Excursions...lots of cancellations...anyone else getting emails?

[Cruzin-K]

Because of this thread I went to look at my excursions, and the one for Jamaica that I had booked has been canceled. However, there is no credit to my credit card :mad:

 

I'm feeling a bit ripped off right about now. Grrrr.

 

edit: I just called Royal and was told the excursion was canceled yesterday, and the credit card refund was processed yesterday (so it probably wont' show up on the credit card website right away). I'm just happy that the RCI rep even spoke to me as this cruise was booked through a (worthless) travel agent. I wonder if the notification was sent to the travel agency and that's why I never got an e-mail :confused:

 

The rep told me the tour operator is the one who canceled it, but I have my doubts about that because of this thread. After all, it wasn't just this one excursion that was canceled. I wish Royal wouldn't give the reps crap for information. The truth would be better, me thinks :rolleyes:

Edited September 28, 2013 by Cruzin-K

[bigque]

My Jamaica Flavor Highlights excursion on cruise for October 13th also cancelled.

[Cruzin-K]

Ugh! I spent forever and a day researching shore excursions for Jamaica and now that my Chukka Beach break was canceled I went to look for a replacement. Argh! There are a whole bunch of new excursions that I know NOTHING about. Sigh! More research. :(

[1ParticularHbr]

We leave on Freedom 2 wks from tomorrow and our Mexican cooking & wine excursion @ Playa Mia in Cozumel was cancelled a couple of days ago. Others on our sailing had their Amazing Cozumel Race excursion cancelled as well. They were able to rebook directly with the tour company. We haven't decided what to do yet.

[Pebbles468]

Ugh! I spent forever and a day researching shore excursions for Jamaica and now that my Chukka Beach break was canceled I went to look for a replacement. Argh! There are a whole bunch of new excursions that I know NOTHING about. Sigh! More research. :(

 

 

Hi Cruzin... I noticed that Chukka is gone from our sailing in December as well.

 

Check out My Time N Place... it was actually just down the beach from Chukka and they are supposed to have $3.00 Red Stripes. They also have a restaurant on site as well ... It's no frills, and very close to the port. Transportation is included through their website and entrance for $20/adult $10/child.

 

Hope this helps...

[pmmaurer]

Got a email from RC yesterday, they canceled our Cozumel excursion, a Royal Dolphin Swim and Manatee encounter :mad: My DD was so bummed. We book a different Dolphin Swim and Manatee encounter (same location) but it doesn't include the two dolphin foot push that she was looking forward to. But with the difference in price I told her maybe we can add the Sea Lion encounter if still available when we get to the park.

[BJ & CM]

I never got an email of the shore excursion cancelled, just noticed it was no longer on my daily planner. It was the Extreme Zip Line in St Thomas. Got the response as everyone else, when I called Royal Caribbean.

[cruising grandma]

My friend and I had our Chukka Beach Break excursion canceled for 10/27 Freedom cruise. We just booked the cruise 3 weeks ago and the excursion a week ago. We had paid separately with two different credit cards, but are in the same cabin. I received the cancellation to my email, and told her about it. Her credit card info was on my email as well, but she never received anything about the cancellation.

 

I would not go on my own in Falmouth, so we'll probably just walk around the port area, eat, drink and get back on the ship to enjoy another "ship day". Royal Caribbean and the local companies are missing out on a lot of money by canceling these excursions.

[franl24fan]

I am on the 11/27 Legend Panama Canal and in July and August there were many cancellations of shore excursions. For some ports when you looked on the website in August there would be 20 excursions, then the next day there would only be 4 or 5. I am really disappointed in what is left being offered. I had 3 booked and paid for excursions cancelled, got my credit within 10 days. Another tour has changed the times. I would have thought negotiations would have been finalized 3 months from cruise. And this is a member cruise,yet we still don't know if they are doing a free excursion or what it might be. Oh well, go with the flow, any cruise is better than staying home :-).

[emeraldcity]

Well, this had me worried ... but I checked my reservation and my St. Kitts excursion is still there.

[DaNana]

This is about a company not associated with the cruise lines. I wonder if so many people are getting private excursions, that is why these are cancelling for not enough people. We had one in May cancel but it seemed from the towns people the road was washed out.

 

 

http://www.cruisecritic.com/news/news.cfm?ID=5523

[Momma Moles]

This is why I wait to book my excursions on board ...

 

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[Lionesss]

Well

Maybe our last review of our Jamaican excursion had something to do with it.

We booked an excursion thru RCI to do the combined river tubing and zip line.

Oh.......dont get me wrong the zip line was phenomenol ---- the guides great! The tubing was fun, we were teathered to one another and the guides were great historian buffs.

The painful part was the down time and the late arrival back to the ship.

We zipped first, and finished and then were given our included jerk chicken luncheon.....one girl serving 40 zippers, took forever and then they told us to use the facilities and change into your swim gear (restrooms very clean and modern). We did

30 min. go by.

we waited I asked when we would tube. Soon we were told

60 min went by, I asked again, they said soon.

2 hours go by, and they said 15 min.

We finally got to tube.

2 hours and 15 min. late!!!

Then when we were done they tried to sell us pictures!!!! Its 5:15!!!!

Noooooo I wanna get back to the Allure!!!

We were suppossed to arrive back at the pier by 3pm.

Arrived back a little before 6, no time to shop

Many if not all in our party did not tip the attendants because of this.

We as a family addressed this issue of waiting -- at customer service and also on our end of cruise evaluation.

RCI actually contacted me vie e-mail to pursue this issue. I did.

 

I can only speak for Jamaica----don't know about the rest.

 

Next summer we are only doing the zip line,, no more double excursions for us.

Sea Ya

[tiessa]

Well

 

Maybe our last review of our Jamaican excursion had something to do with it.

 

We booked an excursion thru RCI to do the combined river tubing and zip line.

Oh.......dont get me wrong the zip line was phenomenol ---- the guides great! The tubing was fun, we were teathered to one another and the guides were great historian buffs.

The painful part was the down time and the late arrival back to the ship.

 

We zipped first, and finished and then were given our included jerk chicken luncheon.....one girl serving 40 zippers, took forever and then they told us to use the facilities and change into your swim gear (restrooms very clean and modern). We did

30 min. go by.

we waited I asked when we would tube. Soon we were told

60 min went by, I asked again, they said soon.

2 hours go by, and they said 15 min.

 

We finally got to tube.

2 hours and 15 min. late!!!

Then when we were done they tried to sell us pictures!!!! Its 5:15!!!!

Noooooo I wanna get back to the Allure!!!

 

We were suppossed to arrive back at the pier by 3pm.

Arrived back a little before 6, no time to shop

 

Many if not all in our party did not tip the attendants because of this.

 

We as a family addressed this issue of waiting -- at customer service and also on our end of cruise evaluation.

 

RCI actually contacted me vie e-mail to pursue this issue. I did.

Our Jamaica excursion was useless too. We did a tour of the area. We stopped at a shopping mall and just sat for an hour since nothing was open. We were able to get a cup of coffee while we sat. Then we did go for a little ride and the tour guide was just awful. She said things like "there's an old water wheel." That's it! She did show us the building where people worked calling us making offers for credit cards and a warehouse "where your T-shirts are made."

We weren't late, thank heavens, or I think the group would have taken over the bus...not because of lateness but because of boredom and we couldn't get off the bus soon enough!

We also complained and noted it on our evaluations. It cured us of doing island excursions through the ship. We never heard from RCI.

[tiessa]

A few years ago I had heard it was just about this time of year that Royal re-negotiated their excursions. Found this out when we had a November cruise scheduled and after speaking with an independent vendor in one of our ports, found out we just got in before he signed with Royal. Once the contract was signed he wouldn't have been able to accept our tour request.

 

Maybe a lot of tour operators are not agreeing to the terms Royal wants????

 

 

It just seems odd that negotiations with various islands and operators would all be at the same time.

[andreloop]

Same things happening with Celebrity.

Offering excursions are a Cruise Line inducement for you to sign up for a trip. Before they advertise these outings, they should have there ducks in a row with contracts completed and fully negotiated.

If it was just one or two cancelations, no big deal. But with so many, and different vendors, it points to poor skills and apparent disdain for those Pax who signed up.

Profit trumps customer satisfaction. A sure fire way to not increase business!

BTW...try calling to find reasons for these cancelations for an exercise in doubletalk.

[akcruz]

It just seems odd that negotiations with various islands and operators would all be at the same time.

 

Not really, could be budget time for 2014 at Royal. Many large corporations do these types of negotiations once a year when they know how much $$ they have. Not quite the same, but wher I work we have spent the past month working on budget items for next year.

[andreloop]

:cool:Them doing budget work for 2014 has nothing to do with cancelations for the rest of 2013, and once more, they shouldn't offer ANY excursions of which they hadn't yet completed firm negotiations with the contractors involved.

I would be suspect reading a budget that used the word "maybe".

[cruising grandma]

Not really, could be budget time for 2014 at Royal. Many large corporations do these types of negotiations once a year when they know how much $$ they have. Not quite the same, but wher I work we have spent the past month working on budget items for next year.

 

 

Our excursion was for October 30 2013. We booked it a week ago, and got cancellation notice Thursday.

Edited September 28, 2013 by cruising grandma

[marklodi]

:cool:Them doing budget work for 2014 has nothing to do with cancelations for the rest of 2013, and once more, they shouldn't offer ANY excursions of which they hadn't yet completed firm negotiations with the contractors involved.

I would be suspect reading a budget that used the word "maybe".

 

Not necessarily true. Calendar 2014 does not mean Fiscal Year 2014. At our company, 2014 starts next Tuesday, 10/1. While not in the travel industry, we work out contracts with vendors for months, with existing contracts expiring 9/30. If the contracts are not signed, they are dropped. This sounds exactly like what is happening here, given the number and variance in tours being cancelled.

[rsail203]

Our tour to the zoo was also cancelled.

[bradsnana]

Makes me leary to book any replacements right away. Our cruise if for Dec 12. I may just wait and see if they add any new excursions to replace the ones removed. I'm not worried about the ones in Labadee....it is the RCCL private island so I know those will still be going on.

 

 

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[traceyleigh15]

Wow, I just checked my booked excursions. We don't sail until March and my Jamaica excursion was cancelled. They have not notified me.........not impressed at all!

[Sherlock43031]

if they already charged your CC and you paid it when they do the refund ask them where the interest on your money went!!

[nelblu]

if they already charged your CC and you paid it when they do the refund ask them where the interest on your money went!!

 

@ what rate of interest?:D