Paying The Balance For A Cruise

[jdacombe]

Hi, I wonder if anyone can provides a bit of information on this.

I've just received a Viking brochure giving details of some excellent cruises for 2024/25 and am definitely interested in a couple of them.

Does Viking have the option, after the initial deposit, of making monthly payments towards paying the balance of the fare as opposed to paying the final balance in one go.

Many thanks for any help and advice

 

[CDNPolar]

I don't know of any formal plan of Viking's for this but please consider these two options - of which I would select #2.

 

1)  If you are booking this yourself, you can go into MVJ (My Viking Journey) site anytime and make a partial payment.  You in essence could create your own monthly payment plan.  If you are working with a TA then you would have to do this through them.

 

2). Take the money that you would pay monthly and save it in your own savings account and pay the full balance when due.  ALSO with this option you could take advantage of the E-Check option and save 3.3% on the final payment.  Not sure you can do that if you were paying in installments.

 

I personally am not a fan of giving anyone money before it is due.

[Peregrina651]

Yes, you can use e-check to pay installments and for paying for optional shore excursions. 

[duquephart]

5 hours ago, CDNPolar said:

I don't know of any formal plan of Viking's for this but please consider these two options - of which I would select #2.

 

1)  If you are booking this yourself, you can go into MVJ (My Viking Journey) site anytime and make a partial payment.  You in essence could create your own monthly payment plan.  If you are working with a TA then you would have to do this through them.

 

2). Take the money that you would pay monthly and save it in your own savings account and pay the full balance when due.  ALSO with this option you could take advantage of the E-Check option and save 3.3% on the final payment.  Not sure you can do that if you were paying in installments.

 

I personally am not a fan of giving anyone money before it is due.

 

As well, many here are not fans of paying in full a year before.

[CDNPolar]

1 hour ago, duquephart said:

 

As well, many here are not fans of paying in full a year before.

 

Did I mention anything about wanting to pay a year in advance?  NO.

[duquephart]

14 minutes ago, CDNPolar said:

 

Did I mention anything about wanting to pay a year in advance?  NO.

 

Maybe you miseed the "as well" part - directed to OP.

[glenngillett]

As mentioned, My Viking Journey is the place to go to make payments.  Add your boking number and you can do lots of things.  You can register different bank accounts and credit cards and make partial payments as you desire.  You get a discount if you use e-check.  If you have other cruises booked with Viking you can, sometimes, get them to push the final payment date from their default date.

[LindaS272]

58 minutes ago, glenngillett said:

If you have other cruises booked with Viking you can, sometimes, get them to push the final payment date from their default date.

But generally only if you ask when booking the next cruise, not after the fact.

[Peregrina651]

2 hours ago, glenngillett said:

If you have other cruises booked with Viking you can, sometimes, get them to push the final payment date from their default date.

 

1 hour ago, LindaS272 said:

But generally only if you ask when booking the next cruise, not after the fact.

 

You can always try to negotiate a change in the final payment date but it must be done BEFORE you make the deposit. Paying the deposit is part of the legalese for showing your agreement to the contract and once you have given the deposit Viking will not negotiate further.

 

The best you can hope for in these negotiations is 12 month prior to sailing unless you have a future cruise already booked, in which you can ask for 6 months final payment date. You have to ask for the 6 month date and you have to have future sailing already booked. Even if you have sailed multiple times with Viking, you must have a future cruise on the books to get the 6 month final payment date.

[Peregrina651]

P.S. forgot to say that 12 months, 6 months applies only to cruises or packages of less than 30 some odd days; the longer Grand Voyages and World Cruises may have different allowances (and I have never booked one, so I can't say what they might be).

[Peregrina651]

4 hours ago, glenngillett said:

My Viking Journey is the place to go to make payments.

 

If you are working with a travel agent, this option is not available. All payments must be made through your TA.

[millybess]

1 minute ago, Peregrina651 said:

 

If you are working with a travel agent, this option is not available. All payments must be made through your TA.

We're booked Hong Kong to Vancouver in 2024 and Auckland to Bangkok in 2025 and our final payments on both of those cruises are due 6 months out.

[WanderingBrit]

Yes, you can absolutely make monthly (or weekly, or daily) payments towards the balance of the fare, and we did just that also taking advantage of the eCheck discount.

 

What you cannot do is change the date by which you must have entirely paid for the cruise, whether by installments or lump sum.

 

Kevin

[shmabbies]

On 2/11/2023 at 5:18 PM, Peregrina651 said:

 

If you are working with a travel agent, this option is not available. All payments must be made through your TA.

 

Is this new?  A friend used a TA who booked the cruise for him in 2022, but he made the e-check deposit on his own via MVJ, and he intends to make the final payment on his own in a few weeks the same way.  I would have thought the MVJ option is for passengers  who do not like to share their credit card or banking details.  I know he will be one to wait until the very last minute to make final payment, and if he's going to be denied using MVJ to do it because he has a TA, I'd like to warn him.  I'm very surprised to hear this is even a possibility.

[millybess]

8 minutes ago, shmabbies said:

 

Is this new?  A friend used a TA who booked the cruise for him in 2022, but he made the e-check deposit on his own via MVJ, and he intends to make the final payment on his own in a few weeks the same way.  I would have thought the MVJ option is for passengers  who do not like to share their credit card or banking details.  I know he will be one to wait until the very last minute to make final payment, and if he's going to be denied using MVJ to do it because he has a TA, I'd like to warn him.  I'm very surprised to hear this is even a possibility.

We use a TA. We pay by e-check through MVJ. We have several cruises booked. Two of them are longer than 30 days. Final payments on all of our cruises are due 6 months out. We also use e-check through MVJ to pay for our excursions. 

[longterm]

On 2/11/2023 at 4:18 PM, Peregrina651 said:

 

If you are working with a travel agent, this option is not available. All payments must be made through your TA.

I don't believe this is the case; we're using a TA, and made our balance payment on an upcoming river cruise directly with Viking. 

 

I could of course be wrong... I think I was wrong before, but I may be mistaken.

[Peregrina651]

4 minutes ago, longterm said:

I don't believe this is the case; we're using a TA, and made our balance payment on an upcoming river cruise directly with Viking. 

 

I could of course be wrong... I think I was wrong before, but I may be mistaken.

 

I work with a TA. I don't have the option on my computer. 

[millybess]

8 minutes ago, Peregrina651 said:

 

I work with a TA. I don't have the option on my computer. 

I wonder if it’s a TA specific thing. We used to have to pay through our TA’s agency. We wanted the e-check option. We have the same TA but now pay by e-check. 

[longterm]

54 minutes ago, millybess said:

I wonder if it’s a TA specific thing. We used to have to pay through our TA’s agency. We wanted the e-check option. We have the same TA but now pay by e-check. 

I didn't have the option either, but they accepted a payment over the phone.

[millybess]

11 minutes ago, longterm said:

I didn't have the option either, but they accepted a payment over the phone.

And were you able to get the discount over the phone?

[longterm]

1 hour ago, millybess said:

And were you able to get the discount over the phone?

I was paying with a card, so there was no discount.

[Joanandjoe]

We're signed up for a cruise (through a TA) for May 2025, but the final payment date shown on our invoice is for this December, 17 months in advance.  That's a nonstarter.  We're already paying for three cruises on other lines this year, and we would cancel rather than pay for a fourth.  A pity:  the ship is new, and the itinerary is wonderful.

 

Is there any way to get the final payment date moved to closer to the 120 to 150 days we experience on other lines?  (Actually, 90 days for our US river cruise.) We certainly would pay within those date ranges; but not 510 days in advance.

Edited February 16, 2023 by Joanandjoe

[biggerbearmom]

On 2/15/2023 at 2:46 PM, millybess said:

And were you able to get the discount over the phone?

We are able to get the 3.3% over the phone with our travel agent.

[HUNKY]

JoanandJoe - Under certain circumstances the "latest" full payment date is 180 days prior to the cruise departure.  As a first-time Viking Ocean cruiser that is not a possibility.

 

Please be sure to let your travel agent & Viking know why you are canceling your booking.

 

Beware!  Your deposit may not be refundable.

[ARDXXX]

I think that the initial post is a little odd, in the UK you only need to pay the final balance three months prior to the Cruise departing, how close to departure do you want to pay?

the other option is that our local travel agent has an option of making regular payments towards the final balance in what they call a piggy bank, we live in the NE of England so you could ask about this.