New Booking...Full Fare and Payment Within 5 Days

[Fla Mike]

Hi

 

I'm looking at a 7 day Eastern Caribbean on the Nieuw Amsterdam for February 2019 and I see two fares, an attractive restrictive fare, with a non refundable deposit, and what seems to be a refundable fare with the "Explore 4" offer. About a $390.00 difference in the price.

 

Now I can see the restricted fare having a non refundable deposit, maybe even full payment within 5 days, as it is a good deal, but full payment in 5 days on a regular fare?

 

This would be our first HAL cruise so I'm not sure if this is the norm or am I missing something?

 

I checked some on-line TA's and one wants full payment now, totally non refundable and others seem to be using a normal 75-76 days for full payment, on the same cruise.

 

Thanks for some insight as I'm totally confused.

[fatcat04]

First, may I suggest calling HAL for anything to do with actually booking the cruise. The website is just a mess. We get a new thread just about everyday on the forum about the website going wacky and messing up. You will be able to confirm the details of your fare options with a live human being which will be far more reassuring than risking it with the gremlins who inhabit the website.

As for the fares, the HAL rep can give you all the fares available whereas the website now only lists 2, Explore4 which includes the drink package etc and the non-refundable, which does look appealing. There are others not listed generally, like the rate minus Explore4 benefits but with fully refundable deposit. And if you book with HAL and want to move the booking to a TA, that works too. Many folks do that for the perks.

 

The catch with the nonrefundable deposit fare is you are locked in. No changes or you lose the deposit. So if the fare goes down prior to final payment (and we are almost 200 days out yet), you are stuck. Otherwise with the refundable deposit, you can just rebook at the lower fare with no penalty.

I can't help you with the 5 days to pay thing. That is the general policy to pay the deposit only not the full fare on our present booking. We are on a NA cruise in Feb 2019 and our final full payment date is in November, which is in line with standard HAL practice (75 days out) for most Caribbean week long cruises.

Hope this helps :D

[Krazy Kruizers]

Work with a TA that can call HAL and get the information you need.

I would never book a cruise with a non refundable deposit or even non refundable fare.

[Lido deck main]

It’s a gamble where to pay full fare non refundable or pay the higher refundable. I gambled and paid the higher refundable fare in January 2018 for my September 2018 cruise. I could have saved $600.00 per person on the fare if I had booked non-refundable, I paid the higher refundable fare so that I could avail on the Ready Set Sail promotion (include Gratuities)that I knew would be out a couple of months after I booked. When Ready Set Sail promo came out they increased the fare $600.00 from the higher refundable amount. Anyhow long story short on my cruise the price or promos never came out lower than the refundable higher price that I paid. In my own circumstance if I has book non-refundable I would have save $1,200.00 for the both of us. It’s a gamble either way, I think one has to book with a price they are happy to pay and not expect any more discounts or promotions.

[OlsSalt]

Hi

 

I'm looking at a 7 day Eastern Caribbean on the Nieuw Amsterdam for February 2019 and I see two fares, an attractive restrictive fare, with a non refundable deposit, and what seems to be a refundable fare with the "Explore 4" offer. About a $390.00 difference in the price.

 

Now I can see the restricted fare having a non refundable deposit, maybe even full payment within 5 days, as it is a good deal, but full payment in 5 days on a regular fare?

 

This would be our first HAL cruise so I'm not sure if this is the norm or am I missing something?

 

I checked some on-line TA's and one wants full payment now, totally non refundable and others seem to be using a normal 75-76 days for full payment, on the same cruise.

 

Thanks for some insight as I'm totally confused.

 

You have every right to be confused.

 

They are also selling a cancellation insurance with these lower price non-refundable fares - adds about $119 to the fare price. There are six ways against Sunday selling cruises today. I just ran into this myself and the new website offered little to zero help sorting it out.

 

The website kept trying to "default" me into the higher fare which included the drink and dinner Explore Four package, which I did not want. I tried calling their number and got an even worse response - saying there were only 6 pretty undesirable cabins left on the entire ship.

 

I kept going back to the website to try and figure out the "choose your room" feature because it had just offered different "rooms" than what the telephone agent told me, and finally got a breakthrough about the remaining available "rooms" and how to get away from the default price.

 

But then still trying to figure out the no-cancellation fare and the offer buy the extra cancellation insurance left me running for cover. One needs a vacation after trying to sign up for a vacation these days. My own final choice was to buy the no-cancelation fare, but without the insurance and put it on my credit card to pay in full next month. For Christmas - six months away. Done.

 

So there is something about loss-leader prices, default up-sells and variable contingencies that is rapidly taking away "half the fun is getting there" out of the cruise experience. One thing we like about cruising is once on board having few to no more "decisions" to make.

 

Making one run the gauntlet across these multiple decision landmines upfront takes a lot of the fun away.

[Fla Mike]

Thanks frr the responses.

 

I called HAL and the agent advised final payment is indeed 75 days out for either fares, she did not know why the website shows 5 days for final payment.

 

As suspected another web glitch.

Edited July 31, 2018 by Fla Mike
spelling

[fatcat04]

Thanks frr the responses.

 

I called HAL and the agent advised final payment is indeed 75 days out for either fares, she did not know why the website shows 5 days for final payment.

 

As suspected another web glitch.

 

Good. :) The website is just infuriating but thankfully the booking reps and PCC's are great.

[POA1]

My father in law's booking for our Christmas cruise came up with a non-refundable fare, 100% due, 93 days out.

 

Something is (rotten in Denmark and it's not the fish.) broken.

[CherryG]

When I booked a special casino fare for this November last month, I had to pay in full right then. I’ve no problem with that as it was a super pice.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

[AtlantaCruiser72]

HAL has an ever increasing, and confusing fare structure that the website, and many agents, are at a loss to deal with and decipher.

 

On any given sailing you might find : Advantage fare (normal early booking fare with standard deposit cancellation terms) , Current promotional offers (Explore 4, View & Veranda, Ready Set Sail, Anniversary Sale, etc with varying perks, deposits or cancellation terms), Early booking non-refundable deposit (discounted rate with non refundable deposit and non changeable) Early booking fully non-refundable (full payment due at booking 100% non-refundable and non changeable), Close-in reduced fare offers such as "Flash Fares" available after final payment/penalties have begun (full payment due at time of booking, fully non refundable), special mailer or casino fares (based on Mariner # with varying deposit/payment terms), travel agent open promo group fares (standard deposit/cancellation terms).

 

I'm sure there are some that I left out as it is quite hard to keep up with! Additionally not all fares/offers apply to all cruises, room types or specific letter codes ......