PRINCESS SHIPS & CORONA VIRUS

[GeezerCouple]

Just now, Colo Cruiser said:

I doubt it will be done there.

It will most likely be moved.

 

Exactly.  

I was reading these posts as thought the new Master and crew were getting ready for the "next sailing", not just moving the ship to where the sanitizing/cleaning will take place.  They don't need full crew for that, without any passengers.

 

GC

[Cruise Raider]

1 hour ago, Jilliebean28 said:

"Cancel for Any Reason" insurance is somewhat misleading as most policy plans exclude losses caused directly or indirectly by an Epidemic, which Coronavirus currently is categorized as.  I would definitely contact your travel agent or read your travel plan policy very carefully.

yes, I agree that third party CFAR policies are limited.  If the OP would have purchased Princess Vacation Protection, though, there would have been a cruise credit offered i. The amount of 75% or 100% of the nonrefundable costs of the cruise.  But, I hear what you are saying, to get his/her money refunded, it would have to be for a medical reason.  

[Lowyfer]

I was scheduled for the diamond princess and cancelled since we were still before final payment and it was a fully refundable. The hotels before the cruise were also easy to cancel.

 

...the air fare was another matter.

 

Have the airfare through Expedia (ANA flight) and their customer service has been no help sticking to the air fare being "non-refundable" despite on ANA's webpage it says "any ticket starting with 205... can be cancelled".

 

So now I am forced to go to Japan where there is now a travel advisory due to the virus (and rebook hotels, pay a date change fee on airfare)  to the virus or eat the cost.

 

Expedia is claiming it is an ANA thing and between me and the airline, despite me paying Expedia. So they take their cut... and then pretend it is not their problem.

 

So Expedia will not recieve any more of my money. I would advise other buyers to beware as well.

 

I am now put in a dark place of "hoping" the virus expands enough for flights to Japan to be cancelled? Yuck!

 

Travel insurance lesson learned!

[bluesea321]

1 minute ago, GeezerCouple said:

I was reading these posts as thought the new Master and crew were getting ready for the "next sailing", not just moving the ship to where the sanitizing/cleaning will take place.  They don't need full crew for that, without any passengers.

 

Did you read the article? It explains it rather well. And yes, as the article says the minimum manning of the ship will be guaranteed with a voluntary crew.

[Scubaqn]

1 hour ago, dns65 said:

 

Prior to my Asia cruise being cancelled, I had insurance with CFAR but my TA was told that it wouldn't cover this situation as it does not cover epidemics.  So definitely check your policy and call the cruise line before making assumptions.  

This is hard to understand. How does CFAR not cover any reason?  simply tell the company that you have to work on a big project.   How are they going to know what your reason is if it is for "any" reason?

[Jetstreamer]

1 hour ago, Lowyfer said:

Have the airfare through Expedia (ANA flight) and their customer service has been no help sticking to the air fare being "non-refundable" despite on ANA's webpage it says "any ticket starting with 205... can be cancelled".

 

While travel agents can sometimes save you a few $€£, when things go wrong it usually leaves you dealing with people who are not familiar with individual airline policies and are not motivated to help. Been there!

 

That said, unless you had a fully flexible, insanely expensive airline ticket, I'd be very surprised if it was fully or even partially refundable. If you can get hold if the fare rules you can check. 

 

If the ANA website says all tickets can be cancelled that doesn't mean they can be refunded. They will happily cancel your ticket but getting money back is another thing.

 

If you dont want to travel to Japan but don't want to waste your airline ticket, consider buying an onward ticket from Japan to another destination. We are booked on the Diamond in May. We are happy to take the cruise but are thinking it will end up being cancelled by Princess. If this happens we'll either tour Japan or if things go a bit South Korea we'll fly onwards to Cairns, Australia which is a relatively cheap flight from Tokyo or Osaka.

 

[dns65]

3 hours ago, Colo Cruiser said:

IMO.......

I think I would call the insurance company myself and not relay on a TA.

 

Insurance was thru Princess, not sure who their underwriter is but I'm assuming their call agents have briefings on what the policy is and how to respond given the current situation.  I'm sure they are getting lots of calls from customers 

Edited February 26, 2020 by dns65

[npcl]

3 hours ago, Jilliebean28 said:

"Cancel for Any Reason" insurance is somewhat misleading as most policy plans exclude losses caused directly or indirectly by an Epidemic, which Coronavirus currently is categorized as.  I would definitely contact your travel agent or read your travel plan policy very carefully.

they exclude looses if your travel is impacted during the trip due to an epidemic.

 

However, since they are cancel for any reason one can always cancel  and just give another reason. 

 

The epidemic just means that if you go on your trip and experience delays, or get put into quarantine, need to change flights, etc. due to epidemic they wan't cover it, but you can still cancel in it entirety and not go.

[caribill]

13 hours ago, franktown said:

Airlines are only letting people cancel reservations to very limited destinations.  None in the western hemisphere.

For those who book travel in the next two week period for travel ending by June 1, Jet Blue is allowing cancellations for any reason with the full fare paid as a credit to be used within a year.

[fiestafatty]

IWe are going to Alaska in June. Any thoughts of canceling bc of corona virus

 

 

Edited February 27, 2020 by fiestafatty

[tailspintom]

8 minutes ago, fiestafatty said:

IWe are going to Alaska in June. Any thoughts of canceling bc of corona virus

 

 

I wouldn't, but that is me.

[in rod we trust]

i think now that this virus is in almost 40 counties . it needs to be contained .  people fly from all over asia into australia to board ships not everybody is checked so some will slip thru the cracks.. today the gov in australia warned us we might be in for a pandemic here as many countries have it and hard to test all of the people flying or cruising in. if that happens the country will go into a bad panic and recession,  all things must be done to contain this virus .  if that means cancel all cruises so be it rather that then a epidemic in australia we have one of the oldest population  in our region so it can do plenty of damage here . 

 

 

Edited February 27, 2020 by in rod we trust

[40yearcruiser]

We are very concerned about whether the virus is spreading into Australia. We are due to fly from here to Brisbane on March 14, rent a car and travel down the coast, and cruise from Sydney to Fiji on March 21. Back to Sydney for 4 days then cruise from there to Los Angeles. We are still planning to go unless Princess cancels the cruises. Our air is with Qantas so if they cancel the flights coming in we can only hope they will refund our cost. All of our hotel reservations have free cancellation. We are expecting that there will be port changes on both of our cruise itineraries, but we will take what we get and hope we will have some port stops. The whole world is in a panic so who knows what will happen in the next few weeks. Good luck to all of you who have cruises coming up soon.

[Pushka]

15 minutes ago, 40yearcruiser said:

We are very concerned about whether the virus is spreading into Australia. We are due to fly from here to Brisbane on March 14, rent a car and travel down the coast, and cruise from Sydney to Fiji on March 21. Back to Sydney for 4 days then cruise from there to Los Angeles. We are still planning to go unless Princess cancels the cruises. Our air is with Qantas so if they cancel the flights coming in we can only hope they will refund our cost. All of our hotel reservations have free cancellation. We are expecting that there will be port changes on both of our cruise itineraries, but we will take what we get and hope we will have some port stops. The whole world is in a panic so who knows what will happen in the next few weeks. Good luck to all of you who have cruises coming up soon.

 

Australia has no local cases of the virus. We had I think 15 from Chinese tourists from Wuhan who arrived several weeks ago and all have recovered and left I’d suspect and no one here developed the virus from them. The only other positive cases are those who came from Princess Diamond and they are all in Isolation and recovering. 
 

March isn’t that far away and I think it may well be one of the safest places so far. And Princess has allocated Sapphire here for the next few months. 

[40yearcruiser]

Thanks, Pushka, for the encouraging news. We've been planning this trip for over a year and are so excited it is coming up soon. Hadn't foreseen this complication when we booked everything. Like everyone, we are hoping the virus is soon under control and no longer a concern.

[Pushka]

5 minutes ago, 40yearcruiser said:

Thanks, Pushka, for the encouraging news. We've been planning this trip for over a year and are so excited it is coming up soon. Hadn't foreseen this complication when we booked everything. Like everyone, we are hoping the virus is soon under control and no longer a concern.

Another positive is that it is late summer here and our seasonal flu is a little way off yet.  That usually starts around late May and June. I think your timing is good given all this mess. We are booked for a med cruise in July. I can’t see that happening as it starts in Rome and Italy has gone crazy. 

[40yearcruiser]

It seems you also have a dilemma with your med cruise in July. It's tough to know whether to cancel before final payment or wait to see what the situation is when the time gets closer and whether the cruise companies will be cancelling or relocating the ships. You could look at what you might rebook to, but who knows what will happen with this virus in the coming months and where it might spread. Good luck with whatever you do. 

[Pushka]

15 minutes ago, 40yearcruiser said:

It seems you also have a dilemma with your med cruise in July. It's tough to know whether to cancel before final payment or wait to see what the situation is when the time gets closer and whether the cruise companies will be cancelling or relocating the ships. You could look at what you might rebook to, but who knows what will happen with this virus in the coming months and where it might spread. Good luck with whatever you do. 

My suspicion? I’m thinking the TAs may not happen this year. Two cents. So I will know in April likely earlier. 

[suzyed]

1 hour ago, Pushka said:

 

Australia has no local cases of the virus. We had I think 15 from Chinese tourists from Wuhan who arrived several weeks ago and all have recovered and left I’d suspect and no one here developed the virus from them. The only other positive cases are those who came from Princess Diamond and they are all in Isolation and recovering. 
 

March isn’t that far away and I think it may well be one of the safest places so far. And Princess has allocated Sapphire here for the next few months. 

I heard it is now on every continent except Antarctica.

[BulldustHHH]

The Australian Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, has escalated awareness of the threat and claims we are prepared, but let's face it ... if there is a full blown outbreak no amount of preparedness will prevent hardship:

 

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-02-28/coronavirus-pandemic-emergency-plan-for-covid-19-outbreak/12006960

 

We have one case in Perth, which was a passenger off the Diamond Princess, who was originally moved to quarantine in Darwin. This patient is now in the ICU (pay-walled):

 

https://thewest.com.au/news/health/was-only-confirmed-case-of-coronavirus-in-intensive-care-unit-at-charles-gairdner-hospital-ng-b881475064z

 

We are not aware of any cases in the general population as yet (all ours were evacuees from Wuhan and the Diamond so far and in quarantine in remote areas), but it is inevitable in the next few weeks. There is a fairly substantial Italian heritage population in Australia, heck there are four in my group of 13 colleagues, for example, let alone the large Asian population in downtown Perth. As with other countries, it's not if, but when we get break out and then how rapidly it escalates. Australians generally have good hygiene, and are sensible folks, but there's no accounting for the odd one or two here or there, and that's all it takes.

[BrennerM]

I’m very surprised (and disappointed) that Princess hasn’t yet updated their screening to include travel from Korea, Iran, and the affected Northern Italy regions.

[Germancruiser]

What is that to be dissapointed off? Day bay day  they can almost include all countrys in that list. They wait for further news of the virus. If that goes on like this- soon the ships are moored in ports around the globe waiting for the virus to die down!

[movinout]

Wondering....we have final payment tomorrow on a late May British Isles cruise.  We have Princess Platinum Insurance and our air through Princess Ez air.  Are we fairly well covered if this thing gets worse and we cancel closer to date?  Does the cancel for any reason return airfare which was added into our total or does that  also go into a future credit too w Princess?  Anyone help me with an answer here?  
Thanks, Debbie

Edited February 28, 2020 by movinout
Notify me of reply

[quakershaker]

1 hour ago, BrennerM said:

I’m very surprised (and disappointed) that Princess hasn’t yet updated their screening to include travel from Korea, Iran, and the affected Northern Italy regions.

We are scheduled for a Panama Canal Cruise on 3/1. We just got a notice that South Korea is now on the list of countries as well as any area or region where there has been a government quarantine. I think this would cover Italy. There is also a warning that itineraries can change and that entry requirements to countries might change. 

[matadams4u]

2 hours ago, quakershaker said:

We are scheduled for a Panama Canal Cruise on 3/1. We just got a notice that South Korea is now on the list of countries as well as any area or region where there has been a government quarantine. I think this would cover Italy. There is also a warning that itineraries can change and that entry requirements to countries might change. 

Thanks for the info.  A friend is on a Panama cruise in a couple weeks and was concerned.  Right now it looks like about the safest cruise to be on and maybe safer than home.