Native Floridian 26

Not sure if this has been mentioned but there is a website where TAs "compete" for your business by giving you offers/bids on a specific sailing. We use this often and have booked with a few agencies based on their offer. HAL and Princess cruises can be discounted and they'll give you OBC too. You can even transfer from a HAL booking to a TA booking and they generally keep the offer they gave you even though it's not a new booking.

Norwegian used to be great. However, they no longer do the Transatlantic flights that saved us so much money.

Nieuw Statendam is not in Key West. CM says en route to Nassau.

This! Our original flights with American were cancelled and they said due to nonpayment. Had to fight to get new flights and the original price we had booked at.

This is not unique to HAL. We were on a Mediterranean cruise on MSC in November and we had 3 changes that occurred. Instead of leaving from Marghera near Venice, they left from Trieste a couple of hours away. Instead of stopping at Split, Croatia, we went to Zadar, and instead of ending up in Marghera we went to Trieste again. They blamed the first two on weather, but there was no compensation. In fact leaving from Trieste and returning there cost MSC much more money, because they had to bus everyone to the new port because we were told to show up at the original port in Venice.

It does no harm to book Flexible flights through FlightEase to lock into the price. No downside, and if they get cheaper, you can rebook all the way up until final payment. That's the joy of FE. Also, they generally don't sell the lowest basic economy fares. You'll usually get your luggage included which makes a difference in the price when comparing to other travel sites.

Thank you. Just wanted to make sure and see if as the cruise gets closer, what was happening to the prices.

Is it possible just out of curiosity just to browse the flights? Once I get to where I can view my flights, if I go into Change Flights will that mess anything up?

You said the cruise is in a few months. Are the protocols even published yet? I only see first quarter cruises listed.

Yes, you pick the days, the times, the cities, airports, everything.

ONBOARD credit, not before.

OK great. I finally got the right document from my TA showing my correct OBC. Whew!

Has anyone been able to see that this OBC has been applied by HAL? It was supposed to be January 31st.

They must have changed the $1 deposit offer this time. In August we booked our 14 night April Transatlantic with $1 deposit inside cabin Private Fare, no HIA. The rates were very low in conjunction with the $1 deposit so it was a no-brainer. We then moved the reservation to a TA and got further discount and OBC. Once we got reasonable airfare through Flightease and a few other $ saving perks, we made final payment. Sorry it didn't work out for some this time.

We recently made final payment for our cruise and Flight Ease flights with gift cards through our TA.

Actually it was American, not United.

My flights were cancelled a couple weeks ago by United presumably for non-payment.

How do I know if I have a Past Cruiser Fare Category? I have not been denied the stockholder OBC.

I think I read that you can now use FCCs for deposits. My question is then, if you use the FCC for deposit and the booking is a Non-refundable deposit, then you lose the FCC if you cancel before Final Payment? I haven't been on the Royal boards much lately, so pardon if this has been clarified before. My search didn't find the exact answer. Also, have there been any promotions lately where FCC's are given a boost?

You could apply the gift card to your stateroom as OBC, then just charge the casino to your cabin.

When I do the car rental searches, only Budget and Avis come up with dropoffs at and shuttles to Port Everglades. In the past you could drop a car at FLL and Alamo would shuttle you over to Port Everglades by bus, but they don't appear to do that anymore. Are there any other agencies that you can drop a car near the port and get shuttled to the ships? Yes, I know you can drop the car at FLL and get an Uber to the port. Just looking at all options.

Ok great. Thank you.

Thanks. I can see ticketed on AA, but not on Iberia, the codeshare who is operating the transatlantic leg. It still says confirmed hold.

Yes, I can see flights, but not enough detail to see my fare class. I can call FE.