CorFour

Is there a way to turn off commenting on this thread? TIA

Again, I thank you all for your input. I think we've about beaten this subject to death by now, and I see no reason to drag it out any further. I did not mention the name of the Cruise Line purposely. In my original question my wish was to learn if the Cruise Line or the TA had failed us, and I didn't want to damage anyone's reputation along the way by pointing fingers of accusation or casting aspersions. While this group's overall consensus is that the TA could have helped prevent the mess, it was ultimately our responsibility to make a note of our final due date and take care of it accordingly. We failed. We paid for it. We learned our lesson. And now we'll make the best of it by enjoying our (more expensive) cruise to the max. Here's hoping that cruising and the travel industry in general will soon bounce back to pre-CoVid quality!

In answer to questions raised... CL collected the penalty they imposed on us. (Longer story: In early 2020 we booked a cruise for fall of 2020 that was cancelled d/t pandemic. CL kept our deposit toward rebooking. We rebooked the same cruise later and were made to give another upfront deposit b/c the previous deposit was in limbo [or something]. Second cruise was also cancelled d/t pandemic. CL banked both deposits. Subsequently CL sent us periodic emails stating that our banked deposits would "expire" if we didn't rebook, but our cancelled cruises were for Hawaii... and it had not yet re-opened to cruisers. We weren't going to rebook for a destination we weren't interested in. Those 2 deposits x 2 passengers--4 deposits total--ended up being banked until Jan. of '23 when we booked this cruise. The $100/person penalty was deducted from our banked deposits, so we had to repay in that amount in order to salvage our cruise. This after CL had the use of our 4 deposits for 2.5 and 3 yrs.) For those who doubt that the TA really sent no reminders... well, I am truly speechless. Why would I be asking if he was partly at fault for not sending us a reminder if he had actually sent one? No, his reminder did not go to my Spam folder. (I check it weekly.) We got zip, zero, nothing from him between invoicing and notice of cancellation. Let me restate that using a TA for booking is not our custom, and in this case it seems only to have created more entanglements, confusion, and heartache. When we book for ourselves we manage everything directly with the CL and in our previous 24 yrs of travels have had nothing but good experiences. (Not cruise related... but we've also done considerable land travel with Gate 1 and have nothing but praise for all of our interactions with the company. Superb service at every step of the way!!) Last, please hear me say this: my intent in my OP was not to blameshift nor escape personal responsibility, but to get clarity on whether or not it *was* our fault. Repeat: this is only the second time in 25 yrs that we have had to use a TA to book. After our cruise was cancelled for nonpayment the CL rep told me in no uncertain terms that it was our TA's job to keep us apprised of final payment date. TA said it was not. I asked here in hopes of getting a clear answer--not because my day is not complete w/o being called an idiot. Maybe someone can shed light on why a CL would require using a TA rather than allowing passengers to book directly?

***Not directly related to my original post, so if you aren't one of the snide ones please skip this one.*** For those of you with the snarky remarks about my not jumping right back into the thread the minute your replies began to roll in... That post was my first and didn't appear until I'd been admitted to the group. It took me till the next day to get back to it b/c I was busy seeking medical treatment for severe asthma. Maybe in the future give people a day to come back to the thread before being so judgy, k?

Thanks, everyone, for your input. We do appreciate the benefit of your experience. We've always booked directly with cruise lines in the past... with the exception of this particular line, which requires that we use a TA. Our previous experience with this TA was for our first cruise with this CL, which went off w/o a hitch. And yes, he's a real flesh-and-blood person, not an online mass advertiser. It would seem that there is no advantage, then, in using a TA. (We were one of six couples in a family group who cruised in AK last year and were the only ones to book directly with the CL rather than through a TA. The others thought we were nuts to do it that way.) I know we won't ever book via this TA again, and I seriously doubt we'll ever use take a cruise on this CL again. When we can book directly it's easier and more seamless.

We are in our 70s and have been cruising for 25 years as well as taking land tours between cruises. In all of our travels we have been notified by email when our payment deadlines were approaching. On January 2nd of this year we booked a cruise for our 50th anniversary. We did not make a note of the final payment deadline shown on the invoice at that time because in all of our travels we've received timely reminders in advance of such deadlines. Well... not this time! On the 4th of July I woke up to find an email from the travel agent--not the cruise line--informing us that our cruise had been cancelled for nonpayment of our final balance on July 2nd! In the middle of a holiday weekend with 18 people in our home we certainly were not logging into our cruise account. I spent much of the July 4th holiday on a 3-way call with a cruise agent and the travel agent to rebook our cruise--at 75% more than we had booked for earlier and with a $100/person penalty to boot! We are disgusted and disappointed in the way this went down. The cruise line blamed the travel agent; the travel agent blamed US for not keeping track of the deadline--which, by the way, was 120 days before sail date. Can someone please tell us who was truly at fault here? Was it our job to note the final payment deadline at time of booking? Was it the travel agent's job? (If not, why have one?!?!) We are most aggravated with the cruise line, which has not had any trouble contacting us directly with dozens of emails since January 2nd to try to sell us beverage packages, excursions, WiFi, and future cruises. If they could email us for all of these purposes, why not to alert us of a deadline approaching???? Thanks in advance for any help in resolving this. Disgusted and Disappointed in IL