Big Thanks to Andy (Re: Drink Package Upgrade Debacle)

[purrlinda]

What an oddysey this has been.

 

I am a travel agent so I'm pretty familiar with small print, terms and conditions, and all of that good stuff.

 

I originally booked my 2/24 cruise on the Silhouette at a CA resident's rate back in October. It happened to be a departure that offered a $50 OBC that was on my booking.

 

When 123GO was announced o, I checked to see if the resident rate was applicable. I quickly noted per the FAQ I recieved that no, it wasn't. So I did some math and realized if I changed to a 5 Star rate and upgraded my cabin from a 2B to 1C for $109 more per person, I could get the beverage package, I decided to go for it. I talked with the res agent on 1/14 who added the package, noted that I wanted to upgrade to premium and he updated my invoice with the WAV7-PREM BEV code. I asked if this promotion meant that I would lose the promotion from my agency that gave a $50 OBC. He said it did not. I asked if I could pay for the upgrade and he told me at that time that due to the popularity of the offer, they would be calling for payment after the promo ended on 1/28.

 

I called around the 4th of February to pay for the package since I'd not yet been contacted. The res agent told me that they'd be charging me for the upgrade on board the ship.

 

I let it go, thought all was well and good, and was happy as could be.

 

Until I saw the warning thread last night. The mountains of different information (which after being in this industry for 7 years does not surprise me) had me a little nervous. I took Andy's advise to take care of it before I left.

 

Just off the phone with Celebrity and Sheesus, I am SO glad I called.

 

First, I talked to res who advised me that I could just pay it on board and it is showing on my booking. I insisted that I pay for it today so that I had no issues on board.

 

Second, he advised me that Gifts and Gear was handling these payments, and he transfered me to Gifts and Gear who advised me that it was NOT the correct department and transferred me off to the enhancements desk.

 

Finally! The agent at enhancements told me that the classic package was never put on my booking. I told her it showed on my last 4 invoices. She advised me that because there was another promotion code (the gift from my agency) that the Classic Beverage Package was never actually added to my booking. I advised her that I've got the code on 4 different invoices and she interrupted me saying that all she has to do is take off the other promotion and put me on hold.

 

Yikes! She was rather snippy, which was bothersome. When she came back on the line she did apologize for that. I got the sense that they are getting all kinds of calls from panicked people who have gotten a tremendous amount of misinformation from various departments and are unsure of what is going on. She apologized for the misinformation regarding my agency goodie being combinable with 123GO. She charged my card for $161 and I am now relieved and will most certainly need 1 or 2 of those fancy frozen drinks when I board the ship. I could certainly use one of those at the moment.

 

So this is the story of how a $50 on board credit promo from my travel agency nearly cost me the beverage package and how everyone at Celebrity except for 1 person I've spoken to had no idea that was the case.

 

I consider myself to be very adept at my job and the fact that all of the misinformation nearly got me leaves me to be very disconcerted with the knowledge of promotions and combinability at Celebrity. If the gentleman on my first call had known that it wasn't combinable, it would have been taken off, and all would have gone smoothly.

 

Andy - you are currently my hero for being so forward and blunt about getting the drinks package upgrade taken care of before we leave. I will have a drink of the day in your honor. I can't imagine how upset I'd have been had this all gone down on the ship.

[stellarose]

Sad sad sad. My TA thought I was hesitant and not book upgrade and was told today by celebrity it was too late. I said book it!!!

 

Sooooooo sad.

[Linda-E]

From the sticky by "Celebrity Cruises" at the top of this board:

 

Will Guests be able to upgrade to the premium package after the promotion ends ?

Yes, they can upgrade when they arrive on board, or any time during the cruise.

[BEAV]

From the sticky by "Celebrity Cruises" at the top of this board:

 

Will Guests be able to upgrade to the premium package after the promotion ends ?

Yes, they can upgrade when they arrive on board, or any time during the cruise.

 

Thanks for posting this reminder from the sticky. I went back and printed out the entire sticky in the event I need some back up for 2 future cruises where we have the Classic package and still need to pay for the upgrade to Premium.

 

When reading the sticky, I also clicked on "Celebrity Cruises" profile and note they were last on line today. So I'm sure whoever from Celebrity is monitoring this board can clearly see all the confusion and conflciting information that's been given out over this promotion. Although booking the promotion has now expired, there are obviously still lingering issues with people expecting to upgrade from Classic to Premium. And it appears from purrlinda's post (thank you!) that misinformation is still the rule of the day. I think another post from "Celebrity Cruises" would go a long way to clear up some of the confusion as we move to the next phase of this promotion.

[stellarose]

Any help would greatly be appreciated.

[doodlefan]

What an oddysey this has been.

 

When 123GO was announced o, I checked to see if the resident rate was applicable. I quickly noted per the FAQ I recieved that no, it wasn't. So I did some math and realized if I changed to a 5 Star rate and upgraded my cabin from a 2B to 1C for $109 more per person, I could get the beverage package, I decided to go for it. I talked with the res agent on 1/14 who added the package, noted that I wanted to upgrade to premium and he updated my invoice with the WAV7-PREM BEV code. I asked if this promotion meant that I would lose the promotion from my agency that gave a $50 OBC. He said it did not. I asked if I could pay for the upgrade and he told me at that time that due to the popularity of the offer, they would be calling for payment after the promo ended on 1/28.

 

I called around the 4th of February to pay for the package since I'd not yet been contacted. The res agent told me that they'd be charging me for the upgrade on board the ship.

 

I let it go, thought all was well and good, and was happy as could be.

 

Until I saw the warning thread last night. The mountains of different information (which after being in this industry for 7 years does not surprise me) had me a little nervous. I took Andy's advise to take care of it before I left.

 

Just off the phone with Celebrity and Sheesus, I am SO glad I called.

 

First, I talked to res who advised me that I could just pay it on board and it is showing on my booking. I insisted that I pay for it today so that I had no issues on board.

 

Second, he advised me that Gifts and Gear was handling these payments, and he transfered me to Gifts and Gear who advised me that it was NOT the correct department and transferred me off to the enhancements desk.

 

Finally! The agent at enhancements told me that the classic package was never put on my booking. I told her it showed on my last 4 invoices. She advised me that because there was another promotion code (the gift from my agency) that the Classic Beverage Package was never actually added to my booking. I advised her that I've got the code on 4 different invoices and she interrupted me saying that all she has to do is take off the other promotion and put me on hold.

 

Yikes! She was rather snippy, which was bothersome. When she came back on the line she did apologize for that. I got the sense that they are getting all kinds of calls from panicked people who have gotten a tremendous amount of misinformation from various departments and are unsure of what is going on. She apologized for the misinformation regarding my agency goodie being combinable with 123GO. She charged my card for $161 and I am now relieved and will most certainly need 1 or 2 of those fancy frozen drinks when I board the ship. I could certainly use one of those at the moment.

 

So this is the story of how a $50 on board credit promo from my travel agency nearly cost me the beverage package and how everyone at Celebrity except for 1 person I've spoken to had no idea that was the case.

 

I consider myself to be very adept at my job and the fact that all of the misinformation nearly got me leaves me to be very disconcerted with the knowledge of promotions and combinability at Celebrity. If the gentleman on my first call had known that it wasn't combinable, it would have been taken off, and all would have gone smoothly.

 

Andy - you are currently my hero for being so forward and blunt about getting the drinks package upgrade taken care of before we leave. I will have a drink of the day in your honor. I can't imagine how upset I'd have been had this all gone down on the ship.

 

I'm glad you got it sorted out. The same thing happened to me. We had a resident rate for the 2/24 sailing and when I called I was aware that to get the promotion that I needed to remove that promo and go with the prevailing rate. The agent told me that the current prevailing rate was $10 less than what we paid with the resident rate, so we gave up our OBC and the resident rate (which was higher than the prevailing rate anyway) to get this promo.

 

I have 2 invoices showing the WAV BEV package and I had called once to confirm that it was on my reservations, it was. I called again the other day to make my dinner reservation since the online form was not working and on a hunch I just asked again if the agent could see our 123 promo beverage packages, he said NO, you don't have that, there is a resident rate on here. Long story short, the agent that added the promo took our OBC away, removed it but left the designation of "resident" on our reservation so the department that finalized the reservations removed the beverage package because it said "resident" and they are not combinable. But also note, they didn't reinstate our OBC either.

 

Took 2 different phone calls at over 40 minutes each to have it straightened out. They said the word "resident" cannot be removed from the system on our reservation so they had to add the packages manually and this time I insisted they be added to our reservation under "My Extras" so I could see it and print it out. They also put a notation on their system so that if we have any issues we can go to Guest Relations and it will say that even though it says "resident", it was in error and we are still entitled to the drink packages. WHEW, what a mess.

 

So all of you out there, I would not leave for the cruise unless you see the WAVE-BEV package promo on your online reservations under "my extras", until then, it is NOT finalized and could be removed by billing if they think there is any other type of OBC or promo like senior, resident etc.

 

Just because you got an invoice with it on there does not necessarily mean it has been approved by the billing department. Ours was removed without our knowledge, nor were we notified. And to top it off it was an error on their side, not mine. They did see from the changes that were partially made that it was their error and they did fix it without a huge hassle but it was time consuming. I'm not sure if or how I could have has this fixed on board the ship. I'm so glad I called ahead.

 

SO, make sure you all really DO have this package, I predict alot of angry people thinking they have included packages and when they get onboard they may be in for an awful surprise.

[Andy]

Andy - you are currently my hero for being so forward and blunt about getting the drinks package upgrade taken care of before we leave. I will have a drink of the day in your honor. I can't imagine how upset I'd have been had this all gone down on the ship.

 

Hi Purrlinda,

 

Thanks for sharing your saga with us. You certainly went through too much, and I wish it didnt happen.... but I'm happy to hear it was all sorted out, and with the help of my advice. While I truly believe your issue would have been resolved post 123 GO, it's best that it's taken care of now, rather than it being a huge issue in the future.

 

FWIW, I must have put well over 100 hours of my time (probably a lot more, but I stoppped counting) into answering our members 123 GO questions, emails, comments etc... and during my busiest time of year at work no less. I tried my best to answer as many questions as possible. If I missed any, my apologies ! It added quite a bit more workload, to my usual 18-20 hour work days, and will keep me backlogged until our next Cruise in April.

 

While I'm sure that many folks are sad to see 123 GO... GONE !!! (Sorry, I couldnt resist), and while it was a very rich program for many Celebrity guests... I'm relieved that it's over, and hope to be able to catch my breath.

 

It's always gratifying when our members appreciate my efforts, as it means everything to me.

 

Thanks again, and have a wonderful Cruise !

[Andy]

Any help would greatly be appreciated.

 

Hi Stellarose,

 

If you are asking about the Premium Upgrade, I still believe (based on Celebrity's FAQ & recent reports from onboard Guests) that you will be able to upgrade to premium once onboard.

 

If you asking about getting 123 GO added today, I highly doubt it will happen. Of course, you can always have your TA call and ask, as you have nothing to lose.... but I would keep my expectations low. Good Luck !

[riandei]

From the sticky by "Celebrity Cruises" at the top of this board:

 

Will Guests be able to upgrade to the premium package after the promotion ends ?

Yes, they can upgrade when they arrive on board, or any time during the cruise.

 

I called celeb last night and they confirmed this on the phone

[stellarose]

We have wav bev package. I want to upgrade BF we board in July. No worries.i may call myself.

 

A

[Karen@Steve]

The promotion ended yesterday, right? This morning I got another 123Go advertisement. Geez.

[beachlover98]

So all of you out there, I would not leave for the cruise unless you see the WAVE-BEV package promo on your online reservations under "my extras", until then, it is NOT finalized and could be removed by billing if they think there is any other type of OBC or promo like senior, resident etc.

 

Just because you got an invoice with it on there does not necessarily mean it has been approved by the billing department. Ours was removed without our knowledge, nor were we notified. And to top it off it was an error on their side, not mine. They did see from the changes that were partially made that it was their error and they did fix it without a huge hassle but it was time consuming. I'm not sure if or how I could have has this fixed on board the ship. I'm so glad I called ahead.

 

SO, make sure you all really DO have this package, I predict alot of angry people thinking they have included packages and when they get onboard they may be in for an awful surprise.

 

Ok so now I'm getting worried. Hopefully for nothing. I have an invoice from my TA showing the beverage package (WAV BEV PKG) and the amount and then it shows SAVINGS where it backs out that amount. I DO NOT, however, see it on my reservation in my cruise summary under "my cruise extras". Does it take a while to show up on my reservation? Or should I hope I'm okay as long as it shows on my invoice?

[Andy]

Ok so now I'm getting worried. Hopefully for nothing. I have an invoice from my TA showing the beverage package (WAV BEV PKG) and the amount and then it shows SAVINGS where it backs out that amount. I DO NOT, however, see it on my reservation in my cruise summary under "my cruise extras". Does it take a while to show up on my reservation? Or should I hope I'm okay as long as it shows on my invoice?

 

Hi Beachlover,

 

Many folks have reported delays, so it's probably nothing to worry about. To be on the safe side, why not have your TA contact Celebrity to confirm that you have the correct codings on your booking.

 

I hope this helps !

[Signalhill]

I was very unsure of this promoton too and really kept on my TA to get something in writing so that when I checked in for the cruise Feb 24th there was no issue, didn't want to start the cruise on a bad note. I also got the whole "due the the response to the promotion they will get the payment next week" then it was the next week, then it was on board......finally today I have confirmation that the premium package it is indeed confirmed and posted to my credit card. My TA might be sick of hearing from me but at least I am relieved that it s a done deal. For those sailing on the 2/24 sailing, look for me at the molecular bar with a "Coming up Roses" in my hand :)

[beachlover98]

Hi Beachlover,

 

Many folks have reported delays, so it's probably nothing to worry about. To be on the safe side, why not have your TA contact Celebrity to confirm that you have the correct codings on your booking.

 

I hope this helps !

 

Thanks. I'll probably give it some time just to see if it's just delayed a bit. I'm not cruising until January 2014 and I DID NOT upgrade the package. Just got the free classic pkg for both of us.

[purrlinda]

Hi Purrlinda,

 

Thanks for sharing your saga with us. You certainly went through too much, and I wish it didnt happen.... but I'm happy to hear it was all sorted out, and with the help of my advice. While I truly believe your issue would have been resolved post 123 GO, it's best that it's taken care of now, rather than it being a huge issue in the future.

 

FWIW, I must have put well over 100 hours of my time (probably a lot more, but I stoppped counting) into answering our members 123 GO questions, emails, comments etc... and during my busiest time of year at work no less. I tried my best to answer as many questions as possible. If I missed any, my apologies ! It added quite a bit more workload, to my usual 18-20 hour work days, and will keep me backlogged until our next Cruise in April.

 

While I'm sure that many folks are sad to see 123 GO... GONE !!! (Sorry, I couldnt resist), and while it was a very rich program for many Celebrity guests... I'm relieved that it's over, and hope to be able to catch my breath.

 

It's always gratifying when our members appreciate my efforts, as it means everything to me.

 

Thanks again, and have a wonderful Cruise !

 

Volunteering for a website of this size and advocating for the members who read here and seek advise is admirable, considering you also have a "real" job.

 

Part of my reason for posting this is because of what I do, I am always extremely careful and ask the right questions. The misinformation from Celebrity alarmed me. However, I have NEVER had any issues working with Celebrity in the past. I think perhaps with an offer of this magnitude it may have been difficult to get all res agents on the same page. I definitely have compassion for them considering how complicated the promotion rules can be and the fact that they offer so many of them. I am extremely grateful that *I* figured out this information on my own vacation as opposed to a clients. That's really scary.

 

All that said, this if my FIRST cruise with Celebrity. My previous have been on RCCL, Carnival, and Disney. I definitely see this as an upgrade and am really excited about the Silhouette.

 

The information on this website is invaluable so I'm grateful to those of you who tirelessly share information.

 

Cheers!

Melinda

[QueScaisJe]

I just wanted to send Andy a belated thank you for the work and effort. Hope you benefitted from 123 Go too!

[AlbertaCruisers]

I want to add my thanks to Andy for all your hard work in trying to keep us all calm! Hopefully I will get a chance to meet you on the Eclipse in April!

 

And, thank you to the person that started the "warning" thread and the person who posted post #32! That thread ended up getting my upgrades paid for and confirmed on My Celebrity so I can officially stop worrying!

 

Thanks to everyone!

 

Sue

[luv2sail7]

Can someone post the link to the "warnings" thread? :confused: I can't find it anymore and even tried to do a search. I'd like to get to the phone number in the post #32 so I can contact Celebrity to verify what they show. I've been going back and forth with my agent for the past week asking for an updated invoice and she has insisted to me the upgrade to Premium will not show on the Booking Confirmation - Guest Copy :confused:. If I understand correctly from other posts, it should show WAV7-Prem Bev? I too will feel better knowing its on my invoice and paid for before I board in November. I want no issues with my Avocado Mezcal! :D

[BEAV]

Can someone post the link to the "warnings" thread? :confused: I can't find it anymore and even tried to do a search.

 

It's currently on page 2 on this board:

 

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1791103

[Turtles06]

Can someone post the link to the "warnings" thread? :confused: I can't find it anymore and even tried to do a search. I'd like to get to the phone number in the post #32 so I can contact Celebrity to verify what they show. I've been going back and forth with my agent for the past week asking for an updated invoice and she has insisted to me the upgrade to Premium will not show on the Booking Confirmation - Guest Copy :confused:. If I understand correctly from other posts, it should show WAV7-Prem Bev? I too will feel better knowing its on my invoice and paid for before I board in November. I want no issues with my Avocado Mezcal! :D

 

This is the phone number for the Cruise Enhancements Dept:

 

800-722-5941

 

I spoke with them yesterday (I'm part of a group booking thru a TA) and they were able in a microsecond to upgrade my Classic Bev Pkg to the Premium Pkg and send me an email confirmation that I received while I was still on phone with them. The upgrade also shows when I log onto Celebrity's web site and go to "My Reservations" page.

 

The folks in this dept are generally very helpful and know what they are doing; good luck!

[luv2sail7]

It's currently on page 2 on this board:

 

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1791103

 

 

Thanks so much! I'll give them a call in the morning and hopefully get it added as well.

[luv2sail7]

This is the phone number for the Cruise Enhancements Dept:

 

800-722-5941

 

I spoke with them yesterday (I'm part of a group booking thru a TA) and they were able in a microsecond to upgrade my Classic Bev Pkg to the Premium Pkg and send me an email confirmation that I received while I was still on phone with them. The upgrade also shows when I log onto Celebrity's web site and go to "My Reservations" page.

 

The folks in this dept are generally very helpful and know what they are doing; good luck!

 

Yay! THanks again for all the info.