Enchanted cancelled...should I book post July?

[ian441672]

Sad to receive my (expected) email from Jan Swartz around our maiden voyage on the Enchanted on July 1st being cancelled. It was a unique opportunity to sail on a brand new ship from my home country (UK) on a maiden voyage and I don't think that will happen again very quickly for me as circumstances like that don't often align! But it is all very understandable of course, and for the greater good.

 

They did say for the Enchanted, 'until July 31st' - I wonder, should I pay my balance (it still says I can), and then transfer that 125% cruise credit to a sailing in August, say? Or just take the $1500 odd already paid deposit and rebook separately; or are the odds stacked that the Enchanted won't really be ready by August, and just hold fire?

 

I know it is a tiny concern compared to what is going on in the big world, but just a personal interest question - thanks.

[Crown Cruiser]

We have two cabins booked on Enchanted for August 8.  Final payment is May 10 and I believe I'm going to cancel.  If the ship does sail, It would pretty much be the "shakedown" cruise where everyone is checking for what still needs to be fixed, serviced.  I don't feel comfortable giving them that large amount of money for 25%.  Breaks my heart, but I think I'll reschedule for 2021.

 

PS - I've sailed on 35 Princess cruises and I'm very loyal.  Just feel we also at this time need to look out for our personal finances, not just corporate ones.

[Esprit]

We are booked on the 1st August 2020 Enchanted Princess cruise and I too am concerned. So much so I am likely to cancel before final payment is due this month end.

 

Two things you might want to consider for an August or September cruise. Firstly, the later cruise prices are disproportionately high compared with the 1st August sailing.

 

Secondly, I really can't see places like Santorini oy Mykonos allowing one, let alone two or three cruise ships, have all those passengers disembark this summer. There is always a thick queue of people for the cable car (which itself is cramped) and the town footpaths are very narrow.

 

 

  

[Crown Cruiser]

Esprit,

 

I totally agree (sadly)

[Micahs Grandad]

I question whether our October cruise on Enchanted will happen. Until rules on social distancing end how can we go on a cruise?

[ian441672]

Thank you, and wise comments I feel. Personal finances over corporate finances, I guess!

 

I noticed the prices, when checking, were 25% higher than what I payed for my cancelled cruise, so I am loathe to book anything just yet.

 

I too am a loyal Princess fan and am so sorry for the everyone affected by the awful COVID, but also the cruise industry and the people who have saved/planned/have special anniversaries or birthdays celebrations in the making for the last 18months or so, that they cannot fulfil their dream cruise. 

 

Of course, it is a very trivial thing compared to the 'real world' put there where lives are at risk every day, and we can just hope that lives and cruising will be back to normal, some day soon. I for one, cannot wait!

 

Stay safe all.

[AF-1]

I personally don't see any cruises going before Oct time frame.  We shall see.  Anything prior to Oct would be win/win

[loge23]

1 hour ago, Micahs Grandad said:

I question whether our October cruise on Enchanted will happen. Until rules on social distancing end how can we go on a cruise?

I agree. I don't see any significant change in behaviors without a vaccine or quick-acting cure. Are we going to wear masks onboard? What fun!

And what port would allow cruise ships to dock?

We're sitting this out until the payment is due in July hoping, I suppose, for a miracle. More realistically, we expect another suspension announcement from Princess by July.

Obviously, very sad times for thr cruise industry.

[konatyme]

We've been looking forward to our 50th anniversary Sept. Med. cruise for about a year and a half, but am really thinking at this point that it's probably not going to happen. Final payment isn't until June 12, so we can wait a bit, but we are pretty much resigned to canceling (probably even if Princess doesn't - like others have posted, I'm afraid ports are doubtful as far as allowing cruise ships). Unfortunately, the fall 2021 Med. cruises don't have the same itinerary, so we may be looking at several more years before realizing our dream of the Med.

[Treasure Hunter]

We are booked on The October 14th cruise in the Med. Our Travel agent wants us to call Princess with any questions. Maybe someone knows. Our final payment is due July 16 however it is refundable 30 days before, except our deposit was non refundable ( and I guess we lose the useless insurance). If we take Future Cruise credit 125% how long do we have to use it? Does it include the deposit? One year, Two years?  Can it be  broken up and used on multiple sailings? We reserved an expensive suite. Thanks to anyone who knows more than my TA.

[EscapeFromConnecticut]

The Tour de France was just canceled - it was going to be late August into September.

Italy and Spain are talking about removing some of the severest lockdown restrictions, but there is no serious talk of "normal" again in the foreseeable future.

 

The CDC order in the U.S. is an insight into what health agencies and port authorities are thinking. It's not good for the cruise industry.

 

So ... no, I wouldn't even consider tying up money by booking anything in August.

[Pmorton3360]

I have a September New England cruise in September.  Its out of New York and that may be the problem.

 Do I want to go to New York.  Looking at Enchanted in February and even wonder if she will sail then.

[oskidunker]

I cancelled my Sept 11 out of New York on Cunard. Dont want to be worried the whole time

[samur]

We are booked on the Enchanted for January 2021.  Would like to think it will go ahead but until we have a vaccine social distancing will be part of every day life and cruising may not be an option until then.  I do wonder which countries will be willing to let cruise ships dock with the ongoing threat of this virus hanging over everyone .

 

Edited April 15, 2020 by samur

[caribill]

12 hours ago, Treasure Hunter said:

We are booked on The October 14th cruise in the Med. Our Travel agent wants us to call Princess with any questions. Maybe someone knows. Our final payment is due July 16 however it is refundable 30 days before, except our deposit was non refundable ( and I guess we lose the useless insurance). If we take Future Cruise credit 125% how long do we have to use it? Does it include the deposit? One year, Two years?  Can it be  broken up and used on multiple sailings? We reserved an expensive suite. Thanks to anyone who knows more than my TA.

 

I thought the extra 25% cruise credit was only an option if Princess cancelled the cruise, not if you cancelled it.

 

When the FCC has been given the expiration date for sailing has been the end of 2021 or in the spring of 2022. Ig not used up for a single cruise, the rest can be used on other cruises that are within the deadline limit.

[Grego]

July could be a problem, but remember, the ship needs to get some sea time before she works her way to Florida for the US season.  We are booked on her for the end of November and I don't have any concerns about that.  If all this hysteria continues and the ships aren't sailing at that time we all are in real trouble.

[ED49404]

We too are avid Princess passagers and are booked at the end of Oct.  My first question was what ports will let us in and if we were are going to have to wear masks on them.  When I went on Princess website the other day to see if there were any updates, my big question now is what are the international flights going to look like?  We are going to wait and see until we can get confirm flights there and back.  I want the the cruise to be the adventure not how we got there.

[franktown]

You probably won't know what ports or their requirements for protective wear until shortly before the cruise.  I expect things to be fluid until a vaccine is available.

[ProfMHC]

We are on the October 3 Mediterranean cruise and we were shaky about going for the same reasons folks enumerated above. Then about ten days ago American Airlines totally trashed our return EZAir flights. I understand they probably want to maintain Madrid but pullout from Barcelona in the fall but their rebooked flights included a twelve hour layover (overnight) in Chicago!  750 miles west of our east coast city! And these were pretty darned pricey business class seats to begin with. So we went from shaky to definitely ready to cancel.  But as a loyal Princess cruiser we will wait a bit longer as final payment is not due until July 5 and I remain hopeful that maybe when I call EZAir at the end of June they could work some kind of magic. However, realistically, I remain doubtful. And like another poster, the ports were changed for 2021 so I’ll then look forward to seeing what they might offer in 2022.

[Hlitner]

18 minutes ago, ProfMHC said:

We are on the October 3 Mediterranean cruise and we were shaky about going for the same reasons folks enumerated above. Then about ten days ago American Airlines totally trashed our return EZAir flights. I understand they probably want to maintain Madrid but pullout from Barcelona in the fall but their rebooked flights included a twelve hour layover (overnight) in Chicago!  750 miles west of our east coast city! And these were pretty darned pricey business class seats to begin with. So we went from shaky to definitely ready to cancel.  But as a loyal Princess cruiser we will wait a bit longer as final payment is not due until July 5 and I remain hopeful that maybe when I call EZAir at the end of June they could work some kind of magic. However, realistically, I remain doubtful. And like another poster, the ports were changed for 2021 so I’ll then look forward to seeing what they might offer in 2022.

We have EZAIR flights to Rome about a week after you and United just recently trashed our flights.  Now, they have us flying from Harrisburg to Chicago, 55 min layover, Chicago to Newark (1 hour layover) then Newark to Rome.  The flights are absurd as those connections are potentially a disaster.  There are some alternatives but it would mean having to reach the EZAIR folks on the phone which is probably near impossible these days.  So we will wait another month and see how things develop.  Yesterday we did cancel a different August Princess cruise and I suspect the October cruise will eventually become just one more cancelled voyage.

 

We are making decisions before final payment as there is no way we want to get stuck with large FCCs on a cruise line that may not even survive.  And, as others have noticed, they have generally increased prices on future flights which appears to be a sly trick to diminish the value of all the FCCs that have been handed out like candy.

 

As long time avid cruisers we now wonder if there is any future for cruise lines in the next 2-4 years.  Fortunately we are also adventurous independent travelers so we can simply fly to places, rent apartments, lease cars, etc.  Being Seniors we now are starting to think that our cruising days have come to an end.  There is nothing the mass market cruise lines can do to create any kind of social distancing on crowded ships.  And we think, based on a lifetime in the healthcare industry, that any safe/effective COVID-19 vaccine is at least 3 years away..if at all.  The claims of a vaccine in a year to 18 months are just not realistic based on past history and the time needed for appropriate testing.

 

Hank

[cltnccruisers]

We rebooked our cancelled Regal from this week to Enchanted December 12.  This week was to be our granddaughters maiden voyage and they were so excited.  We would have been in St Maarten yesterday and the girls sent us a utube of Philipsburgh.  No FCC from Regal yet but I'm not expecting it until mid-May.

[sssteele]

On 4/16/2020 at 1:01 PM, Hlitner said:

We have EZAIR flights to Rome about a week after you and United just recently trashed our flights.  Now, they have us flying from Harrisburg to Chicago, 55 min layover, Chicago to Newark (1 hour layover) then Newark to Rome.  The flights are absurd as those connections are potentially a disaster.  There are some alternatives but it would mean having to reach the EZAIR folks on the phone which is probably near impossible these days.  So we will wait another month and see how things develop.  Yesterday we did cancel a different August Princess cruise and I suspect the October cruise will eventually become just one more cancelled voyage.

 

We are making decisions before final payment as there is no way we want to get stuck with large FCCs on a cruise line that may not even survive.  And, as others have noticed, they have generally increased prices on future flights which appears to be a sly trick to diminish the value of all the FCCs that have been handed out like candy.

 

As long time avid cruisers we now wonder if there is any future for cruise lines in the next 2-4 years.  Fortunately we are also adventurous independent travelers so we can simply fly to places, rent apartments, lease cars, etc.  Being Seniors we now are starting to think that our cruising days have come to an end.  There is nothing the mass market cruise lines can do to create any kind of social distancing on crowded ships.  And we think, based on a lifetime in the healthcare industry, that any safe/effective COVID-19 vaccine is at least 3 years away..if at all.  The claims of a vaccine in a year to 18 months are just not realistic based on past history and the time needed for appropriate testing.

 

Hank

We're booked with EZAIR out of Harrisburg to Rome in October for Enchanted sailing.  Notice came last week with flight changes.  Harrisburg to Dulles to Newark to Rome.  At least they didn't put Chicago in there too.  I've changed flights on line before,  but haven't even bothered to see what's available as an alternative.

 

We're just holding on to the booking for now, but don't anticipate that we'll be sailing before fall of 2021.  All of our friends on this one are doing the same...just waiting for CDC or Princess to make the next move.  Maybe our Reunion Cruise with friends on the Sky last Jan/Feb will be our Farewell to Cruising.

 

It's likely we'll be spending more time in our RV when/if the virus is controlled, and national parks are open for reservations.

 

Joanie

 

 

Edited April 18, 2020 by sssteele
oops

[generichandle]

FYI,

 

Our cruise Vancouver to Singapore, 8/25 to 9 24, has been cancelled. The Golden isn't even coming back across the Pacific, just gonna go to Singapore to be refurbished and transferred to P&O. So do not be surprised if actually sailing does not even resume until Autumn. 

 

As for myself, being 68 with diabetes, lung damage, and HBP: I must wait for a vaccine. I hate that because we have a LOT of cruise destinations in the pipeline. But reality intrudes sometimes. 

 

The Chinese say "may you live in interesting times"! It's intended to be a curse. But we do.

[tntornadox]

On 4/16/2020 at 1:44 PM, cltnccruisers said:

We rebooked our cancelled Regal from this week to Enchanted December 12.  This week was to be our granddaughters maiden voyage and they were so excited.  We would have been in St Maarten yesterday and the girls sent us a utube of Philipsburgh.  No FCC from Regal yet but I'm not expecting it until mid-May.

Be right there with you! An awesome deal on the new ship that week!

[travelhound]

I would just rebook for the Fall season.  Take whatever credit they are willing to give you and apply it towards your cruise in the Fall.

Edited April 18, 2020 by travelhound