Balsam12

Golden Princess has now left Manila Bay with her destination listed as Port Klang, Malaysia.

Don't know why she's headed there... could be crew related, could be to onload/offload gear for a refit in Singapore.

At least there's a moving ship to track now 🙂

Results obviously vary, but we cancelled and repurchased DBP for a December cruise on Friday 26 June.

Refund hit our account this morning, 7 July, so 7 business days later. This is about the same as it was last year before things hit the fan.

OK. Just heard back from my TA. She took my first option and escalated it with RC. 

Successfully repriced.

1 hour ago, Ocean Boy said:

Wow, if that is in fact true then it is just one more reason to take a refund rather than an F.C.C.

I don't believe it is true.

I believe my TA just can't be bothered. I had a similar response when I asked her about the $200 OBC I had for the cancelled booking that was from booking with Next Cruise.

I have given her three options:

• Call RC again and escalate to resolve
• Remove the FCC from our booking and reprice (not sure if this can even be done)
• I take the booking back from them and cease doing business with them. 

Has anyone repriced a cruise after applying FCC?

We have a booking for December which was a standard booking with a cash deposit through our TA. After our March sailing was cancelled, we took the option of 125% FCC. When this came through in May, we had our TA apply it to the December cruise.

Yesterday, I saw that the fare had been reduced. A mock booking for the cabin next to ours came in $200 lower. I emailed our TA to reprice at the lower rate, and she advised that because we had applied the FCC, we were no longer eligible to reprice.

I call rubbish, but would like to hear if anyone else has been in this situation? 

Cheers,

Balsam

That's from the Australian Princess site.

Compared to our current booking on Ovation over Christmas/New Year, where we have the Deluxe Beverage package for $63.02, and the two device Voom package is $24.65

Princess = $117 per person, per day

RC = $75.35 per person, per day

Over a 13 night cruise, that's over $1000 difference for two people.

It also doesn't include tips on the Australian version, as they are included in the cruise fare.

Things may vary between sailings/countries/ships, but it certainly doesn't look like a good deal to me...

3 minutes ago, RKHOOKER said:

 

I’m hoping for a circumnavigation of Australia cruise.  All we need is a company to send a ship down under!

I would be very happy if our Xmas/NY cruise to Vanuatu and NZ were replaced with a circumnavigation. Being from Perth, we would happily save half our airfares 🙂

1 hour ago, RKHOOKER said:

Qantas Australia’s largest airline has just sacked 6,000 workers & announced significant international travel most likely not going to start until after July 2021.  

Unlikely to see international cruises starting before the airlines.

That could well be true, but it doesn't preclude domestic cruises...

7 hours ago, Ourusualbeach said:

Thanks for the update.

 

By the sounds of this it will only apply to FCC's that were the result of cancelled sailings.  If you used a FCC that wss obtained because the guest cancelled under the CWC then they would have the FCC restored and could get a refund on new cash added to the booking

That sounds correct, and is also a fair way to deal with the issue.

1 minute ago, Ourusualbeach said:

Well then one of the two pieces of information that they had posted is clearly wrong. 

That's not a surprise for RC 🙂

Maybe the FAQ is out of date as when it was written, this situation had not occurred?

It does make sense that you should be able to revert back to getting a cash refund... after all you've done the right thing by Royal in taking FCC and then booking another cruise.

We could be in the same situation... Our March sailing was cancelled. Took the FCC and then booked a December sailing which we applied the FCC on. If that gets cancelled, we may simply want to scrap the whole thing, especially as we already have another cruise booked for October 2021 with another line.

1 hour ago, Ourusualbeach said:

No idea where you are getting that from because the FAQ’s I posted are not even  close to your statement. 

The letter from RC posted above states EXACTLY that.

"If you were already impacted by a sailing that was previously cancelled due to a global suspension and paid additional monies on a new booking within this extended suspension period, you are still able to opt in to refund one or both cancelled bookings via the process below."

The price for DBP on our Christmas Ovation sailing dropped to AUD 63.02 yesterday.

This is the lowest I've seen it on the three sailing I have been tracking for the last two years.

That equates to USD 43.75 or GBP 34.94

We had previously bought it at AUD 72.61 thinking that for a cruise from Australia over Christmas and New Year that may be the lowest it went. Obviously have cancelled and repurchased.

Now we wait to see how long the refund takes, and then if the cruise actually happens...

5 minutes ago, shutterbug63 said:

I was told that the FCC was issued on July 17. 

Either there's a typo here, or someone is driving a DeLorean....

1 hour ago, Ocean Boy said:

They are shut down to the U.S. for the rest of the year as it stands right now. I should have been more specific in my previous post.

Fair enough, however Australia has not put any timeframe on the closure of it's borders. As I said, it's doubtful they will allow US tourists this year, but it hasn't been completely ruled out.

4 hours ago, Ocean Boy said:

Why is it sad? I don't see anyone saying it is sad that Australia is shut down for the rest of the year.

Who told you Australia is shut down for the rest of the year?

It is at the moment, however there is already talk of travel being permitted between Australia and New Zealand in the not too distant future, with possibly some Pacific islands also on the cards.

I certainly don't think they will be allowing free travel between the Us and Australia any time soon, but as Australia has been much more effective at controlling Covid-19, the restrictions will begin to relax sooner than in other countries that are no as effective.

1 hour ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

NSW never closed its borders to visitors from other Australian states, although like all the states non-essential travel was restricted during the lockdown.

 

However Australian borders are still closed to overseas visitors. This is not a State issue, it is a Federal issue. For your cruise to go ahead you need the international borders open AND cruise ships permitted back to Australian ports. 

 

Even if the Trans Tasman bubble goes ahead and includes cruises it is unlikely that your itinerary will remain the same as Vanuatu would be outside the TT bubble.

Some very valid points, however the "Trans Tasman" bubble looks more like including Pacific Islands as well as Oz and NZ. Many of these rely heavily on tourism and will be eager to get tourist back and spending money.

I'm also not too worried if the itinerary changes for my cruise. If we were restricted to only NZ and OZ, I would be happy to change the two ports in Vanuatu to ports in NZ or even Oz.

At this point, Australia is actually the sticking point. Currently, NZ, Vanuatu, Fiji and all of the other places that cruise ships visit from Australia in the Pacific are all free from Covid-19.

It is the other countries that are at risk from any "bubble" rather than Australia.

The other sticking point will be the perception of cruise ships following the Ruby Princess farce, so the cruise lines will need to demonstrate what they have changed and how they will ensure passenger safety.
 

2 hours ago, Chiliburn said:

A bit of a thought.
A new requirement will be have hand wash stations for all ships.

The older ships will have to be refitted before they can come to Australia.

That could be completed on the way to Australia, as there is little chance ships would be allowed to bring passengers from other ports to Australia (or New Zealand).

3 hours ago, MicCanberra said:

I think it is worth considering.

My  (personal) issue with that is our Christmas/New Year cruise to NZ and Vanautu sails from Sydney. Unless Royal Caribbean can move the departure port to Brisbane, we need NSW open.

5 hours ago, fairywren said:

Update:  Just got a second reduction today, so yes it can be done every time you see a lower price.

 

Good hunting!

Did you book through a travel agent or direct with RC?

On 5/23/2020 at 6:27 AM, hotpaws1 said:

 I am now checking prices weekly in case any of the other 3 drop in price.

 

Weekly?

I check daily, along with Cruise Planner prices 🙂

Unfortunately, the price for our only booked RCL cruise hasn't dropped since they made this announcement 😞

2 minutes ago, hal2008 said:

If and when cruising returns, some uncomfortable rules are inevitable.

Millions of people obediently take off shoes, get patted down and get personal space invaded every day.

Unthinkable before sept 2001.

Not sure about "uncomfortable", however there will certainly be more rules in place to help prevent the possible spread of disease, and not just Covid-19.

These may be "inconvenient", such as reducing the number of tables in dining areas to allow spacing, or extra screening at check in that means longer lines and wait times, but at the end of the day, they will be for the greater good, and will at least allow cruising to actually happen.

17 hours ago, Ourusualbeach said:

I don’t think there is any need to have a space between cabins as long as the total capacity is reduced which will lead to reduced people in public venues which is the main goal.  

 

 

Was going to say something similar. Public areas are the main concern. Theatre, pool deck, dining rooms and bars.

On 4/28/2020 at 11:40 PM, klfrodo said:

 

I would bet it could be another 10 to 20 years before land based casinos  and cruise ships are 100% smoke free.

Only in backward countries where the tobacco lobby has politicians in their pocket...

Until there is a government mandate that indoor smoking areas are no longer permitted, not much will change.

As noted by others, it seems to work in Australia, New Zealand and the UK. 

I worked in the casino industry fro many years, and when the smoking ban came in for land based casinos in Australia, it was all doom and gloom. How many do you think have gone bust and closed down in the 20ish years since smoking was banned?

P and O Australia has been doing away with buffets for a few years now. They have what is basically a large food court with up to a dozen different outlets. All food is prepared fresh, and served to you by staff.

I have not sailed on one of their ships, so can't comment personally, but most things I read suggest the passengers actually prefer this. We are also talking about smaller ships, so not sure how it would work on an Oasis class, but for P & O it seems to be working.