RuthieG

Thanks for the suggestions, will discuss with hubby and decide which one he is most comfortable with :-)

We are staying over with a friend in Newbury the night before, so won't be needing a hotel on this occasion. good idea though :-)

We are sailing on the Azura on 23rd June and I've left it a bit late to arrange parking. Sorry if this has been answered elsewhere but my baby brain can't find it.

After a bad experience of meet and great parking (the "chauffeur" crashing our car into another whilst drunk, near Manchester Airport) we would prefer a car park where we can keep our own car keys. Are there any not too far from the port? The plan will be that hubby will drop the baby and I off with all of our luggage, then park and join us.

Thanks

Back to P&O really, as cruised with them before in 2015. Deciding factors included suitable dates, lots of baby equipment on board, a night nursery and a good price. We will be celebrating my 40th birthday on board :-)

If anyone is still subscribed to this thread, you may remember we were planning fertility treatment. Well, we have just booked our first cruise as a family of three! Hope that our P&O cruise to the Fjords will pass without flooding, broken windows or missing luggage

I have just arrived in my childhood home town of Edinburgh for my high school reunion tomorrow. Sadly all my suitcase is still in Venice. You couldn't make it up!

We are just waiting for our flight home, having had a fab time on our do-over cruise. Weather was amazing (didn't seven notice we were moving 99% of the time) and apart from some problems with MyTime dining it was all great.

We are glad we gave Rhapsody another chance :-)

Ruthie--I thought of you immediatley when I first saw this thread. :eek: I remembered you had booked a cruise for the fall.

 

I thought --please do not let her be on this cruise. :D

If I had been on this cruise i think I would have cried!

That's all good to hear

One of my abiding memories of us being evacuated was turning around to find my husband fully dressed up to his waterproof jacket, except he didn't have any trousers on! glad he didn't scare the corridor with his underpants!

Thanks :-)

I have just been attacked by some muppet on another thread who said this

"Yes, because Royal Caribbean should be able to control the weather, right? You aren't even on this sailing, and you are still complaining? I'm sure you are a pleasure to have onboard. Maybe you should stay on land."

I nearly linked him to this thread so you guys could all back me up on how well you think we dealt with our on-board drama.

What a ****

We were on the Rhapsody on 25th April, and were disembarked after our cabin was flooded. We are booked on our do-over cruise on the Rhapsody on the 26th, so interested to see what happens now

I actually think I could cry! Seriously regretting our decision to give Royal Caribbean and the Rhapsody another chance :-(

http://www.cruisecritic.co.uk/news/news.cfm?ID=7243

Thanks for your review :-)

As you will appreciate we are approaching our trip with a little trepidation given our April trip, but you have reassured us that the Rhapsody is a lovely ship, and we are looking forward to our departure even more now.

Our TA has now refunded the credit card fee of £49.80, after I pointed out that I had already paid it when I booked the holiday. That was after they offered to take it off my next booking... eh, you really think I'll be booking with you again?!

I use a couple of cash back sites which are both offering 5% for booking one line. When booking our replacement cruise I was offered $50 OBC, this was before I had mentioned the vouchers!

That's the one. style over substance...

I wouldn't touch our TA again with a barge pole! Think will stick with booking direct, we can get Cash back and no credit card fee, and UK TAs never seem to be able to save is more than about £100 anyway

RCL just rang me and confirmed they did repay the whole amount, and that it must be my TA who has made the deduction. I explained how useless my TA had been, and RCL have said they refund us the £50 so that we can draw a line under the whole thing :-)

So that is that. All money refunded, new cruise booked. A tale to tell the Grandchildren, and a lucky escape!

I have looked again at my booking, it appears that the amount that has been withheld is actually the booking fee. Will need to clarify with the TA what the amount of the cheque they received was, as RCL have given me some duff payment amounts before!

I have been dealing with one guy at Customer Relations in the US who has been dealing with our whole claim all along, even other messages I have sent are replied to by him! For traceability and practicality I tend to use email rather than phone.

When I did call to book our replacement cruise I asked the person answering to ring me back... 0345 numbers are soooo expensive, I think I would be cheaper calling the US!

And for any Brits on the board, the TA's are a big cruise website,where you can review your cruise and they will give you a free book. No names though, obvs.

Good news, most of our refund money was received today, directly in to our bank account.

Bad news, we are £50 short, so it does seem that the TA has deducted an admin charge. We are fuming! Stroppy email sent.

Monday is 30 days, so will be firing out emails to TA, Amex and RCI. Originally the TA told me that they basically had an account with RCI that was settled each month, not convinced that is true!

British TAs tend to work a bit differently I think. He won't be getting any more business from us anyway .. . For some reason RC sent them a cheque for our refund

Don't now you rules over there. Over here, I would file a claim with the credit card company.

According to Amex, the company has 30 days to apply a refund, so come Monday we will be getting them involved.

The original response from my TA was "we will just keep hold of it for you for when you book your next cruise". Eh, no!

Having checked the paperwork when I booked the cruise, they state that refunds will take "up to 6 weeks" to process. And they will deduct £50 as an Admin charge. *sigh*