Celebrity deals in the UK

[Thascales]

Anyone know when Celebrity deals in the UK tend to be the most advantageous? Or is it random every year?

[Mynki]

Completely random throughout the year. Always worth comparing to a U.S. TA at the time of booking as they're rarely the same price. 

[villauk]

5 minutes ago, Mynki said:

Completely random throughout the year. Always worth comparing to a U.S. TA at the time of booking as they're rarely the same price. 

 

 

Agree, and who knows what new additions to pricing will be added in the future. 

[chemmo]

It honestly depends on what deal suits you...

 

At present the ‘free’ beverage package and $300 is of little value to us as we tend to book a RS which comes with a premium drinks package anyway.

 

The deal that helps us the most is second guest half price. With the cost of the RS for guests one and two often being £5,000 each for a 10 night Caribbean cruise then the second guest half price offer is a genuine discount...Look at the pricing in the Mediterranean (much higher) and the offer becomes better still.

 

Whilst I don’t think there is a set pattern we are always alert...Sometimes we book cruises as they are released if we feel the price is ‘fair’, often we will then see these prices rise significantly and no offer will bring them back to the initial rate we paid. On other occasions we will ‘monitor’ a cruise we may be interested in...If the price (by what ever offer) brings it into our comfort zone then we will book...

 

 

[Mark_T]

On the other-hand, the current offer is pretty good if you are booking a Sky Suite for example as it offers the same $300 OBC but also includes the premium drink package, gratuities and Unlimitied Internet for 2 people.

[isdoo]

1 hour ago, Mark_T said:

On the other-hand, the current offer is pretty good if you are booking a Sky Suite for example as it offers the same $300 OBC but also includes the premium drink package, gratuities and Unlimited Internet for 2 people.

I think the unlimited internet is for one device. Or it was when I rebooked on our Christmas cruise. 

The current offer is better than the previous one.

[Mark_T]

21 minutes ago, isdoo said:

I think the unlimited internet is for one device. Or it was when I rebooked on our Christmas cruise.

it is for one device but each of the first two guests get the package.

[Mynki]

3 hours ago, Mark_T said:

On the other-hand, the current offer is pretty good if you are booking a Sky Suite for example as it offers the same $300 OBC but also includes the premium drink package, gratuities and Unlimitied Internet for 2 people.

 

Does it not depend on the cruise fare though? The cost of the perks is often added to the base fare and sold as a package. Celebrity have also been known to sell perk inclusive cruises at a premium to what it would have cost to buy them separately.

I agree with Chemmo that the GENUINE buy one get one half price offers are good. But these are rare. I've also seen RCL and X inflate their prices for a short period and then have a FAKE buy one get one half price offer where the total fare for two passengers worked out exactly the same as what it would have cost before they artificially inflated their pricing.

 

Buyer beware. :)

[Mynki]

4 hours ago, villauk said:

 

 

Agree, and who knows what new additions to pricing will be added in the future. 

 

 

Indeed. It will be interesting to see what if anything Celebrity UK do with the $14 pppd charge for inclusive classic drink packages.

 

We boarded Constellation two hours ago. The staff are pushing specialty dining and drinks packages harder than any other cruise we've been on. We've currently been approached nine times! That's a record for us. :)

[Mark_T]

1 hour ago, Mynki said:

 

Does it not depend on the cruise fare though? The cost of the perks is often added to the base fare and sold as a package. Celebrity have also been known to sell perk inclusive cruises at a premium to what it would have cost to buy them separately.

 

 

Yes, it is always important to check the fare, but in this case we were booking a 'last minute' deal where the prices were already well below the following departure of the same itinerary, then they fell again shortly after we booked, making the upgrade from C1 to S1 virtually free, so it was a real 'no brainer' 🙂

[Mynki]

39 minutes ago, Mark_T said:

 

Yes, it is always important to check the fare, but in this case we were booking a 'last minute' deal where the prices were already well below the following departure of the same itinerary, then they fell again shortly after we booked, making the upgrade from C1 to S1 virtually free, so it was a real 'no brainer' 🙂

 

Always good when that happens. 😄

[lulurobby]

Am I correct in thinking that if your drink package was a perk on a U.K. booking there is no additional charges per day.

[Mark_T]

6 hours ago, lulurobby said:

Am I correct in thinking that if your drink package was a perk on a U.K. booking there is no additional charges per day.

Since we don’t get to choose perks, and just get what is offered, there can’t be any additional charges above the advertised price.  So the price you see is what you pay.

 

The additional charge on the US bookings is there because there is a choice of perks which are not all of equal value.

[villauk]

5 minutes ago, Mark_T said:

So the price you see is what you pay.

 

 

Yes, it will be just hidden in there instead.

[Mark_T]

If you really don't want it then you can always ask for the price without and see what they say... ?

 

This is nothing new though, in the past I've had 'free' air removed from cruise packages (not on Celebrity) and got a lower price.

 

There is always a delta between the cost to you of a 'perk' and their cost, so I wouldn't expect too much from removing these things, if they will do it...

[Mark_T]

One interesting point.

 

Our cruise is past the final payment date and right now the guaranty suites which do not qualify for the offer package are priced higher than the suites that do qualify.

 

Looking at our invoice, you can see that there is a £200 per person discount on the suite price included in the package, so if you were to negotiate on a price without the offer package you've got a negative £200 per person to factor in as well...

[villauk]

23 minutes ago, Mark_T said:

One interesting point.

 

Our cruise is past the final payment date and right now the guaranty suites which do not qualify for the offer package are priced higher than the suites that do qualify.

 

Looking at our invoice, you can see that there is a £200 per person discount on the suite price included in the package, so if you were to negotiate on a price without the offer package you've got a negative £200 per person to factor in as well...

 

 

You’re cruise must be pretty close as FP over here is 57 days, compared to 90 in the US, and so a totally different ball game comes into play. You’re paying for the beverage package whichever way you look at it because it’s built-in to the initial costings, always was and always will be - the total overheads are accounted for before any pricing is released.

[Mark_T]

Of course, nothing is ever 'free', but you can end up with some interesting deals if you are prepared to play the 'last minute' game, especially when the differential between suite and non-suite pricing falls to around the same value as the differences between the suite and non-suite offers... 🙂

[PatEv]

I don't think I've ever seen the UK website with classic drinks not included for anything above an inside cabin?

[lovescarborough]

Just wondering if onboard bookings with drinks package included will then be subject to the additional charge as we are still bound by U.K. Terms and conditions? 

[Mark_T]

5 minutes ago, lovescarborough said:

Just wondering if onboard bookings with drinks package included will then be subject to the additional charge as we are still bound by U.K. Terms and conditions? 

 

The additional charge is only for those who get to pick a number of 'perks' from the list, it simply reflects that the other perks are not of equal value to the drinks package so that one comes with a little extra cost attached.

 

UK offers don't give us a choice so all costs are already baked into the cabin price.

 

If you book onboard and your deal includes a choice of perks in the USA style then expect the extra cost, if not then it won't.

Edited October 22, 2019 by Mark_T

[Mynki]

On 10/22/2019 at 8:58 PM, Mark_T said:

 

The additional charge is only for those who get to pick a number of 'perks' from the list, it simply reflects that the other perks are not of equal value to the drinks package so that one comes with a little extra cost attached.

 

UK offers don't give us a choice so all costs are already baked into the cabin price.

 

If you book onboard and your deal includes a choice of perks in the USA style then expect the extra cost, if not then it won't.

 

There is a TA in the UK that will provide a quote for a bare cruise with no perks included. Therefore I expect other TA's will offer the same if asked. You just don't appear to be able to do this on the Celebrity UK website. It might be possible to book without perks if you were to call Celebrity directly though. I've never tried. 

The 'discount' offered by our UK based TA for a perk free cruise was nowhere near the value of the perks offered to us though so it made no sense to book without them. 

I'm sure there is potential for a UK vs US bookings guide to subscribers who want to pay a few £ for a subscription! It would pay many dividends to fully understand both after all. lol

[Mark_T]

39 minutes ago, Mynki said:

The 'discount' offered by our UK based TA for a perk free cruise was nowhere near the value of the perks offered to us though so it made no sense to book without them.

 

I'm not surprised.

 

I don't know if this is always true, but for the cruise I've been dealing with the included perks also came along with a discount on the published fare, so if you remove the offer package the base fare goes up which removes most of the saving from not taking the perks.

 

This was also visible when comparing the price for a Guaranty reservation rather than a specific cabin as the guaranty did not come with the perks and had a higher price as a result.

 

So to put some numbers on it, the invoiced 'cost' of the perk package was £420pp and that came with a £200pp discount, so removing the perks would net you a £220pp saving but you'd be giving up far more than that in included gratuities alone, never mind the drinks package and the internet etc.

Edited October 24, 2019 by Mark_T

[Mark_T]

Too late to edit... that should be 'about the same amount in gratuities alone..'