pseudoswede

Our TA accidentally submitted Option 1. After I got the confirmation e-mail from Princess, I let my TA know of the mistake. About an hour later, I got another e-mail from Princess stating Option 2.

If you really wanted cash back, you should have cancelled before 3/18 when the deadline from deposit only to 50/50 occurred. It just seems like Princess simply wants to collect $200 from as many people as possible.

33 minutes ago, jennybenny said:

My understanding is Anything we would normally "lose" would be in FCC.  So cancelling now gets you your deposit in FCC. There is a cancellation schedule on the updated booking from Princess.  There is a 50/50 money back and FCC date. Then a 75/25 amount, at 75% in FCC and 25% in cash back. I believe Princess gives up to 48 hours before cruise to get 100% FCC for cruises through July 31, 20.

https://www.princess.com/news/notices_and_advisories/notices/temporary-cancellation-policy.html

 

I understand that. But if the cruise gets cancelled before departure, then you are entitled to a full refund.

Hopefully someone can answer this...

Today is the final day to cancel our 5/23 in order to get everything but $200/cabin back, which will be applied as FCC. We actually cancelled last week.

If Princess eventually cancels the 5/23 cruise, have we given up our rights to claim the $200 back as a refund? It's very doubtful we would cruise by end of next year.

1 hour ago, TXRed said:

WE just wanted to be done with it too. Our CA told us Princess told Him 30-60 days for a refund on CC...he did not mention getting a notice. That's all we have is the cancellation email. We booked our own excusriosn..one issued us a full refund, the other charges us a cancellation fee...will not book with them again. Yep it's wait and see. Good Luck to you as well and to everyone who has been affected by the virus. God Help Us All

Many of these excursion companies operate on relatively thin margins as it is. The cancellation fee is to help recoup the 2-4% credit card transaction fees (assessed for both purchase and refund). Our's charged a 5% cancellation fee, which they promised to provide as an equivalent discount if we book with them next season.

If a cruise line files for Chapter 11, do FCC remain on the books? And if you accepted FCC in lieu of a refund, are you still allowed to file a chargeback with your credit card company?

Based on Princess' updated cancellation policy from two days ago, the March 31 deadline is no longer valid. Today is the 58th day prior to departure, so you need to cancel by tomorrow in order to just get the deposit as FCC; otherwise, if you wait until March 31, you'll only get 50% back.

Question: if you cancel now and they keep your $200 deposit as FCC, and then Princess cancels the cruise at the later date, do you have the right to get the $200 refunded? If not, it wouldn't surprise me to see them not cancelling cruises until T-28.

I could see Windstar being able to do that, but even the smallest Princess ship would probably operate at a pretty significant loss if it only had 300-350 pax. Unless they tripled/quadrupled the fare. 

Per our Passage Contract (Coral Princess 5/27/2020 sailing), we have until 57 days until departure (so roughly 3/30/2020) to cancel and receive everything paid back as a refund to our payment method (credit card) MINUS the deposit ($200 per cabin).

The $200, which you would normally say goodbye to, will be converted into Future Cruise Credit, which expires on 12/31/2021.

The only real difference I see is that, instead of 14 days to cancel before you lose everything, it's now 48 hours (updated yesterday from 72 hours previously) prior to departure.

My personal guess is that they are hoping for a certain number of people to accept FCC (so they can keep the cash) before cancelling sailings.

Even if waivers were allowed, there is no way that Seattle or San Francisco would be willing to promise any cruise line a berth to embark/disembark any time soon.

When I priced it out, it said the difference will be refunded to the payment method (credit card).

I would love to do these smaller tours, but we're an extended family of 9.

This message appears when trying to post a message in any topic/forum--and, it appears, when I try to start a new topic.

Am I on some kind of double secret probation?

5 hours ago, Suzanne123 said:

I’ve done the walk-up tours several times with Juneau Whale Watch.

https://www.juneauwhalewatch.com/?gclid=CjwKCAiA7t3yBRADEiwA4GFlIyuJ_3sBCJclH-80qD3MAoj6uzFZNoXF_zNRlrtFeTgJZQymWLVGRxoCATgQAvD_BwE

How much cheaper was it buying on the dock versus booking online? 

My parents have not done an Alaskan cruise for a while, but they still contend that you can walk off the ship and book an inexpensive whale watching tour with any number of companies at port.

Does anyone have any recent experiences to confirm or refute that notion? If so, who did you go with and what was the price?

Let me rephrase...

Is the 1-hour each way estimate provided by Google Maps accurate?

Edited to add: Google Maps only provides half of the trail. Now my question is how long does the trail all the way to/from the lake take.

Can anyone provide a rough estimate on how long it takes to walk the Portage Pass Trail if you start/stop at the Whittier cruise terminal? We'll probably check-in pretty early (12:30pm boarding start time, 8:30pm departure), and we'd like to tackle the trail after we drop off our stuff in our cabin. (Family of 7 that loves to hike.)

The demographics of those that typically cruise with Regent and Seabourn are also much more likely to be susceptible to be infected by COVID-19.

My mom was diagnosed with leukemia this past November. We had been planning on a family trip to Asia this spring (deposit made but not final payment). After thinking about it over Christmas, but before COVID-19 broke out, my mom decided that an Alaskan cruise would be better. Fortunately, her body has responded very well with chemotherapy. As with any chemotherapy, her neutrophils/white blood cell count has fluctuated wildly. Currently, they're stable and in normal range, and her oncologist is quite confident that it will be pretty high and stable when we travel in May (after two or three more chemotherapy sessions). I implored my parents to purchase travel insurance (they never have previously), which they did. In the unlikely event that her neutrophils are dangerously low right before our trip, we will cancel our trip for medical reasons and get 100% of our trip refunded.

http://www.cruisedeckplans.com/Princess/odell/res76zxu/princessbalconies/index.html

The best way is to split ten's and stand on 16 when the dealer is showing seven or higher.

4 hours ago, Essiesmom said:

My experiences in Whittier were that you pretty much board as soon as you are checked in.  EM

Alright. Let me rephrase. If boarding starts at 12:30pm, what time does check-in open? Does it open earlier for elites?

There is a glacier tour that start at 1pm, and there would be nice piece of mind handing off our luggage to the ship before the tour.

If general boarding starts at 12:30pm (as noted in my cruise documentation), what time would boarding be for Elite members?

3 minutes ago, polmcs said:

You can grab bottles of water from any bar, the International Cafe and also near the gantry/tender routes when going ashore.

Is there a time limit between water bottle purchases?

On 2/2/2020 at 1:09 PM, Paula_MacFan said:

I was able to purchase shore excursions on 3 cruises in advance using OBC provided by our TA. Maybe it depends on when the TA applies it to the booking? 

Is it up to the TA's discretion when to apply any OBC to an account? We have quite a bit of TA rebate OBC for our cruise, and I was hoping to apply it towards some excursions and then use the Best Price Guarantee to get it a bit cheaper.