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Cannot believe this - cruise overbooked!!

zebra

By zebra,
in Royal Caribbean International

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coaster

coaster

Posted
Posted

I don't blame you from not wanting to depart from Miami. Congestion and rudeness prevails at that port. Port Canaveral and Tampa are the only ports we will ever depart from in the future from Florida.

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ducklite

ducklite

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Well I am Diamond and if this happen to me I would choose driving an extra couple of hours just so I can cruise. Especially if someone in my cruise group had only a certain time to take their vacation.

 

Does it stink, yes it does but since you had no choice I think you made a good decision. Take that $100 and treat yourself to a massage at the Spa.

 

Since when will $100 cover the cost of a massage?

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Shari2

Shari2

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Hi Jackie...so glad it all worked out for you and Tony. I have booked a guarantee before and never realized that it didn't mean guaranteed. I had no idea that we could be told they are full and we could not take the cruise we paid for. Thanks for letting us know what happened.

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clean1owner

clean1owner

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I understand the op was offered a full refund. That would be the minimum expected.

 

Overbooking 6 months or more out is one thing. But to say it is ok for the cruise to overbook a reservation inside of 100% penalty phase in case someone cancelled to CYA and keep the ship full is not fair.

 

The OP could have been wait listed. Then if someone cancelled, the cancelling party loses their cruise fare, RCI keeps it and then resells the room to a person on the wait list.

 

Booking or selling guarantees close to sailing is not bad. Some people upgrade, so a guarantee inside might be a SOV, but it would be a room. Not an empty promise.

 

What is next in RCI's customer service BS. When someone shows up for a Freedom cruise, tell them too bad, were full, come back tomorrow and we will put you Monarch. Here is a Micky D's coupon for $10 for tonight's dinner.

 

Or worse. Deny boarding at "Captain's discretion" with no refund to eliminate the overbooking. Suddenly the whacky tobaccy in a hair spray can that had overbooking implications, well...

 

 

That is exactly what happened. They were sold a guaranteed catagory price. Not a confirmed cabin. In effect, they were waitlisted. And when it didn't work out, RCCL offered them an upgrade, plus a guaranteed cabin, plus OBC on a different sailing.

 

Even though the original OBC offer was a lowball, they later upped it and in the end they still took care of the customer.

 

 

I really don't understand your obsession with them being "Inside of 100% penalty phase", as it has absolutely no bearing on the situation.

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sept10dsm

sept10dsm

Posted
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That is exactly what happened. They were sold a guaranteed catagory price. Not a confirmed cabin. In effect, they were waitlisted. And when it didn't work out, RCCL offered them an upgrade, plus a guaranteed cabin, plus OBC on a different sailing.

 

Even though the original OBC offer was a lowball, they later upped it and in the end they still took care of the customer.

 

 

I really don't understand your obsession with them being "Inside of 100% penalty phase", as it has absolutely no bearing on the situation.

Just skimmed through, what did the OBC end up being? Just wondered?

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CruisingRoyally

CruisingRoyally

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First, one question that no one asked was how did the OP book the cruise? Did she call RCI, Book online, use a travel again or another 3rd party company?

 

Second, as someone that worked in the Hotel business I can tell you that it is SOP to book 1-5% over your availability. Also if she did us a 3rd party company, I've had many experiences where a 3rd party company overbooked my hotel without notify us immediately. I can't even count the number of times I have told someone that I didn't have a room for them, here's their money back, sorry for the incontinence. Why should a cruise ship be any different than a hotel.

 

Third, we don’t know how they ended up overbooked. It is truly possible that they had a room or maybe even multiple rooms that became unusable. It’s possible that something in a room(s) broke that required getting parts order or built. Things happen and rooms have to be taken out of service, and someone has to be moved or refunded.

 

Personal I think RCI offer to move you to another ship and upgrade you plus give you even the $100 obc is more than enough.

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Big_G

Big_G

Posted
Posted
That's not bad! Did they ask or just receive it?

 

From the OP:

After hearing me out the resolution specialist said: "I agree that you should not have only been awarded a $100 onboard credit, we will up that to $300" Thank you Royal Caribbean ... He also agreed with me that the upgrade to a Deck 2 oceanview with a small 18 inch diameter porthole was not great either but this ship is also full ... Whether we got the upgrade or not wasn't any kind of a deal breaker for us .. it was more about the compensation for our inconvenience.
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  • 7 months later...
Ray in NH

Ray in NH

Posted
Posted
Thanks so much for your intelligent reply. Yes we had booked a guarantee 10 days ago because we were told that is all that they had available. As you say we now have double the mileage to do (2 tanks of gas in my little car for the roundtrip) plus parking at POM is $20 per day .... daylight robbery. I am still very surprised that this is how they reward loyalty to their product ......

 

 

Perhaps they are trying to accomodate someone who has displayed even more loyalty to their product (aka more past cruises) ?

Ray in NH

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travelplus

travelplus

Posted
Posted
Thanks so much for your intelligent reply. Yes we had booked a guarantee 10 days ago because we were told that is all that they had available. As you say we now have double the mileage to do (2 tanks of gas in my little car for the roundtrip) plus parking at POM is $20 per day .... daylight robbery. I am still very surprised that this is how they reward loyalty to their product ......

 

I'm sorry your having trouble. Once you submitted your payment you entered into an agreement. At no time immediately after were you told your cruise was overbooked until 4 days before. I would talk with upper management and tell them that they must refund your gas or pay for airline tickets to nearest the port city.

 

You as the customer did your part of the bargain by paying the quoted price. RCCL sold you the room but is now "walking you". Its like a hotel walking you except a hotel would put you in a nicer place close by.

 

I would ask for more than just a one category upgrade plus more OBC. You should try to get every last cent out of the deal for having you to drive more. Make up some story that they can believe and go along with. Tell them you have a wedding ceremony to go to straight away after the cruise and that the closer port will give you plenty of time to make it but the one far away would not allow you to make it on time. This is one of the reasons you agreed to go on the cruise from this port because you knew you could make the wedding ceremony and allow extra time for traffic . I would use this story if RCCL was playing games with me I play games with them with some sob story. Sorry but this is life my friend. They would in a heartbeat find you a room from other inventory.

 

I used the wedding story once on a flight from SFO-Europe and told them that I booked this flight so that there would be enough time to get ready for the wedding. It doesn't matter if I come a day before or the same day. If there was a storm I would have changed my ticket to go earlier. But as of now the flight is on time. Now mind you this was the first flight that was originally booked not the later non-stop. The agent quickly gave me a First Class seat and apologized. No proof needed because they understand you are going to a special event. I told my Father to use the same story when the airline was giving him hell and it worked again.

 

Because the airline does not want to offer you the upgrade at the outset if its available shows how greedy they are. You would be surprised that they hold back premium seats and say its sold out even when coach is sold out there can still be First or Business Class seats for their elite passengers or those who want to pay the fee to upgrade.

 

Now sometimes airlines are truly sold out but if you don't mention why you booked the flight they won't care if you are delayed more. An airline or cruise line wants good press so they would want to help you in this situation.

 

They told you the cruise is overbooked now its your turn to negotiate . Ask for more than the offering. If you accept what they gave you then they are not obligated to give you more. If I was put in such a bind you can bet I would be negotiating a better deal out of it.

 

Tell them this is the only vacation time you can get for awhile and when you saw the last minute deal you booked it because you were given the time off. Remember extra driving=extra time off or one very tired person after a relaxing cruise. If they have you take a new sailing date then they can go ahead and pay for the extra time off work so you don't waste vacation days.

 

Ask for extra C&A points have them bump you up to the next level etc.

 

Remember the one that asks is the one that gets. Its true I was at a hotel and e-mailed them about a special ocassion and they upgraded the room and put champagne in there as well. If I did not mention it I would not have gotten it because how do they know what you want if you don't tell them?

 

Good luck and I hope you enjoy your vacation.

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