Royal caribbean fares

[icat2000]

Any hints to a good one, within the guidelines of this forum of course? ;)

 

Also I may be wrong but don't some of the cruiselines block you from booking with a US agent for local cruises. I thought I'd read something like that here a while back. :confused:

 

Some do, some don't, there are ways and means.

[The_Big_M]

Those booking conditions have caused all sorts of problems for RCI with some people booking multiple trips and seeing which drop in price and then cancelling most of them. Which is why changed the future cruise credit program for open bookings and started enforcing the discount for new bookings only rule.

 

Exactly. As times go on, restrictions are generally increasing and I can't see that one lasting forever. It's only there for legacy reasons and given the massive size of that market, it's hard for any cruise line to impose this restriction upfront, due to sending customers to competitors.

 

It's only one region which has it - the original base of cruising - and the rest don't. In some ways we are treated more favourably than other regions too.

[LuckiePuris]

Thanks for suppling that info. One adjustment to note. " These are partner companies with similar T&C's." Certainly not the same.

 

There is nothing in that RC's T and C for that promotion that suggests an existing booking can not be cancelled and rebooked so as to get the promotion advertised!

 

Unlike the wording in the Celebrity link which does cover previous existing bookings non eligibility:

"Any existing booking which is cancelled on or after 29 April 2015 and then rebooked for same ship and sail date within the offer period, will not be eligible for the promotion."

 

Spelled out very clearly by Celebrity - Intention to deny promotion to a cancel/rebook unmistakable. Absolutely nothing like that in the RC's T and C for their own promotional sale.

 

To be honest, I'm not sure how clearer it needs to be spelt out. The RCI T&C's state:

 

Any eligible booking that is cancelled and then reinstated after 29 April 2105 will no longer be eligible for the promotion. Any booking that is modified after the promotion has ended will result in the loss of the promotion.

 

Doesn't make any difference to me as to what you select to do with your cruise, completely up to you.

 

I personally would not risk it as I wouldn't want to lose my beverage package or the rate I already had booked, that I was already happy with.

 

Up to you how you wish to interpret, just wanted to pass the details along :)

[LuckiePuris]

Any hints to a good one, within the guidelines of this forum of course? ;)

 

Also I may be wrong but don't some of the cruiselines block you from booking with a US agent for local cruises. I thought I'd read something like that here a while back. :confused:

 

Dare I say book with a US agent. Then you get all their perks. Even with the falling dollar prices awork out often as compatible and if you can afford to pay upfront you know the whole price and can still take advantage of price drops or upgreades even after final payment date. Works for me. Jennie

 

It's just a matter of reading the US Agents T&C's. Some allow bookings for non US residents, others don't.

 

I think whats come out of this thread is the importance of reading the T&C's whether they are through a TA, or a cruiseline direct.

 

I think many of us (myself included!) get excited when booking, but don't necessarily read the pages of fine print.

 

Before we do get annoyed at the cruise lines, it is important for us to read the T&C's on our existing booking / or a new promo fare.

[dizzy1948]

I think whats come out of this thread is the importance of reading the T&C's whether they are through a TA, or a cruiseline direct.

 

I think many of us (myself included!) get excited when booking, but don't necessarily read the pages of fine print.

 

Before we do get annoyed at the cruise lines, it is important for us to read the T&C's on our existing booking / or a new promo fare.

 

Amen to that

Edited May 6, 2015 by dizzy1948

[mr walker]

When we first started cruising & then found cc, I was amazed to learn about these 'honouring price drops' & fully refundable deposits things our american friends posted about every day!

 

People even boasting about booking (on booking opening day) several cruises to secure chosen cabins, with no plans to take most of those cruises, merely to track price changes and then have the changes applied with a view to cancelling all but the one they finally elected to take.

And then others, knowing when final payments were due there would be many cancellations, hovering to pick up a great deal.

I thought I had hacked in to some parallel universe:)

 

I booked cruises at prices I was happy with & thought that life was good. I did track some prices once or twice but always found they were higher, so again, life was good. If I saw a promo price for a cruise I already booked, well.... I was already booked.

 

I thought everyone understood that 'promotion specials' were for new bookings, but many don't accept that it seems. My pay-TV company often advertise specials for new subscribers only & there are many things where that applies.

 

I am surprised that the cruiselines are not much tougher with cancellations, re-bookings etc. I think they may be getting stricter, particularly for the USA folks.

 

Happy cruising

[tomatosauce]

When we first started cruising & then found cc, I was amazed to learn about these 'honouring price drops' & fully refundable deposits things our american friends posted about every day!

 

People even boasting about booking (on booking opening day) several cruises to secure chosen cabins, with no plans to take most of those cruises, merely to track price changes and then have the changes applied with a view to cancelling all but the one they finally elected to take.

And then others, knowing when final payments were due there would be many cancellations, hovering to pick up a great deal.

I thought I had hacked in to some parallel universe

 

I booked cruises at prices I was happy with & thought that life was good. I did track some prices once or twice but always found they were higher, so again, life was good. If I saw a promo price for a cruise I already booked, well.... I was already booked.

 

I thought everyone understood that 'promotion specials' were for new bookings, but many don't accept that it seems. My pay-TV company often advertise specials for new subscribers only & there are many things where that applies.

 

I am surprised that the cruiselines are not much tougher with cancellations, re-bookings etc. I think they may be getting stricter, particularly for the USA folks.

 

Happy cruising

 

I totally agree. That is exactly how I think.

[MMDown Under]

Carnival has also significantly reduced deposits for its record number of 2016 and 2017 cruises for Australians.

 

 

CC News

 

 

Looks like at least one cruiseline is listening to one of our concerns!

[icat2000]

Carnival has also significantly reduced deposits for its record number of 2016 and 2017 cruises for Australians.

 

 

CC News

 

 

Looks like at least one cruiseline is listening to one of our concerns!

I wait to see what their definition of significantly reduced deposits is first. Not that I'm a big Carnival fan. They really don't do any interesting itineraries.

[icat2000]

I wait to see what their definition of significantly reduced deposits is first. Not that I'm a big Carnival fan. They really don't do any interesting itineraries.

I've seen on a cruising site what the reduced deposits means = up to 50% off deposit.

[woodyren]

As many have stated the way we are treated on pricing by the same company varies greatly to how they treat their USA customers. Almost all lines and TA's in the USA allow cancellation and rebooking free of charge anytime before final payment. They honour price drops but you at times might lose out on perks only that came with the original booking so you just weigh up the pros & cons in that decision.

 

As long as we Aussies continue to accept this then it won't change, For this very reason and despite the low Aussie $$ I will ONLY book cruises in 2 ways.

 

1) Through a USA agent when the price is within 10% of an Aussie cruise price at current forex rates. I usually get that 10% back straight away in OBC, free gats etc from my agent and then retain all the flexibility that is on offer there that is unavailable here. eg Price drops, changing cabins within category once a GTY is allocated, FEE FREE cancellation prior to final payment, ability to upgrade when a higher cat cabin drops in price after finals for the diff in what I paid to current price of higher category.

 

Provided you don't mind having your deposit tied up you can just sit on a few options and then cancel if they don't drop in price.

 

2) Only book a cruise through an Aussie TA or on the Aussie cruise website when they are at an absolute bargain price of say well under $100 pp a day or the recent Solstice bargain of $1099 for a balcony 8 day cruise with all taxes paid, grats paid and a free drinks package.

 

Of course we are lucky that we can cruise at the last minutes are not at all concerned about cabin location other than getting the best category for our buck.

 

I don't even consider Princess or HAL as they don't allow me option one so my money will go elsewhere on principle.

Edited May 6, 2015 by woodyren

[LuckiePuris]

Carnival has also significantly reduced deposits for its record number of 2016 and 2017 cruises for Australians.

 

 

CC News

 

 

Looks like at least one cruiseline is listening to one of our concerns!

 

I wait to see what their definition of significantly reduced deposits is first. Not that I'm a big Carnival fan. They really don't do any interesting itineraries.

 

Carnival has some great $100 deposits on most voyages at the moment!

[LuckiePuris]

English not your first language? The terms are in plain English. You seem to have trouble understanding what is written.

 

Let me point out where you have gone wrong in your flawed interpretation:

Any eligible booking that is cancelled and then reinstated after 29 April 2105 will no longer be eligible for the promotion. Any booking that is modified after the promotion has ended will result in the loss of the promotion.

 

Within the highlighted sentences we first have "Any eligible booking". So, what then is an eligible booking? As can be seen within their T and C the first criteria to be an valid eligible booking, is that it must be a new booking made between 1 - 31 May 2015. Any booking made outside those dates then is an ineligible booking - by mere fact that it has been made outside the specified dates! So a previous booking, made before the promotional run time of the dates (that is, booked before the 1st May and 31 May inclusive promotional period), must be an ineligible booking. So your highlighted sentence DOES NOT apply to previous bookings prior to the promotional period, as by their own clause those previous bookings are deemed not to be eligible bookings!

 

This does however apply to all eligible bookings (That is, bookings that are new bookings made between 1 - 31 May 2015 AND is applicable to all Royal Caribbean International voyages 5 nights or longer departing 1 June 2015 onwards AND includes bookings made on voyages departing in 2016 & 2017 AND is applicable to new individual bookings and non-contracted group bookings named and fully deposited within the offer period BUT excludes Quantum of the Seas, Anthem of the Seas, Harmony of the Seas, Ovation of the Seas, Transatlantic voyages and all sailings departing from China).

 

Like I intimated when you first said Celebrity and RC are partner companies with the same T&C's , if there was an intention within RC's T &C clause to exclude previous existing bookings from becoming eligible by way of cancellation and then rebooking within the promotional period, then why did they not include the same or similar clause as Celebrity's clause for their current promotions ("Any existing booking which is cancelled on or after 29 April 2015 and then rebooked for same ship and sail date within the offer period, will not be eligible for the promotion.") That right there is as clear as can be. No misinterpretation.

 

As it is written now, I can't even see it is close to what you seem to think it does mean - that it is suppose to exclude previous bookings made before 1st May from becoming eligible for the promotional offer by way of cancellation and rebooking. This it certainly does not do. On the other hand, if their intent was to strip the promotional offer off eligible bookings that had been cancelled and then reinstated, then they got it right.

 

To be honest, I'm not sure how clearer it needs to be spelt out.

 

I'm not prepared to continue discussing this topic as I have provided the two cruise lines terms and conditions, which are pretty black and white.

 

I'm on these boards to enjoy talking about one of favourite hobbies, and where possible, share a bit of inside knowledge I've learnt through my profession.

 

Each to there own how they wish to take it. My purpose was just to explain the T&C's of these two cruise lines and explain why it's not just as simple as rebooking on a new sale fare.

 

All the best to you and your future cruises :)

[LuckiePuris]

When we first started cruising & then found cc, I was amazed to learn about these 'honouring price drops' & fully refundable deposits things our american friends posted about every day!

 

People even boasting about booking (on booking opening day) several cruises to secure chosen cabins, with no plans to take most of those cruises, merely to track price changes and then have the changes applied with a view to cancelling all but the one they finally elected to take.

And then others, knowing when final payments were due there would be many cancellations, hovering to pick up a great deal.

I thought I had hacked in to some parallel universe:)

 

I booked cruises at prices I was happy with & thought that life was good. I did track some prices once or twice but always found they were higher, so again, life was good. If I saw a promo price for a cruise I already booked, well.... I was already booked.

 

I thought everyone understood that 'promotion specials' were for new bookings, but many don't accept that it seems. My pay-TV company often advertise specials for new subscribers only & there are many things where that applies.

 

I am surprised that the cruiselines are not much tougher with cancellations, re-bookings etc. I think they may be getting stricter, particularly for the USA folks.

 

Happy cruising

 

Agree 100%. End of the day as long as I have a cruise to look forward to, life's good! :)

[ozblue_7]

Sometimes you have to take a stand. This happened to me on our recent Solstice cruise, one week after booking the price for our category went down by $1000 per person, that's a total of $2,000. I rang my TA and asked for a price drop, told exactly the same as the OP.

 

At that point, because I simply stated to my TA, tell them I will cancel completely, no re booking and you can cancel the second trip we had booked as well.

 

Its amazing how suddenly I was able to get my price drop, Celebrity were not polite about it but I got it. The downside though is they may not have agreed but I was really prepared to cancel, already had an alternative cruise lined up with HAL in case.

 

Just when I'd decided to let sleeping dogs lie, I see the above post, so I decided to have another go at RCI.

 

My TA assures me that despite his best efforts on my behalf, and threats to cancel that RCI will not offer the lower fare.

 

We had taken the opportunity to rethink, and found an alternative that we were more than happy with, so cancelled RCI, and are now waiting for return of our deposits before booking HAL. (We won't be monitoring prices!)

 

So thank you all for your contributions, I've learnt a lot from this thread not least of which is that our American cousins seem to get a much better deal.

[aussielozzie18]

Good on you, Ozblue. Hope you enjoy your Hal cruise.

[Royalty X]

Says who exactly? Who is it saying you won't be able to cancel then rebook? If it is from the TA, I would be looking for a new TA.

Why do you hate TAs so much? You always seem to be so aggressive in your dislike of them. What was stated about audits by RCI is absolutely correct!