Temporary Cancellation Policy Announced

[healthworker]

Also trying to figure out if taxes are refunded and rest as fcc? Anyone receive anything back yet to verify?

 

[dog]

12 minutes ago, healthworker said:

Also trying to figure out if taxes are refunded and rest as fcc? Anyone receive anything back yet to verify?

 

See post 251. 
I am getting my cruise fare back as FCC. And port fees & taxes refunded to my credit card. 

[BballinQT24]

11 minutes ago, healthworker said:

Also trying to figure out if taxes are refunded and rest as fcc? Anyone receive anything back yet to verify?

 

The port fees and taxes should be refunded. The actual fare percentage refunded vs. given as a future cruise credit will depend on what cancellation.penalty window you’re in. The dates should be listed on your invoice from booking.

 

When I cancelled last night I was in the 75% cancellation penalty window. The 75% was applied as a future cruise credit and they are refunding me 25% plus the entire port fees/taxes.

[jimmieg]

1 hour ago, amajaa said:

Unfortunately our flights are booked with Virgin.

 

Our TA was adamant we would lose the taxes and port fees as well

 

Check back with us later.

I think your TA misunderstands.

[BIGADORF]

Cancelled our cruise under this new email policy and got hit with a 50% charge for the hotel that we booked through Princess. Over $300 penalty. Not happy since the date we were staying at the hotel was April 4th. Most hotels have a much better cancellation policy. I will rethink booking my Pre-cruise hotel with Princes in the future.

The hotel was the Embassy Suites in Fort Lauderdale. 

[Reina del Mar]

12 minutes ago, BIGADORF said:

Cancelled our cruise under this new email policy and got hit with a 50% charge for the hotel that we booked through Princess. Over $300 penalty. Not happy since the date we were staying at the hotel was April 4th. Most hotels have a much better cancellation policy. I will rethink booking my Pre-cruise hotel with Princes in the future.

The hotel was the Embassy Suites in Fort Lauderdale. 

We have booked Embassy Suites, Fort Lauderdale separately from Princess. We always book the flexible rate so we can cancel...look at booking direct with Hilton Hotels or with a consolidator. 

 

Fort Lauderdale is one of the easier places to book yourself as airport is close to 17th St. Causeway where you can find restaurants and shops for last minute wine/sundries, within walking distance .. Taxis to port takes 5-10 minutes.

 

We tend to use Princess hotels and transfers when we are sailing from a port for the first time...specially if English isn't widely spoken.

 

Sorry to hear you have to she'll out this time.

[lahore]

3 hours ago, amajaa said:

Unfortunately our flights are booked with Virgin.

 

Our TA was adamant we would lose the taxes and port fees as well

 

 

I don’t ever use TA’s for anything, and this is why. It’s another level of bureaucracy and misinformation.  Taxes and Port Fees are not the property or even under the purview of a TA.  AFAIK if a tax is paid to a government entity and then that is not used it is refundable.   In the past month I have cancelled three air flights and one cruise across three different countries.  In every case the taxes and fees have been immediately refunded in full to my CC.  I would be challenging your TA in the strongest way if I were you.  Good luck.  Not meaning to sound like a smart A but this sort of thing is just wrong and it makes me angry on your behalf. 

[lahore]

3 hours ago, dog said:

See post 251. 
I am getting my cruise fare back as FCC. And port fees & taxes refunded to my credit card. 

 

Same here.  

[lahore]

3 hours ago, BballinQT24 said:

The port fees and taxes should be refunded. The actual fare percentage refunded vs. given as a future cruise credit will depend on what cancellation.penalty window you’re in. The dates should be listed on your invoice from booking.

 

When I cancelled last night I was in the 75% cancellation penalty window. The 75% was applied as a future cruise credit and they are refunding me 25% plus the entire port fees/taxes.

 

Same here. 

[PoohUnderstands]

9 hours ago, deltaqueenie said:

While this policy is a step in the right direction. IMO it doesn’t seem “generous” especially after reviewing RCL and NCL...

Depends, kiddo.  I am seeing Princess doing temporary another time.  As a past business person I can see doing it in increments to see what happens with this virus.  If keeps up like now, I would hope and do think Princess will extend their temporary policy. Also 48 hrs, 72 hrs., what does one day make, a little but not a lot of difference.  Then both NCL and RCCL are offering FCC only by what you posted.  NCL is giving it an extra year which I grant is nice but still Dec., 2021 is a long way out too.  Now with Princess' policy which I just used yesterday and it worked smoothly(yes I got through to a rep. in 45 seconds!), I got literally 100% back of all I paid which also included insurance, transfers, EZair; and got the cancellation fee(I was 6 days out from my cruise by the way) back in FCC but I also got cash back(credited to my credit card) for around 20%.  That 20% was a decent hunk of change that I can use or save.

 

Pooh

[nho9504]

5 hours ago, PoohUnderstands said:

That is incorrect.  I just cancelled yesterday under the new cancellation policy.  My cruise was to leave on March 15th.  I had my Ezair tickets and all set to go.

This was the general breakdown of what I got.  First of all, I received the entire final payment amount back in some way.  This included my ezair, princess insurance, transfers, port fees, etc.  My cancellation fee was 82% of the total I had paid.  That amount is what I will get back on FCC.  The other 18% I received already this morning as a credit on my credit card.  Then there was an additional credit for the water and drink package I had purchased; then there was a third credit for the excursions I had paid for. So yes you do get cash back(some).

 

Pooh

 

Thanks for the info.

 

The taxes portion is a refund back to original form of payment, or is it part of the FCC?

 

For our unique situation we actually prefer everything turns to FCC - because our booking is a travel award booking using our Chase Ultimate Reward points - we paid with our points when the Loyalty Travel paid with its credit card.  We essentially rec'd a 33.33% discount doing it this way as the point would be 1c per point if redeemed for cash,but if used to book travel thru the Ultimate Reward portal (actually need to call to book a cruise), it is 1.5c per point worth - hence it is a 33.33% discount, or 1.5x value comparing getting a direct deposit to a bank account.

 

Getting cash refund to the booking agent then in turn converted back to points to deposit back to our UR account is very tedious.  If I can avoid this I would - hence I would wait till the 14 days before sailing on Apr 11, so 100% cancellation fee, to cancel, and hope the taxes would be part of the FCC.   This also mean we need to wait till Mar 30 to cancel. Day 14 is a Sat Apr 28. I am not sure Loyalty Travel booking dept is open on weekend.

Edited March 8, 2020 by nho9504

[polmcs]

Can someone who has ever cancelled a cruise, received a FCC and rebooked later on, or has acted on a move over offer and had travel insurance that was not through Princess, explain what happened with their insurance? Was the insurance lost, or could it be moved to the new booking, or was a credit issued?

 

A few years back, I had booked a land vacation in Jamaica, but the hotel was not going to be ready in time, so they moved us to an alternate hotel that was not acceptable, so we ended up cancelling and we booked a cruise instead for the same week. We had insurance and I had a devil of a time getting them to move the coverage over from the land vacation to the cruise vacation. I had to prove that we did not incur any cancellation fees by cancelling the land vacation. We were lucky that we were flying Southwest, so no change fees to switch from Montego Bay to New Orleans and we just had to pay the fare difference and we got the hotel company to send an email that we were not charged a cancellation fee, so after a few days, we paid the premium increase as the cruise was more expensive and had the insurance moved over. 

 

In my case, it was a little easier in that my dates did not change, but if we had to cancel our upcoming cruise and switch to a later one (probably next year as it was an Alaskan itinerary that we loved, so would need to wait) then the dates of coverage will change.

 

Another question if I may, what would happen if I did end up with a FCC and I applied it to another upcoming cruise that we have booked and the cancelled cruise cost more than the upcoming cruise? Does the excess get lost, appear as OBC on the upcoming cruise, or does it remain “on account” and can be used towards another new cruise?

 

TIA

[PoohUnderstands]

1 minute ago, nho9504 said:

 

Thanks for the info.

 

The taxes portion is a refund back to original form of payment, or is it part of the FCC?

 

For our unique situation we actually prefer everything turns to FCC - because our booking is a travel award booking using our Chase Ultimate Reward points - we paid with our points when the Loyalty Travel paid with its credit card.  We essentially rec'd a 33.33% discount doing it this way as the point would be 1c per point if redeemed for cash,but if used to book travel thru the Ultimate Reward portal (actually need to call to book a cruise), it is 1.5c per point worth - hence it is a 33.33% discount, or 1.5x value comparing getting a direct deposit to a bank account.

 

Getting cash refund to the booking agent then in turn converted back to points to deposit back to our UR account is very tedious.  If I can avoid this I would - hence I would wait till the 14 days before sailing so 100% cancellation fee, to cancel, and hope the taxes would be part of the FCC.

My FCC consisted of three things, rest in cash.  they were cruise fare, air add-on(whatever that means but I got credit for it!), and vacation protection.

 

Pooh

[nho9504]

3 minutes ago, PoohUnderstands said:

My FCC consisted of three things, rest in cash.  they were cruise fare, air add-on(whatever that means but I got credit for it!), and vacation protection.

 

Pooh

 

So the taxes are back to credit card.  It means many follow up calls later to get points returned to our Ultimate Reward account.  Sigh.

[nho9504]

12 hours ago, Coral said:

Yes - you have a lot more going on. I am guessing someone has answered this.

 

I assume taxes will be refunded and not included in FCC. You don't have to decide what cruise right away.

 

Sorry about Russia. I didn't realize your Chinese passport gets you in with out a visa. Or used to. There are soccer matches in Russia this summer (June I believe) that allows people to get in with out a visa.

 

Good luck.

 

Not Chinese passport, that requires an eVisa which Russia has suspended back in January.

 

The passports that have Visa Free entry are Hong Kong Special Administration Region and Macao Special Administration Region - at 14 days and 30 days respectively.  These 2 passports while still Chinese nationals, they are different from the Mainland China passports which are subj to many more visa requirements than the HKSAR and MacaoSAR - the latter 2 have more Visa Free entries than US passports (such as Turkey, Jordan, Egypt, Argentina and Brazil off the top of my head).

 

I doubt Russia will keep its Visa Free for everyone for June's soccer games which may not even be held at the end, based on how things are developing now...

[Coral]

24 minutes ago, nho9504 said:

 

Not Chinese passport, that requires an eVisa which Russia has suspended back in January.

 

The passports that have Visa Free entry are Hong Kong Special Administration Region and Macao Special Administration Region - at 14 days and 30 days respectively.  These 2 passports while still Chinese nationals, they are different from the Mainland China passports which are subj to many more visa requirements than the HKSAR and MacaoSAR - the latter 2 have more Visa Free entries than US passports (such as Turkey, Jordan, Egypt, Argentina and Brazil off the top of my head).

 

I doubt Russia will keep its Visa Free for everyone for June's soccer games which may not even be held at the end, based on how things are developing now...

Thanks for clarification. Russia did the Visa free a few years ago for a soccer game also. Though I agree, everything is up in the air.

Edited March 8, 2020 by Coral

[alvse]

Just a change of pace from cancellations... Do you think the OBCs would apply to new bookings for sailings till the end of May?

[WNcruiser]

3 hours ago, PoohUnderstands said:

Depends, kiddo.  I am seeing Princess doing temporary another time.  As a past business person I can see doing it in increments to see what happens with this virus.  If keeps up like now, I would hope and do think Princess will extend their temporary policy. Also 48 hrs, 72 hrs., what does one day make, a little but not a lot of difference.  Then both NCL and RCCL are offering FCC only by what you posted.  NCL is giving it an extra year which I grant is nice but still Dec., 2021 is a long way out too.  Now with Princess' policy which I just used yesterday and it worked smoothly(yes I got through to a rep. in 45 seconds!), I got literally 100% back of all I paid which also included insurance, transfers, EZair; and got the cancellation fee(I was 6 days out from my cruise by the way) back in FCC but I also got cash back(credited to my credit card) for around 20%.  That 20% was a decent hunk of change that I can use or save.

 

Pooh

I don’t think Pooh understands. I am not sailing until May and I have to cancel before March 31st. That is much different than “one day”. That’s why a 48 hour cancellation would be much better and give us more time to see what’s happening with the virus. I’m guessing Princess will have to offer it soon, especially now with a third Princess ship in the news. 

[487]

Does anyone know if the FCC can be used on several different cruises or must it be used on a cruise of the same length if not the same itinerary?  We booked at 35 day transpacific cruise for big bucks.  They aren't running that itinerary next year and we would probably not be able to go if they did.  We could maybe do several east coast cruises by the end of 2021.  Also, it says its nontransferable, but could I book several cabins in my name to be able to take family along?  Thanks 

[vampiress]

@487 it says on https://www.princess.com/news/notices_and_advisories/notices/temporary-cancellation-policy.html

Can I use my FCC to pay for more than one cruise?
Yes. You can choose how much of your future cruise credit you want to use on new bookings and can use the credit against more than one. You just need to use it before the expiration date of Dec 31, 2021.

[stevenr597]

We were booked on Caribbean Princess to cruise this May.  Over the weekend made a decision to cancel this cruise.  Will be using our credit to book an 8 day cruise on the new Discovery Princess when it comes out.  

[487]

2 minutes ago, vampiress said:

@487 it says on https://www.princess.com/news/notices_and_advisories/notices/temporary-cancellation-policy.html

Can I use my FCC to pay for more than one cruise?
Yes. You can choose how much of your future cruise credit you want to use on new bookings and can use the credit against more than one. You just need to use it before the expiration date of Dec 31, 2021.

Thanks, I appreciate the reply.

I was just re-reading the policy, realized I hadn't scrolled down far enough and found it.

[deltaqueenie]

14 hours ago, WNcruiser said:

I don’t think Pooh understands. I am not sailing until May and I have to cancel before March 31st. That is much different than “one day”. That’s why a 48 hour cancellation would be much better and give us more time to see what’s happening with the virus. I’m guessing Princess will have to offer it soon, especially now with a third Princess ship in the news. 

WNcruiser, I agree that the current policy doesn’t help you- and I’m sorry. It’s really not very helpful for my 2 cruises (June and September), either. It did at least defer my final payment until April for the June cruise...But, after what has happened with the Grand and Royal this weekend- surely, Princess will adapt a 48hr Cancellation Policy like her competitors.

[ClwtrBoi]

I wonder what impact today's State Department advisement to certain groups against cruising will have on this.

 

https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/international-travel/before-you-go/travelers-with-special-considerations/cruise-ship-passengers.html 

Edited March 8, 2020 by ClwtrBoi

[AnyMajorCruiseDude]

Common sense.  Choose wisely.  Why do I routinely see health compromised passengers on cruises ( many years running) if informed decisions have been made?