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FCC for Dorian and then COVID cruise not Extended Past October 2020


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20 minutes ago, SoccerMom#3 said:

I waited until Royal cancelled since I figured they would give a better deal.  Nowhere in the email they sent canceling the cruise does it say if FCC was used to book the cruise, then the original FCC would be refunded at 100% and expire October 2020.  The email  says over and over again FCC will be 125% and expire December 2021.  

 

I truly appreciate everyone's advice, support and commiserating with me.  I'm glad to know others don't think I'm being unreasonable.  


I also waited for them to cancel. I didn’t receive any email confirmation from them, but I was told the original FCC I used would be refunded at 100% and reinstated with the original sail by date and only the amount I paid in cash would be at 125% and expire 12/31/21.  I have not received any FCCs yet so I can’t say if it was handled that way or not. 

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On 4/4/2020 at 5:55 AM, kands6191 said:

For those of us who are willing to take a FCC for the cancelled cruise, who are willing to keep our money committed to RCCL and not ask for a cash refund at this time, I think they need to seriously reconsider their policy about our existing FCC's and allow us the same extension to the end of 2021.  I hope they are listening.


Or, contrarily, those of you willing to take FCC’s in lieu of cash might want to reconsider the risk you’re taking by limiting your options.  Why is ANYONE taking an FCC when they could take the cash option, especially people like you, who now realize the bind that might put you in if you can’t use it in time? 

Edited by ARandomTraveler
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9 hours ago, ARandomTraveler said:


Or, contrarily, those of you willing to take FCC’s in lieu of cash might want to reconsider the risk you’re taking by limiting your options.  Why is ANYONE taking an FCC when they could take the cash option, especially people like you, who now realize the bind that might put you in if you can’t use it in time? 

They didn't give me the cash option.  I would have done that for exactly the reasons you state above.  

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Just now, ARandomTraveler said:

Isn’t it a law that they have to offer you cash if they cancel?

We used FCC we received when our Hurricane Dorian cruise was canceled for our May cruise so they are telling me FCC is my only option and only good until October 31, 2020.

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Just now, SoccerMom#3 said:

We used FCC we received when our Hurricane Dorian cruise was canceled for our May cruise so they are telling me FCC is my only option and only good until October 31, 2020.

I can see why they’re only willing to reissue you the original FCC, and I can understand why they’re holding you to the original expiration date, but wasn’t the cash option offered when you got the first FCC? If they cancelled the cruise due to a hurricane, you should have been offered cash when you got the first FCC. 

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2 minutes ago, SoccerMom#3 said:

They didn't offer a cash refund for the first FCC as far as I can remember.  Definitely lesson learned 😏

They should have, it’s illegal not to. They probably did offer it but made it harder to find than the FCC option. That’s a major bummer. 
 

If you have cancel-for-any-reason insurance (3rd party that you bought on your own, not through the cruise company), you can fill out a form from the insurance company saying you decline the FCC and they’ll reimburse you cash. They’ll only give you 75% but that’s better than an FCC that will expire in 5 months. 

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Got caught up in the Dorian FCC  also. Royals way around cancelling and offering a refund in my case (Mon-Friday 5 day cruise Majesty)they offered a full FCC or I could sail the Wednesday when the port opened and receive 2 days FCC  for days missed.

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5 hours ago, ARandomTraveler said:

They should have, it’s illegal not to. They probably did offer it but made it harder to find than the FCC option. That’s a major bummer. 
 

If you have cancel-for-any-reason insurance (3rd party that you bought on your own, not through the cruise company), you can fill out a form from the insurance company saying you decline the FCC and they’ll reimburse you cash. They’ll only give you 75% but that’s better than an FCC that will expire in 5 months. 

Most of the Dorian sailings were never outright cancelled.  Their itineraries were modified and people had the choice of sailing on a modified itinerary or getting a FCC. 

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38 minutes ago, Ourusualbeach said:

Most of the Dorian sailings were never outright cancelled.  Their itineraries were modified and people had the choice of sailing on a modified itinerary or getting a FCC. 


That’s what happened with hurricane Maria in 2017 too. I learned a lot about booking travel from reading cruise critic during those months. What a mess. 

Edited by ARandomTraveler
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On 4/6/2020 at 9:13 AM, SoccerMom#3 said:

They didn't offer a cash refund for the first FCC as far as I can remember.  Definitely lesson learned 😏

Hey I'm OP's daughter in the same boat (LOL)... I believe our Sept 2019 Dorian cruise was not fully cancelled... it was shortened to 4 days instead of 7 (depart Weds instead of Sun, no more CocoCay) due to the hurricane stalling near Port Canaveral and then further shortened to 3 days as the storm continued to stall.  As we live far from FL (both in Colorado), we accepted the choice to take a full FCC instead of accept the significantly shortened cruise.  This is why a cash refund was not an option and why our "original form of payment" for the May 2020 cruise was majority FCC and thus also not eligibe for a cash refund.

 

In both scenarios, if given a cash refund option we would've taken it, but we understand why we are not eligible for either.  We are frustrated that we can't receive the 125% FCC bump for this May 2020 outright cancellation and most importantly why our FCC SAIL BY date does not extend to December 2021 given that was RCCL's own gesture for COVID-19 cancelled itineraries.

 

Both of these unfortunate vacation results have proven why we need to take trip insurance more seriously going forward.

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3 minutes ago, agraning said:

Hey I'm OP's daughter in the same boat (LOL)... I believe our Sept 2019 Dorian cruise was not fully cancelled... it was shortened to 4 days instead of 7 (depart Weds instead of Sun, no more CocoCay) due to the hurricane stalling near Port Canaveral and then further shortened to 3 days as the storm continued to stall.  As we live far from FL (both in Colorado), we accepted the choice to take a full FCC instead of accept the significantly shortened cruise.  This is why a cash refund was not an option and why our "original form of payment" for the May 2020 cruise was majority FCC and thus also not eligibe for a cash refund.

 

In both scenarios, if given a cash refund option we would've taken it, but we understand why we are not eligible for either.  We are frustrated that we can't receive the 125% FCC bump for this May 2020 outright cancellation and most importantly why our FCC SAIL BY date does not extend to December 2021 given that was RCCL's own gesture for COVID-19 cancelled itineraries.

 

Both of these unfortunate vacation results have proven why we need to take trip insurance more seriously going forward.

That’s some serious bad luck. It’s unfortunate that you guys got wrapped up in some really specific terms and conditions of your FCC’s that leave you unable to use them anymore.

 

It sucks when lessons are learned the hard way. I learned about all these cancellation/FCC/no-refund issues from reading posts from people in similar situations as you back when hurricane maria happened in 2017. The number of complaints from people who weren’t able to get refunds because cruises were still “technically” sailing even though people couldn’t get to ports, or ports were damaged, or sailings were shortened, or they bought the “wrong” insurance (or didn’t read the terms ahead of time), were immeasurable. If more people read boards like this before booking cruises they could learn from other people’s misfortune and mistakes before having it happen to them. Or at least accept the consequences of their choices.
 

This situation sucks for you, but hopefully people reading it will learn from it, and might think twice before taking these FCC’s over the cash, or before deciding not to buy their own 3rd party cancel-for-any-reason insurance. 

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36 minutes ago, ARandomTraveler said:

That’s some serious bad luck. It’s unfortunate that you guys got wrapped up in some really specific terms and conditions of your FCC’s that leave you unable to use them anymore.

 

It sucks when lessons are learned the hard way. I learned about all these cancellation/FCC/no-refund issues from reading posts from people in similar situations as you back when hurricane maria happened in 2017. The number of complaints from people who weren’t able to get refunds because cruises were still “technically” sailing even though people couldn’t get to ports, or ports were damaged, or sailings were shortened, or they bought the “wrong” insurance (or didn’t read the terms ahead of time), were immeasurable. If more people read boards like this before booking cruises they could learn from other people’s misfortune and mistakes before having it happen to them. Or at least accept the consequences of their choices.
 

This situation sucks for you, but hopefully people reading it will learn from it, and might think twice before taking these FCC’s over the cash, or before deciding not to buy their own 3rd party cancel-for-any-reason insurance. 

 

 

Haha right? Part of me thinks third time will be a charm if we felt more confident booking a replacement before this nightmare of an FCC expires but also, not worth a health risk at this point!

 

But yes, I totally agree with your point that if this saves one person the headache by reading this, it will be a silver lining!

 

The September 2019 experience was a wild ride because in the end, my husband and I decided to still fly to FL and booked literally the last cabin on a Carnival cruise going out of Tampa that same week since it wasn't affected by the hurricane.  Was no Harmony and a bummer to miss CocoCay, but we were lucky to still be on a cruise!

Edited by agraning
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3 hours ago, agraning said:

 

 

Haha right? Part of me thinks third time will be a charm if we felt more confident booking a replacement before this nightmare of an FCC expires but also, not worth a health risk at this point!

 

But yes, I totally agree with your point that if this saves one person the headache by reading this, it will be a silver lining!

 

The September 2019 experience was a wild ride because in the end, my husband and I decided to still fly to FL and booked literally the last cabin on a Carnival cruise going out of Tampa that same week since it wasn't affected by the hurricane.  Was no Harmony and a bummer to miss CocoCay, but we were lucky to still be on a cruise!

Maybe since there are so few in your situation you might be able to speak with the resolutions department and ask if they’ll give you a new FCC with an extended expiration date, given both of your cruises fell under such extenuating circumstances. If I were you I’d give it a try to get through to them and see if you find one who will sympathize. 
 

Other than that though, I highly suggest buying cancel-for-any-reason insurance from now on. Hopefully you won’t continue with such bad luck and won’t need it in the future, but it’ll ease the headache.

Edited by ARandomTraveler
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On 4/4/2020 at 8:11 AM, LuCruise said:

So my question is....can you use more than one FCC to pay off a single cruise? Or can you only apply 1 FCC per person per cruise?  Hoping we can basically pay off say our Dec cruise with our outstanding FCCs.

I just went through this last year, and only 1 FCC can be applied to a single cruise.

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6 minutes ago, suzyluvs2cruise said:

Did you get $$ and an FCC for the cancelled cruise? 

They used a previous FCC to book the canceled cruise, and the rule is that if you use an FCC to book a cruise, and the cruise is cancelled, the FCC is simply reinstated with the original terms. 
 

This is something people should think about when agreeing to take their FCC’s because they “know they’re going to cruise again in the next year.” Life happens, plans change, and people should give themselves options, not lock themselves into FCC’s and their limited terms because they’re mesmerized by that extra 25% they’re getting. Cash is king, always.

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Just now, ARandomTraveler said:

They used a previous FCC to book the canceled cruise, and the rule is that if you use an FCC to book a cruise, and the cruise is cancelled, the FCC is simply reinstated with the original terms. 
 

This is something people should think about when agreeing to take their FCC’s because they “know they’re going to cruise again in the next year.” Life happens, plans change, and people should give themselves options, not lock themselves into FCC’s and their limited terms because they’re mesmerized by that extra 25% they’re getting. Cash is king, always.

 

I'm aware of that. My question was asking if they got $$ and an FCC for the Hurricane Dorian cruise. Many times the cruise lines gives a refund and an FCC in circumstances like that. 

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I'm really nervous about this too.

 

In October we sailed on Enchantment, and our cabin became unusable after they painted an air intake valve to our section of the ship.

 

We got a FCC that had to be used within a year, meaning by 10/20.

 

We had a cruise already booked out of Italy, on 7/20. It was partially paid for, so applied the FCC to the balance.

 

We paid off Italy in full, and still had a small balance left on our FCC. 

 

They let us apply the small balance to another cruise we had booked in November 2020.    This cruise was one month past the deadline, but they said they would still let us apply it to the November cruise.  Great!

 

Well, now, the Italy cruise needs to be cancelled too.   We were going to Italy for a friends wedding, and the cruise was something we were doing on our own after the wedding.  The wedding has been rescheduled to 7/2021.    So now the RCC we used on the Italy cruise will be back in flux.

 

I want to know what's going to happen to my money, but my TA was furloughed along with 85% of her company.   The few agents left, are working one week on, one week off. But have had their workload multiplied by ten.   I asked them to deal with this but I've been told it will take a while.

 

Sigh.

 

 

 

 

 

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1 minute ago, RCCL Fan said:

I want to know what's going to happen to my money,

Your Enchantment FCC should be reissued to be applied to another sailing by 10/31. You should get a new FCC for your July sailing, for the amount you paid above the FCC to be used by 12/31/21.

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3 minutes ago, Biker19 said:

Your Enchantment FCC should be reissued to be applied to another sailing by 10/31. You should get a new FCC for your July sailing, for the amount you paid above the FCC to be used by 12/31/21.

I sure hope so!!  Already have the Italy 2021 cruise picked out.   Just need to know if I'll get money and if RCI wakes up and lowers the price.  It is currently going for about triple what I had paid this year!!!

 

And I had a JS this year,  triple is for a regular balcony! lol 

Edited by RCCL Fan
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2 minutes ago, Biker19 said:

If the current trend is any indication, that may not happen much outside of final payment.

The cruise I just cancelled for the beginning of June out of Asia is not only still for sale, but still selling well above what I paid for it 10 months ago. I too wouldn’t bank on any price drops. 

Edited by ARandomTraveler
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