Luckybee

Hello All

Dh and I have booked a cruise on the Koningsdam for November 11 of 2018. This will be our first Hal cruise. I wanted to pop in and say hello and ask a few questions :)

We've booked a Aft Neptune suite on the 4th deck(for the larger balcony) but I've been reading reviews and Im wondering if I've made an error in judgement having read about noise/vibrations etc on 4th deck cabins ? I've managed to find photos of the 4th deck aft suites, but haven't found any of other aft Neptune, does anyone have a photo of those aft balconies?

(edited to add...I just found some photos of the 7th floor balconies on the aft wrap around neptunes....am I correct they are basically the same but with that looks like a real couch in the room but a more narrower side balcony) ? Would 8th or 7th deck be a better bet for us in terms of noise and vibrations?)

We're disembarking early in Aruba which we've confirmed with Hal. Of course they've advised if the port is missed they are not responsible etc. Has anyone ever seen a case where Aruba is actually missed ? I would think it is a pretty safe bet but just wondering now....lol.

We plan on doing mainly specialty dining while on board and including Pinnacle Grill, Tamarind, Sel de Mer, Canaletto, (one night in Curacao since departure isn't until 11 pm), pizza night one night and room service one night. Would have added Delibrije but if Im right we wouldn't know when that is until we're on board and other ressies all already made? Also wasn't sure about Culinary Kitchen...do the menus for this change often ? We weren't crazy over the ones we saw but wondered ? Would CK be better than Canaletto ? Are there any of the specialties that are not great? How difficult are reservations for the dates and times we want? Does the priority suite status assist for reservations made in advance? Or are they just easy to get to begin with ?

We were going to do a cabana but not im thinking its probably a waste. Since we are disembarking early we'll miss 2 of the 3 sea days and we have our own large balcony. How difficult is it to find lounge chairs in the sun? Im not worried about being near the pool but we are sun worshippers and have to get our base before we hit Aruba for 2 weeks :)...just want to be able to catch our daily dose of sun and although we'll probably hit the beaches in the various ports we might for 1 port simply skip and stay onboard, and of course there is the 1 sea day that we will be onboard for.

How does early embarkation work for Hal ? Is there a suite lounge in the terminal ?

We plan on carrying our own wine aboard (and paying corkage) since we were not too impressed by the wine lists we've viewed, but ive also noticed that the bottled water appears to be close to a no name brand so im wondering about bringing a case of Evian as well ? Am I correct that this is acceptable ?

Thanks for any opinions , answers etc. Absolutely love the itinerary of this cruise both in terms of some great and safe islands and the ability to get off in Aruba which saves us a flight after the cruise. We know very little about Hal other than what we've read here so Im full of questions.

Actually based on the current state of deposits, if your deposit is a non refundable one, you would have to pay a penalty of $100 per person to change the cruise.

I agree on the part that having the credit only work from the date of cancel is stupid, that part causes issues for them and for their customers. Having non-refundable is perfectly fine to me (at least only the $100 fee, if it switched to the full deposit lost, it would be crappy). One year is pretty short, 2 would be much more preferred imo, but at least 1 year from the sail date, as many people book more than a year before sailing.

Certainly would make more sense imho.

All the airfares that are discounted are non refundable. If Royal woyld follow Southwest and apply a Future Cruise Credit valid for one year with the option to extend it for $50 once the year is up for another year would be very reasonable.

 

I for one would book a refundable deposit even of its more rather than losing $900 I could ger the full refubd back before the sail date.Also it means less owed at Final Payment so as long as they don't increase cruise fares by 150% its a moot point.

 

A good travel agent would tell you up front the refundable vs non refundable deposit. Just my 2 cents.

 

What says you?

When we fly internationally we tend to book bus class so we are almost always refundable.

On everything else you posted I agree with the proviso that one should be able to change the sail without penalty if one is booking the same or close to the same dates wayyyyy outside the dates.

Which is exactly why I said "blame the suite hogs" for the fact that there are no non-refundable deposits on Suites. There have been plenty of posts on this board discussing suite hogs.....I guess that will stop now.

 

Or just wait to book until you know you want to take a particular sailing. You're simply over-reacting to the policy you knew was in effect when you made the booking.

There were other ways they could have handled the "suite hog" issue if that is what this was about. I get the non refundable, but instead they could have handled it in such a way that made it more consumer friendly. Making a booking non transferable to another sailing has zero to do with suite hogs and all to do with greed and while other's disagree it is imho short sighted because they could have tweaked this without managing to turn people off. Again while some disagree, there are some who wont book because of the policies who will go elsewhere, and no company wants to chase customers away

In your opinion I'm "over-reacting". In my opinion I'm exercising my right as a consumer to make choices.

This was clear when you made the deposit. Complaining about Royal holding you to the terms of the contract you agreed to, and then holding on to the reservation when you know you're not taking the cruise seems sad, childish, and selfish, TBH. I also think its hilarious that $200 when you're planning on spending $10,000+ is making you react this way.

 

I would disagree that this is short-sighted. Many other cruise lines offer this option, and if you live just about anywhere else besides the US or Canada, ALL reservations are non-refundable. As the dollar continues to strengthen, less Europeans are sailing from the US, so something has to be done to increase revenue. Non-refundable deposits are a great way to 1) save a little money if you KNOW you're going to take the cruise, 2) generate additional revenue thanks to change fees, and 3) generate additional revenue thanks to people like you cancelling.

 

 

 

Do you only drive to port, or do you fly? Because almost airlines charge a change fee. My guess is that you fly and you wait until you KNOW you're taking a cruise before you book flights. This is the behavior Royal is trying to reinforce - book when you KNOW you're going to take the cruise OR choose a refundable rate. Unfortunately you probably have the "suite hogs" to blame for all suites being non-refundable.

And if they had the option to save a little money by booking non refundable we would not have chosen that option, and if we had it would have been our choice and I would have no right to complain.

The airlines are a good example actually, and it is why whenever we have the option we will fly out of Buffalo instead of Toronto (we're in Canada), on Southwest who don't charge fees to change bookings. Other wise when we fly internationally etc out of YYZ we book more expensive fares that we can have flexibility with and there are no charges for cancelling or changing.

And this is exactly the reason they are going to non-refundable fares. While you sat there holding onto your reservation I'm sure there were people who may have booked your cabin had it been available. When you have a cabin booked on a cruise you aren't taking it means that nobody else can book that cabin. You holding that cabin can potentially impact others wanting to cruise and could cost the line money. It's this behaviour they are trying to discourage.

 

So yeah they charge you a penalty of $200 to change anything. And the fact that you are holding a cabin "just to show them" is actually pretty sad and selfish.

 

 

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Sorry but what you are saying makes no sense...it is solely because of the non refundable deposit that we are holding on to the reservation. Without it we would not be sitting on the reservation. In order to extend the credit we have no choice. Perhaps I wasn't clear in my first post.

And if you think it is selfish to do so, quite frankly I don't care. It is the inflexibility of their policies that caused the "selfish" behaviour .

So, you signed a contract and then when the other party honors that contact, you get pissed and never do business with them again? You are the reason why they implemented non-refundable rates.

 

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Had I had the opportunity

to book a regular refundable deposit we would have cancelled the minute we decided not to take it. Instead Royal's booking policy states that if we cancel we get a $300 credit back to be used for 1 year from the date of cancellation. Uh yea....I will wait for the very last minute to cancel. I would be a fool not too!

Somehow this translates into , "You are the reason why they implemented non-refundable rates." Ummm no, we would have simply cancelled without the layer Royal has added, and given us no choice but to book a non refundable fare.

Let me tell you how really silly the non refundable deposit has gotten. We booked a Royal Loft on Allure for Nov of 2018 which could only be booked as a non refundable. We then decided that there was a Seabourn cruise a couple of months later we wanted instead so we planned to wait until final payment then cancel to extend the cruise credit out as long as we could. Fast forward last week dh and I were discussing it and decided we would take another cruise in Nov. we didn't want the itinerary of Allure which is mainly Mexico etc(dh and I are simply not comfortable with the current warnings for Mexico and I understand that many others are ) . We were stunned when Royal wouldn't let us change to the Oasis without a $200 penalty. I get that they have a "policy" but it seems to me that they would let one transfer to another cruise same dates without penalty. Nope ! So we have a policy too....I won't do business with a company that is that inflexible. We booked November with HAL(fully refundable deposit btw).....and Royal can enjoy the $500,. They wont however get the $10,000+ they would have had from us...and I hope they can get full price for the RL on Allure that we wont release until full payment date.

I cannot believe how shortsighted the thinking is.

I agree with your assessment, but OP is pointing out that the unintended consequence of that is that now they are not going to release a suite until 12 months from now and they know today that they won't use it. They will face the same penalty in August 2018, but they will have a longer period of time to find a cruise to move their credit towards.

 

Perhaps Royal did not really foresee this happening. I'm not a "company man" so to me the way to eliminate this issue, if it were to become a problem, is make the FCC good for one year after the original final payment would have been. That way OP would not lose anything releasing the suite today; in that case the FCC is usable for a minimum of 12 months, but potentially much longer.

 

And credits can't continually be kicked down the road, because you'd just end up in another booking situation that you would cancel and be penalized on...rinse and repeat a few times and you may as well just send them money and not even take a cruise.

I absolutely agree....it may be that we won't use the credit at all( so many trips and only so much time :) ) but at the end of the day I want to widen the window as much as possible.

Does the FCC have to be used (as in cruise booked and taken) or does the cruise just have to be booked.

 

If the cruise just has to be booked within the year then it shouldn't be too much of an issue for most as you would be able to wait until new itineraries are released which in effect would allow you to actually take the cruise over 2 years out.

I agree with you. The rep was indicating that the cruise had to be within 1 yr but he didn't sound that sure, and there is not any language at all in the terms that would clarify this. But one would still want to wait as far out as they could to cancel.

I think you may be missing the point.

The NON refundable deposit I don't think was intended so much for the One and done cruisers. They would probably be ok with rolling a 300 dollar deposit. The ones that will have the issue are the ones that do more like this

 

1. Book 5 cruises Not knowing what they want. Locking up (for suites) 500 per so that's 2500.00 that They have to keep pushing down the road, as I am sure you cant most likely use 5 rooms worth of credit against one booking...

 

The point is to prevent people from booking multiple rooms that they may not use, so if they are going to selfishly keep playing the "lets hold 5 suites game" then they are going to have to deal with the perpetual credit that they seemingly wont ever be able to use

I do get that point but since that has absolutely nothing to do with my post I didn't speak to that. I am referring to the time period in relation to the issuance of the credit and expiry of same. I expect that when RCL realizes that they have created an issue for themselves they will likely change the manner in which that works, and inevitably I expect it will be more likely based on the date of the cruise.

But as an aside interestingly there is nothing in the terms that I looked at today that suggest one couldn't use multiple credits against a single booking if your scenario applies.....see below at the bottom of the rcl page

www.royalcaribbean.com/legal.do

What if between now and then prices double and you don't plan to cruise RCI again? I guess you forfeit your credit as well? You found a very interesting problem here in that you are willing to cancel and accept some penalty, but if their rules are going to lose you nearly a year of time to decide what to do, you'll just play by their rules that keeps inventory locked up.

 

Curious, did you try another agent? I wonder if you'd get the same answer twice from Royal?

 

As for the first reply rolling eyes at you, I still think you raised an interesting point and would like to know what happens. If they knew everything about this they could have saved the wear and tear on their keyboard.

I didn't call back a second time because the rep advised me that this was clear in the terms, which I subsequently reviewed. I've copied the relevant section below. Note that the credit is issued at the time of cancellation.

"If the guest cancels an NRD Booking prior to the final payment due date, the cancellation terms of the cruise ticket contract apply, and Royal Caribbean will issue a future cruise credit in the amount of the deposit paid minus a $100USD per person service fee to the guest named on the cancelled NRD Booking (the "FCC"). The FCC is applicable only towards the purchase of a Royal Caribbean cruise and expires 12-months after the issue date (the "Expiration Date"). "

I had assumed incorrectly that the credit one gets if cancelling would be good for 1 yr from the sailing date. According to the rep I spoke with today the credit is good for 1 yr from the cancellation date.

If part of the point of these deposits was to make certain the suites got booked and not held they are not doing themselves a service imho.

Dh and I booked a Royal Loft Suite for Nov 2018 on Allure . We've decided instead to do a Seabourn cruise to Africa etc.

So I call to cancel expecting to get a $300 credit good until Nov 2019 and instead was told as above, that is that the credit is good for 1 yr from the date of cancellation. Obviously we will wait as long as we can to cancel then(which is August of 2018), and in the meantime we are sitting on a Royal Loft Suite which we have no intention of using. Perhaps they know they can book these out even last minute for full price, but on the other hand they may be forced to discount which will cost them more than the non refundable deposit. This seems short sighted to me and one wonders if they will rethink the strategy.

To those who have offered helpful info....thanks all !

Sorry to have to comment again. Apparently you have found your itinerary with this cruise.

You are trying to book on Seabourn. Discounts & fluff as in OBC's are not generally what motivates Seabourn'ers to sail. Again I ask why do you think this cruise is for you? Maybe another cruise line?

 

Just try'n to be real.

 

 

 

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Condescending much ?

Let me be real in response. Im not motivated by the discount but I'm sure as heck not going to pass it up . This cruise is for us because of the port locations and gets us to the places we want it to get us to. I don't really care if you happen to think it is tacky to want to get the best price while I happen to think it is foolish not to. If I book direct dh and I will spend roughly $2500 usd that we don't need to spend. In order to save that both by a lower price and on board credit I will book through an agent and relinquish control. And in so doing if I don't fit the mold of a good Seabourn'er well....there is an old line in Gone with the Wind I could quote.

That said, if you can advise me of another cruise that goes through the same terrific ports in South Africa, through the Indian Ocean islands of Reunion and Mauritius and finishes in the Maldives I'd certainly compare....we had intended to land base this trip but the ease of getting to the places we wanted to get to at a price that was much better than our usual land based trips was simply too good to pass up.

Also is anyone aware of any other sites where one can ask the kind of info Im seeking without running afoul of the rules ??

Hopefully what Im asking now will be acceptable and if not I can be appropriately scolded....

I've seen pricing with some big online TA's that would save us with a combo of discounts and onboard credits about 9 or 10 %. Is there any reason not to book with the big online consultants ? I realize we wont get personal attention, but is there any other downside ?

Frankly, to get the best out of a good TA you will have to relinquish some of the control in order to let him/her do the job for you. If you're not willing to do that saved the TA and yourself a lot of trouble and keep booking yourself. You won't get the benefits but you'll have the satisfaction of knowing you did it all on your own.

There isn't much for the TA to do at this point...we know exactly what we want to book, so it is just a matter of deciding how we're booking and in order to save what appears to be a pretty hefty chunk of change Im willing to ease off the reigns :)

Talk to friends that have been successful with their Travel Agent. It took me many years to finally find one that knows what they are doing, and service with a smile! (Not to mention great perks!) Good luck!

Tried that already....don't know anyone who has a good one for cruises...most of our friends do land based

Im not trying to be difficult Sparky...we know that we want to book the March 5, 2019 Sojourn SA cruise and we're looking to get he best price possible and we want to book refundable preferably in US dollars although we are in Canada.

We're looking at this cruise because it happens to be very similar to what we were going to do as a land based trip but with a lot less travel aggravation esp getting to Mauritius and the Maldives from SA.

Ok so Im frustrated and part of my frustration is the cc policy on TA's. Dh and I are considering our first Seabourn cruise to South Africa in March of 2019. Ive read a bunch of threads which have led me to the belief that it is far more cost effective to use an agent than it is to book yourself but I never use agents for travel as I'm too much of a control freak. I get that booking through an agent appears to be beneficial for cruising however so Im willing to do so.

All of that said how does one find a good agent for Seabourn. I don't want to contact one that is just so so and there appears to be many online that are just mass agents with no personal service at all.

I understand that we cant get referrals on here but how in heavens name do we find this great agent without referrals?

OBC means on board credit, if you aren't on your cruise, you can't use your OBC, i.e. You have to board first.

To be fair, to the OP the answer is not as obvious as you may think, and varies with the cruiselines. We just booked with Royal for next year and our on board credits can be used for any advance purchases that we will use while onboard including bottled water, specialty dining, water, shore excursions etc.

Or the option to purchase cruise insurance within the time frame required to waive pre-existing conditions, (usually available within 14 days from cruise deposit)?

I know many don't purchase this, but wouldn't insurance cover non-refundable deposits?

Most insurance in Canada, which is avail to us, does not waive pre existing clauses. Those that do (very very few )are cost prohibitive. More importantly if we were to take the insurance now, for the cost of our cruise , in order to cover our deposit, the cruise insurance on virtually any policy would be much more than the cost of losing the deposit if it ever came down to that and I would prefer to wait to make certain that we are within the pre existing clauses if need be.

Don't misunderstand, I am open minded about the fact that we could very well lose $ 500 usd if we have to cancel and we can live with that, but given a choice between our typical holiday, where we can cancel until a couple of weeks beforehand and lose nothing and a cruise where we do guess which I'll choose. Because this is a milestone birthday for me we wanted something different, but it doesn't endear us to taking another.

Did you not have the choice to choose the fare with the refundable deposit?

No because we're booked in a suite and can only book non refundable