One person needs to cancel in our 2 stateroom reservation

[helencw]

Hi,

My family is cruising on Sunday Aug 27 from the Seascape in 2 staterooms. One person in a 2 person stateroom cannot make it due to work. Should we let him be a no show when we board? 

Thanks for your advice on how to handle this!

Helen

[Morgsmom]

Best bet is to let him be a no show.

[PTC DAWG]

Tell him not to show up…no one knows where he is..board the cruise..enjoy. Stinks that work won’t let him go. 

Edited August 22, 2023 by PTC DAWG

[Brighton Line]

Too late now but there is 3rd party insurance "Cancel for work reasons" even in a state that cancel for any reason insurance is not allowed (NY). 

[helencw]

Thanks for your advice, everyone.

I don't understand what PTC advises. When we board, shouldn't we tell them that one person is not boarding? Otherwise would they announce the no shows before embarkation over the loadspeaker?

[KINGBOBOFTHENORTH]

4 hours ago, helencw said:

Thanks for your advice, everyone.

I don't understand what PTC advises. When we board, shouldn't we tell them that one person is not boarding? Otherwise would they announce the no shows before embarkation over the loadspeaker?

Yes, inform the person at the check-in desk that Passenger X is unable to make it to the cruise. I don't recommend you call Reservations ahead of time and inform them. Also, once on board, double check with Reception that they only show 1 passenger in that cabin so that gratuities are only charged for 1 person.

[helencw]

Thanks, kingbobofthenorth, for the good advice!

 

[Hutcha]

I've got this situation for our Sept cruise. Will they refund the port charges? Our soon to be 21 year old lost a GF but he's gaining an inside YC cabin to himself! 🤣

[KINGBOBOFTHENORTH]

4 hours ago, Hutcha said:

I've got this situation for our Sept cruise. Will they refund the port charges? Our soon to be 21 year old lost a GF but he's gaining an inside YC cabin to himself! 🤣

If you call them now to report the elimination of one passenger, you might get a refund of the part of the fare based on the refund schedule. What scares me though is what if they recalculate the entire cruise fare based on just one passenger? And on many sailings, they're not allowing cabins with one passenger. What do they do then? That's why the advice I gave to helencw above was not to report that one passenger is not coming until you arrive at the cruise terminal. The people at the check-in desks have no power to redo fares. They just check-in who is there and delete the missing person. But I don't know the above will happen but it concerns me that it could happen. Once on board go to Reception to assure gratuities for only 1 person in that cabin will be billed. That's where you will save some money.

 

If anyone has called Reservations ahead of sailing to delete a passenger, I'd like to hear what happened. My fears might be unfounded.

[Mark_T]

6 hours ago, KINGBOBOFTHENORTH said:

What scares me though is what if they recalculate the entire cruise fare based on just one passenger?

They retain that right in the T&C's even if the passenger is a 'no show' on the day, they did this to deal with solo travelers who were making ghost bookings to get around the limits on single passenger bookings.

 

We don't often hear of them exercising that right, but it has happened...

[Homosassa]

Mark-T is correct.  The ticket contract states that a "no show" on the day of the cruise is considered a cancellation with a loss of 100% of the fare paid.

 

The remaining passenger will be assessed  the cost of a single fare supplement. 

 

Keep in mind that the cruise line does have access to whatever means of payment that has been set up to pay on board expenses such as a fare adjustment that one agrees by accepting the ticket contract .

[KINGBOBOFTHENORTH]

6 hours ago, Mark_T said:

They retain that right in the T&C's even if the passenger is a 'no show' on the day, they did this to deal with solo travelers who were making ghost bookings to get around the limits on single passenger bookings. We don't often hear of them exercising that right, but it has happened...

And that's my concern. A few months ago my wife became ill ahead of a cruise and could not sail. I sailed anyway but did not inform MSC until I showed up at the pier. They deleted her off the manifest and that was it. I think that if I had called MSC Reservations ahead of time that they more likely would have recalculated the fare.

[Mark_T]

I guess it is a roll of the dice each time...

 

[mikefromny]

On 8/22/2023 at 3:49 PM, Brighton Line said:

Too late now but there is 3rd party insurance "Cancel for work reasons" even in a state that cancel for any reason insurance is not allowed (NY). 

NY allows cancel for any reason. I used it when our son broke up with his girlfriend 3 weeks before our last cruise.

[Hutcha]

My TA was my first stop. He called MSC and was told that they weren't allowing singles. The only option was to replace the passenger. They (or the TA) advised to just show up with a no show.

 

Has anyone shown up as a single and been charged extra once the passenger was deleted?

[Homosassa]

38 minutes ago, Hutcha said:

 

 

Has anyone shown up as a single and been charged extra once the passenger was deleted?

There has been at least two posts of this forum that I remember where this happened.

[KINGBOBOFTHENORTH]

55 minutes ago, Hutcha said:

Has anyone shown up as a single and been charged extra once the passenger was deleted?

As I mentioned above, I showed up at a cruise terminal as a single (in a cabin booked for two) and there was no fare recalculation and nothing said about it.

 

MSC used to offer some really good fares for singles but with the huge demand for cruising, they no longer do. In the few cases where they do offer a fare for one person, it's twice the fare of two people like every other cruise line does. So if the fare for two was $500 per person x 2 = $1000, they now charge $1000 for one. So they're really not losing any money by sailing with 1 person except only taxes for 1, gratuities for 1 and perhaps less on board spending.

[Mark_T]

18 minutes ago, KINGBOBOFTHENORTH said:

So they're really not losing any money by sailing with 1 person except only taxes for 1, gratuities for 1 and perhaps less on board spending.

That's the point though, the cruise fare is only part of the revenue and they do not want to lose the additional onboard spend, which is why they will continue to control the numbers of solo passengers onboard, and why they introduced the terms to allow them to penalise those using ghost passengers to get around the limitation...

 

1 hour ago, Hutcha said:

Has anyone shown up as a single and been charged extra once the passenger was deleted?

Usual forum rules apply.. 🙂  ... when you ask if something ever happened the answer is going to be yes.

 

More often than not, nothing will happen, but you have to accept that it is possible and you will not have a valid complaint if it does...

[KINGBOBOFTHENORTH]

17 minutes ago, Mark_T said:

More often than not, nothing will happen, but you have to accept that it is possible and you will not have a valid complaint if it does...

But I'm wondering how they can apply this if they do desire to recalculate. In the example I gave the fare was £500 pp x 2 = £1000. The fare for 1 person, if they allowed it, was £1000. So if a cabin is booked for 2 and 1 person is a no show and they recalculate the fare, the fare is still £1000. (See what I did there. I used £ instead of $.)

[Mark_T]

56 minutes ago, KINGBOBOFTHENORTH said:

But I'm wondering how they can apply this if they do desire to recalculate. In the example I gave the fare was £500 pp x 2 = £1000. The fare for 1 person, if they allowed it, was £1000. So if a cabin is booked for 2 and 1 person is a no show and they recalculate the fare, the fare is still £1000. (See what I did there. I used £ instead of $.)

The person who does not show up loses the fare they paid unless they can claim on insurance....

 

... the person who remain gets assessed as a single traveller in a double cabin, and now owes them an additional £500...

 

I would be inclined to make the explanation for the no-show convincing...

Edited August 25, 2023 by Mark_T

[Hutcha]

7 minutes ago, Mark_T said:

.. the person who remain gets assessed as a single traveller in a double cabin, and now owes them an additional £500...

I'll do a search, but I'd like to hear from someone this has happened to.

[Mark_T]

I'm not trying to frighten anyone, based on reports here it is not a frequent occurrence, and there are plenty of reports of it not happening, but it is the risk taken when deciding not to notify and cancel in advance, in an attempt to avoid the combination of cancellation penalty and the repricing of the solo fare...

[Homosassa]

Precovid, MS would offer single passenger fares at times when the ships were not expected to be full.

 

The fare was usually around 75% of the cost of cabin when booked for two. Example: if each passenger in a double cabin paid $500 ($1000 for two in cabin), a solo passenger would pay $500. An additional amount was added that would be a projected amount that would make up for the loss of on board spending revenue of the second passenger.

 

When the special solo passenger fare was not offered, the cost of the cabin for  solo passenger was the cost for two passengers and the addition of an amount to cover that projected loss of second passenger on board spending.

 

Those of you that think that the single fare for someone left after a no show  should simple be the cost of the cabin is missing the addition amount of money of  on board revenue that a cruise line projects as on board passenger revenue.

 

The fare is now the cost of the cabin plus X amount to make up for the loss of  onboard spending.

 

I do not know if the lower solo passenger fares are offered on certain cruise departures anymore as it looks as if the ships are sailing full.

 

As Mark T has been pointing out, certain solo passengers were cheating their solo fares by booking a fake passenger in the cabin that was a no show at the pier. (One poster on this forum regularly boasted on the fact that her niece had been routinely booked as a "no show" passenger in her cabin).

 

MSC is known to have lower rates than some of the competition, but that is because they do not allow many of the passenger fare churning games so beloved by many. 

 

The "No Show" game is specifically mentioned in the cancellation area of the contract that you agree to when booking the cruise.

 

In brief and to reiterate the explanation given in the above paragraph, the "no show" is considered a cancellation at the 100% loss of their fare.  The remaining passenger will be assessed a certain percentage of the fare as a single supplement. In any case, that remaining passenger is making up the loss of the projected revenue used by MSC to calculate the per diem costs that would be available for MSC to provide goods and services on board.

 

In short, MSC is keeping the fares low by making those who do not carry out their end of the contract pay the revenue expected of them.

[Homosassa]

An addition thought:

 

MSC is not a US based cruise line. They are based in Europe and serve an international passenger clientele sailing from ports around the world.

 

The US based cruises are just some of many international embarcation ports around the world.

 

Consistency in product and procedures means that the Asian passenger will know what to expect on the cruise  leaving from Miami, a European port, or elsewhere.

 

From what non US posters have said on this forum, they do not have the option to change or cancel without some penalty being attached.

 

  MSC is leveling the passenger playing field for their international pool of clients.

 

For those of you who have never done your research and are just assuming that all cruise lines are the same, I suggest that you go to the MSC website and read the "Terms and Conditions" and the somewhat recent addition on the USA website of   "Conditions of Carriage."

 

This is what you are agreeing to when you book. MSC also includes this information in the boarding package that one prints out.

 

Perhaps being an informed consumer can save some of you the shock and agita you experience when you find out that MSC is not Carnival, or NCL, or Royal Caribbean.

[Hutcha]

I had my TA call to try and take the no show off of the cruise. I'd being willing to pay any supplement, but the only option given was to replace the person that can't go, or show up with them missing. They said they could not remove the person and leave a single in the room.