Cancelled Cruises Refund Tracker/Discussion (merged topics)

[torontoguys]

Requested refund March 27 for April 25 cancelled cruise.  Received full refund today (May 14) for cruise.  Nothing for non-refundable airfare.

 

[barb-ottawa]

It's good to see that some people are seeing the refunds on their credit cards. I understand completely that it is going to take some time to clear all the accounts. But I find it frustrating to hear that people whose cruises were in April and May are getting their refunds and I have yet to see anything from my March 23rd cruise. What possible criteria are they using to issue refunds if not by date?

[omeinv]

10 minutes ago, barb-ottawa said:

It's good to see that some people are seeing the refunds on their credit cards. I understand completely that it is going to take some time to clear all the accounts. But I find it frustrating to hear that people whose cruises were in April and May are getting their refunds and I have yet to see anything from my March 23rd cruise. What possible criteria are they using to issue refunds if not by date?

Perhaps geography?  If they're working their way north, @torontoguys got theirs today, so @barb-ottawa should be soon.  🙂

 

Harris

Denver, CO

Edited May 14, 2020 by omeinv

[jerryd1]

5 minutes ago, omeinv said:

Perhaps geography?  If they're working their way north, @torontoguys got theirs today, so @barb-ottawa should be soon.  🙂

 

That's way to logical🤔

 

I think they have a big chute to the accounting department in the basement.    All cancellations get dumped down the chute. Whichever booking is on top when they are ready for the next one gets picked up and partially processed and thrown back in the pile.

[barb-ottawa]

32 minutes ago, jerryd1 said:

 

That's way to logical🤔

 

I think they have a big chute to the accounting department in the basement.    All cancellations get dumped down the chute. Whichever booking is on top when they are ready for the next one gets picked up and partially processed and thrown back in the pile.

 I am envisioning a large fishbowl in the accounting office from which refund requests are chosen. I suspect mine is stuck at the bottom.

[pixiedust777]

Just checked (again... as I have been doing it daily) and 100% of my refund was deposited back to my visa and debit account. The credits were all posted and dated for today.(May 12)

Was credited in 4 different amounts but the final total owed back is correct.

This was for the April 13th sailing on the Reflection.

 

[fwdpost]

6 hours ago, Ride-The-Waves said:

Its unrealistic to expect refunds from cruise lines until cruising resumes (in some form) and their finial balance sheets are showing decent income from actual cruising.  Cruise lines are hemorrhaging money and to "stay afloat" are using deposits to fund daily operations.  Its all they have except for lines of credit.  And, its gong to be a long time until income and expense begin to balance again.  I'm about $20K in the hole having been caught between final payment and cruising.  FCC is not a help to me since we are facing new guidance on health (existing conditions) and age restrictions not present before March.  Its going to be a long wait...

This is a joke - wait for them to make money? The interest on all the cruises cancelled would make Jeff Bezos envious.

[BP99]

1 hour ago, barb-ottawa said:

It's good to see that some people are seeing the refunds on their credit cards. I understand completely that it is going to take some time to clear all the accounts. But I find it frustrating to hear that people whose cruises were in April and May are getting their refunds and I have yet to see anything from my March 23rd cruise. What possible criteria are they using to issue refunds if not by date?

Hi,

It could be that they did not process it as a refund. I was waiting 55 days for

a refund and was wondering the same thing (why are others getting money

for latter cruises). Well, this week the sent me a FCC certificate, NOT a refund

that I requested. They have done this TRICK to MANY!! I think? they are taking

their time (at least longer) for FCC.

Contact them (or your TA) by email or phone to make sure before you wait LONGER!

[scrabble6]

On 5/6/2020 at 9:59 AM, scrabble6 said:

Alaska cruise/tour, scheduled to depart Vancouver May 22, 2020/Millennium.

Final payment was Feb 22. 

Cruise was cancelled by Celebrity on March 24.  We requested full refund online on March 24.  At that time it was stated we would receive refund within 30 days.

Today, May 6th, most of my refund appeared on my credit card online statement!    Yesterday (May 5) was the 30th business day.  I check our credit card online this morning--no refund.  I called Celebrity and quickly got through to someone who was very helpful.  He stated that two specific $ amounts (equal to our deposit and our cruise fare) had been dispersed to our credit card on May 2.  And he checked and could see that two other specific $ amounts (which exactly equal the pre-paid grats and the taxes/fees amounts) are in an accounting queue for "approval" and should be dispersed soon.

 

After we hung up I got back online and voila!  There were the two credits for cruise fare plus deposit!   Recent transactions are quite visible on my credit card site, so there's no chance I overlooked them earlier this morning when I check before the phone call.   

I feel confident that the remainder will be forthcoming.  I'll update when that comes through for those who are interested.

 

Just to follow up on my own post to complete the refund timeline, for those who are interested.  Today, the balance of our refund is on our online credit card statement! 

So to summarize:

Cruise date was to be May 22, 2020

Celebrity cancelled the cruise and we requested a full refund on March 24

Most of the refund was received on May 6 (43 days/31 business days).  This was the cruise fare including deposit.

Balance of refund received today May 14 (51 days/37 business days).  This was the taxes/fees/port charges + prepaid grats.

 

Previously we had received a refund for our Shore Excursions on April 4th (10 days after cancellation).

 

We did not use a TA; we booked this online direct with Celebrity.

 

In other news, United has refunded all of our airfare for the flights that they cancelled--we made our own arrangements and did not use Flights by Celebrity.

Also our travel insurance provider states they will refund our travel insurance premium for this trip.

 

I know many of you are frustrated and still waiting--I hope this info is helpful, and I hope you have good outcomes.

[barb-ottawa]

10 minutes ago, BP99 said:

Hi,

It could be that they did not process it as a refund. I was waiting 55 days for

a refund and was wondering the same thing (why are others getting money

for latter cruises). Well, this week the sent me a FCC certificate, NOT a refund

that I requested. They have done this TRICK to MANY!! I think? they are taking

their time (at least longer) for FCC.

Contact them (or your TA) by email or phone to make sure before you wait LONGER!

Just spent an hour on hold and spoke to Celebrity. The agent was very nice and said I should have received my refund by now and there must be a glitch, but unfortunately she can't investigate at my request because I booked through a travel agent and they can only follow up with the travel agent. She did confirm that a refund was forthcoming and not an FCC. Very frustrating. Sent another email to my travel agent, but I'm sure all I will get back is that refunds are taking longer than usual, blah, blah, blah.

[aholter66]

1 hour ago, barb-ottawa said:

It's good to see that some people are seeing the refunds on their credit cards. I understand completely that it is going to take some time to clear all the accounts. But I find it frustrating to hear that people whose cruises were in April and May are getting their refunds and I have yet to see anything from my March 23rd cruise. What possible criteria are they using to issue refunds if not by date?

Princess Cruises

Date Cancelled - March 7

Scheduled Sail Date - June 25

Princess Excursions Refunds Received - about $1,000 for excursions by March 15

Princess Passage Refunds Received - $0

 

Recent phone calls to Princess tell me they are processing in order of sail date, not cancellation.

 

[Fouremco]

Not a refund comment per se, but simply an observation on Celebrity's approach to dealing with its customer base.

 

With the vast majority of enterprises with whom I deal, if I send an email to customer service I'll receive an almost instantaneous reply acknowledging receipt of my email and assurance that it will be dealt with as soon as possible, sometimes indicating a small delay. Last week I sent a query to Celebrity One Touch, and it took three days to acknowledge. The email indicated that it would then take three weeks before they could get around to dealing with my issue.

 

I know how busy they are, the fact that people are working from home in many cases, and that they may not be working at full strength. As I say, I get that, and quite frankly, the three-week delay doesn't upset me, as I don't need an immediate answer. What does surprise me (well, maybe not) is the fact that it takes three days to send an acknowledgement when other companies take less than 30 seconds. Not a huge issue, but I think it is indicative of the effort put towards customer relations over the last few years, on the one hand, and the serious failure to take full advantage of modern day technology on the other. As customers, we are all aware of the website's many shortcomings, but one really has to wonder how much of routine, day-to-day business within Celebrity is hampered by aging information technology and greatly outdated work flow.

 

 

[Happy Cruiser 6143]

I agree absolutely about the outdated technology.  When I called the airlines about my cancelled flight, the message was that call volumes were exceedingly high, but if I would leave my phone number, they would get back to me in X number of minutes.  I left my number and they got back to me at the time stated.  How civilized is that?  I'll be happy to book with them again.

 

Yesterday I tried to call Celebrity about two cruises I booked online for which I've yet to receive my booking confirmation guest copies.  After working my way through the press 1 etc. nonsense, I finally pressed a number that indicated I was calling about an existing booking.  The response:  a busy signal.  Really, Celebrity?  

[aholter66]

2 hours ago, aholter66 said:

Princess Cruises

Date Cancelled - March 7

Scheduled Sail Date - June 25

Princess Excursions Refunds Received - about $1,000 for excursions by March 15

Princess Passage Refunds Received - $0

 

Recent phone calls to Princess tell me they are processing in order of sail date, not cancellation.

 

I see Carnival furloughed over 800 today. Probably, with my luck, all from the refund processing group.

 

BTW - to add to situation, I cancelled, not Princess, they charged me $100 per person cancellation, 

[twincheryl]

11 minutes ago, Happy Cruiser 6143 said:

Yesterday I tried to call Celebrity about two cruises I booked online forwhich I've yet to receive my booking confirmation guest copies.  After working my way through the press 1 etc. nonsense, I finally pressed a number that indicated I was calling about an existing booking.  The response:  a busy signal.  Really, Celebrity?  

I have learned thru experience, to always select the NEW BOOKINGS option because they always answer quickly... lol... then they transfer you to whoever needs to handle the matter.

[Martinjjd]

Pleased to say that our Celebrity refunds were deposited to our account on 11 May. That's exactly 8 weeks since I applied for refund.

Today I happened to receive a Captains Club offer of discounts for most cruises but interestingly the offer does not apply to FCC. Have not checked how good discounts are yet.

[Shadow9612]

10 hours ago, omeinv said:

 

I understand that you don't feel the "Lift and Shift" option is a good one; and your reasons make sense; but if it were me, I'd use that as a way to preserve all of the deposit I had, and then cancel at the later date if necessary.  It seems that would be the lesser evil, since if you straight cancel now, you'd end up with the $100.00 loss and future cruise credits, that you also don't see using right now. 

Hmmmm. Very good thought.  Now I have some more thinking to do 🙂

[Shadow9612]

4 hours ago, Fouremco said:

Not a refund comment per se, but simply an observation on Celebrity's approach to dealing with its customer base.

One would think that this is the time to work harder to take care of your current customer base.... it really is too bad, all the things I'm reading on this thread (glitches, FCC instead of refund, Delays that are unreasonable, etc.).

[GeroWA]

Requested refund March 29 for March 19th & 29th 2021 B2B cancelled cruises.  Received full refund today (May 14) for cruise. All my doubts have vanished!

Thank you Celebrity

[geoffwhittle]

Cruise Original Date = 1 April 2020

Celebrity Cancelled Cruise = 15 March 2020

Requested Refund = 15 March 2020

 

56 Calendar Days Later, Refund Received in 3 Different Payments matching cruise amount

[#1grammy]

Cruise date: June 5

Celebrity canceled: April 15. I Requested refund that day

Received refund May 15,  30 days from request.

Many different payments, I'm still running the numbers, but it is close and I'll follow up.

I'm happy. 

 

 

 

[charmed101]

 

 

Celebrity Reflection scheduled to sail on Apr. 13/2020

Celebrity cancelled on Mar. 25

Submitted a request for full refund Mar. 25

Most received May 14/2020    ( Sill owed $632. )

 

 

[luckyinpa]

june 6  bermuda cruise was canceled on 4/16 i think. TA confirmed canceled on 4/20 via email. got all my money back today. what was even more disappointing about this is that due to a mixup with booking that i got a free upgrade to CC and had an angled balcony and this was to be my 1st X cruise. this is how it showed up on my CC

 

5050= 

320

597.18

900 (deposit)

3232.82

[LMaraist]

The most frustrating thing is having no information.  If Celebrity is processing refunds in date order they could simply indicate where they are on the processing on their web site and avoid unnecessary calls.  I requested a refund on March 25th for my April 14th sailing and at the time the Celebrity web site gave you a link that led to a form to fill out requesting a refund.  I completed the form and notified my travel agent who advised me that this was all I had to do.  Now the Celebrity web site says you have to go through your travel agent to request a refund.  I called Celebrity and was told that I was due a refund but there was nothing they could do about issuing it and I had to go through by travel agent.   The delay is understandable but the failure to handle things in a more organized manner is difficult to excuse and the failure to keep customers informed  is the most difficult to excuse.  

[NHDOC]

It seems like they have stepped up their processing efforts.  This morning Visa advised that one of our disputes (for a cruise scheduled to depart on 3/15) was being denied because X claims the cruise was "available for our use" and submitted some 20 pages of mostly nonsense paperwork with nothing to support that claim.  So I called Visa and explained that the cruise in question was not "available for our use" as it was cancelled by X on 3/13 and I have an email from them to support that.  I haven't received any FCC or refund for that cruise after more than 60 days.

 

Their own paperwork submitted indicates they were ordered to cancel all cruises on 3/14 so how could it have sailed on 3/15?  Visa said to send in a copy of the email with a request in writing to re-dispute the charge and they would take care of doing that, which I have now done.  I pointed out to them that another dispute was "approved" and finalized last week for the cruise scheduled to depart on 3/27 so there is some inconsistency in the way X is handling me.  In any event I have literally nothing better to do than to chase down our money until we get it all back and that's exactly what I plan to do.  One good thing about being locked down is it gives me plenty of time to take care of all of this.

 

Since I was submitting a written request for the 3/15 cruise refund I also submitted a request that Visa refund 25% of the fare we paid for the 3/6 cruise which we were promised while onboard and which we have not yet received.   I submitted all of the documentation including the letter from the captain saying we would receive the refund.  So in picking one fight with me X now gets to answer two disputes.

Edited May 15, 2020 by NHDOC