Changing from one triple to two doubles

[LoraNJ]

Hello everyone. I called Celebrity about this this morning but was told I needed to call another number later today. So I hope I get an answer then but hoping that perhaps I can get some insight here.

 

We currently have 3 people booked in a Veranda room. Another person now wants to join us so we want to book a new room and move one person from the triple to the new reservation, making the new one a double. So we'd go from one triple to two doubles (3 people to 4 people).

 

Does anyone know how this would affect our reservation? I don't want to lose the deposit that we put down on the third person. Many thanks.

Edited February 11 by LoraNJ

[capriccio]

Welcome to Cruise Critic!  Every cruise line has their own forum for cruise line specific questions and discussions so I suggest you post this on the Celebrity forum:  https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/16-celebrity-cruises/.  It will be seen by more Celebrity cruisers.

 

I hope you get it worked out and have a great cruise.

[leaveitallbehind]

It sounds like what you are doing is changing a single reservation in a single stateroom with three passengers to two staterooms with two passengers. This would result in two (new) reservations, one with one person dropped but with two original names remaining and one new one with two new names on it, which will require four separate deposits.

 

How this is accomplished depends on your current booking and what type of deposit you used.  Is it with a refundable or non-refundable deposit?

 

With Celebrity there will be deposit penalties with making changes to a booking that would require a stateroom change if an NRD was used.  Obviously using non-refundable deposits in this instance would be more complicated and likely will result in penalties to the deposit money on the current reservation.

 

If refundable deposits were used in the original booking then you will have no issues or penalties making any of these changes.  You will need to confirm this with Celebrity.  If you used a travel agent they would need to be the ones to make these changes and they would work with Celebrity on the least disruptive or penalized way to do so.

Edited February 11 by leaveitallbehind

[LoraNJ]

Thank you. Our deposits are refundable through Wednesday. But we will likely leave it as is and not add the additional person and cabin, especially of course if it's after Wednesday. We will save quite a bit of money as a family by not increasing the number of people and cabins. We just had this idea to have this other family member join us. Thank you again for this response.

[leaveitallbehind]

29 minutes ago, LoraNJ said:

Thank you. Our deposits are refundable through Wednesday. But we will likely leave it as is and not add the additional person and cabin, especially of course if it's after Wednesday. We will save quite a bit of money as a family by not increasing the number of people and cabins. We just had this idea to have this other family member join us. Thank you again for this response.

There is always the option to add the 4th to your existing reservation and have all in the same stateroom.  That 4th person charge is likely to be less in total than the first option you described resulting in two staterooms.  This of course would depend on whether or not your current stateroom is configured for a 4th person or if there are available staterooms within your category that are.  But then you have to juggle 4 people with one bathroom and who sleeps where, etc.  Guess it depends on how close knit your family is - LOL.

 

Just pointing out the option.

Edited February 11 by leaveitallbehind

[Elaine5715]

8 hours ago, LoraNJ said:

Thank you. Our deposits are refundable through Wednesday. But we will likely leave it as is and not add the additional person and cabin, especially of course if it's after Wednesday. We will save quite a bit of money as a family by not increasing the number of people and cabins. We just had this idea to have this other family member join us. Thank you again for this response.

It is considered cancelling and rebooking thus extra fees are common.  

[leaveitallbehind]

3 hours ago, Elaine5715 said:

It is considered cancelling and rebooking thus extra fees are common.  

Perhaps by a travel agent for their efforts, but under a refundable deposit - especially when there also is a non-refundable option - not typically by a cruise line.  It is the terms of the NRD - and one of the reasons they were introduced - that specifies penalties.

Edited February 12 by leaveitallbehind

[Elaine5715]

7 minutes ago, leaveitallbehind said:

Perhaps by a travel agent for their efforts, but under a refundable deposit - especially when there also is a non-refundable option - not typically by a cruise line.  It is the terms of the NRD - and one of the reasons they were introduced - that specifies penalties.

Can have refundable deposits and cancel fees both  thus the statement "are common" not "are mandatory".

[leaveitallbehind]

7 minutes ago, Elaine5715 said:

Can have refundable deposits and cancel fees both  thus the statement "are common" not "are mandatory".

Not disagreeing, nor arguing - just clarifying as I also said "not typical", meaning they can happen.  But I was also mainly clarifying that most often additional cancelation fees - in particular on refundable deposits - happen with TA's as a separate fee to them.

[LoraNJ]

Thanks everyone. I called Celebrity yesterday and spoke to two people. Neither of them knew the answer but one did give me an 800 number to call today (Monday). I'll try it but we'll probably just skip booking an extra cabin and an extra person. Since it seems complicated and possibly expensive to make this change. I guess these policies protect customers from overspending. We would have easily spent many thousands more by doing this. I just feel a bit bad for the person we can't add but that person cruises often. I appreciate everyone's help.

[mahdnc]

You should be able to preserve your current booking along with the pricing for the 1st/2nd passengers if you drop the 3rd person from it.

 

So only one new booking is needed and that would be for the new stateroom.  One of the three passengers in the original stateroom will see an increase in their fare because the 3rd passenger fare will become 1st/2nd fare. 

Edited February 12 by mahdnc

[LoraNJ]

Thank you, mahdnc. Oddly, it is the third person in the stateroom with the higher fare. The second one was the lowest. So I think if we were able to move one person, we would then have a 2nd guest fare twice (one in each cabin); lower than the third person.

 

We would be paying thousands more, of course, for the new reserved guest and additional cabin, which of course is fine. I just won't pay a penalty deposit to do so. We'll just skip that booking and stick with what we have and not pay for the extra cabin and passenger. It saves us quite a bit of money overall of course but a shame to not be able to have this person join us without incurring a lost deposit for adding another guest and cabin to our group.

 

I spent about 30 minutes on the phone with Celebrity yesterday trying to get an answer. They finally told me I'd need to call back today and gave me a number. I may or may not bother. It seems complicated at the very least. We have until this Wednesday for complete deposit refunds but they seem so confused about this situation that I'm just afraid to mess with it.

[wrk2cruise]

1 hour ago, LoraNJ said:

Thank you, mahdnc. Oddly, it is the third person in the stateroom with the higher fare. The second one was the lowest. So I think if we were able to move one person, we would then have a 2nd guest fare twice (one in each cabin); lower than the third person.

 

Yes this is due to their crazy "sale" pricing where the second passenger is 50% off (with refundable deposit) so the third person is paying full fare like the first.

 

I would still have them give you quotes.  As mahdnc says your original booking shouldn't be affected other than removing the third passenger fees.  Make sure none of the other Perks on the original booking would change.

 

Then get a new booking which can be non-refundable as you are at final payment so deposit will be at risk anyway.  The third passenger will still be at full price but the second one on the new reservation will be 75% off.  Of course this new reservation will be at prevailing rates.

Edited February 12 by wrk2cruise

[Oceangoer2]

If it were me, I'd try it....You have nothing to lose by calling the 'new' number (except maybe waiting time). 

[PTC DAWG]

21 minutes ago, Oceangoer2 said:

If it were me, I'd try it....You have nothing to lose by calling the 'new' number (except maybe waiting time). 

Agreed, 2 rooms with 2 people each sounds better than 3 in one room to me.

[LoraNJ]

Thanks so much. Because both people who I spoke with at Celebrity seemed so confused by this, it feels like it would not be an easy and straightforward process. And it seems like while it was a nice idea to ask this other family member to join us, it may not be worth what seems like a hassle. Seems like adding an extra passenger and charging us a few more thousand dollars would be something they would want to do but I think it's not for some reason. I don't want our current reservations to get screwed up.

 

I really appreciate everyone's help. If I find out more or if we attempt to do this successfully or not, I'll let you all know.