Jakejosa

Update- called the TA and they worked with Royal to get booking reinstated (even the same cabin!). All cruise planner purchases were lost,  but most importantly she retained the CWC guarantee. When speaking to travel agent, they asked if they should charge final payment to the card they had on file…🤦‍♀️

Update- called the TA and they worked with Royal to get booking reinstated (even the same cabin!). All cruise planner purchases were lost,  but most importantly she retained the CWC guarantee. When speaking to travel agent, they asked if they should charge final payment to the card they had on file…🤦‍♀️

Update- called the TA and they worked with Royal to get booking reinstated (even the same cabin!). All cruise planner purchases were lost,  but most importantly she retained the CWC guarantee. When speaking to travel agent, they asked if they should charge final payment to the card they had on file…🤦‍♀️

Update- called the TA and they worked with Royal to get booking reinstated (even the same cabin!). All cruise planner purchases were lost,  but most importantly she retained the CWC guarantee. When speaking to travel agent, they asked if they should charge final payment to the card they had on file…🤦‍♀️

Update- called the TA and they worked with Royal to get booking reinstated (even the same cabin!). All cruise planner purchases were lost,  but most importantly she retained the CWC guarantee. When speaking to travel agent, they asked if they should charge final payment to the card they had on file…🤦‍♀️

There a lot of "it depends" involved.
Some cruises in the near term are now blocked due to capacity or "sold out".  In those cases it can be difficult to reinstate a booking that was cancelled.
If the cruise is still accepting new bookings it is possible the booking can be reinstated.
If can be reinstated, as far as the price, that's a discussion between the travel agency and Royal.  If the travel agent was in error that is something that doesn't involve Royal and Royal may not be in a position to participate in the resolution.  The travel agency may have some obligation but that's a discussion to have with their senior management, not the travel agent.

The cruise companies are very upfront about their final payment dates.  It doesn't sound like the TA did you/your daughter any favors.  Is your TA working on it any harder?  In the mean time, if I were you/your daughter, I'd call Royal, ask for a supervisor/manager and plead my case.  Being very polite and humble.  

Prefacing this by saying I've never had to experience this. The only time I've ended up paying after final payment was on our last cruise but that was on Royal's end because just before our payment date, they shifted our ship and need almost 2 weeks to get things properly put back in order. Since it was on their end
 
Did she get it in writing from the TA that the card would be charged automatically?
If so, maybe she can go directly to Royal with all of her information and try to fight for her rebook. Ideally, if she has a TA they should be doing the fighting since it was their error that caused the charge to be missed but it sounds like this TA may be dropping the ball quite a bit.
If not...fighting with the TA may be the only recourse.
Unfortunately, if she was paying in bits, they would probably end up charging the whole fare at once (if they did manage to reinstate it) which may be more than her credit limit given that whatever refund she's due at that time won't have processed yet. And there's no chance at reinstating cruise planner purchases so that would have to be done manually at whatever the current price is.
 
Sorry for the potentially bad news...

We had this happen one of our sailings this year.  We had two cabins and I called our TA to switch 2 of our party between the cabins.  Long story short, there was an FCC attached to one of the parties and when they moved cabins their FCC fell off and the cabin now had a balance owing.  The problem was -  neither our TA or Royal advised this was the case.  I only found out because the booking disappeared from my app.  The cabin was no longer available and Royal was still capping the sailing.  Royal would not deal with it as it was a TA booking but thank goodness our TA pressed on and got our booking back -in the original cabin.  Royal insisted that we needed to pay the current fare but in the end they honoured our original booking.  The cruise planner items were lost but with Royal's math and promotions it didn't really impact us as we just re purchased during the next sale.  So, my advice is to have your daughter's TA work with Royal's resolutions dept to get this sorted out.  Sounds like the TA gave incorrect information so they should be willing to try to fix.   Ideally, she would like the original reservation number reinstated which should then identify her as having being booked during CWC.  Good luck

You can buy can covers for this purpose also. I'm also weird about creepy crawlers and germs going into the open can

I remember one cruise that the lobster night was not to good. It was a little disappointing but didn't ruin my overall vacation. I think the real issue was that it was the first week for a large percentage of the crew on that ship, or that is what we heard at a later time on the vacation.
This was before covid. Right now I really think that as cruisers we have to have a little more patience with staff. Look at what we deal with on land. Don't know of any business, including my own that doesn't have issues with staffing.

We sail on the Indy fairly often (5 times so far this year) and I've never had "bad" service.  Even with reduced capacity, I HAVE noticed that things take a bit longer - We ate in Playmakers one day for lunch last month and it took over an hour for the food to arrive  I chalk it up to crew shortages and figure it's just the price we have to pay trying to travel with everything going on in the world right now.   Food wise, I would say mediocre/average generally describes most MDR food.  That being said, we personally enjoy the MDR and have always found something on the menu we like. 
Personally, we love the Indy and its staff.  Especially on these quick 3-4 day cruises o RCL, it's going to be hard to find the "5 star" experience that you might expect on a luxury line.  Setting your expectations realistically and researching the cruises will usually result in a much better onboard experience.  Some folks are going to complain about anything and everything, others are going to say everything was perfect.  I find it's usually somewhere in the middle, but I've never experience anything on a cruise that I felt deserved an actual complain.  Maybe a "meh" on occaision, but damn, it was still much better than me having to cook and clean for 3 days!  

It's why I take the stairs just about 99.9% of the time. The elevators on cruises are annoying number 1, and extra calories burned number 2. The most rude passengers I encounter on a cruise is typically around the elevators. 

I am sorry that you had a less than perfect cruise 😞 . I was on Independence in February and they were definitely short staffed. This is the first time EVER on an RC cruise that I (over)heard any complaints from staff. However, I could tell that all staff were really hustling and trying to make our experience amazing. The MDR was definitely short staffed to the point that the head waiter was assisting in bringing food and clearing tables. Every staff member that I interacted with was friendly and definitely met  (and even surpassed!) my requests. Everyone has staffing issues now, including my own office! When I am on a cruise, I am just so happy to not have to cook and do dishes myself that I am willing to overlook any potential shortfalls. That is something you will have to decide- if the service and food are exactly the same, would you be happy on your next cruise?

I am sorry that you had a less than perfect cruise 😞 . I was on Independence in February and they were definitely short staffed. This is the first time EVER on an RC cruise that I (over)heard any complaints from staff. However, I could tell that all staff were really hustling and trying to make our experience amazing. The MDR was definitely short staffed to the point that the head waiter was assisting in bringing food and clearing tables. Every staff member that I interacted with was friendly and definitely met  (and even surpassed!) my requests. Everyone has staffing issues now, including my own office! When I am on a cruise, I am just so happy to not have to cook and do dishes myself that I am willing to overlook any potential shortfalls. That is something you will have to decide- if the service and food are exactly the same, would you be happy on your next cruise?

Fish n Ships, on Indy, is also pay and not covered by any dining package.

My family booked this before I realized it was the group cruise! #bonus

No, all the food at Playmakers cost. If you have an unlimited dining package you get up to $20 worth of food pp, with everyone who has that plan. 

My family booked this before I realized it was the group cruise! #bonus

My family booked this before I realized it was the group cruise! #bonus

We did the Chacchoben Mayan Ruins & Bacalar Lagoon Beach - and loved it. The ruins were a lot of fun- we saw monkeys in the trees while we were there! The kids will enjoy them as you can climb on some of the ruins! The drive to the ruins allowed us to see a good bit of Costa Maya. It is such a beautiful island  place! There IS beach time at the lagoon. It is so peaceful with calm water, no seaweed when we were there. We also live near the beach, but we liked this tour so much that we are booking the Lagoon only version on our next trip to Costa Maya.

My family did this and it was wonderful! I went in 2019 so I will tell you what I remember. You can climb some of the ruins, there are many ruins to look at and you are a bit "in the jungle", we saw many monkeys in the trees when we were there. The ride to the ruins was in an airconditioned bus and we got to see a good bit of Costa Maya. The Lagoon Beach was AMAZING! The water was calm, peaceful and just perfect! I am not a snorkeler, so I don't know how the snorkeling is. But, this is a lagoon and not the ocean so it seems like this may not be ideal for snorkeling is that is really your thing. We did have lounge chairs and lunch was provided at the lagoon, but I do not remember what was served. We just fell in love with Costa May through this tour. I think it was a great combination or island tour, ruins, and beach. We have booked the lagoon only version of this tour for our next stop in Costa Maya! We have been on many excursions before and this one is our #2 favorite of all time (#1 is in Costa Rica).

I have done Kim Sha beach. It was a lovely beach, not all lounge chairs are ocean front. If you are the second half off the bus you will most likely not get an ocean front chair. We spent most of our time there in the water or at the restaurant so the view from a lounge chair didn't matter. Loungers are included, but umbrellas were an extra $5 cash only. I thought this was a bit nickel and dime-ish but happily paid the additional $5. The beach was beautiful and the ocean was calm with not much sea weed about. There are local vendors that walk up and down the rows of chairs selling their goods and offered foot massages. They will move on with a kind 'no thank you' however, another one will be along right behind them. The restroom and lunch restaurant are a short walk away and lunch was delicious! Both my husband and I ordered the bang bang shrimp which is served as a sandwich on a large baguette with french fries. Lunch was served at a specific time and I felt this really interfered with our ocean time as lunch was scheduled right in the middle of our time there. I don't think it could be helped, but I would have preferred to arrive earlier in the day and had lunch towards the end of our time so we could have an uninterrupted stretch of beach time. Our excursion tickets stated that "nudity may be observed" in the fine print, and indeed it was! However the topless bathers were limited to just a few and only noticed this as we walked past them on our way to the restaurant. Overall this was beautiful beach excursion and I would rate it a solid "B". We also booked Secret Sands Beach on St. Thomas and this was a much more secluded beach with no vendors. Also calm, beautiful waters with little seaweed. No umbrellas offered, but natural shade can be found. Also- no lunch but beverages were included. If I were choosing one of these, Secret Sands on St. Thomas was my favorite of the two by far.

oops! Thanks for the correction! It is a beautiful "part of the mainland"!

I have done Kim Sha beach. It was a lovely beach, not all lounge chairs are ocean front. If you are the second half off the bus you will most likely not get an ocean front chair. We spent most of our time there in the water or at the restaurant so the view from a lounge chair didn't matter. Loungers are included, but umbrellas were an extra $5 cash only. I thought this was a bit nickel and dime-ish but happily paid the additional $5. The beach was beautiful and the ocean was calm with not much sea weed about. There are local vendors that walk up and down the rows of chairs selling their goods and offered foot massages. They will move on with a kind 'no thank you' however, another one will be along right behind them. The restroom and lunch restaurant are a short walk away and lunch was delicious! Both my husband and I ordered the bang bang shrimp which is served as a sandwich on a large baguette with french fries. Lunch was served at a specific time and I felt this really interfered with our ocean time as lunch was scheduled right in the middle of our time there. I don't think it could be helped, but I would have preferred to arrive earlier in the day and had lunch towards the end of our time so we could have an uninterrupted stretch of beach time. Our excursion tickets stated that "nudity may be observed" in the fine print, and indeed it was! However the topless bathers were limited to just a few and only noticed this as we walked past them on our way to the restaurant. Overall this was beautiful beach excursion and I would rate it a solid "B". We also booked Secret Sands Beach on St. Thomas and this was a much more secluded beach with no vendors. Also calm, beautiful waters with little seaweed. No umbrellas offered, but natural shade can be found. Also- no lunch but beverages were included. If I were choosing one of these, Secret Sands on St. Thomas was my favorite of the two by far.