Princess Suspending Operations for 60 Days

[cruisegirl]

35 minutes ago, tampacruiser said:

It was on the Holland America Official Facebook page

Thanks for letting us know. 

[cruisegirl]

40 minutes ago, Crazy For Cats said:

I had reached out to my PCC this morning.  I let her know that I have a back up plan if next week's cruise gets cancelled.  She replied that there are no plans to cancel a sailing.  If we cancel a sailing you would receive an Emergency/Important notice by email.

I tried to call my TA today and got a message that there might be a delay of 24-48 hrs on a return call. Sure glad I wasn’t trying to cancel!  

40 minutes ago, Crazy For Cats said:

 

 

[Cruising-along]

20 minutes ago, cruiseing marly said:

I would take FCC if they Guarantee same length of cruise same categories as booked. To easy to raise prices to make up some losses

Agree. There's the rub 😞  We're waiting it out, hoping HAL will follow in Princess' footsteps and cancel our cruise and offer full refund.

[cruisemom42]

19 minutes ago, Cruising-along said:

Agree. There's the rub 😞  We're waiting it out, hoping HAL will follow in Princess' footsteps and cancel our cruise and offer full refund.

 

...and if they don't cancel, will you go?

[CruisingAndDiving]

3 minutes ago, cruisemom42 said:

 

...and if they don't cancel, will you go?

In my case... I've got until March 31 for the FCC portion... I also have Platinum CPP.  We are/were scheduled to leave on April 19 for our TA on Zuiderdam

 

I'm hoping that HAL will follow suit with Princess, that way I get more bang for my FCC down the road.  If for some reason not, I still know I'm covered for damn near everything.

Edited March 12, 2020 by CruisingAndDiving

[Cruising-along]

9 minutes ago, cruisemom42 said:

 

...and if they don't cancel, will you go?

No, we won't go.  

We've already canceled all private tours etc.  

[Grum]

Our cruise leaves on April 2nd from Sydney, Australia to Vancouver. We however fly out on March 23rd. There is a plethora of really little information. From cancelling of private excursions, to flights, etc is something I can cope with IF I only knew what HAL was/is going to do. Frustrating to say the least.

[CruisingAndDiving]

1 minute ago, Grum said:

Our cruise leaves on April 2nd from Sydney, Australia to Vancouver. We however fly out on March 23rd. There is a plethora of really little information. From cancelling of private excursions, to flights, etc is something I can cope with IF I only knew what HAL was/is going to do. Frustrating to say the least.

that's the big kicker here...for TransPacific and TransAtlantic sailings.... absolutely ZIP has been communicated

[Cruising-along]

Just now, Grum said:

Our cruise leaves on April 2nd from Sydney, Australia to Vancouver. We however fly out on March 23rd. There is a plethora of really little information. From cancelling of private excursions, to flights, etc is something I can cope with IF I only knew what HAL was/is going to do. Frustrating to say the least.

We're on that same cruise and having the same feelings.  We (were going to) fly out 2 weeks from today, the 26th. 

[luvstosail]

43 minutes ago, Cruising-along said:

Agree. There's the rub 😞  We're waiting it out, hoping HAL will follow in Princess' footsteps and cancel our cruise and offer full refund.

 

AS they should.

 

[conwakr]

Oddly enough today's HAL announcement doesn't surprise me. It makes total sense to me for their other "brands" to ride it out for a few days and see what happens. Princess was in big trouble with their brand's ship issues and then the port workers in Ft. Lauderdale that service Princess. If those incidents had been spread out across other lines I would have expected a different reaction.  Our cruise is in mid-April so I'm just letting it all play out.  I can reschedule both the cruise and the plane trip if needed when the time comes. 

[ozzie0075]

Another potential domino.  Doesn't directly effect HAL but interesting none the less.  The Governor of Maryland has closed the Baltimore Cruise Ship Terminal.  

https://www.baltimoresun.com/coronavirus/bs-md-maryland-first-coronavirus-transmission-20200312-ry4vxcsyhvev5keusxznk3etae-story.html

[Himself]

4 hours ago, gphb said:

Orlando just reported to Travel Advisors that HAL have no plans at this time for any fleet wide decisions similar to Princess.   They do not consider they have had any confirmed cases of COVID-19 and so do not have the same need to flush the brand as do Princess.   They will look at individual ships and itineraries.    

 

In the meantime they will be changing their Short Term Cancel/Book with Confidence program to include 100% commission (base + override) payable to TA even if guests cancel, and to provide commission on the FCC rebookings.

 

 

 

 

I am glad!

[Heartgrove]

And from Holland America Lines home country:

 

https://nltimes.nl/2020/03/12/coronavirus-cases-jump-614-netherlands

 

My next cruise is not until September from Rotterdam with a final payment date in June. 

Edited March 12, 2020 by Heartgrove

[atexsix]

51 minutes ago, conwakr said:

Oddly enough today's HAL announcement doesn't surprise me. It makes total sense to me for their other "brands" to ride it out for a few days and see what happens. Princess was in big trouble with their brand's ship issues and then the port workers in Ft. Lauderdale that service Princess. If those incidents had been spread out across other lines I would have expected a different reaction.  Our cruise is in mid-April so I'm just letting it all play out.  I can reschedule both the cruise and the plane trip if needed when the time comes. 

Same here, a lot can happen or not happen in a month, we have CFAR insurance and can wait until almost the last minute on just about everything.

[RocketMan275]

7 hours ago, Jacqueline said:

Cruise ships are the worst place to be in an epidemic bar none as the populations tend to be older and more medically fragile.

You're confusing the population at risk with the location.

The 'older and more medically fragile' will be 'older and medically fragile' regardless of where they are.  You might as well have said:  "Nursing homes are the worst place to be in an epidemic bar none as the populations tend to be older and more medically fragile."

[RocketMan275]

6 hours ago, JeremyTexas said:

Carnival had $518m in cash and $4.7b in customer deposits as-of 11/30/2019.  They physically cannot refund more than ~10% of their bookings before they run out of cash.  

Wouldn't the refunds come from customer deposits?  

[JeremyTexas]

19 minutes ago, RocketMan275 said:

Wouldn't the refunds come from customer deposits?  

Carnival does not place customer deposits in a separate account.  Instead, it uses customer deposits as working capital...  of which only $518m is left in the bank.  

[i80545]

Highly impressed w Viking to do the responsible thing wo questions asked during this critical time. We sail Viking and HAL only and have/had a March 22 HAL cruise coming up. Unless something changes with HAL immediately, this will make the decision easy. Will probably only sail Viking in the future. HAL has lost me.


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[npcl]

1 hour ago, RocketMan275 said:

Wouldn't the refunds come from customer deposits?  

No  because they only have 518 million in cash, though they do have a revolving credit line of 2.8 billion to access.

 

The customer deposits are listed in current liabilities.  They do not leave the cash sitting around waiting for the cruises to happen. The money is spent as it comes in, based upon corporate needs, not when the cruise happens.  All of the major cruise lines have the same issue.

 

If they just left it sitting around they would also have a section in assets with 4.7b of deposits in cash, which they do not.

[darstamp]

9 hours ago, Xaintrix said:

As of right now Holland America is sticking to their current FCC policies.  No cash refund option as of 3/12/2020 07:30 PT.  I asked the rep to escalate the issue that their sister line offered this and was seeking a cash refund and they refused.  Currently set to sail for the 18th, was actually going to continue to go until the a full stop to operations mid cruises was announced.

 

I knew there would be some breaking point. I can handle closed ports and what not - but if we're going to be just shoved back to shore right away AND be given the refund, just give me the refund and don't waste my time on top of it all.

 

REAL shame.

We were scheduled to go on the 18th as well and cancelled today.  There were 10 of us. I am so sad about it because we probably won't ever get to do the trip as it isn't being offered in spring break next year.  However, I appreciate the FCC, they didn't have to do that.  Now to tackle the airlines as we have cancellation insurance for both but we are concerned just the same that they won't give us back our money now that WHO has labelled it a pandemic.  As for Princess, it's too bad but seven people died.  They changed crew with another ship and spread it around.  I just don't believe they were careful enough.  

 

[ozzie0075]

Disney is shutting down Disneyland, Disneyworld and Disney cruise line. 

'

 

[cruiseing marly]

1 hour ago, darstamp said:

We were scheduled to go on the 18th as well and cancelled today.  There were 10 of us. I am so sad about it because we probably won't ever get to do the trip as it isn't being offered in spring break next year.  However, I appreciate the FCC, they didn't have to do that.  Now to tackle the airlines as we have cancellation insurance for both but we are concerned just the same that they won't give us back our money now that WHO has labelled it a pandemic.  As for Princess, it's too bad but seven people died.  They changed crew with another ship and spread it around.  I just don't believe they were careful enough.  

 

Air Canada most likely will change destinations and dates. I thought the insurance would  cover our cancellation the Westerdam Japan. So i booked a Mediterranean cruise. Changed the flights no change fee they had a agreement with the cruise line. Now when you cancel your flight i heard they insist you rebook immediately . The reason for not giving a credit to use within a year is what i would have expected. Especially with this fluid situation . 

 

[fatcat04]

1 hour ago, ozzie0075 said:

Disney is shutting down Disneyland, Disneyworld and Disney cruise line. 

'

 

Wow. Disneyland and Disney World almost never shut down. Universal parks are also closing.

[Niagarawine]

Nobody wants to go on a cruise this May more than I do, first to Alaska . However I believe that Holland needs to shut down business like Princess, don’t think the port of Vancouver will be open for ships. We were booked for May 9 on Koningsdam and wish they would cancel our cruise,too risky to sail at this time.