Cruise Cancelled

[MartiniBarhooked]

Our April 2nd Panama Canal on the Infinity was cancelled and this is an update of refunds and such. Every penny was refunded. Refunds were a bit strange various amounts but it all added up to the total costs. We also received a $2090 Future Cruise Credit. The credit has to used on a Cruise which departs before Feb. 1 2019. We have other X cruises booked but not until Feb. 12 2019. So I booked a Suite on a 4 day Bahamas cruise. Cost $2000 so out the $90 but it would have cost me another couple hundred to move up a category to spend the $90. So to recap Full Refund of Panama Canal Cruise,Drink Package,Dining Package. Used the $2000 to get a free cruise. I did have to pay the $209 port charges and taxes. All in All worked out.

Airfare? When I cancelled the non-refundable flights I was glad I had bought Allianz insurance. When cancelling the tickets I did check the box that said cancellation was because of a change the airline had made in the itinerary so I received almost an immediate refund from the airline. Good thing because the Insurance turned down my claim. They said refunds where not good because of Cruise Cancellation. Well already had my refund so not pursuing it.

Edited February 4, 2018 by jimkathyd1

[Keith1010]

Glad it worked out.

 

Did you have any issues with flight cancellations?

 

Keith

[MartiniBarhooked]

Glad it worked out.

 

Did you have any issues with flight cancellations?

 

Keith

 

Did an edit to original post to address that question.

[Keith1010]

Glad you did well with the air fare refund.

 

Keith

[Silkroad]

Airfare? When I cancelled the non-refundable flights I was glad I had bought Allianz insurance. When cancelling the tickets I did check the box that said cancellation was because of a change the airline had made in the itinerary so I received almost an immediate refund from the airline. Good thing because the Insurance turned down my claim. They said refunds where not good because of Cruise Cancellation. Well already had my refund so not pursuing it.

 

I’m happy everything worked out for you with your cruise cancellation! Since I often use Allianz, I have a question about your airfare refund. Did you mean to say you checked the box that said cancellation was because of a change the airline made to the itinerary? I’ve not had to deal with this, so I’m trying to learn the ropes before they’re needed.

[vulcan1971]

jimkathyd1 - out of curiosity, do you know why your cruise was cancelled?

 

 

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[upwarduk]

jimkathyd1 - out of curiosity, do you know why your cruise was cancelled?

 

 

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I think Infinity is going in to dry dock.

[vulcan1971]

I think Infinity is going in to dry dock.

 

 

 

Thank you. I am doing the eastbound crossing in October 2018.

 

 

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Edited February 4, 2018 by vulcan1971

[phoenix_dream]

I think overall that was a fair reimbursement. One point is troublesome I think and that is the 'cruise by' date. Panama Canal cruises are only in spring and fall. If someone was really looking forward to a spring cruise of that type, they could not use the reimbursement for that as those cruises do not start that early. Considering the cancelled cruise was in early April, I think it would be more fair to extend the rebooking offer to at least that date - even if only for Panama Canal cruises. Just my opinion - I am actually not affected thank goodness.

[AvaStar]

jimkathyd1 - out of curiosity, do you know why your cruise was cancelled?

 

 

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I'm not the originator of this thread, but I do know the Infinity cruise was cancelled due to propulsion problems they are having. They are going to have to put it in dry dock during the time of that cruise for repairs.

[Fouremco]

I think overall that was a fair reimbursement. One point is troublesome I think and that is the 'cruise by' date. Panama Canal cruises are only in spring and fall. If someone was really looking forward to a spring cruise of that type, they could not use the reimbursement for that as those cruises do not start that early. Considering the cancelled cruise was in early April, I think it would be more fair to extend the rebooking offer to at least that date - even if only for Panama Canal cruises. Just my opinion - I am actually not affected thank goodness.

Did you try to get Celebrity to extend that time frame? I'm wondering if, given the circumstances, they might have been willing to extend the period or change it to a "book by" rather than "cruise by" deadline.

[SFCAcruiser]

... I did have to pay the $209 port charges and taxes. All in All worked out....

This caught my attention because it makes no sense to me that you would have to pay port fees when there will be no ports on a cancelled cruise. It would appear that Celebrity has not thought this through, or it is a "money grab".

[Fouremco]

This caught my attention because it makes no sense to me that you would have to pay port fees when there will be no ports on a cancelled cruise. It would appear that Celebrity has not thought this through, or it is a "money grab".

These would be fore the new cruise that the OP booked, not the cancelled cruise for which the OP received a full refund.

[swkrupa78]

We were to be on that same cruise. I will tell you that I think Celebrity dropped the ball BIG time in how they handled communications around this refund issue. We were traveling with two other couples. Each of us were getting mixed signals from Celebrity when we called to clarify exactly what we were to be refunded in terms of airfare and what the dates are for using the Future cruise voucher. We spent a lot of time on the phone with various reps to try and get a consistent answer to our questions. It was a very frustrating experience and we are glad it is finally over.

 

First, for our Choice Air refund portion of the trip, we were told by one rep that our refund from Choice Air would be fully covered, but then our friends called and they were told that NO, we were only going to get a CREDIT to apply the money to a different flight when we booked our next cruise! Then we called One Choice Hospitality and rep told us that we would indeed get refunded for the Choice Air. The final outcome was in fact that they did give us a full refund for the Choice Air.

 

As far as our own air that we booked coming home, we had to quickly find another trip to somewhere or lose the entire airfare. So we booked a trip to England on the same airline and submitted our $400 change fee to Celebrity. We finally received that credit yesterday.

 

In terms of the future cruise credit, again we were getting mixed messages. We are not in a position where we can book a cruise to sail by Feb 1, 2019. In fact, we were hoping to use this voucher for a future Panama Canal cruise in Spring of 2020 - since there is no Panama canal cruise for Spring of 2019. Although the voucher says that it is "sail by" Feb 1 2019 date, two reps from One Choice Hospitality have assured us that it can be used for future sailings and be treated as a "book by" date as long as we book a cruise by Feb 1st. However, the jury is out as I am cynical as to whether Celebrity will honor that commitment.

 

The sad part is that my wife and I love sailing with Celebrity, but it has left a very disappointing impression to our friends who were to cruise with Celebrity for the first time. In fact, it was our recommendations about how great the service is with Celebrity that convinced our friends to try Celebrity.

 

I hope that Celebrity management can learn from this experience and improve on the way they handle communications on cancelled cruise situations. They really need to be prepared before they send out vague memos and have their reps informed with one consistent message to their customers on how their cancellation process is to work. They are a great company and once you are on the ship, you do have great cruising experience.

[Bo1953]

We were to be on that same cruise. I will tell you that I think Celebrity dropped the ball BIG time in how they handled communications around this refund issue. We were traveling with two other couples. Each of us were getting mixed signals from Celebrity when we called to clarify exactly what we were to be refunded in terms of airfare and what the dates are for using the Future cruise voucher. We spent a lot of time on the phone with various reps to try and get a consistent answer to our questions. It was a very frustrating experience and we are glad it is finally over.

 

First, for our Choice Air refund portion of the trip, we were told by one rep that our refund from Choice Air would be fully covered, but then our friends called and they were told that NO, we were only going to get a CREDIT to apply the money to a different flight when we booked our next cruise! Then we called One Choice Hospitality and rep told us that we would indeed get refunded for the Choice Air. The final outcome was in fact that they did give us a full refund for the Choice Air.

 

As far as our own air that we booked coming home, we had to quickly find another trip to somewhere or lose the entire airfare. So we booked a trip to England on the same airline and submitted our $400 change fee to Celebrity. We finally received that credit yesterday.

 

In terms of the future cruise credit, again we were getting mixed messages. We are not in a position where we can book a cruise to sail by Feb 1, 2019. In fact, we were hoping to use this voucher for a future Panama Canal cruise in Spring of 2020 - since there is no Panama canal cruise for Spring of 2019. Although the voucher says that it is "sail by" Feb 1 2019 date, two reps from One Choice Hospitality have assured us that it can be used for future sailings and be treated as a "book by" date as long as we book a cruise by Feb 1st. However, the jury is out as I am cynical as to whether Celebrity will honor that commitment.

 

The sad part is that my wife and I love sailing with Celebrity, but it has left a very disappointing impression to our friends who were to cruise with Celebrity for the first time. In fact, it was our recommendations about how great the service is with Celebrity that convinced our friends to try Celebrity.

 

I hope that Celebrity management can learn from this experience and improve on the way they handle communications on cancelled cruise situations. They really need to be prepared before they send out vague memos and have their reps informed with one consistent message to their customers on how their cancellation process is to work. They are a great company and once you are on the ship, you do have great cruising experience.

 

Sorry for your challenges with X, yet I have never heard of any cruise line or airline or other public transport company not providing FULL refunds for items which they cancelled and not you.

 

As for use by or sail by dates, that I Am not familiar with, yet there have been posts here where others have had no real issues with booking and then changing only once, the sail date although others may have reported changing more than once, yet YMMV.

 

Sounds like you booked direct, were you offered or assigned a Travel Planner at X? If so, that would have been your single point of contact, someone who quite possibly has more experience with this sort of situation and would have guided you best in lieu of random and constant contacts to get the 'responses' you were wanting or looking for or an outcome desired. Otherwise your TA would have been a great first point of contact, as well, in this type of situation.

 

 

bon voyage

[cruise47]

I am very sorry your cruise was canceled; but I am also very happy Celebrity did the right thing by everyone on your cancel cruise.

[dcyonce]

I think Infinity is going in to dry dock.

 

Infinity has propulsion issues and needs to be dry docked for repairs. The azipods on the M class ships have had quite a few problems over the years.

 

-- Don