Independence UK 2020 sailings cancelled

[snaefell]

I would agree that cruise lines are looking for a different type of customer these days,hence P&O moving toward ever larger ships,a move which has seen them roundly slated by their faithful followers who don't appreciate 'the kind' of people who are being attracted to cruises by the company who are aiming at the family market & the people who would normally be heading to the beaches of the likes of Spain for a cheap holiday IMO.

We spent years flying to the USA for road trips until we reached the point where we were sick of flying & looked for anything from the UK where we didn't have to fly,sadly that is severely limited,ships are slow so there is a limit to how many places you can reach from the UK by ship on a 2 week holiday,we thought we had partly sorted it last year with a cruise which saw us fly out to Barbados & cruise back to Southampton which we thought was ideal with no flying at the end of it only to spend 7 hours on a coach at the end of it getting back home,now even Southampton seems too far to go!

[minikiss]

8 hours ago, ONECRUISER said:

20YRS ago I'd take my kids to Orlando, spend 2 weeks there in a 3bd/2Ba Condo with a week at Parks. Was cheaper then week on Royal. Now Cheaper on Royal then a single week in Orlando and Parks

tell me about it, last time we went to Florida was 20 years ago. We both flow and stayed for the price of 1 of us this time round. Then there's the park tickets WOW expensive again i'm sure the price of both tickets is as much is 1 is now. We hired a car last time now wondering if maybe we can get away with shuttles and taxi's. I've noticed some hotels now charge a daily rate to park a hire car as well as the room rate.... Then there's the car park charge for the parks, I have all the parking tickets from last time $5/$6 a day, now it's $25 a day. I think next year will be the VERY last time we holiday there.

Jules

[jomf]

21 hours ago, Yogi21 said:

We have today been told by our T/A  in UK that because our Indy cancelled cruise was a " group booking " by them, RCI will not be giving the 25% compensation via them to us.We understood that the compensation was to be given to all affected cruisers on the cruise element of their booking, Our refunded deposit arrived without problem.

 

Anyone else told no compensation ?

 

We don’t get the 25%FCC, because Royal cancelled our cruise (26th sept Med cruise) before they had announced the redeployment! 

Obviously a cancellation for charter reasons doesn’t warrant the same compo!

[ONECRUISER]

5 hours ago, minikiss said:

tell me about it, last time we went to Florida was 20 years ago. We both flow and stayed for the price of 1 of us this time round. Then there's the park tickets WOW expensive again i'm sure the price of both tickets is as much is 1 is now. We hired a car last time now wondering if maybe we can get away with shuttles and taxi's. I've noticed some hotels now charge a daily rate to park a hire car as well as the room rate.... Then there's the car park charge for the parks, I have all the parking tickets from last time $5/$6 a day, now it's $25 a day. I think next year will be the VERY last time we holiday there.

Jules

Agree. Doesn't matter if Airlines, Cruises or Hotels/Condos, all charge Extras now. But feel it's the worst having to pay at Hotel/Condo to park or car there. Stayed at a Resort on Ocean where we had my Daughters Wedding last yr. On top of paying for 4 rooms, a Ball Room and Wedding Dinner, they also charged me $25 a day to park there

[Cruise Gopher]

FYI the Independence Summer 2020 sailings are now open for booking! We booked a nice 3 day weekend cruise in May 2020. 

 

http://www.creative.rccl.com/Sales/Royal/Deployment/2020_2021/ID_Caribbean_Deployment.pdf

Edited June 7, 2019 by SkierRobUMN

[molsonschooner]

1 hour ago, SkierRobUMN said:

FYI the Independence Summer 2020 sailings are now open for booking! We booked a nice 3 day weekend cruise in May 2020. 

 

http://www.creative.rccl.com/Sales/Royal/Deployment/2020_2021/ID_Caribbean_Deployment.pdf

the cruises have been out for a couple days now. I am not impressed with the short cruises, I was hoping for 7 nights.

[Cruise Gopher]

9 minutes ago, molsonschooner said:

the cruises have been out for a couple days now. I am not impressed with the short cruises, I was hoping for 7 nights.

 

Royal Caribbean is betting big on their huge investment in Cococay so that’s why all these Indy sailings go there. It’s a huge money maker by getting two different sets of passengers there each week as opposed to one group of passengers each week if they did 7 night sailings. 

[molsonschooner]

1 minute ago, SkierRobUMN said:

 

Royal Caribbean is betting big on their huge investment in Cococay so that’s why all these Indy sailings go there. It’s a huge money maker by getting two different sets of passengers there each week as opposed to one group of passengers each week if they did 7 night sailings. 

Right, I understand that, just not happy about it. As we have to fly to cruise it doesn't make sense to do a 3 night cruise

 

[DJLDRUMS]

I totally agree with your statement. Whether you travel from the UK, US, or other world destinations, unless your either a Florida resident or can travel to Ft. Lauderdale by vehicle, taking a 3/4/5 night cruise isn't really practical or money wise with the price of airfare. I too would have rather have seen it do a 7 nighter. As the word spreads of the Indy's itinerary choices I think it's going to disappoint people instead of something to look forward to....Not a lot of people are breaking the door down to go to Falmouth Jamaica as a stop on their 5 nighter. Highly disappointed in the RCIs Marketing Departments choice of blah itineraries.

[minikiss]

8 hours ago, SkierRobUMN said:

FYI the Independence Summer 2020 sailings are now open for booking! We booked a nice 3 day weekend cruise in May 2020. 

 

http://www.creative.rccl.com/Sales/Royal/Deployment/2020_2021/ID_Caribbean_Deployment.pdf

 

7 hours ago, molsonschooner said:

the cruises have been out for a couple days now. I am not impressed with the short cruises, I was hoping for 7 nights.

 

I've been putting off deciding which alternative we should book till I saw what was on offer on the Indy , but like wise very disappointed in the choice so nothing there for me.

So going to stick with my 2nd choice of the Celebrity Equinox for a 9 day to the Caribbean, which will suit us perfectly. I can board in my birthday, get off have 6 days in the Orlando area doing the parks, then fly back on my husbands birthday.

Added a £1000 plus to the over all bill which i'm not best pleased about as we are now needing to cut corners where we can.

Sorry RCCL I doubt we will be back on another of your ships after our Canaries this year.

[kruzerci]

9 hours ago, minikiss said:

 

 

I've been putting off deciding which alternative we should book till I saw what was on offer on the Indy , but like wise very disappointed in the choice so nothing there for me.

So going to stick with my 2nd choice of the Celebrity Equinox for a 9 day to the Caribbean, which will suit us perfectly. I can board in my birthday, get off have 6 days in the Orlando area doing the parks, then fly back on my husbands birthday.

Added a £1000 plus to the over all bill which i'm not best pleased about as we are now needing to cut corners where we can.

Sorry RCCL I doubt we will be back on another of your ships after our Canaries this year.

 

They don’t care as long as you are going on Celebrity... same parent company. 

[Alohaaloha]

On 6/2/2019 at 10:02 AM, mysticmum said:

We have just received our deposit refund but where do you find your FCC ?

Ours arrived in an e-mail

 

Edited June 7, 2019 by Alohaaloha

[mysticmum]

3 hours ago, Alohaaloha said:

Ours arrived in an e-mail

 

 

3 hours ago, Alohaaloha said:

Ours arrived in an e-mail

 

 

Thanks for the reply we received the email a couple of days ago just after my post. 

[Tin can]

53 minutes ago, irzero said:

It's likely because everything is priced in USD and we are getting 1.23 to the pound which is shocking. Add royals constant increase in price for everything such as 78usd drinks package and 39usd to eat in chops plus 21usd for the lobster and you can start to understand why there is a problem. When a glass of crap wine is £10 or more served by some staff that can't be arsed then you have a perfect storm. A 2 week cruise out of Southampton with drinks and meal package add ons plus tips now costs the same as 2 weeks in cancun at the moon palace which is 5 star with 2500 credit to excursions and Spa treatments etc.

So next year royal has lost my business I'm going to give the Grand resort a try or maybe moon palace instead.

Sent from my SM-N960F using Tapatalk
 

 

We live in the UK but its cheaper this year as a family to fly to New York, stay two nights in Manhattan and sail on Adventure Of The Seas than cruise Independence out of Southampton. 

 

Royal out of Southampton on peak summer sailings is so expensive, its no surprise that they weren’t selling.

[livylotte]

ABTA?

Or Trading Standards?

[colsky]

We were booked on the Indy for a 14 night Baltic cruise in August 2020, and were very disappointed when this was cancelled, as the cruise was a perfect length and itinerary for what we wanted to do that year.

 

We received our FCC promptly as promised and we've been holding off booking a replacement Summer 2020 cruise until we saw one that we liked, with the right price.  We're thinking now that we might have to look at another cruise line for 2020, as the RCL prices on the UK website are now very high, and, even if we use our FCC, other cruise lines are looking far cheaper in comparison.

 

I did price up a particular cruise back in May, but unfortunately the price of that cruise is now 30% higher than it was then!  I've also noticed that its around 20% cheaper to book on the US RCL site, compared to their UK site, even with the UK site's current £1,000 offer. Thinking cynically I wonder if RCL are doing what they're doing with the UK prices in order to offset the Indy related FCC that they've given out.

 

[Saab4444]

2 hours ago, colsky said:

We were booked on the Indy for a 14 night Baltic cruise in August 2020, and were very disappointed when this was cancelled, as the cruise was a perfect length and itinerary for what we wanted to do that year.

 

We received our FCC promptly as promised and we've been holding off booking a replacement Summer 2020 cruise until we saw one that we liked, with the right price.  We're thinking now that we might have to look at another cruise line for 2020, as the RCL prices on the UK website are now very high, and, even if we use our FCC, other cruise lines are looking far cheaper in comparison.

 

I did price up a particular cruise back in May, but unfortunately the price of that cruise is now 30% higher than it was then!  I've also noticed that its around 20% cheaper to book on the US RCL site, compared to their UK site, even with the UK site's current £1,000 offer. Thinking cynically I wonder if RCL are doing what they're doing with the UK prices in order to offset the Indy related FCC that they've given out.

 

Royal`s rates in all Europe are in most cases significantly higher than in the US, not just UK.  

[mysticmum]

12 minutes ago, Saab4444 said:

Royal`s rates in all Europe are in most cases significantly higher than in the US, not just UK.  

 

I have just booked a short cruise going from Tampa next February and I booked it in dollars on the RCCL.com website. Wasn't sure you could but the booking went through with my crown and anchor number and UK address.

[Tin can]

36 minutes ago, mysticmum said:

 

I have just booked a short cruise going from Tampa next February and I booked it in dollars on the RCCL.com website. Wasn't sure you could but the booking went through with my crown and anchor number and UK address.

 

Thats very interesting, I thought you had to have a US address. 

[Biker19]

48 minutes ago, mysticmum said:

 Wasn't sure you could but the booking went through with my crown and anchor number and UK address.

That was not possible previously, this could be a glitch.

[mysticmum]

On ‎6‎/‎18‎/‎2019 at 1:39 PM, Biker19 said:

That was not possible previously, this could be a glitch.

 

Hopefully won't be a problem, fingers crossed. I forgot we have booked in dollars previously, a few years ago without any difficulty, but I am certainly not recommending anyone else do this without checking first.

[Biker19]

3 hours ago, mysticmum said:

Hopefully won't be a problem, fingers crossed. 

The web site wouldn't normally let go past the address page during the booking process without an address in the market in which you were booking.

[snaefell]

As proud as I am to be British two weeks of hearing Rule Britannia after every anouncement on Britannia was certainly hard work!

[Rotherham_Cruiser]

8 hours ago, snaefell said:

As proud as I am to be British two weeks of hearing Rule Britannia after every anouncement on Britannia was certainly hard work!

 

Well that's changed then. We have done 3 P&O cruises and there was certainly no music after announcements.  Only the odd Sailaway and you could avoid that by going inside

[snaefell]

15 hours ago, Rotherham_Cruiser said:

 

Well that's changed then. We have done 3 P&O cruises and there was certainly no music after announcements.  Only the odd Sailaway and you could avoid that by going inside

On Britannia it was played in the cabins too after announcements made through the webcam channel on the TV,the last time we were on her was March 2018,maybe at last the novelty has worn off!