Final payment

[swissh40]

I have a cruise out of Miami August 8. It is a 8 day cruise to Aruba, Dominican, etc. I plan to cruise in the future and actually have an August 2021 cruise already booked. Given each state is peaking at different times, not to mention other countries, it’s looking like August might be a bit too optimistic to cruise. 

 

Obc with a cancelation sounds nice.... but I’m having a hard time giving final payment of over $2k with a strong possibility of them holding on to the money for 18+ months (or worse bankruptcy).  

 

final payment is due middle of May so I have a month to either cancel on my own w no penalty fcc of the deposit or finding another solution. Has anyone had success pushing final payment closer to cruise during this epidemic. I don’t mind them hanging onto $300, but not $3k as it’s looking like full refunds are taking their time to process.

[poz222]

We have one scheduled for June 27 Horizon as well we had the Legend in Europe (which was cancelled). Today, a rep from Carnival called me. Today is my final payment due date with April 13 as auto cancel date. This rep was able to extend my final payment until April 27 (so I can see how everything plays out) as well, he got me a better rate on the June cruise, would be able to move my deposit from the Legend to the June cruise with the $600 OBC moved to the Horizon In June. I am doubtful the it will go, but I have a few weeks to watch and see without outlay of more money. 

[swissh40]

Thanks for the info. This is the first time I booked w a TA and not just online myself (for obc)... joke may be on me if TA doesn’t have same flexibility as carnival rep might 

[drewdrewcruiser]

1 hour ago, swissh40 said:

I have a cruise out of Miami August 8. It is a 8 day cruise to Aruba, Dominican, etc. I plan to cruise in the future and actually have an August 2021 cruise already booked. Given each state is peaking at different times, not to mention other countries, it’s looking like August might be a bit too optimistic to cruise. 

 

Obc with a cancelation sounds nice.... but I’m having a hard time giving final payment of over $2k with a strong possibility of them holding on to the money for 18+ months (or worse bankruptcy).  

 

final payment is due middle of May so I have a month to either cancel on my own w no penalty fcc of the deposit or finding another solution. Has anyone had success pushing final payment closer to cruise during this epidemic. I don’t mind them hanging onto $300, but not $3k as it’s looking like full refunds are taking their time to process.

I'm in the same situation with an August 8 cruise.  I'm hoping they move final payment date to 30 days before sailing.  If they don't, then I will be canceling for full refund of my deposit.  

[skiorcruise]

I am in the same boat (bad pun intended) with my Legend cruise late September.  Final payment due in June.

[disneyfan551]

Same situation... July 19 cruise, and final payment of $5k due on April 20 (TWOOOO weeks!).  What to do??!!  

[sarmat1]

54 minutes ago, disneyfan551 said:

Same situation... July 19 cruise, and final payment of $5k due on April 20 (TWOOOO weeks!).  What to do??!!  

 

We had a similar situation that luckily Carnival solved for us.  We were on the Radiance in July with final payment date April 21.  Balance for us was $2,300.  Had Carnival not cancelled our cruise, I would have.  But in the end, everybody's decision will be based on several things:

 

(1) Do you have a penalty (i.e Easy Saver)?  If not and you have a fully refundable, I think it's a no-brainer - cancel.  You could always rebook later (possibly for less), but at least you'll have your cash back. If you do have a penalty, you have to decide if you want Carnival to have all of that additional money.  If they file bankruptcy reorganization, all FCC's are effectively wiped out, so there's a sizable risk there.

(2) If the cruise happened, would you still want to go on it?  Depending on the embarkation port and the ports of call, who knows what might need to be changed?  If you have particularly good ports and they stay closed longer term, you could wind up with an overly expensive cruise to standard, basic ports instead.

 

There's no right answer here.  Even on our cancelled cruise, I'm taking the refund and foregoing the future OBC.  And that's even with us looking at a small replacement Christmas cruise this December.  I want to see how everything shakes out first.

Edited April 6, 2020 by sarmat1

[I082692]

Made my final payment for my June 13 cruise.. had 2 balcony cabins on deck 8 and moved them to inside deck 10 which cut my final payment in half.. less $$ tied up.. .. might go back to balc when they officially cancel and i can reschedule cruise..