If you've recently been annoyed by seemingly constant Royal Caribbean emails about your upcoming vacation, you’re not alone.
Cruisers have reported receiving numerous emails from the cruise line containing the same basic information about their reservation — myself included.
Ever since paying off my upcoming 3-night voyage on Harmony of the Seas, my inbox has been flooded with a "Welcome Aboard" email nearly every day.
The message always begins with, "Wohoo! You're officially booked, and we're thrilled you'll be joining us on your boldest vacation yet" before providing the booking number for "easy reference."
Then, the email gives a brief reminder to make sure all of my travel party's details are completed and up to date in the reservation dashboard.
"Once your information is complete, download the Royal Caribbean app to make the most of every vacation moment. Book shore excursions, make dining reservations, create a personal calendar for your onboard activities and more — all from your phone," it continues.
"The countdown is on, and now it's time to start setting up your ultimate vacation! Start exploring all the ways to upgrade your adventure and score the best deals right now before you board Harmony of the Seas."
Beneath that, the email features a series of links that direct to the online Cruise Planner. This is where booked passengers can browse add-ons, like beverage packages, shore excursions, dining packages, and internet packages. In addition to the spammy emails, the Cruise Planner is also accessible through Royal Caribbean's website.
Every "Welcome Aboard" email that I've received since Feb. 20 — there have been 20 — has been the exact same. As such, they've promptly ended up in my email's trash. In fact, after the first two or three, I stopped reading them entirely and automatically deleted them.
According to a recent Reddit thread, I’m far from the only one dealing with the repetitive messages.
"I booked my June 2026 cruise back in December, and finished paying it off in February. When I booked it, and everytime i made a payment, I got one of those welcome aboard emails, which i thought was weird but whatever. Now I seem to be getting them almost every day??" shared MissDeeBee.
"Just curious if this has happened to anyone else. I've double checked my reservation and nothing seems to have changed so it's just odd. I feel very welcome now, Royal Caribbean, you can stop now!"
Over two dozen users shared similar experiences, with some speculating that it could be a glitch. Others argue that it may be an aggressive sales tactic to increase pre-cruise bookings through the Cruise Planner.
"I have an upcoming sailing in late April and I've received 'Welcome Aboard' emails since near the end of February. I had assumed it could be a glitch with their emailing software but I also could see they're trying to encourage us to book dining packages or shore excursions through those emails," Must-Be-Gneiss said.
Meow217 added, "I have a cruise next month, and I’m getting the welcome aboard email daily as well, which hasn’t happened before. I thought it was because it was coming up so soon but I feel for [y'all] who still have a ways to go and are getting an email taunting you!"
"I’m getting the sense that their add on bookings aren’t quite what they were anticipating, so they’re pushing out as much marketing as possible to people to book drink packages, dining, and all of the other upcharge stuff that people are foregoing (in contrast to their projections for onboard spending). We cruise late next week and I’ve gotten fewer desperate, repetitive bits of communication from an ex," nmunyat joked.
"OMG I just googled this about my own situation and found your post! I don't understand why they're doing this, but it makes me want to unsubscribe from all of their emails, but I see we're in good, but unfortunate company," Suspicious-Orchid-40 wrote.
While Royal Caribbean hasn’t addressed the duplicate "Welcome Aboard" messages, it's clear that if it's a marketing strategy, it's backfiring. The emails are more annoying than helpful and are easy to ignore and delete. Plus, they're sent in addition to regular promotional emails that advertise ongoing sales.
Read more: How far in advance can you book a Royal Caribbean cruise?
Not the first time Royal Caribbean has had a technological glitch
Last spring, Royal Caribbean cruisers reported receiving numerous pop-ups on their devices from the mobile app. The test notifications were filled with placeholder text and ascended sequentially from "test segment 1" to "test segment 19."
The cruise line confirmed they were aware of the situation and let their IT team know about the annoying pop-ups:
"We're sorry you received pop-ups. Our IT team is doing updates on the app. We've let them know guests are receiving notifications. Sorry about that."
The notifications finally stopped at around 12:30 p.m. EST. Some found the pop-ups to be annoying, while others turned the situation into an inside joke of sorts and created funny memes that they shared on social media.
For example, on Reddit, amishengineer shared a meme that suggested everyone should mark themselves "safe from testing in production," referring to the Facebook feature people use after a natural disaster or major news event.
Another meme mimicked the famous SpongeBob SquarePants scene where Mr. Krabs looks frazzled while keeping the Krusty Krab open 24 hours for days in a row.
Read more: Royal Caribbean app sends out erroneous pop-up messages
