Originally posted by Sandy:
It's not just a Royal Caribbean policy regarding deposits being non-refundable in Britain. It's also true of Cunard. I suspect this is not determined by the cruise lines. Perhaps it has something to do with the ABTA (Assoc. of British Travel Agents), to which British travel agents belong, or perhaps an official policy of some sort?
Chris, do you have details on this?
Sandy
Sandy, that rule makes no sense to me. Of course, neither does Cunard, Princess and now Costa's rule that foreign nationals cannot book their cruises through a US agency unless they have a US or Canadian address.
Chris I think in the future I'd find a US agency with an international toll free phone # for booking cruises. At least that way you wouldn't lose your money in a similar circumstance.
Chris I think in the future I'd find a US agency with an international toll free phone # for booking cruises. At least that way you wouldn't lose your money in a similar circumstance.
That will work only if Chris has a U.S. address and telephone number as well as the one in the UK.
Sandy, with RCCL, Carnival and most other lines, no North American address is needed. Just Princess, Cunard, Oceania and Costa (just imposed) have this rule in place. So it might help with most future bookings but not all. With the trend they may all have similar policies in the future. It just seems counter-productive from my perspective to limit peoples ability to book cruises whenever and wherever they want. I know it's all about the bottom line but it still doesn't seem right.
The language is curious on the cancellation policy with RCI. On their website (the U.S. website) it says the deposit refunds are good for cruises booked through the U.S. office - with no mention of nationality - and then vaguely addresses different policies for other offices. Look at the third paragraph of the answer.
Looking at the UK RCI website, you have to download a pdf file to get the rules about canceling. Another huge difference between the USA and UK - those in the UK have to submit a written cancellation request to their agent or to RCI if they booked directly. Also - the cruise will not be canceled until they receive the written notice!
i wrote to rccl and they explained to me if i was to cancel then i would lose my deposit even its over a year of the cruise.
so they said if i was to change the cruise then the deposit would be put over to the new cruise.but if the new cruise costs cheaper than my original cruise then i would be subject to a admin charge of £35pp if its more then i wont receive any charges.... strange!!!! basically they have me by the (B_ll_cks)
Last fall my wife's sister had to cancel her cruise 30 days prior to the sail date. She would have lost her deposit plus a percentage of the cruise cost. To avoid losing all that money she re-booked using the same booking number. If she booked a cruise for less money she would still have to pay the full amount of the original cruise, and she had to book with a year. She's booked for October and isn't loosing anything; she even keeps her on-board credit. You have to keep the same booking number when you change the booking! Nothing about RCCL's policy seems unfair to me. You don't have to lose your deposit unless you choose to.
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