Increase in Covid cases

[tjcletzgo]

I booked a 10 day Sea of Cortez sailing end of February, 2022.  With the increase in Covid cases and the mandate for masks going into effect today, I'm having second thoughts.  As anyone cancelled a cruise after final payment and received a full refund?  What is Princess's policy on Covid cancellations?

 

Thanks so much!

[deadzone1003]

Princess is still using their standard cancellation fees, but if you cancel at least 30 days before departure, the cancellation fees will become future cruise credit.  This only applies to cruises departing before the end of April 2022.  If you cancel now, your deposit would become future cruise credits and the balance should be refunded.  

[cruzrbachoua]

here is a link to their site with their cruise with confidence policies 

 

https://www.princess.com/plan/cruise-with-confidence/

[tjcletzgo]

I just booked the Platinum Insurance plan! 

 

Thank you!

[JoRoy218]

We’ve just booked our third cruise for March 26 (two former cruises cancelled due to COVID) and now that the numbers are rising again, am afraid our CA Coastal cruise may have the same fate. Oh well, worse things can happen. Will just ride it out like everyone else. 🙄

Edited December 18, 2021 by JoRoy218

[Stevie17]

7 hours ago, JoRoy218 said:

We’ve just booked our third cruise for March 26 (two former cruises cancelled due to COVID) and now that the numbers are rising again, am afraid our CA Coastal cruise may have the same fate. Oh well, worse things can happen. Will just ride it out like everyone else. 🙄

Yeah, we're supposed to be on the Caribbean Princess two weeks from tomorrow. I feel like with these skyrocketing cases, anything is now possible. The first "hurdle" will be to see if my family of four all tests negative two days prior. We're all vaxxed, and we mask up regularly, but who even knows at this point whether it's enough. 

[hsmom]

11 minutes ago, Stevie17 said:

Yeah, we're supposed to be on the Caribbean Princess two weeks from tomorrow. I feel like with these skyrocketing cases, anything is now possible. The first "hurdle" will be to see if my family of four all tests negative two days prior. We're all vaxxed, and we mask up regularly, but who even knows at this point whether it's enough. 

We board the CB the week after you. This all feels like a rerun of March 2020 where our original cruise was canceled.

[nocl]

While other lines are changing their masking requirements.  Princess has been requiring masking indoors in most public areas unless seated with food or drink.

 

The problems are certainly rising.  A Carnival ship denied access to Cabo a few days ago and A Royal Caribbean ship denied from docking at St Lucia on Dec 16.

 

I think cruising is going to be in for another rough period if for no other reason than the uncertainty about ports. More so if large case numbers start showing up.

[coo359a2]

58 minutes ago, nocl said:

While other lines are changing their masking requirements.  Princess has been requiring masking indoors in most public areas unless seated with food or drink.

 

The problems are certainly rising.  A Carnival ship denied access to Cabo a few days ago and A Royal Caribbean ship denied from docking at St Lucia on Dec 16.

 

I think cruising is going to be in for another rough period if for no other reason than the uncertainty about ports. More so if large case numbers start showing up.

We are on the Enchanted Princess and had no problem docking at St Lucia on Dec 16.  St Lucia only allowed ship's tours or port authorized tours.  No walking around on your own except in the port shopping area.  We did get an arm band as we went out the door of the ship to walk around the port shops.

[nocl]

33 minutes ago, coo359a2 said:

We are on the Enchanted Princess and had no problem docking at St Lucia on Dec 16.  St Lucia only allowed ship's tours or port authorized tours.  No walking around on your own except in the port shopping area.  We did get an arm band as we went out the door of the ship to walk around the port shops.

The Royal ship had known covid case on board

[giejie]

My parents were also scheduled to go on the end of Feb 10 day Sea of Cortez cruise. The canceled it a few weeks ago due to COVID concerns but also because the price has been dropping so much & lots of rooms still available that it'll be easy to just rebook it.

 

I just got off the Majestic Princess this morning after a 7 day Mexican Riviera cruise. I felt safer on the ship than I do in my hometown. By the end of the cruise, 90% of the passengers still wore a mask 24/7 and all crew had KN95 masks on at all times. There is a lot of cleaning being done (every time you get up from a seat/table on the ship, they clean it before allowing new passengers to sit at the tables). A crew member told me that the ship has been in the "green zone" for the past 2 months. 

 

Obviously things are changing by the minute so it might not be as safe as it is now in Feb, but get good travel insurance, it's worth it in times like this!

[luvtravel]

On 12/15/2021 at 8:46 AM, tjcletzgo said:

I booked a 10 day Sea of Cortez sailing end of February, 2022.  With the increase in Covid cases and the mandate for masks going into effect today, I'm having second thoughts.  As anyone cancelled a cruise after final payment and received a full refund?  What is Princess's policy on Covid cancellations?

 

Thanks so much!

Yesterday, we  reluctantly cancelled a March Panama Canal cruise.  We had paid the final payment but then omicron!  To us Princess’ cancellation policy read that if you cancel 90 days or greater prior to sailing - full refund.   We also purchased the cruise with a refundable ( vs non refundable) deposit.  The big box online TA where we do a lot of travel booking was so busy they couldn’t take our call - But could cancel online - which we did.   We also wondered if we had read their policy correctly.    Today we received a cancellation confirmation from the TA - full refund.    We also cancelled a January S.A. Cruise with Oceania - done before final payment because of the virus. I wish people would just get vaxxed and boosted and be considerate of others - masking, distance.   We want to be optimistic - so have booked a cruise to Alaska for summer.  Hope things are looking up by then!   

 

 

 

[tjcletzgo]

1 hour ago, luvtravel said:

 

 

 

I’m also booked on the 2/28 sail to Sea of Cortez cruise.  I bought the insurance in case I wanted to cancel.  I’m seriously considering canceling. I’m worried about what comes after this variant😳

[mjmalino]

5 hours ago, Stevie17 said:

Yeah, we're supposed to be on the Caribbean Princess two weeks from tomorrow. I feel like with these skyrocketing cases, anything is now possible. The first "hurdle" will be to see if my family of four all tests negative two days prior. We're all vaxxed, and we mask up regularly, but who even knows at this point whether it's enough. 

We board the Sky on the 28th and we are also concerned about the 4 of us testing negative prior to. We max up everywhere and are not only vaxxed, but boosted, but, my youngest graduated from Virginia Tech yesterday, so I am hoping that our precautions helped us to not get sick.

[Stevie17]

22 hours ago, hsmom said:

We board the CB the week after you. This all feels like a rerun of March 2020 where our original cruise was canceled.

That is exactly how we feel! We were supposed to sail on Regal in March 2020. 

[nocl]

7 minutes ago, Stevie17 said:

That is exactly how we feel! We were supposed to sail on Regal in March 2020. 

it is possible that we could be past the Omicron peak by March

[Stevie17]

11 minutes ago, nocl said:

it is possible that we could be past the Omicron peak by March

Oh no, I'm sorry. I wasn't clear. What I meant was that I feel today how I felt in March of 2020 when Princess canceled our cruise on board the Regal. We are currently schedule to sail on CB on January 2nd, and because of the huge uptick in cases, I feel like I'm having deja vu. 

[lbfluffy]

22 hours ago, nocl said:

While other lines are changing their masking requirements.  Princess has been requiring masking indoors in most public areas unless seated with food or drink.

 

The problems are certainly rising.  A Carnival ship denied access to Cabo a few days ago and A Royal Caribbean ship denied from docking at St Lucia on Dec 16.

 

I think cruising is going to be in for another rough period if for no other reason than the uncertainty about ports. More so if large case numbers start showing up.

We sail  on the grand on December 30th for Cabo San Lucas. I hope they do not cancel that one and only port that we are scheduled to stop at.

[voljeep]

well, we have a little 4 day on the REGAL at the end of January ... now, my glass is always a half-full ... hopefully, Grand Turk will still be open... the REGAL is there today ...

[Metguy]

This week has seen all Australian states surge with Covid to the highest daily levels since the pandemic started and omicron is the dominant strain putting many in hotel and home quarantine and hospital admissions rising quickly.

If this surge continues, which is likely, as many have not yet been vaccinated (under 12’s) and state governments have been caught short with testing places and booster vaccine then the cruise ban may well continue into 2022 

This was not expected to happen as we have been relatively unscathed in this country compared to the rest of the world.

Fingers crossed we get on top of this quickly.

[PaperSniper4]

On 12/15/2021 at 10:46 AM, tjcletzgo said:

I booked a 10 day Sea of Cortez sailing end of February, 2022.  With the increase in Covid cases and the mandate for masks going into effect today, I'm having second thoughts.  As anyone cancelled a cruise after final payment and received a full refund?  What is Princess's policy on Covid cancellations?

 

Thanks so much!

I had to check to see if what you wrote was written by me! I'm maybe on that same cruise, sails 28 Feb 2022? 🙄

 

I have the same concerns and questions as you. Princess Standard Cancellation Policy is HERE. Did you get the Princess Vacation Protection insurance?  There is a clause in there concerning canceling for any reason. My understanding is that if you cancel for any reason, the optional PVP pays the amount you'd otherwise forfeit <above> as a FCC which musts be used on a cruise sailing NLT 31 Dec 2022, and that cruise needs to be booked by 15 Apr 2022. The FCC cannot be used as the deposit for that cruise.

 

My wife is reluctant to cancel at this time, so I'm no doing anything at least for a while. My issue with the FCC is we already have cruises scheduled from July 2022 until the end of the year, so our schedule doesn't have many places where we can schedule a replacement cruise. So, it's likely a FCC will end up no being used....money down the drain.😪

 

Doug

[dockman]

All those 7 day Mexico cruises to Cabo, Mazatlán, Puerto Vallarta are not looking so good at the moment.  PVR blocked a Holland Ship yesterday and Cabo has blocked a Carnival ship...and all this just as covid is beginning to rocket up again.

 

So what would happen if you are on a ship and all the ports block them from docking? Would they try to stop in Ensenada to satisfy PSA or is it possible they could receive an emergency exemption from US govt.?    Is it likely that Princess will just flat out cancel the winter Mexico series rather than take a chance with a sparsely filled ship?  It appears that the projected peak of new covid cases is late Jan which will impact a lot of the departures.

 

Not anxious to end up on a ghost ship sailing around looking for a place to dock.

 

 

[Level six]

A viking cruise was denied at La Paz yesterday too. 

 

We  were on the Grand in November and there were only 600 people onboard the 10 Baja and 300 on the 5 day coastal.  I don't think they will cancel any cruises due to passenger numbers because the one after ours had 150.    

 

It will probably go with a cruise to no where instead of being cancelled.........maybe? 

[dockman]

5 minutes ago, Level six said:

A viking cruise was denied at La Paz yesterday too. 

 

We  were on the Grand in November and there were only 600 people onboard the 10 Baja and 300 on the 5 day coastal.  I don't think they will cancel any cruises due to passenger numbers because the one after ours had 150.    

 

It will probably go with a cruise to no where instead of being cancelled.........maybe? 

Don't think a cruise to nowhere is permitted by law...must hit foreign port unless somehow get an exemption.

[Potstech]

On 12/18/2021 at 9:51 PM, mjmalino said:

We board the Sky on the 28th and we are also concerned about the 4 of us testing negative prior to. We max up everywhere and are not only vaxxed, but boosted, but, my youngest graduated from Virginia Tech yesterday, so I am hoping that our precautions helped us to not get sick.

Go Hookies.