Beware of the Arcade on RCCL...

[ONECRUISER]

1 hour ago, Host Clarea said:

 

I don't know if that is true.  We've been told by Guest Services on some ships that while you can set no charging privileges on a card, that does not stop arcade charging to that card.  It's important to discuss this with Guest Services on your cruise.

Correct, was what I meant to say. Just their way of making up for no longer charging for Phantom water bottles

[Clarea]

3 minutes ago, ONECRUISER said:

Correct, was what I meant to say. Just their way of making up for no longer charging for Phantom water bottles

 

Well, they still have the pool towels.😉

[sdrocks]

Nashna, thank you for the heads up.  Others' experiences are very helpful.  I'm sorry this did not work as advertised.

I hope RCCL will do the right thing and refund your OOP expenses .  We have grandchildren also and take them on cruises

and want them to have a good time, but within established limits.  I'm glad to know this could (& unfortunately did happen)

so can beware when we hopefully will be able to take them again.

Hope all works out well for you.  

[cruiseguy1016]

Another thought. You said the kids didn't have charging privileges on their cards. If RCI allowed them to charge things (more games) then RCI should be responsible for those charges. Whoever gave them the charging privilege should be responsible for the charges associated with that privilege.

[time4u2go]

2 hours ago, mugtech said:

I'm guessing we will never know.

Actually I think we do know.  From the OP:

 

They were told that there were "glitches" in the system and they should have been stopped from playing after the credits

[RSLeesburg]

9 hours ago, later said:

The system puts a set amount on the card. Once that amount is gone you must recharge the card.  This is done using the sea pass card and a machine in the arcade.

 

Someone would have to recharge the card or it wouldn’t work in the games.  A glitch in the system may have caused it but I doubt it.

This is exactly how it has worked on all of our cruises.  The sea pass card has so many credits and when they are used up, you need to use the machine in the arcade to recharge the card.  This is what “charges” the onboard account, not the games themselves.  So, unless they have changed their system, the kids needed to recharge their cards - which means they knew that their $100 credits were used up.  In terms of their ability to recharge their cards, Guest Services warned us twice that as soon as you use your sea pass card in the arcade, it automatically turns the card on in the system - which gives it charging privileges.  This is a known problem - maybe RCI should use a different card for the arcade like most resorts use.  This would eliminate this issue, which seems to happen once or twice every year...

[drrich2]

Thanks to the original poster for bringing this discussion. Our last cruise, our then nearly 5-year old ran up around $150 in arcade costs (I check our onboard account often, and we were in the same room). Planning an upcoming (Lord willing and providing) cruise, I put in for 2 'pay $80, get $100 arcade credit' packages for her, now age 6 & not yet in 1st grade. 

I would strongly prefer her Sea Pass card not have any other charging capability, but run through the $200 in arcade credits, only at the arcade, then effectively 'freeze' with no further charging.

That is how it should work. We're talking minors, who are part of families on vacation expecting good service and a well-polished, family-friendly product. Not a fine-print show down with a glitchy system and 'moving target' rules.

Just in this thread, I've seen different accounts of how things work - does charging end when the pre-purchased credits do or not, etc...

[sunsoaked218]

While I feel bad for the OP , I think RCCL was generous in giving any refund. we all need to start reading the terms of things we use to make sure we understand exactly what we are purchasing and know what rights we are giving the company we purchased from I say this because. If purchased thru the cruise planner there is an Additional Terms and Conditions Apply  link which when clicked states the following Arcade Credit Offer (“Offer”) must be purchased using Cruise Planner and no less than two days prior to cruise departure. Offer provides 20% discount off onboard purchase of arcade credits valued at $100 (“Arcade Credits”). Price shown at time of purchase reflects discount and in USD (“Purchase Price”). To redeem the Arcade Credits, Guest must visit Arcade on first day of cruise and present confirmation letter found in stateroom. Guest will not be notified once Arcade Credits are depleted; additional arcade play will be charged to guest’s Seapass at current onboard prices

and as far as the Glitch based on above I think that is the way the system is designed and the person on the phone was just another misinformed RCCL rep. 

 

 

[ONECRUISER]

1 minute ago, sunsoaked218 said:

While I feel bad for the OP , I think RCCL was generous in giving any refund. we all need to start reading the terms of things we use to make sure we understand exactly what we are purchasing and know what rights we are giving the company we purchased from I say this because. If purchased thru the cruise planner there is an Additional Terms and Conditions Apply  link which when clicked states the following Arcade Credit Offer (“Offer”) must be purchased using Cruise Planner and no less than two days prior to cruise departure. Offer provides 20% discount off onboard purchase of arcade credits valued at $100 (“Arcade Credits”). Price shown at time of purchase reflects discount and in USD (“Purchase Price”). To redeem the Arcade Credits, Guest must visit Arcade on first day of cruise and present confirmation letter found in stateroom. Guest will not be notified once Arcade Credits are depleted; additional arcade play will be charged to guest’s Seapass at current onboard prices

and as far as the Glitch based on above I think that is the way the system is designed and the person on the phone was just another misinformed RCCL rep. 

 

 

Always in the small print

[broberts]

35 minutes ago, sunsoaked218 said:

the person on the phone was just another misinformed RCCL rep. 

 

Which of course is covered in another sub-section of the novel that are the RCI T&C.

 

39 minutes ago, sunsoaked218 said:

we all need to start reading the terms of things we use to make sure we understand exactly what we are purchasing and know what rights we are giving the company we purchased from

 

Since these novels are written by lawyers, the advice should be to seek independent legal advice. Suggesting non-lawyers can reach an exact understanding by reading T&C (and all the associated and referenced documents) is poor advice.

[xpcdoojk]

2 hours ago, RSLeesburg said:

This is exactly how it has worked on all of our cruises.  The sea pass card has so many credits and when they are used up, you need to use the machine in the arcade to recharge the card.  This is what “charges” the onboard account, not the games themselves.  So, unless they have changed their system, the kids needed to recharge their cards - which means they knew that their $100 credits were used up.  In terms of their ability to recharge their cards, Guest Services warned us twice that as soon as you use your sea pass card in the arcade, it automatically turns the card on in the system - which gives it charging privileges.  This is a known problem - maybe RCI should use a different card for the arcade like most resorts use.  This would eliminate this issue, which seems to happen once or twice every year...

 

That has been my personal experience.  Somehow when I run out of money on my card, I have to give it a reason to the let the games let me play.  Never was I able to just keep playing while the bill ran up.

 

Can kids with a card with a no charge charge arcade charges, heck if I know.  I just know if I as an adult try to play past whatever credit I have it requires me to make a transaction.  

 

So, despite, being called a child hater, and just a general piece of cr&p....  I don’t buy the kids just kept playing....  They willingly said, give me more credits.  JMHO, and YMMV... I don’t know I wasn’t there....

 

jc

[momperson2]

RC blaming a "glitch" in the system--prevented the card being turn off after the $100 has been reached.  Just like the "glitch" they are now dealing with because yesterday the drink package (includes alcohol) was on sale yesterday for $18 per person.  Lots of people bought it----now RC is saying there was a "glitch" in the system.  So they are canceling anyone who bought drink package -and offering them a whopping 30% off shipboard price.  Which is what the July 4th sale is anyways.  Problem it was out on their website for 7 to 8 hours, even after they were aware of price.  People were calling in, and were told---Yep thats the right price.  Then RC said they were going to honor price, than they said no.  Right now last I heard they are "rethinking" what they are going to do.  But, again RC blames a "glitch" in system.  Well they better get a better system!!!!!   Good luck getting your "glitch" taken care off

[crusinthrough]

Never keep a cc of file.  Set up a cash account and settle in cash or with a cc on the last night.  There is no benefit to setting up your account with a cc.  

[Hogbay]

10 minutes ago, crusinthrough said:

Never keep a cc of file.  Set up a cash account and settle in cash or with a cc on the last night.  There is no benefit to setting up your account with a cc.  

The benefit is for royal you pay them 5% to access your money if its got your cc on file . For short cruises $300 ,  for long it's $500 before they request payment if you have a cash account 🙂

[PhoenixCruiser]

Did I read correctly that the boys aged 9 to 13 were in a cabin by themselves?



Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

[PhoenixCruiser]

Never keep a cc of file.  Set up a cash account and settle in cash or with a cc on the last night.  There is no benefit to setting up your account with a cc.  

What? If you have a Royal Caribbean credit card you get double points!

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

[mtu_huskies]

6 hours ago, RSLeesburg said:

This is exactly how it has worked on all of our cruises.  The sea pass card has so many credits and when they are used up, you need to use the machine in the arcade to recharge the card.  This is what “charges” the onboard account, not the games themselves.  So, unless they have changed their system, the kids needed to recharge their cards - which means they knew that their $100 credits were used up.  In terms of their ability to recharge their cards, Guest Services warned us twice that as soon as you use your sea pass card in the arcade, it automatically turns the card on in the system - which gives it charging privileges.  This is a known problem - maybe RCI should use a different card for the arcade like most resorts use.  This would eliminate this issue, which seems to happen once or twice every year...

This is hows it worked on all of our cruises except the last one.  On Allure, no need to recharge the Seapass card, each swipe at a game charged the card $2 or whatever.  I couldn’t figure out why they’d have a different system and a system that wouldn’t allow a set arcade credit to be placed on the Seapass that would run out. Kids could just charge and charge with no credit limit, but there was a large daily limit.

[brillohead]

4 hours ago, crusinthrough said:

Never keep a cc of file.  Set up a cash account and settle in cash or with a cc on the last night.  There is no benefit to setting up your account with a cc.  

Your comment is totally irrelevant to the subject at hand.  In a situation like this, whether it was a cash account or a credit card account, the same thing would have happened.   

If the kids ran up a balance on a cash account, you'd still have to go to Guest Relations on the last night and pay the balance -- having a cash account doesn't mean you don't have to actually pay the bill!  If your bill isn't paid in full, you won't be allowed to scan off the ship on the final morning.  

And while YOU may not see a benefit of setting up your account with a credit card, the vast majority of the thousands of people on the ship don't want to spend their last evening of the cruise standing in line at Guest Relations. 

 

Can you imagine on a Freedom class or larger ship, a line of over 2,000 people at Guest Relations the last night????  (That's assuming that most staterooms are a couple/same household, so only one person from each stateroom would need to go pay the bill.)



 

[marci22]

I don't think anyone knows how the arcade charging system works. 

 

I used to let my kids do the one hour free thing they always had the first night or two of the cruise. Then they were done. Find your fun elsewhere. Not sure if they still offer that.

 

Before I found the one hour free thing, I had put money on the arcade card a couple times. I remember that when you put the card in the game, it would show you a remaining balance on an LED screen? I also thought you had to actively request more credits from the machine once your credits ran out. But kids could still do it, even without 'charging privileges'. To me it was more trouble than it was worth so I stopped allowing it.

 

But as I said, I don't think anyone knows how this actually works.

[Thorben-Hendrik]

16 hours ago, norway olin said:

The machine should no longer accept the card.  What am I missing? 

They would loose revenue....👍😇

[Thorben-Hendrik]

1 hour ago, brillohead said:

And while YOU may not see a benefit of setting up your account with a credit card, the vast majority of the thousands of people on the ship don't want to spend their last evening of the cruise standing in line at Guest Relations. 

We always settle on the last afternoon - no wait!👍

[Clarea]

3 hours ago, PhoenixCruiser said:

Did I read correctly that the boys aged 9 to 13 were in a cabin by themselves?
 ...
 

 

That's allowed on Royal as long as the children's stateroom is next to or across the hall from the responsible adult.

[Nashna]

3 hours ago, PhoenixCruiser said:

Did I read correctly that the boys aged 9 to 13 were in a cabin by themselves?



Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk
 

Yes, they certainly were.  Three families were in five OV balcony staterooms.  Parents were in the first, next was three teenage girls, another set of parents, four boys, another set of parents.  The balcony dividers were open and the sliding doors were kept unlocked so the parents and children were able to move freely between the rooms.  All reservations were under RCCL guidelines.  BTW...where the children slept had nothing to do with this post.  

[matj2000]

4 hours ago, PhoenixCruiser said:

Did I read correctly that the boys aged 9 to 13 were in a cabin by themselves?

 

 

What is the issue with the kids being in the cabin by themselves?

Edited July 3, 2019 by matj2000

[NateUpNorth]

Comparing this thread to the drink package one:

 

Kids should know the rules, don't feel sorry for the parents. Read your terms and conditions. Too bad. RCL well within their rights.

 

Hey! They sold me a drink package for super cheap they can't take it back now whatever the terms and conditions state! That's not fair!! What a terrible thought process by RCL.

 

This place is entertaining!