Military discounts not allowed to ex pats

If you are a US Veteran living in the UK for example, you cannot get the Veteran discount on Royal Caribbean. However a UK veteran living in the UK can. This is just an example. We are UK Veterans who now live in Canada and have taken Canadian citizenship. We are accepted as Veterans here and treated as such, that is by anyone but Royal Caribbean.They say we are not eligible, we would have to reside in the UK and take the same cruise. We are not even allowed to go to the UK website and book as we must be UK residents to do that. So much for there policy of respecting and supporting veterans.

This is a hugely unfair practice. Service is service and I fail to see where you choose to reside has anything to do with it. This is one of those mountains I would choose to die on. Don't get the brush off from customer service, take this one to the top.

This is a hugely unfair practice. Service is service and I fail to see where you choose to reside has anything to do with it. This is one of those mountains I would choose to die on. Don't get the brush off from customer service, take this one to the top.

I am still following it up with RC and will continue as long as I can and as far up as I can I have opened a forum on The RC site of Cruise Critic too and have quite a few replies there.

Unless things have changed in the last couple of years, the only cruise line to give any kind of benefit to UK veterans are Princess, who give very generous OBC depending on cruise length....

Unless things have changed in the last couple of years, the only cruise line to give any kind of benefit to UK veterans are Princess, who give very generous OBC depending on cruise length....

Hi Dave, I had some intersting conversations with Royal Caribbean HO and they are looking into this but it will take time and will hopefully end with fair discounts accross all 3 countries. Meantime - you are from our hometown of Newport. We were born and bred there. We moved around as John joined the Royal Marines. We were living back in Newport again in the 70's then moved to the Midlands with employment. We emigrated to Canada 8.5 years ago. Maybe we know you - we are John Wyatt and Barbara Anstice. Let me know

Hi Dave, I had some intersting conversations with Royal Caribbean HO and they are looking into this but it will take time and will hopefully end with fair discounts accross all 3 countries. Meantime - you are from our hometown of Newport. We were born and bred there. We moved around as John joined the Royal Marines. We were living back in Newport again in the 70's then moved to the Midlands with employment. We emigrated to Canada 8.5 years ago. Maybe we know you - we are John Wyatt and Barbara Anstice. Let me know

You won't know me has I'm from St. Helens in Lancashire originally. I was based in South Wales in the RAF and met my wife from Cardiff 20 years ago. We moved to Newport 8 years ago from Cardiff because it was considerably cheaper but only 5 mins down the road.....Sorry to say, even though Newport is now a city, it's a bit of a dump...:( :(

You won't know me has I'm from St. Helens in Lancashire originally. I was based in South Wales in the RAF and met my wife from Cardiff 20 years ago. We moved to Newport 8 years ago from Cardiff because it was considerably cheaper but only 5 mins down the road.....Sorry to say, even though Newport is now a city, it's a bit of a dump...:( :(

Although Newport is my home town, I must agree with the 'bit of a dump' bit. It was nicer when we were younger of course, with a really nice High Steet, real market etc. We were married in 1964 St Woolos Cathedral which is beautiful and must still be. My aunty Lil used to own a cafe on the Preston By-Pass before the motorway took over. You will no doubt have been pleased about Wigan winning the cup as we were about Newport finally making it back into the League. Although we are more ardent fans of Rugby of course. John's cousins boy Chris Wyatt used to play for Wales.

Maybe we will get to see you on a cruise one day. Our next one is from Austrlia to Honolulu with RC next April. We are celebrating the year of our Golden wedding and both being 70 - well not so much celebrating as drowning our sorrows.

Best wishes

Barbara

If you are a US Veteran living in the UK for example, you cannot get the Veteran discount on Royal Caribbean. However a UK veteran living in the UK can. This is just an example. We are UK Veterans who now live in Canada and have taken Canadian citizenship. We are accepted as Veterans here and treated as such, that is by anyone but Royal Caribbean.They say we are not eligible, we would have to reside in the UK and take the same cruise. We are not even allowed to go to the UK website and book as we must be UK residents to do that. So much for there policy of respecting and supporting veterans.

I think we have two issues confused here. As a US military stationed oversea - I cruised RCI and got the military discount. Once I retired, and remained overseas, all RCI ever did was look at my ID card (scanned in) and it did not matter where in the world I was booking from. I (over the last couple of years) booked through US, UK and Germany cruise agents. Which site I use depends on the currency in which I want to pay. And since all US veterans have to have a US bank account in order to receive their retired pay every month, it makes the most sense to book in $ through the US, so RCI neither knows nor cares.

I just relocated a "mailing address" to the US for the purposes of credit cards and live in Germany when not living out of my suitcase.

I think your issue is that you are a UK veteran and RCI originally extended the benefit only to US and Canadian Military. Same with Police, EMT and firefighters.

Will be surprised if they don't fix this sooner or later.

respectfully

-Holly (33 years US Army - three of which were spent with RAMC)

I think we have two issues confused here. As a US military stationed oversea - I cruised RCI and got the military discount. Once I retired, and remained overseas, all RCI ever did was look at my ID card (scanned in) and it did not matter where in the world I was booking from. I (over the last couple of years) booked through US, UK and Germany cruise agents. Which site I use depends on the currency in which I want to pay. And since all US veterans have to have a US bank account in order to receive their retired pay every month, it makes the most sense to book in $ through the US, so RCI neither knows nor cares.

 

I just relocated a "mailing address" to the US for the purposes of credit cards and live in Germany when not living out of my suitcase.

 

I think your issue is that you are a UK veteran and RCI originally extended the benefit only to US and Canadian Military. Same with Police, EMT and firefighters.

 

Will be surprised if they don't fix this sooner or later.

 

respectfully

-Holly (33 years US Army - three of which were spent with RAMC)

Hi, thanks for your notes. RCI did contact me at the highest level and promised to look into the anomolies. They also thought these would be corrected in the future. That was some months ago and I don't see any changes yet but I suppose it takes a while for these things to get sorted. I am glad you are able to get your discounts. We are still cruising with RC from Australia to Honolulu next spring, love this line. Best wishes Barbara