Is it best to book with a UK cruise co or USA

[brakar]

HI

 

I have been advised by a friend to book through an American cruise company as it works out cheaper.  I have indeed searched this and it is cheaper, anyone else book through an American operatorr?

[John Bull]

Yes, it's done.

But there are cons as well as pros.

 

The pros

 

- Usually cheaper, sometimes a lot, sometimes not enough to be worth the grief & bother.

 

- Your deposit is refundable in full right up to "final payment" date, as opposed to the UK where it's committed as soon as it's paid (plus further penalties if cancelled late).

 

Mebbe pro, mebbe con

 

You'll be billed in US dollars, so between booking and payment the actual cost to you will depend on currency fluctuations.

 

The cons

 

- you'll not be covered by ABTA or other UK safeguards if the T/A goes belly-up or runs off to the South Seas with your money. So pay only by credit card, and be aware of the restrictions / time limits on the compensation that you get from your card supplier.

 

- US prices quoted often don't include mandatory extra charges like port taxes, whereas in the UK mandatory extras must by law be included in, or alongside, the quoted price.  Not a massive amount, but will bite into the savings.

 

-  Your contract will be covered by US law, not UK / EU laws. US contract laws are much looser, and US cruise lines do sometime tend to play hard and fast with their customers.

It's not particularly rare for a cruise line to cancel a cruise for their own reasons (for instance a large organisation chartering the whole ship). Usually but not always with plenty of notice, but could leave you with airline tickets bought but no cruise. 

For example NCL changed the itinerary of April's Getaway's trans-Atlantic - they chopped two day / two ports off the itinerary, giving their passengers just seven days notice to re-jig flights or book hotels for those two days. And their  US terms & conditions gave them every right to do so, with minimal & inadequate compensation for their costs !!!

See the RollCall for that cruise, all hunky-dory until that bombshell that hit it from page 67.

(hate this stupid new CC format, can't simply link you to page 76 (posted 19th April),  such link as I can give is at the bottom of this post 

So for any cruise that you select, check the terms and conditions on the cruise line's US and UK websites & see the differences.

 

One other factor.

Some cruise lines (sorry, I forget which) will accept bookings from US T/A's only for US or Canadian residents. There are ways round this, for instance using the address of a friend or relative in North America. And some T/A's have their own ways to get round this, but some will instead decline your booking. I guess the best bet is to e-mail a couple, without being specific about which cruise, and ask them. 

 

All a bit complicated, used to be worthwhile, I don't know about in recent years.

 

JB 

 

 

Edited June 4, 2019 by John Bull

[brakar]

Thank you for your very informative reply that’s been really helpful.

 

affer research I will book with a uk operator. 

 

So overwhelming booking our first cruise and tons of research needed. 

 

Thanks 

[John Bull]

No worries.

Booking thro a US agent isn't for first-time cruisers.

 

Use a UK cruise specialist travel agent (google "cruise agents UK") rather than a High Street All-Sorts T/A or direct with a cruise line -  potential discounts or freebies or upgrades but much more important, they know their stuff on cruising and a friendly cruise T/A is worth their salt with general hints on the pros & cons of different cruise lines, itineraries, time-of-year, cabin and dining selection, and a multitude of questions.

So use the phone, not the internet. 

We started off by getting quotes from different agents, then going back to the one who seemed most friendly and switched-on and asking them to match the best quote. 

Now that we're retired and not committed to dates, we get best value by booking late bargains (but there are pitfalls there too)

 

You'll learn a lot on your first cruise. 

From experiencing it of course and probably making a few minor wrong calls, but also by chatting to fellow-cruisers.

 

Any thoughts yet about where & when to go?

 

JB