Allure Sailing Cancelled, Now Sailing with Independence?

[castlebride14]

Hi all,

 

Had a much longer reply ready to go but managed to delete it! Thanks for all of your replies, really helpful again.

 

Will have a full update tomorrow when I will have confirmed our sailing on Indy with the RCI UK office - couldn't do this today as the person in the revenue department handling our booking wasn't there.

 

Thanks again for your thoughts and kind words - they deserve a more fulsome reply so I'll post up sometime tomorrow evening (Irish Time) after confirming the booking.

 

Thanks all

[Thoie]

In answer to your original question, yes I think you're expecting too much - I think the offers they made aren't bad. But...

 

If you see this in the morning before you confirm, personally I'd take the balcony + €400 OBC, but I'd also ask if they can cover your hotel, or offer you a drinks package - play up the honeymoon aspect, and point out that the http://jococruisecrazy.com/ is on that cruise, and may impact you.

 

I'd actually love to go on that cruise, been a big Jonathan Coulton fan for years, but the timing never works out for me. I don't think they will impact on your honeymoon, but check out his music here and see if it would appeal to you or not.

[emeraldcity]

Good luck to you, whatever you decide. Cancellations are a huge blow, and perhaps many of those who are posting don't realize what a jolt it is to have your cruise cancelled by the cruiseline. It is so very hard to change gears and focus on something else. Since I haven't been on anything larger than voyager class (yet) I can't compare the two experiences, but I can assure you that I have loved every RCI ship I sailed, no matter what size it was. I truly believe you will have a wonderful cruise.

 

And just to throw in my 2 cents ... I'd take the JS. The extra size is well worth the loss of a couple hundred OBC ...and you get double points in the bargain.

[Cruzin-K]

Glad to hear you've decided to go with the Indy. I'm sure you'll have a wonderful honeymoon :)

 

Stuff happens, and I think the offers you got are fair. If it had been my Allure cruise cancelled, I would have taken the Junior Suite over the balcony, but everyone has their priorities :D Hopefully you will have another chance someday to check out the Allure or Oasis, but until then, enjoy the wedding/honeymoon. Congratulations!

[cruisindoggie]

Hi all,

 

Posting as castlebride14 but I'm actually her fiance. As some of you may know, we were originally booked to sail on the Allure from Fort Lauderdale on the 23rd February sailing that has now been cancelled. Over the past few days, we've been trying to find a solution as to what to do now.

 

To give you a bit of background, we're Irish, we booked directly with RCI through their website last July, and we're flying into Fort Lauderdale on the 22nd February.

 

We found out that the sailing was cancelled last Thursday, via the forums here (which have been immensely helpful for us) and the press release on the RCI website. The next morning, I rang the Irish contact number on the RCI website and got their UK office. At that time they were not aware that the sailing was cancelled and asked that I call back. At about 4pm that day, I finally received confirmation from RCI by email that our sailing was cancelled.

 

RCI gave us three options

1) Book a sailing on the Allure/Oasis on earlier dates, the latest being the 22nd Feb, with the same accomodation at the same fare, depending on availability.

2) Re-book on another sailing, with the guest responsible for the extra cost if the new cruise is more expensive, or alternatively receiving a refund of the difference if the new cruise is less expensive.

3) A full refund.

 

With the first two options, we would receive $200 OBC for the replacement cruise - if we had a Suite this would have been $400 OBC.

 

We decided to go for option 2, to take the 6 night Western Carribean cruise on the Independence out of Fort Lauderdale on the 23rd, as this meant that we wouldn't have to change flights etc.

 

However, this is where it starts to get a little frustrating. When it came to the total price (for both of us) for the 6 night trip on the smaller Independence, this was only €100/$135 dollars less than the 7 night trip on the Allure. Yes we had the $200 OBC but we weren't happy that the price was so similar for a shorter trip on a smaller ship.

 

Bearing in mind that we would now have to pay an extra night at a hotel, along with meals for an extra day, we were less than satisfied with this and rang RCI (always the UK office) to express our disappointment.

 

They came back with two further offers:

1) A Junior Suite on the Independence, at the same total price as we had paid for a D5 category room on the Allure, with $200 OBC.

2) A D1 category room on the Independence, at the same total price as we had paid for a D5 category room on the Allure, with $400 OBC.

 

To be honest, I am still less than happy with this. I completely understand that the Allure needed the repairs, and this was the week chosen to do it - that's life sometimes. But what I can't understand is why RCI are asking us to pay the same price for a 6 night cruise on a lower class ship, as they were for a 7 night cruise on the Allure. If we do take either of the offers for the Independence, it will cost us more per person per night than our original booking for the Allure - even when the OBC is taken into account.

 

Maybe I am being a little too precious here, but it just seems to me like RCI aren't overly worried about those that were booked onto the cancelled Allure sailing - those who can change their flights/holidays can book onto one of the suggested sailings, and the rest can either get their refund and try elsewhere, or take a pretty miserly offer (in my experience) and cruise with the Independence.

 

I'd just like to know if anyone has any suggestions as to what we should do - at this stage I just want to get it sorted so that we can go back to planning our wedding. I've been very forthright with RCI, and told them I would more than likely cancel after getting the above offers today. We've looked at other cruise lines around that time but none are really giving us the 'wow' factor that Allure did when we first booked - so I guess I'm here for your advice, which as I've said has been very helpful to us since our honeymoon got thrown this curveball last Thursday.

 

Should RCI be putting down better offers than those mentioned, or am I expecting too much?

 

Thanks for reading :)

 

Danny

To be honest, I am still less than happy with this. I completely understand that the Allure needed the repairs, and this was the week chosen to do it - that's life sometimes. But what I can't understand is why RCI are asking us to pay the same price for a 6 night cruise on a :mad:, as they were for a 7 night cruise on the Allure. If we do take either of the offers for the Independence, it will cost us more per person per night than our original booking for the Allure - even when the OBC is taken into account.

 

It's not a lower class ship, It's a different class ship!!!

[Cruisegirl6]

RC is my favorite cruise line but under this situation and getting one less night I look somewhere else or choose a later date to go on the Allure when she is fixed.

[xpcdoojk]

I hope castlebride does come back and sees that this large group is on the Indy cruise. From threads about this group last year, they seem like a fun group, but they take over a lot of the ship and are quite "unique". We wouldn't want to sail with them either as their humor is not my cup of tea. The people from the group that posted last year were very nice about explaining everything they had scheduled and if I remember correctly, the information can be found on the groups website.

 

Castlebride, come back and tell us you changed your flights and are going on Oasis.:)

 

Large groups are always a red flag. Avoid those.

 

jc

[Artemis]

From the current cruise roll call, here is a description of the group and how well they play with others:

 

http://jococruisecrazy.com/

 

It's a large group that will be on the ship. It is based around a musician name Jonathan Coulton, (JoCo) and this is the 4th one! There are other musicians and comedians that we bring with us too. We pay a different rate (more expensive) to include our entertainment. There are some activities and concerts that will be only open to Sea Monkeys (badge holders) and some that are held in open areas where Snorks (non-badge holders-think like muggle if you read Harry Potter) are able to join in. We all eat at the early dinner together, and so most of the dining room then is reserved for us, but there are also some snorks that are "stuck" in there too. (I say stuck because this year, some of them were much older and seemed very confused by our dress and the applauding of the performers as they arrived for dinner)

 

What it means for other cruisers: you will see probably more people than average with unusually colored hair. Lots of beards. Lots of men with long hair. Some of us bring our children too! The main shows are less crowded because typically the Sea Monkeys have so much to do with our own scheduling, we don't go to (m)any of the cruise activities. The general description of the group is internet geeks. A lot of computer programmers, but not everyone does it for a living. Out on the decks, you may see people playing board games if there's a nice spot out of the wind. One night we'll wear fezes. One night there may be some fancy pants People come from all over (we had some from Australia this year!)

 

Oh, and many of us are pretty pale so we have to be careful with the sun. I think the only complaint I heard really was that we got all the cabana/shade things on coco cay. (and I don't know if it was literal - I didn't get off the boat there, so I can't say)

 

But just something to be aware of - some people were worried before our cruise this year, but were pleasantly surprised by us as a whole.

 

----

 

We are a generally fun and inclusive group The general frustrations/complaints that were aired (from both sides)

 

Sea Monkey:

We got made fun of (bothers some more than others)

The presence of one of our "real" celebrities was announced to the ship at large (without his permission)

People who didn't have badges (snorks) would sometimes try and get in on events that were for us, especially more casual events that were in public venues. Overall not a big issue, but if it was then excluding some of the monkeys, there were grumbles.

 

Snorks:

We are weird looking.

We were wearing tags that said 'eff Glee' (except the real word) because of a theft Glee had committed against JoCo.

We would sometimes take over a venue for a less formal event, making it hard to use for non-participants for its original intended use

They didn't realize we had to pay extra to go to our activities and thought we were excluding for no good reason.

 

The only "bad" incident that happened was that a venue was double booked for our group and a kids group. Our event had been going on for about a half hour when the kids/parents started coming in (2-3 year olds) When we were kicked out, some of the parents cheered and made some rude comments. One from our group responded rudely with a swear word in return. Our group member was heavily chastised by his/her peers for the conduct unbecoming to a SeaMonkey.

 

I share that to show that as the worst incident - which in the grand scheme of things is not that bad, nor is it likely to happen again, at least from our side. We're pretty strict with ourselves to be good neighbors. But everyone is human, and there is drinking on board, so mistakes can be made. Hopefully no one holds it against either side when it happens.

 

Most of the time though, we are in our sections or quietly away from the snorks. Oh, we do totally take over karaoke most nights *LOL*

[Cruisegirl6]

I wouldn't go on that with the group no way.

[dacsmom]

I sailed on a ship with the JoCo cruisers in February on the Freedom. Did not know it when I booked and I was apprehensive when I found out. They turned out to be the nicest group of people were happy to explain their group to anyone who asked. They have a section of the dining room reserved and their events are coordinated so other cruisers rarely know they are there. They do not "take over the ship" at all. They did reserve all the cabanas on CoCo Cay but that was the only negative view I had of the experience. While I will usually try to avoid cruises with large groups, they had a little over 700 members on the FOS, I was pleasantly surprised and would sail with them on a ship anytime. They are really concerned with their impact on other cruisers.

[castlebride14]

Hi again all,

 

Just wanted to give you a final update. As mentioned I did confirm with RCI today, but first let me explain why I didn't confirm with them yesterday.

 

When I called yesterday I had decided to go with the D1 cabin on the Indy & $400 OBC, but when RCI gave me the price for this, it was a little less (but not much) than our original booking into a D5 cabin on the Allure. What stopped me from confirming yesterday was that the price RCI were offering us for the D1 cabin on the Indy was MORE (by about $300) than if we were completely new customers who were making our very first booking onto the Indy yesterday – basically we were at a disadvantage for having booked with RCI onto the Allure last July, having to pay more for the cruise – but I do acknowledge that we were getting $400, rather than $200 OBC, which was their original offer in the correspondence that went out to confirm the Allure cancellation.

 

So I held off on confirming yesterday but did let them know that I was not at all happy about the difference in price for us as existing customers vs completely new customers.

 

When they called back today, they had changed their offer to the Junior Suite, with $400 OBC, for the same price as a D5 cabin on the Allure. I am very satisfied with this offer and was happy to confirm. It's a pity it took a while to get there but I guess that's one of the joys of booking direct as a non-US customer.

 

I have read all of your comments about the JoCo group, and the roll call, and their website. From what I read, they are looking to have a fun and relaxing week as well, and I think they make clear that they try as much as possible not to “take over” the ship. They also explain that they run separate events so at least we'll understand that in advance too. I have to admit to having zero idea of who Jonathon Coulton is but I will endeavour to find out.

 

Now we can relax and look forward to the cruise so I am glad it has all been sorted. My fiance did have the Allure researched from bow to stern but now she gets to have all of that excitement build again with the Independence.

 

Many thanks for your replies which as ever were hugely helpful. We'll join the roll call nearer the time and looking forward to meeting fellow voyagers (cruisers/travellers/sailors? Not sure what the best word is) onboard!

[Canadian Tyler]

Glad it worked out! Have a great cruise. Indy is an awesome ship.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[bilyclub]

Good Luck...

[reallyitsmema]

I am glad you have come to an agreement and can now move forward with the wedding planning. Please post a review of your cruise once you get back. From what has been posted about prior cruises, that group does understand that their are others on the cruise and they try to be respectful. I can't say that about other groups that people have posted about on cruise critic.

 

Best wishes!:)

[emeraldcity]

I'm so very glad you reached a solution that you are satisfied with. You'll love the JS ... but it may spoil you Extra space and double points ... a great combo. Please com back and post your experiences after the cruise ... I'm interested in the two completely different opinions of those who have sailed with a large group.

[nancronin]

Happy for you both that it all seems to have worked out - enjoy!

[drarill]

Really happy everything worked out for you!! enjoy your cruise, we did the western caribbean itinerary for our honeymoon twenty years ago!!:):)

[Artemis]

Thanks for sharing your plans with us! In the end, you got a really sweet suite deal! You will love love love Indy.

 

Best wishes! :)

[Thoie]

When they called back today, they had changed their offer to the Junior Suite, with $400 OBC, for the same price as a D5 cabin on the Allure. I am very satisfied with this offer and was happy to confirm.

 

Fab, glad they got you sorted.

[keeksg]

Hey Castlebride,

 

My husband and I are part of the JoCo group (last year was our first time). If you have any specific concerns, feel free to ask and I'm sure we can get you an answer.

 

With regard to "taking over the ship", I can tell you my experience:

Personally, I did not do a single thing on the ship that was on offer! I did not use the flow rider, the climbing wall, the pool, lounge chairs, the hot tub, the casino, or any of the shows offered by the cruise line. The benefit to those not in the JoCo group is that there are 700 people on the ship not fighting for the same resources/activities, so in a way, it's better than traveling with 700 individuals/families!

 

The reason: I was having too much fun elsewhere. There are two areas where we will congregate in enough numbers that it would impact people:

1. The conference center. This is where we set up a 24 hour board game room. Chances of other travellers using the conference center during the cruise? Likely 0%. Who wants to use an otherwise empty space (note that the conference center is not where the computers are kept, it's literally a room with tables and chairs, and that's it)?

 

2. The theatre. Our shows are usually in the afternoon (think 2-5pm), so that we're cleared out long before the usual cruise shows. Our shows are not open to others on the ship (and there is no way to buy tickets to them while on board), so we use the theatre when it would otherwise be empty. Again, this shouldn't inconvenience anyone.

 

There was one night where we "took over" the movie screen by the pool. By took over, I mean certain movies that appealed to our specific audience were screened (family-friendly), but all were welcome to attend, no one was excluded.

 

That's pretty much it. A few times we spread out - some of us are a little apprehensive about crowds, so might grab a board game and play it somewhere else on the ship, but you'd probably see this outside of big groups regardless (I'm talking 4-6 people, not 20-30!).

 

There are a few musicians amongst us who like to put on "Ninja Gigs" - so a group might pop up somewhere, play a song, then disappear. Think short, light-hearted flash mob with a handful of people, occasionally taking place in an elevator. Might not be your cup of tea, but lasts for a couple of minutes and doesn't interfere with normal activities.

 

Congratulations on your upcoming nuptials - maybe we'll cross paths and I'll buy you a drink! :)