British and Europeans unable to enter USA

[little britain]

As Biden still will not allow Brits and Europeans into the USA what options have X given regarding the cruise?  Given that the situation is out of our control. 
Can you L&S or is it cancellation with full refund? What about reimbursing the airfare?

[upwarduk]

9 minutes ago, little britain said:

As Biden still will not allow Brits and Europeans into the USA

Tourism will suffer.

I have a big birthday pending and would love to cruise to celebrate, but with neither USA or Australia welcoming me, I will have to think of a winter alternative.

Edited August 28, 2021 by upwarduk

[Merly]

50 minutes ago, little britain said:

As Biden still will not allow Brits and Europeans into the USA what options have X given regarding the cruise?  Given that the situation is out of our control. 
Can you L&S or is it cancellation with full refund? What about reimbursing the airfare?

We cancelled our Transatlantic before final payment. We booked through a travel agent. We were given the option of a refund of our deposit or a FCC or move to another cruise. We moved to another cruise. As Celebrity were responsible for flights that wasn’t an issue.  I think if you have booked and paid for flights independently then it will be your responsibility.  Perhaps claim from your insurance, but that will depend if you booked when restrictions were in place.  If that is the case you might be out of luck. 
 

We have a cruise booked with Azamara to South Africa in January.  There is more chance of going to the moon.  Still waiting to see what our options are with them.  Again, I wish they would cancel before final payment. 

[Yorkshire-Pudding]

3 hours ago, little britain said:

As Biden still will not allow Brits and Europeans into the USA what options have X given regarding the cruise?  Given that the situation is out of our control. 
Can you L&S or is it cancellation with full refund? What about reimbursing the airfare?

We have twice had Celebrity cruises to the Caribbean from Fort Lauderdale cancelled for June 2020 and June 2021. Moved the 2020 cruise to 2021 but in March 2021, that cruise was cancelled by Celebrity however we had paid in full just a few days before it was cancelled. Celebrity refunded our deposit fairly quickly. The problem was the travel agent, a large UK cruise specialist. They tried to claim that the refund would be delayed because Celebrity had the funds. Later discovered it was untrue because mosr travel agents are invoiced after your holiday not before. The travel agent was delaying refund by 5 months. This was unacceptable because of the sums involved so I made a claim with credit card used for the booking  for none delivery of services and we received all of our money back. It took about 6 weeks because the merchant has to be given the opportunity to make their own representations. 

 

On the flight front. We had return flights (to Miami) and hotels before and after the cruise all with British Airways. This was independent of the cruise.

 

We had hoped to continue with trip to Florida as the flights to the US were still going, but as you mentioned we could not enter the US. We were able to cancel and all monies were promptly refunded by BA.

 

We have a land holiday of flights and hotels booked to spend Christmas in Las Vegas again with BA. There is I suspect, a strong possibly that we may still excluded from entering the country. Ww have until early December to wait and see but I fully expect us to refund any money if we have to cancel if we can't enter.

[emmas gran]

We had a B2B on Equinox for November, a great deal on a RS then Sky Suite, cancelled earlier this month and rebooked for next November. Not prepared to make final payt with all the uncertainty, doing a Silhouette cruise next month.s

[little britain]

@Yorkshire-Pudding thanks for the update.

Likewise 3rd attempt to try and cruise X, March 2020 canx, January 2021 L&S to Jan 2022 but not having good vibes. Flights also booked independently with BA with views to land trip beforehand - BA voucher from 1/21 rolled over to pay for 1/22.
Not sure how many BA vouchers one person needs lol if they won’t refund!!  But good to hear you did get your money back! 🤞
 

I got such a good price on the L&S it would be a pity to lose it.

 

I guess I’ll wait until final payment date to see what the options are. 

[rachiem]

11 minutes ago, little britain said:

@Yorkshire-Pudding thanks for the update.

Likewise 3rd attempt to try and cruise X, March 2020 canx, January 2021 L&S to Jan 2022 but not having good vibes. Flights also booked independently with BA with views to land trip beforehand - BA voucher from 1/21 rolled over to pay for 1/22.
Not sure how many BA vouchers one person needs lol if they won’t refund!!  But good to hear you did get your money back! 🤞
 

I got such a good price on the L&S it would be a pity to lose it.

 

I guess I’ll wait until final payment date to see what the options are. 

Same here...we are end of Jan, 12 nights from FLL and had a really good price (now twice as much).

We also splashed out on UC flights with Virgin. We'd still be happy to go if the cruise was cancelled but can't obviously do that at the mo either. 

[Yorkshire-Pudding]

Hi Little Britain,

 

BA can be very inconsistent. I was watching for feedback on Trustpilot and there were a lot of unhappy passengers being forced to have vouchers. Not a good corporate image.

 

We have given up trying to book a fly cruise for the time being. We have 2 weeks on Anthem of the Seas for June 2022 to the Med from Southampton. Worse case,  we sail around the UK and enjoy our balcony.

[Yorkshire-Pudding]

1 hour ago, emmas gran said:

We had a B2B on Equinox for November, a great deal on a RS then Sky Suite, cancelled earlier this month and rebooked for next November. Not prepared to make final payt with all the uncertainty, doing a Silhouette cruise next 

You are making me so jealous. An RS in the caribbean, nice!!

 

We had RS booked on Equinox for 2020 but that was cancelled. Then PS for 2021. Not tried a PS before because they were always fully booked. We finally managed to book one and was so gutted when it was cancelled. 

 

My advice to anyone from the UK. Make sure all correspondence is via email. Do not call. If you need to recover funds via your credit card it will be easier if you can produce your email evidence.

[emmas gran]

57 minutes ago, Yorkshire-Pudding said:

You are making me so jealous. An RS in the caribbean, nice!!

 

We had RS booked on Equinox for 2020 but that was cancelled. Then PS for 2021. Not tried a PS before because they were always fully booked. We finally managed to book one and was so gutted when it was cancelled. 

 

My advice to anyone from the UK. Make sure all correspondence is via email. Do not call. If you need to recover funds via your credit card it will be easier if you can produce your email evidence.

With all the cancellations we just said s*d it and booked B2B RS for November 2022. Surprised really as my other half is from Yorkshire! Flights with Virgin U.C using miles.

Edited August 28, 2021 by emmas gran
Addition

[Yorkshire-Pudding]

44 minutes ago, emmas gran said:

With all the cancellations we just said s*d it and booked B2B RS for November 2022. Surprised really as my other half is from Yorkshire! Flights with Virgin U.C using miles.

 

I say there is nothing wrong with a little Yorkshire common sense, but as I am Yorkie from birth,  I am biased.

 

For us. Between the dying relatives and the cancelled holidays we are trying Star class on Royal Caribbean for the first time. It will be interesting to see how a Royal Genie compares. DH is retiring in 2023 and just saw Silverseas have released 2023/2024. Can't choose between them or Regent.

 

Funnily I am currently in Saltaire, West Yorkshire which is now a world heritage site. My DS went to a local micro brewery. It was 2 pints for £11.80 which was shocking.

 

I went to school in the area. It was fish and chips night yesterday and the locals were complaining about all the London folk that have now moved there. Never seen so many hipsters outside of Hoxton, London. Just waiting for the beard groomer on the high streat for all the beards.

[emmas gran]

We once spent 3 hours queuing at Miami and when we reached the agent she asked me “How do you know him? Pointing at my husband!. When we were sat waiting for our flight they were doing a survey on our airport experience, I gave my full opinion .

[emmas gran]

3 minutes ago, Yorkshire-Pudding said:

 

I say there is nothing wrong with a little Yorkshire common sense, but as I am Yorkie from birth,  I am biased.

 

For us. Between the dying relatives and the cancelled holidays we are trying Star class on Royal Caribbean for the first time. It will be interesting to see how a Royal Genie compares. DH is retiring in 2023 and just saw Silverseas have released 2023/2024. Can't choose between them or Regent.

 

Funnily I am currently in Saltaire, West Yorkshire which is now a world heritage site. My DS went to a local micro brewery. It was 2 pints for £11.80 which was shocking.

 

I went to school in the area. It was fish and chips night yesterday and the locals were complaining about all the London folk that have now moved there. Never seen so many hipsters outside of Hoxton, London. Just waiting for the beard groomer on the high streat for all the beards.

One of dad’s sister lived on George St in Saltaire, Yes a Yorkshire father and Yorkshire hubby 😀😀

[Yorkshire-Pudding]

14 minutes ago, hawkesbaynz said:

We moved a Far East on Solstice in January 22 to an ABC on Silhouette in March 22 as thought that would be more possible..... Hope we were not wrong. We have a voucher from BA from the previous South America, then Singapore flights. All refundable in theory. Likewise will book two nights pre-cruise in Fort Lauderdale. Mildly anxious about companies going bust and have more faith in BA than RCI and Virgin which must be junk bonds or whatever.

 

Bizarre that the UK Government allows in folk from America where Covid is rife, particularly in the Southern States and Florida where vaccinate rates are worful.  Whilst we cannot go there  perhaps it's not a bad thing as things seem to be getting worse again here.

 

Another great example of our special relationship. Annoys me when we are queuing up with the Third World like criminals at Miami Airport, but then  US Citizens are waltzing through passport control with Brits/EU citizens at Heathrow.

 

Rumour has it, the reason we can't enter is because the UK used Astrazeneca and it is not authorised for use there. It seems that even their Canadian neighbours can't enter either because they used a mix of vaccine manufacturers. I understand that US mainly used Pfizer or Moderna. There is talk of UK over 50s having boosters possibly of Pfizer so we could find ourselves still excluded for having different vaccines.

[Yorkshire-Pudding]

2 minutes ago, emmas gran said:

One of dad’s sister lived on George St in Saltaire, Yes a Yorkshire father and Yorkshire hubby 😀😀

Wow what a small world. 

 

Well all the houses in the village are now Grade II listed. The Mills are either the David Hockney museum or very New York style lofts with exposed brick walls. Your aunty wouldn't recognise it, but the Yorkie born people are unchanged.

 

My only sibling died and had moved back. Having to deal with the estate so spending months sorting things out here. It's just weird being here after more than 35 years away.

[Mark_T]

32 minutes ago, hawkesbaynz said:

Another great example of our special relationship. Annoys me when we are queuing up with the Third World like criminals at Miami Airport, but then  US Citizens are waltzing through passport control with Brits/EU citizens at Heathrow.

Their 'Global Entry' program has been open to UK residents for a few years now, I've been using it since I was invited to join as a frequent flyer with AA, it is a great way not to be in those long queues...

[Berlin Bear]

7 minutes ago, Yorkshire-Pudding said:

 

Rumour has it, the reason we can't enter is because the UK used Astrazeneca and it is not authorised for use there. It seems that even their Canadian neighbours can't enter either because they used a mix of vaccine manufacturers. I understand that US mainly used Pfizer or Moderna. There is talk of UK over 50s having boosters possibly of Pfizer so we could find ourselves still excluded for having different vaccines.

EU citizens aren’t allowed into the US either, although AstraZeneca is not used as much over here as in the UK. And infection rates are much lower. Even Merkel‘s request to Biden, when she made her farewell visit to Washington DC recently, to allow EU citizens in couldn’t change his mind.

Hopefully we‘ll make it to our NE/Canada cruise on the Summit in September 2022!

[hawkesbaynz]

The Global Entry System sounds great if you travel to the US frequently. However we may go maximum twice and not sure it would be worthwhile. We have the Silhouette and an Oceania cruise from Florida in 2022 and doubt we will do the Caribbean again for many years

https://www.gov.uk/global-entry-usa

 

I had a 45 day Oceania cruise from LA to HK booked next year for my retirement. Cancelled and changed it to a 10 day Caribbean cruise as my mother will be ninety and becoming needy. We could not leave her that long although she is otherwise independent and has a group of supportive friends. Regent would be nice, Remember to get the friends recommendation for OBC via CC

 

I regularly ski with Yorkshiremen. We always seem to book thr cheapest accomodation although they do not stint on the booze bill. They are forever being accosted by locals shouting 'how much!' at them. 

 

[emmas gran]

 

“I regularly ski with Yorkshiremen. We always seem to book thr cheapest accomodation although they do not stint on the booze bill. They are forever being accosted by locals shouting 'how much!' at them. “

Do they slap their foreheads and hold their ears as they say it? My other half says Yorkshire folk are Scottish with the generous trait removed. Seriously they are very generous underneath the brash front. 
The Oceania cruise sounds good, we have cruised LA - Sydney twice with Princess years ago and Solstice Hawaii - Sydney 5 years ago love the longer trips

[Eglesbrech]

44 minutes ago, emmas gran said:

My other half says Yorkshire folk are Scottish with the generous trait removed.

Oh really 😀

[Mark_T]

2 hours ago, hawkesbaynz said:

The Global Entry System sounds great if you travel to the US frequently. However we may go maximum twice and not sure it would be worthwhile. We have the Silhouette and an Oceania cruise from Florida in 2022 and doubt we will do the Caribbean again for many years

That is a fair point, but if you do manage to get registered it does last for 5 years, which may be of use to those who are regular cruisers out of US ports.

[Yorkshire-Pudding]

Now, now ladies. Admit it, you were attracted to that good Yorkshire earnest attitude to life. Having said that my DS saw a whippet in Saltaire yesterday for the first time ever.

 

My mam said, men are like new shoes. You have to break them in! As a Yorkshire woman, Yorkshire shoes are stronger leather and might make your feet hurt more, but they do soften with time and patience. 

 

Next week is my 31st wedding anniversary. 💑 I didn't marry a Yorkshire man.

[Yorkshire-Pudding]

16 hours ago, emmas gran said:

 

 

“I regularly ski with Yorkshiremen. We always seem to book thr cheapest accomodation although they do not stint on the booze bill. They are forever being accosted by locals shouting 'how much!' at them. “

Do they slap their foreheads and hold their ears as they say it? My other half says Yorkshire folk are Scottish with the generous trait removed. Seriously they are very generous underneath the brash front. 
The Oceania cruise sounds good, we have cruised LA - Sydney twice with Princess years ago and Solstice Hawaii - Sydney 5 years ago love the longer trips

😆 🤣 😂 

[Yorkshire-Pudding]

17 hours ago, hawkesbaynz said:

The Global Entry System sounds great if you travel to the US frequently. However we may go maximum twice and not sure it would be worthwhile. We have the Silhouette and an Oceania cruise from Florida in 2022 and doubt we will do the Caribbean again for many years

https://www.gov.uk/global-entry-usa

 

I had a 45 day Oceania cruise from LA to HK booked next year for my retirement. Cancelled and changed it to a 10 day Caribbean cruise as my mother will be ninety and becoming needy. We could not leave her that long although she is otherwise independent and has a group of supportive friends. Regent would be nice, Remember to get the friends recommendation for OBC via CC

 

I regularly ski with Yorkshiremen. We always seem to book thr cheapest accomodation although they do not stint on the booze bill. They are forever being accosted by locals shouting 'how much!' at them. 

 

How do you rate Oceania?

 

DH retires 2023 and hopefully our DS will leave home when he graduates 2022 or at least not holiday with us anymore. As Celebrity's prices have continued to increase, we are looking at other lines for example  Regent or Silverseas. We are seriously considering a British Airways around the world ticket, and combined it with cruises on various lines inbetween as DH does not want to do a round the world cruise, stuck with the same ship.

[photabitha]

We are sailing from Tampa in January 2022 with friends on a twice cancelled cruise flying from the UK.
 We too are wondering whether we will be allowed to fly and what will happen on refund.  For us, whilst we may get the deposit returned and/or vouchers, but it is the extremely low cost of our holiday and upgrades which will go down the pan!  

The original cruise was cancelled due to redeployment of the ship and we were given incentives to book on the Tampa cruise.  11 nights Caribbean, upgraded to a suite for the same cost as Aqua, $700  of onboard credit, drinks package, WiFi, gratuities, upgraded flights on a BA sale all for under £6k!  We will never get the same cruise for the same price with the flights we have. 
Although we would ourselves look at the state of play in US re Covid before we decided to travel, I fear UK and  European travellers will not be allowed into US by January 2022.