Cancel-rebook?

[Twinsplus1]

I've never canceled and rebooked before, so please excuse me if this is a silly question. We booked our August Bermuda cruise out of NYC back in December. It wasn't cheap. Final payment has come and gone so now the price has significantly gone down...almost $2000 less for our balcony room. I'm in penalty, so my fee would be about $960, leaving me with a savings of just about $1000. To me it seems like a no-brainer to cancel and rebook but is there anything I'm not thinking of that would make this NOT a good idea? Perks are the same it seems other than it looking like we booked with a promo that had a cruise first certificate attached to it (not sure, we didn't have a certificate so it must have been a promo).

 

Am I missing something that I should consider before rebooking? Thanks all!

[Havok]

Maybe call up and ask for a cruise credit for the difference?  You might get more than the $1000 from the cancel and rebook.  If they office less you can still cancel and rebook.

[TrumpyNor]

9 minutes ago, Havok said:

Maybe call up and ask for a cruise credit for the difference?  You might get more than the $1000 from the cancel and rebook.  If they office less you can still cancel and rebook.

In my experience, IF you ask for an OBC because of the pricedrop, they may offer you 25% of the pricedrop (so $500 in this case). 

 

[TrumpyNor]

2 hours ago, Twinsplus1 said:

I've never canceled and rebooked before, so please excuse me if this is a silly question. We booked our August Bermuda cruise out of NYC back in December. It wasn't cheap. Final payment has come and gone so now the price has significantly gone down...almost $2000 less for our balcony room. I'm in penalty, so my fee would be about $960, leaving me with a savings of just about $1000. To me it seems like a no-brainer to cancel and rebook but is there anything I'm not thinking of that would make this NOT a good idea? Perks are the same it seems other than it looking like we booked with a promo that had a cruise first certificate attached to it (not sure, we didn't have a certificate so it must have been a promo).

 

Am I missing something that I should consider before rebooking? Thanks all!

I found out yesterday that there had been a significant pricedrop on my cruise for August 2022. So I cancelled my "upgrade bid" and instead purchased an upgrade from our regular inside cabin on deck 10 (Norwegian Escape) to a MA Club Balcony on deck 14 for a total of $333 for 2 persons on a 10 days cruise.

You can not "upgrade" to a lower priced cabin without having to pay the penalty if you are passed the final payment date, but you can certainly PURCHASE an upgrade to a higher category cabin type and only pay the difference between what you have already paid and what is currently the price on the cabin that you want to upgrade to. As long as the new cabin cost more than your original cabin - even if it is only $10 more.....

 

You are also referring to a CruiseFirst promotion; CruiseFirst is similar to the CruiseNext certificates, and are sold by NCL. They often have great offers - earlier this year I wanted to book a cruise for 2023 and didn't have any CruiseNext certificates left. My PCC then informed me that I could pay $250 for a CruiseNext certificate and then the double ($500) was applied towards my cruise. 

https://www.ncl.com/fr/en/terms/cruisefirst

Edited April 28, 2022 by TrumpyNor

[Twinsplus1]

18 minutes ago, TrumpyNor said:

I found out yesterday that there had been a significant pricedrop on my cruise for August 2022. So I cancelled my "upgrade bid" and instead purchased an upgrade from our regular inside cabin on deck 10 (Norwegian Escape) to a MA Club Balcony on deck 14 for a total of $333 for 2 persons on a 10 days cruise.

You can not "upgrade" to a lower priced cabin without having to pay the penalty if you are passed the final payment date, but you can certainly PURCHASE an upgrade to a higher category cabin type and only pay the difference between what you have already paid and what is currently the price on the cabin that you want to upgrade to. As long as the new cabin cost more than your original cabin - even if it is only $10 more.....

 

You are also referring to a CruiseFirst promotion; CruiseFirst is similar to the CruiseNext certificates, and are sold by NCL. They often have great offers - earlier this year I wanted to book a cruise for 2023 and didn't have any CruiseNext certificates left. My PCC then informed me that I could pay $250 for a CruiseNext certificate and then the double ($500) was applied towards my cruise. 

https://www.ncl.com/fr/en/terms/cruisefirst

Thank you for that info. Yes, that cruise first promo is exactly what we book with...we paid $250 and it doubled. So, I'm sure I would lose that.

[julig22]

2 hours ago, TrumpyNor said:

In my experience, IF you ask for an OBC because of the pricedrop, they may offer you 25% of the pricedrop (so $500 in this case). 

 

Although changing frequently, the current policy is to offer 100% of the difference in FCC.  But the criteria to qualify for anything after final payment isn't very flexible - PCCs can't do anything other than put in a request for an upgrade or fcc.

[jlabs03]

59 minutes ago, julig22 said:

Although changing frequently, the current policy is to offer 100% of the difference in FCC.  But the criteria to qualify for anything after final payment isn't very flexible - PCCs can't do anything other than put in a request for an upgrade or fcc.

I was told the new policy is a one time 25% of difference for FCC after final payment when I called three weeks ago and that is subject to additional conditions. Also for an upgrade you must pay something to upgrade. If you do upgrade they do it while you are on the phone right then and there. 

[julig22]

1 hour ago, jlabs03 said:

I was told the new policy is a one time 25% of difference for FCC after final payment when I called three weeks ago and that is subject to additional conditions. Also for an upgrade you must pay something to upgrade. If you do upgrade they do it while you are on the phone right then and there. 

Who knows!  The policy I saw posted was 100% fcc, effective March 25.  I've put in requests for 2 cruises and both should be eligible based on everything I know.  Anything after final payment is a bonus IMHO.

[cruisingbooboo]

I’m in the same boat…. Haha yes pun intended 🤪

anyway, should I call and ask to upgrade . My cruise is about $1000. 00 less than what I paid or should I ask for a future cruise credit? I want something! So out of the loop of cruising I forgot to check for a price drop before we paid in full 2 weeks ago!💔. Thanks for your help!

[bonvoyagie]

pre pandemic (2019) the price of our cabin went down 2000 last minute. My TA called NCL and we were given the choice of either a cabin upgrade on the same cruise or 50% of the difference in FCC. We were already in a suite and as far as I could tell there were no higher up suites available so I took the FCC.

[lixogab]

AFAIK the “50% in FCC” policy applies if you are past the final payment. In that case technically the can just say “No” and you are out of options.

 

However, if you are still within the free cancellation period (that applies to US customers only) you can always cancel and rebook. Or just cancel and may be book with another company.

To avoid the hassle NCL usually refunds the difference. Or at least used to do it before Covid.

Give a call to your TA ( or NCL if you booked with them) and ask for a refund.

 

[TrumpyNor]

4 hours ago, cruisingbooboo said:

I’m in the same boat…. Haha yes pun intended 🤪

anyway, should I call and ask to upgrade . My cruise is about $1000. 00 less than what I paid or should I ask for a future cruise credit? I want something! So out of the loop of cruising I forgot to check for a price drop before we paid in full 2 weeks ago!💔. Thanks for your help!

The larger price drops usually come AFTER final payment date - so would probably not have been a significant price difference when you paid your cruise by the final payment deadline.

[ziggyuk]

This is what I do now and it has worked perfectly for me for some time now.
I book an inside and then wait for the huge price drop after final payment, when that happens I call my PCC and ask for a price for an upgrade to a balcony.

 

As long as the upgrade costs more than the original booking there are no fees involved even is it's 1$ more. 

I just got home from two weeks on the Jewel, a couple of week before sailing I called for a balcony upgrade price and paid $15pp to upgrade from an inside to balcony

Edited April 29, 2022 by ziggyuk

[julig22]

8 hours ago, ziggyuk said:

This is what I do now and it has worked perfectly for me for some time now.
I book an inside and then wait for the huge price drop after final payment, when that happens I call my PCC and ask for a price for an upgrade to a balcony.

 

As long as the upgrade costs more than the original booking there are no fees involved even is it's 1$ more. 

I just got home from two weeks on the Jewel, a couple of week before sailing I called for a balcony upgrade price and paid $15pp to upgrade from an inside to balcony

This works if and only if the perks remain the same under their current policy.

[ziggyuk]

56 minutes ago, julig22 said:

This works if and only if the perks remain the same under their current policy.

 

Yes that's true but surprisingly I retained my three meals on my trip 3 weeks ago.

When I booked it was 3 meals but it's now 1 for and inside or 2 for balcony on a 7 day.

I was expecting to get the new promotion of 2 meals but somehow I still retained 3 meals.

[reeinaz]

22 minutes ago, ziggyuk said:

 

Yes that's true but surprisingly I retained my three meals on my trip 3 weeks ago.

When I booked it was 3 meals but it's now 1 for and inside or 2 for balcony on a 7 day.

I was expecting to get the new promotion of 2 meals but somehow I still retained 3 meals.

Yes, I do think they have the ability to retain the perks although policy is that you get the new perks. Once when I was repricing, the person was talking as they were  doing it and I heard them say "Let's lock in the promos and now I'll reprice it"