Oil Spill Changing Your Plans?

[Soonerbaby]

My husband and I were discussing our trip this morning, as our final payment day is July 17th and we cruise in October. Is anyone changing their plans because of the oil spill? I am new at all this, so I have to ask, does cruise insurance cover cancellation due to something like the oil spill?

 

:( I was reading about all of the animals affected so far...so sad!

[Aknot]

My husband and I were discussing our trip this morning, as our final payment day is July 17th and we cruise in October. Is anyone changing their plans because of the oil spill? I am new at all this, so I have to ask, does cruise insurance cover cancellation due to something like the oil spill?

 

:( I was reading about all of the animals affected so far...so sad!

 

From what I understand Carnival has not been impacted by the issue. also no one can see the future to know what long term effect this will have on cruises or where this will end up.

 

I would research Carnivals policies and see what they have to say. Also it may depend on what insurance you have(?) and would contact the holders of that policy.

[Tapi]

My husband and I were discussing our trip this morning, as our final payment day is July 17th and we cruise in October. Is anyone changing their plans because of the oil spill? I am new at all this, so I have to ask, does cruise insurance cover cancellation due to something like the oil spill?

 

:( I was reading about all of the animals affected so far...so sad!

 

We're cruising on the Carnival Triumph out of New Orleans in August. We gave it A LOT of thought and finally chose to stick to our plans. (We entered final payment phase today).

 

We chose to continue with our plans keeping in mind that:

 

• We don't care much if Carnival needs to change our destinations. We've been to all 3 destination in our itinerary.
  
• We've read of other cruisers who have sailed from New Orleans recently. They've said that while the ships do need to deviate "slightly", after the first few hours of the cruise, everything has been operating close to normal.
  
• If for some reason Carnival chooses to cancel or alter our cruise due to the oil spill, we'll take the refund and plan something later on.
  

 

As far as travel insurance is concerned. READ YOUR INDIVIDUAL POLICY. Some will cover events like this, some will not. Some may not refund you if you choose to cancel due to the oil spill, but others may have a "Cancel for any Reason" clause. We chose our travel insurance policy after comparing various policies side by side and contacting an agent at a well known website that allowed me to "Insure My Trip" :D

[Soonerbaby]

As far as travel insurance is concerned. READ YOUR INDIVIDUAL POLICY. Some will cover events like this, some will not. Some may not refund you if you choose to cancel due to the oil spill, but others may have a "Cancel for any Reason" clause. We chose our travel insurance policy after comparing various policies side by side and contacting an agent at a well known website that allowed me to "Insure My Trip" :D

 

:p Sounds like you and I went to the same place for insurance comparisons!

 

So, I guess Carnival will refund if they are the ones that cancel?

[PA Dutchman]

Simply nope. The oil spill is a mess but life does go on. Some people it will affect hard. I do think more could be done to get it cleaned up. As usual our gov gives more hot air and photo ops then action. BP has the money for the clean up and people in the area are ready. It dosen't do any good for the news to show birds and areas where oil has come ashore every night on TV and nobody is working to clean the oil at those areas. Its not coming ashore every where. It is a shame this happened but being mad and uncontrolled about it won't help a thing. Clean it up. Same BS different day.

[Traveler353]

OP: Nope, in fact I have two already booked and have been looking at a couple of more.

[Sargent_Schultz]

YES! I have been watching prices, and if they come down much more I will be cruising MORE.

[Tapi]

So, I guess Carnival will refund if they are the ones that cancel?

 

Yes. You can either request a full refund, or a future cruise credit. Here's a link to Carnival's Cancellation Policy

[Tapi]

YES! I have been watching prices, and if they come down much more I will be cruising MORE.

 

Ooooh yes. Our August cruise on the Triumph is the cheapest 7 night cruise we've ever taken! From the moment we booked until our Final Payment date, we received close to $300 in price decreases. Now that we're past final payment date (and no longer elegible for price decreases since we didn't book under ES), I'm going to stop checking prices! I don't want to be angry if the prices keep going down!

[mjlsavoy]

Has not changed at all! We cruise out of Mobile on 6/24/10, if we have to sit on the ship in port for 5 days will still be better than being at work...

[Sargent_Schultz]

Ooooh yes. Our August cruise on the Triumph is the cheapest 7 night cruise we've ever taken! From the moment we booked until our Final Payment date, we received close to $300 in price decreases. Now that we're past final payment date (and no longer elegible for price decreases since we didn't book under ES), I'm going to stop checking prices! I don't want to be angry if the prices keep going down!

 

If you want something to check, you can check cancellation penalties against price drops. Sometimes it might pay to cancel and rebook.

[firefly333]

Ooooh yes. Our August cruise on the Triumph is the cheapest 7 night cruise we've ever taken! From the moment we booked until our Final Payment date, we received close to $300 in price decreases. Now that we're past final payment date (and no longer elegible for price decreases since we didn't book under ES), I'm going to stop checking prices! I don't want to be angry if the prices keep going down!

 

My sept 26th date on Conquest hasnt really come down at all, but the dates after mine are rock bottom and stupid me is locked into ES ... or I would cancel (still before final payement) and save $120.

 

No price drops from what I paid originally ...on my date. color me aggravated with ES right now.

 

I would book some more cruises too if they dropped a whole lot more on other dates...and pay the $100 to rebook. (not worth it for the $20 Id only get now)

[korr2]

Not At All!!!

[gonzo1124]

If cruise lines were smarter, they would install surface oil collectors on all their ships, then a small refinery that could turn all that free oil into diesel oil. Then they could lower their prices while doing the environment some good.

[tallyho8]

I'm watching to see if many people cancel and the prices come down. If they do I'm going to book more cruises. :)

[njmomof2]

We're cruising in August and our final payment in next Monday. We are not cancelling. I contacted the insurer that I use and they told me that their policies have a clause for "contaminants" and that it is not a covered reason. So unless the cruise line cancels, we're going.

[LHP]

Not changing our plans...

 

we have the Elation in August

and a B2B on the Triumph in October

 

the other two in Nov and Dec are out of Miami...

[MikeM]

We cancelled a Dream booking for the following reasons:

Oil in the Gulf.

Over crowding at some of the islands.

Possible hurricane season being more active this year.

Cost of the cruise.

Tendering in Belize.

Some negative ship reviews regarding sewage smell.

[osiebosie]

We cancelled a Dream booking for the following reasons:

Oil in the Gulf.

Over crowding at some of the islands.

Possible hurricane season being more active this year.

Cost of the cruise.

Tendering in Belize.

Some negative ship reviews regarding sewage smell.

I wouldn't have cancelled for any of these reasons except the cost. And even then, I'd do my best to scrape the money up. Which we just did for our cruise.

 

Shay

[mferris77]

We cancelled a Dream booking for the following reasons:

Oil in the Gulf.

Over crowding at some of the islands.

Possible hurricane season being more active this year.

Cost of the cruise.

Tendering in Belize.

Some negative ship reviews regarding sewage smell.

 

I was going to go to Seattle until I heard there were wild fires in California.

[moonandsun]

We are booked for Aug 5th and WE ARE GOING.

[cruz.n.carebear]

We changed our itinerary because of it. We were not locked in to ES and as final payment was coming up for our 7/22 4 day Cozumel trip, I just didn't like the uncertainty. So we switched over to 5 day Bahamas.

 

You can think I'm silly, but I just feel better about it personally.

[Rule Follower]

We also decided to do a Bahamas cruise rather than Mexico. Worst case would have been 5 fun days at sea smelling oil. NOT how I'm wanting to spend my first cruise. We haven't booked yet, hoping prices go down more (not looking like they will) but have the full amount put back.

[Soonerbaby]

We don't want to cancel, just more concerned with Carnival cancelling, then having to make vacation plans at the last minute. There are seven of us, and I am quite the obsessive compulsive planner. :p We will probably just wait it out as we are soooooo excited for this cruise.

[1wildRN]

We are using "The Cups Half Full Philosphy". The oil spill is tragic, yes. But- why add to the devastation on the tourism industry in the Gulf by canceling? Unless CCL pulls the plug, we are going on our cruise out of NOLA in August, come hell or high oily water.