chug

A big thank you to everyone who has taken the time to comment and give their advice. Just as a background, when we first booked this cruise in August in 2014 the TA did not have any deck plans available and reliant upon RCI and made the booking over the phone. The mistake appears to have been down to Guatemalan staff at their remote call centre who did not realise that these cabins were not opposite each other and even when we brought it to their attention last week, the representative still insisted that they were for a good 5 minutes before he studied the brochure himself!

Our TA were Thomson and were adamant that it was not down to them and it was a RCI mistake. They only ever contacted the Guatemala call centre ( and that was after we had already done so ) and came back to us saying unfortunately nothing could be done. They would not be covering the extra cost because they felt it was not down to them.

Thankfully my husband, having had to take time of work to deal with this, managed to contact Michael Bayley (RCI president) and thank God within one day everything has been sorted out. We have been allocated rooms next door to each other and will still pay the promotional price we were originally quoted.

Thank you all again for your support

Chug

I would be very interested to hear how this situation gets resolved or handled.

Hi everyone, we are having terrible trouble at the moment. Our TA is getting nowhere and has spoken to Guatemala call centre on a number of occasions as has my husband. They have offered us two balcony rooms next to each other but are saying we will have to not only cover the increased cost but are also stating that the drinks inclusive package that we originally had will not not stand. When we originally booked a year ago there was a promotion that we took advantage of. They will not honour this. It has upset us all so much. we can not believe the way RCI are dealing with the matter after all this has been their error and we have done absolutely nothing wrong. Today they have offered us our money back. We have booked a hotel in Southhampton and my husband has booked these two weeks off work. We have been watching the videos of the ship feeling all excited and now we feel so stressed and let down by RCI. My husband will email Michael Bailey this evening but it seems like anyone with any authority is actually enjoying a freebie on Anthem of the Seas at the moment.

Question: when you first booked, did YOU look at the deck plan, or were you relying on your TA? If the latter, do you have anything in writing confirming that your cabins had opposite doors, or at least your telling your TA that you needed this? Because if the fault here is your TA's, then it seems to me they need to absorb the increased price, and I'd be all over them about that. If the fault is RCI's then your TA needs to go up the chain of command at RCI and get this fixed. And it sounds like your TA better be putting those two nearby cabins on hold for you before they disappear as well.

 

I'm not familiar with RCI's policies on kids under 21, but if they allowed a booking that was not "legal," then that's on your TA and/or them; again, one of them needs to fix this per the above.

 

If you really need to go to the top at RCI (and you shoudn't, that's what your TA is for), Michael Bayley is now President and CEO of RCI. According to other thread, his e mail is mbayley@rccl.com

Thank you so much, we didn't see a plan when we originally booked. we were just told deck 7, opposite each other, even today both TA and RC were insisting we were until they realised we actually were not. You are right, its not up to us to sort it out but you know when you get the feeling that no one is actually interested and you lose faith in them all. The TA was closing for the day and RC advisor was so adamant that there was nothing they could do but charge us extra. Thank you again for your help and sending the CEO email. I have a feeling my husband will be up all night trying to sort it out, he's so worked up

I am very sorry this has happened to you. It sounds like you are working with a travel agent, and that they told you they'd booked you into cabins with doors opposite each other. If so, they have to do whatever it takes now to fix this -- have they (and you) looked into other available cabins?

 

I hope you are able to get things worked out, and that you have a great cruise.

Hi, thank you, apparently the ship is, as we feared, almost full now. We were given the option of two cabins next door but two to each other which was fine but then they said that because we got this cruise at a promotional price a year ago they would treat this as a new booking and charge us more! Both Thomsons and Royal Caribbean did not know their own deck plan and it took us to point this out to them. The advisor at Royal Caribbean was French and rude and offered no apologies or solutions.

Please can anyone help?

I feel like iam going to have a breakdown and this is making my husband ill. we are a family with 2 teenage daughters, 13 and 15. We are booked to go on Anthem on Aug !st 2015 and have had this booked for a year. Last night we looked at the deck plan. When we booked we made sure myself and my husband were directly opposite my daughters cabin. ( Royal Caribbean insist on this in their policies - that anyone under 21 is opposite or next to their parents ) it also was the only way we wanted to travel. We were assured by both our agents, Thompsons and Royal Caribbean that this is what we had. On looking at the plan last night we realised that we were actually opposite the BACK of our daughters room and that there is a corridor between us making us actually nowhere near each other. We went straight to Thompsons who at first said this was not the case and not to worry. Then they had a closer look. They rang Royal Caribbean who also insisted everything was fine and that we were opposite. After our third attempt to explain their own deck plan to them, they were shocked to realise we were not. The man on the phone said he had worked there for 10 years and did not realise the deck of this new ship was layed out this way.Basically no one is helping us, we can not believe it. We need to know the head of customer relations for Royal Caribbean - can anyone please help.

Thank you so much for your help 😃

Hi there, really hoping someone can help. We have just booked a last minute holiday on Thompson Dream for a week - Cubon Fusion. Beginning of April. We have only ever sailed with Princess before and I'm starting to panic a bit reading a lot of negative reviews. We have 2 teenage daughters 15 and 13 so we have had to pay for 4 adults. Thing is I can't find a soft drinks package anywhere. We always get 2 with Princess because we don't have to worry how many drinks they ask for then! Myself and my husband are not big drinkers so it wouldn't be worth it for us. Does anyone know if they have a soft drinks package and if so do I purchase it on board?

Thank you everyone