Bill G

Thanks for your question, Pooch. In fact, our cruise itinerary changed at around the same time as I cancelled the beverage package. As a result of the itinerary change, my girlfriend cancelled our Chops+1 dining package because the new schedule didn’t line up quite as cleanly as the original itinerary based on what we are planning to do for each day of the cruise. Unfortunately, the refund for the dining package came back in multiple refund transactions, and so the transaction to refund the beverage package to a different credit card than the one used to make the purchase got mixed in among the dining package refund transactions and, frankly, missed. With that said, if I sent you an email saying I refunded you $162 to credit card ending in 1234, then wouldn’t your expectation be that $162 is refunded to credit card ending in 1234 and not credit card ending in 7890? Perhaps the more fundamental question I’m pursuing to is why should I as a customer have to chase down what happened to my refunded money? This refund business practice employed by Royal Caribbean doesn’t seem like a very sound one to me. Thoughts? Thanks, Bill

Hi Friends -- my first Royal Caribbean cruise is in under one week aboard Independence of the Seas. I'm excited especially since my first Royal Caribbean cruise was originally planned during the first summer of Covid. But I'm also concerned (somewhat exasperated) about an aspect of my cruise planning experience thus far. I wanted to gather feedback from anyone who may have had a similar experience when cancelling a drink package (or other items pre-purchased ahead of sailing). Summary: 4/25/22: Purchased refreshment package using my credit card. 4/26/22: Cancelled refreshment package -- received e-mail stating refund was issued to my credit card. 5/29/22: Approx one month passed -- while reconciling my monthly transactions, I realized no refund was issued to my credit card. 5/30/22: Called Royal Caribbean to inquire -- agent advised me he would contact accounting department for a transaction number and that I should call back in 7-10 business days for that transaction number. 5/31/22: Called my bank to determine if the bank could see anything about a refund on their end. They recommended disputing the charge, and so I disputed the charge. 6/11/22: Called Royal Caribbean to follow-up -- agent provided me transaction number, and while doing so the agent also revealed last four digits of the credit card to which the refund was issued. The refund was not issued to my credit card. I explained this concern to the Royal Caribbean agent. 6/12/22: Asked a member of my traveling party what the last four of her credit card is. Last four of girlfriend's credit card matched the last four provided to me by Royal Caribbean. Also confirmed a credit was, in fact, issued to this other credit card. 6/18/22: Called Royal Caribbean to follow-up and request some form of service recovery for the company's mistake and, importantly, for the time I spent trying to understand that the refund was issued to a different credit card belonging to my girlfriend. Request for service recovery was denied by Royal Caribbean since a refund was issued (albeit to the wrong credit card). Asked to speak with a supervisor. Request was granted and call was dropped during call transfer. Moments later I received a call from Royal Caribbean -- nothing heard from other end after I answered call. Call dropped. Feeling a bit exasperated at this point. 1. Has anyone had a similar experience with a refund being issued to a credit card other than that card to which the refund e-mail indicated the refund would be issued? 2. Is it reasonable for me to think the time I spent trying to understand what happened (and for the mistake Royal Caribbean made) is worth some form of compensation? 3. Does anyone recommend a more effective means of obtaining some form of compensation other than contacting Royal Caribbean at 800-327-6700? Sorry for the long message -- thought it would be prudent to share relevant details to communicate the time I spent trying to figure out what happened. Thanks for anyone who can provide constructive feedback.