LizzyBee23

Thank you for proving my point that it was never about safety or market conditions. It was clear it was always a money grab. 

The customer side is also important. Is the family getting a larger cabin for the $600? No. Is the baby getting his own bed? No. Is the cruiseline taking care of the baby? No. Is the cruiseline entertaining the baby? No. As a stockholder, I would feel bad if my company is overcharging customers for nothing. Specially when RC sells itself as a Family oriented cruiseline.

Your previous post was mostly about safety reasons. Now you mention financial reasons. I tend to think is the latter.

I’m probably in the minority here but I don’t buy this analysis. I have sailed in European cruise lines where children under two were free. For Royal to charge $600 for a baby in a room with two paying adults is excessive.

We were just on Allure, and the ship itself was great... The cutbacks in service are noticeable (but are fleet wide). It helps if you ground yourself in the reality that we live in a world where everything is more expensive.
I will say that AO on Allure did not live up to my expectations (especially in the 3-5 room). The staff there seemed cold, and generally non-communicative.

It was pretty green last week! Needs a few finishing touches, but it's most of the way there.

Indy shows Grease on a 4 night sailing.  I also saw Saturday night fever on a 4 night sailing.

It was pretty green last week! Needs a few finishing touches, but it's most of the way there.

It was pretty green last week! Needs a few finishing touches, but it's most of the way there.

Have we seen actual evidence of this?
As a bargain shopper I'm assuming my solo $600 interior booked two years ago would be the first on the table when they have someone willing to book a GTY interior for two guests that is selling for 3 x what I paid. 

When you first open the app, click on the hints and tips section under the ship (it should say Welcome aboard! since it should be day 1), scroll down to where it says "Stateroom requests are just a tap away" and there is a TELL US link. It doesn't work unless you're on the ship but it redirects you to guest-requests.rccl.com so I'm thinking you could also just go to that URL once onboard.
Keep in mind I just stumbled upon it earlier today (while at home), never actually used it on a ship.
Hope this helps.

You had me at a "like" if not for #6 and #2A partially going back to the Royal Caribbean is a business as an excuse for canceling a cruise in favor of a charter. Maybe sometimes the sign of rising above the competition is taking a little less profit for the sake of the client that you've already committed to. As a customer, try to change your cruise 1 month before sail date because you found a better rate or itinerary. Good luck. They hold the customer to a different standard. Some people just don't know how useful a TA is, and guess what they can learn that here. But many posts highlighting bad travel agents can also be found on this fan site.
Fan site, we agree. We discuss everything. WE discuss why Matt loves Sabor and was sorry to see it go on so many amped ships. Others say why they didn't like something, give their reasons, and we take that to inform our own experiences/plans. I didn't always realize that the flexibility of MyTime dining sometimes came with lines rivaling mid tier attractions at Disney World. It was great to be prepped for that and learn how to make other plans. Did you shout for joy when they added the room service charge? How about raised gratuities? Plenty of post about both of those.
Fan site, of course. It's also the royal Caribbean information super highway. All of it hits here, fans or not. I think it's great to discuss the things we don't like, but also to reminisce or talk about, with joyful expectation, the things we love to look forward to on the next cruise. 
One timer or not, the OP brought value to the forum. I felt it inappropriate to comment as if they should have known that it's a fan site. I also think to say "with so much information out there they should have known better" please. Plus, even though this a fan site these are the things fans talk about. So the dismissive comment was moot from the outset. Give me a fan that agrees with every move their sports team makes and I'll sell you the Icon of the Seas.  Seems to me the OP was here with a legitimate grievance to vent/inform, and not expecting the blog site to compensate them. 

This article notes the language change with the 21 May sailing:
https://www.cruisehive.com/another-oversold-royal-caribbean-cruise-whats-different/101524

At least the last few times I've noticed Delta asking at the check-in kiosks if you'd be willing to give up your seat, and to give them a number if so. I keyed in an offer last week for the first time... I was the first flight out, and had all day to get to where I was going, so figured I'd give it a shot. Turns out, they didn't need me, but I was wondering about the efficacy of that approach versus the one over the announcements. Of course, not much in common with asking someone to fully reschedule a vacation with nothing to show for the trouble.

I do wonder about that... I think I read at one point it was "random", but would not be surprised to hear that all of their random selections were below the 10th percentile in terms of fare revenue (and betting the financial impact for A2S would enter in here).
We're actually booked on Allure at the end of the month, and only need a flight to get my husband back to work on a plane while the kids and I do our grand tour of grandparents for the summer. I suspect ours will be oversold, too (first sailing after most southern schools are out). I think we'd take them up on the offer of a full refund and an alternate sailing, but we're traveling in a group of 4 cabins. We're also very low revenue (booked when the fare was inexplicably low, and hasn't come within 60% of it since then). Wondering if we'd be first on the chopping block because of our low fare, or last because of the group.

Yea... I think the days of claiming it's an IT glitch are long gone. At this point, it's a feature... not a bug.

That's true. Only difference is people get dumped for a charter with more than a weeks notice. This situation is so last minute to spring on people. It just really stinks. I can see how some can volunteer and make lemonade. But having to worry there won't be enough volunteers is just one more thing to worry about. LOL. It gets old.

Yea... I think the days of claiming it's an IT glitch are long gone. At this point, it's a feature... not a bug.

Yea... I think the days of claiming it's an IT glitch are long gone. At this point, it's a feature... not a bug.

Sooner or later these practices will motivate Congress to get involved and we'll see a bill to protect consumers.  
When an airline does it, usually it just means a brief delay or wait until the next flight.
When a cruise line does it, vacation timing is ruined, time off work is messed up, coordination of multiple parties is wrecked.  
We really need Congress to get involved and curtail this practice by Royal.  Perhaps a $10k penalty for each guest impacted will suddenly make their reservation system work better.  

Whenever possible, my wife and I set up our travel arrangements so we can volunteer to be bumped to a later flight if a call goes out. 
 
One time on a flight to Miami, we each got a $1000 flight voucher, put in first class on the replacement flight, and ended up getting to Miami only two hours later than originally planned. 
 
We‘ve discussed what we’d do if we were ever bumped from a cruise.  Both of us agree that we’d find a way to make lemonade out an offer that included 100% fcc. 

Nice for some of the others, but on mine someone was kicked off without volunteering (oddly, we volunteered for the refund+different cruise offer and kept our sailing).

Yea... I think the days of claiming it's an IT glitch are long gone. At this point, it's a feature... not a bug.

Yea... I think the days of claiming it's an IT glitch are long gone. At this point, it's a feature... not a bug.

I do wonder about that... I think I read at one point it was "random", but would not be surprised to hear that all of their random selections were below the 10th percentile in terms of fare revenue (and betting the financial impact for A2S would enter in here).
We're actually booked on Allure at the end of the month, and only need a flight to get my husband back to work on a plane while the kids and I do our grand tour of grandparents for the summer. I suspect ours will be oversold, too (first sailing after most southern schools are out). I think we'd take them up on the offer of a full refund and an alternate sailing, but we're traveling in a group of 4 cabins. We're also very low revenue (booked when the fare was inexplicably low, and hasn't come within 60% of it since then). Wondering if we'd be first on the chopping block because of our low fare, or last because of the group.