Hagar

On the part of all this about this being a manual process...... I can tell you they have said that on other cruise cancellations BEFORE all of this.  This is not like airlines that worked with Corporate travelers and had a system in place for tons of changes after final payment.  I know that everyone is frustrated with this process, but please remember that this is a VERY UNUSUAL circumstance that EVERYONE finds themselves in and no one had a good plan for what would happen when the world shut down.  The cruise lines have furloughed lots of people and have moved people from their normal jobs to helping handle the refunds, FCC, call center questions, etc.  The systems were never created to give all the money back plus some...lol  Manual process means its slower and less accurate.  
We all have to hang in there and find some patience.  I know its hard, but your TA cant push this thru faster, Royal cant move any faster, and anyone that picks up the phone to help explain all this - needs some understanding as they didnt create this issue, they are only there to try to help
 

Meanwhile

Absotively?

Absotively?

Absotively?

Absotively?

Hearing "welcome home" as I board

Under no circumstance should anyone book an aft balcony on any ship.  As a service to all of mankind, when I cruise, I will think of the other person first and take the aft balcony off of someone else's hands.  It's a heavy price for me as just one humble individual to pay, but someone's got to do it.
TIC of course.  Aft balconies are the bomb.

Hearing "welcome home" as I board

Hearing "welcome home" as I board

Hearing "welcome home" as I board

Hearing "welcome home" as I board

Hearing "welcome home" as I board

Hearing "welcome home" as I board

I miss CK!! ? I have to keep cooking dinner these days! 

Originally the 125%FCC was ONLY for new reservations. I can't prove it but it changed shortly after a "coffee chat Q&A with Vicki Freed" on March 18th. So somebody poked the bear and made it right ?

I think 6630 is gone since the family grouping (one JS, one balcony and a solo) seems to have failed miserably. Looked like a good idea on paper and the one time I tried to use it on Anthem, they couldn't accommodate me.

In yesterday's webinar with Vicki Freed, it was reaffirmed by her team that these FCC's will only be for new bookings.
 
I think that will change but that's just one opinion "out there."

I was thinking about the fact prices are jumping up for 2021 and '22, and I'm honestly trying to figure out if this is because (a) despite all the bad press against the cruise industry, there are still a ton of people who are sold on cruising and immediately rebooked for next year and beyond, causing the spike as supply rapidly dwindles; or (b) Royal is not fully thinking this through long-term and is trying to get a short-term financial shot in the arm to offset the losses hammering them right now.
I'm guessing that it's more A than B, though still a mix, and certainly hope that's the case. Every cruise line has a big black eye after this, even if they've done nothing to warrant it up to this point, simply because the media has decided to dog-pile on the industry as a whole and continue to refer to ships as petri dishes and floating incubators and the like. I seem to recall statements here and quoted from quarterly financial calls noting the high percentage of first-time cruisers that make up Royal's annual booking numbers each year; if they expect to continue to draw in new cruisers and grow their customer base, they can't go and do things like spike prices at a time when people may be looking nervously at whether they should book or not. Thinking of this image that my wife sent me a few days ago:

 

Nope. I work in healthcare as an ICU RN. Wash your hands and dont cough or sneeze on people. Viruses come and go.

Shutting down solves the issue of doctors notes, lying, secondary transmissions and quarantine. I think it’s going to happen eventually ☹️Take every ship and give them a sanitizing scrub and spruce up and the passengers will feel better getting on at a later date. IMHO

More often than not, the cabin categories are in waitlist status when customers get a "RoyalUp" offer (t/a gets a copy of the offer too). It does limit the chances but I call it reshuffling the deck. If someone moves from your requested category, by bidding up themselves, or even a cancellation, you will be in line right away.

Days like this are when a good travel agent is worth every penny...oh wait, you don't pay them because the cruise line does!

One of my favorite stories as a t/a was when I caught a fare for a customer just like this. They had an aft balcony at a decent price and "JS" was more than I knew they would pay. But I did look at all of the categories and the "GS" was less than they paid. They were cruising in Europe but I know them so I switched it, saved them around $700 and sent them an e-mail explaining what I had done. The reduced price only lasted about a day and a half but it wasn't a glitch, just higher availability in that category. Thankfully they were happy and still tell the story too. I stopped taking new customers on as I prepare my exit strategy but will miss these gems!

One of my favorite stories as a t/a was when I caught a fare for a customer just like this. They had an aft balcony at a decent price and "JS" was more than I knew they would pay. But I did look at all of the categories and the "GS" was less than they paid. They were cruising in Europe but I know them so I switched it, saved them around $700 and sent them an e-mail explaining what I had done. The reduced price only lasted about a day and a half but it wasn't a glitch, just higher availability in that category. Thankfully they were happy and still tell the story too. I stopped taking new customers on as I prepare my exit strategy but will miss these gems!