives at the moment and I really dislike it.

 

Phil

 

Phil, let us know how it works out for you in the future. I have often thought about trying your new strategy. I think it a bit of a gamble if there is a certain cruise that you really want, but if you are flexible it should be a much better price. I have only booked once on short notice and it worked out for us. My only upgrade from a CC2 GTY to AQ. Of course I put the air reservations on hold before I booked the cruise. If I had not been able to book reasonable air I would have skipped the cruise.

 

I take advantage of any price drop that I can by monitoring the prices, but if you take the gamble and are flexible I would happy for you.

 

Good luck.

[excitedofharpenden]

Phil, let us know how it works out for you in the future. I have often thought about trying your new strategy. I think it a bit of a gamble if there is a certain cruise that you really want, but if you are flexible it should be a much better price. I have only booked once on short notice and it worked out for us. My only upgrade from a CC2 GTY to AQ. Of course I put the air reservations on hold before I booked the cruise. If I had not been able to book reasonable air I would have skipped the cruise.

 

I take advantage of any price drop that I can by monitoring the prices, but if you take the gamble and are flexible I would happy for you.

 

Good luck.

It's something I'd really rather not do. I enjoy the certainty and even more the excitement of having something booked. If it was the odd £100 or £200 I could live with that, but the price drops I've seen are quite considerable. Hundreds if not a couple of thousand pounds for certain categories. It's that airfare thing of course. That's why I will look at the European sailings more closely with a better chance of making it pay with a late flight booking.

 

We'll see how it goes, but it seems to be happening all of the time now. Last year's Eclipse to Iceland and Norway was the same. Huge price drops after final payment by way of GTYs. Celebrity have a lot of berths to fill with their line up of ships and this current policy may come back to bite them if people leave it to book. I would add that this is not sour grapes for my latest cruise because I have done ok, but I feel for others and you have to be on your guard so often when you book and try to cut through all of the marketing hype. There are deals out there to be had, but searching them out and timing them correctly is onerous.

 

Phil