Count me out of the OBC game. I took the refund.

[SNJCruisers]

19 minutes ago, bitemyfly said:

The 600 buck obc was a very smart play by CCL. 

Have to disagree.  If giving 600 in OBC was such a smart play, then why did other cruise lines not follow suit?

The other lines all gave a 125% credit based off of the base cruise fare. This way the cruisers still have to spend money on board once they cruise.   If they are frugal at a minimum they need to pay for gratuities.

The 600 in free money can be used on Carnival however the cruiser wishes, including buying future gift cards to be used for a future cruise or cashed out at the casino.  This is a loophole that is not available with the 125%.

[firefly333]

41 minutes ago, SNJCruisers said:

Neither have I.  The 3000 came from adding up all expenses.  Cruise fare, taxes, port charges, gratuities, Cheers, specialty dining...for two.

On carnival all those things will come out of obc. Rcl I wait until I board. Diamond plus gets buy 1 get 1 free pay dinner I plan on doing. Etc. So the 10% off cruisefare doesnt help me much, or enough I'd personally bother fooling with it. And I've been cruising for years. Just not something I bother with.

 

I usually book last  minute and dont have time to send in gift cards. This is rare I'm booked in advance.  When i booked I thought for sure sept safe to go, I'd be vaccinated. Now not so sure.

[SNJCruisers]

1 hour ago, firefly333 said:

On carnival all those things will come out of obc. Rcl I wait until I board. Diamond plus gets buy 1 get 1 free pay dinner I plan on doing. Etc. So the 10% off cruisefare doesnt help me much, or enough I'd personally bother fooling with it. And I've been cruising for years. Just not something I bother with.

 

I usually book last  minute and dont have time to send in gift cards. This is rare I'm booked in advance.  When i booked I thought for sure sept safe to go, I'd be vaccinated. Now not so sure.

First of all, don't care what does or doesn't come out of OBC.  The 300.00 10% savings via gift cards covers everything, not just the cruise fare that you mentioned.   Don't need to send them in either.  I just rattle off the number to my TA and save 10%. Give the CSR the card at check in and save 10% on everything I spend on board. Can use them months in advance or last minute like you reserve at times out of Galveston.

[jetsfan58]

I would not think that an established Cruise line with a stellar reputation is going to suddenly run off with our dollars. You have to have faith that we will cruise again soon. Everybody vaccinate and the process will be shortened for us to get back out to sea. 

[mandmcruise]

On 1/30/2021 at 9:04 PM, xDisconnections said:

Welcome to the refund club!

It’s the better choice.

Not necessarily.  In my daughter's and I case , our almost $2000 cruise we would only receive $576.00 back.  We originally received a 25% FCC when two ports of call were missed on our Oct 2019  Sunrise, Canada/New England cruise.  We used that to schedule the then inaugural Mardi Gras out of Copenhagen to London.  Unfortunately that was cancelled before Covid hit.  For that cruise being cancelled we received another 25% FCC.  We have had 5 other cruises cancelled.  So we will keep rescheduling with OBC although this time when we rescheduled we dropped down to a 5 day, so if this one cancels in late October we will only receive 300.  But that's life.  Another thing this was to be the last mom/daughter cruise as she is getting married New Years Eve 2021.  she also has a rescheduled cruise with fiancé and his family for early December 2021, and they are going to schedule one in January 2022 for their honeymoon.  I told her if ours is cancelled in October I will happily give her $288, for her half and go solo.  I will just keep plugging along and rescheduling until they either go or go bankrupt and then well I'm out $288.00!

[xDisconnections]

7 minutes ago, mandmcruise said:

Not necessarily.  In my daughter's and I case , our almost $2000 cruise we would only receive $576.00 back.  We originally received a 25% FCC when two ports of call were missed on our Oct 2019  Sunrise, Canada/New England cruise.  We used that to schedule the then inaugural Mardi Gras out of Copenhagen to London.  Unfortunately that was cancelled before Covid hit.  For that cruise being cancelled we received another 25% FCC.  We have had 5 other cruises cancelled.  So we will keep rescheduling with OBC although this time when we rescheduled we dropped down to a 5 day, so if this one cancels in late October we will only receive 300.  But that's life.  Another thing this was to be the last mom/daughter cruise as she is getting married New Years Eve 2021.  she also has a rescheduled cruise with fiancé and his family for early December 2021, and they are going to schedule one in January 2022 for their honeymoon.  I told her if ours is cancelled in October I will happily give her $288, for her half and go solo.  I will just keep plugging along and rescheduling until they either go or go bankrupt and then well I'm out $288.00!

I would never want $1 tied to Carnival Cruise Line in an FCC.

[Jamman54]

5 minutes ago, xDisconnections said:

I would never want $1 tied to Carnival Cruise Line in an FCC.

Why would you say that? I have a 100% FCC from our Sunrise cruise in September 2019 that never made it to Bermuda due to a hurricane ($1250), and a 25% FCC from our Mardi Gras repo cruise from NYC to Port Canaveral being cancelled due to construction delays ($950). Neither of these FCC's cost me a penny out of my pocket. 

[bitemyfly]

3 hours ago, SNJCruisers said:

Have to disagree.  If giving 600 in OBC was such a smart play, then why did other cruise lines not follow suit?

The other lines all gave a 125% credit based off of the base cruise fare. This way the cruisers still have to spend money on board once they cruise.   If they are frugal at a minimum they need to pay for gratuities.

The 600 in free money can be used on Carnival however the cruiser wishes, including buying future gift cards to be used for a future cruise or cashed out at the casino.  This is a loophole that is not available with the 125%.

It’s all good ,  BTW  I did not say it was the smartest play compared to  all the cruise lines , just it was a smart play.

carnival enticed  people from seeking a refund , they retained revenue , they staggered cancellations , it got people Booking other trips and not wanting to give up obc .. they retained revenue . 
I get it , along with using. Gift cards at a discount rate .. it saves money , both smart plays .. it’s great marketing and did save some precious  revenue . Most of the time these marketing drives work  to all’s mutual benefit, sometimes it does not.

  I remember a National chain of restaurants did a aggressive discounted gift card program , my biz Partner bought a couple grand worth  for our practice.. they folded ,, we never got the value.. it happens , seldom but it does happen .

 

 

 

[oldracer]

When the cancelled my cruise with our two oldest Granddaughters the fourth time, I finally asked for a refund. I gave up $900 in OBC but like many others here, the risk is getting untenable. To  my surprise, Carnival refunded every penny in less than ten days. As soon as the Governments get their hand off  my throat, we will cruise again on Carnival.

[Jamesatgsu]

I remain optimistic. We've distributed 56M doses and administered 34M.

 

That means we already are set to have vaccinated more than 10% of the adult population.

 

26M people have had the virus. There is some overlap to be sure, but we should already be looking at relative immunity for about 20% of the adult population. Given what we know, survivors should either wait, or only get one dose to increase the number having protection.

 

We are looking at doing about 1.5M doses per day now, which would be about another 10% of the adult population each month, but that number should continue to increase.

 

 

[oldracer]

On 2/3/2021 at 2:14 PM, Jamesatgsu said:

I remain optimistic. We've distributed 56M doses and administered 34M.

 

That means we already are set to have vaccinated more than 10% of the adult population.

 

26M people have had the virus. There is some overlap to be sure, but we should already be looking at relative immunity for about 20% of the adult population. Given what we know, survivors should either wait, or only get one dose to increase the number having protection.

 

We are looking at doing about 1.5M doses per day now, which would be about another 10% of the adult population each month, but that number should continue to increase.

 

 

Several "experts" have said herd immunity by the end of April. I hope they are right.

[tessa_59]

On 1/28/2021 at 1:50 PM, bury me at sea said:

 

I took a refund for the first time on my recently cancelled April cruise for many of the same reasons.  It is sad.

How long did it take for you to receive the refund?  

[camarowesley]

After two cancellations we also requested a refund. At this point Carnival filing for bankruptcy & us loosing that money was a concern. Our refund was processed in less than 2 weeks. Looks like a land based vacation for us.

[tkportersat]

On 1/28/2021 at 3:44 PM, skridge said:

I agree with everything you said except for the shutdown being excessive.

Your opinion, which is fine.  I believe it is excessive and I'm not sure the Cruise Industry will survive.  The whole deciding who/what is essential during this whole mess is a joke.  Many folks livelihood depends on these ships sailing, it isn't even about the vacation aspect as much as the crew not being able to work and ports not receiving paying customers.  

[tkportersat]

On 1/28/2021 at 1:24 PM, Joebucks said:

I was initially all about the OBC. $600 bucks was (and still could be) a sweet offer, as I plan to cruise again. Cover my gratuities, drinks, and a few meals. Maybe I didn't care as much because it was paid for in credit card points to begin with. I was ok if pricing surged a little. If the cruising halt would have been over already, how cool would it have been to have that?

 

For my recently cancelled cruise, I just took the refund. This shutdown is excessive. It becomes increasingly riskier each passing day to tie up that much money in a credit. When will we cruise again? What is the price going to be? Will the cruise lines have to declare bankruptcy? It's sad really. 

Don't blame you, I wouldn't leave my money tied up with them.  Too much uncertainty...clearly the cruise lines haven't paid off the right people.