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No more balcony/suite discount within 6 months(as of Sept 1,2016)

PH8

By PH8,
in Royal Caribbean International

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montecarlo0407

montecarlo0407

Posted
Posted
I had stopped buying the next cruise/decide later certificates since the %25 was a joke and not worth bothering with but now they may have value again if we can trust RCCL not to change their policies later on down the road.

 

"4. What if my client makes a “Decide Later” booking through NextCruise outside of the 6

months but decide on the cruise within 6 months of sailing? Will we honor the discount?

Yes, in this case, the discount will be honored within 6 months of the sail date."

 

So my dilemma is do I purchase a bunch of certificates (10-20) on my upcoming Sept 4th cruise to hopefully protect the <6 month out discount? 90% of the cruises we book are within 6 months and many within 1 month of sailing. The concern is that RCCL will change their policy and the certificates will be worthless again Currently I am holding about 15 that were purchased back when they had the $100 and friends and family discount which should last me 2 maybe 3 years.

 

Any thoughts?

 

With the new rules of booking on board and penalties for changing I won't be booking on board anymore

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nelblu

nelblu

Posted
Posted
I agree with that part but I am trying to change a 6 night balcony to a 7 or 9 night balcony and they are saying I will have to lose part of my deposit and have put down the full deposit required for the cruise I am trying to book to. I think they went from one extreme to the other.

 

Confused. Are you saying that if I make changes to any of my bookings I'd lose some of my deposit.

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internetwhiz

internetwhiz

Posted
Posted
I had stopped buying the next cruise/decide later certificates since the %25 was a joke and not worth bothering with but now they may have value again if we can trust RCCL not to change their policies later on down the road.

 

 

 

"4. What if my client makes a “Decide Later” booking through NextCruise outside of the 6

 

months but decide on the cruise within 6 months of sailing? Will we honor the discount?

 

Yes, in this case, the discount will be honored within 6 months of the sail date."

 

 

 

So my dilemma is do I purchase a bunch of certificates (10-20) on my upcoming Sept 4th cruise to hopefully protect the <6 month out discount? 90% of the cruises we book are within 6 months and many within 1 month of sailing. The concern is that RCCL will change their policy and the certificates will be worthless again Currently I am holding about 15 that were purchased back when they had the $100 and friends and family discount which should last me 2 maybe 3 years.

 

 

 

Any thoughts?

 

I wouldn't buy more, but that's just me. 15 is a lot, or it would be for me. I have three and gave toyed with buying 2 more on the ship next week.

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Clarea

Clarea

Posted
Posted
Confused. Are you saying that if I make changes to any of my bookings I'd lose some of my deposit.

Correct.

 

It has to be a booking that you made onboard, where you also took the OBC immediately.

 

If you change to a shorter cruise and/or downgrade the stateroom category such that your OBC is reduced, they take it out of your deposit.

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nelblu

nelblu

Posted
Posted
Correct.

 

It has to be a booking that you made onboard, where you also took the OBC immediately.

 

If you change to a shorter cruise and/or downgrade the stateroom category such that your OBC is reduced, they take it out of your deposit.

 

That's fair and makes sense. The way some of the comments it made it sound as though there was a loss of deposit. I wish they would return to the original rules with the NCC. Any changes in which paxs were taking unfair advantage, penalties should be invoked, eg. shorter cruise=adjusted obc. I have one more grandfathered NCC and saving it for a longer itinerary.

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travelbuddies

travelbuddies

Posted
Posted
Glad it has been rescinded. I wasn't feeling very appreciated. :-)

For what it's worth...Breaking news from my fb group (this is a closed group so I will not mention names)

"Great news cruisers: Royal does care about their members - and they listen! The balcony/suite discount remains - so you can ignore the prior announcement below.

Referring to this announcement: As of September 1, 2016 balcony and suite discounts will only apply to sailing's booked more than six months out.

And how do you know this

 

I'm the admin of this group - I'm informed by Royal of announcements"

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BCFamily

BCFamily

Posted
Posted

We just booked our cruise for March 2017 two weeks ago, I have now received an email concerning the balcony discount for C & A members. With this new offer our cruise is cheaper, is it possible that Royal Caribbean would combine this new offer with my originally booking?

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karena1

karena1

Posted
Posted
Correct.

 

It has to be a booking that you made onboard, where you also took the OBC immediately.

 

If you change to a shorter cruise and/or downgrade the stateroom category such that your OBC is reduced, they take it out of your deposit.

 

That is why I don't do FCC or take the OBC on the cruise I am on. I book an actual cruise and tell them to leave the OBC on the new booking, not give it to me on the current cruise.

 

Accomplishes a few things - still get the OBC for booking onboard, lower deposit. But most of all, I can move or change that cruise to whatever I want and I don't lose any deposit, or lose my OBC or hit any penalties. I don't need the OBC on the cruise I am on so I always have them leave it on the cruise I am booking. Much easier to make changes that way.

 

If I have to put add'l deposit on it when I move it, I don't care, have to pay it as some point anyway. Big thing to me is I CAN cancel w/o penalty and I can move the cruise to whatever I want to w/o any penalty.

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travelbuddies

travelbuddies

Posted
Posted
That is why I don't do FCC or take the OBC on the cruise I am on. I book an actual cruise and tell them to leave the OBC on the new booking, not give it to me on the current cruise.

 

Accomplishes a few things - still get the OBC for booking onboard, lower deposit. But most of all, I can move or change that cruise to whatever I want and I don't lose any deposit, or lose my OBC or hit any penalties. I don't need the OBC on the cruise I am on so I always have them leave it on the cruise I am booking. Much easier to make changes that way.

 

If I have to put add'l deposit on it when I move it, I don't care, have to pay it as some point anyway. Big thing to me is I CAN cancel w/o penalty and I can move the cruise to whatever I want to w/o any penalty.Is that prior to final payment? How many days prior to sailing?[/b]

Thanks for sharing.
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PH8

PH8

Posted
  • Author
Posted (edited)
For what it's worth...Breaking news from my fb group (this is a closed group so I will not mention names)

"Great news cruisers: Royal does care about their members - and they listen! The balcony/suite discount remains - so you can ignore the prior announcement below.

Referring to this announcement: As of September 1, 2016 balcony and suite discounts will only apply to sailing's booked more than six months out.

And how do you know this

 

I'm the admin of this group - I'm informed by Royal of announcements"

 

Thanks but others on here already announced that.

Edited by PH8
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Clarea

Clarea

Posted
Posted (edited)
That is why I don't do FCC or take the OBC on the cruise I am on. I book an actual cruise and tell them to leave the OBC on the new booking, not give it to me on the current cruise.

 

Accomplishes a few things - still get the OBC for booking onboard, lower deposit. But most of all, I can move or change that cruise to whatever I want and I don't lose any deposit, or lose my OBC or hit any penalties. I don't need the OBC on the cruise I am on so I always have them leave it on the cruise I am booking. Much easier to make changes that way.

 

If I have to put add'l deposit on it when I move it, I don't care, have to pay it as some point anyway. Big thing to me is I CAN cancel w/o penalty and I can move the cruise to whatever I want to w/o any penalty.

I agree with you, as long as they continue to allow us to change ship or sail date. Bet remember, when the latest changes were made, we could make no changes without the OBC getting reduced. Later the policy seem to change so we could make one change. Now it seems we can make more than one change. During these policy changes, I never remember seeing any of this in writing. In other words, the policy can change back any time they want, there's no written policy (that we see) associated with the booking that we make on board.

Edited by clarea
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montecarlo0407

montecarlo0407

Posted
Posted

my response from corporate today when I wrote about losing the balcony discount:

 

Today, I am happy to share with you, we will not be going through with that change to your benefit. However, we will still be appreciating our guests this week, by letting them enjoy the Balcony & Suite Discount amount from the tier above their current status.

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orville99 "Live from...." Rare

orville99

Posted
Posted
my response from corporate today when I wrote about losing the balcony discount:

 

Today, I am happy to share with you, we will not be going through with that change to your benefit. However, we will still be appreciating our guests this week, by letting them enjoy the Balcony & Suite Discount amount from the tier above their current status.

 

Yep, they certainly will do that. Did a mock booking on a cruise we had already booked for next March, and the balcony discount was $25 more than the D+ discount on my real booking. The cruise itself had gone up by more than $800 however for the same category cabin.

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Clarea

Clarea

Posted
Posted
Part of my latest email today,from RCCL...:) We spoke,they listened..Thanks everyone!! (READ the green area)

 

http://links.royal-caribbean-cruises.mkt5894.com/servlet/MailView?ms=MTMzMDk5MDAS1&r=MTMwOTcxOTA1MjUxS0&j=ODAzNDg3NjgxS0&mt=1&rt=0

And thank-you Kathy for giving us a very early heads-up!

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Ourusualbeach

Ourusualbeach

Posted
Posted

I finally heard back from the executive offices except I am pretty sure they sent me the wrong form letter.:eek::rolleyes:

 

Dear Mr. Beach:

 

Thank you for contacting the Executive Offices of Royal Caribbean International. We are in receipt of your correspondence to Mr. Bayley and I am pleased to respond on his behalf.

 

I regret to learn of the displeasure conveyed as a result of the experience shared, and genuinely apologize. We are currently reviewing your concerns and will follow up with you upon the completion of our review.

 

Thank you, Mr. Beach, for reaching out to us. We look forward to communicate with you in the near future.

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PH8

PH8

Posted
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Posted
I finally heard back from the executive offices except I am pretty sure they sent me the wrong form letter.:eek::rolleyes:

 

Dear Mr. Beach:

 

Thank you for contacting the Executive Offices of Royal Caribbean International. We are in receipt of your correspondence to Mr. Bayley and I am pleased to respond on his behalf.

 

I regret to learn of the displeasure conveyed as a result of the experience shared, and genuinely apologize. We are currently reviewing your concerns and will follow up with you upon the completion of our review.

 

Thank you, Mr. Beach, for reaching out to us. We look forward to communicate with you in the near future.

 

Haha!! :p

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