Dad2Cue

48 minutes ago, SteveinSC said:

Well, depends on where you are. Our numbers are mostly coming from Charleston, Greenville-Spartanburg, and Myrtle Beach (in that order). Where i live (just across the border south of Charlotte, NC)....not so bad. Y'all c'mon down!!!! In January you can have days where its either 65 and sunny, or 32 and freezing rain. Roll the dice! lol 

I was thinking of driving to Charlotte, NC because of getting a nonstop flight to San Juan, PR just in case my scheduled cruise happens in January.  My back-up plan would be a visit to my sister.  She lives in the Orangeburg area.  A warm day in January here would be 32 degrees because some of the snow might melt.

18 hours ago, ellcee said:

I don't know when travel will be okay or when I'll feel safe. Now I need ideas for when it gets cold because it looks like I'll be home til at least January.

55 minutes ago, SteveinSC said:

@SteveinSC My sister lives in South Carolina so maybe it is time to visit her.   In January, SC should be warmer than here.  Unfortunately, last I checked SC is covid bright red and my state is only pink.

I like the company.  The covid environment is what worries me.  I don't see the earnings side of the P/E ratio improving anytime soon unless an effective vaccine emerges.  I personally don't want to contribute anymore to their earnings until something changes.  My bet is that many people feel that way.  My other concern is that the product is going to change and I'm not sure how well I will like it when it does.  I'm probably the average loyal guy --- it may just depend on how well I extrapolate to the rest of their customers --- not just their loyal customers. 

For me, it is more about whether my FCC will be worthless or not.  Royal is giving out too many IOUs --- sad but true.

10 hours ago, crisgold52 said:

Why you ask? The cruise fare is zeroed out entirely by a Global Suspension FCC so even after I make my final payment (taxes only) - I can still 'cancel' and move my FCC over to my February booking which costs less than my November booking tax wise... so I still get about $10 in refunds back. I can also do a FUNDS MAINTENANCE TRANSFER of TAXES after final payment between my November and February bookings or I can simply change the ship and sail date from November to April (which I actually might do as so to create a 'new backup'). Seeing as its a 'zero dollar fare' I can make any changes I want after final payment without a penalty so I am in a bit of what one would call 'a sweet spot'.

That is the situation I currently have.  I got a Cruise with Confidence FCC back in April 2020.  It is interesting that there are 2 kinds of FCCs.  At first I applied my FCC to a cruise this Nov 2020 that was booked refundable.  The cruise in Nov is looking doubtful so I was able to "reschedule" and made it an Alaska cruise in Aug 2021.  I put the FCC way into the future so I wouldn't have to mess with it for awhile.

Now we have 2 other cruises booked before the Alaska cruise in August.   We also have 1 cruise for Jan 2022. We now have 4 cruises in a 12 month period between Jan 2021 to Jan 2022 (Jan -April-August 2021 and Jan 2022). That is much more than the 1 maybe 2 cruises per year that we usually do.

The FCC is fine where it is on the August Alaska cruise but I'm worried about getting more FCC's before I use up the first FCC.  I dislike booking a cruise but only getting FCCs in return.  I don't mind calling RC but only if I know exactly what I want to do. When the final payment date approaches, the decisions get really tough. I don't like juggling FCC's either.

6 hours ago, crisgold52 said:

Again OFFICIALLY THIS is not allowed however as I've always said anything can be done internally one just has to find the correct person willing to bend the rules. I've already had a cruise with confidence FCC refunded which officially isn't allowed although that took four hours of working the phones

@crisgold52 This may be a rookie question.  Under what circumstances was this done?  For example:

• booked refundable or non-refundable 
• deposit only before final payment date or after final payment date and deposit + additional payment all refunded
• you cancelled cruise or royal cancelled cruise

There seems to be so many different scenarios and I'm never sure what happens in each case.  In general, I would always rather receive a refund and not a FCC.  It is always a difficult decision when final payment date approaches.  Should I cancel before the final payment date and take a FCC for the deposit amount since the deposit is nonrefundable??  Should I go ahead and make the final payment and hope Royal cancels the cruise and request a refund??  Worst case seems like if I make the final payment and then I decide to cancel such that I get a large FCC that I may never use.

6 minutes ago, RCIfan1912 said:

Very interesting, thank you for the info. Appreciate that, maybe that will be our plan, to just show up and ask. We are only 3, 2 adults, 1 kid/8 at the time of sailing, if we sail.

Again thank you for the info, very interesting. 

I have just walked up and asked about making a reservation later in the evening or later in the week.  Then I ask where is a good place to have lunch.  The Head waiter has said, "if you are interested in lunch we currently have a special for 50% off."  I think it might depend on how busy it is but I have never seen it too busy on embarkation day for lunch.

1 hour ago, mickjacket said:

Looking at Oasis for April or May of 21. There is a $500 difference in the balcony price if I pick cabin or get guaranteed cabin. Anyone ever had great results or horror stories using guaranteed?

I have never done guaranteed but I've mostly heard about good results.  The $500 would be very tempting to try a guaranteed cabin but I'm sure it is a gamble.  I have always liked the cabins I have picked but I have an upgrade tendency that is hard to reverse.  

I have heard that people have had upgrades when purchasing a guaranteed cabin.  The guarantee is that the cabin level will be no lower.

I have also heard of obstructed views.

41 minutes ago, Yo2slick said:

We have a cruise booked for April 2021 and was wondering if you can lift and shift for next years cruises?  We would rather move it to 2022 and let this stuff blow over.

I just did a lift and shift for a Jan 2021 cruise to a Jan 2022 cruise.  April 2021 to April 2022 may not work because even January was a gray area.  I kept another booking for Jan 2021 but as things get closer to the final payment date, I may L&S  that cruise too.  That way I will do a back 2 back in 2022 if need be.  Hopefully the L&S rules will be extended past the August deadline.

The cruise fare for the 2021 cruise was much less than the same cruise in 2022.  A L&S is definitely something to consider because it saves a lot of worry and the price protection feature is great.

8 minutes ago, SpeedNoodles said:

You may not be going far enough in the process to see it?

What new format are we talking about?  I'm using a chromebook and the web site seems the same to me.

2 hours ago, crisgold52 said:

Just a personal anecdote. With the amount of refunds and in some cases EXTRA funds being disbursed by accounting in theory a cruise with confidence certificate is refundable. I know this as RSS has advised it's all based on circumstances and depending who you get on the line... refunding basically anything is possible. OF course the RCL agent has to follow the guidelines but in some cases they can be waived. Again it's all circumstantial but at this point anything is possible with RCL depending who you get on the phone of course it does take a lot of effort though and it doesn't always work the first time so patience is key when negotiating. But RCL does try to satisfy its directly booked guests. I know personally since I have already had several exceptions made for my sailing.

I agree that they try to make things right.  It would be interesting to know if travel agents would agree also.  They must have a tough job being the person in the middle.  

I haven't had any extra refunds being dispersed.  However,  I have on several occasions done an online mock booking in order to know exactly what the final cost should be.  When I call in to make the reservation, I get quoted an amount that can be several hundred dollars less than I anticipate.  Usually the discrepancy is that taxes and fees are less than what is listed online.  I always get a bit nervous about doing a reprice later on because I think they will correct the "error".  Oddly, they always keep the same amount for taxes and fees no matter how many times I reprice.

Just the fact that they do a reprice says something.  Also, those 30% and 60% discounts seem to be overly generous.  I can never figure out how they calculate those!

2 hours ago, sk8erguy1978 said:

Yup! Took an act of congress to get my added upgrades with United Airlines refunded. Finally got the last $11.20 USD for two "September 11th Security Fee" for a two tickets booked with miles. I cancelled those flights back in late April.

I did cancel some cruise planner purchases on June 6th and June 20th and received those refunds around the end of June.

Don't get me started on United Airlines.  I cancelled our flights back in April along with our cruise.  United made absolutely no effort to refund anything.  They simply directed me to their website to request a refund.  In order to request a refund "I had to cancel the flight first" and then request the refund.  The very instant that I cancelled a future flight credit was generated.  Then the refund request was denied because they claimed that I cancelled the flight.  I could somewhat understand except they were making daily changes to my flight that resulted in five connecting flights and tripling the time to reach my destination. United maintained there wasn't a "significant disruption" to my original itinerary even though some connections were impossible and one segment was cancelled. 

I'm in the final stages of a credit card dispute and it seems certain my temporary credit will be finalized soon and I will have a full undisputed refund.  It took awhile but RC made everything right 2 months ago.  Given all the complaints about RC, I can only say the United Airlines makes RC look good.

53 minutes ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

You are right.  I should have said....if you cancel using CWC, you will receive a 100% FCC on the cruise fare.  Taxes, port fees and gratuities will be refunded to the original form of payment.  If you received 25% of your cruise fare as cash, then that's the first I've heard of that !!

I don't know if this is related or not.  It seems as if everything depends on whether it is booked "refundable" or "non-refundable".  Then it just depends on if you cancel BEFORE the final payment date or AFTER the final payment date.  This seems to create four entirely different scenarios so I never know for sure what happens in each case.

To make it even more complicated. What if you book as a non-refundable DEPOSIT but pay everything in full before the final payment date.  If you cancel before the final payment date---do you get a FCC for the deposit and does the additional money get refunded???

It is enough to make my head explode.  

40 minutes ago, JLMoran said:

To put it bluntly, I have zero confidence that cruising is going to resume in any meaningful way before mid-2021 at the earliest, and "boutique" cruises (which is the type I was trying to do for this particular trip) are IMO done until 2022. I refuse to keep over $10,000 of my money tied up with a company for years as a zero-interest loan to them when it can go to other uses that I need it for here and now, rather than drawing on home equity or otherwise putting myself in debt.

I'm the same but only $6,000 at risk spread between 4 different cruises between January 2021 to January 2022. Two of the cruises were supposed to happen in 2020.  I just hope, things are better in 2021.  Everything seems like a gamble these days.

38 minutes ago, crisgold52 said:

Its by far better at times to simply make a new booking entirely and do a FUNDS MAINTENANCE TRANSFER to transfer funds out of one sailing to another assuming its before final payment. This can be done AFTER final payment as well as long as you get an agent trained in this, normally it requires an RSS consult. Over payments as a result of an FCC applied can initiate an automatic refund of the difference, but only if the agent completing the transaction knows what their doing. Often times I have to coach them with a fine tooth comb in order to make sure everything is carried over.

I got the right person because they told me what I should do with the FCC. Everything worked out because the cruise that the FCC was applied to was refundable.  I have since "rescheduled" that cruise to August 2021.  There wasn't any L&S restrictions and I could "reschedule" to any ship, any time, and any itinerary.

I like the idea of a Funds Maintenance Transfer instead of FCCs.

1 hour ago, JLMoran said:

Here was my flow:

1. Booked original cruise for 2020
2. Made final payment in April of this year
3. Did a Lift & Shift to 2021 about 2 weeks later, in May, before it was officially canceled by Celebrity in late June (so I leveraged Cruise with Confidence, and I was in the 25% penalty bracket now if I had canceled instead of doing L&S)
4. Now in mid-July, I decided to completely cancel the L&S 2021 sailing and request a refund

So the way to think of this is even though the 2021 cruise had a completely new final payment date, for the purposes of the Lift & Shift the original 2020 cruise's cancellation penalty was "carried over"; it would apply to any cancellation request, up to and including 15 days after the new final payment date.

Why did you get a cash refund?  I cancelled a cruise after the final payment date and got a 100% FCC because of cruise with confidence rules.  Had I waited another week when Royal cancelled the cruise, I could have gotten a 100% CC refund.  I applied the FCC to another previously booked cruise that was paid in full and refundable.  Applying the FCC resulted in a large overpayment so that resulted in a CC refund.

37 minutes ago, RCIfan1912 said:

Confused like I said, confused. 

Your cruise was lifted and shifted which adds a whole new level of complexity to the equation.  I don't know the answer.  It was the reason I upgraded to a suite just to use my entire FCC because that seemed to simplify it somewhat. Plus, I'm excited about a suite since it will be an anniversary cruise.  If our January 2021 cruise and our April 2021 cruises happen we will be diamond level AND a suite for the August 2021 cruise.

I'm still perplexed by the lift and shift part.  I've got one of those too but that comes later.  It is hard to juggle four cruises in 2021.  However,  two of the cruises were supposed to be in 2020.

23 minutes ago, Ray said:

there are quarantine rules in place but not sure what happens if you fly in on day of cruise instead of a day or 2 before 

I was thinking of a military style parachute jump landing on the pool deck of the ship.  I did that a few times in Holland but never did land in the target area.

3 hours ago, Ian T said:

Nobody has mentioned European sailings... no takers for Anthem out of Southampton before she heads back to the U.S. in November?

Whilst the UK Foreign Commonwealth Office has just issued a general advice against cruising it is advisory only, so whilst it may well screw with travel insurance coverage it is not a strict "no sail" order. Also, they have not suggested a time period and the majority of the cruise bloggers from this side of the pond that I have been following seem confident that, provided the ongoing relaxation of the lockdown/travel rules does not result in a second wave, this advice will be amended in a matter or weeks rather than months... I am booked on Anthem for an Oct sailing so REALLY hope they are right!!

I was booked (not anymore) on the Allure TA on Nov 1st  from Barcelona to Miami.  Florida, in general, doesn't seem like they will be ready to go anytime soon. 

As for the Nov 1st Anthem TA from Southampton --- New York is looking better but I doubt they will welcome cruise ships anytime soon.  New York and New Jersey have mandatory 14 day quarantines for citizens coming from 26 states including my own state.  If I was on that ship, I would likely fly out of Newark going to London.   I wonder if I would face 14 day quarantines coming and going!  Perhaps a quarantine in the UK as well.

6 minutes ago, RCIfan1912 said:

Does it make any difference that we used FCC to move our cancelled May cruise to Sept which of course is now cancelled and we "Lift and shifted" that cruise to August 2021? Any special rules in a situation like that? I mean the August 2021 Oasis cruise is a "lift and shift" that was paid for with FCC. Yeah I'm dizzy 

I don't know exactly what happens in that case.  I suspect it is still in Royal's system but don't count on that.

32 minutes ago, RCIfan1912 said:

Thanks, its all a bit confusing. I guess I'll shoot off an email to John at MEI to see what the rules are or how this works. I really hate to bother him, its been such a pain in the butt for him and all TA's. 

I have never seen my FCC.  I'm not even sure what the expiration date is.   I have no physical evidence that it exists except that it was applied to my 2021 Alaska cruise and it made my cruise fare look really cheap.  Royal says it is in their system.  I suspect they want people to eventually forget about the FCC or accidentally let it expire.

27 minutes ago, RCIfan1912 said:

So when do we have to use it by? Do we have to choose a cruise before a certain date or just have it booked by a certain date? Gonna be looking at cruises in 2022 when the full schedule is released.

If you have applied the FCC to an August 2021 cruise you need to complete that cruise first.  Then the remainder of the FCC will be reissued which may take a couple of months.  Then, I think it just depends on what the expiration date of the reissued FCC will be.  The rules change all the time so you may need to wait until then to see what Royal decides what the expiration date will be ...probably though the end of 2022 would be my guess.  However, I agree with @WAAAYTOOO that it could revert to the original FCC expiration date.

33 minutes ago, RCIfan1912 said:

Oh man that policy kinda stinks.

Yes it does stink ... however,  I'm well into Suite Land  just so I can use all of the FCC on one cruise!  I just hope the Alaska 2021 cruise on Quantum happens.

9 hours ago, crisgold52 said:

Some would joke this is almost like a second job... but I like what I do, and being a faux travel agent to handle my own bookings is somewhat fun at times.

@crisgold52 I'm retired ... it has become my hobby to call Royal to see how FCCs work.  It isn't what I would call "transparent".  I wouldn't hold it against any travel agent if they don't understand it.

It is true what you say about the FCC being taken off in order to get the cruise repriced.  It can be done!!  I would add that you need to keep good records because once the FCC is applied, it is hard to tell if there was a price decrease. A FCC obliterates the actual pricing.  It would be nice if they itemized the FCC to show that it really exists instead of showing a super cheap cruise fare. 

1 hour ago, Jolly Ogre said:

Now instead of only 155 days I am at 513 days until sail date. uuuggghh!!

Do you have any other FCCs, refunds, credit card disputes, or future flight credits to keep you busy?

3 hours ago, Pooch said:

Stop!!!!  I’ve been closing my eyes & plugging my ears when you all talk about the larger ships.  So far we have happily stayed small (Majesty, Mariner, Rhapsody in Feb). How am I supposed to do that when you show me pictures like that?!?!!

@Pooch My first cruises were on Freedom class ships (all three) and then worked up to the larger Quantum and Oasis class ships.  All of them are very nice. 

Now when I see @Matt pictures below --- I think the smaller ships look very tempting.

33 minutes ago, Matt said:

Radiance Class has the best Solariums.

While I do think Quantum Class solariums are nice, the Radiance Class is perfect. Lots of glass, beautiful backdrop and good mix of space (plus it has Park Cafe inside!)