Villa Suite removed on Freedom

[kilpa482]

10 of us are booked in the 4 bedroom suite on Freedom for the end of April 2020, I thought we got a good deal....however now the post dry dock plans show it removed, any guesses on how they will handle it?

[Clarea]

Most likely they will offer you some OBC and accommodations elsewhere on the ship.  I would also think that a full refund would be offered if you are not happy with alternate accommodations.  They may also offer you some alternate cruise dates.

[Cel_cruise]

Didn’t they replace it with 2 - 2 bedroom suites?   Maybe they will offer both of them to you instead?  

 

Sorry to hear your plans are in question - hope you get a positive outcome! 

[Big_G]

1 hour ago, kilpa482 said:

10 of us are booked in the 4 bedroom suite on Freedom for the end of April 2020, I thought we got a good deal....however now the post dry dock plans show it removed, any guesses on how they will handle it?

 

Sorry to hear this. Please let us know how they handle it.

[kilpa482]

1 hour ago, Big_G said:

 

Sorry to hear this. Please let us know how they handle it.

Yeah, first world problems I know but we were really looking forward to all the family space with dining room table and hot tub on the balcony. I asked my TA to look into it, hopefully there’s a plan. 

[Big_G]

2 hours ago, kilpa482 said:

Yeah, first world problems I know but we were really looking forward to all the family space with dining room table and hot tub on the balcony. I asked my TA to look into it, hopefully there’s a plan. 

 

Understandable though. We've eyeballed that suite in the past but we kept putting off the big family cruise. Now we're looking at an Oasis Class.

[kilpa482]

Agent called royal, who claim to know nothing, and the agent is trying to claim to change doesn’t happen till May 3 when the new deck plans change over. There is no way they converting the room in 30 minutes from us getting off May 3 and the new pax getting on. Not sure what to do

[dawnelda]

I'm in the same boat - we have the 4 bedroom villa reserved on Freedom for March 2021. The first agent at Royal had no idea what he was talking about ("mam, you're speaking with Royal Caribbean and we're the definitive source on what happens with our ships. The 4 bedroom villa suite is not being removed"). Needless to say, I moved on to speaking with a supervisor.

 

Now I'm trying to work with the Resolutions department to figure out what to do.

[AshleyDillo]

So where are the deck plans for the week of April 26, 2020 - May 2, 2020?

 

They sure seem to have an organization-wide issue with change management.  Do the different departments even communicate with each other?

[Biker19]

1 hour ago, AshleyDillo said:

So where are the deck plans for the week of April 26, 2020 - May 2, 2020?

I don't think it matters, as I'm pretty sure the change will take place during the dry dock, so the 4 J3s which replace the 4Bdr Villa will be in place by March. The fact that RCI shows the different deck plan starting May 3 is just an error.

[kilpa482]

2 hours ago, Biker19 said:

I don't think it matters, as I'm pretty sure the change will take place during the dry dock, so the 4 J3s which replace the 4Bdr Villa will be in place by March. The fact that RCI shows the different deck plan starting May 3 is just an error.

I agree, I just wish I could convince them 

[Biker19]

2 minutes ago, kilpa482 said:

I agree, I just wish I could convince them 

It's tough when they are looking at the same erroneous info in their system

Edited October 15, 2019 by Biker19

[kilpa482]

Latest update - 

Hi David,

 

After a long conversation with Royal and going up the chain, I have goods news for you, bad news for them.

 

When Royal added the new deck plans and information on dry dock to the website, they had outsourced that website update. The team that did that, made mistakes that IT is now looking into and needs to fix A LOT of what is now showing on the website.

 

The deck plans you are seeing now are not accurate. They have assured me after looking at a master list of all of the work that is being done, that the villa will not be touched. Most of the work will be to mid ship areas and triple and quad cabins they will be re-categorized to doubles. With what you’re seeing being wrong, they were also just plans, no final plans. Again, these are being fixed. Dry dock will be from January to March, and 90% of all of the cabins effected have already been contacted. If you were to be affected, you would be one of the first to know seeing as its basically the highest cabin on the ship.

 

I and they apologize for any confusion and hassle this has caused. But I can only relay what I’ve just been told, that your cabins will stay the same.

[Clarea]

2 minutes ago, kilpa482 said:

 ...

I and they apologize for any confusion and hassle this has caused. But I can only relay what I’ve just been told, that your cabins will stay the same.

 

Thanks very much for the update, I'm sure there are many who are concerned about this.

[kilpa482]

On 10/15/2019 at 8:10 PM, Host Clarea said:

 

Thanks very much for the update, I'm sure there are many who are concerned about this.

Unfortunately I just did a dummy booking and found the 4 junior suites they claim they are not replacing the Villa with for sale

[Clarea]

9 hours ago, kilpa482 said:

Unfortunately I just did a dummy booking and found the 4 junior suites they claim they are not replacing the Villa with for sale

 

 

Unfortunately, Royal is not known for timely and accurate corprate wide communication.

[Ourusualbeach]

On 10/15/2019 at 8:07 PM, kilpa482 said:

Latest update - 

Hi David,

 

After a long conversation with Royal and going up the chain, I have goods news for you, bad news for them.

 

When Royal added the new deck plans and information on dry dock to the website, they had outsourced that website update. The team that did that, made mistakes that IT is now looking into and needs to fix A LOT of what is now showing on the website.

 

The deck plans you are seeing now are not accurate. They have assured me after looking at a master list of all of the work that is being done, that the villa will not be touched. Most of the work will be to mid ship areas and triple and quad cabins they will be re-categorized to doubles. With what you’re seeing being wrong, they were also just plans, no final plans. Again, these are being fixed. Dry dock will be from January to March, and 90% of all of the cabins effected have already been contacted. If you were to be affected, you would be one of the first to know seeing as its basically the highest cabin on the ship.

 

I and they apologize for any confusion and hassle this has caused. But I can only relay what I’ve just been told, that your cabins will stay the same.

I don’t believe a word of this.  

 

Royal  does not do a good job of communicating its plans to any of the front line staff or Supervisors that both consumers or Travel agents talk to.  Your TA was just fed a dressed up version of the same BS that they fed you.

[dawnelda]

On 10/19/2019 at 12:01 AM, kilpa482 said:

Unfortunately I just did a dummy booking and found the 4 junior suites they claim they are not replacing the Villa with for sale

 

What dates/# passengers did you use for the search? I've tried searching for the new 4 Junior Suites and can't find them. I still have hope that the Villa suite is not being replaced, but it's worrisome.

 

Please let us know if you get any further updates on this!

[kilpa482]

8 minutes ago, dawnelda said:

 

What dates/# passengers did you use for the search? I've tried searching for the new 4 Junior Suites and can't find them. I still have hope that the Villa suite is not being replaced, but it's worrisome.

 

Please let us know if you get any further updates on this!

4/26/2020 which is our sailing, if you are using the US site look under the mid section on deck 6. For some reason it has them listed there even though on the new deck plans it shows them replacing the villa suite. 

Edited October 21, 2019 by kilpa482

[dawnelda]

1 hour ago, kilpa482 said:

4/26/2020 which is our sailing, if you are using the US site look under the mid section on deck 6. For some reason it has them listed there even though on the new deck plans it shows them replacing the villa suite. 

 

Oh I see them listed now. I was looking under the Aft section.

 

I wonder how we're going to get this figured out - whether or not they will exist?

[kilpa482]

17 minutes ago, dawnelda said:

 

Oh I see them listed now. I was looking under the Aft section.

 

I wonder how we're going to get this figured out - whether or not they will exist?

Yeah I’m not sure, at this point my TA believes royal that the Villa suite stays, I have a hard time believing it and dread when we have to figure out how to fix it 

[dawnelda]

I spoke with Royal Caribbean again today - no new news. They continue to be unsure if the Villa will be replaced by Junior Suites. There is no official statement on compensation for people who lose their bookings - which (I'm assuming) is why nobody has been contacted yet about it.

 

They suggested that I wait for ... a YEAR ... before worrying about it. Yeah right.

[kilpa482]

Unfortunately I can to personally contact the CEOs office for them to confirm the suite is being removed however they do not yet have a solution 

[chefrubba]

This is very interesting.  I have booked 6720 a J3 for the April 5, 2020 Cruise.  During booking while we could see the suite being offered for sale, it was not appearing on the deck plans.  My wife likes to see where the room we are booking is located.  The agent I was speaking with while doing the booking online, believed that 6720 was going to be one of the new J3 suites on the back of deck 6. I assume replacing the Villa Suite which I guess was 6414.  We decided to trust her gut and book it.  Very interested to see how it plays out.

[TPA2005]

We booked this suite through Costco Travel for Nov 2020. The Costco Rep I spoke to today called Royal Caribbean twice while I was on hold. The first person she talked to couldn't say for sure what was happening. The second call was the same result. Both RCL reps said there were not supposed to be any new cabins in that area.

 

She said if that turns out to be incorrect they should be notifying Costco and/or us so for now it is 'wait and see'...