Fly4Work2Play

Are there any issues with booking a cruise through a cruise line's own foreign website?

I live in the USA; however I found a cruise I want to book on the cruise line's own foreign website for over $2,000 cheaper, based on the current foreign exchange rates, than the same cruise would cost booking it from the USA website.

Is it legal to do this? Is this ethical? Could I be denied boarding? The difference in price is significant.

YVR Cockroach

What do the cruise line T&Cs say? Are the conditions (cancellation, inclusiveness of whatever, etc.) the same?

They _may_ ask for proof of residency or whatever is required at time of boarding.

Legal? Appears so.

Randyk47

The problem is that it’s a mixed bag. I don’t remember ever hearing it was illegal but I have seen both positive and negative reports on sites like Cruise Critic. Range from when they entered their home address the booking didn’t go through to they booked and cruised without an issue. You might want to register on Cruise Critic and do some research there.

Fly4Work2Play

From what I can tell it is exactly the same - considering I really don't speak or read the foreign language. Therefore, I could be missing something! Just don't want to make a mistake here since it is overall a fair amount of money. The savings alone will more than pay the airfare and pre and post lodging.

YVR Cockroach

Post it. (the T&C even in a foreign language). Someone here can tell you.

mahasamatman

A link is sufficient. No need to post the entire T&C.

Fly4Work2Play

Not sure how to post the link. When I put segments of the Ts & Cs through Google Translate, they both seem to be very close and I could not find anything that indicated that you must reside in the country you are booking through.

The cruise line is Hurtigruten and the price difference is between the USA website and the Norwegian website. I have not tried to actually book a cruise on either website so it is possible once I were to put in my contact information on the foreign website, the booking may not go through.

I was just curious if anyone knew if it was an issue to book through a foreign website or not. I sent for a quote to see if they would provide a different price than I was able to see online through the USA website, but I got the same price offer. Oh well, still considering options. Thanks all for the replies.

mahasamatman

I don't see any issue, as long as the fare itself doesn't have a residency requirement.

466SHH

I have been looking at booking with them as well. There is a "global" website (go to the drop down at the top right of the page and change the country to Global from United States.) It will price in Euros. I also noticed that the pricing was higher in Euros than in NOK. Not sure why.

Would be curious to see what price differential you got there. For my trip, it was a couple of hundred different, IIRC, but I am only looking for a port to port booking, not the full trip. I did inquire about a better cabin than is currently showing on the website as available and and was shocked to get an email today with a fare quoted in USD that was twice what I expected. Defintely not worth it, especially since we will on be on the ship a few days. My understanding is that they don't release the better cabins for port to port bookings until closer to the sailing date. Can't really blame them. If I was in their Revenue Management department, I'd do the same thing. Supply and demand, I guess.

Fly4Work2Play

I checked out the Global website - interesting that the price for the same cruise, same cabin would be just over $500 MOREusing the Global website over using the US website. However, what made me ask this question in the first place is that on the Norwegian website, the exact same cruise, exact same cabin would be almost $2,400 LESSthan the price offered on the US website. To me that is a significant price difference. I checked the exchange rate on multiple sites just in case I wasn't understanding it correctly but every single time it was the same. I'm just puzzled. We still haven't decided to book yet, but it is enticing. The difference certainly would cover flights and hotels before and after the voyage.

Hoyaheel

It's possible it won't work when it comes to something like inputting postal code for credit card used in booking - but good luck!

Happy

That would be what I suspect too - It reminds me an incident years ago about booking a certain airfare that when residency is Norway, the fare was significantly cheaper - however the system rejected credit card not issued in Norway. Can't remember exactly what it was now as that is at least 6 or 7 years ago. The fare did not specifically specify it is for Norway residents only but at the end only credit cards issued in Norway could make payment.

YVR Cockroach

Could always try using a Norwegian travel agency to add a veil of opacity.