twentyknots

On Friday night, March 13, Celebrity announced its 30 day suspension.  For some reason the list of cancellations included the Reflection sailing on April 13, 1 day past the suspension.  That was quickly corrected and removed from the cancellation list.  Subsequently the 30 day reference was removed and replaced with suspension period beginning March 15 and resuming on April 11.  

For a few days the cruise finder for April cruises with US embarkation ports began with April 21 cruise.  Now I'm seeing April 11, April 12, and the April 21 cruise. The April 13 Reflection is still not showing.  Wonder why?  Do you think they know something they're not telling us, or they're just so overwhelmed and befuddled that the website is simply not reliable at this point.  Seems if they really intend to sail the Reflection on April 13 they would want to make every effort to sell some of those empty cabins. 

This confusion about what’s cancelled and what’s not is pretty pathetic.  I realize the pandemic is unprecedented in the cruise industry and decisions and press releases are being made quickly, but they should be able to count and edit a press release.  I assume that before a press release is considered ready to be released it is reviewed by several key staff and the CEO.  Wouldn’t you think someone in the room would look at a calendar and ask the question: Why is April 13 Reflection cruise being cancelled a staff member asks since it’s past the 30 day suspension period?   It’s not supposed to be the CEO answers.  But it’s on the list of cancelled cruises the staff member replies.  Who’s the idiot who put it on the list the CEO asks.  Is there anyone else in this room who can’t count?

And put it back on the website the CEO demands.  Nevertheless, the April cruises on the website start with April 21.

7 minutes ago, C-Dragons said:

X has shut down their website for bookings.

We are on the April 13 Reflection Cruise also. Our cruise should be a go as the suspension is only through April 12.

I could not find ANY cruises on the X website that had availability. Once X has things finalized they will open the website again.

Equinox sailing from FL on 4/21 is operational.  Appears to allow bookings.

8 minutes ago, flvol77 said:

Isn’t it March 13th?  Wouldn’t April 13th be 30 days? 
 

not trying to be a smart a just asking? 
 

as someone else said rookie mistake on the press release 

 

give dates, locations, and what they are offering.  

We have cruise booked for April 13 on Reflection.  I assumed it would sail unless suspension is extended.  Counting from 3/14 effective date of suspension, 30 days would end on 4/12.  However, a check on Celebrity's website displays "no rooms found for this request" which suggests to me it's cancelled. A cruise on 4/18 shows cabins from which to choose.

40 minutes ago, CulverCityCruisers said:

Well Royal just suspended all sailings for their companies for 30 days effective midnight tonight, so your cruise may have just been cancelled

Unless they extend the suspension, my cruise will begin the day after the 30 day suspension ends.

So, my understanding from talking with my TA today is if I cancel my Celebrity cruise scheduled for April 13 we will receive a FCC of $4254.  While on the phone with her we looked at a November sailing that today costs $4774.  It has a $900 deposit.  I asked how this would be handled and she said we'd put down the $900 and not have any final payment as we have more than enough FCC to cover it.  Will they refund the $380 I asked.  She said no.   

Is she correct?

3 minutes ago, markeb said:

The case fatality rate increases dramatically with age. This is theoretically to minimize serious illness or death on the cruise. 

If that's their objective then they should have had this kind of medical certification in place for years?  Those of us who cruise a lot have seen many passengers over the years who we thought might not make it for the duration.  And some don't.  Their serious illness or even death while sailing had nothing to with a virus.  Many were just old with serious medical conditions.

I’m not quite sure what they’re trying to accomplish with this certification.   Is a passenger over 70 with serious medical conditions more likely to contract the virus if it’s somewhere on the ship and therefore spread it around?  Are they more likely to be an asymptomatic carrier?  Are they trying to minimize risk to someone who falls into the more vulnerable group, i.e., reduce the risk of that person from having a more serious reaction or even death if he/she should contract the virus while on board? 

I did find information on Travel Guard's website related to Covid 19.  Premium paid can be used as future premium credit subject to the following:

1) the cancelled trip must have been scheduled for no later than 4/30/20

2) the new trip must be booked by 9/30/20, however departure can occur after 9/30/20

3) if the new trip premium is less than the original premium, no amount will be refunded. If the new premium is greater, there will be additional premium charged.

On 3/9/2020 at 2:40 PM, teltrainer said:

Hi Susan!  so sorry for the FCC situation.  I agree that is not right. 

 

We just cancelled our April 13th Reflection. First time we will be using FCC for new booking.  My guess is that the cruise fares for future cruises will be going up even more in the coming days so they can recoup other losses.

We are likely to cancel the same cruise.  I checked prices for  April, 2021, same itinerary, same cabin.  $15,200 compared to $4200. We have Delta FC tickets which we scored on a great deal using $400 in credits from Delta for a screw up last June, plus dividend miles redeemed.  Delta has announced they will waive re booking fees but I wonder how the price will be determined.  The value of the tickets we bought in January were $850; we paid $350.  Now the same flight itinerary is $900.  Will they just charge us an extra $50 or $550?  Same thing with travel insurance.  We paid $450.  Is TravelGuard likely to let us transfer this credit to another cruise in 2021, plus any higher charges to be protected? 

I''m 74, wife 68.  Both in good shape with no health issues. The jury is still out if we're going in 5 weeks.  We really want to and have great deal on the Reflection, but I'm the worrier and I know how I will react if someone coughs around me. My instincts tell me to cancel and I've learned to trust those instincts. 

We're booked on the Reflection for April 13, 2020 sailing in a Sky Suite and thinking of cancelling and re booking for next April.  We paid $4250 for this year's cruise with 4 perks and $300 OBC.  Next year the price is $15,000 for Sky Suite with the same 4 perks and OBC.  What's up with that?

We will likely cancel our Reflection April 13 sailing.  It's 5 weeks out so we'll wait until a week before.  Hate to do it but quarantine is too much of a worry.  I don't mind the virus but they dont seem to know what to do with 3000 people if a few get the virus. It'll be a week before they can even test these poor people on the Grand Princess, then another week before they can get them off to who knows where.  It's just a big cluster.

Am I the only one who cant understand why the Grand Princess hasn't been notified about the test results?  Announcements were made early yesterday morning that testing would be done and results back in a few hours.  The governor repeated it. 

And all the reports of testing shortages, nurses saying that many hospitals dont have protocols in place for isolation of positive patients and haven't explained testing procedures to them.

Is this America or some third world country?

Booked on Reflection for April 13-24, Cartagena, ABC Islands, and Grand Cayman.  Final payment made, so guess we'll go unless the situation changes significantly.  No cases in  the Caribbean yet.  If we weren't in the penalty phase, we would cancel.

Correction: Dominican Republic now has a case

3 minutes ago, Phxazzcruisers said:

it is actually a silly question that no one could answer right now.  Lots of people could take guesses, but no one would know with any certainty right now about what would happen in that case in the future.  

So is this a board where no one can raise a hypothetical question?  Of course there's no definitive answer; it's a curiosity question given the recent events with the Princess and Westerdam.  I'm OK with guesses.  Lighten up.

We’re booked on an 11 night Caribbean cruise out of Ft Lauderdale calling on Cartagena and the ABC islands in April.  Wonder what would happen if one passenger became ill and was tested and was positive for Coronavirus say on day 6 of the cruise.  Would the ship quarantine the passenger on board, have him/her airlifted off to nearest hospital and continue the cruise, or head back to FLL and remove everyone and quarantine them for 14 days?  Seems like the Princess quarantine on the ship didn’t work well.  If one person gets it on the ship it’s very likely others will too.

We're on the Reflection in April.  I like BJ very much and practice before the cruise on a free online site so that my game is 100% in compliance with basic BJ.  I play thousands of hands in practice so that my reaction time is immediate and consistent.  I dont have to think and ponder any hand and how I'm going to react to the cards.  I usually bring $500-1000 to play with depending on the length of cruise.  The April cruise is 11 nights so will bring $1000.  I expect to lose it all.  I usually do.  I like the casino atmosphere and interaction with other players.  I especially like the no smoking on Celebrity.

I hope I misunderstood  what the OP said about the minimum bet of $50 at BJ.  I dont have a problem with $10 or even $25, but $50 is pretty steep for me.  The last time I was on the Reflection I think the minimum was $10 and the BJ table across from me had a $500 minimum bet.  I dont recall it having a maximum payout.  My fantasy was to be up a $1000 and play that table.  No such luck as I lost all of my play money.  I will say that the casino was not crowded.  I prefer to play BJ with a full table but that was hard to find on the Reflection.

My wife is a vegetarian and enjoyed the veggie sausage option on  HAL.  We're booked on the Reflection on April 13 and wonder if Celebrity offers it in the dining room.  I searched for the answer but couldn't find it.

I see advertisement that Avis has shuttle from terminal to car and car can be returned at airport.  Problem is calls to Avis go unanswered for customer service and when selection is made for rental, the automated service wants specific pickup address.  Impossible to talk to a person it seems.

We have same question.  Flight leaves at 2pm and dont want to hang around airport 5 hours.  We wonder if rental car for the day might be an option, picking it up at the cruise terminal and returning it at the airport?

We always book the cabin we want.  We cancelled the December Zuiderdam cruise with cabin 5191 for several reasons.  We had a good price along with $900 in OBC plus 2 free speciality dinners and $100  drink cards.  I happened to be on the HAL site yesterday and checked the price of the cruise that we had cancelled.  The NS guarantee was $1662 less than the price we had, but none of the extras.  Even so, that's still ~$600 less than what we were going to pay if we had kept it.  When I selected 5191 the price jumped $1300.  Big jump for that SB cabin.

The Zuiderdam

Are the only three categories for a NS guarantee SA, SB, SC?

Me too.  Pitiful for a company this size, most likely using the IT services of Carnival to have as many problems as they do.