New Zenith saved money

[39august]

I hope all new Zeniths know that it is possible to have your future bookings that include drinks and wi-fi packages repriced at the "cruise only" rate. On just 3 of our upcoming cruises, we saved a total of around $4300. Of course, the cabin category has to be available. On one of our Jan/Feb cruises, we could not reprice as none of our cabin category was open. 

[jelayne]

When this was announced back around March we were able to reprice some bookings, but not those already paid in full. 

[orville99]

If you booked the AI option, you should be able to call and have it removed so you are cruise only as long as you are pre final payment date. Since you are not changing cabins, there should not be an availability issue. We did this on a December 2025 Ascent cruise and saved almost $1,700.

[Esahuma]

We did this on 4 of the 5 Celebrity bookings for a total savings of over $2400!  

[wrk2cruise]

5 hours ago, orville99 said:

If you booked the AI option, you should be able to call and have it removed so you are cruise only as long as you are pre final payment date. Since you are not changing cabins, there should not be an availability issue. We did this on a December 2025 Ascent cruise and saved almost $1,700.

Yes you can reprice cruise only from AI.  However it is at prevailing rates/promo.  AI is not an add on.  It's a different rate.

[orville99]

20 minutes ago, wrk2cruise said:

Yes you can reprice cruise only from AI.  However it is at prevailing rates/promo.  AI is not an add on.  It's a different rate.

Actually, if you were to look at your booking invoice for an AI cruise, you will see that the drink and internet package costs are clearly identified line items. When I called, I didn’t ask to re-price the cruise, just to remove those two line items. The savings I received were exactly the sum of those two line items, and the call lasted all of three minutes.

[wrk2cruise]

Maybe the way they have changed the way they do it.  They used to add them to planner as $0.  If they allow you to cancel and refund the $$ then that is certainly the way to go.

[39august]

I first tired dropping the drink and wi-fi packages, but that garnered $0 credit to my accounts. So my TA then repriced using "cruise only" rates. We are now  repricing for 4 more future cruises and saving over $800 on just ONE of those. 

[ReneeFLL]

On 6/17/2024 at 4:13 PM, 39august said:

I first tired dropping the drink and wi-fi packages, but that garnered $0 credit to my accounts. So my TA then repriced using "cruise only" rates. We are now  repricing for 4 more future cruises and saving over $800 on just ONE of those. 

That’s about the same that we saved on one cruise since we dropped the drinks and wifi. Will be nice to have it for free with the status match.

[miched]

How much has a Zenith member saved by booking a suite or reimbursed for a 7 day cruise with the new benefit?  
 

Happy cruising 🌊🚢🇺🇸🌅

[phoenix_dream]

1 hour ago, miched said:

How much has a Zenith member saved by booking a suite or reimbursed for a 7 day cruise with the new benefit?  
 

Happy cruising 🌊🚢🇺🇸🌅

I don't recall the exact amount (I think it was in the upper $40's per day per person), but it was roughly half of what it would cost to buy the benefits outright.  So not exactly "cruise only" but at least it's something.  

[RosieRoo]

Do you think they will come out with cruise only rates for suites now?  I remember booking one years ago. It would be great for the Zeniths who normally sail in suites. 

[Jim_Iain]

In my case I have two open cruise - pre-final payment.

 

When my agent checked he was told I would loose OBC from booking online and gratuities if repriced which would be more than the Zenith Savings.

[Bejay219]

1 hour ago, Jim_Iain said:

In my case I have two open cruise - pre-final payment.

 

When my agent checked he was told I would loose OBC from booking online and gratuities if repriced which would be more than the Zenith Savings.

Our travel agent (after the announcement) worked with Celebrity to repriced our Transatlantic (which was only 2 weeks before we sailed, end of April).  She spent almost 2 hours on 2 different phone calls with Celebrity , said we would save $1,200, so we said to go ahead, but we ended up losing almost $400 (Celebrity said the OBC for "booking on board" was a suite perk).  She does not care to work with Celebrity due to this kind of problem.  For the first time in years, we have no Celebrity cruises booked.  We took the Transatlantic end of April then a month on Viking Ocean and now on the last portion of our trip, Transatlantic on Cunard Queen Mary 2 on our way to New York.  Will be doing a comparison of the 3 lines when we get home.  As Zeniths, it's sad to feel this way, but we are not happy with what has been happening in the last year or so with the cruise line we had so enjoyed for the last 22 years. 

[wrk2cruise]

3 hours ago, RosieRoo said:

Do you think they will come out with cruise only rates for suites now?  I remember booking one years ago. It would be great for the Zeniths who normally sail in suites. 

 

If you enter you CC number before pricing a cruise it is supposed to give Zenith members the cruise only pricing for suites.

[billc23]

5 hours ago, miched said:

How much has a Zenith member saved by booking a suite or reimbursed for a 7 day cruise with the new benefit?  
 

Happy cruising 🌊🚢🇺🇸🌅

We were reimbursed exactly $71.43 per person per day on 28 days of sailing. Initially was told no reimbursement for different reasons - very inconsistent responses from Celebrity -  which I was able to use to my advantage in the final negotiations. I am happy with the outcome but disappointed in the process and the general changes in Celebrity. 

 

I was informed to call the Zenith number to receive special pricing for futures booking or a price adjustment if I book online or with a TA. The beverage and internet pricing are usually added and subtracted on the official booking conformation so, to my way of thinking, that should be the fee reduction. If not, it will give me evidence in support of what the discount should be. I know, their business/their rules, but inconsistency is never acceptable and has caused me to spend most of my future vacation dollars elsewhere.

 

I think there is great value as a Zenith for non Retreat bookings because of access to MC/Retreat lounge with the ability of the concierge to address issues that otherwise would involve potentially long lines. 

[billc23]

11 minutes ago, wrk2cruise said:

 

If you enter you CC number before pricing a cruise it is supposed to give Zenith members the cruise only pricing for suites.

I just did a mock booking with and without signing in and the price was the same for me.

[wrk2cruise]

If you expect them to know your CC number by virtue of you logging into your account you are expecting too much from Celebrity IT.  (Although it used to know CC# and State of Residence 5-10 years ago!).  Anyway you have to enter your CC# on this screen

 

 

Then it does show a Zenith discount of $490 pp,   This is a 7 day sailing.  The math is pretty creative as you are only getting 25% of the $490 on the second passenger due to the "discount".  I've not seen a suite booking lately with the 75% off second passenger but I suspect they calculate the second passenger based on cruise fare only then add and subtract the full amenity "value" off each passenger.

 

 

Same sailing with no CC#

[Northern Aurora]

We are itinerary driven when booking a cruise, and also tend to book immediately once an interesting itinerary is released.  When the Zenith only rate was first introduced I checked on re-pricing a number of cruises.  While there was some savings on one the others didn't result in any savings. The loss of OBC and gratuities were larger than the savings.  The re-pricing is based on the current fare, and in our cases, the bulk of the current fares are much higher than when we booked.

 

So our experience mirrors that of @Jim_Iain.