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RCL cancels cruises through April 30th but will not release the cruise so you can get a refund?


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I have a March 13th cruise booked and had to pay my final balance a few weeks ago. The total for my cruise was $7,000.00. My agent has called twice now to request a refund but is being told we cannot yet because the cruise has not officially been cancelled in the system by Royal. Has anyone had this happen? If so, what was the outcome for this? When do they cancel the cruise in the system? I saw one person say they don't cancel it until the cruise is supposed to return to port, which for me would be March 20th. You can bet I am not letting them keep my money for 2 months when they have already announced it won't be sailing!

 

This is crazy that they are pulling this crap!

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same thing happened for me too. my sailing was supposed to be jan 2. i called monday asking about my refunds and FCCs but they told me the same thing, the sailing was still "active" and not "cancelled" in their system, hence why no refunds have been processed. the cruise was supposed to return Jan 9th and still, no refunds or FCCs...... 

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14 minutes ago, Hammergirl said:

I have a March 13th cruise booked and had to pay my final balance a few weeks ago. The total for my cruise was $7,000.00. My agent has called twice now to request a refund but is being told we cannot yet because the cruise has not officially been cancelled in the system by Royal. Has anyone had this happen? If so, what was the outcome for this? When do they cancel the cruise in the system? I saw one person say they don't cancel it until the cruise is supposed to return to port, which for me would be March 20th. You can bet I am not letting them keep my money for 2 months when they have already announced it won't be sailing!

 

This is crazy that they are pulling this crap!

 

I replied to your question in the other thread, but they allowed me to cancel everything with the cruise still showing in the planner. I wonder if you had a group rate or something through your TA that is causing the issue? I booked direct. They apparently won't send confirmation of the cancellation(believe me i fought for that), but i have since gotten email confirmation of the beverage package being cancelled. I did not cancel that separately, so something is working over there.

Edited by MiniChunks
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Just now, MiniChunks said:

 

I replied to your question in the other thread, but they allowed me to cancel everything with the cruise still showing in the planner. I wonder if you had a group rate or something through your TA that is causing the issue? I booked direct.

I just emailed her and asked her to try again as that kind of money is to much to just let hang out there until they decide to cancel it in their system. I did not have a group rate, so I am not sure what the issue is. 

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1 minute ago, Hammergirl said:

I just emailed her and asked her to try again as that kind of money is to much to just let hang out there until they decide to cancel it in their system. I did not have a group rate, so I am not sure what the issue is. 

 

That sucks. I had just made final payment Sunday, then they cancel it Tuesday. They've got over $10k from me.

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They give you a certain amount of time to request your money back rather than an FCC.  But they don't start processing anything until that date since you might change your mind and want an FCC.  Same thing with Cruise Planner Credits - nothing starts until some magic day in the future.

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My wife and I were booked on the TA from Galveston in a few months time and it’s still listed on my RC upcoming cruise page. We have not received any email notification about the cruise but obviously we know it’s cancelled. When I checked the “make payment now” tab and it’s still there and if I was that way inclined, I could give them some cash (which obviously I will not).

 

Note in the UK we have to make the final payment 57 days before the cruise starts.

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I phoned yesterday to lift and shift our transatlantic, by last night I had an email showing the amounts we would receive from the planner sales and the bank account we used, we also had the new cruise showing on the website stating our cabin number

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31 minutes ago, Digjharper said:

My wife and I were booked on the TA from Galveston in a few months time and it’s still listed on my RC upcoming cruise page. We have not received any email notification about the cruise but obviously we know it’s cancelled. When I checked the “make payment now” tab and it’s still there and if I was that way inclined, I could give them some cash (which obviously I will not).

 

Note in the UK we have to make the final payment 57 days before the cruise starts.

Lucky! 90 Days for my recent Cruises first was due end Dec other first week of Jan for my end of March and First of April Cruises

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3 hours ago, LeeW said:

They give you a certain amount of time to request your money back rather than an FCC.  But they don't start processing anything until that date since you might change your mind and want an FCC.  Same thing with Cruise Planner Credits - nothing starts until some magic day in the future.

Not always the case, I lost my February cruise on the last round of cancellations.  Called the day following the announcement, and had cruise fare and cruise planner purchases all credited back to my AMEX within 10 business days

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19 hours ago, Hammergirl said:

I just emailed her and asked her to try again as that kind of money is to much to just let hang out there until they decide to cancel it in their system. I did not have a group rate, so I am not sure what the issue is. 

Perhaps they intend to mark you down as a no show and keep your money? Because as I understand it you don't have the Abta and Atol protections we have in the UK do you securing your money the way we do? There is nothing to stop you from losing your money if Royal goes under correct?. Unless you have some kind of insurance yourself? Perhaps Royal are in far more serious financial trouble then is generally known.

Edited by ace2542
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We have had several previous cancellations. Once you request a refund you are told that you can expect it within 30-45 days. We have had at least 10 cancellations and only our 1st cancellation took longer than 30 days. We received our last few refunds within 3 weeks. Give them some time, they have 2 months worth of cancellations to deal with. 

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8 minutes ago, lr657 said:

We have had several previous cancellations. Once you request a refund you are told that you can expect it within 30-45 days. We have had at least 10 cancellations and only our 1st cancellation took longer than 30 days. We received our last few refunds within 3 weeks. Give them some time, they have 2 months worth of cancellations to deal with. 

 

1 minute ago, smokeybandit said:

The email you got said refund time frames are 45 days. 

 

I believe OP's issue is that Royal is not even letting her cancel and request a refund at this point even though they've announced the cancellations. 

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Heard from agent last night and she was finally able to request a refund. She said up until that point it was showing "pending" and she was not allowed to ask for a refund. So she said I will see my refund within 45 days and then I have a $1000.00 FCC that will come back to me as well. 

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2 minutes ago, MiniChunks said:

 

 

I believe OP's issue is that Royal is not even letting her cancel and request a refund at this point even though they've announced the cancellations. 

Yes - this was exactly my issue. My agent was told we were not allowed to request a refund because the cruise was still showing as active in their system, even though we all know they sent out the email that the cruises were cancelled. That is not ok.

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1 hour ago, Hammergirl said:

Heard from agent last night and she was finally able to request a refund. She said up until that point it was showing "pending" and she was not allowed to ask for a refund. So she said I will see my refund within 45 days and then I have a $1000.00 FCC that will come back to me as well. 

 

I'm glad you got it ironed out. It just goes to show you how bad their IT/Cust service is though. I was able to get the very same thing done days before you were, but you were getting the run around. Dealing with them pre and post cruise is a joke. Still love cruising with them though. 

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3 hours ago, ace2542 said:

Perhaps they intend to mark you down as a no show and keep your money? Because as I understand it you don't have the Abta and Atol protections we have in the UK do you securing your money the way we do? There is nothing to stop you from losing your money if Royal goes under correct?. Unless you have some kind of insurance yourself? Perhaps Royal are in far more serious financial trouble then is generally known.

How can you “no show” on a cruise that isn’t sailing?

Financially Royal is doing OK, they get billions in loans any time they ask. 

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1 hour ago, not-enough-cruising said:

How can you “no show” on a cruise that isn’t sailing?

Financially Royal is doing OK, they get billions in loans any time they ask. 

Perhaps "no show" is the wrong phrase to use but was only phrase I could think off. Perhaps they are trying to find some way of avoiding of paying people back if they can?. Maybe they just want to hold onto the money until the last second get every cent of interest on it they can. They are probably moving money around the various aspects of their operation to keep different things on track. Perhaps as the saying goes they are to robbing Peter to pay Paul. But Peter will get his money back in the end.

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18 minutes ago, ace2542 said:

Perhaps "no show" is the wrong phrase to use but was only phrase I could think off. Perhaps they are trying to find some way of avoiding of paying people back if they can?. Maybe they just want to hold onto the money until the last second get every cent of interest on it they can. They are probably moving money around the various aspects of their operation to keep different things on track. Perhaps as the saying goes they are to robbing Peter to pay Paul. But Peter will get his money back in the end.

OR they could just be taking 48-72 hours to process all the cancellations in the system (like has been the case on most cancellations that have been announced)

Not everything has to have a conspiracy theory attached to it.

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7 hours ago, ace2542 said:

...  There is nothing to stop you from losing your money if Royal goes under correct?. Unless you have some kind of insurance yourself?  ...

 

They cancelled my Empress cruise and when I call they are saying 30-45 days for cruise planner refunds.  The cruise deposit was with FCC so not sure if that is the same 30-45 days.

 

Also, a lot of the travel insurance from 3rd parties that is sold in the US has protection for bankruptcy of the cruise lines so if RCL goes bankrupt you get your money back.  One reason I do not buy travel insurance from the cruise lines.

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