Nonrefundable Cruise Deposit - Really???

[isdoo]

If they do not refer the matter to your credit card asking for them to refund. Not 100% sure on US laws, but in Europe they are jointly liable for any purchases over £100 or the equivalent anywhere in the world.

[cruisestitch]

"Our problem has been turned over to a supervisor at the travel agency and we should hear back from them by Wednesday, October 23rd."

 

It's now only the 20th.  I would wait until the 23rd to see what the travel agency is able to do for you.  I'm hoping all your anxieties will be calmed on or before that date.

[Iamcruzin]

6 hours ago, ldubs said:

 

I understand.  And there is no argument that safety has to trump all other things.  

 

I guess I would support that the current adhesive contract needs to change because bumping for no good reason should be prohibited.  

I think it should be prohibited as well. However, when you book a cruise  and agree to the terms and conditions of the contract you have to accept anything that happens. It's not likely to change because there aren't enough passengers who are affected by charters,    although it seems to be happening more and more on Celebrity. Also when this happens the cruise line will offer you some monetary reward usually in the form of an on board credit for your inconvenience or refund your deposit even if you booked NRD and offer you a future cruise credit. This is the first time that I have ever heard of not getting a deposit refunded.   

[Iamcruzin]

7 hours ago, NMTraveller said:

Weather is not the cruise lines fault.  Booking a charter AKA overbooking is.  Disreputable yes.

Not if you agree to the terms and conditions of the cruise contract. Read it next time before you check the box and agree to the terms. There is full disclosure so therefore there is no misrepresentation.  If I was retired and living in Florida I would welcome being bumped by a charter as they offer you compensation for switching. One Caribbean Island is no different from another. I understand the OP's situation being different as I would be in the same situation if it happened to me and would be expecting a full refund of my non refundable deposit.

[vtcruising]

4 hours ago, villauk said:

believe there has definitely been a miscommunication. X can’t possibly keep the deposits if they have cancelled the cruise, whether they be refundable or not. The OP needs to take it further; as the old saying goes, ‘ring again’ - you’ll probably get a totally different answer the next time.

Totally agree. This has to be a miscommunication (it probably pops up in their inaccurate computer system). I have had cruises canceled by RCI and Celebrity for charter, redeployment and change of schedule and have always been made whole and usually came out a little ahead.

 

You should receive a response from this address:

lLutoff-Perlo@celebritycruises.com

 

[Bo1953]

Agreeing with those who indicate that there is a communications issue, on one side or the other, the deposit will be refunded regardless since X canceled.

 

My next question would be, will your travel insurance cover this instance? Not sure on this point...

 

Good luck and I trust you will be able to find a suitable 'anniversary' travel replacement.

 

bon voyage

[jelayne]

7 hours ago, ldubs said:

 

I understand.  And there is no argument that safety has to trump all other things.  

 

I guess I would support that the current adhesive contract needs to change because bumping for no good reason should be prohibited.  

If cruise lines could not charter ship once they take a deposit by a passenger then it would seem fair that all deposits would be non-refundable  and  no price drops before final payment would be allowed.  

[Luvcrusn]

26 minutes ago, Bo1953 said:

Agreeing with those who indicate that there is a communications issue, on one side or the other, the deposit will be refunded regardless since X canceled.

 

My next question would be, will your travel insurance cover this instance? Not sure on this point...

 

Good luck and I trust you will be able to find a suitable 'anniversary' travel replacement.

 

bon voyage

I may be alone in thinking this, but since X cancelled the cruise in order to charter it, I would expect X to refund the cost of the insurance.  After all, I wouldn't have purchased insuranceif I wasn't purchasing a cruise.

[TeeRick]

Anchors Away.  Celebrity must refund your deposit if they cancel the cruise.  This will get resolved in your favor perhaps with some icing on the cake too.  It seems to me anyway that your BB travel agent is at fault for not getting this immediately resolved for you.

[dani negreanu]

Do not give up. You should be fully refunded and then some.

[jimbri]

Must be a communication problem.  I think you will get a full refund and some extra compensation as others have stated.

[OceanCruise]

This doesn't make sense to me. Usually charters are for an entire cruise so I find it interesting how an 8 day cruise would actually become 2 separate four day cruises. Is there any way you misunderstood what you were told? Meaning, is your cruise really cancelled or perhaps you were just being notified as a courtesy that a large group will be on your cruise which will impact dining and your access to various public areas on the ship? I don't see a 4 day cruise listed on the Celebrity site and wonder if two 4 day itineraries would be impacted by the Jones act.

[RickT]

11 hours ago, phoenix_dream said:

As regards keeping your deposit, this seems to me to be a communication problem with  Celebrity.  They cannot keep your deposit if they are the ones who cancelled the cruise. Or perhaps your TA is not being honest??  I would reach out again. It is not unusual for Celebrity’s customer service reps to make mistakes.

I fully agree... please provide us with an update on the 23rd.  If the TA still says no I’d reach out to Captain’s Club and/or LLP.  

[bEwAbG]

This whole thread is several days too early, especially since they're actively working on a resolution.  Celebrity is not going to keep your deposit for a cancellation they've made.  Either your agent didn't do a good job understanding/explaining this, or they were talking to an agent at Celebrity who was wrong & wouldn't budge so they decided to get supervisors involved instead.

 

If you're interested in keeping any on board promotions you've received for this booking, they should be able to transfer your existing booking to a different future sailing, even if it's not one of the ones being offered as a replacement.  The replacement options are just the ones that will offer price protection.  Transferring the booking should also let you claim whatever OBC they're offering for the displacement, too.

[lovescarborough]

6 minutes ago, bEwAbG said:

 

 

Transferring the booking should also let you claim whatever OBC they're offering for the displacement, too.

We were bumped for a charter two years ago and got the measly sum of $200 OBC (per cabin). We ended up taking the same itinerary at different dates, missing a special celebration, and although Celebrity honoured the price we were paying the cruise we took was originally cheaper than the one we booked. I agree with everyone here that this is a poor practice but at least you got plenty of notice. I have seen some cruises cancelled where people have already  booked air fare.

[Fouremco]

46 minutes ago, OceanCruise said:

Usually charters are for an entire cruise so I find it interesting how an 8 day cruise would actually become 2 separate four day cruises.

Groups charter a ship, not a cruise, and the duration and itinerary frequently vary from the ship's regular cruises before and after the charter. In this case, the Equinox will sail on a 4-day Bahamas cruise in addition to the charter to fill the 8-day time slot.

[bEwAbG]

12 minutes ago, lovescarborough said:

We were bumped for a charter two years ago and got the measly sum of $200 OBC (per cabin). We ended up taking the same itinerary at different dates, missing a special celebration, and although Celebrity honoured the price we were paying the cruise we took was originally cheaper than the one we booked. I agree with everyone here that this is a poor practice but at least you got plenty of notice. I have seen some cruises cancelled where people have already  booked air fare.

 

$200 OBC seems to be the standard offer.  It's $200 more than you had, so there's that.  In terms of the replacement cruises, it always pays to do the math if you're in the position to get a total refund instead.

 

In terms of timing, I think it's pretty despicable that they're doing it less than 8 months from sailing as that is well within the time-frame that people may have other nonrefundable expenses to deal with.  It is certainly a pretty unusual circumstance for a charter.  Have they announced what the charter is?

[Bo1953]

2 hours ago, Luvcrusn said:

I may be alone in thinking this, but since X cancelled the cruise in order to charter it, I would expect X to refund the cost of the insurance.  After all, I wouldn't have purchased insuranceif I wasn't purchasing a cruise.

I think this is a reasonable thought... and would request it, as well..

 

bon voyage

[Luvcrusn]

14 minutes ago, Bo1953 said:

I think this is a reasonable thought... and would request it, as well..

 

bon voyage

I find that we often are like minded. 😊

[kearney]

4 hours ago, vtcruising said:

Totally agree. This has to be a miscommunication (it probably pops up in their inaccurate computer system). I have had cruises canceled by RCI and Celebrity for charter, redeployment and change of schedule and have always been made whole and usually came out a little ahead.

 

You should receive a response from this address:

lLutoff-Perlo@celebritycruises.com

 

I just noticed the OP and was going to make the same suggestion. This does sound like a miscommunication. 

[varoo]

3 hours ago, kearney said:

I just noticed the OP and was going to make the same suggestion. This does sound like a miscommunication. 

I agree.  Every time we have had a cruise cancelled, we always received a full refund plus  a certificate for additional OBC to apply to another cruise.

I expect that to be the outcome here as well.

 

In any case, as a previous poster mentioned, the OP could contest it with the credit card company and get a full refund that way. 

However, I really don't think that will be necessary.

 

[Anchors Away]

Of course we are hoping for the best possible outcome when we hear back from the travel agent sometime before Wednesday. I was just so surprised when I learned Celebrity could change our vacation plans and call our deposit nonrefundable.

 

Some of you have asked questions that made me go back and read the email we got notifying us of the change in itinerary. It is worded so oddly, I had to read it a couple of times. Here is what it says:

 

'Please be advised the Celebrity Equinox has been chartered for a 4-night sailing departing on May 27, 2020. Due to this charter, the 8-night Eastern Caribbean & Bahamas sailing departing May 23, 2020 has been shortened to a 4-night Bahamas cruise.'

 

Interesting that they use the word 'shortened' not 'cancelled'. This concerns me that they are playing word games in order to not refund our deposit. The email doesn't say our room is still reserved on the 4-night cruise, but it also doesn't say it isn't.

 

The next paragraph says that if we are interested in similar itineraries, they suggest moving our reservation to a 10-night Southern Caribbean cruise on May 13 or the same 8-night Caribbean itinerary we were on for June 6 or June 20. If we selected one of the three listed options, we would get a $300 on board credit and if we re-booked any other sailing the OBC would be $200.00.

 

Of course the problem is my inflexible work vacation. The week beginning May 23, 2020 is the only time I will have off until 2021. Unfortunately moving to one of their suggested alternatives or any other Celebrity cruise in 2020 is not an option unless my husband wants to travel alone.

 

I have done a little research on travel insurance and I don't see any mention of reimbursement for 'shortened'  vacations.

 

I appreciate those of you who suggested emailing the company. If the answer we receive is not good news, we will definitely email, call, write letters, etc. but I hope it doesn't come to this. I will let you know when we hear back concerning our deposit.

 

Thank you for all your input.

 

Anchors Away

Edited October 20, 2019 by Anchors Away

[NMTraveller]

8 minutes ago, Anchors Away said:

Of course we are hoping for the best possible outcome when we hear back from the travel agent sometime before Wednesday. I was just so surprised when I learned Celebrity could change our vacation plans and call our deposit nonrefundable.

 

Some of you have asked questions that made me go back and read the email we got notifying us of the change in itinerary. It is worded so oddly, I had to read it a couple of times. Here is what it says:

 

'Please be advised the Celebrity Equinox has been chartered for a 4-night sailing departing on May 27, 2020. Due to this charter, the 8-night Eastern Caribbean & Bahamas sailing departing May 23, 2020 has been shortened to a 4-night Bahamas cruise.'

 

Interesting that they use the word 'shortened' not 'cancelled'. This concerns me that they are playing word games in order to not refund our deposit. The email doesn't say our room is still reserved on the 4-night cruise, but it also doesn't say it isn't.

 

The next paragraph says that if we are interested in similar itineraries, they suggest moving our reservation to a 10-night Southern Caribbean cruise on May 13 or the same 8-night Caribbean itinerary we were on for June 6 or June 20. If we selected one of the three listed options, we would get a $300 on board credit and if we re-booked any other sailing the OBC would be $200.00.

 

Of course the problem is my inflexible work vacation. The week beginning May 23, 2020 is the only time I will have off until 2021. Unfortunately moving to one of their suggested alternatives or any other Celebrity cruise in 2020 is not an option unless my husband wants to travel alone.

 

I have done a little research on travel insurance and I don't see any mention of reimbursement for 'shortened'  vacations.

 

I appreciate those of you who suggested emailing the company. If the answer we receive is not good news, we will definitely email, call, write letters, etc. but I hope it doesn't come to this. I will let you know when we hear back concerning our deposit.

 

Thank you for all your input.

 

Anchors Away

Take a look at other cruise lines if you are tied to May 23.

[jelayne]

Since they have shortened  not cancelled your cruise what did the TA tell you the fare for the shortened cruise will be?  and are they offering any OBC  or FCC for sticking with the  shortened itinerary? 
I would think that everyone who was booked still has their original cabin until they advise X what they want to do.  
 

Since your can’t change your time off maybe you could stay a few days at a nice resort or spa before you board the shortened cruise; making lemonade out of lemons.

[Anchors Away]

5 minutes ago, NMTraveller said:

Take a look at other cruise lines if you are tied to May 23.

We are researching other cruise lines and land based vacations to celebrate our anniversary. It may be on a tug boat or in a tent since Celebrity is sitting on $900.00 of our vacation money. 🤑

 

On a positive note, we are blessed this is the first time this has happened to us. We have been cruising together for 18 years. When I had a better job with more vacation time, we cruised twice a year and then my husband would take a third cruise with his kids and grandkids each year. So we have been fortunate to enjoy 18 years of vacations before we were unceremoniously uninvited by Celebrity. And we are only 6 years from retirement when our schedules will become flexible and a reschedule will not be a problem.