Cancellation due to serious illness: can passenger get a refund or change date?

[dleahy4444]

We are a group of 24, booked through the group booking department so everyone paid in full by the final payment date of 2/6/2023. The sailing itself is 5/7/2023, so about 50 days out. A member of our group has a number of health problems as a result of battling a very serious disease. Her son is also on the sailing but in a separate cabin. They do not have travel insurance. At the time that they booked she was feeling ok, but since then has suffered a relapse. If she is not well enough to travel and has a doctor’s note to that effect, will RCCL issue a refund or at least a credit toward a future cruise date? How about for the adult son? He is her caretaker and one of the reasons he booked the trip was to help her during the sailing.  Anyone with any insight on this? Thank you 

[firefly333]

My TA told me only covid is a acceptable reason to rcl. I fell and broke my wrist bad and my mom died unexpectedly within 2 weeks. I forfeited my cruisefare. I didnt check but was told taxes and fees refunded.  

 

Good luck. First time in 20 years I've had a issue ... and then I had them piling on for my jan 30th 10 day. 

[dleahy4444]

4 minutes ago, firefly333 said:

My TA told me only covid is a acceptable reason to rcl. I fell and broke my wrist bad and my mom died unexpectedly within 2 weeks. I forfeited my cruisefare. I didnt check but was told taxes and fees refunded.  

 

Good luck. First time in 20 years I've had a issue ... and then I had them piling on for my jan 30th 10 day. 

Wow that is awful. I’m sorry all of that happened to you.  It is terrible that they would not issue at least a credit for a future cruise, just as a matter of good will. I’m sure my group member and her son wish they had gotten the insurance but this would be only her second cruise and his first. It just didn’t occur to them. I know the rules are the rules, but there should be some compassion for someone seriously ill. 
  I myself am Diamond Plus, but if they do not offer them some type of an accommodation under the circumstances I’m not sure how “loyal to Royal” I’ll be in the future. As it is, the customer service for the group booking had been a nightmare. This would be the final straw. Hopefully I’m worried about nothing. She is awaiting some tests results this week and im praying that she be well enough to travel. If she isn’t hopefully RCCL will issue at least a partial refund or credit. I guess we will see…

[PhillyFan33579]

First and foremost I hope the woman is well enough to go on the cruise. Having said that, I don’t understand why you would fault RCI because they failed to purchase travel insurance. Any experienced cruiser or TA will tell you purchasing travel insurance is a must because of potential future changes (health, travel, job change, etc.). At some point individuals need to take responsibility for their actions (or lack of action) and stop blaming others for their problems. 

[orville99]

9 minutes ago, dleahy4444 said:

 It is terrible that they would not issue at least a credit for a future cruise, just as a matter of good will. I’m sure my group member and her son wish they had gotten the insurance but this would be only her second cruise and his first. It just didn’t occur to them. I know the rules are the rules, but there should be some compassion for someone seriously ill. 

Without travel insurance from RCL itself, the cruise line will not make any accommodation. Even had they purchased travel insurance, the fact that it appears to be a pre-existing condition would have negated any compensation, regardless of who issued the insurance. Have you contacted the TA that the group booked through to see if there is any way that they can re-sell the cabin to someone else. Other than that, there really are no viable options for a refund or any credit other than to try to move the reservations to a future date.

 

Edited March 19, 2023 by orville99

[not-enough-cruising]

My house burned down but I don’t have insurance because I didn’t think anything would happen. Will someone please pay the rebuilding cost??!

 

See how silly that sounds?

[barbeyg]

There is a graduated loss of payment, based on how many days out.  60-31 days out, 75% of payment is forfeited.  74-61 days 50% is forfeited.  I suggest they call their travel agent or if not booked with a TA, RCI quickly, if they believe they aren’t going to sail.

 

For anyone considering not getting insurance, or not qualifying for it, you must decide if you can afford to lose the amount you spend on a cruise. That is why so many here recommended insurance. Cruise lines aren’t going to absorb this kind of loss out of compassion. They are a business, and all operate this way.

 

I am really sorry about your friends. That is tough.

[Ryder101]

49 minutes ago, dleahy4444 said:

We are a group of 24, booked through the group booking department so everyone paid in full by the final payment date of 2/6/2023. The sailing itself is 5/7/2023, so about 50 days out. A member of our group has a number of health problems as a result of battling a very serious disease. Her son is also on the sailing but in a separate cabin. They do not have travel insurance. At the time that they booked she was feeling ok, but since then has suffered a relapse. If she is not well enough to travel and has a doctor’s note to that effect, will RCCL issue a refund or at least a credit toward a future cruise date? How about for the adult son? He is her caretaker and one of the reasons he booked the trip was to help her during the sailing.  Anyone with any insight on this? Thank you 

She has a number of health problems and didn't insure her trip. Even if her pre existing conditions prevented getting insurance, her son should have purchased some. If Royal make one exception they have to make them for everyone. And that's not fare to the rest of us.

[dleahy4444]

8 minutes ago, barbeyg said:

There is a graduated loss of payment, based on how many days out.  60-31 days out, 75% of payment is forfeited.  74-61 days 50% is forfeited.  I suggest they call their travel agent or if not booked with a TA, RCI quickly, if they believe they aren’t going to sail.

 

For anyone considering not getting insurance, or not qualifying for it, you must decide if you can afford to lose the amount you spend on a cruise. That is why so many here recommended insurance. Cruise lines aren’t going to absorb this kind of loss out of compassion. They are a business, and all operate this way.

 

I am really sorry about your friends. That is tough.

Thank you for your kind words. As I stated in my original post, they are not experienced cruisers, or travelers for that matter so it didn’t occur to them to get the insurance. I understand that the cruise line is a business but it know that other businesses such as the airlines will make accommodations under certain conditions.  If they need to cancel I’m sure RCCl will not incur that much of a loss. They will potentially book her cabin directly or through Royal Up. They will save on the food she is not eating, so I don’t think it would be unreasonable if they issued a partial refund or future credit. But it is what it is. She is awaiting test results this week, and Gid forbid it’s bad news, we will reach out to Rccl immediately 

[Ourusualbeach]

23 minutes ago, orville99 said:

Without travel insurance from RCL itself, the cruise line will not make any accommodation. Even had they purchased travel insurance, the fact that it appears to be a pre-existing condition would have negated any compensation, regardless of who issued the insurance. Have you contacted the TA that the group booked through to see if there is any way that they can re-sell the cabin to someone else. Other than that, there really are no viable options for a refund or any credit other than to try to move the reservations to a future date.

 

You cannot "resell" cabins.  One original name must remain on the reservation

[ARandomTraveler]

There are so many people who cruise that have health conditions, and if the cruise line was going to make exceptions for these kind of circumstances, it would negate anyone's reason for buying insurance. In fact people would be better off NOT buying insurance because most of the time, pre-existing conditions are not covered, unless you buy a certain kind of insurance within a very short window of time after making your initial deposit. It would be a waste of money for an unhealthy person to pay the insurance premium if it were easier (and free) to just get an exception from the cruiseline.

 

Being a new cruiser and inexperienced traveler isn't any reason to make an exception either. It's unfortunate, but it's called "learning the hard way." I'd be more upset at the person who made your group booking who failed to educate these new travelers about things like travel insurance. 

[Ourusualbeach]

5 minutes ago, dleahy4444 said:

Thank you for your kind words. As I stated in my original post, they are not experienced cruisers, or travelers for that matter so it didn’t occur to them to get the insurance. I understand that the cruise line is a business but it know that other businesses such as the airlines will make accommodations under certain conditions.  If they need to cancel I’m sure RCCl will not incur that much of a loss. They will potentially book her cabin directly or through Royal Up. They will save on the food she is not eating, so I don’t think it would be unreasonable if they issued a partial refund or future credit. But it is what it is. She is awaiting test results this week, and Gid forbid it’s bad news, we will reach out to Rccl immediately 

There are probably dozens of "undue hardship" stories on every cruise.  It is not up to Royal to compensate guests for these situations and in my experience they don't. I hope your travelling companion recovers and is able to travel.

[dleahy4444]

I posed this question with the hopes of getting some input from people that had a similar experience, As an experienced cruiser and traveler I’m well aware that they should have opted for the insurance. They are not experienced. They made the booking themselves on the telephone with the group booking agent so I don’t know what, if anything,  was discussed about trip insurance.  Regardless, the insurance was not purchased. No need for a lecture on what should have been done, when it’s too late to do anything about it. I’m also not “blaming RCI” for anything. I however do expect that a business that I have been loyal to for many years would show some compassion when someone in my group is in a difficult situation. if not, lesson learned.

 

to the few responses that wished the ill passenger well, thank you 
 

 

[LB_NJ]

22 minutes ago, orville99 said:

Without travel insurance from RCL itself, the cruise line will not make any accommodation. Even had they purchased travel insurance, the fact that it appears to be a pre-existing condition would have negated any compensation, regardless of who issued the insurance. Have you contacted the TA that the group booked through to see if there is any way that they can re-sell the cabin to someone else. Other than that, there really are no viable options for a refund or any credit other than to try to move the reservations to a future date.

 

Some travel insurance companies will waive pre-existing conditions IF purchased within a specified time of booking the cruise.

 

Also if the son had bought travel insurance he would be covered because he was traveling with his mother.

 

28 minutes ago, PhillyFan33579 said:

 Any experienced cruiser or TA will tell you purchasing travel insurance is a must because of potential future changes (health, travel, job change, etc.).

I have seen an argument that you should absolutely always buy health insurance for a cruise because of the possibility of extreme costs (e.g, possibly a $100,000 in medical bills or more) however, it might not make sense to buy travel insurance. The argument is that you have already budgeted for the cost of the cruise so losing the money will not break you and if you add up the total cost of travel insurance for many cruises then in the long run you may be better off taking the occasional loss.  

[ARandomTraveler]

8 minutes ago, dleahy4444 said:

I posed this question with the hopes of getting some input from people that had a similar experience, As an experienced cruiser and traveler I’m well aware that they should have opted for the insurance. They are not experienced. They made the booking themselves on the telephone with the group booking agent so I don’t know what, if anything,  was discussed about trip insurance.  Regardless, the insurance was not purchased. No need for a lecture on what should have been done, when it’s too late to do anything about it. I’m also not “blaming RCI” for anything. I however do expect that a business that I have been loyal to for many years would show some compassion when someone in my group is in a difficult situation. if not, lesson learned.

 

to the few responses that wished the ill passenger well, thank you 
 

 

You don't get it though, you're saying you expect a company you've been loyal to,

to show some compassion, and what we're all trying to help you see is that it wouldn't make sense for them to do anything in situations like this.

There are way too many people who have a sad story, and they can't go around compensating everyone just because they're having a rough time, or because they're loyal customers, or for any other reason.

 

This is why insurance exists. It is very sad that this is happening to your friends, but they're no different than the thousands of other people having the same or similar issues every day, hoping the cruiseline will bail them out of a bad situation they didn't properly plan for (or didn't expect to happen).

[orville99]

44 minutes ago, Ourusualbeach said:

You cannot "resell" cabins.  One original name must remain on the reservation

True, but based on the way the OP described the cabin arrangements, the odds are that neither the mom nor the son are likely to be sailing solo so you could change one of them out and insert a different occupant into the cabin.

[Ourusualbeach]

Just now, orville99 said:

True, but based on the way the OP described the cabin arrangements, the odds are that neither the mom nor the son are likely to be sailing solo so you could change one of them out and insert a different occupant into the cabin.

Going to be pretty hard to fond a solo traveller.

[Jasukkie]

I'm sorry this is happening to your friend. As others have stated, it's the timing that matters, and it's too late to only lose the deposit. If possible, I would hope the son could go if respite care is an option for the mother. Caretaking is hard. 

[dleahy4444]

Thank you for your kind words. 

[orville99]

44 minutes ago, Ourusualbeach said:

Going to be pretty hard to find a solo traveler.

Undoubtedly, but there really are no other remotely viable options.

[Trixie21]

My wife and I had 2 cruises booked for this year - neither was at final payment stage , but one was close - so only deposits had been paid. We are almost at diamond plus level so have a fair few cruises with RC under our belt.

My wife has been unwell for the last few years and without going into detail she is unable to travel this year , and we  may not be in a position to be able to cruise again - time will tell.

We obtained a doctors letter detailing her condition and my travel agent contacted the appropriate department and explained the situation. 

The next day she had an email saying they would be happy to refund our deposits. 

Quite unexpected as I knew they were under no obligation to do this and I was actually quite resigned to losing the deposits - it was my travel agent who suggested giving this a try.

I always take out travel insurance just before I make final payment on a cruise or holiday . Quite often the excess you have to pay is similar to the deposit so makes no sense to take it out before then.

[rimmit]

4 hours ago, LB_NJ said:

I have seen an argument that you should absolutely always buy health insurance for a cruise because of the possibility of extreme costs (e.g, possibly a $100,000 in medical bills or more) however, it might not make sense to buy travel insurance. The argument is that you have already budgeted for the cost of the cruise so losing the money will not break you and if you add up the total cost of travel insurance for many cruises then in the long run you may be better off taking the occasional loss.  

You absolutely always need to buy medical.   You can only lose how much you put into a vacation but the sky is the limit on medical costs. There is no upper limit on that.  

As someone whose wife was run over by car in Zimbabwe last summer, it gives me a great deal of comfort knowing the 100k I had to put out WILL (albeit I am still waiting on a 55k travel insurance claim I filed back in July) be reimbursed eventually.  That doesn’t even include all the money the insurance company paid out to the med evac company and hospital once they got involved and we no longer needed to pay for the medical care while we were trying to get stabilized to be repatriated back to the US.  Someone could be financially ruined if you do not have medical insurance while traveling, but you will just take a hit if you dont have travel insurance.  Self insuring yourself for your vacation based on your personal risk may not be a bad idea but YOU REALLY NEED MEDICAL.  

Edited March 19, 2023 by rimmit

[dleahy4444]

1 hour ago, Trixie21 said:

My wife and I had 2 cruises booked for this year - neither was at final payment stage , but one was close - so only deposits had been paid. We are almost at diamond plus level so have a fair few cruises with RC under our belt.

My wife has been unwell for the last few years and without going into detail she is unable to travel this year , and we  may not be in a position to be able to cruise again - time will tell.

We obtained a doctors letter detailing her condition and my travel agent contacted the appropriate department and explained the situation. 

The next day she had an email saying they would be happy to refund our deposits. 

Quite unexpected as I knew they were under no obligation to do this and I was actually quite resigned to losing the deposits - it was my travel agent who suggested giving this a try.

I always take out travel insurance just before I make final payment on a cruise or holiday . Quite often the excess you have to pay is similar to the deposit so makes no sense to take it out before then.

I’m sorry that your wife is experiencing difficulties. I’m very happy to see that your deposits were refunded. Best wishes for her recovery 

[Trixie21]

3 minutes ago, dleahy4444 said:

I’m sorry that your wife is experiencing difficulties. I’m very happy to see that your deposits were refunded. Best wishes for her recovery 

Thank you.

It is certainly worth asking the question about even a future cruise credit. The worst they can say is no , and nothing is lost by trying.

Good luck.

[cruisegirl1]

People buy insurance to cover themselves if there is  an issue. No one expects to be ill, but you never know.
 

 

As someone who purchases insurance, I would be annoyed if Royal Caribbean issued refunds to those who do not spend the money on insurance.  That’s what insurance is for.

 

Sadly several years ago, I had to cancel two cruises after  final payment because of a medical diagnosis. I had  the proper insurance, and after providing the appropriate paperwork I was reimbursed for everything I had  paid.

 

Sorry to be so harsh, but if people received refunds without buying insurance, why would anyone buy insurance?    

 

m

 

 

Edited March 19, 2023 by cruisegirl1