writing to the BBB!!!

[Ocean Boy]

11 hours ago, cruisinforabrusin90 said:

The CDC did not take my money!

Nor does the CDC care what RCI does with it.

[Biker19]

11 hours ago, cruisinforabrusin90 said:

I in no way blame the CSR, I know they did not know, but the higher ups did and had no business allowing those cruises to be sold!

Welcome to April 2020, that has been happening every month since.

[Joseph2017China]

It sounds like you made a mistake, and the CSR told you the process, and you are not happy.  Booking cruises in 2020 and 2021 is simply put, a gamble.  If you can't accept the gamble and play the game, than don't book.  

 

Next, for every person that has an issue, there are several thousands that did not have an issue.  Why is that?  RCCL canceled my cruise, said I had until such a date to decide for FCC or cash, and I decided FCC 125% and refund of extra items at 125 OBC.  Within 5 days after the date they said, I recieved refund of taxes on my CC and my FCC and OBC email came within another day.  It was 5 weeks after the cancelation, but within days after the "promise" date.  I literally have one cruise paid off for 2 years now, and still did not go.  

 

My one week of vacation, I was scheduled a cruise.....it failed....scheduled another land trip.....it failed....and 4 weeks left to plan, we did another land trip......and it was successful.  My point is the theme to 2020-2021 is to learn to roll with it, booking is a gamble, and accept the outcomes as the come

[Goodtime Cruizin]

There's alot to digest here... but I'll try. You booked a cruise this past Oct 24th to go on a cruise less than two months away on Dec 14th. It was canceled by RCL. So you then booked another cruise two months away from that date for Feb 1st.  So in summary, you have booked two cruises in the last 4 months that was to sail within the last two months.  

 

Each to their own but in the middle of a world wide pandemic to book these cruises and then complain about the process of cancellations and subsequent refunds falls on deaf ears for me. 

 

I recognize it's frustrating. But the frustration was brought about by your own decsions and the action you took on those decisions. While I agree that RCL should not be selling cruises two months out during a pandemic, you also have to be much wiser how you position yourself in the post covid cruising world.  Inmany states across this country, during the months that you thought you were going on a cruise, you couldn't even sit down and order a meal at a restaurant. How you thought you were going to go on a cruise is beyond me, 

 

I hope it is all resolved in your favor. I also hope your post will educate all that buying space on a cruise ship during a pandemic is on us as adults and consumers, not the seller or the cruise lines. 

 

caveat: I just booked a cruise this week. But it is for 20 months out and I paid the difference to get a fully refundable deposit. 

[cured]

14 hours ago, cruisinforabrusin90 said:

I in no way blame the CSR, I know they did not know, but the higher ups did and had no business allowing those cruises to be sold!

I think your screen name explains it all 🙂

 

Anyway, welcome to Cruise Critic.

 

What do people not understand that this is a global pandemic, the scope of which has not been seen for 103 years? This is a novel virus, the best scientists around the world are scrambling to learn about it. Nothing is normal. Because it is novel, NO ONE including Royal Caribbean can predict what will happen in the next month, let alone 6 months later.  

 

I would not expect CSRs to stop selling cruises before the initial announcement. All hell would break loose. I can just imagine the crazy if someone tried to book a cruise before the official announcement. They would come here and other social media and post "have you heard anything about February cruises? They won't let me book one." Then people start flooding Royal's phone lines and their TA's.  I am sure there is a process to inform TAs and the CSR folks before they make an official announcement and stop selling cruises.

 

Edited January 26, 2021 by cured

[TheMastodon]

18 hours ago, cruisinforabrusin90 said:

On 10/24, I booked a cruise for my family under 2 reservations for a cruise to the Bahamas on 12/14. That Cruise was cancelled on 11/2 due to the pandemic, so we planned to try cruising again on 2/1 for my husband's birthday. we were informed by Royal Caribbean that we would need to wait for a FCC to be issued for the cancelled cruise before the money we already paid could be applied to our new booking, but that the new credit would be issued BEFORE 11/30. We patiently waited until 12/2 and heard NOTHING from Royal Caribbean. I called around 8am that morning to find out what was going on and after an hour, the credit was finally applied to our new booking for 2/1. Cool right? WRONG! Not even 6 hours after finalizing the booking (2:23pm to be exact), I receive an email advising that our 2/1 cruise has now been cancelled due to a global suspension. WOW! Royal Caribbean knew perfectly well they were cancelling those cruises in a few hours and had no business allowing CSR's to take people's money for any impacted dates! To add insult to injury, we were told that we would have to wait on a whole new FFC to be issued now, they could not just let us use the one they literally JUST used to rebook for a future cruise. 2 weeks later after still not seeing an FCC certificate emailed to us (12/15 to be exact) We decided to go ahead and cancel the reservation and get our money back instead of waiting God knows how long for another FCC to be issued. I received an email confirming the cancellation and advising I would receive the refund in 30-45 days. The email literally states, "No additional action is needed on your part" EASY right? WRONG again! I patiently waited 41 days to be exact, and still nothing to my account. I called on 1/25 to inquire on a status and was told by a Rep that I requested a refund on the wrong reservation, I should have requested a refund on the reservation made for 12/14 instead of the most recent reservation, and that I would need to wait an additional 45 days for my refund to be processed. How has 41 days passed with no one from Royal Caribbean sending an email, making a phone call, sending a smoke signal, NOTHING! It took me calling AGAIN before I was told anything! I let the rep know this was unacceptable and that I wanted to speak with her supervisor. After putting me on hold for 10+ minutes, she does not come back with a supervisor, but to advise me that her supervisor told her that I could not be escalated until after the additional 45 days has passed. I had to let her know once again that this was UNACCECPTABLE and I wanted to speak to a supervisor before she finally transferred me to someone named Eric (associate ID 24912) who identified himself as one. He was completely nonchalant about me not getting my money back and refused to let me speak to anyone higher than him stating he was the highest person there was (so I guess he owns the company!), until I pressed for about 5 minutes!! Then he finally advised that he could have someone call me back in 72 hours, but they will just tell me the same thing. First, it did not take Royal Caribbean 30-45 days to draft the money from my bank account, they took it instantly!! Funny how your system can handle drafting money from millions of people at one time with no problem, but it cannot refund the money for 45 days! There is no way I could hold anyone at Royal Caribbean's paycheck for 86 days and they be fine with it, but they expect me to be ok with them keeping my money for as long as they want without providing any service to me! They want to use the Pandemic as an excuse for treating customers like they do not matter, NEWS FLASH, I am in the same pandemic, but I do not see them giving me any breaks for it, and they have billions more dollars than me! My family and I love cruising and were eager to try out Royal Caribbean to check out Coco Cay, but after this experience, Royal Caribbean will not get another DIME out of me, I will stick with other Cruise Lines!

 

Blows my mind anyone would book in the middle of a pandemic.  

 

May the force be with you.

[not-enough-cruising]

18 hours ago, cruisinforabrusin90 said:

On 10/24, I booked a cruise for my family under 2 reservations for a cruise to the Bahamas on 12/14. That Cruise was cancelled on 11/2 due to the pandemic, so we planned to try cruising again on 2/1 for my husband's birthday. we were informed by Royal Caribbean that we would need to wait for a FCC to be issued for the cancelled cruise before the money we already paid could be applied to our new booking, but that the new credit would be issued BEFORE 11/30. We patiently waited until 12/2 and heard NOTHING from Royal Caribbean. I called around 8am that morning to find out what was going on and after an hour, the credit was finally applied to our new booking for 2/1. Cool right? WRONG! Not even 6 hours after finalizing the booking (2:23pm to be exact), I receive an email advising that our 2/1 cruise has now been cancelled due to a global suspension. WOW! Royal Caribbean knew perfectly well they were cancelling those cruises in a few hours and had no business allowing CSR's to take people's money for any impacted dates! To add insult to injury, we were told that we would have to wait on a whole new FFC to be issued now, they could not just let us use the one they literally JUST used to rebook for a future cruise. 2 weeks later after still not seeing an FCC certificate emailed to us (12/15 to be exact) We decided to go ahead and cancel the reservation and get our money back instead of waiting God knows how long for another FCC to be issued. I received an email confirming the cancellation and advising I would receive the refund in 30-45 days. The email literally states, "No additional action is needed on your part" EASY right? WRONG again! I patiently waited 41 days to be exact, and still nothing to my account. I called on 1/25 to inquire on a status and was told by a Rep that I requested a refund on the wrong reservation, I should have requested a refund on the reservation made for 12/14 instead of the most recent reservation, and that I would need to wait an additional 45 days for my refund to be processed. How has 41 days passed with no one from Royal Caribbean sending an email, making a phone call, sending a smoke signal, NOTHING! It took me calling AGAIN before I was told anything! I let the rep know this was unacceptable and that I wanted to speak with her supervisor. After putting me on hold for 10+ minutes, she does not come back with a supervisor, but to advise me that her supervisor told her that I could not be escalated until after the additional 45 days has passed. I had to let her know once again that this was UNACCECPTABLE and I wanted to speak to a supervisor before she finally transferred me to someone named Eric (associate ID 24912) who identified himself as one. He was completely nonchalant about me not getting my money back and refused to let me speak to anyone higher than him stating he was the highest person there was (so I guess he owns the company!), until I pressed for about 5 minutes!! Then he finally advised that he could have someone call me back in 72 hours, but they will just tell me the same thing. First, it did not take Royal Caribbean 30-45 days to draft the money from my bank account, they took it instantly!! Funny how your system can handle drafting money from millions of people at one time with no problem, but it cannot refund the money for 45 days! There is no way I could hold anyone at Royal Caribbean's paycheck for 86 days and they be fine with it, but they expect me to be ok with them keeping my money for as long as they want without providing any service to me! They want to use the Pandemic as an excuse for treating customers like they do not matter, NEWS FLASH, I am in the same pandemic, but I do not see them giving me any breaks for it, and they have billions more dollars than me! My family and I love cruising and were eager to try out Royal Caribbean to check out Coco Cay, but after this experience, Royal Caribbean will not get another DIME out of me, I will stick with other Cruise Lines!

Might i suggest in your submission to the BBB you consider using some paragraphs, maybe a little double spacing.

 

Sorry to hear you won't be cruising any more

[Djsmrs]

U.S. sets coronavirus infection record; deaths near 224,000

 

^This was the headline of an article issued by the Associated Press on October 24 - and somehow you thought you would book a cruise?   Respectfully, I am as baffled by your actions as you are frustrated by RCL's.   It's not like you didn't know what was happening on this planet - and maybe you didn't do your due diligence re:  refunds and timelines prior to booking?

 

I totally appreciate how disappointing it is to not have access to monies you have paid to Royal Caribbean, and believe me when I understand the heartbreak of not being able to cruise.  I'm thinking you needed a good vent - and hopefully you got everything off your chest.  In the mean time try and remember that people are dying.   Everywhere.  And nurses and doctors are practically killing themselves to take care of people who are critically ill.. 

 

Take a deep breath.   Maybe book for 2022 as it seems very unlikely that you will not sail next year (but you never know about that either!).   We moved our Dec 2020 cruise to Dec 2021 thinking that would be more than enough time to clear things up and quite frankly I'll be (pleasantly) surprised if we are travelling by the end of this year.   

 

Also - it took four months for me to receive refunds for excursions booked on our December 2020 cruise after it was cancelled.   

[NHProud]

Is this prank because why would you book those cruises ? Anyway , it took four months to get my money refunded and this is with an agent working on my behalf. I’m 5 weeks into waiting for another refund.  You’re not the only one who is frustrated and to those bragging that they canceled multiple cruises and were refunded sooner than later you must be Pinnacle. 

[Biker19]

1 hour ago, NHProud said:

were refunded sooner than later you must be Pinnacle

It is very unlikely C&A status has anything to do with the speed of refunds.

[neverbeenhere]

Please stick with the result of your "I'm never cruising this line manifesto". Many have made similar statements but end up cruising on the line anyway. I appreciate people who follow through with their statements. Thanks for listening.

[mek]

I understand why some people are willing to gamble and have continued to book cruises since last March but for the life of me I don’t understand why the gamble turns sour they complain.

Right now I think giving any money to any cruise line is almost like throwing your money away and I won’t feel differently until cruising has started back up and has been operating successfully for several months.