Think Twice Before Booking Royal Caribbean

[charlesspinney]

Myself and brother are long time passengers of Royal Caribbean.   During the pandemic we took advantage of the excellent fairs for transatlantic crossing and booked grand suite cabins on the May 6th crossing from Tampa to Barcelona.   We were booked on the Serenade of the Seas.   Yesterday we received an email from Royal Caribbean saying our cruise was canceled!  They gave us three options.  The first was to rebook on a cruise to Baltimore,  Maryland on the Vision of the Seas.  The second was to book any other cruise,  but pay any difference in fair. The third was to refund our deposit. 

We looked to rebook and discovered our ship, Serenade of the Seas,  was sailing from Miami to Copenhagen on the same dates.  Why were we canceled?  We liked this itinerary much better!  I tried to book but all Grand Suites were sold out and Junior Suites were twice the cost we paid for our Grand Suite. 

I called Royal Caribbean and spent three hours talking to a half a dozen different agents,  half said they were supervisors.   Only the three options stood.   Most of the agents I talked to didn't know where Baltimore was and couldn't relate to my reasoning that we were not being offered another transatlantic cruise. 

All I can say, goodbye Royal Caribbean,  never again. 

Now booked on the Epic.

[shof515]

most likely you were cancel for not submitting final payment in the required time. this is a common problem if you search the forums. depending on when you booked, final payment due date was changed from 45 days or the standard 90 days

 

next time look at your cruise confirmation and save the payment date on your calendar.

[smokeybandit]

OK bye

[flamingos]

4 minutes ago, shof515 said:

most likely you were cancel for not submitting final payment in the required time. this is a common problem if you search the forums. depending on when you booked, final payment due date was changed from 45 days or the standard 90 days

 

next time look at your cruise confirmation and save the payment date on your calendar.

No, the cruise is cancelled. It is missing from my future cruises. It was for May 6, 2023, so no final payment was involved. And it appears that they are doing a transatlantic from Miami the day after we were supposed to leave from Tampa, going to Copenhagen instead of Barcelona.  I am disappointed as well. 

Edited May 5, 2022 by flamingos

[Bound4Bermuda]

You were due to board this ship tomorrow and they just notified you yesterday that this ship has an entirely different itinerary and is completely sold out of suites…with your room sold to someone else? That doesn’t make sense that they could completely double-book an entire cruise ship from two different locations…and only seemingly realized they did this 2 days before the ship was due to sail? 

[John&LaLa]

Just now, Bound4Bermuda said:

You were due to board this ship tomorrow and they just notified you yesterday that this ship has an entirely different itinerary and is completely sold out of suites…with your room sold to someone else? That doesn’t make sense that they could completely double-book an entire cruise ship from two different locations…and only seemingly realized they did this 2 days before the ship was due to sail? 

 

2023

[Bound4Bermuda]

1 minute ago, John&LaLa said:

 

2023

Oh, jeez! Then what’s the problem—especially if you like this new itinerary better? OP has an entire year to figure it out! Keep an eye out for price drops—or just, I don’t know, “slum it” in a balcony. 🤷‍♀️

[billslowsky]

18 minutes ago, shof515 said:

most likely you were cancel for not submitting final payment in the required time.

Nah, they cancelled the cruise, gave them some options, one of which was a refund of what they had paid.  The horror.

[John&LaLa]

1 minute ago, Bound4Bermuda said:

Oh, jeez! Then what’s the problem—especially if you like this new itinerary better? OP has an entire year to figure it out! Keep an eye out for price drops—or just, I don’t know, “slum it” in a balcony. 🤷‍♀️

 

In a nutshell

 

OP books sweet deal on a TA from FL to Europe. 

 

Royal cancels that cruise to redeploy 2 ships

 

Royal then deadheads Serenade from Tampa to Miami to create a new transatlantic voyage. Can now raise prices

 

Royal then notifies OP the cruise is cancelled, and offers an entirely unequal replacement 

 

OP discovers the real replacement cruise, loves the itinerary, but can't book a GS now, and JS's are twice the cost of previous GS

 

OP then calls Royal, hours later, they still refuse to honor old terms

 

OP then creates a thread here to vent.

 

I agree, it sux, but not sure I'd never cruise Royal again.

 

FWIW, I had a similar situation in 2019 when I think Navigator TP got moved to Ovation.

 

We did get $1,000 FCC, so that's different 

 

 

[Sunshine3601]

22 minutes ago, flamingos said:

No, the cruise is cancelled. It is missing from my future cruises. It was for May 6, 2023, so no final payment was involved. And it appears that they are doing a transatlantic from Miami the day after we were supposed to leave from Tampa, going to Copenhagen instead of Barcelona.  I am disappointed as well. 

It stinks they didn't offer the choice to do the new itinerary to Copenhagen.   

I do feel you for everyone impacted.    Maybe write an email to M. Bayley??    Never hurts to try.

[The Fun Researcher]

This is all it takes for you to tell the world to think twice about Royal Caribbean?  I doubt this is unique to RCCL.  I get the disappointment, but hopefully you can get past it.  Find another cruise and move on.

 

Happy sailing.

Dan

[fsjosh]

It isn't going to matter who they talk to. This appears to be an intentional choice to greatly increase the revenue from the cruise. Shady, but it's a different cruise completely. They aren't going to honor those prices for the new cruise. 

[flamingos]

17 minutes ago, fsjosh said:

It isn't going to matter who they talk to. This appears to be an intentional choice to greatly increase the revenue from the cruise. Shady, but it's a different cruise completely. They aren't going to honor those prices for the new cruise. 

Yeah, we had a balcony cabin for $1800, total.  😞

[neverbeenhere]

See Oregon Eclipse Hotel bookings for a reference for the power to cancel long time hotel bookings for the money. Ours went from $185 to over $1,200. We didn’t go for the eclipse. 

[hallux]

1 hour ago, The Fun Researcher said:

This is all it takes for you to tell the world to think twice about Royal Caribbean?  I doubt this is unique to RCCL.

Someone created a similar thread on the NCL section because NCL cancelled a cruise in favor of a charter.  Same reaction, swearing off NCL forever...

[vjmatty]

16 minutes ago, neverbeenhere said:

See Oregon Eclipse Hotel bookings for a reference for the power to cancel long time hotel bookings for the money. Ours went from $185 to over $1,200. We didn’t go for the eclipse. 

How did they justify that….it’s not like a hotel can change location or claim it’s sailing a different itinerary 

[RosieRoo]

At least this is for 2023. What about all the Jewel sailings that were cancelled in January?  Some people had already flown into Florida and had their cruises cancelled that were supposed to be sailing the next day. My back to back which was the following week was booked long in advance with great pricing. We weren’t given the choice to move to different sailings with price protection. We got FCCs and lost some money on airfare. Hey, stuff happens. At least you didn’t lose any money. 
BTW, I didn’t stop cruising RCCL.  I have three more booked this year. 

Edited May 6, 2022 by RosieRoo

[flamingos]

13 minutes ago, vjmatty said:

How did they justify that….it’s not like a hotel can change location or claim it’s sailing a different itinerary 

Ah, not an Eclipse Hotel.  Hotels booked for the total eclipse in 2017.   https://www.oregonlive.com/travel/2017/04/oregon_hotels_unapologetic_sil.html

[bucfan2]

42 minutes ago, vjmatty said:

How did they justify that….it’s not like a hotel can change location or claim it’s sailing a different itinerary 

I should have stopped reading at ‘Oregon’….

Edited May 6, 2022 by bucfan2

[jacads]

Don't worry by next year the massive recession/ depression is going to hit this country and prices are going to plummet and they will be begging people to book.

[Aquahound]

4 hours ago, charlesspinney said:

 

Now booked on the Epic.

 

I'm sorry this happened to you.  Even though its a year out, I know the disappointment.  Even worse, I'm sorry Epic was your consolation cruise.  Oof.  Double whammy.  

[cruiselvr04]

Anyone who has cruised a lot has probably had something similar happen to them.  Great itinerary (Royal)or great pricing ( Celebrity) and poof, gone.   Ships were pulled to other itineraries.   I don’t think we were even offered a different itinerary because there wasn’t any.  These were always about a year prior so we just booked something else.  
 

Yes, I’d be upset.  We were. You’re right that it’s not fair.  Contact Bailey and see if you can get something in return.  But swearing off a cruise line because of it doesn’t mean it won’t happen again on another. 

[snaefell]

My limited experience of Royal Carib has seen them alter EVERY cruise that we have booked with them,I certainly see the OP's point,it is irritating & certainly has made me reluctant to book with them again.

 

[zeroed]

There’s always Carnival. Lots of value there. You can get all the Wobble, rust, fist fights, twerking and drug arrests with them that you just can’t get on Royal. 
 

Edited May 6, 2022 by zeroed
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[Saab4444]

They rebooked all the people from Voyager transatlantic to Copenhagen to Serenade so not much room left especially for Suites.