jupiter03

Update: I didn't hear back from TA after a few days and asked Royal and they said she did nothing as usual, so I went ahead and requested that Royal transfer all my bookings back to me. They were surprisingly quick. They sent me an email that said they were able to transfer the bookings, except the one I was trying to lift and shift, as that was paid in full. ARRGGHH! Does anybody else have any other suggestions? Royal agreed with all your suggestions to email [email protected] , but I don't know why they suggested it if they knew it couldn't be done. What a waste of everybody's time.

Thanks for the link. This doesn't seem like it applies in my case, but the email definitely helps and I foresee myself going this route if I don't hear back from her next week. I'm not sure what happens here since the booking was well past final payment and was cancelled by the cruise line. I think the booking # sticks as the cruise moves around. This cruise was originally a Liberty sailing in Mar 2021 that was cancelled by royal due to drydock (which ended up not happening). I was supposed to receive a bunch of OBC for accepting the change and prices have gone up a bunch, so I'd rather L&

Thank you all so much for your advice. Thanks for the explicit directions too. I will definitely try this tactic if things don't get resolved in the next week. I often waffle between whether I'm being too demanding or being a sucker. I've been using the same TA since 2014 and we've had several successful cruises together. She was always very responsive. But ever since early 2020, it's been all downhill. So many problems, so many promises to be patient and she'll send updates. There were never any updates and I would feel like a sucker. At first I'd check every week, then every month. I un

Thank you all for your responses. I didn't realize Royal can just release these back to me. They made it sound like they are under a contract with the TA and that's why they can't speak to me or do anything I request, as it has to go through her. I'll try and see if I can get my TA to voluntarily release this one back to me so I can take care of it.

That's a good question. I get automated emails from her every once in a while from cruise one (https://www.cruiseone.com/travel/HomePage.html) which I would guess is the parent company. From her linked in, it sounds like she owns her own business and is probably the only person working there. I did ask her to have another agent handle it if she was too busy, but she conveniently ignored that too.

I'm so frustrated with my TA that I just want to scream. She has become so unresponsive and unhelpful that I've reached my breaking point. My June 2021 cruise was cancelled on April 8. I reached out immediately and asked her to lift and shift. I checked the next day and the cruise I wanted had sold out of my rooms. Checked with her, no that wasn't ours - she made the request by form and they'll process it when done. I asked her if she could call and lift to my second choice cruise and speed it up, but she said she had to use the form. She said it would take a few days. A few days p

Thanks everybody, sent this idea to my TA, but no response yet. I thought you were only allowed to hold a room for 24 hours though. How is everybody holding for longer? OR have the rules just changed?

So June cruises were cancelled a week ago and I asked my TA to lift and shift to next year. Still waiting for her request to go through. How long does this process normally take? She said that Royal will process the requests in the order received, but I'm sure they've got a ton to go through. My first choice cruise only had one room left at my cabin category and it was taken the next day. My second choice cruise is still showing some rooms, but I'm worried they'll be gone by the time my request gets processed.

Oh, thank you for clarifying that! Hopefully my TA can do the lift and shift then.

I'm not surprised that June cruises were cancelled. Been holding out hope that my June 20, 2021 cruise would happen. I see from Matt's news that I can lift and shift to "Move to a qualifying 2022 sailing between May 18th, 2022 – June 15th, 2022 on the same itinerary, sailing length, embarkation port, stateroom category and departing within 2-weeks of the original sail date and your client's cruise fare/promotion is protected. This option is available until April 22, 2021." However, a quick search shows me that there are no cruises that meet these requirements for me to Lift and shift to.

@Sharla Does MEI travel have any other fees? Like change fees or booking fees? That's great that you monitor prices.

If they are still asking for the full deposit, I see no need to try to use the FCC at this point. I wouldn't be surprised if they end up extending the data again and I'll just wait. Thanks for all the advice, everyone!

Thanks everyone! I tried using them to book a 2023 cruise and it seemed to accept them, but was still asking for my full deposit. It also only allowed me to input one FCC per person. I thought they changed to accepting more than one FCC per cruise, but maybe you need a TA to apply more than one.

When I check my FCC balance, it says the following: Valid through April 30, 2022 or 12 months from the original sail date (whichever is longer) and can be used for any open sailings at the the time of booking. I assumed that they could only be used on cruises before April 2022, but this statement leads me to think they might be able to be used for 2023 bookings. Anybody try using their FCC on a 2023 cruise?

Yes, I agree. Before the pandemic, I didn't have any problems, so no problems with my TA either and I thought she was great. Now I'm looking for someone that can handle issues and is in the know. This has jogged my memory of a few times where Matt has mentioned some new change Royal implemented and when I asked her about it, she would respond that she hadn't heard about it, but would check into it and then crickets. Then when I would push again, she'd say, no that doesn't exist. I don't know if she was talking to a customer service rep who also didn't know about it, if she wasn't checking at a