Allure of the Seas Western Change in Itinerary

[SamTimeDining]

6 hours ago, tlund said:

I don't think anyone checks on a daily basis. 

 

I check all my bookings and all my clients bookings minimally once a week. Typically twice as that's how many different promotions occur in a week. I guess I'm just a silly goose!

[DJan07]

The content in the original post is not relevant to me, but it is very clear to me that quite a folks on these boards need to learn how to provide constructive criticism/feedback and have mature and respectful conversations. Yikes...

Edited August 20, 2019 by DJan07

[Tree_skier]

1 hour ago, tlund said:

Consider how much time you spend on pre-planning and preparing for your personal cruise, especially in the time period close to sailing.  Now imagine doing that for a group travelling to Europe for their first trip to Europe.  In that same time period, imagine having to also handle plans for a larger group that you are escorting in the next few weeks from Canada to Hawaii.  So, the fact that I have not been combing the boards and logging in to the Cruise Planner daily in the last few weeks for my own personal booking sailing in 5 months does not warrant criticism that is being given.   The main point of my post was to let others know that no notice was provided, not even to the TA of record, so it would be recommended to check bookings..

Thanks for letting folks know.  I wouldn't bother trying to defend you or your profession.  Some folks just like to hate. Just ignore their posts and move on.  

 

There are good TA's and bad TA's... just like doctor's and plumber's and ski school instructors.  

[springaussie]

I do not know why Royal cannot let all passengers know about changes also. This TA stuff is crap.

[Iamcruzin]

9 hours ago, springfire said:

   You are leaving lots of money behind, if you are leaving your booking with Royal.

I read this time and time again on all of the boards yet in 30 years I have only found one agency that offered a worthwhile OBC and it was only once and never repeated. I'm still looking for those reduced group bookings but at this point I stand a better chance of spotting a UFO, Big Foot or maybe even Elvis.

[Ourusualbeach]

On 8/18/2019 at 9:40 PM, CruisinCons said:

 

Cruise Critic is all about giving professional advice, I'm sure you've noticed by now.  But so you know, RCCL sent out notifications around July 25th of all the western caribbean sailings that were affected. 

Unfortunately it is not uncommon for travel agents to not receive notification of these changes.  If the agent works for an agency many times the notification goes to the agency who may fail to notify the agent, same thing if the agent has clients booked in a group then notifications may only go to the group owner.  Royal hast even posted these changes on their website for  travel agents under the “itinerary updates” section.

 

It’s pretty hard to conclusively blame the TA knowing how bad Royal is at communicating these things.

[mayleeman]

10 hours ago, tlund said:

The main point of my post was to let others know that no notice was provided, not even to the TA of record, so it would be recommended to check bookings..

My point was that I thought travel agents already knew that. It seems that about 10% of the (non-review) threads are about people discovering something out of the ordinary. Did you not previously know "to check bookings" oftem?

 

Keeping on top of a booking is allegedly one of the advantages of having a travel agent.  We have, however, seen a number of posts where TA's dropped the ball and tried to foist responsibility off onto RC. An "Oops, I screwed up!" would have been appropriate, rather than getting angry because people point out what you could or should have done.

[Big_G]

On 8/18/2019 at 8:46 PM, tlund said:

Booked our cruise back in May on the Allure.  I know that the ship is having propulsion issues and has altered some of the Eastern Caribbean itineraries.  I was in the process of looking at shore excursions and just noticed the itinerary for our Western is now changed.  Instead of going to Roatan, the ship is going to Nassau.  The days we were to be in Cozumel and Costa Maya have also been changed.  I did not receive any notice of the change in the itinerary and I am the travel agent.  Good thing I looked again as we were in the process of booking some private excursions.  I would have booked and not been in port for the days that were booked.  Just thought I'd let others know to look at their current itineraries.  It's obvious the ship is trying to stay close to Florida. 

 

I had a boss that use to say, "No good deed goes unpunished." Thanks for the heads-up and sorry for the pile on.

[Blasian]

FYI: I received notification of the change to my Western itinerary (Dec 2019) but my friend with the same itinerary did not receive a notification. There seems to be no rhyme or reason.

[molsonschooner]

4 hours ago, Iamcruzin said:

I read this time and time again on all of the boards yet in 30 years I have only found one agency that offered a worthwhile OBC and it was only once and never repeated. I'm still looking for those reduced group bookings but at this point I stand a better chance of spotting a UFO, Big Foot or maybe even Elvis.

I just got a group rate. Saved about 300 bucks. 

[Iamcruzin]

22 minutes ago, molsonschooner said:

I just got a group rate. Saved about 300 bucks. 

Was it for a Caribbean itinerary? 

[Ourusualbeach]

34 minutes ago, molsonschooner said:

I just got a group rate. Saved about 300 bucks. 

Love the group rates.  Refundable deposit and OBC are an added bonus.

[Ourusualbeach]

36 minutes ago, Iamcruzin said:

Was it for a Caribbean itinerary? 

There are lots of groups available for all classes of ships on all itineraries.

Edited August 20, 2019 by Ourusualbeach

[tlund]

I booked this cruise on a group rate that is not available to those just booking through the cruise line.  The price was cheaper than the NRD rate available and my deposit is refundable.  Thus, the benefit of booking though an agent.

 

Some of you fail to recognize my point about checking bookings.  There definitely is a difference between checking for clients and checking on my own booking, which is 5 months away.  When we take care of our clients well, our personal matters get pushed to the side, which is why I did not check my booking for approximately 3 weeks or so.  The itinerary was just recently changed, not changed a long time ago like some other bookings.  Someone here posted that there was a post in this sailing Roll Call about the change.  The actual change in the itinerary was posted on August 10th.  My post was around 8 days later.   That's not an unreasonable period of time to warrant the accusations that the information has been out there for months/weeks.

 

What has happened here is a clear example of why people that may have productive things to contribute on these boards don't.  It's correct. No good deed goes unpunished.  I was just trying to help others.  I will think twice about doing so in the future.  Moving on.

[Tree_skier]

1 hour ago, Ourusualbeach said:

There are lots of groups available for all classes of ships on all itineraries.

Do you find that group rates are limited to certain categories or are they available across all categories?  

[kag19]

We have saved big on our last two bookings by booking through a TA that had a group booking.  Well worth it!

[Ourusualbeach]

14 minutes ago, Tree_skier said:

Do you find that group rates are limited to certain categories or are they available across all categories?  

Definitely limited.

 

First off they are only double occupancy bookings.

 

insides are usually 6V and 4V

oceanview usually 6N and 2 N

balconies usually 8D and 6D

central park and boardwalk balconies are also sometimes available 

junior suites only started appearing this year on Oasis class ships on select sailings

 

Those are the predominant categories available.  There may be other categories particularly on smaller, older ships.

 

Any cabin can be booked at current website pricing and moved into the group to gain the group amenity.  If it was booked as a non refundable deposit i5 will remain as a non refundable deposit within the group.

 

 

 

 

 

[Bobal]

1 hour ago, tlund said:

 

 Someone here posted that there was a post in this sailing Roll Call about the change.  The actual change in the itinerary was posted on August 10th.  My post was around 8 days later.   That's not an unreasonable period of time to warrant the accusations that the information has been out there 

 

 Moving on.

 

I was the one who posted about the roll call and i do have an interest since I am on an altered Allure sailing. 

 

I realise you feel the need to justify your original rant but I was notified on 28 July about my sailing and someone posted on your roll call on 30 july - not August 10 as you stated........just saying.

 

But as you said you're moving on so perhaps lesson learned - check your own bookings as well as your clients

[molsonschooner]

3 hours ago, Iamcruzin said:

Was it for a Caribbean itinerary? 

Bahamas, next May on Oasis

[Iamcruzin]

3 hours ago, molsonschooner said:

Bahamas, next May on Oasis

Thanks, Enjoy

[mayleeman]

On further consideration, I have to think that it wouldn't be unusual to not see something in a roll call. My roll calls certainly have contained no vital info (except excursion discussions) that wasn't posted in the general RC forum.

 

But I did recall a lot of people wondering what would happen after October because the only announced changes to Allure's itineraries ended there. So I checked. There was a thread started at the end of June in the main RC forum discussing the possibility of changes to itineraries after October:

 

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2675357-allure-post-october-2019-itineraries-with-azipod-issue/?tab=comments#comment-57791982

 

The first mention in this thread of the letter from RC announcing the change replacing Honduras with Nassau was on July 25 (#23), with extensive discussion thereafter--over 50 posts over three days, including comments from Oasis pax whose itineraries were being juggled because of the Allure.

 

There was, incidentally, a post in June (#19 in this thread, answering a @Host Clarea question) noting that the western itineraries to Honduras, etc., would not be in effect until November, so there was no way of telling if previous timetables were likely to show an effect from the azipod issue.

 

@tlund, let me apologize for the snippy tone in my comments. I had simply remembered that entire 3 page discussion back in July, and how angry everyone was at RC. And I found it surprising that you could have missed it. But I didn't realize that the last post (by me, actually) occurred on July 27.  Fact is, if you didn't happen to read the RC forum from July 25 to July 29 or so, you would likely have had to scroll through 6 to 10 screen of threads to even see it.

 

That is a pretty short window, especially for someone who doesn't have the spare time some of us retirees do. The change may have been in your cruise planner, but I don't think most of us look there to be notified of itinerary changes.

 

Anyway, I hope you will be able to "move on" and enjoy both your work and your own--albeit revised--cruise.

Edited August 21, 2019 by mayleeman

[ReneeFLL]

I don't think people should have to check, check and recheck their bookings just in case there might be a change. It really sucks that RC can't even send out a simple email to everyone when they should be letting customers know there was a change. It should be the job of RC to do this. Just another way of showing people how incompetent they are.