Spurschick

On 6/9/2020 at 5:28 AM, jstrutton said:

Called yesterday since it had been 84 calendar days (60 business days) since submitting refund request on 16 March. I got through fairly fast, but the lady had to transfer me to the casino department for one cruise.  Once transferred they told me the refund was processed on 25 May (2 weeks ago).  I told her that I had not seen it and we verified the correct Visa card was used.  She said she would send something to the accounting department but who knows.  Back to the first lady, the other refund (requested on 31 March) was being processed and she said it should be out this week.  

 

Again, I'll believe them once I see the refund back on my credit card.  Until then no new bookings on MSC

 

That’s the same date we were told our Casino refund was issued and we have not received ours either. I called back as soon as they opened and was promised a call back as they would reach out to accounting, but that never happened.

On 6/16/2020 at 8:08 PM, cb at sea said:

I've NEVER been "temperature tested" to go into ANY store...ever.  Into a doctor's office...yes...not ever a retail establishment.

 

Temperature tests in Florida to enter Disney Springs, Universal Citywalk, and Theme Parks. 

2 minutes ago, Milwaukee Eight said:

I saw it on the news that 3 UCF football players tested positive. I think it was WFTV 9. I’ll look for a better source. 

Yes saw the 3 football players. It’s the dozen CruisingNole mentioned I can’t find.

5 minutes ago, cruisegirl1 said:

Sorry-when I heard the strong last night, I thought they were college students. 
 

Regardless,  It is a bad story. 
 

m

No worries.

I agree it’s bad. Even the healthcare worker that was one of the infected admitted she let her guard down. 

The question is how much do you want a balcony? If you are traveling any time over Spring Break weeks in March then expect the prices to go upwards. 

Also Royal Up prices are per person and even if you “bid” you are not guaranteed an upgrade. 

21 minutes ago, John&LaLa said:

 

Football players are news, students, not so much

DD goes to UCF and as it was not notified that’s why I was wondering the source.

12 minutes ago, cruisegirl1 said:

https://miami.cbslocal.com/2020/06/17/16-friends-coronavirus-florida-bar/amp/

They are not UCF students, from what I understand one is a 40 year old health worker

On 6/16/2020 at 5:43 PM, Milwaukee Eight said:

Florida Governor just gave statistics regarding COVID19. He gave a good explanation why the increase in positives. Lots in migrant workers and farm camps. However, very few sick (Asymptomatic). What was important, hospitalizations down 43% and ICU admissions down 50%. We still have issues with the long term care facilities. They account for 86% of the deaths. They are now testing every two weeks in these facilities. Prisons and jails have high numbers positive but few sick. Even some positive in long term care facilities are not showing signs. 
 

Density seems to be a big issue and in my opinion, might be a problem for cruising. 
 

M8

Problem is percentage of tests that came back positive has now doubled to over 10% and Pinellas county has now risen to over 12% positive. 

It was not bad whilst remaining at a similar positivity percentage but that jump makes me think R0 is increasing.

20 hours ago, CruisingNole said:

 

Ronnie is so far up Donnie's arse that he can't see the light of day. He'll say whatever it takes to deny reality. 

 

I just read about a dozen UCF students in Orlando were diagnosed and it traced back to one bar near campus. This is just the beginning. And college isn't even in session. I shudder to think about what things will look like in September. 

Source please on article on UCF - I saw 3 football players tested positive but nothing on 12 students?

19 minutes ago, cpl100 said:

Which airline? 

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.forbes.com/sites/michaelgoldstein/2020/06/05/lion-air-shuts-down-flights-blames-passengers-for-ignoring-covid-19-guildelines/amp/

7 hours ago, rimmit said:

Outside of Epcot (and they aren’t using their foreign employees for the world showcase when they reopen) no other businesses have to fly crew in from all over the world to get a ship running.  Crew which they are working incredibly hard to just try and get hoke right now.  The land based resorts also don’t have to stop repatriating their crew and get their hotels back to their home locations.

 

People throughout all of this keep referring to what land based resorts are doing.  That is apples and oranges.  Land based resorts and theme parks are a totally different ball game than cruises.  It’s why many love to cruise but are just “meh” when it comes to land based resorts.  The logistics of a cruise ship are so much more difficult than a land based resort and the social distancing so much harder.  Cruises are basically floating prisons and nursing homes in the eyes of the CDC.  They have that level of transmission rate and despite what we believe in Cruise Critic, they are not essential for the US to operate.

 

Getting on a cruise is ship is doing the EXACT OPPOSITE of what we have learned about the virus regarding mitigating transmission over the last 3 months.  
 

1.) It effects elderly and those with comorbidities significantly more.

2.) It has a significantly higher transmission rate indoors without direct sunlight.  The smaller the indoor space the higher the transmission and higher likelihood of inhaling the virus.  (Think the chance of swallowing a significant amount of someone’s pee in a kiddie pool vs swallowing pee from a specific person in the ocean while on a beach.)

3.) There is significant spread via talking, along with just coughing.

4.). Time of exposure is significant component in transmission.

Theme parks are primarily outdoors with occasional use of indoor spaces.  (Gift shops and restaurants) in which occupancy  can at least on paper be tightly regulated.  Cruise ships are primarily indoor spaces with outdoor decks that are used only in good weather and during the day.  Casinos can also socially distance and they tend to have higher ceilings with better ventilation that’s a cruise ship (that could be debatable given the smoke I always smell) but the point is the per person space ratio is much lower on a land based casino.

 

The fact that as of a week ago the CDC hasn’t even started looking at cruising tells me cruises have a LOOONG way to go before they even remotely come up with a plan that will satisfy the CDC.

I understand cruises are very different, and am not disagreeing with your points.

My point was plans were not made public multiple weeks in advance. They also have to address social distancing. Whilst I get more outside space the cleaning of rides and the issue of queues still leads to issues of social distancing. 

My point was even theme parks and casinos had to have plans to reopen approved and did not do seven weeks in advance.

From the the videos I saw in Vegas hardly any social distancing, minimal mask wearing and people crowded around tables. 

https://www.cnbc.com/video/2020/06/04/las-vegas-casinos-reopen-with-large-unsafe-crowds-is-it-worth-the-gamble.html

And I have seen many more similar videos. Given these establishments have as many people pass through, if not more, as those on some cruise ships I would actually feel safer on a cruise than I would be in that chaos.

Also I would expect cruiselines to use their ships to get crew back as opposed to flying them.

1 hour ago, Arzeena said:

We were told it will take 90 days for our March cruise to be refunded and receive FCC. Happened in a little under 90 days. So no complaints from us.

I am glad yours worked out okay. We cancelled our excursions, drinks and internet packages in March and despite being told we would receive within 60 days we are now being told it will be another 2-3 months. That they have switched how they are doing refunds as the way they started out isn’t working, and also told me they sent our cruise refund to our TA then days later said they had read the wrong screen when they told us that.

if people on RC had to wait 5-6 months for a refund I dread to think what these boards would be like

I might check in for our August and September cruises to pass 5 minutes.

The way I look at it, if I keep checking in I might make it on board eventually 🤞🏻

8 hours ago, Iamcruzin said:

No surprise about Princess. They will probably be the last to start up given that they are the poster child for Covid at sea sailings.

Princess still haven’t processed cancellations in their system past the start of May. If they can’t even sort out their cancellations, I dread to think how they are going to organize starting back up🤔

9 minutes ago, Iamcruzin said:

The gross margin on larger Oasis ships is greater and since they are larger, social distancing would be easier especially if they sail at reduced capacity. Logistically Florida would be the key starting point as there are many ports and a greater population who would be able to drive to port for a 4 or 5 day cruise as opposed to those who would have to fly to port.  The River cruises sail with in the U.S. The larger cruise ships have to call at a foreign port which is another issue if the foreign ports are closed to cruise ships.

From a conversation I had with RC I got the impression it would be dependent on staffing logistics as well. The bigger the ship the more crew they have to get back in place quicker. The person I spoke with, whilst acknowledging more space and things to do on board larger ships, thought 7 night cruises less likely to sail first. 

They stated less than 5 nights to start due to limited ports so they can easily do CocoCay and Labadee. They also said that if the larger ships did sail they may be shortened from the 7 days to allow cleaning between sailings.

All speculation I know but just passing on what I heard.

Given what I have seen in the reopening of Vegas, honestly anything is possible.

Also CR have started issuing offers starting October. Maybe they know something we dont🤞🏻

8 hours ago, eaflorida said:

I wonder if anyone is concerned about the violence and anarchy in Seattle, or any other major city like NYC or London  as far as going there for a cruise in the future? As for myself, I would not travel to Seattle or London if you paid me. And, for me this is more about safety than politics. I am very concerned that this worldwide unrest is going to be another reason that cruising is a long way from returning to normal anytime soon. Would be interested in your thoughts.

As cruises don’t sail from London you would not actually need to go into London to sail from England.

6 hours ago, toad455 said:

Cruises are set to resume in 7 weeks. 7 WEEKS!! You would think the cruise lines would announce their protocol & such with how they'll resume. Though it seemly less & less likely they'll actually be sailing come Aug. 1. I hope there's an announcement of some kind this week. Feel bad for anyone with a cruise booked in August.

As much as I would love to know the plans I don’t see them giving 7 weeks notice. Theme parks, Vegas etc didn’t give 7 weeks notice, at least not to the public. 

I would expect any announcement to be issued about 4 weeks out from resumption date as I expect that is when they will either announce which ships will start sailing (it’s certainly not going to be all of them at the same time) or extend the suspension.

19 minutes ago, darknightsdespiser said:

How are you managing to get them to answer the phone?

Princess are answering no issues there.

But really irritating update.

Got back through to supervisor at Princess today about my excursion refunds.

I had received a response from TA that they had not received the money from Princess so asked at the same time if they could give me more info so TA could try to track down. Supervisor told me person that told me the refund had been sent was looking at wrong screen and now it actually hasn’t been refunded despite being told previously exact date and amount that was supposedly refunded.

Talk about completely untrained and left hand not knowing what right hand is doing.

Just now, LDVinNC said:

 

You might want to send a certified letter with signature...

Thought about it but their office is closed and they are working remotely so I don’t have much faith in it getting to them.

30 minutes ago, LDVinNC said:

 

Wow...wonder why they did that.  Not the usual (and ethical) way to do it.  Sure hope you can get your money back.  I do think filing a dispute - since you cannot get ahold of the TA - is the way to go.

Thanks, we do have insurance as well but looks like this may take a lot longer to resolve than I had hoped.

20 minutes ago, dog said:

Dispute with credit card. You are not getting anywhere by calling  have all attempts to contact TA & Princess documented, receipts, cancellation. 

Yes will do. As we found out yesterday the money was sent to them bank say we have to give them opportunity to respond to that claim so emailed them and have to give them 7 days to respond (or not 🙄)

Just now, LDVinNC said:

 

Who charged your credit card?  Princess or your TA?  Suggest you not use a TA in the future who takes your money, if that is the case.  Good luck.

Gave card info to TA to pay Princess. Appears they took payment then paid Princess, so therefore Princess made refund back to them.

trust me won’t use them again!

Beyond irritated.

Called again yesterday regarding refund of excursions, drinks packages and internet that we cancelled before all the mass cancellations began in March.

Was told cruise was refunded to TA two weeks ago (even though we asked for refund as can’t get hold of TA so now probably going to have to do CC dispute to find that money).

That was a start but given we cancelled excursions etc weeks before the cruise was cancelled I asked why that had not been refunded. I was point blankly told we will not give you a date. I asked to escalate was told “this conversation is going nowhere”

i will call back again Monday🙄

5 hours ago, crazyank said:

I respect your opinion, allow me to present a different point of view.  As of 15 July all EU borders will be open. Italy and Greece have both announced that they are open to tourists from any EU country with no restrictions including arrivals by sea.  We are hopeful that RCL will have a Med cruise season.

Given multiple European Cruiselines have aleady cancelled through October/November I do not see RC back in the Med this year.