Understanding Celebrity Cruises Staterooms & Fares
Choosing the right stateroom for your Celebrity Cruises holiday can seem like a daunting task given the number options available, especially when you haven't been on a cruise before. Here at Pure Holidays we are experts when it comes to Celebrity Cruises and have created a helpful guide to assist in understanding all the stateroom jargon, cruise fares and choosing the right stateroom for you.
Alternatively you can call or email our cruise experts today as are we always on to hand to offer helpful & friendly advice if you can't find what you are looking for.
Quick Jump to Contents
- Choosing your Celebrity Cruises Fare
- Celebrity Cruises Cabin Grades & Categories
- Celebrity Cabin Facilities
- Celebrity Cruises Fly-Cruise
Choosing your Celebrity Cruises Fare
One of the first things you are mostly likely to be asked is what cruise promotion are you looking for? So what does this mean? Essentially they are the costs for your holiday that come with different promotional benefits. When travelling Celebrity Cruises they offer three main promotions or fares, these are as follows:
No Perks Fare
This Celebrtiy Cruises fare allows customers to book their holiday at the best possible price with no added value benefits included. Available with all cruise only products (excluding Galapagos voyages) across all room grades (excluding Suites) and comes with a choice of room number & dining (where applicable). As with all cruises, full board basis including your main meals (breakfast, lunch & dinner) with hot drinks, water etc are always included as standard.
In addition takeaway, grills or pizzeria's are also included, however some many have supplements that will be listed on the menus onboard. You can also opt to add pre-paid gratuities before boarding the ship either at the time of booking or via your Celebrity Cruises App - which we have included already with all pricing shown on the website.
On occasions through the year Celebrity Cruises do include promotions with all fares such are extra stateroom savings, reduced/free flights, stateroom upgrades, onboard spend, free parking etc - all of which will be detailed on the website for applicable sailings with T&C's.
All Included Fare
For those looking to upgrade to an all-inclusive package, this fare will be the ticket you are looking. It already includes the standard benefits of the 'No Perks Fare' plus a Classic Drinks Package & WiFi. Just as the same as the No Perks Fare, you can opt to add pre-paid gratuities before boarding the ship either at the time of booking or via your Celebrity Cruises App - which we have included already with all pricing shown on the website & again, this can be combined with any special promotions that Celebrity Cruises may offer.
The Retreat Suite Fare
For those booking Suite Rooms you will be booked on a designated fare called 'The Retreat'. This comes with standard benefits of the fares listed above plus additional benefits such as Premium drinks + WiFi, access to a private Retreat open side deck area and lounge.
Plus additional perks such as dedicated concierge team including butlers, priority check-in, reserved seating in the theatre on Chic nights, decidated restuarant plus a host of other perks. (Please note that additional extras vary dependant on the ship you are sailings on)
You can also opt to add pre-paid gratuities before boarding the ship either at the time of booking or via your Celebrity Cruises App - which we have included already with all pricing shown on the website. With every Celebrity Cruises holiday listed on the website, we have included all available fares & information on to help you see what is included as part of your holiday.
Understanding Celebrity Cruises Cabin Grades & Categories
Once you have chosen the cruise fare that best suits you, you'll be faced with the endless choice of stateroom grades and the corresponding colour codes. Depending on which Celebrity Cruises ship you're choosing booking the options available can be a little more easier, for example Celebrity Apex has over fifteen stateroom choices compared to Celebrity Summit which only has tweleve.
Across all the ships within the Celebrity Cruises fleet, the stateroom grades are broken down in to 6 main stateroom grades of Interior, Oceanview (or Seaview), Balcony, Concierge Balcony, Aqua Class Balcony, & Suites. The below example is from Celebrity Apex shows how the staterooms are shown on the deck plans.
When booking your Celebrity Cruises holiday with us our website includes the deck plan for each ship, so you can easily see where they are located, choose the right one for you as well what the symbols mean.
Please Note: For Summer 2023 holidays onwards Celebrity Cruises have updated & simplified their room grades per category. We have updated our website to include the new room grades & deck plans
Celebrity Apex Stateroom grouping by Deck
One of the first things that we are asked by our customers is what's the difference between the categories within the stateroom grades? Well to be honest not much! Celebrity Cruises, like many cruise lines, it's all down to the location of your cabin that can determine the cost. The only exception is the Concierge & Aqua class balconies as they come with additional benefits on top of the stanard balcony stateroom. The view is that the best staterooms are located in the center of the ship as they offer less movement when cruising.
The simpliest way we like to explain it to customers is if you take a ship as a see-saw, the closer you are to middle the less movement you will feel, which will result in the higher price of the stateroom.
If we use the above image as an example, when looking at the Concierge Balcony, the C3 works out the cheapest as they are located towards the front or back, where as the C1 grades are located in the center.
Choosing you Room Top Tips: We always recommend to customers to look for staterooms that are on the edge category changes, this is because you are getting the same room at a cheaper cost - as per the example from Celebrity Edge below.
Additionally, if you are looking for a quieter stateroom/cabin we recommend avoiding rooms located above or below facilities such as the pool decks, entertainment venues, dining venues etc as these can generate noise at night by guests or from crew preparing them for the day ahead.
You may have noticed that some rooms have symbols included and wondered what these mean? Along with different colours, these are to indicate to customers slight differences in those stateroom, for example the main one is to identify staterooms that can accommodate 4 guests and how the bed configuration is setup, if the rooms is obstructed or have inter-connecting doors. These are then listed as stateroom notes in the brochure, or with the case of our website on the deck plans.
Celebrity Cruises Cabin Facilities
Like many hotels, cruise ships also offer different facilities, perks and benefits depending on the cabin grade you decide to book. All staterooms on Celebrity Cruises include en-suite facilites, in-cabin televisions, telephones, hairdryers, mini-fridge & America/Europan plug sockets - so remember to pack a few adaptor plugs!
As mentioned above as you go up through the stateroom grades additional perks and benefits are included such as butler service, bathrobes, pillow selection and priority embarkation/disembarkation. We've made it easy for you to see what is included with each stateroom grade before you decide to book. On each cruise ship and applicable cruise holiday page you will find a detailed description of the facilities available, as per the below image.
Celebrity Cruises Fly-Cruises
You may have noticed that all our pricing for the cruise holidays is based on cruise only, with the exception for sailings from Southampton as these would be just cruise only!
Don'y worry, when filling in a quotation form or calling us just mention you are looking for a fly cruise holiday and we can looking at the costings through Celebrity Cruises for both flights, transfers & hotel stay - which some are required for long-haul destinations such as Florida, Alaska, Far East, Australia etc. due to arriving flight times. The main reason we do this with fly-cruises holidays if that you are protected under Celebrity Cruises ATOL, so if your flight is delayed then the ship will wait for you.
A little known fact is that if you book your own flights & its delayed or cancelled its your responsibility to get to the next port at your own expense.
Hopefully our simple guide can help you make a more informed decision and choosing the right cabin when booking Celebrity Cruises holidays with ourselves & our cruise experts.