The line said it understood clients’ frustration over delays, but stressed it was continuing to make progress on payments, albeit while not being able to give a specific date by which time a refund or FCC payment will be received.

Princess said extra resources have been sought to speed up the process, which has been complicated by having to deal in more than a dozen currencies and across a number of payment methods.

"Processing refunds has remained one of our top priorities since our company paused operations," said the line in an update issued this week.

"Despite significantly increasing people resources in this area, we needed to also ramp up our systems capabilities to be able to handle higher volume and significant complexity.

"With a global scope, our refund process is an involved one, dealing with 13 different currencies and various payment methods.

"Our teammates are making their way through the backlog more quickly now, and have completed nearly 60% of refunds so far."

Princess explained refunds and FCCs were two separate processes, meaning one may arrive before the other.

It also confirmed guests’ total FCC may be made up of two or three separate FCCs rather than a single lump sum, with the same being true of refunds with cruise fares, shore excursions and pre-cruise onboard purchases made separately.

The line said even if a guest requested an FCC, some transactions were automatically refunded unless moved to a new reservation. These include flexible air fares, hotel packages, transfers, Princess Vacation Protection, and taxes, fees and port expenses.

Princess said while it could not specific dates for refunds or FCC payments, staff were working hard to achieve this as quickly as possible.