Refund of non-refundable (casino) deposit if sailing is cancelled?

[Tom-n-Cheryl]

I cancelled 10 cabins yesterday for my staff office cruise - it was a quickie on the Liberty in early December. Today would have been final payment, and we had already decided not to sail this soon (with so many unknowns and many people involved).

 

So, all but 3 of the bookings were easy enough - full refund of deposit to my credit card. However, three were taking advantage of casino promos, and thus (since I cancelled) I'm presently out almost $600. No surprises there.

 

However, the Carnival rep I was speaking with did indicate that IF Carnival ends up cancelling the sailing I could call back and would be able to recover those deposits.

 

I must say, that sounds overly optimistic to me, but who knows with all that's going on this year!

 

Anyone heard similar talk, or have experienced this first hand?

 

THANKS,

 

Tom 

[firefly333]

I've read the opposite. That you cant however you could have transferred those deposits to another cruise if they are sailing again. 

 

Doesnt seem to be in writing but many have been able to transfer deposits to other dates. 

 

I have not heard of being able to cancel and later they said ok we cancelled after you cancelled so we will give you a refund. 

Edited September 20, 2020 by firefly333

[Tom-n-Cheryl]

13 minutes ago, firefly333 said:

I've read the opposite. That you cant however you could have transferred those deposits to another cruise if they are sailing again. 

 

Doesnt seem to be in writing but many have been able to transfer deposits to other dates. 

 

I have not heard of being able to cancel and later they said ok we cancelled after you cancelled so we will give you a refund. 

 

Just reaffirms what they say about "if it seems too good to be true..."!

[firefly333]

8 minutes ago, Tom-n-Cheryl said:

 

Just reaffirms what they say about "if it seems too good to be true..."!

Actually I've had mixed results with carnival and rcl customer service. Multiple mistakes by each. My TA is a expert in rcl not carnival, though he will do my carnival bookings. He called to do my vista booking and I kept saying the price isn't right and finally seemed the ccl rep who transferred from my oct 2020 cruise to sept 2021 cruise didnt put in my carnival # and it made it $40 more ( still too high imo), but also I wouldnt have gotten credit if I took the cruise., he said he assumed since she had my 2020 booking right there she would have put in my number. 

 

Hes had to call back more than once. 

 

Last time the rep transferred all the money, this time for a unknown reason $37 wouldnt transfer and the carnival rep couldn't tell him why, but she refunded it. I'm not sure why he hates dealing with Carnival bookings but maybe it's because he does more rcl so can pull strings and has more contacts to get things done. 

 

I think all the lines right now are in such a fluid changeable position, the call back if you dont get the answer you want applies. And the whole sure you can just call and cancel a cruise and move the deposit to another date. ... where is that written, but yet you read it all the time being done by carnival. Doesnt matter if nonrefundable deposit or not. Maybe you can try and move those deposits since you paid for them. Idk the rules seem unwritten to me.

 

[waiting4acruise]

Instead of canceling my cruise 
I was able to transfer my deposit to another casino promotion cruise.

[Elaine5715]

45 minutes ago, waiting4acruise said:

Instead of canceling my cruise 
I was able to transfer my deposit to another casino promotion cruise.

Yes, they usually even non-COVID let you transfer to another casino promotion with a $50 penalty 

[firefly333]

49 minutes ago, waiting4acruise said:

Instead of canceling my cruise 
I was able to transfer my deposit to another casino promotion cruise.

That's what I suggested.

[Tom-n-Cheryl]

Well, at least I received a lion's share of the initial deposits back. 🙂

 

Tom

[dbrucern]

4 hours ago, Tom-n-Cheryl said:

I cancelled 10 cabins yesterday for my staff office cruise - it was a quickie on the Liberty in early December. Today would have been final payment, and we had already decided not to sail this soon (with so many unknowns and many people involved).

 

So, all but 3 of the bookings were easy enough - full refund of deposit to my credit card. However, three were taking advantage of casino promos, and thus (since I cancelled) I'm presently out almost $600. No surprises there.

 

However, the Carnival rep I was speaking with did indicate that IF Carnival ends up cancelling the sailing I could call back and would be able to recover those deposits.

 

I must say, that sounds overly optimistic to me, but who knows with all that's going on this year!

 

Anyone heard similar talk, or have experienced this first hand?

 

THANKS,

 

Tom 

They just cancelled my Casino Elite cruise and I received all monies back so you should be good to go if they cancel

[pe4all]

I had a Premier booked with Carnival that I cancelled right before CCL cancelled.  My pvp transferred the deposit to another cruise without any problem- even though I cancelled and it was a non-refundable deposit. She even got me the $600 obc.   After CCL cancelled my 2nd cruise the deposit and obc was also transferred (no problem) to the next cruise (dealer's choice) I booked a few weeks ago.  Maybe it is worth a call to the player's club to see what they can do?

[Tom-n-Cheryl]

19 minutes ago, pe4all said:

I had a Premier booked with Carnival that I cancelled right before CCL cancelled.  My pvp transferred the deposit to another cruise without any problem- even though I cancelled and it was a non-refundable deposit. She even got me the $600 obc.   After CCL cancelled my 2nd cruise the deposit and obc was also transferred (no problem) to the next cruise (dealer's choice) I booked a few weeks ago.  Maybe it is worth a call to the player's club to see what they can do?

 

Thanks for the suggestion. If anyone takes a close look at my play history, it's going to be tumbleweeds for the last 4 years (went cold turkey!). I'm surprised that they're still extending offers... hope springs eternal I suppose!  🙂

Tom

 

Edit - wait, there was one cruise a year or two back that they gave me a chunk ($1,000?) of freeplay as part of the booking. I opted to just hit the roulette table (and not sit down at my old friend.. the BJ table). I stood at the table, made several bets, and walked away with something like twice the amount of the free play.

[wannagonow123]

When the pandemic started to get hot & heavy, we chose to cancel a trip which was two weeks out. Both my husband and myself were (are) considered high risk. Was not because we might catch it, we did not want to take the chance of being quarantined. Anyhow, at the time we were told we would lose our deposit, however the remaining fare could be used for another sailing if we rebooked within 30 days. Fair enough. We thought we would lose the whole caboodle.  We booked an 8 day sailing on the Radiance for Jan 2021, figuring everything would be back to normal. 3 days later, all cruises stopped. One week later, I got an e-mail stating they had moved my nonrefundable deposit amount had been placed on my new booking, and were were now eligible for the $600 OBC. I was dumbfounded and impressed. Now of course my sailing has changed to the Breeze, and they are giving me another $200 OBC. 

 

That is if they are sailing in Jan.......

[vwrestler171]

I know when the cancellations first started, Carnival had a spot in the letter saying that if you cancelled within a certain window, you would qualify for the same perks as if they cancelled.

[Djptcp]

We've  had 3 Carnival cruises cancelled so far since March and all were casino promotions. All the fares and non-refundable deposits were transferred to new cruise bookings. So, nothing was lost.

[Budget Queen]

On 9/20/2020 at 10:44 AM, Tom-n-Cheryl said:

I cancelled 10 cabins yesterday for my staff office cruise - it was a quickie on the Liberty in early December. Today would have been final payment, and we had already decided not to sail this soon (with so many unknowns and many people involved).

 

So, all but 3 of the bookings were easy enough - full refund of deposit to my credit card. However, three were taking advantage of casino promos, and thus (since I cancelled) I'm presently out almost $600. No surprises there.

 

However, the Carnival rep I was speaking with did indicate that IF Carnival ends up cancelling the sailing I could call back and would be able to recover those deposits.

 

I must say, that sounds overly optimistic to me, but who knows with all that's going on this year!

 

Anyone heard similar talk, or have experienced this first hand?

 

THANKS,

 

Tom 

You aren't going to get any additional benefit.    You no longer have any reservation.    Your information is definitely not accurate.       Think about it.    Carnival,  is going to allow  everybody to make those claims with no active reservation.     Nope.  

[Tom-n-Cheryl]

32 minutes ago, Budget Queen said:

You aren't going to get any additional benefit.    You no longer have any reservation.    Your information is definitely not accurate.       Think about it.    Carnival,  is going to allow  everybody to make those claims with no active reservation.     Nope.  

 

It seemed totally backwards to me, but I thought I'd throw it out here just in case, what with up being down of late!

 

Tom

[Tom-n-Cheryl]

On 9/26/2020 at 9:39 PM, Djptcp said:

We've  had 3 Carnival cruises cancelled so far since March and all were casino promotions. All the fares and non-refundable deposits were transferred to new cruise bookings. So, nothing was lost.

 

That's good to know.

 

Our March 6th Mardi Gras cruise is a casino promo (with something like $200 non-refundable deposit).

 

Back when I first started this thread, I assumed that our Mardi Gras sailing was far enough out that they'd be cruising again by then. Now, March is starting to look a lot closer (from not only a calendar perspective, but also as the shifting restart date gets pushed back month by month). It's anyone's guess right now --- who knows, this may end up being its first sailing... or not !

 

BTW - what's the current situation regarding the amount of OBC Carnival throws your way if they cancel the cruise???

 

Tom

[pe4all]

3 hours ago, Tom-n-Cheryl said:

BTW - what's the current situation regarding the amount of OBC Carnival throws your way if they cancel the cruise???

 

Tom

$600 for 6 days or longer at last cancellation.  $300 for less than 6 days.