Anthem Sep/Oct not for sale?

[HighlandBoy]

So here are the changes to our Sept 5th sailing still 7 nights but will be much cooler than we were looking for with the original Spain and Portugal itinerary.

 

ABOUT YOUR UPCOMING TRAVELS

Dear Guest, We’re looking forward to welcoming you onboard Anthem of the Seas for our September 5th, 2021 sailing and have an itinerary change to share.  Our original plan for Anthem of the Seas was to begin offering sailings to Spain, Portugal, and the Canary Islands beginning September 2021. However, we’ve decided to extend our British Isles cruise program on Anthem of the Seas. As a result, your itinerary has been updated to feature ports in the British Isles. We know how much time and effort go into planning your vacation and apologize for any inconvenience caused by this change. However, we’re excited to take you on a new adventure! We know you’ll have an excellent time. Below, please find our new itinerary. Date Day Port of Call Arrive Depart 09/05/21 Sun Southampton, England   6:00 PM 09/06/21 Mon Cruising     09/07/21 Tue Inverness / Loch Ness, Scotland 8:00 AM 5:00 PM 09/08/21 Wed Kirkwall, Scotland 8:00 AM 5:00 PM 09/09/21 Thu Cruising     09/10/21 Fri Belfast, Northern Ireland 8:00 AM 5:00 PM 09/11/21 Sat Cruising     09/12/21 Sun Southampton, England 5:30 AM   Beginning August 6th, 2021, we’ll automatically update your itinerary. So, there’s nothing for you to do! As this is a new itinerary, your original stateroom category price will either be protected at your original cruise fare rate or reduced to the current cruise fare rate (whichever is lower). This excludes taxes, fees, gratuities, and other non-cruise fare items.  If you were already paid in full and your cruise fare rate decreases, we’ll provide you with a refund for any difference in pricing. You can expect to receive your refund to your original form of payment 30 business days after we move you. Kindly note, refund times may vary depending on your financial institution. To sweeten the offer, you’ll also receive a $100 USD credit to spend onboard per stateroom. Lastly, as we return to service, our sailing protocols will evolve. Closer to your departure date, we’ll email you and your Travel Advisor our sailing protocol details. In the meantime, feel free to visit RoyalCaribbean.com/Health for information. Any pre-paid Royal Caribbean International shore excursions booked for our original itinerary will automatically be refunded to your original form of payment. In the next few days, your updated tour information will be e-mailed to you. In the meantime, feel free to browse all the exciting shore excursion options for your sailing in Cruise Planner. While we can’t wait to set sail with you, we understand this is an unexpected change and may not work for everyone. It’s important to us that every aspect of your time with us is enjoyable. So, should you no longer wish to sail, you’ll have until August 17th, 2021 to cancel and receive a full refund of any paid portion of your cruise fare to the original form of payment, including non-refundable deposits. Plus, you’ll be refunded any pre-paid amenities to the original form of payment within 30 business days. Please contact your Travel Advisor or call us at 1 (866) 562-7625 by August 17th, 2021 to let us know your decision. If we don’t hear from you by then, you’ll remain booked on this sailing with our new itinerary. Thanks for your understanding. We can’t wait to welcome you onboard Anthem of the Seas! Sincerely,

[gumshoe958]

Anyone know when the new itineraries go on sale?

[welshrich]

54 minutes ago, gumshoe958 said:

Anyone know when the new itineraries go on sale?

I've just booked the October 2nd cruise which they are advertising as Spain and Portugal, was optimistic this would go after quite a few cancellations, just waiting for the change email now....

[welshrich]

2 hours ago, beardedladies said:

Just got ours for 2nd Oct trip too. At least our dates are not changing, still 7 days. 
It’s interesting that there’s no FCC option this time and you’re automatically changes to the new sailing 

Hi, was it for a spain/portugal cruise?   I just booked it this morning on the RCI website as it was a great price, has it changed to a UK trip?

[beardedladies]

10 minutes ago, welshrich said:

Hi, was it for a spain/portugal cruise?   I just booked it this morning on the RCI website as it was a great price, has it changed to a UK trip?

Yes - here's the new itinerary. We just upgraded to a JS as the prices were very good this morning.

[welshrich]

6 minutes ago, beardedladies said:

Yes - here's the new itinerary. We just upgraded to a JS as the prices were very good this morning.

Thanks for this, we are already doing a UK cruise a couple of weeks before this so it's not ideal, I was prepared for the testing etc for being in Europe.   You are right about the good prices though.

[beardedladies]

It's not our first choice either, as we're doing a UK trip on Celebrity at the end of this month. But then it's still a cruise and as they say "the ship is the destination". Plus couldn't resist double points in a suite.

[Lady President]

I've been completely accepting that many of our cruises have been cancelled-- RCI had no choice.  This particular change has infuriated me.  Here's the last week for us:

 

7/28:  Announcement that US residents didn't need to quarantine when entering the UK.  We immediately book on the 11-day Canary Islands cruise.  (The 9/12 cruise that had been the Food & Wine Experience.)

7/29:  The cancel us because we live in the US.  When we call, they admit the cancellation was a mistake, but we can't un-cancel because the cruise is full.  They tell us to call the next day because cabins might open.  It will be 30-45 days for our refund of the full cost of the cruise

7/30:  After being on hold for over an hour, we're told the person we need to talk to is out for the day, but she'll call us Monday and there is probably a cabin being released.

8/2:  She doesn't call, but we call back late in the day and book a GS at a great price.  However, we need to pay in full again because the refund process has started on the one from a few days previous.

8/4:  Exactly 36-hours later, the trip is changed to 7-days and a less interesting itinerary.  The new 7-days is going to be the same cost as the 11-days, but they will give us a whole $100 OBC.  

 

So, now we need to wait for 30-45 days to have two full payments returned, and no cruise.  We talked to several supervisors throughout this process.  I truly believe that someone should have had more information-- at the very least not to book us the second time.  I'm sure we'll cruise again with RCI, but we need to take a break from them for a couple years.... 

[Juliecruzin]

Poor of royal to put the international itineraries back on sale when they clearly have no intention of doing them! Was impressed when I saw the price but will be thinking a bit more about it now if we know they’re British isles cruises! 

[irishgal432]

59 minutes ago, beardedladies said:

Yes - here's the new itinerary. We just upgraded to a JS as the prices were very good this morning.

p

We had been booked on the Spain/Portugal cruise.  I live in Atlanta and was wondering what the weather would be like in these ports this time of year, can anyone advise me?  Thank you.

[beardedladies]

Yes it’s quite a mess how some cruises are withdrawn and others are on their site with the now obsolete itinerary. It’s confusing enough for us on these forums with all the detective work this thread provides, there must be loads of people booking at the now very cheap prices that are about to be very disappointed. 

[beardedladies]

3 minutes ago, irishgal432 said:

We had been booked on the Spain/Portugal cruise.  I live in Atlanta and was wondering what the weather would be like in these ports this time of year, can anyone advise me?  Thank you.

Most likely relatively chilly (around 15C or so). We do sometimes get what we call an ‘Indian summer’ with warm weather but I’d anticipate it being cold and anything else is a pleasant surprise. 

[irishgal432]

3 minutes ago, beardedladies said:

Most likely relatively chilly (around 15C or so). We do sometimes get what we call an ‘Indian summer’ with warm weather but I’d anticipate it being cold and anything else is a pleasant surprise. 

Thank you.  Is it start of rainy season?  Trying to convince my husband.  We have never been to that area and I am excited to try but he is concerned about the weather.

[cublet]

Hello,

 

I'm currently on Celebrity Silhouette - last week too. A week prior to that I was on MSC Virtuosa - for two weeks. If I spend any more time in Liverpool, the local authority will be after me for council tax!

 

Unless you go on a ship's excursion, the ship is the only destination. I've cancelled three (now UK) cruises in August & September and waiting to hear (a) the plans for October sailing; and (b) what the protocols will be.

 

Regards,

 

Cublet

 

[kernow]

Just booked 2nd Oct 7 night JS, was only going to do a balcony but couldn't resist JS for the price. I tried to book on RC website (which was still showing old itinerary) but it wouldn't go through so called TA who offered an even better price. The TA said their system was showing the new itinerary. Hope we make Greenock this time as it was cancelled on our June MSC cruise.

[kernow]

35 minutes ago, irishgal432 said:

Thank you.  Is it start of rainy season?  Trying to convince my husband.  We have never been to that area and I am excited to try but he is concerned about the weather.

Any season can be the rainy season in the UK☺️.It won't be hot but could be pleasant, could also be cold, wet and windy.

[irishgal432]

2 minutes ago, kernow said:

Any season can be the rainy season in the UK☺️.It won't be hot but could be pleasant, could also be cold, wet and windy.

Thank you!  What to do? What to do? I want to go, my husband isnt thrilled.

Edited August 4, 2021 by irishgal432

[CaroleC]

34 minutes ago, cublet said:

If I spend any more time in Liverpool, the local authority will be after me for council tax!

 

🤣🤣🤣

[xxHadleyxx]

We were booked on one of these Anthem sailings.  Booked it back when it was a Norwegian Fjord cruise.

 

Then when it changed to Spain/ Portugal  3.5 weeks ago (with no offer to refund price difference and that price was high for Spain/Portugal) we cancelled.  Well, we called and said we would cancel and a "cancel code was applied" for management to put in later.  It was still showing as booked online so we called again last Thursday to ask what the situation is and they said the acount is notated that we are cancelling but the aactual process has to be done by management by hand and it could be a while yet.

 

It is still showing as booked online and we got the email today that is posted above.

If we got the price difference from today's online pricing back, we would be happy to keep the sailing as a UK ony cruise, IF we can figure out how the UK 2nd day testing rule works with those on a ship.  

So we are tempted to call again today and tell them since they never put the cancellation through anyway that we would like to keep it and get the price difference refunded (would that be from today'S pricing, or?) .

I jsut have to figure out how the UK wants us to test on day 2 from on the ship (ship is not listed a provider I can prebook).  sigh

[CaroleC]

Received the email this morning from RCI changing the 11 night Canary Islands sailing on 9th October to a 6 night British Isles cruise! Very disappointed there is no option to Lift & Shift to next year. We have already done two UK cruises this summer and don’t really want to do another. Plus the cruise is now almost half the length of the original. I’ve got a drinks package that was included in the price when I booked back in January 2019 which I’ll lose if I get a refund and rebook for next year. This is all so frustrating ☹️

[beardedladies]

14 minutes ago, irishgal432 said:

Thank you!  What to do? What to do? I want to go, my husband isnt thrilled.

Any time of year is a gamble with the U.K.  take august - meant to be our hottest sunniest month but we are about to embark on a week of rain and cool temperatures. And the last week or two haven’t been great. 
October is likely to be cool with some rain, but then I’ve also got sun burn once or twice!

if weather is the driving force the U.K. is not the best destination, there’s a reason we do cruises down to to Spain and the canaries!

[irishgal432]

9 minutes ago, beardedladies said:

Any time of year is a gamble with the U.K.  take august - meant to be our hottest sunniest month but we are about to embark on a week of rain and cool temperatures. And the last week or two haven’t been great. 
October is likely to be cool with some rain, but then I’ve also got sun burn once or twice!

if weather is the driving force the U.K. is not the best destination, there’s a reason we do cruises down to to Spain and the canaries!

Thank you!  We had the same conversation when we did an early May cruise to Alaska.  He was all worried about rain and cold and it ended up being beautiful.  

[Iamcruzin]

16 hours ago, HighlandBoy said:

Just had a email to say that our upcoming cruise is cancelled but hoping it’s sent in error as it’s to Dear Guest and doesn’t say which of our 3 bookings is effected.

You have to be kidding. With all of the changes in protocol, Covid testing and ship swapping and cancellations they probably don't know which cruise is cancelled themselves.

[toad455]

No word if the Anthem is coming over this October to Cape Liberty either. Her winter cruises seem like they'll be cancelled at this point.

[beardedladies]

They've now updated the cruises to be British Isles ones - about time!