GrandmaAirplane

Prepare a short e-mail with the gist of what has happened and that, despite several attempts at fixing this situation, you keep getting the “no, we can’t help you” response. Ask that you want exactly what you had paid for and reserved in advance, and say why you specifically booked the cabins that you did. Ask for help from his office in resolving this situation. Send this e-mail directly to the CEO: [email protected] Good luck.

Definitely post on social media with this, and make it clear just as you wrote it here: Also emphasize the legitimate and serious safety aspect of having the adjoining room for your children. Your demographics hit exactly where RCCL’s marketing is aimed at... point out that your experience demonstrates that RCCL may not be the best cruising choice for families after all, since Royal cannot be trusted to keep families together and safe - even when reserved far in advance and having paid for the ability to choose your cabins. Also highlight the stress that this is causing you.

OK, so I looked again and found that this number was sent a few days ago by RCCL as a Press Release to various industry publications. https://www.travelagentcentral.com/cruises/royal-caribbean-opens-bookings-for-cococay-s-coco-beach-club https://www.cruiseindustrynews.com/cruise-news/21672-coco-beach-club-set-to-debut-for-royal-caribbean.html It’s probably how I came across this piece of info while researching it yesterday...

I was searching for accessibility info for the Coco Beach Club yesterday on the RCCL website, and came across this number for the total guest capacity. I’ll try to find it again, but that website is not easy to search & navigate. Whatever RCCL decides to do is guided by the anticipation of maxing out profits, so that number could be quite elastic. However, the above figure is probably related to the physical limitations of the space and the number of meals that they can serve - so that may limit their ability to up that number too much.

It’s supposedly going to be capped at 450 guests (that includes the 8 per cabana in the count.) Please come back and post a review of your experience, since you’ll be amongst the early ones to get to try it (scheduled to fully open by the end of January.)

That’s a brutal day.

Escalate the issue, it’s unacceptable. I know that there are some RCCL e-mail addresses floating on the boards that may give you results... maybe someone else can post one of these for you?

If they provide you with their RCCL reservation number (not the Costco booking number - they will need to ask Costco for it), in your own Cruise Planner, you can add them to your basket and score that price for all of you. You would be paying for all four, and then get your friends to pay you back. You still would have the ability to cancel it later, esp. if the price drops and/or your friends can pick it up on their own CP eventually. Edit to add: thinking out loud, I suspect that the problem is that Costco has not yet given your friends their actual RCCL reservation number - your friends really should push to get it from Costco now, allowing them to get into their Cruise Planner.

Mariner, early Dec 2020. Booked it for the second Perfect Day stop on a 4-day sailing, when 2 ships shall be at CocoCay at the same time. I’m really hoping that the Beach Club will be capacity controlled, with a sufficiently low number allowed to keep the place low-key and chill.

Did the same yesterday... cruising the CP to save a few bucks and booked one of those “Floating” cabanas (@$999 US). YOLO rationale: We’re going to be 8 family members using it as our gathering place throughout the day... me, I won’t budge from it... the grandkids will love the slide & snorkel directly off the side... nice meal for lunch... we can cancel it later (if the reviews aren’t so great when they come in or the week before if the weather forecast is iffy)... there’s no way that price won’t increase and we couldn’t afford a higher price later (yeah, that one’s really silly - as we shouldn’t be spending that much now anyway ?)

Since sleeping arrangements are somewhat flexible once onboard, could you not book the two adjoining rooms for three occupants each? One parent with two kids in each of the connecting cabins?? Try flying that alternative, at the level of a supervisor next time that you call.

Interesting idea, Mr Candyman, thanks for ‘talking out loud’! ?

Thank you very much Pima1988 - that was very informative. I’ll have to think hard about this one... especially given the weather and how little the others would be using the area that I intend to camp in. I need to seriously weigh the possibility of having to pay for two beach beds (and having one stay practically empty most of the time.) Loungers are impossible for me to spend more than 20 minutes in one, and I will want to be part of my family’s day. A cabana doesn’t seem like the right option either, as the couch doesn’t look very comfortable for a lie-down. If I were to book two Chill Island beach beds, how can I be sure that they be assigned next to each other? Thanks again.

I get the 4 wristbands for hanging out, but do kids count? Is this scenario possible & how do we best allocate the wristbands: I am disabled and will be the primary user of the beach bed. My husband will be wandering around and he’ll be snorkelling and joining the kids at the pool, and popping in at random looking for shade. My son and DIL will be snorkelling a bit with their two boys, but mostly they’ll be camped at the pool. The two young grandkids (5 & 8) will be wanting to spend their time snorkelling with their parents, playing at Splashaway and in the pool. However, the youngest will likely end up hanging around a bit with grandma after lunch. My adult niece will be hanging out with me and her book for some of the time. We can easily manage not being more than 4 present at any one time, and likely 1-3 most of the day. Can anyone come & go in the Chill Island beach bed area, as this will be meet-up, drop-your-stuff, and say-hi-to-grandma central for the family? Added Q: how far from the snorkelling area are the Chill Island beach beds? This would be for an early Dec beach day, with only Mariner docked. Thanks!