If it's true that a reservation fee for a cruise ship is non-refundable, then what happens if somebody cancels?

Question

I'm not sure if the title of this question will fit, because more importantly, I'm wondering if somebody else could fill in that person's place without having to pay any extra, since the original person had already paid for it but couldn't make it due to illness or injury, or other unforeseen circumstance.

For example, a friend of mine is going on a cruise, but they didn't know that I would've loved to go, and now they regret not telling me. With a group rate discount, they had to pay $1,900. They could technically add somebody else to their room, but the rooms are tiny, and we prefer to have rooms to ourselves.

If someone ended up having to drop out at the last minute, regardless of what room they had, and if they couldn't get their money back, then shouldn't that money be credited towards someone else who could fill in that space? I would think so, but their travel agent said it didn't work that way, so I would like some clarification on that.

I'm also not sure if I should ask this as a separate question, but is it common nowadays to have visitors accompany cruise travellers to board the ship, wish them bon voyage, and debark before the ship leaves port? I'm not sure if that custom has changed since security has changed over the years. Thanks for any help with this!

Answer 1

then shouldn't that money be credited towards someone else who could fill in that space?

Why? If someone else wants to go on a cruise and are willing to pay the money for the now-available room, why should the cruise company not charge them the price? The fact that someone else may have forfeited their deposit is absolutely irrelevant.

If, given the contracts allows that, the passenger transfers their ticket to someone of their choosing, then sure. But rarely do the contracts allow that, if ever.

Cruise companies (like any other commercial enterprise) are in it for profit.

but is it common nowadays to have visitors accompany cruise travellers to board the ship, wish them bon voyage, and debark before the ship leaves port?

Have never seen that. Definitely not a common thing.

Answer 2

Rules and reality are different things.

Reservation fee is a booking fee: a fee for such part of process, it doesn't matter if other passengers will take your place, and official policy is that such fee is non-refundable. The title seems about that, but your question seems different.

You say last-minute cancellation, but so it seems after the final payment. Cruise lines have refundable share (but the booking fee) according on how much day in advance you cancel (and it may depends on the voyage: repositioning and themed cruises may have different rules). Note different countries have different contractual laws, so things may change depending where you have bought the ticket (and prices reflect that). Check about that, for your information on how to proceed.

Again: that is about rules. If you call your travel agent and/or cruise line (call, with phone), and you have a good reason, you may get better deals, e.g. transfer some or all you fare into a future cruise. You may be able (for a small fee) to transfer a ticket to a different name (privately, if you start do do it professionally, they may not allow such things). It may be better than just cancel.

But you may get a better deal if you just book last minute. Phone and check what option may be offered to you (transferring name or refund and last-minute booking).

But an important topic: you must have an travel insurance to cruise. Not a strict must, but as you see: cancellation may be expensive, but worst: if you have a medical problem on ship, the expenses skyrocket, and evacuation (you may be required to disembark early) may be extremely expensive. I hope your friend has such insurance, which adds a new option.

Room are small, but you may not be there much of time. Cruise lines do not like to have them used by a single person (so you may get twin beds, with maybe a curtain to separate both): cruise lines economics is not just about selling cabins, but also extra expenses so two people: double extra potential expenses. But it depends on cruise line, and especially on period (more difficult on school holidays or on high season).

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For the last question: ask the cruise line, but I doubt. Embarkation day is chaotic, so they may not want to have additional people to queue, and to slow down operations. And also to look if they do not disembark on time (hotel services have already full jobs on embarkation days). On other port of call: it may be possible, but you should contact cruise line well in advance, and probably pay a fee (you get a resort and food).

Answer 3

It highly depends on the conditions when you book the ticket regarding what is refundable and what not. If the conditions say it is not refundable then it is. If it says it is transferable then it is. Look at the documents carefully before you sign or pay anything.

Most of the time on cruise day only passengers and staffs can board the ship. Other visitors who obviously have no tickets will not be allowed to board. It’s already chaotic without having to look for that extra visitor who has not left the ship when it is time to depart.

Answer 4

This is called a "name change" and details of course vary between cruise line--they're allowed to put pretty much whatever rule they want, but there are some points that tend to be common among the big US cruise lines.

1. At least one name from the original booking must remain the same. This may/may not need to be the person who's name the booking was under.
2. If you are a long time from the sail date (several months), name changes are usually free.
3. Difficulty and cost of modifying anything on the booking (name changes, adding guests, changing room type, adding rooms) goes up as the cruise gets closer...
4. At some point it is too late to add a guest or do a name change. This point is probably a lot further from the cruise date than you think, as in 2 months or longer before the cruise date.
5. It is not that uncommon to make the initial booking for one person plus some number of "To Be Decided" (TBD) guests, there is some cutoff date, usually the same as the cutoff for free name changes, where you have to either declare names for TBD or reduce the number of guests.

And yes, it's just based around money--they want to get as many people on as possible because (for the big cruise lines) a lot of the money comes from drinks and other up charges more than just the number of rooms--that's why there's a surcharge for a room with only one guest.