Cruise Refund or Credit due to Covid

[steverino]

I booked a cruise with Royal Caribbean almost 2 years ago and it was cancelled in March of 2020 due to the Covid outbreak.  I've written their senior management, talked live to one of their assistants, and still 12 months later I STILL DON'T HAVE A CRUISE CREDIT.

Has anyone else had issues receiving a refund or credit?   Is there a "class action"  lawsuit that has been created to assist customers with these issues?

Personally, I'm fed up with Royal Caribbean and just simply want my money back!!!

[PPPJJ-GCVAB]

Hello and welcome to the best place to vent...praise...joke...and find out anything you need to know about cruising!  So sorry for your dilemma.  I personally am not in the same situation (refunds and fcc's have been received) but if anyone out there is or has advice for you they will most certainly reply!!

I am pretty surprised because it seems like an awfully long time to wait for $$$!!!  I can tell you my FCC's did take a while and the email did come from an address not stating it was from Royal (I remember almost deleting it!!).  I do hope you get this settled as soon as possible!

[wordell1]

1 hour ago, steverino said:

I booked a cruise with Royal Caribbean almost 2 years ago and it was cancelled in March of 2020 due to the Covid outbreak.  I've written their senior management, talked live to one of their assistants, and still 12 months later I STILL DON'T HAVE A CRUISE CREDIT.

Has anyone else had issues receiving a refund or credit?   Is there a "class action"  lawsuit that has been created to assist customers with these issues?

Personally, I'm fed up with Royal Caribbean and just simply want my money back!!!

Definetly not normal.  Did you use a travel agent or a travel website(which is a travel agent)?

[sk8erguy1978]

Welcome to the message boards.

I'm terribly sorry this is happening. In the beginning of the pandemic a lot of people had issues with refunds and credits being issues in a timely fashion. I just checked my email and it came in from my travel agent, but also RCL directly "noreply_at_rccl.com", however it was not encrypted.

May I ask, what actions did you take when it was canceled?... call and request refund? call and request lift & shift? call and request FCC? Send an email inquiry? Something else?

Without making too many assumptions, in your shoes, I'd personally try one more time with customer service and insist it gets escalated to next level (I forget the name, I can search here and find it as others have done it, but basically it's like customer service level 2 and can resolve this issues a regular agent cannot). After that, I'd just file a claim with my credit card company.

Edited June 7, 2021 by sk8erguy1978
typo

[JC Pats]

I requested a refund from my cancelled cruises in 2020 (cxld in August for a October/November sailing.. after multiple attempts with RC, I filed a dispute with my bank (rc boa card) all told, I didn’t get all my money back until early March 2021 (from cruise fare and cruise planner). I would try one more time with Royal, then file a dispute with your credit card company. 

[Linda R]

I have had many many cruises cancelled.  Including  before Covid, when a crane fell on the Oasis.   I have had no issues with receiving FCC's, refunds, etc.

I did have trouble with travel insurance with covering extra costs associated  with crane issue.  But worked out.  But I also use a TA and she has connections, and ways to get things done, that I could not.

[KenCP]

I had 3 cruises booked, had no problem getting refunds for 2.  One cruise I did lift and shift and then that transatlantic was then that one was cancelled.  It took awhile for that one to get refunded, so i just did another lift and shift to the 2022 transatlantic on another ship.

Onboard purchases that were refunded were hard to keep track of.  Royal refunded each one one separately and sometimes they were partially refunded on different days.  In the end it all worked out.

Hopefully yours gets worked out soon.

[cruisingsince1982]

There needs to be a class action suit. I'm surprised there isn't one yet. I'm a travel agent, and I am fed up too!!!

[Jim A]

My last Royal Caribbean cruise was scheduled for April 4, 2021. It was canceled weeks before the sail date. I was promised a refund with 45 days of my request, but that was more than a year ago. With countless emails and phone calls to RC customer service and my Royal Vacation Planner, I still have no refund. I'm on board for a class action lawsuit. I just spent 2 hours and 26 minutes on the phone with RC customer service only to be hung up on after the final 20 minute stretch of hold time. This is clearly a business practice they have chosen to preserve cash while revenues are down.

[J.zdinak]

Sadly, I just saw your post after researching to see if there was such a thing happening.  Royal refunded my cruise but refunded it to 3 different cards and 1 of them was closed due to fraud a few years ago. Since the money was never returned they claim they can do nothing. 

[Rochelle]

I was never offered a refund for our cruise that got canceled due to covid. I was offered some kind of hotel accommodations , honestly I can't remember wait it's been so long. I do know I wasn't offered a refund. I don't have any of my notes I wrote down every time I talked to Royal, I don't have my reservations number. We had a tree fall on our home during hurricane Ida our office was destroyed as well as important documents. I would to have my money returned. Don't know what to do without reservation number or how to go about getting my refund. 

[Pattycruise]

13 hours ago, Rochelle said:

I was never offered a refund for our cruise that got canceled due to covid. I was offered some kind of hotel accommodations , honestly I can't remember wait it's been so long. I do know I wasn't offered a refund. I don't have any of my notes I wrote down every time I talked to Royal, I don't have my reservations number. We had a tree fall on our home during hurricane Ida our office was destroyed as well as important documents. I would to have my money returned. Don't know what to do without reservation number or how to go about getting my refund. 

did you book with a travel agent? If so contact them

if you booked with Royal and If you’ve sailed with Royal before You can start with crown and anchor to get your reservation # (hopefully).  Do you know your crown and anchor number that could make it easier. 
1 (800) 526-9723 is the crown and anchor number. 

Then see if they can advise you which department you can call to see if you were issued a future cruise credit or if you were entitled to any type of refund.

[twangster]

15 hours ago, Rochelle said:

I was never offered a refund for our cruise that got canceled due to covid. I was offered some kind of hotel accommodations , honestly I can't remember wait it's been so long. I do know I wasn't offered a refund. I don't have any of my notes I wrote down every time I talked to Royal, I don't have my reservations number. We had a tree fall on our home during hurricane Ida our office was destroyed as well as important documents. I would to have my money returned. Don't know what to do without reservation number or how to go about getting my refund. 

I'm not aware of Royal Caribbean ever offering hotel accommodations for COVID cancellations.   If you made any cruise planner purchases there should be an email from that which would contain the reservations number.  

At the time there was generally two options, one was FCC and the second was a refund.  If you didn't request a refund in the window offered the default action was FCC.   It's likely impossible to change that at this point but there should be an FCC associated with the booking.  Do you at least know the ship and sail date of the cancelled cruise? 

[deep1]

Where I was supposed to get refunds they gave me fcc. Where I was supposed to get FCC I got refunded in tiny dribs and drabs installments so small I didn't even know they had been made. Had to go line by line on two years of statements on 4 cards to find that they did refund but at like $24- $135 at a time!

Recently they refunded a FCC which i didn't request and they had applied elsewhere. They caught their mistake quick but instead of cancelling that transaction they drew funds from a cruise paid in full leaving me a balance that they didn't let me know I had to pay back. They had indeed sent me money and didn't "steal" anything but, If I hadn't caught it out of the corner of my eye They would have cancelled my cruise and kept thousands! I always pay in full when I book, so there would have been any reason to check my balance. I happened to see "Pay remaining balance" without "You don't have a balance" under it.