Seems very ODD

[the col.]

This PM I just got off the phone with my HAL guy--I told him I received my express docs today for our trip to Alaska starting with train ride on 14 MAY from Fairbanks to Denali then back down to start cruise from Seward to Vancouver ending on 24 May-----he stated that cruise has NOT been canceled yet because it starts after the cut-off date of 14 May-- cruise starts on 17 May--He stated it MAY be canceled--but not yet--won't know for 15 to 30 days---So we'll keep you informed---seems really ODD way to try and plan things--He thinks it might be canceled---

[The-Inside-Cabin]

That would be odd under normal circumstances.  Unfortunately, we are in unusual times, so that no longer seems odd.

[sgacruiser]

You won't be able to go to Alaska until July 1 as Canada will not accept ships until then, so the ship can't visit a foreign port. 

[ShipWalker]

And perchance if you do get all the way to Alaska you may still have a 14 day self-quarantine ahead of you.

 

https://gov.alaska.gov/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/03232020-SOA-COVID-19-Health-Mandate-010.pdf

[CRUZBUDS]

unless they find a way around the PVSA

RCCL, Celebrity and Carnival must have decided there wasn't a way and canceled Alaska until July 1st.  HAL, Princess, NCL and Disney - so far have not canceled their May and June Alaska cruise (as far as I know)  -- things change fast. 

  

[Cruising-along]

It will be canceled.  Imagine if all the cruises were canceled at the same time, what a mess that would be.  The number of people calling them multiplied by the thousands, all wanting to know when they're getting their refunds, etc. etc. and then sending out those refunds etc. etc.   It may seem odd to us, but really, the alternative would be worse.

Edited April 3, 2020 by Cruising-along

[ON cruiser]

Sorry to be cynical, but I do not understand how cancelling cruises that are clearly not able to happen--because of orders from the state of Alaska, and also the government of Canada precluding those cruises touching a Canadian port--would make any more of a mess for HAL and other CCL companies, when seemingly RCCI and other lines have managed to handle it.

 

Me thinks that some companies do not want to process refunds (rather than FCC), so are delaying this for cash-flow purposes, instead of being upfront and just acknowledging that certain cruises just cannot happen, so a refund or FCC (customer choice) is offered. If people paid by credit card, as I have posted elsewhere, consider disputing the charge with your credit card issuer. It is at least worth a phone call (you will likely be on hold. But, given many are at home anyway, what else is there to do? ) . 

[az_tchr]

7 minutes ago, ON cruiser said:

Sorry to be cynical, but I do not understand how cancelling cruises that are clearly not able to happen--because of orders from the state of Alaska, and also the government of Canada precluding those cruises touching a Canadian port--would make any more of a mess for HAL and other CCL companies, when seemingly RCCI and other lines have managed to handle it.

 

Me thinks that some companies do not want to process refunds (rather than FCC), so are delaying this for cash-flow purposes, instead of being upfront and just acknowledging that certain cruises just cannot happen, so a refund or FCC (customer choice) is offered. If people paid by credit card, as I have posted elsewhere, consider disputing the charge with your credit card issuer. It is at least worth a phone call (you will likely be on hold. But, given many are at home anyway, what else is there to do? ) . 

Cash flow is not the problem.  It is simply not having a system able to handle so many cancellations at the same time.  Carnival raised $6B. That tidecthe over till September or October.  Same issue as try I g to file last week for unemployment.  Some 3000 in line at one office in Phoenix AZ.  The online system crashed.

[ON cruiser]

First, Az tchr, I am very sorry that you have to file for Unemployment. May your time on benefits be brief, and may you be re-employed swiftly--and I wish that to all impacted by this miserable virus!

 

While CCL raised significant funds, it is likely their goal to preserve this cash for operational needs, to get them through these hard times, rather than to (easily) hand it out. All I am urging is that those would-be passengers explore their options to preserve, or reclaim, their cash. It is likely that many people who have a cruise that is not going would like to have at least the option of a cash refund. Again, if other lines are able to do this, then why would CCL companies not have that same capability? 

[DFD1]

They will not cancel it until the have to cancel it......In the meantime, they are using the money to cover other pressing expenses.

[rajkr74]

I think HAL is canceling Alaska cruises by "blocks" of dates, i.e. thru April 14th, then thru May 14th, next thru June 14th etc. etc.  I feel this is how HAL can manage the work-call loads that would be generated from the cancelations.  It would be better to handle only the customers from each block then everyone calling thru a July 1st. cancelation period. We have a May 18th cruise out of Vancouver to Alaska booked and am pretty sure it will be cancelled.  Just waiting for HAL to cancel that cruise until we start making contact with them.  They are just BURIED with dealing with the results of this pandemic.  No one had any idea what havoc this pandemic would cause.  Patience is the name of the game and we will wait until ours gets cancelled by HAL. 

[PatLuv]

We had an Alaska land and sea cruise booked for May,and cancelled it last month because we didn't think this covid thing would be over yet,Plus,I had foot surgery in March.We were really looking forward to it too.

[gatour]

14 hours ago, ON cruiser said:

Sorry to be cynical, but I do not understand how cancelling cruises that are clearly not able to happen--because of orders from the state of Alaska, and also the government of Canada precluding those cruises touching a Canadian port--would make any more of a mess for HAL and other CCL companies, when seemingly RCCI and other lines have managed to handle it.

 

Me thinks that some companies do not want to process refunds (rather than FCC), so are delaying this for cash-flow purposes, instead of being upfront and just acknowledging that certain cruises just cannot happen, so a refund or FCC (customer choice) is offered. If people paid by credit card, as I have posted elsewhere, consider disputing the charge with your credit card issuer. It is at least worth a phone call (you will likely be on hold. But, given many are at home anyway, what else is there to do? ) . 

You might want to head over to the Royal Caribbean board and see how they are "handling" it.  There are several threads with people complaining about not seeing their refunds applied to the CC or FCC cruise credit not showing up yet.

[DFD1]

I would expect that careful cash management....even if it is your cash....is high on the priority list right now for all the major cruise lines.

[ON cruiser]

Responding to gatour above, I was mainly discussing that the cruise lines should be cancelling cruises which clearly have no hope of going. To that point I relied on post # 5 above to the effect that some other (non-CCL) companies had done exactly that.

 

HAL and Seabourn, amongst the CCL companies, have so far not done so--many have speculated that is because they prefer the customer to initiate the cancellation. In that case, the cruise line seems to take the position that the customer is only eligible for FCC and not a refund. Yet, if it is the cruise line that initiates the cancellation of the cruise then a refund is ordinarily offered, along with, perhaps, the option of FCC.  That may be why the delay in some of the lines cancelling what they know must be cancelled, while others have acknowledged this reality more promptly.

 

From what you note, however, the length of time to process a refund is equally long amongst all the cruise lines--albeit on another thread, one poster noted that Disney processed their refund very efficiently.  Again, for those who made final payment on a cruise that is now impossible due to government regulations/orders, and who face a lengthy (and uncertain) wait for a refund, assuming that is what one wants, consider talking to your credit card issuer, if you paid for the cruise by credit card.

[SAPMAN]

5 hours ago, rajkr74 said:

I think HAL is canceling Alaska cruises by "blocks" of dates, i.e. thru April 14th, then thru May 14th, next thru June 14th etc. etc.  I feel this is how HAL can manage the work-call loads that would be generated from the cancelations.  It would be better to handle only the customers from each block then everyone calling thru a July 1st. cancelation period. We have a May 18th cruise out of Vancouver to Alaska booked and am pretty sure it will be cancelled.  Just waiting for HAL to cancel that cruise until we start making contact with them.  They are just BURIED with dealing with the results of this pandemic.  No one had any idea what havoc this pandemic would cause.  Patience is the name of the game and we will wait until ours gets cancelled by HAL. 

I disagree.   My NCL cruises (2) were cancelled. I received an email stating the FCC (125%) that will be put into my NCL Latitudes account (which happened 3 days later).   Also an online form to complete if I wished a refund - although they did state refund could take 60 days.    This was all automated.   I called NCL last night to discuss an account issue and was connected within 5 minutes to an agent, who handled my question quickly.  

 

I was thinking some cruise lines wait until just before the cruise to cancel so that if the passenger cancels before the cruise line does, they can charge cancellation fees or issue FCC at a lesser rate.   I'm sure some call in to cancel before the cruise is officially cancelled due to fear of virus or related reason.   

 

I have an HAL to Canada on 7 June.  Am sure it will be cancelled, but will wait until then to decide my options.

 

Of course, if a line goes bankrupt, we may get 0.

[Sharon in AZ]

20 hours ago, the col. said:

This PM I just got off the phone with my HAL guy--I told him I received my express docs today for our trip to Alaska starting with train ride on 14 MAY from Fairbanks to Denali then back down to start cruise from Seward to Vancouver ending on 24 May-----he stated that cruise has NOT been canceled yet because it starts after the cut-off date of 14 May-- cruise starts on 17 May--He stated it MAY be canceled--but not yet--won't know for 15 to 30 days---So we'll keep you informed---seems really ODD way to try and plan things--He thinks it might be canceled---

I honestly don't think they even know what is happening.  I work in the medical field and get new updates daily.  This is a day to day, hour by hour, minute by minute issue we are all dealing with.  Right now they can only work with issues at hand, not those out 5 weeks.  It isn't that they don't care, there are just other things more important.  As someone else stated, patience.... 

 

My cruise was to start April 27th.  When the first 30 day rollout of no cruises happened I knew mine would be next.  I just waited until it happened, which was this past Monday March 30th.  I had already canceled pre booked excursions and packages, and hotel.  I still haven't canceled the air flights because I'm waiting to see what the airlines will do.

[gatour]

On 4/3/2020 at 1:53 PM, ON cruiser said:

Responding to gatour above, I was mainly discussing that the cruise lines should be cancelling cruises which clearly have no hope of going. To that point I relied on post # 5 above to the effect that some other (non-CCL) companies had done exactly that.

 

HAL and Seabourn, amongst the CCL companies, have so far not done so--many have speculated that is because they prefer the customer to initiate the cancellation. In that case, the cruise line seems to take the position that the customer is only eligible for FCC and not a refund. Yet, if it is the cruise line that initiates the cancellation of the cruise then a refund is ordinarily offered, along with, perhaps, the option of FCC.  That may be why the delay in some of the lines cancelling what they know must be cancelled, while others have acknowledged this reality more promptly.

 

From what you note, however, the length of time to process a refund is equally long amongst all the cruise lines--albeit on another thread, one poster noted that Disney processed their refund very efficiently.  Again, for those who made final payment on a cruise that is now impossible due to government regulations/orders, and who face a lengthy (and uncertain) wait for a refund, assuming that is what one wants, consider talking to your credit card issuer, if you paid for the cruise by credit card.

In regards to RCCL.  The new policy in issuing refunds for cancelled cruises, is that refund process doesn't start until the actual SAIL date of the cancelled cruise.  If you idea was that if they cancelled cruises 60 days out will "speed" up getting refunds it will not in regards to RCCL.

 

Is it "right"?  Not for me to say.  It is what it is.

[Djptcp]

The pandemic is nowhere even close to peaking in the US and it will be months before the case curve starts downward. I'm hoping we even get to sail on our Dec Holland cruise.

[cruisequeen4ever]

I’m an Alaskan still waiting to hear from Princess about our May AK cruise. I can tell you that Juneau and Ketchikan both have Coronavirus cases, and they’re small towns. Our cases across the state are increasing every day; it hit here later than many states. Tourism businesses are concerned.