Notice given for cancellation?

[MomOTwins]

Thanks for the CDC info. I looked it up and the gloom set in...seems our cruise is history. I assume I wait for DCL to cancel it via email to get the 125% credit. Still holding out hope...a miracle...some pixie dust magic...anything!!

Correct--It looks like the 125% credit is being consistently offered with every round of cancellations, so I'd say the odds are pretty much guaranteed you'll be given it once they cancel. Just don't do what I did and book in the next few months--I rebooked from May to August and now that is looking increasingly unlikely to sail, so I'm back to waiting again! I should have just rebooked for next year but wanted to get back to that disney magic....

 

[mrebuck]

We are booked on the Magic, departing from Dover England on 7/25/20. We were offered - and have taken - the PIF delay to 30 days pre cruise. Unfortunately - and it wasn't made clear by our TA at the time - regardless of the PIF full delay, our deposit is now non-refundable and we are still on the hook for 50% or more of our cruise pricing if we cancel after the end of May (I forget the exact date). We are not pleased with the thought of losing a rather significant chunk of $$ with the deposit, so at this point we are in a game of chicken with Disney, waiting for a cancellation.

We are booked on the 7/25 Magic cruise too - 2 concierge 1 bedroom cabins and the ABD add-on. Needless to say, we have a lot of money invested in this cruise. My TA told me something very different when I asked several weeks ago; she said that because the PIF date was moved to 30 days before we cruise, the other normal forfeiture rules were moved as well. So if we cancel before 6/25, we will lose only our deposit. I sure hope she was right, as I decided to wait to see what happens. Anyone else get similar advice?

 

[fredandkell]

I think you may be right about the cruises, but I can't see WDW still being closed in January. The marathon may not happen, but the parks will most likely be open long before.

I think you are right. We are planning on going in late September and I am hoping that Disney will limit the number of guests who can go in the parks. This actually may be a great opportunity to experience the parks less crowded! Right now we are booked in an off property hotel but if they require, say, only resort guests or annual passholders to be the ones who get in, then we may bite the bullet and stay on property. We also have two nights reserved on property at Universal in late September.

 

[SCFamily4]

We are booked on the 7/25 Magic cruise too - 2 concierge 1 bedroom cabins and the ABD add-on. Needless to say, we have a lot of money invested in this cruise. My TA told me something very different when I asked several weeks ago; she said that because the PIF date was moved to 30 days before we cruise, the other normal forfeiture rules were moved as well. So if we cancel before 6/25, we will lose only our deposit. I sure hope she was right, as I decided to wait to see what happens. Anyone else get similar advice?

We also have the ABD add on for the cruise -- and two rooms. Our TA shared the following (copied from her email) ... am interested in the direction from others. Losing the deposit is rough, but having to pay 50% is a stinger if we cancel after 5/31. Perhaps yours is different since it is concierge?

So.... Terms and Conditions kicked in on March 27, 2020 which is your original final payment date even though your final payment was moved out to June 25th. I apologize if I didn't make this clear in the beginning.

If you were to cancel your cruise today, you would be losing your deposits. May 31, 2020 would be your 55 day mark where you would lose 1/2 of the voyage fare and so on.
Cruises 6 Nights or More (Excluding Suites and Concierge Staterooms)
Days Prior to Vacation Commencement Date Fee Amount
119 to 56 days Deposit per Guest for Non-Suites/Concierge Staterooms
55 to 30 days 50% of vacation price per Guest
29 to 15 days 75% of vacation price per Guest
14 days or less No refund

 

[MomOTwins]

We are booked on the 7/25 Magic cruise too - 2 concierge 1 bedroom cabins and the ABD add-on. Needless to say, we have a lot of money invested in this cruise. My TA told me something very different when I asked several weeks ago; she said that because the PIF date was moved to 30 days before we cruise, the other normal forfeiture rules were moved as well. So if we cancel before 6/25, we will lose only our deposit. I sure hope she was right, as I decided to wait to see what happens. Anyone else get similar advice?

This came up in a prior thread. My understanding had been the same as the PP--that the 30 days was only giving you an option to delay paying more than the deposit, and doesn't extend the cancellation penalty on any amounts above the deposit if you choose to pay more than your deposit before 30 days (e.g., in order to book activities). But then another poster shared a screenshot of an email that made it sound like both the payment deadline and the cancellation penalties were both pushed out to 30 days before the cruise, so that made me even more confused. Currently the website makes it sound like it just the payment due date that is extended:

"Guests currently booked on our European sailings through our July 25 departure can change their reservation up until the day before embarkation and receive a 100% cruise credit to be used for a future sailing within 15 months of their original sail date. The credit is non-refundable and standard prevailing rates will apply. Alternatively, Guests currently booked on our July 13, July 18 and July 25, 2020 European sailings may delay their final payment to 30 days prior to their sailing."

Then again, I also found it confusing that if you chose to rebook with the 100% FCC, it became completely nonrefundable even if you were only in a lighter penalty category when you rebooked. And I had an even nastier shock when after I rebooked a cruise and added ground transfers to the new cruise that I didn't have to the prior one, I was told those transfers were non-refundable because everything about my current cruise was non-refundable even though the transfers didn't carry over from the first cruise. I was eventually able to get a supervisor to override it for me (I didn't actually want to cancel outright, I wanted to switch my bus transfer to a Minnie Van, so I wanted to spend MORE money, which I'm sure helped in getting the override). But still, their cancellation penalty policies are all confusing now.

 

[keiichiz28]

Was this an Alaska sailing? They canceled those in one sold batch through June at this point. The Magic, Dream and Fantasy cruises have been canceled in batch of 2-3 weeks at a time, which is leaving lots of people waiting to hear about their assumed canceled cruise this summer.

this was a double-dip to castaway cay. we definitely were waiting for cancellation as the first wave was right after our PIF date, so at that point if we cancelled ourselves we were out our deposit. i think ours fell into third wave. i think all the alaska cruises were second wave, after canada closed vancouver til July.

 

[mommy2allyandaveri]

Kind of tired of the waiting game. I am sure DCL doesn't know when they will start back up, but I'm sure they know they won't be cruising until say 8/1. Do us all a favor and cancel already so we can move forward with other plans if that's what we want to do.

I get they are doing it in stages, which works for them but not necessarily the customer.

Yes, I would absolutely 100% do a cruise to nowhere. Ports aren't super appealing to me, other than CC. For me it's more about the cruise and experience of being on board. I could take a week of sea days.

 

[GPaLarry]

Kind of tired of the waiting game. I am sure DCL doesn't know when they will start back up, but I'm sure they know they won't be cruising until say 8/1. Do us all a favor and cancel already so we can move forward with other plans if that's what we want to do.

I get they are doing it in stages, which works for them but not necessarily the customer.

Yes, I would absolutely 100% do a cruise to nowhere. Ports aren't super appealing to me, other than CC. For me it's more about the cruise and experience of being on board. I could take a week of sea days.

I agree that the sooner the better would help us with our travel plans. Coming from the DCL side it has to be a nightmare to get everything in motion again...round up the cast members from the 4 corners of the world, refit the ship for spacing & endless sanitizing, clearing with each port to make sure that country is open, etc. How are they going to space the kids in the kids' clubs? DCL's profit margin takes a hit each time they move back the start-up, doubled down with maybe only 50% guests on board the first cruises. The mouse can't be happy with this mess.
Hang in there!!

 

[Hegemon]

Kind of tired of the waiting game. I am sure DCL doesn't know when they will start back up, but I'm sure they know they won't be cruising until say 8/1. Do us all a favor and cancel already so we can move forward with other plans if that's what we want to do.

Couldn't agree more! They have to know they won't be sailing in July. Do your guests a favor and make the call. We've finally found a good future alternative date so we'll be keeping the credit and using it within the 15 month cutoff...thank goodness!

 

[MMFAN01]

I would like to see the notices come out sooner. Our June 27 9 night cruise is still scheduled. I figure it will be in the next round of cancellations which should be soon. We had the situation with PIF was at the end of Feb before everything shut down. I am sure a lot of us on that cruise realize it is not happening but just need to put it to bed.

 

[MMFAN01]

I would like to see the notices come out sooner. Our June 27 9 night cruise is still scheduled. I figure it will be in the next round of cancellations which should be soon. We had the situation with PIF was at the end of Feb before everything shut down. I am sure a lot of us on that cruise realize it is not happening but just need to put it to bed.

 

[Trera]

I would like to see the notices come out sooner. Our June 27 9 night cruise is still scheduled. I figure it will be in the next round of cancellations which should be soon. We had the situation with PIF was at the end of Feb before everything shut down. I am sure a lot of us on that cruise realize it is not happening but just need to put it to bed.

We are booked on that one as well. We booked concierge so we will be getting a lot of money back and at a good time.

 

[MomOTwins]

I will say, I've noticed that fares for 2021 for certain sailings have been going up bit by bit. This makes the delays all the more problematic: there is no chance a June cruise is going to sail, but those people have their funds tied up and can't rebook for next year before the next few rounds of price increases.

 

[disneylove69]

AGREED. We are booked on the Oct 22 Bermuda cruise, and I DOUBT it will sail. I have a Villa booked for the Marathon in January, and doubt that will even happen. PRAY I AM WRONG!

Better. I am on the 31st of October to Bermuda .

 

[disneylove69]

Several major cruiselines have posted they will be sailing again in July and some countries said they will be open for them.

 

[bcwife76]

Several major cruiselines have posted they will be sailing again in July and some countries said they will be open for them.

Who has stated they are sailing in July? And which countries are opening to them?

 

[Donna3271]

Several major cruiselines have posted they will be sailing again in July and some countries said they will be open for them.

HOPING!!!

 

[MomOTwins]

Who has stated they are sailing in July? And which countries are opening to them?

Well, RCCL's website FAQ currently says "We expect our cruise ships to return to service on June 12th for the majority of our fleet" but that's a bit of a joke, and I don't think it'll really happen. https://www.royalcaribbean.com/faq/questions/when-will-cruises-resume-operations.

NCL has suspended through June 30, so maybe news articles have been interpreting that as sailing in July even though it is framed as a suspension rather than a resumption of service, just like DCL.

The new Virgin Voyages website says they still plan to do their inaugural sailing on July 15, but their first sailing open to the public will be August 7.

I do recall reading here some Northern European ports said they would start accepting cruises this summer. Haven't heard anything about the Bahamas.

You know, slightly off topic, but one thing I thought was interesting is that I saw Royal Caribbean revealed that 45% of customers on cancelled sailings have opted for a refund rather than FCC. That's a lot more than I would have expected! I guess since they have cheaper fares and tend to do more last-minute discounts, a bonus 25% is maybe not as much of an incentive as with DCL. Would be interested to know what the percentage is for DCL.

 

[Mainsail Minnie]

Who has stated they are sailing in July? And which countries are opening to them?

Cruiselines can say what they wish, but the reality is that the CDC's no sail order extends until July 24th, so unless the ship's embarkation port is not in the U.S., they can't sail. The no sail order can only be lifted if one of 3 things happens:
1. COVID is officially declared no longer a national health emergency (not going to happen any time in the near future, certainly not this summer), OR
2. The CDC decides to rescind the no-sail order for reasons if its own (extremely unlikely, as the CDC has tended to err on the side of caution throughout this pandemic, to put it mildly), OR
3. 100 days passes from the issuing of the updated no sail order (and as it states on the CDC website, this date is July 24th).

So realistically, July 24th is the earliest that cruise ships will sail from U.S. ports. Carnival has tacitly acknowledged this by saying it will resume sailing on August 1st. Other majoy lines haven't updated their sailing resumption dates to coincide with reality, probably because they don't want to issue too many refunds all at once.

IMO, Carnoval will probably be the first line to actually sail, and the others haven't even shared a realistic plan for resumption of sailing.

 

[AquaDame]

You know, slightly off topic, but one thing I thought was interesting is that I saw Royal Caribbean revealed that 45% of customers on cancelled sailings have opted for a refund rather than FCC.

It's the ol' bird in the hand is worth two in the bush saying. Most events here are by and large saying if you keep your tickets they will be honored next year but a lot of people wonder why they'd give a free loan for a year. Even though it stands to reason there will be price increases and pent up demand which makes it less hassle to just hold on to them people want the refund.

I want to see the trend of how many people took the FCC offer when this started versus now, and again a few months from now if this is still going on.