Refund Status for canceled cruises: Retitled after merges

[2 cruises a year]

3 hours ago, Ombud said:

I upgraded from a balcony to a mini-suite. Was the tub the only drawback?? 

 

No other drawbacks, you won't be disappointed.

Safety for us was number one!  But one other plus for us, is budget.  We found that after we were "forced" to downgrade, that we can get quite a few extra cruise days in a Premium Balcony instead of a Mini-suite.  We've gone for quantity over quality.  But this is an issue that has a different calculus for all of us.  (No need for any comments from anyone about the sacrifice.  I get the irony of having "only a balcony" while being able to cruise to places near and far).

[mackley1956]

On day 188 we finally received our 85% refund for a "Round Australia" cruise that was suspended in mid-March. We were a few days into it when Princess suspended all operations worldwide. Arrived back home in the U.S. on March 18, and just got our refund today (credit to the credit card we used to pay for it). Made many calls to Princess to no avail; finally got the email address for the head of customer relations (csteinke@princesscruises.com) from this forum and sent an email on 15 August. It took a little while, but it looks like the email I sent reached someone that could do something about it. Got a call from Kimberly on 4 September saying she had read the email and would be working on our refund. She called back on 16 September to say she had processed the refund and we would be receiving it in 7-10 business days. Showed up on our credit card today (22 September). Obviously we're extremely happy that it finally got resolved, but it didn't have to be this hard. Communications from Princess were extremely poor until Kimberly took charge; I think they could have avoided some of the backlash from customers if they had just been honest and kept us informed. Hope Princess executives have learned something from this ordeal; of course no one could have been completely prepared for a worldwide pandemic, but they sure didn't seem to adapt very well once it became obvious that this was going to be the new normal. We really want to cruise on Princess again when it is safe (especially since we have 85% FCCs from the terminated cruise that we'd like to use), but right now we're just not ready to get on a ship again.

[loriva]

So a bit of a long story, but maybe it will help others understand some of the process.

 

On 13 May we requested FCCs under Princess's "Double your Deposit" offer for our Canada and Greenland cruise cancelled by Princess in Phase III.  We chose this option as we had paid for a substantial part of the cruise early.

 

In late June, Princess erroneously refunded our deposit rather than process the FCCs.  I contacted Princess Customer Relations in early July when the refund showed up on my credit card, forwarding the email from Princess also dated 13 May documenting the request for FCCs.   I was told we would be contacted to repay the refund.

 

On 18 August, a member of Princess's Payment Team sent an email about repaying the money Princess erroneously refunded us.  I reached the person at Princess the next day (after a few attempts) but my travel companion could not reach her until 28 August, due to the odd hours Princess staff were working due to furloughs.

 

On 11 Sep I sent an email back the person in Payments asking for the status.  As others had noted, Princess had tied up one of my FCDs as a "holding account."  When I did not hear back from her, I sent an email on 16 Sep to Colin Steinke, Princess's Director of Customer Relations, using the email address kindly provided by others here on CruiseCritic:  csteinke@princesscruises.com. 

 

Two days later I received a call from the agent I'd first spoken to in Customer Relations back in July.  She noted a third, unidentified team--i.e., not Customer Relations and nor Payments--had the responsibility of creating the FCCs.  She promised to research further and keep in contact.

 

On 22 Sep, she called again to say the FCCs were hung up as my travel companion had not repaid the amount Princess had erroneously refunded her.  My travel companion supplied the date and the transaction number from her credit card from the payment on 28 August.  A few hours later, we received a call from the Payments Team explaining the repayment had somehow not been recorded in the correct location in Princess's system.  Shortly thereafter, we received an email that the FCCs had been created and applied to our CC accounts to the replacement cruise of the same itinerary in August 2021.  I verified this in my CC account.  I also had to send a follow-up email to Princess (addressed to both Princess staff who had contacted me) as they had not released my FCD tied up for a holding account, which appeared never to have been needed.  Finally, in applying the FCC, Princess also took off the FCD used for the initial booking--I had to call my TA to have this reapplied.  I also requested an updated invoice from the TA.  All amounts paid plus the FCCs had been applied and are the correct amounts.

 

For those keeping track, the whole process took about 130 days.  If we'd accepted the error of the refund, it would have been under 60 days.  It was definitely more complicated than it needed to be and took a lot of follow-up and intervention on my part.  But, done and looking forward to a wonderful cruise next August!

 

 

 

[Dee4990]

Coming up on SEVEN month mark soon from date of cancellation & it looks like Princess is FINALLY going to try to make me "WHOLE" again for my cancelled May cruise to Mexico... I was finally able to get in touch with someone in the Exec. Office who was very nice and is working on the remaining difference between the amount paid versus what I got back from the credit card dispute.  I do appreciate it. That said, we will NOT be sailing again on Princess, not planning another cruise for quite some time until all the madness is behind us & we see how the world recovers.  Good luck to all & stay safe folks

[Cruise Raider]

On 10/1/2020 at 11:50 AM, Dee4990 said:

Coming up on SEVEN month mark soon from date of cancellation & it looks like Princess is FINALLY going to try to make me "WHOLE" again for my cancelled May cruise to Mexico... I was finally able to get in touch with someone in the Exec. Office who was very nice and is working on the remaining difference between the amount paid versus what I got back from the credit card dispute.  I do appreciate it. That said, we will NOT be sailing again on Princess, not planning another cruise for quite some time until all the madness is behind us & we see how the world recovers.  Good luck to all & stay safe folks

 

Oh my ...that really took them a long time.  We had five cruises canceled so far and they were all reimbursed quite some time ago, even the one for December.  

I'm ready to go again as soon as they are allowed to sail but, I totally understand there are those that would rather wait.  

[sunny88]

On 10/1/2020 at 12:50 PM, Dee4990 said:

Coming up on SEVEN month mark soon from date of cancellation & it looks like Princess is FINALLY going to try to make me "WHOLE" again for my cancelled May cruise to Mexico... I was finally able to get in touch with someone in the Exec. Office who was very nice and is working on the remaining difference between the amount paid versus what I got back from the credit card dispute.  I do appreciate it. That said, we will NOT be sailing again on Princess, not planning another cruise for quite some time until all the madness is behind us & we see how the world recovers.  Good luck to all & stay safe folks

We are close to 7 Mo. mark, cancelled mid-May trip on March 19th.  Got partial refund after 6 Mo.  still waiting for our FCDs.

Called Princess monthly got typical answers, either "talk to your TA", or "you will get refund, just do not know when", only one Princess Rep was very helpful, he sent a note to management team to review, that's how we got our partial refunds.   But still not the whole refund. Costco did not help at all, would not book with them again. I remove all the promotion emails from Princess, not interested deal with them for a while, but they still owe us money, so we may have to travel with them once just to get our money back.  I wonder how many cruisers will give up on Princess for the poor customer services.

 

How and who did you contact the Exec. office?  

We called customer relation once 3 months ago, she was rude and not helping at all, just said talk to you TA.  So we are still waiting for the remaining refunds.

 

[Ombud]

1 hour ago, sunny88 said:

We are close to 7 Mo. mark, cancelled mid-May trip on March 19th.  Got partial refund after 6 Mo.  still waiting for our FCDs.

.....

How and who did you contact the Exec. office?  

If you email  csteinke@princesscruises.com  Kim Baldwin will respond. She great!!

 

her email: kbaldwin@princesscruises.com

her phone: 1-877-888-1869

Edited October 5, 2020 by Ombud

[Dee4990]

10 hours ago, sunny88 said:

We are close to 7 Mo. mark, cancelled mid-May trip on March 19th.  Got partial refund after 6 Mo.  still waiting for our FCDs.

Called Princess monthly got typical answers, either "talk to your TA", or "you will get refund, just do not know when", only one Princess Rep was very helpful, he sent a note to management team to review, that's how we got our partial refunds.   But still not the whole refund. Costco did not help at all, would not book with them again. I remove all the promotion emails from Princess, not interested deal with them for a while, but they still owe us money, so we may have to travel with them once just to get our money back.  I wonder how many cruisers will give up on Princess for the poor customer services.

 

How and who did you contact the Exec. office?  

We called customer relation once 3 months ago, she was rude and not helping at all, just said talk to you TA.  So we are still waiting for the remaining refunds.

 

csteinke@princesscruises.com  - I got that e-mail address here & I did receive a response.  GOOD LUCK.

[sunny88]

6 hours ago, Dee4990 said:

csteinke@princesscruises.com  - I got that e-mail address here & I did receive a response.  GOOD LUCK.

Thanks for the info. - Ombud and Dee4990.

[Cuedon]

Well, finally got my reimbursement for the flight I had to take due to a return leg being cancelled in February... However, they did feel that checked baggage was an unnecessary upgrade and refused to cover it.

 

Also, to anybody scheduled to be on the Golden or Star Princess affected by the transfer of vessels to P&O... did they tell you that a cash deposit is only going to be refunded via FCC? (Other monies paid could be refunded, I was told, but not the deposit.)

 

Running total:

8/9 refunds, 1/9 FCC, 1/1 reimbursement, 1/1 EasyAir

[ceilidh1]

1 hour ago, Cuedon said:

Well, finally got my reimbursement for the flight I had to take due to a return leg being cancelled in February... However, they did feel that checked baggage was an unnecessary upgrade and refused to cover it.

 

Also, to anybody scheduled to be on the Golden or Star Princess affected by the transfer of vessels to P&O... did they tell you that a cash deposit is only going to be refunded via FCC? (Other monies paid could be refunded, I was told, but not the deposit.)

 

Running total:

8/9 refunds, 1/9 FCC, 1/1 reimbursement, 1/1 EasyAir

My Star booking was cancelled (here we go again) and I didn't get that about the deposit. The options were either full refund of all money paid or 100% FCC plus 25% bonus. I had paid off a significant amount of my cruise on one of two cabins and would have gone FCC had they been offering double again. For 25% I can't justify letting them keep my money when we really have no clue if/when sailing will resume. For the second cabin, only deposit was paid and we will take the FCC for that since minimum FCC is $100 so we really are doubling the deposit. I'm just not sure I have the strength to go through this all over again...

[leck57]

Sorry if this has been answered but I couldn't see any recent references. 

Way back when, Princess offered to cover genuine out of pocket expenses for cruises that were cancelled at short notice, such as flights, non refundable hotel accommodation etc. Our cruise was cancelled in late Feb and my TA submitted a claim for airfares (these were EZ fares paid directly to Princess!), one hotel and a limo transfer. The total was about $2600.

My TA has been getting the delaying tactics from Princess and Princess will not communicate with me as I went through a TA. My two cancelled cruises had the cruise components refunded months ago.

Has anyone had Out of Pocket expenses refunded as yet?

[caribill]

3 hours ago, leck57 said:

Sorry if this has been answered but I couldn't see any recent references. 

Way back when, Princess offered to cover genuine out of pocket expenses for cruises that were cancelled at short notice, such as flights, non refundable hotel accommodation etc. Our cruise was cancelled in late Feb and my TA submitted a claim for airfares (these were EZ fares paid directly to Princess!), one hotel and a limo transfer. The total was about $2600.

My TA has been getting the delaying tactics from Princess and Princess will not communicate with me as I went through a TA. My two cancelled cruises had the cruise components refunded months ago.

Has anyone had Out of Pocket expenses refunded as yet?

 

See post by Cuedon above

[leck57]

2 hours ago, caribill said:

 

See post by Cuedon above

 

Thanks. The penny didn't drop that it was an Out of Pocket. However, is there anyone else. Perhaps, based on Cuedon's experience that are just getting to them now.

[Aulanis]

@leck57  

Was there a roll call for your cruise.  Perhaps you can post in it and ask how others are doing.  Our 10 March cruise was cancelled and we have kept in touch until recently

late September when it seemed everyone  had got their refunds.

[pcur]

On 4/4/2020 at 12:58 PM, oskidunker said:

Has anyone transferred a refundable deposit to a future cruise? How easy was it?

Yes, I have several times.  It is immediately done at the time you cancel.

[mcrcruiser]

We have 3 cruises booked . One is with Princess doe Jan 15 ,2022  Mexico  & the deposit was $400  [;is we got over $1300 in credits  toward the cruise . We also booked a Carnival cruise Oct 15 ,2022 Hawaii  with a deposit of $198   on a casino discount 

 

  Just wondering  really how safe   are our deposits  with what is going on around the world with covid 19 .Today ,Oct 28th ,2020 the stock markets are getting hammered & all the hospitality stocks are getting   hit very hard   .comments welcome

 

  

[R**T]

On 10/27/2020 at 4:51 AM, leck57 said:

 

Thanks. The penny didn't drop that it was an Out of Pocket. However, is there anyone else. Perhaps, based on Cuedon's experience that are just getting to them now.

 

We requested a refund for out of pocket expenses on July 25.  Still waiting to hear anything.

 

 

[Cuedon]

On 10/27/2020 at 1:51 AM, leck57 said:

 

Thanks. The penny didn't drop that it was an Out of Pocket. However, is there anyone else. Perhaps, based on Cuedon's experience that are just getting to them now.

 

Some details-- My voyages are always through the casino department, so I only pay taxes, port fees, gratuities, and the deposit (which, as I'm sure we've all heard the speech about, you get back as onboard credit), which really screws with the kind of refunds you get (and, I suspect, relates to why I've been getting the runaround on the promised FCCs for months, even on cabins I paid extra for upgrades and whatnot). As such, I try to do B2B trips to minimize the extra travel overhead, so I was on an eastbound Panama Canal, followed by a westbound PC, and no flights involved. The mass shutdowns occurred on the second to last day (or so) of the first eastbound trip, so the westbound was cancelled, and I had to seek my own flight, at my own expense.

 

I submitted a Refund Request Form to customerrelations@princesscruises.com on March 13 for two people on a Florida->California flight, seating fee (mandatory), checked baggage, and a single Starbucks sandwich. I didn't hear anything useful at all from them for months, and sent a second request on June 30. There were no meaningful messages until the check showed up in my mailbox a few weeks (or whatever a few days prior to that previous post was) ago, with a few notes attached (specifically, the seating fee and checked baggage were considered excessive upgrades and not covered, and food is an uncovered expense... oh well, was worth a shot).

 

This is also in direct contrast to how the crew who assisted with arranging my flights (which was limited to explaining how to log into the shipboard internet cafe at my own expense) told me that the luggage would be covered. Interestingly enough, they didn't fuss at how I decided to take a shot and spring for Economy+ seats, which were about twice as much as regular economy.

 

Running total:

8/9 refunds, 1/9 FCC, 1/1 reimbursement, 1/1 EasyAir

[zukecruiser]

Had a Circle Caribbean cruise cut short on the Caribbean Princess in February due to the norovirus.  Completed the required form for out of pocket expenses and mailed them in March.  Had forgotten about the refund, waiting for cancelled Alaskan cruise to be refunded, which it was.  Received email from Princess in mid September stating the my out of pocket reimbursement was being processed and should receive check within two weeks, which I did.  The letter also apologized and explained the reasons for the delay.  Glad to see Princess came through, though 

[caribill]

13 hours ago, zukecruiser said:

Had a Circle Caribbean cruise cut short on the Caribbean Princess in February due to the norovirus.  Completed the required form for out of pocket expenses and mailed them in March.  Had forgotten about the refund, waiting for cancelled Alaskan cruise to be refunded, which it was.  Received email from Princess in mid September stating the my out of pocket reimbursement was being processed and should receive check within two weeks, which I did.  The letter also apologized and explained the reasons for the delay.  Glad to see Princess came through, though 

 

And the reasons were?

[BGKAHUNA]

HALLELUJAH - the long nightmare with Princess is finally over (we hope). We finally received the last amount owed to us by Princess. We had three cruises effected by the first pause. We were on one cruise when the pause hit. Princess finished the cruise as scheduled making all ports and ending the cruise as planned in Adelaide, Australia on March 15. It only took Princess 166 days to refund our remaining refundable onboard credit. This should have been a very simple matter but Princess turned it into an ordeal by not appropriately responding to any of our communications.

 

The next effected cruise was to begin on March 15. This cruise was cancelled so we were expecting a return of our cruise fare, taxes, fcd, fcc and some expenses as indicated by Princess. The first of these payments was received on May 14, the last was November 10, 224 days after the initial claim was received by Princess.

 

The third effected cruise was to leave on April 4 but was cancelled by Princess. Similar to our cancelled March 15 cruise, several types of refunds were promised by Princess. The first was received on April 21, the last was received on October 27, 210 days after Princess received our documentation relating to some expenses. So much for processing refunds based upon either date of cruise or date request received by Princess!

 

As an aside, in April, 2020 we put down deposits on two cruises with CMV.  In July of this year CMV filed the British equivalent of bankruptcy. It took less than 60 days to receive a full refund of our deposits. We know the two situations are completely different, but we just found the two timetables interesting. Hope everyone else has received everything that is owed from Princess.

[iluvcruzin]

I took the offer of double deposit back in early June for a September cruise cancellation.  They finally applied the FC. 5 months later.  I have a 10 day that will get canceled. Not sure what I will do this time.

[Mary Ellen1]

Well, it's certainly not in the same league as those of you who are owed THOUSANDS, but in watching Princess slow-walk these refunds, I decided to request a refund of 2 FCD's that we booked in February on board the Royal.  First request Aug-28, 2nd request Nov-3.  I've been checking my account every few days, and it looks like it was finally refunded yesterday.

 

Edited to add:  sister cruise line Holland America refunded my 2 FCD's in 2 days, back in late August.

Edited November 13, 2020 by Mary Ellen1

[Schonert]

Although is was not Princess ( I got back our $10,000 back in July).  I just got back my taxes from the flights I had booked with Points.  The flights were cancelled before the end of March.