Stress

[Cruzinram]

Is anyone else filling the stress over all of these constant changes from day to day and the uncertainty  of loss of money or exposure to a dangerous virus. I can tell you that the Cruise industry is doing a pretty good job. However, the rest of the travel industry, hotels in particular not so much. Lessons learned from this experience for me. Never ever book a hotel through a third party. Only book hotel rooms directly through the hotel web site or by telephone. Never book a hotel room that is not refundable regardless of the savings. I like others would like for Celebrity to step and up make a decision soon on the T/A's. I do not see a situation where I will lose any money with Celebrity, but my Hotel booked in the UK is a different story. They are giving me a hard time about a refund and offering me no future credits for travel in the future.  I wait anxiously for a decision from Celebrity for the April T/A's

[bEwAbG]

All of these things are contracts.  At the end of the day, the business is going to adhere to the terms you agreed to, especially in situations like this, where saving the business is more important to them in the short term.  Never book nonrefundable anything unless you're ok with losing the cost altogether.

[Jim_Iain]

To be honest I have to say I have really been impressed with many of the travel industry that I have dealt with.

 

Just before we flew to Florida for our cancelled cruise the high price hotel booking (due to spring break) allowed us to cancel  with no penalty.   We were able to book our favorite place for $100 less than our original reservation.   Also AA alowed us to change our airline reservation for no penalty (our return was not scheduled for 3 weeks).

 

Recommend checking the website of the provider.   Most I have seen allow changes and cancellation even if booked using a 3rd party.  

[Georgia_Peaches]

I wish the threat of loosing money on our hotel room booked in South Beach for April 10th was all that was causing me stress.  The status of my 401K and the stock market are what keep me up at night. 

 

Just have to keep telling myself that this will pass and we will be okay.

[Cruzinram]

22 minutes ago, Georgia_Peaches said:

I wish the threat of loosing money on our hotel room booked in South Beach for April 10th was all that was causing me stress.  The status of my 401K and the stock market are what keep me up at night. 

 

Just have to keep telling myself that this will pass and we will be okay.

The stock market will come back. My money ever will.

[Fouremco]

I disagree with the OP. We had booked hotels in Vancouver and Honolulu for an April cruise we subsequently cancelled and it cost us nothing. Both were booked through a third party at a better rate than I could get from the hotels directly. Two of three car rentals were cancelled at no cost. A third was non-refundable, but I knew that going in. The price was significantly lower and I was willing to take the hit, particularly as it was booked pre-COVID-19 and we had not intention of cancelling. Airfare was refunded fully.

[davekathy]

No stress, no worries. We waited for Celebrity to throw us overboard for our B2B cruise on the Summit 28 March and 4 April. We were given the choice of 125% FCC or 100% cash refund. Jet Blue waived change fees and issued vouchers (bought non refundable tickets pre COVID 19) good for a year. Hilton reimbursed us all our HH points for cancelling our pre cruise hotel stay with no penalty.  Still waiting to see what will happen concerning our other 2020 cruise and our other non-cruise trips. Just waiting to see what happens. 

[PTC DAWG]

Stress is not having rent or mortgage money due to layoffs...or money for food...not a vacation in doubt, YMMV. 

[sheffield]

No worries or stress about you or your family contracting a dangerous virus? I wish I could say I felt the same. 

[ambrtonj]

1 minute ago, PTC DAWG said:

Stress is not having rent or mortgage money due to layoffs...or money for food...not a vacation in doubt, YMMV. 

 

I completely agree. 

 

[Prost Seattle]

I have a condo rental in Hawaii after a Vancouver-Hawaii cruise in September.  If things are still going sideways by then, I’m out that money, a few thousand dollars.  I’m not going to stress about it though, if things are still ramping up in September I may forget I even have that condo reserved as the world falls apart.  
 

 

[Denny01]

We just had to cancel a number of reservations: cruise/hotels/airlines/private tours, and all has gone OK. the cruise is a FCC and the rest were just cancellations with no prepayment, which is what I do most of the time on long-term reservations. 

 

As to third-party bookings for hotels and airlines, I do look at the pricing and options on various hotel and travel websites, but I then go to the primary source (hotel website and so on) and check prices. I’d say most (yeah, most..) of the time the price is the same or very close and I’ll then book directly. A bit more cost can save you more. More than a few posters have said when they got to some hotel they booked with a third-party, there were issues and the hotel basically told them, ‘check with who you booked with, you aren’t booked directly with us’. And good luck on that. Most of time it works out, but more than a few times it doesn’t. Example: one poster booked directly and another same hotel 3rd party. When the direct got there, they got their room just fine, the 3rd-party guy was told they ran out of rooms and they were moved to another hotel. Never heard from them if the hotel was fine, but it wasn’t nearly as handy as the original. 

 

So just be aware. How to also lower stress? My subjective/limited/not-professional opinion is I’ve started booking air with the cruise company and so on. Not the hotel - I’ve seen the price differences to be pretty big, but airlines seem to work OK for us. When Viking cancelled all their river/ocean cruising, they took care of their cruise And the airline and a pretour we signed up for. All worked out.

 

Den

[az_tchr]

Most in the travel industry have been very consumer friendly. Most non cancelable reservations either refunded $$ or provided a credit for future use. Only a very few did not cancel. Interesting that those were in the UK.  Have one refundable car rental and knew that when I rented. Was told to ask again in April.

The stress today involves Celebrity and hoping they will make future cancellations at least a week ahead of travel to make a refund possible as DW not likely to cruise in the future.

[Cruzinram]

1 hour ago, az_tchr said:

Most in the travel industry have been very consumer friendly. Most non cancelable reservations either refunded $$ or provided a credit for future use. Only a very few did not cancel. Interesting that those were in the UK.  Have one refundable car rental and knew that when I rented. Was told to ask again in April.

The stress today involves Celebrity and hoping they will make future cancellations at least a week ahead of travel to make a refund possible as DW not likely to cruise in the future.

I would just like to know if my T/A is on or off. At least I could move on..

[Georgia_Peaches]

1 hour ago, Cruzinram said:

I would just like to know if my T/A is on or off. At least I could move on..

It’s off. 

[Cruzinram]

1 hour ago, Georgia_Peaches said:

It’s off. 

Is this for real, or are just jerking my chain?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Georgia_Peaches]

7 minutes ago, Cruzinram said:

Is this for real, or are just jerking my chain?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’m sorry. I should have been more sensitive. I allowed my irritation over this whole darn thing to take over. I have no knowledge that it’s off officially but I can’t see any way that it would be a go. Please pardon my flip response. For what it’s worth, I hope you do get to go because that would mean that this madness is behind us. Again, apologies. 

[Kartgv]

Here's a multiple choice for you.    Which is the most stressful?

 

A.  Having to cancel a non-refundable hotel room for a night?

B.  Having your cruise cancelled and only getting a FCC for 125% of what you paid?

C.  Watching your 401K drop by 30% in about a week?

D.  Having friends and family members suddenly out of jobs?

E.  Being told to stay home for the next several weeks except for essential shopping - but don't even go shopping if you're over 65..

F.  Having a medical condition that may now prevent you from cruising ever again.

G.  All of the above.

 

Don't worry, be happy!      

 

 

 

[CoconutOne]

I have been pleased with travel company responses. One third party who "hides" the name of your hotel until after booking refunded me all my money even though everything was non-refundable. I could definitely feel the warmth, even though it took a while to get them on the wire.

[sheffield]

Kartgv or more importantly, having you or your loved ones die? That could be the outcome for some of us. Sometimes I think that gets lost in people being annoyed their cruises are cancelled 

[jelayne]

3 hours ago, Cruzinram said:

I would just like to know if my T/A is on or off. At least I could move on..

We determined that it was highly unlikely that our TA would sail and if it did there wasn’t a place on another continent we wanted to end up.  So we cancelled.  Yes, we could have waited until/if X  cancelled and got 25% more FCC or a refund.  But we are happy with getting a FCC and no longer stressed about are we or are we not going.  Sometimes we have to decide if the reward is worth the price and if not move on.  

 

There are so many more important things for us to focus on right now, our health, the health and safety of our family and neighbors.  How our  friends who are small restaurant owners will make it if the shutdown of businesses extends more than a few weeks.  And of course where to get toilet paper 😂.  Hint-  try office supply stores.

[FRMPEI]

I hear you OP.  Our cruise was the Sunday March 15 on the Silhouette.  Stressed started for us on Monday 3/9/20 when Cdn Gov issued their recommendation not to cruise. We were resolved on going despite the many doubter around us. Friday morning checked in online for our early Saturday morning flights than drove over to Halifax. That 3.5 hour drive was very calming because no social media no added anxiety from the "are you still going?" gang. Then stopped at Costco to return an item and pandemonium was "full on" the parking lot was full... like Christmas times 3. People behind us in the parking lot said, "don't go in there". Then we heard the dreaded words I did not want to hear from our provincial government "Those retuning from outside Canada must self isolate for 14 days."  Then we started to doubt if we should go. Also received phone calls from employers warning us of the 14 day isolation period if we cruised. We were already past the Celebrity 48 hr deadline for FCC. What to do? Anxiety mounting especially for DW. Was able to get a hold of our Travel Insurance rep and  confirmed we were golden if we wanted to cancel. We were real close to cancelling while video chatting with our cruise partners in Ontario. DW, Donna, was convinced to cancel me not sure. Anxiety mounting. Then we read a post on our roll call that RCL had cancelled and this was at least 90 minutes before RCL had officially published it on their corp site. Done! decision made for us.  Had a reservation at Embassy Suites in Fort Lauderdale cancelled and thank you to Hilton corp for extending their cancellation period for us since we were past 24 hours. 

 

Next "cruise" stress level is to choose between FCC or refund. Currently working from home now since most government agencies here on PEI are stressing social distancing.

 

Regards,

Kevin Reid

[hcat]

6 hours ago, sheffield said:

No worries or stress about you or your family contracting a dangerous virus? I wish I could say I felt the same. 

Cancelling 2 cruises was stressful but that was about details, processes and money.

 

Real stress is about health and well being of family.  Hope we can avoid illness  and esp hope for health for  our family...newborn grandchild included!

 

We are pretty much on lock down here ...NY.  Adds to the stress.

[Jim_Iain]

8 hours ago, Georgia_Peaches said:

I wish the threat of loosing money on our hotel room booked in South Beach for April 10th was all that was causing me stress.  The status of my 401K and the stock market are what keep me up at night. 

 

Just have to keep telling myself that this will pass and we will be okay.

Check the website for you hotel.   I know that many have waived cancellation fees.    I used this to cancel a high price room and rebooked at last minute for a much lower price.

[NMTraveller]

Oh I agree.  I don't book nonrefundable/prepaid hotels.  I tend to change my hotels and find a better one before the cruise starts.  Even the hotel websites now have prepaid.  Not worth the 10$ or 20$ per night you save.  

 

Call them up.  Perhaps they will give you a break due to the circumstances?

 

I need to cancel some airlines.  But the websites say do not contact them unless you are not travelling in the next 3 days.  Wait and see...

Edited March 18, 2020 by NMTraveller