Delayed final payments

mrsmickey · 4 Feb 21, 11:27 PM

Hello all,

Cant see it’s been mentioned on here, but I’ve had an email confirming that Disney have extended the final payment For cruises departing before 31 August to 60 days before departure. However, you can’t book excursions or on board activities without final payment having been made.
I’m in two minds on this - great it’s delayed, but it seems unfair that you can’t book excursions etc - Disney could let you do it and then if you don’t pay they release your slot. They’ve also confirmed that if you cancel with less than 60 days there’s still an escalating fee scale unless you do the flexible rebooking. Even though our reservation was made in Feb 2020 for an August 30 sailing, if we couldn’t fly due to being told to isolate we would lose 100% (should be able to claim on travel insurance though)

On the plus side, if this is up to 31 august it suggests that Disney are feeling more positive about sailings after that point

gismo1554 · 5 Feb 21, 08:19 AM

I wouldn't read too much into the date. I believe that they are just pushing the date back 1 months at a time rather than actually making a firm date. So in December it was cruises through July 31st but as they cancel another months worth of cruises they push the date back another month (or at least that has been the pattern since this all started).

BA are doing a similar thing with their travel with confidence thing (now extended through August) but I think its just a finger in the air rather than a real "we feel positive".

All I would say is that the other thing affected is Future Cruise Credit. If you haven't paid in advance then you don't qualify for the bonus payment if they cancel your cruise. Currently this is 25% credit if you choose to take this rather than having a refund. If you haven't paid in full then your only option is the refund.

In terms of the tours I kind of get it as its probably not easy for them to cancel off tours on their system or something similar. We've had the same with other cruise lines as well so its common unfortunately. I haven't got this dilemma as took FCC for the first cruise cancelled so just keep pushing my credit along at each subsequent. The issue I'm coming up with now is the more they cancel the less time people have to use FCC as they haven't yet extended it from the original 2 years date (May 2022).

Elodie · 6 Feb 21, 09:47 AM

Originally Posted by gismo1554

I wouldn't read too much into the date. I believe that they are just pushing the date back 1 months at a time rather than actually making a firm date. So in December it was cruises through July 31st but as they cancel another months worth of cruises they push the date back another month (or at least that has been the pattern since this all started).

BA are doing a similar thing with their travel with confidence thing (now extended through August) but I think its just a finger in the air rather than a real "we feel positive".

All I would say is that the other thing affected is Future Cruise Credit. If you haven't paid in advance then you don't qualify for the bonus payment if they cancel your cruise. Currently this is 25% credit if you choose to take this rather than having a refund. If you haven't paid in full then your only option is the refund.

In terms of the tours I kind of get it as its probably not easy for them to cancel off tours on their system or something similar. We've had the same with other cruise lines as well so its common unfortunately. I haven't got this dilemma as took FCC for the first cruise cancelled so just keep pushing my credit along at each subsequent. The issue I'm coming up with now is the more they cancel the less time people have to use FCC as they haven't yet extended it from the original 2 years date (May 2022).

Unfortunately, I agree about the date. Our April cruise was originally included in the delayed payment scheme, and I’ve watched as they’ve cancelled sailings one month at a time up to April. Ours was cancelled a couple of weeks ago, as I’d expected all along.

The only thing I’d wondered about was whether to pay in full to get the 25% extra future cruise credit. We have a cruise booked for April 2022, but I didn’t know whether the FCC could be applied to this, or what would happen to the credit if that cruise gets cancelled too, so I left it and just took the refund of my deposit instead. Still not sure if that was the right thing to do or not!

mrsmickey · 6 Feb 21, 09:31 PM

Do you know if they are honouring placeholders still? We sail on the 30th and ours is due to expire a day later! Would be annoying to lose that. I’m nervy about paying in full as whilst FCC is attractive it is a gamble if it’s touch and go as to whether we have to cancel or they cancel

gismo1554 · 8 Feb 21, 08:09 AM

Originally Posted by mrsmickey

Do you know if they are honouring placeholders still? We sail on the 30th and ours is due to expire a day later! Would be annoying to lose that. I’m nervy about paying in full as whilst FCC is attractive it is a gamble if it’s touch and go as to whether we have to cancel or they cancel

They are currently yes but I believe the May 2022 date the FCC is required to be used by is as far as they are pushing it currently. Until we know whats happening with that I guess we wont know if placeholders are also being pushed. My placeholder should have expired in September 2021 and was pushed to November based on the cancellations.