2014 cruise?

[hollyevans119]

Hello,

I am considering booking a cruise. But I do not know whether to book a 2013 cruise (last min) or a 2014 cruise. I want to go on the Celebrity Eclipse as I have heard that this ship is fantastic. I will be with a family of 5. 2 adults, 3 children. Would you recommend this ship for family and childrens activities. Or do you think another cruise ship? Also do you recommend that I go on the Eclipse in 2013 or the celeb eclipse in 2014?

Thanks in advance.

[Manuel]

Yes do go on the Eclipse. The sooner the better. That ship will be great for people of all ages.
I have sailed on two of it's sisters ships and they are great.

TM

[cruise planner]

We were on the Eclipse and I think we've found our perfect class of ship! It was absolutely wonderful!! The food was great, the service was wonderful, and the specialty restaurants were awesome!

However, depending on the age of the children, they may find it very boring. The only activities for children are the swimming pools, basketball court, ping pong table, and some video games. While they do have a small children's area, which is fine for smaller children, active tweens and teens will find this ship lacking in activities for them. And as we all know, if the kids aren't happy, the parents aren't happy. But if they are more of the intellectual type, then they may find the ship very nice. Really depends on what they like to do.

Pete

[hollyevans119]

Thanks for the answers!

The kids are 2 twins who are 4 and an older one of 6

Also do you think a last minute deal would be better than booking a 2014 one?

[dkjretired]

Originally Posted by cruise planner

We were on the Eclipse and I think we've found our perfect class of ship! It was absolutely wonderful!! The food was great, the service was wonderful, and the specialty restaurants were awesome!

However, depending on the age of the children, they may find it very boring. The only activities for children are the swimming pools, basketball court, ping pong table, and some video games. While they do have a small children's area, which is fine for smaller children, active tweens and teens will find this ship lacking in activities for them. And as we all know, if the kids aren't happy, the parents aren't happy. But if they are more of the intellectual type, then they may find the ship very nice. Really depends on what they like to do.

Pete

As someone who actually took their kids on Celebrity cruises from age 6 to 18 I would disagree completely with the above statement. Although you will not find rock climbing walls and surf areas, Celebrity has absolutely wonderful programs with children and keep them busy all day. The kids on Celebrity seem to get more individual treatment from the group leaders. Teens are a different story on any cruise line, they seem to make a few friends and go off and find their own activities.

Don

[cruise planner]

Holly;

Young kids like yours will do fine on Celebrity - they do have a very good children's programs for the younger children. And yes, they will get more individualized attention because they will normally be alot less kids than you'll find on the kid-friendly cruises. (It's the tweens and teens on the Solstice-class ships where the amenities are lacking, so you'll be fine with the ages of your children.)

As for when to get the best deal, I always advise the same thing; book as early as possible! It's possible that the rates being offered right now are the lowest you'll find and they may continue to rise. However, if the rates go down, your agent will be able to get the lower rates provided final payment has not yet been made. And you can always cancel up until the final payment due date and get a 100% refund.

Plus, when you book early, you get your choice of cabins and location. If you book late your choices may be much more limited and you may not get exactly what you want.

Also, if you're flying, airfare does nothing but get more expensive the closer you get to sailing. So booking early affords you plenty of time for planning and making the necessary arrangements.

And lastly, booking last minute has the inherent stress and hassle associated with it with tends to distract from the fun of the cruise.

There are a whole bunch of reasons why you should book early and really no good reasons to wait and book later.

But as I said, the Eclipse is a wonderful ship and I know you'll thoroughly love it.

Pete

[hollyevans119]

Originally Posted by cruise planner

Holly;

Young kids like yours will do fine on Celebrity - they do have a very good children's programs for the younger children. And yes, they will get more individualized attention because they will normally be alot less kids than you'll find on the kid-friendly cruises. (It's the tweens and teens on the Solstice-class ships where the amenities are lacking, so you'll be fine with the ages of your children.)

As for when to get the best deal, I always advise the same thing; book as early as possible! It's possible that the rates being offered right now are the lowest you'll find and they may continue to rise. However, if the rates go down, your agent will be able to get the lower rates provided final payment has not yet been made. And you can always cancel up until the final payment due date and get a 100% refund.

Plus, when you book early, you get your choice of cabins and location. If you book late your choices may be much more limited and you may not get exactly what you want.

Also, if you're flying, airfare does nothing but get more expensive the closer you get to sailing. So booking early affords you plenty of time for planning and making the necessary arrangements.

And lastly, booking last minute has the inherent stress and hassle associated with it with tends to distract from the fun of the cruise.

There are a whole bunch of reasons why you should book early and really no good reasons to wait and book later.

But as I said, the Eclipse is a wonderful ship and I know you'll thoroughly love it.

Pete

Thanks for all the replies these have really helped.

I heard somewhere that they do Vantage and Getaway fares. Something about if you book and the price of your cruise goes down you get the money back, is this true or not?

I think I will go for the 2014 cruise so that I can book early. Where do you normally book your cruise?

Thanks!

[Paul Motter]

One thing about Royal Caribbean and Celebrity is that since they have started this program of upgrading older ships or building new ships with new features, not all sisters are created equal like they were in Celebrity a few years ago.

If you look at the differences between Solstice, Equinox, Eclipse, Silhouette and Reflection you see different restaurants.

For example Eclipse has Qsine but Equinox doesn't (it has Silk Harvest)...

Even more important, only Reflection & Silhouette have the Lawn Club grill and cafe. Those are very nice restaurants. But they don't have the glass show.

Reflection has far more Aqua-class cabins, but less room in "Blu" - the restaurant for those cabins.

So while all those ships are beautiful - there are differences one should look at.

Does it matter when you book? Not really. But as far as I know Celebrity no longer offers "price protection" once you make your final payment - you pay what you pay when the full price is due. If the price changes later you can ask for an upgrade or room credit, and I have heard of it being granted, but there is no guarantee it will be granted.

[cruise planner]

As Paul has stated, once final payment has been made, they usually will not reprice a cruise and will not refund the difference. However, this is one time when it pays to deal with a good agent as sometimes they have pull with the cruise line and can get onboard credit or upgrades - but not always, so don't count that as gospel.

But up until final payment due date, if the price goes down, your agent can almost always get the reduction, provided it's not for new bookings only or some other caveat involved.

As for 'when' to book a cruise, I'm assuming you mean what time of year? If that's the case, it really depends on where you're going. But if you're looking for the best rates, we prefer the 2nd - 3rd week in September as that's when we get good rates because everyone is going back to work and back to school. However, it is in the middle of hurricane season, so you have to be flexible and make sure you purchase travel insurance. Another good time is between Thanksgiving and Christmas. People want to travel for the holidays, but the time between offers some good rates since no one is traveling at that time.

Pete

[Paul Motter]

The funny thing the question "when should I book a cruise?" is that you don't if they mean "when should I make the booking?" or "for what time of year should I schedule my sailing?"

The first asks "when are future cruises priced the lowest; six months in advance, or the week before it sails?"

The second asks "at what time of year do the cheapest cruises sail?"