full payment made before final payment date, change to a more expensive cabin

[youngreflection]

Hi! My ta is having a hard time with this...We have made full payment, paid online shore excursions all before our final payment date. We regret booking just 1 room for all 4 of us and now, no adjoining rooms are available anymore. Suddenly, the Family Veranda becomes available, and luckily, we were able to switch our courtesy hold online to booked. Aside from paying additional 2,000 for the room, we also want to avail of the latest 123go with the 300 obc and free beverage packages for all 4 of us (our old booking has the 300 obc).

My ta is still awaiting Celebrity's response since yesterday. She is requesting that instead of crediting back our payment, and paying again, hopefully, Celebrity can make things easier by just having us pay difference and switching rooms, and giving us the perks of 123go. We also want our shore excursions credited to our new cabin instead of doing another credit back. Anyone has experienced this before?

[youngreflection]

Anyone can share their experience or insights, pls?

[CHEZMARYLOU]

Any time we have switched rooms we kept the same booking number and called Celebrity to make the switch. That way any money paid, excursions, 123Go, etc stayed with the booking. It would have been easier if your TA had done it this way instead of making a new booking.

 

On one occasion we cancelled 2 cruises and had the deposit on one moved to an existing booking and the other deposit moved to a new booking that we were making. We did this directly with Celebrity.

 

If I understand this you now have 2 booking numbers. Celebrity should be able to move the money paid under the old number to the new number.

 

I'm not sure how they would handle the excursions. They may want to issue a credit to your credit card and you would need to rebook. They did this when we cancelled an excursion and booked one more expensive.

 

Mary Lou

[Lsimon]

We've switched rooms through a TA a few times over the years, both before and after final payment. We've never had to change booking numbers and any excursions or dining reservations just followed us. Promotional perks are another thing and it might depend on the current offer at the time of the change - but if the perks you're looking to get ARE the current offer then you should have no problems.

Edited February 21, 2014 by Lsimon

[Project_gal]

We have upgraded after final payment a couple of times and kept the original booking incentives. This was before the 123Go promotions. We just paid the additional fare. However, I cannot see how you would expect the new promotion. That is surely for new bookings and, as you are beyond final payment date, you would have to forfit your full original fare then pay the full cost of your upgraded room.

[hulamoon]

You said you paid before final payment. Is it before final payment? Curious.

[youngreflection]

We paid full fare before final payment date. We are running against time since the family veranda opened just last week, Final payment date is on Feb 26 while 123go promo expires on Feb 28. I had no choice but to have 2 Reservation #s since I did the courtesy hold online when it popped up (ta office was already closed). We were able to switch our hold to a real booking. But then the courtesy hold reservation number automatically becomes the new booking number. So now I have 2 booking numbers. Such a hassle that am willing to just take our old room and booking with all 4 of us in 1. But husband really wants the bigger space for comfort & privacy purposes.

[Lsimon]

...I had no choice but to have 2 Reservation #s since I did the courtesy hold online when it popped up (ta office was already closed). We were able to switch our hold to a real booking. But then the courtesy hold reservation number automatically becomes the new booking number. So now I have 2 booking numbers. Such a hassle that am willing to just take our old room and booking with all 4 of us in 1. But husband really wants the bigger space for comfort & privacy purposes.

 

We've done a swap with our TA on the phone where I cancel the hold on my PC and then they immediately grab the room and transfer my original booking to it. But this would only work if there were other cabins still available in the same (FV) category. I've known other people have had this done a bit differently with the switch being done with the TA's contacts at Celebrity. I don't think this is that difficult or hard and your TA should be able to handle this for you without a big hassle.

 

The additional space of the FV is a big deal and you should work for it even if it ends up being a little hassle. So hang in there.

Edited February 21, 2014 by Lsimon

[youngreflection]

Thank you for the encouragement! I guess the fv would really make our 1st cruise a great experience. It's gonna be 3 days since my fv booking, hoping I will get favorable news today.