What if your itinerary is not available for the 2022 sailings?

[tribefan]

We are booked on a 34 night B2B on the Serenade for Feb & March of 2021.  As of right now, it is not looking good that the Australian government will even open up the boarders before that.  We plan to go in 2022 if these are cancelled.  For the L&S, is it only for the same type of sailing, they are not listed for 2022 season.  Another thing is these are a 16 & 18 night cruise, We booked them while on the Navigator and got great ship board credits for doing it then.  If we have to change, I take it we have to book at least 12 night cruises to keep it.  We are looking at a 8, 9 and 13 night on the Ovation with an OS cabin.  I just don't want to get screwed out that much ship board credits!!  Sorry if this was posted prior, but I was unable to find anything under a search!!  Also, I take it that we have to do the L& S before they cancel the cruise in order to get the 125% credit.  Also hoping that they cancel before final payment because we are spending some big $$ and hate to tie that money up for such a long time!!  It was it was just a couple $1000, I could handle that but this is WAY more!!  thanks for your help!

[RFerrington]

There is no 125% with L&S.  

[tribefan]

So if we just go ahead and change it, we would get the 125%?  This is all so confusing to me!!

[tribefan]

Or only if we have paid in full?

[Jeannie333333]

we are booking on that cruise too, I am just hoping they release the same itinerary for 2022 soon.  If you lift and shift, they will let you keep the OBC, I believe.   I will be very sad if there is no equivalent for 2022 and this is cancelled.  We are also on the 10 day New Zealand and 5 day Tasmania before the 34 day 😞 

[Auntiemomo]

Doesn't L&S end on 30 September?  I would contact your TA or Royal if you booked direct with them to see what all your options are for L&S.  

[firefly333]

20 minutes ago, tribefan said:

So if we just go ahead and change it, we would get the 125%?  This is all so confusing to me!!

You only get 125% if rcl cancelled your cruise.

 

Lift and switch or just switch. 

[tribefan]

I don't want to just go ahead and switch to 2022 because we have our flights, lodging and tours booked.  We need to have either RCCL or the Australian government cancel so that we get all that $$  back!

[RFerrington]

19 minutes ago, tribefan said:

So if we just go ahead and change it, we would get the 125%?  This is all so confusing to me!!

The only way to get 125% is to wait until Royal cancels your cruise and take the 125% FCC.  If you want to L&S, you can do it any time (before or after the cruise is actually cancelled....up until 30 Sept unless the L&S program is extended).  The price of your cruise is price protected but you can only L&S to a qualified future cruise, which could be a problem in your case.Finding a suitable and qualified cruise to which to L&S might not be too easy to find.  I would let your Travel Agent or Royal help me with this.

[tribefan]

Just now, RFerrington said:

The only way to get 125% is to wait until Royal cancels your cruise and take the 125% FCC.  If you want to L&S, you can do it any time (before or after the cruise is actually cancelled....up until 30 Sept unless the L&S program is extended).  The price of your cruise is price protected but you can only L&S to a qualified future cruise, which could be a problem in your case.Finding a suitable and qualified cruise to which to L&S might not be too easy to find.  I would let your Travel Agent or Royal help me with this.

I doubt we would do the lift and shift since they don't even have our cruises out.  Some say oh, they can post them still, but I highly doubt that.  Unless they bring another ship over for a short time, not going to happen!  But the 125% FCC only if you have paid in full?  Our balance is not even due until the middle and end of Nov, which by then we should know if Australia will even let us in!!

[RFerrington]

1 minute ago, tribefan said:

But the 125% FCC only if you have paid in full? 

No, you do not have to be paid in full for 125%. You can only get 125% if your cruise is cancelled and you choose the Future Cruise Credit option.  If you want cash, you must wait until the cruise is cancelled and choose the 100% cash refund option.

[rockmom]

@tribefan yes, it's confusing.  So, you can do L&S before they cancel but only if there are itineraries that match what you are shifting from.  The things that need to be the same are the number of nights, the type of cabin and the general itinerary such as 'caribbean' or 'mediterranean'.  Ships and ports can be different, but you need to stay in those parameters of length, cabin category (like a J4 to a J4) and same geographic area.   If Royal cancels your cruise, they may offer you three options (but who knows what may change, this is what you currently get offered).  1. is a full refund.  2. is 125% FCC to use on another cruise. 3. is a lift & shift, but again those rules stay the same.  Keep in mind that most of these cancellation have happened after final payment date, so yes, you'd get 125% of the cost of the cruise as as FCC.  You get refunded for port fees, taxes, gratuities and anything you paid for in the Cruise planner.  The 125% is just the cruise fare alone.  So in summary, you get 125% of the fare if you have paid in full.  

 

If you cancel, you have less options.  If you cancel before final payment date, you will be given a FCC in the amount of your deposit--no additional %.  That's if you have a non-refundable deposit.  If your deposit is refundable, they yes, you get a refund.  You can also take your deposit whether it's refundable or not and transfer it to a new cruise. 

 

With regard to OBC, I was able to lift and shift a cruise from this October to one next year and the OBC I had for booking while in another cruise remained with the booking, although I made sure the rep I spoke with confirmed that.   I also did a lift and shift from Jan 21 to Jan 22 with OBC that was given to me due to another cruise being canceled due to a charter.  That OBC also moved over with the L&S, again, I made sure the rep was aware and moved it.   I don't know if that OBC would transfer if you moved a cruise deposit to a new cruise, but not an actual L&S.  In that case, you might lose it, but that's a question for a TA or a Royal rep I think.   

 

Clear as mud?  Good luck!  

[stevea36]

If you go to cancellation.royalcaribbean.com and select the lift and shift option you can see what sailings are available for you to use L&S from your current sailing.  Use the drop down for "first choice" to see the options, just don't save it.

[tribefan]

Thanks everyone for your help!!  We will just wait to see what happens with the Australian government in regards to letting travelers in.  From what I have been reading it is not looking good for quite awhile.  As it is now, the Serenade was suppose to go from Honolulu to Sydney in September and that isn't happening.  Who knows when the ship will even be there!!!   The boarders are closed until mid Sept, and Qantas has pulled international travel until mid March.  

[Biker19]

6 hours ago, tribefan said:

We need to have either RCCL or the Australian government cancel so that we get all that $$  back!

You'll likely need to wait till the end of the year for that.

[zalusky]

I am on the bottom end of that cruise as well.  I had to cancel a March cruise this year and applied the FCCs from that to this cruise since they would have expired in March anyway.  If they cancel I hope they reissue new certificates with another year on them since I don't expect anything to even be available next March and even if it was there is no way I would take it with an immune compromised wife.

 

When they opened up down under bookings for 2022 they purposely left out circumnavigations and I fully expect them to keep them left out for another year simply because the initial sailings to reopen cruising are going to be short sailings.  I don't expect to see any of this two week stuff till they are confidant the one week stuff works.

An 18 day sailing is just too risky for them let alone full circumnavigations and all the lockdowns currently.

 

It's too bad the bottom end was a very unique itinerary.

[lr657]

18 hours ago, stevea36 said:

If you go to cancellation.royalcaribbean.com and select the lift and shift option you can see what sailings are available for you to use L&S from your current sailing.  Use the drop down for "first choice" to see the options, just don't save it.

 

I am also on these top and bottom circumnavigation cruises and the Tasmania cruise preceding them. I have used the website to check and see what options would be available to L&S to and there are no options offered. 

 

We were recently able to move our deposits for 2 other cruises we had booked to book new cruises in 2022 and the Next Cruise OBC moved to the new cruises with the deposit. 

Edited August 18, 2020 by lr657

[MaritimeR&R]

I hope you fared better than I did, but I would not count on RC bending over backwards to accommodate you.  One of my sailings did not have a 2022 matchup from the same (an easy drive for me) port.  If I am to keep the credits that I had applied to it (from the casino) and the booking rate (18 months ago), I have to incur the additional expense of transport to the airport (2 hrs away), a hotel for at least one night (it's wintertime), airfare, transport to the cruise, and then, the expenses to come back home--an extra 1100-1200 dollars out of my pocket. Basically, it was an ,"Oh, well," on their part, associate and supervisors. This cruise was part of a B2B which for next year went from an 11/8 to an 11/9 (an extra sea day was added.) They wouldn't budge.