Niave Question About Payment

[iamaphisig]

Hi Guys!

 

Forgive me, but I might have a stupid question... I'm booked on the Veendam 12/21/09 Santiago, Chile - Rio. I booked through a travel agent, and put down the $850 deposit. I'm looking at HAL's prices for my cabin category (EE) and see that the price is down $600 or so per person. Will they make me pay the full price from before, or will I get this lower rate? In order to get the lower rate, should I pay now? What if the price drops further? My final payment isn't due until Sept. 22, but this is our honeymoon, so with the wedding costs stacking up I'm trying to get the best deal!

 

Thanks in advance,

Jessica

[Mary Ellen]

We can't talk about specific travel agencies on the CC, so don't be surprised if the name of your agency changes to three asterisks.

 

Our TA has always honored the new lower price. I'd suggest calling your TA to make sure they are aware of the current (lower) price. You can pay now, but in that case IF the price drops any more before the actual final payment date, any further reduction might be in the form of shipboard credit rather than $$ back in your hands.

 

Best wishes and have a great honeymoon cruise. [if this is the Antarctic itinerary, we did that last year - FANTASTIC!!!]

[iamaphisig]

It IS the Antarctica cruise! That will be our 7th continent together - seemed like a great "meaningful" honeymoon cruise! I'm really looking forward to it!

[mrskmirolla]

Jessica, our cruise for this past May went down 3 times before final payment. Each time it went down I called the TA (an online TA), they called HAL and each time my cruise fare was lowered. I saved $2900 before final payment!!! Do call the TA and if they give you a hard time tell them to call HAL. You can't call HAL because you went through a TA. If you get no satisfaction, go online and research another TA. But I am sure you won't have any problems, if you do ask for a supervisor.

Enjoy your planning and I wish you all the best.

Kathy

[aussiedisneyfan]

Lucky you, congratulations. We were going to do this cruise but the flights were too expensive for us.

 

As Mary Ellen said, if you pay in full you will probably get obc instead of a refund. You do need to ask your t/a to reduce it is not automatic. Although some on the ball ones will do it for you. We are booked on the Volendam instead and our cabin price has dropped $2500 since we originally booked.

[Mary Ellen]

Here is a link to an earlier thread where I answered some questions about South American/Antarctic cruising. This is a link to Greg's (RevNeal) travel log from our sailing (we did the opposite direction though, Rio - Santiago). He has some beautiful pictures there. Be warned that not all the pages are linked to the next. If you don't see a link to the next day, just change the number in the last part of the URL (like from rot5 to rot6).

[iamaphisig]

Just a quick update - I went to the travel agency today and got the price reduced, $500 per person! Woohoo!! What a great wedding gift, $1000 off our honeymoon! Thanks for everyone's help!

[Mary Ellen]

Excellent!! Have you started buying your shore ex yet? ;)

[iamaphisig]

No, in fact I'm pretty disappointed in our shore excursion choices! We'll do penguins for sure, but we're not too excited about any of the other options. Do you have any recommendations?

[Mary Ellen]

We did our tours in Rio and Buenos Aires with private guides. Ruth did the HAL tour in Rio and we had a FAR better experience with our guide. Have you been to the South America forum under 'Ports of Call'?

[woody73]

 

Just a quick update - I went to the travel agency today and got the price reduced, $500 per person! Woohoo!! What a great wedding gift, $1000 off our honeymoon! Thanks for everyone's help!

Great news. Glad it worked out.

 

Woody