7-night Pacific Coastal Oct 20-27, 2019 on Eclipse has dissapeared

[wwcruisers]

Keep in mind that less than 10% of cruisers are on CC. If they cut off booking excursions, etc that could cause non-CCer's who are booked to ask questions and increase potential cancellations.

 

I did find it odd that they pulled the cruise from all future bookings but sent out a notification to book your excursions and packages, though ... and they are available to book to boot. Time will tell. I can be patient!

 

Maybe my years of cruising have just made me cynical:evilsmile:. But I suspect that it has something to do with what Kristoffer Garin refers to in his classic, Devils on the Deep Blue Sea, as 'The Float'. Bottom line: Even if X knows that they'll have to reimburse all of that money, paid as deposits, packages, excursions, etc -- right up until then, they get the use out of those $$.

[Cruise Raider]

Maybe my years of cruising have just made me cynical:evilsmile:. But I suspect that it has something to do with what Kristoffer Garin refers to in his classic, Devils on the Deep Blue Sea, as 'The Float'. Bottom line: Even if X knows that they'll have to reimburse all of that money, paid as deposits, packages, excursions, etc -- right up until then, they get the use out of those $$.

 

You make a good point. And they don't want to alarm anyone to the extent they cancel and then the charter or whatever it is falls through and now they still have to fill the ship.

They were just about giving those cruises away last fall on the Equinox when they pulled it from the Mediterranean and deployed her out in the Caribbean. Wish I could find perks and pricing on every cruise I book. One thing is for sure, they were smart to hook us all on those all inclusive perks. The beverage package ... such a great value and the OBC and free gratuities ... awesome! But, I never thought I would use unlimited internet in my wildest dreams. Was that ever a treat!! Now, I find it hard to be on a cruise without it.

[CEOofVacation]

This is an email that I received last night from my travel agent.

 

"I called celebrity earlier and called the revenue department. It looks like it may be a charter. They said we won’t know anything for 2 weeks. They recalled ALL group space."

Edited July 14, 2018 by CEOofVacation

[chamima]

This is an email that I received last night from my travel agent.

 

"I called celebrity earlier and called the revenue department. It looks like it may be a charter. They said we won’t know anything for 2 weeks. They recalled ALL group space."

 

 

That really stinks!:mad:

[Cruise Raider]

This is an email that I received last night from my travel agent.

 

"I called celebrity earlier and called the revenue department. It looks like it may be a charter. They said we won’t know anything for 2 weeks. They recalled ALL group space."

 

Thanks for the info! I guess if everything goes smoothly for Celebrity, we will be notified in due time. I feel bad for people that were counting on this as a special trip.

We are sailing on princess in a couple of months ... originally booked NCL up in Alaska for this Sept. Well, they canceled my sailing and rerouted it down to Cuba. They offered me $25 to switch ... hahaha, I wasn’t mad but their $25 offer was just laughable. Why would someone that was booking to go to Alaska be all that interested in going to Cuba ... for $25 total? Seriously? I think I may have actually gone for it if it covered first class airfare but that offer was almost an insult. At least on the times i’ve Switched out on Celebrity, the offers were a lot more generous than that.

[ebtrip]

I checked the 3 large online TA’s I use...found one is booking the October 20th cruise..all categories. I’m not on this cruise..but will be on 27 October. Hawaii.. good luck to all who are booked.

[Hidden Minnie]

I was helping someone on a Facebook group find out what happened - did a little Google sleuthing and found that a group of Kiwanis has, indeed chartered it as a fund raiser for UNICEF. If you look for the site where you can find theme cruises and search by Eclipse, it shows up.

Edited August 22, 2018 by Hidden Minnie
removed inadvertent commercial link.

[SESUK]

I was helping someone on a Facebook group find out what happened - did a little Google sleuthing and found that a group of Kiwanis has, indeed chartered it as a fund raiser for UNICEF. If you look for the site where you can find theme cruises and search by Eclipse, it shows up.

Hi Pam, it was me you were helping on facebook - thank you. I emailed the person dealing with the Kiwanis booking and they have sold 10 cabins and have 22 more to sell. She said the individual bookings were sold out and it is only available to book through group bookings. A very large TA in USA also said they have availability (although it shows as sold out on their site due to an error!?) Thank you for your help.

[wwcruisers]

So, has Celebrity contacted any of you who were booked on this one? They've had plenty of time to come up with a comp/re-booking offer, by now!:confused:

[jelayne]

I’m confused, the Kiwanis chartered but have sold 10 cabins & have 22 more to sell and all individual booking were sold out and a TA has some cabins. Is it a charter or did the Kiwanis booked a number of cabins. Anybody able to explain.

[hvsteve1]

It's not unusual to have a group on board. 32 cabins doesn't equal a charter. A fairly inexpensive LA R/T makes for a pretty attractive cruise for folks in the LA area who don't want to fly to a cruise port. Kiwanis aren't a bad group to have on board. I was once on a luxury cruise where there was a group from a bank. They were loud and drunk,:cocktail::cocktail::cocktail::cocktail::cocktail: which was very unusual for that cruse line. These were apparently branch people who were getting a free cruise and not the usual clients for this line which features an open bar throughout the ship.

[jelayne]

This sailing appeared in a large TAs Labor Day promo. Looks like they have between 150-200 cabins some insides, oceanview, 2D, 2B, C3 and AQ2. Looking more like no charter just some groups!

[SoCalCruzzing]

Any update on if this cruise will happen?

[SESUK]

1 hour ago, SoCalCruzzing said:

Any update on if this cruise will happen?

Unfortunately no update, still waiting and flights are out soon.  No idea what to do!

[jelayne]

We are going to continue to wait.  Flight for 10/1/19 are now available to book so if the ship is chartered we should hear something in the next 2 weeks.  

 

 

[gerelmx]

It's confirmed the cruise is chartered by Atlantis and Celebrity continues insisting that the cruise it's not chartered. What a frustrating thing it is not knowing what's going to happen with your vacation, if you're going to be able to be on board or you're going to be kicked out the ship at the last minute.

[leahpeah]

We received a notice from our TA yesterday saying that the cruise has been chartered. It offered us several options. 

[cruisestitch]

Ten months in advance is hardly the last minute!

[Cruise Raider]

I responded in another thread related to this cruise cancellation due to being chartered.  

I received a call from Celebrity two nights ago, still never received any documentation of what was being offered, so good thing I saw it here on Cruise Critic.  I booked directly through Celebrity.  

I was able to get the information via that phone call and a lot of questions asked and was pretty comfortable that the rep down at Celebrity, that took care of making the changes for me this morning, was quite competent.  

 

I switched to the Nov 11th sailing they offered with the following:

-Price protection for the same room category that I previously had booked (I ended up getting the stateroom right next to the one I originally booked)

-The two perks that I had for the original booking (one of which I was able to add when the cruise already disappeared from all websites...yay!) 

-Transfer of my FCD to the Nov sailing (with the associated OBC)

-$200 onboard credit for changing my sailing 

-Was able to keep the reservation as refundable as that is how I previously booked it 

 

So, I am pretty sure we will be sailing on the Nov 11th sailing but still have some scheduling to fiddle with.  I had just another week or so to make a decision so just made an executive decision.  The other two offerings weren't even possible for us.  Originally, I liked the 9 day itinerary much better but it was just too expensive, so I booked the Oct 20th sailing instead.  Now, maybe we will be able to go on the one we originally liked better.  

All's well that ends well.  

 

[SHIP TRAVELER]

We booked the Oct 20th cruise direct with Celebrity in November of 2017.  Last night at 8:00pm we finally got a call from Celebrity giving us less than 24 hours to choose a new cruise to get our $200 OBC (per cabin not per person).  The caller said we had until 11:00 am today to decide.  Others on our roll call that booked thorough Travel agents had already been notified days ago and were given until December 17th to make a decision.  We called this AM and moved to the Nov 11th cruise to keep price protection. 

 

The Celebrity website showed us changed to the Nov.11th cruise but with the wrong price and no OBC.

We called back an hour ago and were on hold for 30 minutes listening to that stupid tape.  This was after being on hold this morning.  The agent we spoke to said it would be corrected sometime (overnight?) but that the hold wait for the resolutions desk was over an hour.  We are getting very upset about this.  They chartered the cruise out from under us and started this mess and now the service to make the changes is terrible.  I hope the last agent is right and that this gets settled because we do not want to call Celebrity again...EVER.

[Cruise Raider]

2 hours ago, SHIP TRAVELER said:

We booked the Oct 20th cruise direct with Celebrity in November of 2017.  Last night at 8:00pm we finally got a call from Celebrity giving us less than 24 hours to choose a new cruise to get our $200 OBC (per cabin not per person).  The caller said we had until 11:00 am today to decide.  Others on our roll call that booked thorough Travel agents had already been notified days ago and were given until December 17th to make a decision.  We called this AM and moved to the Nov 11th cruise to keep price protection. 

 

The Celebrity website showed us changed to the Nov.11th cruise but with the wrong price and no OBC.

We called back an hour ago and were on hold for 30 minutes listening to that stupid tape.  This was after being on hold this morning.  The agent we spoke to said it would be corrected sometime (overnight?) but that the hold wait for the resolutions desk was over an hour.  We are getting very upset about this.  They chartered the cruise out from under us and started this mess and now the service to make the changes is terrible.  I hope the last agent is right and that this gets settled because we do not want to call Celebrity again...EVER.

 

Yes, we booked directly through Celebrity and were told that we had until the 17th or 18th (can't remember which now) to make a final move.  When we were booked for a cruise that was chartered out a few years ago, we were also told there was a deadline and it was extended as they hadn't quite worked out the details as of the cancellation notification.  But, I understand your frustration ... not everyone there is on the same page and those hold times drive me crazy, too! 

Hope you are able to get everything rectified.  

PS ... I was on hold with Princess for over 2 hours, still not satisfied as one hand doesn't know what they other hand is doing over there.  So, I feel your frustration.  Hope it all works out for you.  

 

[Bruin Steve]

Here's what has me steamed about this one:

 

First, I know that cruise lines love to charter cruises--it gives them a guaranteed sell-out.  HOWEVER, I am a big Celebrity fan...my favorite cruise line.  My wife likes Royal Caribbean.  We live in Southern California and like to cruise a few times a year...However, budget and time availability make it difficult to get on a plane and fly somewhere every time we want to take a cruise. Sometimes, the only way to get one in is to do it out of Los Angeles (even San Diego or San Francisco are also somewhat workable for this).  In the next six or seven months, we are doing three long Celebrity cruises--for which we have to fly to Hong Kong and Amsterdam for all three.  It's costly and exhausting.  Even flying to Miami or San Juan isn't exactly cheap and easy.

 

Celebrity and Royal Caribbean made a decision a few years back to largely abandon us here on the West Coast...Which has made us into multiple-time Princess cruisers as well...and, to tell the truth, I am not enamored of Princess--I would rather cruise Celebrity or Royal.

 

But, Celebrity throws us a bone...They schedule a whole FOUR cruises out of Los Angeles per year (and only three of those return to Los Angeles).  So, having done that, they then take one of those three cruises...and CHARTER it!

 

Again, Celebrity/RCCL, there are 80 MILLION people in California and neighboring states plus a large number of people from elsewhere who would love to come here and take a cruise.  Carnival does well here with multiple ships--even adding another full time ship here this year.  Princess seems to fill its many cruises out of California.  NCL, HAL and Disney each offer more cruises out of here than you do. 

 

And, for those who claim there is nowhere to cruise out of here, note that Celebrity's three remaining itineraries are all different:  Hawaii, California Coastal and South America.  Other cruise lines do or have done one-way coastals up to Vancouver or back, Panama Canal one-ways, Mexican Rivieras, Sea of Cortez, 3 and 4 night Baja and 5 night Cabo San Lucas.  There are lots of options and people want to sail them.  Some of us want to sail them on Celebrity.

 

GIVE US MORE CRUISES!  And, for heaven's sake, don't tease us then take them away...

[Cruise Raider]

2 hours ago, Bruin Steve said:

Here's what has me steamed about this one:

 

First, I know that cruise lines love to charter cruises--it gives them a guaranteed sell-out.  HOWEVER, I am a big Celebrity fan...my favorite cruise line.  My wife likes Royal Caribbean.  We live in Southern California and like to cruise a few times a year...However, budget and time availability make it difficult to get on a plane and fly somewhere every time we want to take a cruise. Sometimes, the only way to get one in is to do it out of Los Angeles (even San Diego or San Francisco are also somewhat workable for this).  In the next six or seven months, we are doing three long Celebrity cruises--for which we have to fly to Hong Kong and Amsterdam for all three.  It's costly and exhausting.  Even flying to Miami or San Juan isn't exactly cheap and easy.

 

Celebrity and Royal Caribbean made a decision a few years back to largely abandon us here on the West Coast...Which has made us into multiple-time Princess cruisers as well...and, to tell the truth, I am not enamored of Princess--I would rather cruise Celebrity or Royal.

 

But, Celebrity throws us a bone...They schedule a whole FOUR cruises out of Los Angeles per year (and only three of those return to Los Angeles).  So, having done that, they then take one of those three cruises...and CHARTER it!

 

Again, Celebrity/RCCL, there are 80 MILLION people in California and neighboring states plus a large number of people from elsewhere who would love to come here and take a cruise.  Carnival does well here with multiple ships--even adding another full time ship here this year.  Princess seems to fill its many cruises out of California.  NCL, HAL and Disney each offer more cruises out of here than you do. 

 

And, for those who claim there is nowhere to cruise out of here, note that Celebrity's three remaining itineraries are all different:  Hawaii, California Coastal and South America.  Other cruise lines do or have done one-way coastals up to Vancouver or back, Panama Canal one-ways, Mexican Rivieras, Sea of Cortez, 3 and 4 night Baja and 5 night Cabo San Lucas.  There are lots of options and people want to sail them.  Some of us want to sail them on Celebrity.

 

GIVE US MORE CRUISES!  And, for heaven's sake, don't tease us then take them away...

 

I sure do wish Celebrity would home port a ship out here on the west coast.  I'd even hope for one of the Millennium class ships, if not the Solstice or an RCCL ship.  We have few options with only Princess to choose from here in SF .... and an very old ship to boot.  

For me, I am hoping to be able rearrange my schedule to sail on the November sailing instead of the one that was chartered.  I really love the itinerary for the November one better, even though it will most likely be a bit cooler than if in October.   

 

[davekathy]

We hope Celebrity does the Canada/Pacific Coastal cruise for September 2020. We consider them our end of cruising season cruises. We've done four in the last four years in September and really like them. We left out of Vancouver BC three times and Seattle once. When we were on the Infinity September 2018 (Canada/Pacific cruise) we decided to book the Summit for September 2019 and do the Canada/New England cruise instead. Now I see where Celebrity isn't even offering a Canada/Pacific cruise for September 2019.  

Edited December 8, 2018 by davekathy