Feeling a bit screwed over by RC, Irma safety/risk issue and no-refund, greed?

[Cuizer2]

It is incredible to hear that RCL is telling passengers to come to South Florida while local officials are saying get out or stay away.

 

It is not so incredible to believe if you followed what RCI did to the passengers of the next cruise scheduled on the Liberty OTS after Harvey hit.

[ptf2009]

Because EVERYONE knows the ports won't be easily accessible on Tuesday or Wednesday. Unless you happen to live right near the port and were home for the storm so no need to travel.

 

 

Do you not realize the issue with traffic trying to get out? It's a completely log jammed in the State right now, and people have been evacuating for 4 days. Now, consider the storm will still be in North Florida/Southern US Tuesday, so you can't even drive.... then on Wednesday, when millions are trying to get home, you think people can just hop in their car and "easily access" the ports?

 

And flights should really be full of tourists trying to make a cruise because of RCI's greed and not be more available to residents trying to get home? And try getting a flight that day.... This assumes the airport is even opened and workers are even available. Etc.

 

It's ridiculous. They need to cancel the cruise and make arrangements accordingly. This is a pure money grab. The only reason they are "changing the itinerary" and not canceling is to keep people from receiving refunds. It's as simple as that. I've been defending Royal quite a bit but it's becoming indefensible.

Totally agree with your rationale. We're supposed to fly to FLL next Friday for our HOS cruise next Sat., but we're not holding out hope. Who knows what damage is going to done to the port, airport and the hotels.

I have a strong feeling the four day cruise on Tues. will be cancelled, unless a miracle arises.

Thoughts and prayers to all affected by IRMA....

[lowsidr]

What have we established so far?

 

Insurance: Great to have but not necessarily going to protect you 100%.

 

Responsibility: Both the cruiseline's AND customers bear some burden.

 

Greed: Some on the part of the cruiseline's and some with the customers.

 

Customer safety 1st? I love RC but based on Harvey and Irma as recent example, $ retention trumps.

 

The contract you signed? Sure, they have it written in their best interest and most never read it or if they do, fully understand the fine print. Overall RC is fair.

 

FCC? Reasonable, in best interest of the cruiseline's but doesn't work for everyone.

 

OBC and future FCC for shortened itinerary etc? Wonderful, fantastic, over the top but MAY put people at risk if they choose to benefit from that.

 

Refund? Seems the most reasonable, sensible in a situation such as this but not contractually obligated.

 

Corporate responsibility? Shareholders first, nothing new.

 

Bottom line? I hope the best for everyone, especially those in harms way. Be safe, safe travels, be good to others, help others, don't chastise others for differing opinion. It's just a cruise, much more at stake right now than $, FCC's, refunds, OBC's, vacation interruptions etc....Thanks for the feedback, good and bad. Wish me luck, not looking good for South Florida right now. Personally signing out as I think this thread has brought attention to issues on both sides of the fence. Whether you choose to fully support RCCL or bash them at least some light has been shed and we are all a bit more informed.

[Cuizer2]

Officials are telling people to get out of the way. Royal is telling you to wait until it passes. This isn't the Harvey experience.

 

Perhaps not yet. We will not know that answer until 12:01am on September 13.

[BNBR]

Totally agree with your rationale. We're supposed to fly to FLL next Friday for our HOS cruise next Sat., but we're not holding out hope. Who knows what damage is going to done to the port, airport and the hotels.

I have a strong feeling the four day cruise on Tues. will be cancelled, unless a miracle arises.

Thoughts and prayers to all affected by IRMA....

 

They need to just cancel it now. They are doing this all over again where they are basically telling people to come into a disaster area. It's so unfortunate. NOBODY should be planning on going to Florida for a Tuesday or Wednesday cruise, no matter what.

 

We will see by next Friday. I could see that still being possible/doable but nobody will truly know until the storm actually hits.

[lowsidr]

OP is mostly wrong about his options. The actual offer is !00% FCC if you don't cruise on Wednesday; 50% FCC plus 50% OBC if you do. No insurance needed. If you have insurance you can get a refund, but assuming you can cruise in the next year you don't lose anything from RCI. Now we still don't know if anyone can get to Fort Lauderdale on Wednesday, or if the ship can get into port, but this isn't a bad deal.

 

Folks that got off ship in Jamaica apparently were complaining about poor treatment. Onboard it is the opposite - continuous updates on the ship info channel, information on getting off in Puerto Maya and Cozumel (Saturday and Monday). No charged gratuities for Sun-Wed (but you can add them back). Drinks/internet 50% off (not free, though). If you bought the ultimate dining package it is extended for free for rest of cruise. Specialty dining otherwise is 50% off. Calm seas, warm, and a port every other day. Current plan is Cozumel on Monday and one sea day north of Cuba.

 

Things could still go wrong - if port and airport are not open on Wednesday then new folks can't get on and folks onboard will continue to cruise around.

I was not "mostly wrong". I have stated continuously worst case scenario is 100% FCC. I spelled out the other options as well very clearly.

[nbsjcruiser]

I feel the need to jump in here. You've booked a week long cruise leaving on the 10th. RC is attempting to be accomodating by offering the discounts and sailing on a shortened itinerary departing on the 13th. You said that "if you cannot cruise on the 13th".... if you booked a week long voyage, why wouldn't be able to cruise on the 13th? Assume such people work and have booked holidays, the 13th shouldn't be an issue in departing on that date.

 

Maybe it would mean he/she has to buy air again or stay in a hotel for 3 days instead? That would be a major expense. Anyway, RCI is offering to credit his fare for a future cruise (if I read it correctly) so its not a total loss.

 

There's going to be a lot of talk about cancellations etc in the coming weeks. Get ready for the horror stories......

[BNBR]

Refund? Seems the most reasonable, sensible in a situation such as this but not contractually obligated.

 

Is this actually established? If the cruise is canceled I believe they have to refund you. Hence why they are refusing to cancel and pushing a cruise to nowhere to screw their customers.

 

I personally don't understand how there is such a difference of opinion once the facts are understood. For anyone to side with RCI on their cruise to nowhere suggests blind brand worship. Absolutely nobody should be heading to South Florida ports on Tuesday or Wednesday. Period. Yet RCI is scheduling cruises for these days to avoid canceling them and refunding money. How is that defensible?

[nbsjcruiser]

Is this actually established? If the cruise is canceled I believe they have to refund you. Hence why they are refusing to cancel and pushing a cruise to nowhere to screw their customers.

 

I personally don't understand how there is such a difference of opinion once the facts are understood. For anyone to side with RCI on their cruise to nowhere suggests blind brand worship. Absolutely nobody should be heading to South Florida ports on Tuesday or Wednesday. Period. Yet RCI is scheduling cruises for these days to avoid canceling them and refunding money. How is that defensible?

 

Good point.

[Cuizer2]

This unique and extraordinary storm one of the most powerful in history is scheduled as of 5pm today to be hitting Florida from the 10th to the 11th. If I am not mistaken at this point RCCL is telling people that cruises will be leaving on the 12th and 13th.

 

We live near Toronto....we do not have a cruise scheduled for this time and if we did there isn't a snowballs chance in heck that we would head for Florida . But if we couldn't afford to take the hit, and our insurance didn't cover unless the cruiseline cancelled then we would have to get to south Florida on either the 11th or 12th....that isn't waiting until it passes with Irma. . In the islands waiting until it passes is months, in Fla it is likely weeks if the damage is anywhere close to the places it has already hit....even if it is a fraction !

 

Exactly - that is the problem. Bring a tent and a sleeping bag and hope a hotel will allow you to sleep on the grass, because all the rooms will be full. If you were planning to be on the ship on the 11th and 12th, you would not have pre-booked hotel rooms for that day.

[Cuizer2]

We had people in Houston who came down early for their cruise, because they knew it was likely that their flight would be canceled the day before the cruise was supposed to depart. They came early, into a storm, because RC said they would not get their money back if they weren't here when the ship left.

 

This is the problem Royal Caribbean is creating - again.

[Dcjerseygrl]

I just read the latest here, but is anyone scheduled for the Anthem leaving tomorrow? RCL is saying they are still monitoring it, but it plans to go to Bermuda. I realize legally I have no choice but to get on or lose 100%, but is asking for a credit to reschedule unreasonable given the circumstances? I would think customer relations wise if would be a good thing, rather than having a few thousand disgruntled people who will be bashing RCL all over social media.

[Cuizer2]

Umm... not much of that has happened yet. Why don't we see what happens. Corporate greed is hiring thousands of people and giving them a better life??? Giving people an easy way to visit the world while traveling in luxury.... I would say corporate greed might be more applicable to Facebook or Twitter where we suck dumb people into sharing every aspect of their lives in public and making them unemployable...

 

RCI operates cruise ships, if you want to sail this week out of south Florida odds are you aren't...

 

Where is the greed. People booked the cruise knowing that they could cancel it. Ignorance isn't really a defense. If they cancel they will be given a pretty good offer, and if they are dumb enough to fight the salmon flowing upstream from Miami / FLL and they get to that point as the storm wipes them out. I say hurrah for giving it the full wellie!!! Vacations are more important than life, says everyone stuck in a cubicle....

 

Just joking, but with a large measure of truth behind the joke.

 

Jc

 

That is the same thinking that occurred in Galveston. The problem is, for anyone traveling, they have to arrive a day earlier, and then what happens when the "Umm... not much of that has happened yet" does occur? This is not a typical cat 3 hurricane. One would expect that this record setting hurricane is capable of "above average" damage.

A FCC is not something everyone can take advantage of.

[Cuizer2]

It is more than a case of flights actually operating on the 11th (or even the 12th).

 

There must actually be space on the flights for all the passengers who need to get to the port. These are not fully empty planes waiting to get new bookings. They would be existing flights which probably have very few available seats.

 

But it is also a question of the flights being able to operate. In Houston IAH and HOU shut down as tropical storm (not a hurricane as far as Houston was concerned) Harvey approached. Two days after the storm passed, the airports were ready for commercial flights again, but even five days after that the airlines had not gotten back to their normal schedules. Reason was that the airlines had repositioned their planes away from the area and it takes days to get planes and crews in position again.

 

 

So, if there is no major damage from wind and water to the Miami area airports, and if they resume a full schedule of flights within 24 hours after the storm has passed and if the cruise passengers manage to get seats on the flights, then they could get to the port on the 11th (with no hotel rooms available) or in the 12th in time for the cruise.

 

For another aspect of the overall problem, if the RCI and CCL and other ships do make it back to the two local ports on the 11th and 12th, many of the disembarking passengers will need the airports to be operating with an almost normal schedule so the passengers can fly home.

 

What will RCI do if the port is open, but the airports are closed and the disembarking passengers have no flights out of town and no hotel rooms to book?

 

You are making a stronger case for what I said.

 

They will say, "You are on your own."

[Cuizer2]

To be fair, United Airlines doesn't have any 7-day long flights.

 

Very true, but some of the flights do seem to take that long.

[Cuizer2]

I believe those requirements may have been waived. Majesty is headed east with crew and passengers from our shortened cruise. No plans to stop anywhere.

 

Sent from my HTC One_M8 using Forums mobile app

 

Well, that is an interesting development.

[BNBR]

I just read the latest here, but is anyone scheduled for the Anthem leaving tomorrow? RCL is saying they are still monitoring it, but it plans to go to Bermuda. I realize legally I have no choice but to get on or lose 100%, but is asking for a credit to reschedule unreasonable given the circumstances? I would think customer relations wise if would be a good thing, rather than having a few thousand disgruntled people who will be bashing RCL all over social media.

 

Why wouldn't you want to go? I'm a little confused about the Anthem concerns. It leave out of Jersey, right? Nowhere near the storm. And if they are on the water, they can easily avoid the storm or any weather changes that happen. Pretty good place to be is on that ship I would imagine.

[Cuizer2]

Why wouldn't you want to go? I'm a little confused about the Anthem concerns. It leave out of Jersey, right? Nowhere near the storm. And if they are on the water, they can easily avoid the storm or any weather changes that happen. Pretty good place to be is on that ship I would imagine.

 

I wonder how the people on the ship when it went through a big storm feel about your post.

[reallyitsmema]

Why wouldn't you want to go? I'm a little confused about the Anthem concerns. It leave out of Jersey, right? Nowhere near the storm. And if they are on the water, they can easily avoid the storm or any weather changes that happen. Pretty good place to be is on that ship I would imagine.

 

Jose is going to make it difficult for Anthem to get back from Bermuda. Anthem is doing a 5 day to Bermuda, PP does not want to go to Canada, which is where Anthem will go if they don't head to Bermuda.

[BNBR]

I wonder how the people on the ship when it went through a big storm feel about your post.

 

I had a family friend on the ship. They weren't upset, actually - and thought Royal did a great job. And wasn't that more of an issue of deciding to go through a storm?

[LMaxwell]

I believe those requirements may have been waived. Majesty is headed east with crew and passengers from our shortened cruise. No plans to stop anywhere.

 

Sent from my HTC One_M8 using Forums mobile app

 

Bahamas Paradise Grand Celebration doing the same. Special 4 day cruise to nowhere, well, away from the storm.

[buddylover]

I see so many people complaining about the cruiselines not giving them all their money back.

 

This is what Trip insurance is for. A cruiseline (or any vacation) is not there to hand money out if something out of their control happens.

 

We all should know the ramifications of booking trips and cancellation fees, and trip insurance is very cheap. I just paid 100 bucks for 3 of us for our Allure trip 10/1 a few weeks ago. So glad I have that peace of mind and will not be worrying about problems if they arise. That's my responsibility as a consumer.

 

Would you drive your car without insurance? I have been in the insurance industry for 30 years and have seen more people than I can count try to save a few bucks on insurance (of any kind) and pay an immense price for it in the end.

 

Your comment can be misleading....you have to read the 'fine print' on your cruise insurance policy.....even with 'cancel for any reason' (which we have tried to use) there are MANY stipulations.....like, 'cruise must be cancelled by cruise lines for 48 HOURS' before you can get refund. How about those folks that must FLY to their port and their airlines ticket is dated for MORE than 48 HOURS BEFORE the cruise lines cancelled?? You are SOL....you need to use your tickets to your ultimately cancelled cruise?? and they won't reimburse for that airfare. Or how about a spouse losing a job.....there are all kinds of 'small print' stipulations about how long you have been employed before they will pay out! So travel insurance would be worthless in these cases and many others too (we have been on the opposing side of the 'small print' TWICE)

Also, while you paid $100 for the all inclusive, highest level of travel insurance (I am assuming it is high level coverage, or it is pretty worthless as well in many cases) for your group of 3?? It is important to note that cost of coverage is based not only on how many family members, but AGE!! We have never ONLY PAID $100 for our insurance.....so to state that as a blanket cost is quite misleading and incorrect as well. Your information could mislead many who are new to cruising and travel insurance.

Travel insurance, while we still purchase it, has NOT been a truly good investment when we have tried to use ours....but we still purchase it, but are close to changing our minds!!

[nancy513]

I already have my cruises set for 2018. An FCC does me no good.

 

 

 

Depending if you have a refundable deposit...you may be able to cancel the 2018 cruises and get your refund, then rebook with the cruise credit

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[gaylemh]

Jose is going to make it difficult for Anthem to get back from Bermuda. Anthem is doing a 5 day to Bermuda, PP does not want to go to Canada, which is where Anthem will go if they don't head to Bermuda.

 

As of right now Jose will still be down by Florida on Wednesday morning when we are long gone from Bermuda. We are schedued to leave Tuesday at 4 pm. If something changes we will probably just get a shortened stay in Bermuda.

 

I know lots of people on this cruise, and they all feel confident about sailing. Especially since Irma is heading inland to the west.

[bUU]

Pulling in a comment from another thread:

Entitled much...

Indeed. Many of the comments about the cruise line are dripping with unfounded entitlement. There's a contract. It has terms and conditions. It's been crafted over decades of experience with situations just like this one. It is deliberate about the dividing line between the cruise line's obligations to its passengers and the cruise line's obligations to it owners. This isn't rocket science. And what's more, there are companies that will actually sell passengers insurance to give those passengers the coverage they claim that they're entitled to receive from the cruise line. That implication of entitlement is ridiculous. If it were even remotely reasonable, then why the heck are there companies selling insurance to cover situations just like these.

 

The hurricane and its effects are horrible. The impact on people is heartbreaking. That isn't a reason to set aside rational consideration.

 

Folks that got off ship in Jamaica apparently were complaining about poor treatment.

I'd like to see the exact wording of how the cruise line described that option to passengers (rather than relying on any passenger's biased and imperfect memory of what they were told). I wouldn't be surprised if they were told, "You're on your own; disembark at your own risk. Stay aboard if you want us to take care of you." Edited September 8, 2017 by bUU