Disappearing Cruise

[timtrek]

Hi All

 

A quick question from a Celebrity Newbie. I booked our first Celebrity Cruise for January of 2019 on the Infinity. The cruise, a Western Caribbean, was from Jan 5-10. A couple weeks ago the cruise disappeared from the Website and after 6 calls in the past two week an agent finally told me that the ship appears to have been chartered. A couple questions -

 

1 How long will it be before I am notified if I am being bumped.

 

2. 2019 is so far away, is it worth waiting for possible comps that might come with being bumped? We booked a Sky Suite if that makes any difference. There are similar cruises available now and we could just cancel and rebook, and not worry about any possible comps.

 

3. Is there any website that someone knows of to research what type of charter this is, in case we are not bumped - would be nice to know what group is going to be on the ship.

 

Thanks in advance for your help.

[jelayne]

If the ship is chartered then someone is taking the entire ship so unlikely you will be going. You can try googling the ship name and dates and that sometimes will show who has chartered the ship or if there is a large group.

 

If you booked with a TA Celebrity will notify them and give them options. Often you have a choice a different dates, possibly price protection and a bit of onboard credit.

 

Since your cruise is about 20 months away I doubt that you will be offered anything significant.

[Cruise Raider]

So far out, the compensation will probably be $200 onboard credit for your alternate booking.....but it is still something. They will wait until everything is definitely firmed up with the group chartering the cruise before you will be contacted by Celebrity. So, just keep another cruise in mind that you'd like to transfer your deposit to just in case you are notified.

A couple of years ago, we were notified of a charter that would cause our cruise to be canceled about 300+ days out and we were given a choice of different sailings offered at a discount or the $200 obc for any other cruise on Celebrity. We took advantage of the $200 obc and it worked out well for us. The notification was made far enough in advance that I don't think anyone would have had to their flight schedules. Oftentimes, people on your roll call with know the details way before you are notified by Celebrity or your travel agent. I don't know how they get this info ... but they were spot on.

[GUT2407]

Do you KNOW it's a charter or is that mere speculation.

[Grandmaanne7]

Do you KNOW it's a charter or is that mere speculation.

OP said that they were told by a Celebrity agent that it was chartered in the first post.

 

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[GUT2407]

OP said that they were told by a Celebrity agent that it was chartered in the first post.

 

Sent from my HUAWEI KII-L05 using Tapatalk

No, they posted that they were told "it appears to be chartered".

 

Different thing I'm sorry.

[LuvCruzn4Evr]

Our 2/2/19 5 night sailing on the Infinity has 'disappeared' also.. :(

[cruising in mn]

Sometimes being chartered doesnt necessarily mean they booked the entire ship. I've been on sailings where about 75% was booked by a charter, but we still went and had no disruption.

I've also been bumped 3 times from Summit being fully chartered, they were booked 2 years out and I was called by X, given 4 alternative cruises to choose from, with a small $200 OBC for my trouble. The 4 alternate cruises were in the same catagory stateroom at the same price. And the 4 were not good alternatives. We had a Jan sailing, they gave us options for Feb, March, April, and May.. We want to go in Jan, so we passed on the offers. You also could change to the offer and then move it around later since we had so long until sailing, but would lose the $200 OBC, so we just let it go.

I am an agent so X called me directly, and I got an email. But if you used an agent, they'd contact them first most likely.

I was also asked to contact others I had booked on these same cruises.

Its interesting that X told you it was chartered but never gave you anymore info.

They have a special group that handles just this shuffle, so maybe thats why the person you called at X didnt know much more about it.

I'd say you can expect a call, and even as far out as it is, they will call as soon as they know for certain that they'll need to bump passengers. So hang tight :-)

 

I'd google too, and search these boards to see if others are hearing the same.

[timtrek]

Thanks everyone.. I appreciate your answers. The agent at celebrity did say it appears it is now a charter. For the last 2 weeks I was told that the rooms were being inventoried. I am just glad they finally said what was up.

 

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[villauk]

I seem to recall a recent post where the pax on a 5 day cruise, which was later chartered, were only offered $50 OBC and not the $200 which is more common on the longer sailings. I'll see if I can find the thread for clarification (I think it was a Summit sailing).