My Experience Trying to Book a HAL cruise today

[FlaMariner]

So we thought we'd spend our FCC today and book a cruise sailing in the fall of 2021......

 

The TA came back and said we'd owe HAL $600 for deposits.  I thought I was all good to go with tossing my FCC on the cruise.  

 

Shouldn't a Future Cruise Credit cover the deposit and then some?

 

Also, I asked if our shareholder benefit from the cancelled cruise could shift to the new cruise.....And was told I needed to send in the paperwork again.

 

I love Holland America and thought I was helping out today but thinking they do not need me.   We might just shift to option 2 (cash back) and call it a day.

 

 

 

[wesport]

It states specifically that the FCC cannot be used for deposits. It will be applied after the deposit is made.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

 

[Mary229]

Sounds like there was a communication breakdown concerning you FCC.  Is this a FCC that you have from a cancelled cruise or an onboard FCC.  If it was from canceled perhaps it is not recorded yet.  You may have to call HAL yourself.  Yes the shareholder benefit is cruise by cruise.    Hopefully they will be maintaining the shareholder benefit. 

[calebandjess]

I was on the phone with our TA agency re-booking yesterday. They also said FCC cannot be used toward our deposit. I confirmed by looking at the fine print of the FCC policy. Fortunately, we were able to take advantage of a reduced deposit promo going on for the sailing we wanted to book, so the deposit was only $199/person. We have a much nicer room category this time thanks to the FCC,  plus free gratuities as part of the promo, in addition to the $250/person OBC from the cancellation, so I still feel like we’re getting out ahead. It is a bummer that FCC doesn’t count toward tour deposit though. Our FCC hasn’t been put into our account yet (and I imagine that will take quite some time), but we wanted to take advantage of a good promo and cabin selection so went ahead and booked and were told we could roll the FCC into the booking once it’s in our account. 

[Caribbean Chris]

We booked a 2020 Christmas cruise with a $200 deposit and no new money changed hands. It came out of our future cruise credit from a cruise we cancelled in March. .Maybe the “rules” are different for 2021 bookings.

 

Were there airline tickets involved? Maybe that could affect the deposit terms. 
 

I don’t doubt that shareholder credit can’t be transferred to a fall 2021 cruise. The current window is for cruises through July 31.

https://www.carnivalcorp.com/static-files/50351a91-4dc0-4f6b-bfec-684647e6129f

[calebandjess]

19 minutes ago, Caribbean Chris said:

We booked a 2020 Christmas cruise with a $200 deposit and no new money changed hands. It came out of our future cruise credit from a cruise we cancelled in March. .Maybe the “rules” are different for 2021 bookings.

 

Perhaps their terms have changed, because they state that FCC cannot be applied toward deposits. We took a risk with booking a Fall 2020 cruise and will see how it plays out. We figured, worst case scenario, it gets cancelled and we just have to re-book for a later date again. 

 

[FlaMariner]

Yep, it's clear now and is in the fine print!  Thanks for reading that and pointing that out to me.  

 

One would think that a couple of thousand dollars in FCC would be good and welcomed for a new cruise booking but as I often learn, that's not in the fine print!

 

Thanks for the clarification!

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Boatdrill]

1 hour ago, Caribbean Chris said:

We booked a 2020 Christmas cruise with a $200 deposit and no new money changed hands. It came out of our future cruise credit from a cruise we cancelled in March. .Maybe the “rules” are different for 2021 bookings.

 

 

Perhaps your $200 deposit was a Future Cruise Deposit you already had  with HAL ?  $200 is the usual amount of a FCD, and if you previously used that FCD to book your (cancelled) March cruise, it would still be available to you.

 

Edited April 16, 2020 by Boatdrill

[john2003]

You could also find that your prior cruise hasn't actually been cancelled yet. There is apparently no link between the preferences and the actual cancellation. I also booked a new cruise and had to produce new money which isn't exactly comforting but helps their bank balance. 

[ski ww]

We rebooked a July 2021 cruise using the deposit from our cancelled cruise, no problem.

[PROCRUISE]

2 hours ago, wesport said:

It states specifically that the FCC cannot be used for deposits. It will be applied after the deposit is made.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

 

 

True, but it does cover deposit on other cruise lines, just not HAL.

[Caribbean Chris]

2 hours ago, Boatdrill said:

Perhaps your $200 deposit was a Future Cruise Deposit you already had  with HAL ?  $200 is the usual amount of a FCD, and if you previously used that FCD to book your (cancelled) March cruise, it would still be available to you.

 

No, it was supposed to be the credit was given to people earlier this year who chose to cancel HAL cruises - before they cancelled across the board and shut down operations. There was also no option to choose a full refund nor any extras. Strictly a FCC for what we paid, less port taxes and airline fees which are supposed to be coming as a credit card refund. 
 

But on reflection, you could be right - if the agent actually used a regular on-board FCC which we purchased last year - and the amounts would add up.

Edited April 17, 2020 by Caribbean Chris

[Caribbean Chris]

10 hours ago, Boatdrill said:

Perhaps your $200 deposit was a Future Cruise Deposit you already had  with HAL ?  $200 is the usual amount of a FCD, and if you previously used that FCD to book your (cancelled) March cruise, it would still be available to you.

 

Duh! I was wrong and Boatdrill was right. Thank you for suggesting it came from this different “deposit pot.” Took a closer look at the new booking and the TA must have used an on-board purchased Future Cruise Credit attached to our Mariner Numbers, not the cancelled trip credit given to us in March.
 

This explains why we were given an OBC for our new cruise of $200, which wasn’t part of the promo.

[Wayfairers]

16 hours ago, FlaMariner said:

 

Also, I asked if our shareholder benefit from the cancelled cruise could shift to the new cruise.....And was told I needed to send in the paperwork again.

 

I’ve been told that you have to show proof you still own the stock every year after the annual shareholder meeting.  

[FlaMariner]

22 minutes ago, Wayfairers said:

I’ve been told that you have to show proof you still own the stock every year after the annual shareholder meeting.  

 

That makes sense.  

[kwb101]

3 hours ago, Wayfairers said:

I’ve been told that you have to show proof you still own the stock every year after the annual shareholder meeting.  

Yes: you have to send a copy of your brokerage or other statement in your name  showing at least 100 shares of CCL.

[Sharon in AZ]

19 hours ago, calebandjess said:

Perhaps their terms have changed, because they state that FCC cannot be applied toward deposits. We took a risk with booking a Fall 2020 cruise and will see how it plays out. We figured, worst case scenario, it gets cancelled and we just have to re-book for a later date again.

 

I did the same thing.  Just booked a Fall 2020 cruise and the deposit was $198 for the two of us.  I hadn't filled out the cancellation form yet, the one where you tell HAL which method you want your credit to be processed.  My PCC recommended I do that right away because it takes 60 days to process, which turns out will just be a few weeks prior to my final payment date.  Now I am just going to wait and see what happens. 

[calebandjess]

16 minutes ago, Sharon in AZ said:

 

I did the same thing.  Just booked a Fall 2020 cruise and the deposit was $198 for the two of us.  I hadn't filled out the cancellation form yet, the one where you tell HAL which method you want your credit to be processed.  My PCC recommended I do that right away because it takes 60 days to process, which turns out will just be a few weeks prior to my final payment date.  Now I am just going to wait and see what happens. 

Let’s hope it works out for us! Where will you be sailing to?

[cbr663]

8 hours ago, Caribbean Chris said:

Duh! I was wrong and Boatdrill was right. Thank you for suggesting it came from this different “deposit pot.” Took a closer look at the new booking and the TA must have used an on-board purchased Future Cruise Credit attached to our Mariner Numbers, not the cancelled trip credit given to us in March.
 

This explains why we were given an OBC for our new cruise of $200, which wasn’t part of the promo.

 

Great lesson on being careful with the language that we use.  There is a difference between a Future Cruise Deposit and a Future Cruise Credit.

[Caribbean Chris]

1 minute ago, cbr663 said:

 

Great lesson on being careful with the language that we use.  There is a difference between a Future Cruise Deposit and a Future Cruise Credit.

Yes. My husband, when booking, explained that we had a future cruise CREDIT he wished to use, resulting from our cancellation mid-March, for a new booking that had to be made by 12/31/20.  The TA implemented the new booking using a future cruise DEPOSIT. One or both of them did not pay close enough attention to the semantics of that conversation.

[Sharon in AZ]

On 4/17/2020 at 10:58 AM, calebandjess said:

Let’s hope it works out for us! Where will you be sailing to?

Trying to replicate our cancelled Pacific Coast Cruise but there isn't one that has all the ports that our original one had.  So I decided to try the Koningsdam (not sure I'm going to like the passenger size though) which goes to all but 2 of the original ports.   And I wanted an itinerary that departs and arrives at the same cities that I had booked and paid for flights so I could just rebook those flights for the future dates.  I'm hoping it works, it's for late September so just a bit soon but I have until the end of June to make a final decision.

[calebandjess]

2 hours ago, Sharon in AZ said:

Trying to replicate our cancelled Pacific Coast Cruise but there isn't one that has all the ports that our original one had.  So I decided to try the Koningsdam (not sure I'm going to like the passenger size though) which goes to all but 2 of the original ports.   And I wanted an itinerary that departs and arrives at the same cities that I had booked and paid for flights so I could just rebook those flights for the future dates.  I'm hoping it works, it's for late September so just a bit soon but I have until the end of June to make a final decision.

We were able to book the same exact Med cruise we had cancelled for October 1, the last available option for that cruise for 2020. We know it may be a risk, but we’ll see how it goes! If that gets cancelled too, the next time we could take that cruise would be May 2021, but one port is different. Trying to be flexible! The biggest thing for us is having my mom available to watch our two girls, as we’ve taken plenty of family vacations but this is a ten year anniversary trip. 😁 I’m thankful my parents are being flexible with us given the situation!

[annandme]

On ‎4‎/‎16‎/‎2020 at 5:02 PM, calebandjess said:

Perhaps their terms have changed, because they state that FCC cannot be applied toward deposits. We took a risk with booking a Fall 2020 cruise and will see how it plays out. We figured, worst case scenario, it gets cancelled and we just have to re-book for a later date again. 

 

 

Also, please note that you cannot use your FCC for "taxes, fees and port expenses" on a new cruise.  Therefore if you paid $600 out-of-pocket for your deposit on this new cruise and the taxes, fees and port expenses for this cruise are $700, you still owe another $100 out-of-pocket for this cruise.