BOGO sale with many restrictions

[jan15]

Got a great price on my Oct 2015 Oasis sailing but just found out from my TA and Royal that after May 31 cannot make any changes to the booking such as name change, cabin change, category change or anything otherwise I will have to pay the prevailing rate. I understand that with these prices comes restrictions but with this cruise being so far off I may need to change one name in one of the cabins I booked and I could end up spending over a $1,000.00 more for the cabin since the price has already jumped up over $400.00 more since I booked. Sorry-just needed to vent.

[bling19572010]

Got a great price on my Oct 2015 Oasis sailing but just found out from my TA and Royal that after May 31 cannot make any changes to the booking such as name change, cabin change, category change or anything otherwise I will have to pay the prevailing rate. I understand that with these prices comes restrictions but with this cruise being so far off I may need to change one name in one of the cabins I booked and I could end up spending over a $1,000.00 more for the cabin since the price has already jumped up over $400.00 more since I booked. Sorry-just needed to vent.

 

Good to know. Thanks.

[Retired LEO]

Got a great price on my Oct 2015 Oasis sailing but just found out from my TA and Royal that after May 31 cannot make any changes to the booking such as name change, cabin change, category change or anything otherwise I will have to pay the prevailing rate. I understand that with these prices comes restrictions but with this cruise being so far off I may need to change one name in one of the cabins I booked and I could end up spending over a $1,000.00 more for the cabin since the price has already jumped up over $400.00 more since I booked. Sorry-just needed to vent.

 

That's correct. Any changes made to the reservations will be at the current pricing.

[jebl]

I am curious to see what the prices will be after this 'sale' is over. I have a feeling they will be lower.

 

Just for fun I priced a cruise for Oct '15. I will check next month and see what the difference is.

 

Seems like they really jacked the prices for this promo.

[Clarea]

I am curious to see what the prices will be after this 'sale' is over. I have a feeling they will be lower.

 

Just for fun I priced a cruise for Oct '15. I will check next month and see what the difference is.

 

Seems like they really jacked the prices for this promo.

I did notice some cruises had significant price hikes right before the promo. However, we had some that did not go up, so we ended up saving money on those. My guess is that were some cruises for which they didn't want the promo to apply. Rather than listing those cruises that were not covered by the promo, they just raised their prices.

Edited May 28, 2014 by clarea

[molly361]

You can't even make a cabin change within the SAME category??

[Clarea]

You can't even make a cabin change within the SAME category??

I'll bet they would allow that.

[jan15]

No-Not even a cabin change according to ROYAL after May 31st.

[Clarea]

No-Not even a cabin change according to ROYAL after May 31st.

Wow, that would be a major departure from a policy that's been around as long as I can remember.

[The Big Booper]

We just booked an 8 night California Coastal on Jewel Sept 2015. Before finalizing the booking I printed out offers on 4 levels of cabins, so I can check after 5/31 and see what happens. The ship is heavily sold out especially balconies. And my TA said that sometime in the very near future RCI is changing cabin classifications on the Jewel so that also has to be taken into account when researching pricing. We wound up with the same cabin we have for the July 2014 Jewel b2b.

[vacation_junkie]

I am curious to see what the prices will be after this 'sale' is over. I have a feeling they will be lower.

 

Just for fun I priced a cruise for Oct '15. I will check next month and see what the difference is.

 

Seems like they really jacked the prices for this promo.

 

We paid $2890 for 3 of us on the Monday.

 

The price under the BOGO Promo was $3509 the following day.

 

BOGO would have cost us $529 more :eek:

[DragonOfTheSeas]

Wow, that would be a major departure from a policy that's been around as long as I can remember.

 

I agree. DH and I have purchased 3 cruises under the BOGO. I agree they likely raised the rate on some of the cruises. But, we booked JS and GS under the sale. It will take a big price drop to equal what we saved.

 

I have never had to change a cruise before--but, some of these are 2016. :eek:

 

I would expect to pay the going rate if I change the category.

[jhansla]

I booked a cruise on Oasis for Sept 15. My wife is pregnant so we put the third guest as TBA because we don't know the name/gender yet. We won't be changing categories but obviously once we find out what we're having we will need to change the name.

 

If they want to charge us extra I will just cancel and go with Disney

[EbayCruiser]

No-Not even a cabin change according to ROYAL after May 31st.

 

I bet this is your TA - I think you WILL be able to change within your category if you booked thru RCI. I don't see any reason why not.

[wowprincess]

I am curious to see what the prices will be after this 'sale' is over. I have a feeling they will be lower.

 

Just for fun I priced a cruise for Oct '15. I will check next month and see what the difference is.

 

Seems like they really jacked the prices for this promo.

 

Not on all cruises. We had booked an interior on the Jewel 8 night Sept 2015 Coastal cruise. With the BOGO we were able to move to a balcony and actually saved $100 per person to boot. For us it worked great.

[molly361]

I bet this is your TA - I think you WILL be able to change within your category if you booked thru RCI. I don't see any reason why not.

 

 

That's what I think as well- we will find out soon

[jan15]

This is not a decision made by my TA. I spoke directly with guest relations at Royal and this is what they told me. I have been using my TA for years and currently have 5 cruises booked with her and I do trust her but did need to confirm myself if there was any misunderstanding. Guest relations confirmed this. I actually called guest relations twice and spoke to 2 different people to make sure everyone was on the same page. ANY changes made after May 31 WOULD result in pricing at prevailing rate.

[PerferWarmWeather]

Here is a good example of the BOGO price increase; $5,461.00 per couple in JS cat for 8 day IOS in January 2015. I booked before the sale and locked in $ 2,904 per couple in JS cat.

 

On another cruise I saved over $800.00 after the sale went into effect.

 

Can't figure our RCCL's method?:confused:

[marci22]

Got a great price on my Oct 2015 Oasis sailing but just found out from my TA and Royal that after May 31 cannot make any changes to the booking such as name change, cabin change, category change or anything otherwise I will have to pay the prevailing rate. I understand that with these prices comes restrictions but with this cruise being so far off I may need to change one name in one of the cabins I booked and I could end up spending over a $1,000.00 more for the cabin since the price has already jumped up over $400.00 more since I booked. Sorry-just needed to vent.

 

"After the offer period, the offer will be removed from the booking if the guest cancels and reinstates the booking, applies a fare change, or changes the ship or sail date of the booking; certain other changes to the booking may also result in removal of the offer."

 

This really grinds my gears. Why can't they list each and every exclusion? The way they have it worded, they could remove the discount for any reason they want.

[jan15]

Marci22-I am on the phone right now with Crown and Anchor discussing all these restrictions since I am booked in a group booking with my TA and no one will discuss anything with me. Very frustrating!! I have been on the phone with them for an hour and even they are very confused over all the restrictions. She keeps putting me on hold to check all this out. Just hung up--the end result is that if you are ONLY doing a name change with one person and keeping one original person on the reservation then it should not result in a price change. However, if you change your cabin number and still keep it the same category it WILL result in a price change at the prevailing rate.

[BamaGuy44]

Wow, that would be a major departure from a policy that's been around as long as I can remember.

 

I wonder if it's one of those things like bringing water on board. Technically against the rules but they usually allow it.

 

Like I think this sale was technically for "new bookings" only but they were adjusting the prices for most people without requiring a re-booking. I bet in most cases they would allow a cabin change within the same category, but I'm just guessing.

Edited May 28, 2014 by BamaGuy44

[setsail]

Marci22-I am on the phone right now with Crown and Anchor discussing all these restrictions since I am booked in a group booking with my TA and no one will discuss anything with me. Very frustrating!! I have been on the phone with them for an hour and even they are very confused over all the restrictions. She keeps putting me on hold to check all this out. Just hung up--the end result is that if you are ONLY doing a name change with one person and keeping one original person on the reservation then it should not result in a price change. However, if you change your cabin number and still keep it the same category it WILL result in a price change at the prevailing rate.

 

Good info, thanks for posting. When we booked a few weeks ago I read the T&C, but it was mainly that they had a right to change if you changed

[BamaGuy44]

Here is a good example of the BOGO price increase; $5,461.00 per couple in JS cat for 8 day IOS in January 2015. I booked before the sale and locked in $ 2,904 per couple in JS cat.

 

On another cruise I saved over $800.00 after the sale went into effect.

 

Can't figure our RCCL's method?:confused:

 

Wow, just took a look at the Jan 2015 sailings on Indy... :eek:

 

The JS prices definitely spiked up big time on 4/29 right before the BOGOHO sale started. BOGOHO was not a good deal in that case for sure.

 

Lots of people including me got some nice price drops when the sale started, but it's easy to see why so many are skeptical of these promotions.

[orville99]

"After the offer period, the offer will be removed from the booking if the guest cancels and reinstates the booking, applies a fare change, or changes the ship or sail date of the booking; certain other changes to the booking may also result in removal of the offer."

 

This really grinds my gears. Why can't they list each and every exclusion? The way they have it worded, they could remove the discount for any reason they want.

 

 

I hope this doesn't include Balcony discounts. We jump to D+ on our NYE 2014 cruise, and we have five BOGO cruises booked in 2015. I would be royally pi##ed if upping the balcony discount by $25 re-priced all of those cruises.:eek:

[CRUISEFAN0001]

Just as a point of reference to the original question...

 

I have seen the cruise we booked the first week of the promotion this month go up and down. It was lowest when we booked it May 3rd, but jumped twice since and also dropped down most of the month to nearly the lowest price.

 

Prices change daily, even during promo periods, based on the number of sold cabins and those still available.

 

This is just a sampling of how prices change. Every cruise, cabin type, and time frame can be different. The bottom line..you almost have to check daily...

 

Edited May 28, 2014 by CRUISEFAN0001