Gutted!! No family balconies left!!

[Tinkerbellsparkle]

WOOOOO!!!!

Yes you can book direct with US agents. I just booked the Concierge with all the drinks + gratuities + on board $ for a great price! I spent about 2-3 hours on the phone sorting it, it was a painful experience, but will be worth it.

The agent I used was brilliant emailing me and ringing me, I had 2 ladies searching for my cabin for 4 and they finally got it, even rang me by accident at 5.30am as she forgot the time difference!! Then she chose me an extra big balcony!!

SOOO EXCITED!!!

 

Thank you all for your comments to my post :)

[pacurnl]

Good for you! Enjoy your cruise!

Trish

[Fouremco]

So nice to see a happy ending! :)

[villauk]

WOOOOO!!!!

Yes you can book direct with US agents. I just booked the Concierge with all the drinks + gratuities + on board $ for a great price! I spent about 2-3 hours on the phone sorting it, it was a painful experience, but will be worth it.

The agent I used was brilliant emailing me and ringing me, I had 2 ladies searching for my cabin for 4 and they finally got it, even rang me by accident at 5.30am as she forgot the time difference!! Then she chose me an extra big balcony!!

SOOO EXCITED!!!

 

Thank you all for your comments to my post :)

 

Brilliant news, glad you got sorted.

[Louby-Lou]

WOOOOO!!!!

Yes you can book direct with US agents. I just booked the Concierge with all the drinks + gratuities + on board $ for a great price! I spent about 2-3 hours on the phone sorting it, it was a painful experience, but will be worth it.

The agent I used was brilliant emailing me and ringing me, I had 2 ladies searching for my cabin for 4 and they finally got it, even rang me by accident at 5.30am as she forgot the time difference!! Then she chose me an extra big balcony!!

SOOO EXCITED!!!

 

Thank you all for your comments to my post :)

 

Congratulations on your booking. Have you checked that your travel insurance is valid if you book with a US TA? Our insurance isn't valid if the TA is not ABTA or ATOL registered. Would hate you to get caught out.

 

Lou

[Tiggertastic]

WOOOOO!!!!

Yes you can book direct with US agents. I just booked the Concierge with all the drinks + gratuities + on board $ for a great price! I spent about 2-3 hours on the phone sorting it, it was a painful experience, but will be worth it.

The agent I used was brilliant emailing me and ringing me, I had 2 ladies searching for my cabin for 4 and they finally got it, even rang me by accident at 5.30am as she forgot the time difference!! Then she chose me an extra big balcony!!

SOOO EXCITED!!!

 

Thank you all for your comments to my post :)

 

 

Pleased you got sorted, have a great trip

 

 

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[renaroo]

Happy resolution. Enjoy your concierge balconies!

 

 

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[Jade13]

So upset. :loudcry:

 

Been doing so much research and reading reviews for about 2 weeks.

 

Fi do a different week because already booked flights from UK to Miami.

 

:loudcry:

 

 

We never book non refundable flights prior to booking the cruise.

 

 

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[suekay]

We never book non refundable flights prior to booking the cruise.

 

 

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Congratulations on your booking. Have you checked that your travel insurance is valid if you book with a US TA? Our insurance isn't valid if the TA is not ABTA or ATOL registered. Would hate you to get caught out.

 

Lou

 

On what grounds wouldn't travel insurance be valid? We've booked through a US ta many times and never even gave that a thought.

 

 

 

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[Sea Lavender]

Folks, with regards to changing your cabin once already booked - we have just down graded from concierge class to a normal balcony mid ship. We had a look at the overall cost included a hotel the night before, parking at Southampton, excursions and so on, and it was pretty eye watering. We still keep the classic drinks package and the O/B spending money. Also, to change our cabin was easy via our cruise agent in the UK, and there wasn't any cost to change. Also to note, if your paying for parking at ABParking - Southampton, ring up and ask for the discount code for 10% off the cost online - we had a helpful staff member who gave us the code.

[Louby-Lou]

On what grounds wouldn't travel insurance be valid? We've booked through a US ta many times and never even gave that a thought.

 

 

 

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We booked on several occasions with a US TA until we read the small print of our insurance policy which states cover is only valid if booked with an ATOL or ABTA registered TA. It never occurred to us that we wouldn't be covered until we read a newspaper article about a couple who found, to their great cost, that they weren't covered :o. This prompted us to check our own policy. Maybe yours is different. If it is, I would be interested to know!

 

Lou

[suekay]

I'll check tomorrow. Could have been a costly oversight!

 

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[suekay]

I just had a thought.......does the lack of insurance cover only apply to failure / bankruptcy of a non-abta/atol travel agent? I was thinking you meant total lack of cover for illness etc.

[villauk]

I just had a thought.......does the lack of insurance cover only apply to failure / bankruptcy of a non-abta/atol travel agent? I was thinking you meant total lack of cover for illness etc.

 

I checked through our whole document last night (yawn) and the only time ABTA/ATOL is mentioned is stating if you fall under compensation from them, then you have to go that route first i.e. basically, you can't claim from both sources and they should be first if it's applicable to your particular claim. Note: credit card companies and other ways of claiming before the insurance company was also mentioned. As you stated above, this was in connection to holiday issues such as delays etc. rather than health/medical compensation.

 

If you're not covered in any other way, then you can make a claim through your insurance (obviously depending on what's in your small print as all cover is different). The insurance companies obviously want you to try all other routes before they have to pay out - no shocks there then :D.

 

You may find it applies more to those purchasing insurance directly from high street TAs rather than those that purchase annual insurance from other sources. Ours also includes business travel, where some policies don't.