Non-refund of pre-paid excursion cancelled by Princess Cruises

[rubob75]

We recently completed a 7 day Princess cruise out of Melbourne during which ports and related excursions were missed due to poor weather.  We had prepaid for one such excursion.  Due to the refund for that the final stateroom balance was hundreds of dollars in credit on disembarkation.  We expected the amount to be credited to the credit card we used to pay for the excursion but weeks after no sign 😞 Phone calls to Princess about this have been difficult in that they are answered by a call centre abroad mostly by people with poor English.  The best result so far has been a promise to look into it accompanied by a case number.  We feel that this is a poor reflection on Princess but can't get any response to direct questioning as to why the funds can't simply be repaid without delay.  To be clear, none of the final balance was due to any on board credit, it's money we paid for an excursion in advance of departure.  Has anyone any thoughts about how Princess might be asked to look at this more quickly?

[Aussieflyer]

I am not sure when your cruise was. We had something similar from a cruise to Tasmania in late November when we missed Port Arthur due to bad weather. Money was not reimbursed to my credit card but I received a cheque in the mail for the refunded shore excursion. From memory it was about three weeks after the cruise began as I see I banked the cheque in the week before Christmas. And yes, our statement on disembarkation showed a credit of several hundred dollars.  

Edited January 5, 2023 by Aussieflyer

[possum52]

55 minutes ago, rubob75 said:

We recently completed a 7 day Princess cruise out of Melbourne during which ports and related excursions were missed due to poor weather.  We had prepaid for one such excursion.  Due to the refund for that the final stateroom balance was hundreds of dollars in credit on disembarkation.  We expected the amount to be credited to the credit card we used to pay for the excursion but weeks after no sign 😞 Phone calls to Princess about this have been difficult in that they are answered by a call centre abroad mostly by people with poor English.  The best result so far has been a promise to look into it accompanied by a case number.  We feel that this is a poor reflection on Princess but can't get any response to direct questioning as to why the funds can't simply be repaid without delay.  To be clear, none of the final balance was due to any on board credit, it's money we paid for an excursion in advance of departure.  Has anyone any thoughts about how Princess might be asked to look at this more quickly?

I agree with Aussieflyer, you will likely receive a cheque in the mail. It can take up to 6 weeks for refunds to be done and cheques sent out. 

[Bizziecruzer]

We were on the same cruise. Have been advised that a cheque will be sent. Payment of refund was approved, but due to holiday season, may take a bit longer for cheque to br printed and mailed. I find the online chat works best to correspond with Princess.

[Relaxing Robbies]

We are still waiting for cheques for the balance of our onboard account, and casino balance we were unable to cash in due to being put in covid isolation. We disembarked 17th November. We are also still waiting to see our future cruise credits for covid isolation. Nothing happens quickly with refunds from Princess.

[resordanis]

We returned 31st October and received our cheque for refundable OBC in the last week December. We also had to cancel our 20/11 cruise due to COVID and was told the FCC would take up to 2 months. Very surprised to see it there early December. Only problem is that we are wanting this applied to our Sydney to Yokohama cruise in 2024  and it expires end 2023, so waiting for Princess to grant an extension.

[Aussieflyer]

25 minutes ago, Relaxing Robbies said:

We are still waiting for cheques for the balance of our onboard account, and casino balance we were unable to cash in due to being put in covid isolation. We disembarked 17th November. We are also still waiting to see our future cruise credits for covid isolation. Nothing happens quickly with refunds from Princess.

We disembarked on 25 November and received the cheque in mid December so yours seems a bit late - I wonder if it related to being in isolation (with additional calculations required)

[MicCanberra]

I am sure you will be reimbursed, it just may take a while.

[MMDown Under]

13 hours ago, resordanis said:

We returned 31st October and received our cheque for refundable OBC in the last week December. We also had to cancel our 20/11 cruise due to COVID and was told the FCC would take up to 2 months. Very surprised to see it there early December. Only problem is that we are wanting this applied to our Sydney to Yokohama cruise in 2024  and it expires end 2023, so waiting for Princess to grant an extension.

Why do you need an extension from Princess to be able to apply your FCC refund, from a cancelled cruise received in early December, to a future cruise in 2024?

[Jean C]

Hi, we completed a cruise in late July and due to weather disruptions were given a very modest $50 refundable OBC. Being in NZ where cheques are no longer accepted by banks, we expected it to be refunded to our credit cards.

 

I sent a detailed message via their Contact Us page and at the end of December received an email saying that it was up to guests to check their on board accounts before disembarking to rectify any incorrect charges, but as a gesture of goodwill they will apply the amount as OBC on our next booked cruise this September.

 

Annoyed but not worth the effort to correct them.  Adds a bit of insult to injury considering the pathetic "compensation" for two days of missed cruising (they refunded two days pro rata of the cruise cost as well). At least we get back what's rightfully ours 🥴

Edited January 5, 2023 by Jean C

[resordanis]

1 hour ago, MMDown Under said:

Why do you need an extension from Princess to be able to apply your FCC refund, from a cancelled cruise received in early December, to a future cruise in 2024?

The FCC credit for Covid, expires December 2023.I want to apply it to an April 2024 cruise!

[GUT2407]

And be aware the cheque tends to look like junk mail from another line (I think ours looked like P&O but may have been Carnival, which makes more sense)

[MMDown Under]

3 hours ago, resordanis said:

The FCC credit for Covid, expires December 2023.I want to apply it to an April 2024 cruise!

Surely a FCC from a cancelled cruise shouldn't expire December, 2023.  How long since cancelled cruise?

[windsor26]

On 1/5/2023 at 4:11 PM, rubob75 said:

We recently completed a 7 day Princess cruise out of Melbourne during which ports and related excursions were missed due to poor weather.  We had prepaid for one such excursion.  Due to the refund for that the final stateroom balance was hundreds of dollars in credit on disembarkation.  We expected the amount to be credited to the credit card we used to pay for the excursion but weeks after no sign 😞 Phone calls to Princess about this have been difficult in that they are answered by a call centre abroad mostly by people with poor English.  The best result so far has been a promise to look into it accompanied by a case number.  We feel that this is a poor reflection on Princess but can't get any response to direct questioning as to why the funds can't simply be repaid without delay.  To be clear, none of the final balance was due to any on board credit, it's money we paid for an excursion in advance of departure.  Has anyone any thoughts about how Princess might be asked to look at this more quickly?

I find most things catered for better with the Liver Chat option when it is open

[oz61]

We were on the same cruise. Our first shore excursion booked months before cruising was paid using our onboard credit. The second excursion was paid with the balance of our onboard credit and my credit card. When the second excursion was cancelled, instead of reimbursing my credit card they gave us onboard credit for the entire amount, even though only $15 was paid with onboard credit. I spoke to guest services and they insisted this could not have happened even though it happened to our two groups. We only found this out with one day to go and had to spend this credit onboard or we would have lost it. On our account it was separated into refundable and non refundable credit. We spent our non refundable credit buying overpriced items in the shops. We are still waiting to receive our refundable credit, but it said around 14 days depending on our bank. With public holidays, I hope I will it be there next week, but it was very annoying that my credit card payments turned into non refundable onboard credit.

[rubob75]

Thank you to everyone for your responses.  Looks like we might get our money back but in a most inconvenient way 😞

[MicCanberra]

We got some FCC for compensation due to missed ports etc back in September, unfortunately we couldn't get it appliied to an existing cruise as they require a new booking. Hardly worth it if there is not a cruise we want to do within the time frame.

[Port Power]

On 1/6/2023 at 6:11 AM, resordanis said:

The FCC credit for Covid, expires December 2023.I want to apply it to an April 2024 cruise!

That means you have to use it (apply it to a cruise) by December 2023.  Not that you have to go on a cruise by that date.

[resordanis]

14 hours ago, Port Power said:

That means you have to use it (apply it to a cruise) by December 2023.  Not that you have to go on a cruise by that date.

No. In this instance it means it must be used by Dec23. This FCC was for a Covid cancellation.

[MicCanberra]

After being very generous in the past with treatment of covid and other situationslike missed ports and such, it seems the purse strings have been drawn tighter, our FCC is also quite limited, wasnt given as obc, couldn't be used on existing bookings and has a limited time to be used.