New Pricing Bundles or Non-Refundable: Your Thoughts!

[Ex-Airbalancer]

On the fall Infinity TA in Oct 2019 

You save $745 CAD on the cheapest inside cabin 

tips are $260 CAD , and classic drink package is $1,120 CAD

so it is not a bad deal 

 

 

[bkbarrym]

3 hours ago, hcat said:

Topic asked for our thoughts. Those are mine...others differ. 

 

Btw...2 perks need not be alcohol....can  request OBC and grats...

Yes, but OBC & Grats will not come close to covering the price difference between "Sail" and "Sail Plus".

[NantahalaCruiser]

1 hour ago, bkbarrym said:

Yes, but OBC & Grats will not come close to covering the price difference between "Sail" and "Sail Plus".

Agree that is generally the case. But I got to thinking that it might be different for shorter cruises since the value per night of $150 OBC increases as number of nights decrease.

 

Found that for some 5-night cruises (e.g. 1/3/20 Infinity) the cost difference between NR 0-perk and R 2-perks is only $190 pp for both inside and at least the cheapest balcony versus the value of $150 OBC and $72.50 Gratuities = $222.50; a savings of $32.50 pp. And of course there is the added value of R vs. NR.

[fleckle]

On 4/5/2019 at 3:25 PM, wrk2cruise said:

Has anyone seen a senior or resident rate since the new pricing structure was put into place?

 

Yes, but they play games with you on the Celebrity website by not identifying which kind of discount they are displaying, as well as not  identifying which subcategory they are showing you.

 

If you care, you can usually identify the discount category shown by backing out and then putting in your eligible discount categories one at a time (with the awareness that not all available discount categories are even selectable  that way).

 

But as others keep mentioning, the Celebrity website can be maddening to use because it is not at all user friendly.

Rather it appears to have been sadistically designed by someone who was tying to make it as convoluted and frustrating for the user as possible. 

(Well, if not sadistic, perhaps merely incompetent.)

 

It is just a lot easier and faster to use a third-party website when looking for available categories and prices.

 

[Ken the cruiser]

We're hoping this is just a temporary promotion rather than a permanent booking policy change. We like booking a cruise as soon as it comes out, so we get the initial booking price as well as the cabin we want. However, we don't want to have to choose between overpaying for the Go Best perks, since we don't drink, or booking the cruise with a nonrefundable deposit, which on previous occasions can be over $800.

[whitshel]

Looks like its $38 per person per day for the 2 perk option (for just about every 7 or 8 day cruise I looked at).  So yes if you get the drink package then its definitely worth it.  Probably if you get wifi its worth it too.  All of them would pair best with the $300 obc.  The only 2 that probably wouldn't work out for the passenger is $300 obc and tips, that would be right at $500 for 7 night cruise where the sail away program would cost you $532.

[jkgourmet]

13 hours ago, Oville said:

Check out Virgin, $750 non-refundable deposit but I think it can be moved to another sailing.

 

And you think that's BETTER?????  😵

[Oville]

27 minutes ago, jkgourmet said:

 

And you think that's BETTER?????  😵

Of course not, I’m just pointing out that other cruises lines also have non-refundable deposits.  Actually Virgins is 20% of cruise fare, light years worse than Celebrity.  Viking’s not great but way better than Virgin and stricker than Celebrity.  Guess you missed my point, sorry.

Edited April 8, 2019 by Oville

[Luvcrusn]

1 hour ago, Oville said:

Of course not, I’m just pointing out that other cruises lines also have non-refundable deposits.  Actually Virgins is 20% of cruise fare, light years worse than Celebrity.  Viking’s not great but way better than Virgin and stricker than Celebrity.  Guess you missed my point, sorry.

I believe in this case misery does NOT love company! 

[ghstudio]

If I choose the lowest (non refundable) fare (without perks), would I eligible for the stockholder benefit?.   

[wrk2cruise]

1 hour ago, ghstudio said:

If I choose the lowest (non refundable) fare (without perks), would I eligible for the stockholder benefit?.   

 

Yes provided you are not using any other promotion from Celebrity like POSTTHANKU or something like that.  I believe you can still use the Captains Club 1 category upgrade but not real sure.  Most times I think the stockholder benefit would be better than the 1 category upgrade anyway.

Edited April 8, 2019 by wrk2cruise

[NantahalaCruiser]

On 4/7/2019 at 10:41 PM, whitshel said:

Looks like its $38 per person per day for the 2 perk option (for just about every 7 or 8 day cruise I looked at).  So yes if you get the drink package then its definitely worth it.  Probably if you get wifi its worth it too.  All of them would pair best with the $300 obc.  The only 2 that probably wouldn't work out for the passenger is $300 obc and tips, that would be right at $500 for 7 night cruise where the sail away program would cost you $532.

Gratuities for 7-night are $203 per cabin for up to a standard balcony cabin. So $503 vs. $532.

 

Even if you could care less about the wifi or beverage package and were to choose OBC and gratuities, the additional $14.50 pp is a cheap way to move from NR to R - certainly much less than previous NR vs. R differentials.

[grandgeezer]

On 4/7/2019 at 7:41 PM, whitshel said:

Looks like its $38 per person per day for the 2 perk option (for just about every 7 or 8 day cruise I looked at).  So yes if you get the drink package then its definitely worth it.  Probably if you get wifi its worth it too.  All of them would pair best with the $300 obc.  The only 2 that probably wouldn't work out for the passenger is $300 obc and tips, that would be right at $500 for 7 night cruise where the sail away program would cost you $532.

 

Check out the May, 7 day cruises to Alaska on the Solstice, it is running $50 to $70 p.p. per day range for the two perks.

[jagoffee]

11 hours ago, grandgeezer said:

 

Check out the May, 7 day cruises to Alaska on the Solstice, it is running $50 to $70 p.p. per day range for the two perks.

May 2020?  I see $25-$40 for the Solstice. (Inside)

[Ken the cruiser]

On 4/7/2019 at 9:20 PM, Ken the cruiser said:

We're hoping this is just a temporary promotion rather than a permanent booking policy change. We like booking a cruise as soon as it comes out, so we get the initial booking price as well as the cabin we want. However, we don't want to have to choose between overpaying for the Go Best perks, since we don't drink, or booking the cruise with a nonrefundable deposit, which on previous occasions can be over $800.

Just talked with our Celebrity PCC and he said this is the new policy rather than a promo. For all categories except suites, you get 3 options, nonrefundable deposit and the cheapest rate, 2 perks and a refundable deposit with a small price increase, and 4 perks and a refundable deposit with a larger price increase. For suites it's just a nonrefundable deposit or 4 perks and a refundable deposit with a much larger cruise fare.

[Lastdance]

2 hours ago, Ken the cruiser said:

Just talked with our Celebrity PCC and he said this is the new policy rather than a promo. For all categories except suites, you get 3 options, nonrefundable deposit and the cheapest rate, 2 perks and a refundable deposit with a small price increase, and 4 perks and a refundable deposit with a larger price increase. For suites it's just a nonrefundable deposit or 4 perks and a refundable deposit with a much larger cruise fare.

 

Very interesting, so we will all just have to see how long this lasts...I hope that Celebrity, at the very least, reads this thread, but whether that would make a difference is unlikely...TBD.  they definitely want us to take some perks!

Edited April 9, 2019 by Lastdance

[Purplsmurf]

While we aren’t thrilled with the changes, we recently booked a 14 night TA. After the changes it ended up costing us $1000 more with the 2 perks. We end up paying $1k for approximately $2400 in perks. We possibly would’ve purchased the drink package for the last half since they are all sea days, so we are making out better with the new pricing. On top of that we were able to snag an aft family veranda corner cabin so win win for us.

[jagoffee]

6 hours ago, Ken the cruiser said:

Just talked with our Celebrity PCC and he said this is the new policy rather than a promo. For all categories except suites, you get 3 options, nonrefundable deposit and the cheapest rate, 2 perks and a refundable deposit with a small price increase, and 4 perks and a refundable deposit with a larger price increase. For suites it's just a nonrefundable deposit or 4 perks and a refundable deposit with a much larger cruise fare.

I agree that this is a new booking policy replacing the BBB bundling.  Good riddance to the old BBB.  It was more more confusing then the new program.  Now people are understanding very clearly that the Perks are from Celebrity and they are not free.  It does force you into taking two perks if you want a refundable deposit), when previously you could take just one perk.

Although I have yet to book under this new policy, I believe your Celebrity PCC is mistaken about there being a lower cost Nonrefundable deposit option for suites.  I did not see that option.  Did you? 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 10, 2019 by jagoffee

[Ken the cruiser]

30 minutes ago, jagoffee said:

Although I have yet to book under this new policy, I believe your Celebrity PCC is mistaken about there being a lower cost Nonrefundable deposit option for suites.  I did not see that option.  Did you? 

I have done fake bookings on our below X TA cruises, all of which are with a Sky Suite, and they both now have the 2 options I mentioned. To see the options when you do a fake booking, you have to select a cabin which takes you to the next page where you get to pick.

 

However, in our particular case with regards to our 2 TA legs, as we booked them when they first came out, they are about $1,100 more pp to rebook with the Go Best perks and $500 more pp to book with the nonrefundable rate, so we kept what we have in place which is no perks with a refundable deposit. Of course, that option no longer exists with new bookings.

Edited April 10, 2019 by Ken the cruiser

[jagoffee]

10 minutes ago, Ken the cruiser said:

I have done fake bookings on our below X TA cruises, all of which are with a Sky Suite, and they both now have the 2 options I mentioned. To see the options when you do a fake booking, you have to select a cabin which takes you to the next page where you get to pick.

 

However, in our particular case with regards to our 2 TA legs, as we booked them when they first came out, they are about $1,100 more pp to rebook with the Go Best perks and $500 more pp to book with the nonrefundable rate, so we kept what we have in place which is no perks with a refundable deposit. Of course, that option no longer exists with new bookings.

Ken, I do not see that after I have Celebrity pick a cabin.  I only get the 4 perk option.  Please give me a date/ship, so I can see if I can get your result.

 

Perhaps it varies by ship?

 

Thanks

[Ken the cruiser]

17 minutes ago, jagoffee said:

Ken, I do not see that after I have Celebrity pick a cabin.  I only get the 4 perk option.  Please give me a date/ship, so I can see if I can get your result.

 

Perhaps it varies by ship?

 

 

That's weird. It displayed the options earlier today, but not this evening. Maybe X is updating some software. I'll try again tomorrow and let you know if they show up then.

[grandgeezer]

12 hours ago, jagoffee said:

May 2020?  I see $25-$40 for the Solstice. (Inside)

This year, 2019 for a balcony

[4774Papa]

On 4/5/2019 at 1:09 PM, mnocket said:

I get a kick out of how successful Celebrity has been in getting people to pay for add-ons and still getting people to think of them as "Perks".  In days gone by, Perks were incentives, freebies if you will, that were offered as a promotion to attract new bookings.  Next we saw "Perk" promotions that were often offset by increased prices.  Then Big, Better, Best - pay more and choose your "Perks".  Now Sail Your Way - a repackaging of BBB that opens the door to broader differentiation along the lines of MSC's "Experiences".

 

Maybe it's just semantics, but I think "Perks" stopped being perks when we started paying for them....  when we started paying more to get "free" drinks, they stopped being free and in my mind stopped being perks.

We hate the bundled pricing with perks that we don't want.   The beverage packages just don't work for us.  On our last Eclipse repo cruise from Chile to San Diego we didn't have perks and the price was great.  We enjoyed the elite happy hour and the only alcohol we had to purchase were two drinks on embarkation day and the cost of a 7 bottle wine package (less than $400) for a 15 day cruise.

X's high fares may just drive us into cruising with other lines.

[cantstopingcruising]

Thankfully, we are booked for next year's cruises.

 

I don't want to book any non-refundable cruises and the refundable are substantially more expensive. They are much more that the value of the perks.

 

If this continues into the future, my Celebrity days may come to an end.

[ak1004]

41 minutes ago, cantstopingcruising said:

Thankfully, we are booked for next year's cruises.

 

I don't want to book any non-refundable cruises and the refundable are substantially more expensive. They are much more that the value of the perks.

 

If this continues into the future, my Celebrity days may come to an end.

 

We fell the same way.

 

This is especially true for people who don't drink much and don't find much value in the beverage package. One of the perks is unlimited internet, which is grossly overpriced to begin with. On many lines the internet now is $10/day, not to mention lines like Oceania where it's free.