Cruise Line Refund Comparison

[SargassoPirate]

As part of our pause on global travel after our April 4 cruise on the Ruby was cancelled, we decided to cancel all  cruises next year.  We are now at 80 days after choosing option 2 with Princess.  The first cruise for next year that we cancelled was with Viking Ocean.  We had a refund in 5 days.  

 

Who do you think will be our first choice when we decide to cruise again?

[billco]

9 minutes ago, SargassoPirate said:

As part of our pause on global travel after our April 4 cruise on the Ruby was cancelled, we decided to cancel all  cruises next year.  We are now at 80 days after choosing option 2 with Princess.  The first cruise for next year that we cancelled was with Viking Ocean.  We had a refund in 5 days.  

 

Who do you think will be our first choice when we decide to cruise again?

Be sure to check back in and let us know in 2022.

[BabySarge]

While I understand and sympathize with your frustration over the length of time it is taking Princess to process refunds I don't think comparing a company with 17 ships to one that has 6 ships and conversely significantly lower numbers of passengers/cancellations to refund is equitable.  It's rather like comparing apples and oranges - yes they are both fruit, but not the same at all.

[roxievegas]

We had two cruises scheduled during April and May

 

April 6th was with Carnival

May 16th was with Princess

 

Carnival cancelled the cruise on March 13th - I asked for a full refund on March 14th directly with cruise line, then filed with my travel agent.  I called on May 5th to confirm that they had my case in the works - very unhelpful person said yes.   I filed a dispute with credit card company - and was given a provisional credit on my credit card account this was on April 20th

 

Princess cancelled the cruise on April 14th.  I had booked directly with Princess and sent in my choice of full refund on same day.  Then received email asking what I wanted.  Again request full refund on April 26th.  I filed dispute with credit card on

May 7th and was given a provisional credit on a different card from the one used for Carnival

 

I have had no correspondence from Carnival, travel agency, or Princess.

 

No happy with either.

Edited June 2, 2020 by roxievegas
correct date

[Coral]

38 minutes ago, BabySarge said:

While I understand and sympathize with your frustration over the length of time it is taking Princess to process refunds I don't think comparing a company with 17 ships to one that has 6 ships and conversely significantly lower numbers of passengers/cancellations to refund is equitable.  It's rather like comparing apples and oranges - yes they are both fruit, but not the same at all.

They also have 76 river vessels. I think their refunds make more sense also - they are allowing FCC to be transferable.

[Hlitner]

1 hour ago, BabySarge said:

While I understand and sympathize with your frustration over the length of time it is taking Princess to process refunds I don't think comparing a company with 17 ships to one that has 6 ships and conversely significantly lower numbers of passengers/cancellations to refund is equitable.  It's rather like comparing apples and oranges - yes they are both fruit, but not the same at all.

Not sure we can accept your analysis.  They are both large companies.  Viking seems to be more efficient but Princess seems to be completely overwhelmed and perhaps short of cash (hence slow refunds).  We have a large final payment (about $19,000) due next week for an October Princess cruise which is still showing as a real cruise.  We figure that there is a very strong possibility that Princess will simply wait until after they receive final payments for this cruise and then eventually announce the cancellation.  If we make that final payment should we have confidence that Princess will refund our money (if the cruise is cancelled) within a reasonable time?  

 

After reading many of the threads about the Princess refund situation it gives one very little confidence in the cruise line.  The easy answer is for us to cancel the cruise booking prior to final payment (due in mid June).  Others, who we know, on our same cruise have expressed the same frustration and will likely cancel.  If Princess gets a lot of cancellations on cruises that may still be a go, it will further damage the cruise line's ability to survive.  From a psychological perspective it is almost like a run on a bank.  The inability of Princess to quickly process refunds will lead to folks pulling out money (i.e. not making payments on future cruises) and then it becomes a vicious circle with a nasty ending.

 

Hank

[SargassoPirate]

Hank, if you would go ahead and make your final payment now, maybe it would help Princess make my refund. 😂😂😂

[ceilidh1]

This has been my experience with the various lines:

 

Princess: March 14th sailing (cancelled March 10th by me then March 12th by Princess)

Carnival March 21st sailing (cancelled March 10th by me then March 13th by Carnival)

NCL: April 19th sailing (cancelled March 10th  by me and then March 30th by NCL)

RCI: May 19th sailing (cancelled March 10th by me then March 24th by RCI)

Princess: August 22nd sailing (cancelled by Princess April 14th)

 

Full refund received from Carnival within 30 days

Full refund received from NCL within 45 days

Full refund received from RCI within 45 days

Nothing but excuses received from Princess. Now at day 84 since cancelling and each time I have called I get a different answer/excuse. 

 

I will cruise again and I likely will even cruise Princess again. What I will NOT do is book and pay for anything ahead of time with Princess ever again. I will book last minute when I know the cruise will sail. I will not pre pay gratuities, excursions, dining, beverages, etc. Princess has always been my first choice when looking at cruises, sadly not anymore. 

 

 

[pms4104]

1 hour ago, SargassoPirate said:

Hank, if you would go ahead and make your final payment now, maybe it would help Princess make my refund. 😂😂😂

Interesting ... I've actually seen articles that refer to cruiseline business models as a Ponzi scheme.

 

I'm actually wondering how much money needs to come in to Princess (or to Carnival Corp, for that matter) in order to complete all the refunds.

 

Read recently that Branson would be willing to mortgage his private island to save the jobs of his employees ... wonder how much the Miami Heat could infuse into CCL's various lines