Booking a Future Cruise While Onboard.

[D. B.]

I learned something yesterday about doing a Future Cruise Booking while ON a Cruise.

 I sail a Lot with Celebrity and take advantage of the Low cost  Deposit for an open (chose later) future cruise.

 The offer last month lets me decide what Cruise I wish to apply my deposit on and I can make a choice anytime in the 12 months after the deposit purchase date  and even get a Refund if I do Not make a booking.

 As this offer includes OBC's that are on top of any offered by an individual booking it's an easy way to do my next booking.

  I always do a dummy search/booking on Celebrities website and print out their price breakdown before contacting my travel provider to compare prices.

     I did that yesterday and it turned out Celebrities (website) price was less than my travel provider (That seldom is the case) so he told me to book it with Celebrity and request they transfer the booking to him.

   I Called Celebrity and told the agent I had a Future Cruise Deposit and wanted to use it and we were working on the pricing. When the agent gave me the total price it was $900 More than the same website  booking price 20 Min. before???

   She told me that can and does happen?   

 Also she said that because I had booked the Cruise I was ON when I made the Future Cruise Deposit purchase  with My Travel Provider that I could Only Use that Deposit with My Travel Provider and Not IF I wanted to book directly with Celebrity! She said I Could use it with Celebrity IF I  Removed MY agent from my Account and requested to  Never us My agent again !

   WT(Heck)? So I called my agent at Vacations To Go and with his connections at Celebrity he was able to make my booking at the lower price Celebrity had shown 45 Min. earlier on Their website and use my Deposit.

   Another thing I have noticed is that when doing a pre cruise Specialty Dining reservation (3-4-or more nights) on the website the Price shown changes when you get to the Payment part and a Gratuity Charge gets added on? This makes the cost of a Specialty Dining meal less appealing. Don't the specialty dining waiters get part of the daily gratuity money I'm charged every day?

  

 

[Jim_Iain]

I'm not sure if the Celebrity agent was totally correct.   I bought one that went to my old agent as I forgot that I had the current booking with her.   I had to message her and ask her to release it back to celebrity.     She did that and then I called Celebrity to make a booking from the one I on hold.   She released the hold and then booked using the Future Booking Credit.       I then transferred that booking to my agent for his extra perks.

[NutsAboutGolf]

15 minutes ago, D. B. said:

I learned something yesterday about doing a Future Cruise Booking while ON a Cruise.

 I sail a Lot with Celebrity and take advantage of the Low cost  Deposit for an open (chose later) future cruise.

 The offer last month lets me decide what Cruise I wish to apply my deposit on and I can make a choice anytime in the 12 months after the deposit purchase date  and even get a Refund if I do Not make a booking.

 As this offer includes OBC's that are on top of any offered by an individual booking it's an easy way to do my next booking.

  I always do a dummy search/booking on Celebrities website and print out their price breakdown before contacting my travel provider to compare prices.

     I did that yesterday and it turned out Celebrities (website) price was less than my travel provider (That seldom is the case) so he told me to book it with Celebrity and request they transfer the booking to him.

   I Called Celebrity and told the agent I had a Future Cruise Deposit and wanted to use it and we were working on the pricing. When the agent gave me the total price it was $900 More than the same website  booking price 20 Min. before???

   She told me that can and does happen?   

 Also she said that because I had booked the Cruise I was ON when I made the Future Cruise Deposit purchase  with My Travel Provider that I could Only Use that Deposit with My Travel Provider and Not IF I wanted to book directly with Celebrity! She said I Could use it with Celebrity IF I  Removed MY agent from my Account and requested to  Never us My agent again !

   WT(Heck)? So I called my agent at Vacations To Go and with his connections at Celebrity he was able to make my booking at the lower price Celebrity had shown 45 Min. earlier on Their website and use my Deposit.

   Another thing I have noticed is that when doing a pre cruise Specialty Dining reservation (3-4-or more nights) on the website the Price shown changes when you get to the Payment part and a Gratuity Charge gets added on? This makes the cost of a Specialty Dining meal less appealing. Don't the specialty dining waiters get part of the daily gratuity money I'm charged every day?

  

 

 

Damn this Adderall shortage!  I think what you're trying to say is to use your agent assuming they have X connections for the best price?  But anyways, the part I highlighted is correct, there is now separate 18% gratuity charge to specialty dining, happened months ago

[rmalbers]

It sounds like they were reducing the cruise by the amount of the travel agent commission.  At least that's what I'm thinking. 

[jwlane]

49 minutes ago, D. B. said:

Don't the specialty dining waiters get part of the daily gratuity money I'm charged every day?

Yes and no.  They'll also work other areas (OVC, MDR at lunch), but specialty dining (like spa services, drink package upgrades, etc.) require service charge addition.

Edited January 17, 2023 by jwlane

[D. B.]

I booked all my 2023 cruises 6-8 months ago* because I thought the cruise lines would start jacking up their charges as people started filling up the ships again. I did the one yesterday because a family even required me to rearrange one of my bookings.

   Some of those bookings have doubled in price if I booked them today. Same with the Air tickets prices.

   *Thats why the gratuity ad on was news to me.

[camella]

On 1/17/2023 at 5:18 PM, D. B. said:

I learned something yesterday about doing a Future Cruise Booking while ON a Cruise.

 I sail a Lot with Celebrity and take advantage of the Low cost  Deposit for an open (chose later) future cruise.

 The offer last month lets me decide what Cruise I wish to apply my deposit on and I can make a choice anytime in the 12 months after the deposit purchase date  and even get a Refund if I do Not make a booking.

 As this offer includes OBC's that are on top of any offered by an individual booking it's an easy way to do my next booking.

  I always do a dummy search/booking on Celebrities website and print out their price breakdown before contacting my travel provider to compare prices.

     I did that yesterday and it turned out Celebrities (website) price was less than my travel provider (That seldom is the case) so he told me to book it with Celebrity and request they transfer the booking to him.

   I Called Celebrity and told the agent I had a Future Cruise Deposit and wanted to use it and we were working on the pricing. When the agent gave me the total price it was $900 More than the same website  booking price 20 Min. before???

   She told me that can and does happen?   

 Also she said that because I had booked the Cruise I was ON when I made the Future Cruise Deposit purchase  with My Travel Provider that I could Only Use that Deposit with My Travel Provider and Not IF I wanted to book directly with Celebrity! She said I Could use it with Celebrity IF I  Removed MY agent from my Account and requested to  Never us My agent again !

   WT(Heck)? So I called my agent at Vacations To Go and with his connections at Celebrity he was able to make my booking at the lower price Celebrity had shown 45 Min. earlier on Their website and use my Deposit.

   Another thing I have noticed is that when doing a pre cruise Specialty Dining reservation (3-4-or more nights) on the website the Price shown changes when you get to the Payment part and a Gratuity Charge gets added on? This makes the cost of a Specialty Dining meal less appealing. Don't the specialty dining waiters get part of the daily gratuity money I'm charged every day?

  

 

Have you ever cancelled one of those reduced deposit bookings?  I booked a cruise on board last year and my deposit was only $200.  Due to unforeseen circumstances I now have to cancel and am being told that if I cancel they will charge me the additional $700 because the usual deposit amount is $900.!!  Say what?? Have you ever hear of this?  I think it's outrageous!

[Bo1953]

44 minutes ago, camella said:

Have you ever cancelled one of those reduced deposit bookings?  I booked a cruise on board last year and my deposit was only $200.  Due to unforeseen circumstances I now have to cancel and am being told that if I cancel they will charge me the additional $700 because the usual deposit amount is $900.!!  Say what?? Have you ever hear of this?  I think it's outrageous!

Most likely it was in the fine print...

 

bon voyage

[smtcan]

We had put a.deposit down in 2016 as an on board booking without specifying a cruise, and forgot about it until we were looking for our first post COVID cruise this week.   It took three days for Celebrity to decide what we were entitled to, but we ended up with $240 off our cruise and $150 OBC.  I haven’t got a clue if this  is what we signed up for, but we didn’t complain.   I don’t think I would book on board again unless I really had a specific cruise in mind.  It was too much hassle when the rules change so often.

[camella]

1 hour ago, Bo1953 said:

Most likely it was in the fine print...

 

bon voyage

I don't see it anywhere.  I printed out my invoice and we even asked them while we were on ship at least two or three times and they told us all we had to do is pay the $200 and if we had to cancel it we just lose the $200.

[D. B.]

2 hours ago, camella said:

Have you ever cancelled one of those reduced deposit bookings?  I booked a cruise on board last year and my deposit was only $200.  Due to unforeseen circumstances I now have to cancel and am being told that if I cancel they will charge me the additional $700 because the usual deposit amount is $900.!!  Say what?? Have you ever hear of this?  I think it's outrageous!

I did have to cancel one a few days ago due to a family obligation but I ask my TA to see if that ($200+ $700) deposit could be transferred to my replacement cruise and X let me transfer the $700 but I had to forfeit the $200.

 If you are working with a TA I suggest you contact them to see if they can help?

[39august]

Call X back. you should only lose the $200 deposit.

[Bo1953]

2 hours ago, camella said:

I don't see it anywhere.  I printed out my invoice and we even asked them while we were on ship at least two or three times and they told us all we had to do is pay the $200 and if we had to cancel it we just lose the $200.

Yes, that would garner a call from me and up the food chain at HQ for sure...

 

bon voyage

[natshala]

1 hour ago, 39august said:

Call X back. you should only lose the $200 deposit.

I’d refuse to pay it. Tell them you plan to dispute (undelivered goods) through your credit card. You might consider locking your CC so they cannot make an unauthorized charge. What a hassle!