General Cruise Discussion

[Pushka]

Need to cancel our cruise with Cunard. Have already paid in full plus a heap of extras for drinks packages and excursions. Anyone had any dealings with them in regards to refunds?
Have sent them a few emails and haven’t received any reply so will try calling them once I’m home

Insurance claim? Cruise Companies arent all that helpful. Sometimes they may give a voucher. Refund? Unlikely.

 

[tgh]

They will adhere to their terms and conditions. (thats a fullstop ).. so no negotiation.
If you are close to sailing there will likely be 0 refund.
Travel insurance may save you

 

[jase05]

They will adhere to their terms and conditions. (thats a fullstop ).. so no negotiation.
If you are close to sailing there will likely be 0 refund.
Travel insurance may save you

Yeah, figured that would be the case. Was due to sail in a fortnight.
I’d be happy with a credit otherwise I’ll have to get TI involved

 

[drron]

Need to cancel our cruise with Cunard. Have already paid in full plus a heap of extras for drinks packages and excursions. Anyone had any dealings with them in regards to refunds?
Have sent them a few emails and haven’t received any reply so will try calling them once I’m home

This is when it is a good idea to have booked through a TA. ours is very good at getting refunds but we have never cruised with Cunard.

 

[zig]

Yeah, figured that would be the case. Was due to sail in a fortnight.
I’d be happy with a credit otherwise I’ll have to get TI involved

If you are that close to sailing I think you will need to rely on TI to recoup costs.

 

[Cruise Luxury]

Need to cancel our cruise with Cunard. Have already paid in full plus a heap of extras for drinks packages and excursions. Anyone had any dealings with them in regards to refunds?
Have sent them a few emails and haven’t received any reply so will try calling them once I’m home

Imagine you will get full refund on extras and excursions, but for cruise payment they will likely stick to cruise cancellation terms which will be nasty as cruise is close. They generally see that as an insurance matter…

If insurance says no you can go back with evidence and beg for some kind of credit.

 

[odysseus]

Your original booking confirmation should list the cancellation terms, which are in their full terms here:

https://www.cunard.com/content/dam/cunard/marketing-assets/pdf/booking-condition-pdf/Cunard_Booking_Conditions_June_2025.pdf

Based on 14 days to go, and if you booked direct, you should be able to get 10% back (which is actually better than most major cruise lines).

If you booked through a TA, they'll almost certainly take that 10% for themselves as their own cancellation fee.

 

[jase05]

Thanks for all the advice.
I’m going to have to deal with TI and hope they come to the party otherwise I’ll just suck up the loss and move on. It’s just under $16k worth which isn’t ideal but it is what it is.
American Airlines have offered up travel credits which are near on $10k which is fine as we will head back to the US next year

 

[Pushka]

Thanks for all the advice.
I’m going to have to deal with TI and hope they come to the party otherwise I’ll just suck up the loss and move on. It’s just under $16k worth which isn’t ideal but it is what it is.
American Airlines have offered up travel credits which are near on $10k which is fine as we will head back to the US next year

Hope all is generally ok but likely isn't so good if you are going through this process.

Post automatically merged: Yesterday at 8:16 AM

This is when it is a good idea to have booked through a TA. ours is very good at getting refunds but we have never cruised with Cunard.

Is that because you cancelled at last minute or because the cruise itself was cancelled? I'd have expected full refund if the latter regardless.

 

[RooFlyer]

If you booked through a TA, they'll almost certainly take that 10% for themselves as their own cancellation fee.

Unknown to me with my TA, and I've just cancelled a cruise.

 

[drron]

Hope all is generally ok but likely isn't so good if you are going through this process.

Post automatically merged: Yesterday at 8:16 AM

Is that because you cancelled at last minute or because the cruise itself was cancelled? I'd have expected full refund if the latter regardless.

No it was a cruise that deviated from the original we booked. I said to our TA how disappointed we were when we got home and she put in a claim for compensation. I really didn't think we would get anything but a significant amount was forthcoming.
Also Cancelled BA flights on another occasion the day of travel as mrsdrron had a fall the morning of travel an had a significant knee injury. TA got full refund and money in our account 48 hours later.
And she doesn't take 10% either.

 

[Pushka]

I think I need to find a different TA. Last one I used, years ago, and was a Virtuoso, I called because I wanted to change a flight. Their first reaction was they thought I wanted to cancel and first words 'that will cost you an $800 penalty fee to cancel'. I said I'm not cancelling but changing. Which they did. Never used another TA again.

 

[RooFlyer]

I think I need to find a different TA. Last one I used, years ago, and was a Virtuoso, I called because I wanted to change a flight. Their first reaction was they thought I wanted to cancel and first words 'that will cost you an $800 penalty fee to cancel'. I said I'm not cancelling but changing. Which they did. Never used another TA again.

I guess there are goodies and baddies. I know TA vs not using TA has been well ventilated on AFF but you may want to try again?

 

[Cruise Luxury]

I think I need to find a different TA. Last one I used, years ago, and was a Virtuoso, I called because I wanted to change a flight. Their first reaction was they thought I wanted to cancel and first words 'that will cost you an $800 penalty fee to cancel'. I said I'm not cancelling but changing. Which they did. Never used another TA again.

Is there any chance the TA was simply stating the airline imposed cancellation fee?

 

[Pushka]

Is there any chance the TA was simply stating the airline imposed cancellation fee?

I didn't get that impression. But it was more the fact she didn't even bother to listen to what I was about to say but jumped in and assumed that I was going to cancel and how much I'd have to pay. Someone.

 

[Cruise Luxury]

Thanks for all the advice.
I’m going to have to deal with TI and hope they come to the party otherwise I’ll just suck up the loss and move on. It’s just under $16k worth which isn’t ideal but it is what it is.
American Airlines have offered up travel credits which are near on $10k which is fine as we will head back to the US next year

If insurance says no I recommend you write a nice email to cruse line with insurance rejection letter included and beg for credit mercy. It happens.

 

[jase05]

If insurance says no I recommend you write a nice email to cruse line with insurance rejection letter included and beg for credit mercy. It happens.

This looks to be my only recourse now.
Cunard has washed their hands of it so far and won’t offer any refund or travel credit and after spending a good hour on the phone to TI it appears that it will most likely be denied too.
We are even considering just coughing up the money to fly back to the US after the funeral and taking the cruise.

 

[Cruise Luxury]

This looks to be my only recourse now.
Cunard has washed their hands of it so far and won’t offer any refund or travel credit and after spending a good hour on the phone to TI it appears that it will most likely be denied too.
We are even considering just coughing up the money to fly back to the US after the funeral and taking the cruise.

This looks to be my only recourse now.
Cunard has washed their hands of it so far and won’t offer any refund or travel credit and after spending a good hour on the phone to TI it appears that it will most likely be denied too.
We are even considering just coughing up the money to fly back to the US after the funeral and taking the cruise.

Sorry to hear that.

If you definitely aren’t going make sure the booking is actually cancelled (versus no show) so they can try to sell the cabin even last minute, and try to get as much written evidence to support your circumstances, rather then verbal (rejection from insurance, death cert).

DM if you want further guidance and GL.

 

[Pushka]

This looks to be my only recourse now.
Cunard has washed their hands of it so far and won’t offer any refund or travel credit and after spending a good hour on the phone to TI it appears that it will most likely be denied too.
We are even considering just coughing up the money to fly back to the US after the funeral and taking the cruise.

I'm sorry to hear the update. If it's a close family member then we faced similar situation with my mother who passed the week before Christmas and 10 days before we had booked a trip overseas. Should we cancel? TI would not have paid out due to age. In the end the funeral was organised quickly three days before Christmas and we decided we'd still leave the day after. While we didn't have the travel back and forth you will have, the holiday was a good outlet for us and we enjoyed it greatly.

 

[Katie]

Cruise etiquette
I'm going on an AMA Rhine cruise with my Mum in a few weeks.

Do I need to dress up for dinner?

I'm thinking maybe linen trousers ... but was hoping to keep my luggage minimal (that is, single suitcase) as I'll be carting it by train from Berlin-Essen, Essen-Brussels (with 2 train changes) and then Brussels-Amsterdam ... oh, and from the cruise to Basel Hbf and then on to Zurich and the airport.