If there’s anything definite about travel these days, it’s that it’s totally unpredictable.
We found this out the hard way on Tuesday, when our April 2024 Transatlantic cruise – a cruise we have been planning for over 6 months – was cancelled. 😢
It started out when we noticed some rumblings on a Facebook group that was created for our sailing. People were commenting that our ship – Celebrity Beyond – was available for booking Caribbean sailings when she was supposed to be in Europe after our Transatlantic cruise. I hoped and prayed it was an error on the website, but then the official email from Celebrity Cruises came through.
Celebrity decided to redeploy the Beyond to the Caribbean for all of 2024. This meant that all of her sailings in Europe for 2024 were cancelled, in addition to our repositioning cruise. The Transatlantic was now being sailed by Celebrity Silhouette, which is a completely different class/type of ship.
This was a huge disappointment for us, as 75% of the reason we booked this itinerary was for the ship. Beyond is an absolutely jaw-droppingly gorgeous ship, with innovative green spaces and decor like no other. Not to mention she is captained by the legendary Captain Kate!! (this is her website) If you don’t know Captain Kate, you need to. She is the first female American cruise ship captain. Not only that, she is super friendly and can often be seen on board greeting passengers and taking selfies with them, etc. She also has a super cute cat named Bug Naked on board with her who even has her own Instagram account!
In 2015 I became the first female American Captain of a mega cruise ship. Women currently only represent 2% of the maritime industry so I quickly realized that my promotion meant that I had been given an incredible platform, and if that platform was used properly, it could help normalize women in this profession. It took me 19 years to earn my title and my hope for the future is that those who are coming up the ranks after me will be referred to as “CAPTAIN” and not “female Captain.”
#JustCallMeCaptain
Captain Kate McCue
Photos courtesy https://www.thecaptainkate.com/
Anyway, enough fan-girling!! Back to the matter at hand – our much anticipated cruise had been cancelled. What were we going to do? First, here is our original ship and itinerary:
What an amazing ship and itinerary, amirite?? 🤩
In light of the cancellation, Celebrity Cruises offered us either a 100% refund to our original form of payment, or the option of rebooking on any Transatlantic or European sailing on Celebrity Ascent, Celebrity Apex, Celebrity Constellation, or Celebrity Equinox. If we chose the rebooking option, we would also receive $100 USD of on board credit.
A quick scan of the ships offered above ruled out Constellation and Equinox instantly. Our original ship – Beyond – is part of the Edge class of Celebrity ships. It is their newest ship (launched 2022) in their newest class of ships. Constellation is a Millennium Class ship launched in 2002 and Equinox is a Solstice Class ship launched in 2009 and refurbished in 2019. They are great ships in their own right, but just not comparable to what we had booked.
Next we looked at Celebrity Apex’s itinerary for similar dates (April/May 2024). Apex is the second newest ship in the Edge class, launched in 2021, so it is similar to Beyond, albeit a bit smaller. The itinerary was also a Transatlantic, but 13 days instead of 14, with a different route:
We briefly considered this itinerary, as I really want to visit Ireland. But my opinion was that when we visit Ireland, I want to also see Scotland and England, and spend a good two weeks exploring that area, not just a couple of quick port stops.
Next we looked at the Celebrity Ascent. Ascent is going to be the fourth ship in the Edge class, and will be launched in November 2023!! It will be very similar to Beyond, and brand new! Hmmm… we liked this idea. But what about the itinerary??
To be honest, we were disappointed. It is 13 days instead of our original 14 day sailing. Plus, several ports were missing from our original booking (Cartagena, Spain; Nice, France; and Rome, Italy). That is a huge difference. We were going to spend a couple of extra days exploring Rome after debarkation as well. The cost was a bit lower, however.
So now we were faced with two options:
- Rebook on the brand new Celebrity Ascent Transatlantic itinerary with fewer ports, but at a lower cost and a bonus $100 on board credit.
- Take the refund, start researching, and book something completely different.
After talking it over quite a bit, we chose option #1. We loved the fact that the ship would be brand new, but not so new that it wouldn’t already have the kinks worked out from the first few sailings. We also loved the fact that it would be very similar in amenities and design as the Beyond. We decided that after we disembark in Barcelona, we can take a cheap flight to Rome (we saw one for 76 Euros) and still explore there for a couple of days. I called Celebrity, and after about an hour on hold, I was able to switch our cancelled reservation on Beyond over to Ascent. We got the same room category and even the exact same stateroom! It was a pretty seamless process, except for the hold time…which brings me to my next Pro Tip.
Pro Tip #1: USE A TRAVEL AGENT! When your cruise/flight/vacation gets cancelled, it often takes HOURS to sort it out. Do you want to be on hold for hours? Or would you rather have someone else take care of it for you? I think you know the answer. 😉
Pro Tip #2: Always book refundable hotel rooms and flights. We hadn't booked our flights yet, but we had booked hotels. Our hotel bookings had free cancellation, so no problems there. As far as flights go, whenever possible, we book flexible airfares, so that if anything comes up, we are able to change dates without fees. Flex fares may seem more expensive at the time of booking, but they usually include advance seat selection, and one checked bag, in addition to waiving change fees. We find once you take these things into account, the fare difference between standard and flex is negligible.
So… what would you have done in our situation? Let us know in the comments below!
As always, thanks for reading and SEA you soon!
Shelly
The Landlocked Travelers 