Thumbs up for my travel agent and Royal Caribbean"

[Sydney32203]

I know we have been talking about unfair pricing in Australia compared to US prices but I thought I'll just mentioned something nice about them.

 

I booked and paid deposits on 3 cabins 2 months ago for a cruise in November 2013 on Voyager of the Seas through my travel agent. Since then I have been checking prices on RCL website and last night I found that they had an Early Bird Promotion where the cabins are $1000 cheaper each! So, off I went to my travel agent this morning at 9am! Because I was so far out from the sail date, I wouldn't lose any money from a cancellation but in order to get the new price, we had to cancel and rebook. RCL system is unable to put the cancelled cabins back on the system for a couple of days for us to rebook...that's what the American reservation lady told my travel agent when she spoke to them. They told her, the best way to do it is to send an email to the Australian RCL asking them to manually cancel and rebook the same cabin numbers (we wanted the same cabins) at the promotional price.

 

I got a call from my travel agent saying that it's all done successfully at 3pm today! RCL and my travel agent did not charge us an admin fee. And all up we saved $3,000! And on top of that, because we were so happy with the service we booked another cabin for our friends who wanted to go as well!

 

Thumbs up to my travel agent and Royal Caribbean!!

[rkmw]

I know we have been talking about unfair pricing in Australia compared to US prices but I thought I'll just mentioned something nice about them.

 

I booked and paid deposits on 3 cabins 2 months ago for a cruise in November 2013 on Voyager of the Seas through my travel agent. Since then I have been checking prices on RCL website and last night I found that they had an Early Bird Promotion where the cabins are $1000 cheaper each! So, off I went to my travel agent this morning at 9am! Because I was so far out from the sail date, I wouldn't lose any money from a cancellation but in order to get the new price, we had to cancel and rebook. RCL system is unable to put the cancelled cabins back on the system for a couple of days for us to rebook...that's what the American reservation lady told my travel agent when she spoke to them. They told her, the best way to do it is to send an email to the Australian RCL asking them to manually cancel and rebook the same cabin numbers (we wanted the same cabins) at the promotional price.

 

I got a call from my travel agent saying that it's all done successfully at 3pm today! RCL and my travel agent did not charge us an admin fee. And all up we saved $3,000! And on top of that, because we were so happy with the service we booked another cabin for our friends who wanted to go as well!

 

Thumbs up to my travel agent and Royal Caribbean!!

 

 

glad it worked out ok for you and you saved heaps of dollars but other TA's do that too, even our aussie ones

[diy dave]

Well done. I only use an online agent, but happy to hear this for future reference.

Dave

[Dashman]

NICE ONE & congrats on your saving.

 

I too notice the price drop over the weekend & I also contacted RCL this morning. They changed the cabin number on my original booking (to release the cabin) and did a new booking for me into the original cabin (as I too wanted to keep the cabin I had) on the Radiance for our New Years Cruise in 2013.

 

We also saved over $1000 on the booking.

 

 

Thanks RCL. ;)

[fishtaco]

Personally I would be asking why an earlier booked cruise cost $1000 per cabin more than an "EarlyBird" Promotion price myself and how they could have the Gaul to charge such over inflated prices in the first place?Thank you very much RCI!

 

Den

[avalon007]

We had asked our T/A about the price drop on Saturday as well & same thing has occurred, we will cancel & rebook saving us $1200.

 

Even if we didn't get the exact same cabin it was worth doing for that sort of money. :)

 

Now, if the next lot of C&A member discount vouchers have our cruises included, we will really be grinning!:D

[6andy6]

I want to know why the RCI Sydney office will do it for Royal but won't do it for their sister line Celebrity..particularly when it's likely to be the same office and the same admin officer doing it.....

[timtam2]

And I would love to know why they make it so complicated by having to cancel and rebook when thru the US websites, all you do is call them and they do the price drop and/or a cabin change on the existing booking . I did this the other day with Celebrity - there had been a slight price drop so I went up a grade of cabin which was a lower price than my original booking. My cabin was changed no problem, kept my OBC from an earlier promo and my old cabin came up as available immediately . They use the same online booking system so why cant they operate them in the same way??????

[The_Big_M]

And I would love to know why they make it so complicated by having to cancel and rebook when thru the US websites, all you do is call them and they do the price drop and/or a cabin change on the existing booking . I did this the other day with Celebrity - there had been a slight price drop so I went up a grade of cabin which was a lower price than my original booking. My cabin was changed no problem, kept my OBC from an earlier promo and my old cabin came up as available immediately . They use the same online booking system so why cant they operate them in the same way??????

 

I'm not sure it's different. The process above they're speaking about is where they want to keep the same cabin, whereas your situation is an upgrade.

 

An upgrade is easier as a new cabin is issued. Where they want a lower price on the same cabin though, it may be necessary to rebook via cancelling.

[Sydney32203]

I'm not sure it's different. The process above they're speaking about is where they want to keep the same cabin, whereas your situation is an upgrade.

 

An upgrade is easier as a new cabin is issued. Where they want a lower price on the same cabin though, it may be necessary to rebook via cancelling.

 

That's right. When my travel agent spoke to RCL reservation desk in US, they could change the cabin number easily on the system but could not get us the early bird price without cancelling the existing booking. The only way to get the cheaper price was to cancel the existing booking. Not sure why they couldn't cancel and rebook it over the phone but told my T/A to email the Australian office to get it done. Anyhow, it was all done within half a day on new years eve and I was happy :-)

[voyager70]

Good on you. Even in the US I've had plenty of trouble (or shall I say refusal) to get promotional price drops. Enjoy!

[sir-magoo]

Damm you RCI. We were looking at a cruise next Xmas time but the prices were so ridiculously over inflated we found that we could actually fly to Orlando, cruise out of Orlando or Miami, plus have another week at Disney World for around the price we would have paid for the cruise out of Sydney. And this was with their early bird discounts!

 

Now they have dropped the prices $1k each, it reverses the above equation. However, the family are so set on the Disney World option I can't go back to the original option now.:rolleyes:

[Sydney32203]

Damm you RCI. We were looking at a cruise next Xmas time but the prices were so ridiculously over inflated we found that we could actually fly to Orlando, cruise out of Orlando or Miami, plus have another week at Disney World for around the price we would have paid for the cruise out of Sydney. And this was with their early bird discounts!

 

Now they have dropped the prices $1k each, it reverses the above equation. However, the family are so set on the Disney World option I can't go back to the original option now.:rolleyes:

 

You and your family would have a ball in Disney World and besides, the exchange rate will be in your favour. I spent a week in WDW about 10 years ago and we had so much fun that we want to go back again with our son who is now 5 years old. We are going to wait a couple more years for him to be a little older and we also want to cruise the Allure.

 

Which cruise are you planning on taking in Orlando?

[tashoz]

I noticed the price drop of $1,022 to our booking yesterday. I have emailed our TA and hopefully it will be able to be changed. Fingers crossed, thats a big saving.

[sir-magoo]

You and your family would have a ball in Disney World and besides, the exchange rate will be in your favour. I spent a week in WDW about 10 years ago and we had so much fun that we want to go back again with our son who is now 5 years old. We are going to wait a couple more years for him to be a little older and we also want to cruise the Allure.

 

Which cruise are you planning on taking in Orlando?

 

 

I think you are right, it will be fun in Orlando. Not as relaxing as a cruise with all of the transfers & rushing around, but the combo of Cruise/Disney/Universal seems to tick all of the family boxes.

 

We are still pretty flexible with the cruises, probably one of the 7 day east or west caribbean cruises out of Ft Lauderdale and I will aim for the end of our trip so we come home as relaxed as possible. It all depends on flights, when they are cheapest, and when we can go. I am also keen on one of the Oasis class ships just to experience the size (I was looking at VOS here out of Sydney). From what I can see, it is a relatively easy bus trip to Ft Lauderdale from Orlando. Flights (for this Jan anyway) appear very reasonable so hoping they stay similar next year, accommodation is very reasonable so all up, still a very good option despite the Aus cruise price drops.

 

My son is now 15, last time we went there he was only 2 so he will certainly enjoy it.

[The_Big_M]

That's right. When my travel agent spoke to RCL reservation desk in US, they could change the cabin number easily on the system but could not get us the early bird price without cancelling the existing booking. The only way to get the cheaper price was to cancel the existing booking. Not sure why they couldn't cancel and rebook it over the phone but told my T/A to email the Australian office to get it done.

 

They couldn't rebook it in the US under Australian pricing - the new booking would be USD as each sales office only works in its local currency. (And then deposits are different and wouldn't be transferable and so on.)