New Temporary Cancellation Policy for Princess

[OzKiwiJJ]

To assist guests' decisions regarding their upcoming cruise vacations during the evolving worldwide COVID-19 situation, Princess Cruises is temporarily making some changes to our cancellation policy for cruises departing up to May 31, 2020.

Revised Final Payment Timing

Additionally, we are amending Final Payment on cruises sailing June 1 through June 30, 2020.

What's New?

The details vary by departure date. The following applies to new and existing bookings on cruises and cruisetours in all markets globally.

Date of Departure*	Benefit
April 3, 2020 or earlier	Cancel up to 72hrs before sailing to receive Future Cruise Credit (FCC) for 100% of cancellation fees
April 4, 2020 - May 31, 2020	Cancel by Mar 31 and receive FCC for 100% of cancellation fees
June 1, 2020 - June 30, 2020	Final Payment moves to 60 days prior to sailing

*Date of departure is from the start date of your cruise or cruisetour, whichever is earlier. Excludes charter cruises.

Guests who choose to keep their booking as currently scheduled for departures between March 9 and May 31 will receive the following Onboard Credit amounts:

• $100 USD / $150 AUD per stateroom for 3 and 4 day cruises
• $150 USD / $225 AUD per stateroom for 5 day cruises
• $200 USD / $300 AUD per stateroom for 6 day and longer cruises

For our guests booked on Crown Princess Mediterranean itineraries, we are finalizing some itinerary changes and a special offer that we will be sharing early next week.

The Fine Print

Future Cruise Credits (FCC) are non-refundable and may be applied to any new or existing booking not yet paid in full on a Princess Cruise departing on or before December 31, 2021.

The FCC does not have to be used on the same product that was cancelled and is non-transferable.

To ensure we cover guests who already made final payment, the revised final payment date means no cancellation fees will be assessed until 60 days prior to sailing.

Timing

FCCs will automatically be applied to each guest’s Captain Circle account after they have cancelled. FCCs will not be available instantly and may take up to 10 business days to be processed.

[possum52]

Thanks OzKiwiJJ, that may make it easier for some people to cance their planned cruises. For our cruise in June it gives us another couple of weeks to final payment if my calculations are correct. There are plenty of people complaining on social media that they want to cancel but Princess wouldn't refund their fares etc. This may quieten them!

 

Leigh

 

 

[OzKiwiJJ]

4 minutes ago, possum52 said:

Thanks OzKiwiJJ, that may make it easier for some people to cance their planned cruises. For our cruise in June it gives us another couple of weeks to final payment if my calculations are correct. There are plenty of people complaining on social media that they want to cancel but Princess wouldn't refund their fares etc. This may quieten them!

 

Leigh

 

 

Yes, I've seen some of those whinges. People just aren't giving Princess time to work out what they can do, and the ones that whinge the loudest (at least on the Princess forum here) are the ones without travel insurance.

 

I think Princess is being very generous with their compensations and cancellation policy changes, and relatively fast acting at announcing those changes. I'm happy to book more cruises with Princess in future.

[ivanp91]

Carnival is offering the same, I just got the same email regarding my upcoming cruise on the Splendor.

[possum52]

2 hours ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

Yes, I've seen some of those whinges. People just aren't giving Princess time to work out what they can do, and the ones that whinge the loudest (at least on the Princess forum here) are the ones without travel insurance.

 

I think Princess is being very generous with their compensations and cancellation policy changes, and relatively fast acting at announcing those changes. I'm happy to book more cruises with Princess in future.

I agree that Princess are being generous, we too are happy to book with them. I think some of the worst whingers  are on the Princess page on FB.

 

Leigh

[cheznandy]

26 minutes ago, possum52 said:

I agree that Princess are being generous, we too are happy to book with them. I think some of the worst whingers  are on the Princess page on FB.

 

Leigh

Thankfully I don't do FB, so no idea about the whingers😉 but good on Princess for giving people the opportunity to make a choice that suits them.

[possum52]

2 minutes ago, cheznandy said:

Thankfully I don't do FB, so no idea about the whingers😉 but good on Princess for giving people the opportunity to make a choice that suits them.

Some of the posts are just laughable, not just the ones relevant to COV-19.

 

Leigh

[OzKiwiJJ]

41 minutes ago, possum52 said:

I agree that Princess are being generous, we too are happy to book with them. I think some of the worst whingers  are on the Princess page on FB.

 

Leigh

I posted a link to the new policy on a FB page and someone immediately whinged about the changes. "They're keeping my money" " the FCC won't be processed in time for me to use it". 🙄

[dizzy1948]

5 hours ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

To assist guests' decisions regarding their upcoming cruise vacations during the evolving worldwide COVID-19 situation, Princess Cruises is temporarily making some changes to our cancellation policy for cruises departing up to May 31, 2020.

Revised Final Payment Timing

Additionally, we are amending Final Payment on cruises sailing June 1 through June 30, 2020.

What's New?

The details vary by departure date. The following applies to new and existing bookings on cruises and cruisetours in all markets globally.

Date of Departure*	Benefit
April 3, 2020 or earlier	Cancel up to 72hrs before sailing to receive Future Cruise Credit (FCC) for 100% of cancellation fees
April 4, 2020 - May 31, 2020	Cancel by Mar 31 and receive FCC for 100% of cancellation fees
June 1, 2020 - June 30, 2020	Final Payment moves to 60 days prior to sailing

*Date of departure is from the start date of your cruise or cruisetour, whichever is earlier. Excludes charter cruises.

Guests who choose to keep their booking as currently scheduled for departures between March 9 and May 31 will receive the following Onboard Credit amounts:

• $100 USD / $150 AUD per stateroom for 3 and 4 day cruises
• $150 USD / $225 AUD per stateroom for 5 day cruises
• $200 USD / $300 AUD per stateroom for 6 day and longer cruises

For our guests booked on Crown Princess Mediterranean itineraries, we are finalizing some itinerary changes and a special offer that we will be sharing early next week.

The Fine Print

Future Cruise Credits (FCC) are non-refundable and may be applied to any new or existing booking not yet paid in full on a Princess Cruise departing on or before December 31, 2021.

The FCC does not have to be used on the same product that was cancelled and is non-transferable.

To ensure we cover guests who already made final payment, the revised final payment date means no cancellation fees will be assessed until 60 days prior to sailing.

Timing

FCCs will automatically be applied to each guest’s Captain Circle account after they have cancelled. FCCs will not be available instantly and may take up to 10 business days to be processed.

Got that one - good for us - 3 days out of Freo May 22nd what an OBC...………..up from $25.00 plus cheap as chips cruise - Luv it

[NSWP]

Fair deal, well done Princess.  'The more you cruise the more you save.'😁

Edited March 7, 2020 by NSWP

[NSWP]

15 hours ago, possum52 said:

I agree that Princess are being generous, we too are happy to book with them. I think some of the worst whingers  are on the Princess page on FB.

 

Leigh

I agree Leigh, especially the Black Card holders, many of them are up themselves.  Elite are a dime a dozen these days and I have been one since 2009.  These days, save 10 Kellogs corn flake tops and you will become Elite, well almost.

[mr walker]

Royal Caribbean have announced today that anyone travelling thru 31-Jul can cancel for a FCC (good thru 2021) up to 48 hours prior to departure.

[kaseyoz]

3 hours ago, mr walker said:

Royal Caribbean have announced today that anyone travelling thru 31-Jul can cancel for a FCC (good thru 2021) up to 48 hours prior to departure.

i heard about that from our roll call, no message for me.

we are sailing early May from Hawaii to Vancouver and are playing watch and see. 

[SinbadThePorter]

23 hours ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

we are amending Final Payment on cruises sailing June 1 through June 30, 2020.

 

Am I correct in assuming that this only applies to cruises bought directly from Princess and not to those bought through a TA?

 

Has anyone here successfully asked their TA for final payment to be moved to 60 days before sailing?

[OzKiwiJJ]

55 minutes ago, SinbadThePorter said:

 

Am I correct in assuming that this only applies to cruises bought directly from Princess and not to those bought through a TA?

 

Has anyone here successfully asked their TA for final payment to be moved to 60 days before sailing?

I guess it depends on the cancellation policy of the TA. Their penalties are often on top of the Princess ones, but the Princess ones would fall under the amended conditions. So if your TA charges 10% on top of the Princess ones which have been waived by Princess then I guess you might still get stuck with the TA's 10%. But if so, don't book with that TA ever again.

 

I hope that makes sense.

Edited March 7, 2020 by OzKiwiJJ

[TAN066]

I think unless you know peoples circumstances then it is unfair to call those black cards whingers. Example we are on the 77 Circle Pacific so to be able to use fcc of $30,000 plus before December 21st 2021 is impossible. We already have quite a few cruises booked for next year and we are not retired and cannot just take holidays whenever to use up the fcc before the deadline.

It has taken a great deal of planning to get to this stage to be able to go. We are in our 50's and take most things in our stride....but this is a little different. To say the ones not covered by insurance are the whingers also is unfair....our problem is what happens if we get quarantined for 14days or maybe more. We work and unless you have sick leave or more holidays then you are in trouble financially. It is not as cut and dry as you think. Everybodys circumstances are different.... by the way we hold a black card!

[OzKiwiJJ]

We're in a similar situation, TAN066, with an expensive Western Europe B2B2B cruise booked for May with one of the luxury cruise lines. We spashed out on this one as the itinerary was so good and included many bucket list ports not often visited by the mass market cruise lines. Now we are watching the coronavirus stats ramping up in Europe and our dream cruise probably won't be feasible. If we cancel we would only get FCCs useable to Dec2021, and with other cruises already booked that we don't want to cancel, plus limited interesting alternative cruises by that cruise line we would end up wasting that money on a token itinerary. In that case it is very doubtful that we would be able to afford to do a similar European itinerary in the future. 😢

 

We are now hoping and praying the cruise line will cancel those cruises and give us a proper refund, but that particular cruise line has shown a tendency to be reactive rather than proactive over the past month or so, and prone to screwing up it's guests' travel arrangements with limited compensation. But I accept the fact that the cruise lines are working through this nightmare to the best of their abilities, that decisions cannot be made instantaneously, and that it will take time to process FCCs and refunds, so there is no point in playing the Me! Me! Me! game and whinging right, left and centre.

Edited March 8, 2020 by OzKiwiJJ

[NSWP]

Good luck with all your travel plans and projected cancellations, hope it all works out for you, somehow.  Turbulent times in the travel industry.

[OzKiwiJJ]

Thanks, NSWP. Yes, the whole travel situation is a nightmare at the moment. 

[ozziepost]

I've booked two domestic cruises with Princess for this year one of these will be next month and it will be interesting to see if we get the extra OBC for that trip which will be nice. The other one I picked up as a result of the sale for the Sapphire later in the year I normally book inside cabins but managed to get a balcony on the Sapphire for much less than I have paid for some inside cabins.

 

Have no intention  of cancelling either and am looking forward to doing both. As far as I am concerned Princess are being very generous with the new cancellation policy.

[MicCanberra]

Great stuff.

[Sallyandtex]

On 3/6/2020 at 5:30 PM, OzKiwiJJ said:

Yes, I've seen some of those whinges. People just aren't giving Princess time to work out what they can do, and the ones that whinge the loudest (at least on the Princess forum here) are the ones without travel insurance.

 

I think Princess is being very generous with their compensations and cancellation policy changes, and relatively fast acting at announcing those changes. I'm happy to book more cruises with Princess in future.

My elderly parents and other relatives phoned Princess a few days ago to cancel for a 50% refund cruising in 2 weeks.

They were told no, it would cost 100% of the fare, as it was within the 15 days. They were worried about being quarantined and risk to health, also some Ports were cancelled.

The did have travel insurance .... a large price as they are over 80.

So, this recent information is great and I will be pleased to pass it on to them.

[OzKiwiJJ]

That's great news, Sallyandtex. However if your parents cruise was out of Australia it probably would be OK but the cutback on ports might be an issue for them. 

 

It's can't be easy for Princess at the moment. I think they are trying to do their best for all passengers but it takes time to work though all the pros and cons. They are a business after all, and have to minimize their losses as best they can. But they are being very generous and reasonably proactive, unlike some other cruise lines.

[MicCanberra]

Agreed, for all the issues that are coming their way they seem to be responding the quite well so far. I am sure some of the other lines watched and learned how to respond.

[subaru94]

On 3/8/2020 at 2:57 PM, ozziepost said:

I've booked two domestic cruises with Princess for this year one of these will be next month and it will be interesting to see if we get the extra OBC for that trip which will be nice. The other one I picked up as a result of the sale for the Sapphire later in the year I normally book inside cabins but managed to get a balcony on the Sapphire for much less than I have paid for some inside cabins.

 

Have no intention  of cancelling either and am looking forward to doing both. As far as I am concerned Princess are being very generous with the new cancellation policy.

You should do we have booked a cruise for May and get onboard credit for Princess if we go ahead with the cruise, amount depends on length of cruise, hope this helps.