Will Carnival refund or will they only allow me to change?

[Fireworks77]

There are conflicting posts on this board about people canceling vs. changing booking.

im looking for the best strategy to use when i cancel my Madri Gras cruise fir this weekend.

some have posted Carnival allowing only to rebook for a later sail date. While others claim without having insurance, they received a full refund.

How are so e folks getting a refund if they choose to cancel last minute? Any advice will be greatly appreciated.

[ProgRockCruiser]

As always, this is very much YMMV, depending on which agent you get on the phone.  You can't do it any other way other than calling, AFAIK.

 

You are within a week of sailing - why do you want to cancel?  Having a good reason may help sway them.  "Friend has COVID" is a strong argument, but may also be abused, for example.

 

If they won't let you cancel and refund, then you can at least cancel and shift out.

[LHARTWICK]

I called last week re: our SEP cruise. I actually had an agent on the line w/in about 5 minutes - very nice lady!  After I explained our situation (our insurance will not cover the rapid tests - it would be out of pocket and appointments where we live are hard to come by and can only be made 2 days out), she said Carnival would honor a "one time cancellation or change over to another cruise w/o the $50 pp penalty".  We had already made our final payment.  We have several other CCL cruises booked, so she moved the full balance of what we had paid over to two other cruises that still had balances due (once the balance was paid on our April 2022 cruise with these move-over funds, she moved what was left over to our December 2022 cruise).  The e-mails confirming all of these transactions came through while I was still on the phone with the agent.  Some good friends of ours had an October 2021 cruise booked, and they were allowed a full refund w/o penalty.  They really are trying to work with their customers, and they understand some people are in a bind like us due to the testing requirements - appointments, costs, etc. The agent said they are getting a lot of calls about it.  I was VERY pleased with my CCL agent experience - you can tell they are really sympathetic to all of their customers during all of this.  I hope this is helpful for the OP.  Good luck to you!

[alexmom]

I have a cruise booked for January 16th, 2022 on the Horizon with my DH, DS, and my 3 oldest grandsons and I really want to cancel and reschedule because 2 of my grandsons (ages 17 & 15) are not vaccinated and have no plans to get vaccinated either.  Also 2 of the 3 ports we would be visiting are closed because of Covid restrictions until after we are back home, and we wouldn't be allowed off the ship in many ports with unvaccinated teenagers either.  I have deposits that are listed as non-refundable.  Does that mean that if I cancel and rebook that I will lose that $750 ??

I sure hope someone can help me with current and accurate information.

[ScottsSweetie]

13 minutes ago, alexmom said:

I have a cruise booked for January 16th, 2022 on the Horizon with my DH, DS, and my 3 oldest grandsons and I really want to cancel and reschedule because 2 of my grandsons (ages 17 & 15) are not vaccinated and have no plans to get vaccinated either.  Also 2 of the 3 ports we would be visiting are closed because of Covid restrictions until after we are back home, and we wouldn't be allowed off the ship in many ports with unvaccinated teenagers either.  I have deposits that are listed as non-refundable.  Does that mean that if I cancel and rebook that I will lose that $750 ??

I sure hope someone can help me with current and accurate information.

The current and accurate information is that many posters here on several different threads have noted that refunds have been received, cruise dates have been changed or FCCs have been issued. It would appear that Carnival is ready to work with cruisers unable to meet current requirements, but really you'll just have to call Carnival and start the conversation.

[freeholdfriends]

1 hour ago, ScottsSweetie said:

The current and accurate information is that many posters here on several different threads have noted that refunds have been received, cruise dates have been changed or FCCs have been issued. It would appear that Carnival is ready to work with cruisers unable to meet current requirements, but really you'll just have to call Carnival and start the conversation.

I am one of the ones  who received the full refund. About a week before canceling I called Carnival and was told I could shift the sailing or receive a refund. We thought about it for a week and then decided it wasn’t the right time for us. We called Carnival

and they very easily canceled the reservation. They were very customer friendly.