European Quest No More

Back in mid-March, COVID-19 had begun exploding as the Coronavirus spread across the world like wildfire. It didn’t take a genius to figure out that traveling was going to be severely impacted. Within hours of our arrival in Turkey, we decided to cancel the balance of our 2020 travel plans and return home. By March 20, we were self-quarantining in Colorado Springs.

Our now-canceled travel plans included some small-ticket items, as well a couple of big-ticket ones ... such as a short cruise along the coast of France on Oceania’s Marina.

The cruise line had already announced favorable changes to its cancelation policy. Knowing that we now had up to 48 hours prior to embarkation to cancel the cruise, we decided to bide our time and wait before taking any action. After all, the chances of the cruise sailing as expected was less than nil. And if Oceania canceled the cruise before we did, we would likely have additional remuneration offers to consider.

March passed into April. Cruise lines, including O, continued canceling sailings in increments. European Quest, expected to sail on 25 May, remained a go even though all of the ports on the itinerary were still closed to cruise ships ... and expected to remain that way for the foreseeable future. It was tempting to cancel and be done with it. But we persevered. Patience was the name of the game.

Well, today it happened. I received an email notification bright and early that advised us of the cancelation of all O cruises through the end of June. European Quest was officially a no-go.

We have two options to consider now. Leave the money with O and receive a future cruise certificate for 125% of what we paid for the cruise. Or, receive a 100% $$ refund back to our original form of payment. Hmmm!

The smart money might be to take the cash and run. But we don’t have to make the decision immediately as there is a grace period until 8 May to advise O if we want the $$ refund.

I have some niggling questions that need answering before we make our decision. I’ll be calling O on Monday to seek those answers.Read more