Canada closes ports to cruise ships until July 1

[Italy52]

3 hours ago, eyecantwait said:

Ours is late August so we are also holding on to the hope that we get to go.

Our first cruise is May 20, 2020 - B2B on the Coral Princess to Alaska -- cancelled, just waiting for official word

Our next cruise we have booked is August 16, 2020 -- hoping this one doesn't get cancelled as well.

 

 

[Reina del Mar]

Our Alaskan  cruise is 11th July. Wondering whether it will go ahead so soon after 1st July . ( Canada cruise cancellations' date)

 

Coming up up to final payment date...bit unsure what to do. 

[worldtraveller99]

Have you spoken with your TA or SS if you booked directly? I think they could advise you. It's hard to throw good money after bad unless you have a solid guarantee you will get it back. We were flying to Valencia Spain in 2 weeks. BA have said they are still flying??? So they want to give us the money back only as a credit to use within 1 year. But what if the virus goes on till the autumn so we could not travel - and we don't want to have a spring break in January! I have asked for a refund, let us see.

[Reina del Mar]

Giving it a week or so.

 

Our flights to Buenos Aires and cruise on Thursday 19th have been cancelled over the last few days. Princess very good , promising refund  and future cruise credit, but had to fight to get travel agent to get promise from consolidator for flight refund.

 

Need a break from hassling travel agents...fortunately Alaskan one booked with different agency! Think Princess will allow us to cancel this one for future cruise credit, but then will need to fight over flights again!

 

Just interested in everyone's thoughts

[sea2shiningsea4]

On 3/14/2020 at 7:25 PM, Ralph1212 said:

Hi, I have a princess cruise scheduled to depart 6/6 from Vancouver and end 6/13 in anchorage. The news of Canada end this trip(or so it seems) rules dictate that a ship registered in a foreign country needs to port in 1 foreign country during a cruise in USA ports. Obviously, Vancouver would be the foreign port in this cruise. I called princess today and got through and was basically told they are dealing with the cruises cancelled in the 60 days of no cruise. I kindly reminded them that they have 6k of my money and that the cruise I booked cannot possibly happen...any ideas. Any hope. I know I will get my money back but damn....

 

 

 

 

 

Ralph1212, we're scheduled for that exact same cruise! It's our first cruise. It's part of a longer trip, so if this gets cancelled we have a lot of other things that need rearranging or cancelling, too. It's hard to wait, but I presume we're among thousands so I'm trying to be patient.  : ) Please post if you hear anything. 

[Moonstruck1115]

On 3/15/2020 at 8:32 PM, Italy52 said:

Our first cruise is May 20, 2020 - B2B on the Coral Princess to Alaska -- cancelled, just waiting for official word

Our next cruise we have booked is August 16, 2020 -- hoping this one doesn't get cancelled as well.

 

 

We are supposed to be on the same cruise.  We are wanting to cancel, but I've been told by my TA that I can't get a refund for anything, only FCC.  With all the changes, I can't figure out what I should get if I cancel now.  I would like to have a full refund for everything.  What did you get?

[Italy52]

26 minutes ago, Moonstruck1115 said:

We are supposed to be on the same cruise.  We are wanting to cancel, but I've been told by my TA that I can't get a refund for anything, only FCC.  With all the changes, I can't figure out what I should get if I cancel now.  I would like to have a full refund for everything.  What did you get?

Princess has not "officially" contacted us yet; we are still waiting to hear from them.  I know they are probably very busy trying to take care of the many cruisers/cruises that are in line before us.  We will wait for Princess to cancel our cruise to see what compensation they offer and probably ask for a full refund back to our cc.  The only thing that I have done is cancelled my independent tours as they have "cancellation conditions" attached to them.

Edited March 19, 2020 by Italy52

[Moonstruck1115]

Thank you Italy52.  I will probably start doing the same with our excursions.  I checked the website for our different tours and no one has anything about a revised cancellation policy.  Thanks for your response!

[Mandy1021]

On 3/16/2020 at 11:17 AM, Reina del Mar said:

Our Alaskan  cruise is 11th July. Wondering whether it will go ahead so soon after 1st July . ( Canada cruise cancellations' date)

 

Coming up up to final payment date...bit unsure what to do. 

 

I am wondering the same thing. Our final payment is due March 26th. We are suppose to be cruising for our Honeymoon July 5th out of Vancouver 😞

[eljabe]

My cruisetour begins June 27 in Fairbanks - suppose to board Royal Princess July 4th and disembark on July 11 in Vancouver.  I really don't want to be in the middle of my cruisetour when I find out the July 1 date has been extended and that I won't be able to get off in Vancouver! My final payment date is April 29 so I hope that I have enough information from Princess before then.  This trip has been in the planning stages for two  years  - I'll be upset if I have to cancel or Princess cancels it - but I'd rather wait a year so that I can experience the trip I've been dreaming about.

[KristyMisty14]

https://www.canada.ca/en/transport-canada/news/2020/03/government-of-canada-announces-intention-to-defer-the-start-of-cruise-ship-season-in-canada-as-covid-19-response-measure.html

[Glaciers]

This isn’t all about whether cruises will be cancelled. It’s also about what will be open when you’re there.  In Seattle we’re a couple weeks ahead of Alaska with the spread and dozens of bars, restaurants, hotels and retail businesses are closed.  I do wonder with distancing issues if getting on a bus in Denali with 50 others sitting next to each other is a good idea, or will even be allowed. Hopefully by the Alaska cruising season this won’t be a problem.

[KristyMisty14]

18 minutes ago, Glaciers said:

This isn’t all about whether cruises will be cancelled. It’s also about what will be open when you’re there.  In Seattle we’re a couple weeks ahead of Alaska with the spread and dozens of bars, restaurants, hotels and retail businesses are closed.  I do wonder with distancing issues if getting on a bus in Denali with 50 others sitting next to each other is a good idea, or will even be allowed. Hopefully by the Alaska cruising season this won’t be a problem.

But anything from Victoria or Vancouver BC will NOT be sailing until at-least July 1

[Glaciers]

52 minutes ago, KristyMisty14 said:

But anything from Victoria or Vancouver BC will NOT be sailing until at-least July 1

Including cruises from Seattle that do their mandatory port stop in either of those cities.

 

In eljabe's post they indicate their cruise tour is prior to July 1, as are many others including those just doing a DIY. Many businesses will be closed. Of course, if Princess is doing their land tours their lodges will most certainly be open although many of the tour operators may not. Something to consider.

 

[kennystwin]

5 hours ago, Glaciers said:

Of course, if Princess is doing their land tours their lodges will most certainly be open although many of the tour operators may not. Something to consider.

 

I'm not so sure Princess will be ready. Like most of the tour operators, they depend on part time workers from the lower 48 to staff their lodges, trains, busses, etc. Lots of college students and teachers. With the late start, I suspect a lot of them will pass on the truncated season putting all the Alaskan tourism suppliers in a real bind.

[akolasz]

It's official Royal Caribbean is cancelling all Alaska cruise till July 1.

 

https://presscenter.rclcorporate.com/press-release/89/royal-caribbean-extends-global-suspension-of-cruisingrnnbsp/?fbclid=IwAR2yFt99VgYflouf0o5SN8wCxjcxwpKHVqTNjLYZBIKiZ3Vgc6oSrwYTJHw

[Ralph1212]

Crazy that princess has not announced yet. RC and celebrity has and yet I still wait. Called princess and they are “ nothing official “

[geoherb]

I find it strange, also, that Princess has Alaskan cruises showing on its website that we know can't take place because of Canada's policy. I'd love to go again in June like I did last year, but I know they can't sail then.

[Jobeth66]

I am also in a bind with this - we have a southbound cruisetour booked for which the land portion leaves out of Fairbanks on June 23, then the sea portion leaves out of Seward on June 29, scheduled to dock in Vancouver on July 6.  

 

I have no clue what to expect at this point.  We're on the cusp of the port reopening (assuming they don't delay it further), but if they don't make a decision prior to the departure of our cruise, I don't see how our cruise can sail without knowing if it will be able to dock.  It's not like the east coast where they can rearrange ports to potentially avoid Canada if other countries are open (Bermuda, Bahamas, etc.)

 

I'm also not sure if they'll have ships cleaned, manned & ready to go by then, since they are going to likely have to scramble to get employees back after contracts expired or for entertainers who were released from contracts early and have gone home.

 

I do want a refund and not FCC if we can't take the cruise this year - while we're likely to do Alaska at some point in the future, this was a 25th anniversary cruise for one of the couples in our group and we'd rather do something more local if the cruise is out.

 

Just frustrating not knowing what's going to happen, and we're less than 90 days from our trip at this point.  I'm a long-term planner, I don't like not knowing.  😞

Edited April 1, 2020 by Jobeth66

[worldtraveller99]

I booked our July Alaska cruise 2 years ago jobeth66 at a price which I know will not be repeated, plus the flights, excursions, hotels, blow.  I hope we will get much of it refunded when / if they all cancel on us, but I know it will cost more in the future, and i shall probably not be in a rush to ever book more than 6 months in advance, pity.

[Jobeth66]

2 minutes ago, worldtraveller99 said:

I booked our July Alaska cruise 2 years ago jobeth66 at a price which I know will not be repeated, plus the flights, excursions, hotels, blow.  I hope we will get much of it refunded when / if they all cancel on us, but I know it will cost more in the future, and i shall probably not be in a rush to ever book more than 6 months in advance, pity.

 

We have flights booked, but were able to get refunds on a large portion of them through AA - originally they were about $1200 per person, now we're down to $340 per person, and we can change dates on those, so if need be we'll use those credits to fly south somewhere and enjoy some warm weather.

 

Hotel is refundable, I never do the non-refundable hotels, too much can go wrong.  So I'm holding on to the pre-cruise hotel and we can cancel that within 24 hours with no penalty.

 

I really want to cruise, this whole situation sucks.

[AlohaBoundHK]

16 minutes ago, Jobeth66 said:

 

Just frustrating not knowing what's going to happen, and we're less than 90 days from our trip at this point.  I'm a long-term planner, I don't like not knowing.  😞

Same here...we are supposed to complete our cruise in Vancouver on July 17.  I am also fighting with Delta over $3200 for NR tickets.  I can only get a fee waiver and e-voucher for which I must complete travel by August 21, 2020 UNLESS they cancel or change the flight by more than 3 hours, in which case I can get a full cash refund. 

[Jobeth66]

3 minutes ago, AlohaBoundHK said:

Same here...we are supposed to complete our cruise in Vancouver on July 17.  I am also fighting with Delta over $3200 for NR tickets.  I can only get a fee waiver and e-voucher for which I must complete travel by August 21, 2020 UNLESS they cancel or change the flight by more than 3 hours, in which case I can get a full cash refund. 

 

American Airlines was really good with that - I've changed my flights twice and gotten cash refunds (on economy NR tickets!) on the difference, so my out of pocket right now is $340 per person, but I can change those flights with no change fee up until February of next year, so we can use them to go elsewhere.

[Glaciers]

35 minutes ago, Jobeth66 said:

I am also in a bind with this - we have a southbound cruisetour booked for which the land portion leaves out of Fairbanks on June 23, then the sea portion leaves out of Seward on June 29, scheduled to dock in Vancouver on July 6. 

You’re in a more vulnerable time frame than others that are planning July and beyond trips. Your ship won’t be able to depart from Vancouver as that trip would be departing prior to July 1. The ship would have to travel empty to Seward for your departure.  I think it’s unlikely that will happen.  I also wonder what will be open in Alaska in June.

[Jobeth66]

25 minutes ago, Glaciers said:

You’re in a more vulnerable time frame than others that are planning July and beyond trips. Your ship won’t be able to depart from Vancouver as that trip would be departing prior to July 1. The ship would have to travel empty to Seward for your departure.  I think it’s unlikely that will happen.  I also wonder what will be open in Alaska in June.

 

I honestly hadn't thought about that - and I'm supposed to be on the Jewel which was recently traveling around the South Pacific trying to find a place to land, who knows where she will end up waiting for her Alaska season.  I think the Honolulu-Vancouver reposition was supposed to be this week, that's obviously not showing up to book - but I could still book the Vancouver-Seward cruise on May 11 if I wanted to, knowing that it's going to be canceled because Vancouver is closed! 

 

I doubt Vancouver is going to even let an empty cruise ship dock, and the Jewel has more than 1000 crew if it's fully staffed.  They can't dock in Seattle, that port is closed as well.  So where are the ships going?

 

 

Edited April 1, 2020 by Jobeth66