ispiral Posted July 19 #1 Share Posted July 19 We are shortly about to embark on our first Royal Caribbean cruise - having so far have completed 15 cruise with Norwegian and MSC I have just received an email from Royal Caribbean entitled "Are Your Plans Flexible?" which has asked whether I would like to cancel the specific cruise I have booked and instead book on a different cruise later in the year. For this I would receive 100% refund of all costs PLUS 100% cruise credit. In addition RCI would cover any non refundable flight and hotel costs The offer is entirely optional - I can choose to stay with my original booking if I want. However, there is no guarantee that I can definitely take up this offer. I have to submit a request to do so - in the same way that I can submit offers for upgrades - and I will not be informed whether my request to cancel has been accepted until a week or so before departure Has anyone else received this sort of email ? Is this a Royal Caribbean thing, as I have never had this with Norwegian or MSC? Nor could I find any reference searching though these boards on Cruise Critic? It almost sounds like a scam, although I don't see what potential scammers can achieve. The email included our correct booking references. I am tempted to go for the offer as it does seem a little too good to be true Any advice / opinions welcome...... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare FionaMG Posted July 19 #2 Share Posted July 19 16 minutes ago, ispiral said: We are shortly about to embark on our first Royal Caribbean cruise - having so far have completed 15 cruise with Norwegian and MSC I have just received an email from Royal Caribbean entitled "Are Your Plans Flexible?" which has asked whether I would like to cancel the specific cruise I have booked and instead book on a different cruise later in the year. For this I would receive 100% refund of all costs PLUS 100% cruise credit. In addition RCI would cover any non refundable flight and hotel costs The offer is entirely optional - I can choose to stay with my original booking if I want. However, there is no guarantee that I can definitely take up this offer. I have to submit a request to do so - in the same way that I can submit offers for upgrades - and I will not be informed whether my request to cancel has been accepted until a week or so before departure Has anyone else received this sort of email ? Is this a Royal Caribbean thing, as I have never had this with Norwegian or MSC? Nor could I find any reference searching though these boards on Cruise Critic? It almost sounds like a scam, although I don't see what potential scammers can achieve. The email included our correct booking references. I am tempted to go for the offer as it does seem a little too good to be true Any advice / opinions welcome...... It's not a scam. It happens very rarely and means they're overbooked for whatever reason (e.g. sold too many gty bookings, a technical issue taking some cabins out of inventory unexpectedly) and are trying to avoid involuntarily bumping people by offering an incentive to guests who do have the flexibility to shift to a different sailing and be well compensated for it. 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ken at the beach Posted July 19 #3 Share Posted July 19 While not common it does happen.. Definitely do not worry about it being a scam. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
firefly333 Posted July 19 #4 Share Posted July 19 What ship? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Biker19 Posted July 19 #5 Share Posted July 19 3 hours ago, ispiral said: Nor could I find any reference searching though these boards on Cruise Critic? Search for the term "overbooked". Biker, who would likely take such an offer. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shipgeeks Posted July 19 #6 Share Posted July 19 We had a similar offer on Princess a number of years ago, except it was a phone call. How far ahead is your cruise? In our case, the call was the Friday before a Tuesday cruise. After some thought, we accepted, and it all worked out very well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Starry Eyes Posted July 19 #7 Share Posted July 19 That’s how Royal Caribbean has handled a few past episodes of overbooked ships, do it’s not a scam. The overbookings are uncommon and most if us have only seen copies of those emails posted on CC or other social media. If the terms are agreeable to you, submit your info. Would you please share the ship and sail date? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nelblu Posted July 19 #8 Share Posted July 19 (edited) Sounds good, however, don't know what ship and how far back you booked the sail. With the current fares being out of whack, the 100% may not cover the entire cost of a future sail. Edited July 19 by nelblu 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BND Posted July 19 #9 Share Posted July 19 I assume you have a gty room? They're oversold and it happens, but not super often. We've never experienced it, but we always book a specific cabin. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CT Sean Posted July 19 #10 Share Posted July 19 100% refund PLUS 100% cruise credit? I'd cancel and re-book next week in a heartbeat 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ngrund Posted July 19 #11 Share Posted July 19 6 minutes ago, CT Sean said: 100% refund PLUS 100% cruise credit? I'd cancel and re-book next week in a heartbeat The issue is that it would not be known if this currently booked cruise would be a no go until a week before the cruise. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Starry Eyes Posted July 19 #12 Share Posted July 19 59 minutes ago, BND said: I assume you have a gty room? They're oversold and it happens, but not super often. We've never experienced it, but we always book a specific cabin. On those other rare instances where an oversold offer was made I think the offer is made to both gty bookings and specific cabins bookings. The offer may go only to the specific overbooked category. After all if a flexible person in a specified balcony cabin voluntarily gives up their cabin, that cabin can now be assigned to a gty balcony booking (who may not have volunteered or who volunteered but had higher cruise costs plus reimbursable costs). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CT Sean Posted July 19 #13 Share Posted July 19 26 minutes ago, ngrund said: The issue is that it would not be known if this currently booked cruise would be a no go until a week before the cruise. gotcha - i missed the part about not knowing if it's cancelled until a week before. Personally I think I'd still take it. A couple thousand free dollars is still a couple thousand free dollars. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RFerrington Posted July 19 #14 Share Posted July 19 Just be careful about calculating your "100% cruise credit". This offer ONLY applies to the net cruise fare and nothing else. It is the final cruise fare that you paid, not the cruise fare that is advertised today....or whenever you choose to cruise in the future. This can be very disappointing for some who think they are going to get 100% of everything that they paid. So, when looking at your potential future cruise credit, ONLY look at the single line titled "cruise fare" and be sure that it is the NET amount, after all the offers and discounts have been subtracted. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ngrund Posted July 19 #15 Share Posted July 19 25 minutes ago, CT Sean said: gotcha - i missed the part about not knowing if it's cancelled until a week before. Personally I think I'd still take it. A couple thousand free dollars is still a couple thousand free dollars. I might also, depending on the cruise to be cancelled. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Biker19 Posted July 19 #16 Share Posted July 19 25 minutes ago, RFerrington said: So, when looking at your potential future cruise credit, ONLY look at the single line titled "cruise fare" and be sure that it is the NET amount, after all the offers and discounts have been subtracted. That (base fare) may be a bit harder to find now that the tax is no longer a separate line item. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RFerrington Posted July 19 #17 Share Posted July 19 2 minutes ago, Biker19 said: That (base fare) may be a bit harder to find now that the tax is no longer a separate line item. Great point Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare little britain Posted July 19 #18 Share Posted July 19 Do we know what the ship /date is yet? I notice the OP is from London (I’m guessing England not Ontario) so there isn’t a lot of choice over here to just swap to another ship. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MuyBueno Posted July 19 #19 Share Posted July 19 We received a similar email a couple of years ago for a 4 day cruise on the Navigator. However, because it was a casino comped cruise they only offered us a small amount of OBC. We were very flexible with the dates so I called and told them we would be willing to change dates if we were given $500 OBC. They said our cabin category (jr suite) was overbooked. After getting approval from someone, they called back and agreed to the $500 OBC. Sounds like your offer is better than ours. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RFerrington Posted July 19 #20 Share Posted July 19 24 minutes ago, MuyBueno said: We received a similar email a couple of years ago for a 4 day cruise on the Navigator. However, because it was a casino comped cruise they only offered us a small amount of OBC. We were very flexible with the dates so I called and told them we would be willing to change dates if we were given $500 OBC. They said our cabin category (jr suite) was overbooked. After getting approval from someone, they called back and agreed to the $500 OBC. Sounds like your offer is better than ours. Casino comps are the worst as far as future FCC's go b/c the amount of the FCC is based on the amount of the cruise fare, which is generally very low. Even if you have upgraded the booking, the FCC is still calculated on the CRUISE FARE line which does not include any of the upgrade $$ since they are casino fund lines and not cruise fare lines. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SherriZ366 Posted July 19 #21 Share Posted July 19 Again, please post the ship name and date. Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coaster Posted July 19 #22 Share Posted July 19 Curious if your booking was a guarantee category also. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Merion_Mom Posted July 19 #23 Share Posted July 19 5 hours ago, RFerrington said: Just be careful about calculating your "100% cruise credit". This offer ONLY applies to the net cruise fare and nothing else. It is the final cruise fare that you paid, not the cruise fare that is advertised today....or whenever you choose to cruise in the future. This can be very disappointing for some who think they are going to get 100% of everything that they paid. So, when looking at your potential future cruise credit, ONLY look at the single line titled "cruise fare" and be sure that it is the NET amount, after all the offers and discounts have been subtracted. 4 hours ago, Biker19 said: That (base fare) may be a bit harder to find now that the tax is no longer a separate line item. But when they cancel your original cruise and give you the new cruise, they refund the taxes/port fees. So you aren't losing them. You just have to use the FCC to pay for the new cruise, and if it doesn't cover the port fees/taxes, at least you will have gotten those back from your original cruise. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ispiral Posted July 23 Author #24 Share Posted July 23 (edited) Apologies for the delay in responding - a case of real life getting in the way of more important things such as booking cruise holidays..... In answer to your questions, the cruise I had booked was on the Voyager of the Seas out of Ravenna,Italy on 29th July. We did have two Guarantee Balcony cabins booked on this ship However, as of last night we have been offered and accepted to cancel our booking on this ship and instead accept a refund as well as Future Cruise Credit Thank you for your comments and observations Edited July 23 by ispiral 6 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Biker19 Posted July 23 #25 Share Posted July 23 1 hour ago, ispiral said: We did have two Guarantee Balcony cabins booked on this ship By any chance did you check in and try to find your cabin assignments via the barcode trick? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Please sign in to comment
You will be able to leave a comment after signing in
Sign In Now