Help Me Strategize

[Tom and Ingrid]

Short bit of info to help:

• Looking at an Oct 2025 Tahitian Treasures TP from Hawaii to Australia.
• We're standard Elite level
• Residency state is Virginia
• We have an X cruise next month, and another in December.
• I am old enough for AARP, member of Costco, have an assortment of mileage accounts, etc.
• We have no "regular" TA, but do have friends who have been building their client list for a few years now and could consider them.
• Don't need AI, but will likely do it (we generally just do Elite HH drinks and free wifi) since it is a lot of sea days where more wifi makes sense
• Would prepay tips, and don't care too much about refundable vs non-refund nor does the deposit amount matter.

 

So, with that sort of background in mind, how would YOU go about working the best deal on a Prime Edge Infinite Veranda (or similar)?

 

I was thinking it makes sense to:

• spec out the cruise price now (print out & bring)
• go on next month's cruise and see what they offer to book there
• talk to & transfer to my TA friends if we get either the booking or a Future Cruise Credit (is that what it's called)
• have them or a different TA put it all together with various other bonuses
• float the idea of the AARP X gift cards for further reduction as we pay
• and then....?

 

How would you do it? Differently? We are awful at maximizing the tools I read about here, but figure the more I ask here and try to incorporate, the better.

[jelayne]

I would book while on the ship near the end of the cruise which gets you:

1.  get the reduced deposit

2.  get the OBC for booking on board

 Leave the booking with Celebrity initially.  You have 30 days to transfer it to a TA.  Since it is only 30 day is the reason I recommend  booking  late in the cruise giving yourself time to do  reseach various TA's  and what they can offer after you get home.  i would hate to have to spend my time on a cruise researching and contacting multiple 
TA's to get the best total package.

 

Some with have group space which could reduce the price of your cruise, although you may have to pay the normal deposit when you transfer the booking.  Some TAs have group pricing and will off additional OBC which can range from $50 to 10% of the cruise fare.

 

[mrgabriel]

So here's my first thought ... if you have a particular class of cabin or location that you prefer, they may be completely booked by the time you do all of your checking. Maybe this won't be a popular cruise and cabins will not fill up quickly?

 

And I will also admit that we are at a point in our lives where we book what we want. Sometimes we pay a bit more but we would rather have the trip we want and perhaps fewer perks. 

 

The only other thing I'll add is that Elite wifi is only 240 minutes. I can blow through that in a week on a repositioning cruise. 

[Jeremiah1212]

Shop for a refundable group rate. Book onboard for the OBC then transfer to a TA. You would have to pay the full deposit when you transfer. 

[Tom and Ingrid]

5 hours ago, jelayne said:

i would hate to have to spend my time on a cruise researching and contacting multiple 
TA's to get the best total package.

 

Some with have group space which could reduce the price of your cruise, although you may have to pay the normal deposit when you transfer the booking.  Some TAs have group pricing and will off additional OBC which can range from $50 to 10% of the cruise fare.

This is interesting (and confusing) to me.  My very limited TA knowledge sort of led me to believe that most TAs would have the same sort of options to offer with a little bit of wiggle room on how much of their "cut" to pass on vs pocket.  And then the big TAs (think big box or the regular newsletter ones many of us get) might have volume options too to pass on.  Ex: a member club warehouse essentially pooling hundreds or thousands of customers a year for X would get better terms than a normal TA company which offers all ranges of travel and all cruise lines in much smaller volume.

 

Is there a way to truly puzzle through the TA world to find the best option? Is it like the car buying world where I contacted many dealers with my ideal car and let them play offer their best offer? Or is it more visiting a bunch of the bigger TA websites, punching in info on what I want and seeing what is spit out?

[bikerunner]

2 minutes ago, Tom and Ingrid said:

This is interesting (and confusing) to me.  My very limited TA knowledge sort of led me to believe that most TAs would have the same sort of options to offer with a little bit of wiggle room on how much of their "cut" to pass on vs pocket.  And then the big TAs (think big box or the regular newsletter ones many of us get) might have volume options too to pass on.  Ex: a member club warehouse essentially pooling hundreds or thousands of customers a year for X would get better terms than a normal TA company which offers all ranges of travel and all cruise lines in much smaller volume.

 

Is there a way to truly puzzle through the TA world to find the best option? Is it like the car buying world where I contacted many dealers with my ideal car and let them play offer their best offer? Or is it more visiting a bunch of the bigger TA websites, punching in info on what I want and seeing what is spit out?

Nope, I found my two long ago and its alot by word of mouth also.  I am not associated with a big box and always have gotten great deals on cruises overall.  There is a decent site to use but not allowed to mention names on here at all.  I have booked direct one time and that was it, lesson learned.  It takes time and patience to find one, and one that actually answers you quickly.  

[hcat]

I'd book with a reliable travel agent.. All this strategizing  would  make me dizzy, unless you enjoy this approach to booking a cruise . If you calculate wrong or wait too long you  may  be disappointed ....

 

 Book the best you can get and enjoy the cruise!  That's what we do...

[Tom and Ingrid]

6 hours ago, mrgabriel said:

So here's my first thought ... if you have a particular class of cabin or location that you prefer, they may be completely booked by the time you do all of your checking. Maybe this won't be a popular cruise and cabins will not fill up quickly?

 

And I will also admit that we are at a point in our lives where we book what we want. Sometimes we pay a bit more but we would rather have the trip we want and perhaps fewer perks. 

 

The only other thing I'll add is that Elite wifi is only 240 minutes. I can blow through that in a week on a repositioning cruise. 

We're generally very flexible in our choices of cabins.  For this longer TP (19 nights), it does make sense to consider the "better" cabin options and also the other AI stuff simply to give us some options on all the sea days.  

 

Generally, for past cruises, we just see a sale and buy it. That's why I'm not too savvy on the TA angle or the other ways to maximize value.  But with some time to think it through, and to strategize a bit, I feel like I can take advantage of some "tricks" I've never used nor maybe even known about.

[Jeremiah1212]

45 minutes ago, Tom and Ingrid said:

This is interesting (and confusing) to me.  My very limited TA knowledge sort of led me to believe that most TAs would have the same sort of options to offer with a little bit of wiggle room on how much of their "cut" to pass on vs pocket.  And then the big TAs (think big box or the regular newsletter ones many of us get) might have volume options too to pass on.  Ex: a member club warehouse essentially pooling hundreds or thousands of customers a year for X would get better terms than a normal TA company which offers all ranges of travel and all cruise lines in much smaller volume.

 

Is there a way to truly puzzle through the TA world to find the best option? Is it like the car buying world where I contacted many dealers with my ideal car and let them play offer their best offer? Or is it more visiting a bunch of the bigger TA websites, punching in info on what I want and seeing what is spit out?

Yes and no. There are what they call headquarter groups but the details don’t really matter in the end. These posts almost always get nuked despite no mention of specific TA’s but I’ll take my chances…

 

Shop around with the big ones to start. A lot of them use the exact same booking interface and will show 6-12ish rates for the exact same cabin. There will also be a banner at the top that says alerting like “group exists for this sailing”. In some categories you’ll see rates that start with Group123456 or GRPX. Even if you don’t see the category you want with one of those rates, call them to see what they can do. Ask around on other sites or just start googling. 

[mrgabriel]

2 hours ago, Tom and Ingrid said:

We're generally very flexible in our choices of cabins.  For this longer TP (19 nights), it does make sense to consider the "better" cabin options and also the other AI stuff simply to give us some options on all the sea days.  

 

Generally, for past cruises, we just see a sale and buy it. That's why I'm not too savvy on the TA angle or the other ways to maximize value.  But with some time to think it through, and to strategize a bit, I feel like I can take advantage of some "tricks" I've never used nor maybe even known about.

If you’re not set on a particular cabin or class, I would start with the Future Cruise desk on your next sailing. We’ve found that they’re very helpful and have found us discounts that we weren’t aware of. 
 

You can probably do a Google search and find some of the commonly used online TAs. We have used one in the past and been happy with the additional perks. 
 

In terms of cabin choice on a longer cruise, our experience has been that we do spend more downtime in the cabin. He likes to read and is often in the cabin. I’m normally out and about. Depending on your personalities, it could be nice to have a place where you can just close the door and sit on your balcony. 

[Tom and Ingrid]

14 hours ago, mrgabriel said:

If you’re not set on a particular cabin or class, I would start with the Future Cruise desk on your next sailing. We’ve found that they’re very helpful and have found us discounts that we weren’t aware of. 

That's sort of the angle I was planning and thinking about since I have over a year to work on it and have at least two X cruises in the pipeline to check with the team on-board.  

 

What trips me a little is whether it makes MOST sense to just "book" the cruise then and there if the numbers work, or if it makes more sense to get a future cruise credit (or whatever they're called), come home and do further research and find an optimal TA to go with.

 

IOW, other than locking in a specific cabin/class before it disappears, is there a reason to book on the ship, versus getting the same(?) perks from just getting the FCC?

[NutsAboutGolf]

23 hours ago, Tom and Ingrid said:

I am old enough for AARP

 

So you just turned 18?  Congrats, welcome to adulthood! 🙃

 

[Tom and Ingrid]

8 minutes ago, NutsAboutGolf said:

 

So you just turned 18?  Congrats, welcome to adulthood! 🙃

 

I saw stories about that a while back - younger folks joining to get the discounts. 🙂. 

 

I still "feel young" and the R in AARP is for "retired", so I don't fit their title at all yet.

[Ken the cruiser]

48 minutes ago, Tom and Ingrid said:

That's sort of the angle I was planning and thinking about since I have over a year to work on it and have at least two X cruises in the pipeline to check with the team on-board.  

 

What trips me a little is whether it makes MOST sense to just "book" the cruise then and there if the numbers work, or if it makes more sense to get a future cruise credit (or whatever they're called), come home and do further research and find an optimal TA to go with.

 

IOW, other than locking in a specific cabin/class before it disappears, is there a reason to book on the ship, versus getting the same(?) perks from just getting the FCC?

This is more of an onboard future cruise "placeholder" booking strategy to avoid paying the 20% "refundable deposit" cruise fare surcharge, while at the same time securing the booking with a $100 per person refundable deposit plus maintain the OBC perk for booking onboard when you upload a more desirable itinerary to it.

 

What we do is book a couple of Celebrity "placeholder" cruises with a non-suite cabin while on the ship as far out as possible, as they only require a $100 per person refundable deposit to secure. Then when we later find a couple of itineraries that catch our fancy, we will have our TA transfer those more desirable itineraries (with no penalty) to our existing "placeholder" bookings but with the nonrefundable deposit pricing.

 

Benefits: This way we only tie up $100 per person in refundable deposits for each booking AND are able to book our more desirable itineraries at the lower NRD fare with minimal impact if we later decide to cancel for some reason prior to final payment AND get the OBC that comes with booking a cruise while onboard.

 

But this is very important. Make sure you book the "placeholder" cruises while onboard with a refundable deposit, as the default for the onboard future cruise staff is to book any itinerary with a nonrefundable deposit to "save you $$$".

 

Note: this strategy will not work if you plan on booking a suite as those having different rules to secure.

[Iamcruzin]

18 hours ago, Tom and Ingrid said:

This is interesting (and confusing) to me.  My very limited TA knowledge sort of led me to believe that most TAs would have the same sort of options to offer with a little bit of wiggle room on how much of their "cut" to pass on vs pocket.  And then the big TAs (think big box or the regular newsletter ones many of us get) might have volume options too to pass on.  Ex: a member club warehouse essentially pooling hundreds or thousands of customers a year for X would get better terms than a normal TA company which offers all ranges of travel and all cruise lines in much smaller volume.

 

Is there a way to truly puzzle through the TA world to find the best option? Is it like the car buying world where I contacted many dealers with my ideal car and let them play offer their best offer? Or is it more visiting a bunch of the bigger TA websites, punching in info on what I want and seeing what is spit out?

All that plus navigating the cruise lines deceptive pricing and promotions.  First I play on the Celebrity website to find the best deal. This means looking at every category from inside which I would never book, up to sky suite. To my surprise It would have cost me $100 more booking an interior for $199 than the C1 I actually booked all things equal with AI,Tips and insurance. It seems the higher up I went the more discounts and credits applied. For some reason it wouldn't offer me the NRD rate for the interior if I booked it AI. It was only $28 dollars more to go from a premium Veranda to a premium Concierge all things equal. Next I went to all of the website TA's and my Big Box store TA and my Auto Club TA. Non of them would let me choose a room. Only Guarantee bookings. I was 30 days out from final payment when I booked this.  No real incentives worth booking with them either. So Celebrity won out for this booking offering me the best choice.  Also I forgot to mention that the higher up I went in category the AI price dropped.

Edited June 20 by Iamcruzin

[wrk2cruise]

1. ^^^ What @Ken the cruiser said.  ^^^ Stay away from Book Later.   If you keep it with Celebrity until you get home you can do the additional research and transfer to the TA of your choice within 30 days.   They TA can move to another sailing or reprice with a group or NRD price any time after that.

 

[billc23]

59 minutes ago, Ken the cruiser said:

 

 

What we do is book a couple of Celebrity "placeholder" cruises with a non-suite cabin while on the ship as far out as possible, as they only require a $100 per person refundable deposit to secure. Then when we later find a couple of itineraries that catch our fancy, we will have our TA transfer those more desirable itineraries (with no penalty) to our existing "placeholder" bookings but with the nonrefundable deposit pricing.

 

Will they still book refundable deposit bookings on board with the benefits?

[Ken the cruiser]

1 hour ago, billc23 said:

Will they still book refundable deposit bookings on board with the benefits?

They did when we booked 2 placeholder cruises while on our 33-day transpacific cruise on the Eclipse back in May 2023. But we had to request both of them be booked with the refundable deposit rate as the default for the future cruise staff was to book at the cheaper nonrefundable rate. Both of our bookings also got the OBC posted to them that comes with booking onboard.

 

Now, as far as booking a suite goes, I no longer have any experience with booking any of those while on a cruise, especially after their recent rule change regarding the booking of suites.

 

Edited June 20 by Ken the cruiser

[Tom and Ingrid]

22 hours ago, Ken the cruiser said:

But this is very important. Make sure you book the "placeholder" cruises while onboard with a refundable deposit, as the default for the onboard future cruise staff is to book any itinerary with a nonrefundable deposit to "save you $$$".

Yet another point of confusion for me. 😄

 

What are the benefits of the refundable deposit cruises?  I get, on the face of it, a full refund no strings attached if you choose not to go on the cruise.  But we generally know we are going on the cruise. But I bet there are strings?

 

But say we chose & put a deposit on a cruise - Southern Caribbean - and then decided we'd rather do the Eastern Mediterranean.  Do they basically just swap them out - SC for EM - and you pay the difference.  Maybe with some time constraints?

 

I assume there might be a "change fee"? But would that also be considered a "cancellation" & then a new booking?  Or is the "change fee" also the same as the cancellation fee? And does the refundable deposit get rid of ALL cancellation fees or just protect the deposit?

 

What a muddle. I've never actually dug through these sorts of things, as, like I wrote, we usually pick a cruise and then take it.

[luvtravel]

Interesting topic - but I have a question regarding insurance.  If we book on board or just way in advance thru a TA - to be covered for pre-existing, insurance must be purchased immediately or almost - which is quite a bit for us older folks .  At least I believe that’s how it works.    Do you consider insurance when purchasing way in advance?  Thanks for any info!

[Iamcruzin]

5 hours ago, Tom and Ingrid said:

Yet another point of confusion for me. 😄

 

What are the benefits of the refundable deposit cruises?  I get, on the face of it, a full refund no strings attached if you choose not to go on the cruise.  But we generally know we are going on the cruise. But I bet there are strings?

 

But say we chose & put a deposit on a cruise - Southern Caribbean - and then decided we'd rather do the Eastern Mediterranean.  Do they basically just swap them out - SC for EM - and you pay the difference.  Maybe with some time constraints?

 

I assume there might be a "change fee"? But would that also be considered a "cancellation" & then a new booking?  Or is the "change fee" also the same as the cancellation fee? And does the refundable deposit get rid of ALL cancellation fees or just protect the deposit?

 

What a muddle. I've never actually dug through these sorts of things, as, like I wrote, we usually pick a cruise and then take it.

A refundable deposit is important to me when book far out. I have actually canceled and switched to another cruise line for a more attractive deal on a similar itinerary as we got closer to sailing right before final payment. 

[Tom and Ingrid]

Just now, Iamcruzin said:

A refundable deposit is important to me when book far out. I have actually canceled and switched to another cruise line for a more attractive deal on a similar itinerary as we got closer to sailing right before final payment. 

I can see that.

 

For us, it would in all likelihood be just deciding on a different X itinerary, not changing cruise line altogether.  But, since we've never done either - cancelled a cruise nor changed to a different itinerary - I'm not really savvy at all to the extra things one should do to keep the total cost in line for whatever the eventual cruise is taken.

[billc23]

6 hours ago, Tom and Ingrid said:

Yet another point of confusion for me. 😄

 

What are the benefits of the refundable deposit cruises?  I get, on the face of it, a full refund no strings attached if you choose not to go on the cruise.  But we generally know we are going on the cruise. But I bet there are strings?

 

But say we chose & put a deposit on a cruise - Southern Caribbean - and then decided we'd rather do the Eastern Mediterranean.  Do they basically just swap them out - SC for EM - and you pay the difference.  Maybe with some time constraints?

 

I assume there might be a "change fee"? But would that also be considered a "cancellation" & then a new booking?  Or is the "change fee" also the same as the cancellation fee? And does the refundable deposit get rid of ALL cancellation fees or just protect the deposit?

 

What a muddle. I've never actually dug through these sorts of things, as, like I wrote, we usually pick a cruise and then take it.

Usually there is a $100 per person change fee that may be waived. Keep the same booking number to retain the on board booking OBC. 

[billc23]

2 hours ago, luvtravel said:

Interesting topic - but I have a question regarding insurance.  If we book on board or just way in advance thru a TA - to be covered for pre-existing, insurance must be purchased immediately or almost - which is quite a bit for us older folks .  At least I believe that’s how it works.    Do you consider insurance when purchasing way in advance?  Thanks for any info!

I do consider insurance and it is advisable to purchase the minimum amount (usually $500 per person) and that will lock in the pre existing condition waiver. Then add to the policy as desired when you pay more for the trip and have more dollars at risk. 

[Ken the cruiser]

7 hours ago, Tom and Ingrid said:

Yet another point of confusion for me. 😄

 

What are the benefits of the refundable deposit cruises?  I get, on the face of it, a full refund no strings attached if you choose not to go on the cruise.  But we generally know we are going on the cruise. But I bet there are strings?

 

But say we chose & put a deposit on a cruise - Southern Caribbean - and then decided we'd rather do the Eastern Mediterranean.  Do they basically just swap them out - SC for EM - and you pay the difference.  Maybe with some time constraints?

 

I assume there might be a "change fee"? But would that also be considered a "cancellation" & then a new booking?  Or is the "change fee" also the same as the cancellation fee? And does the refundable deposit get rid of ALL cancellation fees or just protect the deposit?

 

What a muddle. I've never actually dug through these sorts of things, as, like I wrote, we usually pick a cruise and then take it.

 

1 hour ago, billc23 said:

Usually there is a $100 per person change fee that may be waived. Keep the same booking number to retain the on board booking OBC. 

The $100 pp change fee associated with swapping one itinerary for another under the same booking number and to keep the OBC associated with booking them onboard, is the issue. 

 

Also, since we book cruises up to 2 years in advance to hopefully get the best deal, sometimes those itineraries are not available to book yet when we're on a cruise. By securing a couple "placeholder" bookings with refundable deposits, we can use them later on to secure a newly released itinerary that strikes our fancy and at the same time reap the benefits as if we booked that new itinerary while on a cruise (i.e., $100 per person deposits and some OBC).

 

Edited June 21 by Ken the cruiser