FV - less than 5 people in cabin?

[Travelalot2]

I was told that you have to have 5 people in the cabin to get a FV. What happens if before the cruise the other two going with us cancels out and there's only 3 of us left (self, DH and daughter)? Will they make us change cabins? I'm concerned that the "good" cabins will all be gone.

 

Has this ever happened to anyone?

[aaklang]

I'm not sure what happens if you've already booked. I can tell you that sometimes they do allow bookings with less than 5 though, so hopefully you'll be ok. We are booked in an FV for our upcoming cruise and there are only three of us.

[Davey Interweb]

They allow bookings of two passengers quite frequently. I've scored them twice before, and have one booked for an Oct. 8 Panama Canal sailing.

[agabbymama]

Too bad search has been disabled. There have been quite a number of threads on this subject.

 

They may let you book the cabin, but if someone with 5 people want to book the cabin, they can and have moved the smaller party.

 

In my case, they wouldn't even let me book it with only 3 people for New England/Canada Celebrity Constellation, stating it was a cabin for 5.

 

Good luck!

[sasset]

We booked a corner FV on the Millenium and the Summit with only two of us three times in the last two years...Hawaii and two transatlantics.

 

Regards

[cpgrneyes]

Hopefully it won't be a problem for us. We'd booked a SS and 4 months before the cruise a FV corner aft opened up which we grabbed. There are 3 of us and about 10 weeks to go.

 

If we do get bumped, where would they put us? Hoping it isn't an issue...

[Davey Interweb]

I doubt very, very much you would be bumped from a FV if you were able to book double occupancy in the first place. If someone were to call X to see if a cabin for five was available and all FV's happened to be booked, the rep you were talking to would only see that...all FV's are booked.

[Moeve]

Ok there is currently alot of internal trouble about the way the US part of the company handles all those cabins....... I wouldn't hold my breath if there are less than 4 of you (unless you get this cabin just before the ship sells out)

 

If Celebrity is going to be fair too all passengers they are probably going to tighten those rules for US passengers too. (OK so I am not really holding my breath either!!!

 

Since you are the only ones able to book with false names and cancel them shortly before final payment without loosing money - in future you may possibly also have to give those cabins up if you have less than 4 passengers in them, (unless the ship is a sold out) - REGARDless of what is left. I say ALSO because thoses are the rules in other countries around the world. Passengers from anywhere else cannot even get thoses cabins without the minium required passenger number. They also tell them should they have to cancel part of their party they will have to move to any other cabin available for the number of passengers you have AND at the higher price of the later rebooking.

 

Sorry I have tried to get this cabin several times for 4 only to be told I cannot have it and then to find many US fellow CC in those cabins on the same cruise with just 2 passengers.(this is over the last 2 years or so) So I have done lots of research on how these cabins are really booked.....

[goodshipmarley]

We had a cabin 8166 on the Millenium for 3 people in February 2008. We originally booked it on the internet with only 2 people. We eventually added my mother for a party of three. We will be sailing on the Constellation May 3, 2008 and have FV 8166 for only 2 people. Both of these cruises were booked directly with the Celebrity web site. Don't they have the same web site offerings outside the US?

[63galaxie]

We had a cabin 8166 on the Millenium for 3 people in February 2008. We originally booked it on the internet with only 2 people. We eventually added my mother for a party of three. We will be sailing on the Constellation May 3, 2008 and have FV 8166 for only 2 people. Both of these cruises were booked directly with the Celebrity web site. Don't they have the same web site offerings outside the US?

We tried booking online and having our TA call for a March 09 FV AFT cabin. We were told "no go" without five.

I wish we had the same luck as others. The cabin is just what we need for an insomniac and a snorer!

[barryod]

We're doing a family and friends cruise on Sumitt on 1-17-09 and Our two daughters have the corner cabins on the 8th deck and could only get them with five.(each have a family of five). On Millie last year, met a couple who were cruising with friends and their friends who, booked 3 2c cabins, booked those cabins as one occupant and put one of each in a corner aft FV making five. When they got on board, the three who were booked in the FV, went to their 2c cabins leaving two in the FV with a large deck for all to enjoy during the cruise. A bit complicated but doable and a common practice from what I've heard. I'm happy my DDs were able to get the cabins for our cruise as I probably would have been a little miffed (jealous)if I saw two in those large decked cabins during our sail.

 

Barry

[cruiseyguy]

I was on an Infinity Alaska cruise a couple of years ago and one of my table mates had an FV to herself. She had booked a little over 30 days before the cruise. That's the way it works--after final payments are due, remaining FVs are available to anyone, even a single.

[Moeve]

We had a cabin 8166 on the Millenium for 3 people in February 2008. We originally booked it on the internet with only 2 people. We eventually added my mother for a party of three. We will be sailing on the Constellation May 3, 2008 and have FV 8166 for only 2 people. Both of these cruises were booked directly with the Celebrity web site. Don't they have the same web site offerings outside the US?

 

In a word NO!!! they don't - you need to change the country details if you don't have a US adresse and from there it is end of story. A german passenger for example without US adresse cannot book directly with RCCL /X via the US website.

[biker1972]

The FV cabins are often not offered on the internet to anyone, especially early in the booking period. The closer to final payment the more likely these cabins will show up in the inventory that everyone can access. I hold cabins on 2 cruises that are about 10 months out. They have shown the FV cabins as sold out on the internet from the first day the itineraries were posted. These are cruises that hit during spring break times so they might have families in them by the time the ship sails. I expect the ones not booked by phone thru Celebrity nearer to final payment date, will be released for sale to 2 or more passengers. Also if a couple booked a FV and a family of five came along, there is a chance the couple could be bumped.

[Fang]

I tried to book the FV cabin for four. Was told that you had to have five. I responded that this is a Family cabin and is my family of four not a family? Not thats just the rules.

 

I can understand holding back for larger parties, but it just gets under my skin.

 

On a unrelated topic, if the FV cabin is for five, why does X sell connecting cabins without selling the other cabin to the same passenger.

 

My family usually gets connecting cabins and so many times one of them is booked and the other is open. This just happens to be a pet peeve of mine.

[I Fly]

Earlier this week I found cabin 8181 (FV Corner aft deck eight) available for a cruise I have booked at the end of June 2008. It's just about 75 days before sailing. I quickly put a 48 hour courtesy hold on the cabin, (for two passengers) and quickly called my travel agent to have him switch us to that FV aft corner cabin. He called Celebrity with the booking number which I had just gotten from the website, showing the cabin was booked for two passengers. He was told that we could have the cabin, but in the event a party of five requested a FV cabin, they might see that our cabin only had two passengers in it and bump us out of that cabin. Before doing anything he called me and explained that there was no guarantee for keeping that cabin. I told him to forget it and I quickly called Captain's Club and was transfered to a very knowledgeable supervisor. She explained the exact same thing to me that was told to my travel agent. She told me that the likelihood of being bumped was small and if they did bump us out of the cabin, they would transfer us to a similar or better cabin. A similar cabin would be another FV cabin, but not necessarily a corner aft, but the FV cabin next to that one, or a Suite. She also explained it was the same policy for booking a handicapped room. You can reserve a handicapped room, but if you aren't handicapped and a handicapped person requires that room, they will bump you out. Every person who books a FV cabin for less than five passengers can be bumped out. While the chance of being bumped out close to sailing date is quite small, there still is a chance. So while there are many people who are able to book a FV aft corner cabin and eventually do enjoy that cabin for their cruise, they are taking a gamble losing that cabin and being moved to a different cabin. While I would love a Corner Aft, I'm not willing to gamble losing my regular aft cabin that I have booked.

[Moeve]

In all realitiy this does not work any better than it does with the Handicaped cabins. Once the cabin is off the inventory thats it it is over. That is one of the reasons causing all the problems right now.

 

I can tell you what happened to us on the Mercury this year. The bookings for this cruise opened 15 months ahead of time. Bookings around the world started our time 15:00. We had a booking for 3 to Hawaii we were moving to the Mercury for Down Under at the same time we were uping our reservation to 4 people. The first day we were told that we could not get these cabins with only 4. However I had looked for a date with little or no children to up my chances of getting one of those cabins.

 

A couple of days later I discovered that several of the CC from the US had these cabins for only 2 passengers. I complained to Frankfurt who is CELEBRITY in Germany - asking why we were told we couldn't have them for only 4 and the US were selling them via a big agency in the US for 2 passengers from day1!!! Since it took me a few days to find out and it took Frankfurt another 3 weeks to tell me these cabins were all sold out and there was nothing they could do about - period! So there is none of this bumping out no matter what even 14 months prior to cruising.

 

Just for your info - there were only 5 kids onboard and ALL were family members of crew. BUT none of them had one of those aft cabins. If the body count was right I believe only one CC member told us that they had 3 in their cabin. The rest all went out for 2.....

 

I can understand the reasoning for protecting those cabins for families but it needs to be the same policy for all!!! Over and above that the cruiselines need to stop telling tall tales about being able to bump people because they are not true. The only time they can do something about it is if some one cancels part of their party (like bookings with false names to cancel just before final payment) This is when they really should bump them.

[rosesplus]

On the Summit May 23rd 2008 sailing, you can only book an FV for a maximum of 2 people!!

[SusieV]

On the Summit May 23rd 2008 sailing, you can only book an FV for a maximum of 2 people!!

 

That's because it's an FV guarantee, not an actual cabin number.

 

We're doing a family and friends cruise on Sumitt on 1-17-09 and Our two daughters have the corner cabins on the 8th deck and could only get them with five.(each have a family of five). On Millie last year, met a couple who were cruising with friends and their friends who, booked 3 2c cabins, booked those cabins as one occupant and put one of each in a corner aft FV making five. When they got on board, the three who were booked in the FV, went to their 2c cabins leaving two in the FV with a large deck for all to enjoy during the cruise. A bit complicated but doable and a common practice from what I've heard. I'm happy my DDs were able to get the cabins for our cruise as I probably would have been a little miffed (jealous)if I saw two in those large decked cabins during our sail.

 

Barry

 

Barry, doesn't that mean that in effect they paid for five in the FV anyway? I mean, the 2Cs must have had to pay the single rate, right?

 

We've had an FV for two at the last minute, but I sure as heck wouldn't pay double for the privilege of booking one early!

[cruiseyguy]

As for "bumping," you won't be bumped "down," only equal or better (usually better). I wonder how many families of five ever book any Celebrity cruise? Very few, I would imagine.