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On Feb. 16, Princess Cruises announced cancellations to all of the Diamond Princess's voyages through to April 20.

The announcement came while the cruise ship was in the midst of its quarantine, as confirmed cases of Covid-19 amongst passengers and crew on board grew day by day.

At the time of writing, the toll of Covid-19 cases from the no-longer-quarantined cruise liner stands at four deaths and 695 confirmed cases.

"Based on the prolonged quarantine period, and the anticipated time to prepare the ship to return to service, we unfortunately must cancel additional Diamond Princess voyages through the April 20 voyages," wrote Princess Cruises on their Facebook page.

For at least one Singaporean, Justina Tan, the cancellation comes as a relief.

Templated replies, guests left in the lurch

Speaking to Mothership, Tan said her parents and six of their friends had been booked on a cruise aboard the Diamond Princess that was to span from Mar. 24 to Apr. 2 this year.

As her parents are aged 72 and 73 — and their friends are all in their 70s and 80s — a decision had been made that it was better not to risk their health for the sake of the trip.

On Feb. 6, Tan's mother wrote to Carnival, the holding company for Princess Cruises, requesting a withdrawal from their upcoming cruise and a full refund of the S$7,120 she and her husband collectively paid for the trip.

A customer service officer from Carnival responded with what Tan described as a "templated reply stating the cancellation policy and the safety measures".

As Princess Cruises had yet to announce a cancellation of the Diamond Princess cruise Tan's parents were booked on at the time, the company's regular cancellation policy meant that Tan's parents would be incurring cancellation fees of 50 per cent of the total charges.

Unsatisfied, Tan took over correspondence on behalf of her parents.

"After several emails back and forth without any headway, I asked for Carnival PLC's management to get in touch with me but the email communication never went beyond the customer service staff. I eventually found the emails of the group president (Jan Swartz), AVP of communications and public relations director so I sent them an email, but I never heard back from them."

Searching for an alternative way to get her parent's refund, Tan visited Princess Cruises' Facebook page.

There, many other commenters were seeking clarification as to the company's plans for future cruises and if they were to be cancelled.

These messages and others similar to them were responded to with messages like the following:

Escalating cancellation fees

The predicament many people like Tan's parents were in was that Princess Cruises' cancellation policy incurs a heavier cancellation fee the closer you are to the date of the cruise.

This left people like Tan's parents frustrated as the closer they got to the date of their trip, the higher their prospective cancellation fee grew.

"If they made the first move to cancel a few weeks to a month before the voyage, they stood to lose 50 to 75 per cent of what they paid for the trip. But if they waited, there was a chance Princess wouldn't cancel and they would either have to forfeit the full amount or risk their lives on the ship."

In reply to Facebook comments, Princess Cruises made mention of a compensation package for "guests booked on an Asia cancelled cruise, and have cancelled their booking on or after Jan. 20."

However, no concrete details of the compensation were revealed.

Voyages cancelled, refunds promised

Eventually, as cases of infected passengers on board the Diamond Princess rose day after day, Princess Cruises cancelled Diamond Princess trips until Apr. 20, even though they had not responded to Tan's requests — or, she imagined, those of other concerned passengers.

"I think they eventually had no choice because the crisis on board the Diamond Princess was escalating and guests were becoming increasingly riled up on social media (and were probably calling the company as well) due to the inaction and templated replies."

A few days after their announcement on Facebook, Tan's parents received an email confirmation that their trip had indeed been cancelled.

They would receive a full refund as well as 25 per cent "Future Cruise Credit" equal to the cruise fare they had paid on the cancelled voyage.

Other users on Facebook reported that they had already received refunds, though this was not the case for Tan's parents.

"I'm not sure when exactly the refund will be made... Seeing as how Princess Cruises is in the midst of a major crisis, my guess is that it will be some months before the refund is made.

Although the matter was eventually resolved, I just wished that Princess Cruises had been more proactive in assuaging the valid concerns of their guests rather than taking action only after being pressured to do so. Before the cancellation email, I don't think Princess Cruises ever reached out to my folks."

Mothership has reached out to Carnival for comment and will update this article if and when they respond.

Top photo via Getty Images