Can I rebook an existing reservation onboard?

[Donny-Joe]

I did some searches on this and didn't find the answer; I apologize if this is a FAQ.

 

We have a Christmas cruise booked on the Nieuw Amsterdam and an Alaska cruise next summer. I'm wondering if we can rebook the Alaska cruise while onboard this December and get the future cruise benefits, while retaining our rooms and reservation numbers. Or can we buy the future cruise certificates and at some point apply them to the existing reservations?

 

Obviously we can cancel and rebook, assuming the pricing hasn't changed too much, but we already have some special requests in place, cabanas booked, etc. that I'd prefer not to have to recreate from scratch.

[sail7seas]

My understanding is you can buy FCD and apply them to an existing reservation. You would likely not get a refund for the deposit you already placed but that just means you'll have a lower balance to pay when it is time for final payment. Your deposit would have been more than what it would be using FCD's.

 

[ScriptOhio]

I did some searches on this and didn't find the answer; I apologize if this is a FAQ.

 

We have a Christmas cruise booked on the Nieuw Amsterdam and an Alaska cruise next summer. I'm wondering if we can rebook the Alaska cruise while onboard this December and get the future cruise benefits, while retaining our rooms and reservation numbers. Or can we buy the future cruise certificates and at some point apply them to the existing reservations?

 

Obviously we can cancel and rebook, assuming the pricing hasn't changed too much, but we already have some special requests in place, cabanas booked, etc. that I'd prefer not to have to recreate from scratch.

 

You can not have duel bookings for the same cruise, the future cruise consultant can not cancel an existing booking, with any (new) booking/rebooking you get the current price (i.e. not the price of one that you just cancelled if it happened to be lower), and you can not apply a future cruise booking retroactively to an existing booking.

 

This was asked in a previous thread:

 

We are off to New Zealand in a few weeks, then to the South Pacific in March. We wanted to make sure we had a specific room for the South Pacific so went ahead and booked direct with HAL in June instead of waiting until our NZ trip to book on board and get our OBC but not the position on the ship we wanted.

 

Question is, if you have a future cruise already booked can you go to the Future Cruise Consultant and have the OBC added to that cruise, because it is after all a Future Cruise :)

 

Here was my response:

 

The answer is no. However I achieved it on a cruise this summer. I checked prior to getting on the Veendam to make sure my cruise price was the same as what I had originally booked. The Veendam's future cruise guy confirmed that I had to cancel my original booking first as HAL's computer won't accept "double bookings", etc. On the day of departure as we are pulling out of Boston harbor I am sitting at the future cruise guy's desk; he verified my cruise price was still the same, I called HAL Seattle on my cell phone cancelling my existing booking, and immediately re-booked (new booking number) the cruise I just cancelled with the future cruise guy. I got the future cruise credit and he confirmed my dining time (early). In addition, they were running a "Mariner Appreciation Days Special" promotion, i.e. you get 50% more credit on future bookings made on-board up until 30 Jul 2013; I got that too. There was also a prize raffle/drawing (one ticket per cruise booked) as part of the promotion; needless to say I didn't win. I never win raffle/drawings.

[Krazy Kruizers]

A couple of years ago we bought a couple of FCD's and when we got home, we had hoped to add them to an existing booking.

The answer from HAL -- nope. We would have to cancel our existing cruise lose our picked cabin and start all over.

[Donny-Joe]

A couple of years ago we bought a couple of FCD's and when we got home, we had hoped to add them to an existing booking.

 

The answer from HAL -- nope. We would have to cancel our existing cruise lose our picked cabin and start all over.

 

Yes, I just read the fine print and it says "for new bookings only." That said, unless you're past the PIF date they know you can cancel and rebook. And if you are quick about it, you can probably get back your original staterooms, or ones just as good. It seems silly that they don't just offer to apply it to your booking.

 

I understand that the point of these FCDs is to encourage people to book a new cruise they might not otherwise have taken. But they have to know that they will also be used by repeat cruisers who are going to take a cruise anyway; that's true of any promotion - there's no easy way to restrict it only to new customers. Why not make things easier on everyone?