Final payment due Friday - trying to decide if should cancel June cruise

[palmettostatecruiser]

We are scheduled to sale June 21 out of Puerto Rico on the Freedom of the Seas. Our final payment is due Friday.  With the "pandemic" announcement, cancellations of events, speculation about bankruptcy and other future unknowns we are seriously considering if we should cancel prior to final payment. A week ago we had no intentions of canceling, but it seems like the reaction to this virus is getting worse by the day, on all fronts😟

[mlmc424]

I would make the payment & make use of the offer to cancel & get a FCC when it gets closer & you can make a more informed decision.

[dasmonkey]

7 minutes ago, palmettostatecruiser said:

We are scheduled to sale June 21 out of Puerto Rico on the Freedom of the Seas. Our final payment is due Friday.  With the "pandemic" announcement, cancellations of events, speculation about bankruptcy and other future unknowns we are seriously considering if we should cancel prior to final payment. A week ago we had no intentions of canceling, but it seems like the reaction to this virus is getting worse by the day, on all fronts😟

 

I "had" one almost the exact same week in June.  For "me" it was a no brainer to get out before final payment.  With everything going on right now do you want to hold your cash or do you want RCL holding it in the form of a FCC?

"If" this all blows over in the next few months do really think the average Joe is going to be clamoring to get on a cruise ship.
I personally don't think they will.  If it does blow over just rebook the cruise close to the sail date at what I would bet would be a much lower rate.

[palmettostatecruiser]

7 minutes ago, mlmc424 said:

I would make the payment & make use of the offer to cancel & get a FCC when it gets closer & you can make a more informed decision.

That's what we were initially thinking but what will the state of RCI or The cruise industry be after all of this? More thinking now would rather not tie up over $3800 in FCC

[palmettostatecruiser]

9 minutes ago, dasmonkey said:

 

I "had" one almost the exact same week in June.  For "me" it was a no brainer to get out before final payment.  With everything going on right now do you want to hold your cash or do you want RCL holding it in the form of a FCC?

"If" this all blows over in the next few months do really think the average Joe is going to be clamoring to get on a cruise ship.
I personally don't think they will.  If it does blow over just rebook the cruise close to the sail date at what I would bet would be a much lower rate.

These are the exact things we're thinking

[lovemylab]

I would cancel and then rebook it closer to the date (likely at a lower rate) if you're able to go.  Personally, I wouldn't want to tie up that much money in a FCC unless I was 100% confident that I'd have a plan to use it before Dec 2021.

[JimVB]

I cancelled a June 12 cruise this morning after about a 40 minute hold.  Rebooking is an option I haven't ruled out.  The current price is about $400 less than the price I cancelled.  

[9olivia]

My cruise is June 14 for 7 people so I really don't want to tie up that much cash in FCC. If I cancel prior to final payment (the 16th) don't I lose the deposit? It was non-refundable. Or will that go to FCC?

[taglovestocruise]

2 hours ago, palmettostatecruiser said:

We are scheduled to sale June 21 out of Puerto Rico on the Freedom of the Seas. Our final payment is due Friday.  With the "pandemic" announcement, cancellations of events, speculation about bankruptcy and other future unknowns we are seriously considering if we should cancel prior to final payment. A week ago we had no intentions of canceling, but it seems like the reaction to this virus is getting worse by the day, on all fronts😟

Will be a thing in the past by June.  no longer news worthy.

[cindivan]

We had a cruise out of venice June 13. We canceled before final payment. It was to be our sons college gradation trip with all 3 of our kids. Because of our kids schedules I’m not sure we could use the FCC before end of 2021

 

We lose the $250 deposit per person, but I think we have a year and if we rebook we have $150 each towards our deposit after the $100 penalty. 
 

If I was pretty sure we would be able to use the FCC we might have held on. But we weren’t willing to make that big of a gamble. 

[swiss2619]

I don't understand if you lose your NRD in this case if you cancel before final payment date. I'll be calling soon to cancel so I guess I'll find out as several of the couples we were going to cruise with are in their 70's and don't want to go now.  Totally understandable.

[yogimax]

3 hours ago, taglovestocruise said:

Will be a thing in the past by June.  no longer news worthy.

Please quote or give the link to your source of information.

[mar915]

We are going to Alaska for our 25th. Finalmlpayment due the 20th. It is pricey since its 10 days but we could use FCC next year for our liberty. My sons FCC would cover it but we will have extra for my husband and myself. But I feel by June 14th it may be cleared up. I am planning on putting money down amd decide my 31 days before so I can get some cash back and the rest in FCC

 

[LMaxwell]

5 hours ago, mlmc424 said:

I would make the payment & make use of the offer to cancel & get a FCC when it gets closer & you can make a more informed decision.

 

Why pay and get an FCC when you can cancel and just have all your money and not be tied to booking another cruise but can do anything with your money at all?  

 

OP, bail now.  You get your money back and can rebook in the future if events change. 

 

Hey look what NCL did; even after people put a deposit down under old rules, they made ANY CANCELLATION at ANY TIME refundable ONLY as an FCC and NO CASH REFUNDS because they are having a major liquidity problem.  Why risk it with RCI and wait.  Get your money back as fast as possible 

[LMaxwell]

5 minutes ago, mar915 said:

We are going to Alaska for our 25th. Finalmlpayment due the 20th. It is pricey since its 10 days but we could use FCC next year for our liberty. My sons FCC would cover it but we will have extra for my husband and myself. But I feel by June 14th it may be cleared up. I am planning on putting money down amd decide my 31 days before so I can get some cash back and the rest in FCC

 

You have more FCC's than you can use already.  Why not cancel, get your money back and as the cruise gets closer decide if you want to book then?  Why are people in a rush to pay and lock into an FCC that COULD be worthless, or at least be more than they can use in a reasonable amount of time?  Keep your money yours! It increases your options significantly 

[mar915]

What this time the price is now still much higher than my previous price. That is why I was waiting till th 31 day Mark. At that point I can easily use the FCC on my next cruise. That cruise is still very filled when I lose the room I need for 3

[20165]

13 hours ago, palmettostatecruiser said:

That's what we were initially thinking but what will the state of RCI or The cruise industry be after all of this? More thinking now would rather not tie up over $3800 in FCC

Exactly the same conversation my wife and i had last night.  Our cruise is june 14 so our final payment is due next monday.  Last week we were excited with the 48 hour cancellation policy that came out, but it has continue to get worse, so we are cancelling.  We also dont want to wrap up over $7k, 2 cabins, in RCL right now...  

Hard decision.  This was a family reunion cruise and total, we had 8 cabins so lots of unhappy family members.  Got to do what right for the immediate family.

Good luck.

[Ocean Boy]

11 hours ago, taglovestocruise said:

Will be a thing in the past by June.  no longer news worthy.

And you know this how?

[KPookey]

Trying to decide as well for 6/20.  I still want to cruise, but I’m afraid to make my final payment in 10 days.  Anyone think these lines may go under?  Maybe they should suspend ops so at least they don’t have to pay employees??? 

Edited March 12, 2020 by KPookey

[palmettostatecruiser]

12 hours ago, taglovestocruise said:

Will be a thing in the past by June.  no longer news worthy.

I'm sorry, but you have no way of knowing that or the consequences of what all is going on now on RCI or the industry as a whole. We are not alarmists, but the way things are going now and governments are responding, we just don't want to tie up money in a FCC.

[palmettostatecruiser]

1 hour ago, 20165 said:

Exactly the same conversation my wife and i had last night.  Our cruise is june 14 so our final payment is due next monday.  Last week we were excited with the 48 hour cancellation policy that came out, but it has continue to get worse, so we are cancelling.  We also dont want to wrap up over $7k, 2 cabins, in RCL right now...  

Hard decision.  This was a family reunion cruise and total, we had 8 cabins so lots of unhappy family members.  Got to do what right for the immediate family.

Good luck.

We only have the 1 cabin, it's myself, my husband and my son —this cruise was for his high school graduation and our 30th anniversary.  Like you we were excited to hear about the 48 hour cancellation policy that came out, but the reactions in the last couple of days made things just too volatile for us.  

[torpeedo]

34 minutes ago, palmettostatecruiser said:

We only have the 1 cabin, it's myself, my husband and my son —this cruise was for his high school graduation and our 30th anniversary.  Like you we were excited to hear about the 48 hour cancellation policy that came out, but the reactions in the last couple of days made things just too volatile for us.  

 

I wouldn't tie any more money up with Royal and cancel on Friday.  If you don't have a fully refundable deposit you will probably get an FCC for that amount.  We have a cruise on 4/26 and we had already made final payment before all this.  We're waiting for the 48 hrs before to decide or maybe Royal will decide for us.  We'd prefer a full refund.

[palmettostatecruiser]

Update: just cancelled by speaking with an awesome rep in our exchange company travel center. Bonus, I didn't realize I chose the refundable option so getting our deposit refunded back to our credit card!I

 

good luck to others trying to make the difficult decision!

[palmettostatecruiser]

3 minutes ago, torpeedo said:

 

I wouldn't tie any more money up with Royal and cancel on Friday.  If you don't have a fully refundable deposit you will probably get an FCC for that amount.  We have a cruise on 4/26 and we had already made final payment before all this.  We're waiting for the 48 hrs before to decide or maybe Royal will decide for us.  We'd prefer a full refund.

*waves* Hi neighbor, we're in Lexington also!  In your situation we would've done the same, waited until the 48 hour limit to decide because the decision might be made by others.  

[torpeedo]

4 hours ago, palmettostatecruiser said:

*waves* Hi neighbor, we're in Lexington also!  In your situation we would've done the same, waited until the 48 hour limit to decide because the decision might be made by others.  

 

Small world Lexington!!!  I'm really glad you had the fully refundable so there's no strings attached and your out.  You can always rebook!!!