mat5664

it actually would now be cheaper if I wanted to book the Single Ocean view cabin to cancel the booking I made yesterday, lose the £215 deposit and rebook.

I've literally just called and ask them - they price upgrades (at least in the UK) based on the price of cabins when you book.  Never seen this before.  As it happens, an Ocean View Single has become available today (wasn't available yesterday) which would be ideal for my mother who is currently in an Atrium View inside.  However, the upgrade price is the difference between what I paid yesterday and what the price would have been yesterday if it was available.  The agent told me the Black Friday offer was only for new bookings and when she asked a manager if she could use the new price, she was told 'no'.  I'm done with this now.  Back to Celebrity after this cruise.

50 minutes ago, Pushpit said:

I think this is pretty standard in the travel industry. At this time of year it's best to hold on a bit for things like Black Friday and New Year sales, and indeed it's not reasonable to expect phone agents to be candid about future plans. The point of these sales is to boost cash at certain periods.

 

However you may find that upgrading the stateroom may now be quite affordable, it's worth going through the details of the booking to see whether you can get a slightly better stateroom for a small amount of extra money.

good point except if I want to upgrade I have to pay the price the upgraded cabin was at the time of the original booking, not the new offer fare.  Lose/lose.

Yes they did but they told me that offers were embargoed and staff could not tell me one was about to drop.  I did say they could have just said ‘we don’t know’ rather than a flat no but they were not having it. 

Nope I did ask, they refused even that.  A bit mean I think especially given they specifically told me there was not going to be any Black Friday offer.

Cunard generally don’t do Black Friday offers in the U.K., only in US.  I called U.K. customer service last Friday when the US offers were announced just to check there was nothing coming in the U.K. and was told no.  So yesterday I booked a cruise for my mother and paid £120 more than todays price as they did launch a Black Friday offer this morning.

so I called customer services and was basically told ‘hard luck’.  She said she had consulted with a manager and they are not allowed to discuss sales before they start so they were right to tell me there would not be a U.K. Black Friday offer and that’s that.  Not great really (we don’t have the thing here where if you’ve not paid in full and the price comes down they will match it.)

Lovely story and great that people are able to enjoy their cruise with their assistance dog.  I'm sure most of the passengers enjoyed having him around also.

1 hour ago, majortom10 said:

I think as far as Cunard UK are concerned Black Friday doesn't exist.

well yes but actually the UK Autumn (fall) sale prices are much lower than the US Black Friday ones, so not complaining as actually just about to book QM2 for my mother.

"Ship's venues" but no mention of cabins.  Guess we will see!  I hope is more extensive than just the Grill suite areas as was suggested by some.

I've booked Virgin for my 60th birthday cruise next year.  Very much looking forward to trying something different.  As well as my other half, we are taking my 87 year old mother along, who is more comfortable on Cunard!  Not sure how she will feel about it but she's willing to give it a go.  

One of the reasons we changed from Celebrity is the cost from Southampton next year, especially as we need a single cabin for my mother.  Ended up paying £2200 for a sea terrace for my mother, which includes $600 bar tab and another $600 sailor loot.  Some of the Apex sailings next year were more than that for an Inside for one person.  Got flights to Barcelona on air miles and saving a few $1000 in all across both cabins.

Points don’t really matter in terms of rating your play.  In fact you have more chance of a higher rating from playing intensively on a shorter cruise then spreading your play over a longer one.

14 hours ago, ladylemondrop said:

Just a quick photo of our cabin, 9239 mid ship concierge. We missed the concierge embarkation lunch but it was offered until 1pm. 
our cabin is directly next to our sons, and the steward very kindly opened the balconies up so we have one big shared area between us. 
 

14 hours ago, ladylemondrop said:

Just a quick photo of our cabin, 9239 mid ship concierge. We missed the concierge embarkation lunch but it was offered until 1pm. 
our cabin is directly next to our sons, and the steward very kindly opened the balconies up so we have one big shared area between us. 
 

We are in 9239 end of the month 😊.  Is the balcony larger than usual.  Looks it .

We sailed on Silhouette in June.  My other half and I found the MDR food fine albeit quite basic, but my mother, who is a far more experienced cruiser than us, said it was the worst she had ever experienced.  

I am travelling with my other half and my mother.  The 2 of us have the classic beverage package, my mother does not.  She likes to have wine with dinner, so presumably she will have to pay the corkage fee if she brings a couple of bottles with her.  Will they keep opened bottles in the MDR so she can drink over several nights?

I would add, that they have offered to waive change fees to move the cruise, but we would need to pay additional fees for the prevailing rates for the new date, so to move to the next Fjord cruise which actually spends most of its time in the Fjords, would cost us an extra £1500 over the 2 cabins.  So we either suck it or cancel.

So I have now had a more detailed reply from Celebrity UK.  Apparently Maloy was not appropriate for their 'standards' so had to be removed from itineraries.

Which begs two questions - why include a port which 'doesn't meet standards' in several itineraries and why not substitute another port the Fjords rather than in Belgium. As noted above, we are on a 7 night Fjord cruise and our first stop in a Fjord is on day 4!

1 hour ago, BigAl94 said:

I totally agree with the OP, a 7 night cruise from UK to Norwegian Fjords should not be stopping in Zeebrugge, a terrible itinerary!

thank you and this is my point.

Yes Brugge is nice but I am going with my 86 year old mother who enjoys pottering round the port where we stop - which is why we chose the Fjords as it works well there.  Going to Brugge is not an option for us.

I have never seen an 7 night Fjords cruise which spends the first night going virtually nowhere, then docks the other side of the channel for a day in an industrial port.  Yes sometimes Fjord ports are changed  - for another Fjord !!

It's ridiculous - and made worse by the comms which insisted the cruise has been 'enhanced'.    We asked about changing  - they want £75 per cabin admin fee plus paying the difference in fares (and they are more expensive now) so we are stuck.  I am sure this will be my first and last Celebrity cruise and we will go back to P&O/Cunard/Princess.

Have been to Bruges loads of time and have no interest in going again.  As I said, we booked a cruise to the Fjords - by all means substitute one Norway port for another if needed not some grim port in Belgium.

I called up Celebrity- got some offshore call centre  - was told the change had been made for 'safety reasons'.

Have 2 cabins booked on Silhouette May 29 for what was supposed to be a 7 night Norwegian Fjord Cruise - except it's now spending the first night going very slowly across the channel and then the second day stopping in the industrial Belgian port of Zebrugge rather than a sea day going up to Norway.

If losing one Norwegian port and a day in the Fjords is bad enough - the email was ridiculous. - saying the cruise itinerary had been 'enhanced for our enjoyment'.

Not amused.   We've already booked leave and made arrangements for dog sitters etc so moving to another date would not really work.

Grrrr.

I've just booked a cruise on Silhouette via URComped.  UR Comped told me I had 'Always Included' as part of the deal.

The invoice says 'No perk rate' (twice) and there is nothing under my order history.  I queried this with URComped and they insist I do have Always included.

Is there anyway I can confirm this definitively?  I am UK based and the reservations team can't even see the booking as it was made in the US.

it's next year!

My partner has never been on a cruise and is a bit nervous/undecided about going.  I would like to book one for June 23 on Iona as I promised to take my mother as we had one cancelled due to the Pandemic.

I will book a single for my mother.  For the other one, is it better to book for 2 now and take her off if necessary nearer the time, or book a double for single occupancy and add her on later if she wants to come.  (The t&c say "A Guest shall not have the right to exclusive occupancy of a cabin with two or more berths unless the single person supplement is paid. If a cancellation results in a Guest becoming the sole occupant of a cabin with two or more berths, he/she shall be liable to pay the single person supplement"

I want to book a Fjords cruise for summer/autumn,  but I can't see any cruises this year.  The UK Govt is preparing to tighten borders further and other countries are doing the same.  Vaccine roll out is very patchy across Europe and countries will not want new strains being imported.  All very gloomy for travel sadly.

I think the sensible thing is for refunds not vouchers and absolutely not to pay balances.

When/if this horrible thing starts to goes away or there is a vaccine - cruises will still be one of the last things to start again as events have shown they are at the very high risk end of things.

In a couple if years we will hopefully look back on this as a bad dream but if I had to put money on it, I would say cruises will not start again until Summer 2022.