Cancelling via e-mail or chat?

[Chipmunkmaniac]

I was supposed to sail back to back in august the Northern European cruise and the Iceland cruise. St Petersburg obviously dropped but regardless whether that stays a sea day or becomes a different port, I don't feel like spending that kind of budget on this particular cruise anymore. Hence, I want to keep my Iceland one and actually want to add a Greek Islands cruise in June (I'm European so the flights are no issue).

My initial thought was to change the existing reservation into the Greek Islands one. But with the current wait times on the phone, I'm not willing to stay on the phone for hours and pay for those international charges. However, I also don't want to wait several more weeks to book the Greece one cause may eb the price will go up and I obviously want to make further travel arrangements as well:

1. I know in the past cancellations were only taken over the phone (I had a big issue with a cancellation that was done via e-mail and eventually turned out to not be done and got the answer they normally even don't accept it blablabla) But are they currently more lenient to accept it? Anyone has recent experiences for cancellations via a different way than phone?

2. My current booking was done on opening day (no placeholder discount or re-used funds from a cancelled cruise, just 100% paid), my understanding is correct that if I would end up updating the reservation in stead of cancelling and making a new reservation that the new cruise will be at the current rate and not the price that was active at the time of making my Northern European reservation. So other then recycling the deposit there is no advantage of updating vs cancelling/rebooking

 

[ladyofthetramp]

I was able to cancel my Greek Isle cruise through chat as I was not able to get through on the phone last week. Once you are connected to a CM through chat they open a separate, secure chat window to take your information to complete the cancellation. I was grateful to not have to spend hours on the phone.

 

[Mommb]

2. My current booking was done on opening day (no placeholder discount or re-used funds from a cancelled cruise, just 100% paid), my understanding is correct that if I would end up updating the reservation in stead of cancelling and making a new reservation that the new cruise will be at the current rate and not the price that was active at the time of making my Northern European reservation. So other then recycling the deposit there is no advantage of updating vs cancelling/rebooking

Yes, a booking on a different sailing will always be at the current rate, regardless of whether it is a change or a new booking. If you are concerned about prices for the Greek Islands cruise rising, you could book that cruise and then cancel your Baltic cruise any time before final payment.

 

[KantLose]

I wouldn't trust a cancellation to email, but agree that if you are able to reach the chat it is worth asking them if they can help you with changing your cruise to new itinerary. The only advantage I see to doing it this way is that you would be able to shift what you already paid to the new cruise rather than having to wait for the refund and having to pay for the new one at the same time.

 

[Chipmunkmaniac]

I was able to cancel my Greek Isle cruise through chat as I was not able to get through on the phone last week. Once you are connected to a CM through chat they open a separate, secure chat window to take your information to complete the cancellation. I was grateful to not have to spend hours on the phone.

great! ill try to cancel via chat and just make a new booking... thank you