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25% deposit on Antarctic cruise?


safarigal7072
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The agent we have been working with is requiring a 25% non-refundable deposit to book a 22-day Antarctic cruise 18 months out. This seems extravagant. Does anyone know what is the norm? she is giving us a discount, but we still stand to lose a lot of money if we should have to cancel.

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Cruise lines set the deposit and the terms. We booked a Ponant Antarctica sailing for January, 2018 in March, 2016 and paid a 25% non-refundable deposit. For the early booking, a very nice discount was being offered, so we didn't mind.

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I don't think a 20% non refundable deposit is reasonable 18 months out on an Antarctica cruise.

 

If you go ahead, read the fine print on your insurance, to make sure you are covered for every cancellation reason. We are not covered for everything under our Australian insurance policies.

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Yes we had to pay for the insurance within 10 days of booking to be covered if Silversea went under. Since our cruise is not until December 2018, we paid it, remember Renaissance cruises and their R ships?

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I don't think a 20% non refundable deposit is reasonable 18 months out on an Antarctica cruise.

 

If you go ahead, read the fine print on your insurance, to make sure you are covered for every cancellation reason. We are not covered for everything under our Australian insurance policies.

 

Lol you may not think it's reasonable but it's perfectly normal practice for polar expedition deposits to be up to 25%.

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Lol you may not think it's reasonable but it's perfectly normal practice for polar expedition deposits to be up to 25%.

 

My concern is "non refundable". 25% of the cost of an Antarctica cruise is a lot of money to loose, if you have to cancel due to reasons not covered by your insurance policy. I am not familiar with "cancel for any reason" insurance policies in Australia.

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No to my knowledge "cancel for any reason" is an American thing - definitely never heard of it in any Aus policies I have personally read.

 

In my case and in many other cases with various expedition companies the "non refundable" bit just means it will be moved over to another trip for the person involved. I have only heard of one person ever losing their deposit and that was due to a medical condition that meant they were not going to be ever able to travel again AND they were stupidly 100% uninsured. It was only weeks prior to the departure (and the final balance being due) and the expedition company gave them many options - like transferring the deposit to another trip, providing a credit for a family member, letting a random family member take the existing trip etc. It was too last minute for the company to recoup its own losses on a full cabin so it was within its rights to retain the deposit.

 

And I am pretty sure that couple learned the hard financial lesson about travel insurance.

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  • 5 weeks later...

Hebridean Sky is actually owned by Noble Caledonia. In fact we are doing Antarctica on sister ship Island Sky next November. Check out the Noble Caledonia site , you may get a better deal booking direct with them.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

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