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Refunds grinding to a halt?


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Seems to be a pause in the last two weeks or so for those of us who have cancelled cruises. Any success stories from anyone who has cancelled in the last 2 weeks or more where you actually got a refund and didn't request FCC?

 

 

 

Edited by coaster
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8 minutes ago, coaster said:

Seems to be a pause in the last two weeks or so for those of us who have cancelled cruises. Any success stories from anyone who has cancelled in the last 2 weeks or more where you actually got a refund and didn't request FCC?

 

 

 

I cancelled 3 weeks ago and have received nothing. My "big box" travel agent told me today they are hearing refunds may be pushed back to 90 days.  Seems Royal is treating us like their private piggy bank.

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I cancelled a cruise (Oasis on 11/4/20) this past Saturday and received a refund on Thursday.  The cruise was booked through an online TA and only the deposit had been paid.  I was very surprised to see the refund in my account.

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We cancelled on 3/15 which has been 15 business days. So far nothing except for an email that our dinner plans for MTD have been cancelled. Big deal.  
 

when we cancelled the RCI told us it could take up to two billing cycles of our credit card.  I’m trying to be patient

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10 minutes ago, Ourusualbeach said:

I was told today that they are now processing refunds on the date that the cruise was to sail and that it could take 30 days from that point.   This is for the suspended sailings. 


Is it the same for the FCCs?

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9 minutes ago, ZoeyVictoria said:

I cancelled a cruise (Oasis on 11/4/20) this past Saturday and received a refund on Thursday.  The cruise was booked through an online TA and only the deposit had been paid.  I was very surprised to see the refund in my account.

I am impressed.  Cancelled a 11/28/20 cruise on Empress. Called Royal direct to cancel on  3/18/20 and nothing back on my credit card so far.

 

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I have a cruise booked in August - haven't cancelled yet. 

 

I have cancelled my drink packages,  soda packages and internet packages - I didn't get great deals and figure they can easily be rebooked.  That was 3 weeks ago and nothing yet. 

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3 minutes ago, coaster said:

I am impressed.  Cancelled a 11/28/20 cruise on Empress. Called Royal direct to cancel on  3/18/20 and nothing back on my credit card so far.

 


On the same date, I called Royal directly to cancel a cruise scheduled for 11/28/20.  That refund has not appeared yet.  The same credit card (Discover) was used.  I know which one was refunded because the refunds will be for different amounts.  I very rarely use a TA (apparently this one had excellent group rates), so I have no idea what the difference could possibly be.

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55 minutes ago, RosieRoo said:


Is it the same for the FCCs?

Not sure but it would not surprise me.  They said they run the reports.  As bookings are coded with a code for refunds and no code for a 125% FCC and a separate code for cancel under the cruise with confidence it would make sense that they pull all that at once and process it at the same time. 

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On 3/16 my TA canceled a our Liberty cruise scheduled for next year in April (actually, a year from tomorrow 😞 ). We had two rooms reserved and had had the reservation for a year (we made it while on the same cruise last year). The credit hit our RC Visa on 3/23 and I called the credit card company and had them issue me a check, which I cashed the second it arrived by USPS. It was for two rooms, four passengers, $1000 total.

 

I'm wondering if future cruises not yet at their final payment date are getting refunded quicker.

 

I did email our TA to tell him it'd gone through, he asked us to do that, and he said he was happy for us as they are being told that refunds will take 30-90 days depending on the cruise line.

 

I hope everyone that opted for a refund gets them soon.

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From reading these threads it sounds like they are running out of cash.  With more and more states closing up shop there are more and more unemployed. I bet there are also more wanting any cash refunds as opposed to the FCC's which doesn't help the situation. I have been applying for jobs and places that promised interviews when they could travel have now told me that they are furloughed and hiring is on hold. Understandable as who knows if these retail business will survive this pandemic. They were skating on thin ice before this. The economy is dying and they expect unemployment to be higher than it was during the great depression. I can actually believe it. My 87 yr old father who grew up during the depression and WW2 said he has never seen anything like this. His immigrant parents had jobs during the depression and even the rationing during WW2 wasn't as bad.

Edited by Iamcruzin
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Nineteen days ago I cancelled an Oasis (refundable) sailing for a aug/sept.  Still no refund on my CC... told the same as others that it could take 30 days or so.  
 

Starting to get the feeling I’ll never see that deposit again.  

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2 hours ago, onthewater51 said:

We cancelled on 3/15 which has been 15 business days. So far nothing except for an email that our dinner plans for MTD have been cancelled. Big deal.  

 

We also canceled on 3/15 for a cruise departing on 3/27/20 - Grandeur of the Seas.  And we also got the email that our dinner plans for the MTD was canceled.  What gives?

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4 hours ago, Ourusualbeach said:

I was told today that they are now processing refunds on the date that the cruise was to sail and that it could take 30 days from that point.   This is for the suspended sailings. 

 

Our May 2nd was cancelled and I called RC 2 days ago to tell them I wanted a refund. The rep said I should be getting it towards the end of April. We also used some FCC that we were given because they had cancelled our Indy cruise on us last year. Not sure when those will show up. 

 

Ourusualbeach you are probably more correct than what I was told. 

Edited by ReneeFLL
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The Royal Cheerleaders seem to be a bit quiet on these boards all of a sudden

 

Revolting behaviour from the cruiseline

 

You should have a refund the day you cancel - There is absolutely no excuse for them to take 30-90 days to refund you your own money

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We had our cruise on the Quantum cancelled in February for the March sailing and the full refund came through within 2 weeks. We then booked the Jewel from Dubai for March instead and this was also cancelled nearly 4 weeks ago.

I have been onto them in the past week and firstly got told the funds had been sent but rejected by my c.c. provider.

I contacted c.c. provider and they checked and no attempt made, nothing rejected and no issues with the card as far as they knew. Refunds from other providers have arrived no problem on the card.

Phoned RC back yesterday and got a different story but that funds had been sent back to card 2 days ago. Still nothing.

Will give it a couple of days. 

Trying to be reasonable in these difficult times but that only stretches so far. 

 

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7 hours ago, ZoeyVictoria said:

I cancelled a cruise (Oasis on 11/4/20) this past Saturday and received a refund on Thursday.  The cruise was booked through an online TA and only the deposit had been paid.  I was very surprised to see the refund in my account.

Wow that is fast  I cancelled a non Corona related cruise also with only the deposit on March 25 (also with a TA) and have not received a refund yet.

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We also asked for a refund on March 10 for a fully paid May cruise, cruise is still active in the cruise planer, no confirmation email, nothing. If Celebrity and Royal continue to treat loyal customers like this I will for sure book with other cruise companies in the future. 

 

We made very good experience with refunds from hotel brands like Best Western, Premier Inn and Marriott even for non refundable bookings, they replied and refunded fast and fair within a week or two. Royal currently treats customers just bad and unfair! Cruise with confidence is a joke....

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3 hours ago, compman9 said:

The Royal Cheerleaders seem to be a bit quiet on these boards all of a sudden

 

Revolting behaviour from the cruiseline

 

You should have a refund the day you cancel - There is absolutely no excuse for them to take 30-90 days to refund you your own money


The airlines aren’t much better.  We had a flight cancelled to Hong Kong at the beginning of feb  for an actual flight date of March 28th and I  just got my refund 3 days ago from Hong Kong airlines. Took exactly 2 months.   We had an air Canada flight to China for around the same time cancelled Beginning of feb as well and still waiting on that refund.  Almost 8 weeks now.   These were before all he’ll completely broke loose and just when it was confined to China.

 

So the cruiselines while not great aren’t doing much worse that everyone else.  I at least have gotten one FCC so far which is more than I can say for air Canada.

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1 hour ago, rimmit said:


The airlines aren’t much better.  We had a flight cancelled to Hong Kong at the beginning of feb  for an actual flight date of March 28th and I  just got my refund 3 days ago from Hong Kong airlines. Took exactly 2 months.   We had an air Canada flight to China for around the same time cancelled Beginning of feb as well and still waiting on that refund.  Almost 8 weeks now.   These were before all he’ll completely broke loose and just when it was confined to China.

 

So the cruiselines while not great aren’t doing much worse that everyone else.  I at least have gotten one FCC so far which is more than I can say for air Canada.

Agree. Once in Lifetime Crisis/Situation, everything will take longer next few months

Edited by ONECRUISER
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I cancelled our 03/15 Anthem cruise on 03/10, a few days before Royal ceased operations so we are unfortunately locked into the FCC option. 

 

I received an email of cancelled items from my cruise planner on 03/11 but have not received the refund. I have now gotten two separate FCC letters (first two weeks ago, the second last week) with different amounts but still no refund of the taxes/fees and prepaid gratuities, almost 4 weeks later.

 

I'm surprised we haven't seen any money back because my parents, who were to cruise with us, cancelled on 03/09 and were issued their FCC and received a refund of their cruise planner purchases and taxes/fees two weeks ago. 

 

Frustrating - but nowhere near as frustrating as the way the FCCs are being issued split evenly among the passengers rather than based on what my invoice shows as what we paid per person (my 10 year old was PAX 2 in a cabin for two so his FCC is worth more than mine as PAX 1 in a cabin for four. It is also for more than what we paid for him including taxes and fees). Would rather see either the actual amount paid per person in FCC or a total for the cabin in our cases as we were cruising with four minors. They can't cruise on their own by Dec 31, 2021!

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