Shari

So sorry you had to cancel the greenland iceland cruise.  I am glad that you were able to get all of your money back. 
 

After reading the summary of the EU recommendations, in particular that cruises be limited to 4-7 night sailings for some unspecified initial time, with no indication when that "initial time" will actually start...
And after seeing that the US is officially excluded from all travel to the EU for the foreseeable future, most likely extending well into 2021 at the rate we're going...
And after thinking about a realistic timeline for a vaccine, and concluding that it isn't realistically happening until the spring of 2021 at the very earliest...
I've decided that I'm just canceling my 2021 Iceland and Greenland cruise, and that it won't be replaced with anything. I no longer have any faith that there will be a solution in anything less than a year, probably two. And not to be morbid, but that's assuming I'm still alive then and haven't caught this disease that will be a lot worse for me (as an asthmatic) than many. (I've confirmed I'm antibody-negative, after thinking I caught it earlier in the year)
And I'm not going to leave my money tied to hope when there's a non-zero risk of the company that hope is tied to going bankrupt and forcing me into some FCC deal I may not want. Or be able to take advantage of if I'm... y'know... not here any more to enjoy it.
I can't begin to say how angry I am, or how demoralized this makes me.

So my Iceland & Greenland cruise is officially canceled now, and I learned something very important that I wanted to share here. It appears that if you cancel a cruise that has been Lift & Shifted and you were past final payment when you did the Lift & Shift, you will be assessed the standard cancellation penalty that applied at the time the Lift & Shift was booked. That is, if you were in the first 15 days past final payment when you did the L&S, you would then be assessed a 25% cancellation penalty if you then cancel the sailing; doing the L&S between 15 and 30 days after final payment would mean a 50% penalty; etc.
I was utterly unaware of this when I did the L&S, as was my TA at the time. I even had him call Celebrity before doing the L&S, just to confirm the cruise was still cancelable and to see if there was any problem with the fact I was already past final payment on the original booking. The Celebrity rep that he spoke with assured him the cruise could be canceled and said nothing at all about penalties. (likely because he hadn't yet gotten that particular memo)
Now, I got really lucky. Because I did have my TA call Celebrity beforehand, and he was not informed of the penalty by their rep and had documented that person's response, he was able to call them and speak to a senior supervisor to get all penalties waived for my particular cancellation. I will actually be getting back 100% of my fully-paid-for cruise (after 60-75 days ?), for which I'm incredibly relieved. Otherwise I'd have had to take the FCC option to keep everything that had been paid, and had my money locked up with Celebrity for who knows how long before cruising actually resumes in any meaningful way.
Please make a note of this if you have already done an L&S on a cruise you had. If you have an upcoming cruise that hasn't been shifted out, you have any doubts about whether it will actually sail, and you think you would rather L&S to the following year to be safe, do it before final payment if at all possible. That should ensure you can also get a 100% refund with no questions asked, although I would still advise to have your TA get that in writing / direct from a rep in some way in case they try to finagle a way to keep some of your money.

As an update, the 20 day timeline after itemized statement receipt, worked out for us. We received our cruise planner refund in full on Wednesday. I hope everyone else will get theirs soon and that we can all go back to enjoying the best vacations ever on-board RCCL in the very near future!
Stan

My wife and I do this.

As much as we want to sleep in on vacation, it's hard to readjust our body clocks.  We go out, try to find a cup of coffee somewhere, and explore.  We end with watching the sunrise.

I did a B2B once where I was the only guest on the ship for roughly 6 hours.  
Weather closed the port in Long Beach so we ended cruise #1 in San Diego.  They used buses to take everyone to Long Beach then used the same buses to bring guests for cruise #2 down to San Diego.  Since I was the only B2B guest I became the only guest on the ship for hours.
At first it was kind of cool.  I could go anywhere with zero crowds.  I did run into some crew who were sun tanning or mini-golfing but they were few and far between.  After a few hours it became weird.  Some lights in interior hallways were off, the buffet was closed, the ship didn't have the same vibe.  It felt like the ship was sleeping.  
Eventually as the buses arrived and guests started trickling on board it was like the ship woke up, like watching an old sleeping dog awake when it's master comes home.  Bars started to open, music began playing, the ship came to life.  Weird.

Seems like some Royal crew are happy with the company's efforts.
 

 

I disagree that RC isn't trying or isn't communicating it.
The issue is the main stream media rarely, if ever, reports on it. They are quick to post a "disgruntled" cook's FB post as evidence of a vast conspriracy against the crew, but when the CEO of the cruise line says they repatriated 10k and working on the 20k remaining, zero mention by the media.
The result is the public (you/I) don't see the concerted effort going on. Nevermind the massive hurdles they face by insanely difficult government restrictions to get people home that has created a legal quagmire.
Unfortunately we live in a word of headlines, with few bothering to read the article.

Our cruise was canceled for the April 18th sailing.    We opted for the FCC.  The first FCC we were credited was incorrect.  It was over $5000 short!  I contacted RCL and they said they would have it corrected within 2 day.  The next FCC was was even funnier, it was for $344!  I contacted RCL again, and asked to speak to a supervisor,  who told me that I was wrong and did not know how to do the math.  I sternly informed her that she had no business speaking to me that way and that I had my previous cruise statement in front of me, and explained to her how to do the math.  She then stated that she would have the third FCC correctly sent to me by May 16.  I'm still waiting!  I'm sending them a letter today, as we're rebooked for a cruise in September and the final payment is due at the end of the month.  I understand that this is a crazy situation, as I'm a healthcare worker, however they need to provide refunds and FCC correctly and in a timely manner.

Thank you for the info Shari. I'll continue to be patient and hope our timeline is similar then.
Stan

We're well past the 20 day point for our cruise planner refund notices with no $$ in sight. There is a great deal of inconsistency with the process.
And the May 6 email indicating that our cruise price refunds should be expected by the end of last week? Smoke and mirrors - haven't received anything. Again - inconsistency.

We got the last of our refund this morning.  We have received all of it including on board and shore excursions.  It only took a total of 52 days from the time that our cruise was cancelled.

We got the last of our refund this morning.  We have received all of it including on board and shore excursions.  It only took a total of 52 days from the time that our cruise was cancelled.

We got the last of our refund this morning.  We have received all of it including on board and shore excursions.  It only took a total of 52 days from the time that our cruise was cancelled.

We received our refund today. It appeared in 7 payments. Not sure how it was broken down but the total was equal to amount paid out including excursions, taxes and fees. So glad I don't have to keep looking at my bank account. This was going to be my second cruise with RC and I really didn't now how refunds worked. The cruise was suppose to take place on Freedom of the Seas this past Sunday. We were actually suppose to be on our cruise now. I received several emails from guest experience letting me know when to expect my refund. I never called because I didn't want to stay on the line for hours. My only action was to seek a refund via the website the day after my cruise was cancelled. I received my cruise planner cancellation on April 24th. a "We're sorry" update on April 29th, and a final email on May 6 letting me know my refund was being processed and I would get the funds this week. One thing I did notice was that while the refund was processed on 5/10 it didn't show up until today. Perhaps it was my bank taking the extra time to process it. Thanks to all of you on this blog for your comments. It helped me keep my cool just knowing how others were being affected and how people were willing to wait a while before complaining. Hopefully, all will get their credits or refunds before long!

Refund (£7k+) from our Jewel of the Seas B2B March 16 and March 23 cruises posted to my credit card account yesterday. Very happy about that. ??
Hopefully the credit card company can arrange to transfer it back into our bank account. ?

Only if we pass each other in the terminal. I still want to try and get to Ireland after the trip, so I'm going to be spending the next several months looking at transportation options from Southampton to Dublin. A quick look at Apple Maps tells me it's a nearly 9-hour land trip, first by car to Holyhead in Wales, then a ferry ride to Dublin; guessing that we'd have to look at some kind of flight to keep the timing reasonable.

We got our refund today.  Well most of it.  The way they sent it to the credit card company make no sense at all. The only amount that matches anything is taxes and fees and that amount showed up 6 times.  Very weird.  We are missing about $650 out of $8800 so I guess I will finally have to call to find out what is going on.

We got our refund today.  Well most of it.  The way they sent it to the credit card company make no sense at all. The only amount that matches anything is taxes and fees and that amount showed up 6 times.  Very weird.  We are missing about $650 out of $8800 so I guess I will finally have to call to find out what is going on.

We will be on the return cruise starting August 15, 2021.  See you in Southampton (maybe).

Yup, L&S to Aug 1, 2021. Strictly speaking, not done yet -- my TA still hasn't sent me the updated invoice and I also don't see the update on Celebrity. But I have told him that I definitely want to do it, and I'm assuming it's just a matter of him (or his staff) getting through to Celebrity around ridiculous call times and making it happen. But I'm confident it will be done before Royal announces a cancellation of cruises past July 31.

I received this email last night I will update if I get my refund for my 4 May cruise that got cancelled.  At this point I have not received any refund for the cruise including shore excursions, taxes, fees, or gratuities.
 

Received the same email for our cancelled April 4th cruise from my TA yesterday. Checked my credit card this morning and the refund (most of it) is there! There were 2 deposits - one for the fare and a separate one for taxes, fees & port expenses. The refund on the fare is $39.40 less than what I paid. Also there's no refund (yet) for Royal's Vacation Protection Plan for which I paid $397. I'll be inquiring about this with my TA. At least this is some good news.

Received the same email today for our cancelled March 23 cruise on Jewel of the Seas. We had booked B2B cruises on Jewel for March 16 and March 23, both cancelled by RCCL mid March. Refund for March 16 cruise came through about a month ago but my travel agent held on to it waiting on the other refund coming through.  Got the call from my TA yesterday to make the full refund to my credit card. Happy days; glad this is over and my money is now safe. ?

I received this email last night I will update if I get my refund for my 4 May cruise that got cancelled.  At this point I have not received any refund for the cruise including shore excursions, taxes, fees, or gratuities.