Booking directly with Celebrity

[ECCruise]

Glad it worked out to your benefit.

 

I think the OPs whole experience echoes the question:

 

Why in the world would anyone book directly with a cruise line? Their prices are NEVER lower than what you find on the open market (i.e. TA), they gobble up the whole proceeds without paying a commission, and any cruiseline OBC (which you also would get with a TA) is non-refundable.

 

The money we have saved via lower prices, OBC and other perks by booking with a good TA has completely paid for several other cruises. And the TA handles all the little details, confusions, etc.

Edited December 2, 2016 by ECCruise

[claudiniusmaximus]

When we were booking we couldn't find a TA that could do it cheaper or offer extra perks (we are in the U.K. maybe that makes a difference?). I'd love to know which TAs people get great deals from in the UK but I understand we aren't allowed to share them. I did see a great deal from a large one with the initials VC but when I rang them they couldn't see it on their system so I emailed them a screenshot but they said I could have taken that at any time so then I generated a query via their website on the "book here" button and they sent back a quote nearly double what the website was advertising. The other them we tried we went through a high street TA but they weren't able to offer us anything extra and we lost control of our booking (had to do everything through them, always delays etc).

 

Generally we prefer booking direct, online as it gives us more freedom to add excursions, make payments etc at any time of the day or night (when TAs might be closed). I also just dislike going through a third party as it adds in another layer of complexity if anything goes wrong and needs to be sorted.

 

Fwiw we had a similar issue with an airline recently - they debited double the amount they were supposed to. Bank said it was the airline error, airline said it was bank error and round and round we went (got it back eventually).

 

We did recently have a glitch with the celebrity website - it kept saying we had another £185 to pay even though we'd paid the full amount. The paperwork that got emailed to us said we owed £300 odd. Within a week or so it had corrected itself. It's all a bit odd.

 

 

 

 

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[ECCruise]

 

Generally we prefer booking direct, online as it gives us more freedom to add excursions, make payments etc at any time of the day or night (when TAs might be closed). I also just dislike going through a third party as it adds in another layer of complexity if anything goes wrong and needs to be sorted.

 

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Don't know if it is different in the UK, but anyone can add excursions on the cruise line's website, direct or through TA.

 

We have found that having a third party is a benefit, not a detriment, since you have someone to go to bat for you should something need sorted out.

 

Being able to make payments in the middle of the night vs. the next morning offers no benefit to us.

 

However, if you can't get a lower price or OBC, that would be an issue, but we have talked to UK cruisers who have been able to secure those, but no idea where.

 

Good cruising, no matter what. :)

[claudiniusmaximus]

I know what you mean about someone going to bat for you it's just sometimes the TA is just another person to have to go to bat with. I think I got to the "forget it I'll do it myself" point after a couple of frustrating incidents with TAs previously whereas the flexibility of being able to go online at any time is a boon. If I saw discounted rate though or extra perks I'd definitely use one. And if you have a good relationship with a TA you use frequently I can definitely see the appeal.

 

The problem we had with adding excursions was the TA we used didn't forward us our booking reference despite a couple of requests so I wasn't able to log on to the website to book the excursions - I think we've had a couple of not great experiences with TAs lately that has no doubt coloured our view.

 

I wasn't always that way, the first cruise we booked was in 2009 and we did it via a local TA because back then it was just almost the only way to do it - pick up a brochure at the TA choose the holiday and ask the TA to book it was just normal at the time. We've just gotten used to being able to have more direct control ourselves since then.

 

But yes I'd definitely love to know some of the UK TAs that can get good deals.

 

 

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[Jayneykul]

I don't think we get the same service from TA in the UK! I always price around then phone Celebrity direct? They offer price matching as I was told they want to dispense with TA doing cheaper deals my rep at Celebrity always gives great service. I did try and book a deal via the website 1x and had issues

[upwarduk]

I don't think we get the same service from TA in the UK! I always price around then phone Celebrity direct? They offer price matching as I was told they want to dispense with TA doing cheaper deals my rep at Celebrity always gives great service. I did try and book a deal via the website 1x and had issues

 

TAs in U.K. aren't allowed too undercut Celebrity. I have yet to find one who gives a decent OBC.

I did book with one 2 cruises ago, but they emailed my queries to Celebrity, who took 28 days to reply, by which time offers had expired.

[fshagan]

I've been watching online TA agencies here in the States to see if I could get a better deal on a cruise than booking direct. I suspect it happens more often with people spending more on suites, etc. because most of the regular balcony cabins have identical pricing across all the TAs (or, in some cases, they are more). I even started a forum to try and get people to review their TAs so we can share info about it.

 

We did book our first upcoming Celebrity cruise in Alaska on Sep. 10th, 2017 on Infinity through an online TA that had balcony cabins at $200 less pp than everyone else. That's honestly the first time I've seen it happen. All the other online agencies were exactly the same price as X when I checked, or just slightly lower. This particular agency has a $25 booking fee and a $100 cancellation / change fee, but the $400 savings made that acceptable for us. I'm still waiting for other shoe to drop on that one because when we have tried "brick and mortar" TAs they have been just horrible.

 

We're looking at a Pacific Coastal cruise on another line and no one is cheaper than the cruise line except for the same agency we just booked the Infinity on. We're just going to book with the line because the savings don't make up for the $25 booking fee and cancel / change fee.

[r5516]

I have booked 15 cruises with Celebrity via their online website, never had a problem. The cruise price has been quickly adjusted with price decreases or upgraded offers. I always have received a confirming e-mail immediately after any changes along with an update of all fees. Yesterday when calling about a possible price decrease (I was mistaken) the service representative offered to move me to a better cabin. I am comfortable with their customer service.