Concierge refund options?

[cph706]

Hello all...we booked a one BR room concierge suite well before the pandemic, it was a 4 night out of Miami scheduled for November 2020. When the pandemic ramped up, we moved to it to April 2021. Well in the time since a lot has changed for us, including our financial situation and the fact that we are now Florida residents. We still owe $5XXX with a PIF date of February 21. If DCL cancels before February 21, we will get our deposit back which is our best financial option. Is there any other way to get this back? Is the history of DCL (during this pandemic) to cancel before the PIF date for the cruises? I really don't want to pay the additional 5K even if I can push the cruise into the future since we live in Florida now and are no longer excited about getting out of the snow!

 

[PrincessShmoo]

Hello all...we booked a one BR room concierge suite well before the pandemic, it was a 4 night out of Miami scheduled for November 2020. When the pandemic ramped up, we moved to it to April 2021. Well in the time since a lot has changed for us, including our financial situation and the fact that we are now Florida residents. We still owe $5XXX with a PIF date of February 21. If DCL cancels before February 21, we will get our deposit back which is our best financial option. Is there any other way to get this back? Is the history of DCL (during this pandemic) to cancel before the PIF date for the cruises? I really don't want to pay the additional 5K even if I can push the cruise into the future since we live in Florida now and are no longer excited about getting out of the snow!

If DCL cancels the cruise, and you're not paid in full, you will get back all monies paid (including the deposit). If DCL cancels and you are PIF, most recently, DCL is giving a 125% Future Cruise Credit. BTW, DCL goes other places besides the Caribbean, if you want to look at booking one of those trips.

The deposit forfeiture on a Concierge booking would only apply if you cancel, not the cruise line.

Most of the DCL generated cancellations have been after the PIF date. But not all, I believe.

 

[Marc D]

Hello all...we booked a one BR room concierge suite well before the pandemic, it was a 4 night out of Miami scheduled for November 2020. When the pandemic ramped up, we moved to it to April 2021. Well in the time since a lot has changed for us, including our financial situation and the fact that we are now Florida residents. We still owe $5XXX with a PIF date of February 21. If DCL cancels before February 21, we will get our deposit back which is our best financial option. Is there any other way to get this back? Is the history of DCL (during this pandemic) to cancel before the PIF date for the cruises? I really don't want to pay the additional 5K even if I can push the cruise into the future since we live in Florida now and are no longer excited about getting out of the snow!

We are booked on the March 1st 2021 cruise. It has been off the booking engine for about 3 weeks. Our PIF date was December 31st. I called DCL on the 29th and the 31st and, both times, was told that I would lose my deposits (since we have two linked bookings) if I was to cancel or not PIF. The only thing they could offer was to move my deposits to another cruise.

We instead PIF since we prefer to get our money back in the end. My example demonstrates that DCL does not cancel their cruises before PIF, even when it is clear they will not sail. In our case, it was a calculated risk - a March 1st cruise would mean that DCL would be the first cruise line out of the gates, which is highly improbable, considering Dream is not even allowed to sail at the moment under the CDC framework - and we’ll end up with a lot of CC points, but I totally understand how that situation is financially difficult for some.

They should have relaxed the Concierge rules for bookings made before the pandemic but chose not to do so. That’s one reason why we prefer to get our money back at this time instead of booking something in 2022.

 

[cph706]

Thanks that's what I was thinking regarding the PIF date...obviously I wish they'd make the call before the PIF date! I think if they don't cancel then I'll move to another date in 2022...maybe to a concierge regular stateroom instead of a suite...I can't see giving them $5XXX more with the hopes that they'll cancel? Arghhhh!

 

[cph706]

OK folks, here's another option??? If PIF approaches with no word from Disney, I use my deposit to book another (cheaper) room on same trip (transfer my deposit)...(for the record, even if the ship were to sail on April 22 we would not feel comfortable going.) So overall they will have much less of my money. Then if they cancel, I'll still get it all back but if they don't I'll move it until another year????

 

[jtntx34]

You can transfer to a cheaper room and even remove additional parties. As long as you still have your original deposit invested, they will refund you any difference now.

Then, when they cancel, they will refund the rest of the money.

If for some reason, they don’t cancel (highly unlikely), you can just push the money around until you are comfortable sailing again.

This ties up the least amount of your money now without making you pay for more before PIF to qualify for refund.

 

[Cheburashka]

OK folks, here's another option??? If PIF approaches with no word from Disney, I use my deposit to book another (cheaper) room on same trip (transfer my deposit)...(for the record, even if the ship were to sail on April 22 we would not feel comfortable going.) So overall they will have much less of my money. Then if they cancel, I'll still get it all back but if they don't I'll move it until another year????

Yes, you can transfer your cruise to another non-concierge cruise (or just downgrade your current stateroom to nonconcierge), pay off the small balance (if any), and wait for the refund you'll be eligible for whenever DCL cancels. That's what I did, actually. We were concierge, then changed our cruise to nonconcierge on the earliest sailing that's still available for booking. It will undoubtedly be cancelled (no "wondering")- it's just a matter of it's cancelled tomorrow or two months from now. Regardless, I look forward to getting my money back.