Luckybee

Officials are telling people to get out of the way. Royal is telling you to wait until it passes. This isn't the Harvey experience.

This unique and extraordinary storm one of the most powerful in history is scheduled as of 5pm today to be hitting Florida from the 10th to the 11th. If I am not mistaken at this point RCCL is telling people that cruises will be leaving on the 12th and 13th.

We live near Toronto....we do not have a cruise scheduled for this time and if we did there isn't a snowballs chance in heck that we would head for Florida . But if we couldn't afford to take the hit, and our insurance didn't cover unless the cruiseline cancelled then we would have to get to south Florida on either the 11th or 12th....that isn't waiting until it passes with Irma. . In the islands waiting until it passes is months, in Fla it is likely weeks if the damage is anywhere close to the places it has already hit....even if it is a fraction !

I've only been through 2 hurricanes on land based vacations, and while we did have to evacuate both the Bahamas and South Fla on the one occasion(after evacuating the Bahamas to get to South Fla, only to have the hurricane cross central Fla where we had finally evacuated to....lol) and it wasn't a fun experience....and the remnants were a mess. We rode out one which was only a Cat 1 ....and that was a mess too! Having read many posts on here from those either not living in hurricane areas, or having no experience at all with hurricanes I am convinced that part of the problem is many don't seem to understand what a category 5 hurricane is capable of. Reading some posts on another message board a recurring theme is ..."wow some of the pictures look like a Tornado went through" .I want to yell "no chit people what do you think a Cat 5 is.....its like a very very very big Tornado"...omg !!!!

How many of you believe that if you booked a hotel stay for 7 days and this is OK: you were to show up at the hotel to check in and were told the hotel wouldn't open for another three days and your stay is being prorated, come back in 3 days for the rest of your stay.

 

As a cruise line, there is a certain level of accommodation that you require be available to sell and deliver your goods. The infrastructure to get people to your ship, including the local airport, the port facilities itself, roadways between as well as hotels and other services have to be available. Anything that adversely affects those, adversely affects your product. You cannot stick your head in the sand and say to everyone "all that stuff is not my responsibility." As a cruise line, you rely upon that infrastructure for your product. You may not be in direct control of it, but you benefit by it every other day of the year, and base your product on it. So when it becomes unreliable or unavailable, your product is as much unreliable, unavailable or undeliverable as anything else.

 

People who bought a 7-day cruise, deserve a 7-day cruise. And if you are unable to fulfill what you sold, you need to refund what they paid, or provide a way for them to adjust their reservation at no additional cost, or possibly even provide a way to put that value towards different cruise plans now or in the future. If you want to give them an option to take a 4-day version instead, then you also have to recognize whatever screwed over your original plans is probably still somehow going to affect those accepting your changed plans. So that's certainly something you can offer, but it's not anything the same as delivering what was originally purchased.

 

It's VERY disconcerting to see RCL's behavior during these recent hurricane events. They seem to be in denial that their product requires support of other infrastructure to be usable and deliverable. And they are in denial that these storms impact that infrastructure more than just during the immediate traversal of the storm across land and sea.

And speaking of hotel's...interesting to see Disney's hurricane policy which allows for a complete cancellation/refund if they or "your place of residence" gets a hurricane warning

https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/en_CA/faq/hurricane-policy/warning-issued/

Good corporate ethics in this case !

All I can say is holy crap ! If anyone who has viewed the photos from SXM, or STT in the past 24 hrs is seriously thinking about intentionally going into the path of this thing to get on a cruise ship instead of running far far away they have to be out of their minds. We have friends in SXM who no longer have a condo. The Sonesta in Maho (a very sturdy high rise hotel...is toast). My assistants sister who lives in the Provo in the Turks just paid a small fortune to catch a private flight to get anywhere out of the islands and they landed in Atlanta last night.

The fact that a cruise company is even suggesting it is unbelievable. Someone mentioned something about personal responsibility on another thread. Doesn't Royal (or any other cruise line who is doing the same thing) understand corporate responsibility ? The fact they are not offering refunds, cancelling and intentionally asking people to come on down is pure and simply nuts. If this storm hits anywhere in Florida with anywhere close to the same velocity as it hit the islands the damage is going to make Andrew look like a walk in the park. It is mind numbing that anyone potentially wants to put themselves into a place either before it potentially hits, or after when there may in fact be no communication, massive problems with food and shelter, and well...you know....a state of emergency.

For anyone even thinking about it...here's a few links for you

just scroll down....https://twitter.com/jonathanfalwell

look at the photos here........https://www.facebook.com/calmos.desaintmartin/

again photos ....https://twitter.com/bienglace

If you're thinking about doing it....ask yourself if it is worth your life??

It's one thing for a Fla resident who makes it through unscathed to perhaps drive a few hours to a port....it is a whole entire other ballgame to "get there early" hoping to get on if the storm isn't "too bad"

And to the OP...I don't know if it is greed, or just pure and simply horrible management, or that the inmates are in charge of the asylum !!!

How did you book your cruise? On the website? The words "refundable" and "non-refundable" are there during the booking process, with explanations. Through a TA? That agent had the responsibility to explain the difference to you.

 

I am sorry that you are frustrated, but you are taking it out in the wrong direction. Look in a mirror.

The terminology being used does present a bit of a problem . I booked a "non refundable" fare for a suite. I did so over the phone with a RccL agent. I was told that if we cancelled we would lose $100 each and the rest would be a credit good for a year. That was it, that was all. Only when we wanted to change our ship was I told that we couldn't change ships either. Is it my fault for not going to the website and pulling up the terms and conditions before booking, yes I should have. I actually did after we were told we couldn't change ships because I couldn't believe what the rep was telling me and how inane it was that RCCL was willing to lose a $10000+ booking over $200 and it was definitely there. So yes I should have read the entire contract as im sure everyone does.:rolleyes:

What those of you who do not understand regarding the op's issue is that there are not many companies in the travel industry(non cruise) that do not allow changes to booked reservations.

Even many of the packaged tour companies that wont allow refunds will allow date changes without charge(and they are usually the toughest). A non experienced cruiser would not expect that.

Also if it is a suite, you probably saved way more than $100pp by choosing the non refundable, so you are still ahead.

 

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Uh no....if he/she is in a suite they didn't choose to book non refundable. There is no choice it is non refundable or don't book at all .

Yes, that southern itinerary can be quite rocky, especially around Curacao to Aruba. Glad to hear you were moved to a lower deck and now you can relax! Bon voyage and please let me know how you enjoyed Koningsdam.

Oh sure you've just made my day = Not! Dh and I just switched from a 4th deck aft Neptune, to a 7th because of noise concerns for next Nov....now you're telling me that aft may not be the way to go on this trip....arghhhhh.

In your experience how rocky is rocky? We leave Curacao at 11 pm and get into Aruba at 7 am the next morning where dh and I will disembark. Are we just talking about the one overnighter being bad or ...???

October 29th. I just got off the phone with Holland. We got it straightened out. Not happy I had to pay $80.00 more but I sure did not want to be sick the whole cruise. Itinerary, Amber Cove, San Juan, Bonaire, Curaco, Aruba.We hit rough seas one year going to San Juan on the Veendam and pretty much everyone was feeling sick. They were going wall to wall down the hallway. I had people tell me they had never felt or been sicke except that particular sailing. Thank you and we are so looking forward to it.

Please please please come back and advise regarding this cruise. Dh and I just booked a very similar one( only difference is Grand Turk and Half Moon Cay and not San Juan) for November of next year and I'd love to hear details

My T.A. is now quoting me three prices from HAL: the Explore-4, an Advantage fare, and the really low fare. Only the really low fare has a non-refundable deposit.

 

But my goodness the deposit is high! Even with the 50% discount the Explore-4 deposit is $780 and the Advantage fare is twice that!! :eek:

True that ! We booked the advantage fare and the deposit was 2x what it would have been with the Explore4 pkg. ( I thought of it as simply paying for more of the cruise sooner :) )

I didn't check the deposit for the super sale because I have no interest in booking a non refundable deposit having already lost one with RCCL.

For us I'd rather pay a bigger deposit then get stuck with a non refundable.

Yes because it's non refundable. If you wanted the option of it being refundable or with the ability to make changes then book accordingly. We always book suites so we don't even have the choice to book refundable anymore. Even if you booked a non refundable hotel that far out or a non refundable flight you are out of luck.

Not many hotels are non refundable, and those that do offer non refundable rates, always have the option regardless of category one is booking. Furthermore, most of the better hotels will work with the guest to reschedule even when one is within a cancellation period. Two years ago we were booked at a Hyatt resort in Hawaii and were only 5 days out and within their cancellation period. (our other hotels were refundable).Something came up that prevented us from travelling at that time . All it took was one phone call to reschedule. Same thing with 2 airlines that particular trip who waived cancellation penalties. (on the 3rd we were booked full fare business so no fees). Granted this was a serious medical situation, and both airlines asked for confirmation of the issue but at least they asked

Contra that with RCCL where I tried to change ships for the same dates in November of 2018 15 months in advance. No interest in why we wanted to change whatsoever ! But then again this is the same cruise line that asked people sailing out of Galveston to show proof of flooding before they would let them change too:rolleyes: so I shouldn't be surprised.

I'm also really confused. Why do people keep booking non-refundable fares and then getting mad when they want to make a change and are being charged the change fee that they agreed to and signed up for?

 

All of these people keep making justifications for why they think their "change" isn't really a big enough deal to warrant a charge, and then claiming outrage at Royal Caribbean for having the nerve to charge the fee that they, the customer, signed up for in order to save a couple hundred bucks off the price of their cruise. I just don't get it.

 

Why do these people keep booking non-refundable when they have an option to book a refundable fare????

 

What is so hard to understand about "You will be charged $100pp if you want to change this cruise?" It doesn't matter if the change is to a more expensive cruise, or you have 15 people in your group instead of 2, you still have to pay it, that's what you signed up for. So ridiculous.

 

 

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Not all categories have the option...suites do not !

The reason most vacation bookings require a deposit is to have some idea of how many people will be there. I was always surprised that RCI would return the deposit if changed or cancelled. Most vacation places will not so now they are inline with accepted practices.

This is not correct. Dh and I do land based vacations at least twice a year and we never have non refundable deposits staying at numerous different resorts. Some will have non refundable 30 days prior, or 14 or 3 but usually the only ones which might be non refundable generally are those that are part of a package deal .

Had my T.A. price out the difference. WOW! ... $845 per person cheaper to book it in Canadian$ without the package. Only catch is the deposit is non-refundable when booking without the Explore-4 package. No way DH & I will spend that much in drinks! :eek:

We're from Canada too, and booked a cruise for November 2018 on Koningsdam. I don't know if it is because we chose to book in US dollars or not but we booked without the explore4 and our deposit is refundable.

We've never cruised Hal before but have just booked our first with them, and went through the same dilemma. For us the price differential was about $700+ for a 10 day cruise and it didn't make sense for us. Dh and I plan to bring our own wine, will have our specialties pre booked(so that Pinnacle grill wont do us any good), and given that Hal doesn't allow one to simply pay the difference on a more expensive drink made the package useless for us. For dinner dh and I will usually bring a bottle of white wine, but dh will sometimes want a glass of red. I might want the odd frozen drink. I do not want to be sitting there questioning whether the price is within the limit in order to decide whether im going to order. Knowing dh's taste in wine...the price will never be within the package limit...lol.

I would rather order and pay for what we want. Now if one could pay the differential ala RCCL then we would have taken the package. Honestly though...the only one who can tell you if it is "worth it " for you....is you :)

Thanks all for the info so far....still looking for info on how easy/hard to get specialty restaurant reservations for specific times/dates if we book far in advance. Also how easy to get lounge chairs somewhere on the ship in the sun. Is Ice River Green the only bottled water one can get in the suite ??? I don't want to lug a case of water if we dont have to but we prefer Evian or Voss ....can handle Aquafina or Fiji ? Lastly.....any specialty restaurants that are not suggested ?

LOL....dh wants to stay on deck 4....and I want to go up to 7 or 8.....now we have to decide on that dilemma :)

Do you have it in writing from HAL that you are permitted to leave the ship in Aruba to begin your 2 week vacation there?

Yes !!

We had to book first but we were able to cancel had they said no, then they sent us an email confirmation confirming the deviation. I didn't expect a problem because it didn't contravene the Jones Act ( I checked first :))

Thanks Bruce

I had read in the reviews of the K about the vibrations on the 4th deck and also about the noise.

Was there any reason in particular why you chose the 7th over the 4th with the larger balcony....every deck is still pretty open for the Neptunes so we can pretty much go anywhere at this point so any advice is appreciated.

Are reservations for the first night in the CK made in advance or how does one go about taking advantage of this ? Is it always offered?

Hello All

Dh and I have booked a cruise on the Koningsdam for November 11 of 2018. This will be our first Hal cruise. I wanted to pop in and say hello and ask a few questions :)

We've booked a Aft Neptune suite on the 4th deck(for the larger balcony) but I've been reading reviews and Im wondering if I've made an error in judgement having read about noise/vibrations etc on 4th deck cabins ? I've managed to find photos of the 4th deck aft suites, but haven't found any of other aft Neptune, does anyone have a photo of those aft balconies?

(edited to add...I just found some photos of the 7th floor balconies on the aft wrap around neptunes....am I correct they are basically the same but with that looks like a real couch in the room but a more narrower side balcony) ? Would 8th or 7th deck be a better bet for us in terms of noise and vibrations?)

We're disembarking early in Aruba which we've confirmed with Hal. Of course they've advised if the port is missed they are not responsible etc. Has anyone ever seen a case where Aruba is actually missed ? I would think it is a pretty safe bet but just wondering now....lol.

We plan on doing mainly specialty dining while on board and including Pinnacle Grill, Tamarind, Sel de Mer, Canaletto, (one night in Curacao since departure isn't until 11 pm), pizza night one night and room service one night. Would have added Delibrije but if Im right we wouldn't know when that is until we're on board and other ressies all already made? Also wasn't sure about Culinary Kitchen...do the menus for this change often ? We weren't crazy over the ones we saw but wondered ? Would CK be better than Canaletto ? Are there any of the specialties that are not great? How difficult are reservations for the dates and times we want? Does the priority suite status assist for reservations made in advance? Or are they just easy to get to begin with ?

We were going to do a cabana but not im thinking its probably a waste. Since we are disembarking early we'll miss 2 of the 3 sea days and we have our own large balcony. How difficult is it to find lounge chairs in the sun? Im not worried about being near the pool but we are sun worshippers and have to get our base before we hit Aruba for 2 weeks :)...just want to be able to catch our daily dose of sun and although we'll probably hit the beaches in the various ports we might for 1 port simply skip and stay onboard, and of course there is the 1 sea day that we will be onboard for.

How does early embarkation work for Hal ? Is there a suite lounge in the terminal ?

We plan on carrying our own wine aboard (and paying corkage) since we were not too impressed by the wine lists we've viewed, but ive also noticed that the bottled water appears to be close to a no name brand so im wondering about bringing a case of Evian as well ? Am I correct that this is acceptable ?

Thanks for any opinions , answers etc. Absolutely love the itinerary of this cruise both in terms of some great and safe islands and the ability to get off in Aruba which saves us a flight after the cruise. We know very little about Hal other than what we've read here so Im full of questions.

Actually based on the current state of deposits, if your deposit is a non refundable one, you would have to pay a penalty of $100 per person to change the cruise.

I agree on the part that having the credit only work from the date of cancel is stupid, that part causes issues for them and for their customers. Having non-refundable is perfectly fine to me (at least only the $100 fee, if it switched to the full deposit lost, it would be crappy). One year is pretty short, 2 would be much more preferred imo, but at least 1 year from the sail date, as many people book more than a year before sailing.

Certainly would make more sense imho.

All the airfares that are discounted are non refundable. If Royal woyld follow Southwest and apply a Future Cruise Credit valid for one year with the option to extend it for $50 once the year is up for another year would be very reasonable.

 

I for one would book a refundable deposit even of its more rather than losing $900 I could ger the full refubd back before the sail date.Also it means less owed at Final Payment so as long as they don't increase cruise fares by 150% its a moot point.

 

A good travel agent would tell you up front the refundable vs non refundable deposit. Just my 2 cents.

 

What says you?

When we fly internationally we tend to book bus class so we are almost always refundable.

On everything else you posted I agree with the proviso that one should be able to change the sail without penalty if one is booking the same or close to the same dates wayyyyy outside the dates.

Which is exactly why I said "blame the suite hogs" for the fact that there are no non-refundable deposits on Suites. There have been plenty of posts on this board discussing suite hogs.....I guess that will stop now.

 

Or just wait to book until you know you want to take a particular sailing. You're simply over-reacting to the policy you knew was in effect when you made the booking.

There were other ways they could have handled the "suite hog" issue if that is what this was about. I get the non refundable, but instead they could have handled it in such a way that made it more consumer friendly. Making a booking non transferable to another sailing has zero to do with suite hogs and all to do with greed and while other's disagree it is imho short sighted because they could have tweaked this without managing to turn people off. Again while some disagree, there are some who wont book because of the policies who will go elsewhere, and no company wants to chase customers away

In your opinion I'm "over-reacting". In my opinion I'm exercising my right as a consumer to make choices.

This was clear when you made the deposit. Complaining about Royal holding you to the terms of the contract you agreed to, and then holding on to the reservation when you know you're not taking the cruise seems sad, childish, and selfish, TBH. I also think its hilarious that $200 when you're planning on spending $10,000+ is making you react this way.

 

I would disagree that this is short-sighted. Many other cruise lines offer this option, and if you live just about anywhere else besides the US or Canada, ALL reservations are non-refundable. As the dollar continues to strengthen, less Europeans are sailing from the US, so something has to be done to increase revenue. Non-refundable deposits are a great way to 1) save a little money if you KNOW you're going to take the cruise, 2) generate additional revenue thanks to change fees, and 3) generate additional revenue thanks to people like you cancelling.

 

 

 

Do you only drive to port, or do you fly? Because almost airlines charge a change fee. My guess is that you fly and you wait until you KNOW you're taking a cruise before you book flights. This is the behavior Royal is trying to reinforce - book when you KNOW you're going to take the cruise OR choose a refundable rate. Unfortunately you probably have the "suite hogs" to blame for all suites being non-refundable.

And if they had the option to save a little money by booking non refundable we would not have chosen that option, and if we had it would have been our choice and I would have no right to complain.

The airlines are a good example actually, and it is why whenever we have the option we will fly out of Buffalo instead of Toronto (we're in Canada), on Southwest who don't charge fees to change bookings. Other wise when we fly internationally etc out of YYZ we book more expensive fares that we can have flexibility with and there are no charges for cancelling or changing.

And this is exactly the reason they are going to non-refundable fares. While you sat there holding onto your reservation I'm sure there were people who may have booked your cabin had it been available. When you have a cabin booked on a cruise you aren't taking it means that nobody else can book that cabin. You holding that cabin can potentially impact others wanting to cruise and could cost the line money. It's this behaviour they are trying to discourage.

 

So yeah they charge you a penalty of $200 to change anything. And the fact that you are holding a cabin "just to show them" is actually pretty sad and selfish.

 

 

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Sorry but what you are saying makes no sense...it is solely because of the non refundable deposit that we are holding on to the reservation. Without it we would not be sitting on the reservation. In order to extend the credit we have no choice. Perhaps I wasn't clear in my first post.

And if you think it is selfish to do so, quite frankly I don't care. It is the inflexibility of their policies that caused the "selfish" behaviour .

So, you signed a contract and then when the other party honors that contact, you get pissed and never do business with them again? You are the reason why they implemented non-refundable rates.

 

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Had I had the opportunity

to book a regular refundable deposit we would have cancelled the minute we decided not to take it. Instead Royal's booking policy states that if we cancel we get a $300 credit back to be used for 1 year from the date of cancellation. Uh yea....I will wait for the very last minute to cancel. I would be a fool not too!

Somehow this translates into , "You are the reason why they implemented non-refundable rates." Ummm no, we would have simply cancelled without the layer Royal has added, and given us no choice but to book a non refundable fare.

Let me tell you how really silly the non refundable deposit has gotten. We booked a Royal Loft on Allure for Nov of 2018 which could only be booked as a non refundable. We then decided that there was a Seabourn cruise a couple of months later we wanted instead so we planned to wait until final payment then cancel to extend the cruise credit out as long as we could. Fast forward last week dh and I were discussing it and decided we would take another cruise in Nov. we didn't want the itinerary of Allure which is mainly Mexico etc(dh and I are simply not comfortable with the current warnings for Mexico and I understand that many others are ) . We were stunned when Royal wouldn't let us change to the Oasis without a $200 penalty. I get that they have a "policy" but it seems to me that they would let one transfer to another cruise same dates without penalty. Nope ! So we have a policy too....I won't do business with a company that is that inflexible. We booked November with HAL(fully refundable deposit btw).....and Royal can enjoy the $500,. They wont however get the $10,000+ they would have had from us...and I hope they can get full price for the RL on Allure that we wont release until full payment date.

I cannot believe how shortsighted the thinking is.