JillK

31 minutes ago, Ourusualbeach said:

Yes they will balance out the FCC’s because of those inequities as long as everyone with an FCC is on the reservation.  

That puts my mind at ease! Thanks so much. 

Hi all. 

We have FCCs for myself, hubby and our four (minor) kids that we would like to apply towards a cruise in 2021. 

I have asked our agent to see if Royal will agree to allow us to pool and apply our FCCs as a family rather than following the "stated" FCC amount per person. It has been almost two weeks and I haven't heard back yet. 

Because of the way they evenly split the FCCs among each of our cabins, both my husband and 10 year old have a credit in the same amount (they were in a cabin for 2) while myself and my other kids have a credit in the same amount (in a connecting cabin for 4). However, when we booked, our invoices clearly showed that both hubby and I as PAX 1 in each cabin paid more in fare than our kids (ie. cabin 1: Pax 1: $1000, Pax 2: $500 / cabin 2: Pax 1: $1000, Pax 2 - 4: $500).

Royal's pricing means that I would have to pay out of pocket to cover the difference between theFCC and the fare while my kids come in less than the FCC and would be issued another FCC they would never be able to use to the tune of about $250 each. As this cruise is close to the deadline to use them up, there would be no way for us to be able to use a re-issued FCC.

Given that all the same passengers are travelling, we are all in one family and there are four minors who cannot travel on their own, I feel that our request is reasonable. 

Just curious if anyone else has tried to get their FCCs pooled in a similar manner and whether or not they've had any success. 

I was on the Port of Miami webcam today and noticed it was pretty empty - wondering where they'd all gone. 

Thanks for sharing!

On 4/25/2020 at 8:54 AM, JillK said:

 

I'd be curious to know this too. Currently at day 46 waiting to be refunded for port taxes/fees, cruise planner items and prepaid gratuities for a cruise I cancelled on 03/10 that was supposed to leave 03/15 (if I had had a crystal ball I would have waited out Royal and been able to get the full refund option). 

 

Pretty frustrating to read that people who initiated a cancellation after me for cruises in the fall are getting refunded first. It got me thinking that perhaps there was an issue with my file as some others have reported. When I sent an email to my TA to ask about inquiring if there was a problem, I was sent a reply to "just be patient." 

 

At this point I'm going to wait it out a full 60 days and then contact Royal myself. I think that's being very patient! 

OK thought I would circle back with an update. 

Finally had the refund of taxes/fees, pre-paid gratuities and cruise planner items show up on my credit card this morning. Looks like it was "posted" on April 27 but didn't show in my account until today.

My refund took 48 calendar days or 35 business days. 

As others have posted, it came in two different amounts but equal what was owed after backing out the FCC amount. 

To everyone else waiting, hang in there! 

Thanks for sharing the article but I have to admit I'm getting a little tired of all the finger pointing at the cruise industry. Where's the exposé on the airline industry and how they helped spread the disease globally before everyone really knew what we were facing? Very easy to sit here a few months into this thing and say travellers and businesses should have acted differently. 

We could also say that we in North America should have seen it coming once we saw that it was gaining ground in Europe. And yet, even in early March, a week before the start of school break for students, our premier in Ontario was saying "go and enjoy your vacation." Less than a week later, it was all about social isolation, school being cancelled and travellers needing to self-isolate for two weeks once back from a trip. Prime Minister Trudeau was telling Canadians abroad that it was time to come home while they still could.

We were due to cruise on the Anthem for March break. We decided to cancel on Tuesday (03/10) after the Canadian Medical Officer said in a news conference that Canadians needed to avoid cruise ships (with four children, we were concerned: What if we couldn't get back through the border after the cruise? If we did get into the country, what if we were directed to quarantine at a military base instead of being able to go home?) Thursday afternoon (03/12) as the kids were getting home from their last day of school before the break came the news that school was cancelled for the rest of March (extended to mid-May and now to start of June). Friday (03/13) Royal themselves suspended operations. That's literally how quickly things developed. 

Again, very easy now to look back and say "How come the cruise lines didn't do more in mid-February?" We can ask the same of our governments. How come we didn't close borders sooner? How come we didn't recommend social distancing sooner? etc, etc. 

Hindsight is always 20/20.

22 hours ago, Monthend said:

I cancelled March 14. Wonder how they decide who to refund first

.

I'd be curious to know this too. Currently at day 46 waiting to be refunded for port taxes/fees, cruise planner items and prepaid gratuities for a cruise I cancelled on 03/10 that was supposed to leave 03/15 (if I had had a crystal ball I would have waited out Royal and been able to get the full refund option). 

Pretty frustrating to read that people who initiated a cancellation after me for cruises in the fall are getting refunded first. It got me thinking that perhaps there was an issue with my file as some others have reported. When I sent an email to my TA to ask about inquiring if there was a problem, I was sent a reply to "just be patient." 

At this point I'm going to wait it out a full 60 days and then contact Royal myself. I think that's being very patient! 

On 4/22/2020 at 4:58 PM, Pianogrl44 said:

We couldn’t take our March 15th or 22nd Harmony of the Seas and we received our FCCs but haven’t gotten any port fees, taxes, gratuities etc refunded to our mastercard yet for either cruise.  Our credit card is about to expire in two weeks and I have a new date to update it with but I’m worried if I call RC to change it this will reset my whole process 😣.  Has anyone received port fees or taxes yet without disputing a charge with the credit card?  Wondering if there’s any hope in getting it before the 30th.

We are in a similar boat. We were due to cruise 03/15 but cancelled just a few days before Royal on 03/10. We received our FCC but are still waiting for cruise planner items, taxes/fees and pre-paid gratuities to be refunded. 44 days and counting. 

My parents were due to cruise with us and they received their FCC and a refund of cruise planner/taxes and fees on the same date on 03/19. Not sure why their refund was processed so quickly while we're still waiting. 

You would think that since we cancelled ahead of Royal's suspension of services we would have seen our refund before the onslaught of all the mass cancellations but I am reading here of people who cancelled after us getting their refunds so who knows what is going on over there. 

You might want to reach out to your cc in a week if you don't see anything by then. 

Good luck! 

Agree with what others have said. We cruised from NYC the past two Decembers and had similar experiences. I will note that for both cruises, the first full sea day were extremely rough.

For the December 2018 cruise, our sons were with us and my youngest was quite sick and vomiting. A frequent cruiser that we met on an excursion later in the trip said that she was sick for the first time in all her many cruises (think 60-something cruises) and that a lot of the staff she was speaking to had also experienced sea sickness.

We came to understand later that there had been a nasty storm in the Carolinas as we were passing the coastline and chalked it up to that so we were very surprised to encounter it again on the cruise in 2019. Barf bags out everywhere and a very quiet ship the first day. We had been severely delayed boarding the day before and in speaking with staff the delays were due to rough conditions in the harbour on embarkation day. 

In terms of weather, as others have said, don't expect to be outside. In 2018, my sons did go to the kids splash works on the second sea day but I would say it was no warmer than 15 Celcius and too cold for me but your kids might think it's just fine.

We are also eyeballing this cruise to replace the March break one that was just cancelled. We're only concerned about the amount of days we would have to pull the kids from school given how much they are missing right now so are in a holding pattern. The itinerary looks amazing and the length is a nice break - if you do book, happy sailing! 

13 hours ago, LuCruise said:

I am assuming this date extension does not apply for the 100% FCC if we cancelled the cruise (as opposed to Royal cancelling)...and also the first back of sailings back in March.  

I am assuming the same thing but wondering if anyone here can confirm? Would be great to have a bit of wiggle room and possibly extend to March Break 2022. 

I have the reverse scenario. 

We cancelled our cruise on 03/10 just a few days before Royal suspended operations.

We have since received two emails with FCC amounts (the first one 03/19 and then a revised one on 03/26) but have not received a refund of our cruise planner items, taxes/fees or pre-paid gratuities as of yet (38 days and counting). 

Since you already have your refund, you should be receiving your FCC email any day. Please let us know when you do and if it's presented in Royal math (your fares are evenly split, not based on actual passenger spend). 

On 4/11/2020 at 12:09 PM, Ourusualbeach said:

So I should have called but I did get the answers.

 

 - Customer cancelled cruises are still having the FCC split equally among all guests

 - Sailings cancelled by Royal will have the FCC issued based on the cruise fare paid per guest

 - They will allow moving FCC amounts around when you do the booking as long as the guests are on the reservation.

 - You are allowed to apply more that 1 FCC per booking.

Thanks for this info. I am in the boat of having my FCC's divided up equally instead of being based on fare paid. 

Because we were two adults and four children split among two cabins, the math is frustrating as the FCC stands due since my 10 year old son's FCC is worth $676 (as pax 2 in a cabin for 2) whereas mine is $542 (pax 1 in a cabin for 4). 

Do you happen to know if I want to have the FCCs moved around more equitably for a future booking (given that four of the passengers cannot cruise without an adult), can I contact RCL directly or would I have to work through the agent I booked the cancelled cruise through? 

Thank you so much for posting new info as it's becoming available. 

Don't get *too* excited yet.

I have the same cruise planner cancellation email dated March 11th and I still have not been refunded. 

We cancelled March 10th (so no full refund option for us) and while I have received an email with our FCC value, I am still waiting on a refund of the taxes/fees and pre-paid gratuities even though it's now past 30 days. 

We were due to board the Anthem on March 15th and like you, we received the app notifications of shows and dining reservations through the week which we enjoyed from our living room. 

Do keep us posted on when you get your money back! 

Just now, onthewater51 said:

 Still nothing and if we don't hear back by Friday we'll call them  Im sure they are swamped  but Friday makes 4 weeks.  Just want to be sure it doesn't fall thru the paperwork.  Have you received yours?

Yesterday marked 4 weeks since we cancelled under CWC just four days before Royal cancelled the cruise anyhow. 

Have received notification of FCC (second one two weeks ago tomorrow) but still no refund of our cruise planner items, taxes/fees or prepaid gratuities. 

Contacted our agent yesterday to ask about investigating the hold up and was told to be patient. My parents were due to cruise with us and they received both their FCC and refund of taxes/fees and cruise planner items three week ago which is why I'm concerned we've fallen through the cracks. I felt that to ask for a follow-up after four weeks and knowing my parents have been refunded was being patient! 

Sounds like the OP had made full payment for a cruise in January 2021 well ahead of final payment and thus is entitled to 100% of his money back. 

With final payment due 120 days prior to the cruise, it would be due sometime in September I would assume.

2 hours ago, AZsunluvr said:

I'm still getting cruise documents as if my May 3rd cruise were still going forward. I'm guessing they don't have the IT people in place to handle all the changes necessary.

Yeah, my husband was really getting a kick out of our Royal app notifications that we had a dinner booked or a reserved show in half an hour while we were sitting in our family room. If you are on that app, you may very well get those notifications as well! 

I cancelled our 03/15 Anthem cruise on 03/10, a few days before Royal ceased operations so we are unfortunately locked into the FCC option. 

I received an email of cancelled items from my cruise planner on 03/11 but have not received the refund. I have now gotten two separate FCC letters (first two weeks ago, the second last week) with different amounts but still no refund of the taxes/fees and prepaid gratuities, almost 4 weeks later.

I'm surprised we haven't seen any money back because my parents, who were to cruise with us, cancelled on 03/09 and were issued their FCC and received a refund of their cruise planner purchases and taxes/fees two weeks ago. 

Frustrating - but nowhere near as frustrating as the way the FCCs are being issued split evenly among the passengers rather than based on what my invoice shows as what we paid per person (my 10 year old was PAX 2 in a cabin for two so his FCC is worth more than mine as PAX 1 in a cabin for four. It is also for more than what we paid for him including taxes and fees). Would rather see either the actual amount paid per person in FCC or a total for the cabin in our cases as we were cruising with four minors. They can't cruise on their own by Dec 31, 2021!

Sorry to hear that you are out of pocket, especially given the circumstances.

I had to cancel a cruise once because of a medical emergency with a family member. It was before the penalty phase with the cruise line but I still got dinged a $100 PER PERSON USD cancellation charge. It was the first and last time I used that particular online agency. I now only book with companies that have no cancellation or change fee or are willing to waive it to get my booking. 

I cancelled on March 10th and received an email with cancelled Cruise Planner items on March 11th and an initial FCC email on March 19th. I then received a revised FCC letter (more FCC and less refund presumably - boo) on March 26th. Still no refund of Cruise Planner items, taxes/fees or prepaid gratuities. 

My parents were also on the same cruise as us and cancelled on March 9th. They received their FCC email on March 19th and a refund of taxes/fees and Cruise Planner items on March 20th.

Not sure why our FCC amount changed or why I haven't seen a refund when they have but that's our experience. Seems arbitrary.

2 hours ago, Ourusualbeach said:

You may be better off with the refund instead of the FCC

2 hours ago, Biker19 said:

This is why the recommendation from most here is to take the refund, if possible, instead of FCCs.

I would have taken that option but we cancelled ahead of RCI. When our Chief Medical Officer told Canadians to avoid cruise travel we became extremely concerned about our ability to re-enter the country post-cruise and made the difficult decision to cancel on March 10 in order to give sufficient time for our agent to have our cancellation processed ahead of the 48 hour cancellation deadline (per the Cruise with Confidence refund policy). We needed to have our cruise cancelled by Thursday March 12th in order to receive 100% FCC. So even though the cruise was cancelled on March 13th,  we had already pulled the trigger.

1 hour ago, LuCruise said:

Wondering when you received your FCC?  We were on the same Anthem cruise and have yet to receive anything.  Also 2 rooms among the 4 of us.  Cancelled 3 days before Royal cancelled.

So same situation as us. We cancelled on March 10th and on March 11th received a notification of cancellation of our prepaid items from our cruise planner. We received our first email from Royal on March 22nd which confirmed our FCC amounts.

My parents, who were also on this cruise in a separate cabin, had cancelled on March 9th and also received their FCC email on March 22nd. They also received a refund of the taxes/fees and cruise planner items on March 23rd to their credit card.

I have been checking my credit card and to date, no refund of taxes/fees, cruise planner items or the prepaid gratuities.

Here's where it gets interesting: Yesterday afternoon I received a revised email from Royal with a higher amount of FCC ("Due to a technical glitch, the FCC you previously received was incorrect.") So now our FCC is $350 more than previously advised and I am anticipating a lower amount of refund but I cannot figure out the math. I booked through an agent and my booking does not show the taxes/fees as a separate line item. The math just doesn't make sense once I back the pre-paid grats out of what I should be receiving back in terms of refund out of the FCC to make the number whole. Will keep watching my credit card to see what amount hits it in the end. 

I was disappointed to see that rather than being calculated by the actual cost of each passenger, the FCC is divvied up equally. We are a family of six and booked two connecting cabins on the Anthem (03/15). Now my 10 YO who was in a cabin for two with my husband is getting back almost twice as much as I am as the primary traveller in the cabin for four (with my three other children) even though hubby and I paid over $1000 each and the kids were all in the $500 range. 

I have been looking at other potential cruises but realize that I can't avail myself of the KSF promo (of which only my two sons qualify as my daughters are teens) as this would mean that my 10 YO would be issued another FCC for the difference. Seriously? He can't cruise by himself!

I find it difficult to think that in booking another two cabins, I will have to pay out of pocket while sitting on an FCC that will go unused? This can't be right. 

These are minor quibbles in the grand scheme of things right now but it's frustrating trying to figure out how to use these up while still delivering a well-priced vacation as most cruises I have been pricing are significantly more than what I paid when I booked back in June 2018. 

I cancelled on Tuesday morning (01/10) just a few days ahead of Royal cancelling our planned Anthem cruise (departure 03/15) as we were concerned about closing borders before we would be home (which has come to pass). 

I received confirmation from Royal that the items purchased through the cruise planner were being refunded last Wednesday (03/11) but I have not yet seen the cruise planner items refunded to my credit card.

I received an email from my travel agent on Thursday (03/19) with the FCC certificate numbers and amounts. A few hours later, I received a further email directly from Royal with the same information. Based on the amount of my FCCs, I am anticipating a further refund of taxes/fees and prepaid gratuities of $1600 that has not yet come through to my credit card.

I would guess that you will also see an FCC email before the April 13th date as I have as we cancelled around the same time. That being said, you may have to wait until that April date. 

My only concern about the FCC is that it is listed by person with an amount for each individual. Four out of six of ours are for our children. Let's say for example that I book a new cruise when they are running the "kids sail free" promo (which would apply to two of my children) whereby the amount of their taxes would be significantly less than the value of their FCC. I would hope to be able to use the difference towards the overall cost of the same booking (but in theory for another person).  

Confirming what others are reporting. My mom was told this directly from RCL when she spoke with a rep mid-week about cancelling her cruise aboard the Anthem due to depart today. She has a cruise booked with Celebrity next spring she was hoping to transfer the credit to but was told it must stay in-brand.

15 minutes ago, rsfunk said:

 

I received the FCC email, for cruise fare only,  yesterday at 4:46p (right about the time they announced the suspension) and just checked my CC, the port fees and the UDP were credited back yesterday as well.

The amounts al cheeped out to exactly what we were quoted, and expected, by the customer service rep that helped us on 3/6 when we cancelled.

 

Hope that help/answers your question. 

No communication about our FCC yet and nothing back on credit card as of this morning so this gives me a good idea of what to expect. 

Thanks for the info. 

5 minutes ago, rsfunk said:

 

Hi rsfunk.

We cancelled on Tuesday morning once our Chief Medical Officer announced that Canadians should avoid all cruise travel. Up until that point, we were still planning on cruising tomorrow. While we did receive a confirmation of cancellation from our travel agent, I don't have anything from RCL that shows our FCC.

Could you confirm whether or not the FCC you received encompasses the taxes/fees or if this was refunded and your FCC is the cruise fare only?

We had also pre-paid our gratuities so waiting to see if this will be a straight up refund or a credit.

Thanks!

Hi rucruisn2.

Sorry that you are in this frustrating situation. I also had once booked with a large, well known online agency and had to cancel within penalty period for a medical issue. I was also charged an agency cancellation fee that I didn't like having to pay, but was aware of when I booked.

Needless to say that was the last time that I used that company and now always make sure that I deal with an agency that has no agency cancellation fees or in my most recent booking a few months back, the agency agreed to waive the fee in order to keep my business.

Recommend that you have a look around to see who you can take your future business to!