AdamBATL

On 9/4/2020 at 9:35 AM, drsel said:

to the OP,

when Cruise next certificates are available at half price on board, it does not make sense to take a future Cruise credit from Norwegian.

always take a full cash refund.

 

In complete contrast to Norwegian, Carnival rewards you with $600 extra OBC if you take a future Cruise credit and that is a good deal!

 

 

Alas, there was no option on my original cruise.

10 hours ago, sanger727 said:

In regards to your original FCC. You said that you had a cruise ‘changed on you’. Did you ever sail the cruise that you paid for? What was the FCC meant to represent? A partial refund for prorated days that were cancelled? A full refund for a cruise that couldn’t be taken? Or a good will gesture for your inconvenience. If it was a good Will gesture for your inconvience I suspect you will be out of luck. If it’s cruise for a cruise that wasn’t taken or refund for prorated days then I agree that their response is wrong.

In this case, it was aboard the Epic which had just come back from a trip where they rammed it into the pier in San Juan.  So, my cruise, which was supposed to be to 4 of my favorite ports in the Eastern Carribean over 7 days, left two days late with nobody allowed aboard on the original sailing date, and turned into a 5-day cruise to Nassau, a port I have been to a few times too many.  Half the value was refunded as a FCC. 

The issue is not really whether the FCC from the Epic was a fair settlement for the downgrade of that cruise.  The issue is that I followed all the rules of the FCC, but they will now invalidate it, when they cancel the cruise in January.

16 hours ago, MoCruiseFan said:

Gee my partial FCC refund was 125% of what I paid!  Of course a FUTURE cruise CREIDT has to be applied to a FUTURE CRUISE, that is why it is called a Future Cruse Credit!

No need to be a jerk.  Last time I checked, January, 2021 was still the future.

I had a cruise on 2/16/19 changed on me (due to problems at NCL) and the result was a Future Cruise Credit that must be used by 2/15/21.  If you don't know what a FCC is, it is a partial refund of the money that you paid for the original cruise, but applied to a future cruise rather than returned to you in cash.  You must book another cruise if you want the use of your money.  It is not a gift.

Last year, I booked a Panama Canal cruise on 1/16/21.  As I have been watching month after month of cruises being canceled by NCL, I contacted guest relations to see whether my FCC would be extended to the same time as the FCCs they're issuing for cash deposits on this cruise.  The answer is a resounding "no".  They will return the FCC to me, with the original expiration date, meaning that it will expire with no opportunity to use it, meaning that they will be helping themselves to my money - money they should have been refunded when the original cruise was changed:

"After a thorough review of your file, it was determined that your concerns were appropriately addressed.  Unfortunately, we feel there is little we can add without reiterating what has already been mentioned previously.
In the event your future reservation is cancelled, any future cruise credit or CruiseNext Deposit applied as payment will be returned to your latitude account with the existing expiration dates.

...

While we are sorry to learn of your continued disappointment with our previous responses, our position in this matter remains firm.  Regrettably, we are unable to extend any further consideration for this issue. "

Will I do business with a company that feels that they can simply elect to keep my money rather than extend the deadline so I can use my FCC as it was originally intended?  No, when they swipe my money, I'm done with them.  Should you do business with such a company?

Hi, I could use some advice on navigating some tricky waters (no pun intended).  Early last year, we had booked an NCL cruise in a Haven-class cabin.  The cruise was shortened and itinerary changed, and NCL offered to refund half the money and give us the other half as a FCC (expiring Feb, 2021).  We took them up on it, and we also did one of those cruise rewards purchases while aboard, where you pay $250 for a $500 credit on a future cruise (with restrictions on when you can get double the value).

Last summer (a year ago), I booked a Panama Canal cruise, including air, in January 2021 (the month before our FCC expires), and used the full $500 in cruise rewards as the deposit.  My plan was not to apply the FCC until the balance was due - no point in adding complexity to re-booking should the price drop (which I have done a couple of times).  That balance won't be due until September.

Now my predicament:  I'm no longer that comfortable about the prospects of cruising in January (though that may change).  If I cancel, then both my cruise rewards and FCC will expire, and I don't want that.  Suppose NCL cancels the cruise?  Would I be better off putting my FCC into the cruise now because a new FCC would have a much later expiration date, or would my FCC just expire anyway?  Should I wait to apply my FCC because NCL would extend it anyway if they cancel before September, or is there a chance that I'd only get an extension if they cancel after I apply it?

I'm sure that, between now and September, NCL will extend their 48-hour cancellation offer to January.  If that's the case, then I could cancel if I wasn't comfortable, but what would that look like?  Would my FCC and cruise rewards simply be returned and expire or would they become a new FCC with a later expiration date?  What happens to the air portion?

Thanks for helping me work out my best strategy.

We found them through their website in April and chose them because they advertised convenient, secure parking minutes from the port and "Shuttles run continuously to and from the port every 15-20 minutes from 7am-3pm". With such low prices, why park anywhere else?

I'll tell you why. We prepaid for a 10:30 AM reservation and arrived on time. Rather than driving in to a garage, everyone was forced to line up under an overpass outside their *dirt lot*, while waiting to be admitted because "the passengers are lingering on their cruise". We didn't get to park until noon and then had to fight for a spot on one of two shuttles that showed up to take all the waiting customers to the port.

When we returned, we waited over 90 minutes at the port with all of the other Premier customers while no shuttles came. I personally phoned 4-5 times and was told each time that shuttles were on the way. Other customers eventually walked a mile to their lot. We eventually hired a taxi (at our expense). When we got there, we found the next bunch of victims lined up under the bridge, being told that we were just loitering too long on our cruse.

There wasn't a person amongst us who wasn't kicking themselves for choosing to park with these crooks.