newcruiserdave

I received my deposit from Celebrity on May 25 for our June 2 cruise ($250 per passenger).

I made several calls to see about the remainder then last week was told that the remainder was sent back to my big box travel website on May 25th.  Apparently my TA had no interest in refunding my money.  I have spent the past week trying to get action from them.  Today they informed me that they indeed have my money and will get it back to me "in the next week or so."  

Not that I ever see myself cruising again (all I picture is a floating petri dish) but I'll certainly never use a travel agent whose very name says "con".  

This is simply unacceptable business practice.  I am tired of hearing excuses. "Oh, but there are so many refunds to issue".   I was able to cancel my flights and was refunded in 3 days.  Same with my trip insurance.  There are at least 7 round trip flights that have to be cancelled for any overseas cruise, and yet the airlines manage to treat their customers well.  This is blatant disregard for their customers.  Celebrity could refund them all in a week if they were willing to reallocate their employees temporarily.  They don't care enough.  And who could ever explain how they give 3-4 partial refunds over weeks instead of the total all together.  All I paid to them was deposit and final payments (no excursions or packages added).  But they send me $250 for each passenger when they could have issued the entire amount with the same amount of work.  This is just dishonest.  I cannot imagine how anyone would consider doing business with a company like this.

Here it is:  cancellation.celebritycruises.com    I submitted mine.  The letter says 45 day to refund.  Want to bet?

Thanks.  Submitted my request.  The letter quoted 45 days to receive refund.  (Yeah, right)

Does anyone have the internet link to request refund on cancelled cruise.  The letter is on the website for cruises through June 11, but the link is not active.  Anyone from the previous set of cancellations have the link?

Its on the website now.  The link to request refund is not active in the letter.  Anyone have the link?

Hmm... I don't see that when I go to celebrity website..   I don't doubt it, but would like to see it   This what I see

23 minutes ago, chengkp75 said:

The CDC no sail order has no jurisdiction over a cruise leaving a port other than a US port, unless your cruise is ending in the US.

True, but the US CDC carries a lot of weight.  CLIA will make the next move.  Last time they followed the CDC, and likely will again.

From the CLIA announcement March 13 "“We do not take this decision lightly, and we want the traveling public to know in no uncertain terms the commitment of this industry to putting people first,” said Adam Goldstein, CLIA Global Chairman. “During this time, we will continue to work with the CDC and others to prepare for resumption of sailings when it is appropriate. "

Thanks, @UnorigionalName , for a touch of realism.

16 hours ago, UnorigionalName said:

When the quarantine restrictions are lifted and we go into a surveillance mode, I think cruises will be one of the last to start up if they do start up at all.  It's non-essential leisure.  No community is going to accept having the risk of coronavirus spread just so some minority of relatively wealthy people can have their cruise fix. 

A lot of wishful assumptions are being made.

1.  An effective vaccine or treatment -- I hope so, but there are many viral and bacterial diseases that have had vaccine research and trials for over 40 years with no workable vaccine.  Science keeps progressing, but viral vaccines and treatments are few and far between.  I pray we get a successful vaccine, but the odds are about even.

2.  You can screen for Covid19 and prevent infected people from entering a cruise ship.  No, you can not.  You can spread the disease for days before you have any symptoms.  More importantly, 20-30% of people who have the disease never have any symptoms at all.  Testing for current disease has poor sensitivity.   Testing for convalescence antibodies is the best way to show prior infection and a lesser likelihood of being susceptible to some diseases, but we don't yet know if there is any long-term protection from a prior infection of COVID19 yet.  Many respiratory viruses do not confer any lasting immunity.  Some children get RSV several times a winter.  Finally, the presence of antibodies don't always equate to disease resistance.  

3.  This is not the last novel respiratory virus we will ever see.  Various SARS and MERS have appeared in the past 20 years and there will be more.  This one happened to be more contagious that prior ones  There is no way to tell how severe/infectious the next one will be.  Do you want to be on a cruise the next time this happens?

4.  The cruise lines will be able to stay financially "afloat".  The big 3 here, Carnival, Royal, and NCL are already in debt trouble and now have no income stream.  Their survival (especially NCL) is questionable.  If they don't restart soon, they will fail.  If they restart too soon, they will be shut down after the next outbreak.  They are in a lose-lose situation.  I bought some Carnival stock a long time ago for the perks, and while they are in the best financial shape of the 3, it will be a long time before it's worth anything (if ever).

Sorry to be so Debbie Downer.  I love cruising.  Or I used to. I am supposed to sail in early June from Venice.   Waiting on Celebrity to cancel it.  I can not believe they would be irresponsible enough to risk 1000s of people by launching that ship.  I may have been on my last floating petri dish. 

Nevermind, they are just running around in circles.

Constellation left anchor off Greece today, headed south.  Perhaps to the yard for retrofit?

Bought the stock last week. My cruise leaves on April 6. Faxed in the proof of stock ownership this am, called immediately afterward. They said they were working on requests from March 13th. Since my cruise was in less than 2 weeks, she located my fax (by time sent in) while I was on the phone and credited the obc to me immediately. Great customer service!