Losing a deposit

Firman80

We were supposed to be going on a family holiday (8 people from 3 households) in August this year, this was to celebrate a 40th, a retirement, GCSE results and a child moving up to senior school. 

The holiday was a cruise around the Italian Med with Royal Caribbean. 

We are currently about 3 weeks from having to pay the balance on our trip but are cautious to do so due to the pandemic plus in following the advice as one of our party is over 70 and been advised to shield 

Royal Caribbean have basically told us we either pay the balance and accept a credit note to 125% of the value of the holiday if they cancel or we don’t pay the balance and cancel ourselves and lose a significant deposit. 

While I understand it’s not the cruise companies fault it is not ours either, it was planned as a family trip and we can’t go without one of our party. 
Does anyone have any advice to help us get our deposit back or have we lost it? 

Aylesbury_Duck

You'll get your deposit back if you pay the balance and the cruise is cancelled, which it almost certainly will be.

Edited to add, you'll get it back as part of the credit note or a proper refund if you're able to force one through.

Life__Goes__On

It's a personal choice to pay the balance or not
I would pay the balance as well  I also think it will be cancelled, there are other options of trying to get some of the balance back  but this could be a struggle and not sure the outcome (so wouldn't recommend that for you).
I would try to have at least one payment on a credit card if possible for an extra layer of protection.

bagand96

As per the Royal Caribbean website, if your cruise is cancelled you can take a 125% voucher OR you can take a full refund.  They can't deny you a refund it's the law.  They obviously want you to take the voucher which is why they will push that. 

But for that you would need to keep the booking in place and wait for them to cancel.  That may mean paying the balance.  If you do decide to pay the balance do it on a credit card, so you're protected that way if they do mess you around for a refund. 

There's also the risk that you pay and the cruise does go ahead, which means if you cancelled you might lose more than just the deposit.   Personally I think that's very unlikely, the cruise industry will be the last part of mass tourism that get's up and running again.  However it is something that you do need to consider.