How to book a Royal Caribbean Cruise in 29 (not so) easy steps

1. Buy an NextCruise Decide Later certificate whist on a RCI cruise in February 2013 to take advantage of the OBC offered.

2. Spend months watching prices trying to find an affordable cruise out of the UK in July or August 2015.

3. Find a cruise for just over $150/person/night for an inside cabin and decide to book it because even though it's more than you pay for an Australian cruise it's the cheapest one you've seen in your months of searching.

4. Ring Royal Caribbean and wait on hold.

5. Speak to a cruise consultant who tries to charge you more than the price showing on the Internet.

6. Believe them when they say the invoice they are emailing you with an incorrect higher price will be rectified within a few days.

7. Wait nearly two weeks.

8. Ring Royal Caribbean and spend over 40 minutes on the phone, much if it waiting on hold.

9. Explain the problem and they email you a corrected invoice.

10. Whilst on the phone ask about booking an additional cabin for your in-laws so that they can also get the same OBC as you only to be told it's not possible.

11. Two days later check the fine print on the certificate and discover you can book up to 3 cabins with each one receiving the OBC.

12. Ring RCI and ask again about booking an additional cabin and read them the fine print from the certificate.

13. Wait on hold while the consultant checks with the supervisor.

14. Complete a separate booking for your in-laws, but linked to your booking so they get the OBC as well.

15. The following day receive an updated invoice over $600 higher than the previous (corrected) one.

16. Email cruiseadmin.au@rcclapac.com with all the details and receive no response

17. Ring RCI again and spend over 50 minutes on the phone, much of it on hold.

18. Email the consultant a copy of the correct invoice (version 2) as requested and wait on hold while he checks with his supervisor.

19. Be told that it will take up to 24hours to correct the problem.

20. Get upset at this and ask to speak to the supervisor.

21. Loose your cool with the jumped up little so and so of a supervisor who insists that he can't fix the problem then and there, can't transfer you to anyone else but promises to ring you back with a resolution within 24 hours. The supervisor refuses to give you his full name he goes under "Martin A."

22. The following day Explain to DW that you're worried that Martin A. must be sick because he'd promised to call back within 24hours.

23. Spend the next week worried that Martin A. is seriously ill or has met with an accident because he hasn't called.

24. Ring RCI and ask to speak to Martin A. only to be told that he hasn't come in yet. Ask if he's sick and learn that, no, he was in yesterday.

25. Ask to speak to a supervisor.

26. Showing great self control, explain the whole saga all over again, remaining calm and polite yet firm throughout the conversation.

27. Wait on hold, yet again.

28. Finally be told that RCI are issuing a corrected invoice.

29. Receive the corrected invoice by email.

I can only hope that this is the end of the saga. Whilst I love cruising with RCI, their booking process is an absolute joke. It's enough to make me consider going back to using a travel agent rather than booking direct!

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why would anyone want to book with the cruise line when you go to all that trouble, i always book with an agent and never have that problem

I feel for you mate. That is not how it should be. We would never get a future cruise certificate again due to the fact you do have to ring. It seems almost impossible for them at the call centre to see what is offered on the Aus site, and whatever they agree to on the phone is rarely what turns up on the email. We have had bookings with up to version 9 on them!

Or you have to find a agent that you are happy to use, and I know plenty of people love their agents, but where we are must be just too far from the sea. They have been no help.

We find booking direct with the company online is so much easier. We pay the full $800 deposit, most of the time we have been offered more OBC than you get on the FCC, and when you press the button to book, it produces an invoice for the exact figure that is on the screen. If you want to cancel, you press the cancel button before the penalty time, and the money lands back on the credit card in 4 days.

Those future certificates are so restrictive with being combined with any sales promotions these days, that we have one in limbo, and we will probably find that we will forfeit the cost of it just so that we don't have to go through the angst of the phone torture, and we will more than likely be better off with the special sale rate OBC we can get instead.

Your loyalty has not been rewarded in my opinion. I hope you get to enjoy the holiday anyhow!

I feel for you mate. That is not how it should be. We would never get a future cruise certificate again due to the fact you do have to ring. It seems almost impossible for them at the call centre to see what is offered on the Aus site, and whatever they agree to on the phone is rarely what turns up on the email. We have had bookings with up to version 9 on them!

 

Or you have to find a agent that you are happy to use, and I know plenty of people love their agents, but where we are must be just too far from the sea. They have been no help.

 

We find booking direct with the company online is so much easier. We pay the full $800 deposit, most of the time we have been offered more OBC than you get on the FCC, and when you press the button to book, it produces an invoice for the exact figure that is on the screen. If you want to cancel, you press the cancel button before the penalty time, and the money lands back on the credit card in 4 days.

 

Those future certificates are so restrictive with being combined with any sales promotions these days, that we have one in limbo, and we will probably find that we will forfeit the cost of it just so that we don't have to go through the angst of the phone torture, and we will more than likely be better off with the special sale rate OBC we can get instead.

 

Your loyalty has not been rewarded in my opinion. I hope you get to enjoy the holiday anyhow!

in our town we have a TA with a b&m shop but I'd rather go online as they can give me a better price than my local TA

I sometimes book direct and other times through various on line TA and even though I do all the ground work myself I still haven't ever had a trouble free booking either way. At this very moment I am waiting on a call back from a TA who advertised an Alaskan cruise combined with USA/Rockies/Honolulu trip at a very good price last Monday - 5 days ago!!!

My initial contact was to ask availability, sorry we cant tell you without doing a quote, I will get back to you tomorrow with a quote. Gave home, mobile phone numbers and email address. If I had decided I really do want to do the trip I am sure it is too late now. so....... no matter how good the deal is, chances are with this company it was a ploy and wasn't going to be available anyway. It is an online TA who regularly send me emails but I plan to unsubscribe. In the past 5 days I have done my own calculations and can get flights, same hotels, same cruise etc etc etc at just over $1000pp less than their advertised price. Good thing they are so slack,..... :D Still waiting to hear back, maybe I am being harsh and Lauren at the 1st cruise company that I tried (get me drift) is also off sick or worse !!!!

I sometimes book direct and other times through various on line TA and even though I do all the ground work myself I still haven't ever had a trouble free booking either way. At this very moment I am waiting on a call back from a TA who advertised an Alaskan cruise combined with USA/Rockies/Honolulu trip at a very good price last Monday - 5 days ago!!!

My initial contact was to ask availability, sorry we cant tell you without doing a quote, I will get back to you tomorrow with a quote. Gave home, mobile phone numbers and email address. If I had decided I really do want to do the trip I am sure it is too late now. so....... no matter how good the deal is, chances are with this company it was a ploy and wasn't going to be available anyway. It is an online TA who regularly send me emails but I plan to unsubscribe. In the past 5 days I have done my own calculations and can get flights, same hotels, same cruise etc etc etc at just over $1000pp less than their advertised price. Good thing they are so slack,..... :D Still waiting to hear back, maybe I am being harsh and Lauren at the 1st cruise company that I tried (get me drift) is also off sick or worse !!!!

I get emails off that company and I did enquire once but they gave me the run around so I didn't book

I never do the package deals that any TA or online TA offers. I find I can do all the bookings myself and sometimes cheaper. I also like to have a degree of flexibility in my bookings too.

However, if its just a cruise. I use either the cruiseline or online TA to book. I've never had any problems with any of the online TA's I've used. One I have booked several cruises without any hitches.

I was enticed to ring the call centre because I received an email offering me $200 OBC if I used my future cruise credit before a certain time. The price came in at over $400 to $1400 more each time I rang the call centre than booking on line. I could no longer cope with ringing the call centre and I cancelled but to cut a long story short, I booked on line at the cheaper price with $200 OBC and received another on board credit of $200 because I complained to the Australian office when it took about 8 weeks to get my $200 deposit back.

When booking on line, at the end of the booking and before you make a payment, there is a question asking the reference number of your future cruise credit. Well I could not answer that because I lost it when trying to book and eventually cancelling.

I am not sure I will buy another cruise credit while on board but I definitely will only book on line. The on line booking shows the on board credit but the call centre booking never showed any cruise credit on the invoice.

It is a real shame RCCL has come to this with such a poor call centre and that their supposed sales are price increases. Who can believe them?

Unfortunately, this situation is now pretty standard. Been there, done that.:mad:

We now only book while on board, and get extra OBC.

And we are now booking other cruise lines.:(

...... The on line booking shows the on board credit but the call centre booking never showed any cruise credit on the invoice....

 

The call centre people tell us that the OBC we are due will show up a month before the cruise. Yep, I am sure it will...NOT! We are yet to get within a month of one of our certificate cruises, so I can't say it will not show, but why would it show straight away when you book the on-board future cruise, but when you buy a future cruise certificate then it will be there a month before? I reckon they think a lot of people will forget and then even if you remember they will probably send you another invoice with the rest of the price all wrong.

So the future cruise credit benefits as advertised:

$100 per person deposit + OBC which depends on the length of the cruise.

Reality: You need to call them, and then you are restricted from specials, and then the OBC is doubtful. If you decide later to cancel the cruise you may loose that deposit if you can't transfer it to another cruise. We haven't tried that one yet.

We bought a couple of the FCCs as well as booking a cruise while on board, but I can't see us wasting time on board with that again. It seemed like a good idea at the time.

I've also been told the OBC ($150) from a next cruise certificate will show up about 40 days before the cruise as it is applied by a different department :rolleyes:

Well we shall see - I sense another long phone call to Guatemala :mad:

I have another cruise booked through a US agent and got RCI OBC, and that amount showed up straight away on my invoice, so work that one out!

Had similar problems last year with RCI and phone booking with a FCC. Many calls to Guatemala. Supervisors rectified wrong balance each time but heard lots of excuses. They finally told me not to go online to the checkin website after having to pay final payment over the phone. Luckily I copied a Setsail pass before it reverted to being retracted.

Turned up at OPT armed with all my documented communications, expecting the worst, but all was fine. Booked our next RCI cruise onboard but even she mucked it up with wrong spelling, birth dates etc. Next time thinking of using an online agent if cruising with RCI and missing any C&A benefits - not worth the worry.

Then again we have just experienced the lovely Diamond Princess and booked online with Princess, using a previous credit and got more OBC and a good priced fare and so far no troubles.

Sorry Sparky, but sometimes it is worth having a TA do it for you, whether they are an shopfront or online, here or abroad, at least they can deal with bad booking processes.

I would cancelled my booking if they made me jump through that many hoops.:(

We have used 2 Future Cruise certificates with RCI and have had no problems. We just gave the Certificate number to our regular travel agent and she did it all. You don't have to book through RCI direct.

Diane

We have used 2 Future Cruise certificates with RCI and have had no problems. We just gave the Certificate number to our regular travel agent and she did it all.

Our experience also.

Our experience also.

I haven't had a RCI one as yet but have used both X and Princess with no issues but both times we have also used a TA and only provided the details of the certificate.:D

Hi Sparky,

Sorry to hear you had a bad experience! Hope you are well otherwise?

I booked a Voyager cruise during a sale about 2 months back, it was one that actually allowed me to combine all the discounts possible - my next cruise cert with diamond balcony discount as well as the $400 OBC/ 50% off second passenger deal they were offering.

So we ended up with a total of $550 OBC & a well priced cruise! Did it all online first then rang RCCL to transfer it across to the Next Cruise booking number - no problems encountered.

I also was told the repriced docs would be emailed & they were.

Sometimes you just get one of those bad days & everything snowballs from there, lets hope your bad booking is behind you. :)

Personally I have found booking direct better than with the travel agent - I prefer the control I have over my booking.

Enjoy your cruise.

Hi Sparky,

 

Sorry to hear you had a bad experience! Hope you are well otherwise?

 

I booked a Voyager cruise during a sale about 2 months back, it was one that actually allowed me to combine all the discounts possible - my next cruise cert with diamond balcony discount as well as the $400 OBC/ 50% off second passenger deal they were offering.

 

So we ended up with a total of $550 OBC & a well priced cruise! Did it all online first then rang RCCL to transfer it across to the Next Cruise booking number - no problems encountered.

 

I also was told the repriced docs would be emailed & they were.

 

Sometimes you just get one of those bad days & everything snowballs from there, lets hope your bad booking is behind you. :)

 

Personally I have found booking direct better than with the travel agent - I prefer the control I have over my booking.

 

Enjoy your cruise.

It sounds like you were very lucky to be able to combine everything, well done on scoring a real deal.:D

It sounds like you were very lucky to be able to combine everything, well done on scoring a real deal.:D

You're not wrong! I couldn't believe it when I read the terms & conditions, so I jumped in & booked something quick smart since no deposit was required based on my next cruise voucher being used!

I see now the same offer is available on the RCCL site except it can't be combined with C&A benefits. Maybe they made a mistake in the T&C's when I booked & have since realised & changed it?

Thanks everyone for your support and encouragement. Cruise Critic can be a great way to blow of steam.

I'm not sure if it's a good or bad thing that we have another certificate to use at a future date.

Rest assured that we WILL enjoy our cruise - we always do. It's just annoying that the booking process is such a pain in the proverbial.

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Thanks everyone for your support and encouragement. Cruise Critic can be a great way to blow of steam.

 

I'm not sure if it's a good or bad thing that we have another certificate to use at a future date.

 

Rest assured that we WILL enjoy our cruise - we always do. It's just annoying that the booking process is such a pain in the proverbial.

 

 

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I hope you can snag a bargain like Avalon007 did and still be able to use the certificate. :D

I hope you can snag a bargain like Avalon007 did and still be able to use the certificate. :D

Me too! :D

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We had an equivalent of "future cruise credit benefits : $100 per person deposit + OBC which depends on the length of the cruise" with Princess and managed to apply it when booking through an Australian on-line travel agent with no problems. I didn't even have to find the bit of paper as it was linked to our member number :) . I have also used the Princess direct booking call centre and they seemed very competent and helpful.

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It sounds like you were very lucky to be able to combine everything, well done on scoring a real deal.:D

I believe that was the basis of our problems with a phone booking for the FCC booking. It was a BOGOHO deal and in the conditions as advertised in Aus, it was combinable for FCC - $100 deposit + OBC, C&A Diamond discount and half price 2nd guest. We ended up with a Grand Suite at a price cheaper than a balcony. Apparently in the US all of these discounts are not always combinable. Always check the fine print as at one point RCI rep was telling us we were only entitled to one discount and even though the original quote was correct at booking, the website kept altering the balance.

We have booked online direct with RCI many times with no problems but certainly had some with the website after the RCI phone booking for the FCC.

I believe that was the basis of our problems with a phone booking for the FCC booking. It was a BOGOHO deal and in the conditions as advertised in Aus, it was combinable for FCC - $100 deposit + OBC, C&A Diamond discount and half price 2nd guest. We ended up with a Grand Suite at a price cheaper than a balcony. Apparently in the US all of these discounts are not always combinable. Always check the fine print as at one point RCI rep was telling us we were only entitled to one discount and even though the original quote was correct at booking, the website kept altering the balance.

We have booked online direct with RCI many times with no problems but certainly had some with the website after the RCI phone booking for the FCC.

I think you were very lucky with that in the end, it seems that they don't like losing too much money.