Will prices decrease after final payment?

[zitsky]

EDIT, correction.  
 

Celebrity is offering an upgrade from SS to CS for the price of $1250.  $1250 is the OBC we would lose although we would gain $125.  We would not repay gratuities. 
 

Am I missing anything?  Royal would be nice but probably a few thousand more.  CS is midship which we prefer.  This is on Millie.

 

I have heard that CS balconies on Millie are very small?

[canderson]

4 hours ago, zitsky said:

My TA talked to Celebrity today.  I have a email from her.  Celebrity said if we reprice we lose OBC and also our gratuities paid which seems really odd to me.  Celebrity said if they upgraded us to a higher cabin, same thing, we would lose those payments.

 

I wonder how so many people on this board reprice and walk away with free money.  Maybe I’m having trouble because I’m in a group booking with a TA.

It was explained b4.

When you booked originally, the deal included grats and OBC.  Guessing you booked before late Oct 23.

 

Current deal, current price does NOT include grats or OBC.  Sometimes the math works, sometimes it doesn't.

[zitsky]

1 hour ago, canderson said:

It was explained b4.

When you booked originally, the deal included grats and OBC.  Guessing you booked before late Oct 23.

 

Current deal, current price does NOT include grats or OBC.  Sometimes the math works, sometimes it doesn't.

See my post above yours.  SS to CS upgrade on Millie would be $1250 with $150 OBC.  

[canderson]

21 minutes ago, zitsky said:

See my post above yours.  SS to CS upgrade on Millie would be $1250 with $150 OBC.  

Then the OBC should be $150 from X for a 'normal' booking.  No grats, though, which can add up fast.

[zitsky]

1 minute ago, canderson said:

Then the OBC should be $150 from X for a 'normal' booking.  No grats, though, which can add up fast.

When booking a CS you still pay gratuities, right?  We wouldn’t have to pay more gratuities is my current understanding.

[canderson]

56 minutes ago, zitsky said:

When booking a CS you still pay gratuities, right?  We wouldn’t have to pay more gratuities is my current understanding.

Yes, all suites are billed at the same $23/day pp gratuity amount... unless your reservation is old enough that it caught the 'gratuities included' era.  So if you're asking if someone booking a SS today vs a CS today would pay the same, the answer is yes. 

 

I've also heard it said that if you are upgrading to a higher priced cabin, you can ask that your previous AI (or whatever) deal remain intact and that this is often honored, and not treated as a cancel/re-book.  We've yet to be in that position, so can't say from personal experience.  We upgraded one cabin again this year when prices dropped, but had booked the original late enough that the AI deal was the same then/now.

 

 

[20165]

21 hours ago, 20165 said:

Our cabin went from $11680 to $11165 so im definitely going take Candersons advise and try to get an OBC which is fine.  Frustrating because i literally upgraded this a week ago today.

So here is the outcome of our cabin price drop.  See above.  We called, they initially said no because it was after the final payment date, so we pressed a little harder, price guarantee, blah blah, and they agreed to split the difference with us.  $250obc.  Not a ton of money given the overall cost of the cruise, but im happy and it was worth a 10 min phone call.  

Edited August 15 by 20165
spelling

[catspaw1]

OP here so I thought I would update everyone.  Prices did not decrease after final payment- they went up $100PP& now only SV & DV left. Someone must have canceled as we found a great balcony midship so grabbed it. Our TA got us a few days past final payment as we were watching prices so when they didn't decrease we booked it. So happy with the cabin as we had a hold on a balcony. We will not be putting in a move up offer! In the preCOVID days we always booked within 90 days & got great deals due to work schedules. Hope this is helpful! We are looking forward to another cruise! BTW we already have the Flora booked for next year. With only 1 Celebrity ship starting in 2025 in the Galapagos,  I think the cheaper cabins will be harder to get.

[sirenitas]

We are booked for Nov and we're past final payment. Price went down almost $300. Called my TA and got a refund. 

 

Not OBC, not an upgrade (which is what we expected). We (3 cabins) refunds to our CC.

[canderson]

2 minutes ago, sirenitas said:

We are booked for Nov and we're past final payment. Price went down almost $300. Called my TA and got a refund. 

 

Not OBC, not an upgrade (which is what we expected). We (3 cabins) refunds to our CC.

Checking your credit card statement, can you see the source of the refund? 

It should say

Celebrity Cruises 844-4186824 FL

or something similar.

[sirenitas]

1 minute ago, canderson said:

Checking your credit card statement, can you see the source of the refund? 

It should say

Celebrity Cruises 844-4186824 FL

or something similar.

Yes, that's what it says.

[canderson]

6 minutes ago, sirenitas said:

Yes, that's what it says.

Excellent.  Your TA did a good job for you!

[dreamer321]

My Fall transatlantic cruise on Apex went up 245% from the price I paid when X first announced the updated itinerary so I guess there won't be a refund or OBC for me.

[billc23]

On 8/12/2024 at 3:19 PM, catspaw1 said:

Hi all, we are looking at a few cruises that still have a number of rooms left. When, or will, prices decrease after final payment?

Only if you look... Similar to an airline ticket, a hotel room, and concert tickets, to name a few - many different prices for the same experience 

[Andy_P]

We can be sure that prices will change after Final Payment just like they fluctuate before, the only difference is that who have already paid won't be able to access prices lower than what they paid.  That said, it's worth watching them, especially on undersold cruises, as after Final Payment Date I have seen stateroom categories higher than what I booked drop in price to even below what I paid, and you can "upgrade" to them and access a deal typically better than you might expect from "MoveUp".  There is a change fee (typically $200) and you could lose any special deals you might have received when you made your booking (e.g. OBC), but it's well worth a look.  For example, I upgraded from a Sunset Verandah to a Sky Suite for a few hundred dollars one week after Final Payment and I receive full Sky Suite privileges including Captains Club Points.  Now that MoveUp is being offered I would have cost 5X as much (!) and I would have received far less.

Edited August 25 by Andy_P

[zitsky]

1 hour ago, Andy_P said:

We can be sure that prices will change after Final Payment just like they fluctuate before, the only difference is that who have already paid won't be able to access prices lower than what they paid.  That said, it's worth watching them, especially on undersold cruises, as after Final Payment Date I have seen stateroom categories higher than what I booked drop in price to even below what I paid, and you can "upgrade" to them and access a deal typically better than you might expect from "MoveUp".  There is a change fee (typically $200) and you could lose any special deals you might have received when you made your booking (e.g. OBC), but it's well worth a look.  For example, I upgraded from a Sunset Verandah to a Sky Suite for a few hundred dollars one week after Final Payment and I receive full Sky Suite privileges including Captains Club Points.  Now that MoveUp is being offered I would have cost 5X as much (!) and I would have received far less.

On Eclipse there was a lot of back and forth with the TA.  Too much.  In the end I’d lose about $1500 OBC to UPGRADE from a Sky Suite to Celebrity Suite and it would cost $1000 additional.

[20165]

On 8/25/2024 at 8:19 AM, Andy_P said:

We can be sure that prices will change after Final Payment just like they fluctuate before, the only difference is that who have already paid won't be able to access prices lower than what they paid.  That said, it's worth watching them, especially on undersold cruises, as after Final Payment Date I have seen stateroom categories higher than what I booked drop in price to even below what I paid, and you can "upgrade" to them and access a deal typically better than you might expect from "MoveUp".  There is a change fee (typically $200) and you could lose any special deals you might have received when you made your booking (e.g. OBC), but it's well worth a look.  For example, I upgraded from a Sunset Verandah to a Sky Suite for a few hundred dollars one week after Final Payment and I receive full Sky Suite privileges including Captains Club Points.  Now that MoveUp is being offered I would have cost 5X as much (!) and I would have received far less.

Well, we are now 63 days out from our cruise and our cabin is $1200 cheaper than what we paid.  And yes, its definitely undersold so our what have learned here is when we book another cruise and its undersold, wait as long as possible before booking, even after the final payment date.  There are no other cabins booked in the category we are in besides ours so i expect even more price drops in the coming weeks if that doesnt change.  It will be interesting to see what the lowest price on that category ends up being. Frustrating, but lesson learned. 

[Andy_P]

16 minutes ago, 20165 said:

Well, we are now 63 days out from our cruise and our cabin is $1200 cheaper than what we paid.  And yes, its definitely undersold so our what have learned here is when we book another cruise and its undersold, wait as long as possible before booking, even after the final payment date.  There are no other cabins booked in the category we are in besides ours so i expect even more price drops in the coming weeks if that doesnt change.  It will be interesting to see what the lowest price on that category ends up being. Frustrating, but lesson learned. 

If that's the case, rather than do a "MoveUp" maybe the stateroom categories higher than yours have gone down too and you can do an inexpensive upgade.  I went from Sunset Verandah to Sky Suite Guarantee (category "W") for about $500.  I lost the little bit of OBC I got when I booked, but gained Premium Drinks and WiFi which I was going to use the OBC for.

Edited August 31 by Andy_P

[Iamcruzin]

My sailing is 30 days out and continues to go up since I booked at a month before final Payment. Not only has the fare gone up the the AI prices has also gone up. This is for a 4 day cruise out of Florida that people on another tread claim that Celebrity is losing money on  short sailings.

[canderson]

56 minutes ago, Andy_P said:

If that's the case, rather than do a "MoveUp" maybe the stateroom categories higher than yours have gone down too and you can do an inexpensive upgade.  I went from Sunset Verandah to Sky Suite Guarantee (category "W") for about $500.  I lost the little bit of OBC I got when I booked, but gained Premium Drinks and WiFi which I was going to use the OBC for.

Good strategy, Andy.  Hope you score a good SS.  What would it have cost to pick your own SS, or was that an option?

[Andy_P]

9 minutes ago, canderson said:

Good strategy, Andy.  Hope you score a good SS.  What would it have cost to pick your own SS, or was that an option?

We did - within an hour of booking we we assigned a great location.  Had we chosen that specific stateroom ourselves, it would have cost us several hundred more. I know there are many who "would never" do MoveUp, nor a Stateroom Guarantee, since they must choose the location themselves, but what we really wanted were the suite benefits.  Had we booked that Sky Suite when we booked the Sunset Verandah, it would have been 2X the cost.

Edited August 31 by Andy_P

[Markanddonna]

Back to the original question. In 2024, I have noted that many cruises are selling out and prices going way up. We were hoping to find an inside cabin on an eastern Med cruise and inside and OV are sold out and the balcony has doubled in price. You might find a last minute reduction to the Caribbean during hurricane season, but travel is booming!

[20165]

19 hours ago, Markanddonna said:

Back to the original question. In 2024, I have noted that many cruises are selling out and prices going way up. We were hoping to find an inside cabin on an eastern Med cruise and inside and OV are sold out and the balcony has doubled in price. You might find a last minute reduction to the Caribbean during hurricane season, but travel is booming!

Thats always what we thought, but we were also traveling with our kids at peak times, Summer, Spring break, etc.  Now that we arent traveling with our kids and out of different, not as common ports, Puerto Rico in this case, we need to be more diligent on checking how booked it is before we pull the trigger our booking. Im so use to the prices going up rather than down the closer you get to the sail date, i didnt even think about checking, although it should have been a clue when every cabin in our category was available when we booked and still is aside from ours...

I dont suppose anyone knows of a website that tracks how booked these ships are?  Its relatively easy on our current ship give its pretty small, Summit, but its a little harder on the larger ships.

thx

[zitsky]

For our Bali to Singapore cruise 1/2/25, I was surprised to see.

 

1) Sky Suite is about $1000 more than Aqua class

 

2) Aqua Sky Suite is same price as Sky Suite.

 

I should have waited to book but I wouldn’t have OBC, I think.

[Ex-Airbalancer]

7 hours ago, zitsky said:

For our Bali to Singapore cruise 1/2/25, I was surprised to see.

 

1) Sky Suite is about $1000 more than Aqua class

 

2) Aqua Sky Suite is same price as Sky Suite.

 

I should have waited to book but I wouldn’t have OBC, I think.

Is that January 2nd or February 1st sailing 🤔😁