arlowood

3 minutes ago, wowzz said:

Didn't Moley say that the Mediterranean fly cruises were the most problematic?

I think you are in a difficult position. I can't see your cruise going ahead, but also I can't see the cruise being cancelled prior to the final payment date required by your TA.

How about moving the deposit to a 2022 cruise, and then moving it again to a 2023 cruise once they are released?

Our May cruise on Aurora is out of Southampton so the fly cruise problem is not an issue in this case.

I did contact the agent after my original post and they have respond already and agreed to extend their balance due date until 27th January and further if the situation is unclear at that date. Fair play to them. We have had a good relationship and great service from them over the past 13 years so I'm pleased at their response.

We may think about moving the deposit but will wait to see what happens in the interim.

Getting back to the resumption of cruising in 2021 if and when it goes ahead.

I have read through the thread with some concern and trepidation.

We have an Aurora Mediterranean cruise booked departing on 1st May 2021 and a Baltic cruise on Aurora for August 2021.

Both cruises were booked through an agent and to date we have had no emails of any sort from P&O. Our agent is usually very good at forwarding such things if we don't get them directly. The balance due date for the May cruise is at the end of January but our agent normally requires payment earlier than that (9th January in this case).

If as seems possible, P&O extend their no sail dates or restrict their early sailings to the larger ships, then I don't want to pay in full then be at the mercy of the FCC policy. I already have a Viking FCC that will need to be used in 2021 or 2022. I think I would rather cancel or transfer my deposit to a 2022 or later cruise.

I have contacted the agent to ask them to relax the balance deadline until nearer the P&O cut-off date in the hope that the position will be clarified before mid-January. Whether they will comply or not remains to be seen.

If we end up back in lockdown after Christmas then I think the cruise industry may have to re-think their strategies

This could just be another instance of the UK adopting a contrary stance to the EU

The EU have recently published guidance for cruise lines to allow a resumption of cruising

https://www.maritime-executive.com/article/eu-releases-guidance-for-resumption-of-cruising

If UK companies follow that advice they still will be at odds with the FCO - so it seems like another nose thumbing exercise to prove that we don't want to be aligned to any EU procedures

15 hours ago, Jammy Bun said:

Hi again Arlowood,

Do you mean your August cruise has been cancelled by Viking, or that you have cancelled and therefore accepted a future cruise voucher?  

Thanks

JB

No I chose to cancel from our end. I don't think Viking have issued any cancellations beyond June 30th at the moment.

Our balance payment date was looming and I did not want to commit any more funds into a voucher.

I think their Risk Free Cancellation policy offers the best compromise. I realise that it is not truly risk free as if Viking go belly up then our voucher will effectively be worthless. However I am keeping my fingers crossed that, of all the cruise lines, Viking may survive better than some

Just a brief update to round off this topic.

I emailed our TA and their skeleton staff got back to me within a couple of days. After that everything was handled smoothly and quickly.

I have just had confirmation today that the Viking cruise has been cancelled and the FCV will be forwarded to me as soon as it is received by them.

They also cancelled the hotel bookings we had made to cover a follow-on trip to the Okanagan Valley in British Columbia at the end of our Viking cruise.

All-in-all I am impressed with their response in the current situation. We have used them for all our cruise holidays since 2007 and have always received a first class service so we have not been let down

4 hours ago, Jammy Bun said:

Yes, my OH has been speculating that might be the case.  Did you hear Andrew Marr's interview this morning with the Oxford professor who is working on developing a vaccine?  She answered every question without fudging the issue - it will be available on Radio 4 iplayer if you missed it.  The detail was not all that we wanted to hear, but compared to the politicians who pretend they know everything, she was a joy to listen to.

We last cruised with P&O in 2015, and do not want to go back to them as, in Viking, we have found our perfect match.  But I can see that the attraction of sailing from the UK is attractive if you live in the Southern half of the country!  

 

Just watched the iPlayer segment with the Oxford Professor. Very impressive but nut hugely encouraging in terms of the likely timescales. One key issue seems to be assessing the efficacy of the vaccine in a time when the level of infection in the wider population is on a downward trajectory. I only hope that the parallel phase of research to find a suitable treatment that mitigates the worst effects of the infection has some success earlier than the vaccine route. There are some mildly encouraging rumblings about Remdesivir - an antiviral developed for use against Ebola. Researchers in Leicester are also working on a protein that has been modified to "hoover up" the Coronavirus before it has a chance to infect cells in the respiratory tract.

On the question of P&O - we have been cruising with them for a number of years but we are beginning to look at other options. Tried Fred Olsen 4 years ago but were not hugely impressed. Did a Viking Ocean cruise on Orion in 2018 and loved it - hence re-booking  for the Alaska cruise this August. The only real issue is the fly cruise element. My wife is not a great flyer at the best of times and the whole airport/flight/transfer business in both directions can affect the overall enjoyment of the cruise. With P&O we just have to drive to Southampton (or take a coach) and that's it.

Anyway we do now have the 2 new Saga ships to consider as they seem to have been designed very much as a clone of the VIking ships (all balcony cabins etc). Unfortuneatly though the early signs are slightly discouraging as at least one of them has been plagued with Norovirus outbreaks. 

12 hours ago, Jammy Bun said:

We too are in a similar position, with the balance due on 29th April for a July 2020 ocean cruise.  We don't really want a voucher, as we have three further Viking ocean cruises already booked (a 5 week B2B in December this year, and a 3 week one in May 2021), and we are both over 70 and wondering whether this will limit our travel possibilities in the future. 

We booked direct with Viking, so at some point in the next week I'll ring them to discuss our options.  I've heard that some people have been allowed to use the fcv as part payment for cruises already booked, which might be helpful.  

 

Hi Jammy Bun

Under their Risk Free Guarantee, you do have 24 months to decide when you want to apply the voucher. So effectively you could wait until April 2022 to pick the cruise you want to use it on. That could mean 2023 or 2024 potentially.

However if you can use the voucher against an existing booking that would work out better. I'm not sure what Viking are saying but I do know that P&O are only allowing FCV's to be applied to new bookings.

With regard to us over-70's travel prospects, I read with dismay this morning that one potential exit stratedgy from the lock-down will require the over-70's to remain in isolation for at least  a further 12 months or until a vaccine has been developed.

We have 2 P&O cruises booked next year so I sincerely hope those speculations are wrong.

20 hours ago, Peregrina651 said:

 

 

. Again, this is only if Viking UK is offering the same penalty free cancellation policy as it is in the US. (Answering my own question, see  https://www.vikingcruises.co.uk/risk-free-guarantee.html.  So, it seems to me that maybe you want to decide and act before April 30th.)

 

 

 

Hi Peregrina651

Your suggestion raised a bit of panic surrounding the deadline date of 30th April to qualify for the risk free guarantee.

However, having read the details it is evident that the 30th April is the deadline by when you have to make a booking to qualify for the guarantee to apply to that booking.

I think we are in pretty safe waters (excuse the pun) since our Alaskan booking was made in 2018 while aboard the Orion on a Mediterranean cruise. We were drawn in by the very generous discounts and extras offered when you book on board for a future cruise. (£750pp discount plus free drinks package)

Unfortunately we are unlikely to benefit from that on any new booking but at least we have preserved our options in the sincere hope that Viking are there for us next year or the year after

9 minutes ago, Peregrina651 said:

 

Excellent choice!  Did it in 2015 with Prague pre-cruise; sorry we could not also do the Bucharest post-cruise. Loved it.

 

 

Interesting. I guess it depends on the agent you are dealing with. We ended up with a new booking number. But, as long as the numbers add up, I don't think it matters.

Yes we've done the Danube as far as Budapest. Also done the Rhine, Rhone and Duoro (fantastic - highly recommended). Missed out on the Elbe due to low water levels last year so I am wary of risking that itinerary again. Currently the Viking Ocean sailings only go up to March 2022 and we did not fancy any of the offerings available.

An alternative might be just to take the deposit as an FCV and see what ocean cruises pop up when the  summer 2022 sailings are released.

Anyway I am feeling a bit more relaxed as long as I can get through to either our TA or Viking UK before the 31st April so tat we do not miss out on the Risk Free Guarantee

3 minutes ago, lackcreativity said:

Again, this is from the US so UK issues may differ, but my situation was the same as yours. We had a cruise booked for October this year and the final balance was due April 28. Since we have already  had a river cruise canceled by Viking during the virus outbreak, we decided to transfer our October deposit to a different cruise in April 2021. (fingers crossed that will be enough time)

 

The phone call was quick and simple. They didn't cancel the original booking number, just updated the whole thing to the new itinerary and date and added the extension I requested. All money transferred over. The only additional charge was a slight increase in the travel insurance because the new trip was more expensive since we added the extension. I new invoice was in my inbox by the time we finished the call. 

 

Hope this helps you.

 

Sounds encouraging. I'll try calling my TA on Monday to see if I can get them to do the transfer over the phone. We've already spotted a river cruise (Passage to Eastern Europe) that takes our fancy for a 2022 sailing.

If I don't get any joy with the TA, I will try calling Viking UK direct

3 minutes ago, old biddy said:

We are in a similar position to yourselves, although our cruise isn't until early September. Again the over 70 factor comes into play as my other half is there. 

However, my reading of the first cruise cancellation and amendment notification, is that you can cancel up to 24hrs before departure and get a FCV for the monies already paid. So, if you cancel your Alaska cruise before paying the balance, you will get a voucher for £2700. Yes you don't get the money back, but neither do you actually lose it. I believe you have until the end of 2021 to use the voucher. This is an option we are considering. Somewhere I know I have read another Brit has taken this route on an Alaska cruise and got a FCV.

 

This may not help your thought process at all, and I know it doesn't exactly answer the question you posed,but I thought it might help.

Hi there

Thanks for your input. I don't have a copy or link to Vikings first cancellation and amendment notification but I do recall reading it at the time. My understanding was that it only applied to those who had already paid their balances. I had not interpreted it to cover situations where the full balance was still outstanding.

If your interpretation is correct then that option is certainly worth exploring. It would mean having some "breathing space" rather than plunging in with selecting another cruise at this stage.

In any event if we do decide to and can transfer it is more likely that we would be looking at 2022 for our next Viking cruise as we already have 2 other cruises (P&O) booked in 2021

Reading the "Risk Free Guarantee" link provided by Peregrina651 it does seem that we would qualify to change our cruise date up to 24 months ahead which would allow us to opt for sailings in 2022. We would receive a FCV for the deposit that we have paid and it would avoid the pitfall of the looming balance due date. However that guarantee expires on 30th April so we need to move quickly

HI Folks

UK based - my wife and I are booked on the Viking Orion for an Alaska cruise departing 14th August. Viking's operations are currently suspended to the end of June so our cruise does not yet come under the "Cancelled " category.

We are due to pay the balance (~£6500) to our TA on the 19th May and I'm wrestling with what decision route to take. This is compounded by the fact that our TA has virtually shut down due to the CV distancing rules and is only operating a skeleton staff. Responses from them and action by them could take days if not weeks.

My reading of the situation from our perspective is that, even if the cruise industry does manage to restart operations before August, we as "vulnerable" over-70's may still be banned from cruising with the likely absence of an effective vaccine by that date. It is also questionable whether the travel insurance industry would be willing to cover us until more clarity on risks is available.

I certainly don't want to cancel from my end as this would mean the loss of our deposit (£2700). I am also wary of paying the balance and leaving close to £9200 sitting in Viking's coffers for 2 years.

My get-out strategy is to explore transferring my current booking to another cruise - probably in 2022, as things are more likely to be back to normal by then and there may well be a vaccine available. If I want to do this and it is possible then I need to act quickly as Viking will only accept transfer requests in writing and that, I presume, will have to come from my TA who are significantly hampered due to lock-down and social distancing constraints.

Has anyone used this transfer option in the current CV situation and was it successful? Were Viking amenable and receptive to doing the transfer

1 hour ago, staygulf said:

.  ABTA.  act in the cruise lines’ interest not yours. I wouldn’t pay any attention to their erroneous advice. 

 Doesn't matter whether you pay attention to the ABTA recommendation or not. In some cases travel companies are simply refusing to provide a cash refund. My wife is in this position with a local coach company who cancelled her trip but are only offering a credit note that can be redeemed at some undefined future date.

I know you have stated in the past that you could threaten the company within a winding up order/petition. But my understanding is that to carry that threat through you could be faced with legal costs of up to £1000 and in my wife's case the sum involved is only £400 or so.

I suppose there might also be a route via the Small Claims Court but I think many companies are sitting tight and hoping that fear or inertia will stop people going down the litigation route

11 hours ago, galeforce9 said:

You’re luckier with BA than I have been.  They cancelled my Italy flight 14 days ago and I have yet to receive the refund. 

I read somewhere that if you book flights + hotel (or car hire etc) you are regarded as having a package and this is offered by a subsidiary BA Holidays. I recall during my attempt to get through last week that there were different options to speak to someone based on whether it was flight only or flight + hotel etc. 

The regulations for flights may differ from packages

I know it's no consolation for those wrestling with P&O over cash refunds but I have seen the other side of the coin in the last week and from an unexpected source.

I had booked a holiday (flight + hotels) with BA for my daughter's 50 so that she and the son-in-law could spend a few days in New York just after the Easter weekend. As this virus issue developed I knew their holiday was in doubt and sure enough I got an email from BA at the beginning of last week cancelling the flights. The email did state that a voucher could be accepted but it also confirmed that I could opt for a refund. As things developed further I called and requested a refund last Thursday. Got through quickly and the call was processed efficiently and I was told to expect the funds within 7 to 10 working days. Checked my Barclaycard this morning and the money was back😄. BA must be in as much if not more financial stress than P&O but they have done the honourable thing.

Second experience was Rentalcars.com. Booked car rental in Vancouver for a post Alaskan cruise that will almost certainly be cancelled. Decided to take the cautious approach and request a refund. Processed it online on Monday and the money was back on my card today. So it can be done.

However my wife is still struggling with a local coach operator to get her funds refunded after their trip was cancelled. The coach company are insisting that they have been advised by ABTA to only offer credit notes that can be redeemed for cash at a later date. This has been the strategy requested by ABTA but as yet the Government has not changed the legislation. The fight goes on

16 hours ago, Eglesbrech said:

Thanks for posting the link Dai, very interesting reading. The paragraph below from it is relevant. Presumably they will not be able to apply any change to the rules retrospectively.

 

 

“Some holiday companies are already claiming, incorrectly, that the rules have been changed. The Independent has seen dozens of examples of travel firms rejecting requests for refunds.

Until the rules change, a strict entitlement to a cash refund remains.”

Just had an example of that today but on a smaller scale. My wife and a friend had booked a coach/hotel holiday with a local company. They rang today to say that the holiday was cancelled and offered a voucher towards a future holiday within the next 24 months.

I explained the current legislation and also checked T&C's of the package she had booked and clearly she should have been eligible for  full refund.

She called back and explained the legal situation and the girl back tracked a bit and said that they would offer a credit note but that it could not be redeemed until end of July at the earliest. This apparently was the instruction to them by ABTA.

These are exceptional circumstances and I can fully understand why ABTA has lobbied for this change. However I don't know how we stand. ABTA have requested the change but as of today as I understand it the 2018 legislation has not been rescinded/amended.

I can see the change coming into force officially sooner rather than later to protect many operators from going bust - particularly since the ATOL fund is probably skint following the Thomas Cook collapse.

Maybe P&O playing the long game has been a shrewd move on their part. However I am sanguine about it to some extent. Money paid for holidays is already spent and if you get a credit note that can be redeemed or cashed at a later date then you have a future experience to look forward to and thank your lucky stars that you still have your health.

Happy days. Heard over the weekend that Sainsbury's were extending their home delivery slots to prioritise those in vulnerable groups.

I already had a basket of goods waiting from a week or so ago when there were no slots available up until 9th April. Tried to Log in but had a message stating that website was not available - try again later. Have just gained access and tried to bring up the home delivery booking section.

No joy. Apparently Sainsbury's doesn't have enough information to identify us as being in a vulnerable group (wife and I are both 75 and have shopped at Sainsburys since we moved to England in 1970.) They have advised us to call a freephone number to amend their records so that we can be added to the vulnerable category. Got through to the number about 15 mins ago but was told to try again later due to high volumes of calls. Now the freephone number just comes up as unobtainable.

I applaud their intentions but clearly they have not anticipated the demand or interrogated their systems to categorise the vulnerable clients ahead of time

23 minutes ago, staygulf said:

You may want to start with this and then do your research

https://www.which.co.uk/consumer-rights/advice/can-i-claim-back-a-non-refundable-deposit

The Which article is only couched in terms of the passenger cancelling and what rights they have to get their deposit back.

If the cruise company cancels your cruise then I'm guessing there is no question that a full refund of any deposit is required.

This may be one reason for the brinkmanship being operated by P&O at present. They are waiting to the very last minute to cancel cruises in the expectation/hope that clients will opt for an FCC

Yep we're in the same boat (pardon the expression) as @kruzseeka

Our cruise is(was) R012 on Aurora in July. The final balance payment date was looming so rather than pay that balance and take the risk and uncertainty of a FCC we have opted to transfer our booking to a cruise in August 2021.

With that move we only have our £100 deposit at risk rather than £5000ish.

We have a later (August) cruise with Viking in Alaska. I also don't see that going ahead with the recent statement from "The Leader of the Free World"

11 minutes ago, jeanlyon said:

They might already have an ESTA.  He has not banned Europeans from travel to the US, he has banned flights from Europe.

Their existing ESTA will still be issued on their national passport so will not help. The ban is specifically on "foreign nationals" from Schengen group countries not on flights from those countries 

2 minutes ago, jeanlyon said:

and what about all the Europeans that live here in the UK.  Are they banned from travel to the US.  He hasn't said so. 

Would make no difference where they live. If they don't have a passport issued by the UK passport agency they will not be able to get an ESTA to let them travel

9 minutes ago, Vampiress88 said:

Question

 

if p&o decide they will still go on a cruise at what point do they tell us the itinerary has changed? And when does the change become significant enough for a full refund? 
we aren’t cancelling currently but it makes a difference if we do cancel how many days prior for partial refund and we can not make decisions like that without having the full facts. 
 

my head hurts with all this.
 

I just don’t want to go on a cruise to no-where. 
 

there’s an update on fb from someone on  

R003 that was supposed to be heading Norway. 

“announcement from Captain Love.

Still awaiting final plans from Southampton, however we continue to move slowly north and he expects more details to be available in the next couple of hours.

He signed off by saying ‘enjoy the adventure”

Norway has declared a state of emergency with schools closed and restrictions on those travelling into the Nordic region. My guess is that no ports will be allowing passengers to disembark. 

12 minutes ago, kalos said:

Another twist on the Covid saga!

 

Just a thought on these travel bans the USA put into place tonight on Europe flights.

Donald Trump has put a ban on European passenger flights into the USA to stop Covid -19 .

Our flights UK  and Irish are to carry on as normal as I understand it .

What is there stopping anyone from say from France getting a flight to London /Dublin  and then 

buying a flight into the states from there?  😕😕😕

Before you travel to the USA you usually need an ESTA. That ESTA is linked to your passport and the country of issue. With the current ban you would not be granted a new ESTA from the countries affected by the Trump ban and if you had an existing ESTA you would be turned away at check-in wherever that was due to the origin of your passport

8 minutes ago, terrierjohn said:

Do we know for certain that P&O are offering refunds for over 70s cancelling?

 I received this yesterday from P&O

The X's are to replace my name in the email

So I'm guessing the P&O are contacting those over 70's cruising in the next 14 days and offering them terms as a consequence. But I have not seen anyone posting exactly what terms are being offered - full refunds or FCC etc

My dilemma is this.

Wife and I both mid-70's so on advice of Government we should not cruise.

We have a Norwegian Fjords cruise booked on Aurora in early July. The cruise was booked through a Travel Agent that we have used for the past 12 years for all our cruises. Their date for the final payment (£5000ish) is next week which is about 3-4 weeks before the actual 90 day P&O date. I think this is normal practice with TA's and has never caused us a problem in the past.

We are still keen to go on the cruise and have none of the underlying health conditions that put us at even higher risk from CV

If we pay the balance and the over 70's ban is still in place in July then we will be in the hands of P&O in terms of any refund /FCC options.

With Norway declaring a state of emergency and effectively shutting down any cruising activity then there is the possibility that the cruise may have to be cancelled if those ports are still closed in July in which case we should qualify for a full refund.

However my risk averse gremlin is also whispering - what if you pay the balance to the TA who then holds it until P&O requires payment but goes bust in the interim due to the catastrophic collapse of the cruise industry. What then?? Will I be at the end of the queue of creditors trying to retrieve my money from any administrator appointed.

Also heaven forfend - what if P&O goes belly up.

The safest option would be to cancel and transfer our FCC to a new cruise in 2021but we already have a cruise booked in May and have other commitments later in the year that make cruising a bit difficult.

Just hoping that maybe P&O extend the qualifying period for the FCC into the full 2022 season - that would be much better for us