OBC For Booking Excursions in Europe

[Eddie's Girl]

I received an email from X today advertising OBC for early booking of excursions in Europe if booked by December. Anyone else get this? Both my husband and I are having trouble figuring out exactly what the deal is. I know you have to book at least 4 excursions. Would love to hear from anyone who got this and can translate it for me! Thanks :)

[cruisestitch]

I'd like to see this email, but alas, I didn't get one….

 

Can you cut and paste it for us?

[vulcan1971]

I also received the email. Here is the content and link.

 

http://view.email.celebritycruises.com/?j=fe66167073660c7f7511&m=fe741570746504797615&ls=fdf21d787262077e75137077&l=fe9a17747565037977&s=fe2016787162047e7d1c78&jb=ff67157173&ju=fe2510717362007b731273&allowMobile=y&ecid=em_20628205&rid=284603888&mes=Celebrity%20Shorex%20PCP%20OBC%20Offer%20Sep%202014%20EM&emsc=CELUSASHOREX0EM&empf=Y&emct=S&lnkid=VWSPLASH&r=0

 

 

Celebrity CruisesHello Walter See sailings

Explore Transatlantic and Transpacific Repositioning

 

Plan ahead, get rewarded

For a limited time, you can earn up to $100 in OBC when pre-booking shore excursions on all 4-night or longer Celebrity Transatlantic and Transpacific repositioning voyages between September 1, 2014 and December 31, 2015. Pre-reserve at least three shore excursions per person to qualify for OBC, which you can use to purchase additional tours, spa treatments, specialty dining, and more. Tours must be booked by December 31, 2014 and sell out fast, so take advantage of this special offer today.

To redeem offer, book online, contact your travel professional, or call Celebrity Cruises at 1-877-812-4739, and ask about the Shore Excursion Promo.

 

Number of Tours Booked (per person)

Region34567

Transatlantic & Transpacific$20$40$60$80$100

 

SEE EXCURSIONS

 

 

Sent from my iPhone 6 Plus on the T-Mobile 4G LTE Network using Tapatalk Pro

Edited September 24, 2014 by vulcan1971

[Eddie's Girl]

I'm not too good at cutting and pasting but I was able to do this for the European offer. Hope this helps. BTW, we are already booked for a Baltic cruise next June so you might not get the email if you're not already booked.

 

 

Hello Susan

 

 

Plan ahead, get rewarded

For a limited time, you can earn up to $100 in OBC when pre-booking shore excursions on all 4-night or longer Celebrity voyages to Europe between September 1, 2014 and December 31, 2015. Pre-reserve at least four shore excursions per person to qualify for OBC, which you can use to purchase additional tours, spa treatments, specialty dining, and more. Tours must be booked by December 31, 2014 and sell out fast, so take advantage of this special offer today.

To redeem offer, book online, contact your travel professional, or call Celebrity Cruises at 1-877-812-4739, and ask about the Shore Excursion Promo.

 

Number of Tours Booked (per person)

Region34567

Europen/a$25$50$75$100

 

SEE EXCURSIONS

 

 

Our Celebrity Vacation Planners are available 24/7

PLAN YOUR TRIP 1-877-812-4739

 

or we'll call you Find a travel agent

 

 

 

 

Send to a Friend See Other Offers Find a Travel Agent Email Me a Quote

FOLLOW US

[cruisestitch]

Hmmm…. looks like two different offers, although related. The OP has one for Europe requiring 4 shore, the other one is for repositioning (transatlantic and transpacific) cruises requiring 3. Interesting. I didn't get either e-mail.

 

On the transatlantic/transpacific, booking 3 shorex gets you $20 OBC, 4 gets you $40, 5 gets $60, 6 gets $80, and 5 gets $100. Not a huge incentive for booking ahead of time, but there's never been any incentive before, so this is something.

Edited September 24, 2014 by cruisestitch

[Eddie's Girl]

Hmmm…. looks like two different offers, although related. The OP has one for Europe requiring 4 shore, the other one is for repositioning (transatlantic and transpacific) cruises requiring 3. Interesting. I didn't get either e-mail.

 

On the transatlantic/transpacific, booking 3 shorex gets you $20 OBC, 4 gets you $40, 5 gets $60, 6 gets $80, and 5 gets $100. Not a huge incentive for booking ahead of time, but there's never been any incentive before, so this is something.

 

 

So if one person books 3 shorex they get $20 OBC. Then 2 people get $40?

Edited September 24, 2014 by Eddie's Girl

[CHEZMARYLOU]

We got the same offer for our Canada/New England cruise.

 

Number of Tours Booked (per person)

3 4 5 6 7

$20 $40 $60 $80 $100

 

 

So we would have to book 7 celebrity excursions each to get the $100. I'm not sure we would be booking more than 3 on this cruise.

 

Mary Lou

[cruisestitch]

Looks that way.

[luv2trvlnow]

I also received an email but mine is for a Caribbean cruise.

 

Here is the cut and paste from my email:

 

Plan ahead, get rewardedFor a limited time, you can earn up to $100 in OBC when pre-booking shore excursions on all 4-night or longer Celebrity voyages to the Caribbean between September 1, 2014 and December 31, 2015. Pre-reserve at least three shore excursions per person to qualify for OBC, which you can use to purchase additional tours, spa treatments, specialty dining, and more. Tours must be booked by December 31, 2014 and sell out fast, so take advantage of this special offer today.To redeem offer, book online, contact your travel professional, or call Celebrity Cruises at 1-877-812-4739, and ask about the Shore Excursion Promo.

 

Here is sone of the fine print at the bottom of the bottom of the email:

 

* Shore Excursions Promo (the “Offer”) must be booked between Sept. 1 – Oct. 31, 2014 (the "Offer Period") and must be for a 4-night or longer cruise that departs between Oct. 1, 2014 – Dec. 31, 2015 (“Offer Cruise”). Offer excludes Celebrity Xpedition. Offer is non-transferable and not combinable with any other discounts. Offer is applicable to individual and non-contracted group bookings, which must be named and deposited during the Offer Period.

 

Guest will qualify for a $20 onboard credit (“OBC”) for the third (and each additional) tour ticketed under guest’s name for Caribbean, Bermuda, Bahamas, Canada or Atlantic/Pacific Repositioning cruises or a $25 OBC for the fourth (and each additional) tour ticketed under guest’s name for Alaska, Europe, Exotics and all other itineraries. The OBC is per person and each guest is qualified independently for the number of tours ticketed. Only redeemed tours will be counted towards the minimum. Purchaser of the tours will receive an OBC applied to the purchaser’s folio on the last day of the cruise and OBCs will expire at the end of the voyage if not used by 10 PM on the final night of the cruise.

 

 

 

It looks like there are a few different but similar offers out there.

 

 

Sharon

[DiamondSuiteCruiser]

Maybe not so strange for Celebrity, but I did not get the email.

[cruisestitch]

Love how the fine print contradicts itself --

 

Book by December 31? Or must be booked by October 31? Which one is it, Celebrity?

[Mr. Click]

Both DW and I got the email from X for our upcoming--May 2015 Baltic cruise but here is the real catch, we already have $300 in OBC, pre-paid gratuities and Classic Bev package (neither of us is a drinker so no need to upgrade that one) so if I were to book some over priced shore excursions with them I could get more OBC but I can't use any of this OBC to pay for the excursions or any specialty dining that is booked before we board and actually get the credit...

[[g]cruiserke]

Also got the mail, specifically for Trans-Atlantic cruises.

This part of the terms and condidtions seems really bizarre:

 

Purchaser of the tours will receive an OBC applied to the purchaser’s folio on the last day of the cruise and OBCs will expire at the end of the voyage if not used by 10 PM on the final night of the cruise.

 

So the OBC doesn't show up until the last day of the cruise, presumably because they have to verify you didn't just cancel the excusions. Yet, if you don't use it by 10pm on the very day the OBC is available, it expires!

 

That means you carefully have to plan to either have at least a deficit for the OBC amount on your ongoing bill or you have to find a way to spend the OBC on something specifically on the last day. Given the cut-off time of 10pm using it in a specialy restaurant also becomes difficult, because your meal may not be completed by that time and your bill not presented until after 10pm.

 

You're also out of luck if the last day of the cruise is a port day during which you planned to book a qualifying excursion.

 

All in all, a lot of awkward hoops to jump through for a fairly small benefit. Usually, arraning your own excurions saves you much, much more than the OBC on offer here.

Edited September 25, 2014 by [g]cruiserke

[cruisestitch]

It seems to me that they assume that you will have miscellaneous other expenses on board, which is probably a fair assumption for most cruisers, and that this OBC will offset some of that. As you say, there could be some awkward timing issues.

 

I completely agree that doing your own thing will probably save you much more than this small amount of OBC. But there will be a few passengers who will benefit from this promotion, so good for them!

[Eddie's Girl]

Thanks for the input Everyone. I missed the discrepancy in the cut off date for the promotion: October 31 or December 31. I also didn't read all the fine print about when the OBC is applied to the folio. I'm so glad there is this place called Cruise Critic that helps so many people with their questions.

[ChucktownSteve]

I received the same offer for our Alaskan cruise:

 

For a limited time, you can earn up to $100 in OBC when pre-booking shore excursions on all 4-night or longer Celebrity voyages to Alaska between September 1, 2014 and December 31, 2015. Pre-reserve at least four shore excursions per person to qualify for OBC, which you can use to purchase additional tours, spa treatments, specialty dining, and more. Tours must be booked by December 31, 2014 and sell out fast, so take advantage of this special offer today.

 

I immediately deleted it. But it was still in my trash bin when I saw this thread.

 

We already have the free classic bev package for two, free gratuities and OBC. Therefore we'd have to way overpay eight Celebrity tours for $100 OBC in advance. What genious in X marketing thought this was a good deal for us?

 

Now do a buy one get one free might be a promotion that would work. Then they'd be price competitive with the private tour companies.

 

I'd be curious to see how many people fall for the promotion.

Edited September 25, 2014 by ChucktownSteve

[ChucktownSteve]

OMG, I just read the rest of the email they sent.

 

I get $25 OBC per person for FOUR booked tours. No OBC for three or less booked tours.

 

To get $100 OBC I have to book 7 tours per person!!! :eek:

 

I wonder if the X person who came up with this promotion was vacationing in Colorado when they thought of it? :rolleyes:

[Cruise Junky]

I received the email for a Caribbean cruise but I have a European cruise booked :)

[lakelorain]

We received the email for a Hawaii cruise and a Hawaii to Sydney cruise(both a year away). The amount you get isn't worth us rushing into decisions so far in advance. Deleted.

[patty1955]

I received the email for our upcoming transatlantic. It's not great, but it's better than nothing. I might or might not take advantage but the Dec 31 date is pretty early for a cruise that embarks 10/31 of next year.

[Eddie's Girl]

I received the email for our upcoming transatlantic. It's not great, but it's better than nothing. I might or might not take advantage but the Dec 31 date is pretty early for a cruise that embarks 10/31 of next year.

 

 

Or is it October 31? Be sure to read the fine print :)

[cruisestitch]

Different e-mails seem to have different dates by which you need to book.

 

Another case of the right hand of Celebrity not having been introduced to the left hand.

[patty1955]

his won't make it any clearer:

 

Plan ahead, get rewarded

For a limited time, you can earn up to $100 in OBC when pre-booking shore excursions on all 4-night or longer Celebrity Transatlantic and Transpacific repositioning voyages between September 1, 2014 and December 31, 2015. Pre-reserve at least three shore excursions per person to qualify for OBC, which you can use to purchase additional tours, spa treatments, specialty dining, and more. Tours must be booked by December 31, 2014and sell out fast, so take advantage of this special offer today.

 

* Shore Excursions Promo (the “Offer”) must be booked between Sept. 1 – Oct. 31, 2014 (the "Offer Period") and must be for a 4-night or longer cruise that departs between Oct. 1, 2014 – Dec. 31, 2015 (“Offer Cruise”). Offer excludes Celebrity Xpedition. Offer is non-transferable and not combinable with any other discounts. Offer is applicable to individual and non-contracted group bookings, which must be named and deposited during the Offer Period.

The first paragraph is from the body of the email and the second is the fine print. So what date does the excursion have to be booked by. __________________

[Lauren and John]

Hi. Can anyone figure out how this would work if one of the excursions is on the last day and drops you off at the airport?

[screwsmcernst]

We got the same email today for our upcoming Caribbean cruise. My question is this... We have already booked our excursions. Can I get the OBC for my already booked excursions, or will I have to cancel them, and then rebook with the offer?