Andrew72681

1 hour ago, jticarruthers said:

There's an easy fix for that though ....

Passenger attempts to buy drink ... ding ... i'm sorry sir the computer says you haven't completed the EMuster so your charge privileges have been deactivated, please follow these instructions to reactivate your account.

 

 

Better yet, deactivate the seapass card entirely, so on ships with RFID doors you couldn’t get into your room, forcing a visit to guest services. 

4 hours ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

1.  Probably not, as prices tend to increase over time...which leads to...

2.  Lift & Shift is a program that allows you to move your cruise out 1 year with price protection.  That means that you would lift &shift your Nov 2020 cruise to Nov 2021 (for example) at the same price you paid for 2021.  You now have until Sept 30 to make such a move, if you want to.  There are a couple of restrictions but overall, it’s an excellent program for people who want to postpone their cruise or for those who have already had their cruise(s) cancelled.

The problem with lift and shift is that in many cases it has no value for higher value rooms with limited inventory. There’s no where for me to move my November sailing. 

1 hour ago, Baked Alaska said:

In a purely existential way. Have you cruised to or have been to Alaska? The glaciers, they "have a way" that the Caribbean doesn't. Of course, the same can be said of the Caribbean, but not in the same vein.

 

No, this will be our first time. It actually departs exactly on my 40th birthday so was a great time to try something big and new. 

36 minutes ago, Baked Alaska said:

Great for now! I'm not holding my breath, though. One beach looks like another beach which looks like another beach in the Caribbean. NOTHING is the same in Alaska (except the tourist shopping traps, like everywhere). Alaska helps rebalance my soul. I can't put it into any other words.

That sounds like a spiritual cruise the way you describe it. I’m not sure I’ll get that deep, but am excited to try a different style of cruise. 

On 7/20/2020 at 10:28 PM, Baked Alaska said:

I'm hoping Quantum goes to Alaska. We "need" the 2bd GS.

Just got a note from my TA and she was just on a webinar where they were pushing Alaska. So at least as of now (after announcing wonder’s delay) quantum is still in their spiel in Alaska.  
 

3 hours ago, kontraxed said:

Well, I had to cancel our 11/21 Apex cruise due to health issues. I will say this, I know Celebrity is owned by the Royal Caribbean Group, but I have NEVER had the problems with Royal Caribbean that I have had with Celebrity. Now I know why they're really pushing the FCCs because I would not have booked another Celebrity cruise if I wasn't going to lose a bunch of money by not using the FCCs. Trying to get them to acknowledge that I even had FCCs, tried to do a lift and shift (that was another nightmare) and then book another cruise for July 2021on the Equinox and then get those FCCs applied to that cruise, well, I was lied to, hung up on, put on hold for 41 minutes, dealt with numerous folks who clearly did not know their jobs and then FINALLY, I got to deal with this one guy (Nolan) working from home and he knew how to make the system work and suddenly, I've booked a cruise and got the FCCs applied to it. I just hope the cruise is a lot better than most of their telephone booking people.

That’s too bad, would have been fun to have someone else from the message boards on that sailing. 
I’ve had very hit and miss experience with their call centers, especially the casino staff, but I’ve also had those with Royal recently as untrained reps take over for those that have been furloughed. 

I think for most of next year, full ship charters won’t be possible as full ships won’t be possible. 

16 hours ago, Baked Alaska said:

I'm hoping Quantum goes to Alaska. We "need" the 2bd GS.

I’m hoping as well. But the way this year’s been going who knows anymore. One would hope that if they move you they at least give you the option of two grand suites to replace the 2 bedroom. 
I’m getting ready to try and call to lift and shift an Oasis sailing this November (I’ve gotten to the point where I don’t think it’s going to happen) and since there’s no comparable suites within the window trying to convince them that two suites like two crown lofts would work. 

On 6/30/2020 at 8:38 PM, cruisellama said:

If Celebrity starts sailing 4th quarter, I'm guessing Apex and Edge will be 2 of the ships they'll put back to service.   Apex is supposed to start with the Med before coming to the Carribean.  Now that the EU has clamped down on tourism from the states, will be interesting to see if Apex stays with the med itinerary, or is redeployed to Carribean early.   Bunch of what-ifs - we're all guessing right now.  But as no one can cruise, what other diversions are there?

I’m hoping Apex gets the nod to go first. I’m on 11/21, and by then will most likely be a six cancelled cruises. 

On 7/19/2020 at 9:20 AM, Matt said:

Doubt it. They already announced (and have been selling) sailings. 

These days anything is possible, but they still have Spectrum out there.

Didn’t they just leave a bunch of Brits hanging when they moved Independence back to the US? That was even pre-COVID. 

On 7/19/2020 at 11:19 AM, Baked Alaska said:

Ditto this. We are booked for the August 9 2021 Quantum sailing in a 2 bedroom Grand Suite. Jumped on it when the itinerary was announced. I've looked at existing suites on Radiance (love, but no Owner's Suites available), and no 2 bd GS on Ovation. Plus, Ovation's and Serenade's itinerary just bore me. Quantum and Radiance itins are waaaay more interesting. Did Radiance southbound last year. I'll let RCL cancel the sailing and see what they offer. Alternate plan is to fly to Anchorage and stay at McDougall Lodge in Lake Creek (if Alaska is open). Our plan was to fly fish at every port and in Seattle prior to embarkation. 

I’m hoping for an ovation switch as well. We’re booked on Quantum’s 7/26 sailing in a grand suite, at an awesome price. Moving to Serenade or Radiance would be a no go for me, as I need a new ship. I just hope that if they’re going to do it, do it soon. I’d hate to be in the situation like I’m in now with my November Oasis sailing where there’s not a single AQ suite available to lift and shift to. 

Now to just wait for them to announce that Quantum won’t be coming to Alaska after all. 

Quick change. We were able to move Quantum to a better week next year. Please adjust quantum to July 26th, 2021.

Like with @rjac we can remove my now cancelled Odyssey 3/26 sailing as well as my Harmony 8/16 sailing. I was able to move that one to Symphony on 1/30/21 though.

25 minutes ago, Zambia-Zaire said:

I don't think anyone can make the statement underline, unequivocally. I have seen a number of times on this blog, people explain how Royal's system algorithms "automatically default" to the closest category, which may very well be the case here. The customer service rep, I suspect, was basing things off what's they see on their monitor & trying to make sense of it, as they deal with the customer...in this case twangster's agent. The Rep can only assist as far as what they can do themselves, base on what they see & have to refer issues to the next level of customer services when needed...they are just following the info in front of them...and couple that with how verse they are outside of that, is where some mishaps occur that need to be address. Again, not defending any shrewdness on Royal behalf...just stating other factors that could very easily be at play. 

I will unequivocally state that the customer service agents weren’t in charge of the decision of moving a years worth of customers from one ship to another. That decision most likely originated with Nick Desrochers and other members of the revenue management team. While not an easy decision these days when holding onto whatever revenue you can makes Wall Street happy, it was an easy one. 

Just as when a plane is taken out of service and replaced with a smaller one seats get moved and customers get assigned based on status and anticipated revenue. This was clearly done in a suboptimal way as if not already there @twangster is approaching Pinnacle. 

25 minutes ago, Ampurp85 said:

Hmmm, I am not saying I blame the phone rep, but I wonder if they literally just assumed. Under current CWC and L&S, what the rep originally told pax, would be applicable. We all know that reps are some of the last to get information. I seriously doubt RCCI didn't know people would be p*ssed. Given the refund fiasco and other gripes from not being able to book FCC without a deposit....you would think being able to get a refund and cancel would have always been on the docket. I am not trying to take up fro RCCI but come on, they are a huge international business. There is no way they couldn't see the fallout and backlash from being shady like that.

Based on people getting reassigned to liberty before ever being asked we can be reasonably sure that the consumer un-friendly decision is what was done. I’ve also noticed  a similar situation to what American Airlines did with their computer systems a few years back, before it was a more manual system, but now it’s literally just going screen to screen with only being able to do what the system says you can. Anything else needs a manager.
@twangster did you get the feeling with the rep that perhaps when they loaded the room on Liberty that it was coded as a L&S and that’s why there was no recourse to move as something had already been done in the system? That would certainly have complicated the agents life’s and made it more difficult to try anything. 

2 hours ago, Zambia-Zaire said:

??? This unclear & make very little sense as related to my post & appear to contradict itself....

 

Anyway...i found that in many cases, after reading many explanation and/or occurence here, Royal customer service does not appear, at times, to be well informed of the policy, and make numerous mistakes, that are essentially brought to their attention, proven to be unclear on the policy, causing an unfortunate mishap, again, that is brought to their attention. That's not to defend Royal or convey they don't exercise shrewd business practices...it seem like many of these circumstances, the customers services rep are not well versed in the policy until someone clearly bring it to their attention & things are eventually & exhaustedly resolved.

This unfortunate for twangster & others that may have faced the same situation; but, many times on this blog, twangster patiently explain to other here, the befuddlement of some of these reps. Now is a good time for Royal & frankly, all cruiselines to start refresher & updated classes on their policy & customer services.

That was precisely my point in reaction to your original post. They’ve normally been close to doing the right thing, how did the meeting to determine what to do with the Allure passengers go so wrong? They’re had to have been someone who spoke up and said “this is stupid and won’t work.”

The customer service reps aren’t the ones who tried to downgrade @twangster, that message came from above. I refuse to blame the phone agent who was going by what they and others were told at the beginning. If their original plan was to let everyone refund or move to another ship then they would have gone with that before remapping everyone to new rooms. This blew up in their face and clearly caught them off guard.  

17 minutes ago, RCIfan1912 said:

Thanks for the suggestion. It's my wife's card so I'm not sure how often sure uses it but as it is a zero balance I guess not too often. 

We are gonna have to go through this process again in Sept because there is just about 1% chance we sail on Oasis in Sept. Although actually I would try to lift and shift because the price we we got is just insane. I really, really don't want to lose the fare we paid. We paid it with our FCC and still have a grand left over. 

Definitely try if you can, especially now with lots of people carrying new balances having Even a little bit of leverage with a card company may get bonus points or the fee waived. 

2 minutes ago, RCIfan1912 said:

I now agree. I used a CC to pay the deposit, and I then the rest came out of our bank account directly in 2 payments. I don't think we used anything else but I'm not 100% sure. Something tells me we got it because our TA said last was one payment and this week was the rest. We noticed today. 

Oh wait yes there was a 3rd payment from my wife's CC because that's where the payment was refunded today to, she has a credit on that card because it was at 0 balance. Now we have to request a check from the CC for the money. Anyone ever do this before? Does the CC charge you for this?

I usually go with whatever card I’m close to hitting thresholds on for the year (normally southwest in the back half to get to companion pass) or whatever Card I’m working on a spend bonus on. 
no, they won’t charge you for the credit balance, but if it’s close to annual fee time you could just leave it, but as it sounds like a card you don’t use often you may want to call and see if there’s any incentive to keep it. 

2 hours ago, Ogilthorpe said:

The part I laughed the most about was the lengthy description of a related topic involving creative barriers and access that have been expressed with two words that might not have made it past the censors.

Sarcastic voice.......Whatever you do definitely don’t look up the guidelines Switzerland put in for the workers of the “oldest profession”

1 hour ago, RCIfan1912 said:

We got half of our taxes and fees today. Might have got the other half actually, just have to look at all our accounts. We used a few different forms of payment over the year of paying it off. 

I think that’s another lesson I’ve learned through this. Use one card for Royal purchases so that it’s easier to track it down. 

2 hours ago, Pooch said:

And Cats every day and twice on Sunday over Mamma Mia (ugh!)

I always guessed there was one Cats fan on the message boards, glad we finally found you

2 hours ago, bretts173 said:

Well lets just hope it isnt true. Because if it is the company would have a lot to answer to. Still selling these cruises, making people make final payments knowing that they will not be cruising.

Would make for an interesting class action to help jump the line in creditors if needed. Willfully selling cruises you knew would never go in hopes of generating much needed liquidity. 

2 minutes ago, Zambia-Zaire said:

This what gets me...they have been offering reasonable options when they have cancelled dates...what's the difference when they cancel a ship itinerary.....then autonomously "lift & shit" a booking. Thinking there may have been some confusion or misunderstanding by their customer service rep. Not defending Royal, just surprise they would act so autonomously w/o the customer say & disappointed, if intentionally, before any public out cry....especially in this moment of time. Surely Royal is not that short-sighted. Will be interesting to see how thing ultimately turn out.

I just have a hard time imagine any group of yes-people that would sit on a zoom call and say “sure boss I’m sure there won’t be any backlash if we toss people from Allure to Liberty”

1 hour ago, sk8erguy1978 said:

This is what I'm planning while the wife is at the spa, then enjoy the afternoon on the ship. 

I’m thinking of doing it this October. Finally taking a solo cruise so will have some time.