Any Downside to Non-Refundable Deposits?

[martyap]

Sorry if I offended anyone.......I can certainly see that booking the NRD fare very far in advance can be risky. I always take my own travel insurance because it is a small price to pay for piece of mind.....and I have used it twice so it has come in handy.

 

We booked this June, 2018 cruise at the future cruise desk on the Allure last April. At that time the CP balconies were around $1400pp and we left a $50pp deposit. Over the last several months there have been periodic "sales" which we took advantage of. Since I am footing the bill for all ten of us.....sales helped. Prior to this morning the $1400pp price was down to around $1100pp......a total savings of around $3000.

 

I had known about the NRD pricing but it never seemed as much of a reduction as when I priced it this morning. This now brought the new per person fare to around $900 from the original $1400pp booking.

 

Yes, I had to add $2000 to my original deposit but for us the risk reward was OK. RCCL plays with prices all the time and this is a summer cruise to the Caribbean so I expected the prices to fall. My suggestion........keep looking to see if the current deals work for you.

[Mickfarland4]

It is not complicated. It is a family cruise, same ship, same date, 5 cabins.........final payment is only three months away. These are not separate cruises far in the future. I already pulled the trigger. We are going on this cruise and saving this amount of money was a nice Hanukkah gift......simply by making my deposit non refundable.....we do not have CFAR insurance but the only reason we would not be on this cruise is for a reason that was covered.....this is not brain surgery. Please close the subject.

Question, how did you go about doing this? Would I need to call? I have a nr on Anthem for Oct, but the more I think, the more I'd like to move to summer 2019 and do a longer cruise.

 

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[martyap]

Question, how did you go about doing this? Would I need to call? I have a nr on Anthem for Oct, but the more I think, the more I'd like to move to summer 2019 and do a longer cruise.

 

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Not sure what your question is. We usually book directly with the cruise line and then transfer the booking to a TA like Costco Travel. In that case any changes must go through the TA. I periodically go to the RCCL site and plot my exact cruise, same cabin type, same category, same everything and see what the current price is and what perks like OBC they are offering. I usually don't do anything unless there is a reduction/savings of at least $75. If there is I simply call the TA and they negotiate the new price with RCCL and they email you an updated invoice. The RCCL site has different sales/promos weekly so you have to keep looking.

 

The deal; this morning offered one pricing with a refundable deposit.......and a lower price + $100 OBC if you were willing to book with a non refundable deposit

[YoHoHo]

You did indeed save a lot and worked it out well. Have a great cruise