A little fine print for your Monday
Non-refundable cruise deposits began turning up some years ago and are everywhere now. Rarely do they make anyone happy except the cruise line. You’ll see non-refundable deposits on display often, because they look good in marketing. Cruisers see a low fare and focus on that instead of the fine print.
A non-refundable deposit is exactly as it sounds. Once you put your money down, you will not get it back, regardless of the reason for which you cancel. In many instances, you will receive a future cruise credit that has an expiration and even a fee for changing the ship or sail date.
The only clients with whom I have happily booked a non-refundable deposit are those who really don’t care about losing $250, $500 or more. They are few and far between.
The remaining clients love the idea of saving a substantial amount by putting their deposit on the line. They don’t love it, however, when life intervenes, and their cruising plans must change.
Rarely do people book cruises with plans to cancel. As they are looking at the itinerary and stateroom selections, they don’t imagine a reason good enough to back out. Unfortunately, those reasons lurk in the background.
Fortunately, we don’t have to rely on non-refundable deposits to offer a substantial cruise value. And we won’t rely on them. Some of our fares are even lower than the non-refundable ones being advertised.
If they are not, and a client is determined to risk the deposit, we can book it along with their acknowledgement of the risk. (There is a form for everything these days.) The only time we recommend such fares is if the savings is substantial and the client is insuring the trip at the time of deposit. In that case, the savings can offset much of the insurance price.