Is this true?

[Canadian Girl]

I just did an online chat and was told, if my Greek cruise is not PIF (not due until April) and it is cancelled, DCL will just refund and I will lose my 10% OBB credit. The new dates have not been released. I can’t see the cruise going, but who knows. I am in Canada and we have many restrictions. I can’t see them being lifted until most are vaccinated.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

I just did an online chat and was told, if my Greek cruise is not PIF (not due until April) and it is cancelled, DCL will just refund and I will lose my 10% OBB credit. The new dates have not been released. I can’t see the cruise going, but who knows. I am in Canada and we have many restrictions. I can’t see them being lifted until most are vaccinated.

I don't know about the OBB part, but, yes, if you are not PIF when DCL cancels, you just receive 100% refund of any monies you've paid to that point.

 

[Maggie'sMom]

I just did an online chat and was told, if my Greek cruise is not PIF (not due until April) and it is cancelled, DCL will just refund and I will lose my 10% OBB credit. The new dates have not been released. I can’t see the cruise going, but who knows. I am in Canada and we have many restrictions. I can’t see them being lifted until most are vaccinated.

I had this happen with my March cruise. I had planned on calling to switch the OBB to a later date, but tje day I'd planned on calling, I woke up to an email from DCL cancelling the cruise. I called and was able to book a new cruise and they applied the 10% discount, but I lost the onboard credit I'd had because I booked the OBB before they changed the perks. So I'd definitely call and take care of this sooner rather than later.

 

[brentm77]

I just did an online chat and was told, if my Greek cruise is not PIF (not due until April) and it is cancelled, DCL will just refund and I will lose my 10% OBB credit. The new dates have not been released. I can’t see the cruise going, but who knows. I am in Canada and we have many restrictions. I can’t see them being lifted until most are vaccinated.

I'm in the same situation. Have a Greek cruise booked for June. Assume it won't happen (haven't booked airfare, hotels, etc). I don't even know if I would go if it did, because I am not keen to spend 12K (just for the cruise) on a severely altered experience. I have just written off the idea. I was hoping to pay in full and have it canceled, so I could use the extra credit for next year. But, I am starting to get the feeling they will cancel before paid in full to avoid the credit on these expensive Mediterranean cruises.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

I'm in the same situation. Have a Greek cruise booked for June. Assume it won't happen (haven't booked airfare, hotels, etc). I don't even know if I would go if it did, because I am not keen to spend 12K (just for the cruise) on a severely altered experience. I have just written off the idea. I was hoping to pay in full and have it canceled, so I could use the extra credit for next year. But, I am starting to get the feeling they will cancel before paid in full to avoid the credit on these expensive Mediterranean cruises.

You don't have to wait until the PIF date to pay it off.

 

[Starwind]

I just did an online chat and was told, if my Greek cruise is not PIF (not due until April) and it is cancelled, DCL will just refund and I will lose my 10% OBB credit. The new dates have not been released. I can’t see the cruise going, but who knows. I am in Canada and we have many restrictions. I can’t see them being lifted until most are vaccinated.

What you are told is correct.

If you have not paid in full [note: you can pay in full before the PIF date] when Disney cancels the cruise then they will automatically refund you all moneys paid and cancel the reservation.

Cancelling the reservation means you lose your "placeholder"/OBB benefits as they are tied to that reservation number.

We were booked for Alaska this summer. As a family we made the decision that even if it sails, we won't, instead we will move it to 2022. We booked using a placeholder and therefore have OBB benefits that I do not want to lose. In addition, as Canadians, if we receive a refund we lose funds due to foreign exchange differences and fees. However, I do NOT want to PIF as I do not want DCL having that much of my funds during this uncertain time. I didn't want DCL to cancel on me and I didn't want to run the risk of a cancelation happening without prior warning, which would leave me with no option but the auto refund.

My solution was to pre-emptively call DCL and MOVE the booking. I was upfront on my intent. I moved it to what for us is basically a "dummy" sailing on the Dream in late May 2022, since we intend to move it again to an Alaska 2022 sailing as soon as those become bookable.

Doing this preserved our placeholder/OBB benefits and kept our deposit funds with DCL so no foreign exchange loss.

The next day, Canada announced their one year extension of the ban on cruise ships in Canadian waters, effectively ending the 2021 Alaska season. The Alaska cruises were later removed from the DCL website, though they have not been canceled yet.

SW

 

[brentm77]

You don't have to wait until the PIF date to pay it off.

I didn't think about that. Now I have a decision to make! I can't decide if I am willing to tie up 12K to add another 3K to our pool for another cruise. It would only be valuable if they announce another Greek cruise for 2022 and let me use the credit for that. That is a big "if" right now. Do the credits have a one-year limit? That would likely be a problem, depending on next summer's dates.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

I didn't think about that. Now I have a decision to make! I can't decide if I am willing to tie up 12K to add another 3K to our pool for another cruise. It would only be valuable if they announce another Greek cruise for 2022 and let me use the credit for that. That is a big "if" right now. Do the credits have a one-year limit? That would likely be a problem, depending on next summer's dates.

Well, right now the FCC has an expiration date of May 2022. But that may change, or not.

 

[WishUponAStarryNight]

Interesting. My OBB would have expired May 2021. Before my November 2020 cruise was canceled (and not PIF), I was able to move the OBB to a different sailing this November, so past the original expiration date and before paying in full for the prior cruise. I didn’t wait for the cruise to be canceled before moving the OBB.

 

[Canadian Girl]

I looked at booking a dummy cruise. Prices for May 2022 are really high. I will move it but might just cancel both my cruises and wait until post covid mania settles down or switch to a different cruise line.

 

[dvcdisney]

Interesting. My OBB would have expired May 2021. Before my November 2020 cruise was canceled (and not PIF), I was able to move the OBB to a different sailing this November, so past the original expiration date and before paying in full for the prior cruise. I didn’t wait for the cruise to be canceled before moving the OBB.

I believe they extended the OBB until May 2022. I had a DCL 11 Night Northern European cruise last year that was cancelled but I was able to move it to an Alaskan cruise this summer which is past the OBB expiration date.

Now I'm hoping they'll extend it to summer of 2022 so I can change it before they cancel.

 

[Canadian Girl]

Just got off the phone with DCL. I cancelled both my cruises and moved the OBB from the one to a new cruise in March. The agent feels the OBBs might be extended once the new cruises are released. She also said she didn't think people will lose their OBB if the cruise was cancelled. Now waiting to see what will be released and if I can move my credit once again.