Final Payment Reminders

We have never cruised before and decided to book our first cruise a few months ago. We put the standard deposit on the Cruise at the time.

Our final payment is due next week and the reminders for final payment started coming in last week. At first I thought nothing of it, no big deal I will pay closer to the date. Then the phone call reminder, then the email reminder, then the daily email reminder, then today the sending me the invoice in the mail with the text here is the document you requested?

All these reminders seem to be having the reverse effect on me, for some reason now I want to hold off to the last second on final payment for spite and I am not normally like that but I have never seen a company like this before. Is this normal for all cruise lines or just Celebrity.

Believe me, be grateful for the reminders. The last thing you want is forget it and lose the reservation and the deposit.

We have never cruised before and decided to book our first cruise a few months ago. We put the standard deposit on the Cruise at the time.

 

Our final payment is due next week and the reminders for final payment started coming in last week.

Our TA reminds us two weeks early to make the final payment. Her reason: if there is a mess up in credit card activities, transfers of monies, etc., there is some reaction time before the deposit is lost and the cruise is cancelled!

I've never had that happen, but I usually book through a TA and most of them set up an automatic payment a week or two ahead of time. Keep in mind that this isn't as simple as if you miss the payment date you get a late notice. If you miss the payment date, even if it's something as silly as a credit card mishap (ur number gets compromised and u have to cancel and reopen it or the transaction gets delayed) they can cancel your reservation and keep your deposit. Personally, I prefer to pay it a bit ahead of time just in case.

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I'm glad ours did the reminder too because we got the Celebrity credit card for the perks and I was able to switch my card for the final payment.

For our upcoming trip, there were issues with names on cruise versus flight versus who knows what. It took my TA about three days to sync everything. I think the TA had the final payment due about a week earlier than Celebrity to handle these "opportunities."

You can always set the messages to send to junk mail/messages. You may want to consider doing a search here to find the number of instances where people have missed final payment for one reason or another including 'it slipped my mind and I lost my cabin, can anyone help' and the like...

There are others who are perturbed by these reminders as well... just like flying in to the embarkation port on departure day, it only takes one time to miss the ship cut off time for boarding before one, possibly, changes their thinking on the situation.

I support you in what ever action you may want to consider in this, many cruise-lines will do this for your and their protection. I can just imagine the number of phone calls they may get on any given day because someone did not 'remember' to make the final payment by the due date.... or something happened during the transmission of the final payment, etc...

bon voyage..,

............. I can just imagine the number of phone calls they may get on any given day because someone did not 'remember' to make the final payment by the due date.... or something happened during the transmission of the final payment, etc...

I was told that if there is a problem making final payment for a legitimate reason, you should let them know before the cruise gets canceled and they will extend your final payment due date.

They don't want you to lose your cruise either.

Sorry but I don't see what there is to be upset about and hold back final payment until the last minute. They are trying to be pro-active, make sure you have every opportunity to be reminded. Also, it's for those that are cancelling. The cruise line would like people to do it sooner than later so they can figure out inventory issues and resolve them before sail date. Truly, I don't see the issue, seems minor to me. If this is major irritant to you, then you are truly blessed in life.

Thank you all for your input.

I guess I was looking at the glass half empty instead of half full and will be making the final payment tonight.

Eh, don't take it personally. I'm glad they send the reminders. When I made my deposit on my next cruise, X phone agent told me my credit card was declined. Could have used another card, but I prefer to use that one for travel. I called the CC company and was told there was no problem with the credit card, called X back and the card was accepted. I've also had accounts frozen because someone tried to use my cards fraudulently. That's why I don't wait till the last minute to pay anything that is important to me.

Thank you all for your input.

 

I guess I was looking at the glass half empty instead of half full and will be making the final payment tonight.

If you booked the cruise within the past 60 days, one very good reason to hold off on making final payment is so that you don't lose the ability to transfer the reservation to a travel agency and receive additional perks.

Once you make final payment, you can no longer transfer the booking to a travel agent.

So if you want to check with several of the major cruise travel agencies to compare the additional benefits they will offer you as an incentive to give them your booking, now is the time to do it, before making final payment.

If you booked the cruise within the past 60 days, one very good reason to hold off on making final payment is so that you don't lose the ability to transfer the reservation to a travel agency and receive additional perks.

Once you make final payment, you can no longer transfer the booking to a travel agent.

So if you want to check with several of the major cruise travel agencies to compare the additional benefits they will offer you as an incentive to give them your booking, now is the time to do it, before making final payment.

I would think the OP is past the 60 days since the comment was booked 'a few months ago'. When you are getting final payment reminders, I think it's beyond considering a TA transfer IMHO.

I don't know about everyone else, but we get really excited when it's final payment time. We book about a year in advance and suddenly with the final payment, we are in CRUISE mode! Final payment? check. On-line check in is next. Getting the documents, luggage tags, pulling the suitcases out and the packing lists get printed.....I get to start checking off all the important things on my lists! I have all my paperwork for our flights, hotels, excursions, transfers, shuttles, etc., in a folder. I don't get reminders. Our TA tells us when he'll call for the confirmation on what cc we want to use for the final payment and we mark it on our calendar and once he calls, we're set to go.

Really easy way to get the reminders to stop. Pay it.

We have never cruised before and decided to book our first cruise a few months ago. We put the standard deposit on the Cruise at the time.

 

Our final payment is due next week and the reminders for final payment started coming in last week. At first I thought nothing of it, no big deal I will pay closer to the date. Then the phone call reminder, then the email reminder, then the daily email reminder, then today the sending me the invoice in the mail with the text here is the document you requested?

 

All these reminders seem to be having the reverse effect on me, for some reason now I want to hold off to the last second on final payment for spite and I am not normally like that but I have never seen a company like this before. Is this normal for all cruise lines or just Celebrity.

No doubt the reminders will stop when you make the final payment this week.

Suppose the final payment day is on the 24th and the credit card makes the cut on the 7th day, it gives the same thing that I pay on the 8th day that on the 20th and I prefer to pay the day after the cut and not wait until the last day To avoid any problem.