justKirbo

31 minutes ago, ARandomTraveler said:

If the cruise lines cancels, then people are offered the cash refund. However a lot of people want to cancel cruises in May and June (or later) that haven’t been cancelled by the cruise line yet, and those people can lose a large percentage of their money. Depending on how many days away their cruise is, they may only be eligible to receive 50% or 25% of their money in the form of an FCC if they cancel. Or, they may be eligible under the ‘cruise with confidence’ policy to “keep” 100% of their money by moving to a new cruise date (which, like the FCC, keeps their money tied up with the cruiseline). That’s how I understand it anyway.

The only way to get actual cash back is to cancel before final payment and get the deposit back minus a $100/person penalty for non-refundable deposits, or to have had a refundable deposit and cancel before final payment to get 100% of the cash back, or to have the cruise be cancelled by the cruiseline, or to have had cancel-for-any-reason insurance (which gives you a 75% cash refund if you bought 3rd party insurance - cruiseline insurance still only gives you a 75% FCC)

 

I did know all of that, but I was under the impression that most folks that had their cruises canceled by the cruise line have been opting for the 125% FCC. (I had a refundable deposit and my PIF date wasn't for months, I got it all back.)

It's funny, in the past, I often thought nothing of having a non-refundable deposit and it was just luck that the cruise I canceled was such a good deal that I went for a refundable deposit. Now, however, I will never do a non-refundable deposit again. It never looked like a bad idea in the past. The world has changed.

33 minutes ago, ARandomTraveler said:

I would be worried about that if I were receiving an FCC, but for some, it’s the best they can hope for because without the FCC option, they’d have lost their money entirely for cancelling their cruises. 
 

I cancelled my June cruise last week (it was a refundable deposit and the cruise, as of now, is still scheduled to sail). I haven’t gotten my cash back yet. I was told it would come between 7-10 days. I’ve seen people post that they’ve been told it could be 60, or even 90 days, so I’ll probably wait a full 3 months for my refund before doing anything about it.

 

I don’t think they’ll go bankrupt before then. If they do though, I have 2 safety nets. One is my travel insurance which covers me in the event the company I paid money to goes bankrupt. The second is my credit card company, which I used to pay the cruise in the first place. If RC goes bankrupt before my refund comes through, I’ll use one of those 2 routes (which ever is easier) to get my money back. 
 

I think people are safe for the next 6 months. I wouldn’t feel confident about the value of that credit after that, but most of the people getting these FCC’s didn’t buy insurance and didn’t have refundable deposits and have no other option but to hope. 

I canceled a cruise that doesn't sail for a year, but I thought that the folks that are on canceled sailings were offered the choice of 100% refund or 125% FCC. I didn't know they were all losing their deposits. That would be a tough one for me to deal with for sure.

58 minutes ago, handbellplayer said:

So many here are saying, "I'm not going to cancel; I'll just wait for the cruise line to do it so I'll get FCC."  Am I the only one that's concerned about the cruise lines going into bankruptcy and losing my deposit?  If I had 28 cruises booked  I would be very concerned about losing that much $$.  We only one cruise booked at the moment (Oasis in November) and we will probably cancel in the next few days. Am I being unreasonably pessimistic?  I don't know a lot about business, but how can the cruise lines survive with no revenue for months (maybe many months)?

No. When all this started to really go down, my first thought was that many of the cruise companies could go into bankruptcies. I canceled a cruise we had scheduled  for next year in April. My TA pointed out that I'd gotten a screaming deal and it would cost more to rebook later. Fine by me. I'd rather be wrong and pay $300 more than be right and be out my $1000 deposit (it was on two rooms).

Do I hope I'm wrong? Yes. I truly do. But if I'm right, there are a lot of folks that will have FCC that aren't good for anything. 

(My TA cancelled for me on 3/16 and I think the refund hit my credit card on 3/23.)

1 minute ago, DaiC01 said:

Does RC Visa mean Royal Caribbean Visa? This would be so ironic. 

Yes. We've only used that card for our cruises on Royal so that we get the perks. I did not want a $1000 credit sitting on a card that we don't actually use for anything else, so I called and they, Visa, sent us a check. I deposited the check into our checking account (via mobile app, which is very handy while social distancing).

I got really worried about the cruise industry as a whole and emailed my TA on the 15th to cancel a cruise we had set for next year. We were scheduled to be on the Liberty April of 2021 in two rooms for our kids' spring break. My TA canceled the cruise on the 16th for us and I think the refund hit my credit card on the 23rd. I actually contacted the credit card company (it was my RC Visa) and they sent us the $1000 credit as a check which I deposited the second I had it in my hands.

When I emailed my TA to let them know we got the refund (he'd asked me to do that), he said he was very happy for us as they, the TAs, are now being told that it could be as long as 90 days to receive refunds by some companies.

I am so relieved we managed to get a refund as I'm not working during this time. I truly hope that you all start receiving your refunds soon. It's horrible how many folks are asking for refunds (and have credit card bills that still need to be paid) and how few have been issued. I don't know why my refund went through when so many others have not.

I'm crossing my fingers for the rest of you to quickly get your funds.

I canceled a cruise on March 16th and I think the refund hit our credit card on March 23rd. But the cruise that I canceled isn't until next year and I had made the reservation through our TA (best TA in the world) and they were the ones that contacted RCI. Not sure if we got ours in a week because it was a far out cruise or not, but they clearly were able to do the refund far quicker than most of you are seeing.

And for folks who don't think it's a big deal and to just sit tight, many of us aren't working right now and having that cash in hand is a huge deal.

We did. We're not massive cruisers but we've taken our kids on five DCL and three RCI and adore it. We had a cruise for next April and I canceled it. I know it's an unpopular view, but we can't help but think many cruise lines will be gone by then. So many folks have lost jobs and with that HAL ship still out there, well, it freaks me out, frankly.

We had a $1000 deposit with them (for two rooms) and I figured, I can afford to pay a little extra (we got a screaming deal on the fare for our kids' spring break next year) if we decide to rebook it, but with me not working right now, I'd rather have that $1000 in our checking account.

I also wanted to get our deposit back before it was too late. I hope they don't all go under, but I honestly can't see how they'll survive.

I'm loving your report. We took our kids on the Liberty for spring break this year and had a ball. We'll probably stick with that smaller boat, but your trip looks like such fun.

I don't know the whole story here, but I will say that we had amazing doctors on DCL during our 2013 Med cruise. My mother became seriously ill and had to be transferred off of the boat in Villefranche. The doctors and nurses were tremendous. I was traveling with my aunt and uncle as well and they are both doctors here in the states. They were very impressed with the facilities as well as the care my mother received.

I am so grateful we were traveling with insurance. It would have been far more hellish if we hadn't bought it for the trip.

I'm glad the child from the OP is well now. Such an awful situation.

I'm in! Loved your DCL TR. Glad you made the boat!

I have never been on the Fantasy, but we did do two identical cruises and loved both equally. Our first cruise was on the Wonder to the Mexican Riviera and we had such a great time that we booked the same week the following year. For us, and YMMV, we did different excursions but still had an equally wonderful time.

Were I you, I'd do the Fantasy. (I should mention that I've not had any great desire to go on the new boats. But just based on the fact that you loved it so much last time.)

Such a fun review. Thank you for taking the time to post it. We've only ever been on the Magic and the Wonder before. Now after seeing your lovely review of the Fantasy I want to try it out!

Love your interactions with your family. Our daughters are ten now and I'm hopeful we'll be as close with them as you are with your folks.

Congratulations on your graduation.

Thank you for letting me piggyback on your thread. Thanks everyone who has taken the time to answer.

Welcome!

1. Disney cabins are bigger and better designed b/c of the separate bathroom areas. However, we are find with Royal's. To the poster with 4 in a room, depending on the ship, try to get a corner AFT. It is the size of a Junior suite with a bigger balcony. Or, look at different cabin types. Maybe you can get a bigger room since Royal is less money, in general.

We've done both.

After our first cruise - a Disney 3 day, we did Grandeur out of Baltimore, it's about the same size as Magic, and it was fine. We've also done Explorer and Freedom along with 2 more Disney cruises.

 

Yes you can fit 4 in a room on RC. We still do it even with 2 teens. The older ships seem to give more options for 4 people in a room then the newer ships. IMO. You have to search for rooms which have either the Pullman & sofa bed or 2 Pullmans. Most of the 4 person rooms are a sofa bed which becomes a double. So it's important to really check the deck plans. There's not the nice dividing curtain between the kids beds and yours.

 

Also no split bathrooms which is my favorite feature in Disney cabins!

 

You pay for soda and there are a lot more pay opportunities depending on the ship. For example Johnny Rockets has a charge for a burger lunch & there's a Ben & Jerry's which is also a cost.

 

But there are no charges for the activities. My guys love the flowrider and pool areas on RC they're so much larger than Disney. And I love the Promenade area on the bigger ships like Explorer and Freedom.

 

For us, when we choose a cruise, we determine Ports of call first, then look at the ships and go from there. We really like Freedom, I think its a perfect sized ship with plenty of activities. For me Oasis is too big. We are trying Quantum next year, so who knows I may have a new favorite after that trip :)

 

I will say, however I haven't found any ship to have service on par with Disney. They do all the extras so nicely and that's why you pay premium for them.

 

Edited to add:

Also if it makes any difference to you, you cannot bring bottles of alcohol on-board like you can with Disney. You are allowed wine, but not hard liquor. (Not sure if that's still Disney policy, last time we cruised we brought rum & vodka with us)

I thought I hit the quote mark for the post above mine. Anyway, I've only done four previous cruises on DCL, but I've never seen a live orchestra at the main shows. They might exist, but not on the cruises we've taken with them.

Hello! We're in the same boat as you!

I hope you don't mind if I piggy back on your thread.

We're taking our fifth DCL cruise in May, but after the enormous rate hikes and changes in the OBB, we are also looking at RCCI. We are active and our kids are young (both are nine). We love DCL. We've never been on the Dream or Fantasy, just the Wonder and Magic. We truly enjoy that size ship and feeling as if we're at sea.

We are thinking that the bigger boats, although chock full of fabulous activities, are too big. But we worry that the older, smaller ships might be, well, old. I'd love to hear what folks think about their smaller ships.

Can four people really fit into their interior rooms? The pictures look so small and I can't figure out where everyone would sleep.

Thank you for any advice!

Thank you for the pictures! Like hencol, I am looking forward to sailing her in May.

Given that I will be boarding the ship in 4 days, I have been anxiously reading the reports from the Magic. My impression is that the renovations to the public areas are awesome, and the crew is fantastic. Those who had cabins that were fully functioning had a great time. Even those whose cabins were not ready for primetime seemed to have had a reasonably good time for the most part. However, it really disturbs me that Disney was willing to send paying customers on this ship when there were so many rooms that were in seriously problematic shape, and clearly this happened - even in the Walt Suite. This wasn't one or two whiners, or people with unrealistic expectations, inexperienced passengers, or people looking for problems. These were seriously flawed rooms, and not what one would expect from the Disney product. People reporting these things are doing all of us a service, and their concerns should not be be dismissed. Why did some people have no problems and others did? Because some people had seriously problematic cabins, and others did not. Frankly, I found most of the people who had problematic rooms were not expressing nearly the amount of outrage or disgust that I would have under those circumstances. The fact that certain people are referring to them as "inexperienced" or "not level headed" or "having unrealistic expectations" is quite insulting, in my opinion. I am keeping my fingers crossed that things will be fixed by the time I board, but at least I am going in with low expectations so that I will be better able to manage if the cabin has issues, and will be thrilled if our cabin is fine.

Excellent post.

I have said time and time again I respect all views but people should google all as there are a lot of good reports out there and one negative review getting too much disproportional airtime is working upcoming Magic cruisers too much?

 

People are over relying on one persons opinions on one blog, doesn't the old comment of newspapers, bad news sells, come to mind?

 

Why is that person you quoted considered a more level headed and experienced cruiser than others who have posted their experiences? :confused:

 

Are you not reading the posts of others? Reports are coming from more than just Scott and his blog.

Honestly, I'm not at all worried about sailing the Magic. I know we'll have a blast. I've been on her and I love her. But I am concerned that a lot of folks had some major issues that weren't all handled in ten minutes, like your friend's toilet problem was. I think it seems that DCL didn't get all the rooms in the shape they should be in.

Also, I read that blog that you take such issue with. It was more than a little dust. That room they were in was atrocious. It was far worse than a little dust.

JustKirbo, I have to agree. It seems only the glowing reviews are considered valid to a few folks on this thread. You and I have both read the personal accounts from the same friends on FB. They are not negative people or the type to exaggerate. As a matter of fact, they are big Disney fans. So I don't take their statements of their experiences "with a pinch of salt".

I highlighted one of your sentences and completely agree! That is me. I expect near perfection - I know that perhaps that is unfair - however I have had some fantastic experiences on Disney cruises. I think that is why, although my Fantasy cruise would have been fabulous to some, it was just okay to me.... So I totally get that - and I am trying to tame my expectations a bit so I can just relax and enjoy

I'm new here, so I guess I'm not understanding how you folks work over here. It seems to be that if something isn't a glowing review, you just discount it and say that the it's the guest's fault. I had not idea that we could only be believed if we were only happy with everything.

I have a few friends that were paying guests on the 2-night cruise. These are people with whom I sailed on the EBTA this year. They all said they had a wonderful time. In spite of the conditions that some of them encountered. One of my friends, someone whom I personally know, had water pouring out of her wall in the middle of the night. She was unable to call guest services as her phone didn't work. So she ran down to them in her jammies. She still had a great time, but that seems unacceptable to me. They were not offered any compensation and she didn't ask for any.

We spent 21 nights on the Magic in May/June of this year. We had some issues in our room (toilet overflowed, door not closing correctly, the tub drain backed up), but it was still a very enjoyable time. But we assumed those things would be fixed in the dry-dock and it seems as if they weren't. That is hugely disappointing and seems quite un-Disney-like.

I am positive that most of the rooms were in fine shape. But I don't see why folks feel the need to discount what is said about rooms that were not in good shape.

We plan on sailing on the EBTA in '14 and I look forward to it. But I sincerely hope the problems that are being mentioned are looked into.