I think my ship got chartered!

[Cruisin4beaches]

I'm booked on the Infinity 3/11/2019 now I don't see this cruise available to book on any cruise web sites(including) Celebrity. I also don't see it listed on cruisetimetables. How far in advance would Celebrity notify you. Also what types of options do they give you? This was a 5 night western booked for my birthday. I was able to snag an aqua class deck 11 aft with 2 perks for each of us for 1900..00 which you can't touch now . This is my first time getting caught in the charter game after 67 cruise. I guess my luck ran out! 🙁

[jelayne]

We were booked on a cruise and about 18 months pre cruise it disappeared from almost every website. It was a sailing that X only does 3-4 times a year. Lots of rumors on the roll call that it was being chartered. Prices had gone up considerably but some on the roll call who booked early listened to the rumors and cancelled. The ship was not chartered and those who cancelled found the higher price more than they could handle.

 

 

Normally the cruise lines try to avoid a charter after the time when booked passengers could have purchased air tickets. No one at Celebrity will confirm a charter until the deal is signed, sealed & money paid.

[critterchick]

Normally the cruise lines try to avoid a charter after the time when booked passengers could have purchased air tickets. No one at Celebrity will confirm a charter until the deal is signed, sealed & money paid.

 

Even then they won't confirm it if they use the same procedure as RCI. We had a cruise that had been selling as a charter for nearly 6 months before they finally cancelled it and offered us some compensation. I could pull up the charter and so could the rep I spoke with, but until the word was official there was nothing to be done. I suspect they won't fully commit until a certain revenue level is achieved.

[johhnnyt]

I'm booked on the Infinity 3/11/2019 now I don't see this cruise available to book on any cruise web sites(including) Celebrity. I also don't see it listed on cruisetimetables. How far in advance would Celebrity notify you. Also what types of options do they give you? This was a 5 night western booked for my birthday. I was able to snag an aqua class deck 11 aft with 2 perks for each of us for 1900..00 which you can't touch now . This is my first time getting caught in the charter game after 67 cruise. I guess my luck ran out! 🙁

 

You should be fine, if it was chartered normally they'll just move you to the next available dates and give you same cabin at the booked price, and sometimes even throw in $100 in OBC. So guessing they'll offer you the 16th or 25th sailings since same itinerary

[SmoothFlying]

You should be fine, if it was chartered normally they'll just move you to the next available dates and give you same cabin at the booked price, and sometimes even throw in $100 in OBC. So guessing they'll offer you the 16th or 25th sailings since same itinerary

 

You know what I HATE about this cruise shell game (NOW you see your cruise, now it's gone as in 'charter' gone) is my wife only gets a week's vacation a year. Once she's picked that particular week,(we always pick a cruise for that week a year in advance, the third week in March, our anniversary) she's locked into THAT week. No changes, no do-overs, you're forced to take it when it rolls around. What? Cruise line XYZ chartered your cruise out from under you, and it's too late to find another one, tooooo bad,. We, your employer, do NOT care. I know the top dogs, the senior VP's (at her job and the cruise line) could care less, after all, they've their multi-million paychecks,,houses all around the world, so what do they care ? I'm retired so the only thing I can tell her is,' Well dear, maybe NEXT year..?:mad:

[Sandtrap328]

You know what I HATE about this cruise shell game (NOW you see your cruise, now it's gone as in 'charter' gone) is my wife only gets a week's vacation a year. Once she's picked that particular week,(we always pick a cruise for that week a year in advance, the third week in March, our anniversary) she's locked into THAT week. No changes, no do-overs, you're forced to take it when it rolls around. What? Cruise line XYZ chartered your cruise out from under you, and it's too late to find another one, tooooo bad,. We, your employer, do NOT care. I know the top dogs, the senior VP's (at her job and the cruise line) could care less, after all, they've their multi-million paychecks,,houses all around the world, so what do they care ? I'm retired so the only thing I can tell her is,' Well dear, maybe NEXT year..?:mad:

-------------

 

Sounds as though your wife works at a company that sucks. She should have quit that job years ago.

 

As for the cruise being a charter, just do something else for that week. No big deal. It is your anniversary so anyplace with her will be special, won't it? The third week of March is far enough in the future to find someplace great. The Marriott Resort on St. Kitts with the all-inclusive option is a romantic choice.

[Fish Lover]

You know what I HATE about this cruise shell game (NOW you see your cruise, now it's gone as in 'charter' gone) is my wife only gets a week's vacation a year. Once she's picked that particular week,(we always pick a cruise for that week a year in advance, the third week in March, our anniversary) she's locked into THAT week. No changes, no do-overs, you're forced to take it when it rolls around. What? Cruise line XYZ chartered your cruise out from under you, and it's too late to find another one, tooooo bad,. We, your employer, do NOT care. I know the top dogs, the senior VP's (at her job and the cruise line) could care less, after all, they've their multi-million paychecks,,houses all around the world, so what do they care ? I'm retired so the only thing I can tell her is,' Well dear, maybe NEXT year..?:mad:

 

This is 2019......20 months away!!!!

[CruisingUS]

-------------

 

Sounds as though your wife works at a company that sucks. She should have quit that job years ago.

 

As for the cruise being a charter, just do something else for that week. No big deal. It is your anniversary so anyplace with her will be special, won't it? The third week of March is far enough in the future to find someplace great. The Marriott Resort on St. Kitts with the all-inclusive option is a romantic choice.

some (high paying) professions won't let you reschedule vacations.

 

I don't understand why this is so hard for people to empathize with those of us who work in fields where schedule changes just don't happen.

 

 

This is 2019......20 months away!!!!

Thankfully, I am not booked out 20 months away.

 

 

But I can imagine some entrepreneurs are booked out 20 months away, especially if you do a convention that happens the same time every year and then plan on doing a vacation since you are in the same city. Someone I know does that. Doesn't seem weird to me at all

[WpgCruise]

some (high paying) professions won't let you reschedule vacations.

I don't understand why this is so hard for people to empathize with those of us who work in fields where schedule changes just don't happen.

 

Would you agree that if an individuals specific circumstances are such that a commitment for vacation time must be made 20 months in advance, and once made, the time frame cannot be changed that a cruise vacation may not be the best choice for that individual ?

 

Have you considered that a cruise vacation may not be the best choice for everyone ?

 

There are more risks of changes in a cruise vacation than many others. Itineraries change due to weather, mechanical issues, passenger medi vac's. Cancellations due to ship charters, a change in the Companies decision to deploy the ship elsewhere are all things that do happen.

 

If someone has a firm, carved in stone time commitment, they really should consider what their risk is in committing to a vacation choice that has the risks of change that a cruise has.

 

If I had to make a vacation time commitment 20 months down the road, and knew I couldn't change the timing, I don't know that I would be comfortable accepting the risk of making a commitment for a cruise, knowing the risk associated with the specific vacation choice. It might work out (probably will) but I'd have a pretty strong Plan B just in case.

[WpgCruise]

An interesting development reported on the H.A.L. Board

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2523046

 

It appears that the September 26 2017 sailing of the Amsterdam has been cancelled.

 

As mentioned earlier, cruise lines, all of them, have the option to change the plan.

 

If a specific itinerary, on a specific ship on a specific date is a "gotta have", a cruise vacation may not be for you.

[Cruisin4beaches]

I have a very flexible vacation time but it just pisses me off the Celebrity does this. I'm already looking at Freedom of the Seas from San Juan 3/10/2019 which has an itinerary I like. But if I deposit now Royal won't refund if my Celebrity Cruises goes on. I know it's 20 months in advance but I like knowing what I'm doing for vacation and can plan my finances accordingly!

[CruisingUS]

Would you agree that if an individuals specific circumstances are such that a commitment for vacation time must be made 20 months in advance, and once made, the time frame cannot be changed that a cruise vacation may not be the best choice for that individual ?

 

Have you considered that a cruise vacation may not be the best choice for everyone ?

 

There are more risks of changes in a cruise vacation than many others. Itineraries change due to weather, mechanical issues, passenger medi vac's. Cancellations due to ship charters, a change in the Companies decision to deploy the ship elsewhere are all things that do happen.

 

If someone has a firm, carved in stone time commitment, they really should consider what their risk is in committing to a vacation choice that has the risks of change that a cruise has.

 

If I had to make a vacation time commitment 20 months down the road, and knew I couldn't change the timing, I don't know that I would be comfortable accepting the risk of making a commitment for a cruise, knowing the risk associated with the specific vacation choice. It might work out (probably will) but I'd have a pretty strong Plan B just in case.

 

I'll acknowledge that it is riskier than a land vacation. But some people love cruising over land vacations. People make a lot of sacrifices for their profession and it is bad business to penalize high paying professionals due to the rigorous demands of their job. Also, these cruises are bending over backward for highly paid professionals, esp since they charter a lot of these ships. Although you may not think that it is in their best idea to book cruises, X apparently does.

Edited July 20, 2017 by CruisingUS

[Jade13]

You know what I HATE about this cruise shell game (NOW you see your cruise, now it's gone as in 'charter' gone) is my wife only gets a week's vacation a year. Once she's picked that particular week,(we always pick a cruise for that week a year in advance, the third week in March, our anniversary) she's locked into THAT week. No changes, no do-overs, you're forced to take it when it rolls around. What? Cruise line XYZ chartered your cruise out from under you, and it's too late to find another one, tooooo bad,. We, your employer, do NOT care. I know the top dogs, the senior VP's (at her job and the cruise line) could care less, after all, they've their multi-million paychecks,,houses all around the world, so what do they care ? I'm retired so the only thing I can tell her is,' Well dear, maybe NEXT year..?:mad:

 

 

 

But you still have the same week you want anyway.

 

I can't understand a company being that inflexible 2 years out.

 

 

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[Jade13]

I have a very flexible vacation time but it just pisses me off the Celebrity does this. I'm already looking at Freedom of the Seas from San Juan 3/10/2019 which has an itinerary I like. But if I deposit now Royal won't refund if my Celebrity Cruises goes on. I know it's 20 months in advance but I like knowing what I'm doing for vacation and can plan my finances accordingly!

 

 

 

Since they are the same parent company they should have a way to track whether clients are double bookings cabins on different ships at the same time.

 

 

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[long time lurker]

I have a very flexible vacation time but it just pisses me off the Celebrity does this. I'm already looking at Freedom of the Seas from San Juan 3/10/2019 which has an itinerary I like. But if I deposit now Royal won't refund if my Celebrity Cruises goes on. I know it's 20 months in advance but I like knowing what I'm doing for vacation and can plan my finances accordingly!

I am not sure if you are looking at a suite, but my understanding of the new non-refundable policy for all cabins other than suites is that there are 2 prices, one with a refundable deposit and one without. If you are just booking this as a "just in case" you might want to consider booking at the higher non-refundable rate. Consider the higher rate (which will not matter if you do not take the Freedom cruise) as the cost of insurance.

[hcat]

I'm booked on the Infinity 3/11/2019 now I don't see this cruise available to book on any cruise web sites(including) Celebrity. I also don't see it listed on cruisetimetables. How far in advance would Celebrity notify you. Also what types of options do they give you? This was a 5 night western booked for my birthday. I was able to snag an aqua class deck 11 aft with 2 perks for each of us for 1900..00 which you can't touch now . This is my first time getting caught in the charter game after 67 cruise. I guess my luck ran out! 🙁

 

When our Infinity cruise was cancelled for a charter that was being negotiated as a floating hotel (that never materialized) X kept us in the dark for months,,.drove everyone nuts . When they did cancel it was chaos but we had already booked onto another date,,,

 

Suggest you book a backup cruise for the same period...not worth waiting for the crumbs they give you if and when they cancel.,Inf is Ok but a bit dated...and there is speculation it may be for sale,,.. why not try an S class ship or even Edge..that has a nice Western itin????

[strachan01]

I fear my cruise on Equinox next year (15th Oct) is also going to be chartered - It is not showing available to book anymore. This would be an absolute disaster for us, we have planned and booked our entire honeymoon around the cruise, and moving the cruise would be a no go. I work on rotation and so only have 3 weeks off at a time to fit out honeymoon into, the cruise being in the middle part of my leave.

Edited July 20, 2017 by strachan01

[Fouremco]

I'll acknowledge that it is riskier than a land vacation. But some people love cruising over land vacations. People make a lot of sacrifices for their profession and it is bad business to penalize high paying professionals due to the rigorous demands of their job. Also, these cruises are bending over backward for highly paid professionals, esp since they charter a lot of these ships. Although you may not think that it is in their best idea to book cruises, X apparently does.

Where one works is an individual decision. If one chooses to be a high paid professional with rigorous demands and scant flexibility, then you can't go about holiday planning in the same manner as those with greater flexibility or those who are retired. I'm retired, and all of my booking are made well in advance, usually within days of an itinerary being offered to the public. This has served us well for the most part, although we had the first leg of a b2b chartered out. Being flexible, I simply added the same cruise to the end of what was the second leg, so rather than A followed by B we did B followed by A.

 

In your case, you need a different approach if you want to cruise yet not worry about charters. Instead of booking well in advance, consider making last minute bookings. You might not get the choice of cabins available a couple of years out, but you won't have to worry about loosing the cruise to a charter.

[CruisingUS]

Where one works is an individual decision. If one chooses to be a high paid professional with rigorous demands and scant flexibility, then you can't go about holiday planning in the same manner as those with greater flexibility or those who are retired. I'm retired, and all of my booking are made well in advance, usually within days of an itinerary being offered to the public. This has served us well for the most part, although we had the first leg of a b2b chartered out. Being flexible, I simply added the same cruise to the end of what was the second leg, so rather than A followed by B we did B followed by A.

 

In your case, you need a different approach if you want to cruise yet not worry about charters. Instead of booking well in advance, consider making last minute bookings. You might not get the choice of cabins available a couple of years out, but you won't have to worry about loosing the cruise to a charter.

Actually it's the opposite. Last minute bookings are actually the worst when working in demanding professions as you are scheduled out months in advanced. IDK how it is like for retired people tho.

[Fouremco]

Actually it's the opposite. Last minute bookings are actually the worst when working in demanding professions as you are scheduled out months in advanced. IDK how it is like for retired people tho.

I'm not sure that I understand you. Even if your time off is scheduled months in advance, you can still make your cruise booking at a later date. What am I missing? :confused:

[mmacdcc]

I'm not sure that I understand you. Even if your time off is scheduled months in advance, you can still make your cruise booking at a later date. What am I missing? :confused:

 

I don't understand either. I can schedule my vacation whenever - even if I have no clue what I want to DO on that vacation.

 

So I might schedule vacation for say, the 3 wk of July 2019, even though I book nothing now. I can have a few things I'm checking, a cruise being one, an all inclusive another, maybe a villa on a beach somewhere. I don't have to decide NOW. I don't have to decide until I decide - 2 wks out, 6 wks out, a year out, whenever.

 

But that has NOTHING to do with my scheduling time off from work.

[hcat]

I fear my cruise on Equinox next year (15th Oct) is also going to be chartered - It is not showing available to book anymore. This would be an absolute disaster for us, we have planned and booked our entire honeymoon around the cruise, and moving the cruise would be a no go. I work on rotation and so only have 3 weeks off at a time to fit out honeymoon into, the cruise being in the middle part of my leave.

 

Being on the " not available " listing, although usually a bad sign, does not always mean it'll be a charter. Our Jan Silhouette cruise was in that status for awhile,..Eventually we were told it was overbooked, was not a charter, had a large group ( unknown name) coming on,.....etc. It did go back on sale but only insides...now I think it is sold out. We still have concerns but are hoping for the best, we' ll only know for sure at final payment,

 

Wishing you good luck.,.suggest you, your TA if any, and your roll call mates be persistent in trying to get info..Very hard to get info but sometimes someone will take pity on you and there will be a leak or explanation.

 

Best bet is to book a back up for the same time frame that can be cancelled without a penalty,

[hcat]

some (high paying) professions won't let you reschedule vacations.

 

I don't understand why this is so hard for people to empathize with those of us who work in fields where schedule changes just don't happen.

 

 

 

Thankfully, I am not booked out 20 months away.

 

 

But I can imagine some entrepreneurs are booked out 20 months away, especially if you do a convention that happens the same time every year and then plan on doing a vacation since you are in the same city. Someone I know does that. Doesn't seem weird to me at all

 

Where I worked, we had to pick our vacation by Jan1 each yr for the entire yr,,,...then other staff got to select based on seniority,,..,changes very hard to do unless someone swapped or for emergency,,, Staffing and Operations depended on this system,,....worked quite well. Guess that's why we are used to booking cruises way ahead.....

[KuffMUp]

I wouldn't panic yet about a charter. There is a web page that is out there that lists all charters. I will try to find it although if a new one, it may not be on the page. I can tell you Infinity is chartered April 8-13. I was on a charter once and went to the Roll Call to let the peeps know. I was given grief because I didn't know what I was talking about. Several people called RCCL who of course assured them it was not true. It took about 4 to 6 weeks before the company told them. Your cruise is a long ways out. Take a deep breath and hopefully it will work out for you.

[CruisingUS]

I'm not sure that I understand you. Even if your time off is scheduled months in advance, you can still make your cruise booking at a later date. What am I missing? :confused:

1. If you pick a random week, you might not be able to fit cruise on that week.

2. booking a cruise so close to the disembarkation date will of course mean you pay more both in terms of the cruise, airplane ticket, and hotel

 

3. you might not be able to find a room that you like or fits your budget when you book closer to the sailing date.

 

 

C'mon now...common sense here people. We've all worked and booked cruises before. You know the game.