Royal won't take my money for five staterooms on Spring Break!!!

[TryingtogivemoneytoRCI]

Need advice. Not happy with Royal at the moment. Keep in mind we have done this exact same thing on the Independence, Allure, Celebrity Silhouette, and Celebrity Reflection in 2014, 2015, 2016, and 2017. Not to mention on various other vessels not owned by RCI throughout the years. Our stateroom layout - balcony cabins- is as follows for 2018 spring break, 9 day cruise on the Navigator:

 

6238 Parents A

 

6240 Parents B

 

6242 (3) Male minor Children one from each set of parents A,B,C (all about 14 years old)

 

6244 (3) Female minor Children one from each set of parents A,B,C (all about 12 years old)

 

6246 Parents C

 

They will not let us do this, but will allow us to do it if Male child B and Female child B are in 6242 next to parents B and Male child C and Female child C are in 6246 next to Parents C. For some reason, they don't care about the 3rd minor passengers in each triple, male and female child A... as they are not next to their parents at all nor even can be.... whatever. The problem is that we end up with 2 boys and a girl in 6242 and 2 girls and a boy in 6246. Even though the two kids could obviously just switch on the boat, the keys will be messed up along with other minor things like luggage tags, on board charges, splitting of obc, etc.

 

For nearly 20 grand I don't feel I should have to 'skirt' their new policy and book the rooms like this and then secretly switch once on board. I just can't stomach feeling like I'm breaking some rule with the kids switching around rooms after shelling out nearly 20 grand.

 

Any thoughts on how to escalate to Royal this policy on unrelated minors is missing the mark?

 

Will they even consider an exception for us?

 

I am not even sure what problem this policy is intending to solve. My independent agent and I have worked each with a different RCI agent and both agents escalated to their supervisors and 'resolution' department. The guy I spoke with said, this is crazy, and not a problem at all, no worries. Then, after being on hold for a number of minutes came back after speaking with his supervisor and said all good, no problems this is fine. Then he said a few minutes later he wanted to just verify with resolutions that this was all good and provide feedback about our first encounter and ensure that the policy wasn't misunderstood by others in the future. After this is when he came back and said the same thing my independent agent was told and could not book our staterooms this way. Evidently he and his supervisor misunderstood the policy, not the other way around. Lastly, we were told that they would never move the kids around... not after booking nor once on board. I was hoping to just get it booked, and then make changes later... he was very clear that I would be unsuccessful trying to get those changes done.

[thrifty99]

Since you can just move them around yourself once onboard, I’m not sure what the issue is. We have had multiple rooms and had to book so we had an adult in each room with a minor. We then just did our own room assignments ourselves when onboard. We requested and received extra keys for the rooms so everyone had a key to the room they were staying in. Yes, they had to still carry the original SeaPass card for ID purposes but it was not a big deal.

 

Is someone telling you this can’t be done?

[Ourusualbeach]

Just book it how they are telling you too and then once on board go to guest services and switch things around or just get extra keys. Once on board they don't care who sleeps where.

[MikeBTN]

https://www.royalcaribbean.com/faq/questions/international-age-policy

 

"For voyages originating in North America:

No Guest younger than the age twenty-one (21) will be assigned to a stateroom unless accompanied in the same stateroom by an adult twenty-one (21) years old or older. A guest's age is established upon the first date of sailing.

 

This age limit will be waived for children sailing with their parents or guardians in connecting staterooms; for underage married couples; and for active duty members of the United States or Canadian military.

 

Certain other restrictions and conditions will apply; such as compliance with the age twenty-one (21) alcohol policy, and proof of marriage for underage couples or proof of active duty military status required."

[MikeBTN]

Adults must now be in a connecting stateroom. Just an FYI, many other cruise lines have adopted similar policies in the last few years.

 

So your options are:

 

1) Book the kids in a connecting stateroom

2) Book one adult in each of the rooms where you want the children to sleep, then have the children sleep in the staterooms you wish. This is not "breaking the rules" and is allowed, I think they just want to have a responsible adult assigned to each stateroom.

3) Book a different cruise line that will allow the configuration you want

 

 

Oh, and welcome to Cruise Critic :-)

Edited September 12, 2017 by MikeBTN

[ColoradoGurl]

Just substitute a Parent A for a Child A, a Parent B for a Child B and a Parent C for a Child C, and then your gratuities and OBC remain with the correct families and credit cards.

 

I don't think it matters that you're spending $20,000, and it also doesn't sound like you're paying the whole $20,000 yourself, since you're worried about on board accounts, so I'm not sure why you used that as part of your argument.

 

 

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[Ourusualbeach]

Adults must now be in a connecting stateroom. Just an FYI, many other cruise lines have adopted similar policies in the last few years.

 

So your options are:

 

1) Book the kids in a connecting stateroom

2) Book one adult in each of the rooms where you want the children to sleep, then have the children sleep in the staterooms you wish. This is not "breaking the rules" and is allowed, I think they just want to have a responsible adult assigned to each stateroom.

3) Book a different cruise line that will allow the configuration you want

 

Staterooms do not have to be connecting. They must be adjacent to or directly across the hall.

 

In order to book this way you or your TA must call as it can't be booked this way online but it can be over the phone.

[SeagoingMom]

I have read over and over that folks book cabins for family groups according to the requirements of the cruiseline and then, as the above posters have said, simply reorganize everyone to their liking once on board. Since you intend to have the kids from the three families all mixed up in their cabins anyway, you clearly aren't concerned about dividing up by family the charges made to each stateroom.

 

If you feel it is incumbent upon you to follow the "rules" set out by the ship, then you leave yourself no choice but to follow them and be frustrated and angry. If you can be flexible enough to say "yes" to their policies while accommodating yourselves as you choose once onboard, everyone can be happy.

[MikeBTN]

Staterooms do not have to be connecting. They must be adjacent to or directly across the hall.

 

In order to book this way you or your TA must call as it can't be booked this way online but it can be over the phone.

 

If that were the case then her TA would have been successful when they called Royal Caribbean. All of the staterooms listed are adjacent to each other but do not connect. I linked the policy in post #4, which is different than it used to be.

 

I'm a TA and have had this same battle with Royal recently with similar results.

[MikeBTN]

I have read over and over that folks book cabins for family groups according to the requirements of the cruiseline and then, as the above posters have said, simply reorganize everyone to their liking once on board. Since you intend to have the kids from the three families all mixed up in their cabins anyway, you clearly aren't concerned about dividing up by family the charges made to each stateroom.

 

If you feel it is incumbent upon you to follow the "rules" set out by the ship, then you leave yourself no choice but to follow them and be frustrated and angry. If you can be flexible enough to say "yes" to their policies while accommodating yourselves as you choose once onboard, everyone can be happy.

 

Bingo. Well said.

[Ourusualbeach]

If that were the case then her TA would have been successful when they called Royal Caribbean. All of the staterooms listed are adjacent to each other but do not connect. I linked the policy in post #4, which is different than it used to be.

 

I'm a TA and have had this same battle with Royal recently with similar results.

 

That policy that you quoted appears the same as the one that's been on the website for years. I remember it as always stating connecting rooms however we've been cruising with our kids having their own rooms adjacent and across the hall for the past 4 years and never had an issue. Currently we have cruises booked through March 2019 this way.

[Merion_Mom]

Need advice. Not happy with Royal at the moment. Keep in mind we have done this exact same thing on the Independence, Allure, Celebrity Silhouette, and Celebrity Reflection in 2014, 2015, 2016, and 2017. Not to mention on various other vessels not owned by RCI throughout the years. Our stateroom layout - balcony cabins- is as follows for 2018 spring break, 9 day cruise on the Navigator:

 

6238 Parents A

 

6240 Parents B

 

6242 (3) Male minor Children one from each set of parents A,B,C (all about 14 years old)

 

6244 (3) Female minor Children one from each set of parents A,B,C (all about 12 years old)

 

6246 Parents C

 

They will not let us do this, but will allow us to do it if Male child B and Female child B are in 6242 next to parents B and Male child C and Female child C are in 6246 next to Parents C. For some reason, they don't care about the 3rd minor passengers in each triple, male and female child A... as they are not next to their parents at all nor even can be.... whatever. The problem is that we end up with 2 boys and a girl in 6242 and 2 girls and a boy in 6246. Even though the two kids could obviously just switch on the boat, the keys will be messed up along with other minor things like luggage tags, on board charges, splitting of obc, etc.

 

For nearly 20 grand I don't feel I should have to 'skirt' their new policy and book the rooms like this and then secretly switch once on board. I just can't stomach feeling like I'm breaking some rule with the kids switching around rooms after shelling out nearly 20 grand.

 

Any thoughts on how to escalate to Royal this policy on unrelated minors is missing the mark?

 

Will they even consider an exception for us?

 

I am not even sure what problem this policy is intending to solve. My independent agent and I have worked each with a different RCI agent and both agents escalated to their supervisors and 'resolution' department. The guy I spoke with said, this is crazy, and not a problem at all, no worries. Then, after being on hold for a number of minutes came back after speaking with his supervisor and said all good, no problems this is fine. Then he said a few minutes later he wanted to just verify with resolutions that this was all good and provide feedback about our first encounter and ensure that the policy wasn't misunderstood by others in the future. After this is when he came back and said the same thing my independent agent was told and could not book our staterooms this way. Evidently he and his supervisor misunderstood the policy, not the other way around. Lastly, we were told that they would never move the kids around... not after booking nor once on board. I was hoping to just get it booked, and then make changes later... he was very clear that I would be unsuccessful trying to get those changes done.

 

I am impressed. You have this worked out in perfect detail. They SHOULD have no problem with this. Parents' cabins are bookending the kids' cabins. All cabins in a row. Kudos!

 

But if they actually WON'T let you book it this way, book the five cabins the way THEY want, and then switch when on board. Much more aggravating, I agree, since YOUR way is perfectly reasonable. But just do it, and enjoy your cruise.

 

And since it's the Navigator and not one of the new ships that use RFID chips in the SeaPass cards, it should truly be a no-brainer to get the cards you need.

 

At the time of online check-in, the appropriate parents can claim the appropriate children on their credit cards, so that will be set, regardless of where anyone is sleeping.

 

:)

[Merion_Mom]

Staterooms do not have to be connecting. They must be adjacent to or directly across the hall.

 

In order to book this way you or your TA must call as it can't be booked this way online but it can be over the phone.

 

That policy that you quoted appears the same as the one that's been on the website for years. I remember it as always stating connecting rooms however we've been cruising with our kids having their own rooms adjacent and across the hall for the past 4 years and never had an issue. Currently we have cruises booked through March 2019 this way.

 

I am guessing that the issue is that SOME children are NOT going to be next to their parents. Two cabins away, but those two cabins are with close friends, not strangers. It's asinine, if you ask me, and I would like to think that someone higher up the food chain at RC can fix this now, but if not, the new-to-Cruise Critic OP should just book as the cruise line is "requiring" and fix it themselves on board.

[rum & monkey]

That policy that you quoted appears the same as the one that's been on the website for years. I remember it as always stating connecting rooms however we've been cruising with our kids having their own rooms adjacent and across the hall for the past 4 years and never had an issue. Currently we have cruises booked through March 2019 this way.

 

 

 

We too have never had an issue and put the kids across from us (as recent as last December). I think the problem here is each kid needs to be next to or across from their own parent. I am not sure if this issue is because each parent is booking their own child or not. However we have taken my niece before and put her in the cabin next to us with our kids but she was on our reservation and not sailing with her parents. We have also had friends of our kids sailing with us and no problems.

It might work if "parents A" books their cabin and male children a, b, & c and "parents b" book their own cabin plus female children a,b, & c and then parents c can just pay parents a&b for their child. Otherwise look for connecting cabins. We have taken children that were not ours several times and have never had connecting rooms or the kids in our room.

 

 

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[Dennis#1]

Guest Services has issued additional room key cards several times for us when we traveled with our children/grandchildren. Never had a problem. We would get a balcony stateroom and an inside stateroom across the hall.

[Ashland]

I agree with many of the above.....Just book it how RCI is requiring you too.

 

Our extended family recently sailed on Harmony and it couldn't have been easier once onboard and had access to our cabins (4 of them all right next door to each other) and SeaPass cards to make a quick trip to guest services and they easily made the changes in cabin name occupancy for us and issued new SeaPass cards...not just additional key cards. This was much easier than I assumed it would be.

[TryingtogivemoneytoRCI]

If that were the case then her TA would have been successful when they called Royal Caribbean. All of the staterooms listed are adjacent to each other but do not connect. I linked the policy in post #4, which is different than it used to be.

 

I'm a TA and have had this same battle with Royal recently with similar results.

 

If you call for exception they will do it as long as they are adjacent. For us they will also. But, now the new policy on the exception is they won't if the 1st and 2nd minor passengers parent aren't in an adjacent room and there is no adult in the minor room, this is the part that is new.

[TryingtogivemoneytoRCI]

Since you can just move them around yourself once onboard, I’m not sure what the issue is. We have had multiple rooms and had to book so we had an adult in each room with a minor. We then just did our own room assignments ourselves when onboard. We requested and received extra keys for the rooms so everyone had a key to the room they were staying in. Yes, they had to still carry the original SeaPass card for ID purposes but it was not a big deal.

 

Is someone telling you this can’t be done?

 

They said that it was absolutely not allowed.

If Royal was ok with just making our own room assignments then why would they prohibit us from booking this way? They don't have any issue with no adult in the room as shown from their solution. Their 'new policy' wants both the first two minor passengers parent(s) in an adjacent room. Evidently they don't care about the third. Before now, they didn't care about the second minor passenger either and thus we have done this successfully no problem the past four spring breaks.

 

Obviously we can do what you said and sleep the kids anywhere... of course. But seems you shouldn't have to book one way and then do another, kids have keys that open other kids rooms and have to carry two seapass cards and all that mess.

I'd assume they don't want people picking their own room assignments because they want to rely on the official manifesto in case of some emergency and that is why they say it's prohibited.

[Merion_Mom]

Give this a shot: Write to Laly at:

 

ayera-rodriguez@rccl.com

 

Describe your situation pretty much as you did in your first post, but without any hint of angst. Just straightforward explanation.

 

There is a chance that she can help.

 

Good luck.

[yuvraj]

Luckily my children are now young adults but there was a time when I had a similar problem when I wanted them to have their own cabin. Had this problem not only with Royal Caribbean but with other cruise lines as well.

 

I also found that the policy wasn't consistently applied. Sometimes it was ok, other times it wasn't.

 

It is frustrating for parents but I can see why cruise lines have this policy. Alternative is to book suites which can accommodate up to 8. Sometimes this can work out quite reasonably and you get suite perks.

[TryingtogivemoneytoRCI]

Just substitute a Parent A for a Child A, a Parent B for a Child B and a Parent C for a Child C, and then your gratuities and OBC remain with the correct families and credit cards.

 

I don't think it matters that you're spending $20,000, and it also doesn't sound like you're paying the whole $20,000 yourself, since you're worried about on board accounts, so I'm not sure why you used that as part of your argument.

 

 

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This is a clever way to do it for sure and better than the two ways Royal tried to set it up! (I'm guessing you are good at puzzles) This also helps the key issue as three of the kids can open their parents room but not the opposite gender kids room.

As far as lying about the room assignments this is the best scenario for sure to keep things straight.

I still hate the fact that we would have to lie when we have done it so many times properly without issue in the past.

We would probably be ok if we all have the same cabin steward because he would have all the various sizes of life vests in an emergency, they don't keep them in the rooms anymore. If we are split between stewards, or worse yet, split muster stations, that could get a little wonky.

 

Regarding 20k, you are right I'm not paying all of that. We are a small group and that's the bill for the group and every group member has kids in those rooms so we are all impacted. So, to royal, this is a 20k opportunity and this issue is a whole group issue. My only point is that it is a lot of money and I don't like that we must lie about room assignments, get separate keys, etc when spending hard earned money. You are right, specifically, 20k is irrelevant. Any fare amount should get a positive experience. But for me, seeing that invoice amount of 20k and then thinking about having to mess with this room assignment deal feels out of whack.

[Gloworm2]

While taking time to escalate this issues upwards, your cabins may disappear. So I would suggest to book as Royal wants them make the switches onboard.

 

 

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[Mcdonaldbam]

It looks like the problem is that the children A are not in rooms adjacent to parents A. So, have parents B book themselves and and the 3 boys, parent C book themselves and 3 girls, and parent A reimburse B&C for the fares of their children. Once onboard go to GS to have the onboard charges switched to the appropriate credit cards.

[Canadianmama3]

Don't see why this is such a big issue. They have their policy just book according to it and switch around later. And don't see why the amount you spend has anything to do with it. Those cabins would get booked by someone else if you didn't boom them. It's not like royal is going to miss out on anything. And yeah saying things like "we're spending $20,000" just makes you sound entitled.

 

 

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[S.A.M.J.R.]

Can you do the following?

6238 Parents A

 

6240 (3) Male minor Children one from each set of parents A,B,C (all about 14 years old)

 

6242 Parents B

 

6244 (3) Female minor Children one from each set of parents A,B,C (all about 12 years old)

 

6246 Parents C