So disappointed NO refund for refundable deposit

[esper10]

I had a cruise booked over a year ago for June 2020 was for my mom 86 birthday. No question asked I booked refundable deposit especially cruising with an older mother. Way before final Payment date I called my Carnival agent to cancel the cruise. After keeping me LONG time on the phone he finally canceled my booking but said it was a NONE refundable deposit. I know it is not true but nothing I could do about it. I didn’t book any thing not even sure if my money is kept for future cruise. It is $500.00 so disappointed with Carnival. We are elite/diamond (Not sure how they call it). I cancel a paid in full cruise with Princesse and got my $5,000.00 back. Canceled RCCL and it took few days to get $1,000.00 back and same with Celebrity. Only Carnival when I try to call they end up hanging up on me. I wrote I. Facebook and they deleted my post. It’s been few months now. Can I do any thing about this???? 

[drsel]

Princess is part of the Carnival group

[40yearcruiser]

When did you cancel this cruise? If you canceled it after March 6 you would be eligible for a refund per Carnival's website. Click at the very top of the home page for the information. 

"Carnival will honor this offer for any guests who were previously booked on voyages departing September 30, 2020 or prior and canceled their booking on or after March 6, 2020. "

 

If you cancelled prior to that date, I'd check your confirmation paperwork for anything that indicates you made a refundable deposit. Good luck in getting your money refunded.

[esper10]

25 minutes ago, 40yearcruiser said:

When did you cancel this cruise? If you canceled it after March 6 you would be eligible for a refund per Carnival's website. Click at the very top of the home page for the information. 

"Carnival will honor this offer for any guests who were previously booked on voyages departing September 30, 2020 or prior and canceled their booking on or after March 6, 2020. "

 

If you cancelled prior to that date, I'd check your confirmation paperwork for anything that indicates you made a refundable deposit. Good luck in getting your money refunded.

what do I need to do???

[esper10]

9 minutes ago, esper10 said:

what do I need to do???

I canceled 3-16

[40yearcruiser]

Go to carnival.com and at the top of the homepage you will see UPDATE. Click on More (at the end of the Update line) and scroll down to Canceled Cruises. When you click on that it will take you to a page with the options available if you canceled on or after March 6. Below the options there is a place to click (in blue) for the request form.  If you canceled before March 6 you can try calling again or send an email to guest care with all the information you have about your reservation.

[Wanna_Cruize]

find your original booking confirmation email, it should have the rate information in smaller print near the bottom. 

[SeaLady2019]

I was booked on a cruise for April 25,2020  On March 6th I received an email stating that if I cancelled by March 31  2020 and rebooked for a sailing by March 31 2021 I would not be charged a cancellation fee. This applied to cruises March 6 to April 30.   After that Carnival did cancel my cruise.   Going forward it was Carnival cancelled cruises that were could get refund or FFC and OBC,  not all cancelled by cruiser after March 6 2020

[PhillyFan33579]

Something doesn’t sound right here. If you booked under a refundable deposit, it should have been refunded when you cancelled. However, from reading a lot of posts online, it appears Carnival is holding on to money from passengers as long as possible these days. 

[ontheweb]

If all else fails and you paid by credit card, dispute it with the credit card company. Let them go after Carnival.

[Roger88]

It cannot be true, there are only like a few circumstances when you can be denied a refundable deposit and your case doesnt seem like the one among these few. In any case you have a legal right to demand a refund but as always - even if the court will be on your side, its not a gurantee that you will be getting your money back.. if the company simply doesnt have it 

[travelhound]

It's always better to let Carnival cancel your cruise.  You will get a much better deal, with an a full refund and FCC.

[Schoifmom]

10 hours ago, esper10 said:

I had a cruise booked over a year ago for June 2020 was for my mom 86 birthday. No question asked I booked refundable deposit especially cruising with an older mother. Way before final Payment date I called my Carnival agent to cancel the cruise. After keeping me LONG time on the phone he finally canceled my booking but said it was a NONE refundable deposit. I know it is not true but nothing I could do about it. I didn’t book any thing not even sure if my money is kept for future cruise. It is $500.00 so disappointed with Carnival. We are elite/diamond (Not sure how they call it). I cancel a paid in full cruise with Princesse and got my $5,000.00 back. Canceled RCCL and it took few days to get $1,000.00 back and same with Celebrity. Only Carnival when I try to call they end up hanging up on me. I wrote I. Facebook and they deleted my post. It’s been few months now. Can I do any thing about this???? 

 

I hate to sound like a doubter here, but there are several things in your post that make me question. 

• If you were truly Diamond with Carnival, you would know what that is!!
• You aren't sure if your money is kept for a future cruise.  Didn't you ASK?
• You called your Carnival "agent."  Carnival has PVPs (personal vacation planners) or you could you have had a TA that specializes in Carnival cruises (they are out there).  Which one?
• You say that you cancelled 3/16, but not when the cruise was scheduled.  There is no way that 3/16 could be WAY before final payment for a June cruise unless it was the very end of June.
• Carnival is slammed with phone calls.  I have been dropped a couple of times, but the only way they are hanging up on you is if you are abusive with them.

The upshot of all of this is, we really can't help you.  YOU HAVE TO CALL CARNIVAL.

[NYTwinsMom]

39 minutes ago, PhillyFan33579 said:

Something doesn’t sound right here. If you booked under a refundable deposit, it should have been refunded when you cancelled. However, from reading a lot of posts online, it appears Carnival is holding on to money from passengers as long as possible these days. 

I canceled a refundable deposit with Princess in March for a July itinerary and it took four months to get my deposit refunded! 

[TeresaJ]

If you cancelled on March 16, you can get a refund even with a nonrefundable deposit. Go online and fill out the form and select refund.

We were scheduled to sail 3/15/20 and cancelled on 3/8/20. Their initial policy at that time only allowed for FCC which we were okay with. On 3/16/20, I received an updated email from Carnival allowing me to choose between either FCC or refund.

 

You are entitled to an option!

[xDisconnections]

1 hour ago, Schoifmom said:

 

I hate to sound like a doubter here, but there are several things in your post that make me question. 

• If you were truly Diamond with Carnival, you would know what that is!!
• You aren't sure if your money is kept for a future cruise.  Didn't you ASK?
• You called your Carnival "agent."  Carnival has PVPs (personal vacation planners) or you could you have had a TA that specializes in Carnival cruises (they are out there).  Which one?
• You say that you cancelled 3/16, but not when the cruise was scheduled.  There is no way that 3/16 could be WAY before final payment for a June cruise unless it was the very end of June.
• Carnival is slammed with phone calls.  I have been dropped a couple of times, but the only way they are hanging up on you is if you are abusive with them.

The upshot of all of this is, we really can't help you.  YOU HAVE TO CALL CARNIVAL.

1. Not everyone is aware of the booking terms. Some pay more attention than others or trust what they are told. Diamond doesn’t mean anything. I always book with a refundable deposit but a confirmation email showed one was non-refundable. I had to call back to fix that with Royal Caribbean.

2. The call was disconnected. There are very long hold times and OP sought out alternate options through social media but the post was removed. It’s typical for this to happen on both, the Carnival page and the brand ambassador page.

3. I’ve never used a PVP with Carnival and always used a regular agent despite having a PVP assigned time me. I would never book through a TA or PVP.

4. When was final payment discussed? Maybe OP was unaware of Carnival’s cancelations?

5. Royal Caribbean has been known to hang up on anyone questioning their refund process. What makes Carnival any different?

Edited July 7, 2020 by xDisconnections

[esper10]

5 hours ago, Schoifmom said:

 

I hate to sound like a doubter here, but there are several things in your post that make me question. 

• If you were truly Diamond with Carnival, you would know what that is!!
• You aren't sure if your money is kept for a future cruise.  Didn't you ASK?
• You called your Carnival "agent."  Carnival has PVPs (personal vacation planners) or you could you have had a TA that specializes in Carnival cruises (they are out there).  Which one?
• You say that you cancelled 3/16, but not when the cruise was scheduled.  There is no way that 3/16 could be WAY before final payment for a June cruise unless it was the very end of June.
• Carnival is slammed with phone calls.  I have been dropped a couple of times, but the only way they are hanging up on you is if you are abusive with them.

The upshot of all of this is, we really can't help you.  YOU HAVE TO CALL CARNIVAL.

you are right we are platinum status. I canceled 3-16 and cruise should have been 6-20-2020 so finals payment date was after 3-16 yes I did talk to my vacation planner. I did book a refundable deposit and called my vacation planner to cancel. While we cruised quite a bit I never knew were to find small details. More than that I had 2 different surgeries within 2 months. Hip replacement in the beginning of March, and than I had a fall and broke my fumer Bone at the end of April, so I had no time to look into this. I have no reason not to say exactly what happened since I’m asking for advice.

[ProgRockCruiser]

7 minutes ago, esper10 said:

you are right we are platinum status. I canceled 3-16 and cruise should have been 6-20-2020 so finals payment date was after 3-16 yes I did talk to my vacation planner. I did book a refundable deposit and called my vacation planner to cancel. While we cruised quite a bit I never knew were to find small details. More than that I had 2 different surgeries within 2 months. Hip replacement in the beginning of March, and than I had a fall and broke my fumer Bone at the end of April, so I had no time to look into this. I have no reason not to say exactly what happened since I’m asking for advice.

Sorry about your surgeries - obviously they tend to distract from the details of cancelling a cruise and getting a refund.

 

If you booked a fully refundable deposit and the cruise was cancelled before final payment was made, then you should receive the entire deposit back, regardless of whether it was Carnival or you cancelling it - that's the nature of fully refundable deposits.

 

Did you buy insurance?  Maybe that is the part that is non-refundable.

 

You say you talked to your "vacation planner".  Is that a Carnival PVP, or a third party travel agent?

 

Maybe your PVP/TA told you they booked a fully refundable deposit for you, but they were wrong or misled you.  You need to review the booking info you were sent at the time of the original booking.

 

It is possible some wires are getting crossed between you, your PVP/TA, and Carnival.  You should contact your PVP/TA again and ask for clarification.

Edited July 7, 2020 by ProgRockCruiser

[firefly333]

16 hours ago, esper10 said:

I had a cruise booked over a year ago for June 2020 was for my mom 86 birthday. No question asked I booked refundable deposit especially cruising with an older mother. Way before final Payment date I called my Carnival agent to cancel the cruise. After keeping me LONG time on the phone he finally canceled my booking but said it was a NONE refundable deposit. I know it is not true but nothing I could do about it. I didn’t book any thing not even sure if my money is kept for future cruise. It is $500.00 so disappointed with Carnival. We are elite/diamond (Not sure how they call it). I cancel a paid in full cruise with Princesse and got my $5,000.00 back. Canceled RCCL and it took few days to get $1,000.00 back and same with Celebrity. Only Carnival when I try to call they end up hanging up on me. I wrote I. Facebook and they deleted my post. It’s been few months now. Can I do any thing about this???? 

Do you have a copy of the booking to make sure what rate you booked? Es isnt refundable. Would help if you knew what rate you booked. You say refundable, but dont state the rate. Did you at any time do a price drop and match es? Making it es.

 

So little info here, hard to help

[firefly333]

20 minutes ago, esper10 said:

you are right we are platinum status. I canceled 3-16 and cruise should have been 6-20-2020 so finals payment date was after 3-16 yes I did talk to my vacation planner. I did book a refundable deposit and called my vacation planner to cancel. While we cruised quite a bit I never knew were to find small details. More than that I had 2 different surgeries within 2 months. Hip replacement in the beginning of March, and than I had a fall and broke my fumer Bone at the end of April, so I had no time to look into this. I have no reason not to say exactly what happened since I’m asking for advice.

Again .... what rate did you book. If you dont know call and find out. Start there. 

 

Are you saying you cancelled on final payment date? If right on the date final payment was due, there could be a penalty even if refundable.

[sfaaa]

Next time, book online and do it yourself. This way, you have everything black and white in front of you before you click the buy button instead of relying on someone else and potential problem through miscommunication.

[TeresaJ]

17 hours ago, esper10 said:

I had a cruise booked over a year ago for June 2020 was for my mom 86 birthday. No question asked I booked refundable deposit especially cruising with an older mother. Way before final Payment date I called my Carnival agent to cancel the cruise. After keeping me LONG time on the phone he finally canceled my booking but said it was a NONE refundable deposit. I know it is not true but nothing I could do about it. I didn’t book any thing not even sure if my money is kept for future cruise. It is $500.00 so disappointed with Carnival. We are elite/diamond (Not sure how they call it). I cancel a paid in full cruise with Princesse and got my $5,000.00 back. Canceled RCCL and it took few days to get $1,000.00 back and same with Celebrity. Only Carnival when I try to call they end up hanging up on me. I wrote I. Facebook and they deleted my post. It’s been few months now. Can I do any thing about this???? 

 

Regardless if you booked a nonrefundable deposit, you can still get your deposit back because your cruise was cancelled and you cancelled it after the new policy was implemented where you can choose between FCC or 100% refund.

 

You need to go online and fill out the form on their website and request a refund.