Any recourse for switched rooms no longer near each other?

[fishiecrackers]

I am on a cruise that was supposed to be on Brilliance but got switched to Enchantment. It said we were supposed to receive a follow-up email once our new reservation was settled after August 18, but we never did. Tonight I logged on and checked our new cabin assignments, and we’ve got a problem.

 

I’m traveling together with my family, and we had two rooms, one balcony and one interior, across the hall from each other on the 9th floor. Now our balcony is on the 4th floor right by a bar and our interior is on the other end of the ship on the 2nd floor. Our reservations were supposed to be linked, so I don’t know what happened.

 

When looking at available rooms, balconies are sold out, and interior rooms are limited, which is making me feel like we won’t be able to get these switched. I will call them tomorrow, but can any experienced travelers give me any tips on what to ask for or magic ways I can get this made right? I don’t want to be right by a bar on a trip with my kids, and I don’t want to be on separate floors! Is there a possibility they can switch us with someone else? We made these reservations back in February - I don’t know how this got so messed up. My husband’s job means our dates are NOT flexible and we can’t change itineraries, so I am really stressing about this.

[Jimbo]

2 hours ago, fishiecrackers said:

I am on a cruise that was supposed to be on Brilliance but got switched to Enchantment. It said we were supposed to receive a follow-up email once our new reservation was settled after August 18, but we never did. Tonight I logged on and checked our new cabin assignments, and we’ve got a problem.

 

I’m traveling together with my family, and we had two rooms, one balcony and one interior, across the hall from each other on the 9th floor. Now our balcony is on the 4th floor right by a bar and our interior is on the other end of the ship on the 2nd floor. Our reservations were supposed to be linked, so I don’t know what happened.

 

When looking at available rooms, balconies are sold out, and interior rooms are limited, which is making me feel like we won’t be able to get these switched. I will call them tomorrow, but can any experienced travelers give me any tips on what to ask for or magic ways I can get this made right? I don’t want to be right by a bar on a trip with my kids, and I don’t want to be on separate floors! Is there a possibility they can switch us with someone else? We made these reservations back in February - I don’t know how this got so messed up. My husband’s job means our dates are NOT flexible and we can’t change itineraries, so I am really stressing about this.

If you can't find anything on Enchantment where the cabins are close together maybe you can switch to June 11th 2023 and sail on Odyssey of the Seas where you can possibly find cabins close together.

[twangster]

How old are the folks in each cabin?

 

If you are booked direct then all you can do is call them and ask.  If booked through a travel agent it is their job to handle this so call them.  

 

 

[Sunshine3601]

13 minutes ago, Jimbo said:

If you can't find anything on Enchantment where the cabins are close together maybe you can switch to June 11th 2023 and sail on Odyssey of the Seas where you can possibly find cabins close together.

Curious, why did you pick that sailing?

[matj2000]

You will get a sincere heartfelt apology.

[molly361]

Try reaching out on social media.  That seems to work pretty well for people.  They will need your booking numbers

[Another_Critic]

3 hours ago, fishiecrackers said:

I am on a cruise that was supposed to be on Brilliance but got switched to Enchantment.

 

Now our balcony is on the 4th floor right by a bar and our interior is on the other end of the ship on the 2nd floor.

FYI - There are no balconies on the 4th floor.  The lowest balcony on Enchantment is deck 7.  Deck 4 by the R Bar would be an Oceanview cabin.

[Jimbo]

1 hour ago, Sunshine3601 said:

Curious, why did you pick that sailing?

Detective research..... I believe their Enchantment date is June 12th from Rome. Time will tell if I'm a good detective or not.  lol

[moposh]

31 minutes ago, Another_Critic said:

FYI - There are no balconies on the 4th floor.  The lowest balcony on Enchantment is deck 7.  Deck 4 by the R Bar would be an Oceanview cabin.

That's what I was thinking.  I was just on Enchantment on deck 7 with balcony.  I only saw balconies on decks 7 and 8.

[fishiecrackers]

9 hours ago, Sunshine3601 said:

Curious, why did you pick that sailing?

We picked it because we wanted to do Italy and Greece, and this one starts in Rome and ends in Athens, enabling us to spend several days in each of those cities instead of doing them just as one-day ports. Also tried to get as early in the summer as possible once my kids were out of school.

[fishiecrackers]

9 hours ago, Jimbo said:

If you can't find anything on Enchantment where the cabins are close together maybe you can switch to June 11th 2023 and sail on Odyssey of the Seas where you can possibly find cabins close together.

This was a great suggestion, thanks. I looked into it but the prices were way higher (about $3k more, total), with one less port and less time in each port. If we don’t keep the June 12th maybe I’ll ask if they’d switch us to this one but they had a list of itineraries they’d switch you to in the original email and this one wasn’t an option.

[fishiecrackers]

7 hours ago, Jimbo said:

Detective research..... I believe their Enchantment date is June 12th from Rome. Time will tell if I'm a good detective or not.  lol

Correct - good detective.

[fishiecrackers]

8 hours ago, Another_Critic said:

FYI - There are no balconies on the 4th floor.  The lowest balcony on Enchantment is deck 7.  Deck 4 by the R Bar would be an Oceanview cabin.

Thank you for pointing this out. I did not realize this!

[fishiecrackers]

Okay, update after talking to RC today. As some of you pointed out, our balcony room is no longer a balcony. They had never emailed us this change nor a price adjustment. They WERE able to move the rest of my party to the 4th floor and they WERE able to get us away from the bar. The new room is $700 cheaper plus a $100 on-board credit. They were not able to get us back into a balcony.

 

So our options at this point are 1) to take the two 4th floor rooms without a balcony and save some money, leaving our itinerary as is, 2) see if they’ll switch us to the June 11th from Rome (which I doubt, as it is $3k more at this point and it was not on their list of available itineraries to switch to, plus worse port schedule, IMO), or 3) cancel this cruise and just do the rest of the Italy/Greece vacation we had planned, and just spend the cruise days on the Amalfi Coast and a Greek island, which were the two ports I was most excited about.

 

My kids and husband were suuuuuuper excited to do a cruise and they’ve never been so they won’t know what they’re missing with the worse rooms, so we’ll probably stick with option 1, though I was kind of already leaning toward option 3 before I even discovered this whole issue. 

Bottom line is that the final verdict could’ve been better, could’ve been worse. Sigh.

[Jimbo]

4 hours ago, fishiecrackers said:

This was a great suggestion, thanks. I looked into it but the prices were way higher (about $3k more, total), with one less port and less time in each port. If we don’t keep the June 12th maybe I’ll ask if they’d switch us to this one but they had a list of itineraries they’d switch you to in the original email and this one wasn’t an option.

Much better ship though, might be worth the extra $$$.

4 hours ago, fishiecrackers said:

Correct - good detective.

What was the original ship before being pushed to Enchantment, was it Brilliance? Have you checked on other cruise line's doing that same itinerary? Prices and such? Maybe Royal will give you a full refund since you really  didn't get a like cabin by losing your balcony.

Edited September 23, 2022 by Jimbo

[Spunky946]

4 hours ago, fishiecrackers said:

Okay, update after talking to RC today. As some of you pointed out, our balcony room is no longer a balcony. They had never emailed us this change nor a price adjustment. They WERE able to move the rest of my party to the 4th floor and they WERE able to get us away from the bar. The new room is $700 cheaper plus a $100 on-board credit. They were not able to get us back into a balcony.

 

So our options at this point are 1) to take the two 4th floor rooms without a balcony and save some money, leaving our itinerary as is, 2) see if they’ll switch us to the June 11th from Rome (which I doubt, as it is $3k more at this point and it was not on their list of available itineraries to switch to, plus worse port schedule, IMO), or 3) cancel this cruise and just do the rest of the Italy/Greece vacation we had planned, and just spend the cruise days on the Amalfi Coast and a Greek island, which were the two ports I was most excited about.

 

My kids and husband were suuuuuuper excited to do a cruise and they’ve never been so they won’t know what they’re missing with the worse rooms, so we’ll probably stick with option 1, though I was kind of already leaning toward option 3 before I even discovered this whole issue. 

Bottom line is that the final verdict could’ve been better, could’ve been worse. Sigh.

I’d I’d keep it.  On a port intensive cruise, it won’t matter what ship you are on, plus to us itineraries are more important.  Also you can keep checking to see if a balcony opened up.

[fishiecrackers]

4 hours ago, Jimbo said:

Much better ship though, might be worth the extra $$$.

What was the original ship before being pushed to Enchantment, was it Brilliance? Have you checked on other cruise line's doing that same itinerary? Prices and such? Maybe Royal will give you a full refund since you really  didn't get a like cabin by losing your balcony.

I don't know, $3k is a lot of money for us, and this itinerary is so port-heavy that I'm concerned we won't have time to enjoy it. And yes, we were on Brilliance before. I think I will look at some other cruise lines - that's a good idea.

 

3 hours ago, Spunky946 said:

I’d I’d keep it.  On a port intensive cruise, it won’t matter what ship you are on, plus to us itineraries are more important.  Also you can keep checking to see if a balcony opened up.

That's what I was thinking - we only have one sea day on this cruise, and I'm hoping we can spend a lot of time in the ports. The reason for this cruise is mainly to give us a good sampler of Mediterranean cities without having to deal with travel and transport, so I'm not super interested in paying more for a nicer ship. Though I have been searching future cruises because I'd love to experience those as well!

[Merion_Mom]

4 hours ago, Spunky946 said:

I’d I’d keep it.  On a port intensive cruise, it won’t matter what ship you are on, plus to us itineraries are more important.  Also you can keep checking to see if a balcony opened up.

 

52 minutes ago, fishiecrackers said:

That's what I was thinking - we only have one sea day on this cruise, and I'm hoping we can spend a lot of time in the ports. The reason for this cruise is mainly to give us a good sampler of Mediterranean cities without having to deal with travel and transport, so I'm not super interested in paying more for a nicer ship. Though I have been searching future cruises because I'd love to experience those as well!

 

Vision class ships (of which Enchantment is one) have far fewer balcony cabins than Radiance class (Brilliance).  There was never any chance that all booked balconies on Brilliance would transfer into balconies on the Enchantment.

 

But I agree with Spunky's reasoning.  Port intensive - consider your cabins just a place to shower and sleep.  Enjoy the Mediterranean!

[Ocean Boy]

21 hours ago, Another_Critic said:

FYI - There are no balconies on the 4th floor.  The lowest balcony on Enchantment is deck 7.  Deck 4 by the R Bar would be an Oceanview cabin.

I thought deck 4 seemed awfully low for a balcony but I don't know much about Enchantment other than it is a ship I'll probably never sail on.

[Mirrasis]

How old are the kids?

 

I ask because I got split once on a linked cruise too and it was honestly fine and not a big deal. However if your kids are little that would be a problem. 

Edited September 23, 2022 by Mirrasis

[Jimbo]

7 hours ago, fishiecrackers said:

I don't know, $3k is a lot of money for us, and this itinerary is so port-heavy that I'm concerned we won't have time to enjoy it. And yes, we were on Brilliance before. I think I will look at some other cruise lines - that's a good idea.

 

 

It's funny they told you no balconies are available but I just checked right now and the web site I check for cabins shows a category 1B Guarantee available to book for your June 12th sailing.

 

Also shows     10 Junior Suites   and 1 Grand Suite available to book.............I would call and Bi$ch until they get you in a balcony.

[Tierun]

12 minutes ago, Jimbo said:

It's funny they told you no balconies are available but I just checked right now and the web site I check for cabins shows a category 1B Guarantee available to book for your June 12th sailing.

 

Also shows     10 Junior Suites   and 1 Grand Suite available to book.............I would call and Bi$ch until they get you in a balcony.

With a guarantee they can put you in a higher level. With jr. suites available by the time the upgrade bids are completed the balcony could become available for the guarantee. Otherwise they’ll be assigned to a suite.

[Sunshine3601]

20 hours ago, fishiecrackers said:

We picked it because we wanted to do Italy and Greece, and this one starts in Rome and ends in Athens, enabling us to spend several days in each of those cities instead of doing them just as one-day ports. Also tried to get as early in the summer as possible once my kids were out of school.

Sorry for the confusion,   My question was to Jimbo on why he was saying switch to Odyssey.      

[Jimbo]

3 minutes ago, Sunshine3601 said:

Sorry for the confusion,   My question was to Jimbo on why he was saying switch to Odyssey.      

Because I thought she wanted a balcony and her available timeframe was limited to as to when they can take this cruise. Both ships have similar itineraries too.

I believe Santorini was a must port for  her also since she talked about it in another one of her posts on a different thread.

[fishiecrackers]

6 hours ago, Mirrasis said:

How old are the kids?

 

I ask because I got split once on a linked cruise too and it was honestly fine and not a big deal. However if your kids are little that would be a problem. 

They're teenagers - it's not a huge deal, just annoying. Anyway, we're all on the 4th floor now.

 

4 hours ago, Jimbo said:

It's funny they told you no balconies are available but I just checked right now and the web site I check for cabins shows a category 1B Guarantee available to book for your June 12th sailing.

 

Also shows     10 Junior Suites   and 1 Grand Suite available to book.............I would call and Bi$ch until they get you in a balcony.

Can you explain to me what this means? I am a total cruising novice. I don't know what a category 1B Guarantee means - is it a regular balcony? I can't make any balcony rooms show up at all - they all say Sold Out. 

 

50 minutes ago, Jimbo said:

Because I thought she wanted a balcony and her available timeframe was limited to as to when they can take this cruise. Both ships have similar itineraries too.

I believe Santorini was a must port for  her also since she talked about it in another one of her posts on a different thread.

Correct - this was a great suggestion, and one we are still considering after talking to my family. I was more excited about the ports than the cruise, but apparently my husband and teens felt the opposite - haha. This change would give me the ports I was excited about (though less time in them), the exact time frame we needed, and the kind of ship my family wants. We'd still have to get ourselves to Athens to finish our trip, but that would be doable. We shall see. Family meeting this weekend....