Price drop question

[charliegirlac]

Hi guys,

 

I hope you can clarify the new price reduction policy for me:

We have paid in full for our cruise and the price recently dropped for the same class of cabin (as well as most of the other cabins it would seem). I believe in the past if the price dropped before final payment you could ring RC and change the price, if after final payment you could ring RC and get on board credit. I know the policy changed, but when i did a search I came up with so many different answers! A member of our meet and mingle said they got a price drop but it was for a florida residents discount. Also can i ring even if i booked through an Australian based travel agent?

Thanks a bunch!!!:D

[crookedhalo]

Not sure if the rules are different in Austrailia, but you will have to work through your TA, RCCL will not talk to you because you do not "own" the reservation.

 

As to a drop, if you booked after 5/2010 you cannot get a price drop after final pay has passed. If a higher category has dropped below what you paid, you can sometimes get an upgrade to that category, but usually no OBC.

 

HTH

[yogoshady]

I tried going through our Australian TA when the price dropped on our Europe cruise $400 per person!!!! As you did we had to pay in full when we booked the cruise but it was before final payment date.

They got back to me to advise that once you lock the booking in here you are not entitled to be compensated for the price drop. Apparantly they got this from Royal Carribean.

They advised me this policy was fleet wide.

I got back to them and advise someone in Britain had been refunded 300 pound on the same cruise(After I'd told them about the price drop on cruise critic) but they srill said no and that they had checked.

I will be interested to hear how you get on though. I'm still not convinced it wasn't my TA who didn't know what they were asking for.

 

Good Luck!

[charliegirlac]

I find it really unfair the way RC deals with its Australian customers. There are so many of us that travel and cruise and so often we get the raw end of the deal. We had made this point with the future cruise consultant on our Liberty cruise last year. We are forced to book through the Australian website which has prices so much more than the American website - and it is not as if they can claim that the American dollar is stronger than the Aussie dollar any more!

[robynkc]

Yes its so unfair how much extra us Australians have to pay for the same cruise and same cabin as the Americans. we are travelling on Princess at the end of JUly and we are paying $1000 more than our american friends, When i contacted princess australia they were not interested , said try and book through an american website if you like. Places like vacations to go are not allowed to book australians on some cruises and they have some great deals. We have the extra cost of the airfares they should consider. :(

I find it really unfair the way RC deals with its Australian customers. There are so many of us that travel and cruise and so often we get the raw end of the deal. We had made this point with the future cruise consultant on our Liberty cruise last year. We are forced to book through the Australian website which has prices so much more than the American website - and it is not as if they can claim that the American dollar is stronger than the Aussie dollar any more!

[charliegirlac]

Yes its so unfair how much extra us Australians have to pay for the same cruise and same cabin as the Americans. we are travelling on Princess at the end of JUly and we are paying $1000 more than our american friends, When i contacted princess australia they were not interested , said try and book through an american website if you like. Places like vacations to go are not allowed to book australians on some cruises and they have some great deals. We have the extra cost of the airfares they should consider. :(

 

Completely agree with you. The Loyalty Ambassador could not explain why it was the case last year and told us to take it up with RC when we returned home. We were there willing and wanting to book a future cruise last year but we were just so annoyed by the price difference, we waited and then we booked one any way when we got home! We sent emails when we got home about the differences but got no answer. As you said Vacations to go have great specials, as does the Royal site at times, but alot of specials when you read the fine print are restricted to Americans and Canadians. We are yet to cruise from Australia so we have always had the large expense of flying - however with Voyager of the Seas coming to Australia next year that may change.

[robynkc]

I wish someone would explain why the Amercians can get better deals than us it makes me so annoyed. I seeon some threads on CC Americans get angry about other people taking off their gratituties but if they were paying prices like us maybe they would understand a little more. Still waiting on a reply from Princess customer services to my query said could take up to 2weeks , we will already be on the cruise by then.

Completely agree with you. The Loyalty Ambassador could not explain why it was the case last year and told us to take it up with RC when we returned home. We were there willing and wanting to book a future cruise last year but we were just so annoyed by the price difference, we waited and then we booked one any way when we got home! We sent emails when we got home about the differences but got no answer. As you said Vacations to go have great specials, as does the Royal site at times, but alot of specials when you read the fine print are restricted to Americans and Canadians. We are yet to cruise from Australia so we have always had the large expense of flying - however with Voyager of the Seas coming to Australia next year that may change.

[GarrenS]

Hi Carly-

I thought I'd post and say hi - we were on Liberty with you last year (Garren, my DH Chris and our friends Pam and Michael) Sounds like you've got a few more cruises planned, just like us - we're doing Navigator 8 day in Dec.:D

 

Hope all is good otherwise - tell Andrew we said hi!!!

Garren

[charliegirlac]

Hey Garren!!

 

Of course we remember you!! We had such an awesome time with you all last year we decided another cruise was the go - coming back over to the Caribbean again - doing Western on Allure in September and then heading to New York for 5 nights. We ended up going to South Africa in April and so didnt get another chance to cruise until September. We want to hit some of Pam's jewellery stores that she was raving about so if you hear from her can you ask her to post and let me know her favs???

 

Voyager is coming out our way so if you are ever inclined to travel this way let us know!!!

[cotton93]

Hi,

This reply is for the Aussies, you can book Royal Caribbean through USA agents, have done this for the last few years. Also have booked our next 2 Celebrity cruises over there as well. :)

Different story for Princess though. :mad:

[robynkc]

HI , just was checking our thread and i saw you said you went to Sth Africa, was that on a cruise or not.? Am very interested in doing that next year so do have any tips ?. what part of Australia do you live in? Am interested to know what the american sites are that we can book on, hopefully the other thread will be able to tell us.

Hey Garren!!

 

Of course we remember you!! We had such an awesome time with you all last year we decided another cruise was the go - coming back over to the Caribbean again - doing Western on Allure in September and then heading to New York for 5 nights. We ended up going to South Africa in April and so didnt get another chance to cruise until September. We want to hit some of Pam's jewellery stores that she was raving about so if you hear from her can you ask her to post and let me know her favs???

 

Voyager is coming out our way so if you are ever inclined to travel this way let us know!!!

[sandancer]

I find it really unfair the way RC deals with its Australian customers. There are so many of us that travel and cruise and so often we get the raw end of the deal. We had made this point with the future cruise consultant on our Liberty cruise last year. We are forced to book through the Australian website which has prices so much more than the American website - and it is not as if they can claim that the American dollar is stronger than the Aussie dollar any more!

I know it doesn't really help but you are not alone in this. In the UK we are not allowed to use an American TA to get the same rates as friends we travel with. No one has ever been able to give me a satisfactory answer to why they have this policy. As far as price drops are concerned, I have not tried since the new rules came into force but I have a great TA who I know would make every effort to get something for me, OBC or higher cat cabin. I do think a lot does depend on the TA you use.

[charliegirlac]

Hi,

 

This reply is for the Aussies, you can book Royal Caribbean through USA agents, have done this for the last few years. Also have booked our next 2 Celebrity cruises over there as well. :)

 

Different story for Princess though. :mad:

 

Thanks for the reply - could you let me know what agent you have used? My father in law booked through vacations to go for a weekend cruise, but i am worried as i have heard of people being refused to board! :eek:

[charliegirlac]

HI , just was checking our thread and i saw you said you went to Sth Africa, was that on a cruise or not.? Am very interested in doing that next year so do have any tips ?. what part of Australia do you live in? Am interested to know what the american sites are that we can book on, hopefully the other thread will be able to tell us.

 

It was a land holiday and was brilliant! We went to Capetown which was gorgeous and then flew in to Nelspuritt and went on a safari in Kruger National Park - simply amazing! We live in Melbourne - where are you guys?

[charliegirlac]

I know it doesn't really help but you are not alone in this. In the UK we are not allowed to use an American TA to get the same rates as friends we travel with. No one has ever been able to give me a satisfactory answer to why they have this policy. As far as price drops are concerned, I have not tried since the new rules came into force but I have a great TA who I know would make every effort to get something for me, OBC or higher cat cabin. I do think a lot does depend on the TA you use.

 

 

Thanks Sandancer! I have heard that the UK have a similiar problem to us. I just find it bizarre! If there was a big difference in the currency conversion i could begin to understand but they just have no reason for it. There would be a lot more people cruising if they allowed a little more competition...

[cotton93]

Thanks for the reply - could you let me know what agent you have used? My father in law booked through vacations to go for a weekend cruise, but i am worried as i have heard of people being refused to board! :eek:

 

As I said previously we can't mention agents on here. We have never had any problems boarding with RCI when we booked overseas, scare monger tactics from here. With both agents we have used, the cruise line is the one that charges your credit card so they know up front were you are from.

Have also booked onboard and had them use the USA agent, this may have been okay as they could see that we had used that agent for the cruise we were on at the time.

There are heaps of Aussies booking through the US.

[robynkc]

So can you give us some idea how we would find out about the american agents so we can too check them out???

As I said previously we can't mention agents on here. We have never had any problems boarding with RCI when we booked overseas, scare monger tactics from here. With both agents we have used, the cruise line is the one that charges your credit card so they know up front were you are from.

 

Have also booked onboard and had them use the USA agent, this may have been okay as they could see that we had used that agent for the cruise we were on at the time.

 

There are heaps of Aussies booking through the US.

 

[robynkc]

I have a friend who has used Vacations to go from Australia and with no problems, just picks a cruise they offer like MSC or NCL , my sister is going on RCL next feb and they booked with them as well, the agent said sometimes RCL will let them book depending on the day they ask :confused:

Thanks for the reply - could you let me know what agent you have used? My father in law booked through vacations to go for a weekend cruise, but i am worried as i have heard of people being refused to board! :eek:

[robynkc]

In Melbourne as well , down at Frankston. My husband and i are off on Monday to Canada/Alaska so excited despite paying so much more than the americans :mad:. We are doing the Rockies mountain tour first but with Trafalgar tours not Scenic like you see advertised everywhere. South Africa is def on my list have heard so many good reports about it, there is a cruise from singapore to Capetown , takes 19days but a lot of seas days which i enjoy but maybe not 7 in a row. What plans do you have ahead? Hope we can track down these american sites ??

It was a land holiday and was brilliant! We went to Capetown which was gorgeous and then flew in to Nelspuritt and went on a safari in Kruger National Park - simply amazing! We live in Melbourne - where are you guys?

[cotton93]

So can you give us some idea how we would find out about the american agents so we can too check them out???

 

Would you like to put up an email address and I would be more than willing to share details.

Regards,

[robynkc]

Yes happy to do that. its bmcasey2@bigpond.com.au Thank you :)

Would you like to put up an email address and I would be more than willing to share details.

 

Regards,

[aussiefam]

Is there any truth to the rumour that aussies have been refused boarding??

 

I booked our first cruise through an American TA - (I had no idea you couldnt do this, it was a package with Universal, - i then dropped the universal part) anyway I am a bit worried about this - I know we have an RCI booking - I have completed all our details and made reservations.

 

I paid the TA with a Travel Visa that was in USD - so no currency conversion, I have confirmation that it was paid from RCI -

 

But I am so scared of trouble at the Port - I have been less than impressed with the TA so am concerned there is something they missed.

[cotton93]

This topic has been discussed many times, if someone wants to post this question on the "Australian and New Zealand Cruising" forum you will get quite a few replies.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=711

This is a link to a recent discussion.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1382054&highlight=booking+with+us+agents

[cotton93]

Yes happy to do that. its bmcasey2@bigpond.com.au Thank you :)

 

Okay will email you. :D

[cotton93]

If any of you that don't know about the 28 Degrees Mastercard (just do a search for the link) best credit card for travelling or o/seas purchases.

No fees (annual, conversion etc. etc.) together with 55 day interest free (I think it's around this). Have been using this card for a couple of years now and it's great, exchange rate used is around 1c under the exchange rate of the day. We always pay it in full so we don't cop the interest charges. Can be applied for online.