Dinner seating Mistake - Update (I am FURIOUS!)

[Gixer]

Search is down so I cant find the original thread, but for everyone who wanted to know the outcome here it is so far -

 

Here is a quick recap of the emails and ongoing situation between myself, my TA and RCCL.

 

When I booked our cruise a few days ago I booked late seating by mistake, on a Med cruise late seating is way too late for us, I emailed the TA the same day I made the booking and asked if they could change it to early - this is the response I got -

 

The change in the name has been corrected.Im sorry, but the dining option for early or main has been closed. When you arrive on board, you may speak to the front desk of the ship and see if anyone had cancelled their early or main dining. I hope you have a wonderful day.

Here was my reply -

I must say I am very dissapointed that a year out the dinner seating cant be changed, especially when I just ran a dummy booking and main seating is still open and available. Are you sure you are unable to do anything to rectify the situation? I would hate to have to cancel with you and rebook with a different agent, but the possibility of being stuck in late dining and in all probability not finishing a meal until 11pm with tired kids is unacceptable.

 

 

Please let me know if you can ammend this mistake or if I need to cancel and rebook with someone else.

This was their reply -

I understand that you are upset about the dining. I have called Royal Caribbean and they told me personally that both Early and Main is closed. I tried to put your family on a waitlist but, the waitlist is also closed. If you would like, please call RCCL at 1-800-398-9819 and asked. I am sure they will tell you also that the Early and Main is closed. When booking on line, it will always give you the options for dining until the booking and payment goes through on our end. Again, I apologize that you are disappointed with the dining. Like I stated below, when you arrive on board the ship, you may speak with Customer Service to see if anyone had cancelled their dinning option. I hope you have a wonderful day.

This was my reply -

Thank you for trying your best to sort this situation out, I appreciate your cooperation. I guess I just have to hope that because we have booked a suite that maybe the consierge can help us change. It looks like we may be stuck with late though if even the wait list is closed this early!

Never mind, Im sure there are lots of alternatives to eating in the main dining room.

Thanks again for your help,

So - imagine my total suprise this morning when I recieved this email from RCCL who I also contacted asking if they could help me switch our dinner seating, either RCCL lied to the TA or the TA lied to me, which do you think it is?! -

Thank you for your email. We apologize for the delay in our response.

 

Due to agency confidentiality, Royal Caribbean International cannot

release or amend any information on a reservation with anyone other than

the travel agent of record. Please contact your travel agent for

specific information about your booking. If you cannot reach your travel

agent or they do not provide you with your requested information, please

contact our Reservations department at 1-800-327-6700 and the travel

agent will be contacted on your behalf.

 

As of today, the early seating is available. Please contact your

travel agent as soon as possible.

 

Tthank you for choosing Royal Caribbean International. We

look forward to welcoming you onboard.

 

Regards,

 

Nichole Burcal

Customer Service Representative

 

Well folks, what do you make of that? I have emaild the TA this morning and asked what the heck is going on and enclosed the email from RCCL - will let you know what respone I get :mad:

 

 

 

 

[AllieInMD]

I think I'd fire that TA!

 

Isn't this cruise a way long time in the future? Can you do an independent online booking to get a cabin you want - and then cancel the reservation with the TA?

 

 

Search is down so I cant find the original thread, but for everyone who wanted to know the outcome here it is so far -

 

Here is a quick recap of the emails and ongoing situation between myself, my TA and RCCL.

 

When I booked our cruise a few days ago I booked late seating by mistake, on a Med cruise late seating is way too late for us, I emailed the TA the same day I made the booking and asked if they could change it to early - this is the response I got -

 

The change in the name has been corrected.Im sorry, but the dining option for early or main has been closed. When you arrive on board, you may speak to the front desk of the ship and see if anyone had cancelled their early or main dining. I hope you have a wonderful day.

 

Here was my reply -

 

I must say I am very dissapointed that a year out the dinner seating cant be changed, especially when I just ran a dummy booking and main seating is still open and available. Are you sure you are unable to do anything to rectify the situation? I would hate to have to cancel with you and rebook with a different agent, but the possibility of being stuck in late dining and in all probability not finishing a meal until 11pm with tired kids is unacceptable.

 

 

 

Please let me know if you can ammend this mistake or if I need to cancel and rebook with someone else.

 

This was their reply -

 

I understand that you are upset about the dining. I have called Royal Caribbean and they told me personally that both Early and Main is closed. I tried to put your family on a waitlist but, the waitlist is also closed. If you would like, please call RCCL at 1-800-398-9819 and asked. I am sure they will tell you also that the Early and Main is closed. When booking on line, it will always give you the options for dining until the booking and payment goes through on our end. Again, I apologize that you are disappointed with the dining. Like I stated below, when you arrive on board the ship, you may speak with Customer Service to see if anyone had cancelled their dinning option. I hope you have a wonderful day.

 

This was my reply -

Thank you for trying your best to sort this situation out, I appreciate your cooperation. I guess I just have to hope that because we have booked a suite that maybe the consierge can help us change. It looks like we may be stuck with late though if even the wait list is closed this early!

Never mind, Im sure there are lots of alternatives to eating in the main dining room.

Thanks again for your help,

 

So - imagine my total suprise this morning when I recieved this email from RCCL who I also contacted asking if they could help me switch our dinner seating, either RCCL lied to the TA or the TA lied to me, which do you think it is?! -

 

Thank you for your email. We apologize for the delay in our response.

 

Due to agency confidentiality, Royal Caribbean International cannot

release or amend any information on a reservation with anyone other than

the travel agent of record. Please contact your travel agent for

specific information about your booking. If you cannot reach your travel

agent or they do not provide you with your requested information, please

contact our Reservations department at 1-800-327-6700 and the travel

agent will be contacted on your behalf.

 

As of today, the early seating is available. Please contact your

travel agent as soon as possible.

 

Tthank you for choosing Royal Caribbean International. We

look forward to welcoming you onboard.

 

Regards,

 

Nichole Burcal

Customer Service Representative

 

Well folks, what do you make of that? I have emaild the TA this morning and asked what the heck is going on and enclosed the email from RCCL - will let you know what respone I get :mad:

 

 

 

 

 

 

[sas80]

Search is down so I cant find the original thread, but for everyone who wanted to know the outcome here it is so far -

 

Here is a quick recap of the emails and ongoing situation between myself, my TA and RCCL.

 

When I booked our cruise a few days ago I booked late seating by mistake, on a Med cruise late seating is way too late for us, I emailed the TA the same day I made the booking and asked if they could change it to early - this is the response I got -

 

The change in the name has been corrected.Im sorry, but the dining option for early or main has been closed. When you arrive on board, you may speak to the front desk of the ship and see if anyone had cancelled their early or main dining. I hope you have a wonderful day.

 

Here was my reply -

 

I must say I am very dissapointed that a year out the dinner seating cant be changed, especially when I just ran a dummy booking and main seating is still open and available. Are you sure you are unable to do anything to rectify the situation? I would hate to have to cancel with you and rebook with a different agent, but the possibility of being stuck in late dining and in all probability not finishing a meal until 11pm with tired kids is unacceptable.

 

 

 

Please let me know if you can ammend this mistake or if I need to cancel and rebook with someone else.

 

This was their reply -

 

I understand that you are upset about the dining. I have called Royal Caribbean and they told me personally that both Early and Main is closed. I tried to put your family on a waitlist but, the waitlist is also closed. If you would like, please call RCCL at 1-800-398-9819 and asked. I am sure they will tell you also that the Early and Main is closed. When booking on line, it will always give you the options for dining until the booking and payment goes through on our end. Again, I apologize that you are disappointed with the dining. Like I stated below, when you arrive on board the ship, you may speak with Customer Service to see if anyone had cancelled their dinning option. I hope you have a wonderful day.

 

This was my reply -

Thank you for trying your best to sort this situation out, I appreciate your cooperation. I guess I just have to hope that because we have booked a suite that maybe the consierge can help us change. It looks like we may be stuck with late though if even the wait list is closed this early!

Never mind, Im sure there are lots of alternatives to eating in the main dining room.

Thanks again for your help,

 

So - imagine my total suprise this morning when I recieved this email from RCCL who I also contacted asking if they could help me switch our dinner seating, either RCCL lied to the TA or the TA lied to me, which do you think it is?! -

 

Thank you for your email. We apologize for the delay in our response.

 

Due to agency confidentiality, Royal Caribbean International cannot

release or amend any information on a reservation with anyone other than

the travel agent of record. Please contact your travel agent for

specific information about your booking. If you cannot reach your travel

agent or they do not provide you with your requested information, please

contact our Reservations department at 1-800-327-6700 and the travel

agent will be contacted on your behalf.

 

As of today, the early seating is available. Please contact your

travel agent as soon as possible.

 

Tthank you for choosing Royal Caribbean International. We

look forward to welcoming you onboard.

 

Regards,

 

Nichole Burcal

Customer Service Representative

 

Well folks, what do you make of that? I have emaild the TA this morning and asked what the heck is going on and enclosed the email from RCCL - will let you know what respone I get :mad:

 

 

I think you need to change the reservation from that TA to just handle it yourself. You are so far out that you can just cancel with TA and rebook.

 

I had a dining snafu not too long ago and I was told, by my TA, that I absolutely could not move my table because it was a week prior to the cruise and dining was closed for changes. I (always) call RCCL and ask. Usually if you call C&A directly, and explain your situation, they wont make changes but they will listen and give you counsel about what you might be able to do.

 

RCCL told me that I could still request to have my table moved. That dining would always take requests into consideration and do their best to accommodate you.

 

Here is the info you need to fax RCCL directly and request it. Despite the fact that your reservation is thru a TA, send the fax with your request explaining that the TA is telling you that early dining seating is closed, which you jsut cant believe, so you figured that you would contact them directly AND send along the email where she tells you that early dining is closed as proof.

 

Dear My TA,

I spoke with Crown and Anchor and they said that dining services would absolutely take any request into consideration, at any point in time, regardless of when the sail date is. All you have to do is fax "RCCL dining requests" with the request for change.

 

We have the following people in our group <last name><first name>

 

Please ask them to <be specific about what it is exactly you would like>

 

Please include all booking numbers for the above mentioned parties, the ship name, departure port and sail date. The information can be faxed to dining requests at 305-539-4205.

Thanks,

Your customer

 

SOUNDS like you are in for one heck of a ride with that TA tho....and you still have a year to go! :cool:

[CedarburgCruiser]

I think it time to either rebook on your own or change TA's. There is no way that a year out that dining has closed. Keep us informed on what happens.

[Bobal]

Sounds to me like the TA couldn't be bothered.

 

I emailed RCCL dining last week about our Med cruise in October as I'd heard dinner may be as late as 9.30 (just too late for us). They e-mailed straight back to confirm 2nd sitting is 9.00pm and that we could change to earlier sitting if we wanted as places are still available so can't believe they don't have availability almost a year off.

[PudgiPoo]

This is why I book my own cruises. I have had TAs mess up too many cruises. A good TA is a true blessing, but a sloppy TA is the worst thing that can happen to a cruise. I hope you either find a good TA or take over booking for yourself. Just remember to get the insurance and investigate the room you select. Good luck and happy cruising.

[lady_cruiser]

Tell your TA that you are doing the GoodBye Dance

and transferring your reservations to RCCL agents. If he asks why be honest and tell him that you can no longer trust him.

[Crewzer33]

Is it possible to just transfer your existing reservation to RCCL? I've only done it the other way around (after all my preferences are set), but that way you could keep your same suite. I would contact RCCL and ask if that was possible rather than deal with this travel agent. Can't hurt to ask.

[phoenix1181]

I'm in agreement with the others here................. Dump this TA. Either do it yourself, or find another TA, but keeping this guy is asking for more heartburn and aggravation!

[cyukuk]

 

 

Never mind, Im sure there are lots of alternatives to eating in the main dining room.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I think your comment about eating elswhere may have done the trick ??? No Main Dining room No tips !!!

 

On a recent booking with RCCL (UK) main seating was not available so I told them I would not be dining in the Dining room, miraculously an hour later ,"aftert talking to the Dining Co-ordinator" they called me back to tell me I could have it.

 

Luv

Cy

[Happy ks]

I don't know the reason RCCL told your TA dining options ar closed, it may be that it is just too far in advance to make any requests. Why not have your TA ask this question instead?

 

The response from RCCL is one you will always get from the company, they do not own the reservation, the TA does and any requests have to be made by them.

 

Unless there is some compelling reason to keep the reservation, you can always cancel and rebook. There is also no real problem with waiting until you board to change the dining option, we've done it ourselves a couple of times. I think sometimes people worry a little too much in advance, unless this cruise has been booked by a huge group that took over early seating, there is always some wiggle room with dining room seating.

[FLCruiseGirl]

There will probably be a cancellation charge from the TA, but I would do it anyway. With a year to go on a Med cruise, there may very well be other problems arise. If your TA can't handle something as simple as changing from late to early seating, how could they possibly deal with cancelled flight issues should that arise???

 

I would take their inability to resolve this fairly minor problem as a warning sign that they can't handle bigger problems. If it were me, I would cancel the booking and rebook it myself. If you don't feel comfortable handling the booking yourself, you have a lot of time to find another travel agent and transfer it to them at a later date. You could ask around and find someone through friends and/or family that have a reliable one. Before transferring the booking I would ask them how they would have handled this problem and use their response as a guide. Good luck!!!

[pach]

dump, her.

 

It most definitely could have been changed.

 

I agree with doing it yourself online. Have you compared the pricing when you do it yourself? Is it the same price??? Why give her a comission when she obviously wouldn't help you out with this simple request.

[Gixer]

Well after a short sharp email to the TA this morning asking what the heck was going on suprise suprise - guess who now has early seating?!

 

I am annoyed that such a simple thing has turned into such a drama, I have contacted RCCL and asked how to switch my booking directly to them.

[smw0621]

Gixer...what was their explanation when they told you that you now have early seating?

[tomko2]

Well after a short sharp email to the TA this morning asking what the heck was going on suprise suprise - guess who now has early seating?!

 

I am annoyed that such a simple thing has turned into such a drama, I have contacted RCCL and asked how to switch my booking directly to them.

 

Good for you! We book directly with RCCL and so far not a single problem plus they always ask if there is anything else they can do for us even if my changes or whatever had already eaten up 30 - 40 minutes of their time.

Kathy:)

[jerin]

A good travel agent is worth their weight in gold, but a bad one can cause so much stress. On our last cruise, we went through 3 terrible travel agents.

For our next one, I have a so-so travel agent. I've done all the work, I shouldn't have bothered, and they changed their policies, so I don't think we're getting the OBC we were promised when we booked.

 

So for the next cruise after that, I'm just working directly with the cruise line. We booked 19 1/2 months out, which should give me plenty of time to book my group's private excursions, deal with all the details, etc.

[yogimax]

"Much Ado About Nothing"

[realtreebar]

I have contacted RCCL and asked how to switch my booking directly to them.

 

 

Could you pass along that information of how to revert reservation back to rccl? as i want to change from hotwire.com back to Rccl thank you ever so much!:)

[Lynnees]

What RCL will tell you - submit a letter on the letterhead of the comany who owns yours booking stating "they are willing to release your booking."

 

The chances of that happening without a penalty are next to nothing.

[PH8]

Well after a short sharp email to the TA this morning asking what the heck was going on suprise suprise - guess who now has early seating?!

 

I am annoyed that such a simple thing has turned into such a drama, I have contacted RCCL and asked how to switch my booking directly to them.

Good for you.............you never know..You might want to change something else later(your cabin,for example) and shouldnt have to go thru that grief again......

 

Let us know what the TA says..

[MICK48DC]

the only reason to use them is because you get a bigger discount then booking direct, a situation i have never fully understood

[funibuni85]

Well after a short sharp email to the TA this morning asking what the heck was going on suprise suprise - guess who now has early seating?!

 

I am annoyed that such a simple thing has turned into such a drama, I have contacted RCCL and asked how to switch my booking directly to them.

 

I'm happy to hear that things worked out for you. We've never had an issue. Only once did we have late seating and then we went to the dining room on the day of boarding and they switched us on the spot.

[Lisichka]

I had a bad TA one year, and asked for the reservation to be transfered back to RCCL. At first the TA refused. I wrote the BBB. A week later it was transfered back to RCCL.

 

Some TAs just are that bad.

[xxbrowns]

I remember your original post. If I remember correctly, most of the posters couldn't understand how the early dining could have been all booked up with your cruise being so far away. Now we know that your TA, for whatever reason, didn't want to bother.

 

BTW: Did she ever say what happened?

 

Anyway, glad it worked out for you!