FAO: UK/ROI bookings only - drinks package offer

[Garden_Girl]

26 minutes ago, little britain said:

Use a laptop rather than an iPhone. It should pop up.

The main number is 01932 834200

 

 

Thank you so much. Chat did finally pop up on my phone but the chat bot said we both have to have the deluxe, ie I can’t have the Refreshment unless I have medical reasons and I can only book on the phone for security reasons. So I’m going to try the number you’ve given me and try again. 

[little britain]

3 hours ago, Garden_Girl said:

Thank you so much. Chat did finally pop up on my phone but the chat bot said we both have to have the deluxe, ie I can’t have the Refreshment unless I have medical reasons and I can only book on the phone for security reasons. So I’m going to try the number you’ve given me and try again. 

Chat 💬 Bot 🤖 is wrong! 
Speak to a human ! 

[Red-arrow]

The chat agent knowledge seems to be very variable and often wrong. I was told dud information that my teenager had to have the Refreshment because he's in a cabin with his adult brother who has the Deluxe, but this has since been corrected by (very helpful and prompt) email contact to royalcustomerserviceuk@rccl.com 

The reason this has to be done by chat/phone/email is that they have no way of adjusting the usual Cruise Planner purchase route without it being open to all itineraries. 

Separately, I wonder if the price will be increased going forward given the £/$ rate.....

 

Offer Ts&Cs below - if one has the Deluxe the other can have Refreshment

£43 per person, per day Deluxe Beverage Package, £20 per person, per day Refreshment Beverage Package (the “Offer”) is available for new and existing bookings towards the purchase of the Deluxe Drink Package or Refreshment Beverage Package. Deluxe Drinks Package prices are £43 GBP per person, per day (Including taxes and fees) and Refreshment Beverage Package prices are £20 GBP per person, per day (Including taxes and fees) unless otherwise noted and include any promotional savings. Please note the advertised price is based on the exchange rate rounded down. This Offer is only available on all sailings of 7 night and above departing on or between 1 September 2022 to 31 December 2023. Minimum legal drinking age applies, and this will depend on the departing location of the ship. All guests over the legal drinking age in the same stateroom and under the same stateroom booking number are required to purchase the same Beverage Package, or a Refreshment Beverage Package. The package must not be shared by guests. The guest agrees to not provide or share drinks with other guests; a violation of this may result in cancellation of the guest’s Drinks Package and guest will not receive a refund or credit of any kind.

[Donsyb]

For info, we called on Tuesday to cancel the drinks package we bought in the Black Friday sale (already a decent deal at £54 pp per day) and change to this.  All went through ok and they said we would get the refund in 30 days.  Refund appeared on the card today 🙂

 

With the exchange rate as it is, we need all the help we can get as we sail out of Miami!

[livylotte]

WOW!

Thank you so much for this.  I've literally just got off the phone.  The rep added this package to my invoice so nothing to pay today 🙂

I had no problem getting this deal, I just said I was calling from the UK and she tapped into it straight away.

Amazing - thank you again.

[Garden_Girl]

Very happy!  Lovely person on the phone but explained that I may be too late due to the manual adjustment Red Arrow explained. She kept me on hold but eventually gave me the deluxe at £472 and the refreshment at £141!  I paid over the phone and it’s been added to my invoice.

Thank you to everyone who answered my questions, especially Little Britain. 

[texmex.ferr]

6 hours ago, Donsyb said:

For info, we called on Tuesday to cancel the drinks package we bought in the Black Friday sale (already a decent deal at £54 pp per day) and change to this.  All went through ok and they said we would get the refund in 30 days.  Refund appeared on the card today 🙂

 

With the exchange rate as it is, we need all the help we can get as we sail out of Miami!

The sailings I have had it added to works out slightly more than the £43 pppd, but it's like £2 per person on a 12 night, and £3 per person on a 15 night sailings, I'm still happy with these prices, especially since they will not be used until 2023.

We have a sailing on Wonder at the end of October for 14 nights doing the Transatlantic (again), and it was originally booked back in January of 2019 to sail on Harmony or Allure, (I can't remember now, it's been changed so often), but it was the last time they offered a free drinks package on bookings from the UK, so we already have the drinks package added to our next sailing.  

[Kev_lyndsey]

Sorted this yesterday over the phone.  Boarding oasis in 3 weeks so this deal is a lot better than the £74 a day deal i had previously.

[Blue Eyed Belfast Belle]

*****Warning****

 

This offer for existing bookings ends this Sunday 16th Oct 2022 and only available for new bookings from Monday 17th Oct 2022.

[Donsyb]

Anyone here based in the ROI successfully got this promo? Someone is being told it’s only for the U.K. and when they said other people in Ireland had got it was asked for their reservation numbers!

[Blue Eyed Belfast Belle]

20 minutes ago, Donsyb said:

Anyone here based in the ROI successfully got this promo? Someone is being told it’s only for the U.K. and when they said other people in Ireland had got it was asked for their reservation numbers!

Reading one of the Irish Cruise Room group on social media it looks like loads from RoI have had it applied.

 

And they cant ask for reservation numbers for other passengers under Data protection rules!!

[Donsyb]

4 minutes ago, Blue Eyed Belfast Belle said:

Reading one of the Irish Cruise Room group on social media it looks like loads from RoI have had it applied.

 

And they cant ask for reservation numbers for other passengers under Data protection rules!!

I know! Sounds like they just got someone useless 🤦‍♀️

[cruisefanatic16]

Anyone booked directly from the royal website? we are in Europe (Malta)however they are saying that this package is not available to us! I have seen this package available also for the Spanish and Italian.

Edited October 14, 2022 by cruisefanatic16

[2catsand2kids]

I have had an email from our travel agent (we are UK) saying we have until Sunday to book the deluxe drinks package at £43 but after that we won’t be able to book the deluxe package at all, only new customers will at the time of booking their cruise. I’m going to phone them to clarify as we were going to wait and see if the package was cheaper on Black Friday and haven’t fully decided if we need one or not, but am nervous about not having the option of booking one at all. 

[Donsyb]

8 hours ago, cruisefanatic16 said:

Anyone booked directly from the royal website? we are in Europe (Malta)however they are saying that this package is not available to us! I have seen this package available also for the Spanish and Italian.

The flyer only says U.K. and ROI.

 

we booked directly with RC and got this over the phone but we are in the UK

[cruisefanatic16]

yes that flyer is for Uk but I have seen same flyer for Italians and Spanish too.

1 hour ago, Donsyb said:

The flyer only says U.K. and ROI.

 

we booked directly with RC and got this over the phone but we are in the UK

 

[Red-arrow]

On 10/14/2022 at 7:25 AM, 2catsand2kids said:

I have had an email from our travel agent (we are UK) saying we have until Sunday to book the deluxe drinks package at £43 but after that we won’t be able to book the deluxe package at all, only new customers will at the time of booking their cruise. I’m going to phone them to clarify as we were going to wait and see if the package was cheaper on Black Friday and haven’t fully decided if we need one or not, but am nervous about not having the option of booking one at all. 

Deals can get withdrawn with no notice but I'd be surprised if it was only limited to new bookings. The £43 is a good price and even Black Friday 'deals' and the inflated get one half price offers don't come close to this. You can always add it and cancel it later if you discover a better offer or change your mind, you don't pay anything now and it just gets added to your balance due before the cruise. With the £/$ rate and RCI drinkflation ($14) it may be good to lock it in now.

[little britain]

On 10/14/2022 at 7:25 AM, 2catsand2kids said:

I have had an email from our travel agent (we are UK) saying we have until Sunday to book the deluxe drinks package at £43 but after that we won’t be able to book the deluxe package at all, only new customers will at the time of booking their cruise. I’m going to phone them to clarify as we were going to wait and see if the package was cheaper on Black Friday and haven’t fully decided if we need one or not, but am nervous about not having the option of booking one at all. 

It won’t be cheaper on Black Friday: and if on the off chance it is; you just cancel this package.

 

email from UK TA 

 

ADD DELUXE DRINKS PACKAGE FOR £43pp PER DAY

Book before Sunday 16th October and raise a glass to BIG SAVINGS!   Enjoy unlimited drinks on your upcoming Royal Caribbean cruise. Start the day off  with a premium cup of joe, sip on a poolside pina colada, rehydrate with a fresh juice and wind down with the perfect wine pairing or classic cocktail.   PLUS, receive a 40% discount on bottled wines priced up to $100, and 20% discount on wine prices above $100   This special promotion must end soon. Prices will increase on Monday 17th October.

[Blue Eyed Belfast Belle]

I added the refreshment package on to a few of my bookings for next year and my TA said I can cancel the packages up to final payment

[Living for the Weekend]

We were at a cruise show today. They were still handing out this leaflet. I went to the Royal Caribbean desk to ask about it. We booked our drinks package when it "fell" to £77 pppd. I wanted to cancel and rebook at this new amazing price. First the rep said yes of course we could then when she found out we'd booked the cruise through Royal Caribbean directly and not with a travel agent she said we couldn't 🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️ 

 

Is this right? Because we chose to book directly we can't take advantage of this incredible offer?? How is that fair? Do you think it's worth phoning them or will it be a lost cause? 

[Tin can]

9 hours ago, Living for the Weekend said:

We were at a cruise show today. They were still handing out this leaflet. I went to the Royal Caribbean desk to ask about it. We booked our drinks package when it "fell" to £77 pppd. I wanted to cancel and rebook at this new amazing price. First the rep said yes of course we could then when she found out we'd booked the cruise through Royal Caribbean directly and not with a travel agent she said we couldn't 🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️ 

 

Is this right? Because we chose to book directly we can't take advantage of this incredible offer?? How is that fair? Do you think it's worth phoning them or will it be a lost cause? 

 

I might be wrong but I think the deal is for new bookings only irrespective of how you booked it. It could be worth a call though and if you booked with one of the low deposit offers it may be worth looking at whether it pays to cancel and rebook with the drinks offer but I would carefully look at this.

[Living for the Weekend]

So I called them. When they eventually answered the phone, the man was not very helpful. He didn't mention travel agents at all and neither did I.

 

He did start out by saying "oh this is for new bookings" but when I READ OUT what it actually said on the leaflet i.e "Applicable to new AND EXISTING bookings of 7 nights and above.." he then said "oh it's existing bookings of 48 hours or less, so if you booked yesterday you could change to this offer" 

 

I think they're making up the rules as they go along!! I'm not impressed with this. I have friends sailing in January 23 who booked their cruise around the same time as us, in the Spring. They were able to book this offer very recently. The only difference being that they went with a travel agent. So one representative tells us it's the travel agent factor and the other tells us it's the time of booking factor 🤷‍♀️ I don't get it. 

[Biker19]

3 hours ago, Living for the Weekend said:

I don't get it. 

You might get a third answer if you call back again.

[Donsyb]

5 hours ago, Living for the Weekend said:

So I called them. When they eventually answered the phone, the man was not very helpful. He didn't mention travel agents at all and neither did I.

 

He did start out by saying "oh this is for new bookings" but when I READ OUT what it actually said on the leaflet i.e "Applicable to new AND EXISTING bookings of 7 nights and above.." he then said "oh it's existing bookings of 48 hours or less, so if you booked yesterday you could change to this offer" 

 

I think they're making up the rules as they go along!! I'm not impressed with this. I have friends sailing in January 23 who booked their cruise around the same time as us, in the Spring. They were able to book this offer very recently. The only difference being that they went with a travel agent. So one representative tells us it's the travel agent factor and the other tells us it's the time of booking factor 🤷‍♀️ I don't get it. 

It changed and it sounds like they haven’t updated the marketing collateral. You could try mentioning trading standards and misleading advertising and see if that gets you anywhere?

 

initially you could get it on pre booked cruises (we got it in September for a cruise we booked last year) but it changed in mid October to new cruise bookings only.

 

And the TA thing is rubbish - we booked direct and got the deal.

[Tin can]

17 hours ago, Living for the Weekend said:

I think they're making up the rules as they go along!! 

 

I think they do, the actual cruises are fantastic but any involvement with anyone on the phone is a disaster in my opinion.

 

As Biker19 mentions, you could call back again and get a completely different response.