Nonsensical AI upgrade prices

[OysterD]

Just booked 11 nights on the Silhouette for this September. Managed to get a guaranteed concierge cabin for less then a guaranteed standard balcony which is lovely, but I don't understand the quotes to then upgrade to all included.

 

Guarantee concierge is £1489pp or with AI that jumps to £2915pp!

Guarantee veranda is £1649pp or with AI it's £2745pp.

Standard concierge is £2345pp or with AI goes to £2994. 

 

I guess the AI upgrade price for a guaranteed veranda isn't far off what it would cost to just buy the drinks and wifi package separately, but with the guaranteed concierge cabin that I booked it made no sense at all to upgrade. Especially as drinks packages and wifi are currently on sale at 35% off this weekend. But even without that sale it would be a lot cheaper to buy them separately. 

 

Any idea why they would price the AI upgrade this way, is it common with guarantee cabins or just a random glitch with this one particular cruise? 

 

Also I wouldn't normally pay extra for concierge over a standard balcony, maybe £100 more but nothing over that, apart from being on a higher deck and earning a few extra points I don't see much advantage. But when concierge is actually cheaper, it was a no brainer! 

[bikerunner]

its not logical, if people are paying fot the rooms at this point for a  AI then charge it,   no different on a few of my hotel bookings I have up coming the cxl anytime rate is cheaper than the non refundable rate.   Why dont care   

Edited July 26 by bikerunner

[Jeremiah1212]

44 minutes ago, OysterD said:

 

Any idea why they would price the AI upgrade this way, is it common with guarantee cabins or just a random glitch with this one particular cruise? 

 

Also I wouldn't normally pay extra for concierge over a standard balcony, maybe £100 more but nothing over that, apart from being on a higher deck and earning a few extra points I don't see much advantage. But when concierge is actually cheaper, it was a no brainer! 

 

39 minutes ago, bikerunner said:

its not logical, if people are paying fot the rooms at this point for a  AI then charge it,   no different on a few of my hotel bookings I have up coming the cxl anytime rate is cheaper than the non refundable rate.   Why dont care   

It’s the same reasoning every time this gets posted. That sailing is on the Exciting Deals list. GTY Concierge and GTY Veranda have a discounted cruise only rate. If you select the All Included rate, you lose the discount and add on the cost of All Included making the price difference much more significant. 
 

https://creative.rccl.com/Sales/Celebrity/Exciting_Deals/CEL_Exciting_Deals.pdf

[Liao]

1 hour ago, OysterD said:

Just booked 11 nights on the Silhouette for this September. Managed to get a guaranteed concierge cabin for less then a guaranteed standard balcony which is lovely, but I don't understand the quotes to then upgrade to all included.

 

Guarantee concierge is £1489pp or with AI that jumps to £2915pp!

Guarantee veranda is £1649pp or with AI it's £2745pp.

Standard concierge is £2345pp or with AI goes to £2994. 

 

I guess the AI upgrade price for a guaranteed veranda isn't far off what it would cost to just buy the drinks and wifi package separately, but with the guaranteed concierge cabin that I booked it made no sense at all to upgrade. Especially as drinks packages and wifi are currently on sale at 35% off this weekend. But even without that sale it would be a lot cheaper to buy them separately. 

 

Any idea why they would price the AI upgrade this way, is it common with guarantee cabins or just a random glitch with this one particular cruise? 

 

Also I wouldn't normally pay extra for concierge over a standard balcony, maybe £100 more but nothing over that, apart from being on a higher deck and earning a few extra points I don't see much advantage. But when concierge is actually cheaper, it was a no brainer! 

Cruise pricing on all lines is all over the place now.  

[cruisetonowhere10]

I had this on a Silhouette cruise I booked for April.  The actual rate was really good, the AI was just silly. I just did the base fare and am going to add a two device wifi package for the 3 of us to share and we will buy drinks as we go.

[Stem to Stern]

Ridiculous pricing.

Solution:

Book at the cruise only price.

Buy WiFi on the flash sale and pay for drinks one by one on board as you go.  
Bring one bottle of wine per person on board with you and refill your wine glass in your stateroom.

Drink in port.

😎🥂
 

 

Edited July 26 by Stem to Stern

[cruisetonowhere10]

4 minutes ago, Stem to Stern said:

Ridiculous pricing.

Solution:

Book at the cruise only price.

Buy WiFi on the flash sale and pay for drinks one by one on board as you go.  
Bring one bottle of wine per person on board with you and refill your wine glass in your stateroom.

Drink in port.

😎🥂
 

 

This is 100% what we are doing in April.

[bebe08]

22 minutes ago, cruisetonowhere10 said:

This is 100% what we are doing in April.

Us too.  We have an upcoming cruise and are planning to book another cruise onboard. I have been monitoring prices and the difference in price between cruise only and AI is ridiculous.  We have always booked the AI but won't be doing it this time.  We have finally reached Elite so will take advantage of the happy hour offerings and pay as you go for our other drinks.  Wifi will watch for a sale.

 

FWIW we find HALs all included pricing way more reasonable than X, as well as their pricing for drink and internet packages.    

[cruisetonowhere10]

4 minutes ago, bebe08 said:

Us too.  We have an upcoming cruise and are planning to book another cruise onboard. I have been monitoring prices and the difference in price between cruise only and AI is ridiculous.  We have always booked the AI but won't be doing it this time.  We have finally reached Elite so will take advantage of the happy hour offerings and pay as you go for our other drinks.  Wifi will watch for a sale.

 

FWIW we find HALs all included pricing way more reasonable than X, as well as their pricing for drink and internet packages.    

We figure we will try it that way (I’ve done calculations and believe we will come out ahead) and ste how it goes.  I just couldn’t stomach the price difference.

[PTC DAWG]

If it’s too high, don’t book. I can’t stand signing for drinks..

[PTC DAWG]

1 hour ago, Jeremiah1212 said:

 

It’s the same reasoning every time this gets posted. That sailing is on the Exciting Deals list. GTY Concierge and GTY Veranda have a discounted cruise only rate. If you select the All Included rate, you lose the discount and add on the cost of All Included making the price difference much more significant. 
 

https://creative.rccl.com/Sales/Celebrity/Exciting_Deals/CEL_Exciting_Deals.pdf

This, it’s not rocket science..

[mrgabriel]

I noticed this when I booked yesterday. OV was $1,319 ($CAD) pp. AI was over $2,400. I know that gratuities are includes (so $300 pp) but almost $800 for drinks and wifi?

 

I always do a calculation of the cost and for us (E+) there is no way we get $800 value out of the AI deal. We already get drinks over happy hour, coffees, laundry, and 240 min of wifi. If a friend asked, I'd tell them to spend a few minutes doing that calculation. I know that some people enjoy being completely carefree on vacation and not worrying about the cost so for them, there's value. I just can't see myself drinking $800 worth of drinks. 

[bikerunner]

and this is why I use a TA. of course I understand different countries different rules,  who does group pricing and usually the AI rate for them is usually the same as the room only on celebrity.  No issues no questions and dont have to deal with anything at all..but I get it you want to stay in control of your bookings and feel a TA is to hard to deal with so be it, never any issues emails phone calls returned within an hour max when sent even on weekends.  And this is where I laugh at people who complain about pricing.  

[PTC DAWG]

1 hour ago, mrgabriel said:

I noticed this when I booked yesterday. OV was $1,319 ($CAD) pp. AI was over $2,400. I know that gratuities are includes (so $300 pp) but almost $800 for drinks and wifi?

 

I always do a calculation of the cost and for us (E+) there is no way we get $800 value out of the AI deal. We already get drinks over happy hour, coffees, laundry, and 240 min of wifi. If a friend asked, I'd tell them to spend a few minutes doing that calculation. I know that some people enjoy being completely carefree on vacation and not worrying about the cost so for them, there's value. I just can't see myself drinking $800 worth of drinks. 

Daily room gratuities haven’t been included in AI for a while..

[mrgabriel]

4 hours ago, PTC DAWG said:

Daily room gratuities haven’t been included in AI for a while..

So even less of a deal then! I definitely can’t drink $1100 worth of booze in a week. Even when drinking only my fav Chablis. 

[PTC DAWG]

28 minutes ago, mrgabriel said:

So even less of a deal then! I definitely can’t drink $1100 worth of booze in a week. Even when drinking only my fav Chablis. 

A drink package can be purchased for much less than that..