buckeyefrank

This is slightly off topic but my wife and I are booked on a 2/21 sailing on the Fascination out of Puerto Rico.  With all sailings out of PR non-bookable at this point until Sept 2021, we are assuming this cruise will also be cancelled (our 4th cancellation ugh).  We paid for most of this one with gift cards and are debating on what we want to do.  If we cancel now, we will lose $250 deposit and receive gift cards back, about $900 worth.  Does anyone know a place where one could sell Carnival GCs safely and quickly?  I"m half tempted to take the loss and convert to cash at this point.  I'm very tired of this current book / rebook game and I'm not overly confident with the outlook for 2021 at this point.  TIA

1 hour ago, Joebucks said:

 

This reminds me of a local news story. We have a known "vaction" destination up here in Ohio where people come to relax and have a good time. The news has been touting that "66 people tested positive for COVID". People are panicking and saying it is so dangerous to go. When in reality, they tested about 1000 people, and the positive rate was in line with the rest of the US at about 6%. Not to say caution doesn't need to be had, but all in all, deceptive news as usual. Vacation = bad. Protest = good.

 

People see numbers and hear news, thinking that is all that exists. Can anyone prove that ANY other gathering hasn't had COVID?

 

 

Had to laugh at your categorization of the "vacation" destination......  Party island would be more appropriate 🙂

If they do end up cancelling these cruises, is anyone interested in purchasing about $1100 of carnival GCs for a good price 🙂

11 hours ago, MeganGC1983 said:

Rumor has it, the Fascination will start sailing out of Barcelona in Dec. FYI

Where did you hear this from?

26 minutes ago, islacruzer said:

Just got off the phone with Carnival. This is what they had explained: 

 

At the moment, there has been no cancellations for cruises already booked out of PR. They took down the sailings up until Sept because they did not want to oversell any sailings. At the moment it is not clear what the CDC will allow Carnival to do so they aren't selling any further bookings until Sept and until they find out what restrictions (if any) they will have to abide by. 

If there are any cancellations, there will be an email but again, as of today there are no cancellations (Knock on wood).  

That's seems to be their standard verbiage prior to cancelling.  I am kind of hoping they do cancel at this point.  All of the islands, including PR are requiring a negative COVID test within 3 days of arrival or a mandatory quarantine.  They are enforcing masks in public on all the islands and I am not doing that.

We were booked on June 5th cruise out of Boston, applied on May 7th for a refund and just received our credit in our bank account this morning.  My mom also received hers today on the same sailing on her credit card.  

10 hours ago, tallyho8 said:

Many lines will refund your port fees and taxes right away when they cancel a cruise but it may be months before they refund the cruise fare.

I haven't had a chance to call them yet but I have a feeling it's related to port fees...   Funny though I've received the refund since they haven't cancelled the cruises yet.

Something is seriously up with these bookings from PR.  We are currently booked for the 2/21 sailing and our gift card payments were all transferred from 2 prior cancelled cruises to cover this one.  So we are paid in full by GCs..     I just looked in my bank account and we were given a refund of $70 from Carnival for some reason.  We did pay $199 in cash for deposits on a cancelled cruise. 

I'm confused.... if they cruise is cancelled I would expect $199 in cash.  The $70 almost feels like a port tax refund or something.  Is anyone else seeing anything similar?  

We're booked on Feb 21st out of PR.   I'm thinking at this point it's probably PR telling Carnival that they won't be sailing from there until Sept 2021.   If it's eventually cancelled, this will be the 4th one we've lost to the virus... ugh.

Looking at the PR restrictions, the cruise ports are closed with no date for re-opening.  All travelers upon entrance need a negative covid test within the past 72 hours to avoid quarantine... facemasks required in public...      Not looking good.

1 hour ago, drsel said:

But money is not being destroyed. Nor does it disappear into thin air.

someone's loss is someone else's profit.

 

Billions of dollars of no income for the Cruise lines, ports, airlines, hotels, Uber, taxis, malls, shops, etc means billions of dollars extra in the pockets of all of us.

 

 

Actually it kind of does appear / disappear.  There is no specific amount of money that exists in the US or in the world for that matter.  It continues to change on a daily basis on bank activity, world financial brokers, Federal Reserve Board, stock market price fluctuations, etc.  When one hears of the economy shrinking or expanding, that basically means the amount of money in the system is getting bigger or larger.  If we were on the gold standard, there would be a set amount of money in the country.

17 hours ago, pe4all said:

A bit off subject, but I see you are from Monticello.  We have a house up there in Smallwood, which we have had for over 30 years.  The past 2 months we have been spending weekends up at the house.  I have "had words" with the people at Valley Cone and at Big Kev's bbq for their servers/cooks not wearing masks, which I thought was required when working around food.  The local stores seem to be in good shape with people following social distancing and wearing masks. No matter where in the world people are - if they do not follow rules set up by the CDC, WHO, local governments, etc., I think this virus will stick around, and possibly even come around again later in the year.

Not to get into an argument, but the latest CDC and WHO guidance actually says that people should NOT wear masks in public, unless you are a nurse working on a covid patient.  With all the misinformation coming from the "world health experts"over the course of this pandemic, I for one, am not going to condemn anyone for not wearing a mask.

21 hours ago, helene109 said:

Does it state when that expires? Thanks 

No it does not unfortunately.  Like everything else with this virus, it is up to the whim of the governor / mayors.  Here is the actual text.

Travelers from Areas of Substantial Community Spread

The executive orders issued by Gov. Ron DeSantis that require travelers from areas with substantial community spread of the virus, including the New York, New Jersey and Connecticut tri-state area, to quarantine for 14 days, or for the duration of their presence in the state, whichever is shorter, are still in effect. Airport screenings and roadside checkpoints are set up to check for potential COVID-19 cases. The checkpoints do not apply to persons involved in commercial activity or to students traveling for the purpose of academic work, internships, sports training or any other activity or program approved by the educational institution. For more information, see executive orders 20-80, 20-82, 20-139 and this FAQ, or call the Florida Department of Health at 1 (866) 779-6121.

17 minutes ago, bobsfamily said:

Since all cruise lines will know where you are coming from I wonder if the state (Fla) would require they certify that all passengers from that area have done the quarantine. 

I wonder if there will be an exception for cruisers as you would be out of the state.

I just looked at the current Florida quarantine and there actually is an exception.  The way the rule reads is that travelers into the state are quarantined for 14 day OR until they leave the state.  I would assume leaving the state via cruise ship would satisfy that requirement.  Presumably one would be required to self-quarantine in a hotel until embarkation.

I wouldn't necessarily put too much stock in the capacity control bucket myself.  I am sure there is some truth that certain sailings are almost guaranteed to have reduced numbers of traveler onboard; however, I'm pretty confident that there are some more cancellations coming as well.  A poster in another thread mentioned their sailing is no longer available for booking and they cancelled their flight purchased through Carnival, even though the flight itself is not cancelled.  That seems like a clear cut indicator that specific cruise will be cancelled.  The other indicator (to me at least) is that last week most ships were available, but now there are very few available.  If it were due to capacity control, I would expect a more gradual reduction in available bookings, not a wholesale stop.

Also just saw in the Norwegian board, the exact same thing is happening there as well.

50 minutes ago, KSSS2013 said:

 

 I think your situation is a bit different since you didn't wait the 90 days. I agree it's a long time to do the refund, but NCL is starting to prove that they can validate the length of time required for a refund since some (not all)  banks are kicking back the disputes now.

I get that for sure.  There were numerous threads in April / May when the cancellations were occurring about people immediately disputing charges and they were initially successful.  I just wanted to point out they may not be successful now.

1 hour ago, easmaryland said:

I cancelled an NCL cruise on March 11, before either FCC was in effect or the cruise itself was cancelled.  I have a confirmation email from NCL showing the cancellation, so I did not have a reservation anymore when the cruise itself was cancelled.  I opted to take the 75% refund that was due to me because I was still 106 days from sailing.  I have seen nothing re: that refund coming back to my credit card (90 days today).  I bought the cruise through an American Airlines Cruise travel agent (to get the miles, sort of ironic because I won't be flying anytime soon!).  Because I bought through a travel agent, NCL will not talk to me about my refund.  Not getting any help from travel agent either.  Anyway, I have two questions, if anyone knows.  First, if I dispute with credit card company is the dispute with NCL or with American Airlines travel agent?  It was NCL who actually charged my credit card.  Second and more importantly, I am only due 75% of the charge; I forfeited 25% penalty to NCL.  So what do I dispute?  The entire charge and let NCL sort it out?  Or do I give Citibank the exact amount I am due back even though that is not the charge on my card?  If anyone has been through this type of cancellation please advise.

I can help you with a portion of your question.  If you decide to dispute, you can simply look up the transaction on your statement and call your bank.  The description shows the party that processed the transaction and the bank knows that.  You just need to tell them the amount and date.

A dispute / chargeback may not work.  I had a June cruise (that I am supposed to be on right now) cancelled and we selected the cash refund option.  I disputed the transaction with my Chase (credit card).  They promptly issued me a credit on my account.  However a few days ago, Chase re-posted the transaction back onto my card balance without any notification.  So apparently NCL somehow fought it and won.  Bottom line if you do dispute, you may win, you may not.

Good afternoon.  A little background before my question.  We originally booked a cruise in April for 2 of us which was paid in full.  We paid $1,136.94 which included prepaid tips in the amount of $139.90.  Right before that cruise was cancelled, we cancelled that and re-booked to an August cruise out of San Juan.  When we booked the 2nd cruise, we put an additional cash deposit down of $198.00.  So we have put in a total of $1,334.94.  After we booked, the price of the cruise went down and we received an OBC for price protection.  As a result of the first cancellation, we were offered a $300 OBC (5 days) for re-booking.  Looking at my invoice for the August cruise, we are currently showing a $300 OBC but I believe it should be more.  Now to make matters worse (or maybe easier) the August cruise is cancelled and we will be re-booking again to a cruise next year.  Carnival is now offering $600 OBC for 7 day cruises.  I understand I will not get the original $300 offer plus the $600 offer but I think getting shorted some OBC.  Am I wrong in thinking that the total value of my FCC, account credit, whatever you want to call it should be $1,934.94 ($1,136.94 paid + $198 add pmt + $600 obc offer)?  My August cruise invoice shows $1044.72 plus $300 obc.  It looks like they reduced the original OBC cancellation credit from my OBC from the price reduction, even though we paid cash.

I hope that makes sense.

45 minutes ago, Formula280SS said:

 

Got a link?  🙄

 

For each?

 

Thank you.

he can't because it doesn't exist.  He has it backwards.

On 5/6/2020 at 9:54 PM, EscapeFromConnecticut said:

Optimism keeps "winning" here. 

https://www.hollandamerica.com/en_US/news/coronavirus-travel-advisory.html
 

https://www.princess.com/news/notices_and_advisories/notices/global-ship-operations-pause-2020-summer-season.html
 

No doubt, that CCL start date of Aug. 1 is ironclad.

 ⛔ 🚢⛔ 

NOTHING is ironclad.  Kids won't even be going to school in the fall full-time in Ohio and they're talking about college football not having fans in the stands.  It's Possible.

6 minutes ago, tallnthensome said:

100 + million a month, it’s in the OP’s attached article. 

Thanks for the updated numbers.  I wasn't able to read the article and the number I quoted was from a couple weeks ago and was approximate.  I know Carnival was $900mm per month.  NCL must have made significant changes.  thank you.

1 hour ago, TSUmom said:

This is good news

It is good news, but not great news.  Considering that I read an article where NCL stated the cost to keep their ships afloat during the pandemic was something like $500mm a month.  This cash infusion would only cover 4 months or so, not taking into account any customer cruise deposit returns from cancellations.

On 4/20/2020 at 10:27 AM, evandbob said:

WSJ today reported that short sellers (those who hope stocks go lower) have drastically increased their position against Carnival, Royal and some hotels. Could this push stock prices down near junk status, making bankruptcy a greater possibility?  Their stock has already taken a vicious beating.  Refunds become non existant if that happens.

 

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/bets-against-the-stock-market-rise-to-highest-level-in-years/ar-BB12RYPy?li=BBnbfcN

Stock prices themselves have NO impact on liquidity for the company.  You're confusing the cause for the effect.  The CAUSE of the lowering stock prices is because of the lack of cash.  The low stock price does not cause a reduction of cash.

2 hours ago, Charles4515 said:

 

Given that NCL is still trying to sell cruises they know won’t happen and is the last to cancel cruises it is pretty obvious that NCL is in dire straits. I would consider them the most likely to be liquidated.


Sent from my iPhone using Forums

 

I never said they weren't in dire straights.   The comment I referred to was that buying stock in NCL is giving them cash.... it doesn't.  NCL doesn't get one red cent of cash from a stock purchase, unless it's an IPO, which they do not.

On 4/16/2020 at 11:50 AM, JustAPilot said:

Either you are just trolling us at this point or you have no concept of losing money. If you are so sure cruising is coming back this summer why not buy some stock in NCL, they could really use your investment right about now.

Purchasing existing stock in a company does not go to the company.  It goes to the individual who owned the stock before.

Depends on what you mean by bad sign.    Bad sign as in we won't cruise again soon, or bad sign, ncl is going under?

I see it more of a sign that NCL understands they won't be cruising for a period of time and need to secure cash for the cancellations that are inevitable.