May need to cancel...NO insurance!

[NeJaz]

What if you do not have insurance (I know - dumb mistake that will NEVER happen again!)?

 

We are booked on the Mariner Oct 23rd sailing with a group of 28 (14 cabins). One in our group now thinks that they will not be able to make it. We are 25 days away from sailing. RCI's website says that he will receive 50% of the price if he cancels, however, what happens to the other person in the cabin?

Will she have to pay for two people even though it is not her fault that she will be the only one in the room?

 

Just trying to determine what will be her responsibility. She is nervous that she will be responsible for the rest of the cabin fare. If so, she will have to cancel and lose money as she can not afford to pay extra :(.

 

Any thoughts are greatly appreciated!

[juliew]

What if you do not have insurance (I know - dumb mistake that will NEVER happen again!)?

 

We are booked on the Mariner Oct 23rd sailing with a group of 28 (14 cabins). One in our group now thinks that they will not be able to make it. We are 25 days away from sailing. RCI's website says that he will receive 50% of the price if he cancels, however, what happens to the other person in the cabin?

Will she have to pay for two people even though it is not her fault that she will be the only one in the room?

 

Just trying to determine what will be her responsibility. She is nervous that she will be responsible for the rest of the cabin fare. If so, she will have to cancel and lose money as she can not afford to pay extra :(.

 

Any thoughts are greatly appreciated!

 

I doubt she'll have to pay extra just because they are already getting 50% penalty on the cancellation - but I would call and play out the scenario just to find out if it will, in fact, cost her more.

[hdawson]

Get your travel agent involved at once. Sometimes a good travel agent can have more influence than an individual.

[awm]

Go to RCU Customer Service Directly! You are more than 14 days out.

Call 800-529-6918.

Still having trouble? Ask for 'Creso'. I have no idea what 'Creso' means but I know that they have the final word on any RCI situation.

[yogimax]

Get your travel agent involved at once. Sometimes a good travel agent can have more influence than an individual.

 

Absolutely correct - Either RCCL or your travel agent is the person to ask!

[FitzLA]

You always pay double occupany even if there is only 1 person in the cabin. If 1 cancels, chances are they will not get anything back, and the person that is still in the cabin will have to reimburse them if they still want to go.

 

 

For example, if a cabin for 2 people is around 1900.00 then the same cabin for 1 person is around 1800.00. There is really no discount for 1 person is a cabin. If the 2nd person cancels, they will get nothing. If both cancel, they will get half.

[lovepuzzles]

While we were on our cruise earlier this month, we were talking to this lady that her boyfriend had to cancel at the last minute due to his job. She said that RC allows one change of person per room, so she brought her mom in his place. If you could find someone who would like to go in his place, that might be a good option. :)

[DutsCruiser]

I would be on the phone real quickly with them. By the book she would probably have to pay but maybe she's lucky and RCCL has some sympathy (or the realize that 1 times a 100% and 1 times 50% is more than 2 times 50%).

 

Let us know how this worked out...

[dad son team]

I would try to find a substitute and only charge them what the original passenger is going to get back. ex: fare $1000, penalty $500, refund $500. Charge the replacement $500 since that is what the original passenger would be getting back anyway, and it keeps the fare the same for the second passenger.

[cruz1234]

You always pay double occupany even if there is only 1 person in the cabin. If 1 cancels, chances are they will not get anything back, and the person that is still in the cabin will have to reimburse them if they still want to go.

 

 

Why should she reimburse him? If he cancels and has no insurance and has to forfeit, then the cruise line has collected his $ for 1/2 the cabin and her $ for the other 1/2. He should not be reimbursed by her, he is the one that cancelled. If he is the primary name on the cabin then it cannot be changed, however if she is the primary and someone else wants to go the name can be changed. Maybe if he offers a good deal, rather than losing all his $$, they can find someone to go in that slot.

My DH alomost had to canx, my choices were go w/out and have cabin to myself, canx but lose 50% or find someone to go with me. Anyway I sliced it I had to eat the loss and I had insurance but it didn't cover canx w/ less than 30 days notice! Won't by that insurance again!

[Nessa1dc]

Please let us know the final decision. I would be interested in hearing it.

[Slam308]

You can buy Travel Safe insurance up until the actual cruise. Buy it now and then cancel. (Or he should do that). As long as it's not a preexisting medical condition you should be fine.

[Cruise-Nut]

You can buy Travel Safe insurance up until the actual cruise. Buy it now and then cancel. (Or he should do that). As long as it's not a preexisting medical condition you should be fine.

 

That is not right. No dignity doing that. Besides, I thought you could only purchase the insurance up until your final payment. If you can buy it after that I am sure it would be prorated some how.

[KINGBOBOFTHENORTH]

Selling the space to someone else is the best solution. As noted above, Royal Caribbean allows a passenger name change for 1 person in the cabin, at no charge. The penalty applies if both cancel. I'm not so sure that one person can cancel and just leave the other person.

 

BobK/Orlando

coming soon: Sovereign of the Seas (10/05)

Costa Mediterranea (01/06)

Norwegian Sun (05/06)

[masterbaker]

You always pay double occupany even if there is only 1 person in the cabin. If 1 cancels, chances are they will not get anything back, and the person that is still in the cabin will have to reimburse them if they still want to go.

 

 

For example, if a cabin for 2 people is around 1900.00 then the same cabin for 1 person is around 1800.00. There is really no discount for 1 person is a cabin. If the 2nd person cancels, they will get nothing. If both cancel, they will get half.

 

I'm pretty sure this poster is correct. If both passengers cancel, they will get 50% back. The original passenger can sell their bed for whatever price they want and change the passenger on the reservation but that's all they will get back. It's not really a cancellation, just a change of passenger. A single passenger in a cabin pays very close to the double fare. If the second passenger cannot afford that they can both cancel the cabin and split the 50% refund.

[NeJaz]

I have a call into my travel agent right now - just waiting to hear back from them.

 

The problem with trying to find someone to go in his place is that we have most of our family and friends already sailing with us! We're having a hard time finding someone to go at the last minute!

 

I'll let you know what happens once I hear back from my TA!

[juliew]

You can buy Travel Safe insurance up until the actual cruise. Buy it now and then cancel. (Or he should do that). As long as it's not a preexisting medical condition you should be fine.

 

It has to be for an unforseen event that you cancel (this is not unforseen) and it has to be covered. I wouldn't trust that you could get your money back that way.

[kimholland6]

Go to www.quotetravelinsurance.com buy the cheap insurance, it covers cancellations. It only cost ust $122 for 8 people coverage. We bought it 2 days before we left, thank God. We just got off the Rhapsody yesterday. A 7-day cruise turned into 10!! We were smart enough to stay on board and not get off. I don't have STUPID written on my forehead! But we had 2 people get sick and my grandmother with us, ran out of her blood pressure medication. So it will come in very handy! Although RCCL offered to fly anyone home from our first port of call. You just had to pay for a rental car.

[kimholland6]

We also changed the name of one of our passengers about 30 days before we sailed. It worked. We left our baby at home and took my daughters cousin.

[NeJaz]

Just heard back from my TA and this was their answer:

 

"If he decides to cancel and the penalty is 50% of the cruise fare, then they will charge the remaining passenger with the extra as if it were a single cabin. Theoretically, if he cancels, he gets have half the cruise fare returned plus port charges and taxes and the other passenger gets charged the entire cruise fare for the second person. If he doesn't cancel and she boards anyway saying that she has no idea when he is coming on board, there is no refund to him but she can pay him the 50% of his fare and she ends up paying only an extra 50% rather than a full 100%. The downside of that for him is that he doesn't get his port charges and taxes refunded either."

 

I guess we will just HAVE to find someone to go in his place! At least that is only a $35 name change charge!

[Gorilla579]

Good luck. Let us know what happens. We are also on that sailing with a large group, 21 of us. I know that last minute changes can be stressful. If you haven't seen these already, here our some of the people on our sailing.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=105013&highlight=mariner

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=156920

 

Hope to see you there!

[cruiseco]

A couple of comments:

 

One question that has not been asked is "does the non-traveling passenger have insurance?" If that person does have the coverage he/she will be protected against the single supplement under the "change in occupancy" benefit if the traveling companion is cancelling for a covered reason. This applies whether or not the cancelling party has purchased insurance or not. If the traveling companion is cancelling for a non-covered reason then he/she is out of luck.

 

As far as buying a policy now, it would probably be a waste of money. The reason for the cancellation has to be documented and if it's a medical reason they'll ask for the doctor's records as to when the problem was first diagnosed. Obviously it would be before the policy purchase date. Claim denied as a pre-existing medical condition.

 

 

The cause of the cancellation is not clear. Any chance of getting a better explanation of the circumstances?

 

It's pretty standard for a cruise ine to enforce the single supplement on a passenger who has a traveling companion cancel prior to the time the penalty goes to 100%. The reason is this:

 

Say I want to go on a cruise as a single. The cruise line's single rate is $2000 and the double occupancy rate is $1000.

 

If the cruise line did NOT charge the single supplement when the penalty was 50% of the fare I would simply book myself and a phantom companion at the double occupancy rate (2X $1000 = $2000). Then, when the 50% penalty applies, I cancel the fake roommate, realize a $500 refund, and effectively pay $1500 for my single occupancy cabin instead of the $2000 I should have paid.

 

No cruise line is going to go for that.

[kryos]

Selling the space to someone else is the best solution. As noted above, Royal Caribbean allows a passenger name change for 1 person in the cabin, at no charge. The penalty applies if both cancel. I'm not so sure that one person can cancel and just leave the other person.

I don't know about RCCL, but on HAL if you have insurance, both people in the cabin must have it. I would imagine that is for situations such as this.

 

Frankly, if this were me who had to cancel, before I "ate" 50% of the fare as a loss, I would just as soon let a close friend or family member (of the same sex as the person remaining in the cabin) to go in my place ... especially if finding someone to sell the spot to is gonna be a problem. Remember, you're gonna have to make sure the person you have take your slot is the same sex as the person who will remain in that cabin. It wouldn't be fair to sell that slot to a buddy, when it was a lady you were sharing the cabin with. She ain't gonna appreciate sharing accommodations with your male friend. :)

 

Blue skies ...

 

--rita

[Happy ks]

The OP already stated there was no insurance purchased. I think you also have to have a "covered" reason even if you do have to cancel late in the game to get reimbursed by insurance. We usually don't purchase our insurance until final payment has been made, we have no pre-existing conditions so we don't want to hand over $ we don't yet have to..

 

I certainly hope you can find a replacement to share her cabin, the price certainly would make it attractive to someone!

[cruz1234]

If you book thru RCI and purchase their insurance they don't actually bill you until the final payment is due, but the pre-existing condition clause is the 60 days before you book the cruise (if you tell them you want the ins. when you make the booking). they have that nice little clause in there that says if it's for any of the uncovered reasons you get a 75% ship credit towards another cruise. That is better than losing all or 50% of your money. The cruise we did not book thru RCI and bought TA insurance, once we were in the 30 days we lost everything. No refunds at all. I am starting to see that there are all different policies and they all have different coverages.