I have a question if you have experience booking a cruise using your canceled cruise credit

[aboveH20]

A few months ago I posted about the saga of missing our cruise out of San Diego because our flight was canceled, and even though we gave ourselves TWO extra days to get to the port there were no flights available. Two and a half months later we were finally issued 75% credit. As I read the fine print, it looks like if we book a cruise it is absolutely, positively non-cancelable, changeable or refundable for any reason. Obviously that makes me very gun shy to book too far ahead.

We're eyeing cruises out of NYC because if push comes to shove we could canoe down the Hudson to get there.

Just wondering if I'm missing something and what other people do about booking ahead, unless I'm incorrect about not being able to change a cruise booked with canceled cruise credit.

Anyone?

 

[auntlynne]

Buy travel insurance. Whenever the cost of a trip is more than you are willing to lose to conditions out of your control. Get a cancel for any reason policy (there may be conditions, like purchase the insurance when booking or a certain # of days before trip). Look at Insure My Trip (or maybe just DCL’s option).

And this is not a hindsight judgment - I mean book another trip - but get travel insurance for it.

It’s essentially the same as booking an IGT / OGT / VGT rate. A lot of people just won’t take the chance.

As far as risk, though - avoid high-demand travel seasons or ones prone to weather delays (might be hard for you, as that could have been the problem on the first go-around?). The reports of air trouble seem to be reduced lately. I don’t remember Memorial Day snafus.

Good luck! Hope it works out and you get a fun cruise, after all.

 

[aboveH20]

Buy travel insurance. Whenever the cost of a trip is more than you are willing to lose to conditions out of your control. Get a cancel for any reason policy (there may be conditions, like purchase the insurance when booking or a certain # of days before trip). Look at Insure My Trip (or maybe just DCL’s option).

And this is not a hindsight judgment - I mean book another trip - but get travel insurance for it.

It’s essentially the same as booking an IGT / OGT / VGT rate. A lot of people just won’t take the chance.

As far as risk, though - avoid high-demand travel seasons or ones prone to weather delays (might be hard for you, as that could have been the problem on the first go-around?). The reports of air trouble seem to be reduced lately. I don’t remember Memorial Day snafus.

Good luck! Hope it works out and you get a fun cruise, after all.

We did have insurance for the cruise that got canceled which is how we got the 75% credit. I don't know if there's any point to have insurance this time because it sounds like we can't cancel once we book. That's why I"m hesitant to book too far ahead of time.

 

[lanejudy]

We did have insurance for the cruise that got canceled which is how we got the 75% credit. I don't know if there's any point to have insurance this time because it sounds like we can't cancel once we book. That's why I"m hesitant to book too far ahead of time.

A 3rd party insurance may have paid our an actual reimbursement (or partial) instead of the cruise credit from DCL. Just something to think about for the future.

You can look into insurance coverage for using a cruise credit. At the very least you do have outlay of at least 25% (the 75% is based off the cancelled cruise fare, not necessarily the new cruise fare) plus taxes and fees, and potentially transportation and/or pre- or post-cruise hotel. Depending on the reason for cancelling insurance may cover some of that. Plus insurance for medical.

The credit is likely non-refundable because it has a limited use window (isn't like a year from the date of cancellation or something?). Probably for many that doesn't really leave a lot of time to use it. I don't have experience using a DCL cruise credit. I'm sure there are some around Disboards who have - hopefully they can share their experience.

 

[ukintheus]

We had a 50% off credit to use, plus FCC for the payments we had already made on our cancelled Wish cruise from July of last year. It was also non-refundable, changeable etc. We had to use it before 12/31/23. We waited until we were sure of a cruise we wanted to do and booked an Alaskan this September. I didn't make the booking until March just because we needed to be sure of dates. I have purchased trip insurance through a third party so that we can cover flights, hotels and the cost of the cruise should something happen. I know that if we do cancel we won't get what the total cost of the cruise would have been, but we should get reimbursed for anything we have actually paid, which is better than nothing. I think you do have to be really careful about making sure it's a cruise you will definitely be able to do.

 

[aboveH20]

We had a 50% off credit to use, plus FCC for the payments we had already made on our cancelled Wish cruise from July of last year. It was also non-refundable, changeable etc. We had to use it before 12/31/23. We waited until we were sure of a cruise we wanted to do and booked an Alaskan this September. I didn't make the booking until March just because we needed to be sure of dates. I have purchased trip insurance through a third party so that we can cover flights, hotels and the cost of the cruise should something happen. I know that if we do cancel we won't get what the total cost of the cruise would have been, but we should get reimbursed for anything we have actually paid, which is better than nothing. I think you do have to be really careful about making sure it's a cruise you will definitely be able to do.

Your situation sounds similar to ours.

Our current thinking is to wait a bit longer to book a cruise out of NYC in October. We can get a shuttle to the port (which we used once for a NCL cruise) and won't need hotels ahead of time. I would prefer to cruise in the winter to get out of NY snow and cold, but having been burnt once are hesitant to do it again. I don't think we'll buy insurance, certainly NOT from Disney, because our expenses will be relatively low.

Bermuda, here we come . . . I think

 

[aboveH20]

The cruise I'm currently looking at is less than our FCC (our original cruise was over New Year'$ Eve). Anyone know if the FCC can also be applied to onboard expenses, or is it literally ONLY for the cruise fare?

 

[auntlynne]

I do hope you make it. Bermuda is a lovely, peaceful place.

 

[aboveH20]

I do hope you make it. Bermuda is a lovely, peaceful place.

Thank you.

 

[aboveH20]

I did the online chat at the Disney cruise website and got this answer from Pete. It was helpful to me, so maybe it will help someone else. Of course, the unhelpful aspect is that I'm not sure our current cruise plan will use all of our cruise credit. It will come close, but I hate to leave anything "on the table."