Just Letting Off Steam!

[snaefell]

Just a post I felt I needed to make to get it off my chest,if you get bored easy you may be better moving on now!

We are not regular cruisers but now & then one appeals,we have one with RCI on Quantum in the Far East coming up for final payment soon,on top of that we booked on Anthem for April 2020 from New York to Southampton,calling at Halifax,Ponta Delgada,Cobh & Le Havre,paying,as we are in the UK,our non-refundable deposits.

We have been to the USA many times but not New York,along with being keen on Halifax as it is around the time of the Titanic sinking  anniversary this sounded a great idea for our 2020 vacation.

Then we get a message from RCI to say that they have cancelled the call in Halifax 'as the Atlantic can be rough in Winter'

Sorry but that is such a poor excuse,any open sea can be rough at any time,it almost sounds like a Health & Safety Directive to ban passengers from ships on open seas completely!

That leaves us with the other 3 ports & a lot of sea days,we did Ponta Delgada on our last cruise & can & do visit France & Eire whenever we can from the UK so for us it is now pretty much a cruise to nowhere.

Any compensation,well we can swap our deposit to another RCI cruise,BUT that will cost us £150,the alternative is lose the deposit,I did ask if we could use the deposit as payment toward the balance on the October cruise but RCI have said no.

This all leaves a very bad taste,through no fault of our own we have had the cruise ruined & whichever solution we chose will cost us money,the likely outcome is that we will cancel & lose the deposit,it is a lot of money to lose but we will survive & probably steer clear of cruising in the future,any holiday where the company can advertise something ,then change it at will after you have booked without any form of compensation is very much out of our comfort zone.

At present my feeling about cruises is that they can advertise anything without ever planning to fulfill that itenerary,knowing my luck I could book what is advertised as a Med cruise & end up touring the Irish Sea!

OK rant over,do I feel better,not really!

[nascarcruiser]

Per the contract they can change the itinerary at will.  Sorry this has happened but again it's in the contract the ports are not guaranteed.   

[Merion_Mom]

Unfortunately, itinerary switches seem to happen a lot - "a lot" meaning more than we would like.

 

I just received an email from RC telling me that they are cancelling Bar Harbor on my Canada/New England cruise.  Instead, we are getting two days in Portland.  Um.........they are a couple of hours apart BY CAR - surely we could have one day in Bar Harbor and one day in Portland without otherwise upsetting the schedule?!?!?!?

 

So, I feel your pain. 

 

There is this whole issue of transatlantic cruises, and whether the itinerary is "caribbean" or "european" (normally).  Americans by and large want those European ports and Europeans want the Caribbean (or in your case, North American) ports, because those are the places they don't usually go.  So when there is a change, you know who is going to be upset.  In the case of your Anthem cruise, Americans are considerably less likely to be upset by the itinerary change.  You just got caught in a situation against your preferences.

 

Best of luck in whatever you decide to do.  (Anthem transatlantic should be a great cruise anyway.  I think that RC *is* sort of gun-shy about taking  Anthem into storms; there was a real problem a couple of years ago with a storm in the North Atlantic.)

[vacationlover_mn]

44 minutes ago, nascarcruiser said:

Per the contract they can change the itinerary at will.  Sorry this has happened but again it's in the contract the ports are not guaranteed.   

This 😞

[mrp4352]

1 hour ago, Merion_Mom said:

I just received an email from RC telling me that they are cancelling Bar Harbor on my Canada/New England cruise.  Instead, we are getting two days in Portland.  Um.........they are a couple of hours apart BY CAR - surely we could have one day in Bar Harbor and one day in Portland without otherwise upsetting the schedule?!?!?!?

 

Without knowing when you're going, the issue may be caused by Bar Harbor being a tender port...

[Thorben-Hendrik]

2 hours ago, snaefell said:

 

At present my feeling about cruises is that they can advertise anything without ever planning to fulfill that itenerary,

RCI is known to be the experts in this! 👎🙄

[ONECRUISER]

2 hours ago, nascarcruiser said:

Per the contract they can change the itinerary at will.  Sorry this has happened but again it's in the contract the ports are not guaranteed.   

Agree, sad when happens but over the years I've had dozen's Ports/dates changed inc 3 this last yr. Royal isnt only one, had 2 out of last 3 NCL cruises where Ports changed

Edited May 22, 2019 by ONECRUISER

[Biker19]

5 hours ago, mrp4352 said:

Without knowing when you're going, the issue may be caused by Bar Harbor being a tender port...

The excuse was "congestion", in late Sept BTW.

 

[Ocean Boy]

8 hours ago, snaefell said:

 

Then we get a message from RCI to say that they have cancelled the call in Halifax 'as the Atlantic can be rough in Winter'

Sorry but that is such a poor excuse,any open sea can be rough at any time,it almost sounds like a Health & Safety Directive to ban passengers from ships on open seas completely!

 

RCI didn't realize that the Atlantic could be rough when they put the itinerary together? How many years experience do they have? They really should hire someone whose job it is to think up legitimate sounding excuses for some of the things they do.

 

At least they didn't use the classic.... In order to enhance your cruise experience.....

[Cachecara]

I have to wonder if the recent Viking Baltic fiasco has opened up some winter crossing concerns. Personally, I’d rather be safe than sorry, but I doubt we would have been signing up for that Viking itinerary or for this Atlantic crossing in winter either. 

[snaefell]

8 hours ago, Ocean Boy said:

RCI didn't realize that the Atlantic could be rough when they put the itinerary together? How many years experience do they have? They really should hire someone whose job it is to think up legitimate sounding excuses for some of the things they do.

 

At least they didn't use the classic.... In order to enhance your cruise experience.....

Yes if they hadn't used such a stupid excuse for the change I guess we probably would feel better,it really is like rubbing salt in the wound,& to be fair they did say something like the change resulting in a more relaxing cruise!!!

I was already well aware of Anthems 'scare' a few years ago which happened in July I believe,it is a wonder they allow her out at all,are they suggesting their ships are somewhat lacking in the seaworthiness stakes?

As I mentioned we had been to Ponta Delgada on our last cruise,that was a Transatlantic in March so this cruise didn't seem that much of a risk!

The fact that RCI seem to be reluctant to reply to any messages I send them doesn't help.

[jomf]

33 minutes ago, snaefell said:

Yes if they hadn't used such a stupid excuse for the change I guess we probably would feel better,it really is like rubbing salt in the wound,& to be fair they did say something like the change resulting in a more relaxing cruise!!!

I was already well aware of Anthems 'scare' a few years ago which happened in July I believe,it is a wonder they allow her out at all,are they suggesting their ships are somewhat lacking in the seaworthiness stakes?

As I mentioned we had been to Ponta Delgada on our last cruise,that was a Transatlantic in March so this cruise didn't seem that much of a risk!

The fact that RCI seem to be reluctant to reply to any messages I send them doesn't help.

I also can’t get an acknowledgment, let alone a reply from emails!

They have lost us as customers before we even managed to get on a ship! Way to go!

[snaefell]

18 minutes ago, jomf said:

I also can’t get an acknowledgment, let alone a reply from emails!

They have lost us as customers before we even managed to get on a ship! Way to go!

Yes it is a strange feeling,I haven't set foot on an RCI ship yet but I feel like I hate them already!!

 

Having said that we are very much looking forward to our Quantum cruise,it is her repo cruise from China to Singapore & calls at many places that we haven't been to yet & are unlikely to get to again,but even that has already been hard work with changes & getting info about Quantums' cruises out East has been like getting blood out of a stone,it is as if RCI have no idea what is happening out there,very strange.

[jomf]

37 minutes ago, snaefell said:

Yes it is a strange feeling,I haven't set foot on an RCI ship yet but I feel like I hate them already!!

 

Having said that we are very much looking forward to our Quantum cruise,it is her repo cruise from China to Singapore & calls at many places that we haven't been to yet & are unlikely to get to again,but even that has already been hard work with changes & getting info about Quantums' cruises out East has been like getting blood out of a stone,it is as if RCI have no idea what is happening out there,very strange.

We went from Singapore to Shanghai, brilliant cruise ( Celebrity not Royal) very interesting, enjoy yourselves 

[Merion_Mom]

17 hours ago, mrp4352 said:

Without knowing when you're going, the issue may be caused by Bar Harbor being a tender port...

 

It's not caused by that.

[Merion_Mom]

12 hours ago, Biker19 said:

The excuse was "congestion", in late Sept BTW.

 

Are you on our cruise?!?!?!

[NJ Gal]

29 minutes ago, Merion_Mom said:

Are you on our cruise?!?!?!

Hi Merion Mom-----haven't seen you recently.  Not on your cruise, but on the Adventure this summer.  We have been mostly on Celebrity recently.

 

Evie

[Biker19]

40 minutes ago, Merion_Mom said:

Are you on our cruise?!?!?!

Only the northbound one. 

[mauraoel]

This is really ironic, NCL did this same thing.  Canceled Halifax because the North Atlantic is very rough at that time of year. 

 

There was a huge out cry, so they ended up putting Halifax back on the schedule and canceling one of the European stops. 

 

The cancelation happened really close to the sail date.

[snaefell]

On 5/23/2019 at 9:37 AM, jomf said:

I also can’t get an acknowledgment, let alone a reply from emails!

They have lost us as customers before we even managed to get on a ship! Way to go!

 

OK I thought I would update this bit,after a number of unanswered emails I suddenly got a very prompt reply to one,not that it was much use,it merely stated basically the obvious about how they don't necessarily call at all ports advertised,etc.etc.,along with quoting what they do as a business to make a profit & telling me about all of the wonderful things I can book via the Cruise Planner to give them even more of my hard earned money.

As someone who was looking at getting something back off them instead of giving them any more it does give me quite an indication of how important I am as a customer,they certainly ain't  interested in my financial situation!!!

Not that I expected any different but felt I had to try!

[kruzerci]

I feel your pain. We got an email yesterday that they are replacing a full day in Bonaire with San Juan from 2PM-Midnight on our Explorer 9-night ABC cruise. 

 

Very frustrating since we booked this cruise for all of the ABC islands and this itinerary has been released for over a year. 

[Vlgg731]

I don't understand how they can justify these changes.  It seems everyday there is a post that they have changed a port for something inferior.   It seems very poor planning on their part.  Do they not think of these excuses before they plan the itinery?   We are scheduled for Allure of the Seas later this year and I hope they don't take us to San Juan.  Not interested in this port at all!  Love St Thomas and it is part of the reason we booked this cruise rather than Western.

[Ocean Boy]

48 minutes ago, kruzerci said:

I feel your pain. We got an email yesterday that they are replacing a full day in Bonaire with San Juan from 2PM-Midnight on our Explorer 9-night ABC cruise. 

 

Very frustrating since we booked this cruise for all of the ABC islands and this itinerary has been released for over a year. 

I would not be happy with that change.

[Thorben-Hendrik]

2 hours ago, snaefell said:

 

OK I thought I would update this bit,after a number of unanswered emails I suddenly got a very prompt reply to one,not that it was much use,it merely stated basically the obvious about how they don't necessarily call at all ports advertised,etc.etc.,along with quoting what they do as a business to make a profit & telling me about all of the wonderful things I can book via the Cruise Planner to give them even more of my hard earned money.

As someone who was looking at getting something back off them instead of giving them any more it does give me quite an indication of how important I am as a customer,they certainly ain't  interested in my financial situation!!!

Not that I expected any different but felt I had to try!

The RCI CEO is known to tell press they think their customers are stupid......he just uses nicer words...🙄

[shelbylook]

I’m not upset, just surprised over the email I received regarding our March 2, 2020 Brilliance cruise.

 

Six of us gals picked this cruise for the (original) itinerary and the date which is not something we can change.  Our itinerary was Tampa, Key West, Cozumel and two sea days.  A couple of the gals were excited about going to Cozumel for the first time.  So much for that plan. 

 

The revised itinerary has us going from Tampa to Key West, Nassau, CocoCay and a day at sea returning to Tampa. Shoot, if I wanted to go on a Bahama cruise, I would have gone out of Port Canaveral, an hour down the road.  

 

I’ve been to Nassau more times than I care to count and I’m really not interested in “Perfect Day at CocoCay” so in my case, I’ll have 4 sea days and a short stop in Key West.  Works for me! 

 

My glass is always half full. 🥃

 

Cathy