Royal Room problem on Rhapsody

[Beezy961]

Just received a call from my travel agent in regards to the six month old reservation for an aft room on the June 1, 2012 Alaska sailing on the Rhapsody of the Seas. It seems that with the renumbering of the rooms in conjunction with the March refurbishment of the ship my much anticipated aft cabin has been reassigned to "someone" else. I can't even begin to tell you how very unhappy I am about this mistake. The resolution department at RCL has been less than accommodating in this matter. Seems I should be happy with the $100 that I was offered and take the cabin that was assigned to me. Luckily my parents are on the same cruise and we were able to trade cabins with them, which could accommodate three people, or we would have had to completely change categories and probably decks as well. If we hadn't been on this cruise for my parents 50th anniversary along with three other cabins I would have just cancelled my reservation and used another line in the future. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to come to a decent settlement? RCL seems to be less than helpful in this matter.

[CruisingMouse]

Just received a call from my travel agent in regards to the six month old reservation for an aft room on the June 1, 2012 Alaska sailing on the Rhapsody of the Seas. It seems that with the renumbering of the rooms in conjunction with the March refurbishment of the ship my much anticipated aft cabin has been reassigned to "someone" else. I can't even begin to tell you how very unhappy I am about this mistake. The resolution department at RCL has been less than accommodating in this matter. Seems I should be happy with the $100 that I was offered and take the cabin that was assigned to me. Luckily my parents are on the same cruise and we were able to trade cabins with them, which could accommodate three people, or we would have had to completely change categories and probably decks as well. If we hadn't been on this cruise for my parents 50th anniversary along with three other cabins I would have just cancelled my reservation and used another line in the future. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to come to a decent settlement? RCL seems to be less than helpful in this matter.

 

 

Wow sorry, I would be sooooo ticked especially being an aft on an Alaskan cruise. Have you tried a 3 way call with your TA and RCL, maybe that way you can speak your mind sort of speak to get your point across to Royal, as the TA maybe not working it out for you as hard as he/she should be.

[Cruzaholic41]

I've read a couple complaints on this today. If this happened to me, I would by royally PO'd! :mad: I really hope RCI makes this right for all of you who lost the rooms you reserved.

[papakaiser]

Just received a call from my travel agent in regards to the six month old reservation for an aft room on the June 1, 2012 Alaska sailing on the Rhapsody of the Seas. It seems that with the renumbering of the rooms in conjunction with the March refurbishment of the ship my much anticipated aft cabin has been reassigned to "someone" else. I can't even begin to tell you how very unhappy I am about this mistake. The resolution department at RCL has been less than accommodating in this matter. Seems I should be happy with the $100 that I was offered and take the cabin that was assigned to me. Luckily my parents are on the same cruise and we were able to trade cabins with them, which could accommodate three people, or we would have had to completely change categories and probably decks as well. If we hadn't been on this cruise for my parents 50th anniversary along with three other cabins I would have just cancelled my reservation and used another line in the future. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to come to a decent settlement? RCL seems to be less than helpful in this matter.

This problem surfaced on 2-25-12. We had a corner aft cabin reserved since last April. The first day the Alaskan schedules were released. Notice, I said we HAD a corner aft. Not anymore.

 

RCI's great Revenue Department was to have contacted all the affected reservations prior to the newly numbered cabins going into regular inventory.

Well, they didn't. My TA spent from 8 AM till 6 PM on 2-26-12 trying to get our corner aft back. No such luck. RCI did contact the new owners of the corner aft cabins, and "asked" them to switch. Of Course, they refused. We were able to get one of the new aft cabins, just not the corner aft.

 

One other thing about the $100 OBC offer. We received $200. RCI tried offering the other corner aft on our sailing $100 OBC also. But I had already informed them of the better offer we received, and RCI agreed to the increase for the other guests also. You are just as entitled. Good luck.

[mnh]

This happened to me too....I booked a June 2013 cruise on Rhapsody last week while on Mariner. When I got back home I happened to read a thread about the cabin number changes during dry dock. My corner aft cabin had changed numbers and my cabin was no longer a corner aft.

 

After several discussions with several different RCI agents it was finally straighted out and I got back the corner aft with the "new" cabin number.

 

Overall it was a real ordeal, the agents wanted to know where I got the new deck plans....duh....I told them to look at their website....when they did boy were they surprised...they had no idea that the new deck plans were available.

 

If I did not follow Cruise Critic I would not have known until I boarded the ship that my corner aft was now an adjoining side cabin.....Thanks Cruise Critic!

[chookie65]

I just bumped up the other thread about the JS aft room renumbering error so others can read it and are aware.

 

The Expedia US website is still selling off the old deck plans ... Check out the June 15 Alaska cruise and there are 3 aft JS cabins showing old numbers ... This is crazy!!!!!

 

I hope you get your cabin back because I didn't and am now in a mid ship cabin because it was the only one that could sleep 4 that RCI could allocate. I don't think that the people with the renumbered cabin in my centre aft location were even contacted. Nothing I can do about it but suck it up.

[Beezy961]

Thank you all for your kind words and suggestions. We are still hoping for the best and making phone calls.

Chookie65 thank you very much for the heads up to the other thread. I appreciate all of the information.

 

Keeping our fingers crossed.

[cruzqween]

Ditto on expressing much thanks to Cruise Critic. We booked 2 starboard JS cabins for 6 people a few months ago onboard the Allure, but after reading the Rhapsody in Dry Dock thread last month, I realized that the new deck plans showed our new cabin assignments did not accommodate a third person. After a few frantic phone calls to my travel agent and RCI, we eventually got the room situation straightened out. While it's not absolutely perfect, I have to say that RCI's revenue department really came through for us, and I don't think they could have done better.

[RoyalDiamond]

Same thing happened to us. We had 8088, which USED to be the aft corner JS. Then, it became a side, connecting JS. NOT acceptable. I actually contacted RCCL myself (did not book through a TA). I was told that the new aft corners (now 8596 and 8096) were already occupied, and unavailable. They asked how I wanted this resolved, and I said I want my corner room, or I'd be cancelling. It was past final payment (sailing is May 11) and they were willing to work with me to change sailings or cancelling, etc. They said to give them a day to "work on it." They called me the next day, and somehow, I got 8596, one of the aft corner JS cabins. I suppose they made an offer to the new occupants to move. In any case, I'm happy again, and didn't have to cancel. Perhaps they were willing to work with me since we've been on 30 cruises and have 9 more booked....they didn't want to lose my business, I suppose. Hopefully, things will work out for everyone else.

[Jimnbigd]

It seems to me with computers RCI could automatically reassign the cabins. I don't know of anyone who books cabins strictly because of the number -- well, except perhaps to avoid "13" or "666". We book the cabin because of the location. So, just have the computers automatically reassign the new cabin number. I wonder what RCI chief Adam says about this. Has anyone asked Adam on this yet?

[papakaiser]

It seems to me with computers RCI could automatically reassign the cabins. I don't know of anyone who books cabins strictly because of the number -- well, except perhaps to avoid "13" or "666". We book the cabin because of the location. So, just have the computers automatically reassign the new cabin number. I wonder what RCI chief Adam says about this. Has anyone asked Adam on this yet?

Yes. I have asked Adam about this. After a month of waiting for an answer, I have given up on receiving one from him. I also posted a message on his "Ask Adam blog." No response there either.

 

I couldn't agree with you more about booking a location, rather than a cabin number. My TA and I both made that exact point to RCI, and in our messages to Adam Goldstein. As I said, no response.

[Beezy961]

Most of us are still so very unhappy with this situation. You would think that RCI would pay much more attention to this fact. I still have heard nothing in the way of satisfaction from RCI or my TA. Still burning up the phone lines, but all we keep hearing is how wonderful the new ship will be with all the changes. They don't seem to understand that we will all be boarding with a pre-existing bad attitude and that will make a difference to the whole cruise. I wish I had the luxury of cancelling my reservation, but unfortunately the other 3 cabins in my party did not have the benefit of cancelling without losing some of their deposit.

 

Bill, thank you for pointing out when you received your call. I asked my TA why we didn't receive notification until 1 month later and she said they were notified by RCI on March 20, the very day that they notified us of the problem. So it seems like RCI has taken care of the reservations that were made with them first and then taken care of everyone else.

 

In order for us to stay on the deck with the rest of our party, we have had to move my parents to a different cabin and take theirs. Their's was the only cabin that we could find on deck 8 that accomodated 3 people. This puts them farther from the elevators and I am very concerned about the fact that my father has a difficult time with his back when he has to walk too far or stand too long. This is a celebration of their 50th anniversary and I was really hoping that everything would turn out perfect for them.

 

At this point, I am so sorry that I chose RCCL for this special cruise. To be perfectly honest I really am not that concerned about how wonderful all the new features on the ship will be. What I am concerned with, is this pathetic excuse for customer service that we are starting the cruise with.

 

Still hoping for a resolution!

[desertpilot]

Beezy, that's so disheartening to hear :( I posted in the other thread; my wife and I had the same thing happen. Unfortunately we're probably not going to be able to cancel because we're traveling on cruise credits from last year (unfortunately we were turned away at the pier for the same stateroom last year -- another case of really crappy service that's another long story).

 

I've actually submitted our saddening tale to consumerist.com; I'm hoping they will help us heighten awareness of how RCI has decided to treat their customers. I plan to also write letters to other travel media/news so that we can try and ensure RCI gets their face rubbed in this publicly. In our connected world, a determined consumer can be a powerful thing. I encourage you guys to also communicate this beyond RCI's customer service and ensure that this stupidity does not get forgotten.

[Bobal]

I've been reading these threads with a lot of sympathy and some concern. We will be sailing on Grandeur (post revitalisation) and chose our corner aft cabin specifically for the sailaway from Venice. I emailed RCL with my concerns, having read the two threads about Rhapsody, and got a response saying that they do not know the new deck configurations :rolleyes: The ship goes in to drydock in less than two months, they are taking bookings for the period after she comes out and they don't know the deck plans :eek::confused:

 

I am only hoping that since the ship is a slightly different configuration to Rhapsody and we are on deck 7 (which doesn't seem to have the same issues) that we won't be affected. However, I really sympathise with those who have been affected by this and can't believe the poor customer service.

[papakaiser]

Well Beezy, for what it's worth...I noticed the change on the other thread on February 25, and called my TA. Royal never called either one of us. So your TA is most likely being straight with you. Royal didn't really start getting pro-active on calling people until this blew up in their face.

[SpeedGeek]

Yes. I have asked Adam about this. After a month of waiting for an answer, I have given up on receiving one from him. I also posted a message on his "Ask Adam blog." No response there either.

 

I couldn't agree with you more about booking a location, rather than a cabin number. My TA and I both made that exact point to RCI, and in our messages to Adam Goldstein. As I said, no response.

 

How did you contact him? I sent a letter to Miami earlier this month and received a response within two weeks. It could very well be filtering down to the appropriate people and them trying to figure out who screwed up where so they can prevent this in the future.

 

This is definitely something that doesn't reflect well on RCI's part.

[Beezy961]

Well we are still in the wait and see mode. I haven't heard anything from either my TA or RCI. Would be nice if they would keep in mind that we are still unhappy and waiting for some kind of resolution.....

 

desert pilot, thank you for the link to consumerist.com. That was some excellent reading. If you have any other suggestions I am all ....fingers?

 

Bobal, I wish you the very best of luck with Venice. I can only imagine the frustration of having no concrete answers in this situation.

 

Bill, I agree. I don't believe that this any fault of the TA. This problem completely falls on the shoulders of RCCL and they are not handling this issue very well as far as I am concerned.

 

I am trying once again to find the previous link. Does anyone have any idea of the name of the thread?

[desertpilot]

desert pilot, thank you for the link to consumerist.com. That was some excellent reading. If you have any other suggestions I am all ....fingers?

 

Cruise Travel magazine has a letters to the editor section: http://www.cruisetravelmag.com/ctravel_letters.php

 

Could also try Travel and Leisure editors -- they may publish awareness or dig into it

http://www.travelandleisure.com/contact

 

There are a number of other sites online similar to the consumerist, but consumerist is the biggest one and most likely to be noticed by RCI. Still, couldn't hurt.

http://www.consumeraffairs.com/

http://www.my3cents.com/

http://www.complaintsboard.com

http://www.pissedconsumer.com/

 

I'll probably do all of these at some point, including my local sources (news, etc). All it's going to take is some moderate level of exposure publicly to get some better action. But before I do anything with these, I do have an email in to Adam Goldstein and I'm sitting on that for a week or so just waiting to see what happens.

[desertpilot]

I am trying once again to find the previous link. Does anyone have any idea of the name of the thread?

 

Is this what you were looking for?

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1524253

[Sparky74]

I just bumped up the other thread about the JS aft room renumbering error so others can read it and are aware.

 

Here is a link to the "other" thread. http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1524253&page=4

 

It started out talking about the refurbishment of Rhapsody of the Seas but understandably evolved into a thread about having your aft or corner suite taken away by RCCI! :eek:

[critterchick]

Well Beezy, for what it's worth...I noticed the change on the other thread on February 25, and called my TA. Royal never called either one of us. So your TA is most likely being straight with you. Royal didn't really start getting pro-active on calling people until this blew up in their face.

 

And, ironically, I did hear back from them even though I stated in my email that we had been able to get our cabin back - our sailing isn't until next May so I guess it hadn't been snagged by somebody else yet.

 

I would email Adam again and advise that you are still waiting for an explanation. The more people are in his face (or whichever subordinate has to deal with the emails), the better the chances that at least they won't do it again as they refurbish the rest of the Vision class ships.

[desertpilot]

....the better the chances that at least they won't do it again as they refurbish the rest of the Vision class ships.

 

Agree...the worst thing of all is that this is it could have been prevented with a spreadsheet and like 10 minutes. Give me every single previous booking for every sail date along with their previous cabin number (doesn't matter if it's THOUSANDS of them), and with just a few minutes and a Microsoft Excel vlookup table you could have had those folks associated to the correct cabins.

 

Sad, sad, and double sad.

[Theodorable]

We are also on the Grandeur in November and have aft Junior Suite 7150 for a transatlantic. I would be beyond annoyed if they changed our cabin. According to the Royal Caribbean website, they show 3 stages for deck plans for Grandeur. The last one being May 31, 2012 to April 15, 2013. This deck plan still shows our cabin number being where it should be. I am truly hoping that after the debacle of the Rhapsody update that Royal will be a little more careful in what they do after the Grandeur's update!

 

nicola

[Clarea]

We are also on the Grandeur in November and have aft Junior Suite 7150 for a transatlantic. I would be beyond annoyed if they changed our cabin. According to the Royal Caribbean website, they show 3 stages for deck plans for Grandeur. The last one being May 31, 2012 to April 15, 2013. This deck plan still shows our cabin number being where it should be. I am truly hoping that after the debacle of the Rhapsody update that Royal will be a little more careful in what they do after the Grandeur's update!

 

nicola

Grandeur looks to be like Rhapsody in that the original deck 7 cabin numbering left room for additional cabins around the centrum. So you should be OK on deck 7. It was deck 8 where all the cabins aft of the centrum were renumbered.

[Cruising89143]

Amazing that RCI knew the cabin numbers were changing and did not have a plan in place to handle it. They should have had people assigned to go through and update reseravations. While it might have been time consuming, it should have been done. As I have stated, I love RCI's ships and crew but their shoreside operation leaves a lot to be desired at times.