Princess continuing "pause". October Australia, rest of the world December

[Bizziecruzer]

https://www.princess.com/news/notices_and_advisories/notices/global-ship-operations-pause-december-2020.html

[MMDown Under]

I wonder why pause for Australia is end of October, 2020, whilst the rest of the world is December, 2020?

[By The Bay]

They are being super optimistic if they expect to be sailing in Australian waters before January 2021.

[NSWP]

22 minutes ago, MMDown Under said:

I wonder why pause for Australia is end of October, 2020, whilst the rest of the world is December, 2020?

I reckon it is a con so Aussies pay deposits or even full payment, to keep the money rolling in to Carnival and the Travel Agents. I dont think there is much intention of operating cruises in this region after 31 October, 2020..

[OzKiwiJJ]

Bloody Princess. They cancelled the September Round Australia in its various forms one day after the final payment date for the Sydney departure. We chose to cancel on final payment date as we didn't want to end up waiting months for another refund, and don't currently have the funds to "loan" that money to Princess as FCC since we're still waiting on a refund from another cruise line. Grrrrr!

[NSWP]

18 minutes ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

Bloody Princess. They cancelled the September Round Australia in its various forms one day after the final payment date for the Sydney departure. We chose to cancel on final payment date as we didn't want to end up waiting months for another refund, and don't currently have the funds to "loan" that money to Princess as FCC since we're still waiting on a refund from another cruise line. Grrrrr!

Not ethical, they just wanted the money in before they cancelled  the cruise Rouges.

Edited July 22, 2020 by NSWP

[By The Bay]

5 minutes ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

Bloody Princess. They cancelled the September Round Australia in its various forms one day after the final payment date for the Sydney departure. We chose to cancel on final payment date as we didn't want to end up waiting months for another refund, and don't currently have the funds to "loan" that money to Princess as FCC since we're still waiting on a refund from another cruise line. Grrrrr!

They are desperate for people to pay the final payment so they can refund previously cancelled cruises.

[By The Bay]

Is this a Ponzi scheme? Replace the word investors with cruiser.

 

"A Ponzi scheme is a form of fraud that lures investors and pays profits to earlier investors with funds from more recent investors."

[getting older slowly]

Glad cancelled our November cruise to New Zealand.... as if that it going happen....

( october cruise cancelled the other week )

 

I do agreed  waiting till after final payment due. to cancel...... is not really how you play cricket....

 

For now Don

[MMDown Under]

15 minutes ago, By The Bay said:

They are desperate for people to pay the final payment so they can refund previously cancelled cruises.

When future passengers pay final payment in full then cancel later, TAs are entitled to commission on cancelled cruises.  Something to remember, when TAs encourage future passengers to make full payment early.

[MMDown Under]

37 minutes ago, NSWP said:

I reckon it is a con so Aussies pay deposits or even full payment, to keep the money rolling in to Carnival and the Travel Agents. I dont think there is much intention of operating cruises in this region after 31 October, 2020..

I agree.  

[MMDown Under]

40 minutes ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

Bloody Princess. They cancelled the September Round Australia in its various forms one day after the final payment date for the Sydney departure. We chose to cancel on final payment date as we didn't want to end up waiting months for another refund, and don't currently have the funds to "loan" that money to Princess as FCC since we're still waiting on a refund from another cruise line. Grrrrr!

Deceitful!  Not to mention the unnecessary anxiety caused to passengers waiting to learn whether the cruise will be cancelled or not!  Did you loose any money cancelling on final payment date?

[Zanny]

Hi. Well  thats a relief for me as our cruise was Oct 26th out of Adelaide to N.Z. for 17 nights

No more stressing regarding final payments etc.Guess travel agent will email news in due course.Dont know why they never made it until end of year.And the gov. havent yet made their descission to extend the band .but they have no other choice imo.

Regards Zanny

[OzKiwiJJ]

In all fairness to Princess it appears to have been part of a bigger announcement. However they should have announced it before the earliest final payment date, not one day later. I think US cruises had already been cancelled until the end of September so that Round Australia cruise was probably the only one affected by the slightly late announcement. Anyway I got my FCD back so I'm not too worried. If we'd had some spare funds we might have paid and got the extra 25% FCC, which is a very good return on investment. However we're still waiting on the Crystal refund so didn't have the money to spare.

[OzKiwiJJ]

3 minutes ago, Zanny said:

Hi. Well  thats a relief for me as our cruise was Oct 26th out of Adelaide to N.Z. for 17 nights

No more stressing regarding final payments etc.Guess travel agent will email news in due course.Dont know why they never made it until end of year.And the gov. havent yet made their descission to extend the band .but they have no other choice imo.

Regards Zanny

I think they might be hoping that a Trans Tasman / South Pacific travel bubble will open. Also our peak season starts October/November so they are leaving those options open. It's reasonably sensible from their perspective.

[OzKiwiJJ]

16 minutes ago, MMDown Under said:

Deceitful!  Not to mention the unnecessary anxiety caused to passengers waiting to learn whether the cruise will be cancelled or not!  Did you loose any money cancelling on final payment date?

No, our FCDs are sitting happily back on our Princess accounts waiting to be used again. 😊

[By The Bay]

5 minutes ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

I think they might be hoping that a Trans Tasman / South Pacific travel bubble will open. Also our peak season starts October/November so they are leaving those options open. It's reasonably sensible from their perspective.

They can hope all the like. Hoping does not make the virus go away. Blind Freddy can see that the Australian/NZ bubble has been burst by the COVID-19 outbreak first in Victoria and now NSW. IMHO There is zero chance of large cruise ship cruising this year in Australian waters.

[OzKiwiJJ]

6 minutes ago, By The Bay said:

They can hope all the like. Hoping does not make the virus go away. Blind Freddy can see that the Australian/NZ bubble has been burst by the COVID-19 outbreak first in Victoria and now NSW. IMHO There is zero chance of large cruise ship cruising this year in Australian waters.

True, but there is some sense in linking the cancellations to the cruise seasons, and our outbreaks probably seem trivial compared with the US.

Edited July 22, 2020 by OzKiwiJJ

[ilikeanswers]

1 hour ago, MMDown Under said:

When future passengers pay final payment in full then cancel later, TAs are entitled to commission on cancelled cruises.  Something to remember, when TAs encourage future passengers to make full payment early.

 

Is that always the case though? I was reading an article about the future of travel agents and this one travel agent said when she processes refunds she also had to return her commission 🤔. 

[Russell21]

Fat chance of our 9th November to NZ happening, ah well at least the deposit is only FCC.

[MMDown Under]

29 minutes ago, ilikeanswers said:

 

Is that always the case though? I was reading an article about the future of travel agents and this one travel agent said when she processes refunds she also had to return her commission 🤔. 

Payment of commission was in Princess Press Release No.1 on this thread.  I don't know what the policy is for other cruise lines.  However, people have mentioned on CC TAs, who receive commission, shouldn't be charging large cancellation fees. 

[MMDown Under]

29 minutes ago, Russell21 said:

Fat chance of our 9th November to NZ happening, ah well at least the deposit is only FCC.

You can stop worrying now!

[christodan]

I'm relieved too. I was booked on the P&O Pacific Adventure Nov 19 and I can now at least take a FCC. 

[Aus Traveller]

We are booked on a Princess cruise to NZ on 23rd November but I don't there is any chance this cruise will go ahead. We are not stressing - just accepting there won't be another cruise for us this year. ☹️Our final payment is due 60 days ahead of the cruise although the TA will undoubtedly ask for it early. However, there is no way we will be paying the balance, then waiting for a refund.

 

Princess has refunded the amount paid for our 35 night April cruise to the TA, but the TA hasn't processed this amount yet. We won't pay any more money for future cruises until we have received our refunds.

[Cyrix400]

1 hour ago, By The Bay said:

They can hope all the like. Hoping does not make the virus go away. Blind Freddy can see that the Australian/NZ bubble has been burst by the COVID-19 outbreak first in Victoria and now NSW. IMHO There is zero chance of large cruise ship cruising this year in Australian waters.

 

And please don't forget the many implications after the release of the final Special Commission Ruby Princess report - due on 14 August to Govt - to the public a short time later, one hopes.  NSW Govt in particular will be VERY careful to have pretty good procedures re future cruise ship visits to Sydney.