KyleW2 Posted March 15, 2020 Report Posted March 15, 2020 Have a question for you who have booked with a FCC before. I cancelled my cruise for March 16th and I am looking at rebooking for December onboard Adventure. Let's say the current price of the cruise is $614.92 for 2 people (interior room) with a $200 non-refundable deposit. It is showing after all discounts that the subtotal for cruise far is $466, taxes and fees being $148.92. If I book today and pay the $200 deposit, can this deposit go towards the taxes/fees or does it have to go towards the subtotal (aka room cost)? I should be receiving a $397 FCC, and I read somewhere that FCC can only be applied to the base room cost. I just don't want to pay the $200 deposit and then have to upgrade rooms with my FCC to use it all and still end up paying the taxes out of pocket, as this is a "vacation on a budget", rather than the $200 deposit covering the taxes/fees etc. Hope this question makes sense. Thanks in advance for any help you can provide. This is my first RC cruise let alone first cruise in years. Quote
WAAAYTOOO Posted March 15, 2020 Report Posted March 15, 2020 Yes, in the end, your deposit will essentially be used to cover the taxes, ports fees and, if you choose to prepay them, your gratuities. Neesa 1 Quote
Bakerette Posted March 15, 2020 Report Posted March 15, 2020 Yesterday I called royal to cancel my Harmony cruise in April and I was issued a future cruise credit of $1756 and was told that I could not use it toward the deposit toward my future cruise which I booked for next May on Allure immediately after I had cancelled my Harmony cruise for this April. I had booked my next cruise while I was still on the phone with a Royal Caribbean representative who told that it will be about 1 week before I receive the future cruise credit in my email In 1 week & since I was booking another cruise immediately I had to use a visa/MasterCard to pay deposit and then when I receive the future cruise credit I would have to call them to make the payment. The cost of the cheapest interior room for 2 people & refundable deposit for the room is $1693.56 which is less than the $1756 future cruise credit which I will receive about next week so that means after I use the cruise credit to pay off the cruise I will be issued a refund for the remaining amount of $62.44. If I decided to book a higher category room I would have to pay more and that is something that I don’t want to do for this cruise since I have a budget on how much I am going to spend pre-cruise for this cruise. Quote
WAAAYTOOO Posted March 15, 2020 Report Posted March 15, 2020 You were told that you could not use your FCC toward an already-booked cruise ? Unless they have changed the rules for this FCC, that is completely incorrect. Quote
JG1209 Posted March 15, 2020 Report Posted March 15, 2020 25 minutes ago, WAAAYTOOO said: You were told that you could not use your FCC toward an already-booked cruise ? Unless they have changed the rules for this FCC, that is completely incorrect. I have been told both ways. Yes I can and no I cant. My TA says I cannot use it for an already booked cruise... and RCI says yes. I am going to wait and see once I actually get the credit and fight it then. There is almost always someone you can talk to you make things work out. It might take a few calls, but theres almost always a way to be satisfied, within reason. Quote
AshleyDillo Posted March 15, 2020 Report Posted March 15, 2020 She was right in you can't use the FCC towards the deposit. You have to separate out the port taxes from the total owed as well because the FCC is not allowed to be used to cover that. The FCC will cover up to the full amount of the cruisefare before the port fees and taxes. If the FCC is greater than the cruisefare less the port fees and taxes you will be refunded the deposit less the port fees and taxes. Any excess FCC at that point gets reissued after you complete your cruise. Quote
Bakerette Posted March 15, 2020 Report Posted March 15, 2020 23 minutes ago, WAAAYTOOO said: You were told that you could not use your FCC toward an already-booked cruise ? Unless they have changed the rules for this FCC, that is completely incorrect. I called and cancelled my Harmony cruise which is in April and I was told that I receive the future cruise credit in my email in 1 week I could not use the FCC immediately to book the cruise and that is why I could not use the FCC to book another cruise right away & I had to use my Visa card to pay for the deposit. But when I recieve the FCC I can then use it to pay the balance on my new already booked cruise. Quote
WAAAYTOOO Posted March 15, 2020 Report Posted March 15, 2020 As @AshleyDillo said above, you cannot use an FCC for : Deposit Taxes Ports fees Gratuities Once you have a new cruise booked OR if you already have a cruise booked, you can apply your FCC towards the balance once the FCC is issued. Neesa 1 Quote
KyleW2 Posted March 15, 2020 Author Report Posted March 15, 2020 Just to make sure I understand right: If I do a deposit now of $200, once I receive FCC I call Royal and they will apply it to the booking. FCC can only cover the room cost which sends the deposit over to the taxes/fees/prepaid gratuities if I do them. If there is excess deposit left over, that will get refunded to my card? Does this apply even if it is a non-refundable deposit room since I am not cancelling the cruise, just essentially paid too much? Quote
WAAAYTOOO Posted March 16, 2020 Report Posted March 16, 2020 Correct on everything up to the excess part. If it works the way they usually work, any FCC that exceeds the balance of the cruise would be paid back to you in the form of new FCC’s for each person. It should not matter whether you have a refundable or non-refundable deposit. Quote
KyleW2 Posted March 17, 2020 Author Report Posted March 17, 2020 On 3/15/2020 at 8:20 PM, WAAAYTOOO said: Correct on everything up to the excess part. If it works the way they usually work, any FCC that exceeds the balance of the cruise would be paid back to you in the form of new FCC’s for each person. It should not matter whether you have a refundable or non-refundable deposit. I think I worded it wrong. If I get a 100% FCC, it will be right at a $400 FCC. The cruise I am looking at booking is $615 after port fees and taxes. Subtotal being $466: This means the $400 FCC will go to the subtotal (aka room cost), bringing that to $66. The remaining $148.92 is taxes and port fees. This would mean my deposit goes to covering the remainder of the room cost ($66) and a portion of the taxes and fees, leaving me a balance due of $14.92 after the FCC and deposit. Am I thinking about this right? Quote
KyleW2 Posted March 17, 2020 Author Report Posted March 17, 2020 Went ahead and booked. Reserved for Adventure on December 14th. Is it normal for Royal to only give a spot to input the first name? Right now it shows the 2nd person as "Tba Tba" and don't see a way to change it Quote
Bakerette Posted March 17, 2020 Report Posted March 17, 2020 5 hours ago, KyleW2 said: Went ahead and booked. Reserved for Adventure on December 14th. Is it normal for Royal to only give a spot to input the first name? Right now it shows the 2nd person as "Tba Tba" and don't see a way to change it I had the same issue when I reserved for 2 people so after I completed the reservation process I had called Royal & I told them I want to add the name of the second person to the reservation & they did that for me. WAAAYTOOO 1 Quote
AshleyDillo Posted March 17, 2020 Report Posted March 17, 2020 9 hours ago, KyleW2 said: Am I thinking about this right? I'm not sure about the math as it's too early and I don't know what the required deposit is, but yes you are thinking about it the right way. Quote
Zambia-Zaire Posted March 17, 2020 Report Posted March 17, 2020 10 hours ago, KyleW2 said: I think I worded it wrong. If I get a 100% FCC, it will be right at a $400 FCC. The cruise I am looking at booking is $615 after port fees and taxes. Subtotal being $466: This means the $400 FCC will go to the subtotal (aka room cost), bringing that to $66. The remaining $148.92 is taxes and port fees. This would mean my deposit goes to covering the remainder of the room cost ($66) and a portion of the taxes and fees, leaving me a balance due of $14.92 after the FCC and deposit. Am I thinking about this right? My understanding, your deposit($100) will be applied to your fare, 1st of all...bring your remaining balance to $366(subtotal). Your $400 FCC(which only apply to the fare) will cover that; so, you now acquire a $34 surplus, to be used towards either an upgrade to this booking or a 2nd cruise booking. Taxes & Port Fee are paid out of pocket(originally refunded back to whatever means of payment, not included in the FCC). Quote
AshleyDillo Posted March 17, 2020 Report Posted March 17, 2020 2 minutes ago, Zambia-Zaire said: My understanding, your deposit($100) will be applied to your fare, 1st of all...bring your remaining balance to $366(subtotal). Your $400 FCC(which only apply to the fare) will cover that; so, you now acquire a $34 surplus You are correct in that the FCC can only be applied to the cruisefare. The issue here is that a reservation HAS to exist in order to apply the FCC, thus why you can't just start with an FCC to create the new booking. A cash deposit has to be put forth to create the reservation to apply the FCC to. The allowable amount of FCC to apply towards the cruise can not exceed the cruisefare. It doesn't in this example, so they will allow the full FCC to be applied. That will mean the $200 deposit causes an overpayment towards the cruisefare after the FCC is applied ($466 - $200dep - $400FCC = -$134) . Since there are still port taxes to be paid they will get paid by the deposit overpayment ($134) first before any refund would be issued. With only a $200 deposit, it doesn't cover the full port fees and taxes so there will need to be more money paid ($148.92 - $134 = $14.92). We are told over and over that the FCC can't be used for the deposit, and that's just because you can't create the reservation without a deposit and you can't apply the FCC without a reservation. Unsurprisingly Royal's systems make it really difficult and folks get caught off guard being told they have to lay out more money to create the new booking even though they have the FCC. You can pay off a cruise completely and then apply the FCC to it and you can get a refund of what you've paid towards the cruisefare portion. Otherwise there would be no way for someone to use the FCC on a cruise less than 90 days out (after final payment). Quote
Irishcruiseguy Posted March 17, 2020 Report Posted March 17, 2020 I have a cruise I already paid deposit for on odyssey May 2021 if I cancel my Hawaii cruise for this May will they apply the 125% FCC to that sailing and what happens with the surplus funds do I get it in on board credit? Quote
AshleyDillo Posted March 17, 2020 Report Posted March 17, 2020 1 minute ago, Irishcruiseguy said: I have a cruise I already paid deposit for on odyssey May 2021 if I cancel my Hawaii cruise for this May will they apply the 125% FCC to that sailing and what happens with the surplus funds do I get it in on board credit? If you cancel, you won't get the 125% FCC. You have to wait for Royal to cancel you, otherwise you only get 100% FCC. And yes you can apply the FCC to your Odyssey sailing that you already have booked. If the FCC is greater than the cruisefare any excess FCC gets reissued AFTER you take that May 2021 sailing as another FCC to be towards another cruise. They do not give the surplus as OBC. Quote
Zambia-Zaire Posted March 17, 2020 Report Posted March 17, 2020 2 minutes ago, AshleyDillo said: You are correct in that the FCC can only be applied to the cruisefare. The issue here is that a reservation HAS to exist in order to apply the FCC, thus why you can't just start with an FCC to create the new booking. A cash deposit has to be put forth to create the reservation to apply the FCC to. The allowable amount of FCC to apply towards the cruise can not exceed the cruisefare. It doesn't in this example, so they will allow the full FCC to be applied. That will mean the $200 deposit causes an overpayment towards the cruisefare after the FCC is applied ($466 - $200dep - $400FCC = -$134) . Since there are still port taxes to be paid they will get paid by the deposit overpayment ($134) first before any refund would be issued. With only a $200 deposit, it doesn't cover the full port fees and taxes so there will need to be more money paid ($148.92 - $134 = $14.92). We are told over and over that the FCC can't be used for the deposit, and that's just because you can't create the reservation without a deposit and you can't apply the FCC without a reservation. Unsurprisingly Royal's systems make it really difficult and folks get caught off guard being told they have to lay out more money to create the new booking even though they have the FCC. You can pay off a cruise completely and then apply the FCC to it and you can get a refund of what you've paid towards the cruisefare portion. Otherwise there would be no way for someone to use the FCC on a cruise less than 90 days out (after final payment). I think you misinterpreted my post...that the first thing I noted, deposit applied 1st before FCC is applied. Quote
AshleyDillo Posted March 17, 2020 Report Posted March 17, 2020 2 minutes ago, Zambia-Zaire said: I think you misinterpreted my post...that the first thing I noted, deposit applied 1st before FCC is applied. I see that you applied the deposit, but the deposit is a credit towards total amount of funds owed, but it doesn't reduce the cruisefare when calculating how much FCC can be used. The cruisefare is still the cruisefare regardless of how much the deposit is. A deposit can be used to cover the port fees and taxes or prepaid gratuities while the FCC can't, so Royal will shift the deposit over to cover those costs to allow the FCC to be applied to the actual cruisefare. When issuing the FCC, they issue it based on the cruisefare. It doesn't matter if someone had a $100 deposit or a $1000 deposit on their cruise. Quote
Zambia-Zaire Posted March 17, 2020 Report Posted March 17, 2020 3 minutes ago, AshleyDillo said: I see that you applied the deposit, but the deposit is a credit towards total amount of funds owed, but it doesn't reduce the cruisefare when calculating how much FCC can be used. The cruisefare is still the cruisefare regardless of how much the deposit is. A deposit can be used to cover the port fees and taxes or prepaid gratuities while the FCC can't, so Royal will shift the deposit over to cover those costs to allow the FCC to be applied to the actual cruisefare. When issuing the FCC, they issue it based on the cruisefare. It doesn't matter if someone had a $100 deposit or a $1000 deposit on their cruise. I was not informed that Royal would shift deposit over toward port & taxes, after the fact....are you sure about that? Quote
AshleyDillo Posted March 17, 2020 Report Posted March 17, 2020 9 minutes ago, Zambia-Zaire said: I was not informed that Royal would shift deposit over toward port & taxes, after the fact....are you sure about that? Pretty sure from what I've seen and heard from the others who have used FCC and from travel agents..but I have been wrong before. My FCC simply states it can only be redeemable on cruisefare. I would assume that there are separate accounting buckets for the cruisefare and port fees, taxes, prepaid gratuities, and travel protection. The FCC gets applied as payment towards the cruisefare up to the total amount of the cruisefare and then the remaining deposit can be used to cover those other cash-only pieces. Again, don't know 100% for sure and nothing on my FCC mentions any effects on a deposit. Quote
Zambia-Zaire Posted March 17, 2020 Report Posted March 17, 2020 1 minute ago, AshleyDillo said: Pretty sure from what I've seen and heard from the others who have used FCC and from travel agents..but I have been wrong before. My FCC simply states it can only be redeemable on cruisefare. I would assume that there are separate accounting buckets for the cruisefare and port fees, taxes, prepaid gratuities, and travel protection. The FCC gets applied as payment towards the cruisefare up to the total amount of the cruisefare and then the remaining deposit can be used to cover those other cash-only pieces. Again, don't know 100% for sure and nothing on my FCC mentions any effects on a deposit. Ok...maybe @twangstercan verify exactly. Quote
Lovetocruise2002 Posted March 17, 2020 Report Posted March 17, 2020 1 hour ago, Zambia-Zaire said: I was not informed that Royal would shift deposit over toward port & taxes, after the fact....are you sure about that? Just caught up on this thread and here is what I know first hand from the latest FCC that I applied back in December 2019. We booked for 03/15/2020 a long time ago and put down a $1000 deposit for 4 people. Final payment rolled around and I paid the remainder of the balance, including port taxes and fees. The cruise was now paid in full, port taxes, fees, and cruise fare. I had two FCCs (one under my name, and one under my husband) that I then applied to the sailing, after final payment was made (there was a mix up and I could not apply prior to final payment). A few days later, the entire amount on the FCCs came back to my credit card. So, not sure if this answers your question or not, or how they split their "buckets" as @AshleyDillo describes, but I would imagine that if you applied the FCC prior to final payment, you would be able to redeem the full value of it as well, regardless of where they "shift" your deposit to. Or perhaps, I misunderstood your question completely? I don't even know lol. Matt 1 Quote
Zambia-Zaire Posted March 17, 2020 Report Posted March 17, 2020 31 minutes ago, Lovetocruise2002 said: I misunderstood your question completely? I don't even know lol. Thanks Love..... It was actually KyleW2 original question that AshleyDillo & myself was trying to make sense about. Ashley was correcting me on a provision that I was unaware of...be it after a deposit is made & FCC is then fully applied to fare, the deposit will then be shifted to pay remaining taxes/port fee....if that's not confusing, LoL. Quote
Lovetocruise2002 Posted March 17, 2020 Report Posted March 17, 2020 1 minute ago, Zambia-Zaire said: if that's not confusing, LoL Truthfully, I never found FCCs confusing until now. I suppose that is because we have never applied it to a sailing where there is excess FCC? Now I am confused too lol... Quote
KyleW2 Posted March 17, 2020 Author Report Posted March 17, 2020 I confirmed with Royal Caribbean via Facebook messenger and they confirmed that the deposit will be shifted towards taxes and fees once the FCC is applied. Zambia-Zaire and WAAAYTOOO 1 1 Quote
KyleW2 Posted March 17, 2020 Author Report Posted March 17, 2020 I would also like to add that whenever I rebooked last night, there was an option to pay via FCC on the booking. Not sure if that is something they added or not, but the option was there to enter a FCC code to redeem while booking. WAAAYTOOO and AshleyDillo 2 Quote
CowboyMedic Posted March 17, 2020 Report Posted March 17, 2020 10 hours ago, KyleW2 said: Went ahead and booked. Reserved for Adventure on December 14th. Is it normal for Royal to only give a spot to input the first name? Right now it shows the 2nd person as "Tba Tba" and don't see a way to change it Same thing happened to me when I booked online. When I turned it over to my TA then she was able to add my wife to the reservation. We then booked my parents, sister, and niece through our TA because they decided they wanted to go when we told them what happened and that we rebooked. My sister has always wanted to go on an Oasis class and visit Perfect Day at CoCo Cay since the upgrade to the island. Quote
AshleyDillo Posted March 17, 2020 Report Posted March 17, 2020 3 minutes ago, KyleW2 said: Not sure if that is something they added or not, but the option was there to enter a FCC code to redeem while booking. Interesting! I have never expanded this Credits & eCertificates section before. Still from the Note: it appears that it's manually added later. Quote
Matt Posted March 18, 2020 Report Posted March 18, 2020 21 hours ago, AshleyDillo said: Interesting! I have never expanded this Credits & eCertificates section before. Quote
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.