ARandomTraveler

I'm not saying they do, but they should. People should always read the fine print. I've learned to do that because I travel so much, and because I often spend a lot of money that I don't necessarily want to risk losing. Other people might not be as concerned if they lose their money so they don't do what I did. But maybe they should.

Then you should just call your credit card company and dispute the charge. If you're correct that your receipt doesn't say that, then when you give it to your credit card company, your credit card company will present it to Royal Caribbean, and Royal Caribbean will say "you're right, our mistake" and the credit card company will get your $200 back for you.

I know about them because whenever I call to get a price reduction on my current cruise bookings, I ALWAYS make a point to say "remember that my fare is refundable, are you doing the price adjustment as refundable, because I want to keep that?" The first time I did this, I asked the person on the phone to send me the receipt before I hung up, and I asked her how I could tell that my booking was refundable. They told me that non-refundable bookings will always have the "NRD" designation on them, and as long as I didn't see that on my receipt, it meant that my booking was still refundable. I know this because I made sure to ask. Because I don't just trust that someone else making my booking is doing it the way I expect. I double check.

I understand your frustration. You booked a back-to-back trip during a time that worked best for you, and because of mobility issues, the length of the back-to-back made it worth the effort. However, just because you have these personal requirements for your travels, does not make Royal Caribbean responsible for your decision to put another person in charge of your booking instead of making the booking yourself so you could ensure you got what you wanted. If there is any risk that someone won't want to take their trip if X,Y.Z happens, then you should either not take the risk of booking a trip at all, or you should get travel insurance. And you most definitely should never book a non refundable fare. I get it that what you're saying is it's just $200, and given it was Royal's decision to knock you guys off your 7-day cruise for a charter, the least they could do is extend you some discretionary goodwill by not charging the $200 penalty you're paying for your decision to cancel the 4-day cruise. But they don't have to. It's not legally required, and their travel agent did nothing wrong by booking you a non-refundable fare. And let's say they DID lie to you. How do you prove that? Don't you have a receipt that was sent to you that shows what you booked and paid for? And if you don't, why didn't you call and ask for one? Why would you ever allow someone to take your money and not provide you paperwork that shows what you paid for? It's your job as a consumer (and as you explain, you're a very well traveled and well informed consumer), to read the terms and conditions of your receipts. You've cruised enough to know there is a refundable vs non-refundable fare, and you should have specified that that's what you wanted, and then followed up by reading your receipt that shows if it's non refundable or not (a non refundable fare will have the letters NRD listed on the receipt). Sorry that you're upset, but I think you need to take a step back into reality and recognize that your anger is really at the fact that you're bummed that your plans didn't work out the way you wanted, and that's disappointing.

Agreed. I do more land vacations than cruise vacations, but the low cost of cruising has always been one of my top 3 selling points about taking cruises. If they make the price of a cruise the same as a land vacation, they'll have removed 1 of my reasons for cruising. I'll still cruise though 😂.

Agreed, aside from a couple anecdotal reports of seeing the refreshment package on a Black Friday sale for $18 or $19, I really highly doubt anyone is gonna see a price that low. $23.99 seems to be the current "low" price, and right now it kind of sounds like even that doesn't happen anymore. From what people have been posting for the last 2 weeks, $27-$32 sounds like the new "normal" range.

I feel the same way. It's not a lot of money, but I just don't value non-water drinks that much. We don't get our dollar-for-dollar value out of the package when it's $23.99/person, but I'm fine buying it at that price because there's some intrinsic value in having the option to just grab stuff whenever I want and not think about it. More often than not, when I get a frozen drink I take a few sips and then toss it because it's too much sweet at once, plus it makes me full. I rarely drink my whole specialty coffee, and although I like the novelty of the freestyle soda machines, I only filled my cup twice on my last trip, and I didn't finish the soda either time. I'm just a boring water drinker. But I like the idea of grabbing something because it sounds good, and then not caring that I didn't finish it. If I didn't have the package, I might not buy it at all. But I do like having those drinks in moderation throughout the week, and for that, the refreshment package at $23.99/day has value to me. At $27.99/day the value is lost. Even though it's just a measly $28/person extra, in reality it's $28 plus the other $10 or $12/day that I'm already "overpaying" for the drink package based on the fact that I'm not really drinking most of the drinks I order. At that point I'll just pay out of pocket. My next cruise is a 12 day, so at 27.99 I'm spending $396 per person on soda and coffee etc. We'll pay out of pocket.

I should also mention that unless someone chimes in with something Royal Caribbean insurance specific, this thread is gonna get moved in 3...2...1...

Samba Grill only exists on the Radiance and the Allure.

I like ITravelInsured also. I've bought policies from them through Insure My Trip dot com, but only had to file a claim once, which was successful. I recent bought a policy through a different company called Trawick International, which I also found on Insure My Trip dot com. I had to file a claim, which was successful, but I had a hell of a time reaching their customer service. I continually got canned email replies saying they'd get back to me within a few days, and then I wouldn't hear from them for weeks. I ended up calling the customer service number for Insure My Trip dot com, who then called the insurance company on my behalf, and got my claim expedited. I received my check within 2 weeks after that. I had no issues with Trawick International accepting my claim, it just took them forever to process it, and I could never get ahold of them. I now have a Chase Sapphire Reserve credit card which has excellent travel insurance that comes with the card as long as you book at least a portion of your trip with the card, and as long as your trip is between 5-60 days long. The only downside to the insurance is that the medical coverage is only $2500, there's no coverage for "civil unrest" (for example, when they closed down Machu Pichu due to the protests in Peru and travelers couldn't get in or out, that wouldn't have been covered), and it doesn't have cancel-for-any-reason coverage. But, the rest of the coverage is better than a lot of the private policies you can buy, so it's a very good option.

I guess my thought was that although I don't look for the cheapest thing, I wasn't spending outrageously either. Food was probably the biggest splurge. I stayed in a middle of the road hotel. And we went to all the major sites (the Louvre, Versailles, Eiffel Tower etc). I certainly could have cut about $300/day from that budget, but we still would have been at $600/day. There's no way I could have done a trip to Paris for $250/day, and I can't imagine the type of hostel or Airbnb I would have had to stay in to do so. I also don't want to starve myself by eating only croissants for my meals. I understand that 2 single men can probably rough-it and get through Europe in a shoestring budget, but I highly doubt most people would want to duplicate that type of trip with their families and children.

I was in France a couple months ago and spent no less than $900/day for 2 people between hotel, food and tours. We don't necessarily look for cheap though, and we eat at pretty expensive restaurants.

Oh geeze this is terrible. I'm so sorry.

Yes, not only is it priced by ship, but it's also priced by sailing. So you might see a totally different price than people sailing Oasis the week before you. As a general rule, the prices seem fairly consistent within a range of prices, with a few exceptions. 77.99/person is a pretty standard price for the drink package that a lot of people report seeing for their sailings. The low price on my sailing is most likely due to the fact that it's sailing from Asia.

My July cruise didn't show any dining or drink packages until around 8 months before sailing. It still doesn't show anything for the spa, and it only just recently started showing excursions for our first port. No excursions listed for any other ports, and no on-board experiences listed yet either. You're closer than that now so it does seem odd not to see anything in your cruise planner, but I'm sure they will show up.

When I was on Symphony over Thanksgiving week, the Starbucks had a sign out front that said Starbucks gift cards welcome, but beverage packages do not include Starbucks (or something along those lines)

I have the complete opposite experience with the patch. If I wear it for more than 2 days I get lots of annoying side effects (blurry vision, sore throat, dry mouth). Last time I wore it I broke out in itchy hives, which has never happened before, but they went away after 3 hours. Because of this, I put it on a few hours before my cruise, sleep with it one night, then take it off sometime before going to bed the next night. The medicine is still flowing through my body for another day or 2, and if I start feeling sick again after that, I can put on another patch (my doctor always prescribes me 3 at a time). I don't usually need another one after that first patch because my body seems to acclimate pretty well nowadays (it didn't used to). I suggest sailing the southern route which has very calm seas, and lots of port days so you're not really on the ship for long stretches and it gives your body a break from any nauseating rocking. But this requires a flight to Puerto Rico to start your trip (the southern routes that start in Florida still require a couple days of sailing in rougher seas). My last cruise was the western route and we had 4 port days which was helpful because I got off the ship a lot, and I think the highest waves we ever hit during sailing were a measly 5ft, so that was lucky. The worst sea sickness I ever got was on the eastern route.

I haven't seen (or heard of) a refreshment package for $18 since 2018.

For the last year or so, the lowest price I've seen myself and the lowest price I've seen reported for the refreshment package (non-alcoholic) is $23.99/day (plus 18% gratuity). My next cruise is booked for July and the lowest I've seen the price go is $27.99/day when it's "on sale," and then it goes back to $31.99/day, so I don't know if that's the new price, or if I'm getting higher prices because I'm on an Asian sailing where there aren't as many alcohol drinkers, and so the non-alcoholic price is higher because they know more people will want it. The alcohol price is $54.99/day when it's "on sale" and $58.99/day when not on sale, which is the lowest I've seen on any of my cruises in at least 7 years.

😂 definitely not required. If you still think the dress code is that specific, I hope you won't be disappointed by the experience.

I thought it was great. I had the dining package in November and couldn't get a reservation because they were booked for the whole week by the time I got on the ship at 11am. I didn't really care because I didn't think I'd want to eat dinner at a place that seemed "tedious" (I thought it would take forever, that the ordering process would be confusing and that I wouldn't want to eat the food and/or wouldn't get full from it. Basically I thought it was gonna be more of a show than a dinner). But during the week we decided to get on the waitlist, just because we wanted to try all of the restaurants, and I'm so happy that we got a chance to try it. Such a unique experience! Not only was it a fun atmosphere, but I thought the food was really well done. The dinner didn't feel tedious at all. The waiter made it easy and entertaining, and it didn't take as long as I thought it would to get through the dinner. I actually had plenty of food (I was full by the time we got to the dessert) and I liked everything they brought out for us to eat. I'm surprised there isn't a land based restaurant doing the same thing. It's a really unique dining experience for people who have sophisticated palates and are open to fancier food. I'll go again for sure.

Not a very nice one 😂

The price increases don't seem abnormal to me, and certainly aren't prohibitive to me cruising. There's also SO much food on a cruise. I can't imagine not being able to find at least one thing per meal that I'd like to eat. My last cruise in November had more food than I could possibly eat, and everything I did eat was good enough that I would eat it again.

You can buy travel insurance that will reimburse you for non-refundable stuff like that if your itinerary gets changed.

The 18% is added in your shopping cart when you buy the dining package. It's not added again when you go to the restaurants.