Wide Cancellations -- all the way into 2021

[xcell]

Copied from the FB YC forum

 

 

**PLEASE READ IMPORTANT UPDATE** EDITED*

IMPORTANT NEW DATES & INFO ON CRUISE CANCELLATIONS EFFECTIVE JUNE 04, 2020:

• All Sailings Globally between July 11-31, 2020
• All Sailings to/from New York Scheduled in 2020 and 2021
• All MSC Armonia Sailings from Tampa between May 2, 2021 - Oct. 31, 2021
• All MSC Divina Sailings from Miami between March 28, 2021 - August 22, 2021

IMPORTANT: A NEW PROCESS FOR ABOVE SAILINGS CANCELED WILL GO INTO EFFECT JUNE 19th.

For sailings canceled JUL 11-31:
- Guests will automatically receive a 125% Future Cruise Credit (sent to guest or travel advisor email on file)For sailings canceld from New York departing in 2020:
- If paid in full, guests will automatically receive a 125% Future Cruise Credit (sent to guest or travel advisor email on file).
- If deposit only paid, guests will receive an FCC equal to 100% of deposit + 25% of total cruise fare excluding GFT's.

For all other sailings canceled in 2021:
- Transfer money on these bookings to another cruise within the next 60 days and receive a $50 per person ($100 max) shipboard credit.
- For refund requests, these will be processed 60 days from date of request.

Please be patient we are working on everyone's booking and we will contact you to help you with the situation as fast as we can. Thank you for understanding.

Edited June 4, 2020 by xcell

[Até]

https://www.msccruisesusa.com/cruise-itinerary-changes-and-cancellations

 

https://www.msccruisesusa.com/cruise-itinerary-changes-and-cancellations/select-2021-cancellations

 

The other itineraries cancelled are only extended to 31 July.  Assurance extended to 31 October.

Edited June 4, 2020 by Até

[BermudaBound2014]

@ate, I hope you don't mind but I'm going to post an actual screen shot of the links you shared. We both know MSC has a habit of going in and changing things at random. This way everyone will have the original terms posted today.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[xcell]

I thought August 2021 would be safe, I lost March 2020, August 2020, possibly Dec 2020 and now this?

 

 

[lovemycruisetoo]

 

Delete 

 

Edited June 5, 2020 by lovemycruisetoo
delete

[Até]

12 minutes ago, lovemycruisetoo said:

BB2014, I had posted this early this morning and Ate questioned the source. It was confirmed on MSC website.

I wasn't questioning your post, when I went to the MSC US site, because it looked like you posted MSC site information, but the page I got was different.  MSC was actively changing the pages every few minutes.  You and BB2014 are correct to post the actual text as the MSC has a habit of changing the web pages so that web links often don't convey the same information.

Edited June 5, 2020 by Até

[lovemycruisetoo]

Sorry if I misunderstood you. MSC is really messed up. They were still selling the cruises that they canceled and I only found out about it from a friend who called me at 9:30 this morning asking if what she saw on fb was true. That’s why I deleted the post but apparently it went through. 😉

[BermudaBound2014]

I suspect the shorter cruises could serve multiple purposes.

1) There is speculation that is what consumers want as they grow accustom to the new normal.

2) MSC could offer overnighter on Ocean Cay. That itinerary would sell. I've read that other cruise lines are considering something similar with their private islands. Could explain why Armonia abandoned Tampa.

3) As Ate' suggested, less likely of an outbreak with a shorter cruise.

 

 

[sfaaa]

Shorter cruises won't work for cruisers that need to fly round trip to MIA and back. Not worth the airfare.

[Formula280SS]

19 hours ago, BermudaBound2014 said:

I suspect the shorter cruises could serve multiple purposes.

1) There is speculation that is what consumers want as they grow accustom to the new normal.

2) MSC could offer overnighter on Ocean Cay. That itinerary would sell. I've read that other cruise lines are considering something similar with their private islands. Could explain why Armonia abandoned Tampa.

3) As Ate' suggested, less likely of an outbreak with a shorter cruise.

 

 

 

BB, with the shorter cruises, are they still turning around to the next cruise or are they taking a day pause for cleaning and re-testing (or other reasons)?  Thanks.

[shipgeeks]

1 hour ago, sfaaa said:

Shorter cruises won't work for cruisers that need to fly round trip to MIA and back. Not worth the airfare.

We will just make them B2B2B.  If by doing so we end up going to Ocean Cay multiple times, that's fine.

I agree, the air (and hotel) cost has to be a fraction of the cruise cost, or we won't do it.

[BermudaBound2014]

1 hour ago, Formula280SS said:

 

BB, with the shorter cruises, are they still turning around to the next cruise or are they taking a day pause for cleaning and re-testing (or other reasons)?  Thanks.

 

Great question! I have no idea the answer, but its certainly an interesting perspective. I'll update if I hear anything, please do the same :)

[phissy]

We are booked on Meraviglia, Oct and Nov 2021. It is a B2B. We wanted to maximize our  cruise to enjoy both itineraries.

going to Ocean Cay more than once is fine by us😊

Edited June 5, 2020 by phissy

[Formula280SS]

12 hours ago, phissy said:

We are booked on Meraviglia, Oct and Nov 2021. It is a B2B. We wanted to maximize our  cruise to enjoy both itineraries.

going to Ocean Cay more than once is fine by us😊

 

CC, great plan.  If the ports don't want the cruise ships yet, we'd love the NY Bermuda "model" (one port, multiple nights) at Ocean Cay with a couple of days at sea.

[ranchette]

How do we request a refund of our deposit? Is there a form we fill out or do we have to call MSC? Our cruise was for Sept. 2021.

Edited June 6, 2020 by ranchette
added words

[phissy]

3 hours ago, ranchette said:

How do we request a refund of our deposit? Is there a form we fill out or do we have to call MSC? Our cruise was for Sept. 2021.

On MSC site, look for Travel Updates and click. There is a section for cancelled cruises next year .

It sounds like you have to wait until June 19 to submit request for either refund or FCC.  If you booked with travel agent, contact them for processing refund.

Edited June 6, 2020 by phissy

[aprilF]

On 6/4/2020 at 9:12 PM, BermudaBound2014 said:

3) As Ate' suggested, less likely of an outbreak with a shorter cruise.

 

Certainly from an optics standpoint this would be correct.  However it is absolutely the far more irresponsible thing to do as you would have the crew exposed to more people, which is in essence exposing the customers to more people.  Unless they are daily testing the staff, irrespective of temperature readings.

 

22 hours ago, shipgeeks said:

We will just make them B2B2B.  If by doing so we end up going to Ocean Cay multiple times, that's fine.

I agree, the air (and hotel) cost has to be a fraction of the cruise cost, or we won't do it.

If the lines are doing this to control the optics of an onboard outbreak, the wise thing would be to not allow cruises without a 14 day break in between cruises. 

[WH_Cruise]

As i suspected this is the beginning of the end for crusing.

 

If you follow Ben and Dave on youtube you will see some of the draconian measures being put in place that effectively render this holiday past time as a thing confined to the history books.

[BermudaBound2014]

Ben and Dave are from the UK so perhaps that changes things? I'm not feeling quite so bleak. I do believe that 2020 is a wash and 2021 is going to provide a much different experience, but I do believe the industry will survive and in the end the changes will become another 'new normal' that those of us who love cruising accept. It's going to take time. I will change my mind if cruise lines have another outbreak.  If that were to happen I am much more inclined to dump all my stock :).

Edited June 7, 2020 by BermudaBound2014

[Beardface]

On 6/7/2020 at 2:39 AM, WH_Cruise said:

As i suspected this is the beginning of the end for crusing.

 

If you follow Ben and Dave on youtube you will see some of the draconian measures being put in place that effectively render this holiday past time as a thing confined to the history books.

 

I am assuming you are talking about the NCL video they released last week.  I just watched the video, and they are, in order.

 

1 - Health Screenings at Embarkation and constant temperature monitoring of passengers and crew

2 - New Air filtration - New Medical grade filters that remove 99.95% of airborne pathogens

3 - Disenfecting the ship before every sailing.  Also continuous disenfecting of public areas

4 - Reduced capacities to allow better social distancing measures to take place.  All current venues will be open, but may have hours shifted.

5 - Enhanced Medical Resources to provide medical centers with latest testing kits and supplies, better equipment as well as increasing onboard medical staff with a new medical head.

6 - Only visiting ports that are safe given the current environment, with areas that are willing to work with the line to ensure passengers are safe on shore.

 

I'm not sure they are draconian measures.  Heck, they sound like things they should have been doing all along.  And it seems like it would be a logical permanent shift going forward, except for the social distancing aspect once the disease is behind us.

[kidless]

Our May 2,2021 on Armonia was among those cancelled. I could not find another cruise to Caribbean to replace they all showed sold out. We decided on end of March on Divina. When I called I was told both Armonia & Divina will be going into dry dock for refurbishment before Divina goes to Port Canaveral and Armonia back to Tampa. I was glad these cruises weren’t cancelled because of the virus. I think MSC wants to really hit the US market next year! 

[aprilF]

13 hours ago, kidless said:

Our May 2,2021 on Armonia was among those cancelled. I could not find another cruise to Caribbean to replace they all showed sold out. We decided on end of March on Divina. When I called I was told both Armonia & Divina will be going into dry dock for refurbishment before Divina goes to Port Canaveral and Armonia back to Tampa. I was glad these cruises weren’t cancelled because of the virus. I think MSC wants to really hit the US market next year! 

Armonia just came out of dry dock December 2019.  Is it normal to go back into dry dock so soon?

[kidless]

31 minutes ago, aprilF said:

Armonia just came out of dry dock December 2019.  Is it normal to go back into dry dock so soon?

I think that was mostly to fix some engineering stuff. I think this new one is more for cosmetic reasons. I am most likely wrong and I don’t know how much the girl from MSC really knew.  

[Até]

2 hours ago, kidless said:

I think that was mostly to fix some engineering stuff. I think this new one is more for cosmetic reasons.

aprilF is correct that Armonia had a two week refurb in December, it was more than just mechanical.  There are reports here problems with the sun decks were fixed, golf course (tepmorarily?) removed and renovations to public areas.  I'm unsure if much was done in the cabins.  MSC is very secretive about refurbs, the best place to find timing for them is linked below.

 

http://crew-center.com/msc-cruises-dry-dock-cruise-ship-schedule-2020

 

[aprilF]

On 6/9/2020 at 10:55 AM, kidless said:

I think that was mostly to fix some engineering stuff. I think this new one is more for cosmetic reasons. I am most likely wrong and I don’t know how much the girl from MSC really knew.  

Maybe the reverse or a little of both.  I was on the second cruise after DD.  The cruise before ours had some engine issues.  On our cruise or entire schedule was shuffled, allegedly due to weather but I was always a little suspect that it was continuing engine issues.  Also the electrician was kept busy.  Some stuff in our cabin wasnt working and I saw the electrician later in the cruise attending to the same things in two other cabins on my deck.

 

And on my cruise there was a shattered glass panel on the pool/ buffet deck.  Seemed odd that wouldnt get fixed during dry dock.  I believe it was still broken shortly before cruises stopped for COVID.  And there is the putt putt issue, I had forgotten about that.