Cancelled Cruises Refund Tracker/Discussion (merged topics)

[harz99]

6 hours ago, NHDOC said:

Cruise with CONfidence, I love it.  The CON is that the FCC can't be used for reservation deposits.  So, if you give them more money before this August you might be able to cruise again with them if they don't go bankrupt before April 2022, otherwise they will have conned you out of more $$$.  No thanks, just gimme my money back please.

 

I and others wishing to move or cancel future cruises will be in a different situation to you though, being booked in the UK if we cancel our cruises, as per the normal T&Cs we will lose our deposit, however with this policy it looks as though we can at the very least obtain an FCC and simply bide our time in re-booking until either we are confident of travelling, or the lo deposit offers come out - which they will with cruise confidence so low - or both.

 

The thing I have absolutely no wish to do, is be making full final payments for anything until at least the years end, by which time I believe the way forward in terms of both health matters and cruise company survival will be much much clearer.   

[twentyknots]

Our TA requested a refund on March 26 for a April 12 sailing on the Relection.  Part of the refund hit my credit card last night.  There were 4 seperate line items: $180.00 upgrade from balcony to Sky Suite; $276.32 taxes and port fees; $418.00 for something: and $2299.04 for something else.  Total credits $ 3173.36.  Our total cruise cost was $4254.32, so that leaves $1080.96 unaccounted for.  I can only guess that the $418.00 might possibly be a credit for the 4 perks but it's only a guess.

[hcat]

Your TA may have to call Celeb for the explanations.

 

Because  of the way Celeb does the refunds,   they should have sent out a final e mail with notice that  a refund was going back on one's card with a breakdown of each of the amounts.

 

We cancelled each of our cruises sep to reduce  any confusion but still had to play the mystery game for a few amounts..Luckily they all added up to what we expected to receive.

[downsmead]

Needless to say, the cancellation invoice I received made no sense at all on first sight. It was only after I played around with figures that I realised it also included my refund for an excursion and beverage package upgrade, but there was no details re this on the invoice, the only breakdown showed cruise fare and taxes, then a final amount which was greater than that for those two lines. This was for a 21st April cruise so not expecting to see the refund until after a May 21st at least.

[tartantiara]

We received the rest of monies due ,refunded to our credit card today ,All seems to be correct.Now we have to get it into our bank account. I can now stop checking my a/c every day lol 

[GerScot]

I cancelled early March and was getting fed up checking every day, as I was awaiting FCC and refund for excursions etc. Spoke to TA who contacted Celebrity who then forwarded the FCC. The amount on it was incorrect and took another week to resolve. Spoke with Captains Club yesterday, the lady there said I should have received refund for excursions within 3 weeks. Said she would forward it to a manager whom she could not contact at that time,  I said I would hold until she did but she promised to call me back. She duly did within half an hour and told me it must have been "missed!"  Said it was now being processed and as they only post credits on Wednesday and Sunday mine would go through this coming Sunday. Hopefully that's the end of it for now! 

Edited May 7, 2020 by GerScot

[twins_to_alaska]

I had a refundable deposit for a Jan 2021 cruise that I cancelled Mar 31. I was told it would only take 7-10 days which I questioned at the time but was assured the way it was set up it would go right through.

 

4/24 I was told hadn't been processed yet.

4/27 After receiving other refunds I called back. Told again not processed yet. Mentioned the 7-10 expected turnaround and asked why not. Agent looked into it more closely and found it had been refunded back on 4/1 !! but for some reason hadn't gone through to the credit card. Said she'd send an email to get it pushed again. 

5/6 I was told it had been successfully refunded 5/1. Refund showed up on credit card next day.

 

I don't know how long the unsuccessful push to credit card would have sat there if I hadn't called. It was already 26 days.

Edited May 7, 2020 by twins_to_alaska

[itp]

Received refund yesterday 5/6 from Celebrity for cancelled 4/12 Edge sailing, requested refund on 3/25; since we had not paid the charge bill yet seemed crazy to make payment then have the credit so filed a dispute to have more time before payment due (not sure if that made a difference); very happy with outcome from Celebrity, not so much with NCL they say will take 90 days.  Mostly just very sad to not be cruising (especially the Edge).   Good luck to all with the refund challenges!

[big_schots]

I was scheduled to go on the Silhouette 3/27/20, and received the cancellation e-mail on 3/13/20.  The next day I applied for the refund.  Mid April I called Celebrity, and the CSR told me my refund was processed by them on 3/17/20, roughly 3 days after I applied for it.  I received my deposit and purchased on-board credits back last Thursday, with the remaining amount received today.  So, it took approximately 7 weeks to make me whole.

[NHDOC]

3 hours ago, harz99 said:

 

I and others wishing to move or cancel future cruises will be in a different situation to you though, being booked in the UK if we cancel our cruises, as per the normal T&Cs we will lose our deposit, however with this policy it looks as though we can at the very least obtain an FCC and simply bide our time in re-booking until either we are confident of travelling, or the lo deposit offers come out - which they will with cruise confidence so low - or both.

 

The thing I have absolutely no wish to do, is be making full final payments for anything until at least the years end, by which time I believe the way forward in terms of both health matters and cruise company survival will be much much clearer.   

The issue is what happens to all of the deposits and FCC money they are holding should they become insolvent.  It's something that I never would have thought possible six months ago but today the unthinkable is the new reality.  Giving the cruiselines any more money today (or allowing them to hold your money in the form of a FCC) is basically like saying "there's a reasonably good chance that the money is going to be lost".  I, for one, am not willing to accept the IOU of a company who I feel has at least a 50/50 chance of never being able to make good on it so will do whatever I can to get my money back now and would certainly not make another deposit with any of the cruiselines until they were sailing again and proven to be able to provide either the cruise or refund should they become no longer financially viable.  Nowhere in their FCC or deposit program are you guaranteed to get anything, it's all built upon the belief they will be able to continue operations.  But why should that be the customer's risk to bear?

I have also requested that Princess, HAL and Celebrity refund all of the Future Cruise Deposit money they are holding when we entered into those programs for the same reason as above.  There is no good reason to believe any money they are holding will be usable if they go belly-up.  Let the fools who loaned NCL and Carnival billions take that risk - they are being paid interest in return for it but we customers aren't.

Edited May 7, 2020 by NHDOC
added future cruise deposit notes

[harz99]

8 minutes ago, NHDOC said:

The issue is what happens to all of the deposits and FCC money they are holding should they become insolvent.  It's something that I never would have thought possible six months ago but today the unthinkable is the new reality.  Giving the cruiselines any more money today (or allowing them to hold your money in the form of a FCC) is basically like saying "there's a reasonably good chance that the money is going to be lost".  

..................

I have also requested that Princess, HAL and Celebrity refund all of the Future Cruise Deposit money they are holding when we entered into those programs for the same reason as above.  There is no good reason to believe any money they are holding will be usable if they go belly-up.  Let the fools who loaned NCL and Carnival billions take that risk - they are being paid interest in return for it but we customers aren't.

 

I wish you well in your endeavours, personally i'd love to see you succeed because it would open the floodgates for the rest of us, however that is also why I think you haven't a cat in hells chance of being successful. We all signed up to various contractual terms, and unless our cruises are cancelled by the cruise line or are provided in a very materially different way, both parties are entitled to expect the other party in the contract to abide by the contract terms.

[NHDOC]

12 minutes ago, harz99 said:

 

I wish you well in your endeavours, personally i'd love to see you succeed because it would open the floodgates for the rest of us, however that is also why I think you haven't a cat in hells chance of being successful. We all signed up to various contractual terms, and unless our cruises are cancelled by the cruise line or are provided in a very materially different way, both parties are entitled to expect the other party in the contract to abide by the contract terms.

 

So far, my efforts, which included Visa disputes have gotten me back over $10,000 I would have had to accept as FCC had I not fought for it and now I am down to the last $1400 or so they still owe on deposits made long ago.  So, my cat's chance is looking pretty good.  This cat has 8 more lives left. 

 

The cruise lines can say "you agreed to accept this..." as their excuse but making an offer I couldn't refuse is what they did and there's such a thing as agreeing to something under duress or by having a party with undue influence over you that would invalidate such an agreement in a court of law.  In other words if they told me you can take FCC or take nothing and I agreed to take FCC they can't enforce that agreement because the they exercised their power to threaten "nothing" if I didn't accept FCC. 

 

[omeinv]

5 minutes ago, NHDOC said:

 

So far, my efforts, which included Visa disputes have gotten me back over $10,000 I would have had to accept as FCC had I not fought for it and now I am down to the last $1400 or so they still owe on deposits made long ago.  So, my cat's chance is looking pretty good.  This cat has 8 more lives left. 

 

The cruise lines can say "you agreed to accept this..." as their excuse but making an offer I couldn't refuse is what they did and there's such a thing as agreeing to something under duress or by having a party with undue influence over you that would invalidate such an agreement in a court of law.  In other words if they told me you can take FCC or take nothing and I agreed to take FCC they can't enforce that agreement because the they exercised their power to threaten "nothing" if I didn't accept FCC. 

 

It sounds like you've received provisional credits from your credit card companies.  The telling point will be when the merchants respond to the credit card firm's investigation with documentation that they acted in accordance withthe contract.  Also, even if a credit card dispute finds in your favor, the merchant can still then take collection actions to recover a debt. 

 

In short, be careful of declaring victory too soon.

 

Harris

Denver, CO

[harz99]

4 minutes ago, NHDOC said:

 

So far, my efforts, which included Visa disputes have gotten me back over $10,000 I would have had to accept as FCC had I not fought for it and now I am down to the last $1400 or so they still owe on deposits made long ago.  So, my cat's chance is looking pretty good.  This cat has 8 more lives left. 

 

 

 

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the refunds you've had were all for cruises already cancelled by the cruise lines or materially affected cruises that were already taking place? My concern is centred around future booked cruises not yet paid in full.

[NHDOC]

1 minute ago, omeinv said:

It sounds like you've received provisional credits from your credit card companies.  The telling point will be when the merchants respond to the credit card firm's investigation with documentation that they acted in accordance withthe contract.  Also, even if a credit card dispute finds in your favor, the merchant can still then take collection actions to recover a debt. 

 

In short, be careful of declaring victory too soon.

 

Harris

Denver, CO

Most of the disputes have already been closed, but, you are correct that my dispute with Celebrity is still pending.  I have a few more weeks before that one closes out.  One would have to ask ones self why is Celebrity so unwilling to simply make a refund against an FCC if they believe the FCC has the same value as the refund if, for no other reason, than to make the customer happy.  Personally, I feel I was lied to on March 12, when I asked about options I was told the sailing on the 15th was "absolutely going to sail" and my only choices were to go on it, cancel that day and receive FCC or forfeit the fare if we didn't cancel and didn't go.  They can say they didn't lie but they did, the fact is they canceled the cruise less than 24 hours later and changed their policy.  They didn't say "we have no plans to cancel the cruise" they said it "absolutely was going to sail" and it absolutely didn't sail, it was canceled. 

[NHDOC]

7 minutes ago, harz99 said:

 

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the refunds you've had were all for cruises already cancelled by the cruise lines or materially affected cruises that were already taking place? My concern is centred around future booked cruises not yet paid in full.

 

Yes, my refunds were for cruises which were paid in full and which were canceled by the cruise line.  The snag for me is I was coerced into canceling them the day before they canceled them so they claim that because I canceled first I am not entitled to a refund, only a FCC.  They claim I agreed to that, which, technically I did but it was based upon their misrepresentation of the future plans.  They told me on the 12th that a sailing on the 15th was "absolutely going to sail", then on the 13th they canceled it.  But my deadline to cancel without losing our money completely was by the end of the day on the 12th so we were pressured into accepting their FCC because that was their policy in place on the 12th, but not on the 13th. 

[Banjo]

Just checked my credit card and the refundable deposit I had on end of October Apex Trans Atlantic cruise showed up. Still waiting on a refund for a April 24th Reflection Trans Atlantic (which would be ending this Saturday). This is a lot more $ than the deposit 😕. I requested refunds on both around April 1st.  What a pain this is.

[BP99]

Still waiting for a 100% refund for April 5 and April 17 Silhouette cruises (B2B).

After waiting more that 50 days, I contacted Celebrity by email for information

on the delay.

They responded that it would take 2 weeks to RESPOND to my email.

[NHDOC]

4 minutes ago, BP99 said:

Still waiting for a 100% refund for April 5 and April 17 Silhouette cruises (B2B).

After waiting more that 50 days, I contacted Celebrity by email for information

on the delay.

They responded that it would take 2 weeks to RESPOND to my email.

My (free) advice would be if you paid by CC contact the CC company to find out what their dispute policy is for merchandise and services not received is.  I found out yesterday that the time limit for Visa is actually 120 days after the date the item was promised, so even if you paid a year ago for it you can still dispute it.  If you wait much longer that window may close and if you dispute it you get credit (provisional) instantly and you have the leverage over Celebrity instead of the other way around.

[aholter66]

61 days from refund request – no refund yet.

 

I was booked on my first Princess Cruise back in 2019.  It was on the Island Princess for a 28-day Baltic Sea and Iceland cruise departing on June 23^rd.

 

When the COVID-19 thing surfaced, and Princess first announced their updated refund policy, I cancelled my voyage and was informed I had a Future Cruise Credit (FCC) or cash option.  I chose cash.  I was then informed that I should receive my $20,000 refund in 15 days – depending on my bank.  My cancellation email notice was dated March 7, 2020.  Princess later cancelled this cruise on their own.

 

The next day, credits started to show up on my credit card – credits for the excursions that I had booked during the cruise.  If fact, by the end of the first week, I had received a refund for all ship and non-ship excursions, pre-cruise hotels, and airline tickets.  The only refund that I had not received was for the cruise itself, from Princess.

The 15 days passed and I received no refund.  A call to Princess indicated that it was really 15 business days (That may have been what was said in the beginning.  I wasn’t paying as much attention then).  During that time window, there was a major cruise ship line announcement on cruise ship voyage cancellations (about March 13), dramatically increasing the number of people that would be seeking refunds.  On my next call, Princess informed me that because of higher volumes, it might be 20-30 business days.

 

I have kept calling Princess and the process seems to keep being adjusted, but still there is no payment.  The first process adjustment that I received said that the timeline had changed, due to the number of refund requests, and that it was now 60 days until payment would be received.  On the next call I said I understood the new explanation, but that it was hard to understand with my refund request coming in before the surge in requests, why it would still take up to 60 days.  The explanation was that they were now processing the requests in order of the ship's scheduled departure.

 

So I have continued t call every week, getting slightly different explanations.  Today was a big day.  It has now been 61 days since cancellation.  I called again.  This time the explanation is different.  First, I was referred to a statement on Refunds and Future Cruise Credits on their web site dated April 20, 2020.  They no longer commit to a 80 day period.  They just indicate it will happen sometime.

 

Frankly at this point, you can only conclude that Princess is being dishonest.  They have no money.  They have ours, and despite public pronouncements, they have no intention of returning it to us.  As time goes on, they appear to have invented new policies, explanations, and concepts on why no money can be returned. I find it doubtful that they ever will process a refund, and frankly don’t believe they will ever sail again.  All of the statements that they have made to me on refunds have turned out to not be true (This is a little more politic way of restating the dishonesty that I feel).  Please, please do not book any future reservations, you may well be throwing your money away.

[NHDOC]

3 minutes ago, aholter66 said:

61 days from refund request – no refund yet.

 

I was booked on my first Princess Cruise back in 2019.  It was on the Island Princess for a 28-day Baltic Sea and Iceland cruise departing on June 23^rd.

 

When the COVID-19 thing surfaced, and Princess first announced their updated refund policy, I cancelled my voyage and was informed I had a Future Cruise Credit (FCC) or cash option.  I chose cash.  I was then informed that I should receive my $20,000 refund in 15 days – depending on my bank.  My cancellation email notice was dated March 7, 2020.  Princess later cancelled this cruise on their own.

 

The next day, credits started to show up on my credit card – credits for the excursions that I had booked during the cruise.  If fact, by the end of the first week, I had received a refund for all ship and non-ship excursions, pre-cruise hotels, and airline tickets.  The only refund that I had not received was for the cruise itself, from Princess.

The 15 days passed and I received no refund.  A call to Princess indicated that it was really 15 business days (That may have been what was said in the beginning.  I wasn’t paying as much attention then).  During that time window, there was a major cruise ship line announcement on cruise ship voyage cancellations (about March 13), dramatically increasing the number of people that would be seeking refunds.  On my next call, Princess informed me that because of higher volumes, it might be 20-30 business days.

 

I have kept calling Princess and the process seems to keep being adjusted, but still there is no payment.  The first process adjustment that I received said that the timeline had changed, due to the number of refund requests, and that it was now 60 days until payment would be received.  On the next call I said I understood the new explanation, but that it was hard to understand with my refund request coming in before the surge in requests, why it would still take up to 60 days.  The explanation was that they were now processing the requests in order of the ship's scheduled departure.

 

So I have continued t call every week, getting slightly different explanations.  Today was a big day.  It has now been 61 days since cancellation.  I called again.  This time the explanation is different.  First, I was referred to a statement on Refunds and Future Cruise Credits on their web site dated April 20, 2020.  They no longer commit to a 80 day period.  They just indicate it will happen sometime.

 

Frankly at this point, you can only conclude that Princess is being dishonest.  They have no money.  They have ours, and despite public pronouncements, they have no intention of returning it to us.  As time goes on, they appear to have invented new policies, explanations, and concepts on why no money can be returned. I find it doubtful that they ever will process a refund, and frankly don’t believe they will ever sail again.  All of the statements that they have made to me on refunds have turned out to not be true (This is a little more politic way of restating the dishonesty that I feel).  Please, please do not book any future reservations, you may well be throwing your money away.

See my free advice above about credit card disputes.  You have the right to dispute the charges if they owe you the money and haven't paid it...you probably will get it back if you take it up with the credit card company. 

[GottaKnowWhen]

1 hour ago, NHDOC said:

 

Yes, my refunds were for cruises which were paid in full and which were canceled by the cruise line.  The snag for me is I was coerced into canceling them the day before they canceled them so they claim that because I canceled first I am not entitled to a refund, only a FCC.  They claim I agreed to that, which, technically I did but it was based upon their misrepresentation of the future plans.  They told me on the 12th that a sailing on the 15th was "absolutely going to sail", then on the 13th they canceled it.  But my deadline to cancel without losing our money completely was by the end of the day on the 12th so we were pressured into accepting their FCC because that was their policy in place on the 12th, but not on the 13th. 

OK, I have seen some of your many posts on the topic. As I understand your situation, you were on a cruise, you wanted to bail out of following cruises because of the impending pandemic doom. You went to guest relations desk (your first mistake) and tried to cancel. As far as they knew your next cruises were still going to happen, and they gave you a deal, which you accepted. And now you are complaining because you want a better deal than the one you accepted? I don't know how much you have cruised, but if you travel enough, you may come to understand that what happens in discussions in corporate HQ about possible futures does not magically instantly get communicated across all 80,000 employees on land and sea. Discussions are held, decisions are made, policies are established, timelines are set, and emails are sent out informing employees and clients that e.g. "as of such and such a time/date, the following cruises are cancelled and clients have the following options." Your claim that you were lied to, that the guest relations staff misrepresented the situation, is an insult to the staff and a likely misrepresentation of reality. 

Apparently the worst outcome for you would have been a total loss of everything you had paid. You may have heard the expression "why cry over spilt milk?" Suck it up and move on. But oh wait! You were graciously provided FCC. But that doesn't seem to make you feel better. You know, we all make poor decisions, often based on incomplete or inaccurate information. Happens all the time. Some carry on about what shoulda coulda happened, some accept the consequences of their choices and move on... I hope that, once this all settles down, you are able to get back to enjoying cruises.

[NHDOC]

I love it when people tell others to suck up a loss when it isn't their money. 

 

Anyway I don't get sucked into arguments with trolls whose comments don't add anything to the conversation. 

[aholter66]

33 minutes ago, NHDOC said:

See my free advice above about credit card disputes.  You have the right to dispute the charges if they owe you the money and haven't paid it...you probably will get it back if you take it up with the credit card company. 

I saw it and I am on it right now.  Two credit cards involved which will add a little confusion.  Thank you for the counsel.

[39august]

I first cancelled a July back to back just before final due date, but had paid in full previously, on April 2. . Then X cancelled another b2b for May, which of course had been paid in full. My first partial refund came on April 7, followed by refunds on 4/16, 4/24 and 5/6. To date we have received about 70% of the total refunds owed. I feel this response has been timely, as the latest payment was only  35 days from my first cancellation date.  And the last cruise that X cancelled was a May 13 date. That is the one that has not yet been paid in full.