castlebride14

Hi again all,

Just wanted to give you a final update. As mentioned I did confirm with RCI today, but first let me explain why I didn't confirm with them yesterday.

When I called yesterday I had decided to go with the D1 cabin on the Indy & $400 OBC, but when RCI gave me the price for this, it was a little less (but not much) than our original booking into a D5 cabin on the Allure. What stopped me from confirming yesterday was that the price RCI were offering us for the D1 cabin on the Indy was MORE (by about $300) than if we were completely new customers who were making our very first booking onto the Indy yesterday – basically we were at a disadvantage for having booked with RCI onto the Allure last July, having to pay more for the cruise – but I do acknowledge that we were getting $400, rather than $200 OBC, which was their original offer in the correspondence that went out to confirm the Allure cancellation.

So I held off on confirming yesterday but did let them know that I was not at all happy about the difference in price for us as existing customers vs completely new customers.

When they called back today, they had changed their offer to the Junior Suite, with $400 OBC, for the same price as a D5 cabin on the Allure. I am very satisfied with this offer and was happy to confirm. It's a pity it took a while to get there but I guess that's one of the joys of booking direct as a non-US customer.

I have read all of your comments about the JoCo group, and the roll call, and their website. From what I read, they are looking to have a fun and relaxing week as well, and I think they make clear that they try as much as possible not to “take over” the ship. They also explain that they run separate events so at least we'll understand that in advance too. I have to admit to having zero idea of who Jonathon Coulton is but I will endeavour to find out.

Now we can relax and look forward to the cruise so I am glad it has all been sorted. My fiance did have the Allure researched from bow to stern but now she gets to have all of that excitement build again with the Independence.

Many thanks for your replies which as ever were hugely helpful. We'll join the roll call nearer the time and looking forward to meeting fellow voyagers (cruisers/travellers/sailors? Not sure what the best word is) onboard!

Hi all,

Had a much longer reply ready to go but managed to delete it! Thanks for all of your replies, really helpful again.

Will have a full update tomorrow when I will have confirmed our sailing on Indy with the RCI UK office - couldn't do this today as the person in the revenue department handling our booking wasn't there.

Thanks again for your thoughts and kind words - they deserve a more fulsome reply so I'll post up sometime tomorrow evening (Irish Time) after confirming the booking.

Thanks all

Hi all,

Posting as castlebride14 but I'm actually her fiance. As some of you may know, we were originally booked to sail on the Allure from Fort Lauderdale on the 23rd February sailing that has now been cancelled. Over the past few days, we've been trying to find a solution as to what to do now.

To give you a bit of background, we're Irish, we booked directly with RCI through their website last July, and we're flying into Fort Lauderdale on the 22nd February.

We found out that the sailing was cancelled last Thursday, via the forums here (which have been immensely helpful for us) and the press release on the RCI website. The next morning, I rang the Irish contact number on the RCI website and got their UK office. At that time they were not aware that the sailing was cancelled and asked that I call back. At about 4pm that day, I finally received confirmation from RCI by email that our sailing was cancelled.

RCI gave us three options

1) Book a sailing on the Allure/Oasis on earlier dates, the latest being the 22nd Feb, with the same accomodation at the same fare, depending on availability.

2) Re-book on another sailing, with the guest responsible for the extra cost if the new cruise is more expensive, or alternatively receiving a refund of the difference if the new cruise is less expensive.

3) A full refund.

With the first two options, we would receive $200 OBC for the replacement cruise - if we had a Suite this would have been $400 OBC.

We decided to go for option 2, to take the 6 night Western Carribean cruise on the Independence out of Fort Lauderdale on the 23rd, as this meant that we wouldn't have to change flights etc.

However, this is where it starts to get a little frustrating. When it came to the total price (for both of us) for the 6 night trip on the smaller Independence, this was only €100/$135 dollars less than the 7 night trip on the Allure. Yes we had the $200 OBC but we weren't happy that the price was so similar for a shorter trip on a smaller ship.

Bearing in mind that we would now have to pay an extra night at a hotel, along with meals for an extra day, we were less than satisfied with this and rang RCI (always the UK office) to express our disappointment.

They came back with two further offers:

1) A Junior Suite on the Independence, at the same total price as we had paid for a D5 category room on the Allure, with $200 OBC.

2) A D1 category room on the Independence, at the same total price as we had paid for a D5 category room on the Allure, with $400 OBC.

To be honest, I am still less than happy with this. I completely understand that the Allure needed the repairs, and this was the week chosen to do it - that's life sometimes. But what I can't understand is why RCI are asking us to pay the same price for a 6 night cruise on a lower class ship, as they were for a 7 night cruise on the Allure. If we do take either of the offers for the Independence, it will cost us more per person per night than our original booking for the Allure - even when the OBC is taken into account.

Maybe I am being a little too precious here, but it just seems to me like RCI aren't overly worried about those that were booked onto the cancelled Allure sailing - those who can change their flights/holidays can book onto one of the suggested sailings, and the rest can either get their refund and try elsewhere, or take a pretty miserly offer (in my experience) and cruise with the Independence.

I'd just like to know if anyone has any suggestions as to what we should do - at this stage I just want to get it sorted so that we can go back to planning our wedding. I've been very forthright with RCI, and told them I would more than likely cancel after getting the above offers today. We've looked at other cruise lines around that time but none are really giving us the 'wow' factor that Allure did when we first booked - so I guess I'm here for your advice, which as I've said has been very helpful to us since our honeymoon got thrown this curveball last Thursday.

Should RCI be putting down better offers than those mentioned, or am I expecting too much?

Thanks for reading :)

Danny

haha no i didnt know that!! after the last hour of reviews of celebrity we arnt so sure as we are both in our late 20's and it seems that it might be a bit quiet for us???

agghhhh..... what to do! Carnival?

Or suck it up and just go in Indy?

I know, still cant figure how RCI think its ok to do that direct swap. if we were to get out full refund and book the 6 night in Indy ourselves it would be saving us 300 euros.

Based on that, we are giving RCI the door and have a 7 night cruise on celebrity silhoutte on hold for 24 hours in a congiere class cabin on deck 9. (a nice bit cheaper too!)

as first time cruisers we will have nothing to compare it with.

going on any RCI would only be a reminder of this royal mess so going to move on. how long does it take to get refunded?

Now to got a few reviews read on the celebrity before we confirm.

Hey guys,

have spent a tough afternoon with the UK office trying to sort this out. Because we don't fly into FL until midnight on the sat night we cant switch to the oasis sailing on 22nd (not that i wanted to do the eastern cruise anyway!).

So the lovely people there have offered us a 6 night (instead of 7) cruise on independence (instead of allure)

we will also have added cost of a extra night in FL when we return.

no refund on the diff of cost between both ships, even though its a shorter cruise on a "smaller" ship. ????

not good enough, would not let me speak to a manager.

Said that is all they would offer.

Time to get full refund and go with another cruise line?? When do ye cruisers think?

Thanks guys,

think we will wait it out so and see what happens.

We dont get in to FL until midnight the sat night so it will need to be a sunday cruise really. :(

Fingers crossed we get the call sooner rather than later and get a good deal.

3 months to the wedding - this disaster was not in the plans!! ;)

If we were to change to princess or celebrity, which would be better? Exhausted myself researching for the allure cruise - not sure if i have it in me (or the time!) to start again! :confused:

Hi guys, unlucky enough to have booked our honeymoon cruise on the feb 23rd sailing :(

no word from RC by email or otherwise.

Any suggestions as to what we need to / should do about this?

Already have a a fair amount of it paid of, and have flights booked and paid for into FL around the cruise times!

disappointed! (maybe its a sign! :D )

thanks ken, we will have to look further at this as our wedding isnt until 14th feb and all our flights are booked etc. Had planned vegas from 18th - 22nd, fly to fort laurd, cruise sunday to sunday and then home from fort laurderdale.

So we have a pretty narrow window for cruising.

Have been so excited for our first cruise. wonder how far ahead they will tell us?

cruising the western route on 23 feb on allure. Selfishly hope its fixed but have a niggling feeling that it'll go into dry dock around that time :(

There goes the honeymoon!

When would RC let passengers know? First time cruiser.

Hey guys, i have been keeping a eye on this thread as we are planning honeymoon on the allure next feb 2014. We are doing the western cruise however and excuse my stupidity but is it only affecting the eastern cruise?

Feeling worried - do we need to re-plan the honeymoon? :confused::(