Buyer Beware

[vjmatty]

...yeah....reminds me of the Seinfeld episode where Jerry is trying to rent a car and none are available even though he had "a reservation"......Jerry says to the counter agent....."so, you can take the reservation.....you just don't know how to HOLD the reservation...."

 

I love that episode.... "a RESERVATION means the car stays HERE"

[dachshunddoglover]

There is a tremendous amount of hassle involved with a change like this. I plan vacations years in advance and I understand how disconcerting something like this can be to us over-planners. I do understand that it happens and I think the reasonable thing for Royal to do is -

 

1.) Say they are sorry that your cruise has been chartered and will need to be rescheduled. A simple "I'm Sorry" goes a long way but is seldom, seldom heard.

2.) If you had a D1 on the original cruise, then you should get a D1 on the rescheduled cruise for whatever you paid for the first one. They are putting you in this situation and should honor the same price for the same catagory.

3.) I really think an OBC of $100. per person and not per cabin is more appropriate for the inconvience. A $100. is not much money when you spent between $4000 - $5000. for a week cruise (summertime rates).

4.) They should pay any cost difference in changing flights. (which I believe they do already)

 

Just my two cents - E-Beth

[Ocean Boy]

Where in the contract does it say they can cancel you for a charter.

Cancel, advance, postpone or deviate, none of these words mean charter.

 

I believe that the words "ANY REASON' covers charters.

[molly361]

The other RCCL cruise we were thinking about is now $100 more per person. So if they offer $100 OBC...that is no deal...it's the same price that others paid just a couple weeks ago....when we originally booked the dry dock cruise.

 

Go ahead and flame....I'm honestly tired of the loyal RCCL people constantly making excuses for them.

 

Last year we had a reservation on the Navigator before they decided to send it to Europe- We had a balcony cabin booked, RCI offered us $100 shipboard credit (cabin not pp) and they price protected us at the rate and category we had booked, so in other words we got our upcoming FOS balcony cabin for the same price as the one we had booked on the Navigator- Perhaps you can see if they will do that for you also- Good luck

[the4ofusandallourfriends]

Just wanted to thank for for your post.

 

I know that when we plan a cruise, I put in many hours of research and book many things in advance, all based on that specific cruise....not to mention the fact that hubby's vacation days for the year are pretty much set in stone.

 

To have a cruise cancelled on us would be a huge inconvenience. The $100 onboard credit seems ridiculous when you think about the huge inconvenience they are causing you, and the actual cost of the OBC to them...I think a $300-$500 per cabin OBC is more appropriate. The customer should be made to feel like he is coming out ahead.

 

Anyways, thanks for the reminder. What I've learned from your post is that alot of times its not worth booking non-refundable hotels such as the hotel's direct net rates or hotwire.... far in advance.

[MrsPete]

I received a call from Customer Service telling me that we needed to rebook our cruise because our sailing had been chartered by a group.

I think it's horrible that they do this. We schedule our vacations around two jobs, school schedules, and other social commitments. We've made hotel reservations for the night before, etc. It's unfair that RC can require you to change all this once it's set in motion.

 

If I were a part of a large group, I would assume I would need to make my reservations waaaaay in advance so that my needs could be accomodated. I would never expect the ship to bend everyone else's reservations to suit me!

[Coralc]

Their Board of Goverrnors meets at the Playboy Mansion. Invited members only on the cruise. That is a fascinating group. :D It is amazing what is on the internet. :D Thanks for posting the link.

 

Sorry about your cruise. It happens. We had an 11 night booked on Empress since October before they finally announced the sale. If you are looking at a cancelled cruise...you should know that every OBC and re-booking offer is different. We had $400 OBC for moving our sailing to another date, but then we decided on a different cruise and lost it. Easy come..easy go. Cruise Critic friends are joining us on the newly booked cruise...a 14 nighter, and that is really more important to us. :)

[OPSoccermom]

Same thing happened to us on a South Caribbean cruise out of San Juan. They told us who booked the ship though -- it was Atlantis Resorts. The booked the entire Seranade for 2 weeks! Who could blame RCCL? They were very nice making us an offer to cancel or move our reservation (through our TA). We ended up with $200 additional onboard credits (already had some coming because we had booked the cruise while on a cruise) + they offered an additional $200 of one choice and $100 off another. The $200 choice left one day later than our original sale date so we picked it.

Then the price dropped twice on that sailing and they honored the price drop through our TA on both of those. Needless to say we are very thankful Atlantis decided to book the entire ship and we always joke when we make a reservation now that we hope someone books the ship out from under us. It ended up being a great deal for us!

FYI - it was not Atlantis resorts, but Atlantis Events that chartered your cruise. They offer several gay and lesbian cruise charters as well as resort stays. Always seem to charter the entire ship. Based on their website, they get great attendance and have a great time.

[MGoBlue2]

... but obviously a "reservation" means nothing to Royal Caribbean.

A reservation means pretty much the same thing to Royal Caribbean as it does to other cruise lines, to an airline, or to a hotel, which is - unless circumstances change, the cabin/seat/room is yours at the agreed upon price.

[breal6]

Doesn't hsve anything to ddo with final payment either. This past Friday i was booked on the Sovefeign. I printed out our set sail on Wed. 4/18, and it sholwed the cabin I was supposed to be in. When I got to the counter in P.C., the woman called me by some other name. I told her nope that's not me. well. it seems RCI changed our cabin between wed and Friday. I told her nope, not acceptable, she said there are NO cabins left, so I told her to put me back in my original cabin. She said she couldn't do that. I rtld her I had a lot of cruises with RCI, and I wasn't looking for aN UPGRADE OR Anything, I just wanted the cabin I booked. and is this the way you treat your loyal customers? I said some people book their cruises up to 2 years in advance just to get a specific cabin. If this is what RCI is going to do, then they need to call the customer and check to see if the cabin change is alright. It was't a quad or a handicap and there was no reason for this change. long story short, she put me back in my original cabin and I was quite satisfied. :)

[Suzanne74]

Doesn't hsve anything to ddo with final payment either. This past Friday i was booked on the Sovefeign. I printed out our set sail on Wed. 4/18, and it sholwed the cabin I was supposed to be in. When I got to the counter in P.C., the woman called me by some other name. I told her nope that's not me. well. it seems RCI changed our cabin between wed and Friday. I told her nope, not acceptable, she said there are NO cabins left, so I told her to put me back in my original cabin. She said she couldn't do that. I rtld her I had a lot of cruises with RCI, and I wasn't looking for aN UPGRADE OR Anything, I just wanted the cabin I booked. and is this the way you treat your loyal customers? I said some people book their cruises up to 2 years in advance just to get a specific cabin. If this is what RCI is going to do, then they need to call the customer and check to see if the cabin change is alright. It was't a quad or a handicap and there was no reason for this change. long story short, she put me back in my original cabin and I was quite satisfied. :)

 

I would have been mad to as I book and pick a specific cabin and don't want it switch. If they need to, they better upgrade me. Good for you for pressing the issue and getting what was yours. ;)

[Ocean Boy]

I would have been mad to as I book and pick a specific cabin and don't want it switch. If they need to, they better upgrade me. Good for you for pressing the issue and getting what was yours. ;)

 

I agree, she did a great job sticking up for herself. If more people did then maybe the cruise lines wouldn't play so many games.

[Merion_Mom]

Doesn't hsve anything to ddo with final payment either. This past Friday i was booked on the Sovefeign. I printed out our set sail on Wed. 4/18, and it sholwed the cabin I was supposed to be in. When I got to the counter in P.C., the woman called me by some other name. I told her nope that's not me. well. it seems RCI changed our cabin between wed and Friday. I told her nope, not acceptable, she said there are NO cabins left, so I told her to put me back in my original cabin. She said she couldn't do that. I rtld her I had a lot of cruises with RCI, and I wasn't looking for aN UPGRADE OR Anything, I just wanted the cabin I booked. and is this the way you treat your loyal customers? I said some people book their cruises up to 2 years in advance just to get a specific cabin. If this is what RCI is going to do, then they need to call the customer and check to see if the cabin change is alright. It was't a quad or a handicap and there was no reason for this change. long story short, she put me back in my original cabin and I was quite satisfied. :)

Brenda, now I am dying to know WHICH cabin it was!