Cancellation done right…. Kudos to Princess

[RickT]

I will be cross posting this in the Princess forum.

 

I understand 18 months have past since Covid threw the Cruise Industry a huge curve ball so perhaps things have changed but I want to discuss my Celebrity vs. Princess handling of a cruise cancellation.  
 

I had a March 2021 New Zealand cruise booked with Celebrity and not surprisingly it was cancelled due to Covid,  My cruise did not allow any Lift and Shift because Celebrity had nothing similar to offer for 2022.  There was a cruise in March 2022 that was one day longer but that was not an option due to the different length.  I spoke with X and said I would pay the per diem upgrade but was told no. My option was to cancel and receive a refund or leave my deposit with them and get a 25% bonus.  Unfortunately the March 2022 cruise was almost  30% more expensive so IMHO that wasn’t an option.

 

Looking for a replacement cruise I found a similar 2022 itinerary on Princess very close to the original Celebrity price (with similar perks) so booked that and crossed my fingers.

 

I recently received notification that my March 2022 New Zealand cruise on Princess was cancelled due to Covid cases in Australia and New Zealand.  Princess graciously offer to move my booking to two different cruises in 2023 (same price, perks, etc) even though they were two days longer in length (and the current booking price was significantly greater than I was paying).  
 

IMHO the Princess process was more customer friendly and driven towards making me a happy/loyal customer than the Celebrity policy.  Perhaps Celebrity has changed how they handle cancellations but if not they could learn a few things from Princess.

 

I still love Celebrity…. But based on this experience will lean toward Princess in the future.

Edited July 31, 2021 by RickT

[cruisestitch]

The cancellation procedures all have evolved in the intervening months.  Something to consider….

[oskidunker]

My sister had the same experience on a cancelled Celebrity cruise. She is now also booked on Princess. She took the refund.  Doesnt seem to make sense. 

[jasmine196]

I had the same issue.  Mine was going to be on the Reflection November 2020 for a 10 day Southern.  Tried to move it to November 2021 with the Edge, but since it was a different class of ship they wouldn't do it.  They wanted to move us to a 10 day on a smaller ship and that wasn't flying with us.  FINALLY after my agent spent many of hours on the phone we got them to agree to lift and shift us to a 12 day Southern on the Equinox in November 2021 with an upgrade to concierge class and it was a bit cheaper.  I hope since this happened back in July of last year they have improved the lift and shift because it really gave me a sour taste and this is my 5th cruise on Celebrity.

[Mr. Click]

We had 4 cancelations with Celebrity during this mess and opted for a refund on all of them.  Refunds were processed with in 30 days of cancelations.  We had booked a few nights with Princess Lodges in Alaska are part of our Celebrity Alaska cruise in 2020.  We canceled that long before they canceled the entire season and it still took 90 days for a refunds when they promised to have it done in 10 days from my original call.   Yes, I know lodges are not cruises but it is still Princess/Carnival because that who I started getting emails and phone calls from trying to "explain" the delay.  After 90 days I just turned over to my credit card company and they gave me a temp credit and eventually turned into a permanent one.  The whole experience makes me weary of booking anything with Princess in the future.