Will Celebrity Cancel Solstice Asia Season 2022???? Have concerns

[italgal24]

I just got my email advising of our cancellation but am having a devil of a time getting help with this rebooking.  Spent 1.5 hours on phone this morning and spoke to 2 different agents who ultimately told me I need to call Celebrity Air to cancel air first before they can handle Lift & Shift.  Grrrrr......

[Bigannie]

1 hour ago, italgal24 said:

I just got my email advising of our cancellation but am having a devil of a time getting help with this rebooking.  Spent 1.5 hours on phone this morning and spoke to 2 different agents who ultimately told me I need to call Celebrity Air to cancel air first before they can handle Lift & Shift.  Grrrrr......

I have just done my lift and shift, the agent who helped me put me on hold and contacted the celebration air agent to sort it. I am in UK and phoned the 0800 number , but I am sure it was a us agent who handled my call .

Just waiting for the paperwork.

[MicCanberra]

8 hours ago, mahdnc said:

 

I think it is the helical object with a right hand rule twist.

A twist of lemon more like

[soccermommy]

My TA got the official notice today and after talking it over with her, we decided to lift and shift to  a C2 on the 10/24/23 sailing. It took a while but we are booked!  Anyone who wants to pursue this option might want to do it sooner than later since Celebrity was very busy today, and Millenium has fewer rooms than Solstice. We’re happy, all things considered.

[luckybecky]

Sorry guys, this is a naive question, but it's the first time we have been in this situation. What exactly does "lift and shift" mean? Does this mean we can choose to do the same itinerary at a later date? Do we get the same pricing as our original booking? Or we can take our deposit money and apply it to any future cruise, any ship, any itinerary? How would that be any different from an FCC? What is the advantage to doing lift and shift, versus just taking the 100% refund? 

 

Thanks for your help 

[mahdnc]

1 hour ago, luckybecky said:

Sorry guys, this is a naive question, but it's the first time we have been in this situation. What exactly does "lift and shift" mean? Does this mean we can choose to do the same itinerary at a later date? Do we get the same pricing as our original booking? Or we can take our deposit money and apply it to any future cruise, any ship, any itinerary? How would that be any different from an FCC? What is the advantage to doing lift and shift, versus just taking the 100% refund? 

 

Thanks for your help 

 

Lift and Shift traditionally allows you to rebook to the same sailing one year later (plus or minus a couple of weeks).  The idea was that you would delay your trip for a year and end up on the same ship and the same itinerary.  The important thing was that you got to keep your old pricing and all of your perks and OBC.

 

When it first came out in 2020, Celebrity allowed customers to initiate the Lift and Shift themselves as a means to reduce the number of outright cancellations thereby conserving cash.  After that time period expired, Celebrity allowed passengers to Lift and Shift if Celebrity cancelled their cruise which is what everyone is discussing now.   

 

In theory, Lift and Shift is a good idea.  However the details and the execution isn't always perfect leaving many affected passengers wanting.  Your new sailing may not be on the same class ship and/or the itinerary could be slightly different.  But Celebrity tries to do what they can.  When we got Lift and Shifted out of our Millennium Christmas 202 cruise, we had four passengers in a a spacious FV balcony cabin.  The new sailing was on Solstice and the FVs were not available, so Celebrity put us in two connecting balcony cabins.  That meant that the kids were 1st/2nd passengers in a cabin paying the old 3rd/4th passenger rate.  Later we got Lift and Shifted from a 14 night cruise to an 11 night cruise.  For that, Celebrity gave us a prorated refund.  Now we will be LIfted and Shifted from an 11 night sailing to a 12 night sailing and I expect that we will not have to pay for the extra night.

 

The difference between Lift and Shift vs FCC/refund is the price protection and perks/OBC retention which is a big deal.  If you get the FCC or refund, you book on a new sailing at the currently prevailing pricing and promotions.

Edited April 13, 2022 by mahdnc

[Longhorn-ED]

1 hour ago, luckybecky said:

Sorry guys, this is a naive question, but it's the first time we have been in this situation. What exactly does "lift and shift" mean? Does this mean we can choose to do the same itinerary at a later date? Do we get the same pricing as our original booking? Or we can take our deposit money and apply it to any future cruise, any ship, any itinerary? How would that be any different from an FCC? What is the advantage to doing lift and shift, versus just taking the 100% refund? 

 

Thanks for your help 

The only option for our 4/21/2023 TP cruise was the 9/15/2023 Millennium, 5 months later. Celebrity let us L&S for the same price and keep the same perks. Also kept the same cabin category. Our last L&S had to be within 30 days one year out. There were no Asia cruises in 2024 as options so they made exceptions.

[luckybecky]

26 minutes ago, mahdnc said:

 

Lift and Shift traditionally allows you to rebook to the same sailing one year later (plus or minus a couple of weeks).  The idea was that you would delay your trip for a year and end up on the same ship and the same itinerary.  The important thing was that you got to keep your old pricing and all of your perks and OBC.

 

When it first came out in 2020, Celebrity allowed customers to initiate the Lift and Shift themselves as a means to reduce the number of outright cancellations thereby conserving cash.  After that time period expired, Celebrity allowed passengers to Lift and Shift if Celebrity cancelled their cruise which is what everyone is discussing now.   

 

In theory, Lift and Shift is a good idea.  However the details and the execution isn't always perfect leaving many affected passengers wanting.  Your new sailing may not be on the same class ship and/or the itinerary could be slightly different.  But Celebrity tries to do what they can.  When we got Lift and Shifted out of our Millennium Christmas 202 cruise, we had four passengers in a a spacious FV balcony cabin.  The new sailing was on Solstice and the FVs were not available, so Celebrity put us in two connecting balcony cabins.  That meant that the kids were 1st/2nd passengers in a cabin paying the old 3rd/4th passenger rate.  Later we got Lift and Shifted from a 14 night cruise to an 11 night cruise.  For that, Celebrity gave us a prorated refund.  Now we will be LIfted and Shifted from an 11 night sailing to a 12 night sailing and I expect that we will not have to pay for the extra night.

 

The difference between Lift and Shift vs FCC/refund is the price protection and perks/OBC retention which is a big deal.  If you get the FCC or refund, you book on a new sailing at the currently prevailing pricing and promotions.

 

Thank you for explaining this so clearly! 🙂

I'm not sure how lift and shift would work in our case, because it doesn't appear that the Solstice is doing this cruise next year. It would be on an older and smaller ship, the Millennium, so it's kind of comparing apples and oranges. We have been on the Millenium and loved her, but I'm not sure it's equivalent to carry over pricing from one class of ship to an older, smaller class of ship. And we didn't have any OBC or other special perks to carry over. 

 

So I'll just wait and see what Celebrity says. We still have not received any notice from them. We also had booked, through Celebrity,  pre cruise hotel rooms in Tokyo for ourselves and our adult kids. I assume these will be refunded in full.

 

Sorry if this is a duplicate post. I wrote something similar a few moments ago, but when I tried to Submit Reply, it seemed to disappear. Hopefully it won't show up later and duplicate this comment.

 

Anyway, thanks again for your help.

[MamaFej]

30 minutes ago, mahdnc said:

In theory, Lift and Shift is a good idea.  However the details and the execution isn't always perfect leaving many affected passengers wanting. 

This is reason #982386 why having an excellent travel agent is a good idea. Mine worked miracles with his "guy at Celebrity" and got the Lift & Shift rules stretched, bent, twisted, and oomphed to the point that we have been made more than whole for cruises moved out by over two years. 

Yes, Celebrity has held onto quite a bit of our money for a very long time, but we couldn't afford to do those cruises at today's prices, and we will toast both our TA and his "guy at Celebrity" when we are in the Oceania region next year for nearly three months. 

 

-----

 

On our first cruise back, after the restart, my TA's "guy at Celebrity" happened to be onboard. We got to meet him. He's a very nice guy and we thanked him for his flexibility. He said, "J___ is a very  fierce advocate for his clients!" I agree!

 

Our TA worked a similar miracle with another cruise line, too. 

 

[MicCanberra]

As a lift and shift doesn't suit us, we have requested our FCCs be applied to a new sailing in the Caribbean for late 2023.

[mahdnc]

3 minutes ago, MamaFej said:

This is reason #982386 why having an excellent travel agent is a good idea. Mine worked miracles with his "guy at Celebrity" and got the Lift & Shift rules stretched, bent, twisted, and oomphed to the point that we have been made more than whole for cruises moved out by over two years. 

Yes, Celebrity has held onto quite a bit of our money for a very long time, but we couldn't afford to do those cruises at today's prices, and we will toast both our TA and his "guy at Celebrity" when we are in the Oceania region next year for nearly three months. 

 

-----

 

On our first cruise back, after the restart, my TA's "guy at Celebrity" happened to be onboard. We got to meet him. He's a very nice guy and we thanked him for his flexibility. He said, "J___ is a very  fierce advocate for his clients!" I agree!

 

Our TA worked a similar miracle with another cruise line, too. 

 

 

Yes, I whole heartedly agree with Reason #982386!  I guess that brings up another subject.  The real losers in all of this Lift and Shift is our travel agents.  Their commission gets lifted and shifted for a full year to the new cruise with nothing to show for the cancelled sailing.  

[MamaFej]

56 minutes ago, mahdnc said:

 

Yes, I whole heartedly agree with Reason #982386!  I guess that brings up another subject.  The real losers in all of this Lift and Shift is our travel agents.  Their commission gets lifted and shifted for a full year to the new cruise with nothing to show for the cancelled sailing.  

Mine is also a very, very dear friend. Today is his 30th anniversary. We drove him and his lovely bride to the cruise port Saturday, and they are having a wonderful time. His mom had a medical emergency that evening, and we got her to the hospital. She came home today. Yay!

 

His wife needed a place to swim laps for exercise early on in the pandemic (post weight loss surgery, pre-hip replacement surgery), when everything was closed. She used our backyard pool. Every single day, J was in our back yard, working his tail off on the phone, getting people home. Every. Single. Day. He even helped a 16 year-old New Zealander (who was not his client) get home from Europe. It took 24 days, and three continents, but he got the kid home, simply because he was a friend of a friend of a friend of a client. He didn't make a dime off of getting that kid home. He did it because it was the right thing to do. 

 

I don't get the huge amounts of OBC from him that others get from Big Box TAs, but I do get amazing service. I get invited to join him on some incredible deals (including a ridiculous last minute deal on a Tahiti cruise vacation last December). When we had paid extra for better seats on an LAX to Heathrow flight, and ended up with less than desirable seats due to a plane change, he took care of it (on July 4) and we had the refund hours before we landed. When I can get a lower price elsewhere, he encourages me to do so. 

 

Thank you, David, for bringing up TAs. They are the unsung heroes in all this mess. 

 

 

 

 

[Ommadawn]

On 3/27/2022 at 5:00 AM, LXA350 said:

It's to early to know, but looking at the current trends Japan will eventually open up as well by around summer +- however with China / Hong Kong I am not so sure. Then again, who knows how COVID develops etc, hence longer term planing is still not possile especially in these regions of the world, hence a Plan B sure is not a bad idea.

 

As long as China continues to pursue their Zero Covid policy, they will never reopen. They will continue to lockdown over and over again as they are currently doing in Shanghai. The situation over there is very dire.

[weejasser]

Has anyone managed to shift their cancelled sailing to one 25 days (the following year) from the original?

 

I was booked on the 27th of Jan 23 sailing of Solstice and I'm trying to shift it to the 3rd of Jan 24 however my TA has said Celeb are only allowing Jan 15th to Feb 20th as the qualifying sailings which is strange in that it's two weeks one way but more than three the other 

[LGW59]

21 minutes ago, Ommadawn said:

 

As long as China continues to pursue their Zero Covid policy, they will never reopen. They will continue to lockdown over and over again as they are currently doing in Shanghai. The situation over there is very dire.

Did any of these TP’s have stops in Chinese ports?

[Homestyle]

You are offered the sailing before i

43 minutes ago, weejasser said:

Has anyone managed to shift their cancelled sailing to one 25 days (the following year) from the original?

 

I was booked on the 27th of Jan 23 sailing of Solstice and I'm trying to shift it to the 3rd of Jan 24 however my TA has said Celeb are only allowing Jan 15th to Feb 20th as the qualifying sailings which is strange in that it's two weeks one way but more than three the other 

Do not hang back to rebokk a lift and shift. Last time, by the time I call back having spoken to my husband, all our category was sold out and we had to bring it forward to the sailying before, which wasn't our preferred trip. Now cancelled again, we are already booked for South America April 2024, so will be taking a refund. 

[Homestyle]

You seem to be able to do the same date or the cruise before or the one after. But no other flexibility, sadly.

[Virgo61]

We thought about the Lift and Shift option but we are getting older by the day (ha) and decided that the flights would not be bearable in another year. So we regretfully moved our deposit to a Caribbean cruise that will cost us more for 2 less days.

 

[mahdnc]

1 hour ago, Virgo61 said:

We thought about the Lift and Shift option but we are getting older by the day (ha) and decided that the flights would not be bearable in another year. So we regretfully moved our deposit to a Caribbean cruise that will cost us more for 2 less days.

 

 

I am sorry to hear that.  The COVID shutdown has robbed many of us of travel opportunity and time that we can never get back.

[jeremybe]

Just spoke with Celebrity - Was booked on the Feb 20 Hong Kong to Tokyo cruise - This was the 3rd rebooking - The only sailings I was offered were Nov 17 or March 4, 2023 - Makes no sense - Not even a similar itinerary- Goes from Singapore to Thailand, Vietnam etc  - I wanted to be booked on the March 16 Japan/Tokyo cruise and they will not allow it - I am now escalating within Celebrity as this is ridiculous - I want basically the same cruise, older, lesser class of ship and they won't do it. 

 

I'm just curious what options other people have been offered for their lift and shifts?

[TFree]

We were booked on the February 8, 2023 Singapore to Hong Kong cruise (12 nights).  We just Lifted & Shifted, preserving pricing, to the March 3, 2024 Singapore to Hong Kong cruise (again 12 nights).  We had pre-selected this cruise before calling our Big Box TA to get the Lift & Shift accomplished, so I don't know if we were restricted to only certain cruises.

 

Tom & Judy

[luckybecky]

I still have not heard anything about our October 2022 cruise being canceled. Should I just go ahead and call our big box TA to see if they can get us shifted?

[mahdnc]

49 minutes ago, luckybecky said:

I still have not heard anything about our October 2022 cruise being canceled. Should I just go ahead and call our big box TA to see if they can get us shifted?

 

Someone said this earlier--I would not wait to be contacted.  The biggest reason being that your cabin options will decline with time.  Besides, you may be unpleasantly surprised at how long it will take for your TA to contact you.

[MicCanberra]

Take action, don't wait.

[IAN TREVES]

On 4/13/2022 at 8:39 PM, mahdnc said:

 

Someone said this earlier--I would not wait to be contacted.  The biggest reason being that your cabin options will decline with time.  Besides, you may be unpleasantly surprised at how long it will take for your TA to contact you.

 

Was booked on the Best of Japan cruise 14th October this year. My TA emailed me the other day with the cancellation news and said they would contact me soon. I didn’t wait and contacted them today to lift and shift to October next year - they (Trailfinders) were brilliant as ever and sorted it all this afternoon. Celebrity have done their bit and will be issuing the paperwork ASAP - they’re pretty busy at the moment.

It was reading these posts that made me make the call today, so glad I did.

Also, I am actually pleased we are now on Millennium for this cruise as it has been through the revolution refurb where as Solstice hasn’t.