Cabin Configuration Change

[condorchristi]

Hello and good morning.  I am set to cruise on Symphony of the Seas on 5/28 of this year and am having a problem.  I wanted to see if anyone else is having (or has had) this issue.

 

When I booked the cabin I insisted that I be able to add a 3rd person at a later date.  Our 3rd person's availability was questionable but now it appears that they will be able to go.  So I called RCI just now and asked them how much it would be for the 3rd person.  The first call I made, I was told there was no way to get a 3rd person into the cabin and to set up a 3rd person would be 3X the costs of the original balcony room that I booked. 

 

That didn't sound right to me so I went onto the website and found that there was a sofa bed in the room (I have one of the cabins with the triangle which indicates there is a sofa bed in the room).

 

 

 

Anyway, I called back and talked to another person and they confirmed that a sofa bed will be in the room as of my sail date. 

 

The problem I'm having and am hoping someone can help me with is this; the telephone representative could not tell me how much it would be to add the 3rd person.  She advised that we will have to call back on 5/5/19 and make the reservation at that time (23 days before the sail date). 

 

This sounds really abnormal to me--that the pricing cannot be known until three weeks prior to sailing.  It could be $500, it could be $3,000 dollars...who knows? 

 

Anyway, has anyone else ran into this sort of issue? 

[Thorben-Hendrik]

It is always very costly and a PIA to add a 3rd person.... much better to delete the 3rd person before final if unknown at booking 👍

[Ourusualbeach]

You’ve called twice and received 2 different answers.  Keep calling back until someone can help you.

[Thorben-Hendrik]

18 minutes ago, Ourusualbeach said:

You’ve called twice and received 2 different answers.  Keep calling back until someone can help you.

👍

[purescottish]

2 hours ago, condorchristi said:

When I booked the cabin I insisted that I be able to add a 3rd person at a later date

 

Sorry but how can you insist on adding a 3rd person at a later date

You don't know how full the ship will be when sail date comes, it could be there is no room at your muster station for another person, You probably should have added them when you booked, then cancelled them before final payment.

I do agree however you should not have to wait for a price, call them back , no doubt you will get a different person and a different answer

[SargassoPirate]

1 hour ago, purescottish said:

 

 it could be there is no room at your muster station for another person, 

 

How could there not be room at the muster station?  Seems that would be determined by the number of beds/bunks on the ship. 

[robtulipe]

28 minutes ago, SargassoPirate said:

 

How could there not be room at the muster station?  Seems that would be determined by the number of beds/bunks on the ship. 

On RCCL ships and those of other major cruise lines there are more berths than lifeboat capacity. This give them flexibility in selling and assigning cabins. Solo bookings in a section would allow additional persons in a more than two person cabin that might not have happened if cabins in that section were at lifeboat capacity. 

It has been posted many times here on CC of this happening where an additional person cannot be added to a booking due to limited lifeboat capacity in that sector even though a berth was available.

Edited November 13, 2018 by robtulipe

[SargassoPirate]

I had no idea.  More berths than lifeboat capacity?  Wasn't that an issue on the Titanic?

 

What happens when, through the normal booking process, every berth in a section or multiple sections is filled?

 

[mjkacmom]

20 minutes ago, SargassoPirate said:

I had no idea.  More berths than lifeboat capacity?  Wasn't that an issue on the Titanic?

 

What happens when, through the normal booking process, every berth in a section or multiple sections is filled?

 

They wont book more than lifeboat capacity, which is why they won’t let you add someone to the cabin, even if a bed is available, because the muster is filled.

[stevea36]

5 hours ago, condorchristi said:

Hello and good morning.  I am set to cruise on Symphony of the Seas on 5/28 of this year and am having a problem.  I wanted to see if anyone else is having (or has had) this issue.

 

When I booked the cabin I insisted that I be able to add a 3rd person at a later date.  Our 3rd person's availability was questionable but now it appears that they will be able to go.  So I called RCI just now and asked them how much it would be for the 3rd person.  The first call I made, I was told there was no way to get a 3rd person into the cabin and to set up a 3rd person would be 3X the costs of the original balcony room that I booked. 

 

That didn't sound right to me so I went onto the website and found that there was a sofa bed in the room (I have one of the cabins with the triangle which indicates there is a sofa bed in the room).

 

 

 

Anyway, I called back and talked to another person and they confirmed that a sofa bed will be in the room as of my sail date. 

 

The problem I'm having and am hoping someone can help me with is this; the telephone representative could not tell me how much it would be to add the 3rd person.  She advised that we will have to call back on 5/5/19 and make the reservation at that time (23 days before the sail date). 

 

This sounds really abnormal to me--that the pricing cannot be known until three weeks prior to sailing.  It could be $500, it could be $3,000 dollars...who knows? 

 

Anyway, has anyone else ran into this sort of issue? 

When you add an additional person to the reservation the total cost of the cabin can be repriced at the current rates, therefore it may be quite expensive.    I would call and tell them you want to add the person now (the 5/5 answer is bogus) and see what the pricing would be, both for the 3rd person and the original 2.   Based on that information I would either book the third person with you or come up with a different arrangement (maybe a separate cabin for the 3rd person) that comes out cheaper.

[not-enough-cruising]

if the muster station this stateroom is assigned to has reached lifeboat capacity, you will be out of luck without switching cabins (and I doubt that’s an option) 

[SargassoPirate]

I did a quick google search and found a quote from SOLAS that stated:

 

Ships must have partially or totally enclosed lifeboats for 50% of the total capacity of people on board on each side (for a total capacity of 100%).

 

I read this to mean that the number of lifeboats is dictated by the capacity of the number of passengers, not the operational numbers. Thus, a ship with a passenger and crew capacity of 4000 berths would have to have lifeboat seat capacity to hold 4000.

 

 

[not-enough-cruising]

15 minutes ago, SargassoPirate said:

I did a quick google search and found a quote from SOLAS that stated:

 

Ships must have partially or totally enclosed lifeboats for 50% of the total capacity of people on board on each side (for a total capacity of 100%).

 

I read this to mean that the number of lifeboats is dictated by the capacity of the number of passengers, not the operational numbers. Thus, a ship with a passenger and crew capacity of 4000 berths would have to have lifeboat seat capacity to hold 4000.

 

 

This is true, however how the lifeboats are assigned by blocks of rooms (muster stations) can and will determine the max capacity of berths available to that station on a given cruise. 

[robtulipe]

15 minutes ago, SargassoPirate said:

I did a quick google search and found a quote from SOLAS that stated:

 

Ships must have partially or totally enclosed lifeboats for 50% of the total capacity of people on board on each side (for a total capacity of 100%).

 

I read this to mean that the number of lifeboats is dictated by the capacity of the number of passengers, not the operational numbers. Thus, a ship with a passenger and crew capacity of 4000 berths would have to have lifeboat seat capacity to hold 4000.

 

 

No the ship's capacity is set by the lifeboat capacity not by the number of ship's berths.  

 

[taglovestocruise]

1 hour ago, SargassoPirate said:

I did a quick google search and found a quote from SOLAS that stated:

 

Ships must have partially or totally enclosed lifeboats for 50% of the total capacity of people on board on each side (for a total capacity of 100%).

 

I read this to mean that the number of lifeboats is dictated by the capacity of the number of passengers, not the operational numbers. Thus, a ship with a passenger and crew capacity of 4000 berths would have to have lifeboat seat capacity to hold 4000.

 

 

Life safety cruise ship regulation reform is essential. ... Regulations require each side of cruise ships have enough lifeboats to accommodate 37.5% of the total number of persons on board (passengers and crew), 75% in total. Inflatable or rigid liferafts must accommodate the remaining 25% of passengers and crew.

 

We were just on Symphony last week for the transatlantic and this question was raised during the captains Q&A in the showroom. He said when all lifeboats are filled they would be 1800 short.  Most of the crew would use the canister style life rafts, the canister life boats/rafts hold about 2000. That would be if the ship sailed full at 6800 passengers and 2200 crew. Our transatlantic sailed with about 4500 passengers and 2000 crew,  everyone would fit in the lifeboats. Although there could be a problem as Pinnacles would not want to be crowded or be put with the steerage class, a inside rccl joke.  

[condorchristi]

5 hours ago, purescottish said:

 

Sorry but how can you insist on adding a 3rd person at a later date

You don't know how full the ship will be when sail date comes, it could be there is no room at your muster station for another person, You probably should have added them when you booked, then cancelled them before final payment.

I do agree however you should not have to wait for a price, call them back , no doubt you will get a different person and a different answer

 

A fine distinction but I insisted on being able to add a 3rd person.  

[condorchristi]

2 hours ago, stevea36 said:

When you add an additional person to the reservation the total cost of the cabin can be repriced at the current rates, therefore it may be quite expensive.    I would call and tell them you want to add the person now (the 5/5 answer is bogus) and see what the pricing would be, both for the 3rd person and the original 2.   Based on that information I would either book the third person with you or come up with a different arrangement (maybe a separate cabin for the 3rd person) that comes out cheaper.

 

On the phone with them now….  I am sure it will cost more.  Their story is that to get a 3rd person on the reservation, I have to change cabins and it will be 3X more.  They do not acknowledge on the phone the information their website is presenting.  \

 

update…at the 25:20 mark of the phone call, the “escalation specialist” has acknowledged what their website is showing.  

 

 

Edited November 13, 2018 by condorchristi

[condorchristi]

2 hours ago, not-enough-cruising said:

This is true, however how the lifeboats are assigned by blocks of rooms (muster stations) can and will determine the max capacity of berths available to that station on a given cruise. 

 

Good to know….

[dcarjn]

I'm curious what they say. I have a cabin booked for 3 with the possibility of a 4th coming. I was told my rate was locked in if he decided to join us, regardless of when we added him. Although they did say it depended on life raft capacity.

[Ourusualbeach]

8 hours ago, SargassoPirate said:

I did a quick google search and found a quote from SOLAS that stated:

 

Ships must have partially or totally enclosed lifeboats for 50% of the total capacity of people on board on each side (for a total capacity of 100%).

 

I read this to mean that the number of lifeboats is dictated by the capacity of the number of passengers, not the operational numbers. Thus, a ship with a passenger and crew capacity of 4000 berths would have to have lifeboat seat capacity to hold 4000.

 

 

 

If you don’t believe what has been posted on here then take some time and go through a ship deck by deck adding up the capacity of all the double, quad and more than quad rooms.  You will find that the total of those berths adds to quit a bit more than what Royal lists as max capacity.  It’s possible that if there are a lot of people that booked Wuad cabins that they end up sailing with empty double cabins so as not to exceed lifeboat capacity.

Edited November 13, 2018 by Ourusualbeach

[SargassoPirate]

On 11/13/2018 at 6:23 PM, Ourusualbeach said:

 

If you don’t believe what has been posted on here then take some time and go through a ship deck by deck adding up the capacity of all the double, quad and more than quad rooms.  You will find that the total of those berths adds to quit a bit more than what Royal lists as max capacity.  It’s possible that if there are a lot of people that booked Wuad cabins that they end up sailing with empty double cabins so as not to exceed lifeboat capacity.

This certainly is interesting to me.  I must admit my experience in fire and life safety was land-based occupancies, and I find fire and life safety systems at sea a fascinating topic.  One would assume that there would be enough lifeboat/liferaft seats for every berth, and not a number that can be manipulated by the cruise line booking process.  How do ships get certified if there is not enough lifeboat/liferaft capacity for every berth? 

In land-based occupancies, for example, the number of exits for a place of assembly is calculated by the square footage of the area (the capacity) not the number of chairs installed. 

[brillohead]

1 hour ago, SargassoPirate said:

This certainly is interesting to me.  I must admit my experience in fire and life safety was land-based occupancies, and I find fire and life safety systems at sea a fascinating topic.  One would assume that there would be enough lifeboat/liferaft seats for every berth, and not a number that can be manipulated by the cruise line booking process.  How do ships get certified if there is not enough lifeboat/liferaft capacity for every berth? 

In land-based occupancies, for example, the number of exits for a place of assembly is calculated by the square footage of the area (the capacity) not the number of chairs installed. 

Think about it this way:  land-based occupancy isn't necessarily the number of people that CAN FIT in a space, but rather the number of people that are ALLOWED TO ENTER a space.  

Same with ships -- they may be able to physically put more people on the ship based on number of berths, but they're not allowed to do so.  

[Ourusualbeach]

4 hours ago, SargassoPirate said:

This certainly is interesting to me.  I must admit my experience in fire and life safety was land-based occupancies, and I find fire and life safety systems at sea a fascinating topic.  One would assume that there would be enough lifeboat/liferaft seats for every berth, and not a number that can be manipulated by the cruise line booking process.  How do ships get certified if there is not enough lifeboat/liferaft capacity for every berth? 

In land-based occupancies, for example, the number of exits for a place of assembly is calculated by the square footage of the area (the capacity) not the number of chairs installed. 

 

Not sure if you've read many of the threads where people only book for 2 people then closer to the sail date they try to add a guest or two because their room does accomodate up to 4 people. They then find our when they call Royal that they can't add them as lifeboat capacity has been reached. If lifeboat capacity were based on available berths then that would not be an issue