Weird computer glitch that almost caused our Getaway cruise to be cancelled! Yikes!

Just sharing, it's resolved, but was so weird, I wanted to share. We booked a cruise on the Getaway for August in April. It was after the final payment due date so we paid in full when we booked it. We paid for the cruise, and the additional charges for the UBP. We had chosen the internet package + the UBP at first. Then I decided to switch from the internet package to the dining package, so about ten days later, paid an additional amount for the service charge for the dining package. I also chose Ocean Blue so had an uncharge of $35.40 for that. About a month later, we decided to add Moderno, so paid an additional $59.88 for that.

We then got the invite to bid, and put in a bid for the Haven. I then saw a post that the fares had dropped and it might not be that much more to just pay the upgrade to a Haven room, so I did that last week. When I was on the phone with the nice NCL lady, she put through the added cost of the room, plus the additional cost for the travel insurance and the DSC. I gave her a credit card number for the additional charges. Everything was copacetic. Then, in reviewing the account, she saw that for some reason, the $35.40 for the Ocean Blue upcharge somehow did not transfer over on the reservation. So she apologized and said she'd have to put that charge through again, which she did.

Yesterday, we received a call from NCL that our final payment was overdue, and our cruise was in danger of being cancelled! When I called about it, I was told that we owed $35.40 on the cruise, and it was not considered paid in full. I told them that I had a confirmation showing that it was, in fact, already paid, and they assured me that the cruise would not be cancelled, and give it 24 hours to see if it resolved itself. So I did, and it did not.

When I called today, the nice young man who took my call suggested I check my credit card activity, since they showed the $35.40 charge was reversed! I did and to my surprise, a few days ago, it was. Weird. So he said he would take the credit card info and put it through again.

After I gave it to him, I got to thinking, and realized that the $35.40 charge had gone through in April, and when it didn't "transfer over" when I upgraded last week, I actually paid for it twice. That must've bee why it cancelled itself out. But that didn't explain why NCL was showing I was still owing $$ and in danger of my cruise being cancelled. So back to the phones, I called again and explained to the nice lady that it appeared that I was, in fact, charged twice, and that may be why it was zero'd out, but then I went ahead and gave them my card to pay it a third time... She put me on hold and when she came back she said while I was on hold, the new $35.40 charge was zero'd out again, and it was now showing a -0- balance on my account.

Whew! I asked her would they really cancel a $7,000 cruise for lack of payment of $35? And she said yes they would. That is ridiculous. If my cruise was cancelled due to that, I would be livid.

Bottom line, no one could explain why the charge didn't "transfer over" when I upgraded, nor could they explain why, if I had indeed paid it twice, it was still showing that I owed the money and was being threatened with cancellation. In the end, no harm no foul, as it appears that I have all my dinner reservations, my cruise is not cancelled, and the extra charges were supposedly returned to me, although as of this moment, the credit has not shown up yet on my account.

I get really fried when it is clearly a problem THEY have and they threaten you with canceling your cruise. And charge you 3 times to correct it! Good customer service needs to take over and they need to be able to protect that booking while it gets resolved.

Would they really cancel the entire cruise if the remaining amount was for an "optional extra" (a restaurant reservation, or perhaps also an excursion or such)?

Or would they just (at worst) cancel the extra?

GC

Would they really cancel the entire cruise if the remaining amount was for an "optional extra" (a restaurant reservation, or perhaps also an excursion or such)?

 

Or would they just (at worst) cancel the extra?

 

GC

Two separate calls to resolve the situation, two different NCL customer service people, both said YES they would definitely cancel an entire cruise even if the missing amount was a minuscule amount for a restaurant upgrade. That's what blew my mind. At least they called my home and left a message about it, otherwise, I did not receive an email. It was on my reservation but I would've had no reason to check my reservation on my NCL account as I had already paid in full and made all my dining and entertainment reservations. Update-I checked my credit card yesterday and both the duplicate charge and the reversal of it were taken care of and I checked my NCL and it is now showing paid in full, so whatever glitch caused it to show I owed $$ was taken care of. But what if I was out of town, or did not see the message on my answering machine in time and they canceled the entire cruise over this? I would not be a happy camper to say the least.

“...I was told that we owed $35.40 on the cruise, and it was not considered paid in full. I told them that I had a confirmation showing that it was, in fact, already paid, and they assured me that the cruise would not be cancelled, and give it 24 hours to see if it resolved itself. So I did, and it did not.

We had a similar issue on our upcoming Breakaway cruise.

A little unsettling, to say the least, since we were “Paid In Full” too!

For us it was the $11+ Cirque dinner up-charge that re-appeared on our account again after it was paid.

It also took more than 2 Calls to fix, after the cancellation notice was received, and not comforting that the Customer Service people couldn’t figure it out or guarantee that it wouldn’t happen again. How crazy!

Happily, though, as in your case, all worked out in the end (SO FAR!)....but glad we saw it and took care of it when we did!

So--update on this issue--we were so upset last night. To recap, I originally booked a balcony room. 60 days out, I booked the specialty restaurants, Le Bistro, Cagneys and Ocean Blue, as part of my UDP. I was told there was a $35.40 upcharge for Ocean Blue, so I paid that when I reserved the restaurants. A few weeks later, I decided to upgrade to the Haven. When I upgraded over the phone, the nice lady said oops, apparently when she transferred my reservation, the $35.40 upcharge did not transfer over, so I needed to pay that again. So I did. Then a few days before sailing, we receive a call saying we still owed $35.40 and if we didn't pay it our cruise was going to be cancelled. Several calls, telling them that I had paid it, and them saying look on your credit card bill, and me noticing the charge, then the charge was reversed, so I gave them my credit card to put it through again, then it was reversed again.

Ok, so last night was our last night on the cruise. We were looking forward to finishing our week at Ocean Blue. We got to Ocean Blue and checked in, and were told that we were able to order everything on the menu except the Seafood Extravaganza. What? Why? Because we never paid the upcharge. I was like, ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME?? YES I PAID IT! Several times, in fact.

The lady at the restaurant check in said, sorry, but according to our records, you didn't pay it, you have it as part of your specialty dining package, but since you didn't pay the upcharge, you can have anything on the menu except that. Oh, no you did-n't! We asked to speak with the maitre'd. She came and said the same thing. At this point, I was getting so upset. I explained we did pay it, then they called and said they were going to cancel the cruise if we didn't pay it so I paid it again. I offered to go up to my room and show it on my reservation. I offered to pull up my MasterCard statement and show them. No, sorry, our records say it's not paid so we have no choice.

At this point, DH started spooling up. Get a grownup! he said. We upgraded to the Haven, spent almost 7 grand on this vacation, do you think we're trying to scam you out of $35.40? So the restaurant manager came down. I explained the whole thing to her. We originally had a balcony room. Paid the upcharge as part of the speciality dining package. Transferred to the Haven. The $35.40 didn't transfer, so we paid it again. Then got a call threatening to cancel our cruise if we didn't pay the $35.40, so we paid it again. She said she'd go to the finance manager, but we should just go eat, they'll charge us the $35.40, and then reverse it once they figure out the problem. DH didn't want to do that, but we had just wasted 20 minutes arguing with them, so I said, let's just go eat, we'll deal with it after.

Honestly, it ruined the whole night for me. I had no appetite for the meal. Frankly, I might not have even ordered the Seafood Extravaganza, but I knew DH really wanted it. As we were sitting down eating, the restaurant manager came up with a copy our bill. She showed me how they charged us $35.40 and then reversed it when we upgraded, then charged us another $35.40 then reversed it after we got the "threatening" phone call. She implied that that showed we didn't pay it. I looked closer at the bill, and pointed out the $35.40 charge that we did pay in April, when we chose our restaurants. When I pointed that out to her, she said no, that was applied to our Haven costs. I said, that makes no sense! We paid that money for the upcharge, and the money we paid for the upgrade to the Haven was exactly what the difference in cost between our balcony room and the cost of the Haven courtyard, plus the increase in the DSC, the travel insurance, the port charges and taxes that we didn't pay the first time since that was "free" when I booked it, and the service charges on the beverage and dining packages. No where on my bill does it show that $35.40 was applied to the cost of the Haven.

I sat there steaming all through the dinner. Obviously, they believed that we did not pay the $35.40 and were trying to get away with something. Then the maitre'd came over to us, apologized for the confusion and offered to give us a bottle of wine, which we refused. So they were willing to go to war over $35.40 but then turn around and offer us a bottle of wine that costs more than that?

When we got up to the Haven, the concierge tried to explain it to us, saying that the $35.40 was applied to our Haven room, so we did not in fact pay the $35.40, but he could see how it was confusing. NO. We did pay the $35.40. If they applied it to the Haven, which I do not believe, since I don't see that charge anywhere being applied to the Haven, then why did they reverse the $35.40 charge after they said we still owed it to them? They said we still owed that money as of July 6th, I gave them my credit card, but then they reversed the charges. Why would they have done that if we still owed that?

I think what happened was, there was some confusion in the reservation when we did the upgrade, as the reservation agent told me when I upgraded that the $35.40 didn't transfer over. So obviously there was a glitch, they money didn't show up in the upgraded reservation, although they showed in their system that it was paid. And even after looking at all the charges, they still couldn't admit that's what happened, and tried to make us feel like we were wrong. I have proof that it was paid. Yet I sat there all through dinner with the reservation lady at the desk in the restaurant, the maitre'd and the restaurant manager all acting like I was wrong. It left such a bad taste in my mouth, I honestly could not even enjoy my dinner. Which, frankly, was not even that good. The best part about it was the bread.

Wow just read your update. That sounds like a very stressful dinner. Very frustrating to be treated like that when it was NCLs fault it sounds like. I bet they offered the bottle of wine because they were afraid you will rate their service low which honestly you should. They did not handle this right on the ship or at HQ. Hopefully the rest of your cruise was good at least. I would call in a few days and ask to speak to an upper manager and complain. Not right to spend $7000 and be treated like your trying to steal dinner or something.

The T&C posted here states the Seafood Extravaganza is not included even with the up charge.

The T&C posted here states the Seafood Extravaganza is not included even with the up charge.

What it says is"Guests who have purchased a Specialty Dining Package and wish to dine at one of the following venues will be charged an Upcharge instead of the full cover charge or a la carte price: Ocean Blue - $10 (does not include Seafood Extravaganza. If ordered, the upcharge is to be waived);"

I need this explained to me. If you have a specialty dining package, and choose Ocean Blue as one of your restaurants, and order the Seafood Extravaganza, they charge you separately for that, but waive the $10 upcharge? Here's why that makes no sense. First of all, when I booked Ocean Blue I was told they were adding on an upcharge of $35.40 for the two of us. Using either $10 which it seems to be now or $18 which some people said it used to be, I still don't get $35.40 as the upcharge amount.

The T&C also contains this provision:

ARE ANY MENU ITEMS EXCLUDED FROM SPECIALTY DINING PACKAGES?

No, all items listed on the menus are included in the package. Additional entrée charges also apply for dining at Cagney’s Steakhouse and Le Bistro.

Seems to me that this contradicts what we were told at Ocean Blue, they said the Seafood Extravaganza was not included, because we had not paid the upcharge.

The whole disagreement we had with them was because they specifically said we could order anything off the menu we wanted except the Seafood Extravaganza, because we had not paid the upcharge. Logic being, if we had paid the upcharge, we would have been able to order that.

Something similar to what the OP described happened to me! Booked cruise after the payment date so it was paid in full from day one. Called to book a shore excursion by phone so that I could reserve and noy pay until sailing so I could use OBC. After reserving the excursion, suddenly there is a notice on my online summary saying our payment is overdue and showing a balance due in the amount of the shore excursion and we're about to be cancelled.

I got in touch with my PCC who said there is one little check box on the amenity reservation that the agent has to remember to click or that will happen. Of course the PCC didn't have access to that system and I had to call Shorex again. Luckily I got an agent who knew his stuff and it was fixed in two seconds.

Definitely something that they need to get made idiot-proof in their system!