Booking onboard questions

[ajconova]

I booked Hawaii cruise a year ago for September this year with Book Later certificate. Unfortunately due to my work schedule change I had to cancel it yesterday. So, when I called to cancel, the agent said that NRD changed to $900🤯  we didn't do any changes to reservation since it was originally booked. Had to escalate to Resolution department and argue that my invoice says $100 NRD per person. I was told that the rules are changed  and I was responsible for the full $900 deposit. But they will make exception for me this time since I didn't know and  will only withhold $200 and give refund for the rest of the payments. BTW the final payment for this sailing is June 24. Lesson learned, we have another cruise booked for October of 2025 with Book Later certificate, so I'm not planning to make any payments till we get close to the final payment date.

[paulh84]

3 minutes ago, ajconova said:

I booked Hawaii cruise a year ago for September this year with Book Later certificate. Unfortunately due to my work schedule change I had to cancel it yesterday. So, when I called to cancel, the agent said that NRD changed to $900🤯  we didn't do any changes to reservation since it was originally booked. Had to escalate to Resolution department and argue that my invoice says $100 NRD per person. I was told that the rules are changed  and I was responsible for the full $900 deposit. But they will make exception for me this time since I didn't know and  will only withhold $200 and give refund for the rest of the payments. BTW the final payment for this sailing is June 24. Lesson learned, we have another cruise booked for October of 2025 with Book Later certificate, so I'm not planning to make any payments till we get close to the final payment date.

 

You booking date should have determined which policy was in place. The truly non-refundable element  for the NRD changed for booking after March 2, 2023. I ran into a similar issue but finally convinced them to review their own policy dates. 

[ajconova]

10 minutes ago, paulh84 said:

 

You booking date should have determined which policy was in place. The truly non-refundable element  for the NRD changed for booking after March 2, 2023. I ran into a similar issue but finally convinced them to review their own policy dates. 

We booked this cruise in November of 2022

[LB_NJ]

I am now completely confused.

 

If I book a specific cruise onboard at a non refundable rate (eg, a veranda), any idea what the deposit has to be?

[mahdnc]

2 hours ago, LB_NJ said:

I am now completely confused.

 

If I book a specific cruise onboard at a non refundable rate (eg, a veranda), any idea what the deposit has to be?

The deposit for all non-suite cabins is $100 per person if you book onboard. 

[LB_NJ]

7 hours ago, mahdnc said:

The deposit for all non-suite cabins is $100 per person if you book onboard. 

Therefore, as long as you cancel before final payment date all you lose is the $100 per person?

[mahdnc]

18 minutes ago, LB_NJ said:

Therefore, as long as you cancel before final payment date all you lose is the $100 per person?

 

Yes, if you booked a non-refundable cruise fare.

Edited January 19 by mahdnc

[ColoradoCruiser88]

1 minute ago, mahdnc said:

 

Yes

But if you try to shift the booking to a different cruise, you will be charged a fee of $100/pax, correct?

Just like there is a fee of $100 for shifting a cruise if you had booked it “normally” not onboard or with a FCC.

[mahdnc]

Just now, ColoradoCruiser88 said:

But if you try to shift the booking to a different cruise, you will be charged a fee of $100/pax, correct?

Just like there is a fee of $100 for shifting a cruise if you had booked it “normally” not onboard or with a FCC.

 

I modified my answer to clarify that your $100 deposit is at risk only for non-refundable bookings.  That is not the case if you booked a refundable booking. 

 

Refundable bookings do not incur any fees if you change or cancel.  Non-refundable bookings do.

 

However refundable bookings with a $100 pp deposit can only be made if you make the booking for an actual sailing while on board your cruise.  If you are on board and elect to do the "Book Later" option (you don't select a sailing at the time), you are stuck having to make a non-refundable booking.

[ColoradoCruiser88]

5 minutes ago, mahdnc said:

 

I modified my answer to clarify that your $100 deposit is at risk only for non-refundable bookings.  That is not the case if you booked a refundable booking. 

 

Refundable bookings do not incur any fees if you change or cancel.  Non-refundable bookings do.

 

However refundable bookings with a $100 pp deposit can only be made if you make the booking for an actual sailing while on board your cruise.  If you are on board and elect to do the "Book Later" option (you don't select a sailing at the time), you are stuck having to make a non-refundable booking.

Thank you!  @mahdnc
PS.  Thank you for doing your “Live from” threads also.  They are beautiful to read and I also learn so much each time.💐

[mahdnc]

So to recap:

 

When you go to the Future Cruises Department, you have the following options (all involving $100 pp deposits):

 

1. Book Now.  This means you have identified a sailing and cabin and are making a booking "now" while you are on board your cruise.  When you do that, you can either decide to make the booking refundable or nonrefundable.  The refundable booking will not incur fees if you change the reservation later.  If you cancel, you get your $100 pp deposit back. The drawback with refundable bookings is that the fare is usually much much higher.  If you book non-refundable, your $100 pp deposit is forfeit if you cancel and if you change your booking, you are going to be assessed a change fee.

 

2. Book Later.  This means you have put your $100 deposit down, but have not identified a sailing to book, but rather you are preserving the option to do so within 6 months.  The Book Later option only allows you to book a non-refundable reservation.  You can't book a refundable reservation.  If you do not find a cruise to apply your Book Later reservation to, you will lose the $100.

 

For suites, the deposit is much higher than $100 and can be as high as 10% of the cruise fare.

 

Edited January 19 by mahdnc

[ColoradoCruiser88]

On 1/19/2024 at 7:56 AM, mahdnc said:

So to recap:

 

When you go to the Future Cruises Department, you have the following options (all involving $100 pp deposits):

 

1. Book Now.  This means you have identified a sailing and cabin and are making a booking "now" while you are on board your cruise.  When you do that, you can either decide to make the booking refundable or nonrefundable.  The refundable booking will not incur fees if you change the reservation later.  If you cancel, you get your $100 pp deposit back. The drawback with refundable bookings is that the fare is usually much much higher.  If you book non-refundable, your $100 pp deposit is forfeit if you cancel and if you change your booking, you are going to be assessed a change fee.

 

2. Book Later.  This means you have put your $100 deposit down, but have not identified a sailing to book, but rather you are preserving the option to do so within 6 months.  The Book Later option only allows you to book a non-refundable reservation.  You can't book a refundable reservation.  If you do not find a cruise to apply your Book Later reservation to, you will lose the $100.

 

For suites, the deposit is much higher than $100 and can be as high as 10% of the cruise fare.

Thank you, @mahdnc.

Do you know if you can assign the Book Later cruise to a TA of your choice if you book later?

If your TA has a “Group Cruise” pricing on your selected cruise, do you lose the benefits of booking onboard?  TIA.

[ColoradoCruiser88]

1 minute ago, ColoradoCruiser88 said:

If your TA has a “Group Cruise” pricing on your selected cruise, do you lose the benefits of booking onboard?

Since the group cruise pricing usually is refundable fare and cheaper, plus AI.

[juanrod]

Word to the wise keep your future cruise page with invoice when booking a future cruise.  We booked a future cruise while on board summit last year for Hawaii cruise this year with refundable due to potential in-law health issues.   When we called to make changes , the agent said due to NRF we couldn’t make the change.   The agent said they don’t do refundable on ships anymore and would have to pay penalties to do any changes.   It got escalated pretty fast and due to the paperwork we kept with our invoice that showed the refundable and non refundable rates when booking they ended up honoring our changes.    It took three calls to get resolved with copies of the paperwork sent to them via email for us to get changes we wanted.  

[ColoradoCruiser88]

@juanrod

Thanks for the tip!  Happy to hear you were able to get it resolved.

[zgscl]

11 hours ago, ColoradoCruiser88 said:

Thank you, @mahdnc.

Do you know if you can assign the Book Later cruise to a TA of your choice if you book later?

If your TA has a “Group Cruise” pricing on your selected cruise, do you lose the benefits of booking onboard?  TIA.

You can transfer as long as it is within 30 days of making the book later deposit (not when you book the reservation). I believe you should keep the benefits, but they keep changing the rules so rapidly it’s hard to say what they will do or if there is some other exclusion. 

[ColoradoCruiser88]

@zgscl 

👍 thank you!

[mahdnc]

12 hours ago, ColoradoCruiser88 said:

Thank you, @mahdnc.

Do you know if you can assign the Book Later cruise to a TA of your choice if you book later?

If your TA has a “Group Cruise” pricing on your selected cruise, do you lose the benefits of booking onboard?  TIA.

Sorry, I didn’t see this until now. The thirty day period that the previous poster mentioned is only true if you initially assign Celebrity to your Book Later option. In that instance when you eventually choose your cruise, the thirty day clock starts to transfer it to a TA.

 

However a TA is assigned when you pay your $100 pp deposit to secure the Book Later option even though you haven’t chosen a sailing.  Once the TA is assigned you’re pretty much stuck and there is no thirty day clock to perform a transfer. Again this is not true if you assigned it to Celebrity. 
 

Note that the TA that is automatically assigned by default to your Book Later option (when you put down your $100 pp deposit) is the TA that you used to book the cruise that you are currently on at the time. 
 

IF you decide that you want to assign a different TA than the default one to the Book Later option (or you want Celebrity to have it so you can exercise your thirty day option to shop for a TA), you must tell the Future Cruise Consultant this and they will have you sign a form attesting to it. It’s obviously a form that they will show your “current” TA if they protest and say that some mistake was made and that they should be assigned to the Book Later option. 
 

One last thing, if the cruise you’re currently on was booked by Celebrity and you put your $100 pp deposit down for Book Later, Celebrity will be automatically assigned to that booking. Then you have thirty days to find a TA when you select your actual cruise. So you’re good. 
 

As far as transferring your booking to a TA’s group space, I believe you may have to pay the deposit that is required under the Group which may be higher than $100 pp. Celebrity put out some instructions on this and I’ll have to find it. When I do, I’ll post it. 

 

Edited January 22 by mahdnc

[twins_to_alaska]

So best bet seems to book refundable for $100 and then can change the cruise to nonrefundable for cheaper later if want or cancel and get all back.

[ColoradoCruiser88]

18 hours ago, mahdnc said:

Sorry, I didn’t see this until now. The thirty day period that the previous poster mentioned is only true if you initially assign Celebrity to your Book Later option. In that instance when you eventually choose your cruise, the thirty day clock starts to transfer it to a TA.

 

However a TA is assigned when you pay your $100 pp deposit to secure the Book Later option even though you haven’t chosen a sailing.  Once the TA is assigned you’re pretty much stuck and there is no thirty day clock to perform a transfer. Again this is not true if you assigned it to Celebrity. 
 

Note that the TA that is automatically assigned by default to your Book Later option (when you put down your $100 pp deposit) is the TA that you used to book the cruise that you are currently on at the time. 
 

IF you decide that you want to assign a different TA than the default one to the Book Later option (or you want Celebrity to have it so you can exercise your thirty day option to shop for a TA), you must tell the Future Cruise Consultant this and they will have you sign a form attesting to it. It’s obviously a form that they will show your “current” TA if they protest and say that some mistake was made and that they should be assigned to the Book Later option. 
 

One last thing, if the cruise you’re currently on was booked by Celebrity and you put your $100 pp deposit down for Book Later, Celebrity will be automatically assigned to that booking. Then you have thirty days to find a TA when you select your actual cruise. So you’re good. 
 

As far as transferring your booking to a TA’s group space, I believe you may have to pay the deposit that is required under the Group which may be higher than $100 pp. Celebrity put out some instructions on this and I’ll have to find it. When I do, I’ll post it.

Thanks again, @mahdnc!

I think I  understand more fully now the nuances.  

[mahdnc]

1 hour ago, ColoradoCruiser88 said:

Thanks again, @mahdnc!

I think I  understand more fully now the nuances.  

 

Here is a Future Cruises Vacations FAQ flyer put out by Celebrity.  It was issued in 2023 and is written for travel agents.  There is language that is applicable to your question about group space:

 

Q: Can my clients bookings made onboard with the Future Cruise Vacations team be moved into an existing group that I have?

A: Yes, bookings made onboard may be combined with certain groups but now require a full deposit and the potential loss of your promotional offer and/or Onboard Credit offer.

[Jim_Iain]

On 1/18/2024 at 9:18 AM, ColoradoCruiser88 said:

It’s a little scary there are so many minute details to watch out for!  I’m less inclined to buy a FC certificate now.  But will perhaps hold off final judgement on booking a new cruise while onboard until I maybe talk to them (I have never thought of doing that before on prior cruises).  That is assuming I find a suitable cruise ahead of time.

Good idea.    The agents are very transparent and will answer all of your questions and point out little things that may concern you.  

[Jim_Iain]

On 1/21/2024 at 8:45 AM, ColoradoCruiser88 said:

Thank you, @mahdnc.

Do you know if you can assign the Book Later cruise to a TA of your choice if you book later?

If your TA has a “Group Cruise” pricing on your selected cruise, do you lose the benefits of booking onboard?  TIA.

Yes.   I bought 2 on my last cruise and they were assigned to my TA at point of purchased.  To use them I have to call my agent and have him book using the certificate.    You can however have them issued in your name only by signing a request.

I would assume if your agent using a group booking your Certificate may loose the booking benefit but that is a question you should ask your TA.  

[ColoradoCruiser88]

Thanks, @Jim_Iain!

PS.  As with @mahdnc, I greatly enjoy reading your beautiful live reports and learn so much!💐

[ColoradoCruiser88]

54 minutes ago, mahdnc said:

 

Here is a Future Cruises Vacations FAQ flyer put out by Celebrity.  It was issued in 2023 and is written for travel agents.  There is language that is applicable to your question about group space:

 

Q: Can my clients bookings made onboard with the Future Cruise Vacations team be moved into an existing group that I have?

A: Yes, bookings made onboard may be combined with certain groups but now require a full deposit and the potential loss of your promotional offer and/or Onboard Credit offer.

WOW!  Thank you so much for this information! I really appreciate you taking the time to answer all my questions, @mahdnc!

A lot to think about.