Question on changing an existing booking (before final payment)....

[Cheryl H]

Long time cruiser, and I enjoy booking my own cruises.  However, I have not cruised since 2019.....does the following info sound correct?

 

I found that my 2024 B2B cruise prices went down significantly.   I called Crown & Anchor and the gentleman explained that they could not do a price adjustment, but he could cancel both bookings, and refund the tours, and packages I already paid for, and then rebook.  And I would lose my refundable deposit on both cruises.  I decided against doing all that.   Does this sound like a valid response?  So no price adjustments anymore....just cancel/rebook is the only option? 

 

What if I just want to call back and upgrade these same two cruises from balcony to junior suite, is the same scenario (in that I'd have to cancel and rebook).  The cruises are for May 2024.  I was just wondering.  I know that sometimes the employees at RCCL may be under trained, but I figured someone here would know for sure. 

 

Please no judgements about me booking my own trips. Thanks in advance. 

[Cheryl H]

to clarify.....not that I would lose my deposits....just that I had refundable deposits....and the new bookings would not have refundable deposits.

 

[Ourusualbeach]

15 minutes ago, Cheryl H said:

Long time cruiser, and I enjoy booking my own cruises.  However, I have not cruised since 2019.....does the following info sound correct?

 

I found that my 2024 B2B cruise prices went down significantly.   I called Crown & Anchor and the gentleman explained that they could not do a price adjustment, but he could cancel both bookings, and refund the tours, and packages I already paid for, and then rebook.  And I would lose my refundable deposit on both cruises.  I decided against doing all that.   Does this sound like a valid response?  So no price adjustments anymore....just cancel/rebook is the only option? 

 

What if I just want to call back and upgrade these same two cruises from balcony to junior suite, is the same scenario (in that I'd have to cancel and rebook).  The cruises are for May 2024.  I was just wondering.  I know that sometimes the employees at RCCL may be under trained, but I figured someone here would know for sure. 

 

Please no judgements about me booking my own trips. Thanks in advance. 

I have had literally hundreds of bookings repriced for clients and never had to cancel and rebook.  Call back and talk to someone else

[firefly333]

13 minutes ago, Cheryl H said:

to clarify.....not that I would lose my deposits....just that I had refundable deposits....and the new bookings would not have refundable deposits.

 

You should do a mock booking with a refundable deposit to compare. If you are comparing to a nonrefundable deposit, they would have to change you to that. I'm not sure it's necessary to totally cancel and rebook but no harm if its refundable. 

 

Just depends if you really want to chea ge to a nonrefundable deposit.

[Merion_Mom]

2 hours ago, Cheryl H said:

to clarify.....not that I would lose my deposits....just that I had refundable deposits....and the new bookings would not have refundable deposits.

 

 

It sounds to me like the "price drops" that you see are entirely due to the difference in cost between refundable and nonrefundable fares.

[Cheryl H]

33 minutes ago, Merion_Mom said:

 

It sounds to me like the "price drops" that you see are entirely due to the difference in cost between refundable and nonrefundable fares.

that very well could be......one booking was going to be 700+ less and the other was 672 less.  So both right around 700$.   Wonder if that's the going rate for a refundable $500 deposit. 

[amby6063]

2 hours ago, Cheryl H said:

that very well could be......one booking was going to be 700+ less and the other was 672 less.  So both right around 700$.   Wonder if that's the going rate for a refundable $500 deposit. 

That sounds about right. My parents just booked an Alaska cruise and it was over $600 for a non refundable deposit 

[easyqueasy]

7 hours ago, firefly333 said:

You should do a mock booking with a refundable deposit to compare. If you are comparing to a nonrefundable deposit, they would have to change you to that. I'm not sure it's necessary to totally cancel and rebook but no harm if its refundable. 

 

Just depends if you really want to chea ge to a nonrefundable deposit.

Do the mock booking as suggested, and they should be able to reprice without cancelling. Just make sure they send you the invoice and make sure it’s refundable before you say ok and get off the phone with them. When repricing, they usually forget to make it refundable, at least the last few times I repriced. And the price for refundable deposits could changes quite a bit from day to day for some reason, if offered. I’ve also upgraded (actually was $150 less to move up two categories in COVID times) and it didn’t change the reservation. But if you can wait for the refund (about a week or two), like firefly says, no harm to book and cancel.

[Another_Critic]

7 hours ago, easyqueasy said:

But if you can wait for the refund (about a week or two), like firefly says, no harm to book and cancel.

Cruise planner purchases will be canceled, so they may end up paying more to rebook the cruise planner purchases.  Need to compare total booked / re-booked costs.

[Cheryl H]

Thanks all!  Yes, mock bookings were how I found it in the first place.   Glad to hear that they still reprice without cancelling. 

 

I think this employee I had on the line was a bit clueless.  He couldn't explain why the price had reduced or even what the nature of it was, and he didn't seem to know how to put the refundable deposit back on.  All he was able to do was give me the amount of price reduction I would get and he knew how to cancel.  I had him back out of the booking without changing anything.    

[marci22]

15 minutes ago, Cheryl H said:

He couldn't explain why the price had reduced or even what the nature of it was, and he didn't seem to know how to put the refundable deposit back on.

If you change it to refundable deposit the price will go back up.

[Cheryl H]

3 minutes ago, marci22 said:

If you change it to refundable deposit the price will go back up.

Yep, I realize that.   I don't think the employee realized that though.  I had zero confidence in him.  But so glad to hear that repricings still happen without cancel/rebooking.  It's been a while since we've cruised. 

[firefly333]

40 minutes ago, marci22 said:

If you change it to refundable deposit the price will go back up.

You can't just change from nonrefundable to refundable. You can change the other way but not back to refundable if you give it up. 

 

I booked thru next cruise and had to pay the extra for refundable deposit, then my ta could change to group space. He was stopping people from booking nonrefundable saying he cant then change it to refundable. 

[marci22]

17 hours ago, firefly333 said:

You can't just change from nonrefundable to refundable. You can change the other way but not back to refundable if you give it up. 

 

I booked thru next cruise and had to pay the extra for refundable deposit, then my ta could change to group space. He was stopping people from booking nonrefundable saying he cant then change it to refundable. 

I'm talking about the cruise rep who was pricing out a lower price. If he changed it to refundable on his screen, the price would be higher.