60 Day Final Payments bumped to at least August

[Portolan]

Our TA informed us today that the final payment for our August cruise has been changed to 60 days out in lieu of the previous 120 days.  The Voyager cruise is in Europe and the UK and, we think, is unlikely to happen or to be the kind of experience we'd enjoy.  So, not forcing us to cancel early to avoid sending them a lot more money is welcome.  However, unless thangs changed is some unimaginably positive way, we'll cancel and eat the modest $200 before final payment if Regent doesn't cancel first.

 

Our best hope for being back on a wonderful Regent cruise rides on March 2022, Explorer in Japan.

[ronrick1943]

On 3/2/2021 at 3:26 PM, Portolan said:

Our TA informed us today that the final payment for our August cruise has been changed to 60 days out in lieu of the previous 120 days.  The Voyager cruise is in Europe and the UK and, we think, is unlikely to happen or to be the kind of experience we'd enjoy.  So, not forcing us to cancel early to avoid sending them a lot more money is welcome.  However, unless thangs changed is some unimaginably positive way, we'll cancel and eat the modest $200 before final payment if Regent doesn't cancel first.

 

Our best hope for being back on a wonderful Regent cruise rides on March 2022, Explorer in Japan.

Odd, we just got that same note from are TA, and August cruise - now final payment is June 8th.  We're looking at doing the same thing---maybe moving are cruise to the Bangkok/Tokyo, Feb 2022.

[Portolan]

Our decision to cancel the August cruise just became a dead certainty.  We had booked the cruise after our May 2020 cruise was cancelled.  It had featured the Artful Travelers PBS Spotlight on Broadcasting: the Great Wars program was moved to the August 2021 cruise.  It has been dropped from that cruise and bumped to the same itinerary (reversed) on the same ship (Voyager) in August 2022.  If we can resolve a conflict, we'll try for the third time.

[snorkle lover]

Sometimes things can work in your favor. I hope they will work out  for you Portland.

I am  also hoping Regent will change our final payment date for our end of

September London to Barcelona cruise as well. Right now it is the end of

May and that is coming up fast. We don’t want to give Regent $$$$ if it doesn’t 

sail and then have to deal with a FCC with so many things in flux.

 

[Eager2Travel]

FYI, Regent is not forthcoming on the FCC.  We cancelled our October 2020 cruise well in advance of final pay.  The $200 was withheld as usual. We booked a 2022 cruise on Feb. 10 and Regent still hasn’t “found “ the withheld $200.  Not a big deal but fair is fair.

[SusieQft]

Is there a time limit on using your $200?  Maybe it is "lost" because it was generated over a year ago?

[rallydave]

21 hours ago, snorkle lover said:

Sometimes things can work in your favor. I hope they will work out  for you Portland.

I am  also hoping Regent will change our final payment date for our end of

September London to Barcelona cruise as well. Right now it is the end of

May and that is coming up fast. We don’t want to give Regent $$$$ if it doesn’t 

sail and then have to deal with a FCC with so many things in flux.

 

Just remember changing the final payment date DOES NOT change when penalties kick in so likely there will be penalties prior to your final payment so they will withold more than the $200,

 

Payments and penalties are not related and changing one does not change the other.

[SireDoime]

In February I received both an email and phone call from Yamilla, my Regent Consultant, regarding my July 2nd Greek cruise aboard the RSS Mariner. I was informed the final payment was moved from March 4th to May 2nd. From our conversation I was told the penalties up to the final payment remain at their current level, that is what was stated in the email 🤷🏿‍♂️. But, since I have the Regent Assurance Insurance, my RC told me that my booking is protected from Regent cancellations and such.

 

However, since my cruise is in Greece, a country that has still banned US citizens 😒, it is very likely my cruise will be cancelled by Regent, and Yamilla will likely ask to move my deposit to another cruise. She suggested the RSS Explorer. So it's a waiting game now 👌🏿, but I won't touch my booking until I hear from Regent. I'm prepared to be refunded the cruise deposit and move one, but I don't think I'll get the Insurance payment back, though ☹️

[rallydave]

10 minutes ago, SireDoime said:

I'm prepared to be refunded the cruise deposit and move one, but I don't think I'll get the Insurance payment back, though

Regent Reassurance in NOT insurance and is not something that you paid for so nothing to be given back.  As far as refunds, if Regent cancels you will get refunded as FCC's have gone away however, should you cancel within the penalty phase any cancellation penalty will be taken from any refund you might get. 

[1982CruzStart]

15 hours ago, SusieQft said:

Is there a time limit on using your $200?  Maybe it is "lost" because it was generated over a year ago?

The $200 fee is good for a booking made within 1 year of cancelation so that may be what happened. Haven't heard of any change made to the policy due to Covid. 

Mind you when we canceled our 2019 cruise and rebooked it within a year i had to be persistent in getting them to find the $200 amount to be applied to the new booking. Once i provided all the info on the date when the cruise was canceled and the cruise details they found it. 

[Portolan]

3 hours ago, rallydave said:

Just remember changing the final payment date DOES NOT change when penalties kick in so likely there will be penalties prior to your final payment so they will withold more than the $200,

 

Payments and penalties are not related and changing one does not change the other.

 

Not according to Regent via our TA:

 

"Cancellation penalties will remain at their current level until the new final payment date ($100 per person until [our final payment date]"

[rallydave]

6 minutes ago, Portolan said:

 

Not according to Regent via our TA:

 

"Cancellation penalties will remain at their current level until the new final payment date ($100 per person until [our final payment date]"

Exactly. Cancellation penalties are based on days prior to sailing so what they are currently won’t change if payment dates change. 
 

Sorry but you are misunderstanding what you were told.  I understand there have been changes such as no longer FCCs as Nd Regent Reassurance so best to get in writing  your situation rather than remain at current level which can be different depending on when you booked. 

[SusieQft]

According to my TA, "cancellation penalties will remain at their current level" means that the penalty will not increase as it would by the normal schedule.  She specifically asked Regent to clarify this, because the phrase is definitely open to being interpreted either way.  That said, I am only cautiously optimistic that definition would hold up if put to the test, not 100% convinced.

[DarthCruiser]

I inquired about this issue and received the following response: 

 

The invoice's penalty guidelines stay the same but under the deferred final payment offer that these bookings are under the guest will be only under the $100PP admin penalty up to one day prior to that new final payment date.   Once they reach that new date then regular penalties apply should they cancel. 

[SireDoime]

5 hours ago, rallydave said:

Regent Reassurance in NOT insurance and is not something that you paid for so nothing to be given back.  As far as refunds, if Regent cancels you will get refunded as FCC's have gone away however, should you cancel within the penalty phase any cancellation penalty will be taken from any refund you might get. 

I'm sorry, I mis-stated that. I was referring the insurance that I opted for at the time of Booking. I was told and have in writing that I can cancel up to 48 hours with no penalties.

 

My bad for the confusion. 🤭

[snorkle lover]

Thank you for clarification on that DarthCruiser. Now all we need is for our May final payment to change.

Here’s hoping.

[Eager2Travel]

Just want to update an earlier comment I made about FCC.  Our $200 that was withheld from our refund from our cancelled cruise last October was found and applied to our booking for October 2022.  No problem with length of time or anything else.

[Portolan]

8 hours ago, rallydave said:

Exactly. Cancellation penalties are based on days prior to sailing so what they are currently won’t change if payment dates change. 
 

Sorry but you are misunderstanding what you were told.  I understand there have been changes such as no longer FCCs as Nd Regent Reassurance so best to get in writing  your situation rather than remain at current level which can be different depending on when you booked. 

 

Again, wrong.  This wasn't cut from a Regent site.  It's what my TA told me explicitly: we can cancel at 61 days out for $200 ($100 apiece).  It has been much discussed about how the Regent T & C's would (perhaps) provide a legal basis to go after money not yet paid since cancellation at 61 days would normally be 50% of the full fare--much more than the deposit--but there have been no reports of Regent doing so.  Apparently it is difficult for some to accept that Regent might actually be trying hard to accommodate customers uncertainty in these times.

 

So feel free to believe what you wish.  I believe my TA whose agency is a big booker with Regent and knows that if this is a ploy to trick people into waiting to cancel cruises they'd lose many loyal customers.

 

Edited to add that I've just read others who have confirmed the EXACT SAME thing. 

Edited March 6, 2021 by Portolan

[SusieQft]

6 hours ago, SireDoime said:

I was referring the insurance that I opted for at the time of Booking. I was told and have in writing that I can cancel up to 48 hours with no penalties.

Who did you purchase this insurance from?  Is it a "Cancel for Any Reason" policy?  I had been under the impression that when you do that, they only reimburse a fraction, usually 75%, not the full amount.

[DaveFr]

Portolan and others are correct. If you cancel prior to the 60 day final payment date, only the $100 per person administrative fee is subtracted from your refund.

 

I had a November 2020 cruise which have been switched to a 60 day final payment date. I canceled the cruise 62 or 63 days prior to the cruise and received a full refund of my deposit minus the $100 per person administrative fee. That fee was later credited to a new cruise.

 

Dave

[SireDoime]

On 3/5/2021 at 11:16 PM, SusieQft said:

Who did you purchase this insurance from?  Is it a "Cancel for Any Reason" policy?  I had been under the impression that when you do that, they only reimburse a fraction, usually 75%, not the full amount.

I bought it from Regent. It's called RegentCare. The cruise deposit was 1972.35$ and the RegentCare payment was 3311.77$. It states the Insurance is non-refundable once the Cancellation Penalties kick in.

 

I hope I can get most of this back should this cruise be cancelled, as I will not expect to cruise this year. The one question I will ask Monday: should it be cancelled by Regent and I have to pay the fee, will I also have to pay the 50% of the final balance as well? That doesn't seem fair to me.

 

Edited March 14, 2021 by SireDoime
Clarification of penalties and fees

[SusieQft]

30 minutes ago, SireDoime said:

I hope I can get most of this back should this cruise be cancelled, as I will not expect to cruise this year. The one question I will ask Monday: should it be cancelled by Regent and I have to pay the fee, will I also have to pay the 50% of the final balance as well? That doesn't seem fair to me.

I hope so too.  I am not familiar with Regent Care, and the information I could find about it on the Regent website does not address this situation.  Most third party insurance policies usually will either give you a refund or allow you to change the dates on the policy to cover a different trip if the cruise line cancels and you get all your money back.  Since this insurance is sold by Regent, I would hope that if the cruise is cancelled by Regent that they should refund you the full price of the policy along with the rest of the trip cost.  If you were to opt for FCC (which I don't think is an option any more when Regent cancels), it might be different.

On 3/5/2021 at 7:48 AM, SireDoime said:

I was informed the final payment was moved from March 4th to May 2nd. From our conversation I was told the penalties up to the final payment remain at their current level, that is what was stated in the email 🤷🏿‍♂️. But, since I have the Regent Assurance Insurance, my RC told me that my booking is protected from Regent cancellations and such.

Regent Reassurance is not the same as Regent Care.  (I have never heard of "Regent Assurance.")  Regent Reassurance should apply to your booking since you booked it before July 31, 2020, and you did not pay anything for this benefit.  Regent Reassurance would allow you to cancel up to 15 days before sailing for 100% FCC.  If you did that, though, it might be less likely that you would get a refund on the insurance.  And you would get FCC back instead of cash for your cruise fare.  It is probably not too late for you to find a better option than this one.

 

My TA told me that the penalties staying "at their current level" means what stay as they are if you had cancelled on that date, NOT by the schedule shown on your booking confirmation.  So it sounds to me like you could cancel any time before your final payment is due on May 2 with only the $100 per person administrative penalty, assuming you got that announcement 121 or more days before departure, and the insurance should remain refundable also.  

 

All of my comments pertain to bookings made in the US.  If you are in the UK or another country, the rules might be different.

But you should not take my word, or that of anyone else on Cruise Critic on this.  You need to talk to your TA and find out exactly what your options are to recover as much as possible of what you have paid.   Normally the biggest refund of the cruise fare would be if you wait until Regent cancels, assuming they eventually do.  But paying for Regent Care complicates that and you need an answer from your TA.