Royal Kicked Us Off!!!

Background -- DH + I have been on 31 cruises on various lines since 1991 -- we have taken our older group of 4 grandchildren on a cruise without their parents, and we have taken the whole group of 6 grandchildren again without parents on 3 cruises (1 RC, 1 Carnival, 1 Holland, 1 Celebrity). We find that young people like being treated like adults, eating 4 course meals, dressing for dinner, going to shows. So when granddaughter & 4 girl friends graduating from HS wanted a special graduation trip, we decided to take them on a 4 nt Monarch starting 5/21 (less than a week away!) But today sadly it all fell apart, and I am NOT happy with RC and their whole handling of this!!

Today I call into RC for my "weekly" question (today it had to do with parents depositing money with ship for their daughter's onboard account) -- and after I get my answer, the guy says "hold on I have to talk to someone about something in your reservation". So I sit & sit wondering what's the problem -- he comes back and says still working on it and I am put back on hold.

Then finally a woman comes on -- she is titled a "reservation resolution specialist"-- (hmmm do we have a problem here?) she says we will not be allowed to board -- what, I say; why, I say!! She says we don't meet their policy for bringing minors -- I say, now 6 days before the cruise you tell me this? -- I ask angrily why the original booking repr even tok my booking if it didn't meet policy, because I told the booking repr in specific terms that DH + I are taking granddaughter & 4 girl friends and gave their birthdates. The "specialist" now says, "no, you did not speak to RC -- it says here you made the booking online and didn't use a repr". I say even angrier, NO I definitely did not book "online" -- I called in and in fact tried to give it to my TA but the booking repr wouldn't let me do that -- I had a "booking hold" for 1 day + made it official next day. The booking man that day I gave the credit card # even said I had to have DH+me in the middle room, cause our walls had to physically adjoin both the girls' rooms. He also told me to get permission slips made out by parents giving us temporary guardianship, signed + notarized concerning all 5 18+19 yr old ladies! I have that but "specialist" says "no, that's no good, you would have to be court-ordered legal guardians forever of these young women!" I ask, can the parents call in and give you verbal permission that we are responsible for these young women?? She says, "no, that's no good either!" So she says, you can to the pier on Monday, but they will deny you boarding -- so I ask, if this is the case, when were you going to call me about this -- well she said, they weren't...

In 31 cruises, of which 4 were where we took 4-6 grandkids and 1 of those on RC, I have never experienced anything like today. Well folks I was in tears, and "specialist" says "we can refund your money" like she was doing me a big fat favor giving me my money back for a cruise they let me book and now are kicking us off of....

What is going on with RC I asked -- this was not the policy in past -- yes she says it is a somewhat recent policy change -- I ask, is it because of the recent "Inside Edition" expose of horrible drinking over spring break on Freedom??? The response was "Oh that has nothing to do with it" but I am SURE it does. So do you want your money back, she asks me at least 3 times. Never did she offer any solution...like adding another adult or 2, getting another cabin, etc.....

So I ask for detailed explanation for this denial of boarding in an email and the policy she sent is alot of double talk. Had to call back to get the specific amount of money being returned to me because I dont want to have to wait til the credit card bill comes through to see if they really gave it all back to me!!!

Tonight I sent an email to my friend and favorite TA that I have used for over 10 years (who RC said I could not use) and I am going to inform her of RC's whole attitude -- she knew from the beginning too what I was trying to book...

Can you just imagine what DH + I + 5 young ladies would have said if we had driven all the way from Tennessee to Port Canavaral only to be denied boarding????

Needless to say, this has been a tremendously upsetting afternoon & evening -- now we are scrambling to find a 2 or 3 bedroom condo/house somewhere in FLA on a beach that we can take these girls to for 5 nights and doesn't cost an arm+leg!

What gets me is that there have been ample opportunities for RC to call me about this booking -- I really think noone cared -- I think their booking people are so incompetant -- I think someone booked it just to get his commission -- I think it will be a long long time before I book RC again!!

So I have posted this here to and see what you all, the RC experts, have to say about this.

Call tomorrow and use the Crown & Anchor phone number. (it's on the website).

Calmly explain the situation, and ask why you cannot take 4 18 & 19 year olds who are not related to you, if their parents give you written permission.

If you do not get a satisfactory response with C&A helping you, ask to speak to the Resolutions Department.

This does not sound "reasonable" or "right" to me. If this is some sort of new policy, it does not seem to have a basis in logic.

We are not talking about minor children. They may not be 21, and able to drink, but even RC recognizes that they are adults, and allows them into the casino and any other event, as long as they don't order alcohol.

Take a deep breath and prepare your speech for tomorrow.

Good luck.

Wait.........back it up a second.

They are 18 & 19 years old, and just graduating from high school?!?!?

Are ANY of the girls under 18?

Straight from RCI's FAQ page:

Before You Purchase

Q: What if I'm traveling with a minor and I'm not the parent or legal guardian?

A: Adults who are not the parent or legal guardian of a minor traveling with them must present an original notarized letter signed by the child's parent(s), authorizing the adult to take the child on the specific cruise, supervise the child and allow emergency medical treatment to be administered.

Please note: An individual's age on the date of sailing determines his or her status for the entire cruise vacation. Royal Caribbean International does not accept reservations for student groups. Please consult a travel agent for Royal Caribbean's group policies.

----

That being said -- you should be able to travel with the minors in your group, as long as each set of parents gives you permission via a notorized letter for each child. Did RCI completely cancel your booking then?

I am afraid if this is there so-called new policy they won’t really budge, especially now when they are doing damage control from recent bad publicity…

Personally and as a European, I highly disagree with the entire RCI view in this story…Considering 18+ ADULTS (<-over here and the rest of the world except for the USA) as children will always be beyond me…But that’s the way it is.

This might be a stupid idea, and I don’t know how much money you have spent on this trip (probably a lot, which makes it even sadder)…If it was, me, as a “18+ minor” and would have been denied going on any vacation due to being an “18+ minor”…I would find it the BOMB if my parents/friends change the vacation to a place where I would be considered a true adult. Like a surprise Euro-trip, I know you only had 5 days, which is still possible but deff hard including jet lag and other crap ;), but I am sure there are plenty of other closer by country’s that are fun to (Mexico, Brazil).

Good luck!

Sorry to hear about your trouble! I do hope you are able to get it worked out!:)

I am absolutely gob smacked. I really feel for the young ladies and yourself. Such a shame that RCI tar all young adults with the same brush.

I hope you find a alternative, and I am sure you will make that very special for them.

Good luck

Liz

Something seems amiss here. If the girls are all 18 or older at the time of boarding, they are all legal adults for the purpose of the cruise (should be able to sign for themselves at the pier and not require a letter from the parents - though they might if any were using a parent's credit card), and the OP is effectively a chaperone. Like Merion_Mom said, contact the C&A number tomorrow and see if you cannot get a more satisfactory response.

In the US are you not a legal adult till 21? I know you have a 21 year age limit on drink. I think 18 is a far more sensible adult age and therefore RC stance on this is plain daft. I bet the poor young ladies are gutted :(

Hope you sort it as its a stupid policy!

This is outrageous. At 18 and 19 these young ladies are legally adults even though they can't buy/consume alcohol yet. They dont need anyones permission to travel, let alone notarised letters, etc. RC has stuffed up here and you are right to be angry. They offered a full refund without a fight too which is suspicious if they claim the snafu is your fault. My guess is that the cruise is oversold and they needed to bump some pax using any feeble excuse they could dream up.

Are you really sure you were speaking to RCCL directly?? I cannot help but wonder why this would come up in a call YOU made for another reason and why RCCL wouldn't call you directly and immeadiately some sort of discrepancy is noticed with a way to solve the problem other than a cancellation.

Heck RCCL cannot afford any sort of passenger cancellation at this point as the ships are not full unless that of course was the case and they forced you to cancel with out them have to pony up the OBC and rebooking costs...... However I just don't want to believe RCCL would be so sneaky.

I would esculate this case and not just let it go - there is something else on the go here.

NEW POLICY - my foot until it is published and made public there is not such thing and especially not for bookings made previously!!! Sorry no deal - speak to the boss the more I think about it the more I believe there has to be something else to the story. OP I an not implying that you are not being truthful there is just more to this and I would not just let them brush me off like this.

My wife (46) and I (45) have a cruise booked later this year on a RCCL ship and have two connecting balcony rooms reserved. We are taking my 18 year old daughter and her 17 year old friend. We have the required notarized letter for the 17 year old and all four of us have our passports. I will be contacting my travel agent in the morning to verify based on this report...Please keep us informed if there are any changes.

The first thing that comes to mind is that the policy is different for children/teens/minors not related to you versus your own grandchildren. I feel for you, I really do. Still, RCI makes the booking rules that they believe work best for them.

beachchick

But that's not the point. Related or not they aren't children/teens/minors any more and can legally travel in their own right. There's something else going on here.

At ages 18+ can't they just have booked their own rooms? Even if it's in their names, and someone else pays for it...And if i'm remembering correctly, isn't it ok to drink booze at age 18 once your far enough out to sea? Weird thread.

I also don't get it...18 and 19 are adults, not minors. They just are not allowed to drink.

It's difficult to help without the exact reason RCCL is canceling your reservation. According to RCCL policy, someone over 21 needs to be assigned to each cabin. If there are two cabins, you and DH would need to be assigned to 3 cabins. If you had 3 cabins, I understand the problem.

This is very bizarre...how can they simply state some king of new policy on a whim without publishing it?

And why would they want to add such a policy....is it because they want to cut down on the "Younger", single crowd in light of the recent bad press about all the partying going on?

FYI, I have a niece who is a booking agent for a large resort (Disney) and she works from home, in her bathrobe if she wishes.

All you need is designated phone line and a good internet connection to the Disney Main Frame. You work whenever you feel like picking up the phone.

So when you call a booking agent, don't assume it is in the main office...it can be routed anywhere in the country to a agent working from their dining room table.

So they may or may not be current on the up to minute policy changes...just the routine reservation business.

I also know this is also true with the airlines.

Maybe you should give Carnival a call. Your dates may need to be a little flexible but there are cruises about the same price.

LOL B 52, you wanna see constant policy changes, and new rules going into place on the fly, and us getting screamed at because we knew nothing about it because it just went into effect 30 seconds ago, meet me at my job in about 45 minutes hahaha...You won't last 1 hour in their without running out and never wanting to go back! I'm currently looking for a new job because of this, they get a high from firing ppl, makes the management laugh and joke around all day. They just fired my partner I worked with, now I gotta do EVERYTHING on my own, they want a weeks worth of work done in 2 days! Our GM turned into a monster, he just goes around screaming at us and throwing stuff across the building if something has changed 5 seconds ago and we didn't have a psychic tell us about it. We currently have probably 16 ppl working their including myself and other managers, 7 of which have just gave their 2 weeks notice, but just stopped coming in all together haha! And another 6 of us ready to just walk out, 1 being an assistant manager who can't stand the GM anymore. So now, I get the lashing because i'm trying to get all the extra hours I can so I can save up enough money for this cruise i'm going on, i'm taking major abuse daily. I'm basically paying for all the ppl who have gotten fired and who just quit. Keep in mind, i've never been late, never called out. I'd love to type more, but I gotta go their now. Wanna come?

Does this have to do with room configuration? In reading Royal's policy--

"No Guest younger than the age twenty-one (21) will be assigned to a stateroom unless accompanied in the same stateroom by an adult twenty-one (21) years old or older. A guest's age is established upon the first date of sailing.

This age limit will be waived for children sailing with their parents or guardians in connecting staterooms..."

If your staterooms are not connecting rooms that could be the reason. If this is the case, the original reservation should have been denied. Very sorry you were "informed" so close to your cruise date.

I'm guessing there are 3 cabins and only 2 people over the age of 21...so that is not going to work.

If my assumption is correct, then they would need to somehow get all 7 of them into two cabins to make the booking legitimate (with one person over the age of 21 in each cabin). Once that is straightened out then everyone can figure out sleeping arrangements.

Too bad, sounds like someone really dropped the ball on this. Hope it gets sorted out.

Does this have to do with room configuration? In reading Royal's policy--

 

"No Guest younger than the age twenty-one (21) will be assigned to a stateroom unless accompanied in the same stateroom by an adult twenty-one (21) years old or older. A guest's age is established upon the first date of sailing.

 

This age limit will be waived for children sailing with their parents or guardians in connecting staterooms..."

 

If your staterooms are not connecting rooms that could be the reason. If this is the case, the original reservation should have been denied. Very sorry you were "informed" so close to your cruise date.

Given the policy quoted correctly above, it is easy to see why you have been denied.

The only way to get round it is to drop back to 2 cabins, and book you in one cabin with some of the girls and your DH in the other, with the rest of them. Once on board, you can switch the bedding arrangements around, so that you and DH are in the same room (I have read of families with their own children having to book this way).

But (and it's a big "but") I'm not sure that it would be acceptable - even if only on paper - for your DH to share a cabin with un-related teenagers. And, having only 2 cabins would mean that you two would always have to share your cabin with some of the girls.

As SeminoleFan says, it's awful that you were notified this late, and your booking should not have been accepted in the first place.

Like you, I would be mad! You have my sympathy and I hope you manage to pull together some sort of a treat for the girls.

Wait.........back it up a second.

 

They are 18 & 19 years old, and just graduating from high school?!?!?

 

Are ANY of the girls under 18?

Depending on your birthdate and the states regulations about age you can easily be 18 when you graduate. Also someone held back at an early age could be 19 when she graduates.

I'm guessing there are 3 cabins and only 2 people over the age of 21...so that is not going to work.

This sounds the most likely explanation. If so, they should never have accepted the booking in the first place and shame on them for not letting you know there was a problem. I'm glad they at least had the good grace to offer a full refund but it won't compensate you for the disappointment of losing your cruise.