Bob_Houston

On 11/13/2021 at 4:43 PM, ClarkBHM said:

Seems like RCL thinks this is fully resolved. See https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2021/11/12/why-did-royal-caribbean-put-less-suites-wonder-of-the-seas
 

"Ms. Freed also noted that unfortunately the swapping of Allure of the Seas to Wonder of the Seas in Europe in summer 2022 resulted in some guests being left without an available room, "We had to unfortunately downgrade some people who are in top suite categories because we had fewer suites on the line there. But that's all been sorted out now to the best of our ability."

Based on how poorly they handled the larger suite transitions to JS (and B2B, connecting cabins, adjacent child cabins, cabin location, ...) - they must have a very low bar for rating their ability.

I check multiple times each day to see if a full suite becomes available on the Wonder's October TA sailing - and so far, all the best cabin available has been another JS.

If Royal is taking more than 45 days to process cancellations, that could explain why only JS have been available on our TA cruise.

Still hoping we'll be able to get back into a CLS (a very long shot), an OS (also a very long shot) or at least a GS.  And if that doesn't happen before we're asked to submit final payment, we may cancel the cruise, even if that means we'll forfeit part of our deposit.

At least our travel agent was able to get us an upgrade from JS to GS on our Odyssey cruise next week.  But Royal didn't handle that well either.  We were supposed to be on the waitlist for a GS - and our travel agent was able to get us upgraded only because she happened to check available cabins and found us a GS - not because Royal shifted us using their waitlist.

We're also on the waitlist to get a full suite on our Wonder TA cruise - but based on what happened on our Odyssey cruise - not counting on them to do anything if a full suite becomes available - so I'm checking multiple times each day - and will continue doing so...

They downgraded Star Loft Suites and Grand Loft Suites to Junior Suites and only offered a price reduction if the cost of the original suite was lower than the current cost of the Junior Suites.

If they use the same rule for non-suite downgrades, then it's likely you'll be paying more for the lower category cabin than someone else who reserved that cabin category at the same time as your original reservation.

Based on the amount of time it's taking for them to move all of the reservations, and the number of mistakes they are making, it appears they are manually move each individual reservation - one sailing at a time (a problem for B2B sailings or for customers boarding mid-sailing).

This should have been automated, especially because it was 6 months of sailings moving from Allure to Wonder - and possibly over 150,000 reservations...

Plus, to make things worse - even if you request to be put on a waitlist to move up to your original cabin class - they only allow you to pick one category for a waitlist (for multi-category downgrades, you have to pick one category) - and based on what happened on another cruise where we were waitlisted, if someone does cancel - they'll sell the cabin to a new customer before checking the waitlist...

Royal Caribbean really needs to address some of these flaws in their IT infrastructure - because all of this could have been avoided - and the transitions could have been done overnight...

8 hours ago, dunedinmaiden said:

Sad but true about full suite downgrades -- moved from Two-Bedroom Grand Suite to a Junior Suite, which is quite the difference 😟

If you have more than 2 adults staying in the cabin, you should contact Royal about getting something else as a replacement - such as a JS and a balcony cabin.

Having 3 or 4 adults in a JS, compared to a 2 bedroom GS, isn't close to a replacement - especially if they are asking you to pay the 2 bedroom GS price for the JS...

The vast majority of the customers moved from Allure to Wonder are getting a great deal - sailing on the new Wonder - in the same cabin - at the lower Allure price.

At most 28 full suite customers were downgraded multiple levels to JS.

Those customers that had OS and GS (except for two) were moved into the same cabins - in the new Suite Neighborhood - at the Allure price.

And for non-suite passengers, except for a small number of customers with relatively unusual situations (back-to-back, connecting cabins, ...) - they were moved to comparable cabins on the Wonder - at the Allure price.

So it's only a very small number of reservations for each sailing that were adversely impacted by the poorly implemented transition process.

For most customers, once the dust settles - they'll come out ahead if they keep their new reservations on the Wonder. 

But for the 32% of their full suite customers downgraded from full suites to JS, paying more for their cabins - unless they change their offers for the downgraded cabins (which seems unlikely), they're going to end up losing some of those customers.

14 hours ago, Billy Baltic said:

Anyone who is close to IT will know that the rules need to clear and defined up front if the IT solution is to work. If they don’t have clear rules all the programmers in the world won’t help. They would provide a scapegoat though. 

 

There isn't any excuse for why Royal Caribbean didn't automate this process - and come up with better rules for moving reservations to the Wonder.  The amount of extra time for developing the software would likely be much less than the time it will take for Royal to manually transition the reservations.  Plus the staff cost for developing the software would have been much less than the staff time they're burning in doing the transitions manually plus all of the customer support time required to handle the botched cabin assignments.

Since Royal must have a team manually moving 6 months of sailings (could be over 150,000 reservations) - that team must have rules they're using to move reservations to the Wonder.  So rules must exist, and if they had tried to automate the process, the obvious flaws in those rules would have been quickly identified during development and testing.  This wouldn't have been a difficult process to automate.

The Allure to Wonder transition has been a series of extremely bad business decisions - that has adversely impacted many customers.

With likely over 150,000 reservations for 6 months of sailing to be transferred from Allure to Wonder, they should have developed software to automate the transition, which should have avoided all of the problems people are reporting.

A reasonably good programmer should be able to develop software to automatically transition the cabins - and fully test this within a week or two.  And once the software was able to successfully transition one sailing - it could do all of the sailings overnight - with e-mails sent to all reservation holders.

Instead, the long time to complete the transitions indicates they are doing this by hand, compounded by using poor rules for transferring reservations to Wonder.

This all could have been avoided with better planning - and when this is over, Royal should hold someone accountable for all of this...

Since Wonder fares are higher than the Allure fares, if people cancel their reservations transferred from the Allure, they can increase their revenue.

What they should have done...  They should have left the Allure alone - and if they weren't sending Wonder to Asia - should have kept it in Florida and created new cruises for it.

And if they wanted to make it easier for people to transfer from other ships to the Wonder, they could have waived the change fees, while also getting new reservations booked at the higher fares.

Most reservations being transferred from Allure to Wonder should be OK.  They appear to be having major issues with the "edge" cases - 32% reduction in full suites, back-to-back cruises, connecting rooms, adjacent rooms with kids, original cabin location, ...

Seems like a mess they could have avoided...

On 10/13/2021 at 10:23 PM, PK34 said:

I am doing the 7 night eastern on 10/29/22 followed by the 8 night repo to Galveston on 11/5/22 for a total of 15 nights.  They divided the 14 night TA fare by 14 to get a per night cost and then multiplied that number by 15. 

That's interesting...

Evidently they will pro-rate if they are shifting you to a longer duration cruise.

We booked a 14 night New Zealand cruise for 2020.  That was cancelled and we were shifted to a 13 night New Zealand cruise for 2021 - at the same fare.  Then that cruise was cancelled and we're now on a 12 night cruise - at the same fare.

Since we live in Houston, we did look at replacing the Wonder cruise with the 8 night repositioning cruise (and possibly doing B2B with the preceding 7 night cruise) - and decided against that - since we just did a Caribbean cruise in September and have another booked for next March.  So we'll try to make the Wonder cruise work.

In your case, sounds like Royal did the right thing - honoring your original fare (per night).  Now, if they were only as reasonable for those of us staying on the Wonder - and not trying to get those who downgraded to overpay for the smaller cabins...

2 hours ago, PK34 said:

I promised to report back on my situation.  I was originally in a Star Loft Suite for the westbound TA downgraded to a junior suite.  After not getting anywhere talking with resolutions, I emailed MBayley (twice).  A day after the second email I received a call from the executive escalation team.  I expressed my disappointment and disbelief.  She agreed that it wasn't handled well and would pass on my feelings.

 

I ended up booking the same suite on the Allure b2b in the same suite I was originally in for the same time as the TA.  I asked if they would price protect the Allure b2b cruises that I swapped for the TA.  I received a call this afternoon with the news that they are honoring my request for price protection.  They are also giving me the same OBC as offered to others displaced.

 

While I'm disappointed I will not be on the TA, I am satisfied with the offer and looking forward to staying in the Star Loft Suite.

The TA cruise is 14 nights.  There is one Allure cruise for 9 nights and several for 8 (including the repositioning cruise to Galveston).

Are you saying they're honoring the SLS fare for a 14 night cruise on a shorter Allure cruise and providing you a (small) OBC?

If so, is this really a good deal?

I just did a price comparison for the 8 night Allure Fort Lauderdale to Galveston cruise for a CLS vs. what we were going to pay for a 14 night Allure TA.  On a per night basis, the original 14 night cruise was almost 20% more expensive in a CLS than the new 8 night cruise to Galveston from Florida.  So no price protection would be needed (compared to an August 2020 booking) - the new Allure fare price is lower for the same cabin - especially when booking a shorter cruise.

9 hours ago, Jimbo said:

Think that might be wishful thinking, I doubt after 6-8 months they are not going to bother opening up another can of worms moving people around again in cabins. If suites should open up they will just sell them at probably higher prices then you paid.

They have added us to a waitlist to be upgraded to a full suite should another reservation be cancelled.  The only problem with their current (automated?) system is that you can only be placed on a single waitlist.  So we've requested GS, since there are 28 of those on the Wonder.  Ideally, they would place us on a waitlist for CLS, OS and GS - and book us into the highest available suite that is cancelled.

It seems unlikely many (if any) of the CLS, OS or GS reservations will be cancelled - since those customers got to keep their full suites - and are getting a considerable upgrade on the new ship, in the new Suite neighborhood, at the same price as the Allure.

But we can hope...  And if it doesn't work out - it'll only cost us $200 - a small amount compared to what Royal is asking us to pay for the JS...

12 hours ago, cruz_happy said:

Date:  May 19, 2022 departure Rome

Allure:  GS 10260

Wonder:  GS 1702

 

Wanted to share with those that may be looking at the ship's deck plans online and not happy with your new cabin (for those that have received notice), you may want to call RCCL and confirm what you are seeing on the deck plan for your cabin.  When we got notice of the change to this new cabin, I looked at the ship and saw the cabin marked with "obstructed view".  This was not what we had booked earlier this year.  I called them and told them this was not acceptable.  The rep looked at her information and said that that cabin doesn't have an obstructed view.  I advised her to look online at the deck plans.  She saw what I was referring to but she said the specific ship details the representatives are given do not show it with an obstructed view at all; in fact, she advised that these are so high on the ship that there isn't anything to obstruct the view.  (It even has a bigger balcony than 1704 according to her sq. ft. information even though it looks smaller than 1704 on the deck plan view.  This is a plus.)  I called again a few weeks later to confirm this & was told the exact same thing.  They also said since it's a new ship what is showing on the deck plan layout online may not be exactly what they have built the ship to be.  The second rep even told me that since WOTS is no longer doing Asia, they MIGHT (big MAYBE) be converting it to have more GS since the non-Asia markets (especially the US/Caribbean markets) sell out of GS quickly compared with the Asia market.  No promises on this though; might be wishful thinking.  

 

Hoping this may be a bit of encouragement for those who may not like what you are seeing on the deck plan map.

It's possible they could convert 3 JS into 2 GS.

Compared to the Oasis, Wonder has no Star Loft suites (Allure has 2), no Panoramic suites (Allure has 2), no 2 bdrm GS (Allure has 6), 17 fewer CLS and 2 fewer GS.  Compared to Allure, Wonder has 28 fewer full suites and has 28 more Junior Suites.

If they could convert 27 JS into 18 GS - that would help to close the gap considerably.   

Though they might have a challenge with the Suite Lounge and Coastal Kitchen if they added 18 more full suites, since the SL/CK are smaller on the Wonder compared to the other Oasis ships with the SL/CK on the floor with the CLS.

If they do decide to create new GS - they should communicate that to those of us downgraded multiple categories to JS (at least those of us who haven't cancelled yet...).

If they're considering converting JS - another option they should consider is converting 2 JS into an OS.  Since they eliminated so many CLS - they could close the gap by adding more OS - which are about the same size.

They should have enough time to do some cabin conversions before the first sailing - or could even do some of the conversions after sailing begins.

14 hours ago, BSocial said:

    It seems inconceivable to me that your suite category (and others) were downgraded to a JS.   You have a good attitude, waiting it out.  Hope it works out for you i
     I have a question - how do you think Royal would be able to calculate, for each downgrade, what the price of the downgraded cabin  category would have been on the day you booked your full suite?   I don’t think the people working the transfers would have that information available to them. 

If they don't have access to the pricing for other cabins on the day the original reservation was made, they could estimate it by using the current pricing and then proportionately adjust the original cabin fare. 

While that may not be as accurate, it would be much better than asking customers to pay their original fare for a much smaller cabin - and much more than anyone else who had reserved that cabin at the same time.

Though - based on how Royal Caribbean has handled this situation so far, it seems like they would prefer the suite customers downgraded to JS cancel their reservations so they can resell those cabins at the higher fares they want to get on the Wonder.

Since the cost of deferring our cancellation decision until next summer is only $200 (a small percentage of our cabin fare), we're going to ignore the October 20 full refund request deadline and see if any full suites open up before making a final decision.

They may be dealing with over 300,000 reservations impacted by Wonder replacing the Allure over 6 months of sailings - and don't appear interested right now in considering the large negative impact their process had on 600 full suite reservations...

We remain extremely disappointed in how poorly Royal has handled the transition of the more expensive full suite reservations to the Wonder - downgrading most of us booked in CLS (and above) to JS - and then asking us to pay full fare.  Offering the same Sky/Star class amenities plus a (very) small OBC doesn't come close to justifying paying (much more) than those who had originally booked JS.

However...  We've decided not to cancel at this time.  We are hoping that over the next 6-8 months that we'll be moved up to a full suite, should someone cancel their reservation (Grand Suite or above).

We will wait until it's time to pay the remainder of our fare before we make a final decision on this cruise.

Even though our deposit is classified as "non-refundable" - all that means is that they won't give us our deposit back.  Instead, we'll get most of the deposit as a Future Cruise Credit, less a small change fee ($100 per person).  And since we already have another cruise booked in early 2023, we should be able to apply the FCC from the Wonder cruise.

So there really isn't any urgency to cancel before our October 20 full refund deadline...

After they've finished processing the huge number of reservations affected by the Wonder sailing changes (which could be over 300,000) - once they are out of crisis mode, Royal Caribbean needs to reconsider their policy for transitioning reservations between ships:

• Cabins should be assigned on the new ship, based on priority - original cabin class and then within that use date of reservation and/or C&A points
• When reservations are moved to a lower category, the fare should be repriced based on what the fare for the new cabin would have been when the original reservation was made
• If the amenities are downgraded (Star to Sky or Sky to Sea), the customer should have the option for purchasing those amenities (at a reasonable price)
• And, as compensation for the inconvenience, they should include an OBC, based on the number of nights of the cruise

While the above process would have impacted more reservations moved from Allure to Wonder, it would have been viewed as a fair process - and those downgraded (likely just one category) would be willing to accept it, if they believed there were treated fairly...

10 hours ago, juliekatealuren said:

Date of sailing: 01.09.22

Allure cabin: 10323 2l

Wonder cabin: 8697 2l

not informed of change - checked booking

 

Not happy at all - our cabin on Wonder is 2 cabins from the music hall!

 

I just spent 30 minutes on the phone to a customer service advisor who was very unhelpful.  Basically told me that the category is the same for the new cabin and that cabin 10323 is a higher category on the Wonder.  This is not true from what I have since seen on deck plans.  He kept telling me I can have a refund but I just want the same cabin i took the time to choose on the Allure.  
 

 I asked if I could escalate my complaint and he said his manager was no longer taking “calls relating to these issues” and that I could contact the customer services department by email but they would tell me the same!
 

Email sent and awaiting reply.

 

julie

Looks like another example of how poorly they implemented this transition.  The deck 10 Boardwalk cabins are about the same between the two ships - and should have been able to start with moving into the same cabin.

Once they've already assigned cabins - if they did make any mistakes, they aren't going to fix them by moving anyone out of an assigned cabin.  So that limits your options.

Looks like 8729 (on the end) may be available from Rome and from Barcelona.

12 hours ago, mmourges said:

We were booked in the Royal Loft Suite on Allure for the East Bound TA in April 2022. We are now booked in the same room on Wonder. Not a surprise since there is only one of those rooms on the ship. Only "issue" is that on Allure, the room faces the back of the ship and has basically 2 decks, one facing the back of the ship (basketball court, etc) and one on the side. The RLS on Wonder faces the front of the ship and I can only assume they have something set up to stop the wind. Perhaps there will be no forward facing deck and they will replace it with windows and turn the room around to face the side of the ship and that will have the only deck. I can't find any pics (actual or renderings) that show the room so who knows. But I am happy nonetheless. Good luck to all.

First, congratulations on keeping the RLS!

I found a long-range photo of the side of the Wonder with the RLS.  Despite the deck plan that indicates the RLS would have a balcony exposed to the front, it appears from the photo that the suite neighborhood is squared off more than the deck plan shows, and the RLS may have a large windbreak, with the balcony facing much more towards the side. 

Seems unlikely they would have designed the ship so the most expensive suite wouldn't have a completely usable - and enjoyable balcony!

I haven't been able to find any postings yet with the floor plans for the actual Wonder cabins.  Anything that non-Royal websites are posting appears to be based on floor plans for other Oasis class ships, and might not reflect the floor plans on the Wonder.  Royal used to include the floor plans for each cabin on their website - but they discontinued that a few years ago.

If you're concerned, request your TA or Royal to provide more details on the Wonder's RLS layout.

11 hours ago, karl_nj said:

 

 

 

Well, as I feared, RCL managed to mess up my relocation too.  They moved me from connecting balcony cabins to two non-connecting cabins on Wonder.

 

 

Reach out to your TA or Royal Caribbean directly ASAP and see if they can move you back.  Though if they've already assigned all of the cabins, you'll be in the same position we are - "take it or leave it".  At least you're in the same class of cabin - we got shifted to one that's less than 1/2 the size we reserved.

8 hours ago, excitedtocruise said:

So was suppose to be on Harmony of the Seas July 2021. Switched over to Allure of the Seas, June 16, 2022 (both out of Rome). Booked a Ocean View Balcony 10292 towards the back. So funny but I guess I got an "upgrade" NOT to a D1 Ocean View Balcony 7272. hmmm deck 10 to 7 doesn't seem like that much of an upgrade to me. Called but can not do anything for me because I haven't received the official email. Currently no Ocean View Balconies available anyways. Also, I will be asking Royal too, but I did book with a refundable deposit, and the final payment is in March 2022, will the refundable deposit still be honored? Lastly, any thoughts on stateroom 7272?

If you booked with a TA, then contact your TA and see if they've received the e-mail.  Royal didn't provide any communication to us about the Allure to Wonder change - all communications have been directly with our TA.

If you don't have a TA, then they should be contacting you - and that e-mail should contain the terms of their offer to move you to the Wonder, including any terms for requesting a full refund.

Even if they don't provide a full refund,  you may still be able to transfer all or most of your deposit to a replacement cruise.

At least for the October transatlantic cruise, we had the option to request a full refund - though that might be because we ended up with a multiple cabin category downgrade (to a cabin that likely cost less than half of our original cabin) or because the cruise now ends in Port Canaveral instead of Galveston.

24 minutes ago, Jimbo said:

Then you got a bad deal on your CLS, because you overpaid for it, if it was higher priced then an OS...........Guess you should have purchased an OS.

Check the Allure sailings next October - they have CLS listed at a higher price than OS (90%).  I'm pretty sure that was the case when we booked our CLS for the transatlantic cruise.

We chose the CLS, even though it was higher priced, because it was located down the hall from the Suite Lounge and Coastal Kitchen - and a suite-only deck.

We've stayed in OS before - and they are also great suites - but they're located mid-ship, a longer walk from the suite lounge/CK.

Plus the floor plan of the CLS is much more open - only downsides are a smaller balcony and a smaller dining table - but they make up for that with a second full bathroom and 2 story windows.

From our experience CLS is worth more than OS - though that may be different on the Wonder.

3 hours ago, MedicMariner said:

It makes me wonder how they decided who got what- we went from SLS to OS. Originally I was a little disappointed, but now I see that I was treated much better than some! FWIW we are Diamond, although I don’t think that mattered in the decision-making. We booked in December of 2020.

You must have been lucky enough to be on a cruise where there was an OS available - so they could put you there.  Otherwise, they would have moved you down to JS.  It appears they tried to move everyone in a suite on the Allure to the same category on the Wonder - which means 2 Star Loft, 2 Panoramic, 17 CLS, 6 GS 2bdrm and 2 GS would be displaced - and by keeping all of the OS and GS in place, that means almost all of the displaced full suites were pushed down to JS.  So getting an OS is a blessing.

Based on pricing for the Allure's October 24 sailing, the price of an OS is 43% of an SLS. 

They should be including Star Class - which has considerable value above Sky Class that comes with the OS (full dining package, including Chef's Table, deluxe beverage package, best seats in the house for shows, personal genie, stocked beverages in the suite, daily snacks/specialty drinks, ...).

If Royal is offering the OS for your original CLS fare, Star Class plus $300 OBC probably isn't close to being worth 57% of your fare...

So if you have the same offer we received - you'll probably paying much more for the OS than what others are paying for their OS - and you aren't getting enough value from Star Class to make up for that.

If you're not satisfied - contact your TA and/or contact Royal Caribbean and voice your concerns about the pricing.

Unless they hear from their customers about this - nothing will happen.

2 hours ago, cccruzin said:

 

Check back today - looks like they are doing some re-pricing. We were downgraded to a JS too and the original price on the new cabin was triple what we paid! But now that it's repriced, they honored the price we paid which is much more reasonable for a JS with Sky Class amenities + $300 OBC. And yes, we are right there with you. Numerous sailings cancelled, re-booked, cancelled again... things moved around. I think they are trying to do the best they can. Wishing you all the best!

Did they reprice it to your original suite fare?  Or to a discounted price?

The fair way to look at the new fare is to compare what you'll be paying for the JS vs. what you would have paid when you booked the full suite.  For our Crown Loft Suite, based on current Allure pricing, a Junior Suite is priced around 40% of a CLS.  A GS is priced around 67% of a CLS.  On the Allure sailing I was using for comparison, an OS was priced at 90% of a CLS.

So if you had a CLS - you're going to be paying more than 2X what you would have paid if you had booked the JS instead.  And you'll be paying more than someone who booked at GS at the same time.

Coming from a CLS, Sky Class amenities plus a $300 OBC don't come close to being worth 60% of your original fare.

While Royal won't estimate the value of Sky Class amenities (above Sea Class that comes with the Junior Suites), you can indirectly estimate the value by using the price of The Key.  The undiscounted price for The Key is $37 per person per day.  For two people for a 7 day cruise - that's $518 - and you get similar priority boarding/departure, reserved show seating and VOOM (1 device per person).  The additional Sky Class amenities (suite concierge/lounge, Coastal Kitchen for breakfast and lunch, suite sun deck) have some value, but probably less that The Key per day.

When considering your offer - assume the Wonder JS will cost more than your original fare - so you should use the original full suite fare for your evaluation.  Compare that fare to what a JS would have cost if that's what you had originally booked.   From the difference in pricing, subtract $750 (for a 7 night cruise or  $1500 for a 14 night cruise) - the approximate value of Sky Class - plus the $300 OBC being offered.

For most passengers, the transition to the Wonder - at the same price as the Allure is a big improvement.  Newer ship, (probably) new shows, more stops in Spain before the crossing, ...

And for most of the full suite passengers in OS & GS, they appear to have stayed in their suites.

It's really only the small number of reservations for Star Loft, Panoramic, Crown Loft and Grand 2bdrm that have been severely impacted by the transition - being offered a much smaller cabin - at the same price being paid for the original suite.  Adding Sky Class and $300 doesn't come close to being worth the increased fare (compared to what other JS would be paying).

If the difference is larger - then you should have your TA complain to Royal about this and/or you should contact Royal directly.

If we can get the fare difference close to the value of the additional Sky class amenities and the OBC - we'll serious consider the cruise.  If not, then they're expecting for us to pay a penalty because we decided to spend more on our original cabin, while others that originally booked GS or JS are paying less.

First, Royal Caribbean has treated us well on our previous cruises - as they used to market - our cruises were WOW.  That's why we're on the verge of reaching Diamond Plus on our next cruise.

I suspect what happened is that they applied their normal ship-to-ship transition policies on the over 150,000 reservations transferred from the Allure to the Wonder.  And because those transitions are usually between ships with a similar number of cabins in each category, they didn't anticipate the disproportionate impact on full suite passengers.  They also had over 150,000 reservations that they had to cancel for the original Wonder China sailings.  So the impact on only 600+ reservations was likely lost in the noise - and noone actually looked at what was going to happen to the most expensive cabins being downgraded.

They should have re-allocated the full suites based on the original cabin category - which would have moved most of the suite reservations down about 1 category (Star Loft/Panoramic to CLS/OS, CLS/OS to GS, and likely most of the GS/GS2bdrm to JS).  While this would have impacted more reservations, each affected reservation would essentially be moved down 1 cabin category - much easier to understand - and would have seemed fair to everyone.

But they didn't do that - and probably won't go back and do that at this point.

So, for those of us downgraded (multiple categories), it's not reasonable we're paying more for a JS than other GS/JS reservations that were booked at the same time.  I don't see how anyone could possible consider that as fair.  The current price is irrelevant (unless it is lower) - because that wasn't the price we considered when the reservation was made.

Providing the same Sky/Star class amenities as the original reservation is a very good gesture - but will be complicated because the Suite Lounge and Coastal Kitchen are about 2/3 the size of the Allure - which could cause overcrowding by providing Sky/Star amenities to up to 28 JS cabins.

The $300 onboard credit is also a nice gesture - though offering the same $300 for a 7 night and a 14 night cruise isn't reasonable - the transatlantic sailing should get $600.

If they offered us the same price of the JS as if we had booked in in August 2020, plus Sky Class and $300 (or $600), we'd consider it.

Because Royal Caribbean is asking us to take a much smaller cabin than we had originally reserved, they should consider providing more than has been offered.  If we had wanted to be in a JS - we would have booked one in the first place (at a much lower price).   So to get the affected customers back to looking forward to a great cruise on the Wonder, they may need to sweeten the pot a little more - such as providing the dining package (which would help reduce the strain on the Coastal Kitchen).

If we feel Royal Caribbean is being fair and reasonable, within the constraints of the cabins on the Wonder, we'll seriously consider staying with this cruise.

But right now, they aren't close - affected reservations will be paying more than the other JS/GS reservations - and adding Sky class + $300 doesn't make up for that or the much smaller cabin.

2 hours ago, GlenG said:

Absolutely understand and sympathize with your situation. Glad to hear you're thinking positively about the JS now as previously you said it would not work for you. My question - IF (very BIG if) Royal honored the price of the Allure JS for you plus the $300 OBC for the inconvenience, but no suite perks, would this solution be acceptable to you?

If they would reduce the price to what we would have paid if we'd reserved JS at the time we made our CLS reservation, along with Sky Class plus $300, we would more seriously consider going.  Though I suspect the Suite Lounge and Coastal Kitchen are going to be overcrowded if all 28 displaced full suite cabins accept their offers and go on our cruise.

We booked the CLS because it had a table, which we planned to use for activities during the cruise (and many sea days).  The JS has enough floor space to accommodate - and if Royal can't provide us a table, we're exploring options for a folding table we could bring in our luggage (assuming we can sit on the couch, the easy chairs or the chairs from the balcony.

If we had fare parity with other JS customers - that's an offer that would make more sense to those affected by the displacement.  I still believe they should do more than provide amenity parity with the original cabin though, because moving to a cabin 1/2 to 1/3 the size of the original is a big let down - and it would justify doing MORE than just the basic to compensate for this - especially if they want to keep these customers for future bookings. 

At this point though, it appears unlikely we'll see any improvement - unless more of the 600+ customers impacted also start complaining through their TAs or directly to Royal.

Usually the TAs can handle reservation issues - but this situation is very unusual - having a high percentage of the full suite reservations downgraded to Junior Suite - across 6 months of sailings.  Individual TAs won't be able to impact a policy implemented across a class of displaced reservations.  And Royal is not going to make any exceptions to their policy.

Our TA reached out to Royal first - and was unable to make any progress. 

So I then reached out to Royal myself - and ended up talking with the same supervisor who explained the situation is outside of their control - another group is responsible for the decisions - and that group doesn't intend to make any changes.  Either "take it or leave it".

And "leave it" will generate more short-term revenue for Royal - because they'll re-sell the JS at a much higher price...  But at the cost of alienating customers cancelling their cruises.

At least until the October 20 refund deadline, all of us impacted should try working with the TAs and if that doesn't work, contact Royal directly.  If enough people raise concerns about how this is handled - then maybe Royal will reconsider their offers.

Otherwise a lot of the affected customers will cancel their Wonder cruise - and could decide to do business elsewhere for future cruises.

It appears that if you have a TA - only the TA gets notification of cruise changes - they don't contact the customers directly.  This happened to our Allure-Wonder cruise and also with our previously cancelled/rescheduled cruises.  This is a bad business practice - they should also be contacting the affected customers.

I was able to reach someone in Royal's Guest Experience group.  The response was "take it or leave it" - they won't be making any exceptions to the offers.  I responded that this is a problem with hundreds of impacted full suite customers - and that they really need to re-evaluate the offer for everyone or risk a lot of very unhappy customers by October 20 - many of whom will reconsider booking with Royal in the future.

I agree with Funktown83's assessment above.  Since the Wonder JS fare is probably higher than the CLS fare we booked over a year ago, we're being asked to pay $5100 more to stay in a JS - that would likely be costing $3500 for someone who booked at JS last summer.  And for that additional $5100, all Royal is offering is Sky Class and a $300 onboard credit (for a 14 night cruise).  There's no way those additional benefits are worth $5100!  And it's not fair that we're being asked to paying our original CLS far, more than what others are paying for GS and JS on the same cruise.

Anyone in the same situation - you are not alone.  There are probably more than 600 reservations in the same situation.  Contact your TA and Royal directly and complain about this.  There's still a few weeks before the October 20 refund deadline - time to get Royal to come up with a better resolution.

We'd like to go on the Wonder cruise - and believe we can make the JS work for what we want to do during the cruise - but we're not going to pay more than 2X more than everyone for a JS (who reserved last summer).

If you're in the group of full suite reservations (Panoramic, Star Loft, Crown Loft, Grand 2 bedroom) moved into a Junior Suite and you're not satisfied with the offer they are providing:

• Contact your travel agent ASAP and request their assistance
• Call Royal Caribbean at 888-281-9344 or 800-526-9723 to discuss the situation and express your disappointment

Even though this impacts a relatively small number of reservations (over 600?) originally booked on the Allure and moved to the Wonder, unless Royal Caribbean hears from their customers, it's unlikely they'll do anything to provide a better resolution.

Unfortunately, it's not possible to directly talk to the group responsible for the transfers - but if enough people raise concerns, that might get that group to reconsider what they've done.

Because the deadline is October 20 to request a full refund, you shouldn't wait to act on this - while there is still time for Royal Caribbean to handle this situation better...