forevercruising1

52 minutes ago, cbr663 said:

I think there may be some confusion regarding your deposit structure.

 

Whoever you book CO the charge for CO is added to your cruise fare.  When CO is added to your fare you are required to pay for the CO charge.  This payment is considered part of your deposit.  

 

In your case you also paid a deposit using a FCD.

 

If you cancel your cruise, I don't believe that you are losing your FCD.  What you are losing is the CO charge portion of your deposit, which is the $350 as the deposit was non-refundable.  I believe that your FCD would still be available to you for a future booking.  It wouldn't be refunded to you, instead, it would be returned to your account for future use.

 

I suggest that you call back to HAL and clarify this.  Ask specifically:

 

1.  What is the FCD amount on the booking?

2.  What is the CO charge on the booking?

3.  What is the total deposit amount on the booking?

4.  Should you cancel, is the CO charge non refundable?  If so, what is the amount?  (Should be $350)

5.  Should you cancel, is the FCD returned to your account for a future booking?

Thank you for the detailed suggestions.  I asked most of your questions today (with two different reps), but I'm planning to call again and ask a few more questions, so your list is very helpful!

I thought I'd also post a screenshot of the payment section of the booking -- We paid the deposit with FCD's and paid CO with two HAL gift cards.

38 minutes ago, POA1 said:

Are you sure that's what you mean?

No, I corrected myself in subsequent postings.  I am aware that I must have booked this non-refundable fare in the promotion in April.  I just don't remember doing it because we always book refundable fares, even though they are slightly higher in price.

6 minutes ago, Andi Land said:

Yes, I have canceled Club Orange by itself. I called the same number I used to add it to my reservation. It was really simple. 
 

Second, they can’t ask for more money than has already been deposited. So, if it was $100 each on an FCD, that’s all you’d lose. 
 

I would still ask to have the FCD credited back. They probably won’t but it won’t hurt to ask again. 
 

So, call and cancel CO. Wait for that refund to clear (probably take a week). Then call again to cancel the cruise. At least this way you get back the $350 for the CO. 
 

Fingers crossed and wishing you luck. 

Thank you, Andi Land!  Your experiences give me hope! 

I called two different HAL reps and asked for my FCD's back, but I got the same "No" from both; perhaps this might change if I am able to remove CO from the booking -- we'll see!  I appreciate your responses.  🙂

1 hour ago, forevercruising1 said:

UPDATE + Still Seeking Advice:

 

Hello, again and Happy New Year!  My call to HAL wasn't too happy as I was told (twice) that, even though I booked with two Future Cruise Deposits (one for me; one for my husband), the promotion we booked under apparently had a non-refundable deposit of $175 (I still do not remember booking under this promotion and we normally do not book non-refundable deposits, but I must have done so) and we will lose that amount for each of us if we cancel (total of $350).

 

As I've stated in this thread, I was under the assumption that Future Cruise Deposits were refundable, anytime, no matter the booking promotion; however, I have called two different HAL reps (I called this afternoon) and I have been told otherwise.

 

SO, here is the bottom line:  If I cancel this booking, I will lose my Future Cruise Deposit . . . AND an additional $75 per person.  Since we booked Club Orange and upgraded our cabin, I assume the $75 pp would come out of that $350.

 

FINALLY, a couple more questions:

 

1.  I thought about calling another day to ask to cancel just the Club Orange (to hopefully get the $350 Club Orange charges back).  ** Have any of you been successful in doing this?  I assume, if I am able to do so, that we would be moved back to the lowest cabin in that category again; does anyone know if that is correct?

 

2.  IF I am able to cancel Club Orange and only have the Future Cruise Deposits left on that booking, I'm wondering if I would only lose the $100 FCD; can anyone confirm this?

 

Thanks for all of the comments and for sharing your experiences; I appreciate your insight.

FOR THE RECORD:  I see my errors and I won't make them in the future!  I also understand that CO is posted as non-refundable, so I'm sure I won't be able to cancel just the CO as I suggested in #1. 

Lesson Learned!  (I just need to get my ducks in a row so that I completely understand the FCD's and see if I can figure out any way to salvage any money already paid in this booking.)

UPDATE + Still Seeking Advice:

Hello, again and Happy New Year!  My call to HAL wasn't too happy as I was told (twice) that, even though I booked with two Future Cruise Deposits (one for me; one for my husband), the promotion we booked under apparently had a non-refundable deposit of $175 (I still do not remember booking under this promotion and we normally do not book non-refundable deposits, but I must have done so) and we will lose that amount for each of us if we cancel (total of $350).

As I've stated in this thread, I was under the assumption that Future Cruise Deposits were refundable, anytime, no matter the booking promotion; however, I have called two different HAL reps (I called this afternoon) and I have been told otherwise.

SO, here is the bottom line:  If I cancel this booking, I will lose my Future Cruise Deposit . . . AND an additional $75 per person.  Since we booked Club Orange and upgraded our cabin, I assume the $75 pp would come out of that $350.

FINALLY, a couple more questions:

1.  I thought about calling another day to ask to cancel just the Club Orange (to hopefully get the $350 Club Orange charges back).  ** Have any of you been successful in doing this?  I assume, if I am able to do so, that we would be moved back to the lowest cabin in that category again; does anyone know if that is correct?

2.  IF I am able to cancel Club Orange and only have the Future Cruise Deposits left on that booking, I'm wondering if I would only lose the $100 FCD; can anyone confirm this?

Thanks for all of the comments and for sharing your experiences; I appreciate your insight.

17 hours ago, POA1 said:

If you call on Saturday or Sunday, there's a high likelihood that you are going to reach a non-US call center. I'd wait until January 2nd,if I were you.

 

If you added Club Orange and did not upgrade, it's probably easy to remove. I'd give that a shot. If you played the CO upgrade game, it's more complicated.

 

If you had booked with a PCC or TA, you'd have someone to shepherd this through the process. I know that's water under the bridge, though.

 

I assume this is a 7 day cruise for 2 people and you paid your CO in two parts? That is the only way I can make the math work. (Of course, it's 6:30 AM on a Saturday and coffee is in the future, so I could be wrong.)

 

If possible, see if you can remove CO and leave the money on the booking as additional deposit. You may be told that you are in cancel penalty fee, because technically you are.

 

If you can remove CO without penalty, do that. Then, call back to cancel the booking later and get the whole deposit refunded.

 

Or, just tell the person you talk to that you want to know if there are cancelation fees on booking now. They can look, and maybe you'll get good news.

1.  Thank you for the reminder to wait until next week to call to deal with this cancellation; I will definitely do that.

2.  Yes, this is a 7 day for 2 people and I paid for CO with two HAL gift cards.  Attempting to remove just CO first is a good idea - thank you.  ** It seems that, if I am able to do that, I should be able to get a refund on my deposit because we used two Future Cruise Deposits for our deposits.  (I hope I am still correct on this point!)

3.  Could you clarify how asking if there are cancellation fees on booking now would help me in this situation?  (I think my brain is so scrambled and I'm trying to figure out a way to save this $350 that I am losing focus!)

Thanks, again, for your help and expertise.

16 hours ago, VMax1700 said:

By any chance did you make an online 'Courtesy Hold'?  I have checked a few bookings and if I had a courtesy hold in place then that becomes the initial Cancellation Fee date.

VMax1700:  OH MY -- I didn't even consider that.  I went back into my confirmations and yes, I did do a courtesy hold first, then called the next day or so to pay the deposit.  Thank you for solving that part of the mystery!  It doesn't solve my problem, but at least I have another piece of the puzzle.

I still find it odd that, even in my original Courtesy Hold confirmation, it shows a $175 deposit owed.  I can't remember a promo which required a deposit of $175, but there must have been one; it is still odd, because I always select a non-refundable deposit option -- I don't know how this happened.  Clearly, I did not pay close enough attention to detail in this case.  I might not end up a happy camper when this is all said and done....

Thanks, again!

11 hours ago, TAW1963 said:

Here is a snapshot of the cancellation fee schedule that is within the booking confirmation pdf for one of my cancelled cruises.  You can see at the bottom that Club Orange was added (and had to be paid at the time it was added).   In the cancellation fee schedule only my non-refundable $1 deposit pp would be forfeited until Sept 01 of 2025.    In fact, I did have to cancel this cruise and all but my $1 pp deposit was refunded.   

 

Thanks so much for sharing this!  That is where I thought you were referring to, but I think the HAL representative might have modified the details of my booking when I called to add Club Orange and upgrade my cabin assignment. 

First, I always book refundable deposits; we have to change dates often due to my work schedule so I never select non-refundable (I always do our own bookings, direct).  However, in the following email confirmation, there are a couple of things that are abnormal:

1.  I booked this cruise on the HAL website on April 14, 2023 and called that same day to add Club Orange and upgrade my cabin; however, as you can see in the picture, the "Cancellation Fees Schedule" states that cancellation fees begin on April 11, 2023 -- I'm not sure how that can be since I had not even made the reservation on that date.

2.  It looks like the Club Orange Fees are what are listed as non-refundable, which, I assume, means that the two Future Cruise Deposits will be refundable, as I'd expected.  ** NOTE:  Final payment for this cruise is not until December 22, 2024.

So, I need to call tomorrow to cancel this booking and I'm trying to get all of my "ducks in a row" before I call.  If any of you are able to shed any light on these discrepancies, I'd appreciate your insight.

Thank you, in advance!

On 12/28/2023 at 3:08 AM, TAW1963 said:

I have cancelled both refundable and non-refundable fared bookings with Club Orange.  My booking confirmations showed the Club Orange fees were refundable with both if cancelled before final payment.  Indeed, this was the case and I have always had the Club Orange fees refunded.  

TAW1963: Could you direct me to where your booking confirmation states that the Club Orange fees are refundable?

Thanks!!

46 minutes ago, jeff74 said:

He is an authorized user.  Good luck!

Thanks for the quick reply!  🙂

3 hours ago, crystalspin said:

I have not cancelled using FCDs, but I did ask my good and experienced PCC about your very question. See the middle paragraph above (post #4). They would 'come back' up until Final Payment, then lost.

crystalspin:  Thank you for sharing -- I've not used a PCC as I've always booked direct so I have full access to our bookings at any time, day or night; however, maybe using a PCC is helpful in situations like this -- maybe I'll have to reconsider! 

On 12/8/2023 at 12:46 PM, jeff74 said:

Thanks for the heads up!  I had already used this offer for my amex and my wife's the other month when we booked our 2025 New England cruise but the offer didn't show up on my 14 year old's amex.  After reading the updates yesterday I had him check again and there it was :).  We used it to pay down another $1k. 

 

Normally I am not in any hurry to pay the balance owed until the last minute because there's no reason to give anyone an interest free loan but for 30% off that changes things.  Since our cruise isn't for another 19 months it's quite possible that we'll be able to see this offer come around next year to further pay off the balance.

jeff74:  Was your son's card an authorized user card on your account or does he have his own full account?  Wondering if the offer on an authorized user's card will go through if I've used the offer on mine.  Thanks!

14 hours ago, kazu said:

OP, I have Allianz for medical and have used it for trip cancellation in the past.  There is no coverage for cancelling a cruise for anything other than what is stipulated.  So things like a work schedule change, sick dog, itinerary changes, sick family member (not fatal) don’t qualify.

 

I use HAL’s insurance for the cancellation.  The Platinum only covers 90% but it is a true cancel for any reason policy.  No questions asked. If you book a non refundable cruise, you need to purchase it at the time of booking, though.
 

Thank you for the additional insurance clarification - I appreciate it!  🙂

7 hours ago, TAW1963 said:

I have cancelled both refundable and non-refundable fared bookings with Club Orange.  My booking confirmations showed the Club Orange fees were refundable with both if cancelled before final payment.  Indeed, this was the case and I have always had the Club Orange fees refunded.  

This information is very helpful - thank you! 🙂

1 hour ago, cbr663 said:

1.  Yes.  CO fees were refunded,

2.  Yes.  It was for a refundable cruise fare.  The FCD was placed back into my account for future use.

3.  I haven’t.  From the FAQs though it would appear to me that if it is a non-refundable deposit then the CO fee would not be refunded as the CO fee is part of the cruise fare:

 

 

 

4.  I don’t know what happens if you use a refundable cruise deposit under a non-refundable cruise fare.  You may have to escalate that if the answer you receive is not to your liking.

Thank you for sharing your specific experiences; the information is very helpful! 🙂

10 minutes ago, crystalspin said:

I have not cancelled using FCDs, but I did ask my good and experienced PCC about your very question. See the middle paragraph above (post #4). They would 'come back' up until Final Payment, then lost.

Thank you for the detailed responses!  I really appreciate them!  🙂

6 hours ago, TAW1963 said:

I have cancelled both refundable and non-refundable fared bookings with Club Orange.  My booking confirmations showed the Club Orange fees were refundable with both if cancelled before final payment.  Indeed, this was the case and I have always had the Club Orange fees refunded.  

Any chance you had also used Future Cruise Deposits for the deposit on the non-refundable deposit booking?  If so, did those FCDs also come back to you?

Thank you!

No, not past final payment on either cruise -- thanks for asking for clarification!

** Do you think the CO fees would be refunded even if booked on a non-refundable deposit promo?

Thanks - I appreciate your reply!

Hello, all!

I've read multiple threads regarding canceling Club Orange, but I am hoping I can get clarification from cruisers who have actually canceled a cruise completely, since some of my questions have differing answers.  I have a couple of cruises booked that were reserved with FCD's, then I paid for Club Orange, but I booked them very early after release of the dates and now my work schedule will not allow me to sail at those times.  I'm trying to figure out a plan of least loss.

1.  Have you had success getting the prepaid Club Orange fees refunded if you have canceled a cruise altogether (not just upgraded to a Neptune Suite)? 

2.  If you have had success with #1, was it with a refundable deposit only? 

3.  Has anyone been refunded Club Orange fees if the deposit was non-refundable?

4.  I was told, by a HAL representative, that if we used Future Cruise Deposits for deposits, they would always be refundable, regardless of the type of fare booked; however, the HAL representative I spoke with today said that is not the case and that even Future Cruise Deposits will be lost if booked under a non-refundable deposit promotion.  Has anyone had a different experience from this?  Has anyone received your FCD back if booked under a non-refundable promotion?

5.  I do have Allianz Annual Trip Insurance, but I don't see coverage for work schedule changes; if any of you have had success getting reimbursed for the "non-refundable" portions ($350 in my case), it'd be great if you could share.

If any of you have actually been through these situations and can shed light on any of these issues, I'd appreciate it. 

Thank you and Happy [Early] New Year!  🙂

Thanks, everyone -- at least I know that I'm not alone!  I've tried Safari, Firefox, duckduckgo and Chrome and all do the same thing.  Very frustrating, as many of you have said...

10 hours ago, bundtkate said:

IT person here! This is on HAL's end. Servers usually set a limit on the size of a request to avoid overload as well as mitigate malicious requests. Website developers estimate what size a request is likely to be at the largest and set that limit to something somewhat larger to account for edge cases. Even when best efforts are made, sometimes requests come in larger than expected, even when valid.

In the case of canceling an excursion, there's little that you can do to improve things since the size of your request is likely outside your control, but with searches. doing your initial search with fewer filters (for example, searching for the right dates and destination but skipping out on looking for specific ships) may help reduce that size. After your initial search, you can filter down again with (hopefully) another smaller request. This may not work if HAL sends all search parameters with every request (which they may well do), but if they only send what's new it could help.

I usually limit my filters and I have tried different browsers and I continue to get the same error message.  I wish I understood more of what you're talking about!  🙂

Thanks for the information -- I'll keep trying different things!

Hello!  Recently, I am continually getting the following error message when searching cruise options on the HAL website:

“Bad Request

Your browser sent a request that this server could not understand.
Size of a request header field exceeds server”

I am using my iPad and my MacBook and have been getting the same error message on both.  On the top address bar, the iPad shows “400 Bad Request”.

Have any of you had similar issues and, more importantly, does anyone have advice regarding the solution?

Thank you!!  🙂🚢🙂

41 minutes ago, oaktreerb said:

In San Diego my boarding pass said “Priority” and I had Club Orange.  The only passengers who were allowed to go onboard as soon as the ship was ready for boarding were 4* Mariners.  I had to tell the staff that I was 4* before they gave me priority access to the boarding check in line.  Best advice is to arrive at your assigned boarding time or after.  The terminal staff’s job is to see that all passengers get onboard in an orderly manner.  Your luggage should have your luggage tags attached when you get to the ship.  The luggage staff will collect your bags and they will be delivered to your stateroom.  The tags will be coded for deck,  location and stateroom# for delivery purposes.  

 

Club Orange will allow both staterooms occupants to have breakfast and dinner in Club Orange.  It also will exempt you from having to get tender tickets, you can get in the tender line at any time…just show your room card.

 

There has been a lot of discussion on this board about the challenging boarding process now that the ships are sailing “full”.  Since your bookings are linked you hopefully will get the same boarding time.  If not just go together sometime around the earlier boarding time.

Thank you!  We will be embarking in San Diego as well, so this information is helpful.  Much appreciated!

6 hours ago, *Miss G* said:

 

1.  Our Neptune Luggage Tags have "Priority" written on them, highlighted in the color yellow.  Since Club Orange also has priority boarding, should that luggage tag also say "Priority"?

Yes.

 

2.  Is the yellow color on the Neptune luggage tags for the ship (Koningsdam) or for the cabin category?

I believe it is the ship color but I sometimes print in black and white (and sometimes not at all) and my bags always make it to my room.

 

3.  Will both cabins still need to follow an assigned boarding time, when assigned, or will we be able to board at any time?  (Is that the same for the Club Orange Cabin, as well as the Neptune Suite?)

Club Orange passengers receive the same boarding privileges as Neptune Suite passengers.  Check-in at any time and — assuming there is a separate lounge at embarkation port — CO passengers also have access to that lounge.  (You don’t mention which port so can’t provide specifics.)

 

One thing to note is that sometimes the employees at the terminal only look at the stars or suite type on the boarding pass so you may have to point out the priority access for the CO passengers so they can check in through the priority lane.

Thank you for the detailed responses!  Much appreciated! 

3 hours ago, REOVA said:

We had Priority boarding and luggage tags for Neptune Suite. We were first to drop off luggage and first to board. Sail away was 4 and at 3:30 I asked cabin steward and concierge where our bag was. They had to search but finally arrived as we sailed. Baggage priority doesn't matter but CO should have same boarding with suites. @forevercruising1may want to print out the info showing the cabins linked just in case boarding is an issue. Also may want to send message to HAL regarding linked booking and boarding times. Boarding Pass time still may change before you get to Port. 

Good advice, REOVA -- thank you!