Any disadvantages in making final payment early?

[freedom49]

Hello all!

 

I don't post very often, obviously, but read the boards almost daily. There seem to be so many knowledgeable posters, I still feel like a newbie even though my last cruise gave me Diamond status!!:D

 

My DH and I booked a cruise on Allure next February, final payment is due in December. With our Canadian dollar now at or around par, we were thinking about paying the cruise in full in case our dollar goes down again. We are also considering booking a 6 day on the Independence in February (air travel seems too costly to just go for one week :p) and we were thinking about paying in full at time of booking. My question is, are there any disadvantages to making the final payment early?

 

Thank you in advance for your time and consideration.:)

[cb at sea]

The only "disadvantage" is that the cruiselines gets the use of your money, instead of YOU! The "final payment date" is still the deadline for any "deals" and such.

[ryano]

. My question is, are there any disadvantages to making the final payment early?

 

Thank you in advance for your time and consideration.:)

 

No "disadvantages" that I know. If something happens and you have to cancel, there are many reports here that RCI credits the money back to you within a few days.

 

Some here will tell you that its ludicrous to give your money to the cruise line even a day sooner than you are required to and that you are better off holding your money until final payment.

 

Others, such as myself, like the fact of knowing we have our cruise paid in full, sometimes even months in advance, and think that the VERY minimal amount of interest gained in a savings account is insignificant.

 

Yes, we are banking on RCI not folding and going under lol. I will take my chances though. :)

 

There are valid arguments from both sides of this and it turns out to be quiet the debate.

[19Ladybird67]

If you pay in full early and the price goes down, can you still get the price drop?

[ryano]

If you pay in full early and the price goes down, can you still get the price drop?

 

Yes, as long as the price drop happens BEFORE final payment date and isnt a "new bookings only" promotion :)

[zoncom]

I have been told by qualified parties if you pay in full early all provisions of final payment come in place. Such as NO REFUNDS.Things happen;family,job,illness etc. I asked for refund on reduced cruise price after final payment;denied.Check it out with line directly.

[Classynfun1]

If you can't recieve price drops, then I wouldn't do it. If you can, then pay early!

[ryano]

I have been told by qualified parties if you pay in full early all provisions of final payment come in place. .

 

That is simply not true and your qualified party is misinformed. Myself and many others here have taken advantage of several price drops even after paying our cruise in full as long as the price drops happen before our final payment date. All it takes is a phone call to RCI and they take care of it. It is based on your final payment date that RCI gives you, not the day you pay your cruise in full. :)

 

There is no refund however AFTER your final payment date. No OBC either. That was all stopped back in May 2010.

[celie1110]

I have been told by qualified parties if you pay in full early all provisions of final payment come in place. Such as NO REFUNDS.Things happen;family,job,illness etc. I asked for refund on reduced cruise price after final payment;denied.Check it out with line directly.

 

Not true. I usually pay my cruise off as soon as I reserve it. I had a price drop for my September cruise and was able to get my money back. I got it refunded to my credit card within 3 days.

[Clarea]

I've not tried this personally, but have been told that one loses the ability to transfer a booking to a travel agent, once the cruise is paid in full, irrespective of final payment date. With the limited time available to transfer bookings, this should be an unlikely situation, though it could still exist for people who book within 60 days of final payment date.

[Desertbelle]

I like paying cruises off early. It feels good to have that done. No risks that I am aware of. We always purchase travel insurance (not cruise insurance) when we pay off our cruises, so I am not worried about a problem causing us to cancel.

[freedom49]

Thank you all for your answers. I figure any "interest" we could make on keeping the money in our account, would be more than made up for if we can pay at par. Haven't quite decided yet, but at least we have the information we need to make an informed decision.

[DrD]

No "disadvantages" that I know. If something happens and you have to cancel, there are many reports here that RCI credits the money back to you within a few days.

 

Some here will tell you that its ludicrous to give your money to the cruise line even a day sooner than you are required to and that you are better off holding your money until final payment.

 

Others, such as myself, like the fact of knowing we have our cruise paid in full, sometimes even months in advance, and think that the VERY minimal amount of interest gained in a savings account is insignificant.

 

Yes, we are banking on RCI not folding and going under lol. I will take my chances though. :)

 

There are valid arguments from both sides of this and it turns out to be quiet the debate.

 

I'm one of those hold your money people, however, as the OP points out she is looking at exchange rates, so in that case it could easily make financial sense to pay early. The only downside is the dollar may weaken further, especially with the fiscal cliff looming and the fed possibly going for QE2. In fact I would guess the dollar will be weaker in February, not stronger.

[nbsjcruiser]

Hello all!

 

I don't post very often, obviously, but read the boards almost daily. There seem to be so many knowledgeable posters, I still feel like a newbie even though my last cruise gave me Diamond status!!:D

 

My DH and I booked a cruise on Allure next February, final payment is due in December. With our Canadian dollar now at or around par, we were thinking about paying the cruise in full in case our dollar goes down again. We are also considering booking a 6 day on the Independence in February (air travel seems too costly to just go for one week :p) and we were thinking about paying in full at time of booking. My question is, are there any disadvantages to making the final payment early?

 

Thank you in advance for your time and consideration.:)

 

Hey neighbour. We're from New Brunswick. For air you should consider flying out of Maine. Even with the additional car travel and hotel you can save money. We got tickets for our fall cruise at $200 pp round trip Portland Maine-FLL. For our winter trip (8 day on the Independence - probably right after your 6 day) we got tickets for $300 pp. Sure beats Air Canada which is hovering between $850 and $1000 per person. We've been flying out of Maine for years now.

 

As far as any downsides to paying it off early, I don't see where there could be any. We were in the same situation a week ago and decided that since the dollar was doing well we'd pay it off and be done with it.

[nbsjcruiser]

I have been told by qualified parties if you pay in full early all provisions of final payment come in place. Such as NO REFUNDS.Things happen;family,job,illness etc. I asked for refund on reduced cruise price after final payment;denied.Check it out with line directly.

 

Not true. We paid ours off a couple weeks ago and just this past Friday called in and got a room change to a higher category AND a price drop.

[freedom49]

Hey neighbour. We're from New Brunswick. For air you should consider flying out of Maine. Even with the additional car travel and hotel you can save money. We got tickets for our fall cruise at $200 pp round trip Portland Maine-FLL. For our winter trip (8 day on the Independence - probably right after your 6 day) we got tickets for $300 pp. Sure beats Air Canada which is hovering between $850 and $1000 per person. We've been flying out of Maine for years now.

 

As far as any downsides to paying it off early, I don't see where there could be any. We were in the same situation a week ago and decided that since the dollar was doing well we'd pay it off and be done with it.

 

 

Hi there! Wow, sure would be great to get rates like that! Where in Maine do you fly from and how far from the border (both in distance and time)? We usually fly out of Moncton, only 2.5 hour drive from home, Charlottetown is way too expensive. Of course, travel in February in Atlantic Canada can be tricky but so far we've been pretty lucky. Also, any particular airline to look for? Any help/suggestions would be great!:) Thanks

[molly361]

No "disadvantages" that I know. If something happens and you have to cancel, there are many reports here that RCI credits the money back to you within a few days.

 

Some here will tell you that its ludicrous to give your money to the cruise line even a day sooner than you are required to and that you are better off holding your money until final payment.

 

Others, such as myself, like the fact of knowing we have our cruise paid in full, sometimes even months in advance, and think that the VERY minimal amount of interest gained in a savings account is insignificant.

 

Yes, we are banking on RCI not folding and going under lol. I will take my chances though. :)

 

There are valid arguments from both sides of this and it turns out to be quiet the debate.

 

 

Ditto. We always pay off our cruises early. Ellen

[orville99]

I have been told by qualified parties if you pay in full early all provisions of final payment come in place. Such as NO REFUNDS.Things happen;family,job,illness etc. I asked for refund on reduced cruise price after final payment;denied.Check it out with line directly.

 

Unfortunately, you're mixing apples and aardvarks here:)

 

There are two distinct time periods - before final payment date, and after final payment date.

 

Caveat: These scenarios apply to North American cruisers - if you're elsewhere in the world, your rules may be different.

 

Before final payment date: full refund, any price drop (other than the "one day sale" prices), change cruise dates w/o penalty, etc. I.E., we've cancelled one cruise (full refund); we moved one cruise three times (same ship) - no penalty, and the itinerary we finally ended up sailing on was lower price than the one we originally booked so we received a credit for the difference; we moved a cruise date twice (same ship) and then changed ships (no penalty); we've upgraded to a higher category cabin (it was priced lower than the existing cabin - and got the lower price; and we've received four separate price drops so far on our next cruise. (I'm waiting for the latest $160 in credit to hit my CC statement tomorrow):)

 

After final payment date: partial to no refund, depending on when you cancel; no price reductions, but if a higher category becoms available at the same or lower price, you can upgrade at no additional cost.

[ryano]

Caveat: These scenarios apply to North American cruisers - if you're elsewhere in the world, your rules may be different.

 

 

Very good point. One of which needed to be added to this discussion.

[nbsjcruiser]

Hi there! Wow, sure would be great to get rates like that! Where in Maine do you fly from and how far from the border (both in distance and time)? We usually fly out of Moncton, only 2.5 hour drive from home, Charlottetown is way too expensive. Of course, travel in February in Atlantic Canada can be tricky but so far we've been pretty lucky. Also, any particular airline to look for? Any help/suggestions would be great!:) Thanks

 

We fly out of Bangor or Portland. Typically Portland is cheaper and once you hit Bangor, Portland is a 2 hour drive down the I95 - piece of cake. What we do for our searches is use kayak.com. It checks all the airlines and brings back the cheapest air and then we use our Delta credit card to book the best airfare. My advice to anyone who asks is that it is always cheaper to book air in the US early as opposed to late. The prices I quoted you were ones we purchased in February and March and today they are runnign about $377 - still good but higher than what we paid. If you are thinking about flying in the US start looking now.

 

If you decide you dont mind the drive (5 hours for me to Portland, probably 8 for you) then I advise you get a airmiles card from a US airline. We have a Capital One Delta card and we purchase everything on it and of course pay it off every month. We buy our groceries, gas, pay our phone bill - you name it - if it can be paid in a credit card, it goes on there. We get almost 3 free air tickets per year this way.

 

When you cruise, ya gotta find ways to save!

[Beth C]

My DH and I booked a cruise on Allure next February, final payment is due in December. With our Canadian dollar now at or around par, we were thinking about paying the cruise in full in case our dollar goes down again.

 

Are you booked in USD or CAD? I have found for all my cruises so far it has been much more beneficial to book in CAD after almost breaking the bank with my first cruise.

 

I didn't realize that you could book in either with Royal directly and had booked the Oasis inaugural in USD ($1849 pp for an inside :eek: ) long story short - the dollar bottomed out and our group almost had to take a hit of a a few thousand bucks... prices dropped before final - whew not as bad of a hit then I found the canadian pricing which hadn't been adjusted to reflect the new exchange rate (Royal only adjusts a few times a year) and managed to snag the cruise for under $1500 CAD as opposed to the $1500 USD which was going to be close to $2500 CAD with the horrible exchange.

 

Have you priced out Halifax and Sydney flights?? The airport hotels (Halifax) offer free parking packages for the week as well - I have never paid more than $400 return to MIA or FLL in Dec, Jan, April or May. My best fare ever was $155 down with WJ (direct at that) and $125 back with Delta at the end of April 2011. Didn't even go on a cruise... just went down to shop LOL We have family in Cape Breton that has started cruising with us and for our Hawaiian cruise next May it's currently cheaper for *us* to drive from Halifax to Sydney and fly to Hawaii from there!?!?!?! :confused: Makes absolutely no sense but the past couple cruises it's been pretty comparable in price (ie less than the gas to drive to Halifax and back)

[macmax]

It has been much better to book in CAD dollars for quite awhile now.

Not only is the CAD price sometimes lower than USD but you save the 2.5%

conversion fee that most credit card companies hit you with.

 

Then there would be no advantage to pay your final early.

[macmax]

duplicate entry

[CruisinDawn]

I've not tried this personally, but have been told that one loses the ability to transfer a booking to a travel agent, once the cruise is paid in full, irrespective of final payment date. With the limited time available to transfer bookings, this should be an unlikely situation, though it could still exist for people who book within 60 days of final payment date.

I have personal experience that your indeed right. We tried to transfer a cruise we paid off early and the TA couldn't do it. He told us to add another person to the cabin leaving a balance then drop the person off. That isn't even an option in most cases.

 

If you have no intention of transferring to a TA or are outside the 60 cut off then there is no downside. You still get price drops if they happen prior to the "official" final payment date.

 

BonVoyage

Dawna

[romnan]

I think it's a matter of personal.As others have mention there really is no advantage or disadvantage.For us it is a matter of having the bill paid off and out of the way. I don't like to leave things hanging:)