F1guynz

I am glad you got to enjoy your time down in this part of the world. 
We were only on a cruise 5 weeks ago, that seems like a lifetime ago. The virus was just something on the news in the background. Now we are locked down in our homes for the next 4 weeks trying to break the chain of infection.
i am working from home but really look forward to the day when I can return to the office.
We were also due to get married next month but have had to postpone the wedding until next year.
Stay healthy twangster and everyone else in our online community.
 

I assume the main reason you can’t transfer the fcc between brands is for accounting purposes. Even though RCI and Celebrity are owned by the same umbrella company I think they would each have their own accounting systems, P&L etc.
You could end up with a situation where you originally purchased your cruise with Celebrity but have now switched to Royal. In that scenario you would have to start keeping track of the FCC and where it ended up being redeemed and then doing inter-company transfers of payments.
Worst case you might have a whole lot of people switch to Royal but Celebrity having all the payments. Celebrity might then have a shortfall of cash. Unlikely I know but stranger things have happened.
It is probably far simpler to keep the FCC to the issuing brand. 

I assume the main reason you can’t transfer the fcc between brands is for accounting purposes. Even though RCI and Celebrity are owned by the same umbrella company I think they would each have their own accounting systems, P&L etc.
You could end up with a situation where you originally purchased your cruise with Celebrity but have now switched to Royal. In that scenario you would have to start keeping track of the FCC and where it ended up being redeemed and then doing inter-company transfers of payments.
Worst case you might have a whole lot of people switch to Royal but Celebrity having all the payments. Celebrity might then have a shortfall of cash. Unlikely I know but stranger things have happened.
It is probably far simpler to keep the FCC to the issuing brand. 

I assume the main reason you can’t transfer the fcc between brands is for accounting purposes. Even though RCI and Celebrity are owned by the same umbrella company I think they would each have their own accounting systems, P&L etc.
You could end up with a situation where you originally purchased your cruise with Celebrity but have now switched to Royal. In that scenario you would have to start keeping track of the FCC and where it ended up being redeemed and then doing inter-company transfers of payments.
Worst case you might have a whole lot of people switch to Royal but Celebrity having all the payments. Celebrity might then have a shortfall of cash. Unlikely I know but stranger things have happened.
It is probably far simpler to keep the FCC to the issuing brand. 

Airplanes, trains and buses don't have medical teams on them who are required to report illness on board.  Neither do grocery stores, churches, schools or sports stadiums.
It's difficult to track the movements of someone who flew domestically but stood in a line to get a coffee with someone who just got off a plane from China.  Three minutes in that line in close proximity they now touch the credit card machine right after that passenger from China and now they have it without even knowing.  Next they board a plane for a short flight within their country and by the time the plane lands 6 more are infected.  
On a cruise ship every visit to the medical center is logged and documented.  Upon arriving from being away a ship is asked about any health issues and they are required to report it.  A local ferry boat might see one infected person board and 20 minute later there are dozens of infected COVID-19 passengers but no one knows it so it goes unreported.   Some of those now go to church or school or a grocery store but no one knows so it goes unreported.
The fact is that community spread was occurring as passengers boarded cruise ships around the world but nobody knew it at the time.  Guests unknowingly brought it on board a cruise ship but they caught COVID-19 on land and introduced it to the ship - the ship didn't make the virus out of thin air.  At that same moment community spread was occurring at hundreds of social gatherings from school to church to bars to neighborhood card games but there is no way to capture that and document it like there is on a cruise ship.
The media can't report that which is undocumented yet we all now know was occurring.  It's unproven theory even though it's accepted within the scientific community.  Hard counts in documented reports from ship medical logs are facts that are easily picked up by the media.  "Seventeen guests with flu like symptoms" is a hard fact that a journalist can write an entire story around.  
Banning churches and school would be a hard sell for any free society to accept so they quietly get included in stay at home policies.  Calling out and banning a luxury vacation industry is an easier sell that makes it look like governments are doing something despite the fact that it doesn't really do anything at this point and those same stay at home policies already cover the cruise industry.

Sorry to hear you've had to reschedule the wedding but such is life in these crazy times.
Stay well and congratulations on your upcoming wedding!

I am glad you got to enjoy your time down in this part of the world. 
We were only on a cruise 5 weeks ago, that seems like a lifetime ago. The virus was just something on the news in the background. Now we are locked down in our homes for the next 4 weeks trying to break the chain of infection.
i am working from home but really look forward to the day when I can return to the office.
We were also due to get married next month but have had to postpone the wedding until next year.
Stay healthy twangster and everyone else in our online community.
 

I am glad you got to enjoy your time down in this part of the world. 
We were only on a cruise 5 weeks ago, that seems like a lifetime ago. The virus was just something on the news in the background. Now we are locked down in our homes for the next 4 weeks trying to break the chain of infection.
i am working from home but really look forward to the day when I can return to the office.
We were also due to get married next month but have had to postpone the wedding until next year.
Stay healthy twangster and everyone else in our online community.
 

I am glad you got to enjoy your time down in this part of the world. 
We were only on a cruise 5 weeks ago, that seems like a lifetime ago. The virus was just something on the news in the background. Now we are locked down in our homes for the next 4 weeks trying to break the chain of infection.
i am working from home but really look forward to the day when I can return to the office.
We were also due to get married next month but have had to postpone the wedding until next year.
Stay healthy twangster and everyone else in our online community.
 

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-04-04/nsw-police-largest-maritime-operation-over-cruise-coronavirus/12122030

I have attached a link to an update from Carnival Australia regarding the state of the industry in Australia and the demonising of the cruise business there.
i think it is just as applicable to RCI as the world goes into panic mode and seeks to find someone to blame. Earlier this week P&O Explorer whose home port is Sydney was ordered out of harbour even without any cases of Covid-19 ever being reported on the ship.
i don’t see the cruise season down under restarting until at least the end of 2021.
I think RCI will postpone their plans for Lelepa until a future date.
i also think they will delay the construction of Icon class ships because in the present climate, they will have too many ships for the number of destinations they will be able to serve.
I hope we can get back to some sense of normality in the near future as I just want to go for a cruise.
 
 

Pacific Explorer expelled from its home port.
https://www.news.com.au/travel/travel-updates/health-safety/carnival-cruises-boss-slams-decision-to-force-pacific-explorer-ship-off-shores/news-story/c432abd92c774a03db15490128be5253
 
 
 

Why must you knock before opening the refrigerator door ?
 
Because you wouldn’t want to catch the salad, dressing.
 
ba-dump-bump

Cruise Sale finder were the company we booked with on her first cruise all those years ago. They are now closing their doors due to the impact of Covid-19 on their business.
They offered a great service and I am sorry to see them go.
I feel we won’t see a cruise season down here until 2021/2022 due to a variety of factors.
1) New Zealand’s strategy with Covid-19 is to eliminate from our country which is why we are in lock down presently. If we are successful then our borders will maintain tight control to prevent a reoccurrence, which will likely include 14 days self isolation. This would effectively prevent ships from coming to NZ. I feel Australia will have a similar strategy and so too the Pacific Islands which do not have any any active cases of Covid-19.
2) There is a lot of animosity to towards the cruise ships in Sydney, mainly due to the government failing to prevent passengers disembarking from the Ruby Princess on arrival to Sydney. Even though there were cases of Covid-19 on board these passengers were allowed to disembark and head off all over Sydney and the rest of the world. These passengers were inadvertently responsible for the fast spread of Covid-19 in Sydney and around the world. There are now over 640 cases attributable to the Ruby Princess and health officials are now readying for the next next wave of cases due to the contacts with this group. 
3)   I constantly hear people refer to cruise ships as “floating Petri dishes” so I suspect people will very reluctant to cruise for a while yet.
We have a B2B on Ovation scheduled for November this year but unfortunately I think it will be cancelled at some point in the future.
These are difficult times but I do look forward to day when we can all get back to doing the thing we love, cruising.
 

Cruise Sale finder were the company we booked with on her first cruise all those years ago. They are now closing their doors due to the impact of Covid-19 on their business.
They offered a great service and I am sorry to see them go.
I feel we won’t see a cruise season down here until 2021/2022 due to a variety of factors.
1) New Zealand’s strategy with Covid-19 is to eliminate from our country which is why we are in lock down presently. If we are successful then our borders will maintain tight control to prevent a reoccurrence, which will likely include 14 days self isolation. This would effectively prevent ships from coming to NZ. I feel Australia will have a similar strategy and so too the Pacific Islands which do not have any any active cases of Covid-19.
2) There is a lot of animosity to towards the cruise ships in Sydney, mainly due to the government failing to prevent passengers disembarking from the Ruby Princess on arrival to Sydney. Even though there were cases of Covid-19 on board these passengers were allowed to disembark and head off all over Sydney and the rest of the world. These passengers were inadvertently responsible for the fast spread of Covid-19 in Sydney and around the world. There are now over 640 cases attributable to the Ruby Princess and health officials are now readying for the next next wave of cases due to the contacts with this group. 
3)   I constantly hear people refer to cruise ships as “floating Petri dishes” so I suspect people will very reluctant to cruise for a while yet.
We have a B2B on Ovation scheduled for November this year but unfortunately I think it will be cancelled at some point in the future.
These are difficult times but I do look forward to day when we can all get back to doing the thing we love, cruising.
 

The other issue I see is that when cruising does resume a lot of people will be booking/paying using FCC which won’t help with cash flow.
just to be on the safe side we took the cash refund instead of 125% fcc. I don’t expect Royal to go bankrupt but I would rather have the money sitting in my bank account rather than an a FCC sitting in theirs which could become worthless in a worst case scenario, especially if it is worth thousands of dollars.
 

Currently our cruise is not cancelled as we are sailing from Sydney. If it was cancelled I think we would opt for the full refund over the FCC.
My main reason behind this thinking is if the cruise industry is impacted for an extended period bankruptcy may become a consideration (I think RCI are more than capable of weathering this storm so I think it unlikely)  and if that happens an FCC could become worthless. Better to have the money in the bank at the end of day.

FCC are issued at a later date after you cancelled. Our last one took 1 month to be issued.
You cannot use a FCC as a deposit for another cruise so you will have to put down another deposit and you can then use the FCC against the remaining balance of your cruise. If the FCC exceeds the total cost of the new cruise you will be issued a new FCC for the remaining amount.

Currently our cruise is not cancelled as we are sailing from Sydney. If it was cancelled I think we would opt for the full refund over the FCC.
My main reason behind this thinking is if the cruise industry is impacted for an extended period bankruptcy may become a consideration (I think RCI are more than capable of weathering this storm so I think it unlikely)  and if that happens an FCC could become worthless. Better to have the money in the bank at the end of day.

You won’t lose your deposit. You will either get a fcc or potentially a full refund. 

When Royal cancelled our Hong Kong to Japan cruise they offered the following options:
1) Rebook a cruise from a short list of price protected sailings of Royal's choice
2) Rebook on any other cruise of our choice with either $100 or $200 (Suite) OBC 
3) Cancel the cruise for a refund to the original purchase account.
 

When Royal cancelled our Hong Kong to Japan cruise they offered the following options:
1) Rebook a cruise from a short list of price protected sailings of Royal's choice
2) Rebook on any other cruise of our choice with either $100 or $200 (Suite) OBC 
3) Cancel the cruise for a refund to the original purchase account.
 

I understand Royal has now updated their T&Cs for Cruise With Confidence so that you can longer use the FCC to book the same cruise at a lower price.

Not all sailing are eligible for Royal upgrade bids.
Our last Voyager sailing did not have any Royal Up offer but our next one at the end of the month on her does.

Come cruise Australia and New Zealand and the South Pacific  There is no smoking in the casino on the ships here.

Come cruise Australia and New Zealand and the South Pacific  There is no smoking in the casino on the ships here.