Advantage of getting Future Cruise Deposits

[gottagocit]

Thanks PacnGoNow.  I didn’t recall the form saying that. That would explain it. 
Yes it’s an actual 54 day sailing that isn’t being sold in parts. It’s a new itinerary just released for 2026 as a r/t our if LA going to/from Australia/New Zealand that was too tempting to pass up as it doesn’t require those awful 14+ hour long flights and visits several interesting places along the way.  
take care
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[JF - retired RRT]

34 minutes ago, gottagocit said:

Thanks PacnGoNow.  I didn’t recall the form saying that. That would explain it. 
Yes it’s an actual 54 day sailing that isn’t being sold in parts. It’s a new itinerary just released for 2026 as a r/t our if LA going to/from Australia/New Zealand that was too tempting to pass up as it doesn’t require those awful 14+ hour long flights and visits several interesting places along the way.  
take care

Quick!!! What date and ship? I want to be there!!!

[JF - retired RRT]

21 minutes ago, JF - retired RRT said:

Quick!!! What date and ship? I want to be there!!!

Never mind. I found it. I so want to take that cruise.

All my must haves: RT, OZ, NZ, lots of sea days, lots of days on a ship.

[suzyed]

23 minutes ago, JF - retired RRT said:

Never mind. I found it. I so want to take that cruise.

All my must haves: RT, OZ, NZ, lots of sea days, lots of days on a ship.

So WHAT DID you find...I want the info too!

[2 cruises a year]

11 hours ago, gottagocit said:

We just tried to use a FCD to book a 54 day voyage and we’re told they can’t be used for any cruise >44 days in length. The one we’re booking is not part of a world cruise which I seem to recall can’t be booked with a FCD but we’ve never heard of this. Has anyone here?

We spoke to two different Princess contacts (agents) and both told us the same thing. 

Check into this, this is from my memory from a few years ago.  I could not use FCD's on a couple of longer cruises (true, I do remember this), but my TA was able to use them for some sort of discount on the cruise fare.  As I recall, it was significant.  The FCD's were "sold" back to Princess, the $100 each was credited back to my credit card and I no longer had the FCD's.

Good luck and let us know what you find.

[gottagocit]

1 hour ago, JF - retired RRT said:

Quick!!! What date and ship? I want to be there!!!

Sorry I should have included that. It’s on the Island in March ‘26. And a 54 day r/t from LA. I believe it’s March 13 or 16. 

[LACruiser88]

29 minutes ago, 2 cruises a year said:

Check into this, this is from my memory from a few years ago.  I could not use FCD's on a couple of longer cruises (true, I do remember this), but my TA was able to use them for some sort of discount on the cruise fare.  As I recall, it was significant.  The FCD's were "sold" back to Princess, the $100 each was credited back to my credit card and I no longer had the FCD's.

Good luck and let us know what you find.

The below is my post from the 54 day cruise roll call (3/13/26).

 

This has been in place for as long as we remember.  On voyages of 45 days or longer a FCD can not be used as the deposit.     

 

We did apply 2 FCD's towards this cruise to receive a 3% fare reduction and those 2 FCD's were refunded to our credit card.  This is a very strange application of FCD's, but it ended up saving us $1,300.   This also raises your refundable deposit to 5% of the total fare.

 

We have done this on several recent cruise bookings that were over 45 days in length.

[PacnGoNow]

4 minutes ago, LACruiser88 said:

The below is my post from the 54 day cruise roll call (3/13/26).

 

This has been in place for as long as we remember.  On voyages of 45 days or longer a FCD can not be used as the deposit.     

 

We did apply 2 FCD's towards this cruise to receive a 3% fare reduction and those 2 FCD's were refunded to our credit card.  This is a very strange application of FCD's, but it ended up saving us $1,300.   This also raises your refundable deposit to 5% of the total fare.

 

We have done this on several recent cruise bookings that were over 45 days in length.

Was that 2 PP or 2 per cabin?

TIA

[LACruiser88]

5 minutes ago, PacnGoNow said:

Was that 2 PP or 2 per cabin?

TIA

One FCD per person, two per cabin.  🙂

[2 cruises a year]

48 minutes ago, 2 cruises a year said:

Check into this, this is from my memory from a few years ago.  I could not use FCD's on a couple of longer cruises (true, I do remember this), but my TA was able to use them for some sort of discount on the cruise fare.  As I recall, it was significant.  The FCD's were "sold" back to Princess, the $100 each was credited back to my credit card and I no longer had the FCD's.

Good luck and let us know what you find.

 

16 minutes ago, LACruiser88 said:

The below is my post from the 54 day cruise roll call (3/13/26).

 

This has been in place for as long as we remember.  On voyages of 45 days or longer a FCD can not be used as the deposit.     

 

We did apply 2 FCD's towards this cruise to receive a 3% fare reduction and those 2 FCD's were refunded to our credit card.  This is a very strange application of FCD's, but it ended up saving us $1,300.   This also raises your refundable deposit to 5% of the total fare.

 

We have done this on several recent cruise bookings that were over 45 days in length.

Just one more note.  Since the FCD was not applied as usual, no FCD onboard credit was applied either.  Not a game changer to me, but worth noting.

[suzyed]

7 hours ago, gottagocit said:

Sorry I should have included that. It’s on the Island in March ‘26. And a 54 day r/t from LA. I believe it’s March 13 or 16. 

I sure couldn't find it.

[gottagocit]

6 hours ago, suzyed said:

I sure couldn't find it.

Maybe this link will help:

https://www.princess.com/cruise-search/details/?voyageCode=2606&recentlyViewed=true

 

 

[nho9504]

Wow, haven't paid attention to the change made on FCD valid time, and just learn here that it is now shortened to 1 year...  It used to be 4 years!

 

My question is, if you cannot use it within the 1 year,  is the refund automatically or you have to call to request it?

 

Last time we had to call to get the credit refunded to us, but then it was during the Covid time...

 

The OBC amount also seems to be less than before Covid.

[suzyed]

On 12/24/2023 at 12:50 AM, gottagocit said:

Maybe this link will help:

https://www.princess.com/cruise-search/details/?voyageCode=2606&recentlyViewed=true

 

 

Thank you for sharing!

[wallyj]

On 12/23/2023 at 10:47 PM, nho9504 said:

Wow, haven't paid attention to the change made on FCD valid time, and just learn here that it is now shortened to 1 year...  It used to be 4 years!

 

My question is, if you cannot use it within the 1 year,  is the refund automatically or you have to call to request it?

 

Last time we had to call to get the credit refunded to us, but then it was during the Covid time...

 

The OBC amount also seems to be less than before Covid.

It validity of Princess FCD’s has not been 4 years for quite some time. It has been 2 years and was recently reduced to 1 year as of early April 2023. FCD’s purchased before the April 2023 date will still have the 2 yr expiration. 
 

Unless you call to have the expiration extended, the refund should be automatic to the credit card used to purchase the FCD, so if you think you will still possibly cruise, you can have it extended instead of refunded.

 

I do not believe the OBC earned from using a FCD has changed.

Edited December 26, 2023 by wallyj

[nho9504]

On 12/26/2023 at 4:16 PM, wallyj said:

It validity of Princess FCD’s has not been 4 years for quite some time. It has been 2 years and was recently reduced to 1 year as of early April 2023. FCD’s purchased before the April 2023 date will still have the 2 yr expiration. 
 

Unless you call to have the expiration extended, the refund should be automatic to the credit card used to purchase the FCD, so if you think you will still possibly cruise, you can have it extended instead of refunded.

 

I do not believe the OBC earned from using a FCD has changed.

 

Yes I went thru the 2 years validity period and we were not able to use it on a cruise that supposedly departed on Apr 3rd 2020!  Had to call to get the deposit refunded because it did not look like we could cruise again even by Mid 2021.

 

We did not bother to purchase a future cruise deposit in the fall of 2022 when we took Regal from Rome back to Ft. Lauderdale in Nov 2022 as the cruise was a big disappointment comparing to the Royal Caribbean Odyssey of the Sea the year prior.  

In Apr 2023 we took HAL’s Statendam, which turned out being the worst HAL cruise among all HAL cruises we had ever taken.  It was much worse than Regal a few months prior to that.
 

Unfortunately Royal seems do not want to deploy their better ships to Europe.  On,y Odyssey is the decent ship.  As much as we enjoy Odyssey, we don’t want to take her TATL due to the itinerary was almost identical as the Regal last November, we eventually chose Sky, the ship we would have taken in April 2020.   So yeah, because we have not bought the FCD on Regal we forego the OBC on this Sky TATL cruise.  
 

I do not know you can call to extend the deposit.   Otherwise I might do it differently.

 

The OBC amount is less than when it has 4 years validity.  

[nho9504]

Please refresh my memory.  
 

Do you get OBC for each person when each person has FDC in the account?

 

That is different from the shareholder OBC which is per cabin regardless how many shareholders in the cabin.  

[Ken the cruiser]

5 minutes ago, nho9504 said:

Please refresh my memory.  
 

Do you get OBC for each person when each person has FDC in the account?

 

That is different from the shareholder OBC which is per cabin regardless how many shareholders in the cabin.  

Yes, when each person posts a FCD to a booking.