Royal Caribbean has jacked me around for the last time.

[Evilgrin72]

13 minutes ago, Biker19 said:

Somewhat recently applying an FCC to a booking counts as cash in case you want a refund. You could upgrade, apply all of your FCCs and then ask for a refund when canceling. 

I asked on the phone today if I could do that and they told me all refunds would be issued in the form of FCCs. Maybe I need to call 3 more times and sit on hold for an hour to find someone else willing to give me a different story. And I can't even apply any remaining FCCs because despite what I was told, they're clearly not stackable and sharable. That's the crux of this, I suspect. The credits they want to issue me are 220 in my name and 70 in my wife's. They've bungled this from the very beginning and have apparently just made it worse every time they've "helped." 

[Sunshine3601]

2 hours ago, screwsmcernst said:

Friends of ours had a Baltics cruise planned for July of 2020.  Then covid  hit.  Their cruise got cancelled, and they took the credit for their deposit.  We planned a cruise to Canada for Oct. 2021.  Since they had $900 credit from their cancelled cruise, they tried to use that for their deposit for Canada.  RCI said they could not do that.  They had to pay another $900 deposit for this cruise.  so they are now $1800 in.  Fast forward, and RCI sells the ship we are suppose to be sailing on.  So no cruise for us.  We took the refund, and so did our friends.  RCI sent them $900 from their new deposit.  They still have the original $900.  Now we are all going to Hawaii next Oct. so they had to pay another $900 deposit, and they have $900 in FCC.  Now RCI told them they have to use their FCC on sailings before Oct.1, 2022.  Our TA spent 3 hours on the phone trying to get an exception.  Finally, RCI relented.  They really are exhausting.  

That's odd they couldn't apply the $900 fcc for the hawaii cruise.    

I have used fccs for deposits with no issues.  

[Biker19]

4 minutes ago, Evilgrin72 said:

And I can't even apply any remaining FCCs because despite what I was told, they're clearly not stackable and sharable

You certainly have won the lottery in terms of getting the least helpful and uninformed CSRs - FCCs should definitely be stackable. Up to you if you want to invest time in calling enough times to get this sorted. A better approach might be the route @Merion_Momsuggested.  . 

[Sunshine3601]

6 minutes ago, Evilgrin72 said:

I asked on the phone today if I could do that and they told me all refunds would be issued in the form of FCCs. Maybe I need to call 3 more times and sit on hold for an hour to find someone else willing to give me a different story. And I can't even apply any remaining FCCs because despite what I was told, they're clearly not stackable and sharable. That's the crux of this, I suspect. The credits they want to issue me are 220 in my name and 70 in my wife's. They've bungled this from the very beginning and have apparently just made it worse every time they've "helped." 

If you refer to your cruise invoice it will show the breakdown per passenger so if you got one of those sales for % off 2nd guest that would be the reason why the difference per guest.

Fccs are definitely stackable as I just used 3 small ones.  2 were mine, 1 my hubbies to upgrade our cabin.

[Sunshine3601]

Good luck and hopefully your email to mbayley will give you the resolution you need.

[Evilgrin72]

1 minute ago, Biker19 said:

You certainly have won the lottery in terms of getting the least helpful and uninformed CSRs - FCCs should definitely be stackable. Up to you if you want to invest time in calling enough times to get this sorted. A better approach might be the route @Merion_Momsuggested.  . 

Already took that route, we'll see. I don't know how much more time and energy I have to devote to sitting on hold listening to the same annoying Perfect Day ad on a loop just to be told some other BS story. If it doesn't get sorted, I'll just be done with RCL forever. 

[Evilgrin72]

2 minutes ago, Sunshine3601 said:

If you refer to your cruise invoice it will show the breakdown per passenger so if you got one of those sales for % off 2nd guest that would be the reason why the difference per guest.

Fccs are definitely stackable as I just used 3 small ones.  2 were mine, 1 my hubbies to upgrade our cabin.

I have it and yes, it is a % off second guest price. My best guess is the guy who did the reprice did something to get the FCCs applied in full but did something wrong and now they see his mistake. Only instead of finding a way to fix it, they're just telling me I owe them more money and that if I can't use the FCC they're willing to give me in exchange for paying them more put of pocket, that's just too bad. That's egregious. If I pulled that with one of my customers, I'd lose him/her for life for sure. That appears to be my only remaining recourse. 

[DCPIV]

Wow. You really have been shafted with a number of shafts in a number of places. You have all sorts of reasons to be ticked off. 

 

I hope that email gets results. There's no way I'd be on hold on the phone again. 

 

As for whether I would pay up if there is no good result, my free advice (unsolicited, I know, but it's worth every penny) is that "it's not about the money" supports a bunch of choices, including just taking the hit and enjoying one more cruise with your mother. 

[Coralc]

1 hour ago, Evilgrin72 said:

 They've bungled this from the very beginning and have apparently just made it worse every time they've "helped." 

They have. I've been reading about all of your issues about this for a while. That is a bummer. I wish I had some advice other that writing to the top. But I don't. 

 

We've always managed to make it work out after lengthy phone calls, but sometimes it takes some finagling. 

[Evilgrin72]

14 minutes ago, DCPIV said:

Wow. You really have been shafted with a number of shafts in a number of places. You have all sorts of reasons to be ticked off. 

 

I hope that email gets results. There's no way I'd be on hold on the phone again. 

 

As for whether I would pay up if there is no good result, my free advice (unsolicited, I know, but it's worth every penny) is that "it's not about the money" supports a bunch of choices, including just taking the hit and enjoying one more cruise with your mother. 

That ship has sailed (pun intended again.) She can no longer cruise unless something changes, which is unlikely. That's obviously not RCL's fault, but it was a major bummer when that 2020 cruise got canceled, because that was almost certainly our last chance. The rest of the family/group cashed out 18 months ago and moved on, I'm the only schmuck who said "Hey, I don't need the money to get by... Why not let them hold it? Sure, it's not much, but I'm sure everyone who does this right now is helping them weather the storm."  What a sap. It just makes all of this more irritating. 

[Evilgrin72]

1 minute ago, Coralc said:

They have. I've been reading about all of your issues about this for a while. That is a bummer. I wish I had some advice other that writing to the top. But I don't. 

 

We've always managed to make it work out after lengthy phone calls, but sometimes it takes some finagling. 

You have a terrific memory! I just don't even know what to do, I thought all the finagling (I've spent in excess of 4 hours on the phone with them over this damn cruise already) had finally sorted it out, but this (what I thought was) last call today seems to have done more harm than good. I somehow managed to convert a 91 dollar credit into a useless (to me) FCC AND I can't cruise unless I give them another $181 to convert into more useless scrip money. 🤔

[DCPIV]

5 minutes ago, Evilgrin72 said:

That ship has sailed (pun intended again.) She can no longer cruise unless something changes, which is unlikely. That's obviously not RCL's fault, but it was a major bummer when that 2020 cruise got canceled, because that was almost certainly our last chance. The rest of the family/group cashed out 18 months ago and moved on, I'm the only schmuck who said "Hey, I don't need the money to get by... Why not let them hold it? Sure, it's not much, but I'm sure everyone who does this right now is helping them weather the storm."  What a sap. It just makes all of this more irritating. 

 

Dadgum, man. My heart goes out to you and your family. 

 

I'm not sure what I'd do in your place, then, if that email doesn't produce results. I suppose I'd do a gut check and decide if I could manage to enjoy the cruise. If so, I expect I'd take the hit and go. If not, I'd just cut bait. No sense throwing good money and time after bad. 

[Evilgrin72]

Just now, DCPIV said:

 

Dadgum, man. My heart goes out to you and your family. 

 

I'm not sure what I'd do in your place, then, if that email doesn't produce results. I suppose I'd do a gut check and decide if I could manage to enjoy the cruise. If so, I expect I'd take the hit and go. If not, I'd just cut bait. No sense throwing good money and time after bad. 

Thanks, man - really nice of you to say. Appreciate the sentiment. 

 

It doesn't look like I have much choice. I don't expect the e-mail to accomplish anything, in fact - I don't really even anticipate a response given how things have gone thus far. If I refuse to pay the balance and just tell them I don't like the protocols and cancel, all they'll do is issue me a FCC that I'll never use and I'm just out $1,000. I may just go, keep my drink package and brush my teeth with Rumple Minze, get snifters of Grand Marnier and throw them overboard, hand out Jager shots to kids. OK, maybe not that last one. 😂

[DCPIV]

11 minutes ago, Evilgrin72 said:

Thanks, man - really nice of you to say. Appreciate the sentiment. 

 

It doesn't look like I have much choice. I don't expect the e-mail to accomplish anything, in fact - I don't really even anticipate a response given how things have gone thus far. If I refuse to pay the balance and just tell them I don't like the protocols and cancel, all they'll do is issue me a FCC that I'll never use and I'm just out $1,000. I may just go, keep my drink package and brush my teeth with Rumple Minze, get snifters of Grand Marnier and throw them overboard, hand out Jager shots to kids. OK, maybe not that last one. 😂

 

I like your spirit(s)! 🤣

 

We hope to be on board Liberty in January (knock on wood). I might have to throw a snifterful of Grand Marnier over the rail in your honor! 

[Evilgrin72]

1 minute ago, DCPIV said:

 

I like your spirit(s)! 🤣

 

We hope to be on board Liberty in January (knock on wood). I might have to throw a snifterful of Grand Marnier over the rail in your honor! 

 

HAHAHAHAHA!  I actually laughed out loud at that - I needed that.  Thanks, bud. 

[mpdog42]

6 hours ago, DMWT Cruiser said:

 

I'm sure that RCL will be crushed to hear that a customer who booked a $399 cruise is never, ever going to book another cruise with them and neither will all of their family, all Emerald or above and 20+ year "loyal to Royal" cruisers.

 

I'm certain that you will find the customer service much, much better at Carnival or MSC...😑

 

Hope you are able to make the best out of your situation.  As another poster suggested, if you can tone down the vitriol, you might consider contacting Michael Bayley and calmly and dispassionately expressing your disappointment.  Keep it short and simple.  Perhaps they will work to make it right.

Cheer Cheer Go Team!!!

[DCPIV]

11 minutes ago, Evilgrin72 said:

 

HAHAHAHAHA!  I actually laughed out loud at that - I needed that.  Thanks, bud. 

 

You're welcome. 

 

By the way, it'll be a long time before I brush my teeth without thinking of Rumple Minze. Gee, thanks for that, pal! 🤣

[SUSIEK]

On 11/2/2021 at 5:29 PM, Sam Ting said:

I hope you can enjoy yourself on your cruise.  A few years ago we got shafted too, but I think it was NCL.  We ended up going on the cruise and not spending one cent extra. We had a wonderful time eating at the free restaurants and partaking in the free activities. We didn’t even give them our credit card when we boarded. Have a great trip!  Who needs their jewelry, perfume or play their ripoff bingo games anyway. 

Hope you tipped your dining room waiters and cabin stewards.   It's not their fault. 

[nelblu]

On 11/2/2021 at 4:37 PM, Merion_Mom said:

Not that it does you any good whatsoever, but as soon as they started cancelling, I took the cash refund for EVERY SINGLE CRUISE without a second thought.

I should have been that smart.  I've got some $7k+ in FCCs that under the present vaccination protocols will never be able to use them.  Was instructed to contact the Royal Guest Experience Unit for advice, which I did.  After 2.5 weeks, got some ominous and nefarious response.  I contacted them again and pointed out that I/we were ready to sail Harmony/Anthem Easter '20/21 sail respectively (cancelled) and we are ready to sail Anthem Easter '22, however, RCL will not allow us sail under the current protocols, if in place by sail date.

 

A week has passed and waiting for a response.  Also contacted my TA, but no feedback from them.

 

I Do not want to lose this investment and looking either a full refund or open ended FCCs.

 

 

[Biker19]

2 minutes ago, nelblu said:

Do not want to lose this investment and looking either a full refund or open ended FCCs.

You can get former (for now, not sure about an April 22 sailing), but unlikely to ever get the latter.

 

Biker, who would book a cabin for at least 7K for Dec and then cancel for a refund when the protocols are announced.

[nelblu]

2 minutes ago, Biker19 said:

You can get former (for now, not sure about an April 22 sailing), but unlikely to ever get the latter.

 

Biker, who would book a cabin for at least 7K for Dec and then cancel for a refund when the protocols are announced.

The are 3 cabins with 4 adults and 3 children.  What concerned me was the response especially the bold sentence.  This person also missed the entire point as the TA can't do much if the H&S protocols are in place.  Asked the person to please clarify.

 

 

 All applied certificates will be held on the booking that they have been applied to and are not applicable to be transferred or refunded. If you are interested in possibly changing your ship and sail dates for your upcoming cruise’s 529547, 523017, 526845 and 531281 you will need to reach out to your Travel Advisor directly for assistance. They will be able to review policy and pricing with you directly.

[Biker19]

4 minutes ago, nelblu said:

What concerned me was the response especially the bold sentence.

While policies change almost every day, for now, we have reports that suggest that is not true (you can get a refund on a  sailing which had an FCC applied). 

 

The CWC and lenient policies are coming to an end pretty soon.

[tinkr2]

@screwsmcernstYes that inability to use a fcc on a deposit is certainly annoying. It was consistent on all 3 cruise lines. I took a fcc on all my cruises bc I felt it would feel free when I got to go. But I had to pay all the deposits again.🙃

[nelblu]

36 minutes ago, Biker19 said:

While policies change almost every day, for now, we have reports that suggest that is not true (you can get a refund on a  sailing which had an FCC applied). 

 

The CWC and lenient policies are coming to an end pretty soon.

 Can't do anything until the protocols for the sails are announced.

[Biker19]

9 minutes ago, nelblu said:

 Can't do anything until the protocols for the sails are announced.

If you know for sure you won't go and want a refund, waiting till April 2022 is taking a big gamble.