New cancellation policy

[ratflinger]

I only book cruises that I intend to take.  If something comes up then that is what the insurance is for.  If life is changing too fast to plan a cruise over a year out then maybe you need to look around and slow down.

[LHT28]

20 minutes ago, Jancruz said:

By the way here in Ventura county (LA) we are expecting our first Hurricane ever on Sunday..since we are on the beach moving to our daughters further inland..

Jancruz1

Good  plan

stay safe

[jonthomas]

Stay safe.

[osandomir]

1 hour ago, Jancruz said:

Interesting question let me check on Monday..

By the way here in Ventura county (LA) we are expecting our first Hurricane ever on Sunday..since we are on the beach moving to our daughters further inland..

Jancruz1

Stay safe. We are in Orange county, not on the beach but close. The forecast is heavy rain.

[seachelt]

2 hours ago, Jancruz said:

Interesting question let me check on Monday..

By the way here in Ventura county (LA) we are expecting our first Hurricane ever on Sunday..since we are on the beach moving to our daughters further inland..

Jancruz1

Stay safe, scary weather everywhere!🌎

And thanks for all the information over the years.

All best wishes.

seachelt

[Jancruz]

27 minutes ago, seachelt said:

Stay safe, scary weather everywhere!🌎

And thanks for all the information over the years.

All best wishes.

seachelt

Thank you all  for the kind words..never been in a hurricane before....I will check on Monday for the answers to any questions..you post over the weekend and the ones that have been asked here..

Jancruz1

 

[KS&JW]

I am curious how many times you can move a deposit to a different itinerary before you have to pay the cancelation ($150) penalty.  

[Sebbiesgrammy]

10 hours ago, basor said:

That is what travel insurance is for......we never cruise without it

Travel insurance makes sense once you have made final payment or a very large deposit, but I see no reason why anyone would buy insurance to protect a $150 deposit. Even credit card insurance requires a valid "covered reason" to make payment to insured so likely no refund.  I agree, this penalty, which a number if luxury lines require, will keep the number of cabin hogs down.

[kibutzer]

6 hours ago, Jancruz said:

Thank you all  for the kind words..never been in a hurricane before....I will check on Monday for the answers to any questions..you post over the weekend and the ones that have been asked here..

Jancruz1

 

I understand it will be more of a rain event. Please do not try to drive through high water. Hopefully you have water, batteries, etc in case any infrastructure is affected.  

[pinotlover]

I want to know the cancellation policy when one has booked a cruise with a stated itinerary and then Oceania changes that itinerary for their convenience? At that point, you are not canceling your cruise, Oceania has already done that, and is attempting to substitute something in its place. Are you still on the hook for the cancellation fee?

 

Oceania:  Enjoy your double dip of ice cream here.

 

Customer: I‘LL take a double dip and pays!

 

Oceania brings out a single dip

 

Customer: I ordered a double dip!

 

Oceania: We’re now only serving single dips.

 

Customer: I want part of my money back for what I didn’t get!

 

Oceania: We charge by what you order, what we deliver doesn’t matter.

[DrHemlock]

My "laughy-face" response to pinotlover above is partly because of the humorous conversation construction, but also a sardonic response to the entire scenario.  As in, "Good luck with that!"  🤣

Edited August 19, 2023 by DrHemlock

[pinotlover]

10 hours ago, ratflinger said:

I only book cruises that I intend to take.  If something comes up then that is what the insurance is for.  If life is changing too fast to plan a cruise over a year out then maybe you need to look around and slow down.

Well, not so fast! The devil is in the details.

 

How about those of us that have effectively cancelled a cruise and then immediately rebooked to obtain new pricing or perks? By reading this, it will now cost us $150-$500 each to do so.

 

The devil is always in the details! 🍷🍷

[Vineyard View]

4 hours ago, Sebbiesgrammy said:

Travel insurance makes sense once you have made final payment or a very large deposit, but I see no reason why anyone would buy insurance to protect a $150 deposit. Even credit card insurance requires a valid "covered reason" to make payment to insured so likely no refund.  I agree, this penalty, which a number if luxury lines require, will keep the number of cabin hogs down.

Not necessarily so. Once you put a deposit on a trip, if you do not book insurance in X amount of days (usually 14-21) then you cannot have pre-existing conditions waived. We always make sure we book a policy that allows you to only pay up front for the money you have on deposit, then when you pay more, you are able to Increase the money you pay on your insurance. It’s the devil in the details in making sure you have chosen a policy/company that allows this. At the end of the day, the total cost of the policy is not more than if we were to pay in full for it up front. 

[MEFIowa]

16 minutes ago, pinotlover said:

...The devil is in the details. How about those of us that have effectively cancelled a cruise and then immediately rebooked to obtain new pricing or perks? By reading this, it will now cost us $150-$500 each to do so....

Will depend contractually how they define "cancel a cruise". The legalese as applied to merely upgrading a cabin on a sale or applying a sale to an already booked cruise. I would be surprised that they'd determine you've "cancelled" if all you do is go from say a G to a C or a C to an A on the same cruise using a sale. BUT, if this is the case, would have a huge impact on us. I'd only book a cruise on a sale then.

[Cruise Junky]

1 minute ago, Vineyard View said:

Not necessarily so. Once you put a deposit on a trip, if you do not book insurance in X amount of days (usually 14-21) then you cannot have pre-existing conditions waived. We always make sure we book a policy that allows you to only pay up front for the money you have on deposit, then when you pay more, you are able to Increase the money you pay on your insurance. It’s the devil in the details in making sure you have chosen a policy/company that allows this. At the end of the day, the total cost of the policy is not more than if we were to pay in full for it up front. 

But insurance doesn’t cover everything unless you pay quite a bit extra for cancel for any reason.  For instance the Hawaii cruises.  One cruise line substituted Seattle and Victoria for 2 days in Maui. Not exactly the Hawaii cruise the poster had in mind when they booked.  According to Oceania’s new policy, $500 pp Insurance won’t do anything. Ship is still sailing. You know what doesn’t come with a $500 cancellation fee at 180 days?  Land trips 😂😂

[Vineyard View]

2 minutes ago, Cruise Junky said:

But insurance doesn’t cover everything unless you pay quite a bit extra for cancel for any reason.  For instance the Hawaii cruises.  One cruise line substituted Seattle and Victoria for 2 days in Maui. Not exactly the Hawaii cruise the poster had in mind when they booked.  According to Oceania’s new policy, $500 pp Insurance won’t do anything. Ship is still sailing. You know what doesn’t come with a $500 cancellation fee at 180 days?  Land trips 😂😂

That is true. If you pay for that benefit that is another choice in the policy you go with. I was simply responding to a post questioning why you would insure a deposit. My response was for coverage of pre-existing conditions. 
But to your point, the Hawaii situation is beyond sad on so many levels. That substitution seems pretty extreme when there are other islands, but those are likely completely booked up too, so no good solutions. And yes, it would be difficult to get excited about that substitution. 

[DOJO466]

12 hours ago, Jancruz said:

Interesting question let me check on Monday..

By the way here in Ventura county (LA) we are expecting our first Hurricane ever on Sunday..since we are on the beach moving to our daughters further inland..

Jancruz1

Be safe Jan & Stu

[BWV]

12 hours ago, LHT28 said:

Good  plan

stay safe

Take care

[Guest ldtr]

11 hours ago, Jancruz said:

Thank you all  for the kind words..never been in a hurricane before....I will check on Monday for the answers to any questions..you post over the weekend and the ones that have been asked here..

Jancruz1

 

We live fairly close to you. My understanding is that in the Ventura/Santa Barbara area they are expecting the problems to be more rain, flash flooding and mud slides. Have not seen any concerns about high surf. If you go inland stay away from any potential flash flood areas.

[ORV]

2 hours ago, Vineyard View said:

Not necessarily so. Once you put a deposit on a trip, if you do not book insurance in X amount of days (usually 14-21) then you cannot have pre-existing conditions waived.

Not necessarily so, there are companies that allow you to have pre-existing conditions covered, as long as you purchase them by the Final Payment date. 

[basor]

7 hours ago, Sebbiesgrammy said:

Travel insurance makes sense once you have made final payment or a very large deposit, but I see no reason why anyone would buy insurance to protect a $150 deposit. Even credit card insurance requires a valid "covered reason" to make payment to insured so likely no refund.  I agree, this penalty, which a number if luxury lines require, will keep the number of cabin hogs down.

We always take out travel insurance at the time of making our deposit so we receive the pre-existing condition waiver.  We only cover the amount of the deposit and then increase the coverage at time of final payment.......we also only book cruises we intend to take so if we cancel it would be for a covered reason.

[njhorseman]

1 hour ago, ORV said:

Not necessarily so, there are companies that allow you to have pre-existing conditions covered, as long as you purchase them by the Final Payment date. 

Yes, but the premium for such a policy is typically much higher than for a policy requiring purchase shortly after booking.

 

There's a relatively inexpensive way around this problem that @basor and @Vineyard View just mentioned. Many insurance companies permit you to just insure the deposit amount to trigger the pre existing condition coverage . Then as you make additional payments you increase the amount you insure to match what you've paid to the cruise line. For most this just means increasing your insurance coverage to the full amount of the fare when you make the final payment.

 

Note: I think this was mentioned earlier, but I think it's worth emphasizing.  There's another issue beyond the pre existing condition exclusion. Ordinary trip cancellation insurance only covers cancellation due to named perils such as illness, death and others. It doesn't cover your cancelling a cruise because you changed your mind. For that you need cancel for any reason (CFAR) coverage, which is substantially more expensive and may also have an early purchase requirement similar to pre existing condition coverage. In addition CFAR generally doesn't pay the full cancellation penalty amount. Typically it may be limited to 75%.

Edited August 19, 2023 by njhorseman

[DOJO466]

33 minutes ago, njhorseman said:

Yes, but the premium for such a policy is typically much higher than for a policy requiring purchase shortly after booking.

 

There's a relatively inexpensive way around this problem that @basor and @Vineyard View just mentioned. Many insurance companies permit you to just insure the deposit amount to trigger the pre existing condition coverage . Then as you make additional payments you increase the amount you insure to match what you've paid to the cruise line. For most this just means increasing your insurance coverage to the full amount of the fare when you make the final payment.

 

Note: I think this was mentioned earlier, but I think it's worth emphasizing.  There's another issue beyond the pre existing condition exclusion. Ordinary trip cancellation insurance only covers cancellation due to named perils such as illness, death and others. It doesn't cover your cancelling a cruise because you changed your mind. For that you need cancel for any reason (CFAR) coverage, which is substantially more expensive and may also have an early purchase requirement similar to pre existing condition coverage. In addition CFAR generally doesn't pay the full cancellation penalty amount. Typically it may be limited to 75%.

Good info.  Just did all this as I just made final payment. Took me less than 1 minute to access my account to modify amount.

[Hanoj]

23 hours ago, LHT28 said:

I guess they are finding more ways to lose customers 😉

 

Interestingly, we are day two into our first Oceania cruise and we are already thinking about looking into returning to Viking. It’s not a particularly relevant comparison since we have only sailed with Viking and not since 2019, but it is our only frame of reference. Also interesting is the first three guests aboard Vista we struck up conversations with prefer Regent but chose this particular cruise because of the new ship, this particular British Isles itinerary, or both. I’ve been looking into Regent. Whichever way we go for future cruising I doubt we will be loyal to any one line.

[Sebbiesgrammy]

We can give advice all day long about if, when and how to buy insurance to cover the penalty of canceling and losing a small deposit but no insurance company is going to cover you for "I prefer not to" unless you can get cancel for any reason insurance which, in my experience, is not easy to get and not cheap. 

 

To the point -- Jan is kindly warning us that O will join the other luxury lines in expecting us to actually want to take the trip and not just hold a space waiting for a better deal. Let's admit it, we all know people who do that 😉