Fortypluscruiser

Interesting; what is the source for this? That would be my ideal situation. Just charge my onboard account.

I know a lot of executives at Royal -- some acknowledge that this is a bad policy that was instituted BEFORE Royal started adding gratuities to shipboard account. But that it is low on the priority list as far as programming their computers. So I have no clue about timing.

in sept on nos it was the smoothest water of all time

like sailing in a tub

The Atlantic is variable but Western Caribbean is calmer than Eastern unless there is a storm. Sailing from Florida to St Thomas, etc is usually the roughest because the ship is going against the current and against the trade winds.

Not true, not all the cruise lines are asking to prepay gratuities for whatever name you call it, DD, MTD, on NCL it's called freestyle dining, and if you want to pay your gratuities on your final booking for budgeting purposes you have that option to do so.

Why is this an issue, I think I know the reason. Let's take the median age group guest that cruise with RCI, most are 50 and over, most want to dine early so they can hit the early entertainment and then to bed early to be the first ones up for breakfast and as most of us know that you would need to book a cruise a year to a year and a half out to get early dinning, so RCI comes up with this fantastic idea, gives it a fancy name (DD) and makes us prepay Gratuities, this is not way to compete with NCL who is leading the industry in "Freestyle Dining" the same as MTD or DD, and why bother enticing us with OBC if we can't use it the way we choose to use it, I am so done with RCI, I'll take my business elsewhere!

Gee I must either be speaking a foreign language here or people are justing looking for a reason to be upset. All the majors including Royal are adding gratuities to your shipboard account, so you can use your OBC for them. Others besides me have already said that here. If prepaid gratuities for DD are still on your bill for final payment it is a timing issue (when you booked) and all you have to do is ask to have them removed. A TA has no financial incentive with prepaid and should have no problem removing them. If they won't then your issue is with them, not Royal. My Time is still requiring prepaid but a lot of folks at Royal want this requirement removed so hopefully it will be in the not too distant future.

And, considering that pre-payment of tips costs you an additional 10% - 45% on top of your cruise price,... it makes sense to switch cruiselines if Royal starts forcing pre-payment on its DD cruises.

Boy, you certainly do have a chip on your shoulder about this issue. The prepayment issue has been asked and answered here. Folks who booked before Royal decided on DD had prepaid gratuities added to their bookings as if it was My Time. But things evolved and you don't have to pay them unless you don't want them removed. All the major lines are doing it the same way. So it doesn't make "sense" to switch cruiselines for this reason.You can use your OBC for the gratuities. My Time was the issue, especially if you typically stiff the staff.

I just had to change a reservation I made back in June on the Oasis to a from 9/12/15 to 9/5/15 and was told that because the Oasis was changing to the Dynamic Dining Program in Spring of 2015 my gratuities will have to be pre-paid before I sail.

 

 

I was also told that I would have to choose my dining times and places before I sail. Who knows where and what they want to eat 6-9 months before your actual trip?

 

Things are really changing

Thing are really changing at Royal.

Forget what you were told. The folks manning the phones at Royal are very poorly trained -- just call three different times, talk to three different people, and get three different answers. Because there are no consequences giving the wrong answer, they just give the first answer that comes to mind. The answers for DD changed almost weekly after early and late seating suddenly disappeared from people's reservations. Eventually most of them will know what to say about DD on Oasis and Allure.

Thanks for the suggestion, I emailed C & A to ask because at the time there were about 16 JS which were midship or aft and not connecting but the response was that our booking conditions in the UK are different and 'guarantee' wouldn't be a guarantee if I was able to choose a cabin. Clearly the word guarantee has a different meaning here. There is little point phoning them because when I have called before we still get some hapless/hopeless person in Guatemala even though it is a UK number. It just seems that it depends on who you speak to as to whether you can or can't do something these days, it even took me a long time to convince the call centre agent that the 'W' category was a suite category and not a balcony category!

With 22 cruises behind me I obviously do like RCI and I don't like to appear negative but I am feeling dissolusioned and tired of the decline in service for UK guests and C & A members, just waiting for Diamond Plus members to be chucked out of the concierge lounge now.

Penton -- get a US travel agent. If you live in the UK you're not supposed to book through a US agent, but a good one knows how to get around all that.

Thanks to everyone for this thread. It has convinced me to stay away on my December 21 Allure cruise. And I will mention it next month when having dinner with a senior level RCI executive. An up charge on a $35 cover charge is in poor taste IMO.

It sounds like you have a lot of experience with these vouchers; what is the source of your information? A credit per swipe system makes a lot of sense to me actually. I'm now curious which is fact and which is fiction.

When you see 40,000 posts you can draw your conclusions based on that alone. RCCL has always compensated their staff for other free events (like pre inaugural cruises). And if their staff complains to passengers about how they are compensated, they won't have a job. So if you're looking for an excuse to be entitled and cheap, there it is.

So we all agree (Well, almost all agree) that we still tip when using the vouchers regardless if the cruise line is kicking in or not. :D

Not sure why it is so important whether people agree with them or not. People who like to reward good service will tip and cheapskates will find an excuse not to. It's the way of the world.

Keep chasing them. I cancelled a cruise on 4 Aug and was promised my refund of £637 within 3 to 4 days. Nearly 5 weeks later and I was still waiting. I was fobbed off with many excuses and it was always ' Sorry, it's been authorised but there's been a problem with transferring to my bank/accounts dept problem/finance cut off dates etc etc etc... I was so angry in the end that I emailed Adam Goldstein direct. Within 4 hours one of his representatives in Florida rang me here in England apologising profusely and assuring me that it would immediately be sorted. She rang again the following day to say the refund had been processed and it was actually back into my credit card the day after.

 

If your refund doesn't show within the next couple of days don't wait any longer. Go to the top!

Go to the top -- that's interesting advice.

Royal refunds will go back on your credit/debit card and be visible online in 3 days. There are two exceptions -- first, if the refund is over $10,000 which means a supervisor needs to approve as well. Second, your booking was part of a group booking which means extra work has to be done so the system will refund. It's all automated so the only excuse other than above is computer malfunction which is very unlikely. Virtually all RCCL payments and refunds are totally automated with no human involvement whatsoever.

I'm surprised no one is complaining about the BOGO sale. Just before starting it (early June) Royal raised all prices so that the BOGO was the same price or higher than pricing before the promotion. My booking (Allure 12/21) actually was higher after the BOGO was added. The WOW sale is not really a scam, but is supposed to be based on current rates which may or may not have increased. But it is an insult to balcony and higher cruisers who have Platinum status or above because it doesn't apply to them.

Hmmm...interesting. I know that on the Allure, we watched the game in On Air after Sail Away so it had to be something other than what was only available in port, if we follow your theory. Game started at 4:30 and SA was at 5. Anyway, there are 3 games on at that time, so I'm hoping a bitter, decades old, division rivalry game will win!! Keepin my fingers crossed. Thank you for the insight!!

Are you saying that only ONE game was televised in the On Air? I have done Oasis twice, but not during football season. And am hoping there is more than just one game televised in the 4pm Sunday time slot.

Your T/A must give you good perks' date=' since you're doing all the work. If, she's not, why don't you cut out the middle man and call the cruiseline yourself, instead of calling her?

 

I book with the Cruiseline and then transfer to my TA, for the perks. I really prefer booking directly with the Cruiseline. I have a confirmation in my email, before I get off the phone. If, I book short notice and have to pay in full, I usually just leave it with the cruiseline. I enjoy being in control of my booking.[/quote']

 

If you're looking to put travel agents out of business, then this is a good approach. Wall Street doesn't think much of a business model that pays someone (a TA) for doing nothing. And there are a lot of bad TAs out there.

I am new , this is for sure, but I thought the whole reason to book with a TA is so that they do all the work. So far I have given her a check to pay my bill in full (and not told a reason not to) , and then again found out here that once you pay for it you can not benefit from the price drop because I paid in full. I have printed out every document, sea pass ect. ect. myself so I guess I'm pretty confused on what a travel agent is for. Next time I will just book it on my own.

First of all, don't EVER pay by check or let a travel agency run your credit card through their own terminal. In doing so you are counting on them to pay the cruise line whereas if your credit card statement says "Royal Caribbean" then you know the money is where it's supposed to be. Second, this is BS. If the price went down BEFORE final and they're not giving it to you, it almost certainly means that they did the reduction and put YOUR savings in THEIR pocket. Oh, did I already say don't EVER pay by check?!

Sometimes for even more than 50% off. Make sure you check your junk email before assuming you didn't get the email.

Lifeboats in place -- could have been a lot worse!

http://p5.focus.de/img/fotos/origs4148486/166851956-w630-h472-o-q75-p5/urn-newsml-dpa-com-20090101-140920-99-03972-large-4-3.jpg

Booking direct -- you don't think they might also be incentivized to do things that are self-serving? People in life do what's best for themselves in the vast majority of cases. What the agent should have said is that once you book, the price can only go down until final payment. And if they were knowledgeable and service-oriented, they would know and would have communicated that the best early 2016 RCCL pricing is gone on many sailings. Being involved with a family group in January 2016, I know this first hand.

The rumor is that they are just adding four more AquaSuites as the secret balconies weren't generating any revenue. Makes sense. And I don't think you'd want to be in that cabin next door to the construction. If your TA is big enough, they have access to an inside sales rep who can do something to take care of you.

I agree -- I think you'll be able to get close. But what was the point of emailing her in September if you're not going to book until March?