Cancelled Cruises Refund Tracker/Discussion (merged topics)

[M&Msmom]

After only receiving 500.00 Friday for our cancelled 5/31 Equinox cruise. Today we received the full balance owed to us. We are now whole.  We had used a TA  to book , but had requested our full refund through the Celebrity site on April 20. It took just slightly less than a month. Best of luck to all you still waiting.

[TommyD3]

11 hours ago, vermonter16 said:

For what its worth, the woman on May 6 said they had just finished up with their March refunds, and were just getting to April

So why do so many say they have their refunds for cruises in April, May and even June ????

I have been waiting on 8 sailings cancelled March 11 (maybe 13), got the two in March 2 weeks ago.

Still waiting on 6 more with sailing dates of April 4 thru May 29 !!!

In my mind Celebrity is doing an ABSOLUTELY horrible job with the refunds !!!

[Beanb41]

Celebrity and the other cruise lines are not doing themselves any favours by holding back refunds. I read on a news bul;letioin that RCCL as the parent company are still holding $US2.5 billion in deposits and FCC but going through cash losses of $US250 million a month which by my reckoning they have 9 months liquidity left and any deposits or FCC on hand then will be gone. I also note that they are trying to raise 2 year bonds paying 11.5% . Wonder where that interest payment is coming from. I am still waiting for my refunds since February for the two cancelled Constellation cruises. What ticks me off the most is that I can make an Insurance claim until such time as Celebrity finalise the money they owe which is in the vicinity if $NZ8000

 

[cjcruiser27]

9 hours ago, Wine-O said:

I made a claim with my credit card, and got full refund to our statement within 7-10 days.  🍷

I did as well, but it was 14 business days.  I was tired of their games.  I am still short $211.66, but I am happy that I have the majority of it!

Edited May 19, 2020 by cjcruiser27

[cjcruiser27]

1 hour ago, Beanb41 said:

Celebrity and the other cruise lines are not doing themselves any favours by holding back refunds. I read on a news bul;letioin that RCCL as the parent company are still holding $US2.5 billion in deposits and FCC but going through cash losses of $US250 million a month which by my reckoning they have 9 months liquidity left and any deposits or FCC on hand then will be gone. I also note that they are trying to raise 2 year bonds paying 11.5% . Wonder where that interest payment is coming from. I am still waiting for my refunds since February for the two cancelled Constellation cruises. What ticks me off the most is that I can make an Insurance claim until such time as Celebrity finalise the money they owe which is in the vicinity if $NZ8000

 

Waiting since February???  That is a problem🥺 

[prish]

1 hour ago, cjcruiser27 said:

Waiting since February???  That is a problem🥺 

We received the cruise fare on our May 10 Apex sailing on 5/11, the deposit amount was refunded to our other card yesterday. Seven weeks in all to be fully refunded, longer than they said it would take, but better late than never!

[NHDOC]

When you get tired of the run-around, dispute the charges and let the CC company and Celebrity deal with it.

 

And if they try to bounce the dispute, you can appeal it.  The dispute process puts you in charge and you will have provisional credit immediately while the CC company does its research.

 

Celebrity is playing the game that insurance companies like to play to hold onto your money as long as possible so they can use it while you cannot. Every dollar of yours they hold is one less they need to pay interest on to a bondholder and they know it.  Tell them when they start paying us 11.5% we can be patient. 

Edited May 19, 2020 by NHDOC

[jhskick]

Ok my story. Was booked on 6/26 Alaska cruise from Seattle. Cruise canceled applied for refund , on line form, 3/31. Reached out to TA, NH firm not to be mentioned, on 5/7 got reply same day that refund was in progress and would take 60 days. 5/18, sick of waiting, called Celebrity.  Was told, by representative, she saw my request and problem was with TA because it was a block of rooms and had not been released until  5/11. Of course i was not happy thinking TA had been less than truthful. Told her I would be contacting TA maybe throw a rock in there window as i just live down the street from them. She became very supportive of TA  saying they were a great partner etc. Well lo and behold this AM 5/19 100% of all fees, taxes and insurance showing as credit on card. Squeaky wheel? Coincidence? Who knows. So now wait and see how this whole virus thing works. Alaska cruise has been on bucket list for a very long time I am sure I will get there in next year or two.     

Edited May 19, 2020 by jhskick
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[di T]

On 5/17/2020 at 6:08 PM, cucruising55 said:

I was booked on April 21 equinox cruise to new orleans .  I booked thru and internet travel agent.  Today I received all amounts paid for cruise less $200.  Why the shortage.  Did Celebrity give $200 to the internet travel agent.  Does anyone have an answer.  

I received my refunds in 4 payments all to same card on the same day, when added up the refund was $100 less than what I had paid! I emailed my agent and she said the other $100 would be on my card in a couple of days, and that has been the case. No idea if the $100 was a mistake but I’m really happy and relieved to get all the full fare back! 

[poeticlicensed]

FTR, I booked through a TA (the NH one). When I found out my cruise was cancelled, I called the TA who said I could file for the refund or they would do it for me. I chose to file and received my refund this week. When we started using a TA for cruises, I did find it strange that you have to go through the TA for just about everything, but once we figured out which things we use the TA for (e.g.bev package upgrades) and which things we can do through Celebrity (e.g. special needs requests) it hasn't been a problem for us. And the extra perks you get booking through a TA outweigh the small inconvenience of having to work through them for many things, the current situation not withstanding. 

[wrk2cruise]

Celebrity is paying the agents commission to service the reservation.  Why should they use the employees they pay to service it when they have paid someone else to do it for them?   Yes it's inconvenient at times but that's one of the pros/cons you have to weigh when using a TA.

 

Now in the case of refunds for cruises they cancelled.  Since they gave the client the ability to request the refund/FCC themselves then I do feel that they should answer questions regarding the status of the processing.   I'm a bit more on the fence whether they should discuss actual $$ amounts of the refund with you as that is really between you and the TA.

 

All that said when my refund came back short $230.08 I called Captains Club rep and they helped me without involving my TA.   It was not a group booking so that may have something to do with it.

[NHDOC]

1 hour ago, wrk2cruise said:

Celebrity is paying the agents commission to service the reservation.  Why should they use the employees they pay to service it when they have paid someone else to do it for them?   Yes it's inconvenient at times but that's one of the pros/cons you have to weigh when using a TA.

My take on it is they pay the agents a sales commission to sell the trip, but then, after the sale if you have a question or an issue that needs tweaking making the guest who had been waiting on hold hang up and call the agent (who subsequently has to call Celebrity and then keep you on hold or call you back) just makes the experience frustrating and inefficient.  There's very little the agents can do without calling Celebrity and so the extra step isn't "saving a Celebrity employee's time" it is just wasting a guest and agent's time.  Everyone's (the agent and Celebrity) goal should be to make the guest's experience the best it can be but the system doesn't do that, not by a long shot. But that's just been my experience.

 

One time I called in to ask if the cabin we had booked had a separate seating area and was told I had to direct any questions to the TA. Now you know the TA isn't going to know that, so why couldn't they just answer the question?  The TA just looks at the photo online and I point out that the photos are often just representative of a typical room and cabin configurations vary otherwise I would not have asked the question.  So they have to call.  Then Celebrity says they can't say for sure anyway, which, they could have told me and saved us all a lot of time.

Edited May 19, 2020 by NHDOC

[bellemiche]

On 5/18/2020 at 8:57 AM, vermonter16 said:

Still waiting on our refund from March 23.  Now, Celebrity has messed up our potential Alaska cruise sailing for August.  We applied part of our FCC and we were supposed to get a refund of just over $100 on it because we had too much in cash down after the FCC was used.  Well, now Celebrity shows that we owe another $50.00.  Oh boy....

 

Still waiting for a FCC for March 15 sailing. We cancelled a couple of days before. 😡

Received our refund from Delta for our flights, but nothing from Celebrity.

Have any Canadians tried going through their credit card company instead? 

 

[Quo Vadis?]

18 minutes ago, bellemiche said:

Still waiting for a FCC for March 15 sailing. We cancelled a couple of days before. 😡

Received our refund from Delta for our flights, but nothing from Celebrity.

Have any Canadians tried going through their credit card company instead? 

 

Yes.  Scotia is so far successful for our March 15th sailing.

[NHDOC]

41 minutes ago, bellemiche said:

Still waiting for a FCC for March 15 sailing. We cancelled a couple of days before. 😡

Received our refund from Delta for our flights, but nothing from Celebrity.

Have any Canadians tried going through their credit card company instead? 

 

We were booked on the 3/15 and 3/27 Silhouette sailings both of which X canceled on 3/13 (less than 24 hours after I canceled).  I disputed charges for both being unwilling to accept 100% FCC when we received an email on 3/13 which I interpreted to be offering us the 125% FCC/100% refund offer.  The 3/27 dispute has been accepted and settled in my favor while X tried to fight my dispute of the 3/15 cruise fare by stating to the CC company that the service was either "used or made available to me to use" so I have had to re-dispute that one just a few days ago and submitted the booking records and email of 3/13 showing the cruise was canceled and therefore wasn't used or available for my use.  So, waiting for that one to be re-disputed. 

 

FWIW I never received FCC for the 3/15 sailing, the one which X has been fighting the credit card dispute over.  I did get a refund on our CC for the taxes and port charges some time ago but no FCC or refund for the fare, nothing.   Also, in showing how X doesn't know what it is doing we got FCC for the 3/27 cruise a couple of weeks after they accepted the CC dispute.  I don't plan on ever sailing on X again so the FCC won't be used but they effectively double-credited us for that sailing (by giving us both the refund and FCC at 100%).

 

In short, they accepted one disputed charge refund (and then issued an FCC at 100%) for the 3/27 sailing and rejected one disputed charge refund (and haven't issued any FCC) for the 3/15 sailing but have refunded taxes and port fees for both cruises.  No consistency.  Just a lot of headaches keeping track of it all. 

Edited May 19, 2020 by NHDOC

[jelayne]

9 hours ago, Beanb41 said:

Celebrity and the other cruise lines are not doing themselves any favours by holding back refunds. I read on a news bul;letioin that RCCL as the parent company are still holding $US2.5 billion in deposits and FCC but going through cash losses of $US250 million a month which by my reckoning they have 9 months liquidity left and any deposits or FCC on hand then will be gone. I also note that they are trying to raise 2 year bonds paying 11.5% . Wonder where that interest payment is coming from. I am still waiting for my refunds since February for the two cancelled Constellation cruises. What ticks me off the most is that I can make an Insurance claim until such time as Celebrity finalise the money they owe which is in the vicinity if $NZ8000

 

Have you contacted your TA or Celebrity?   Cruises cancelled in February were before the stoppage of cruises.  Back in late February early March there was no reason for long delays in refunds. 
In this case I would be filing a dispute with my credit card.

[hcat]

Update:

Heard back from BOA on one of our disputes.. A letter indicated  that  the Cruise Line  gave us our refund.  Any temporarily restored credit to our account  ( which we may have cashed out) will be adjusted as a charge back on a future statement.   That's fine.  Just wanted to get our refund, not make a profit!  We assume this will happen with other pending disputes,

 

  Have not filed a dispute on the last cancellation of a deposit,  but X is a real pokey puppy after advising us it has  "gone through"...but  gone through to where?

[patty1955]

I just spoke with our Big Box store TA about the rest of our refund. The rep told me that the missing money is the commission and that's paid separately. He says they expect to refund it by May 31. 

[Wine-O]

3 minutes ago, patty1955 said:

I just spoke with our Big Box store TA about the rest of our refund. The rep told me that the missing money is the commission and that's paid separately. He says they expect to refund it by May 31. 

My TA takes the commission as part of my final payment, and that was the first thing I got back when I cancelled, within 5-7 days.  🍷

[NCNina]

So we decided to pull the trigger today and file a dispute through our credit card company.  Hopefully this will result in our receiving the refund sooner rather than much later.  Even if it takes a while to move through this process, we feel like we are perhaps moving in the right direction.  Best of luck to all who are still waiting, too! 

[JennAngel9]

Has anybody successfully received a refund where they previously cancelled under CWC and were forced to keep large portions of the payment as a "non-refundable deposit"?  We were pressured to do CWC by a TA if we didn't want to make final payment on a cruise that will officially be cancelled sometime in the next week or two and it was clear at the time we cancelled that it was never going to sail. 

Edited May 20, 2020 by JennAngel9

[omeinv]

15 minutes ago, JennAngel9 said:

Has anybody successfully received a refund where they previously cancelled under CWC and were forced to keep large portions of the payment as a "non-refundable deposit"?  We were pressured to do CWC by a TA if we didn't want to make final payment on a cruise that will officially be cancelled sometime in the next week or two and it was clear at the time we cancelled that it was never going to sail. 

 If you cancel before the cruise line you’re only entitled to the 100% future cruise certificate.  Of course even that is a special allowance made by the cruise line with the advent of COVID-19.   If you want a cash refund,  or 125% FCC you’ll have to keep the booking until/unless Celebrity cancels.  Of course this means you will have to make final payment. 
 

Harris

Denver, CO

[hcat]

17 hours ago, NHDOC said:

We were booked on the 3/15 and 3/27 Silhouette sailings both of which X canceled on 3/13 (less than 24 hours after I canceled).  I disputed charges for both being unwilling to accept 100% FCC when we received an email on 3/13 which I interpreted to be offering us the 125% FCC/100% refund offer.  The 3/27 dispute has been accepted and settled in my favor while X tried to fight my dispute of the 3/15 cruise fare by stating to the CC company that the service was either "used or made available to me to use" so I have had to re-dispute that one just a few days ago and submitted the booking records and email of 3/13 showing the cruise was canceled and therefore wasn't used or available for my use.  So, waiting for that one to be re-disputed. 

 

FWIW I never received FCC for the 3/15 sailing, the one which X has been fighting the credit card dispute over.  I did get a refund on our CC for the taxes and port charges some time ago but no FCC or refund for the fare, nothing.   Also, in showing how X doesn't know what it is doing we got FCC for the 3/27 cruise a couple of weeks after they accepted the CC dispute.  I don't plan on ever sailing on X again so the FCC won't be used but they effectively double-credited us for that sailing (by giving us both the refund and FCC at 100%).

 

In short, they accepted one disputed charge refund (and then issued an FCC at 100%) for the 3/27 sailing and rejected one disputed charge refund (and haven't issued any FCC) for the 3/15 sailing but have refunded taxes and port fees for both cruises.  No consistency.  Just a lot of headaches keeping track of it all. 

Sorry for re posting such a large quote but this is the first time I heard of X challenging a dispute....please keep us posted on the outcome!

[NHDOC]

18 hours ago, hcat said:

Update:

Heard back from BOA on one of our disputes.. A letter indicated  that  the Cruise Line  gave us our refund.  Any temporarily restored credit to our account  ( which we may have cashed out) will be adjusted as a charge back on a future statement.   That's fine.  Just wanted to get our refund, not make a profit!  We assume this will happen with other pending disputes,

 

  Have not filed a dispute on the last cancellation of a deposit,  but X is a real pokey puppy after advising us it has  "gone through"...but  gone through to where?

Trying to understand the post - did you actually get the refund twice?  A refund from X plus the dispute credit? If so, then I can understand them re-charging you but if not then why would you allow them to charge-back until you get the refund?

Edited May 20, 2020 by NHDOC

[treehugr]

Quick update...

 

4/12/20 Equinox sailing canceled on 3/24/20, applied for refund online same day.

 

On 4/11 we filed a dispute with our CC (B of A) and on 5/15/20 found out the original representative who processed our dispute didn’t code as “services not rendered”, which is what should have been done. Representative re-coded / escalated and assured us we would have some resolution within a week.

 

Today we looked at our CC online and found a credit in the full amount from BofA with a letter stating an additional 60 days before final resolution from Celebrity. So nothing new on Celebrity's end, but it was nice to see BofA follow through with their promise on a week. No telling if and when Celebrity will get to us. 58 days and counting. 

Edited May 20, 2020 by treehugr