Two September 2024 Cruises Cancelled?

[Upper Deck Dad]

We booked a New England/Canada cruise for September 2024 a few weeks ago. Paid our deposit and the trip also included their insurance. We figured we were good until next year when it was time to start booking excursions and/or dining and other extras. 

 

A few days ago, we saw that the cruise mysteriously vanished from their booking site, but was still in our booked trips. All of the ports that we were supposed to visit had the ship gone as well (it was previously there since we had checked that). Only the 2 New England/Canada trips were missing from the ports itinerary. Everything else seemed00000000000000000000000

to be the same. 

 

Saw on the book of faces that someone got a letter from their travel agent that their NE/Canada cruise was cancelled for "operational reasons."  Seems like it's not sailing for about 3 weeks next September. 

 

Called MSC and they have no record of the 2 sailings being cancelled at this time. They said if they are cancelled, they will send an email to let us know and we can either pick a different cruise or get a refund.  

 

They also said we can cancel now and up to June with no penalty, but we would have to pay the insurance we took out ($210 total).  We only paid the deposit $398. The insurance was included in the full price of the cruise. Other cruise lines normally refund your deposit if you cancel and don't hold you to your insurance amount this far ahead of time. 

 

I assume I have to sit and wait for the "official" email that the cruise has been cancelled. Not sure how long this is going to take.  I am not going to cancel if I have to pay the insurance cost. 

 

Any insight into paying the penalty of the insurance if we cancel ourselves?  Is that normal for MSC? 

 

Anyone going on either of these September NE/Canada 2024 cruises that may have any additional information about them being cancelled?  

 

[morpheusofthesea]

3 hours ago, Upper Deck Dad said:

Any insight into paying the penalty of the insurance if we cancel ourselves?  Is that normal for MSC? 

Insurance companies also have strange rules. For example, in order to get trip insurance to 'kick in', one has to make it to the pier (touch base ?) knowing one's flight arrives and the ship has left hours before your flight lands. If one just turns around at the airport and flys home may be a technicality that one did not try to go on the cruise.

[Upper Deck Dad]

11 hours ago, morpheusofthesea said:

Insurance companies also have strange rules. For example, in order to get trip insurance to 'kick in', one has to make it to the pier (touch base ?) knowing one's flight arrives and the ship has left hours before your flight lands. If one just turns around at the airport and flys home may be a technicality that one did not try to go on the cruise.

I do understand that, although other cruise lines and businesses don't charge the insurance fee. 

 

I know I'll have to wait until they officially cancel these 2 cruises to get my refund.  I don't want any other itinerary except NE/Canada for that time of year.   

[jcpc]

I am also on one of those September Canada/N.E. sailings and I have seen the post that you are referring to on the other social media site.

 

I, personally, believe these Canada/N.E. sailings in September/October have been cancelled but for some reason beyond my comprehension MSC is not yet saying they are truly cancelled.  Both myself and my travel agent have called MSC and the agents emphatically say they are showing as active sailings and the sailing still shows up as "booked" on my MSC account.  But the simple fact that they do not show on the consumer website or in any of the "port listings" for each port of call leads me to believe they are indeed cancelled.  For the life of me I cannot understand why MSC has not just notified everyone that they are cancelled.  Once that happens we will definitely get reimbursed our deposit amount from MSC.

 

Regarding insurance:  It sounds as if you have not paid for the insurance yet as you say you've only paid deposit of $398, which equates to $199 per person which is the exact per person amount for the cruise deposit that we paid.  So you haven't even paid for any insurance so there's no way you will be financially responsible for it.  I, on the other hand, have purchased insurance through insuremytrip.com and it was purchased immediately after depositing the cruise (to make sure we are covered for pre-existing conditions).  Unfortunately, my premium payment is non-refundable.  Hopefully once the cruise is cancelled if I can book on Princess or another cruise line for a similar date/itinerary the insurance company "might" let me transfer my insurance to this new booking.  But I can't do anything until MSC officially cancels.

[morpheusofthesea]

5 minutes ago, jcpc said:

Hopefully once the cruise is cancelled if I can book on Princess or another cruise line for a similar date/itinerary the insurance company "might" let me transfer my insurance to this new booking.  But I can't do anything until MSC officially cancels.

Generally one has up to 2 years to apply a canceled cruise with most all insurance companies.

[Upper Deck Dad]

49 minutes ago, jcpc said:

I am also on one of those September Canada/N.E. sailings and I have seen the post that you are referring to on the other social media site.

 

I, personally, believe these Canada/N.E. sailings in September/October have been cancelled but for some reason beyond my comprehension MSC is not yet saying they are truly cancelled.  Both myself and my travel agent have called MSC and the agents emphatically say they are showing as active sailings and the sailing still shows up as "booked" on my MSC account.  But the simple fact that they do not show on the consumer website or in any of the "port listings" for each port of call leads me to believe they are indeed cancelled.  For the life of me I cannot understand why MSC has not just notified everyone that they are cancelled.  Once that happens we will definitely get reimbursed our deposit amount from MSC.

 

Regarding insurance:  It sounds as if you have not paid for the insurance yet as you say you've only paid deposit of $398, which equates to $199 per person which is the exact per person amount for the cruise deposit that we paid.  So you haven't even paid for any insurance so there's no way you will be financially responsible for it.  I, on the other hand, have purchased insurance through insuremytrip.com and it was purchased immediately after depositing the cruise (to make sure we are covered for pre-existing conditions).  Unfortunately, my premium payment is non-refundable.  Hopefully once the cruise is cancelled if I can book on Princess or another cruise line for a similar date/itinerary the insurance company "might" let me transfer my insurance to this new booking.  But I can't do anything until MSC officially cancels.

 

I agree, I feel they are cancelled as well, and we will get our full refund back. It's just a waiting game.  I don't know why they won't admit this and refund us now. I would like to make arrangements to go on another sailing with another cruise line asap. 

 

We have not paid for the insurance. It's only added to the reservation and included in the total amount due. I have changed plans using other insurance companies (usually thru airlines) and they were very accommodating with changing dates. I don't think you should have a problem. 

 

I wonder how the posters travel agent on the other social media site already knew these sailings were cancelled and MSC doesn't know?   

 

I hope they "officially" cancel by the end of this coming week.  I dislike having things hanging on like this. 

[jcpc]

3 hours ago, morpheusofthesea said:

Generally one has up to 2 years to apply a canceled cruise with most all insurance companies.

Thanks for the info @morpheusofthesea  So, once we receive official notification from MSC that the cruise is cancelled, I'll find out if "Nationwide is on our side" (as the advertisement jingle states).  LOL 

 

I'm not really familiar with MSC as I've only sailed them once (in YC and loved it, BTW).  Since you are a seasoned MSC cruiser have you known them to "play games" when a sailing is cancelled?  The poster on that other social media site has actually posted the email blurb that his travel agent had received from MSC re the sailing being cancelled.  He, however, is not located in the US......so does MSC notify international folks first??  I'm baffled about this one.

[jcpc]

@Upper Deck Dad I, too, wish they would let us know soon regarding the September/October Canada/N.E. sailings.  There are 5 of us going (3 Yacht Club cabins) and we want to re-book as quickly as possible on another cruise line (and, hopefully, transfer our pre-purchased insurance).  We are all "long time" Celebrity cruisers so we'll probably revert back to Celebrity from Boston (but not in Retreat because their pricing is astronomical......twice as high as what we would be paying MSC for this sailing).

[morpheusofthesea]

5 hours ago, Upper Deck Dad said:

 I would like to make arrangements to go on another sailing with another cruise line asap. 

That is exactly why they are dragging their feet. The other cruise lines are more apt to have booked up all the prime cabins by the time the announcement is made. Limiting your choices when the news is official. Then it would be to 'take it or leave it' the new itinerary.

Edited December 11, 2023 by morpheusofthesea

[morpheusofthesea]

2 hours ago, jcpc said:

Since you are a seasoned MSC cruiser have you known them to "play games" when a sailing is cancelled? 

Sure, they all "play games". Just book another cruise. You will eventually get your deposit back IF the posting is true.

[Squawkman]

Do any of the September/October sailings have a port stop scheduled in Prince Edward Island?

[jcpc]

35 minutes ago, Squawkman said:

Do any of the September/October sailings have a port stop scheduled in Prince Edward Island?

Yes, the September 15 cruise was supposed to dock in Charlottetown on September 20.

[Squawkman]

2 minutes ago, jcpc said:

Yes, the September 15 cruise was supposed to dock in Charlottetown on September 20.

Thanks for the info.

[jcpc]

3 hours ago, morpheusofthesea said:

Sure, they all "play games". Just book another cruise. You will eventually get your deposit back IF the posting is true.

Thanks, @morpheusofthesea.  I realize that they all "play games" since I've been cruising usually about 3 to 4 times per year since 1969 (yeah.........I'm old!!!)  But I'm very new to MSC having been a Celebrity Retreat loyalist for many, many years.  My problem (as I see it) is that I don't want to book another cruise for September on another cruise line (with a non-refundable deposit) if, in fact, MSC Meraviglia is indeed sailing.  So I think it's best for me to just "wait and see".  I have an MSC cruise in February and a Celebrity cruise in May to keep me occupied in the meantime.  Thanks for all the valuable postings you provided re MSC YC.  Your posts were one of the reasons why I decided to take the leap from Celebrity Retreat to MSC Yacht Club........and I'm very glad I did.

[8420PR]

My experience is it took about 2 weeks from learning here the cruise was cancelled to actually being notified by MSC.  

 

I suspect it just takes time for MSC HQ to inform local offices, and then each local office to inform customers.  

[Upper Deck Dad]

10 hours ago, Squawkman said:

Do any of the September/October sailings have a port stop scheduled in Prince Edward Island?

 

Ours was supposed to stop there 9/30.  It was on the ports websites for PEI when I first checked after booking (mid-November), then gone when I checked again 12/3.  The only Canadian port it was never listed as going to on the port website was Saint John, New Brunswick. 

Edited December 11, 2023 by Upper Deck Dad

[Upper Deck Dad]

3 hours ago, 8420PR said:

My experience is it took about 2 weeks from learning here the cruise was cancelled to actually being notified by MSC.  

 

I suspect it just takes time for MSC HQ to inform local offices, and then each local office to inform customers.  

 

Thats what I assumed as well.  The customer service reps and even their superiors are only telling us what they know or are allowed to tell us. They have to get the "official word" from the top before we'll get our refund.  

 

Two weeks is fine and coming up quickly. Hopefully not much longer.  

[jcpc]

On 12/11/2023 at 6:18 AM, Upper Deck Dad said:

 

Thats what I assumed as well.  The customer service reps and even their superiors are only telling us what they know or are allowed to tell us. They have to get the "official word" from the top before we'll get our refund.  

 

Two weeks is fine and coming up quickly. Hopefully not much longer.  

My September 15 cruise is no longer showing on my MSC account when I log in.  So I'm guessing we will get the notification from MSC very soon.  @Upper Deck DadPlease post when you get the official notification and I will do the same.  Thanks.

[Upper Deck Dad]

20 minutes ago, jcpc said:

My September 15 cruise is no longer showing on my MSC account when I log in.  So I'm guessing we will get the notification from MSC very soon.  @Upper Deck DadPlease post when you get the official notification and I will do the same.  Thanks.

  

Mine is missing as well.  I will let you know you know when I get the official notification.  Thank you. 

[Upper Deck Dad]

@jcpc  I just received the official email.  It says for "operational reasons" just like the other email from the poster on the social media site.  We can request a refund by calling them. 

Time to plan another cruise. 

[jcpc]

@Upper Deck Dad Yes, I also just received the email plus an email from my travel agent.  We've already been discussing (there are 5 of us booked) what to do and I believe we have settled on which cruise we will be re-booking on.  Oh well.......so much for a nice 10-night cruise on MSC to Canada/N.E.!