Cancel or hedge our bets on 3rd (currently) sailing of Mardi Gras?

[geneparmesan]

17 minutes ago, Lee Cruiser said:

By doing it before it was actually canceled, were you still able to get the $600 onboard credit?

No, I was not able to get the $600 OBC. I decided I'd rather not risk making the final payment in case the cruise did happen. In hindsight, I probably should've tried to get my final payment due date extended. But I did like knowing my re-booking was in place for a better price.

[13cheermom]

That's the thing for us also, whether to wait it out or not.  Probably won't go on the cruise regardless just as a safety concern and would like to get the vaccine prior to start sailing again.  Our luck they will cancel the day after I re-book, hence forfeiting the $600 OBC.  However we also have some FCC from the first MG cancellation, that I'm hoping will also move with my re-booking, regardless of the $600 OBC.  I've already looked at the dates and figured it out, just a matter of calling in and getting the right person to handle the transaction correctly, lol.  We all know how that can go 😂.  Has anyone else had the FCC moved over to their new booking, since it was a result of ship not being ready in time and not COVID related?

[skridge]

On 1/14/2021 at 11:49 AM, BrentD said:

Looking for opinions that I won't hold anyone accountable for. 😄

 

My wife and I are booked on what currently will be the third sailing of the Mardi Gras on May 8th. Due to the ongoing status of Covid and my wife's growing apprehension of being away from our then 2 1/2 year old twin boys (she has unrealistic visions of us being stuck on the ship for weeks a la the Diamond Princess), we have pretty much decided to cancel.

 

That being said, our final payment date is not until February 7th. Since all MG sailings that were scheduled through April 17th are now canceled, I also don't have high hopes that our sailing on May 8th would happen in the first place. Worth noting that all of what we have paid so far (other than the deposit) has been via gift cards purchased at Kroger so we could get fuel points for buying them. We have paid around $950 and have a remaining balance of around $1500.

 

OPTION 1 - Cancel right before final payment in hopes that Carnival cancels first. Our Early Saver deposit of $198 would be refunded with a $98 future cruise credit to be used within 2 years, as I understand it, due to the $50/pp service fee for doing so.

 

OPTION 2 - Pay the final ~$1500 payment with debit/credit, hedge our bets and see if Carnival makes a move to cancel the sailing. If we hold out until early March and Carnival changes nothing, canceling it would result in forfeiting the standard deposit amount, which I understand would be $250/pp, or $500 total. That leaves us with a ~$450 gift card and $1500 refund.

 

As I understand things based on how it has gone so far, if Carnival cancels before exercising option 1 we would get $600 in OBC and a future cruise credit of $950.  If they cancel before we exercise option 2 it would be the same $600 OBC and future cruise credit for the full cruise fare of around $2500. I'm leaning towards option 1 and using the $1500 from not having to make the final payment vacationing somewhere else since the cruise isn't happening. I don't know if Carnival is strategic in when they announce cancellations, but I'm inclined to think Carnival would wait til right after the final payment date of as many of the cruises they can that they would be cancelling. 

If it were me I would cancel and get as much of my money back just in case of a bankruptcy situation.  I wouldn't give them another $1,500.00 interest free loan on top of the $950 interest free loan you have already given them with the gift certificates.  This is definitely a cautionary tale in what can happen if you try to score some cheap gas.

[VentureMan_2000]

I just got my final payment due date extended out to the end of February for my May 8 cruise on the Panama out of Long Beach California.  Los Angeles is exploding with Covid right now -- they say 1 in 3 have been infected by Covid there.  I just can't see California allowing cruise ships until Covid settles down there.

I figure that Carnival will have cancelled May cruises by the end of February if they are going to.

I spent 5 months getting my money refunded from the 3 cruises they cancelled in 2020 that I had booked and fully paid for... I don't want to do that again.

[SNJCruisers]

May 8th on Mardi Gras has a zero percent chance of happening.  If Carnival has the test cruises sometime in May, they then need to give the CDC the 60 day waiting period, putting the short 3/4 day revenue producing cruises towards the end of July at the earliest, assuming they can get enough cruisers that have already had their second round of vaccine shots.

Best case scenario is the Mardi Gras starts up late August, but I am crossing my fingers for our Halloween cruise to go because I already switched our once movable airfare from January to October.

[BrentD]

Woop! Just got our cancellation email this morning for the May 8th Mardi Gras sailing with 100% FCC and $600 OBC. Paid to hold out!

[BrentD]

Also on that note....never had this happen before, so this may be a stupid question. But I assume the FCC is only for the amount you’ve paid so far if final payment wasn’t due yet (less taxes, prepaid gratuities, excursions, etc) and not a credit for the full fare you booked at, correct?

[SummerXU]

7 minutes ago, BrentD said:

Woop! Just got our cancellation email this morning for the May 8th Mardi Gras sailing with 100% FCC and $600 OBC. Paid to hold out!

I was in this same situation, only we were on the May 15 Mardi Gras sailing. We've already made alternative vacation plans, and knew we weren't going on the cruise, but I was holding out on canceling as long as possible. I'm actually really glad and relieved that it's been canceled. Now I don't have to play this game and have until the end of Sept to pick my new cruise.

Edited January 22, 2021 by SummerXU

[SummerXU]

2 minutes ago, BrentD said:

Also on that note....never had this happen before, so this may be a stupid question. But I assume the FCC is only for the amount you’ve paid so far if final payment wasn’t due yet (less taxes, prepaid gratuities, excursions, etc) and not a credit for the full fare you booked at, correct?

Correct. They'll just take whatever you have paid towards your current cruise and apply it to your new booking.

[CJHAN]

I was in the same boat. I decided that I would make the final payment and take the future cruise credit and the onboard credit. For me it was an easy choice because the money I set aside for this cruise will not be used for anything else. Now if I had to have it for something else then canceling is clearly the better choice them paying in full.

[Joebucks]

My bet on the Mardi Gras is a lot of people are excited to sail it, and want to be one of the first ones to do so. COVID will continue to cause problems, and disappoint people

 

(Slaps $100 on the table)

[mouche]

On 1/14/2021 at 12:49 PM, joeyancho said:

No one is cruising anywhere for a long time . Covid is killing more people than ever before . More people are testing positive than ever before . There is a new highly contagious strain spreading rapidly.  We are in the worst shape ever.  The vaccine rollout is a disaster .

 

I hate it, but so true!!!

[ngrund]

rebooked for 5/7/2022-

 

called and had the partial payments made on the cancelled cruise put on the new reservation no problem

 

I just wish they could have transferred my Cheers package since I bought during a promo ( I think 25% off), but I'm sure it will be offered again

 

[BrentD]

27 minutes ago, ngrund said:

rebooked for 5/7/2022-

 

called and had the partial payments made on the cancelled cruise put on the new reservation no problem

 

I just wish they could have transferred my Cheers package since I bought during a promo ( I think 25% off), but I'm sure it will be offered again

 

Did you already have OBC on your original booking? And does that transfer also? I’ve heard mixed stories on that. 

[13cheermom]

22 minutes ago, BrentD said:

Did you already have OBC on your original booking? And does that transfer also? I’ve heard mixed stories on that. 

Can't double up on OBC, I had $200 OBC from previous cancellation, however gladly gave it up to gain the $600 OBC. 😉

[ngrund]

2 hours ago, BrentD said:

Did you already have OBC on your original booking? And does that transfer also? I’ve heard mixed stories on that. 

No OBC but it was good I could transfer the amount paid-

 

I really didn't want a refund-amounts I paid were on gift cards and used an AMEX cash back offer that I didn't want to have reversed

[BrentD]

2 minutes ago, ngrund said:

No OBC but it was good I could transfer the amount paid-

 

I really didn't want a refund-amounts I paid were on gift cards and used an AMEX cash back offer that I didn't want to have reversed

Yeah, having used gift cards for most of what we paid so far, we are in the same boat (pun intended), so we will be rebooking also. 

[ngrund]

If you just go one year out we'll probably be on same trip-

 

we decided on upgrading to a Havana Suite

[SNJCruisers]

3 hours ago, ngrund said:

I just wish they could have transferred my Cheers package since I bought during a promo ( I think 25% off), but I'm sure it will be offered again

I have to assume that the two cruises in question were different lengths and that is the reason it did not transfer over. The reason I say this is because our 7 day Halloween sailing on the MG was originally booked as a 7 day sailing the last week of August and our Cheers promo that we purchased as well as Cruise Cash rolled over with no problem and the booking number remained the same.

[SNJCruisers]

49 minutes ago, ngrund said:

we decided on upgrading to a Havana Suite

If it's on one of the 3 Vista Class ships, you'll thoroughly enjoy it.  We were in Havana on two different Horizon sailings.

If it's on the MG, probably not as much since Havana was an afterthought.  Carnival was more concerned with their new Excel Suites and Loft 19 area.

[ngrund]

9 hours ago, SNJCruisers said:

If it's on one of the 3 Vista Class ships, you'll thoroughly enjoy it.  We were in Havana on two different Horizon sailings.

If it's on the MG, probably not as much since Havana was an afterthought.  Carnival was more concerned with their new Excel Suites and Loft 19 area.

 

9 hours ago, SNJCruisers said:

I have to assume that the two cruises in question were different lengths and that is the reason it did not transfer over. The reason I say this is because our 7 day Halloween sailing on the MG was originally booked as a 7 day sailing the last week of August and our Cheers promo that we purchased as well as Cruise Cash rolled over with no problem and the booking number remained the same.

 

9 hours ago, SNJCruisers said:

If it's on one of the 3 Vista Class ships, you'll thoroughly enjoy it.  We were in Havana on two different Horizon sailings.

If it's on the MG, probably not as much since Havana was an afterthought.  Carnival was more concerned with their new Excel Suites and Loft 19 area.

Its on Mardi Gras- we are doing it mostly to have the less crowded pool  and the Excel was more thna I really wanted to spend

 

The lengths are the same-so maybe your rep knew a trick to transfer Cheers

[SNJCruisers]

4 hours ago, ngrund said:

Its on Mardi Gras- we are doing it mostly to have the less crowded pool  and the Excel was more thna I really wanted to spend

 

The lengths are the same-so maybe your rep knew a trick to transfer Cheers

The Havana area on the Vista Class ships are located aft on deck five with a large pool and two big hot tubs and two huts with an area to sit and put your feet in very shallow water.  Whereas on the MG, from the pictures there is only a small pool on the starboard side of deck eight..  It's still nice not having to deal with unruly kuds, but nowhere near as nice a setup as on the Vista Class ships.

Don't know why there was a problem transferring your cruise planner purchases.  We bought Cheers and Cruise Cash under the 20% off deal for our MG August cruise and it transferred to our October cruise.  Both are 7 days and the booking number remained the same.

Edited January 23, 2021 by SNJCruisers

[ngrund]

might have been because my booking # changed-

 

I should have called first, but what I did was book the 2nd trip online myself, then called to transfer.

 

live and learn..

[SNJCruisers]

2 minutes ago, ngrund said:

might have been because my booking # changed-

 

I should have called first, but what I did was book the 2nd trip online myself, then called to transfer.

 

live and learn..

That is probably the reason.  If you booked the second one via the same method of PVP or TA, then it should have easily transferred.

[ngrund]

3 minutes ago, SNJCruisers said:

That is probably the reason.  If you booked the second one via the same method of PVP or TA, then it should have easily transferred.

Yep, I usually just book myself on line, but needed to call to transfer the payments already made. I'm sure they will run that Cheers promo again before next May and I'll just repurchase