phbr

21 hours ago, ZoeyVictoria said:

I have no room on the shelves to set it down and I need both hands to find my clothing and put it on, but that idea may at least help me tomorrow morning.  Thanks. 

We just got off the Serenade Panama Canal cruise, balcony stateroom 7016 and there was a motion sensor light under  the closets opposite the bathroom door that came on at night.

We're on a Panama Canal cruise in November on Serenade. I did read somewhere that most of the ships in the RCI fleet had their internet upgraded to Starlink.

Has anyone been on Serenade recently to confirm this ?

Thanks

I rang the Celebrity UK office first thing today and the matter was resolved in about 5 minutes. A net refund minus the deposit amount is being processed to my card. It might take a few days, but I can live with that. Seems its something that has happened quite a few times.

One thing that Celebrity might tighten up on is that , on the UK/Europe site anyway, they do not ask for the 3 digit CVC number on the back of the card. Any other online purchases I have made recently always ask for that, as an extra level of security.

13 hours ago, LGW59 said:

When you got the "large amount" notification, did your bank ask if you approve it?  Mine always with a test, please say "YES" to approve or if not reply "NO".  Most banks have 24 hour customer service, I would def jump on the phone with them ASAP and not wait for the call to Celebrity tomorrow.

They normally do contact me. Not this this time though.

30 minutes ago, MarkWiltonM said:

I paid for a full cruise last year and called to cancel it to get the money back. The Celebrity cruise planner suggested they instead refund everything except my deposit. I got the refund within two weeks and am still holding the reservation. Hopefully they will do this for you.

Fingers crossed !!!

6 minutes ago, clarky213 said:

 

I doubt you will be able to dispute the Transaction as unfortunately it was your fault. The cruise is still valid so they haven't failed to provide the service.

 

I think your best hope is Celebrity will refund the payment minus your deposit as a goodwill gesture.

Yes, that's what I'm hoping. I talked to the Bank Customer Service last night, but they advised what you said and come back to them if Celebrity dig in. We aren't trying to 'cancel' the cruise so fingers crossed

How could I have been so stupid ?

Booked a May 2022 cruise on the Summit on the Celebrity website yesterday evening, and got to the payment page without incident. After detailing the card details, my phone rang and without thinking I hit the 'Full Payment' key instead of "Deposit Only'.

Got an immediate notification from my bank that a large amount had been debited to my card and realising my mistake tried to ring the Celebrity office in the UK... but it was 6.01 pm and the office had just shut.

I know the cruise has to be paid for but after numerous cancelled bookings over the past year, I am in no mood to give Celebrity all the money almost a year in advance.

Will be ringing them first thing Monday, not quite knowing what the reaction will be. Has anyone been in this situation ? Will they refund the difference or will I have to dispute the transaction with my Bank, which can get messy.

Can't believe after 20 odd cruises, I could be so careless.

Just received an email from Cunard advising cancellation of our April 26th Transatlantic.

It also stated that the revised  dates for the various ships are as follows.

QM2...all sailings cancelled up to and including May 28th 2021

QE.. all sailings cancelled up to and including June 4th 2021

QV..Resuming sailings on May 17th 2021.

They also offer a 25% FCC bonus UNLESS your present cruise booking was made with a FCC from a previously cancelled cruise.

We are in that category. Cunard cancelled our October cruise and we did not receive any bonus, just the value already paid transferred.

Seems rather unfair.

Our Reflection cruise May 28th was cancelled around April 16th.

We claimed the full refund on April 16th and received the full amount today, Exactly 60 days.

47 minutes ago, hcat said:

Did you receive your refund or fcc yet?

Applied for refund on April16th. 

Heard absolutely nothing yet. 

11 hours ago, K.T.B. said:

I didn't want to start another "cancellation thread", but I'm curious about something.

 

For those of you who had cruises in May and June, how did you find out the cruise was cancelled?  By email or were you called?  And how far in advance were you notified?

Reflection Cruise on May 28... advised by email from TA on April 16

13 hours ago, macsford said:

Very disillusioned with Cunard.

Our final payment due 6 June for Canada/New England.

It won't happen, Canada won't allow it, but if we don't pay we are deemed to have cancelled and lose our money paid so far.

Other lines have cancelled their Canada cruises, why not Cunard?

Why can't they do the decent thing and cancel with all that entails?

 

If its any help, we are in a similar position, also sailing to Canada/New England in October.

Last week, I asked our TA to arrange the transfer the deposit to a 2021 sailing.

Initially, Cunard refused, but later, probably after the Canadian ban was extended till Oct 31, relented but still insisted the deposit was non refundable and they would allow ONE switch to another cruise.

As of yesterday, Cunard were still selling the October 9th sailing, which is appaling practice.

Very high handed attitude. Not impressed.

7 minutes ago, Donut23 said:

 

I’m sorry you are having such a bad experience.  Someone else’s $$$ is nothing to play around with.

 

I only have our reservation and our friend’s to comment on.

 

Both got our $$$ back within days of each other (50 days after cancellation For us in 3 credits to our travel card).

 

Jim (hubby) would call late and rarely waited long and he never mentioned any problems.

 

 

i know they brought on staff to expedite all of this when it became obvious they were overwhelmed.  
 

i wonder if they put the Newbees on the phones before they were ready.

One other thing our TA mentioned was a wait time on the phone once you actually get through of up to 3 hours. The staff are all working remotely from their usual workspace, which doesn't help.

Glad you got your refund relatively quickly. 

Our Reflection sailing on May 28th was cancelled by Celebrity around April 16th.

We immediately applied for the refund.

During a call about another matter with our TA yesterday, he advised that he has frequent dealings with Celebrity over the refund issue, and to quote him.'they are all over the place', its virtually impossible to get hold of anyone in the Finance department.

He has heard stories of refunds received with 45 days but it will be at least 90 days after cancellation before most people get the money back and then it could be in instalments.

The Canadian Transport Minister effectively barred cruise ships with over 100 passengers from Canadian ports till at least 31st October.

Our cruise, 9th October, NYC-Quebec-NYC is due for payment on June 11th and is still being sold by Cunard .

2 hours ago, majortom10 said:

Dont know who has given you that information but with regards to Cunard UK it states if you have a cruise booked after 31st August you can transfer it free of charge to any up to March 2022 as long as done before 31st August. This  is not a new offer as we have a cruise booked 2nd Oct on QM2 for 28 nts and balance due end of June and I will not be paying the balance and cannot book any for 2021 because we already have 3 booked so been looking at March 2022 on QM2. This has been available since there last lot of cancellations because I am hoping before my balance due they will announce cancellations for October so I can request a cash refund.

 

Transferring your booking.

If you are sailing after 31 August 2020 then you can take advantage of our new flexible transfer policy (in place until 31 August 2020), but we will require notice prior to the balance due date.

This means that guests, who have a booking on a Cunard Fare or Early Saver fare, sailing after 31 August 2020, can now:

• Transfer your booking to any Cunard voyage currently on sale (and not just to those within the next 12 months).
• Transfer your booking to a voyage of higher or lower value (and not just of a higher value, as is usually the case).
• Transfer your booking an unlimited number of times (and not just once).
• Transfer your bookings free of charge, as we will waive the current £100 administration charge for each transfer made.

My booking was through a US Travel Agent.

Different rules apparently. What I was told refered to US based bookings not anywhere else.

I got a call from my TA last evening advising that Cunard have now agreed to transfer our deposit from the October 9th QM2 sailing to any other Cunard sailing departing before 31st December 2021. We just need to pick the new sailing before the payment due date on the original one.

This is a change from the policy advised by Cunard a few days ago, which stated the deposit was non transferable.

2 hours ago, exlondoner said:

 

I suppose it depends how long they think the blanket quarantine rules are going to last. Or you can always say you are going to pick fruit on arrival.

The US ban on incoming travellers has now been extended to June 21st, two weeks after our full payment is due for the Oct 9 QM2 cruise.

Decisions. decisions !!

41 minutes ago, phbr said:

Normally, the travel insurance policy would be the first line of defence. Problem is here and in other countries is that Insurance companies are running for cover at the moment and using the small print to disallow claims that would normally be paid.

This is the relevant sentence on our policy....... We are NOT covered for........

the withdrawal from service of an aircraft, cross-channel train or sea vessel (temporarily or permanently), on which you are booked to travel, by the carrier or on the recommendation or order of any government, civil aviation authority, port authority, rail authority or other similar authority in any country

 

I meant to add that the policy makes no reference to quarantining, or anything like it. I'm going to email the Insurance Company and ask them for a straight answer.

40 minutes ago, Neuhoftraveler said:

Your trip insurance probably includes coverage for being "quarantined."  You might talk to your insurance agent/issuer and ask whether being excluded from the country or port of departure would be a covered risk.

Normally, the travel insurance policy would be the first line of defence. Problem is here and in other countries is that Insurance companies are running for cover at the moment and using the small print to disallow claims that would normally be paid.

This is the relevant sentence on our policy....... We are NOT covered for........

the withdrawal from service of an aircraft, cross-channel train or sea vessel (temporarily or permanently), on which you are booked to travel, by the carrier or on the recommendation or order of any government, civil aviation authority, port authority, rail authority or other similar authority in any country

I have just finished a call with my US based TA regarding our upcoming 14 nighter on QM2 departing October 9th.

My initial query was whether Cunard had or were about to reduce the payment deadline for cruises departing after October 1st from 120 to 60 days, as is presently the rule for departures up to September 30th. The answer he received from Cunard was an emphatic 'No'. If payment is not made by June 11, we will be into normal cancellation charges.

My secondary query was to ascertain whether the deposit already paid could be transferred to a later sailing. Again, the answer was an emphatic 'No'. Its non refundable so you can whistle for it.

The problem we have is we are due to fly in from Ireland. If there is no indication that the incoming travel ban will be lifted by early October, and we have paid the balance, then we will be out a lot of money.

A 60 day payment deadline would help as our flights have to be issued by August 6th.

I really do not know what to do. We already had Celebrity cancel a Fjords cruise from Dublin  on May 28th. The refund is still pending for that. What should have been a surprise retirement gift for my wife is rapidly turning sour.

1 hour ago, phbr said:

Watched an interesting piece on the Cruising With Don channel on YouTube earlier.

 

Its come to his attention that some of the Discount Cruise agencies (he didn't name any for obvious reasons) are ONLY offering a FCC and no refunds whatsover. He surmised one of the reasons for this is the fact that these agencies block off a number of cabins on various sailings at a cost of maybe 5% of the total cost ..

 

They are also only allowing a 6 month window to re-book the future cruise as well, a much shorter time frame than on offer from the Cruise lines.

 

I doubt any of the above would stand up if tested through the courts, but it does seem its going to be more stressful to obtain the refunds that many people need just now given the present emplyment situation.

Heres the link to the above

Watched an interesting piece on the Cruising With Don channel on YouTube earlier.

Its come to his attention that some of the Discount Cruise agencies (he didn't name any for obvious reasons) are ONLY offering a FCC and no refunds whatsover. He surmised one of the reasons for this is the fact that these agencies block off a number of cabins on various sailings at a cost of maybe 5% of the total cost ..

They are also only allowing a 6 month window to re-book the future cruise as well, a much shorter time frame than on offer from the Cruise lines.

I doubt any of the above would stand up if tested through the courts, but it does seem its going to be more stressful to obtain the refunds that many people need just now given the present emplyment situation.

38 minutes ago, Fouremco said:

Celebrity has not cancelled all cruises through September 1. A couple of posters may have confused the extended CWC date for passengers to cancel with the date for Celebrity-cancelled date.

This is from the online article.

With continued port closures and travel restrictions surrounding global health concerns, the company’s cruise brands have suspended their operations, leading to cancellation of departures until Sept 1.

If its true, fair enough, If not, its time a clarification was issued

On 6/16/2019 at 11:57 AM, dpostman said:

 

ABBA I believe.

 

Just to add, Aerosmith is also a regularly covered band (Draw the Line) on Anthem.

 

When we were on Anthem, ther was also Ballroom dancing, and other activities.  It is also where we had our Meet & Mingle gathering.  Our group we cruised with spent quite a bit of time in the Music Hall,  great venue.

 

dp

The Royal Swedes do a wide range of rock from the Beatles, Stones , Creedence, Springsteen, Dire Straits. They are the best band I have ever seen on a cruise ship. Don't miss them

P.S. They might do one Abba song but thats it