I paid Holland America for a cruise, but now it wants another $800!

"Once Holland America issued an invoice showing a paid-in-full stateroom, it created a binding contract under federal maritime law and California's consumer-protection statutes. The company can't unilaterally rewrite the deal by citing an internal mix-up with MGM. If the agent miskeyed the certificate level, that's on Holland America not you. You followed the script to resolve this. You accepted a quoted price, paid in full, received written confirmation, then made downstream plans."

"Holland America, meanwhile, followed a different script: blame the casino partner, change the terms, and dare the customer to walk away. That's not customer service. It's a shakedown. I've seen this kind of thing before. It usually happens when someone pays a too-good-to-be-true price, like a zero fare. But your initial $650 fare was not a decimal point error, and since you received it in conjunction with a special offer from MGM, you couldn't have known that Holland America would kick it back to you."

A traveler booked a seven-day Holland America Caribbean cruise using an MGM casino certificate, paid $650 for a veranda stateroom, and received a zero-balance invoice. Holland America later raised the price to $1,450, demanded an additional $800, and blamed MGM for an internal error while threatening to cancel the cabin. Federal maritime law and California consumer-protection statutes make an issued paid-in-full invoice a binding contract, so the cruise line cannot unilaterally change the agreed terms. Recommended actions included capturing confirmation screenshots, involving MGM to pressure the cruise line, preserving correspondence, and escalating to senior company officials.

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