Royal Caribbean Gift Certificates and Problems Redeeming them!!!

[lacrossemitch]

My fiance and I were given some very generous gift certificates for Christmas. Having spoken with our travel agent about a month before the cruise, she had told us that we would be set to redeem them following Christmas as it would still be in the 10 day window. Today, I just found out the following:

 

• Gift certificates, EVEN THOSE THAT ARE ORDERED FOR EMAIL AND NOT SNAIL MAIL, require 5 business days from the day of the purchase to process.
  
• They must be redeemed 10 BUSINESS days before the sailing date.!!!
  

Having spoken with a very rude customer service representative with Royal Caribbean today about redeeming the gift certificates, I was told that the purchaser should have read the terms and conditions. I understand the terms and conditions are there for a reason, but I am sure there is a way to apply these credits. Sorry for the rant but has anyone dealt with this situation in the past? Thanks:(

[TBSCruiser]

Call RCCL with the certificate numbers and then overnight them to the address on the back. You should be fine

[BecciBoo]

I had the same thing happen. Had the certificate several months before our cruise in January last year, but wasn't aware of the redemption rules, just waltzed onto Voyager and went to guest relations to get the credit on OBC for our cruise. O boy did that ever upset the apple cart. I threw a fit there and with the loyalty ambassador who was trying to get them taken care of for me. It reduced me to tears I was so frustrated with the system. He eventually credited our account, but my take on it was that RCCL had been paid for the credit and reaped the benefit of the gifter's money, then why should there be any rediculous rule like you must register the certificate 10 days before any cruise. Doesn't make the slightest bit of sense that you can't just take the certificate to guest relations and get your OBC for it! But I learned a good lesson...always read the fine print! Next time your gifter should just give you money for the cruise...less hassel.

[lacrossemitch]

I had the same thing happen. Had the certificate several months before our cruise in January last year, but wasn't aware of the redemption rules, just waltzed onto Voyager and went to guest relations to get the credit on OBC for our cruise. O boy did that ever upset the apple cart. I threw a fit there and with the loyalty ambassador who was trying to get them taken care of for me. It reduced me to tears I was so frustrated with the system. He eventually credited our account, but my take on it was that RCCL had been paid for the credit and reaped the benefit of the gifter's money, then why should there be any rediculous rule like you must register the certificate 10 days before any cruise. Doesn't make the slightest bit of sense that you can't just take the certificate to guest relations and get your OBC for it! But I learned a good lesson...always read the fine print! Next time your gifter should just give you money for the cruise...less hassel.

 

I couldn't agree more. only cash in the future. So did you receive all your gift certificates to your OBC? I am in the process of seeing what I need to do about overnighting the certificates . . .

[CruiseKeeper]

Something must have changed. I've redeemed gift certificates almost immediately after receiving in the past. I've even bought them for myself for OBC on a cruises and they were available right away for redeeming.

 

DS and DD purchased some for us for this Christmas and both are still awaiting confirmation from their purchases on the 12/12 and 12/13. The presentation did not matter to me but it did bother them that they did not have the usual gift pdf's with the confirmation numbers printed on them.

[lcguy]

My fiance and I were given some very generous gift certificates for Christmas. Having spoken with our travel agent about a month before the cruise, she had told us that we would be set to redeem them following Christmas as it would still be in the 10 day window. Today, I just found out the following:

 

• Gift certificates, EVEN THOSE THAT ARE ORDERED FOR EMAIL AND NOT SNAIL MAIL, require 5 business days from the day of the purchase to process.
  
• They must be redeemed 10 BUSINESS days before the sailing date.!!!
  

Having spoken with a very rude customer service representative with Royal Caribbean today about redeeming the gift certificates, I was told that the purchaser should have read the terms and conditions. I understand the terms and conditions are there for a reason, but I am sure there is a way to apply these credits. Sorry for the rant but has anyone dealt with this situation in the past? Thanks:(

Are you saying that you didn't actually receive the certs yet? When is your cruise? You can also redeem them on the RCI website, just as long as you do so at least 10 days prior to your cruise.

[akubee]

I received a gift certificate for Christmas and went online to register it. How do I know that it has been applied to my account? After I entered the information, it just said 'your certificate has been registered'. I would like to see something saying I have a $50 onboard credit.

[readytolose]

I would call back and try again.

 

I've purchased gift certificates before and never had a problem as long as I did it at least 10 days before the cruise.

 

To the poster that asked how you know you have the gift certificates applied: call customer service and ask them to email you a current copy of your reservation. It will show on there the onboard credit. There is no way to check it online.

[HoneyDad]

We were given a $50 gift cert for Celebrity in 2007. It was a 5 day cruise and we were staying in the PH suite. I went to guest relations and was told 10 days in advance, etc, etc. I was so mad, it took a couple of trips to GR to get it applied but it was not worth the nightmare. My DW bought her sister one for a upcoming cruise, I wished she had given cash because that was the worst experience ever.

 

The seapass idea is great, the gift cert's of NOT.:eek:

[MAHA]

I received a gift certificate for Christmas and went online to register it. How do I know that it has been applied to my account? After I entered the information, it just said 'your certificate has been registered'. I would like to see something saying I have a $50 onboard credit.

 

Call RCCL and talk to a customer service rep. Tell them you redeemed your gift certificates and would like to make sure they are credited to your account. Once you have verbal confirmation, ask the rep to e-mail you confirmation. That way you will have something in writing in case the OBC doesn't show up on your sea pass account.

[OttoCal]

Mitch, please come back and fill us in with the details!

If you have the gift cert, either a paper or e-mail copy, you can redeem them 10 business days before your cruise!

 

If you have not actually received the gift certs yet, and your cruise is say Jan 2 or 3, you are possibly out of luck.

 

I ordered gift certs for my mom for our cruise coming up on Jan. 10.

I asked for them to be e-mailed and also mailed (mailed costs an extra $2.50 per gift cert). About 1 week after I ordered them, the e-mailed ones arrived to me, as I had put my own address in as the recipient e-mail address. About 1 week after that- during the week of Dec. 21 I think, the hard copy of the gift certs. arrived.

 

Because I was worried that New Year's Day/ Jan 1 would not count as a business day, I redeemed them myself on their reservations online, since I did have their reservation number. You don't get any confirmation other than the screen that was mentioned before that says 'your certificate has been redeemed' or whatever. I waited a couple more days and then telephoned RCCL directly and they confirmed by telephone that the two certificates had been applied as onboard credits.

I then wrapped them up and gave them as Christmas gifts, but they had actually already been applied to their reservation at that point, but they didn't know it and it was a nice surprise for them.

 

When ordering the gift certifticates online, the guidelines are pretty clearly posted- if within a certain number of days prior to the cruise, they may only be used as onboard credit, for example.

[lacrossemitch]

Thanks everyone for your replies. Luckily we have a great travel agent who managed to get our certificates through!!! Again thanks for all of your speedy replies, they're very very appreciated!!

[Boo's Mom]

A question...

 

[i have several to redeem, but have several months yet, before final payment is due]

 

when you redeem online, does it give you the choice of how you want to apply them?

 

ie: towards final payment or OBC

 

Thanks !

[dobietx]

My husband and I were going on a cruise on Voyager of the Seas January 10, 2010. My sister purchased two $100 gift certificates for us as a Christmas present. The actual certificates did not show up until January 5th. We took them on board, and on day 2 I went to the purser's office with them. The woman on the desk had no idea what they were, so took them in the back, and was gone for 10 minutes. When she returned, she informed me that they needed to be redeemed 10 days prior to the sailing. As we had received gift certificates for other cruise lines, which do NOT have this requirement, I was shocked. One does not have to redeem a gift certificate for a department store, or a restaurant 10 days in advance of using it. She said simply that there was nothing they could do. I explained that I didn't even have the certificates ten days prior to sailing, but she maintained that there was nothing to be done, I could use them on another cruise, they didn't expire. I called the corporate office, getting the same response, nothing could be done. Even though they had my sister's $200 in their hands. Even though we didn't get the certificates 10 days prior to sailing. Even though they were fancy, official gift certificates from RCCL, with no doubt of their validity. I was, to say the least, furious. Yes, we cruise fairly frequently, and yes, we will probably cruise with RCCL again, so we will get the $200 at some point. But what about the person who gets a gift certificate for what may be a once in a lifetime cruise? My big question to RCCL is how much money have they received for unredeemed gift certificates, how much money do they have in their coffers that goes unclaimed, the amount is probably staggering. It is a travesty of the gift certificate program and to my mind very nearly criminal for them to accept money and then refuse to allow the recipient to use it unless their narrow and ridiculous criteria are met. Shame on you, Royal Caribbean!

[marci22]

I never buy gift cards/certs I always give cash and no one has ever looked less than thrilled to get it.

[Cruisin' On A Dime!]

Same thing happened to us...received the gift certificate as an early Christmas present...brought the gift certificate on our December 20th sailing. Thought nothing about not being able to apply the gift certificate to our OBC. I went to guest services and they told me that I needed to have applied this gift certificate 10 days prior to sailing to my account! They said that there was nothing that they could do, however; that the gift certificate doesn't expire...so I could use it in the future. They also said to read the fine print on the certificate. Yes, it does have all of this spelled out...however...what company/store makes you apply a gift certificate 10 days prior to using it? I never thought twice about reading the fine print on a gift certificate. Ever. On my DCL cruise...I just simply brought the gift certificate to guest services and they applied it to my OBC. Simple.

 

 

Anyhow...I just booked a new cruise with RCCL and applied the gift certificate to the new cruise. Also to note...these gift certificates cannot be used for your downpayment...trust me. I spoke with 5 RCCL reps. last night and all said that I had to apply the gift certificate to an existing reservation. Big pain, again. Also as others have noted...it is extremely hard to tell on-line if the gift certificate has been applied. I guess I will be calling RCCL in the next few days just to make sure!

 

 

Sorry for the rant, but I would never recommend anyone purchasing an RCCL gift certificate. Just give the cash!

 

 

;) Crystal