Future Cruise Deposit - how to use?

[danb35]

The future cruise consultant's availability last week on Oosterdam was very poor, so I requested deposits for myself and my wife using their form.  I got paper confirmations, but not the email confirmations I'd requested.  Nonetheless, I'm now left wondering how to use them.

 

I booked this cruise with an online TA, and would expect to do the same for the next one.  So how do I go about using this deposit toward a future booking?  Does it "replace" the normal deposit for the cruise (i.e., I'd use the $100 deposit I'd already paid in place of whatever the "normal" deposit would be in order to book the cruise), or is it simply an additional $100 toward the cost of the cruise (i.e., book the cruise with whatever the prevailing deposit is, then apply the FCD to reduce the amount due at final payment)?  What else should I know (or be thinking about) with these?

[CruiserBruce]

Yes, it will replace the "normal" deposit.

 

When you have selected your cruise, tell the TA you have the FCD. The TA should then tell HAL, who will confirm the FCD, and assign it to your booking.

[Tampa Girl]

1 hour ago, CruiserBruce said:

Yes, it will replace the "normal" deposit.

 

When you have selected your cruise, tell the TA you have the FCD. The TA should then tell HAL, who will confirm the FCD, and assign it to your booking.

 

Partially correct.  If the cruise is over a certain no. of days (7 - 10?), the deposit is $250, so OP will have to come up with an additional $150 pp in order to use the FCD.  They also don't work for Grand Voyages.

[CruiserBruce]

1 minute ago, Tampa Girl said:

 

Partially correct.  If the cruise is over a certain no. of days (7 - 10?), the deposit is $250, so OP will have to come up with an additional $150 pp in order to use the FCD.  They also don't work for Grand Voyages.

As the OP didn't give any details on their future cruise, I didn't get into specifics. I am very aware of the requirements for longer cruises...we rarely book anything under 15 days, and I just used a FCD for a 24 day cruise.

 

Hard to give specifics when a general question is asked. It can confuse things more. I note you didn't explain the needs for cruises longer than 20 days.

[danb35]

Yes, I'm aware that the FCD amount varies with the cruise length.  The (admittedly unstated) assumption in my post was that the cruise booked would be of a length covered by the FCD (and the $100, IIRC, covers 7-20 days).

[Tampa Girl]

1 minute ago, CruiserBruce said:

As the OP didn't give any details on their future cruise, I didn't get into specifics. I am very aware of the requirements for longer cruises...we rarely book anything under 15 days, and I just used a FCD for a 24 day cruise.

 

Hard to give specifics when a general question is asked. It can confuse things more. I note you didn't explain the needs for cruises longer than 20 days.

 

Actually, I did.  I noted that with cruises over a certain number of days (I wasn't sure the number), the FCD is $250.  Apparently the number is 20, not 7- 10 days.  I came up against that when we started to use a $100 FCD on a 21-day Antarctica cruise last  year.  I decided against the cruise.  Some day, however . . . 

[Overhead Fred]

If you have a $100 FCD and want to go on a longer cruise than covered by said FCD, you can simply "top off" the future cruise deposit amount by credit card to $300 for 22-50 day cruises or $1,000 for 51+ day cruises. No need to buy anything other than the $100 FCDs while onboard. FCDs cannot be used for World Cruises or Grand Voyages (or their segments).