Book through US TA or UK?

[Cassicruiser]

We live in Australia and the prices of a cruise we are looking at are about the same through an Australian or US online agent. But I have found a price through a UK online agent that works out just over $1000 Aus$ cheaper (about $750 US) for us due to the favourable pound exchange rate. It seems like a no brainer to book through the UK agent, BUT, at this stage I can only get an oceanview cabin as no balconies are available. If I book through an Aus or US agent, the cancellation/upgrade policies are flexible and I could nab a balcony if they became available and just pay the difference. But the UK policies are totally inflexible and I would have to cancel and rebook, or pay hefty fees to upgrade (I think).

 

I really don't know whether to just take the $1000 saving and settle for an oceanview.... No one can tell me if balconies are sold out (unlikely for a Med cruise in April 2017) or just blocked off for some reason. But after final payment they could still become available. Any advice welcomed re this please :confused:

[zqvol]

I would be surprised if balconies are truly sold out, as in they are all gone and booked. I suspect that a large number are reserved by TAs. I would suggest that a cruise in the Med is extremely port intensive and just having an OV is not necessarily bad. Remember there are always quiet places on different decks you can go to watch the world sail by.

 

You clearly understand the limitations of booking with a British TA, so there is no need to explain that to you.

[callmehalia]

There's like a month's worth of Spirit cruises which aren't showing available balconies, and it's been like this for a while. Even when we booked our 2017 Spirit cruise back in February, we couldn't see any cabins on deck 10 (our preferred deck) and had to have a PCC book it, as she could get at them just fine.

 

With Spirit scheduled for a dry dock, but only 4 days being allowed for it from what I've seen, and this funny stuff with the balconies, it's all a bit curious. Personally I would be inclined to hold off on booking until things become clearer. Or spend the extra cash to have the flexible booking terms.

 

That being said, if you do cancel and rebook on a UK booking, you'd just lose the deposit (providing you're outside of the cancellation period, of course). And UK bookings don't pay gratuities on SDP/UBP. We've upgraded before and it's been no trouble, we just had to pay the difference between what we paid and what the cabin we want is currently selling for, but I have read about others having problems with this (typical NCL - if you don't like the answer you get, call again). We even had an upsell from NCL on our last cruise, ie at a discounted rate like the US bookings get. What they won't do is move you to a higher category for free, even if it's selling at less than what you paid, as I believe they insist upon a monetary transaction to change category (at least in my experience).

 

If I've got the wrong end of the stick and you aren't talking about the Spirit, just ignore my musings :)

Edited September 10, 2016 by callmehalia

[Froggitt]

Give NCL UK a call, they will have access to the whole inventory of cabins. Prices are often the same as online TAs. Try this number..... 020 8834 9102

 

Plus as above, booking thru UK you save a few hundred dollars on the drinks package and the restaurant package.

[Cassicruiser]

There's like a month's worth of Spirit cruises which aren't showing available balconies, and it's been like this for a while. Even when we booked our 2017 Spirit cruise back in February, we couldn't see any cabins on deck 10 (our preferred deck) and had to have a PCC book it, as she could get at them just fine.

 

With Spirit scheduled for a dry dock, but only 4 days being allowed for it from what I've seen, and this funny stuff with the balconies, it's all a bit curious. Personally I would be inclined to hold off on booking until things become clearer. Or spend the extra cash to have the flexible booking terms.

 

That being said, if you do cancel and rebook on a UK booking, you'd just lose the deposit (providing you're outside of the cancellation period, of course). And UK bookings don't pay gratuities on SDP/UBP. We've upgraded before and it's been no trouble, we just had to pay the difference between what we paid and what the cabin we want is currently selling for, but I have read about others having problems with this (typical NCL - if you don't like the answer you get, call again). We even had an upsell from NCL on our last cruise, ie at a discounted rate like the US bookings get. What they won't do is move you to a higher category for free, even if it's selling at less than what you paid, as I believe they insist upon a monetary transaction to change category (at least in my experience).

 

If I've got the wrong end of the stick and you aren't talking about the Spirit, just ignore my musings :)

Thanks for your replies - yes it is the Spirit I'm looking at. So just to be clear, you've previously upgraded to a balcony and just paid the difference, and booked in the UK?

 

And great idea Froggitt - I'll give them a call.

Edited September 10, 2016 by Cassicruiser

[callmehalia]

Thanks for your replies - yes it is the Spirit I'm looking at. So just to be clear, you've previously upgraded to a balcony and just paid the difference, and booked in the UK?

 

 

 

I've upgraded from a balcony to an aft, and then unsold to a penthouse. I've also upgraded from a balcony straight to a penthouse. And actually, my next one is a balcony which I upgraded to an aft.

 

 

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[Cassicruiser]

I've upgraded from a balcony to an aft, and then unsold to a penthouse. I've also upgraded from a balcony straight to a penthouse. And actually, my next one is a balcony which I upgraded to an aft.

 

 

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Sounds quite flexible :) Did you book all these directly through Norwegian UK, or through a UK travel agent?

[callmehalia]

Sounds quite flexible :) Did you book all these directly through Norwegian UK, or through a UK travel agent?

 

 

 

All direct with NCL. UK travel agents really can't do much on the price I've found, and I like to be in control of my own booking (obviously I'm always fiddling with things!)

 

 

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[Cassicruiser]

All direct with NCL. UK travel agents really can't do much on the price I've found, and I like to be in control of my own booking (obviously I'm always fiddling with things!)

 

 

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I'm definitely calling them. I know a UK online travel agent won't go in to bat for me if I need to change things.

[Blondie008]

I have never been charged extra at any time on any cruiseline from the UK as long as I am upgrading - never - I use an agent - don't go direct as I get 10% discount from the cruiseline's lowest price offer. For sure - no charge to upgrade the booking.

[Number34]

All direct with NCL. UK travel agents really can't do much on the price I've found, and I like to be in control of my own booking (obviously I'm always fiddling with things!)

 

 

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I think it depends on the TA, mine beat the online NCL price and then included prepaid DSC on top. That said I will be looking at upgrades nearer the sail date as have a GTY BB on Spirit for March 2017 and when I last checked there are no balconies of any sort available.

Edited September 10, 2016 by Number34

[Cassicruiser]

I have never been charged extra at any time on any cruiseline from the UK as long as I am upgrading - never - I use an agent - don't go direct as I get 10% discount from the cruiseline's lowest price offer. For sure - no charge to upgrade the booking.

 

That's good to hear. I called NCL yesterday and they said upgrading is not a problem if balconies become available, even if we book through a TA.

Callmehalia, you're right, booking direct with Norwegian direct was a bit more, with no real benefit I guess, so I think we're going to go ahead and book through a UK TA. It saves us a bout 30% so I think worth it to put up with the lack of flexibility.

[FreestyleNovice]

Bon voyage!

[TrixieBel]

Just check the different cancellation rules for bookings made in different countries. We have booked both our NCL cruises through a US based PCC because of those different rules. Glad we did because we had booked a third cruise and had to cancel and because we had booked through the US system there was no cancellation fee :-)

 

 

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[evitacruiser]

NCL UK were totally inflexible last year on our booking. We wanted to upgrade but were told we would lose all the perks; UDP and UBP, which I knew wasn't correct. Their agents didn't seem to know their own policies and by the time we had one who did all the balconies were sold out. I complained and we did get a compensatory gesture after the event but I would rather have had a balcony cabin. Our UK TA was also useless.

 

Previously, we have booked via a US TA and after that expeience would always do so in the future.. The service level is just so different. We have just booked for July 2017 via our usual US TA and already she is so much easier to deal with.

 

For a few dollars more I would rather have the US level of service.

Edited September 11, 2016 by evitacruiser

[Cassicruiser]

NCL UK were totally inflexible last year on our booking. We wanted to upgrade but were told we would lose all the perks; UDP and UBP, which I knew wasn't correct. Their agents didn't seem to know their own policies and by the time we had one who did all the balconies were sold out. I complained and we did get a compensatory gesture after the event but I would rather have had a balcony cabin. Our UK TA was also useless.

 

Previously, we have booked via a US TA and after that expeience would always do so in the future.. The service level is just so different. We have just booked for July 2017 via our usual US TA and already she is so much easier to deal with.

 

For a few dollars more I would rather have the US level of service.

Wow thats pretty bad! If it was just a few dollars more I would have booked through the US but it was $1000 more!

[Cassicruiser]

Update: After reading all your replies I got a little worried about booking through a UK TA due to the lack of flexibility but the price difference due to the exchange rate was a big drawcard so yesterday I called the UK TA to book and the person I spoke to was so incompetent, and uninformed, that I decided not to book with them and keep researching. Lucky I did! Being the OCD travel organiser that I am, I spent hours trawling through various UK and US websites, and stumbled on one US online agent (a big well known one) that for some reason was the only one out of about 10 that I checked that had not changed their prices yet. (All others had gone up in the past few weeks by 30%)

 

I don’t know why or how, but I was quoted a little less than I was going to pay through the UK agent, and significantly less than all the other US agents. And they gave us OBC on top of the Norwegian 2 perks we could choose, and reduced deposit. AND told me unprompted that until final payment date we could take advantage of price drops, upgrades etc. Needless to say I jumped on it!!!

 

How I found this deal I have no idea, but I’m so happy I did that I had to share!

[TrixieBel]

Well done!

 

 

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