Any experience with "Closed for Maintenance" or "Inventory Assessment"??

[pattie63]

Hi to all - a few days ago, I found an RCI cruise that we ultimately decided to book (April 19, 2008 Grandeur repositioning). When I called this morning, I was initially told that it was "Closed for Inventory Assessment" and that they might open up booking very soon or maybe never. Just keep checking daily. I called back this afternoon and was told that that sailing was "Closed for Maintenance" and to check back at the end of April. This booking agent said it was likely that they were switching the itinerary and all previous bookings would be refunded IF the purchasers so desired. Hence the "inventory assessment".

 

As I am new to RCI, I ask all of you kind folks -- do you have any experience with this sort of thing? I'm not sure what to make of it. Should I wait and see what happens or just book something else (I've been considering the 14 day Crown Princess Southern Caribbean too and right now, they've got a discounted fare that, while attractive, is still a bit more than I wanted to spend).

 

Thanks for any and all help.

[Coralc]

My suggestion would be look into booking something else. There is no telling how long you would have to wait and there is no guarantee that the Grandeur sailing will reopen. Our sailing on Empress has been closed to new bookings for 5 months due to "Inventory Assessment". It was just confirmed today that the Empress is being redeployed. :) So our sailing is cancelled anyway.

[Lightsluvr]

Whenever we have booked a cruise that later showed as closed for inventory, that cruise ultimately was cancelled. It's happened twice to us. The ship was either moved to Europe or drydock earlier than previuosly scheduled.

 

LL

[gooselover]

Yep, it's ALWAYS cancelled. Went thru that several times! RCCL will be of NO help if you call them. They will simply say, oh, your reservation is right here.....

[Coralc]

LOL:D They said our reservation looked "fine".

I said, "It's not fine, no one else is sailing with us! You haven't sold any cabins since November."

He said, "I could actually make a new reservation...oh wait...there's a note. It says closed for inventory assesment. I don't know what that means?"

I said, "I think it probably means it is cancelled:D "

 

Their offer is generous and we were notified in plenty of time. I wouldn't hold out hope for sailings that are closed for any reason. :D

[MBeamTX]

RCCL is NOTORIOUS for doing this with repositioning cruises. It happened to us on a Jewel transatlantic originally scheduled for this September. It was closed and left in limbo for weeks and no one at RCCL seemed to know what was going on. We learned that the ship was being kept longer in Europe here on CC before most customer service agents at RCCL seemed to know what was going on. As the cruise was over a year away, there was no compensation offered unless we rebooked on the rescheduled Jewel transatlantic with a completely different (unappealing) itinerary about two months later. We weren't interested and chose another cruise.

 

That's what I'd advise you to do, since the itinerary you decided on likely won't happen - at least not on the same dates.

 

Susan