Solo Pricing

[BeasleysMom66]

1 hour ago, pzsdd6 said:

I’m also not aware of anyone posting that they were successful in booking like this

 

I have booked a cruise for January (on another line) for myself and my friend.  All I needed was her name and date of birth.  Even then if I didn't have her DOB they would have taken the reservation according the the CVP.  Now, she IS going on this cruise but how would they know at the time of booking if it was a "phantom" passenger until that person cancels?  Even then if done at the pier or a couple days before odds are high they aren't going to ask too many questions.  Unless it becomes an out of control problem I am sure the cruise lines know it happens but figure it isn't impacting business negatively to a great degree and if that changes then they would make moves to curb it.

[the penguins]

12 minutes ago, BeasleysMom66 said:

 

I have booked a cruise for January (on another line) for myself and my friend.  All I needed was her name and date of birth.  Even then if I didn't have her DOB they would have taken the reservation according the the CVP.  Now, she IS going on this cruise but how would they know at the time of booking if it was a "phantom" passenger until that person cancels?  Even then if done at the pier or a couple days before odds are high they aren't going to ask too many questions.  Unless it becomes an out of control problem I am sure the cruise lines know it happens but figure it isn't impacting business negatively to a great degree and if that changes then they would make moves to curb it.

or, if it it has become clear enough to show up on the stats, just change to a fair system which at that point would be the cheaper option. This would also be the cue for a big self congratulatory promotional campaign.

[the penguins]

17 minutes ago, BeasleysMom66 said:

 

I have booked a cruise for January (on another line) for myself and my friend.  All I needed was her name and date of birth.  Even then if I didn't have her DOB they would have taken the reservation according the the CVP.  Now, she IS going on this cruise but how would they know at the time of booking if it was a "phantom" passenger until that person cancels?  Even then if done at the pier or a couple days before odds are high they aren't going to ask too many questions.  Unless it becomes an out of control problem I am sure the cruise lines know it happens but figure it isn't impacting business negatively to a great degree and if that changes then they would make moves to curb it.

At some point (final payment, online check in) you will have to provide the passport details.

[the penguins]

17 hours ago, drakes2 said:

Not sure what their commission is but I'll bet its next to nothing. A couple times I found cruises with a large agency and asked my CVP if Celebrity could match or come close to the pricing and he said no and advised me to book with the agency. I felt bad but the saving was quite significant. 

Why are you surprised the "large agency" has a contract with X which, amongst other things, precludes X matching that price.

[BeasleysMom66]

2 hours ago, the penguins said:

At some point (final payment, online check in) you will have to provide the passport details.

 

I didn't provide my passport until about a month before boarding.  There are ways around that too.

[the penguins]

39 minutes ago, BeasleysMom66 said:

 

I didn't provide my passport until about a month before boarding.  There are ways around that too.

Sorry you have lost me - ways around what?

The point of the exchange was to book a person who you know won't travel in order to avoid X's unfair pricing policy.

At some point you would have to supply all the details required for each passenger for that particular reservation. It seem irrelevant when and what you have to provide but unless you do I assume that at some point the whole booking would be cancelled by X.

[Vagabondvoyager]

I just priced the July 21 Bermuda cruise on the Celebrity Eclipse.  The price for two people was about $2400.  When I priced it for a solo, there were no available cabins in any room category!  Imagine if a couple went to Walmart and bought a coffee pot for $50.  Then you went to Walmart by yourself to buy the same coffee pot and were told you couldn't purchase it because you were by yourself.  Celebrity's solo policy is truly discriminatory against solos.

[Liao]

36 minutes ago, Vagabondvoyager said:

I just priced the July 21 Bermuda cruise on the Celebrity Eclipse.  The price for two people was about $2400.  When I priced it for a solo, there were no available cabins in any room category!  Imagine if a couple went to Walmart and bought a coffee pot for $50.  Then you went to Walmart by yourself to buy the same coffee pot and were told you couldn't purchase it because you were by yourself.  Celebrity's solo policy is truly discriminatory against solos.

It may be unfair but it is not discriminatory.

[BeasleysMom66]

38 minutes ago, Liao said:

It may be unfair but it is not discriminatory.

 

It is discriminatory.  That doesn't also mean ILLEGAL discrimination.  There is a difference.

[BeasleysMom66]

19 hours ago, the penguins said:

I assume

 

Most dangerous words ever.  Nope.  They won't cancel the booking but they will send emails stating that if you don't have the information or have a passport at boarding then boarding will be denied.  It is an automated system.  The only thing X cancels a cruise for is failure to pay by the absolutely final date.  

[PTC DAWG]

Someone should start a thread on this..

[PTC DAWG]

On 6/15/2024 at 9:46 AM, ScottC4746 said:

There are many threads regarding this same issue.  They do have some ships that have single cabins but they are sometimes priced higher than two people in a cabin.  Since the hotel part of the ship is obviously a big money maker, they want that per person pricing for double occupancy.  As far as legality, while I agree with you, I feel that perhaps since they are registered outside the USA they can get around that.  Would I love to see legislation that requires any cruise line that has offices in the USA offer a single person the cruise fare based on double occupancy but only charge half of that, of course.  If it were enacted I can imagine the per person price would go through the roof.

I prefer the Govt stay out of private enterprise myself..people can make decisions themselves on what they think a cruise is worth.  

[Iamcruzin]

On 6/15/2024 at 11:25 AM, drakes2 said:

Nope. You'll be charged the solo rate at the pier less port taxes and fees for second person. My Celebrity CVP told me not to do this.

Naturally they would want to discourage this behavior. They would also be an accomplice and liable for fraud if they encouraged it. Does the cruise ship insurance cover the no show fare for the person who is sailing? If so it would be a lot less to buy that then paying 3 times the amount plus you would have insurance.

[SunnyNy]

53 minutes ago, Liao said:

It may be unfair but it is not discriminatory.

Maybe not by current legal definitions, but it is most certainly discriminatory.  And the current legals definitions are changing.  Maybe this is a good time to contact our elected officials about this and other examples where solos are "fined" for being so.

[Lena11033]

1 hour ago, Vagabondvoyager said:

Celebrity's solo policy is truly discriminatory against solos.

 

Celebrity are not the only cruise line to do this.

 

Way I see it, cruise where there is a solo available, don't cruise, put a phantom person in as a no show.

 

Biggest way to get a change it take $ elsewhere really. But as I mentioned before I've had 'no cabins' happen with MSC. When ships don't have solo rooms onboard, they really want to put more people vs less

[PTC DAWG]

11 minutes ago, SunnyNy said:

Maybe not by current legal definitions, but it is most certainly discriminatory.  And the current legals definitions are changing.  Maybe this is a good time to contact our elected officials about this and other examples where solos are "fined" for being so.

Sigh…

[Iamcruzin]

On 6/15/2024 at 5:17 PM, dreamer321 said:

Is anyone aware of a thread on CruiseCritic reporting they were repriced at the pier because their cabin mate "no showed"?  I've been a pretty active user of these forums for the last few years and if this happened I'm sure someone would have posted about it.  I don't recall this ever being discussed.

I have been a member since 2008 and follow Celebrity, Royal and Princess. I have never sailed solo so I don't even have a horse in this race but be sure I would have followed any thread on this topic had I seen it.

[the penguins]

24 minutes ago, BeasleysMom66 said:

 

Most dangerous words ever.  Nope.  They won't cancel the booking but they will send emails stating that if you don't have the information or have a passport at boarding then boarding will be denied.  It is an automated system.  The only thing X cancels a cruise for is failure to pay by the absolutely final date.  

to me being denied boarding is X cancelling. Only difference is if X cancels due to non payment of the balance you have only lost your deposit if you are denied boarding you have lost the whole cost of the cruise (less port fees and taxes).

 

[drakes2]

17 minutes ago, Iamcruzin said:

Naturally they would want to discourage this behavior. They would also be an accomplice and liable for fraud if they encouraged it. Does the cruise ship insurance cover the no show fare for the person who is sailing? If so it would be a lot less to buy that then paying 3 times the amount plus you would have insurance.

The cruise I'm interested in taking is next May on the Ascent immediately following my transatlantic.  Currently its 2.5 times the price for a solo passenger but its dropped considerably.  I may end up taking it not sure yet. Could be my only opportunity to see those countries. Had a similar itinerary booked in May 2020 but Celebrity canceled due to covid.  I'm really not interested in adding someone's passport info for them to be a no show.

[Iamcruzin]

2 minutes ago, drakes2 said:

The cruise I'm interested in taking is next May on the Ascent immediately following my transatlantic.  Currently its 2.5 times the price for a solo passenger but its dropped considerably.  I may end up taking it not sure yet. Could be my only opportunity to see those countries. Had a similar itinerary booked in May 2020 but Celebrity canceled due to covid.  I'm really not interested in adding someone's passport info for them to be a no show.

I wouldn't want to add a phantom either and if I did I wouldn't admit to it on social media either.

[PTC DAWG]

10 minutes ago, Iamcruzin said:

I wouldn't want to add a phantom either and if I did I wouldn't admit to it on social media either.

Agreed..amazing what people admit to these days…

Edited June 17 by PTC DAWG

[drakes2]

2 minutes ago, PTC DAWG said:

Agreed..amazing what people admit to these days…

I just called a large TA in the US that I've booked with in the past to see if I could get a better price and when converted to Canadian $ its actually more expensive. In addition, I'm not eligible for the $200 OBC as a solo guest. Talk about discrimination!!!

[BeasleysMom66]

1 hour ago, the penguins said:

to me being denied boarding is X cancelling.

 

To me being denied boarding at the terminal would be due to my colossal screw up on boarding documents or medical reason which prevents travel.  (I know there have been a few women who arrived for boarding and were far too pregnant to cruise and denied boarding:  the line upholding their T&Cs is not cancelling.  That is on the passenger for not knowing all the rules and laws regarding travel.)

 

Cancelling is done in advance of arrival at the port by either party.  i.e. what Virgin did to me and thousands of others booked on the Brilliant Lady when they moved the ship from Miami to San Juan because they could re-price and make more money.  We all got screwed out of great cabins at a great price when they simply just cancelled the cruise 90 days out and there was nothing we could do about it.  A passenger cancelling because of a work conflict, weather issues, or health reasons is the same.  

 

Denying boarding is punitive by the cruise line.  Cancelling is a [expletive] happens and either party can exercise it.  

[Liao]

3 hours ago, SunnyNy said:

Maybe not by current legal definitions, but it is most certainly discriminatory.  And the current legals definitions are changing.  Maybe this is a good time to contact our elected officials about this and other examples where solos are "fined" for being so.

The less elected officials have to do with my life, the far better off I am.

[sofienummer]

I booked a solo cabin for Celebrity a few weeks ago and it was only around 300 dollars more expensive on my own than the price per person if two people stayed in the cabin! (so instead of 1300 per person, 2600 in total, I paid 1600 in total). So I think that was pretty reasonable. 

 

2 years ago, I went on a solo cruise with HAL, I also paid only a small margin more. But when I looked at prices for this year with HAL, the cruises were suddenly AT least 2,5 times more expensive... So, it seems it really depends not (only) on the cruise line, but probably also on the itinerary/a specific cruise?