Cancelled Rccl cruise on December 5th 2017 due to charter

We just received an email from Royal informing us that our cruise on December 5th has been cancelled as it is now a chartered cruise, has anybody else received this email or knows who chartered it? Thanks :confused:

We just received an email from Royal informing us that our cruise on December 5th has been cancelled as it is now a chartered cruise, has anybody else received this email or knows who chartered it? Thanks :confused:

Of such a thing, till I started this website. :(( Does anybody know what the stated cruise lines gives the offended victim. And how in God's little green apples do they compensate someone for a week's (or longer) lost vacation?? I know, when all is said and done, we are 'little people' in the corporate world but I mean, c'mon, corporate people :(( I've made 3 cruises on RCCL and eleven on CCL (with one coming up this March) and I know from experience, my wife would be 'spiting MAD' if this ever happen. If anybody here has had this happen, and I hope I'm not prying, what was your response and how did you handle it. Many thanks for any who answer.

Mac

Could ask the name of the RCL ship? Because I will definitely stay away (not that it would sway or deter RCCL) from doing the same to ANY of their ships :(Just thought I'd inquire. Thank you, for any info and I am so SORRY this happened.

Mac

Take a breath...ships get chartered frequently, usually a year or more in advance. There are many forms of compensation..or rescheduling. As this appears to be an Australian oriented cruise- assuming here- the choices for rescheduling are less than if it was a Caribbean cruise, for example.

Lets get some more details before the hyperbole starts..

It would appear that many Asian cruises end up being chartered hence this is why I am wary of booking Asian cruises because one never can be certain if they are actually going ahead

Hi, well it was a cruise originating out of Sydney on Explorer of the Seas for a 10 night South Pacific cruise. My partner and I had already booked holidays and made other plans to tie in with this cruise. I realise this does happen but never heard of it happen in Australia before other than Ovation which was chartered by Cruiseco and well in advance of Ovation's Hyped up arrival into Australia in December 2016. I guess I just wondered if you accept the limited compensation offered by Royal gracefully or jump up and down a little more. The alternative cruises offered don't work for us and they mention protected prices on these cruises only(whatever that means). $200 OBC is offered on any alternative cruise also but you pay the going rate with no other discounts. We just wondered of other cruise critic member's experiences before contacting Royal with our decision on what to do. Thanks in advance for your help.

I booked this 2 years in advance as I'm in a wheelchair and it's really hard to get the room you want. They have had my $500 for the last year and now they tell me To Bad So Sad. Attached is there supposed compensation. This is a joke, my family and I have been so looking forward to this cruise. RCC, you need to do better than this!!

16th January 2017

Explorer of the Seas 5th December 2017 – 10 Night South Pacific Cruise

Dear Explorer of the Seas Guest,

We regret to inform you that the Explorer of the Seas, sailing 5th December 2017, has been

chartered.

We would like to apologise most sincerely for any inconvenience that this change may cause to

your scheduled holiday plans. We will do all possible to assist with any changes necessary due

to this amendment and to ensure that you have all the information for the compensation and

options available to you, which we have outlined below.

We invite you to transfer your reservation to one of the below select sailings, in like

accommodations at the protected or lowest available rate (whichever is lower). Price

protection is limited to the cruise fare only. Taxes, fees, gratuities and other non-cruise fare

items are subject to prevailing rates.

Select Sailings

Voyager of the Seas – 21st November 2017 10 Night South Pacific Cruise

Voyager of the Seas – 3rd December 2017 9 Night South Pacific Cruise

Explorer of the Seas – 26th November 2017 9 Night South Pacific Cruise

Explorer of the Seas – 15th December 2017 9 Night South Pacific Cruise

Alternatively, you may transfer your booking to any other Royal Caribbean sailing not listed

above at the prevailing rate.

Receive US$200 onboard credit per standard stateroom or US$400 onboard credit for suites

(based on the original stateroom category) when you rebook any Royal Caribbean sailing listed

or not listed in the letter.

If you incur a fee due to the change in your airline reservations, you will be reimbursed up to

AU/NZ $200 per person for Domestic flights and AU/NZ $300 per person for International flights.

A PDF document from the airline including the air fees assessed from changing your flight to

match with the new sailing date must be provided via email for reimbursement purposes.

In order to qualify for the above, all changes will need to be completed by Thursday, 26th January 2017.

Should you choose to cancel your reservation, you will receive a full refund for all amounts paid and this will be processed via the original method of payment; however, you will not receive any of the compensation mentioned above, including air change fee reimbursement.

Once again, we sincerely apologise for any inconvenience this change may cause you. We look forward to working with you to minimise the impact to your scheduled travel plans and welcoming you onboard a future Royal Caribbean voyage.

Sincerely,

Redeployments and Itinerary Changes

Royal Caribbean International®

Yes, this is the same letter/email we received. I noticed our bookings just vanished from my cruises when I logged in and thought it was weird. We had two cabins booked on two separate bookings so we had more room for my teenage son who was coming with us on this cruise. Suddenly the email appeared and we have to decide by January 26 the or we lose any right to compensation. I would be a little more happy if a small discount was offered on an alternative cruise.

Yes, this is the same letter/email we received. I noticed our bookings just vanished from my cruises when I logged in and thought it was weird. We had two cabins booked on two separate bookings so we had more room for my teenage son who was coming with us on this cruise. Suddenly the email appeared and we have to decide by January 26 the or we lose any right to compensation. I would be a little more happy if a small discount was offered on an alternative cruise.

Sorry bearone, I think there should be some major discounts or huge upgrades. They advertise as #1 Best Cruise Line in Australia. They sell dreams and then crush them. I'm getting legal advice.

Yes, you are probably right. We accepted a move over offer on Princess cruises recently and they compensated us greatly for the inconvenience. They really worked with us to keep us happy and find a good alternative cruise, not to mention the huge compensation for our inconvenience which I think was nothing compared to what has happened here. My partner is hopping mad as he has a business and had organised someone to take it over whilst he was away Etc Etc. Major headaches now for us to sort an alternative date Etc. He wondered if consumer protection would offer any assistance? Let me know how you go with your enquiries into this.

Sorry bearone, I think there should be some major discounts or huge upgrades. They advertise as #1 Best Cruise Line in Australia. They sell dreams and then crush them. I'm getting legal advice.

Make sure you check the cruise contract when seeking your legal advice. I think you may end up as the meat in the sandwich. One hopes that as soon as the first dollar was passed over appropriate travel insurance was taken out to cover any losses

Check the small print before spending any more money. I dont think Travel Insurance will kick in as they are offering compensation.

Hate when they do this.

It's happened before. The compensation above is standard. I can't see you getting offered more, given they cater for air travel and it's still a long way off. Haven't heard anyone ever getting more either.

I suffered similar with P&O a few years back, and was actually offered less, so yeah. It's pretty bad, but it's the way they do business.

Ovation charter was different as it was done well - organised before the sailings were released so nobody was impacted i.e. it didn't replace any existing sailings. The only way charters should be done imo...

Yes true, but why does Princess do it so well and offer fantastic compensation in comparison. It's so typical of Royal's nickel and dime approach to it's loyal clients and we are diamond plus with over 340 sea days, I guess we are simply a number at the end of the day. :mad:

Personally, I don't think 10 days is a reasonable period to make alternate travel arrangements (especially during the summer holidays).

One can't help wondering how long they knew about the charter prior to your letter of 16/1.

Yes, I totally agree with you! I noticed my bookings both disappeared about a week and a half ago and I thought it was a computer glitch with their infamous IT department. Explorers a very large ship and the time frame leading up to December 5th would suggest they probably knew of this charter for some time and kept it quiet until now. I would love to know who chartered it and why?

Yes true, but why does Princess do it so well and offer fantastic compensation in comparison. It's so typical of Royal's nickel and dime approach to it's loyal clients and we are diamond plus with over 340 sea days, I guess we are simply a number at the end of the day. :mad:

The Princess situation is different again. They still ran the sailing but needed to get a much smaller number of people off (or sometimes into other categories) - just overbooked. When there's only say 10 or 20 cabins involved, and they MUST encourage some people off, they can both afford to be more generous, and have a greater incentive. Whereas when it's a charter, it's about 2500 cabins! and there is no choice. You take it or leave it.

I haven't seen the Princess offers for charters, but given they're the same group here as P&O and as mentioned they were less generous, I don't see any reason to believe they would be more generous than RCL.

Yes, I totally agree with you! I noticed my bookings both disappeared about a week and a half ago and I thought it was a computer glitch with their infamous IT department. Explorers a very large ship and the time frame leading up to December 5th would suggest they probably knew of this charter for some time and kept it quiet until now. I would love to know who chartered it and why?

There is a time frame involved. They pull it from future bookings while charter negotiations commence - as you can imagine, there's not just a set price on the spot, buy online, pay immediately kind of thing. As they may not proceed to fruition, they don't cancel existing bookings though, since the cruise may still go ahead. Nobody would like to be cancelled and then have the sailing go ahead!

Then when everything's settled they go about with the cancellations of existing bookings.

You said that it was a 10 day cruise leaving 5/12/17.

Interesting that Sydney Ports is now showing:

Leaving 5/12/17 coming back to Sydney 9/12/17 (4 nights)

Leaving 9/12/17 coming back to Sydney 15/12/17 (6 nights)

Yes wonder what the charter/s is????????

Yes true, but why does Princess do it so well and offer fantastic compensation in comparison. It's so typical of Royal's nickel and dime approach to it's loyal clients and we are diamond plus with over 340 sea days, I guess we are simply a number at the end of the day. :mad:

A move over compensation would only be for a limited number of guests which would mean they could offer extra incentive, a whole ship being chartered is completely different.

You said that it was a 10 day cruise leaving 5/12/17.

 

Interesting that Sydney Ports is now showing:

Leaving 5/12/17 coming back to Sydney 9/12/17 (4 nights)

Leaving 9/12/17 coming back to Sydney 15/12/17 (6 nights)

 

Yes wonder what the charter/s is????????

Pre Christmas Party Cruise.?????

Coming up to Christmas is usually hard to fill.Thats when the bargains are.:rolleyes:

You said that it was a 10 day cruise leaving 5/12/17.

 

Interesting that Sydney Ports is now showing:

Leaving 5/12/17 coming back to Sydney 9/12/17 (4 nights)

Leaving 9/12/17 coming back to Sydney 15/12/17 (6 nights)

 

Yes wonder what the charter/s is????????

Looks like the second one is going down south:

Will be in Melbourne on 11/12 17

Then Hobart 13/12/17

Thanks for your feedback Re Legal Advice. I will be it getting through a family member so they there be no cost. I'm sure that legally they can do this but is it morally ok to dump your loyal customer for more money?

As this is just greed on behalf of RCI we need to hit them where it hurts the most. The public perception of their product and them as a company. They used the media very well to promote the arrival of their new ship and what they have to offer. TV shows and media junkets a plenty.

So now it's the media's turn to let the consumers know just what RCI is all about. How about a segment on ACA?

All large companies have departments that monitor social media for press that may affect how they look to their consumers. So RCI how about you reply to this link as I'm sure you watching it?

You said that it was a 10 day cruise leaving 5/12/17.

 

Interesting that Sydney Ports is now showing:

Leaving 5/12/17 coming back to Sydney 9/12/17 (4 nights)

Leaving 9/12/17 coming back to Sydney 15/12/17 (6 nights)

 

Yes wonder what the charter/s is????????

It is going to be for 2 conferences about politician's travel expenses and spending tax payers dollars appropriately. The first cruise is for all the senators and the second is for all the MPs??? :rolleyes:

It is going to be for 2 conferences about politician's travel expenses and spending tax payers dollars appropriately. The first cruise is for all the senators and the second is for all the MPs??? :rolleyes:

No, that enquiry is in Port Douglas, according to this "news" agency.

http://www.theshovel.com.au/2017/01/16/inquiry-into-mp-expenses-to-be-held-in-port-douglas/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=inquiry_into_mp_expenses_to_be_held_in_port_douglas&utm_term=2017-01-16