Guaranteed cabin and rci have downgraded us

[Suemorganrose]

We booked our cruise as a guaranteed ocean view last October, we hadn't been assigned our cabin but we didn't worry as we had read it could happen right up until departure day. It is now 2 day before cruise and we had a message from travel agent saying rci have overbooked and they have downgraded us to interior room and are refunding us £100pp (which was the difference in price) and will give us $300obc which isn't much use to us as already purchased drinks package and shore excursions. We are fuming and upset, this is our 1st cruise and a couple of nights before going we are trying to make phone calls to get answers instead of getting excited about our trip and packing for it. Anyone else experienced this or can give us advice on what to do

[zitsky]

I'm sorry to hear about your situation and hope it gets worked out.  Are there a lot of good public spaces where you can spend time, in case you are in that interior cabin?

[Host Jazzbeau]

Welcome to Cruise Critic and sorry for your problem with RCI.  I have moved this thread from River Cruising to the Royal Caribbean International forum.

[Ourusualbeach]

Your travel agent should be the one on the phone with Royal trying to get you a better cabin.  Guaranteed that people who booked after you got a balcony.  as far as I'm concerned the last person to book a balcony should be the one that gets downgraded whether or not you booked a guarantee.  Definitely more compensation is deserved.

[travelplus]

Its a breach of contract. Their website and Travel Agents advertise that by booking Guarantee Staterooms"We chose the cabin and your cabin assignment will be in the same or higher category booked and assigned up until sailing".  The point of Guarantee cabin  is to save money in return for the cruiseline assigning the cabin.

They cannot downgrade someone booked in a category simply put Guarantee  is the category guarantee. Royal may wish to downgrade others who booked after you. 

 

 

[basictek]

If you can't change anything see if you can cancel and repurchase the drink package using the onboard cash, or it's good for use on gratuities as well. If you make a stink and complain, from my limited experience the cruise lines seem to find a way to make things right. 

[Hogbay]

It is your travel agents problem to solve ,call them and you want what you booked .

[Grandma Dazzles]

44 minutes ago, Ourusualbeach said:

Your travel agent should be the one on the phone with Royal trying to get you a better cabin.  Guaranteed that people who booked after you got a balcony.  as far as I'm concerned the last person to book a balcony should be the one that gets downgraded whether or not you booked a guarantee.  Definitely more compensation is deserved.

 

Why?  They didn’t book a balcony guarantee. They booked an ocean view guarantee, which is usually a cabin with an ocean view window.  The people who booked balconies, even if it were a balcony guarantee, are not at fault.  

 

 

Edited May 23, 2019 by Grandma Dazzles

[Ourusualbeach]

2 minutes ago, Grandma Dazzles said:

 

Why?  They didn’t book a balcony guarantee. They booked an ocean view guarantee, which is usually a cabin with an ocean view window. 

 

3 minutes ago, Grandma Dazzles said:

 

Why?  They didn’t book a balcony guarantee. They booked an ocean view guarantee, which is usually a cabin with an ocean view window. 

Oops misread, thought they said oceanview balcony.  Ductility oceanview room for balcony in my response 

[Retired LEO]

5 hours ago, Suemorganrose said:

We booked our cruise as a guaranteed ocean view last October, we hadn't been assigned our cabin but we didn't worry as we had read it could happen right up until departure day. It is now 2 day before cruise and we had a message from travel agent saying rci have overbooked and they have downgraded us to interior room and are refunding us £100pp (which was the difference in price) and will give us $300obc which isn't much use to us as already purchased drinks package and shore excursions. We are fuming and upset, this is our 1st cruise and a couple of nights before going we are trying to make phone calls to get answers instead of getting excited about our trip and packing for it. Anyone else experienced this or can give us advice on what to do

The only phone call you need to make is to your TA. It is their job to make it right for you. Whoever booked the last ocean view should be switching cabins with you.

 

[Raysfun]

A few years ago we booked a guaranteed ocean view and got downgraded to an inside cabin. They refunded us the price we paid for guaranteed ocean view minus taxes and port fees.

[Coralc]

2 minutes ago, Raysfun said:

A few years ago we booked a guaranteed ocean view and got downgraded to an inside cabin. They refunded us the price we paid for guaranteed ocean view minus taxes and port fees.

I think that would be more appropriate. They should receive a full refund of the cruise price with the opportunity to apply it to a future cruise and a comped cruise interior on this sailing. That is what Princess offers. Your TA should be arranging this for you. 

[Ourusualbeach]

1 hour ago, travelplus said:

Its a breach of contract. Their website and Travel Agents advertise that by booking Guarantee Staterooms"We chose the cabin and your cabin assignment will be in the same or higher category booked and assigned up until sailing".  The point of Guarantee cabin  is to save money in return for the cruiseline assigning the cabin.

They cannot downgrade someone booked in a category simply put Guarantee  is the category guarantee. Royal may wish to downgrade others who booked after you. 

 

 

They can.  Read the cruise ticket contract item 6.

 

https://www.royalcaribbean.com/content/dam/royal/resources/pdf/cruise-ticket-contract.pdf

 

It doesn’t mean that it’s right or that they shouldn’t offer better compensation but they are absolutely within their legal right.

Edited May 23, 2019 by Ourusualbeach

[Iamcruzin]

28 minutes ago, Coralc said:

I think that would be more appropriate. They should receive a full refund of the cruise price with the opportunity to apply it to a future cruise and a comped cruise interior on this sailing. That is what Princess offers. Your TA should be arranging this for you. 

Princess is so good like that. The people on that board look forward to a move over offer. It's better than the upgrade fairy. 

I also want to know where the travel agent who goes to bat for you is? Probably in the same place as the port agent who will hand you your passport if you miss the ship.

Edited May 23, 2019 by Iamcruzin

[Ourusualbeach]

28 minutes ago, Coralc said:

I think that would be more appropriate. They should receive a full refund of the cruise price with the opportunity to apply it to a future cruise and a comped cruise interior on this sailing. That is what Princess offers. Your TA should be arranging this for you. 

 

Royal did something similar for us 2 years ago.  We had 2 boardwalk balconies side by side.  They offered us a full refund of both cabins excluding the taxes if we would move to one cabin. 

[ReneeFLL]

Don't do the work yourself. That's what the TA is for since they get a commission from your booking. Call them back and tell them you want better compensation or your ocean view back.

[Suemorganrose]

Thanks for all your advice everyone, we will speak to TA again today while at work and insist that they try and get us our oceanview room back or better compensation. We sail tomorrow so not much time to try and get this sorted. 

[chrismch]

Please let us know the results of what your TA works out for you.

 

[Suemorganrose]

Just now, chrismch said:

Please let us know the results of what your TA works out for you.

 

I will let you know, fingers crossed they will do something.

[notladjr]

I would go from an ocean view to an inside cabin for $500 total in a heartbeat. You could always cancel one or more of your prepurchased items and repurchase them with the OBC if you do decide to take what they are offering.

 

I do agree it is a breach of contrract and I am sure that is why they are offering you the OBC and $100 pp. I don't know how they can "overbook" a cruise since they obviously already had the commitment to you for that catagory of cabin. Really strange that this happend to you.

[Suemorganrose]

27 minutes ago, notladjr said:

I would go from an ocean view to an inside cabin for $500 total in a heartbeat. You could always cancel one or more of your prepurchased items and repurchase them with the OBC if you do decide to take what they are offering.

 

I do agree it is a breach of contrract and I am sure that is why they are offering you the OBC and $100 pp. I don't know how they can "overbook" a cruise since they obviously already had the commitment to you for that catagory of cabin. Really strange that this happend to you.

The £100pp isn't really compensation, it is just giving back the difference of the cost of the 2 room grades at time of purchasing, so it's just the $300. If we were regular cruisers we probably wouldn't find it such a big deal but 1st time cruisers and it's to celebrate a big birthday, unlikely to be able to afford it again for a long time if ever 

[little britain]

There are always no shows at the pier.

Get on board ASAP and go straight to guest relations and make sure they are aware, so they can reallocate you if a room is vacant.  Keep revisiting during the day just so they don’t forget your faces.....although they won’t be able to reallocate until final manifest 90 mins before sailing. 

Good luck. 

Edited May 23, 2019 by little britain

[shopaholic6]

1 hour ago, notladjr said:

I would go from an ocean view to an inside cabin for $500 total in a heartbeat. You could always cancel one or more of your prepurchased items and repurchase them with the OBC if you do decide to take what they are offering.

 

I do agree it is a breach of contrract and I am sure that is why they are offering you the OBC and $100 pp. I don't know how they can "overbook" a cruise since they obviously already had the commitment to you for that catagory of cabin. Really strange that this happend to you.

 

50 minutes ago, Suemorganrose said:

The £100pp isn't really compensation, it is just giving back the difference of the cost of the 2 room grades at time of purchasing, so it's just the $300. If we were regular cruisers we probably wouldn't find it such a big deal but 1st time cruisers and it's to celebrate a big birthday, unlikely to be able to afford it again for a long time if ever 

I absolutely don’t blame you - you are entitled to the cabin you booked and it’s awful that they have done this to you. Please let us know how things pan out for you - and I hope you enjoy your first cruise 🙂

[the_dylaness]

Not exactly the same, but similar:
Last year just a few days before our cruise Celebrity contacted our TA to say that our connecting balcony cabins that held 2 and 3 people respectively... didn't.  They actually held 2 each.  Apparently they had been "reclassified" (we booked far in advance as you have to do if you want connecting cabins) in the interim and they just then figured it out.

 

They kept offering us random, unsatisfactory cabin combinations.  We booked connecting because we were traveling with our two young kids (age 4 and 7) plus nanny.  At one point they offered a sky suite for them (wow) and some other balcony for us on a totally different floor... I refused all offers and told my TA to have them find two connecting balcony cabins.

 

We ended up in great cabins on the "hump" (larger balconies) in a convenient location.  Actually the exact pair of cabins I'd TRIED to book initially but they were full.

 

Keep persisting.

[cruisinfanatic]

4 hours ago, Suemorganrose said:

The £100pp isn't really compensation, it is just giving back the difference of the cost of the 2 room grades at time of purchasing, so it's just the $300. If we were regular cruisers we probably wouldn't find it such a big deal but 1st time cruisers and it's to celebrate a big birthday, unlikely to be able to afford it again for a long time if ever 

You have $400 now. Sure that is compensation