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Future Cruise Credits?


elizbit

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Just got the unfortunate news that our Boston to Bermuda cruise on Serenade next week has been shortened by a day due to Dorian's effects on the arrival of Serenade's Transatlantic crossing. We are being offered a 1 day future cruise credit for the inconvenience. Needless to say we are less than thrilled about the change of plans, especially considering it brings our 2 days in Bermuda down to one.

Can anyone with experience with FCCs give a quick explanation of how they work? How soon will this be granted? Will it show up on my royal caribbean account or do you have to jump through hoops to use it? Will this FCC include the cost of one day worth of packages that I had booked (drinks, voom, dining)?

 

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Typically they are emailed within a week or two.  They can be applied towards the cruise fare on another future cruise.   They can't be spent in the cruise planner for other purchases.

They typically expire in one year, meaning the future cruise must be depart within a year of issue.  

Every guest will get an FCC and they are named to each guest and not transferable.  

They can't be used to pay ports fees or taxes.

Let's say you are looking at or have booked a cruise where the base fare is $750 each plus $125 taxes and port fees each. The cruise therefore costs $750 + $125 x 2 for two people = $1,750.  You paid $500 deposit so your remaining balance is $1,750 - $500 = $1,250. 

Now you get an FCC.

You both get some amount based on what you paid for the impacted cruise, let's say it's $100 for this example.  Assuming you are both booked on this fictitious example cruise the base fare is lowered by $100 each $750 - $100 = $650pp.  $650 + $125 taxes x 2 =  $1,550.  You paid $500 deposit so your remaining balance is $1,550 - $500 = $1,050.

If you have a future cruise that is paid in full when you apply an FCC you will get a credit card refund because you have now technically overpaid.

 

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1 hour ago, twangster said:

 

They typically expire in one year, meaning the future cruise must be depart within a year of issue.  

 

 

Ah, that is unfortunate. I was hoping it would just need to be applied to a cruise by then, not depart by then. 

Because of the BOGO nonsense, according to royal my mother paid much more for our last cruise then my son. So her FCC is for much more then him. In reality, I split the cost 50/50 with her. 

And she is not going on our April cruise, so we can’t use it there.  She is traveling elsewhere that week.

And we were planning on a land trip to Paris for next summer.  Not a cruise. 

I guess we may just end up losing the credit. 

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I should also point out that FCC can not be used to pay the deposit of a new booking.  

FCC has to be applied to a booked cruise even if they apply it at the same time you create the booking.  A cruise booking doesn't exist until the deposit has been paid. 

Trying to use FCC to pay the deposit is like putting the cart in front of the horse, it doesn't work.

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  • 6 months later...
On 9/6/2019 at 3:49 PM, twangster said:

 

If you have a future cruise that is paid in full when you apply an FCC you will get a credit card refund because you have now technically overpaid.

 

So in this scenario, let's say the cruise is booked as refundable and its before final payment. I pay 1000 for cruise and its paid in full. I apply a $500 FCC which is then refunded to my Credit Card. Later I cancel the cruise before final payment (refundable deposit) do I get back $1000 on my Credit card?

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6 hours ago, MoniMommy said:

So in this scenario, let's say the cruise is booked as refundable and its before final payment. I pay 1000 for cruise and its paid in full. I apply a $500 FCC which is then refunded to my Credit Card. Later I cancel the cruise before final payment (refundable deposit) do I get back $1000 on my Credit card?

If you have FCC applied to a cruise that you end up cancelling the normal process is for the FCC to be reissued with the original date.  

In this scenario you would get a $500 refund and a $500 FCC so you would be whole and have your $500 FCC available for another cruise as if you had never booked the cruise you cancelled.  

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22 minutes ago, twangster said:

If you have FCC applied to a cruise that you end up cancelling the normal process is for the FCC to be reissued with the original date.  

In this scenario you would get a $500 refund and a $500 FCC so you would be whole and have your $500 FCC available for another cruise as if you had never booked the cruise you cancelled.  

What do you think about this?

 I may be cancelling my May 10 2020 cruise because I planned to travel with my 81 year old mother with a hear condition and diabetes. Dont want her to take unnecessary risk.  

My understanding is that we will each get 2 FCCs even though I paid for everything.  The 2 kids get none as they sailed under kids sail free. These credits are non transferable. So let's say I cruise again with my kids under 12 and she decides not to go, can she just be a no show and we keep the value of her FCC on the reservation?

We always sail during kids sail free. So the price for 1 adult and 2 kids is the same as 2 adults and 2 kids. The only extra is port fee/tax which will be refunded in the case of a no show.

Thanks in advance for any knowledge you can share.

 

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1 hour ago, MoniMommy said:

What do you think about this?

 I may be cancelling my May 10 2020 cruise because I planned to travel with my 81 year old mother with a hear condition and diabetes. Dont want her to take unnecessary risk.  

My understanding is that we will each get 2 FCCs even though I paid for everything.  The 2 kids get none as they sailed under kids sail free. These credits are non transferable. So let's say I cruise again with my kids under 12 and she decides not to go, can she just be a no show and we keep the value of her FCC on the reservation?

We always sail during kids sail free. So the price for 1 adult and 2 kids is the same as 2 adults and 2 kids. The only extra is port fee/tax which will be refunded in the case of a no show.

Thanks in advance for any knowledge you can share.

 

Yes, having her be a no show is one option that can maximize your value.   I've never tried it with FCC involved for the no show guest so I have no direct experience with that option.

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On 9/6/2019 at 5:13 PM, karl_nj said:

Ah, that is unfortunate. I was hoping it would just need to be applied to a cruise by then, not depart by then. 

 

The "Cruise with Confidence" plan updated just a couple of days ago in response to the coronavirus emergency states (as I was given to understand) that the cruise using FCC must be booked within a year, but can be departing anytime before 12/31/2021. I have cancelled my cruise in April because I am a risk (82 with COPD) and I plan to book a new cruise for next year ASAP. Which means I need to stay alive another year.

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59 minutes ago, tiny blonde said:

The "Cruise with Confidence" plan updated just a couple of days ago in response to the coronavirus emergency states (as I was given to understand) that the cruise using FCC must be booked within a year, but can be departing anytime before 12/31/2021. I have cancelled my cruise in April because I am a risk (82 with COPD) and I plan to book a new cruise for next year ASAP. Which means I need to stay alive another year.

Yeah, this thread was back from last fall, when there were some cancellations due to hurricanes.  Nice to see that for the Covid-19 situation, the FCC has a longer validity.

I wonder what will happen if they cancel (or I need to cancel) my August 2020 cruise out of Rome.  I used the FCC I received back in September 2019 towards this cruise.  It expires September 2020.  Under normal circumstances, I think they would just re-credit back to the original FCC, with the original expiration date.  So I might end up losing that FCC, even if they extend the "Cruise with Confidence" past July 2020.

In any case, too early to worry about that for now, August is many months away, and I don't need to make final payment on that cruise until May.

Haven't yet decided what to do about my April cruise.  None of us going on that cruise are in a high risk category.

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6 hours ago, tiny blonde said:

The "Cruise with Confidence" plan updated just a couple of days ago in response to the coronavirus emergency states (as I was given to understand) that the cruise using FCC must be booked within a year, but can be departing anytime before 12/31/2021. I have cancelled my cruise in April because I am a risk (82 with COPD) and I plan to book a new cruise for next year ASAP. Which means I need to stay alive another year.

I too have a cruise in April and plan to cancel as soon as I can get a few things figured out. My husband is in the risk group(75 with IPF) and our doctor says he cannot travel although he is not having any difficulties at this time. We have insurance through RCCL and plan on filing a claim but I wonder if you thought about that yourself? Do you have insurance? With the new CDC warning today, I am not sure we will ever be able to cruise comfortably again.

Has anyone had a similar experience using the RCCL insurance?

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