When will Celebrity cancel cruises beyond February 2021?

[jagoffee]

4 hours ago, terrydtx said:

I suspect the L&S will be extended, too many are booked on cruises this year that likely will not happen. We are in that group with 2 cruises in Europe on the Infinity. If not we will just cancel before final payments are due for a refund of deposits,  no way we take any FCC from any cruise line.

The L&S may get extended as you suggest, but not if I was in charge. 
 

 As far as I know, no other cruise company has such a program.  There has been a lot of complaining on CC about the prices for people not doing a L&S.  I am not sure that Celebrity is getting any favorable credit for this amazingly generous program.  Celebrity would be better off eliminating this program and offering more competitive prices on the new releases.  Sure the prices will be higher than those booked in 2019, but not as high as the current prices. They can offer customers’ a bonus FCC or cash refund. 
 

 

[davekathy]

33 minutes ago, jagoffee said:

The L&S may get extended as you suggest, but not if I was in charge. 
 

 As far as I know, no other cruise company has such a program.  There has been a lot of complaining on CC about the prices for people not doing a L&S.  I am not sure that Celebrity is getting any favorable credit for this amazingly generous program.  Celebrity would be better off eliminating this program and offering more competitive prices on the new releases.  Sure the prices will be higher than those booked in 2019, but not as high as the current prices. They can offer customers’ a bonus FCC or cash refund. 
 

 

Glad you're not in charge. I'm glad Azamara, Celebrity and Royal Caribbean offer the L&S option. That way I was able to move our RC B2B cruise from March 2021 to March 2022 before final payment. Even saved money doing the L&S due to lower taxes and port fees on the changed itinerary and ship.  Without the L&S option we would have had to make the final payments in December. Then when RC finally decides to cancel the cruises (and they will) I would have to request cash refunds, wait for the refunds (speaking from experience, x3) to be posted back to the CC. Not interested in FCCs. 

 

Booked with NRD. 

Edited January 9, 2021 by davekathy

[ZoeyVictoria]

11 minutes ago, davekathy said:

Glad you're not in charge. I'm glad Azamara, Celebrity and Royal Caribbean offer the L&S option. That way I was able to move our RC B2B cruise from March 2021 to March 2022 before final payment. Even saved money doing the L&S due to lower taxes and port fees on the changed itinerary and ship.  Without the L&S option we would have had to make the final payments in December. Then when RC finally decides to cancel the cruises (and they will) I would have to request cash refunds, wait for the refunds (speaking from experience, x3) to be posted back to the CC. Not interested in FCCs. 

 

Booked with NRD. 

I am also happy about it.  I have three cruises that were lifted and shifted, soon to be four, that created excellent prices.  $701 total for two people in a corner aft balcony on the Mariner for four nights, seven nights on the Harmony for $933.  I look at it as Royal’s thank you to me for letting them keep my money for an extra year.

[RICCruisers]

Delete

Edited January 9, 2021 by RICCruisers

[terrydtx]

On 1/8/2021 at 2:58 AM, sandancer said:

I’m not sure if the travel agent passes the deposit on to the cruise lines if the client cancels but I do know for sure that it’s not returned. Standard for the UK. When making payments the credit card statement shows the name of the agency and not the cruise line as the recipient of the funds. The large high street agent we have used in the past asks for payment 4 weeks before final payment to allow for the transfer of funds. We now use a travel agent in the US for obvious reasons. 

I don't know about the UK, but because of  the pandemic TA's are dropping like flies here in the US. What happens to your deposits if the UK TA goes bankrupt? 

Edited January 9, 2021 by terrydtx

[terrydtx]

Conversation with my TA this morning about cancelations and the L&S policy. First Celebrity is having a TA webinar on the 12th to reveal (hopefully) or discuss Celebrity's future cruising schedule.  Next currently the L&S must be done by January 31 and can only be done to cruises departing before May 4, 2022. This does us no good since our upcoming May cruise is not available until June 2022.  At this point we are 90% sure we cancel before final payment next month. 100% certain we take no FCC as well.

[MaisonRose]

On 1/8/2021 at 3:58 AM, sandancer said:

I’m not sure if the travel agent passes the deposit on to the cruise lines if the client cancels but I do know for sure that it’s not returned. Standard for the UK. When making payments the credit card statement shows the name of the agency and not the cruise line as the recipient of the funds. The large high street agent we have used in the past asks for payment 4 weeks before final payment to allow for the transfer of funds. We now use a travel agent in the US for obvious reasons. 

 

13 hours ago, wrk2cruise said:

No it's the Reflection.

Here is a guess, though I haven’t crunched the numbers. Perhaps your deposit in reality becomes the travel agent’s commission. I’ve seen that in other  travel  agency operations. My expertise, however, is past it’s Sell By date.

[beachluver9]

On 1/4/2021 at 9:56 AM, sandancer said:

As soon as everyone has made final payment. 

Unfortunately for us, that seems to be the pattern

[beachluver9]

On 1/4/2021 at 11:42 AM, Husky61 said:

I cancelled a 12 day cruise for April 12, 2021, and final payment is due January 9, 2021. Sad that they will let everyone make final payment and then cancel.

We have a cruise scheduled on 5/5/21.  It is one day after the lift and shift deadline, so we aren't even eligible for that!  Our TA is going to try to extend our final payment day to give us a bit more time in hopes that Celebrity will extend the program.  Our fingers are crossed, but not holding our breath

 

[TFree]

2 hours ago, beachluver9 said:

We have a cruise scheduled on 5/5/21.  It is one day after the lift and shift deadline, so we aren't even eligible for that!  Our TA is going to try to extend our final payment day to give us a bit more time in hopes that Celebrity will extend the program.  Our fingers are crossed, but not holding our breath

 

Will you let us know if you get it extended?  I, too, am on a 5-5-21 cruise (British Isles on the Reflection).

Tom & Judy

[Mr. Click]

I just saw the latest Celebrity ads pop up today. Wonder is the key word. I am sure they are talking about seeing wonderful things, being amazed etc but to me it is still "I wonder if this will really sai?".   I even looked at booking Alaska for 2021 to replace the one we canceled last year but for the whole family of 6 the cost is now over $2000 more..  Maybe next year.

For now I sit and wait to see when they cancel the Panama Canal in Sept and Venice in Oct....Yep, I wonder.

[terrydtx]

19 hours ago, terrydtx said:

Conversation with my TA this morning about cancelations and the L&S policy. First Celebrity is having a TA webinar on the 12th to reveal (hopefully) or discuss Celebrity's future cruising schedule.  Next currently the L&S must be done by January 31 and can only be done to cruises departing before May 4, 2022. This does us no good since our upcoming May cruise is not available until June 2022.  At this point we are 90% sure we cancel before final payment next month. 100% certain we take no FCC as well.

We decided to have our TA do a L&S of our May Greek cruise to the same cruise on the Constellation leaving this September 6th. It will be interesting to see how easy this goes. Actually it works well for us as we will save over $4800 in airfare because we will go from Lisbon after our August Spain cruise to Venice for the September 6th cruise. We only have one international business class flight this way. We can fly from Lisbon to Venice for less than $200 on TAP airlines.

[jelayne]

7 minutes ago, terrydtx said:

We decided to have our TA do a L&S of our May Greek cruise to the same cruise on the Constellation leaving this September 6th. It will be interesting to see how easy this goes. Actually it works well for us as we will save over $4800 in airfare because we will go from Lisbon after our August Spain cruise to Venice for the September 6th cruise. We only have one international business class flight this way. We can fly from Lisbon to Venice for less than $200 on TAP airlines.

Are you sure it was a L & S  as the shift from a May cruise to September doesn’t meet the requirement of 1 year from original sail date +/- 4 weeks.  Did you keep the original cruise fare and perks?  Is it possible your TA moved your deposit from the May booking to September and your price at the prevailing rate and perks?

[wrk2cruise]

4 hours ago, beachluver9 said:

We have a cruise scheduled on 5/5/21.  It is one day after the lift and shift deadline, so we aren't even eligible for that!  Our TA is going to try to extend our final payment day to give us a bit more time in hopes that Celebrity will extend the program.  Our fingers are crossed, but not holding our breath

 

 

The deadline is 5/4/2022 for the new sailing departure.  Technically your 5/5/2021 sailing would be eligible IF there are any eligible sailings which depart 4/7/2022 - 5/4/2022.   Easiest way to see if you qualify is to put your booking info into the tool at https://cancellation.celebritycruises.com/?brand=C&program=liftshift

[terrydtx]

37 minutes ago, jelayne said:

Are you sure it was a L & S  as the shift from a May cruise to September doesn’t meet the requirement of 1 year from original sail date +/- 4 weeks.  Did you keep the original cruise fare and perks?  Is it possible your TA moved your deposit from the May booking to September and your price at the prevailing rate and perks?

You are correct she is working to get us the same rates and promotions as we have on the May cruise. 

[wrk2cruise]

19 minutes ago, terrydtx said:

You are correct she is working to get us the same rates and promotions as we have on the May cruise. 

 

Good luck.   If successful you have a powerful TA.

[jagoffee]

46 minutes ago, terrydtx said:

You are correct she is working to get us the same rates and promotions as we have on the May cruise. 

Is this a September 2021 cruise? 

[terrydtx]

32 minutes ago, jagoffee said:

Is this a September 2021 cruise? 

yes

 

[beachluver9]

2 hours ago, wrk2cruise said:

 

The deadline is 5/4/2022 for the new sailing departure.  Technically your 5/5/2021 sailing would be eligible IF there are any eligible sailings which depart 4/7/2022 - 5/4/2022.   Easiest way to see if you qualify is to put your booking info into the tool at https://cancellation.celebritycruises.com/?brand=C&program=liftshift

I have checked using the link that you provided, called my TA and also called Celebrity.  All three methods resulted in a "no".  I was told that only cruises departing prior to 5/4/21 are eligible for lift and shift program. 

 

The 5/4/2022 date floating out there is the "use by" date for the program. 

 

If they do in fact extend the eligibility date like many of us hope, the only comparable cruise for us within the 60 day window (30 days prior, 30 days after, plus one year) is an Edge class cruise and we are booked on the Reflection.  I was told that you can downgrade ship class, but cannot upgrade.  Hopefully this will change also.  If not, Princess has a comparable cruise and we might just try them for the first time.  If Celebrity doesn't mind losing us then it might just be time to try out another line.  And yes, I am aware that Princess doesn't even have a lift and shift program.  Just frustrated.

[wrk2cruise]

23 minutes ago, beachluver9 said:

the only comparable cruise for us within the 60 day window (30 days prior, 30 days after, plus one year) is an Edge class cruise and we are booked on the Reflection.

 

This is why there is no L&S option for you.

 

23 minutes ago, beachluver9 said:

I was told that only cruises departing prior to 5/4/21 are eligible for lift and shift program. 

 

This is nowhere in the T&C as a rule.   It may in fact be true due to other restrictions on # days, ships etc.   They seemed to mess with all the 2020 TA and Europe itineraries to make L&S impossible.

Edited January 10, 2021 by wrk2cruise

[terrydtx]

21 hours ago, jelayne said:

Are you sure it was a L & S  as the shift from a May cruise to September doesn’t meet the requirement of 1 year from original sail date +/- 4 weeks.  Did you keep the original cruise fare and perks?  Is it possible your TA moved your deposit from the May booking to September and your price at the prevailing rate and perks?

We got our cruise rebooked on the Constellation for September 6 for $300 more than the May cruise with the same perks. It was not a L&S as there were no eligible L&S cruises to replace the May cruise. We also booked our air on Celebrity Air from SAT to Barcelona for our first cruise in August and returning from Venice  after the second cruise for $2877pp business class. We are saving about $4900 total on air by not having two trips to Europe. We are very happy with this new itinerary and have a little more optimism that we will get to do both cruises. These both replace ones we had cancelled in 2020.. 

Edited January 11, 2021 by terrydtx

[wrk2cruise]

On 1/5/2021 at 11:00 AM, wrk2cruise said:

I predict it will be on a Tuesday.😀

 

Called it!

[Alakegirl]

 Check those dates!  Ha ha

Edited January 12, 2021 by Alakegirl

[Alakegirl]

And here’s the correction

[jagoffee]

I guess those that predicted that the cruises would be cancelled after the final payments were due, missed their estimate.  
 

I guess we have a little more certainty amongst all the uncertainty.