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final payment approaching


gi333

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hello.

i have a cruise booked of feb 28th 2021 . We decided not to go and we would be surprised if it even happens . It is from port canaveral . What i find frustrating is that our final payment is november 30th and royal carribean still doens t know what is going to happen for march 2021.  I still havent cancelled because waiting to see if they will cancel so i can get my deposit refunded but by november 30th im not sure if i will know about that.     what do you guys think ? 

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Im in similar situation. Sailing March 07 out of Canaveral. Im going to make Royal cancel on me. If they cancel, they give me 125% FCC or my money back. Im in  a pretty good situation, I think. There is still a chance, based on what becomes known about what the cruise will look like once they announce everything, that we cancel ourselves...but we have until 48 hours before it sails to make that call. I prefer to wait and see how it shakes out. 

That being said, I dont think it will sail, as is. I think that cruises scheduled for the first half of 2021 will nearly ALL be altered in some way (length and itinerary, ship). Once they start sailing again, ROYAL has said it will be select ships, on shorter itineraries. That puts my week long sailing on Harmony in jeopardy, early in the year. So, again, they will either cancel on me....or give me options. 

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50 minutes ago, gi333 said:

 if you ask me that would be pretty dumb to do so knowing that you might not get your money back in cash. this is what i find frustrating .

Actually, making final payment on or before the payment deadline is the ONLY way to get your money back as a cash refund.  If you cancel before final payment or before the cruise line officially cancels the cruise, you will only be eligible for a Future Cruise Credit.

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5 hours ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

Actually, making final payment on or before the payment deadline is the ONLY way to get your money back as a cash refund.  If you cancel before final payment or before the cruise line officially cancels the cruise, you will only be eligible for a Future Cruise Credit.

Please clarify if you can.  I have a whole bunch of Girl Scouts who put non refundable deposits down for March 28 cruise out of Bayonne NJ.  
I just had a mom reach out to me today to tell me she is not comfortable sending her daughter.  I have a feeling most everyone will cancel but some are die hard cruise people.  
IF I cancel this one girl she won't get any cash back ?(only deposits were put down of which I believe typically $100 is non refundable)

I'm hoping this is not the case, the girls have been saving for a final trip for years and this is their last year in scouting.

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9 hours ago, gi333 said:

yes but would you put your final payment down. if you ask me that would be pretty dumb to do so knowing that you might not get your money back in cash. this is what i find frustrating . i find it stupid to make people pay final payment when you dont even know what is going to happen. 

There is a part of me that says I'm ready to cruise again. Then there is a part of me that says not yet. It becomes a personal decision what to do on the final payment date based on what side of me speaks louder at the time.

Another factor is what type of cruise it is.  I have a 4 day cruise in April 2021 on Independence with 2 stops in the Bahamas -- I REALLY want to go on that cruise as a way to test the water.  I will likely make the final payment and hope that cruise happens.

 However, I have another April 2021 cruise which is a 12 day trans Atlantic on Anthem that involves stops in multiple European countries. The final destination is England.  I "would like" to go on that cruise but I foresee many potential pitfalls. When the final payment date comes, I will likely decide to cancel (postpone) and take the FCC for my deposit and use it on a similar cruise in 2022.

There is always a chance that a cruise won't happen even before covid.  To a certain extent, I ignore that possibility.  It isn't something I can control and presently it isn't that easy to predict.

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1 hour ago, gi333 said:

I'm thinking that they could at least push back the date of final payment to let's say 30 days before cruise because of the virus. To me final payment 3 months before in this situation doesn't make sense. 

I happen to agree with this.  We are in similar situation.  We have a cruise mid March that has been booked since opening day.  Our final payment is mid Dec and if things are the same, we will just cancel.  (It's refundable).  If we had closer to the date, then we could judge better the situation in March, but things are still too up in the air for us (We're Canadian so have the border issue on top of cruising itself).  It's a shame as this has been booked for almost 2 years.  

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11 hours ago, Pattycruise said:

Please clarify if you can.  I have a whole bunch of Girl Scouts who put non refundable deposits down for March 28 cruise out of Bayonne NJ.  
I just had a mom reach out to me today to tell me she is not comfortable sending her daughter.  I have a feeling most everyone will cancel but some are die hard cruise people.  
IF I cancel this one girl she won't get any cash back ?(only deposits were put down of which I believe typically $100 is non refundable)

I'm hoping this is not the case, the girls have been saving for a final trip for years and this is their last year in scouting.

If your deposits are non-refundable and you cancel you will get an FCC for the amount of the deposit.  With CWC, you will not be penalized the typical $100 and you would get the full amount of the deposit as FCC.  For example prior to CWC if the non-refundable deposit was $250 and you canceled, you would get an FCC in the amount of $150.   With CWC the FCC will be $250.  The only way out of having money tied up with Royal with a non-refundable deposit is if Royal cancels the cruise on you. 

Typically they aren't cancelling the cruises before you have to drop the rest of the balance at the final payment mark, so at that point you have the full cruise fare tied up and if you self-cancel before the sail date the entire cruise fare will be an FCC (outside of port faxes/fees/prepaid gratuities which always comes back as cash).   It's a gamble to make the final payment because if Royal doesn't cancel, then you either have to sail or deal with having your money tied up in a FCC.

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4 minutes ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

I look at this as an opportunity to make an additional 25% on my money.  Make final payment and then, once they cancel the cruise, get your extra 25% FCC.  I think of this as a "buying opportunity".

?

That would be a great if they would allow multiple FCCs to be used on a cruise and the FCCs didn't have the time restrictions.  Frequent cruisers have their cruise cards all filled up for the redemption period for the FCCs already.  I'd love to be able to gamble on some last minute bookings (that I'm in the position to take if they are a go) and then use any 125% FCC to apply towards already booked cruises I have for 2021 and 2022.  But I couldn't fit any more cruises into my schedule at this point and if you can't apply more than one FCC to a cruise it won't help.

It's a great deal for the casual cruiser that knows they will cruise again in the future but doesn't have one booked.  It sucks for other cruisers because they may not be able to reschedule a cruise in time due to a variety of reasons.  

I do understand Royal's inflexibility in the final payment date as they really need the cash on their balance sheet, but it would be another way they could give a nod to taking care of their customers to push back the final payment dates.  But they are already giving concessions with the Cruise With Confidence and Lift & Shift programs, so at least they are giving something.

I have little empathy for those who chose non-refundable deposits and are upset that their money is locked up.  The terms for non-refundable deposits is pretty clear and they are even being generous to not take the $100 penalty with the CWC program.  

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