bbqoug

We plan on upgrading from the House Select to Premium beverage package once onboard.

Is this normally done at guest relations so a new card can be printed? Or, do you just upgrade at one of the bars?

I also very much enjoy the Azamara forum for the overall helpful attitude and good discussions.

I follow another forum because I had a cruise booked with them (cancelled due to Covid) & am still considering cruising with them in the future if the itinerary & price are right.

Some posters in that forum seem to relish the opportunity to pounce on a poster to let them know just how stupid their question is. Then once someone makes themselves feel superior by denigrating the OP others feel the need to chime in to also make themselves look superior & add to their all important post total.

I'm sure the atmosphere in that forum doesn't help the cruise line associated with it. I have often hoped I wouldn't end up on a cruise with some of these surly, self-important people.

1 hour ago, TeaBag said:

What a lovely tribute to Captain Johannes.  I think it is an absolute shame that the Maritime Act people could not waive the fine for you.  After all it is a very sad day to lose your father and also to have to abort your cruise.

Thank you.

I asked the CBP officers if they could waive the fine since my father fought for this country in the Korean War, but they wouldn't budge. Oh well, at least we were somewhere where it was easy to fly home quickly to be with the rest of our family.

In April 2019 DW & I were on Journey with Captain Johannes in charge.

On the 3rd day of the cruise as we approached Charleston Harbor I started receiving calls on my cell phone letting me know that my father had died back at home.

Of course we needed to leave the cruise to get home to help with the arrangements.

The crew members were fantastic in helping with arrangements for us to meet with Customs & Border Protection to get permission to fly home since we were in violation of a US Maritime Act that stipulated we could not board in one US city (New York) & then disembark in another US city without first visiting a foreign port.

We had to pay a fine, but they allowed us to disembark & go home.

I sent a message to Captain Johannes on Twitter letting him know how much we enjoyed the limited time on Journey and that he would be proud of how kind and helpful his crew had been.

About 3 months later I received a call that said it was from South Carolina. I answered even though I didn't recognize the caller and it ended up being Captain Johannes.

He said he had read my message and was calling to see if I was doing OK after the passing of my father. Who does that? Apparently Captain Johannes does!

Needless to say I was very touched, and still tear up when thinking about his kind gesture.

It is now a goal of ours to sail with Captain Johannes again in the future.

23 hours ago, Jancruz said:

Personally I no longer see them as competing with Oceania..JMHO

Jancruz1

They are competing for my cruising $$ in 2022.

We will choose to book a cruise with the one that offers the most interesting itinerary (for us) along with the best value for our money.

And yes, we really enjoy late stays & overnights as a way to get a better feel for the places we are visiting.

I am very happy to read this!

This puts Azamara back as a possibility for a 2022 cruise booking for us. The competition for this booking is Oceania & Viking Ocean.

Unfortunately, Azamara's prices are quite a bit higher than the other 2 for the itineraries that we are interested in. 

Hopefully the new owner will have some cruise sales that are actually sales for a change.

We will wait to book until the ownership is complete & we see how the pricing ends up.

We finally received the last piece of our refund this morning.

Ship - Sirena

Sail date - April 1, 2020

Oceania cancelled this cruise on March 13, 2020

We requested a full refund through our TA March 14, 2020

Cruise was paid in full December, 2019.

The final 2 pieces of the refund (it ended up being refunded in 4 pieces total) arrived in our credit card account this morning, 93 days after receiving the cruise cancelled confirmation from Oceania.

It would have been nice if O had paid out refunds on a first in first out basis.

April 1 cruise

Cancelled by Oceania on March 13

Full refund requested by us on March 14 & Cruise Cancelled Confirmation received on March 15.

Still waiting for the final piece of our refund (about $725).

I will contact our TA on Monday since she kept quoting the "up to 90 days" whenever I asked her to find the status of our refund. 

Today makes 90 days for us.

Still waiting for the 3rd piece of our refund for our April 1st cruise which was cancelled on March 13th & refund requested on March 14th.

Over 80 days waiting now.

32 minutes ago, royallondon said:

That terribly disappointing kitty9.

 

i just cannot understand why refunds have not been dealt with on a chronological sailing order.  This would be fair and transparent.  
A weekly update as to which sailing are being addressed posted on both their website and updated to TA’s would help reduce inbound query’s and maximising outbound productivity.

 

Regards

Exactly.

The fact that Oceania hasn't processed refunds on a first in first out basis has only added to the angst & frustration of customers like me.

The lack of communication is also frustrating. 

Just stating "be patient" or "we're slammed" isn't good enough.

24 minutes ago, Petoonya said:

I got the second part of my refund today so all funds are back in my account. Cruise for Apr 14 was canceled March 12 and requested refund same day.

Glad to hear that you now have all of your refund.

Hopefully the remainder of our refund will arrive soon as well.

I certainly don't rate Oceania's responsiveness as stellar.

We are on day 65 waiting since we requested a full refund on March 14 for our April 1 cruise that was cancelled on March 13.

2 hours ago, ORV said:

Seeing how Nell99 had a preliminary amount of money in 4 days it appears they are operating differently now. I'm at 30 days waiting for a deposit refund for a 2021 cruise. You're at 42 or so waiting on one from a cancelled cruise. That's only halfway to 90. It would be great if they got refunds out quicker. I think it would help their image. Cruise lines could use that. 

Just to add another data point, we are on day 58 waiting for our refund to be completed for a canceled cruise. We did receive 2 credits a while back but are still owed about $725. Our TA says Oceania has acknowledged that they still owe us the money.

Pster55,

Thank you for starting this thread. 

I check in every day in hopes that CC members will start reporting that they are receiving their refunds from O for canceled cruises.

With NCLH recently securing over $2 Billion, I am hopeful that the refunds will start coming through soon.

I still have a little over 5 weeks before the 90 days is up from when we requested our refund.

1 hour ago, LHT28 said:

 Wonder  where people will be jumping to?

Land vacations?

That's what we may end up doing, although it could be a while before we feel safe traveling anywhere outside of driving distance.

I do know that I won't even consider booking another cruise with Oceania if they fail to refund all of the money for our canceled cruise.

On 5/2/2020 at 4:02 PM, B-2-Bs Best! said:

Still awaiting $862 taxes/fees from canceled 3/20/20 Riviera sailing. We canceled on the 10th.

We're still waiting for the final $725 piece from our canceled 4/1/20 Sirena sailing.

We asked for the refund on March 14th and received all but the $725 in 2 credits to our credit card on April 3.

This is for the paid cruise fare only with no extras or excursions involved.

1 minute ago, Flatbush Flyer said:

Thanks for your good intentions. However, saying that the relatively normal experience (of multiple refund amounts) is "strange"' will surely cast doubt for folks just starting to deal with their own cancellations.

I still find it strange that some people are getting their refunds in one lump sum while others are getting theirs in bits & pieces.

I only used one credit card, no optional purchases, no tours involved, and almost everyone getting a refund in one lump sum likely paid an initial deposit.

Like I said, I am just stating my refund experience to this point in a thread about refunds. I see nothing wrong with that and will continue doing so.

6 minutes ago, Flatbush Flyer said:

Are you reading all the posts in the several threads about Oceania refunds??? 

 

Depending on what you have spent (e.g., deposit, final pay, tours, other optional purchases) and how many credit cards and/or FCCs you've used), you may receive multiple refunds spread out over days to weeks.

Yes I have been reading the threads.

I just posted this to chronicle my refund experience to this point. It may be helpful to someone going through the refund process themselves.

Our April 1 cruise was cancelled on March 13th and we requested a refund on March 15th.

We received 2 separate refunds to our CC account on April 3, but it was about $725 less than what we are owed.

Today I asked my TA to contact Oceania. They acknowledged that I am still owed money and said they are in the process of refunding.

My TA asked that we be patient, but it just seems strange that some are receiving their full amount owed while we are getting ours in pieces.

1 hour ago, Flatbush Flyer said:

For the excursion: Had you made previous excursion purchases for that cruise (beyond O Life assigned ones) that were cancelled by O separately while the cruise was still going to happen (i.e., port change, etc) ?

 

It's a long shot but (and it happened to us), check your visa statements for Oceania refunds from weeks/months ago. Our recent 100% cancelled cruise refund was missing $300+ from the total for excursions on the original invoice. Several month ago, there was itinerary changes resulting in some cancelled tours. And yes, that earlier $300+ CC credit we had received balanced everything on the most recent CC credit for excursions.

 

Another possibility is that the total of your O Life + purchased excursions originally qualified for YWYW but cancelling that single excursion removed your YWYW 25% discount(?). That could easily have altered your original balance due for purchased tours by 25%. This could affect pieces of or the overall refund amount now.

 

Finally, as aforementioned, some folks' cruises cancelled by Oceania may have been "booked onboard" which netted them bonus SBC on the cruise where the booking was made. Such SBC is recoupable by O if the cruise is cancelled (definitely if you did the cancelling). 

 

Just some thoughts. But, as aforementioned, it is very hard to "rule out" incorrect causes for discrepancies without complete info.

The excursion was the only one we booked through Oceania, and up until O cancelled the cruise our itinerary hadn't changed at all.

I looked through all of my transactions since cancelling the excursion and there are no refunds from O.

I'm not too worried about it at this point. If a week goes by and the rest owed to us for the cruise especially hasn't shown up then I will contact our TA & ask her to check with Oceania.

I appreciate others who have posted their refund experience so far so here is mine:

Our April 1 cruise was cancelled on March 13 and we requested the 100% refund on March 15.

This morning my credit card account shows 2 refunds that total $725 less than what we paid. Hopefully the $725 shows up in another refund over the next week or so. The date on the refunds show as April 3 although they just showed up in our account this morning.

Also, we cancelled an excursion on Feb 28 and received a refund this morning for $31 less than what we paid. I know this refund is for the excursion since it was charged on a different credit card than the cruise itself.

I will also wait a while for the rest of the money to show up before inquiring about this one.

My guess is that the amounts yet to be refunded are the tax portion which may have to be refunded by a different department.

2 hours ago, pintolvr@aol.com said:

I requested a refund to my credit card on March 20 and received on March 28.  Much quicker than I would have guessed.  I am grateful.

We were scheduled on the same April 1st cruise and requested 100% refund on March 15th. 

Still waiting to see the refund.

I wish the person assigned to process my refund was as efficient as the person that processed yours (slightly TIC).

Oceania cancelled our April 1st cruise on March 13th.

We requested the 100% refund option and received a cancellation verification on March 15th.

We also cancelled an excursion for that same cruise on February 28th.

We were told it could take up to 90 days to receive our refund for the cruise, but others on our same cruise have already received their refund.

Hopefully we receive our refunds soon.

Princess already has a major black eye from all of this that they may have trouble recovering from.

With the other cruise lines suspending operations at this time Oceania seems to be stubbornly ignoring how bad things have become.

If they continue on with the March & April cruises in order to avoid paying out for cancelling, they are in danger of being the next cruise line with major negative headlines. Just my opinion.

11 hours ago, Jancruz said:

What this means for your clients, they will have two choices: Option #1 - A Future Cruise Voucher valued at 125% of all monies paid to Viking Option #2 - A refund equal to the amount paid For additional flexibility, if your clients are unable to use their voucher, we will automatically send them a refund equal to the original amount paid to Viking if the voucher expires. These Future Cruise Vouchers will also be fully transferable.

Wow.

Talk about taking the pressure off of their customers.

Under these terms, I would actually be tempted to take the 125% FCC instead of a full refund.

Under these unusual times I hope Oceania follows through with a similar policy.