Fee for dropping passenger vs. No-show?

[agent00F]

Hi all, hope you can help with this. We wanted to drop a (free) third passenger from a cruise and NCL demands an extra $600+ "fee" for it, which seems strange for less work for them. I've seen here that people no-show for cruises and nothing happens other than not getting a refund (which is fine). What's also strange is that they can swap a passenger for no fee...

 

So what to do here? Thank you for any advice.

[Capitan Obvious]

Feels like we are missing some details. What sort of documentation of this fee did NCL provide to you? What did NCL say when you asked about the no-show option?

[agent00F]

I called them today to drop the 3rd passenger and rep told me there's a fee for it, and suggested finding a replacement as with manager approval he can just swap w/ no fee. Fee also goes higher soon as we're supposedly still in the 1-2 months 75% fee window. I didn't know about no-showing until googling afterward, just hoping to get advice from more experienced travelers.

 

Thanks.

Edited September 15, 2023 by agent00F
clarification

[bluesea777]

That is considered as "cancel & re-book". In order to remove the 3rd passenger from the booking they need to cancel the whole booking for 3 ppl (with penalty) and rebook for 2 ppl at current rates.

 

Don't let them do that. Just show up at the terminal and tell them the 3rd pax can't make it to the ship. They will refund the taxes/fees/grats for the 3rd pax.

 

 

[TrumpyNor]

5 hours ago, agent00F said:

Hi all, hope you can help with this. We wanted to drop a (free) third passenger from a cruise and NCL demands an extra $600+ "fee" for it, which seems strange for less work for them. I've seen here that people no-show for cruises and nothing happens other than not getting a refund (which is fine). What's also strange is that they can swap a passenger for no fee...

 

So what to do here? Thank you for any advice.

I may be wrong, but I believe that when they say "third and fourth person free" (as you would pay the same base price for three or four persons as for two persons during that promotion), the total price is actually divided by three in the NCL system. Meaning that when you want to cancel the third person, then the base price for the remaining two persons on the reservation goes up (so in your case $1800+ divided by two instead of three = $900 p.p. instead of $600 p.p.).

I agree with others - go for the "no-show" option instead.

[surfcitygirl]

I have actually done the no show and it worked. But it wasn't NCL.

[DCGuy64]

This isn't a dig at the OP, but this topic is covered on here very frequently. Using the search tool, he/she could have found the answer quickly. This isn't meant as a criticism, rather an encouragement to use the search feature, which I often find quite helpful. I agree with others, simply having a no-show seems like the best bet (which is weird, in a way-you'd think they'd rather know ahead of time).

[RocketMan275]

7 hours ago, DCGuy64 said:

This isn't a dig at the OP, but this topic is covered on here very frequently. Using the search tool, he/she could have found the answer quickly. This isn't meant as a criticism, rather an encouragement to use the search feature, which I often find quite helpful. I agree with others, simply having a no-show seems like the best bet (which is weird, in a way-you'd think they'd rather know ahead of time).

Why would they want to know in advance?  It's not like they could put someone else in the cabin in lieu of the no-show.

[eileeshb]

46 minutes ago, RocketMan275 said:

Why would they want to know in advance?  It's not like they could put someone else in the cabin in lieu of the no-show.

Maybe not that cabin, but they could into another cabin as it would free up a space in a lifeboat. IT’s why you can’t always add a 3rd or 4th to a cabin that can take that many people but was originally booked for 2 people. 
but we’re all familiar with how dodgy NCL’s IT systems are so I’m not at all surprised. 

[A1SusieQ]

Yes, I've had a 3rd person who was unable to come at last minute. I prepaid service charges for the entire room. This was in 2021.

 

After the cruise, my credit card was reimbursed port fees, taxes and that person's service charge. I didn't make any calls to the cruise line to try and get the reimbursement, it was a pleasant surprise. I was going to just write it off. 

 

 

[DCGuy64]

On 9/15/2023 at 5:44 PM, RocketMan275 said:

Why would they want to know in advance?  It's not like they could put someone else in the cabin in lieu of the no-show.

Because the ship likely has a manifest of all the passengers.

[zqvol]

35 minutes ago, DCGuy64 said:

Because the ship likely has a manifest of all the passengers.

The manifest is not given to the ship until an hour prior to sailing 

[DCGuy64]

Just now, zqvol said:

The manifest is not given to the ship until an hour prior to sailing 

I guess there's just something unsettling to me about having a list of people who are supposed to be on board, and some just don't show up. Not the same, I know, but when I've been on excursions, they won't leave until everyone is accounted for. That's why it just doesn't seem right to have missing passengers. OTOH when my wife & were not able to board our flight home from Madrid last year, I was stunned when airline staff said we didn't need to let them know. Just seems weird to me.

[Capitan Obvious]

35 minutes ago, zqvol said:

The manifest is not given to the ship until an hour prior to sailing 

 

Let think about this. Given the fact that the ship prints out the sign & sail cards for a sailing during the sailing prior, you'd have to wonder how they could print the sign & sail cards without the list of guests (manifest) in hand. They certainly don't wait until an hour prior to sailing.

 

Clearly, you didn't mean what you posted here.

[RocketMan275]

48 minutes ago, DCGuy64 said:

I guess there's just something unsettling to me about having a list of people who are supposed to be on board, and some just don't show up. Not the same, I know, but when I've been on excursions, they won't leave until everyone is accounted for. That's why it just doesn't seem right to have missing passengers. OTOH when my wife & were not able to board our flight home from Madrid last year, I was stunned when airline staff said we didn't need to let them know. Just seems weird to me.

Failure to show isn't the same as missing.  Accountability doesn't start until after checkin.  

[DCGuy64]

1 hour ago, Capitan Obvious said:

 

Let think about this. Given the fact that the ship prints out the sign & sail cards for a sailing during the sailing prior, you'd have to wonder how they could print the sign & sail cards without the list of guests (manifest) in hand. They certainly don't wait until an hour prior to sailing.

 

Clearly, you didn't mean what you posted here.

Yeah, I simply refuse to believe that a ship ferrying 1,000s of passengers has no clue who's supposed to be on board before 1 hour prior. Simply doesn't make sense. No way.

[agent00F]

Ok, bit of a follow-up. Should I do the online check-in for the 3rd no-show passenger or no? 

 

On 9/15/2023 at 7:40 AM, DCGuy64 said:

This isn't a dig at the OP, but this topic is covered on here very frequently. Using the search tool, he/she could have found the answer quickly. This isn't meant as a criticism, rather an encouragement to use the search feature, which I often find quite helpful. I agree with others, simply having a no-show seems like the best bet (which is weird, in a way-you'd think they'd rather know ahead of time).

 

I searched a bit, but the answers/threads didn't seem to address the weird fee for dropping someone. Now it's more clear that it's not really a fee so much as repricing the whole cruise.

[Ellaleah]

On 9/26/2023 at 5:06 PM, agent00F said:

Ok, bit of a follow-up. Should I do the online check-in for the 3rd no-show passenger or no? 

 

 

I searched a bit, but the answers/threads didn't seem to address the weird fee for dropping someone. Now it's more clear that it's not really a fee so much as repricing the whole cruise.

I will be going on my second NCL in Dec. on the Bliss.  The first was on the Epic about 7 years ago.  The TA was fine, but nothing special.  My general feeling was that NCL nickels and dimes you and I think that this “ dropping fee” goes right along with that theme.