Any details on possible big Celebrity Sale coming in FEB?

[happy cruzer]

TA of a big box site hinted that a sale is coming in Feb?  Anyone else hear more?

 

Has anyone booked onboard and the transferred to TA to get their best rates?  Any advantage to doing so?

 

Thanks.

Edited January 23, 2022 by happy cruzer

[Jim_Iain]

Good chance.   Wave season runs from January - March and they usually have a "Sale".   I doubt you will see many cruises discounted as they would then have to match the price for all existing bookings.   They instead often have something like a $200 deposit.   I recall once many years ago they had a $25 deposit.

 

It is possible they may drop prices and worth watching.     I did get a reduction at the Xmas sales but had to change from a refundable fare to non-refundable.

[gerelmx]

Super Bowl sale

[drakes2]

55 minutes ago, Jim_Iain said:

  I recall once many years ago they had a $25 deposit.

I booked my July 2016 Baltic cruise the previous November for $25 deposit 

[cdn_tbird]

2 hours ago, happy cruzer said:

TA of a big box site hinted that a sale is coming in Feb?  Anyone else hear more?

 

Has anyone booked onboard and the transferred to TA to get their best rates?  Any advantage to doing so?

 

Thanks.

We always move our onboard bookings to the big box TA. Sometimes they have a group booking on that particular cruise so we enjoy the lower price and the gift card, other times it's just the gift card but worth it none the less.

 

If you're comfortable with current pricing, I would suggest you book now and then just get the TA to reprice it if the price drops during the Wave season.

[klfhngr]

Was hoping for price drop, but our Europe cruise for May has gone up over 1k!

[Lastdance]

1 hour ago, cdn_tbird said:

We always move our onboard bookings to the big box TA. Sometimes they have a group booking on that particular cruise so we enjoy the lower price and the gift card, other times it's just the gift card but worth it none the less.

 

If you're comfortable with current pricing, I would suggest you book now and then just get the TA to reprice it if the price drops during the Wave season.

I hope you have easy access to your TA.  Such a hassel the one and only time I booked the big box store in the east.  

Edited January 23, 2022 by Lastdance

[cdn_tbird]

4 minutes ago, Lastdance said:

I hope you have easy access to your TA.  Such a hassel the one and only time I booked the big box store in the east.  

Guess I've been extraordinarily lucky. The only time I ever had to get a hold of my TA for something beyond a simple repricing was for a cruise that was cancelled due to the ship being chartered and it went extremely smoothly. IMHO, the big box TA up here in Canada is a lot better than any of the other TAs I've dealt with. My worst experience was with a mom & pop shop, where they tried to actually guilt trip me and that I should be grateful for them doing the minimum.

[gotcha3]

1 hour ago, cdn_tbird said:

We always move our onboard bookings to the big box TA. Sometimes they have a group booking on that particular cruise so we enjoy the lower price and the gift card, other times it's just the gift card but worth it none the less.

 

If you're comfortable with current pricing, I would suggest you book now and then just get the TA to reprice it if the price drops during the Wave season.

I've never had to do that. I have a Celebrity planner who will match any legitimate deals with just a screenshot and verification. Gift card extras are matched with OBC. We get the best service and can communicate by phone or email.

 

[Lastdance]

7 minutes ago, gotcha3 said:

I've never had to do that. I have a Celebrity planner who will match any legitimate deals with just a screenshot and verification. Gift card extras are matched with OBC. We get the best service and can communicate by phone or email.

 

Now if these planers would guarantee any price drops without you having to let them know, that would certainly be ideal.  There are some that do this automatically, but do not work for Celebrity.

[Denny01]

Onboard our Nov ‘21 Thanksgiving cruise, we booked a TransAtlantic in Oct ‘22 and an Iceland then Norway B2B for July ‘23 and got the lower deposit and OBC, and a good rate. When I transferred to our local (not big box) TA, they got us a Group rate which was definitely less. Had to use the standard deposit, but kept the Celebrity OBC and got the TA OBC. Just depends.

 

One caution, many TA’s don’t have their Group Rate discounts showing and they check if available when you either transfer or book directly. But I’m Not an expert, just someone who has booked many differing ways and now sticking with a TA. 

 

Den

 

 

[Arizona Wildcat]

While we all know Celebrity will have a "big sale" pretty much every month; think about the thousands of FCCs that are steadily increasing in number.  Fuel and food costs up.  Absolutely no reason to give cabins away. Our Christmas Panama Canal cruise is up about $400 per cabin in 4 months.  Summer Iceland still sold put except inside cabins.

Until covid slows down and cruising gets going expect no "deals".

[dgoz]

3 hours ago, Lastdance said:

Now if these planers would guarantee any price drops without you having to let them know, that would certainly be ideal.  There are some that do this automatically, but do not work for Celebrity.

I kept contacting my TA about the sales people would post about on here until he told me that he checks at the beginning of each month for sales. I think he emailed me about the sale starting of Feb. 1 just so I wouldn't bother him with more emails! 😄

[upwarduk]

21 hours ago, klfhngr said:

Was hoping for price drop, but our Europe cruise for May has gone up over 1k!

Our final price too, even though there is -£960 off.

I was checking to see if Concierge was cheaper tha our mid ships on deck 7. I had seen an advert suggesting that with the - £960 ‘ ‘why were we waiting to book.’

 

Thedeck 7 cabin is just a few doors away from our booked cabin.

 

Edited January 24, 2022 by upwarduk

[Birdnutty]

20 hours ago, gotcha3 said:

I've never had to do that. I have a Celebrity planner who will match any legitimate deals with just a screenshot and verification. Gift card extras are matched with OBC. We get the best service and can communicate by phone or email.

 

First I've heard of it, and I like it.  Do you have a higher up relationship with them, or is this available to all?

[finny2]

20 hours ago, gotcha3 said:

I've never had to do that. I have a Celebrity planner who will match any legitimate deals with just a screenshot and verification. Gift card extras are matched with OBC. We get the best service and can communicate by phone or email.

 

How do you get a Celebrity planner?

[RollWave]

37 minutes ago, finny2 said:

How do you get a Celebrity planner?

Thank you for asking - I have the same question!

[Jim_Iain]

On 1/23/2022 at 8:08 AM, drakes2 said:

I booked my July 2016 Baltic cruise the previous November for $25 deposit 

LOL....  It was a great sale and was not suppose to include Suites.   We all know how good Celebrity Website is and I booked 6 cruises in Suites and it took the $25 deposit.     I don't think I've ever seen that $25 deposit sale again.  

[gotcha3]

I just sent an email to my planner and got a reply in @5 minutes. This is what he said...

 

 "Unfortunately, we are unable to provide our direct contact information on websites.  If anyone asks you, I would have them call our general number and request an Outbound Agent.  After that request is made, our supervisors should be notified, and then they will assign this new contact to one of us.  Anyone can always call this number, (800) 556-8209, to make this request."

 

The only caveat I will add is this....Celebrity can't match group rates, where some big TA buys rights to sell LOTS of cabins and discounts them heavily, but they will match genuine sale prices and perks with additional OBC(NR). We have specific cabins we like, as in we probably won't go if we can't get these particular cabins, so we book as soon as the sailing dates are announced. Several times we've been the very first cabins booked on a particular sailing. We'll book with just 1 name and pay only 1 deposit sometimes booking higher priced refundable because that's not the fare we'll cruise under. Then we watch for sales. When we find one (or a better price when periodically checking big box stores and TAs), we take a screenshot and send it in an email. Prices are adjusted that day or the next. We've had sometimes 2-3 different price match deals over the course of planning, the refundable tag gets removed when it's clear we'll cruise at a certain price. One thing we don't care for, however, is when they give additional OBC due to match with a big box gift card....it doesn't show up on the invoice, but it does show up onboard. Give them a call, what have you got to lose. I don't think it's ever a bad idea to remove the middleman.

[tonyinoc]

On 1/23/2022 at 9:16 AM, cdn_tbird said:

We always move our onboard bookings to the big box TA. Sometimes they have a group booking on that particular cruise so we enjoy the lower price and the gift card, other times it's just the gift card but worth it none the less.

 

If you're comfortable with current pricing, I would suggest you book now and then just get the TA to reprice it if the price drops during the Wave season.

Wondering how do you transfer? 

 

[cdn_tbird]

1 minute ago, tonyinoc said:

Wondering how do you transfer? 

 

When doing an onboard booking, you have the option to leave the booking with X or have it transferred to the TA you had booked your current cruise with. When we get home, I will call in to TA to provide them the X reservation number and they make sure it's transferred over right away and showing on my account.  

[Jeremiah1212]

14 minutes ago, gotcha3 said:

I just sent an email to my planner and got a reply in @5 minutes. This is what he said...

 

 "Unfortunately, we are unable to provide our direct contact information on websites.  If anyone asks you, I would have them call our general number and request an Outbound Agent.  After that request is made, our supervisors should be notified, and then they will assign this new contact to one of us.  Anyone can always call this number, (800) 556-8209, to make this request."

 

Just put a courtesy hold on any cabin and one of them will call you, usually within the same day. 

 

4 minutes ago, tonyinoc said:

Wondering how do you transfer? 

 

 

There's a form online that you can fill out. Your reservation must be booked within the past 30 days, outside of final payment and not paid in full. 

[cdn_tbird]

17 minutes ago, gotcha3 said:

I just sent an email to my planner and got a reply in @5 minutes. This is what he said...

 

 "Unfortunately, we are unable to provide our direct contact information on websites.  If anyone asks you, I would have them call our general number and request an Outbound Agent.  After that request is made, our supervisors should be notified, and then they will assign this new contact to one of us.  Anyone can always call this number, (800) 556-8209, to make this request."

 

The only caveat I will add is this....Celebrity can't match group rates, where some big TA buys rights to sell LOTS of cabins and discounts them heavily, but they will match genuine sale prices and perks with additional OBC(NR). We have specific cabins we like, as in we probably won't go if we can't get these particular cabins, so we book as soon as the sailing dates are announced. Several times we've been the very first cabins booked on a particular sailing. We'll book with just 1 name and pay only 1 deposit sometimes booking higher priced refundable because that's not the fare we'll cruise under. Then we watch for sales. When we find one (or a better price when periodically checking big box stores and TAs), we take a screenshot and send it in an email. Prices are adjusted that day or the next. We've had sometimes 2-3 different price match deals over the course of planning, the refundable tag gets removed when it's clear we'll cruise at a certain price. One thing we don't care for, however, is when they give additional OBC due to match with a big box gift card....it doesn't show up on the invoice, but it does show up onboard. Give them a call, what have you got to lose. I don't think it's ever a bad idea to remove the middleman.

I didn't think X gave extra OBC. You learn something new everyday. Certainly something to look into when booking our next cruise.  Thanks.

[Lastdance]

3 hours ago, Jeremiah1212 said:

 

Just put a courtesy hold on any cabin and one of them will call you, usually within the same day. 

 

 

 

Exactly!

[Jim_Iain]

7 hours ago, tonyinoc said:

Wondering how do you transfer? 

 

You can do it online yourself or contact them and ask for them to transfer it to themselves.   Takes about 24 hours.. 

 

https://rccl.secure.force.com/directtransfers/DTTCelebrity

 

You have to know your agent and the main telephone number they use.