Bencruisin

Catching covid wasn't the deciding factor in our recent decision to avoid cruising. It was just one factor along with things like the increased cost, lack of recourse, all the work that goes into preparing for the cruise as well as the treatment we received in front of our grandkids regarding the BC. As I've said earlier in this thread... I'm never going to convince anyone that we didn't take our frustrations out on the agent who immediately lost her temper with us when the BC issue became known but we're aware of what can happen now and in front of our grandkids. I hope everyone who cruises has a great cruise. Its just not for us anymore.

The end of the original story: After failing for months to get a cash refund instead of a discounted cruise credit we had a family meeting. Everyone agreed that the cruise credit was too much money to leave on the table, that the covid rules were not nearly as intrusive as they had been and that we would all have passports this time. I verified everything we were told whether I had proof or not and spent countless hours educating myself by reading everything on the web site and everything I was sent. I did run into contradicting information between what was on the Royal web site, what I was told and documents/emails we were sent related to how the cruise credits could be used. Knowing that Royal will enforce whatever rule they please when there is contradicting information I made the decision to expect the least desirable outcome and was not disappointed. We booked a 7 day Caribbean cruise on Harmony Of The Seas and again took out travel insurance. The 8 of us had a good time. Especially the 4 and 8 year old who had never been on a cruise. There were some issues but they were minor until the day we disembarked. The day we disembarked some luggage got lost. Several of us felt "off" and we chalked it up to partying hard the night before. We had to wait a couple hours for the missing luggage and got charged for an additional day of parking ($30?) when we ended up missing the time we had to be out of the parking garage to not be charged for an additional day. I didn't bother trying to rectify this. The day after we got home WE ALL TESTED POSITIVE FOR COVID and the Facebook site for this cruise was filled with others who tested positive the day they disembarked or a day or two after returning. My wife and I hadn't got covid till then. After decades of cruising we've decided to steer clear from now on.

Because we live within 2 hours driving distance of the port we mentioned we could get there and back with our expired passports and was told it wouldn't help. We didn't try expedited passports because we cruised decades ago using birth certificates and when the idea of cruising came up we confirmed with the Royal booking agent if we could use our BC and the answer was yes but my wife would also need a marriage certificate. I had mentioned we hadn't cruised in quite awhile and aside from covid was there anything else that might have changed we might not like and we were told no. Please don't misconstrue the "has anything changed" question as an attempt to lay the blame at the Royal booking agents feet. The question was pointed more toward what may have changed onboard.

I took out the insurance on a hunch. My gut was telling me that things were "off" as compared to all the previous cruises we've taken. Maybe it was all the covid steps and rules. Even though it looked like covid issues for the most part would result in a refund of sorts I thought it was a good idea to take out insurance for the $9000 cost.

Correct.

The insurance was expensive but after what happened I guess it paid off. I never take the insurance on these things. Got lucky...

I never take out insurance but this time I did. Its the insurance Royal recommends and I've verified I'm getting a 90% cruise credit. This is why I wonder about the customers who didn't have insurance. Seems kind of harsh to not do something other than take their money and show them out.

I'm just never going to convince anyone that my entire family was shocked by what was happening but we never raised our voice or took anything out on anyone. I'm actually proud of that. The same lady who reviewed our documents was the one who walked us to the "exception" window and the only person we talked to from then on was the lady who seemed to be having a horrible day. I've already verified we will get a 90% cruise credit from AON (The Royal recommended insurance).

I really feel for anyone who may not have had travel insurance. At least I'll recoup most of it. The reason for the post was ..... I've been wondering about other people who had a similar experience who had no travel insurance. Are they really out all that money just like that? Because of a honest mistake like a PR BC? That's a lot of money! And they were stranded. In our case my grandkids luggage didn't show up along with some others who were denied boarding. Again we were the lucky ones....we live within a couple hours of the terminal. I've run into two other recent denied boarding stories that look like the customer isn't going to recoup anything other than the taxes and fees. I wonder how often this happens.

That's exactly what I'm doing. I had travel insurance so I'm not expecting to be out that much.

I appreciate all the responses so far but I've only had one response answering the questions asked: Anyone else experience something like this? Were you able to get a refund for more than taxes and fees?

Couldn't agree more. If you're working the "surprise, you can't board or get your money back" window the chances are good someone's going to lose control. That thought entered my mind each time I was glared at and it helped me to take the high road. I got the impression we were expected to lose control and some of what we experienced was a defense mechanism for the employee. Still, as I taught my kids, just because you had something bad happen doesn't give you the right to visit that on anyone else. The reason we got surprised by the PR BC was because our passport expired a month prior so we had been using passports before and after the 2010 PR rules.

Not saying she was supposed to know that....I would expect her to know about the rule though and to mention it during the time we asked about using birth certificates just like the myriad of things she mentioned about covid. Many didn't pertain to us but we were told about them.

I wasn't trying to say the booking agent is to blame. I'm simply saying the agent didn't inform us of anything other than we could use birth certificates. I put this out there in case anyone thinks we just ignored the agent's information and decided we could do what we please. Based on some of the interaction I saw it seemed like the people working boarding thought some customers were ignoring rules "they new about".

Looks like I messed up .... the birth certificate in question was from 1980 and the PR rule was all birth certificates issued before 2011 need to be re-issued. I mis-typed the "after" 2010 had to be re-issued. It should have read "before". Thanks for catching that!

We've been cruising for decades and this is the first time I've seen someone denied boarding let alone experienced it. We were supposed to sail the Independence of the Seas out of Port Canaveral but were denied boarding because of a Puerto Rico birth certificate dated before 2011. Turns out Puerto Rico birth certificates issued after 2010 had to be re-issued to be valid. When booking over the phone with the Royal agent we explained that our passports had just expired and we wanted to know if we could use birth certificates. The Royal booking agent replied "Yes, but your wife will also need the marriage certificate". When we finally got to the document verification line we were told my wife's birth certificate wasn't valid and we wouldn't be allowed to board. We were treated horribly once we were denied boarding but I'm happy to say we continued to treat every Royal employee with respect even though we weren't treated similarly. The person working the "exception" desk literally raised her voice in anger and glared at us a couple times. I have a suspicion she had been stressed and abused by a customer or two and was paying it forward. I checked the Royal FAQ page and found a mention of the PR birth certificate issue. I'm not upset that this PR rule caused us to be denied boarding. I'm upset that there are situations like this where cash refunds are not policy when the customer is expected to know more than the subject matter expert/Royal booking agent. After being told we could use birth certificates we didn't investigate further so I consider the blame to be shared with the agent we depended on. Anyone else experience something like this? Were you able to get a refund for more than taxes and fees? I've already reached out to Royal at an 800 number and been told there's nothing they can do but I'm not sure those agents do little more than read from a script.