Too Many Cruisers Are Making These 4 Costly Mistakes Right Now

I am frequently contacted by stressed cruise passengers at the end of their tether, seeking my help on how to get out of a costly mistake they’ve made. In recent weeks, several cruisers have been in touch about the same four issues that seem to keep catching people out. I thought I needed to warn all cruisers about them.

I’m going to start with a mistake that’s easily made. An upset Denise contacted me about how to deal with the cost of her cruise doubling to a price that she couldn’t afford, due to a misunderstanding on her part. She wanted to know how she could get it back to the original price. So, what happened and how did she get into this fix?

Costly Mistakes – Bidding

Denise booked a last-minute cruise on MSC Seashore from Port Canaveral in a Yacht Club Deluxe Suite. It cost her $3,200 per person ($6,400 in total).

Several days later, like I did for my last MSC Cruise, she received an email with the opportunity to bid for an upgrade. She saw she could upgrade to a royal suite for $3,750 per person, and excitedly thinking that wasn’t a big increase on her current cabin price, she placed the bid. What Denise hadn’t realised when bidding, is that the bid is an additional cost on top of the existing fare and not a replacement fare.

The bid was accepted, and her credit card was charged in total $13,900 for the cruise. Doubling the price of her cruise to an amount she could not afford.

She frantically contacted MSC customer services who proved unhelpful. She spoke to her travel agent to see if they could get it reversed. However, the terms and conditions of the bid, which were linked to the email, made it clear that once she had bid, she accepted the terms and conditions, which meant once the bid was accepted it was locked in.

As well as making sure you always check the terms and conditions before bidding, what should you do if in Denise’s situation?

Be Persistent

My advice was to be persistent and work through the travel agent she had booked with to put pressure on MSC. Even though the agent was not part of the upgrade bid process. Travel agents have relationships, contacts and sales representatives within the cruise lines who have an interest in keeping that relationship strong. They rely on agents for promoting and selling the line, while the people manning cruise lines’ Customer Service phones have limited scope and ability to address issues like this. I am delighted to say that this persistence paid off and MSC did relent and reverted her booking to her original. Another good reason, I feel, for working with a travel agent.

Upgrade bidding is fraught with issues, and others have asked me for help, or I have stepped in to assist.

Channel followers, Peter and Julie, when asking some questions about an upcoming Celebrity Edge cruise told me they had bid for an upgrade into one of the 2-level Edge Loft suites. I suggested they check with their travel agent what upgrading without going through the bid process would cost. They checked and it was less than the bid they’d submitted. Luckily, they had time to cancel the bid and upgrade for less.

Per Person

Jamie, a friend of mine, was going solo on MSC Cruises and told me he was going to bid for an upgrade into the Yacht Club. I warned him that although in the bid process he was seeing a “price per person”, the terms and conditions also say that all bids are charged at dual occupancy. So, if he had bid and it had been accepted it would be twice the price that he thought it was going to be. He did not bid!

If you ever receive those opportunities to bid, please make sure you read the terms and conditions. Because once the bid is accepted, there may be no turning back, including if you don’t like the cabin or location you’re given.

Costly Mistakes – The Fare

The next issue is one that I am contacted by more people about than any other. This is when fares prices change and particularly when they go down.

For example, recently, Sally asked if I could help. She’d booked a Norwegian cruise departing in the next month through a travel agent, so had paid the final balance.

Following my advice, she had been tracking fares and saw that the price of the cruise had gone down by £800 ($1,000) and wanted to know if there was anything that she could do. Neither her agent nor cruise line seemed inclined to assist her to get the lower fare and money back.

I advised I felt she was asking them the wrong question. My advice is that once the final balance is paid, to focus on trying to get upgraded to a cabin that now matches the price paid.

This was confirmed by another follower, Nick, in the UK who had booked an Inside Cabin on Fred. Olsen departing in three months’ time. Since he booked, the fares went down twice, and both times he contacted them. They upgraded his cabin to match the new pricing. He now is in an Oceanview cabin.

Push for Fare Changes

However, for cruises way in the future, where only deposit has been paid, it is worth pushing for fare changes. I got a message from Mardi in Australia who has had been tracking fares, as I recommended, and in one week had saved nearly 9,000 Australian dollars (US $5,000). US$3,000 on an Oceania Canada & New England cruise and $2,000 on a Silversea Cape Town round trip cruise next year.

I get many messages from people saying they have had similar results, even today as I was preparing this, I got a tweet on X from Phil saying tracking had got him a £528/ $670 lower fare on a Royal Caribbean cruise by tracking and then asking for the lower fare.

To avoid the costly mistake of paying more than you must, you should track fare changes for your cruises like all these followers of the channel have. I have an article on my blog which explains how to do it.

Unfortunately, not all lines will play ball, but it is worth trying.

Costly Mistakes – Changes To The Plans

The third issue that I get many messages about, including some this week from a Tips For Travellers Patron, Julianne, is around when cruise lines change itineraries or drop ports, either before or during the cruise. People often ask me, what compensation can they get? Particularly when they’ve booked a specific cruise because they wanted to go to certain places.

Julianne is booked on Sun Princess and just as departure nears has been advised that Kotor, which was a port that she was really looking forward to and one reason she had booked the cruise, was being dropped.

On investigation, she discovered that it had been changed to another port, Most in this situation usually tell me they feel there should be more timely warning, with a chance to cancel or get compensation instead of going on a costly cruise with ports they booked it for missing.

I get messages frequently asking what options cruisers have if the cruise line changes an itinerary before their cruise or drop ports once on it.

As I told Julianne, the terms and conditions which every cruiser accepts when booking a cruise, means there is little one can do. They allow cruise lines to change itineraries and ports for pretty much any reason without the chance to cancel or get any compensation. However, many of the cruise lines do say if the change is significant or consequential then you can.

So, while I advised Julianne the change from Kotor to Bar is not significant, getting compensation or cancelling was unlikely.

But, if in your view, it is a significant change of itinerary before departure then rather than go on a costly cruise you don’t want to do, then push for it.

Reliable Insurance

If you want to make sure that you are compensated for missing a port, a reliable way of ensuring that is opting for an insurance policy that includes missed ports insurance. So, it is worth checking with your insurer if they do have missed port option. You then just need a letter from the ship confirming a port was missed.

If there is a specific port or ports you are booking a cruise for and you miss those then it would be upsetting, understand that it is not guaranteed you will get there. So, booking a cruise for that port or ports alone could be a very costly mistake, as you will be committed to a cruise with limited chance to cancel or get compensation if they get dropped before or during the cruise. If it is a must see, perhaps consider as a land-based trip.

Excursions

Another way you could be out of pocket linked to ports being dropped is around excursions. If you’ve booked a cruise line excursion, they will automatically refund it. If booking with a third party or independent provider take care with who you book and always check their terms and conditions.

Well-known providers like VentureAshore.com, ShoreExcursionsGroup.com, and Viator, have in their terms and conditions, that if the ship doesn’t make it to the port, they will refund you.

However, I have been following the experience of a lady called Jill on a Carnival Legend cruise to Canada and Greenland who lost over $420 by booking with a local provider who would not refund the tour cost, even though the ship’s call on the port in Greenland was cancelled due to weather. It was reported she found a tour online through a company called Sandra Cruise tours, and when she tried to get a refund saw that the terms and conditions on the website said that tours were non-refundable.

Jill apparently then tried to get a chargeback through her credit card company. However, they wouldn’t refund her because they said it was clear on the website that tours were non-refundable.

So, again, like the experience at the start of this that Denise fell into with her costly bidding experience, a reminder to always check the terms and conditions when booking or committing any money to avoid a nasty financial hit.

Costly Mistakes – Unexpected Cost

Another issue that I get contacted about is around solving costly issues around falling ill or getting injured on a cruise.

I have been following the experience of Diana, a passenger on Norwegian Bliss in Alaska, as she’s a good example of how even a simple issue can end up costing even more than your whole cruise. She was very seasick and dehydrated from vomiting. She felt so bad, that she made her way to the medical centre out of hours. They gave her IV treatment to restore fluids, some seasick pills and a bill for a staggering $2,297.

While it sorted her seasickness, the bill made her feel sick as she had to pay that whilst on the ship.

Her experience is a salutary lesson on the costs of going to the medical centre on the cruise ship, and how you can quickly end up with a huge cost for even a simple issue.

Lines charge between $100 and $200 each time you see the doctor, if the nurse does anything you get charged for that (even if just taking readings), and everything used gets charged additionally, such as for dressings and so on.

Now the good news is that Diana had travel insurance and was able to successfully claim all that back.

My Suggestions

There are a few things I would have recommended to her, and I do to you too that could avoid a big cost. First, take a First Aid kit with you to deal with minor illnesses and scrapes, including seasickness as that could prevent things escalating and requiring the medical centre.

If you do have an issue where you need to see a doctor, consider whether it’s going to be more cost-effective to see an emergency doctor or a local doctor in the next port, and thirdly like Diana have travel insurance.

And while it is important to have insurance, also make sure you get your costs or visit to the medical centre documented and leave the ship with as much written confirmation as you can, to avoid a costly surprise later.

Diana had a detailed bill for her time to submit to her insurers, but someone who contacted me for help, Alice, did not and is now rather out of pocket.

Alice’s mother hurt her back on a Royal Caribbean cruise at the CocoCay private island stop on a waterslide. While they reported it to Guest Services, they did not go to the medical centre to be examined, and so she had no medical record to take away nor did they ask for any confirmation they had reported her injury.

Over time as she was still not getting better, was still in pain and medical costs were ramping up. So, she tried to get costs covered by Royal Caribbean, they turned her down because there was no documentation and as the claimed injury was months ago, they argued even if there was it was no longer within the window to file a claim.