Royal customer service epic fail

[John&LaLa]

1 hour ago, BNBR said:

There is nothing obnoxious or entitled about thinking you should be able to swap names on your cabin.  Just because this has been policy for some time doesn't make it right.  I'd be curious if there is a legitimate reason for this policy (coast guard rules, etc.).  To me it's not an unreasonable request.  I wouldn't blame their customer service department, but I do think the policy comes off as senseless.

 

Royal does not want folks selling cruises on the secondary market is my guess

[sparks1093]

1 minute ago, BNBR said:

 

I'm not in Australia, I have no idea what your insurance is like.  For us, you can cover your entire family with medevac, unlimited trips, for $79/year.   Which is much cheaper than comprehensive on just a single trip.

 

Insurance is complicated.  There is no right answer.  It largely depends on what your current health insurance covers (travel/international, etc.), and even some credit cards provide travel medical and comprehensive.  My issue is all the passive aggressive humble bragging that comes up every time someone misses a cruise - as if buying cancellation insurance is a no brainer.  And every time you get the comments like "Just call your travel insurance company" when the poster knows that the OP most likely doesn't have travel insurance.

Who do you insure through for a rate like that? Every time I've priced it out it was hundreds.

[sparks1093]

2 minutes ago, Cru1s1ng2009 said:

side question:

I just buy the insurance offered by the cruise line. Should I purchase it elsewhere?

You might be able to save quite a bit by booking a third party policy. Try www.insuremytrip.com.

[reallyitsmema]

2 minutes ago, Cru1s1ng2009 said:

side question:

I just buy the insurance offered by the cruise line. Should I purchase it elsewhere?

 

Royal Caribbean's insurance has a low medical evacuation benefit but does have cancel for any reason coverage.  You need to read the policy and others and buy what works best for you.  What works best for others might not meet your needs.

[BNBR]

1 minute ago, Cru1s1ng2009 said:

side question:

I just buy the insurance offered by the cruise line. Should I purchase it elsewhere?

 

Yes, it's extremely inflated through the cruise line.  If you are going to buy it, look elsewhere.  insuremytrip.com is a popular spot.

 

Insurance isn't that simple though.  Do you just want medevac?  Does your health insurance cover you internationally and with terms you find agreeable (call them)?  If you just need medevac, Good Sam TravelAssist is a great option.

 

Maybe your health insurance doesn't cover you outside a limited home service area.  In which case you may even want a more robust annual travel plan that covers all travel.  Allianz is a good option for this.

 

In any case, start with calling your existing health insurance provider and getting the details on exactly what is covered and what your area is.  It may be international already, or you may be surprised to find out that some weekend drives you take are to places you have no coverage.  Start there.  Then make a decision.

[Cru1s1ng2009]

Just now, reallyitsmema said:

 

Royal Caribbean's insurance has a low medical evacuation benefit but does have cancel for any reason coverage.  You need to read the policy and others and buy what works best for you.  What works best for others might not meet your needs.

Thanks Mema!

[awestover89]

1 minute ago, BNBR said:

Insurance is complicated.  There is no right answer.  It largely depends on what your current health insurance covers (travel/international, etc.), and even some credit cards provide travel medical and comprehensive.  My issue is all the passive aggressive humble bragging that comes up every time someone misses a cruise - as if buying cancellation insurance is a no brainer.  And every time you get the comments like "Just call your travel insurance company" when the poster knows that the OP most likely doesn't have travel insurance.

 

Personally I don't see it as passive aggressive or humble bragging. The reason it always comes up in these type of threads is because it's literally the answer to the question "How can I get my money back when the cruise contract says I'm not entitled to a refund" It's a question that comes up near constantly. Too many people want the benefits of insurance without buying it, and to be frank the only answer to that complaint is to say "If you want the benefit of insurance, you have to buy it."

 

This particular post was not exactly like that (they were disappointed they couldn't transfer the booking to friends, not that RCCL wouldn't give a refund) so the first mentions of insurance _were_ largely unnecessary in this post

[BNBR]

8 minutes ago, sparks1093 said:

Who do you insure through for a rate like that? Every time I've priced it out it was hundreds.

 

For ONLY medevac, Good Sam TravelAssist.  There is no medical coverage though so if you end up in a hospital, you need something else.  So you would want to make sure that your existing medical coverage is adequate for your travels.  Many do cover international.   Many don't.

 

We recently switched our primary health insurance to a much cheaper plan but with very limited service area.  Then supplemented with an Allianz travel plan.  Funny enough, the Premier ended up quoting cheaper than the basic.  So we ended up with cancellation.  The switch saves us several thousand dollars a year.  Which goes back to my previous statement that insurance is complicated and people really should spend more time closely reviewing their needs.  Being over insured can also be a huge waste of money.

Edited May 22, 2019 by BNBR

[LMaxwell]

7 minutes ago, Cru1s1ng2009 said:

side question:

I just buy the insurance offered by the cruise line. Should I purchase it elsewhere?

Yes look at insuremytrip.com to get multiple quotes and coverage options.  You can have the same coverage as the cruiseline for less money, or you can have much better coverage than the cruiseline for the same money 

[awestover89]

5 minutes ago, Cru1s1ng2009 said:

side question:

I just buy the insurance offered by the cruise line. Should I purchase it elsewhere?

 

Others have covered some of the differences, but it really does come down to what you want to cover.

 

For my husband and I, the most important benefit bar none is cancel for work reasons, followed by medical/evacuation. Because of that we pretty much always do the Travel Guard Gold Plan. It has decent rates and full cancel for work reasons coverage. Many other policies don't cover if your boss cancels your vacation approval.

 

Every person's needs are different when it comes to insurance

[dodgestang]

2 minutes ago, awestover89 said:

This particular post was not exactly like that (they were disappointed they couldn't transfer the booking to friends, not that RCCL wouldn't give a refund) so the first mentions of insurance _were_ largely unnecessary in this post

 

I know I read between the lines 🙂 because the only reason to transfer an entire reservation to someone else is because you can’t cancel it for refund.

 

it isn’t a RC customer service failing issue.  It is a lack of travel insurance issue regardless of how the question/gripe against the company is phrased.

[LMaxwell]

11 minutes ago, John&LaLa said:

 

Royal does not want folks selling cruises on the secondary market is my guess

That's right, they don't want a timeshare sublet type of situation with people 'squatting' on weeks to re-sell. 

 

All that said, OP didn't mention insurance at all on way or the other.   It seems like they are committing time and energy to have other friends or family sail in their spot on short notice which seems odd considering they have other higher priority issues causing stress and anxiety; I'd simply cancel, invoke the insurance, get back what I can, and attend to personal matters.  If OP has insurance that's the easiest way.  If OP doesn't have insurance, well, they aren't out any additional money, they just don't get to have the cruise experience.  They did not bet against the risk of not being able to go on the cruise, so they aren't entitled to the benefit.  It's very simple.  There will be more cruises.  

Edited May 22, 2019 by LMaxwell

[BNBR]

2 minutes ago, LMaxwell said:

That's right, they don't want a timeshare sublet type of situation with people 'squatting' on weeks to re-sell. 

 

All that said, OP didn't mention insurance at all on way or the other.   It seems like they are committing time and energy to have other friends or family sail in their spot on short notice which seems odd considering they have other higher priority issues causing stress and anxiety; I'd simply cancel, invoke the insurance, get back what I can, and attend to personal matters.  If OP has insurance that's the easiest way.  If OP doesn't have insurance, well, they aren't out any additional money, they just don't get to have the cruise experience.  They did not bet against the risk of not being able to go on the cruise, so they aren't entitled to the benefit.  It's very simple.  There will be more cruises.  

 

Just a thought.  A lot of cruise cancellation coverage only covers half the fare.  As others mentioned, if OP can find someone to pay half (as a solo cruiser, makes sense) and take a single spot in the cabin, they would pretty much end up with the same result.

Edited May 22, 2019 by BNBR

[Ourusualbeach]

8 minutes ago, BNBR said:

 

Just a thought.  A lot of cruise cancellation coverage only covers half the fare.  As others mentioned, if OP can find someone to pay half (as a solo cruiser, makes sense) and take a single spot in the cabin, they would pretty much end up with the same result.

Most coverage I’ve seen is 100% for a covered reason and cancel for any reason could be 50 or most often 75%.

 

also unless he cancels outright and has documentation from the cruise line as to the cancellation they won’t be able to claim anything on the insurance.  

[KBYUCougar]

Do most of you purchase insurance immediately after booking a cruise? Is there a monthly subscription that you can get here in the states that covers all trips, you just have to notify the insurance company about your travel plans? Is there a time limit of when you can buy an insurance plan for a trip if it has been a while since you originally planned for and bought the trip? I'm just trying to understand the basics of buying travel insurance.

[Ourusualbeach]

3 minutes ago, KBYUCougar said:

Do most of you purchase insurance immediately after booking a cruise? Is there a monthly subscription that you can get here in the states that covers all trips, you just have to notify the insurance company about your travel plans? Is there a time limit of when you can buy an insurance plan for a trip if it has been a while since you originally planned for and bought the trip? I'm just trying to understand the basics of buying travel insurance.

No one set answer.  Different plans have different requirements. 

[sparks1093]

29 minutes ago, BNBR said:

 

For ONLY medevac, Good Sam TravelAssist.  There is no medical coverage though so if you end up in a hospital, you need something else.  So you would want to make sure that your existing medical coverage is adequate for your travels.  Many do cover international.   Many don't.

 

We recently switched our primary health insurance to a much cheaper plan but with very limited service area.  Then supplemented with an Allianz travel plan.  Funny enough, the Premier ended up quoting cheaper than the basic.  So we ended up with cancellation.  The switch saves us several thousand dollars a year.  Which goes back to my previous statement that insurance is complicated and people really should spend more time closely reviewing their needs.  Being over insured can also be a huge waste of money.

Thanks for the info. My health insurer does cover anywhere with the proviso that it has to be with an in-network provider. The last thing that I want to do is to try to find one of them so I'll get medical coverage as a backup (which would also cover any co-pays if I did find an in-network provider). 

[fred30]

Would it work to upgrade to a cabin of 3 adding one new guest name?  Once confirmed change one of the original names to the 2nd new quest.  Now the 2 new guest and 1 original guest are listed and the original guest can now just be a no show.

 

It could cost very little to upgrade to a 3 quest cabin.

 

 

[snaefell]

Reminds me of what happened to us about 8 years ago,we were due to sale to Scandanavia on the Queen Mary 2 on August 3rd,my Mother had become ill not long before,I rang the TA to ask about cancelling & was told that we could swap the money to another cruise if needed,on August 1st we were told she would be gone withing 48 hours for various reasons,the next day we cancelled the cruise,only to be told by the TA that we needed to cancel at least 4 weeks before departure to qualify for transferring the money which annoyed us greatly but at times like that with so much pressure the financial side didn't seem at all important,we ended up losing the money,even though we did have travel insurance what was happening elsewhere in our lives meant that we never did get around to claiming,so having insurance isn't always that much of a help.

Oh & my Mother,she died on the 4th...................of JANUARY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[legaljen1969]

3 hours ago, Ourusualbeach said:

There aren’t any security issues as you can change a name on the reservation up to 24 hours in advance of the sailing.  It’s just policy.

So what if you changed one name now, and then changed the other on say  maybe Thursday or Friday?   I don't know if that would work.  You probably gave them too much information and they found a way to deny the request. Sometimes better to ask forgiveness than permission seems to be the applicable tenet here. 
OR what if you basically play musical chairs moving the cabin people around. 

 

For sake of my explanation I will call you Cabin 1 and the travelers 1A and 1B  and the other cabin is 2 with travelers 2a and

2b .  New friends going will be travelers 3a/3b

 

Option 1= switch people as the week goes on

Current Reservation

Cabin 2= 2a/2b

Wednesday:  Cabin 2=3a/2b

Friday:  Cabin 2=3a/3b

OR

Musical Chairs:

 

Current Reservation: 

• Cabin 1- 1a/1b  
• Cabin 2- 2a/2b

New formation:

• Cabin1=  1a/3a
• Cabin 2= 1b/3b

Once on board go to guest services and ask if you can switch your guests to the opposite staterooms?

• Cabin 1= 1a/1b
• Cabin 2=3a/3b

I'm not a super experienced cruiser like many here, so maybe my thoughts are ridiculous.  They are just ideas, thoughts for possible ways to cure the issue.

[Ourusualbeach]

4 minutes ago, legaljen1969 said:

So what if you changed one name now, and then changed the other on say  maybe Thursday or Friday?   I don't know if that would work.  You probably gave them too much information and they found a way to deny the request. Sometimes better to ask forgiveness than permission seems to be the applicable tenet here. 
OR what if you basically play musical chairs moving the cabin people around. 

 

For sake of my explanation I will call you Cabin 1 and the travelers 1A and 1B  and the other cabin is 2 with travelers 2a and

2b .  New friends going will be travelers 3a/3b

 

Option 1= switch people as the week goes on

Current Reservation

Cabin 2= 2a/2b

Wednesday:  Cabin 2=3a/2b

Friday:  Cabin 2=3a/3b

OR

Musical Chairs:

 

Current Reservation: 

• Cabin 1- 1a/1b  
• Cabin 2- 2a/2b

New formation:

• Cabin1=  1a/3a
• Cabin 2= 1b/3b

Once on board go to guest services and ask if you can switch your guests to the opposite staterooms?

• Cabin 1= 1a/1b
• Cabin 2=3a/3b

I'm not a super experienced cruiser like many here, so maybe my thoughts are ridiculous.  They are just ideas, thoughts for possible ways to cure the issue.

Won't work. They have it flagged.  One originally name must remain. You can't play musical people. 

[legaljen1969]

2 hours ago, BNBR said:

There is nothing obnoxious or entitled about thinking you should be able to swap names on your cabin.  Just because this has been policy for some time doesn't make it right.  I'd be curious if there is a legitimate reason for this policy (coast guard rules, etc.).  To me it's not an unreasonable request.  I wouldn't blame their customer service department, but I do think the policy comes off as senseless.

I agree with that.  They (Royal)  would not be losing any money to do a "people switch." Sure, they already have their money and have the potential to make the money if they re-sell the cabin which is not likely at this late date.  All they are doing is swapping bodies.    They will sail with the same number of bodies on board if they sail with People A&B or C&D.  

If Royal really considered the situation, odds are that C&D might purchase some excursions,  drink packages, or specialty dining that A&B would cancel to minimize their losses (so they only lose the cost of the cabin and associated fees.)  If I knew I was going to have to cancel and didn't have travel insurance, knowing I would be losing my money for not traveling, I would at least cancel all of my extras (excursions, specialty dining, drink packages and other onboard goodies).  If Royal lets C&D go, at least they stand a better chance of making a few extra bucks if they buy these things.

Edited May 22, 2019 by legaljen1969

[Ourusualbeach]

3 minutes ago, legaljen1969 said:

I agree with that.  They would not be losing any money to do this.  All they are doing is swapping bodies.    They will sail with the same number of bodies on board if they sail with People A&B or C&D.   Odds are that C&D will probably purchase some excursions,  drink packages, or specialty dining that A&B would certainly cancel to minimize their losses (so they only lose the cost of the cabin and associated fees.)  If I knew I was going to have to cancel and didn't have travel insurance, I would at least cancel all of my extras (excursions, specialty dining, drink packages and other onboard goodies).  If Royal lets C&D go, at least they stand a better chance of making a few extra bucks if they buy these things.

See other posts in this thread about opening up the potential of reselling cabins. It's not about losing money. 

 

If you cancel or area no  show all extras purchased are automatically refunded including port fees and taxes. 

Edited May 22, 2019 by Ourusualbeach

[fred30]

3 minutes ago, legaljen1969 said:

I agree with that.  They would not be losing any money to do this.  All they are doing is swapping bodies.    They will sail with the same number of bodies on board if they sail with People A&B or C&D.   Odds are that C&D will probably purchase some excursions,  drink packages, or specialty dining that A&B would certainly cancel to minimize their losses (so they only lose the cost of the cabin and associated fees.)  If I knew I was going to have to cancel and didn't have travel insurance, I would at least cancel all of my extras (excursions, specialty dining, drink packages and other onboard goodies).  If Royal lets C&D go, at least they stand a better chance of making a few extra bucks if they buy these things.

 

So what happens to all those discounts and perks both at booking and on board when someone with a top end loyalty status sells their booking to someone else?

[legaljen1969]

1 minute ago, fred30 said:

 

So what happens to all those discounts and perks both at booking and on board when someone with a top end loyalty status sells their booking to someone else?

I hadn't considered the aspect of re-selling the cabin.  I can see why it might be a problem if that is a consideration. 

I wonder why Royal doesn't have a policy to just charge a change fee to substitute the people if it is 1:1 exchange, if they have a change at a short notice date. 

I am not asking questions to argue, but to gain knowledge.