40yearcruiser

Update: I rebooked our canceled Mardi Gras cruise today to 5/29/21. My PVP said we could not book the new departure without making a new deposit. AFTER the new reservation was made, the money from the canceled cruise was credited to the balance of the account and the $600 OBC added. Final result:  Since we rebooked 2 cabins Carnival now has $500 more of my money. I am not overly upset IF the cruise goes on schedule, but hate to have more money tied up if they still aren't cruising by next May (which will probably mean the whole corp. goes bust). 

Good to know that we can move to a new date without making another deposit. We had two cabins booked on the 12/26 Mardi Gras and are trying to decide what to do now. We also had our 8/29 cruise on the Magic canceled a couple weeks ago. It was paid in full and we were going to transfer that to the Mardi Gras cruise, so now we need to decide what to do with that too. What a mess this has become. This is our fourth cruise canceled so far; we still have two Princess cruises scheduled for Feb. & March 2021 from Australia (to replace two that were canceled this Spring) and don't know whether those have any chance. I know the smart thing to do is wait until they are actually cruising again before making more reservations that will likely be canceled, but I'm a planner and usually have things booked far in advance.

Several years ago we were able to email in the request, but then that option disappeared from the instructions. Maybe because of the volume of emails they get these requests were getting lost in the shuffle.

Go to carnival.com and at the top of the homepage you will see UPDATE. Click on More (at the end of the Update line) and scroll down to Canceled Cruises. When you click on that it will take you to a page with the options available if you canceled on or after March 6. Below the options there is a place to click (in blue) for the request form.  If you canceled before March 6 you can try calling again or send an email to guest care with all the information you have about your reservation.

When did you cancel this cruise? If you canceled it after March 6 you would be eligible for a refund per Carnival's website. Click at the very top of the home page for the information. 

"Carnival will honor this offer for any guests who were previously booked on voyages departing September 30, 2020 or prior and canceled their booking on or after March 6, 2020. "

If you cancelled prior to that date, I'd check your confirmation paperwork for anything that indicates you made a refundable deposit. Good luck in getting your money refunded.

Hard to tell how long it will take now, but for our cruises in March & April (which ultimately were cancelled) I faxed the request from my bank and the OBC was in my Princess account shortly after I got back home. I had a B2B booked and the OBC was listed on each cruise. 

What a year it's been! We have had 3 cruises cancelled so far: March and April on Princess and August on Carnival. Since we usually cruise 4 or 5 times a year this has taken some attitude adjustment but we are trying to make the best of it. We spend a lot of time outdoors. Fortunately we have a nice yard and a pool so have been "vacationing" at home. Now that our August cruise has been cancelled we are planning to take a road trip down to the Florida Keys, if the conditions in August allow. We live in Florida so we won't have to leave the state.

I have also been doing a lot of reading. I'm just finishing a book that I've had for several years and never got around to reading. I was on the Royal Princess when it was new and a lecturer, who had been on the design team for the ship, recommended the book for anyone interested in the history of the cruise industry. It's called "Devils on the Deep Blue Sea" and is a fascinating account of the early days of the cruise industry. The author is Kristoffer Garin. It was published in 2005 so doesn't have the latest adventures but gives some real insight into the formation and building of Carnival and other major cruiselines. If interested, check the online used bookstores for a copy.

Everybody stay safe and think positive! 

The Mardi Gras cruises have been "sold out" for months. Whether the cabins are all sold or if Carnival decided to close bookings because of the delay in delivery of the ship and uncertainty when it will be ready only the Carnival insiders know. Unfortunately, the decision of when ANY cruises will start again depends on the CDC and if they continue their current position to block the cruise lines from opening. And, of course, whether there are any ports open for the ships to visit. We can only hope that the spread of COVID will slow down over the next few months so that it is again safe (or within reason) to cruise again.  

We booked the Dec. 26, 2020, sailing of Mardi Gras (New Years cruise!) as soon as bookings became available and are still hoping the ship will be completed and will cruise then. That cruise is still almost 6 months away and we can only remain hopeful that the worst of this pandemic will be behind us by then. We have had 3 cruises cancelled so far this year, 2 on Princess in the Spring and now the Aug. 29 cruise on Carnival Magic so have had our share of disappointments.  We will not cancel and will take our chances should the Dec. cruise go forward. Should Carnival be forced to cancel it we will have to look at our rebooking options at that time, but will have a very unhappy granddaughter if this happens. 

Our August 29 cruise has been cancelled (although it still shows up as active when I sign in to my Carnival account). We also have bookings for the Dec. 26th sailing of the Mardi Gras and I called today to ask whether the FCC and OBC could be credited to those bookings if we selected that option from the cancelled cruise. I was told yes that it could. Has anybody used the FCC and OBC from a cancelled cruise to apply to an existing future booking? Never sure if the answer you get when you call about such issues is correct.

1 hour ago, BlerkOne said:

Texas and Florida have shutdown bars. It's a start again. Maybe this time they will get it right.

And what is right? The problem is that nobody knows whether any of the measures put in place are effective or "right".  At the beginning of this we were told that wearing a mask was no protection from spreading or acquiring the virus; now we are being required in many settings to wear one. Did closing a large number of businesses and putting millions out of work make us all safer? It is a dilemma, and until either a high percentage of the population contracts the virus and builds immunity or an effective vaccine is developed, which could be never, we are going to be living with this threat. Frankly, the more young and otherwise healthy who contract the virus and have a mild case, which statistics show are those who are getting it at the bars, the more quickly we will reach the level of immunity required to stop the spread of the disease. I'm in my 70s and certainly have no death wish, but I also don't like the prospect of putting my life on hold indefinitely.  By the way, I never frequent bars so the latest shutdown doesn't affect me personally and I can continue to social distance at the supermarket, etc.

I have cruised on the Vista and Allure of the Seas. Enjoyed both, although I agree with the above that the experience is different. I like that on the RCL ships you can reserve the shows in advance online so you can plan ahead what you wish to do each night of the cruise. By the way, if you change your mind there are usually seats available when it is opened to those without reservations 15 minutes before the show. We thought the shows on RCL were far superior to those on Carnival; on each ship they have a full-length Broadway musical (it was Mama Mia on the Allure) plus several other shows throughout the ship.  Although the Oasis class ships are huge, we found that it seldom felt crowded because there are so many different areas of activities. We have far more cruises on Carnival ships so obviously like the experience there as well. I don't think you can go wrong with either.  Like you, we are hoping cruising will resume soon. We just had our Aug. 29 sailing on the Magic cancelled so are feeling let down; it's our 3rd cruise cancellation this year. Are booked for Dec. 26 on the Mardi Gras and hoping that will actually happen.

Our upgrade from a balcony to a mini-suite was on a 29-day cruise we would have been on right now.  The upgrade was given to us long before the COVID-19 raised it's ugly head. Unfortunately, the cruise was not to be.  However, we did have an upgrade to a mini-suite 3 years ago on a 42-day cruise so that was very nice. The ship was overbooked and for some reason Princess really wanted our balcony cabin for someone else.  

As to the cruise lines selling cruises now, they don't know any more than we do how much longer this virus will be a threat. You can be certain they don't wish to have to cancel any of their future cruises but need to be prepared with bookings when they get the go-ahead. The first cruises back will undoubtedly be less than full because of the fear that we are bombarded with daily, but at some point cruising will resume . I still have cruises booked for end of August and over New Years and really hope we will be able to go.  

1 hour ago, AF-1 said:

How many days was this trip

The Trans-Pacific was 29 days. It had a great itinerary and unfortunately I can't find one as good for next year. We also had a 14-day Fiji cruise booked prior to this one which was also cancelled. With time in Australia our trip was to have been 8 weeks. Hope we can plan something similar in the future.

Thanks for the looks back at the Golden. We were supposed to be on her right now on the Trans-Pacific from Sydney to LA. We had been planning this cruise for over a year so are very disappointed not to get the opportunity to cruise on the Golden. We have been on the Star, which has the same design as the Golden, and most of the other ships in the Grand class. That is our favorite class of Princess ships. Can't wait to get back on a Princess ship--hope it is safe to travel soon!

Are you asking about a future cruise credit (like for a cancelled cruise) or a future cruise deposit?  I'd call Princess to get an answer. If you aren't happy with what you are told, ask to talk to a supervisor.

On 4/13/2020 at 3:03 PM, Hlitner said:

Your telling me!  We still have an August booking on the Island Princess which now costs about half what it did when we  booked.  At this point it is such a bargain it is like Princess would pay us to take the cruise.  But we must consider that the Tattoo in Edinburgh has been cancelled, it is likely that the ports in Greenland will be closed, the airline we were using to get from Southampton to Paris, after the cruise, went bankrupt in early March, etc etc.  Since we have yet to make the final payment it is still easy to cancel with little financial loss.  What would you do?

 

Hank

Difficult decision. After our 2 cruises in March & April were cancelled we considered booking this one on the Island Princess in August, hoping the worst will be over by then. As interesting as the itinerary for this cruise is, with the possible closing of ports and other considerations we have decided against it. We have been to the Edinburgh Tattoo twice (2013 and 2019) so having that closed was not a consideration for us. If you haven't seen it, however, it is an experience worth having.

I have read through all of the preceding posts and you have made some very good points. Like you, we have been cruising several months of the year and are reluctant to cross it completely off our travel list. We have 2 more cruises reserved for later this year and will be watching closely what is happening in the industry over the next few months. I can't comprehend never being on a cruise ship again. 

6 hours ago, whitecap said:

This situation that kuruisey is facing is just another example of the issues/problems that are being caused by the COVID and the attempts by "everyone", cruiselines, restaurants, retail stores, are facing.  And if everyone would just sit back and relax for a few, you will see that requirements, suggestions, recommendations change daily.  And sometimes more than once a day.  Everyone is trying to get it right and in their attempts they sometimes go overboard (a little pun) as they try to right the ship (another one).  The phone rep for Princess was stating what she/he had been told to say and now that Princess has changed their procedure, Princess should rectify kuruisey's situation.

 

I agree that we all need to calm down and give it some time for Princess, and the other cruise lines, to get through this crisis. Once restrictions on people's activities have been relaxed and we have the go-ahead to travel again, I think Princess will ease up on who is refused the opportunity to cruise with them. Right now they want to avoid at all costs having the illness on their ships and the quarantines that they had to put in place repeated so are being overly cautious. I'm not saying that all precautions will be lifted, but hopefully we won't all need a doctor's release to be able to cruise--and I strongly believe that whatever precautions are put in place they should apply to all passengers, not just those over a certain age. 

Like you, hoping by next Spring we will be able to go to the S. Pacific. We had cruises from Sydney to Fiji on 3/21/20 and Trans-Pacific (which included stops in Tahiti and Bora Bora) on 4/8/20 cancelled. Both were on Princess. Are considering booking the Fiji cruise again on 2/19/21 (Majestic Princess) but can't find a Trans-Pacific to follow without a big time gap between. May decide to stay on the Majestic to Hong Kong, but really would like to go back to French Polynesia. Maybe we'll make it there again in a couple years when this gets all sorted out, if the cruise lines survive.

2 hours ago, ontheweb said:

We have never had a problem using it for gratuities on any line owned by the Carnival Corporation. (I guess we would have if we had not cancelled our upcoming Princess cruise because gratuities were included.)

Same here. We have found that the cruise lines use up the OBC for whatever charges are on the account. We have never tried getting a cash refund through the casino; we spend all the nonrefundable OBC on shore excursions, etc. And we also had 2 Princess cruises cancelled that had free gratuities--should be in New Zealand today then across the Pacific. 😢 

We most certainly plan to cruise again, hopefully this year as we still have 2 cruises booked:  August and New Years on Carnival. We had cruises in March and April on Princess cancelled. We love to travel and although we don't want to take unnecessary chances we will not let fear of "what if" rule our lives. We are accustomed to traveling about 3 months of the year and will have a substantial amount of future cruise credit from our cancelled Princess cruises so expect to be booking soon for next year.

2 hours ago, RMcoolX said:

"Only one onboard credit per shareholder-occupied stateroom."

 

What it means is that even if 2 or more occupants of the stateroom have Carnival stock, only one can get the OBC. I have never had a problem combining the shareholder OBC with any other offer. Here's hoping this benefit doesn't go away after the huge drop in the stock market. 

As to the "correct" way to use this OBC, this is what the shareholder benefit statement says:

"This benefit is not transferable, cannot be exchanged for cash and, cannot be used for casino credits/charges and gratuities charged to your onboard account." 

From comments made on these forums, the cruise lines are not enforcing this rule of use.

If you are offered a free upgrade be sure to look at the new location and decide if it is an upgrade to you. Sometimes what Princess considers an upgrade you may not if you selected your original cabin for a particular reason. Occasionally you might get really lucky and get an upgrade to a much better cabin. I was thrilled to get an upgrade from an aft balcony to a mid-ship mini-suite; but unfortunately that cruise was scheduled for last month and  was cancelled due to the virus 😢. Probably won't get such a good deal again.

Thanks to all who have contributed to this thread. It helps to share the frustration and get ideas for passing the time while in isolation. We were to be in Fiji on the Ruby Princess right now. Our 8-week trip, including a trans-Pacific back to the US from Australia, was cancelled 2 days before we were to fly out. Fortunately, the hotels we had booked in Australia were all free cancellation so that is taken care of. And the upside is that we didn't get quarantined in some distant country.

We live in a suburb of Jacksonville, FL, and there are a number of COVID-19 cases in the surrounding counties. Everything around here is closed up, as in most of the country. This week they even closed the beaches so now I can't go out and walk there. We have been sheltering ever since our trip was cancelled, except to shop for food. We have been having very warm weather so are spending a lot of time outdoors working in the yard. Have even been swimming in the pool, which is unusual for this early in the Spring. Having most of our meals outside on the patio. 

I've been visiting the Princess website daily to read the latest updates and search for where to cruise after this is over. Will have a lot of FCC to use up! We are in the "older" age bracket so not sure how soon we should plan another trip. Found a cruise we like in August but don't know if that's too soon to hit the seas again. We have a New Years cruise booked on the new Carnival Mardi Gras to take our granddaughter--if it doesn't get delayed again in construction. Think we might try for Fiji again next year.

Everyone stay safe and healthy!

I am also concerned about the status of the Mardi Gras. We are booked for the New Years cruise. It seems strange that they are showing no cruises until March 2021 when you search for sailings.  Hope the cruises Nov. - Feb. are sold out and the ship will be ready to cruise this year (since it's already been delayed from the original launch date). Since it's still some months away Carnival may be holding back on taking more reservations until they are sure when the ship will be ready.