Due to the global pandemic, today (May 20) two of the world's top-3 largest cruise shipping companies - RCI-Royal Caribbean International and NCL-Norwegian Cruise Line - cancelled all departures (fleetwide) through July 31, 2020.
Companies' decisions are based mainly on cruise port closures (or passenger shipping restrictions) and intercountry travel (flight) restrictions. Previously, RCI planned to resume service on June 11, while NCL scheduled its first departures for July 1.
All affected NCL bookings receive 125% refund in FCC (future cruise credit) transferred to a booking (any itinerary, fleetwide) for voyages departing through and on December 31, 2022. As an incentive, NCL gives 20% discount on all FCC bookings (fleetwide) made by May 31, 2020.
With rebooking, Royal Caribbean offers 125% refunds in FCC, to be used on itineraries that depart up to April 30, 2022. The FCC must be redeemed by December 31, 2021. Changing the FCC to a monetary refund (100%) must be done by December 31, 2020. Initially, all prepaid RCI cruise packages and services had the option to be converted into 125% OBC (onboard credit), but this option expired on May 4, 2020.
For now, the world's largest cruise shipowner (Carnival Corporation) plans to start CCL-Carnival Cruise Line's services on June 27.