Mark56

My Seabourn cruise cancelation took 70+ days with zero communication or explanation. That’s why I’m moving over to Viking in the future.

On 5/23/2020 at 12:47 PM, Mark56 said:

 

I’m happy for you. 🙂

I’m happy for me too. We just got our refund. 

It couldn’t have hurt. Shining a light on service issues tends to get businesses attention.

We also received our refund today in full. 

This is pretty standard practice with modern cruise ships. I wouldn’t be concerned hanging out in my cabin and getting infected by breathing the air in the cabin.

I would be very concerned about eating in a dining room with others, going to the spa, going to the entertainment areas, casino, bars, gym and even forming up and using the tenders. Outside areas like the pool would be somewhere in between as far as concern of getting infected by breathing air that has droplets passing from passenger to passenger.

Then there is concern about touching surfaces from people that are infected. Compulsive hand washing would be really important.

Then there is the same concerns about flying to the ship. 

It seems like a lot to worry about when paying a lot of money to supposedly go and have a good time on a vacation.

54 minutes ago, wesport said:

Good news! Received my refund of 13K this am from Seabourn. Included air with flight ease. 

7/18/20 cruise.

I cancelled 4/3/20. Before they did on May 6.

Incurred 15% penalty of $1900. Will be a FCC. No communication on that yet.

Transaction date of 6/4/20.  Posted 6/8/20.  

2 emails to TA.

2 emails to Seabourn.

1 email to TA company owner. 

All email responses were cordial and said to just wait. 

66 days to post. 62 days to when Seabourn processed it. 

Credit card is Chase Sapphire Reserve.

Hated losing all those points, but feel OK with the process and will book a future Seabourn cruise. 

 

 

 

I’m glad you got it and I’m sorry you had to wait so long to get your refund. 🙂

On 6/5/2020 at 6:33 PM, robertmartha said:

 

One your receive your refund - speak with your spending and sail with one of the other lines who you feel has handled this situation better.  

 

Yes indeed. Once the pandemic is over or there is a vaccine I’ll be happy to spend it with a cruise line that performed better in giving refunds and communicating to it’s customers.

JPH, 

Thanks so much for helping us all share our refund information. This thread has given me a lot more information than Seabourn and I appreciate it.:)

What’s wiping out the cruise industry is pissing off their existing customers by not giving their money back after months of waiting with no communication and no apology. 

I also don’t need to look at other boards. Saying that all the other cruise lines are doing it to others so don’t complain doesn’t fly with me. If I get treated poorly by a company who helped themselves to a free, no interest loan at my expense I have the right to complain about it. I run a business and if a disaster had hit us my customers would have gotten paid back first not last and I would have communicated with them about the situation early and often.

Without a vaccine you will be risking your life.

Since I have not gotten an apology from Seabourn I thought I would help them out and give them a rough draft of one I would like to receive. I know they’re short staffed...

Dear Mark,

As the acting President of Seabourn Cruise Lines I want to apologize for the way we’ve mis-handled your refund. Our organization has been in chaos since global operations were discontinued and we frankly couldn’t handle all that was thrown at us. That said, I feel you were treated unfairly by having us delay your refund and I am going to personally take care of your refund today in full. I know this doesn’t make up for the 2 months that you have been patiently waiting. I also realize this was your first cruise with us and I regret our handling of the cancelation. We made a bad situation worse by our neglect.

Once cruise operations are safely back on line I will extend to you a 50% discount on a future cruise, valid for the next 5 years with no restrictions.  Deposits will be put in a third part escrow account if something disrupts your plans again. I will also work to make sure we have in place new policies that give priority to your satisfaction regarding cancelations and changes to itineraries. We want to have you back with us so we can show you a great time on the vacation you deserve and were denied. 

If you have any questions or concerns I urge you to contact me on my direct line xxx-xxx-xxxx.

Humbly Yours,

President Seabourn. 

Hi All,

I finally emailed my TA after waiting 60 days and this is what she wrote back. Pardon me if I'll believe it when I see the money hit the CC account. If it "may take a few weeks" then it wasn't processed. But maybe I'm being too pessimistic. 🙂

I'll update if we get the refund. 

Mark

Hi Mark,

Thank you for your email message.

I checked with Seabourn today, the refund was processed yesterday, 6/1/20 to your Visa ending xxx.

Depending on your credit card processing times, it may take a few weeks to show up on your statement, but the good news is = it’s been processed. 

Warm wishes,

Laura 

I’ve processed hundreds of credit card refunds. 2 business days is pretty standard. I hope you get it soon.

The policy should be called “Book with Trepidation”.

How can you book with confidence when hundreds of customers had their cruises canceled and have yet to receive a refund on them? 

2 hours ago, suewheldon said:

Happy to report we just received money back from March 14 odyssey departure, refund requested March 15. No email received, I just checked cc balance. 

I’m happy for you. 🙂 

5 hours ago, Lintonfella said:

Hi Cruisers. Pleased to report that we have  received a full credit overnight, on day 75 since notification from Seabourn of cancellation of our April 20 cruise. At least Seabourn fulfilled their obligation, they are back in favour and we can now choose when to apply our 25% credit next year.

I’m happy for you. 🙂

Of course you do what you want. But If you give them money you should expect you'll never see it again if they go bankrupt. All of us are being held hostage right now and have paid for canceled cruises and they are not giving it back except for a very few lucky ones. I would until we're all made whole, cruises are happening and their financial situation looks stable before you risk your money buying a cruise.

Right now they're burning money and cutting staff and emptying their lines of credit and trying to survive. There is no guarantee that they will make it to the other side. If I were betting I would bet that they will squeek by and survive without going into receivership but why would you take this big risk without any return? The financial markets just loaned them a bunch of money and charged them over 10% for the priveledge. I'm sure they would be happy to take your money for no interest and no terms for repayment and string you along like they have with all of us. If it works out great but I'm sure you'll get the same or better deal if you wait.  

Look, I love to travel. But would you really risk going on a cruise and having a person get sick in the middle of the trip and then having the ship get shut down and refused entry for 3 weeks while trapped at sea and confined to your room? This just happened only a month or two ago on multiple ships. Unless they can have an effective testing regimen and an effective treatment or vaccine I just can’t see them able to risk sailing. 

What do meat packing plants, cruise ships, prisons and retirement homes have in common? They all have had high incidents of infections. Why? Close quarters with lots of people breathing the same air. 

I think holding off for 2 years is a good idea for them. I doubt the pandemic will have burned itself out by then. A year to get a vaccine would be really fast and then they need to produce it and get people to get their shots on a worldwide basis before it will stamp it out.

On 5/15/2020 at 7:38 AM, JVNYC said:

Did anyone else notice the price drop on some of the 2021 sailings? I was eyeing a July, 2021 14 day on Encore a few weeks ago and just noticed the price dropped $1000 pp. I may need to jump on this. 

You might want to wait until you see refunds given to all the previous customers that are owed money for canceled cruises or else you might find yourself becoming a member of our club.

11 minutes ago, norm2002 said:

 

All I can say is that the email I received on cancelling excursions says 'please allow for approximately 60 days for refunds to be processed'. I have no doubt that means calendar days.

Next they’ll be telling people it’s actually leap year days.

Today was the day of our cruise that was canceled. 

Cruise May 9 2020 

Cancelled cruise March 15

Asked for refund March 16

No refunds as of today (May 9). 

Me too. You know how long it takes to issue a credit card refund? 5 minutes tops and that’s if you’re a slow learner. I do it everyday and it’s not rocket science. Instead, they have the nerve to make us all wait 12 weeks to get a refund. I’m confident it would take one employee two days to issue refunds to an entire ship worth of customers. The reason they’re holding and using our money is because they feel like they can get away with it. American Airlines refunded our flights within 48 hours of my request. That’s how it should be done if you want to keep your customers.

Canceled. Feels good. Now the wait for the money to actually get sent back to our cc.

7 hours ago, SLSD said:

I am basing it on everything I've read about the spreading of the Covid-19 virus and the steps countries are taking to protect their citizenry.  Yesterday, I read that Hong Kong started loosening up restrictions and has seen a resurgence of the virus.  I think in view of these situations and the lack of an effective cure or vaccine, our wonderful cruises may well be postponed through the summer.  

Try Fall of 2021.