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To pay or not to pay - End OF August cruise


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Here is the issue and  also why I do not sleep that well lately :

We have  a cruise at 23-August from NJ on Oasis of the seas .
I believe there is something like 30% of chance that the cruise will go but since I need to fly international flight to get to the port  it might be more complicate (for sure if there will still be 14 days quarantine for anyone  who comes to the US and 14 days quarantine when I will come back home).
I have booked the cruise around February and it was under cruise with confidence (I had some confidence that August is far enough , I guess I was very wrong) so it can be canceled 48 hours before. The flights was also booked with United so I can change them if needed (they have some arrangement  of changing the flights without a cost), There is also a good chance the flight will not be canceled as until today they still flying almost daily between my location and EWR.

We both have an FCC from our canceled 8-April cruise  , but as you know as long as I did not use the FCC I can still ask for refund until the end of this year.

Final payment of the cruise is coming in the next  few days , if I will pay it will be with the FCC but that mean I will not be able to take refund and if something happens to RCL its bye bye money , I must tell you the fact I did not got back yet my tax/port fees for the cancels cruise is not adding to my confident.

I would use the Lift and shift but the cruise was booked with some Casino discounts (not that big but still) which pee Matt article are not entitle for L&S offer.

Oh , if I just had a cruise crystal ball   ?   What would you do ? 

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As you’re losing sleep (oh awesome sleep) I would probably Future Cruise Credit it and look for something down the line. Cruising out of NJ in August could be difficult all by its self. Between New Jersey and New York they are the epicenter for the US in regards to COVID numbers as they have the highest numbers in the US.  The chances of the cruise getting cancelled is probably high, but if waiting for more information is causing you mental anguish, it’s not worth the agony.  
 

I am getting ready to cancel my cruise in December 20. Not that I think it won’t go but because of the lack of unknowns involved and I don’t want to worry about itinerary changes...I worry a lot so I don’t want to have to care about it so I’ll move it to the next year. 
 

 

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26 minutes ago, VACruiser said:

but if waiting for more information is causing you mental anguish, it’s not worth the agony.

Its OK its only one of the things ?  I should add work related issues , the heat wave, the cat that think it should get food at 4 am and jumping on us just to make sure we are awake .    By the way since NJ and NY got the most infected people there is a good chance they will be also the first place that will show better results , but time will tell , as you said there is allot of risk there  

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@Traveler I have a similar dilemma involving international flights for a trans Atlantic cruise from Barcelona back to the USA on November 1st.  My decision day isn't for another 2 months so I'm not losing any sleep yet. However, I'm not very confident that everything will happen according to plan.  Even if it happens, I'm not so sure it will be worth the stress of going. 

Plan B involves a L&S for next year.

I'm still trying to figure out Plan C so I don't lose any money which is why I'm still hoping for Plan A or Plan B 

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2 hours ago, Traveler said:

By the way since NJ and NY got the most infected people there is a good chance they will be also the first place that will show better results , but time will tell , as you said there is allot of risk there  

My flights will be on United Airlines through EWR as well ... they are #1 and #2 on my list of concerns.  NYC isn't exactly known for good results even in the best of times.  In regard to refunds, United Airlines makes RCL look good.

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26 minutes ago, Dad2Cue said:

My flights will be on United Airlines through EWR as well ... they are #1 and #2 on my list of concerns.  NYC isn't exactly known for good results even in the best of times.  In regards to refunds, United Airlines makes RCL look good.

Apparently EWR worked during the peak of the outbreak  including United flights . I must say the crew are very brave. 

but I must agree with you , EWR in regular days is not the nicer airport to go through , endless security lines (even with TSA pre) , but I think there are worse airport even in the US . 

Well I hope everything will be OK with all the cruises/airport as soon as possible. 

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It's a hard choice to make and depends on what's more important to you; the chance to take the cruise or the peace of mind that comes from a certainty.

For me, I had to make the choice on my July 12th trip a little while ago.  Flights, hotel, excursions, drink package, etc were already done and the final payment was all that was left and I opted to cancel.  The stress of not knowing if we'd be sailing or not (95% not) didn't let me enjoy the lead up and planning for a trip like I usually do.  If I kept researching and planning on sailing then I'd just be extra disappointed if (when) the sailing was actually canceled, instead I decided to just focus on further out plans and making new ones.

It didn't hurt that I'd already had a few land based trips canceled as far out as September already.  Knowing that this cruise wasn't going to happen for sure let me destress a bit and I'm spending time thinking about December and February trips and figuring out what I can do in 2021.

Still does leave a little bit of a bad taste in my mouth though since it was planned for my 40th birthday, alas I guess pandemics take priority.

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I am in the same situation and had booked 5 cabins since it was my 60th birthday to Alaska from Vancouver. Moving the cruise to next year would not be worth it since some of the couples would not like to go on the cruise just because they have paid the advance. We have made alternative arrangements for my celebration hence some couples would not like to shift the cruise. Even if the cruise departs the experience would be rubbish with all the social distancing. Royal Caribbean should be honourable and refund the amount. The real customer experience is tested at such times to either win or lose customers. All companies make lofty statements on customer services but few keep up to it when the time comes up to test them

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50 minutes ago, joshgates said:

The stress of not knowing if we'd be sailing or not (95% not) didn't let me enjoy the lead up and planning for a trip like I usually do.  If I kept researching and planning on sailing then I'd just be extra disappointed if (when) the sailing was actually canceled, instead I decided to just focus on further out plans and making new ones.

I give my trans Atlantic cruise from Spain to the US on Nov 1st a 50/50 chance of happening.  I usually research and plan at least a year in advance and start booking flights, hotels and such about 6 months before.  All of that is on hold ... never mind the cruise itself.  At least I'm enjoying the book about Spain that I am presently reading while socially distancing.  Even if the cruise happens and we go, the mask and all the other changes might be a bummer. 

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We are booked on that Aug 23 Oasis trip and like the OP, our final payment date is coming up. We are waiting until the very last possible moment (which I believe is May 25th) to make a decision in consultation with our TA. We did non-refundable with NextCruise, so our deposit was only $100 ea (x2). And, unless I missed something, RC will give the deposit back as FCC minus $100 each, which ultimately means we net out at $0.

Health is our #1 consideration. But losing $200 is a tough thing to swallow for us: we are a penny-pinching-follow-the-monthly-budget type of couple! I get annoyed with myself when I forget to use a coupon at the register! Haha.

So you can only imagine our hesitation in taking the FCC and then RC goes out of business and then we lost out on even more than $200.

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5 hours ago, Traveler said:

We have  a cruise at 23-August from NJ on Oasis of the seas .

 

44 minutes ago, RockerDom31 said:

We are booked on that Aug 23 Oasis trip

Hey!  We're on the same cruise!

We are paying final payment, with the bulk of it coming from our FCCs from our cancelled March sailing.  Then we wait.  If we bail at the last minute, or if Royal cancels, I will take the new FCCs and apply it to SY next August.  Flights through Delta can be credited.  Going to pay and play it by ear.

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5 hours ago, Traveler said:

the cat that think it should get food at 4 am and jumping on us just to make sure we are awake

UGH! EVERYDAY! When we close the door, he jumps and bangs on the handle which is loud. If we are smart and lock the door, the bang can still be heard, but worse, the door handle is now ruined from his nails LOL! UGH again!

3 hours ago, Dad2Cue said:

United Airlines makes RCL look good

Ugh. I put in a refund request for over $600 dollars in upgrades I haven't had returned to me. I had to cancel since Vegas isn't open for Memorial Day Weekend and United switched our flight to something horrible. I did receive a travel voucher worth the base fare before paid upgrades. Fingers crossed they do the right thing.

As to your dilemma @Traveler it's a tough situation. I have a final payment approaching (June 22nd) for an Oasis sailing in September. It really depends what the next wave of official announcements have to say but luckily I have some time. The fact you cannot "lift & shift" makes it even more challenging. It seems your biggest concern is Royal Caribbean going under, and you losing the money. I personally don't see that, but could be wrong. Personally, I'd use the FCC as it's money I already spent and can "afford" to lose but also hope travel insurance would reimburse me if it was something like company went out of business. 

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3 hours ago, sk8erguy1978 said:

Ugh. I put in a refund request for over $600 dollars in upgrades I haven't had returned to me. I had to cancel since Vegas isn't open for Memorial Day Weekend and United switched our flight to something horrible. I did receive a travel voucher worth the base fair before paid upgrades. Fingers crossed they do the right thing.

We had a round trip one stop flight from London to home via Chicago with a modest layover.   United didn't cancel the flight but kept changing it and eventually I had 4 stops and I was flying all over the United States.  One of the connecting flights departed 2 hours before the preceding flight landed so I doubt it would have worked. When I called they just said I could reschedule it without a change fee but the flights weren't cancelled.  They also said that they couldn't "advise" me about what to do but commented that I had good price for my itinerary.  When I asked if I could just keep the return part the itinerary which was in October, they said NO but they would be happy to re-book a one-way flight and charge me double what the round trip cost.

Finally, they notified me that one of the segments on the return was cancelled but didn't give me the option of a refund.  When I cancelled on the website, the system kicked out a future flight credit.  It took me forever to find how to  "request" a refund for the upgraded seats and airfare.  It has been more than a month and the refund status button on the website still says "refund request pending. review."  I think they might be waiting for an Act of Congress to issue a refund but at least I got a future flight credit.  

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54 minutes ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

Hey!  We're on the same cruise!

They just increased the UDP from 175 to 200 $ and the water park/Beach club are doubled I do hope its a good sign as they will need to reduce the number of tickets / seats due to the new social distancing , maybe there is some hope. Please do not finish all the stakes at CK day 1 , we will be the one that waiting near the CK door hope that someone will open it and that we will have a table ?   

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33 minutes ago, Dad2Cue said:

We had a round trip one stop flight from London to home via Chicago with a modest layover.   United didn't cancel the flight but kept changing it and eventually I had 4 stops and I was flying all over the United States.  One of the connecting flights departed 2 hours before the flight that preceded it landed so I doubt it would have worked. When I called they just said I could reschedule it without a change fee but the flights weren't cancelled and said they couldn't "advise" me what to do.  When I asked if I could keep the return part the itinerary which was in October, they said no but would be happy to re-book a one-way flight and charge me double what the round trip cost.

Finally, they notified me that one of the segments on the return was cancelled but didn't give me the option of a refund.  When I cancelled on the website, the system kicked out a future flight credit.  It took me forever to find how to  "request" a refund for the upgraded seats and airfare.  It has been more than a month and the refund status button on the website still says "refund request pending."  I think they might be waiting for an act from Congress but at least I got a future flight credit.  

Wow. Our flight wasn't that bad. Just EWR to LAS and LAS to EWR  were switched to those with layovers and weren't excited about the times. Since we knew Vegas wouldn't be fun if they did open stuff up (which it seems they might be on a limited scale) we decided to cancel.

I purchased two, two (wife and I) one way tickets; one cash, one miles. Both I upgraded to economy plus at time of purchase.

Since cancelling, I have received the economy plus purchase from the miles ticket but haven't received the miles back into my account.

For the cash ticket, I upgraded to first (hey it was $269 each, why not!) and put in a request for the economy plus to be refunded. I received something like 4 emails saying non-refundable, etc, but somewhere along the line, one of the economy plus upgrades did get refunded. A week later (before I even had a chance to fight for the other economy plus refund) we canceled the flight. We received the base fare of the cash ticket as a future credit but nothing else. Since the miles ticket upgrades were refunded to my CC almost instantly, I put in the request for the one economy plus & the two first upgrades. It's been about 10 days, still waiting.

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2 hours ago, RockerDom31 said:

RC will give the deposit back as FCC minus $100 each, which ultimately means we net out at $0.

You should not lose anything.  IF you cancel, you are covered by Cruise With Confidence, and the deposit will be refunded to you in the form of a Future Cruise Credits (FCC) (1 for $100 for each of you).  If Royal cancels, you will get to choose whether you want a 100% refund or 125% FCC so either way, you will not lose any money.

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31 minutes ago, Traveler said:

They just increased the UDP from 175 to 200 $ and the water park/Beach club are doubled I do hope its a good sign as they will need to reduce the number of tickets / seats due to the new social distancing , maybe there is some hope. Please do not finish all the stakes at CK day 1 , we will be the one that waiting near the CK door hope that someone will open it and that we will have a table ?   

If by some crazy luck, we actually end up on this cruise, you come find me in the RLS, and I will ask our Genie to take you to CK with us for those steaks. Sitting with social distancing, of course. 

I am paying final payment, but I am not optimistic. Time will tell. 

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23 minutes ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

If by some crazy luck, we actually end up on this cruise, you come find me in the RLS, and I will ask our Genie to take you to CK with us for those steaks. Sitting with social distancing, of course. 

I am paying final payment, but I am not optimistic. Time will tell. 

Thanks , lets keep our fingers  cross , well still have one week to decide . and the best , I will feel OK not to blog ? , 

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4 hours ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

You should not lose anything.  IF you cancel, you are covered by Cruise With Confidence, and the deposit will be refunded to you in the form of a Future Cruise Credits (FCC) (1 for $100 for each of you).  If Royal cancels, you will get to choose whether you want a 100% refund or 125% FCC so either way, you will not lose any money.

Thanks for the clarification! Very good to know!

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If I was coming from anything more than a four hour flight away, I’d be moving the cruise. New York even more so. Governor Cuomo has already said he wants sports back but they’ll do it this fall without fans,  and New Jersey has been fairly lockstep with New York so I’m not optimistic about him fully opening the port. 

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Ugh, I PAID and now regret it! If I didn't pay for my 28 June 2020 sailing I would have been able to shift the sailing to the same ship, same itinerary....wait for it ,,,,same cabin 26 July 2020 after the CDC no sail was lifted;  but because I paid I Can't do this, I must cancel wait for refund and charge again. NO WAY! I thought I was doing the right thing, I thought we might sail, I live in Florida and honestly am not that crazed about this, (we went to Magic Kingdom during the last health scare) and had zero problems, I and my family by ( proximity or threats are very aware of hygiene etc) I believed we would sail, I don't trust the media and wow, I screwed the pooch! Hope I can say that @Matt if not my sincere apologies. So maybe WAIT.... I FEEL SO STUPID! 

Dumb GIF by moodman

ME^^^^^^^

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I get your problem with this decision. We just used a couple FCC's for final payment on an upcoming September TA. We decided that RCI already had enough of our money in hand for future sailings. Also, we have not gotten ANY refunds of cash for Air2Sea and taxes totaling thousands.

I won't send ANY more cash till RCI gets a few things get sorted out. Just do some last minute stuff with a sailing that WILL go.

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To complicate things I called RCL and they said no issue to shift and lift this cruise (as it was with discount not free) . 
So now I have 36 hours to decide . The issue we are going to take July 2021 cruise (group cruise yaaa) so August-Sep might be too early but I guess we can handle . The bigger issue is if the cruise will go this year I will feel very bad for moving it as it mean we will need to wait for Dec to cruise again (just booked Symphony for Dec 2020). 

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51 minutes ago, Traveler said:

To complicate things I called RCL and they said no issue to shift and lift this cruise (as it was with discount not free) . 
So now I have 36 hours to decide . The issue we are going to take July 2021 cruise (group cruise yaaa) so August-Sep might be too early but I guess we can handle . The bigger issue is if the cruise will go this year I will feel very bad for moving it as it mean we will need to wait for Dec to cruise again (just booked Symphony for Dec 2020). 

Glad to hear you can take advantage of Lift and Shift. I agree those would be 2 quick vacations next year but thAts a good problem! It’s a hard decision. I might be tempted to cancel with CWC prior to payment and just apply the FCC of your deposit towards your December cruise. I think it might depend on what you would be lifting and shifting to also. 

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Today is the last day I could choose what to do regarding the cruise.

I decided to L&S it so I called RC club royal , the rep told me that the lift and shift is only for cruise until July 31 , I told her I think she got it wrong but she said it is verified and I could or pay or cancel. I did what always works with RC and said thank you need to think about it. After a minute called again to get a rep who told me no issue to L&S , so I have change it to Sep 2021. 

I still have my FCC that I can use later for the the July cruise and if we will be very very lucky and the 23-Aug will go (hope so) without any flight restriction/quarantine I can always book it again ...  

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