Advice needed regarding our upcoming cruise.

[gcuecruise]

We have a large group (about 18) booked for Oasis of the Seas Dec. 2011. In order to help out friends, our daughter is staying in a stateroom with them. So what we need to do is remove our daughter from one of our staterooms which we can do before the full payment is due. However, we are a family of 5 and have adjoining rooms, one of which can sleep 3, the other 2. RCCL will not allow us to make this change without charging us a surcharge for the third person since one of our daughters will be in another room. The rooms are adjoining but will only have 2 of us in each of them. Grandparents are staying the room next door as well. So basically they want to charge us for a third person, who is not going to be there, in the one room. We are not able to ask another person to join us, so that is not an option.

 

I guess my question is, how can I work with RCCL to try to resolve this? I have already spoken to the Resolutions Department. While very polite, they state they can not waive the surcharge. Any advice on how to convince them to do this? Can I ask for stateroom credit to try to reach a compromise?

 

Thanks for any advice you may have.

[Finbar127]

Did you ask if there are any connecting 2 person cabins that you could switch to? If you don't need connecting cabins perhaps you can switch the triple cabin for a double cabin.

[gcuecruise]

Yes the only thing available is two adjacent but not adjoining rooms. This defeats our purpose of booking early for the adjoining rooms, to sleep five, and having two bathrooms (works out great). It is difficult to cruise with a family of 5 and their inflexibility in this situation makes it even harder this time.

[wingnutphl]

Are you sure they are charging your cabin the 3rd person rate? Your daughter will now be a third person in another cabin so the surcharge should go to that cabin.

[gcuecruise]

Yes my daughter will be going from a 3rd person in our cabin to the second in another cabin. Very few cabins available for 3 or 4 people to start with and I think RCCL covets these carefully. Its just a shame that we are spending about $5.5K for our family of five and they want to milk us for another $700 or so. We booked early (16 months ahead), got relatively good rates, and then had certain circumstances befall us. I guess they would rather their $700 and not worry about upsetting a large group of loyal returning customers.

[johneeo]

We have a large group (about 18) booked for Oasis of the Seas Dec. 2011. In order to help out friends, our daughter is staying in a stateroom with them. So what we need to do is remove our daughter from one of our staterooms which we can do before the full payment is due. However, we are a family of 5 and have adjoining rooms, one of which can sleep 3, the other 2.

 

OK. You lost me.

 

You booked two rooms. One with 2 in a cabin, one with 3 in a cabin, correct?

 

You then decided to move your daughter out of one of those?

 

To help friends?

 

How is this helping your friends?

 

I'm confused:confused:

[silentbob007]

Hmmm ... I doubt there is any way around this. As you state, they covet the three-person rooms. Even though you booked early, you are now trying to put one less person in that room than perhaps another booking that would put three in there (that would be taking excursions, tipping, drinking, etc). It seems to me that RCI is giving you the option of paying $700 more instead of removing you from the cabin altogether (which they have been known to do). It sounds to me that you will either have to pay the fee, withdraw your help to your friend, or split the costs with them (if that is cheaper).

[gcuecruise]

Johnneo, I appreciate your effort and interest in understanding. The answer is yes to all of your questions. It helped our friends because they had an odd number of people back out of the cruise, thus leaving them (our friends) with a room with one person in it. Thus we were trying to help by moving our daughter (essentially a 3rd passenger in our room) to their room that had an empty slot.

[waterbug123]

OK. You lost me.

 

You booked two rooms. One with 2 in a cabin, one with 3 in a cabin, correct?

 

You then decided to move your daughter out of one of those?

 

To help friends?

 

How is this helping your friends?

 

I'm confused:confused:

 

According to the OP, the daughter would be passenger #2 in the friend's cabin, so I guess it means she/they would be splitting the fare for that stateroom with the friend, rather than the friend sailing alone and paying the entire 2-person fare alone.

[gcuecruise]

SilentBob, thanks for the response. Yes those are our options and indeed we will likely be splitting the cost with our friends. So the $700 issue now becomes a $350 issue for each family. Our payment is due in two weeks so we want to make sure we do all we can before deciding to suck it up, pay for it, forgetting about it, and moving on with getting ready to enjoy our vacation. As my friend said, if we pay the surcharge and have an invisible person in our room, at least we get to eat their food too. :)

[Bakincakes]

RCI is going to charge for the number of pax in that cabin. No way around that.

 

You are helping your friends, which is a nice thing to do. but unfortunately there is a price tag for that help.:(

[gcuecruise]

yes waterbug, exactly.

[johneeo]

Johnneo, I appreciate your effort and interest in understanding. The answer is yes to all of your questions. It helped our friends because they had an odd number of people back out of the cruise, thus leaving them (our friends) with a room with one person in it. Thus we were trying to help by moving our daughter (essentially a 3rd passenger in our room) to their room that had an empty slot.

 

Got it.

 

Guess the friend that is a single cannot hook up with another cabin and be the third in it?

[waterbug123]

Johnneo, I appreciate your effort and interest in understanding. The answer is yes to all of your questions. It helped our friends because they had an odd number of people back out of the cruise, thus leaving them (our friends) with a room with one person in it. Thus we were trying to help by moving our daughter (essentially a 3rd passenger in our room) to their room that had an empty slot.

 

So the friends have multiple cabins, and one of them just has one person in it? I think the logical thing is for the friends to split the cost of their collective cabins evenly between however many friends are in that group. You tried to help, but it won't work, so they really need to take care of it amongst themselves. And please understand that RC has very valid reasons for not letting a 3 person cabin sail with just 2 people in it.

[gcuecruise]

So the friends have multiple cabins, and one of them just has one person in it? I think the logical thing is for the friends to split the cost of their collective cabins evenly between however many friends are in that group. You tried to help, but it won't work, so they really need to take care of it amongst themselves. And please understand that RC has very valid reasons for not letting a 3 person cabin sail with just 2 people in it.

 

Other than getting more money out of the cabin, are there any other reasons for RC? I do understand maximizing the dollars coming in is their goal and I don't have a problem with that. I'm just surprised given our rooms are adjoining that they would not allow this since they do not have equivalent adjoining rooms available.

[gcuecruise]

Also, in lieu of paying a surcharge for one of the rooms, I was thinking of leaving my daughter booked in each room, as she currently is. This way if our friends have to cancel for whatever reason, we have a bed for our daughter in our room and won't have to pay the future current rate for a third person in our room (assuming we were paying a surcharge for her empty bed, we would have to pay the difference between it and the current rate for the room, which today is 2 times the cost). Assuming our friends don't cancel, we would just check our daughter into one of the rooms, not both obviously, thus effectively being a no-show for the other cabin. Do you think this is doable? Am I missing something I should be worried about?

[CruisinDawn]

So I got lost a few times but here is my take. You are helping your friend by moving your daughter into their room but I assume you are paying for the 2nd person in that cabin instead of them paying the single supplement. Leave her in that cabin on the records but let her sleep in your cabin. That way your friend does not have to pay a single supplement and you dont have to pay for a third person in your cabin. They don't care where one sleeps once ya board, you could sleep on deck for all they care. You might ask your friend to pay the difference of what a 3rd person in your cabin cost vs what you are paying to list her in theirs.

 

BonVoyage

Dawna

[SusieV]

So I got lost a few times but here is my take. You are helping your friend by moving your daughter into their room but I assume you are paying for the 2nd person in that cabin instead of them paying the single supplement. Leave her in that cabin on the records but let her sleep in your cabin. That way your friend does not have to pay a single supplement and you dont have to pay for a third person in your cabin. They don't care where one sleeps once ya board, you could sleep on deck for all they care. You might ask your friend to pay the difference of what a 3rd person in your cabin cost vs what you are paying to list her in theirs.

 

BonVoyage

Dawna

 

I think that the OP tried to do that but RCCL is trying to force them to pay for the now nonexistent third person anyway since they're in a cabin that holds three. Seems crazy to me.

[gcuecruise]

@susiev, yes you are correct

 

@cruisindawn, indeed that is what we want and can't have. However, we work it out we will split the fares with them.

 

I can't help but think if I complain enough I can get some stateroom credit to help offset the cost. Essentially a "meet me part way" agreement. Just not very confident it will work.

[heziggy]

maybe try two connecting cabins one with 2 and one four and have the friends move in with the kids?

 

you would think rcl would want the more money for 2nd person charge then the 3rd person discount that they would get by switching her

[debache]

I do not understand why RCCL is not allowing you to move 1 person from your cabin to another...We went on the freedom in august, in may my MIL wanted to join us, so I called rccl and booked a room for her and then moved my Husband to her room (original in my room, DS, DH and me)...this way she did not have to pay for the single supplement and she could also take advantage of our balcony discount....When we got onboard, my husband went to guest services and requested a spare key to our original room..No problem....Is it because it is after final payment that they will not allow you to do this?

[waterbug123]

Other than getting more money out of the cabin, are there any other reasons for RC? I do understand maximizing the dollars coming in is their goal and I don't have a problem with that. I'm just surprised given our rooms are adjoining that they would not allow this since they do not have equivalent adjoining rooms available.

 

But apparently you DO have a problem with it, or you wouldn't be complaining about the fact that they want to charge you a 3rd person supplement for a triple cabin that would only have 2 occupants. RC is counting on that cabin having 3 people in it (for revenue purposes) just like they are counting on the friend's cabin having 2 people in it. If the numbers go below that, you will have to pay the supplement. As for the adjoining room issue, I'm sure their thought is that if you wanted 2 adjoining double (not triple) cabins, that's what you should have booked in the first place, when they still had them available.

[gcuecruise]

@debache no this is still before final payment. Maybe it is possible our cruise is more full than yours was so they are more strict?

 

@waterbug I guess my point was that when I said I don't have a problem with it I meant I understand their point of view. I didn't mean I don't have a problem paying for it. I do have a problem with them not providing a level of customer service that would greatly please loyal returning guests who are paying for multiple rooms, all for a measly $700 which means a lot more to a family with kids than RC. I am sure we will be spending less onboard now that we are spending more on the rooms than we intended. So I guess I am saying RC doesn't gain or lose much, but we are out some money and now will likely spend less onboard, thus lessening our enjoyment of the cruise.

[gcuecruise]

maybe try two connecting cabins one with 2 and one four and have the friends move in with the kids?

 

you would think rcl would want the more money for 2nd person charge then the 3rd person discount that they would get by switching her

 

 

 

Indeed RC checked for other options for us. Such rooms that sleep >2 are not too common, and adjoining ones are less so. Surprisingly we actually had few options getting our adjoining rooms to accommodate our family of 5 when we booked the cruise 16 months ahead of time.