Bob_Hou

We've decided to keep our downgraded CLS to JS Wonder reservation - for now, and hope that over the next 6-8 months we'll be able to move back into a full suite should someone cancel their reservation. We have an October 20 deadline for requesting a full refund. That deadline is pretty meaningless. After the deadline, if we decide to cancel, we would forfeit $200 of our deposit as a change fee and the rest of the deposit would be an FCC that we can apply to a cruise we've booked for early 2023. So we're willing to risk $200 for cancelling late, and wait to make a final decision on the Wonder cruise before the full payment deadline. We remain extremely disappointed and frustrated with Royal Caribbean for how poorly they've handle the transition of their customers who had purchased the most expensive suites on the Allure and were then moved down to Junior Suite (for the same price). Hopefully when this crisis has passed, and they've finished handling what could be over 300,000 reservations impacted by the Wonder change - that Royal Caribbean will reconsider their policy for transitioning reservations between ships: Cabins on the new ship should be assigned based on priority - original cabin category and then within that date of the reservation and/or C&A points If downgraded, the fare should be adjusted to the fare of the new cabin, as of the date of the original reservation If downgraded from Star to Sky or Sky to Sea, the customer should be given the option to purchase the lost amenities at a reasonable price And in consideration for the inconvenience, the customer should be provided an OBC based on the number of nights on the original cruise If they had done this for the Allure to Wonder transition, more full suite customers would have been impacted, but the impact on each customer would have been less - and by treating everyone fairly, customers would likely have accepted any downgrades that happened. Unfortunately, that's not what they did... And it's too late to go back and do something reasonable...

Still missing our loft... Yes - meant CLS to GS (no GLS on Allure or Wonder). We do have a GLS reserved on the Ovation for a twice-cancelled New Zealand cruise. Hopefully they won't "upgrade" us to the Wonder on that cruise - and then go through this process again with the smaller Suite Neighborhood on the Wonder...

Downgrading from Crown Loft to Grand Loft is basically a single category downgrade. While that's frustrating, it's much better than what most Crown Loft reservations got - which was shoved all of the way down to Junior Suite, and being asked to pay the original Crown Loft fare. They did offer Sky Class amenities plus $300 OBC (which is the same for a 7 night and 14 night cruise) - but that's not anywhere close to being worth the price difference between the original Crown Loft fare and the fare of a Junior Suite (if it had been booked at the same time). But between Crown Loft and Grand Loft - the difference isn't as much - and while the GS is smaller than CLS, you are at least still in the new Suite Neighborhood... Though if they are expecting you to be paying the same CLS fare for the smaller GS with the same Sky class amenities - and all they are providing is a $300 OBC - you are overpaying, since the other GS passengers probably paid about 2/3 of your fare, if they had booked at the same time...

We were booked in a Crown Loft Suite on the Allure for the October 30 transatlantic sailing. The Wonder has the same number of suites as the Allure - but this is because they increased the Junior Suites from 86 to 114. The Allure had 2 Star Loft, 2 Panoramic, 17 Crown Loft, 6 Grand 2 bedroom and 2 Grand suites that aren't present on the Wonder. If Royal Caribbean had assigned Wonder cabins based on the original suite category, all of the full suites that were above would have been placed into full suites on the Wonder, with some reservations moved down 1 level, but no lower than Grand. But that's not what they did. Evidently to minimize disruption, they moved suites from the Allure to the same class on the Wonder until they ran out - and then moved most of the displaced reservations for Crown Loft and other categories down to Junior Suite. While they are offering the same Sky/Star amenities as the original cabin plus $300 ($10.71 per day per person for a 14 night cruise), they have an unreasonable offer on the cabin fare - you pay the lower of the original fare for your original cabin OR the current fare for the Junior Suite (which is probably over $11,000 for a 14 night cruise, for 2 people). So the offer they're making is to pay what you would have paid for a larger cabin - end up with a much smaller Junior Suite (1/2 to 1/3 the size), and what you get are the same amenities plus a $300 credit. And what makes this really unfair - those Allure reservations made for Grand or Junior suites are at the original price - so the affected customers will pay more than other customers that originally booked GS or JS. In our case, we could end up paying $5100 more than other JS customers - which is far more than the value of Sky class plus a $300 onboard credit. What would make sense is for Royal to offer the JS fare as of the time of the original reservation - so you wouldn't be penalized for booking a larger cabin originally and then getting downgraded. But so far, Royal doesn't appear to be willing to admit their mistake in how they handled this transition for full suite passengers - and appears more interested in getting us to request a refund - and then rebook the Junior Suites at the current (much higher price). Our travel agent has been unable to make any progress in getting an offer that makes sense. I've called Royal Caribbean and talked with their Resolutions group - and they're unable to help, because a different group made the decision on how the cabins would be allocated and the offers made to the downgraded full suite customers. Unlike cancellations for COVID, this mess is caused entirely by poor Royal Caribbean business decisions - they decided to switch ships, they decided how the cabins would be allocated, and they decided the offers for the displaced passengers. If you're in this situation, we have until October 20 to get a better offer for the Wonder sailing before we have to request a full refund. Have your travel agent call Royal Caribbean, complain about the situation - and ask for a better offer. And if that doesn't work, then contact Royal Caribbean yourself. If enough of the affected customers (which could be over 600 across the transatlantic and European sailings) raise this issue, perhaps Royal Caribbean will review what they've done and realize what they've offered makes no sense - and then come up with a better solution.