Oasis Cancellation-March 31, 2019

[ONECRUISER]

11 hours ago, Gatordad815 said:

 

Yeah it was a great deal. We were excited about it. Our daughter turns 6 that week and she’s so excited about her birthday cruise (she was talking about it all day today and I didn’t have the heart to tell her as I’m still hoping to work something out). And it’s the last week for several years my kids will be in the same Adventure Ocean group for the week. And the Disney condo I booked today was $600 more than it would have been a month ago when they were running some amazing specials.

 

Of course none of that is Royal Caribbean’s concern, and I wouldn’t expect it to be, but it’s real to me. And when RC has real options that could make this right and are too greedy to work with people, it leaves a terrible impression and makes me think hard about finding new options for this family’s next 15 years of twice-yearly great vacations. I guess RC is fine losing that future business so they don’t take a small hit today (of course they are-they’ll just fill those cabins with someone else-they definitely don’t care how I feel about them). 

Yeah that's a tough one, had my kids talking/looking forward to a planned vacation that was canceled. My kids were in same program from Aug28-Oct19 only every few yrs. Unfortunately dozens cruises canceled every yr, Royal uses same Playbook and seldom deviate 

Edited December 9, 2018 by ONECRUISER

[LMR]

I know that this won’t work for everyone (and know this wasn’t an option presented in the original email, so I recognize that I’m pretty fortunate I was able to make it work), but I was able to get a price protected swap to Liberty out of Galveston on the 31st. They seem to have a fair amount of rooms - I was able to keep my connecting balcony arrangement.  Liberty isn’t Oasis, but closer than Rhapsody.

 

Also thankful that Southwest let’s you change flights without a fee (and they were similar cost to our previous booking).

 

Hoping this suggestion might help someone else.

[Gatordad815]

26 minutes ago, LMR said:

I know that this won’t work for everyone (and know this wasn’t an option presented in the original email, so I recognize that I’m pretty fortunate I was able to make it work), but I was able to get a price protected swap to Liberty out of Galveston on the 31st. They seem to have a fair amount of rooms - I was able to keep my connecting balcony arrangement.  Liberty isn’t Oasis, but closer than Rhapsody.

 

Also thankful that Southwest let’s you change flights without a fee (and they were similar cost to our previous booking).

 

Hoping this suggestion might help someone else.

 

I’m glad that option worked for you! Thanks for sharing.

 

It makes it more frustrating that they won’t do something similar for the other 3 sailings from Florida that week to actually accommodate the majority of guests. I suspect the Liberty option won’t cost them much and the other Florida options would which is why they won’t do it. But I’m definitely happy your family was able to make your trip work!

 

And you gotta love Southwest with their customer-friendly approach always! RC could learn a thing or 2 from them...

[LMR]

4 minutes ago, Gatordad815 said:

 

I’m glad that option worked for you! Thanks for sharing.

 

It makes it more frustrating that they won’t do something similar for the other 3 sailings from Florida that week to actually accommodate the majority of guests. I suspect the Liberty option won’t cost them much and the other Florida options would which is why they won’t do it. But I’m definitely happy your family was able to make your trip work!

 

And you gotta love Southwest with their customer-friendly approach always! RC could learn a thing or 2 from them...

You are probably right about the cost. One of my cabins was actually cheaper in the new arrangement, though net together they would have been more (but not much).

[midnight sushi]

23 hours ago, Gatordad815 said:

 

Yeah it was a great deal. We were excited about it. Our daughter turns 6 that week and she’s so excited about her birthday cruise (she was talking about it all day today and I didn’t have the heart to tell her as I’m still hoping to work something out). And it’s the last week for several years my kids will be in the same Adventure Ocean group for the week. And the Disney condo I booked today was $600 more than it would have been a month ago when they were running some amazing specials.

 

Of course none of that is Royal Caribbean’s concern, and I wouldn’t expect it to be, but it’s real to me. And when RC has real options that could make this right and are too greedy to work with people, it leaves a terrible impression and makes me think hard about finding new options for this family’s next 15 years of twice-yearly great vacations. I guess RC is fine losing that future business so they don’t take a small hit today (of course they are-they’ll just fill those cabins with someone else-they definitely don’t care how I feel about them). 

 

Take them to hogwarts

[HBE4]

On 12/8/2018 at 4:34 PM, orville99 said:

When we were on her in September, they were dismantling and removing several balconies (literally removing the entire balcony structure from the sliding glass doors outward) on the starboard side of the ship. I wonder if they found more structural issues with the balconies that would require additional disassembly and replacement.

 

Probably bad welds! 😉

 

[Norwich Cruiser]

I would definitely stay with the Oasis cruise.

[Dexterpeachy]

I booked the same cruise March 31, 2019 oasis of the sea cruise.  It’s also my kids spring break so we can only cruise during that time period.  We already bought the plane tickets bound for Orlando and there is no other royal carribean cruise sailing from port canaveral on a March 30 or 31st sailing.  I think Allure of the seas is sold out for 4 people.  I just came back from a Rhapsody of the Seas Mediterranean cruise while the ship is nice, there is not much activities for kids. There is a March 30 Symphony of the seas sailing from Miami but we want to keep our flight to Orlando because we got a very good deal with our plane tickets (good price and nonstop flight).  Most probably,   I will book Norwegian Epic which would sail on March 30 from port canaveral.   The itineraries look great too.  We haven’t tried Norwegian cruise line but we have very limited choices during the spring break.  There is also a Disney cruise sailing from Port Canaveral that weekend. We would love to cruise with Disney again (we did 3 in the past) and have that magical experience but it’s twice the cost.  Hoping that everything will work out for you and your family!

[mugtech]

Welcome to CC Dexterpeachy.  You will find Norwegian Epic different than most ships.  Many on NCL either love it or hate it.  Good luck on your cruise.

[ugagal07]

We are most likely moving to the Adventure out of FLL.  It's only a few hours further than Port Canaveral, so it's doable.  Plus it's an 8 day.  We've sailed the Epic and decided we couldn't do that again.  We sailed in the Haven, got a great deal when they did the old upsells, and can't do those bathrooms, or lack thereof, with our family.  We also weren't a fan of no open decks on the main/promenade area, very closed in feel.  The Carnival Breeze is also in Port Canaveral that weekend for those still looking and not interested in Epic.  We've done that route on it's sister ship and had a great time.  

 

If you move to another RCCL sailing, watch for your OBC they offered initially, the phone rep told my TA it could take up to 3 weeks to credit to my account...  Which is conveniently at or after final payment, seems fishy to me.

[Dexterpeachy]

1 hour ago, ugagal07 said:

We are most likely moving to the Adventure out of FLL.  It's only a few hours further than Port Canaveral, so it's doable.  Plus it's an 8 day.  We've sailed the Epic and decided we couldn't do that again.  We sailed in the Haven, got a great deal when they did the old upsells, and can't do those bathrooms, or lack thereof, with our family.  We also weren't a fan of no open decks on the main/promenade area, very closed in feel.  The Carnival Breeze is also in Port Canaveral that weekend for those still looking and not interested in Epic.  We've done that route on it's sister ship and had a great time.  

 

If you move to another RCCL sailing, watch for your OBC they offered initially, the phone rep told my TA it could take up to 3 weeks to credit to my account...  Which is conveniently at or after final payment, seems fishy to me.

 

[Dexterpeachy]

Hi ugagal07

thanks for the info regarding Norwegian epic.  I read several bad reviews about the bathrooms. I was actually  also looking at carnival breeze. How was your experience with Carnival?  Is the crowd ok? Safe with kids?  Carnival breeze itineraries on the march 30 sail date look good. 

[Clarea]

5 minutes ago, Dexterpeachy said:

...  Is the crowd ok?  ... . 

 

What does this mean?

[Thorben-Hendrik]

13 minutes ago, Dexterpeachy said:

 Is the crowd ok? Safe with kids?

They do not have pinacles...so you should be OK!👍

[HBE4]

1 hour ago, Host Clarea said:

 

What does this mean?

 

Total guess on my part but I took it to mean the party-hearty, no-holds-barred, spring-break young (and young-at-heart crowd) take over the ship this time of year.

 

Even the official cruise critic review of the ship - while mentioning the ship attracts a diverse array of passengers - specifically states: "encounter an over-imbiber wandering the long hallways trying to remember the number of his or her stateroom."  It must have a reputation.

Edited December 10, 2018 by HBE4

[Biker19]

Welcome to CC and possibly the longest official lurker.

[ScubaDawg97]

ha, yeah, unfortunately I don't cruise very much, so I don't have a lot to say.  

 

[ugagal07]

8 hours ago, Dexterpeachy said:

Hi ugagal07

thanks for the info regarding Norwegian epic.  I read several bad reviews about the bathrooms. I was actually  also looking at carnival breeze. How was your experience with Carnival?  Is the crowd ok? Safe with kids?  Carnival breeze itineraries on the march 30 sail date look good. 

While this is a Royal board, I am a Carnival fan.  The shorter cruises are more 'party' happy, but any short cruise tends to be.  We are platinum with Carnival and sailing with them Sunday. My kids love Carnival - they partner with Dr. Seuss.  It is NOT an Oasis class ship, but has some great features on it.  We sailed that route on the Breeze's sister ship last year and had a blast.  Love Grand Turk and Jack's Shack!

 

Honestly, I book for the date we can travel, convenient port option, itinerary, ship, and price - we are not line loyal. 🙂

[Gatordad815]

Update: I was just able to get an ocean view balcony room for 4 on Allure for the 3/31 sailing. The official party line is that none are available, but the supervisor I spoke with this evening said she had to get a different department to “release” the room so I could have it, and spent a very long time making the change, but it’s done and confirmed, with the OBC all showing in my cruise planner already.

 

Interestingly (and I don’t know if this is why she went the extra mile to get me one of the rooms they are holding back), this was just after another agent told me he was putting me on Symphony price protected 3 times (I asked him over and over if he was sure he could do that and he kept saying yes he could). But then when he put me on hold to do it, I was magically transferred to someone who insisted he could not do that. I was persistent and just kept telling him to put me back on the phone with the same agent who was just working with my reservation, which led me to the supervisor, which led me to getting a room on Allure.

 

While I’m happy I now won’t have to break the news to my daughter that she won’t spend her birthday on a cruise, I still genuinely feel for the many others who will be breaking the news to their kids with Royal Caribbean offering virtually no options for families the same week. With so many ships leaving Florida that week, they can and should be more flexible.

 

I hope the rest of you find options that work well for your families, whatever those options may be!

[Ourusualbeach]

11 minutes ago, Gatordad815 said:

Update: I was just able to get an ocean view balcony room for 4 on Allure for the 3/31 sailing. The official party line is that none are available, but the supervisor I spoke with this evening said she had to get a different department to “release” the room so I could have it, and spent a very long time making the change, but it’s done and confirmed, with the OBC all showing in my cruise planner already.

 

Interestingly (and I don’t know if this is why she went the extra mile to get me one of the rooms they are holding back), this was just after another agent told me he was putting me on Symphony price protected 3 times (I asked him over and over if he was sure he could do that and he kept saying yes he could). But then when he put me on hold to do it, I was magically transferred to someone who insisted he could not do that. I was persistent and just kept telling him to put me back on the phone with the same agent who was just working with my reservation, which led me to the supervisor, which led me to getting a room on Allure.

 

While I’m happy I now won’t have to break the news to my daughter that she won’t spend her birthday on a cruise, I still genuinely feel for the many others who will be breaking the news to their kids with Royal Caribbean offering virtually no options for families the same week. With so many ships leaving Florida that week, they can and should be more flexible.

 

I hope the rest of you find options that work well for your families, whatever those options may be!

 

Great outcome, thanks for the update.

[DrKoob]

If anyone gets a definitive answer as to why they cancelled this cruise, I would love to know so please come back and post it here. The maintenance thing sounds VERY fishy for this far out. If that is truly the case, then RCL really did not think this through by doing it during Spring Break. Surprised they didn't shoot for late January or early Feb or late April. All of those would have seemed smarter. 

 

My least favorite outcome is going to be that they did this because they got an offer to buy out the ship from some large group.

 

Jim

[BLat55]

Glad to hear that yours worked out.  We were in a similar situation and experiencing the opposite end of the spectrum.  The first 3 people that we spoke with were unable to help.  We weren't flexible with the dates due to my daughter's spring break and there were, originally, "no rooms available on Allure"  We worked through our travel agent today and after 2hrs on the phone, we were able to book under similar room categories.  I originally came here to voice my complaint a few days ago but decided against it because I understood that venting on here wouldn't solve anything.  We booked through WTH (Cruises Only) and they were able to take care of us. 

[midnight sushi]

well, there goes someone's else Christmas surprise trip

[BLat55]

Care to explain, or are you just being an *****? I actually felt like it was a fair compromise for both sides.  We are getting lower grade rooms for essentially the same price to salvage a vacation that we have been planning for a year.

[Psycho and Barb]

We got notified by our TA on Monday! We elected to move to the Allure sailing the same dates...Just out of Miami now and a different itinerary.  Just replied back to our TA email with our choice and they made it happen...No fuss or muss.  Got 200 OBC!  

 

We had booked this cruise over over a year ago to intrudce or son and family to cruising.  We had connecting ocean balcony’s but now now we are on separate decks but with the same category rooms.  We are not going to let this ruin our cruise.  After so many years in the military...Ive learn that S#*” happens. Adapt and overcome.