PH2

We really don't drink (we'll have 1 or 2 drinks each for the 4 night sailing, tops) so the drink package has far less value to us than a bigger room and true balcony. I got premium WiFi on sale for $125 for both of us for the sailing already. Looks like I ended up saving $1250 on the SS when adding in what I paid for the Concierge IV and what I could have booked the SS for. That's a decent savings to us since we'd never get our money's worth out of the drink package.

4 hours ago, Ipeeinthepools said:

Did this video cause anyone to call their TA and book a cruise?

No, but I did check out pricing just out of curiosity. Not exactly at the point where I'm ready to drop $15-25K on a cruise and the next 2.5 years are already booked for vacations (including 2 Celebrity cruises and an expected wedding), but I could see it in the next 5-7 years. Maybe not the immediate ROI they are looking for, but I also think there's some long-term value they see in brand recognition/loyalty and informing current customers of offerings.

Nevermind, Celebrity answered my questions - we got upgraded!

At the last minute, on a whim while tooling around in our reservation for our sailing next week, I decided to look at the Move Up offer and saw that they discounted the bids by 50%. When we originally received the Move Up offer a couple months ago, the bidding made no sense - we're in a Concierge IV and the minimum bid to get into a Sky Suite would have cost us about the same if not slightly more than just booking a Sky Suite, which of course would have also given us the drink package, wifi and increased club points. So I blew it off.

However, the ability to bid at a reduced amount where it would actually make some sense financially for us enticed me to give it a try. If our bid is accepted, it will come out to about $1400-1500 less, which I can live with given the lack of amenities and club points.

My question is this - last night I put in a bid for a Sky Suite, which appeared from ghost bookings that they had about a dozen or more still open to book, and a Sunset Sky Suite, which appeared there was only one left. Last night, the SSS bid was modifiable and the SS was not. This morning, the SSS bid is expired but the SS is still pending but not modifiable. Is that an indication they're likely going to accept our SS bid? Should I keep checking to make sure it doesn't unlock to be modified (can/will that happen?), and if that happens, is it an indication we've been outbid and are no longer in queue for our original bid to be accepted?

2 hours ago, stvntra said:

This will be our first cruise on Celebrity. Were you able to take the piece home? My boyfriend and I are going on her in September to Alaska and I want to do this!! 🙂

Yes. For the price of the session, you can pick between 3 or 4 different pieces that they help you make. Or, for an upgrade, you can make bigger, more elaborate pieces.

On 3/2/2024 at 8:08 AM, Georgia_Peaches said:

We enjoyed the glass blowing at the lawn club. You can sign up to make a piece or you can just watch. The artisans are very talented and help you create a beautiful souvenir of your cruise. 

Second this. Except that, if you make the jellyfish one, which ends up being in the shape of a small missile head (especially when viewed through an x-ray machine), make sure to pack it in your carry-on in a convenient place for TSA to take it out for examination. Otherwise, they have to remove everything in the bag and unwrap it to actually see it's what you say it is.

The TSA agent was pretty cool about it and thought it was neat once he saw it, but yeah, we didn't think that one through...

We had 9374 on Solstice last fall in Alaska and loved it. And yes, I was concerned about the pole - mainly, needing to get up in the middle of the night and destroying my kneecap - but it was never a problem.

I've used the chat 8-10 times over the past 4 days. Every time I get through to a person and tell them I want to cancel, they tell me the system is down and they can't help me and to call. 

5 minutes ago, Jnsplace1 said:

I've used the chat 3 times in the last few weeks, zero issues with it myself.  /shrug

 

The website is another matter.......

I suppose that's my point. I tried one more time this morning. System still down. I cancelled by phone, which was fine. But something tells me the chat system issue might be related to the reason I wanted to chat. I can't believe a company as big as Princess would not have resolved a basic issue in 4 or 5 days. 

Thanks for the comments, everybody. I'm most familiar with Celebrity, and they do have online cancellation. They also separate bookings into refundable and non-refundable deposits, so it makes sense that maybe they don't care if people can easily cancel because if it's a NF deposit, they get to keep it!

I made the booking myself online. I will call tomorrow but I don't understand why they can't make online cancellation easy, and I have no idea why their systems would be down for 3 days via chat. 

Thanks! I guess I'll find out how the call goes tomorrow.

We booked a cruise for next year but unfortunately we have to cancel. It's not exactly unfortunate, because my daughter is getting married next year. But that means no funds for cruising...

In any event, we've never cruised with Princess before so what I thought would be an easy online cancellation process is anything but. I don't see any way to cancel a cruise through the reservation (which is honestly sketchy), and I'm just not interested in calling in if I can help it because I assume the only reason they force this method is to put on a high pressure sales pitch.

So I thought I would just do it by chat. However, for the past 3 days, every time I have connected to someone by chat and told them I want to cancel a booking, I get the exact same message - our system is down so you'll need to call. THREE DAYS.

Has anyone else tried using the chat feature during the past 3 days and been helped? Or are they just lying to me to force a call? If it's the latter, I wish they would just be honest about it instead of telling me the system is down. If the system really is down, 3 days seems excessive and Princess needs to fire its IT director.

This has left a pretty sour taste in my mouth about Princess. Not exactly a great first impression...

Dont get so revved up.

I'm still trying to understand the algorithm for the Move Up bids where they offered me, as a minimum bid amount, a price that would basically equal (or possibly exceed, on any given day's pricing fluctuations) the price of the suite if I just booked it outright and received the full allotment of benefits from booking versus Move Up. It's a headscratcher to me, for sure.

16 hours ago, RTShaker said:

 

 

 

All I heard in the webinar was blah, blah, blah, blah, carefully culled question, generic non specific answer, blah, blah, blah. Rinse and repeat.

I'm still chuckling at the last question - forget the answer. I mean, no disrespect to anyone who sends in questions (and in particular, this question), but who really takes the time to send in such a clear softball question as "What's the one thing that puts Celebrity above other cruise lines" (it was something like that)? I don't understand the point of a question like that, other than perhaps it was requested by the company from some super-elites so they could claim it was a question from a member and they obliged.

What response to a question like that could possibly provide anyone with any kind of meaningful or useful feedback?

Thanks. And yeah, the pricing may be slightly different, taxes, etc. But I have to think - absent a huge price spike - the NR cost would still be a savings.

I am tempted to try it, looking at a summer 2025 sailing right now...

Drydock was rescheduled for March 2025, I believe.

Does anyone know how quickly a canceled cabin becomes available again? Just curious if holding a cabin as a refundable deposit for months and then canceling/rebooking as nonrefundable when your plans are set is a viable strategy - understanding the risk that rebooking might be at a worse price point, or someone could grab your specific cabin once it's released (which is the reason for my question about how quickly a canceled cabin is free to be booked again).

3 hours ago, Jim_Iain said:

I believe the rumor of problems came about due to some of the summer Norwegian Cruises having ports skipped or modified due to slower speeds.   I believe these are speed restriction being put in place to limit sea life and whale destruction.      The same thing happened last year along the California West Coast due to migration.

 

From what I've read, I think it's being questioned for two reasons: (1) at least one or more Apex Caribbean itineraries in the fall have been adjusted, and (2) no other line has made itinerary changes if this is some sort of Norway regulation that affects all lines.

What follows from those points seems to be mostly speculation as to why this might not be just a Norway speed restriction regulation issue.

I absolutely hate that Celebrity charges more for refundable. I don't see many other mainstream lines use this practice (although maybe a couple do? I don't price out tons of cruises on every line).

So, question... has anyone booked a cruise speculatively on a refundable deposit, and then when they are sure they are going to go, been able to cancel and rebook the same the cabin as nonrefundable? Does the cabin come open quickly to rebook? I realize there is an element of chance in this, but can someone be successful in doing this?

Same with our offers. It's just that none of them make any sense to bid on.

Isn't the point for them to fill more expensive cabins? When you have 30 open cabins and you are charging the same amount as if one simply booked it, today, on the website - but the move up price doesn't include the All Included perks - I don't really understand the point. Unless people in Inside or Oceanview rooms are getting better deals to move up than those with IVs or who are already in the Retreat.

7 minutes ago, jelayne said:

That happens and in that case you are better off to just upgrade with out going through the Move Up Process.  If you just upgrade you get the Premium Beverage package, Premium wi-fi and the Captains Club points for the Suite.  With Move Up you do not get the beverage package, wi-fi or extra points and you can select your cabin vs having one assigned.

Thanks, that's a good point. I chose to book "cheap" for this one (it's just a 4 day cruise as part of a larger vacation), and I wanted to see if we could tolerate the IV for 4 days which would tell me whether we'll sail Edge class in the future (Retreat is pricing us out at the moment), but I thought maybe we could sneak into the Retreat on a bit of a bargain if everything went right. But the minimum bid is way too high. I probably overshot the cost, because i looked at the final price which would include the port fees again, but without the beverage package, wifi, and points, it's an even worse deal to move up taking it all into account!

We'll probably just stick with IV and see how much we hate it, lol. Do they ever revise their Move Up pricing? 30 open suites seems like a lot.

I'm going to ask this question here instead of the thread I posted it in, and instead of the "no questions" move up thread...

I have a Move Up question related to the Retreat... I have a Concierge Class cabin for an upcoming Apex cruise. I received a Move Up bid offer this afternoon, and the minimum bids for every Retreat cabin, if I double the per person rate and add it to what I've already paid for my cabin, are basically the exact same cost, or at best, maybe a couple hundred dollars better, than if I just booked those cabins straight away without going through the bidding process.

Is that the way these are usually priced? Doing a quick fake booking, I counted 30 open Sky Suites, yet the lowest bid I can put in to "move up" would essentially cost me the same as a full price booking for that suite? Why would I do that? Regret that I didn't pull the trigger when I originally booked?