Cruise & Coronavirus

jollyjanecruiser

Booked and paid for a cruise holiday on 05/02/2020 (prior to the knowledge of the COVID-19 virus) which includes flying to Malta, joining ship, sailing around the Adriatic with ports in Venice, Croatia, Montenegro, back to Malta and then fly back to UK. Our quandary is that although we are both currently healthy, we are extremely concerned about catching this COVID-19, which in turn could delay the cruise ship returning to port late and or having an extended quarantine period, which would incur being away longer from our workplace (self employed) and or having to self quarantine once back in the UK, which again would cause hardship for our business.
We have approached our travel agent and requested to alter the cruise date to later in the year and or obtain a cruise voucher for a later cruise date, who then in turn contacted the cruise company, who replied, “unless we could produce a doctors letter indicating we had an illness, the cruise would go ahead without us if we decided not to travel and no refund would be given” We have annual multi trip travel insurance in place but although it is premium cover, I don’t believe it will cover this particular scenario.
We appreciate its not the cruise lines fault for the virus outbreak but are they within their rights to say no to all of our requests that we have put forward?
Any advice appreciated....

MX5huggy

When is the cruise? 

Malta has banned inward travel from several EU countries, expect the UK to be added in the coming days. 

Whether that helps you cancel or get insurance payout I don’t know but it would remove the decision from you.  https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-malta/malta-bans-travel-from-four-more-european-countries-because-of-coronavirus-idUSKBN20Y29F

Aylesbury_Duck

All you can do is sit and wait to see if the cruise gets cancelled or altered so fundamentally that you'd be entitled to a refund.  Otherwise it's your choice to travel or not, and accept the loss that the latter would involve. 

gettingtheresometime

Which company are you cruising with? Have they issued guidance - I know P&O have introduced some new policies since the outbreak - 

mystic_trev

jollyjanecruiser said:

We appreciate its not the cruise lines fault for the virus outbreak but are they within their rights to say no to all of our requests that we have put forward?
Any advice appreciated....

Yes, they’re within their rights. Until your cruise is either fundamentally changed, or there’s Foreign Office advice against travel, there’s nothing you can do.

if it’s any consolation to you, I’m ‘in the  same boat’ excuse the pun! I’m due to head out on a Cruise next week. I haven’t the foggiest wether it’ll go ahead or be cancelled.

Edit : Viking have just cancelled all Cruises for the foreseeable future. I guess all the others will now follow suit.

bluetroubador

We are due to go to New York with Cunard on 6 May. We booked and paid in full via an agent (Cruise.co.uk). Due to virus outbreak Cunard are now offering transfers to future sailings or part refund part credit for future trips. However, Agent is saying we are not eligible as we are on a 'package' as we booked through them. The saving(cost of crossing) overall was tiny, just used them to book hotels in NY so we feel penalised. Anyone know if this is right? anything we can do?

Aylesbury_Duck

bluetroubador said:

We are due to go to New York with Cunard on 6 May. We booked and paid in full via an agent (Cruise.co.uk). Due to virus outbreak Cunard are now offering transfers to future sailings or part refund part credit for future trips. However, Agent is saying we are not eligible as we are on a 'package' as we booked through them. The saving(cost of crossing) overall was tiny, just used them to book hotels in NY so we feel penalised. Anyone know if this is right? anything we can do?

It's right.  Your contract is with the agent, so that doesn't mean that Cunard's offers are automatically passed on.

Westin

Princess Cruise Lines have announced they are suspending cruise operations for two months from this Thursday until 10 May
https://www.nbcmiami.com/news/local/carnival-suspends-operation-of-princess-cruises-for-2-months-over-coronavirus/2204376/

At least upcoming customers know where they stand.

Sayschezza

We are due to cruise on P&O May 1st. Our options are extra on board credit or cancel and get 40% refund and 60% future credit against another cruise until March2022. As we already have another cruise booked for next year we would rather the FC could be paid against that but P&O says it has to be used against a new booking which we think is a bit unfair. We feel between a rock and a hard place as it means choosing another cruise we didn't particularly want or going on 1st May and chance having to be stuck in the cabin for 18 days because of an outbreak. Wish P&O would cancel then at least we would get our money back.

st999

I had cruise with Fred Olsen in May cancelled and I am getting all my money back, so they say.

gettingtheresometime

Sayschezza said:

We are due to cruise on P&O May 1st. Our options are extra on board credit or cancel and get 40% refund and 60% future credit against another cruise until March2022. As we already have another cruise booked for next year we would rather the FC could be paid against that but P&O says it has to be used against a new booking which we think is a bit unfair. We feel between a rock and a hard place as it means choosing another cruise we didn't particularly want or going on 1st May and chance having to be stuck in the cabin for 18 days because of an outbreak. Wish P&O would cancel then at least we would get our money back.

If you have a look at the consumer rights board there's a post from someone in similar circumstances to you (he would have been denied boarding as he was changing flights in Hong  Kong).

He seems to have got a full refund - perhaps you could try what he did?