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This sounds to me like an agency fee and not Celebrity. Celebrity only charges if you change date or ship. Many TAs charge fees but these should be disclosed somewhere in their terms and conditions. Did the charge on your credit card show up as celebrity or as your TA agency name (or some variation of that).

No. Edge pricing is still astronomical compared to other ships and she launched in 2018. Prices are only going up especially in aqua and retreat and there is no sign of slowing down.

Agency bookings can absolutely use flights by celebrity. If you have trouble you may need your agent to log in and do it on their end. You can try calling but my guess is they won’t talk to you. I am assuming the booking is not too far out? I believe 330 or so days is the cutoff so if it’s a late 2024 or 2025 booking you would have to wait until it gets closer.

The more I cruise the less I am interested in the shows. That would probably explain why 😂 Would love a theater refresh but my guess is we are a few years away. It’s quite expensive to mount a new show, pandemic, debt, etc. they don’t seem to have any trouble filling the ships with the same shows and the ever increasing prices

98% chance they will automatically adjust the time when you get your tickets onboard. 2% they cancel the tour. I made those numbers up but I wouldn’t worry. That said can you cancel and rebook the later tour time? Also keep in mind Grand Cayman is a tender port so there needs to be time to get ashore also. If the tour is early they often meet in the theater and then take the whole tour as a group. I decided not to go last time I was there so I can’t recall where it met.

Not sure about that but there is an ATM available.

100% agree with this. Brands like HAL rely on onboard sales to make a profit and I’m sure they are banking on these people spending onboard. An empty cabin spends $0 so even if they give it away they are ahead as the incremental costs to them are minimal for those extra people. If they can ultimately use this to offset no shows and last minute cancellations it’s a win. Plus since you pay when you sign up it’s a cash flow boost. The big question in my mind is how long will the refund take if they do not clear you.

Other than any difference in port taxes and fees you are not entitled to anything. Under the contract of carriage they have the right to change the itinerary as they see fit and you have the right to basically nothing. A recent example Is Oceania with the situation in the Middle East. A number of their holy land cruises have been replaced with Italy & Greece. If you are outside of final payment they are waiving the cancellation fee (roughly $135/person on all bookings outside of final payment). Inside of final payment you are SOL.

So club orange completes things a lot. You will absolutely not get an automatic refare or credit other than any port taxes and fees that changed. If you have a TA or PCC they can work on this for you. If you booked direct a lot of holding on the phone is in your future. I have definitely heard of HAL refusing to refare club orange bookings or only doing it after significant pressure. You mentioned you are in the lowest category balcony. Are you happy with your cabin? Club orange should entitle you to an upgrade within the meta category if you want it.

As others said absolutely no issue outside of final payment with a refundable deposit. If nothing else simply cancel and rebook (and they can actually transfer your deposit). With a non refundable deposit you should most likely be able to change categories outside of final payment. As others have said your promotions will change to the current offering so watch out for any extras you might lose. I’ve had multiple occasions where I might safe $100 on the fare but lose $300 in grats and other perks from an early booking sale that made it not worthwhile. I actually got a credit once inside of final payment. I had booked an SA Neptune and an SB aft wrap opened up. I told them I didn’t even care about the refund, I just wanted that specific cabin and they ended up refunding me or transferring the balance to another booking. Absolutely would not expect this inside of final payment though.

Tough one but I would be inclined to book now. Prices go up in general and a lot can happen in 2 months both in terms of promotions and availability. The general advice I follow and give people is to book the second you know what you want to do and then aggressively monitor for price drops. What cruise length and cabin type are you looking at booking? Is it something likely to sell out? Not sure what the current OBC offer is for booking a specific cruise. The FCD obc is not really a lot and I mostly do that so I can apply them to bookings so I don’t have to do deposits and refunds over and over when I change my booking. As I recall I’ve gotten far more credit when booking a specific cruise I should also add I’m not nearly patient enough to wait 2.5 months to book a cruise I know I want. The anxiety would be far more than I can handle

I think op came back and said it was a communication error. They never book non refundable deposits and didn’t specify they wanted that one. The agent knowing them didn’t even look at the non-refundable option knowing they don’t book that. But because it is almost final payment OP was willing to do it to take the savings.

100%! Always aggressively monitor your bookings and look for price drops.

Thanks for this! So in other words travel agents (including OTAs) accounted for slightly over half of all bookings. That is a huge percent of their business. I wonder what percent of bookings were direct for the airlines at the time. If I have time I’ll have to research that. I think the first step would be reduced commissions, or reduced group commissions. Marriot reduced group commission down to 7% and all of the other chains quickly followed suit. Groups on cruises still get both commission and a tour conductor credit (even if it is a group that is not being led by anyone such as a large agency or consortia blocking group space for their independent travelers to book into).They could also try to restrict some of the bigger agencies rebating the commission in some form of cash or other gift card. I guess time will tell, but I think there is a place for TAs still, and we haven’t seen the slightest indication of cruise lines tightening the rains. And hopefully they don’t as I think TAs can provide enormous value particularly for inexperienced cruisers and those looking for something they might not necessarily know about.

Fantastic ships too. Sailed on R3 as Pacific Princess and thoroughly enjoyed it. Very comfortable ~700 pax vessel with roughly 350 crew. I never remember waiting for anything or a crowd anywhere.

I would guess that’s a celebrity or above suite. The butlers are still onboard, Celebrity has just deemed sky suites & aqua sky suites as unworthy.

I’ll have to post some of the regular menus. I don’t notice any substantial differences from my July sailing on Solstice. The one thing is I have seen a couple items repeat more than I recall.

Well I guess that picture didn't come out nearly as clear as it did on my phone, so here is the menu from the app.

Happy (US) Thanksgiving to everyone! As I see this question come up a lot, I thought I would share tonight's menu. MDR has a special Thanksgiving menu. All of the specialty restaurants including Blu & Luminae have the regular menu.

Just to add I saw on the FB group for our cruise that multiple people had the same issue and had to request their points manually. Makes me wonder if they are having problems with the system.

It is always amazing how 35% off the 2nd guest, 70% off the 2nd guest, 2nd guest sails free all come out to the same price. All just artificial pressure to get you to book immediately.

Exactly what we do! Since you only can get 2 at a time I usually walk with a tote bag back and forth between a couple bars on the same deck. We always have extra drinks at the end of the day.

I totally agree but have never heard of them converting to OBC. That is a very frustrating situation. I would suggest waitlisting (or booking one guest and waitlisting the second). There is a good possibility something may open up. I would also visit the excursion desk first thing when you get onboard and see what they can do.

I read the title and thought HAL was getting rid of cookies from their ships and was very confused 🤣

Totally agree!