JennAngel9

Has anybody successfully received a refund where they previously cancelled under CWC and were forced to keep large portions of the payment as a "non-refundable deposit"?  We were pressured to do CWC by a TA if we didn't want to make final payment on a cruise that will officially be cancelled sometime in the next week or two and it was clear at the time we cancelled that it was never going to sail. 

On 5/9/2020 at 3:14 PM, billydog said:

I would be more concerned with infection from USA travellers.  China has the virus well under control - the opposite is the case in the US.

I think you misunderstood my comment.  I was saying that China is using the quarantine policy with apparent success (though they aren't allowing foreigners in at all) to keep COVID19 rates low-- not that the policy was protecting America (which doesn't have the policy) from China.  So I think we agree, but I would not go so far as to say that China has the virus entirely under control.

Awesome, thank you wrk2cruise!  I'll forward it along to them if I don't hear anything in the next few days from the Captain's Club folks.

(I also work to cruise, when I went back to work after having our kids, I negotiated with my husband that the majority of my salary would go towards travel budget. 😉 )

The Constellation was my first Celebrity ship and I fell in love with it as is.  I will be very sad if they get rid of the remaining ships with the T-pools.  We were supposed to sail on it in July post-revolution.  I hope we will get the chance.

I understand that they want to start sailing their most profitable vessels, but I could also see local governments and ports preferring to only allow smaller ships (though frankly I'm not sure if 2000 pax v 3000 pax makes a huge difference from a disease spread perspective).

Interesting.  As best we can tell, that policy is helping keep China from reintroducing COVID19 into the country...but they have also blocked all foreigners from entry as well.

I wonder how it would work for people who are trying to connect through LHR.

That would be great if someone has a contact for the executive office.  For now, we're trying their posted emails for guest experience (which I think is what used to be Captain's Club?) and their special needs line (since part of the problem is our kids' health condition).  I'll report back when I hear anything.  

2 hours ago, omeinv said:

No, if you've got the certificate, and the new booking is not with a TA, you should be able to deal directly with Celebrity, which is going to be easier I think. 

 

Harris

Denver, CO

That is my hope.  I haven't done anything since we exercised our "Cruise with Confidence" options so I don't know if I need to go through the TA for the more recent credit or not--but that is not the one I'm worried about expiring. 

Thanks for the help so far.

RosieRoo-- would you mind letting me know the email address you used to request it? I think booking by the end of the year is very doable, although DH and I both have very demanding jobs and it might be hard to predict when we can travel in 2021, we can give it a shot.

Omeinv-- we got the old FCC directly from our Michael's Club host on board the Eclipse (it's an actual printed out paper), though I'm sure that cruise was booked through a TA.  We then applied it to our July 2020 cruise through a different (awful) TA, who made it extremely difficult to cancel under the cruise with confidence program.  So we currently have no cruises booked.  Do we need to go through the prior awful TA?

Hi All,

We had an overall lovely cruise on the Eclipse back over Christmas of 2018 (feels like an eternity ago) but due to a problem with our stateroom that it took them a couple days to fix, we got a substantial FCC that needed to be used by Dec 2020, and cannot be used on holiday sailings (when we typically cruise).  We planned to use it (and actually applied it) on a July 2020 Europe trip, but because multiple members of our party are high risk, we are not going to be able to sail this summer or likely this fall. 

We are hoping to all be able to cruise together by next summer and I'm hoping Celebrity will honor the 2018 FCC (along with the 2019 FCC, from the deposits of our now cancelled 2020 cruise) through at least 2021.  If the global health situation improves we would happily sail this fall or winter.  If it matters, we are Captains Club Elite (approaching Elite+).  

Has anybody had success with this? Any tips whom I should reach out to? 

Thanks!

I think the most important questions are (a) when is the latest likely date it was introduced on the ship and (b) when did Coral Princess ask people to stay in their cabins.  Then you would want to compare that duration against the timeline from Diamond Princess where 1 person got on sick until they confined to cabins and ended up with 700ish cases.

Weren't some people let off (and possibly back on?) in South America a week or so ago? Possibly someone became infected during that process.  It would be good news in that the virus had less time to spread on board.  I would also hope for significantly better outcomes for Coral as there was higher hygiene protocol and there will be lessons learned from Diamond and Grand.

6 hours ago, as400guy said:

May I jump in here?

 

The credit card companies (at least Chase, so I assume others) allow 60 days after the date of the statement showing the charge for disputes of that charge to be made (60 days after the statement date showing the charge).

 

Call me crazy, but it appears the deafening silence of the cruise lines in response to our refund requests could be calculated, at least in part, to outlast the credit card dispute window.  

 

Whatcha' think fellow cruisers?   Are we being used for interest free loan purposes?  🙂

 

Hmmm.  We booked our cruise about 67 days ago, but the statement date was probably at least a couple weeks later.  Can I ask them to refund our money even if the sailing isn't technically cancelled (but we have high risk groups in our reservation who will almost certainly not be allowed to cruise or fly no matter how great the virus is looking in 2 months) yet?

3 hours ago, Tab_Hardy said:

UPDATE: (on the original topic of this thread)

 

I was still within the 60 days to dispute the charge and worried that Princess was running down the clock on refunds, so I disputed the charge with AmEx. AmEx immediately reversed the charge and closed the investigation in my favor. They did this within 2 minutes, which means that they're automatically refunding any disputed Princess charges without further inquiry. 

 

So, worst case scenario now is that I just lose my initial $100 deposit, not the entire amount. 

Wow.  What was your sail date?  Why are you limited to 60 days to dispute the charge? Shouldn't it be 60 days from the date the sailing doesn't happen?

18 minutes ago, npcl said:

If it was a mechanical failure they would have a duty to get everyone to the destination port.  This case pretty much falls under force majeure.  While I expect Princess will reimburse folks they would not have to be responsible for arrangements.  Someone had indicated that they were flying from BA to Lima. If you can get to Lima.  Jet Blue usually has a non-stop from Lima to FLL that you might want to check into. These days who knows.

 

Or Copa airlines has a one stop in PTY into Orlando at pretty reasonable prices. $854 business class.

I am a lawyer and understand that force majeure may apply-- but I also think as they are handling air for everybody who bought EZ air that should include arranging air for the people who bought passage all the way back to FLL.  I could not say for sure which way it would come out in the courts, but not stranding them in Argentina when they paid for a cruise all the way back to Florida would seem like a minimal obligation from a customer relations perspective.  

41 minutes ago, suzyed said:

No.  They will make changes for those who booked EZair from Buenos Aires.  The rest of us were supposed to continue on for another 18 days and end in FLL, so naturally most of us did not book EZair.   We live in Florida...we have a car rented to drive home after we got to FLL...now we're not going there!

Suzyed, have you tried reaching out to the senior manager of your ship? You should be a special case in that they have a duty to get you to your original port of debarkation.  If they don't agree to figure out how to fly you to the port you're supposed to be getting off on you should reach out to your congressperson's staff.

Were no other passengers/crew on the Grand texted beyond the initial 46(?)? 

Has anybody seen any reports of positive or (hopefully) negative tests results since then? 

Hopefully at least the crew has been tested if they are planning to keep everyone on board at sea soon. 😞

Just now, PescadoAmarillo said:

This is huge. CLIA is made up of the cruise lines themselves. Think about it...the cruise lines are asking the federal government to ban cruisers over 70 unless they have medical clearance to travel. Basically, the cruise lines are admitting they cannot keep their ships COVID-19 free and wish to prevent those people most at risk from boarding their ships. 
 

Wow. 

I'm just wondering what that over 70 note from the doctor would say-- I've consulted with my patient and they are prepared to die in quarantine if necessary to board your ship? 

70 seems high (I assume the cruises lines did the math and couldn't afford to cutoff at 65 or 60), but also a huge chunk of Americans have pre-existing conditions and complications they either don't know about or won't be honest about.

I love cruising and am in a low risk demo-- but both Diamond & Grand put a huge strain on local taxpayers and public health resources we are now needing on other fronts.  I would love to be able to cruise later this year but I don't think Florida/California/Alaska can handle more cruise ship incidents at the moment. If we just shut down the most obvious disease vectors now (this includes cruises but also air travel, trains, mass transit, conferences, Las Vegas casinos, etc.) before we start to look like northern Italy, there's a better chance we can avoid millions of Americans being hospitalized and/or dying here.

So happy to see it looks like they are going to be bringing in outside food-- I am optimistic it will improve outcomes for the passengers (and crew) onboard.  

We know that at least two dining room waiters were infected by the coronavirus. If Princess is (hopefully!) not allowing anyone who interacted with them closely to prepare or serve food-- my guess is that they would be shorthanded on people who know how to cook and plate meals (as well as serve them!), and might also partially explain some of the reports we are seeing on board.

The LA Times article linked by another poster above is really troubling.

"Tarling said two waiters who served the man multiple times were subsequently infected."

So that means at minimum the Grand had two dining stewards who became infected on the prior cruise, serving meals for several days on this cruise... presumably they also came in frequent close contact with people who work in the galley.   Everybody should be taken off that ship as soon as practicable and put in isolation.

Another prior Grand cruiser with COVID has turned up in Utah: https://health.utah.gov/featured-news/utah-health-officials-announce-first-case-of-covid-19.

Pt. Mugu is our local beach (in fact, one end of our beach has a chain link fence demarcating it from the military property), and it's maybe 10m from Port Hueneme.  

Unclear where the ship will go and I'm not thrilled with the idea that it will be our local community being exposed-- but I also thought it was a travesty that they kept everybody on the Diamond on board while it was almost certainly spreading and so I realize it's wrong to be NIMBY about this.  As a frequent cruiser (who could well find themselves in the shoes of a Grand passenger someday), I hope we can find a safe way to get them off and isolated or at least have competent infectious disease specialists designing the protocol on board.  

2 hours ago, christieSF said:

I wish they were tabulating the cases from the past sailing of the Grand.  Living in San Francisco, I would really like to know what the numbers look like.  So far, it seems like 2 in Placer, 2 in Santa Clara, 2 in Toronto, 1 in Alberta, and now these 2 new ones in Contra Costa.  I have yet to find a single source so I've been trying to keep track on my own.  

Trying to keep this all together-- someone has now reported a linked case in Minnesota: https://twitter.com/lisaschnirring/status/1236048142681935872?s=20

2 minutes ago, flyguyjake said:

Updated March 6, 2020 1:45PM PT

Grand Princess Update

Princess Cruises continues to work closely with the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) and U.S. Centers of Disease Control (CDC) and as soon as official results from the COVID-19 testing are completed we will collaborate with them on an announcement.

Guests will continue to be provided complimentary internet and telephone to use in order to stay in contact with their families and loved ones, and the ship’s company is working to keep all guests comfortable.

Princess Cruises medical team will begin outreach to guests regarding all medication needs. A form will be distributed to guests onboard to request prescription refills.

The ship has quickly transitioned food & beverage service to provide Room Service for all staterooms.

More information will be shared as it becomes available.

Yikes... if they are inquiring about prescription refills it doesn't sound like they are planning to let anybody leave for at least a couple more days.

FYI, there seems to be confusion above.  THIS THREAD is not a "roll call"-- that is a different thread (linked above) designed solely for the benefit/communication of those on the cruise (which I applaud!).  People are still free to post here, following the rules that we are reminded of daily (stick to post related to Grand Princess and cases/developments that are tied to it).

I was going to post the story shared by Westy, here is the local government link: https://www.placer.ca.gov/6437/Placer-County-confirms-second-case-of-CO 

(It's worth noting that the local government has an interest in telling people the person caught it from travel as opposed to community spread, but as far as I can tell from the article, this 2nd person in critical condition does not appear to be closely related to the first person, which at least slightly increases the chances they may have gotten it on the ship).