Allure "Chartered" ?????????

[brentconn]

I got the following email from RCL,

 

Dear Guest,

We are reaching out to let you know that, regrettably, we have to cancel your Allure of the Seas February 9^th, 2020 cruise, as it has been chartered. We know this news is disappointing and apologize for the impact to your vacation.

How do you charter a ship that already has a hard schedule? LOL. Anyway, it is giving us a chance to possibly(but not for sure)  go with another cruise line. Their alternate options offer nothing for the inconvenience. And the one date we would consider(Feb.2nd) is not even offered. Sometimes when you get a bad feeling about something you should go with it. Any thoughts on this?

 

Thanks,

 

Brent

[Merion_Mom]

You should do whatever works best for you.

[pcur]

 

First thing I would do it call RCCL and tell them what you just posted about the dates you would prefer for your inconvenience to quote them back to themselves.  If you don't get any satisfaction, then ask to speak to the resolutions department.  Also, check your credit card for any travel insurance benefits you may have.

[cb at sea]

Unfortunately, this happens on ALL cruise lines, from time to time.  At least, you have over a year to find something else....not all are so lucky!

[brentconn]

1 hour ago, pcur said:

 

First thing I would do it call RCCL and tell them what you just posted about the dates you would prefer for your inconvenience to quote them back to themselves.  If you don't get any satisfaction, then ask to speak to the resolutions department.  Also, check your credit card for any travel insurance benefits you may have.

 

I did call and after a couple of phone transfers, I spoke to a manager. She did finally give me the Feb. 2nd cruise and I came out almost $700 ahead!

 

Thank you!

 

Brent

[bandjwayne]

We had this happen to our Allure Feb 2019 cruise & weren't told until ~9-10 months out if I remember correctly...some flights were already out.  No alternative options were comparable & we were locked into those specific dates due to work schedules.  In the end we switched to Harmony & it's costing us more money, although the ship is better.  I just wished they would have given us the same price that the Harmony was when we first booked the Allure:(. I'm glad you came out ahead!

[Biker19]

On 12/28/2018 at 12:19 PM, brentconn said:

How do you charter a ship that already has a hard schedule?

Someone offers you better terms.

[not-enough-cruising]

On 12/28/2018 at 12:30 PM, F27TW said:

 

Golly, that was sure helpful.

The ship was chartered. Options were given. It’s sucks but what more can you say?

[NavyCruiser]

Sorry everyone, I've chartered the entire ship for all my peeps as an after Super Bowl celebration.... 😉

[KmomChicago]

Brent, I'm glad it worked out for you and you got the alternate sailing at a better price.  I assume it's a different ship as well?  It is nice / appropriate if the price difference was due to the company providing some incentives based on your inconvenience. Hopefully changes that bad feeling around to something more satisfying.  Sometimes things work out better in the end; enjoy your cruise!

[oddly excitered]

Wait, This is a thing? a person or company can buy an entire ship and itinerary?

[Paulxyz2004]

37 minutes ago, brentconn said:

 

I don't know of any other business that does this.  I have flown a hundred times and not one airline has emailed me to inform me that someone offered them more money for my seat so I'm sh!t out of luck. LMAO.

 

Well it happens with about any cruiseline out there, at least the mass market ones.

 

As for your airline example, they certainly do it and as we talk about single seats here it´s done all the time.

No they won´t email you to inform you someone offered more money, but they will simply kick you off the flight telling you they are overbooked.

 

 

[brentconn]

19 minutes ago, Paulxyz2004 said:

 

Well it happens with about any cruiseline out there, at least the mass market ones.

 

As for your airline example, they certainly do it and as we talk about single seats here it´s done all the time.

No they won´t email you to inform you someone offered more money, but they will simply kick you off the flight telling you they are overbooked.

 

 

 

This example is not the same. Airlines sometimes overbook for no-shows. The incentives for volunteering to be bumped are very lucrative. I was "bumped" and was offered hotel stay and ticket to anywhere in the continental US. Now that's business.

[Paulxyz2004]

5 minutes ago, brentconn said:

 

This example is not the same.

 

It was your example.

 

Incentives from airlines are not always very lucrative, especially if we talk about international airline business. Anyway lucrative or not, if nobody takes the offer they will bump you off the flight if they can sell your seat to a full fare pax who just showed up and pays more than you had paid for it.

[brentconn]

You probably have more experience with flights than I do. I'm not really a frequent flyer anymore. I'm sure this does happen but since 1982 I personally have never seen anybody be bumped that didn't volunteer. But I do know it happens.  Good point.

[Biker19]

4 hours ago, brentconn said:

 

This example is not the same. Airlines sometimes overbook for no-shows. The incentives for volunteering to be bumped are very lucrative. I was "bumped" and was offered hotel stay and ticket to anywhere in the continental US. Now that's business.

BTW, bumping happens on cruises as well - not as frequently as on flights and there are few examples on CC, but it does happen.

[DHADEN]

I just found out that RCL has cancelled our cruise - NOT through RCL, though.

Someone on our Rollcall posted that the cruise had been cancelled;  so I started calling to find out.  The Cust. Rep. looked it up and said that it showed "Redeployed".  He explained that that usually means either it has been CHARTERED and will go somewhere else (my wife said, "you know, that's the week after the Super Bowl - maybe the NFL), or it will be going into Dry Dock for some reason.

 

I don't know if I should rebook or wait to hear from RCI about how they are going to make up for cancelling something we are SOOOOO looking forward to.  We had a Rhapsody cruise cancelled before and they offered "Guaranteed Price" plus additional $400 OBC.

 

Edited December 30, 2018 by DHADEN

[molly361]

You should probably call them.  According to this thread folks have been notified

 

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2617510-allure-chartered/

[DHADEN]

On 12/28/2018 at 11:19 AM, brentconn said:

I got the following email from RCL,

Dear Guest,

We are reaching out to let you know that, regrettably, we have to cancel your Allure of the Seas February 9^th, 2020 cruise, as it has been chartered. We know this news is disappointing and apologize for the impact to your vacation.

How do you charter a ship that already has a hard schedule? LOL. Anyway, it is giving us a chance to possibly(but not for sure)  go with another cruise line. Their alternate options offer nothing for the inconvenience. And the one date we would consider(Feb.2nd) is not even offered. Sometimes when you get a bad feeling about something you should go with it. Any thoughts on this?

Thanks,

Brent

 

We were also on the Feb. 9 cruise - but we booked a BACK TO BACK - with another couple!  We booked a 2 Bedroom  Grand Suite for both weeks (also the 16th).

I have NOT received any notification from RCI.  How long ago did you get your email?

Last time we had a cruise cancelled, they offered us additional $400 OBC to move our booking to another cruise.

Edited December 30, 2018 by DHADEN

[brentconn]

38 minutes ago, DHADEN said:

 

We were also on the Feb. 9 cruise - but we booked a BACK TO BACK - with another couple!  We booked a 2 Bedroom  Grand Suite for both weeks (also the 16th).

I have NOT received any notification from RCI.  How long ago did you get your email?

Last time we had a cruise cancelled, they offered us additional $400 OBC to move our booking to another cruise.

 

Dec. 27th, 5:22 pm EST

[ryanbarckley]

6 hours ago, oddly excitered said:

Wait, This is a thing? a person or company can buy an entire ship and itinerary?

 

Yup! Royal has a whole page on it:

 

Chartering a Ship

[SeaHunt]

8 hours ago, oddly excitered said:

Wait, This is a thing? a person or company can buy an entire ship and itinerary?

 

Yep. The cruisetimetables full ship charter list shows 76 full ship charters for 2019 (across all lines) and that's only a partial list!

 

Any cruise can be pulled for a charter client, so you can only hope that you get decent notice ahead of time so you don't have problems with prebooked air arrangements, etc. If you see your sailing marked as "closed for new bookings" it might be "uh oh", so you need to keep checking.

 

The 2/9/20 Allure charter might be an Atlantis charter - just speculation based on the fact that Atlantis chartered the Allure for the 2019 February 3-10 sailing (so it might be the same for 2020).

 

Charters must be very profitable for both companies and cruiselines. 

[xxHadleyxx]

OP, I am glad you were able to get a suitable alternate sailing at a good price, and also that you had plenty of advance notice of the charter.

 

As others posted, booked sailngs being cancelled for charters is common industry wide---we first ran into it on Disney in the Med with only about 4-5 months notice, about 7 or 8 years ago.  LIberty was sailing from the same port on the same dates--it is how we ended up with Royal.  

 

Personally, I know it happens and there is not much anyone can do about it, BUT I feel it is wrong for the line to push so heavily for non refundable deposits even well over a year in advance, but then pull those same cruises when they get a better offer in the form of a charter:  if they want a firm commitment from guests, they ought to provide an equally firm commitment to us---only requiring or even accepting non refundable deposits after a cut off date which they are willing to committ to not chartering out the sailing..  Sigh---I like cruising too much to quibble about it though.  I just take my chances like the rest of us

[SRF]

18 hours ago, brentconn said:

 

This example is not the same. Airlines sometimes overbook for no-shows. The incentives for volunteering to be bumped are very lucrative. I was "bumped" and was offered hotel stay and ticket to anywhere in the continental US. Now that's business.

 

Two levels.

 

One is the voluntary bump.  They offer X to get people to volunteer to take a later flight.  Money, hotel, upgrade, etc.

 

Second is the involuntary bump.  And that is where you don't choose to be bumped.  Then the laws and regulations kick in, and you get what they have to give you. If this happens on a flight EU to EU, you REALLY get compensated.

[SRF]

10 hours ago, SeaHunt said:

Charters must be very profitable for both companies and cruiselines. 

 

List of prices:

 

Quote

3 & 4 Night	$830,000 – $1,600,000+	Vision Class
3 & 4 Night	$1,450,000 – $2,200,000+	Voyager Class
4 & 5 Night	$1,200,000 – $1,800,000+	Radiance Class
4 & 5 Night	$1,500,000 – $2,300,000+	Voyager Class
4 & 5 Night	$1,800,000 – $2,800,000+	Freedom Class
7 Night	$1,800,000 – $2,500,000+	Vision / Radiance Classes
7 Night	$2,800,000 – $3,800,000+	Voyager Class
7 Night	$3,900,000 – $4,500,000+	Freedom Class
7 Night	$5,000,000 – $7,700,000+	Quantum Class
7 Night	$6,500,000 – $11,000,000+	Oasis Class

Edited December 31, 2018 by SRF