Celebrity is woefully lacking in their website pre-booking info

Shadow9612 · August 15, 2019

6 hours ago, jelayne said:

For the remaining categories pricing varies by the location of the cabin, what you see for pricing on the page with the major categories is the lowest price in that category. Hope that helps and isn’t more confusing🤞.

Is it possible during the room selection step of the booking process to determine the level of a room within a category? For example if I'm booking a concierge class stateroom, I can find the cost of a particular stateroom by selecting it specifically, but I don't see anywhere where it tells me whether the selected room is C2 or C3 or C1. Am I missing something? I normally have a separate window open with the deck plans to try to find the level of the particular room.

jelayne · August 15, 2019

The surf package does not support streaming but is fine for checking email, surfing the internet, posting to FB, IG, etc.. the Unlimited does all that the surf package does and you an also stream.

If you select the internet as 1 of your perks the first 2 passengers in the cabin both get Unlimited internet, so you both could be online at the same time.

i can’t tell the price of Internet for a 7 day cruise but did check the Cruise Planner for a 9 night cruise we have booked and here are prices for 9 nights:

Unlimited for 2 devices $358. One device $239.

Surf for 2 devices $174, One device $116.

when we don’t select internet as a booking perk we will be purchasing a 1 device surf package as we don’t have a need to both be on the internet at the same time.

I hope this gives you a. Idea of the cost. A 7. Night Cruise should have slightly lower costs.

jelayne · August 15, 2019

19 minutes ago, Shadow9612 said:

Is it possible during the room selection step of the booking process to determine the level of a room within a category? For example if I'm booking a concierge class stateroom, I can find the cost of a particular stateroom by selecting it specifically, but I don't see anywhere where it tells me whether the selected room is C2 or C3 or C1. Am I missing something? I normally have a separate window open with the deck plans to try to find the level of the particular room.

The only difference between C1, 2 or 3 is location. The cabins are identical and the Concierge benefits are the same. There is no way that I know on Xs site to see the difference. Some TA sites do show the pricing by sub category.

mayleeman · August 15, 2019

@nanook21 As you have noticed, you can expect lots of help from fellow cruisers here on CC. But I fear your hope that Celebrity might see your questions is an empty dream--I have never seen any indication that their employees ever peruse the forum, let alone provide helpful info. Chances are there would be six or 60 different answers from them anyway!

nanook21 · August 15, 2019

1 hour ago, jelayne said:

The surf package does not support streaming but is fine for checking email, surfing the internet, posting to FB, IG, etc.. the Unlimited does all that the surf package does and you an also stream.

If you select the internet as 1 of your perks the first 2 passengers in the cabin both get Unlimited internet, so you both could be online at the same time.

i can’t tell the price of Internet for a 7 day cruise but did check the Cruise Planner for a 9 night cruise we have booked and here are prices for 9 nights:

Unlimited for 2 devices $358. One device $239.

Surf for 2 devices $174, One device $116.

when we don’t select internet as a booking perk we will be purchasing a 1 device surf package as we don’t have a need to both be on the internet at the same time.

I hope this gives you a. Idea of the cost. A 7. Night Cruise should have slightly lower costs.

Thanks, but what is confusing is that it gives prices for 2 devices, but it also says “per adult”. I also noticed this on another earlier thread on this forum, but can’t get clarification from the website.

nanook21 · August 15, 2019

1 hour ago, jelayne said:

The only difference between C1, 2 or 3 is location. The cabins are identical and the Concierge benefits are the same. There is no way that I know on Xs site to see the difference. Some TA sites do show the pricing by sub category.

The only way I’ve found is to go back to ship deck plans on the main menu. Very awkward.

nanook21 · August 15, 2019

49 minutes ago, mayleeman said:

@nanook21 As you have noticed, you can expect lots of help from fellow cruisers here on CC. But I fear your hope that Celebrity might see your questions is an empty dream--I have never seen any indication that their employees ever peruse the forum, let alone provide helpful info. Chances are there would be six or 60 different answers from them anyway!

Thats unfortunate, I know that other lines have their people check into the Cruise Critic forums on a regular basis. It’s on their threads. Oh well.

Mum81 · August 15, 2019

6 hours ago, jelayne said:

That interesting, in our 27 cruises the prices have been consistent with of course the exception of prices out of Southampton or Australia where currency conversion and fees and mandatory gratuities on drinks, Spa etc must be included in the published price.

Out if curiosity what is the price of dinner in Murano or Tuscan? My cruise planners thru 2021 all show $50 pp for Murano & $45 for Tuscan. Sailing are out if US, Asia and Europe.

Ok well perhaps the dynamic pricing applies in Australia but not in the US. Our cruise is ex Australia and Murano is currently $94.25AUD and Tuscan $87.00AUD which is more than we have ever paid and not in line with the exchange rate. Even with the gratuities added. Bookings started at $54.90AUD and rose by a couple of dollars at a time until they reached their current price. Our shore excursion prices can also vary from day to day (again not in line with the exchange rate - literally hundreds of dollars difference) and I’m not talking about a sale, just daily fluctuations. I thought it must have been a supply/demand thing. The price on the premier plus/perks/perks extra packages vary day to day as well. I wasn’t calling into question your statement, just commenting on my experience with Celebrity and cruise planner purchases.

downsmead · August 15, 2019

4 hours ago, jelayne said:

The only difference between C1, 2 or 3 is location. The cabins are identical and the Concierge benefits are the same. There is no way that I know on Xs site to see the difference. Some TA sites do show the pricing by sub category.

On the uk site, if you do a booking / dummy booking, it shows all the sub categories (eg C1, C2 etc) and the prices for those sub categories. Since I am a Captains Club member, I check the price for the sub category below the one I want, and then check availability in the sub category I want and then choose my cabin, then call X to make my booking so I get the one subcategory upgrade. I can also select any particular cabin and then get a pop up box showing the deck plan and location.

chemmo · August 15, 2019

5 hours ago, nanook21 said:

Thanks for all the info, appreciate all posters good tips. I discovered that I can do a partial mock booking to get the actual price quote without having to put our info into the system, and on a Concierge we had perk options of 2 or 4. Or I could do the 2 with an add-on of pre-paid gratuities ($406). I believe, from what I’ve read, that the beverage packages and Unlimited Internet are the most expensive of all the options, so those would be the ones I’d choose. On the 4-perk package, the beverage pkge is Premium rather than Classic so that may be a good choice. I don’t really care about the $150 OBC extra, but it’s part of the 4-pack. It’s correct that the suites have the perks included, but I found even the Sky suite pricing way too high - over double that of the highest Veranda and almost double over a Concierge. That’s getting up into Regent territory! 😉 LOL

We usually book RS or PH and are aware we could book Regent or other ‘small luxury’ ships in the same price bracket. We choose Celebrity because we want the big ship with lots of bars, restaurants and entertainment options but then the added bonus of ‘Retreating’ to the Suite areas when we want a more intimate and more personalised service.

If you are looking for a reasonably priced cabin with a good itinerary and a few drinks on a nice ship then go for a balcony cabin and classic drinks package and food of a reasonable standard in the MDR. It will be a good experience at a reasonable price.

If you are looking for an experience different than Regent but offers more of a luxury level of dining and service you need to look at the Suite options.

Three final bits of advice...

Make sure if cruising with friends you choose rooms that share the same main dining option. For example, if one couple have Aqua rooms and the other does not then they will be assigned different dining rooms.

Think about how important (and busy) your port days will be. The level of room you choose is less important if you are off the ship most days.

Finally if you do book Celebrity board with an open mind looking at the strengths of the experience rather than negatively comparing to what it doesn’t offer in comparison to Regent.

Whatever you choose to do I hope you have a great next cruise!

mayleeman · August 15, 2019

6 hours ago, nanook21 said:

Thanks, but what is confusing is that it gives prices for 2 devices, but it also says “per adult”. I also noticed this on another earlier thread on this forum, but can’t get clarification from the website.

Think of the internet "per adult" price (no matter how many devices) as "per package." They use the same terminology for renting cabanas over on Royal Caribbean web site. The wording is just stupid. You just choose which person in the cabin is the purchaser, not both.

But note that on the internet packages, if you buy for 1 device, you get 1 sign-on code. But you can actually use more than one device, just only 1 can be signed on at any given time. 2 devices gets you 2 independent sign ons, and so on. You do NOT pay separately for each person, though!

Edited August 15, 2019 by mayleeman

Shadow9612 · August 15, 2019

8 hours ago, jelayne said:

The only difference between C1, 2 or 3 is location. The cabins are identical and the Concierge benefits are the same. There is no way that I know on Xs site to see the difference. Some TA sites do show the pricing by sub category.

Thank you. It would be helpful only because when I am checking prices I like to take into account the captain's club 1 category upgrade, so it would be nice to know...

nanook21 · August 15, 2019

8 hours ago, chemmo said:

.Make sure if cruising with friends you choose rooms that share the same main dining option. For example, if one couple have Aqua rooms and the other does not then they will be assigned different dining rooms.

Not an issue, we don’t plan to book either Aqua or a suite. However I couldn’t find anywhere on the site that those guests were “assigned” to a separate dining room, only that they had that exclusive option as an alternative to MDR. Am I mistaken?

As for your other comments on this post, thank you for the tips. However we have cruised for many years, so not exactly newbies. Before we discovered Regent, we sailed NCL and HAL, and found that we did not care for the crowds and lineups of the larger ships. In that same vein, we also didn’t care for fixed dining, but prefer anytime dining where we can ask to share a table. We’ve met many wonderful people this way, and that’s the only entertainment we need. 😉 I was happy to discover that Celebrity now has an “anytime” or Select dining option. (Sorry, getting a bit off-topic here.)

nanook21 · August 15, 2019

5 hours ago, mayleeman said:

Think of the internet "per adult" price (no matter how many devices) as "per package." They use the same terminology for renting cabanas over on Royal Caribbean web site. The wording is just stupid. You just choose which person in the cabin is the purchaser, not both.

But note that on the internet packages, if you buy for 1 device, you get 1 sign-on code. But you can actually use more than one device, just only 1 can be signed on at any given time. 2 devices gets you 2 independent sign ons, and so on. You do NOT pay separately for each person, though!

Thanks, that clarifies it for me.

Luvcrusn · August 15, 2019

OP mentioned she was interested in booking a Concierge Class cabin. FYI the Concierge Class cabins on Silhouette are exactly the same size as the regular verandah cabins with a few extra perks added and in better locations (generally a higher deck). Among the extra perks that come with Concierge Class are priority embarkation (it really doesn't make much difference and isn't always available), an embarkation luncheon for Concierge Class passengers in the MDR from 11:30 AM tp 1:00 PM, expanded room service menu, a bottle of bubbly, delivery of afternoon savories, and 2 extra Captains Club points per night. Frankly, if the cost differential between the verandah and Concierge is more than $50- $75 @person on that short a cruise it's not worth it. The difference in cost between C1, C2, C3 are also location. C1 and have larger balconies and are generally aft. C2 and C3 are the same, but C2 cabins on the slant of the hump have larger balconies. You can go to www.cruisedeckplans.com to see the cabin categories of all cabins and there's also tips on cabins with larger balconies, obstructions, noise issues etc. It's a website for TAs but has a free area and includes info on all cruise lines and ships.

Celebrity's website has always had issues, and although it works better than it did a year and half ago when the new site was launched, it leaves quite a bit to be desired and is, at best, a work in progress. I have the best success using an InPrivate or Incognito window (regardless of browser) whenever I try to do anything on the website. Be reassured, that although X isn't (and doesn't try to be) Regent, the onboard experience is lovely and very different than the website. Also I've found that over the years we can book cruises on X at lower prices and with more perks when using our large, online TA than the X website offers. Good luck and happy sailing.

chemmo · August 15, 2019

1 minute ago, nanook21 said:

Not an issue, we don’t plan to book either Aqua or a suite. However I couldn’t find anywhere on the site that those guests were “assigned” to a separate dining room, only that they had that exclusive option as an alternative to MDR. Am I mistaken?

As for your other comments on this post, thank you for the tips. However we have cruised for many years, so not exactly newbies. Before we discovered Regent, we sailed NCL and HAL, and found that we did not care for the crowds and lineups of the larger ships. In that same vein, we also didn’t care for fixed dining, but prefer anytime dining where we can ask to share a table. We’ve met many wonderful people this way, and that’s the only entertainment we need. 😉 I was happy to discover that Celebrity now has an “anytime” or Select dining option. (Sorry, getting a bit off-topic here.)

If you are in a Suite or in Aqua you can dine in the MDR. However, to book either and then dine in the MDR does seem a waste...Frequently posts describe situations where friends/families split room categories and then find they can’t just ‘choose’ where to dine together other than the MDR hence my advice. Select dining is popular. Many guests prefer to dine as couples so let the MDR know your preference for a group table.

Your initial post indicated more experience with Regent rather than ‘mainstream’ lines hence my further advice.

One of the reasons we book Celebrity is that their design (particularly on S class) you rarely feel in a ‘crowded’ area and if you do book a suite you don’t queue...

Best Wishes

nanook21 · August 15, 2019

Luvcrusn, I agree. My TA gives better perks too, also a large online agent who specializes in the luxury lines (but who will also assist with the Premium lines like Celebrity). If we decide to book this cruise, she’ll be the first one I go to.

Chemmo, not a problem. Appreciate your tips and going to the trouble to provide them. I’m sure Celebrity is a fine option and I’m only making comparisons to what I’m used to from past experience, with no expectations that everything will be the same. I’m trying valiantly to juggle my expectations with cost realities! LOL.

Luvcrusn · August 15, 2019

21 minutes ago, nanook21 said:

Thanks, that clarifies it for me.

Aqua Class passengesr are assigned to Blu as their dining venue for breakfast (although they can go to the MDR or buffet) and dinner. It is anytime dining and no reservations are needed or accepted. It is much quieter than the MDR and has different menus, better service, and can accommodate special requests more easily. Most of the tables there are for 2 or 4 and are close enough together to converse with your neighbors if you and they desire. There aren't assigned tables like in the MDR, but if you request it they will try to seat you in the same area with the same waitstaff. It isn't as easy to request seating with other passengers there as it is in the MDR. You may also request to go to the MDR for a particular dinner. If you want to do that just ask the Blu maitre d to make a reservation for you in the MDR. You'll then go to the Select dining entrance of the MDR. Suite passengers are assigned to Luminae for their meals. They can also go to Blu on a space available basis or the MDR. Hope that clears the water instead of muddying it!

nanook21 · August 15, 2019

Yes, that’s what I had thought, so thanks. I have no desire to be assigned to any specific dining room, it would be much too difficult to coordinate with our friends. We are pretty casual folks, so MDR, the buffet, or even pool deck grills work fine for us. We are Sushi fiends, so would likely spend time there too (at ala carte pricing, but that’s expected), and not really big eaters, so don’t need or want elaborate meals.

nanook21 · August 15, 2019

Getting back to the Internet issue, does anyone know the package costs of Unlimited Internet and Surf Internet for 14 days in the Baltic on Silhouette? Thanks.

Im interested in a pkge for 2, as we both are online at the same time.

Edited August 15, 2019 by nanook21
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