Cindy

No, that’s not my idea of a vacation.


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I hope you make it and have a wonderful time! We will be on Maui that week also, hopefully. I could sure use some Hawaii right now! [emoji846]

We visit Maui almost every November (fingers crossed we make it this year!).  Our wedding anniversary is the first week in November and we love that time of year, it's a great time to go.  But the winter months bring whales which is also wonderful.  I've been in January once and had a great time.
 
I don't cruise June - September and probably wouldn't go to Hawaii in February or March but that is due more to crowds than weather.  It can rain anytime -- or not, just like anywhere else.  There is never a bad time to visit Hawaii!  [emoji846]

The airlines (United, Delta, Alaska, and Hawaiian) have all refunded in less than 10 days. I am quite sure that they are also processing as many if not more than each of the cruise lines.
 
My refund from Princess is for a cancellation prior to final payment date.  Nothing special.  Canceled prior to suspension of cruising was announced. They managed to refund pre-paid Gratuities in 4 days.  Returned the FCCs for the deposit to my account in two.  They stated at the time of cancellation that it should take 10 days.  So far over 40 days.
 
This does have all the signs of them intentionally slow walking  refunds as part of their cash management. 
 
At 60 days I start sending letters to the appropriate state attorney generals, after all most state laws require refunds to be processed in a reasonable time frame.  Get enough people doing so, trigger a few letters and investigation there and it might shake something loose.

I had more than enough money with the 125% FCC and the additional 20% to get a huge upgrade and still have money left over on the FCC.

I have a final payment due date, but is is for a negative balance. I did not have to pay anything...my understanding is that was because I have enough to cover the entire cost.


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I would like to see cruise lines offer more non-buffet options for meals other than dinner. Go back to having the dining room open for lunch every day, not just sea days. Increase capacity for full service meals at breakfast and lunch. Open specialty restaurants for creative breakfasts and lunches. Stop trying to funnel the masses into what amounts to (in my opinion) a cafeteria.

We avoid the buffet whenever possible...it’s just not our thing. Most of our recent cruises have been very port intensive, and we always eat meals ashore when the itinerary allows. On our Oasis cruise we never even entered the buffet...it became a challenge to get through the week without, and we were successful![emoji23]

 

I personally do think something needs to change in the cancellation policy.  Hopefully the bean counters have kept track of the aggregate costs of all of these evacuations and will weigh this against the cost of allowing a small number of day of sailing cancellation refunds?  Perhaps such refunds could be cash if a passengers provided substantiation from a doctor and as FCC if no doctor is involved to keep folks honest? 

 

I’ve thought for a long time that some of the problems with spread of illness on cruise ships as well as other travel and vacation providers could be reduced with a different cancellation policy or maybe mandatory cancellation protection. As it is now, people who have tried to cut costs by not getting insurance board planes and ships when they KNOW they’re ill, because they are trying to salvage several thousand dollars.

The cruise lines were very slow to modify their policies to reflect growing evidence that Covid-19 was spreading and becoming a major problem worldwide. How many people boarded ships in the last couple weeks before the modified policies and then the stoppage happened? How many of those would have made a different decision if they knew they could get at least a Future Cruise Credit equal to the amount they had spent?

There are lessons to be learned here from cruise lines and cruisers.

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A Similar situation is happening to us but with Princess. We had a B2B cancelled and wanted to make sure we could get the same suite for the exact cruise in 2021. I had to pay the deposits if I wanted to make sure we had the cabin we wanted. I did. When Princess eventually gives us our cruise credits, they say that it will be treated as cash and that we can apply it towards our future cruise payments. I’m hoping this is true, and that NCL will do the same thing if our July 4, 2020 POA Cruise is cancelled. 

I rebooked my April 11 POA cruise for later this year using my FCC. Even though I upgraded, the FCC was more than enough to cover the whole cruise so I didn’t owe anything. My booking confirmation shows a negative balance due.

My understanding from following several boards is that the FCC cannot be used for a deposit unless the amount is enough to cover the entire cost of the cruise.

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I had a choice with my cancelled cruise. As long as I hadn’t made a claim I could either get a refund, transfer the policy to new dates,or take a policy voucher to use within 2 years. Since I was able to reschedule the trip with no financial loss I moved the policy.

There’s a pretty extensive Covid-19 FAQ on my insurer’s (Travel Insured through USAA) home page. It explains what is covered and what is not. I was happy with the outcome, but I wasn’t out any money. It was an expensive trip/policy, and I would have been upset to have to purchase new insurance.


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Agreed.  It certainly does make one raise an eyebrow that so many Princess ships are wrapped up in this mess.  But on the larger scale, it also makes one raise an eyebrow that Carnival Corp is disproportionately impacted as well.  I have to think that is more than just mere coincidence.  The question is; why?

I would be at a luau in Honolulu, getting ready to board the Pride of America in the morning.


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I don't want to go too far off-topic on this discussion, but I just had to thank you and commend you for saying this.  I have posted several times over the years how this really gets to me as well - especially when folks talk about the crew as if they are indentured servants being abused by a big corporation.  The reason it bothers me so much is that it assumes that the majority of the crew is stupid and easily duped - which is the furthest thing from the truth!  Many (if not most) of the crew members I have met actually have professional training (teachers, engineers, etc.) in their home countries, but have made a conscious and deliberate decision to work on the ships because of the salary opportunities and subsequent benefits to their families.  It drives me cuckoo when people talk about the crew as if they are helpless, second-class citizens.  To me, it shows an unconscious bias against people who don't speak English as their first language and it signifies a lack of respect.
 
Rant over (sorry!) 

 
This is where I am struggling. We had a cruise departing on March 21st for our kids spring break. Flight was leaving 2 days earlier (March 19th) so were obviously following all of this VERY CLOSELY as it evolved in those days leading up to the shut down. We waited to watch what would happen and finally decided that it would not be responsible to go on that cruises. Decisions needed to be made for us as the window to cancel our flight was imminent. This was on the night of March 12th, literally at 10pm. The next day Norwegian announced the cancellation. 
 
We have requested the refund and were denied. Its hard for me to see how anyone can look at the specifics of the situation and conclude that we are being treated in a way that is reasonable.
 
We are going to continue to push on this and so are curious how far others have taken this and what steps might be suggested. Dispute with credit card is for sure, and the BBB. I scoured through other boards here, but this is the only thread I saw on the topic, but happy to be shown others. 

  This is not unique to HAL.  Our experience with [insert the name of your favorite cruise line here![emoji23]] has been the same.

We got ours as promised, and they were for more that we were expecting![emoji846]

With the 125% FCC and the 20% additional discount, we were able to get a significant upgrade, $1,000 in OBC we didn’t have before, and we STILL have money left on a FCC.


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2 hours ago, Aquahound said:

 

Cindy, I love your pictures.  Nice job!

‘Thank you!

Ruby Princess entering Glacier Bay in August, 2019.❤️

We rebooked our Pride of America cruise for the first week of November. We were already in a suite, so the 125% and the additional 20% off were substantial. For several reasons we decided we didn’t want to leave a lot of money on an FCC for another cruise, so we ended up in an Owner’s Suite with $1,000 in on-board credit!😳 I sure hope we get to go!😆

I don’t believe your Platinum protection plan is in play here at all. HAL cancelled the cruises, not you, so you will be entitled to the same refunds/FCC as everyone else.

Since you booked through Costco, HAL will communicate with them as your agent. That’s who you need to be communicating with to make your preference known.

We’ve only been on 2 HAL ships so far...the Noordam in 2012 and the Westerdam in 2013 and 2017. These pictures are of the Noordam in Half Moon Cay and Westerdam in Kotor, Montenegro.

I think there’s no question there are many lessons to be learned by all travel providers as their policies pertain to health and safety, especially in a crisis. What those changes will look like is yet to be known, but I’ve felt for a long time that rigid cancellation policies turn a blind eye to those who become ill at the last minute and hide their illness so as not to lose their entire fare. Is it time to mandate a cancellation policy so those who shouldn’t board don’t try to? Would knowing they can get a 100% FCC be enough to make people decide to stay home? I don’t have an answer, but I think it’s something that needs to be considered.
 

I love cruising and my husband and I plan to continue. However, I’m not blind to the flaws of the industry. The cruise lines have to shoulder some of the responsibility for the situation. Right up to the day the cruise lines came out with a relaxed cancellation policy there were people boarding ships against their better judgment, because if they didn’t they would lose their entire fare. Many insurance policies that were purchased in good faith had an out for epidemics and pandemics, and those that didn’t stated concern about the virus wasn’t a valid reason to cancel. Cruise lines were slow to react to the situation, despite seeing what happened on the Diamond Princess.

I think the response from the cruise lines once the severity and path became obvious has been outstanding. I think they needed to be more proactive, but who among us, cruise executives included, could have envisioned the severity of the situation we find ourselves in?

7 hours ago, wwcruisers said:

 

Which, unfortunately, would not bode well for the post-Alaska Pacific Coastal (repo) cruises....(SIGH)☹️

I’m starting to think that’s not meant to be.😢

5 hours ago, Roger88 said:

I am still surprised these Alaska cruises are so popular. Whats so special about them? Are they cheap or something? In order to get a nice Alaska cruise you need to travel to CA or Canada and I am not even sure if the west coast of Canada got any ports. In any case, hope these cruises are good and safe. These is all that matters at the moment. Guys, those who travelled, tell us more about those Alaska cruises. Thank you 

Alaska cruises are very popular, and no, they’re not cheap! Most of the cruise lines have multiple ships in Alaska every year, doing a variety of itineraries and land tours. By law, all the cruises have either a start/end port (Vancouver) or a port call (usually Victoria) on their itinerary.

4 hours ago, PelicanBill said:

Another consideration is the County and Port need to consider the ships need to return where HAL has resources and staff to handle the disembarkation correctly. Sending them to Galveston or New Orleans or Mobile where they don't have those resources is senseless.  

 

That’s not entirely true. Carnival has a presence in all those ports, so the infrastructure is in place. The port in Galveston can handle much larger ships than the HAL ships.

This is all so heartbreaking. I simply cannot imagine what it would feel like to be a passenger on either ship right now — not knowing when my country would allow me to come home, not welcome anywhere, not knowing if I would stay healthy, or need life-saving medical treatment not available on the ship.

My husband and I love cruising. It’s been our vacation of choice for 20 years. I find myself seriously reconsidering my bookings and wondering whether or not I want to continue.

3 hours ago, capriccio said:

 

Just after making my post above, I received this notification.  Governor DeSantis on Fox News says no.

 

“We cannot afford to have people who are not even Floridians dumped into South Florida using up those valuable resources," he said, adding he is in touch with the White House over the fate of these ships. “We view this as a big, big problem and we don’t want to see people dumped in southern Florida right now.”

Dumped? We’re talking about 300+ US citizens trapped in an untenable situation, not the kitchen garbage.😢

I understand the need for planning and caution, but I also think some compassion is in order. 
 

This may not be a popular sentiment, but I believe we need a federal response and action plan. As things are right now, there are so many decisions being made by individual states it would take a week just to become familiar with the restrictions. United we’re not.

51 minutes ago, wwcruisers said:

 

 

Hi Guys -- I'm just going to sit-tight, for right now anyway. Fortunately, I'd been too busy planning for our jazz cruise (which got cancelled, at the 11th hour) to do any real prep for the K-dam cruise. Our TA's final payment date isn't until early June -- and, lots of things can change in two months' time!

I think we should know a lot more by the time final payment is due.