Dramatic price drop since booked

[Lolabunny488]

We are sailing on the millennium in May and booked this onboard in December 2018. However today I have noticed the offer for booking A1 cabin is over £800 per cabin cheaper. I understand rates fluctuate but by this amount is crazy. Theres 6 of us traveling so over three cabins your talking of over £2000. The offer at the minute also includes a drinks package, on board spend and gratuities. Has anyone else experienced this? 

It seems like once again there's no loyalty with any cruise lines once again.

[cruisestitch]

It is after Final Payment so prices often drop as they attempt to fill unsold cabins.

 

 By booking early, you get to have your choice of room. By booking late, you take a chance nothing will be available that you would want. Also if airfare is involved by booking late you almost always end up with higher airfare. So it’s a decision all cruisers have to make. 

[TFLG]

This happens on nearly every cruise.  Prices are changing constantly. They get higher as cabins sell out, then as final payment approaches, many cancel and the prices often plummet until those cabins fill up. Then prices go up again until a few weeks before sailing and then they fire sale the remaining cabins.  If you can wait the best time to book is usually 3 to 4 months prior to the sail date.  For those of us with jobs this often isnt an option. 

Edited March 21, 2019 by TFLG

[cachouonacruise]

Depending how you booked (Celebrity or TA), a polite question asked nicely to the appropriate agency could result in an upgrade equivalent to the price change, ( When it happened to us on Infinity, we were upgrades from OV to AQ, however it was made clear not to expect any refund. We were  very surprised, happy and excited with this outcome! 

 

Booking early gives you your choice of cabin, a guaranteed price that will not increase ( on another cruise, the price of my cabin booked early almost doubled), cheaper flights and if needed better and cheaper hotel options.

 

There is no guarantee that you will be upgraded, but it’s worth asking the question. Good luck!  And in my experience, the benefits of booking early surpassed the risks of booking late.

[Tourist1292]

We booked our May Solstice cruise in December too. I noticed several price drops (around 8% total) on the 1A cabin price before final payment. Then it dropped even more in the month after final payment. I think the current price is around 30% less than the December price. May is a shoulder season, so it is expected to have lower sale. So we upgraded to Concierge and added 2 perks and paid back the 8% saving we got from the price drop. At the end, it is just like booking it with the new price and promotion.

[greydog]

We often take advantage of late discounts by upgrading cabin category at the reduced price (although you may have to accept 'gty' assignment AND lose some perks.  Pays to watch and evaluate choices.

GOOD LUCK

[bEwAbG]

The ability to get these upgrades can also be affected by your booking conditions and what country you booked in.  The only way to really know is to contact your booking agent and ask.

[sandancer]

On 3/21/2019 at 3:01 PM, cachouonacruise said:

Depending how you booked (Celebrity or TA), a polite question asked nicely to the appropriate agency could result in an upgrade equivalent to the price change, ( When it happened to us on Infinity, we were upgrades from OV to AQ, however it was made clear not to expect any refund. We were  very surprised, happy and excited with this outcome! 

 

Booking early gives you your choice of cabin, a guaranteed price that will not increase ( on another cruise, the price of my cabin booked early almost doubled), cheaper flights and if needed better and cheaper hotel options.

 

There is no guarantee that you will be upgraded, but it’s worth asking the question. Good luck!  And in my experience, the benefits of booking early surpassed the risks of booking late.

Not if the OP booked in the UK. No upgrades, no OBC. 

[fragilek]

Hi I can't help this time but I got really fed up with the UK booking policies for cruises and I now always book via a US travel agent .  It's very easy to do - usually cheaper  (even at $1.28/£)  OR about the same price but with add ons like the agents perks - next cruise $300 per cabin + paid gratuities over and above the 2 celebrity perks of $300 and classic drinks package.  It allows me to change cabins free of charge to within same cat- and allows me to get upgrades or money back if price drops. and cancel up until about 8 weeks free of charge, then on a sliding scale of loses v. time left after that.

I will never book through the UK again I got Leukemia last year and had to cancel a fully paid cruise very last min (that I had stupidly booked through UK as offer seemed good). I accepted that I would loose the cruise cost - that's what insurance is for after all - however, what really stuck in my throat was an additional £49 charge to cancel and get the paperwork I required for the insurance.   So never again for me, especially as I live in a 6 week cycle of checks for ongoing remission.  

[justcrusn]

Its interesting about human nature. NO one has ever wanted an adjustment if the price increases, they want to be locked in, but if the price goes down, they want the current offer. 

[fragilek]

13 minutes ago, justcrusn said:

Its interesting about human nature. NO one has ever wanted an adjustment if the price increases, they want to be locked in, but if the price goes down, they want the current offer. 

Very true but the problem is in the UK we are locked in from the moment of booking even if the cruise is 2 years away if we cancel we loose a lot of money up to $385pp depending on cruise line with full non refundable payment can be 12 weeks before departure again depending on cruie line.

[sandancer]

Have to agree with Frajilek. We also now book only with a US TA. We have one reservation ongoing with a large UK High St TA. We booked with future cruise desk onboard. We now want to change the booking to a differerent cruise and Celebrity are adamant that if we do that we will forfeit the perks we got for booking onboard. I  am not sure that would be the case if we had booked in the US. My advice to the OP is call Celebrity several times and hope you might get lucky and in future us a US TA. 

[mandream]

15 minutes ago, sandancer said:

Have to agree with Frajilek. We also now book only with a US TA. We have one reservation ongoing with a large UK High St TA. We booked with future cruise desk onboard. We now want to change the booking to a differerent cruise and Celebrity are adamant that if we do that we will forfeit the perks we got for booking onboard. I  am not sure that would be the case if we had booked in the US. My advice to the OP is call Celebrity several times and hope you might get lucky and in future us a US TA. 

 

In the US we wouldn't lose any extra perks we were given for booking onboard - but we might lose the base perks that came as part of the current offer.  These are subject to whatever price and perks are being offered at the time you make your change.

 

Mike

 

[Lolabunny488]

We booked onboard and transferred the booking to an independent trave Agartala who is based at home in the uk. 

She is dealing with it for us however celebrity are not wanting anything to do with us and our booking. We have three more cruises booked with celebrity and this is making us think twice about doing future bookings onboard. 

[Lolabunny488]

2 hours ago, fragilek said:

Hi I can't help this time but I got really fed up with the UK booking policies for cruises and I now always book via a US travel agent .  It's very easy to do - usually cheaper  (even at $1.28/£)  OR about the same price but with add ons like the agents perks - next cruise $300 per cabin + paid gratuities over and above the 2 celebrity perks of $300 and classic drinks package.  It allows me to change cabins free of charge to within same cat- and allows me to get upgrades or money back if price drops. and cancel up until about 8 weeks free of charge, then on a sliding scale of loses v. time left after that.

I will never book through the UK again I got Leukemia last year and had to cancel a fully paid cruise very last min (that I had stupidly booked through UK as offer seemed good). I accepted that I would loose the cruise cost - that's what insurance is for after all - however, what really stuck in my throat was an additional £49 charge to cancel and get the paperwork I required for the insurance.   So never again for me, especially as I live in a 6 week cycle of checks for ongoing remission.  

Oh dear I hope you are as well as you can be. I didn’t realise you could request for it to be sent to a us travel against even if we are in the uk. 

 

Its very true us being in the uk always seem to get worse offers including we don’t get the offer upgrades.

[yorky]

2 minutes ago, Lolabunny488 said:

We booked onboard and transferred the booking to an independent trave Agartala who is based at home in the uk. 

She is dealing with it for us however celebrity are not wanting anything to do with us and our booking. We have three more cruises booked with celebrity and this is making us think twice about doing future bookings onboard. 

Yep, sadly you wont get anything as it’s UK based. I tend to just not look after booking in truth as I also book through a UK agent I trust.

[GeorgesGal]

6 minutes ago, Lolabunny488 said:

We booked onboard and transferred the booking to an independent trave Agartala who is based at home in the uk. 

She is dealing with it for us however celebrity are not wanting anything to do with us and our booking. We have three more cruises booked with celebrity and this is making us think twice about doing future bookings onboard. 

 

I was of the impression that one of the perks for booking on-board was if the fare dropped one was entitled to the lower fare.  Has that changed?  Or does it not apply to UK?

 

The cruiser, in order to get the lower price, had to contact ~X~ themselves (or their TA as the case may be).  

 

Guess I'm wrong about the guarantee for on-board bookings.

[villauk]

3 minutes ago, GeorgesGal said:

 

I was of the impression that one of the perks for booking on-board was if the fare dropped one was entitled to the lower fare.  Has that changed?  Or does it not apply to UK?

 

The cruiser, in order to get the lower price, had to contact ~X~ themselves (or their TA as the case may be).  

 

Guess I'm wrong about the guarantee for on-board bookings.

 

U.K. bookings have totally different T&C to those of other countries. I’ve been using the same US TA for over 10 years now, mainly for the flexibility which isn’t available over here.

[24acorns]

1 hour ago, fragilek said:

Very true but the problem is in the UK we are locked in from the moment of booking even if the cruise is 2 years away if we cancel we loose a lot of money up to $385pp depending on cruise line with full non refundable payment can be 12 weeks before departure again depending on cruie line.

If you book onboard you may change this booking upto final payment with no surcharge . Your deposit moves to new booking. I am in the UK and benefited from this on many occasions.

[villauk]

1 minute ago, 24acorns said:

If you book onboard you may change this booking upto final payment with no surcharge . Your deposit moves to new booking. I am in the UK and benefited from this on many occasions.

 

 

Correct, if it’s an onboard booking. Then you have to pay the new deposits on the new cheaper reservation too.

[24acorns]

1 minute ago, villauk said:

 

 

Correct, if it’s an onboard booking. Then you have to pay the new deposits on the new cheaper reservation too.

 

1 minute ago, villauk said:

 

 

Correct, if it’s an onboard booking. Then you have to pay the new deposits on the new cheaper reservation too.

Have never been asked to pay any additional deposit, just the reduced deposit carried over to new booking together with my OBC perk for on board booking. 

Will say my bookings are always left with X have never transfered to travel agent.

[villauk]

9 minutes ago, 24acorns said:

 

Have never been asked to pay any additional deposit, just the reduced deposit carried over to new booking together with my OBC perk for on board booking. 

Will say my bookings are always left with X have never transfered to travel agent.

 

 

In my experience, if you move the onboard booking to another future sailing and rebook the cruise at the new reduced rate, you need to pay additional deposits for the new reservation (the rebooking at the cheaper rate) as you will now have 2 separate bookings.

[sandancer]

39 minutes ago, 24acorns said:

If you book onboard you may change this booking upto final payment with no surcharge . Your deposit moves to new booking. I am in the UK and benefited from this on many occasions.

Agreed. They are willing to move the booking but we lose the perks we got for booking onboard. We have another reservation also booked onboard but passed to our US TA which we have transferred to another cruise and kept the perks plus the $300 OBC given to us by our TA. 

[villauk]

3 minutes ago, sandancer said:

Agreed. They are willing to move the booking but we lose the perks we got for booking onboard. We have another reservation also booked onboard but passed to our US TA which we have transferred to another cruise and kept the perks plus the $300 OBC given to us by our TA. 

 

 

In the U.K. if you move the onboard booking to a future cruise, you should still get the OBC for booking onboard on the moved reservation; you wouldn’t get it applied to that sailing though if you rebooked e.g. cruise for Nov booked onboard, price falls dramatically and so you move the booking to a future sailing for 2020 and then rebook at the reduced rate. Your new booking for Nov at the cheaper rate would only be applicable for any current promotions - you couldn’t keep the extra OBC for the Nov cruise, but you would get the extra onboard booking OBC on your 2020 cruise.

[bEwAbG]

2 hours ago, Lolabunny488 said:

We booked onboard and transferred the booking to an independent trave Agartala who is based at home in the uk. 

She is dealing with it for us however celebrity are not wanting anything to do with us and our booking. We have three more cruises booked with celebrity and this is making us think twice about doing future bookings onboard.

 

If you have a travel agent, then you have to deal with the travel agent.  That's the point of having a TA.