Reserve two cruises - decide and cancel one later

[awestover89]

I am trying to plan our cruise for next summer, and with the current WOW deals, I really want to make a reservation before the sale ends September 15. The problem is, there is still a lot up in the air regarding which week we will be able to cruise. My husband's work schedule doesn't officially open the vacation book until March, and his brother will be joining us but we don't know what college he will be going to yet, so we don't know when his first day of school would be.

 

We are leaning heavily towards the August 23rd sailing of the Navigator so we could also spend some time with family in Texas before the cruise, but I don't want to book it and then find out that my brother-in-law starts school like August 26th or something.

 

So, as a bit of insurance, I was thinking of reserving our preferred cruise and then a back up, either Freedom or Navigator on August 9th/16th. Then, come March once my husband can officially put in his vacation request and we will know for certain when my brother-in-law needs to be at school, we can cancel the cruise we won't be going on. It will still be well within the 75 days notice period

 

Before I decide to actually go this route, what all do the good people at Cruise Critic recommend I consider? I've already got the following that I am mulling over:

 

Ethical Concerns:

 

It does seem a little underhanded to make a reservation that I know will be canceled, although I am also weighing this against the fact that I will be cancelling with plenty of notice and we are planning on reserving an interior room, so we won't be locking up a potentially 'dream' room from somebody else.

 

Financial Concerns:

 

Since we will be cancelling more than 3 months out, we won't lose any money. This will require paying double the deposit, but in the long run will ensure that we get the cheapest cruise we will be able to go on.

 

Is there anything else I should consider? Before actually doing anything I plan on talking with my brother-in-law to at least get a list of colleges he intends on applying to so I can check their start dates.

[leaveitallbehind]

As long a you are willing to commit the deposit you can reserve as many cruises as you want and change itineraries or cancel prior to final payment with a full refund. Not an uncommon practice.

[George C]

Good idea , do it

[Ourusualbeach]

No problem in doing this. I currently have one booked that I have no intention of taking and am just waiting for the new itineraries to come out to transfer it to.

[EbayCruiser]

People do this all the time. Go ahead and DO IT!!

[marci22]

I often do this.

[CRUZBUDS]

I admit at one point recently we had four different cruises booked for next spring and we'll be taking just one. We have two booked for next fall.

 

We have since decided on the spring cruise and are now canceling the three we won't be taking. Our T/A has always been good about it.

 

I always feel badly for our UK friends since this option isn't open to them, their deposits aren't refundable.

[Want2Cruise 701]

Do it. Either way the money in the end will go to one cruise. We have 2 cruises booked for Xmas. Allure and a Celebrity cruise. We couldn't make up our minds and the pricing was great for both and I have the cabins I want. We are still deciding. We have until end of September but the clock is ticking. Good luck.

[orville99]

Sometimes I wish it would work out that way for us. It seems that every time I book two cruises with the thought of cancelling one when we get closer, my wife decides that we should take both;)

[molly361]

I agree with everyone else. Don't worry about it. Go for it!!

[m*u*g*]

I have to wonder how many people miss out on a room category they wanted because of this practice. May not be much of an effect on categories below JS though.

[dacsmom]

There are a lot of options for people to choose from. If one cruise is totally booked then most people will choose another date or ship. I would not be concerned about booking two cruises. I would rather do this than miss out on a date or ship I wanted. People move cabins and dates around more often than I would have thought.

Edited August 5, 2014 by dacsmom

[karen&roy]

Im WAITING for someone to cancel on our Christmas cruise as I am hoping a hump cabin will open up. Is there anyway besides checking the site everyday I can find out?? Would RCL do it for me?? I booked thru them on the web.

Thanks in Advance

[Ourusualbeach]

Im WAITING for someone to cancel on our Christmas cruise as I am hoping a hump cabin will open up. Is there anyway besides checking the site everyday I can find out?? Would RCL do it for me?? I booked thru them on the web.

Thanks in Advance

 

People have reported on here about being put on a wait list for a cabin only to find out that it was available on their own. It does not seem like RCI manages wait lists well. Best to keep checking on your own,

 

Check at 120 days out as that is when TA's have to release back to RCI I any unsold inventory and at final payment time.

Edited August 5, 2014 by Ourusualbeach

[karen&roy]

people have reported on here about being put on a wait list for a cabin only to find out that it was available on their own. It does not seem like rci manages wait lists well. Best to keep checking on your own,

 

check at 120 days out as that is when ta's have to release back to rci i any unsold inventory and at final payment time.

 

 

thanks ken!!! :d

[leaveitallbehind]

Im WAITING for someone to cancel on our Christmas cruise as I am hoping a hump cabin will open up. Is there anyway besides checking the site everyday I can find out?? Would RCL do it for me?? I booked thru them on the web.

Thanks in Advance

 

Hump staterooms are very popular and tend to book early. Unfortunatley chances are it isn't the result of "phantom" bookings but more likely individual or TA group bookings that have them unavailable. But as the final payment date approaches something may open up.

 

Keep checking as with what Ken mentioned, you may find availability on your own rather than rely on an RCI wait list. (If you had booked through a TA, they may do the checking for you however.)

[grandgeezer]

I find this practice highly unethical and boardering on fraud. By this post, and ones before it, I'm led to believe this behavior is widely accepted and growing. Believe it or not, it cost cruise lines and travel agents money to enter bookings and cancelling them (not so much on this end). Do you work for free? What about the people you prevented from taking the cruise of their dreams because the cruise/stateroom was unavaiable, and had to settle for second or third choices? Next time you go on a cruise and one of your favorite activities were cut, or the quality of food or service drops, to cut cost, maybe this practice had something to do with it.

I hope the cruise lines and travel agents read this and start charging cancellation fees when a cruise is cancelled. The real cruisers will continue to cruise only be more diligent in finding the right cruise.

Let the flaming begin...

[awestover89]

This is why I love CC, always makes me feel better :D

 

When we eventually spring for a JS (probably for 5th anniversary or some other big event) we'd definitely have everything planned out a bit more so wouldn't have to worry about booking multiple cruises, but especially with my husband's weird vacation rules, this makes things a lot easier. When we went on our cruise in May we were on pins and needles hoping his PTO would be approved.

[awestover89]

I find this practice highly unethical and boardering on fraud. By this post, and ones before it, I'm led to believe this behavior is widely accepted and growing. Believe it or not, it cost cruise lines and travel agents money to enter bookings and cancelling them (not so much on this end). Do you work for free? What about the people you prevented from taking the cruise of their dreams because the cruise/stateroom was unavaiable, and had to settle for second or third choices? Next time you go on a cruise and one of your favorite activities were cut, or the quality of food or service drops, to cut cost, maybe this practice had something to do with it.

I hope the cruise lines and travel agents read this and start charging cancellation fees when a cruise is cancelled. The real cruisers will continue to cruise only be more diligent in finding the right cruise.

Let the flaming begin...

 

I think it is difficult if not impossible to truly measure the financial impact of such practices, especially if the cancellation is made prior to the 75 day cutoff. I'm assuming the cruise ship accountants chose 75 days for a reason and considered the likelihood of cancellations when they chose that time frame.

 

That being said, I'm not arguing the practice is necessarily ethical or unethical.

[The Mister]

I find this practice highly unethical and boardering on fraud. By this post, and ones before it, I'm led to believe this behavior is widely accepted and growing. Believe it or not, it cost cruise lines and travel agents money to enter bookings and cancelling them (not so much on this end). Do you work for free? What about the people you prevented from taking the cruise of their dreams because the cruise/stateroom was unavaiable, and had to settle for second or third choices? Next time you go on a cruise and one of your favorite activities were cut, or the quality of food or service drops, to cut cost, maybe this practice had something to do with it.

Very doubtful.

 

After all, TAs have been reserving blocks of staterooms without an actual human commitment since TAs have existed.

 

Furthermore, RCI does this themselves. I mean, look at any Freedom-class cruise over a year out at stateroom category I (standard OV). There isn't a single quad "I" available, despite about half of "I"s being quads. All that are available are about half of the doubles on Deck 2. This far out, the exact same rooms (with a few exceptions due to actual bookings) are available on every sail date for a given ship, and the exact same rooms are unavailable.

 

On the other hand, instead of having Category "I" quads available, they have plenty of Category "H" quads available. What's the difference between "H" and "I"? basically nothing as far as I can tell (both refer to standard OV). Yet "H" cabins cost $50-$100 more per person for some reason. (Oddly, they cost more than Category "F" - large OV. Go figure.)

 

This creates an economy of "artificial scarcity", which IMO is borderline fraudulent on the part of RCI.

 

Eventually the "I" quads will open up, of course, but it won't happen for a while.

 

So who is really the bad guy here? The individual who books an extra room because s/he hasn't made up his/her mind? Or the mass-market TA who blocks off 100 rooms per sail date just in case? Or the cruise line who purposefully restricts bookings for certain blocks of rooms with the intention of fooling the consumer into booking a pricier room?

Edited August 5, 2014 by The Mister

[matj2000]

We have booked many cruises just because it was a good price and deciding later if we were or were not going to go.

I have even had two separate cruises booked the same week

Gave myself a few months to decide which one was more appealing.

If you have the $$ to put down on deposits, do it..

[critterchick]

I find this practice highly unethical and boardering on fraud. By this post, and ones before it, I'm led to believe this behavior is widely accepted and growing. Believe it or not, it cost cruise lines and travel agents money to enter bookings and cancelling them (not so much on this end). Do you work for free? What about the people you prevented from taking the cruise of their dreams because the cruise/stateroom was unavaiable, and had to settle for second or third choices? Next time you go on a cruise and one of your favorite activities were cut, or the quality of food or service drops, to cut cost, maybe this practice had something to do with it.

I hope the cruise lines and travel agents read this and start charging cancellation fees when a cruise is cancelled. The real cruisers will continue to cruise only be more diligent in finding the right cruise.

Let the flaming begin...

 

Not flaming you, but commenting that it takes very little time to make a booking and I'm fine with a client changing his or her mind. Honestly, if somebody's dream vacation would be ruined by not getting exactly the cabin they want, then I would submit that they need a reality check. I have a favorite cabin on many ships, but if it's not available, I make do with another one and so far haven't noticed a drop in my enjoyment.

 

If I'm RCI, I am all in favor of somebody holding cabins on three cruises that they don't intend to take, especially if it's a full suite, where a double deposit is required no matter how one books the cruise. I can use their deposit money to pay off the debt on my ships and, if they do cancel (and don't rebook another cruise), I've at least deferred any additional borrowing to do so.

 

Princess Cruises often has special fares where the deposit is non-refundable and I don't believe that the cruise can even be changed to another sailing (not certain on that last point, as the language is squishy). But the tradeoff is that the fare is usually very good.

 

If the cruiselines experience a drop in revenue by allowing this practice, then I'm confident that they will do something to change it. But it's been going on for decades, so I imagine that they are fine with it.

 

OP, go ahead and double book. Then enjoy whichever cruise you decide to take.:)

[PerferWarmWeather]

Instead of cancelling one cruise you could always reschedule to a later date. I do it all the time. ;)

[cruzinlady1947]

I have never done this and really don't see a huge problem with it...however, if it is a handicapped cabin being held, "just in case". That I think is unfair, since there aren't that many of them on the ships to begin with. I would hate to think I was withholding someone from booking a handicapped cabin, just because I booked one that I'm not sure if I will want or not. JMO

 

 

Gwen :)

[grandgeezer]

For the cruise lines, it's their ball, you play the way they want to, or don't play at all. They run the business the way they see fit, if you don't like it, move on.