Non Refundable Deposit - Sales / Tip / Tricks

[-The-True-North-]

Hey All,

 

Trust all is well. Celebrity newbie here but a lot of sailing under us with HAL and VV. Had some questions for the Celebrity pros out there. Any tips of tricks to booking a cruise with the lowest Non Refundable deposit possible?  HAL has an annual $1 deposit sale. VV has MNVVs that can be bought and given/sold to other Sailors. Wondering if Celebrity has anything similar.

 

Also, if I were to make a non-refundable deposit of $1 to $500, and the final payment date arrives. Should I no longer want to or more likely can not go, I am only out the deposit right? There would be no additional "cancellation fees" or remaining amount needing to be remitted. Correct?

 

Thank you in advance.

[Liao]

59 minutes ago, -The-True-North- said:

Hey All,

 

Trust all is well. Celebrity newbie here but a lot of sailing under us with HAL and VV. Had some questions for the Celebrity pros out there. Any tips of tricks to booking a cruise with the lowest Non Refundable deposit possible?  HAL has an annual $1 deposit sale. VV has MNVVs that can be bought and given/sold to other Sailors. Wondering if Celebrity has anything similar.

 

Also, if I were to make a non-refundable deposit of $1 to $500, and the final payment date arrives. Should I no longer want to or more likely can not go, I am only out the deposit right? There would be no additional "cancellation fees" or remaining amount needing to be remitted. Correct?

 

Thank you in advance.

You can't make a $1 deposit.  If you buy or book a FCC on board you can do a $100 deposit, non-refundable.  You probably should go peruse the website and do a few mock bokkings to see what deposit amount and cost of cruise you might be looking at for refundable v non.

[-The-True-North-]

1 minute ago, Liao said:

You can't make a $1 deposit.  If you buy or book a FCC on board you can do a $100 deposit, non-refundable.  You probably should go peruse the website and do a few mock bokkings to see what deposit amount and cost of cruise you might be looking at for refundable v non.

The $1 deposit is an annual sale. Not an everyday thing with HAL.

 

For the $100 FCC, can someone buy it online now and transfer it to me? Or is there fees, ect that won't allow it?

[Liao]

1 minute ago, -The-True-North- said:

The $1 deposit is an annual sale. Not an everyday thing with HAL.

 

For the $100 FCC, can someone buy it online now and transfer it to me? Or is there fees, ect that won't allow it?

FCC has to be purchased on board.

[cruizingOmi]

8 minutes ago, -The-True-North- said:

The $1 deposit is an annual sale. Not an everyday thing with HAL.

 

For the $100 FCC, can someone buy it online now and transfer it to me? Or is there fees, ect that won't allow it?

FCC is only available Onboard and is not transferable.Most Cruises carry a deposit of $530 and upwards depending on Length and Price of Room, 

[-The-True-North-]

2 minutes ago, cruizingOmi said:

FCC is only available Onboard and is not transferable.Most Cruises carry a deposit of $530 and upwards depending on Length and Price of Room, 

Yea, that's what we are noticing.

 

The deposit is almost 50% of the total because the minimum deposit seems to be $500.

 

So we're looking if there was any options to maybe lower it.

[WrittenOnYourHeart]

2 hours ago, -The-True-North- said:

VV has MNVVs

Has what? Given that this is a Celebrity board, I'm guessing most of us have no idea what Virgin's acronyms are.

[-The-True-North-]

Just now, WrittenOnYourHeart said:

Has what? Given that this is a Celebrity board, I'm guessing most of us have no idea what Virgin's acronyms are.

My Next Virgin Voyage. It's there on ship FCC. Except you can buy it onboard, then transfer it to friends, family, ect.

[Jeremiah1212]

Easy solution is find a travel agent with group rates and you won’t have to pay a premium for the refundable deposit - and you’ll get tips and WiFi. 
 

48 minutes ago, cruizingOmi said:

FCC is only available Onboard and is not transferable

 

Sorta. Two caveats. You can book a Future Cruise for someone else who is not onboard. You can also change any names as many times as you want on a Book Later Certificate up until you select a cruise. 

[Jim_Iain]

1 hour ago, Liao said:

FCC has to be purchased on board.

 

I'm on Solstice now and the FCC are available with $100 pp deposit.   They currently have to be booked within 6 months and after 12 months become worthless and you forfeit the deposit if not used.

 

This is the fist time we have not purchased any.  Personal opinion is -  yet again Celebrity has made a change that in my mind will reduce bookings rather than increase them.

 

Also for Suites it is now either a $900 pp deposit OR 10% whichever is higher.    In our case if they want to pretend they are a Premium Carrier -- we will be booking with a real premium cruise line instead.

Edited May 3 by Jim_Iain

[Liao]

14 minutes ago, Jim_Iain said:

 

I'm on Solstice now and the FCC are available with $100 pp deposit.   They currently have to be booked within 6 months and after 12 months become worthless and you forfeit the deposit if not used.

 

This is the fist time we have not purchased any.  Personal opinion is -  yet again Celebrity has made a change that in my mind will reduce bookings rather than increase them.

 

Also for Suites it is now either a $900 pp deposit OR 10% whichever is higher.    In our case if they want to pretend they are a Premium Carrier -- we will be booking with a real premium cruise line instead.

This is interesting for me.  Let me give my example:  Dec 2023, on board Summit, I purchased 2 FCC's, paid $100 for each, so total paid was $200 but for 2 separate certificates.  In March I just booked a 12 night TA on Eclipse in a RS for March 2025, they only used 1 of the FCC total of $100 deposit for both me and my husband, thus I still had a $100 FCC to use.  I then decided to make this a B2B and booked the preceeding cruise in the same RS to the TA and used the remaining $100 FCC but again for the two of us.  So we have a $100 (x2) TOTAL deposit for each individual cruise.  Are they now handling these different?

[Ex-Airbalancer]

27 minutes ago, Jim_Iain said:

Also for Suites it is now either a $900 pp deposit OR 10% whichever is higher.    In our case if they want to pretend they are a Premium Carrier -- we will be booking with a real premium cruise line instead.

I would love 10% deposit 😁

on our November cruise our deposit is 58% of the cruise price 

 

[wrk2cruise]

5 minutes ago, Liao said:

This is interesting for me.  Let me give my example:  Dec 2023, on board Summit, I purchased 2 FCC's, paid $100 for each, so total paid was $200 but for 2 separate certificates.  In March I just booked a 12 night TA on Eclipse in a RS for March 2025, they only used 1 of the FCC total of $100 deposit for both me and my husband, thus I still had a $100 FCC to use.  I then decided to make this a B2B and booked the preceeding cruise in the same RS to the TA and used the remaining $100 FCC but again for the two of us.  So we have a $100 (x2) TOTAL deposit for each individual cruise.  Are they now handling these different?

 

Someone messed up.  Since you booked suites with your "Book Later Certificate" (technically a FCC is something very different on Celebrity) they TA was supposed to collect the additional deposit of 10%.  There is no "reduced deposit" for suites on Celebrity.

 

Even if you used those for a non-suite booking and you named the second passenger I believe you were supposed to pay another $100 deposit.

 

Consider yourself lucky.

[Liao]

7 minutes ago, wrk2cruise said:

 

Someone messed up.  Since you booked suites with your "Book Later Certificate" (technically a FCC is something very different on Celebrity) they TA was supposed to collect the additional deposit of 10%.  There is no "reduced deposit" for suites on Celebrity.

 

Even if you used those for a non-suite booking and you named the second passenger I believe you were supposed to pay another $100 deposit.

 

Consider yourself lucky.

It sure looks that way:  

 

23 minutes ago, Ex-Airbalancer said:

I would love 10% deposit 😁

on our November cruise our deposit is 58% of the cruise price 

 

If I was not so technologically challenged, I'd post the same snippet from my booking, but when I do it just comes up in the post as word typed doc.

[Arizona Wildcat]

2 hours ago, -The-True-North- said:

Yea, that's what we are noticing.

 

The deposit is almost 50% of the total because the minimum deposit seems to be $500.

 

So we're looking if there was any options to maybe lower it.

We always book with our TA getting the same fare as on the website, some additional OBC and a refundable deposit.

[-The-True-North-]

57 minutes ago, Ex-Airbalancer said:

I would love 10% deposit 😁

on our November cruise our deposit is 58% of the cruise price 

 

This is EXACTLY what I am seeing!

 

It's crazy that a deposit is over 50% the total.

 

How can I find a TA with group rates? I'd love to to do that. 

[-The-True-North-]

1 hour ago, Jeremiah1212 said:

Easy solution is find a travel agent with group rates and you won’t have to pay a premium for the refundable deposit - and you’ll get tips and WiFi. 
 

 

Sorta. Two caveats. You can book a Future Cruise for someone else who is not onboard. You can also change any names as many times as you want on a Book Later Certificate up until you select a cruise. 

Any way to know that TAs have group rates?

 

I used I VERY large well known TA online, and they were 100$ cheaper than the website, but no freebies only OBC.

[-The-True-North-]

What's a Book Later Certificate? Same as the FCC?

[rinshin]

1 hour ago, Jim_Iain said:

 

I'm on Solstice now and the FCC are available with $100 pp deposit.   They currently have to be booked within 6 months and after 12 months become worthless and you forfeit the deposit if not used.

 

This is the fist time we have not purchased any.  Personal opinion is -  yet again Celebrity has made a change that in my mind will reduce bookings rather than increase them.

 

Also for Suites it is now either a $900 pp deposit OR 10% whichever is higher.    In our case if they want to pretend they are a Premium Carrier -- we will be booking with a real premium cruise line instead.

What change or changes causing this?  I am returning to Celebrity after considerable absence and accepted the fact that it is no longer the Celebrity of pre-2010 I am familiar with.  

Edited May 4 by rinshin

[1Virgo]

59 minutes ago, -The-True-North- said:

What's a Book Later Certificate? Same as the FCC?

Book later… $100/pp to be applied towards a cruise you book within 6 months. You get OBCper stateroom amount depending on cabin type and length if cruise

 

FCC is a voucher for a future cruise.  one might get this for say a missed port.  Anyway. things change and way too many new Celebrity staffers vs experienced so you might get different answers

[Ex-Airbalancer]

9 hours ago, rinshin said:

What change or changes causing this?  I am returning to Celebrity after considerable absence and accepted the fact that it is no longer the Celebrity of pre-2010 I am familiar with.  

What is the same since 2010 🤣

[Gracie115]

11 hours ago, Ex-Airbalancer said:

I would love 10% deposit 😁

on our November cruise our deposit is 58% of the cruise price 

 

 

Wow....that's just crazy...

[Ex-Airbalancer]

31 minutes ago, Gracie115 said:

 

Wow....that's just crazy...

Crazy yes, but the deposit for cabins have always been high , even on an inside cabin we had to pay a deposit of $480CAD a person since 2016, most of cruise before that were bought after final payment date 

here the invoice for a Suez Canal cruise in 2017, booked in 2016 ,  got lucky ,it was sale of $50 deposit 

but in the fine it ask for $960 for the cabin, and a suite would be double 

and the military discount was better back than it was $280 pp, instead of $100 pp they have now 

 

[Travelling2Some]

We would really like to book with Celebrity again but these very high non-refundable deposits are a bit crazy.  I like to book very early but having large sums at risk for long periods is too worrisome.  I buy trip insurance right away, which mitigates some of the anxiety, but there is too much that can happen in a year and a half.  Insurance does not cover all reasons for cancellation, especially since we live in NY, a state that does not allow CFAR (cancel for any reason) insurance to be sold.  I have never used a travel agent and don't want to.  Much as I would like to book another Celebrity cruise their deposit policy makes it a no-go.   

[-The-True-North-]

7 minutes ago, Travelling2Some said:

We would really like to book with Celebrity again but these very high non-refundable deposits are a bit crazy.  I like to book very early but having large sums at risk for long periods is too worrisome.  I buy trip insurance right away, which mitigates some of the anxiety, but there is too much that can happen in a year and a half.  Insurance does not cover all reasons for cancellation, especially since we live in NY, a state that does not allow CFAR (cancel for any reason) insurance to be sold.  I have never used a travel agent and don't want to.  Much as I would like to book another Celebrity cruise their deposit policy makes it a no-go.   

💯!!!