Does X No Longer Offer Refundable Deposits?

[GRBlizz]

Newly back to Celebrity after a few years away from cruising, and was surprised that the deposit for our first cruise back was non-refundable.

 

Worked out fine, since we were booking close to final payment date. But now I'm looking at dates a year or more out, and who knows what life holds in store. Is there no way to specify a rate that includes a refundable deposit? I couldn't find one.

[jelayne]

Interesting the cruises I was looking at today had no NRD option that I could find.  
I don’t know how to see the refundable if it isn’t showing.  There are so many pricing options these days that I use a large on-line TA website to see the various prices.

Edited February 6, 2020 by jelayne
Typo

[wrk2cruise]

Celebrity's website is the worst for showing various pricing options.   That said we are almost exclusively using NRD as they are charging so much for refundable deposits that I'm just self insuring.  If I have to cancel 1 in 3 sailings I'm still ahead.   Of course if I book a placeholder which I have no intention of taking I book a refundable fare, when I change it to a sailing I plan on taking I change to NRD.

 

[MareT]

Just booked a cruise for 2021 this week which had a refundable deposit.

[Jim_Iain]

Yes still available but the recent promotion is automatically giving the NRD and is almost impossible to get it to show you the RD.    Suggestion would be to put a hold on the cruise and then either wait for them to call you (which they always do for me) or call Captain's Club and have them price as a RD

[mauimary]

Remember the non refundable deposits are not totally non refundable. They will keep $100 of the deposit and allow you to apply the rest toward another cruise. I believe we have a year to do this if we decided to cancel. Our cruises are not until Autumn 2021!!   This was the way it was explained to us. We are currently sitting with three segments of a cruise. Which was three non refundable deposits.  We did get all four perks for doing this so for us it is worth the risk. 

[gerelmx]

1 hour ago, GRBlizz said:

Newly back to Celebrity after a few years away from cruising, and was surprised that the deposit for our first cruise back was non-refundable.

 

Worked out fine, since we were booking close to final payment date. But now I'm looking at dates a year or more out, and who knows what life holds in store. Is there no way to specify a rate that includes a refundable deposit? I couldn't find one.

 

By default the system goes to NRDB, after selecting your cabin click in the left middle of the screen your offer, this will show the screen to select the best value (refundable) and Best Price (NRDB)

[wrk2cruise]

But there are addition prices which may be impossible to find on the Celebrity site.   For example Refundable with 1 perk (typically refundable with no perks, the Sail rate).   Most online TA sites have better methods for viewing/comparing rates.  One might be the "Encyclopedia" of travel sites.  Also the major online TA in NH.

[katrina915]

If you are on the website, how do you tell if it's nonrefundable deposit?  Very confusing.

[Jim_Iain]

You really can't tell it is Refundable or Non-Refundable until you get to the pricing summary.

 

Another way - 

 

If it skips over the screen to select then select Your Offer

 

On the next screen the lower priced one is a Non-Refundable

 

 

If you select either one it will give you a price summary and in the Detail if you see NRD it is non-refundable.    Not really intuitive.