I'm Gary Bembridge, and this is the second of my videos
answering questions and talking about topics
that people have asked me to talk about,
related to the whole cruising shutdown
and future plans about cruising.
I've had loads and loads of questions
about cancelling cruises, refunds,
what you can expect, when you can do it,
and very importantly for a lot of people,
whether you can get money back from the cruise companies,
because a lot of people are concerned, for example,
about the viability of cruise lines.
And of course for many people, this whole shutdown
has affected their incomes and their financial situation.
A lot of people want cash back rather than future credits.
So what are your options available to you?
There are really three different scenarios.
And the three different scenarios differ
in what actually happens.
First of all, if the cruise line cancels your cruise.
Secondly, if you decide you want to cancel a cruise
that is still currently scheduled to run,
and that really is up until about July or September.
And thirdly, if you want to cancel cruises
after that sort of July to September time,
so for the rest of the year and perhaps into next year.
So first of all, let's talk about what happens
if the cruise line cancels your cruise.
Now I personally believe that we will see
more and more cruises being cancelled.
So what actually happens if the cruise line cancels?
First of all, they will refund automatically
any add-on costs, so if you've paid for gratuities,
excursions, flights, whatever,
that will be refunded in cash pretty much as soon
as they can, so you'll get that money back quite quickly.
For the actual cruise fare,
the first thing they will offer you is future cruise credit.
And normally there will be some kind of incentive
from anything from 25% to 100%.
So for example when Virgin Voyages cancelled,
they're offering 200% of your original cost,
if you keep the booking and look at a future cruise.
So there's some kind of incentive if you cancel.
The other thing they will offer you, though,
is your cash back, and they will offer you
100% of your money back.
The way you get that is you have to apply for it,
so most of the cruise lines have forms that you fill out,
and I'll link all of those ones that are available
for the major cruise lines in the description.
So you go online, you fill out a form,
requesting that you'd like to get your money back
rather than future cruise credit.
At the time of recording, they were all available,
so certainly if your cruise gets cancelled,
you will get your cash back if you want it back
for everything you've paid, both the fare
and all the bits and pieces that you might have booked.
So what happens if you decide, though,
that you want to cancel your cruise,
and you perhaps got cruises in May at the moment,
June or July or depending on some cruise lines
right through to the end of September?
If you want to cancel your cruise between
when cruising is due to start up and that time period,
they are offering you again two options.
One, future cruise credit, and again, there's lots and lots
of different benefits and perks that they're offering.
Or secondly, the cash option,
and again you use those forms to apply for the cash,
rather than the perks.
However, they're offering quite big perks.
So let me give you an example
of some of the perks they're offering.
If you go with Royal Caribbean,
they're offering you 125% of your fare
to encourage you to take it as a future cruise credit.
You do have to use that by the end of next year,
so quite a long time.
Norwegian again, pretty much the same.
They're offering you 125% and you can use it
right through to 2022.
Princess is offering you different incentives
based on when the cruise was, so kind of the closer it was
to the beginning of cruising, you got a bigger increase
but it's anything between a 25% to 100%.
But MSC Cruises in the Caribbean again, it's 125%.
If it's outside of Europe,
they're offering extra onboard credit.
I already mentioned Virgin Voyages are offering 200%,
and Crystal Cruises again about 125%.
And Viking are doing the same.
What was great with Viking was if you don't get to use
that future cruise credit by the end of 2022,
they will actually refund it in cash.
With the others, you kind of will lose it.
So you can see that if you do want to cancel your cruise,
you will get some incentives in future cruise credit.
However, with the thing changing so fast,
if you do have the ability to hold on,
and you don't need that cash, or you don't want that bonus,
I would suggest hold on to those bookings into May,
into June, and wait for the cruise line to cancel those,
if you possibly can because you're likely
to get much more back,
because even when they're refunding sometimes
they're also giving little future cruise vouchers
to incentivize you or as an act of good will
to try and get you to book.
So I would say basically wait.
What most cruise lines are offering,
which is very important, is their cruise with confidence.
So those bookings that are in that time period,
whether it's to July or September
depending on the cruise line,
they're still offering that 48 hours
before you head off on your cruise cancellation.
So the third area is what if you want to cancel
a cruise for most cruise lines after July,
or in the case of Norwegian, after September?
In this case, there's very little that you can do.
Of course, you could cancel now,
and in most cases if you've got a non-refundable deposit,
you will lose the deposit.
Now because there's been
many, many incentives and promotions,
you might find the deposit's very little.
However, there's no real benefit at the moment
for cancelling cruises later in the year.
You may as well wait because again,
as the date of cruising shifts,
I think we'll find the cruise lines will start
to bring in those various incentives.
At the moment for those later cruises,
they're still requiring you to pay your final balance
when that becomes due,
although some cruise lines have shortened it
from 90 days to 60 days.
And theoretically you still will lose your deposit
if you cancel, so I would actually say
if you've got cruises later in the year, I would just wait
and see how the whole cruising process moves.
Because you don't want to cancel now and lose your deposit.
It's worth just waiting and seeing
because as the whole thing shifts,
I think we'll find much more flexibility coming in
towards the end of the year.
It's a little bit complicated.
But basically to summarise, the key thing to do
if you possibly can is to wait for the cruise line
to cancel your cruise because you're going to get
the best options and the most amount of options.
You really want the cash because you're on notice
about the future of cruise lines or you just need the cash,
then of course, I would also cancel now
and request the cash option.
In terms of cruise lines going bust,
a lot of people have asked me that.
Personally I am less concerned about that,
because I think they have quite a lot of funding.
I think we will see as liquidity
becomes tighter and tighter,
they will be supported by banks, the government, whatever,
in terms of loans, but that's of course a key decision
that you need to take on what you feel works for you
and what you believe will happen with the cruise lines.
I think they are just too big and too important
to the economy in the medium and long term,
and a way will be found to keep them liquid,
got cash and to keep moving forwards.
If you do have any other questions you want to ask,
I have other questions that I will address
in a couple of future videos,
and as I mentioned, I will keep making these videos,
answering questions, has the situation changed,
if you have them.
Until then, remember, stay indoors, stay home, stay safe,
look after yourself, and of course, we can all keep dreaming
of the day when life comes back to something more normal,
when it's safe to venture out of our homes and, of course,
venture even further afield travelling and cruising.
Stay well, stay safe.