7/22/20: Princess Pauses Operations Again

[Mademypoint]

11 hours ago, caribill said:

 

 

My comment was about already booked cruises. Your experience was to book a new cruise.

 

But, as Coral said, you should have been allowed to use your FCC towards a deposit.

She is mistaken and again go look at the invoice. Regardless of what a travel agent says it's there in black and white. In fact, I'll paste it here for you. Our FCD's WERE used towards it but did not count for ALL of it.

From our original invoice.

Deposit Received. Total Amount Received: 400.00 . Final payment is due by January 5, 2020 .
Future Cruise Credits cannot be used towards payment of deposit (excluding Future Cruise Deposits).

 

Here's another one.

Deposit of 800.00 is due by March 15, 2020 . If the deposit due date falls on a weekend, booking will not cancel until the next business day. Total Amount Received: 0.00 .
Final payment is due by August 10, 2020 .
Future Cruise Credits cannot be used towards payment of deposit (excluding Future Cruise Deposits).

We decided we didn't want that cruise so we rebooked on the one out of LA

 

Deposit of 200.00 is due by August 5, 2020 . If the deposit due date falls on a weekend, booking will not cancel until the next business day. Total Amount Received: 0.00 .
Final payment is due by September 22, 2020 .
Future Cruise Credits cannot be used towards payment of deposit (excluding Future Cruise Deposits).

 

and ON the invoice itself if shows the use of the FCC:
Future Cruise Credit : 

 

So if you have an invoice that shows you can use your FCC share it. I will keep a copy of it and use it in the future and say "they were allowed to"

thanks.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[cltnccruisers]

As we'd been expecting, our December cruise on Enchanted has been canceled.   Opted for the refund this time.  Got the expected response.

 

This is your Princess Booking refund request receipt.  Given the volume of requests and the care being dedicated to make sure each booking is handled accurately, it may take up to 60 days for your refund to be processed. Please allow sufficient time for us to manage this process.  We are issuing refunds in order based on the original sailing date and we're working to expedite wherever possible.

Thank you for your understanding, patience, and ongoing support.

 

Still have a February, 2021, cruise with RCL and August, 2021, with Celebrity.  I doubt February will happen, hopefully August.

[cruising deacon]

16 hours ago, Mike45LC said:

Extremely misleading title.  For Princess to pause operations again, it would have had to start operations up.  This is simply an extension of the only "pause."  

These will simply keep coming.  Princess doesn't have a clue what to do, and since it has been 5 months, I don't think they will have a clue in 2021.  Their game is: KEEP THE BOOKINGS COMING AND WE WILL KEEP YOUR MONEY AS A FCC

Edited July 23, 2020 by cruising deacon
WASN'T FINISHED

[Ombud]

12 hours ago, Mademypoint said:

Okay so to repeat myself as apparently I wasn't clear enough.

 

We were booked on a cruise in March. It was canceled. We received TWO Fcc's. One for the full value one for 75% we put THOSE towards another cruise. We were told that by August 4 we HAD to come up with $400 CASH as the terms were the FCC could NOT be used for the deposit. Trust me I have zero interest in passing along false information. We were not going to offer up the credit card until THAT day because it was obvious the cruise was likely to be canceled. We also had TWO original FCC's from the time we took a cruise two years ago that was supposed to mean we did not owe a deposit but in a SUITE apparently they require one.

 

So again, this is not a new booking and hasn't been since around mid March. And rather than assume what someone else tells you if you read your own invoice you would see it does tell you FCC's cannot be used as deposits. Its' there in black and white and its even bolded.

Unfortunately that's what my April 2022 cruise says despite the webinar stating I could use FCC as deposit 😠

 

[spyro1952]

14 hours ago, tntornadox said:

The part that frustrates me is there seems to be NO plan whatsoever to restart. Just keeping selling new cruises and wait for the CDC to get off their behinds isn’t a good strategy.

If you read what the CDC is actually looking at requiring for cruising to restart you will see what the cruise lines will need to do.  And it’s just not closing buffets, masks, and social distancing.  It will take more than 2 or 3 months for any cruise line to comply.

CDC-2020-0087-0001.pdf

[Squire5000]

14 hours ago, muffydawg said:

You are correct. Not a surprise if you've followed the RFI posted by the CDC on the Federal Register. Nothing to do with masks or vaccines; its all about the CDC  https://www.regulations.gov/document?D=CDC-2020-0087-0001

I read the CDC Federal Register post.  There is no way that cruises are going to sail anytime in the future. Based on my federal experience which, I admit is 16 years old, my  comments may well have changed since I worked.

 

Comments are due September 20th.  After that, they have to be reviewed and then a proposed final rule has to be published seeking comments before the rule becomes final.  At that point, the cruise lines have to make the necessary changes to comply with the final rule.  If this process is still timely, we'll be lucky to cruise anytime in 2021.

[richsea]

57 minutes ago, cruising deacon said:

These will simply keep coming.  Princess doesn't have a clue what to do, and since it has been 5 months, I don't think they will have a clue in 2021.  Their game is: KEEP THE BOOKINGS COMING AND WE WILL KEEP YOUR MONEY AS A FCC

What do you think they should do; stop taking deposits on future sailings? Of course they don’t have a clue; nobody does. If you think they’re playing  a “game”, just don’t book anything. They’re not twisting Anyone’s arm to book, but they realistically can’t just stop accepting future bookings.

[Bestbubba]

13 hours ago, PoohUnderstands said:

I' m still waiting for my deposits to be refunded for an August cruise and a September cruise which I cancelled back in April.  Just wondering how long this new set of cancellation refunds will take!  Heard today that RCCL is doing their refunds at about the 30 day mark or less?!  I love you Princess, but come on......... please!

 

Pooh

Our Royal Caribbean refund took 92 days, cancelled back in April, arrived last week. 

[muffydawg]

1 hour ago, spyro1952 said:

If you read what the CDC is actually looking at requiring for cruising to restart you will see what the cruise lines will need to do.  And it’s just not closing buffets, masks, and social distancing.  It will take more than 2 or 3 months for any cruise line to comply.

CDC-2020-0087-0001.pdf 252.11 kB · 9 downloads

Correct. Public comment period is 60 days. Takes us to September 22. Another 30-60 days for CDC to compile, analyze responses. Take us to October 22 - November 22, 2020. 

[spyro1952]

55 minutes ago, Squire5000 said:

I read the CDC Federal Register post.  There is no way that cruises are going to sail anytime in the future. Based on my federal experience which, I admit is 16 years old, my  comments may well have changed since I worked.

 

Comments are due September 20th.  After that, they have to be reviewed and then a proposed final rule has to be published seeking comments before the rule becomes final.  At that point, the cruise lines have to make the necessary changes to comply with the final rule.  If this process is still timely, we'll be lucky to cruise anytime in 2021.

Although there is much news about vaccines, nothing to get excited about until large sample phase 3 trials.  Right now all we know a that 10 people developed adequate antibodies after 2 doses of vaccine and I think that is the Astra V one.  

[ccruisequeen]

17 hours ago, RocketMan275 said:

Wear a mask so you can wear a mask on a cruise?

 prefer cruising with a mask to NOt cruising at all. 

Edited July 23, 2020 by ccruisequeen
Typos

[PrincessLuver]

35 minutes ago, spyro1952 said:

Although there is much news about vaccines, nothing to get excited about until large sample phase 3 trials.  Right now all we know a that 10 people developed adequate antibodies after 2 doses of vaccine and I think that is the Astra V one.  

 

Plus an election year......

[RocketMan275]

1 hour ago, ccruisequeen said:

 

That's your decision but we believe that any place that is so dangerous to require masks/distancing/etc., is too dangerous and we will avoid those places whenever possible.  Until the cruise lines no longer require those protocols, we will no longer require cruising.

[JimmyVWine]

19 hours ago, tntornadox said:

This is ridiculous and very frustrating at this point.

Frustrating? Sure.  Ridiculous?  Can't blame Princess.  Right thing to do.  We are not in a better place now than we were 3 months ago and PCL has nothing to do with that.  They are reacting to the situation, not causing it.

[greenie082756]

Our Aug. Alaska cruise was cancelled months ago. Had a FCD on it still waiting for that to be put back in the que.

 

This virus was a wake up call in so many ways. This affected the whole world. Nobody was exempt from this.  

 

Because of what has been happening, we decided that we would wait and see how Princess reacted and once cruising became a regular process without issues, we would think about booking a cruise. I had hoped that by January 2021 I would at least be able to do a booking. So, not surprised by this latest announcement.

 

I think that this push out was for many reasons. They will have to update all their ships to be "ship shape" for the CDC and the other countries that they will be visiting. That takes a long time to do not to mention the $$ involved. From what I have read, it takes several months to get a ship back up with full crew to start again.

[JimmyVWine]

7 minutes ago, RocketMan275 said:

...we believe that any place that is so dangerous to require masks/distancing/etc., is too dangerous and we will avoid those places whenever possible.  Until the cruise lines no longer require those protocols, we will no longer require cruising.

I'm pretty much in the same place.  My view on masks is NOT political whatsoever.  I wear one routinely when I leave my house, but that is for life's necessities like going to the grocery store.  When it comes to my company returning its employees back in to the office, or me going on a cruise, or me going to Disney World, I do not want to do any of those things if wearing a mask, or converting hallways into one-way streets, or wearing gloves, or scanning around in a 360 degree circle making sure my distancing is proper is part of the work-around solution.  I can't really have fun if 70% of my waking hours is spent trying to comply with rules.  And I'm not arguing against the rules. I get it.  I agree with them.  I just don't find them to be compatible with my vacation spending.  I will wait until the rules are no longer needed.  Rooting hard for the Oxford vaccine to be the solution!    

[cltnccruisers]

Unfortunately the CDC has 300 million+ land based folks to deal with first.  I've read the Federal Registry as well as statements from the CLIA and the cruise lines we use.   In spite of them it just doesn't seem like the parties are working together in earnest.  I doubt we'll be sailing until there are proven vaccines.

[gardenbunny]

This virus has disrupted everything for the 188 countries affected...and not one single head of government has found the “magic key” to lock the spread in a box and life returns to normal!   The feelings we are all expressing are part of the grief process in wanting our normality back.  I am guilty of hoping that my May and September 2021 cruises will happen...but reality kicks in when I realize there are people all over the world trying to figure out paying rent, feeding their family, educating their children virtually (and have no wifi access), hoping to get back to work....and I just take a pause and say a prayer.

[nini]

76 days ago, on May 7th,  our British Isles cruise (for September) was cancelled. We have still not yet

had our deposit returned.

What were your waiting times?

Good grief!

[welly world]

1 hour ago, gardenbunny said:

This virus has disrupted everything for the 188 countries affected...and not one single head of government has found the “magic key” to lock the spread in a box and life returns to normal!   The feelings we are all expressing are part of the grief process in wanting our normality back.  I am guilty of hoping that my May and September 2021 cruises will happen...but reality kicks in when I realize there are people all over the world trying to figure out paying rent, feeding their family, educating their children virtually (and have no wifi access), hoping to get back to work....and I just take a pause and say a prayer.

You have put this all in perspective.  Thank you. As much as I am so ready to cruise again, there are others with major life problems.

[ceilidh1]

9 hours ago, Mademypoint said:

She is mistaken and again go look at the invoice. Regardless of what a travel agent says it's there in black and white. In fact, I'll paste it here for you. Our FCD's WERE used towards it but did not count for ALL of it.

From our original invoice.

Deposit Received. Total Amount Received: 400.00 . Final payment is due by January 5, 2020 .
Future Cruise Credits cannot be used towards payment of deposit (excluding Future Cruise Deposits).

 

Here's another one.

Deposit of 800.00 is due by March 15, 2020 . If the deposit due date falls on a weekend, booking will not cancel until the next business day. Total Amount Received: 0.00 .
Final payment is due by August 10, 2020 .
Future Cruise Credits cannot be used towards payment of deposit (excluding Future Cruise Deposits).

We decided we didn't want that cruise so we rebooked on the one out of LA

 

Deposit of 200.00 is due by August 5, 2020 . If the deposit due date falls on a weekend, booking will not cancel until the next business day. Total Amount Received: 0.00 .
Final payment is due by September 22, 2020 .
Future Cruise Credits cannot be used towards payment of deposit (excluding Future Cruise Deposits).

 

and ON the invoice itself if shows the use of the FCC:
Future Cruise Credit : 

 

So if you have an invoice that shows you can use your FCC share it. I will keep a copy of it and use it in the future and say "they were allowed to"

thanks.

 

 

 

 

 

 

It depends entirely on which pause your cancellation/FCC came from. Pause 1, for sure, did not allow FCCs to be used as deposit. I believe this was allowed starting with pause 3? Here is the info from the latest cancellation (direct from Princess to TAs):

 

FCCs and commission protection: I want to remind you that FCCs for these cancelled cruises can now be used toward a deposit on a future booking, however, they cannot be applied toward air or hotel. Please note that FCCs in lieu of refund (limited to up to 100% of cruise fare) are refundable, but bonus FCCs are not. If your client changes their mind and later requests a refund, the initial FCC will be refunded and the Bonus FCC will be cancelled.

 

That being said, the right hand at Princess has no clue what the left hand is doing so don't be surprised to get different answers each time you ask! This whole refund/FCC debacle has been handled appallingly by Princess - to STILL be waiting on refunds and FCCs from March sailings is deplorable!

[casofilia]

FCCs and commission protection: I want to remind you that FCCs for these cancelled cruises can now be used toward a deposit on a future booking, however, they cannot be applied toward air or hotel.

 

One word shows that there has been a change.

 

[ceilidh1]

46 minutes ago, casofilia said:

FCCs and commission protection: I want to remind you that FCCs for these cancelled cruises can now be used toward a deposit on a future booking, however, they cannot be applied toward air or hotel.

 

One word shows that there has been a change.

 

As I said, it depends which pause your cancellation/FCCs came from.

[cruiseintoheaven]

I'm pretty much in the same place.  My view on masks is NOT political whatsoever.  I wear one routinely when I leave my house, but that is for life's necessities like going to the grocery store.  When it comes to my company returning its employees back in to the office, or me going on a cruise, or me going to Disney World, I do not want to do any of those things if wearing a mask, or converting hallways into one-way streets, or wearing gloves, or scanning around in a 360 degree circle making sure my distancing is proper is part of the work-around solution.  I can't really have fun if 70% of my waking hours is spent trying to comply with rules.  And I'm not arguing against the rules. I get it.  I agree with them.  I just don't find them to be compatible with my vacation spending.  I will wait until the rules are no longer needed.  Rooting hard for the Oxford vaccine to be the solution!    

Well said. Hardly sounds relaxing does it!?


Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[Mademypoint]

1 hour ago, ceilidh1 said:

It depends entirely on which pause your cancellation/FCC came from. Pause 1, for sure, did not allow FCCs to be used as deposit. I believe this was allowed starting with pause 3? Here is the info from the latest cancellation (direct from Princess to TAs):

 

FCCs and commission protection: I want to remind you that FCCs for these cancelled cruises can now be used toward a deposit on a future booking, however, they cannot be applied toward air or hotel. Please note that FCCs in lieu of refund (limited to up to 100% of cruise fare) are refundable, but bonus FCCs are not. If your client changes their mind and later requests a refund, the initial FCC will be refunded and the Bonus FCC will be cancelled.

 

That being said, the right hand at Princess has no clue what the left hand is doing so don't be surprised to get different answers each time you ask! This whole refund/FCC debacle has been handled appallingly by Princess - to STILL be waiting on refunds and FCCs from March sailings is deplorable!

The first one was a NEW booking. The second and third were the rebooking.

We are still waiting for the taxes and fees from March!