Bular

Update on the situation: I was finally able to get in touch with the Travel Agency. The Agent I had originally gone through is no longer employed there, which is why it was so difficult for me to connect with them. They assigned me a new agent, who spoke with Royal Caribbean, and they finally "as a one time courtesy"  cancelled the booking and are in the process of refunding the money they erroneously took from me. It took almost 2 weeks, around 5 hours on the phone to Royal Caribbean, and trying to get ahold of the TA for a long time. Thankful it's done, but I don't think I'd use NextCruise again.

10 hours ago, twangster said:

No mistake was made with respect to travel agency.  By booking the cruise with the travel agency they did, all cruises booked on the ship go to that same travel agency by default.  It's been that way for years but it's not a documented feature that is immediately obvious.  

The same behavior occurs when booking by physically visiting NextCruise.  Most of the time the NC agents will neglect to mention that a new booking will be assigned to agency you booked the current sailing with.  Occasionally the NC agent will mention it, more so lately compared to a few years ago but even then it's not always in your face obvious.  

Receiving two future cruise bookings could either be an app error or user error.   There isn't a lot of feedback in the app that your attempt to make a future cruise booking was successful.  It does state you'll receive an email with 24 hours but I can see where the lack of immediate feedback could lead to someone tapping again or being under the impression their attempt was not successful. 

This is compounded by crappy Voom so an attempt to use the app can yield a pathetically slow app response.  Heck I've tried to post something on this forum only to find out that crappy Voom resulted in my post being made 3 or 4 times in succession.

I'm more inclined to blame crappy Voom for this outcome.  

I would typically agree with you (I am a software developer, we see things like this all of the time), except we did not use the app to make the NextCruise booking. It was late night the night before we got off of the ship, and the person at the NextCruise booth handed me a physical form, which I filled out by hand. I would definitely notice if I filled out two

12 hours ago, Traveling Mike said:

These are the kind of issues where I call RCL and ask for a supervisor.  Do not tell the person anything or they will try to fix it and waste your time.  Just insist on a supervisor.  Then explain to the supervisor you did not approve the travel agent and you expect RCL to remove them. (period).  it is their mess up without your permission.

This is what I did the last 2 times I called. The supervisor was as unhelpful as the first people I have spoken to.

This is great advice. Thank you, I will try C&A tomorrow. 

14 minutes ago, wordell1 said:

This problem is an example of why I would never use an "online" travel agent.  You need to be spending you time contacting your TA.  Royal has already told you they will refund it once they are contacted by the TA.

Yes I definitely agree with this, and lesson learned. It was the first time I had done it, enticed by a good deal.

However, what gets to me is that this was a f-up by Royal, and they can't fix it. I should not have to be spending my time (which I also have done, too much) trying to fix it for them.

I doubt anyone can help me, but I'm having a major issue with the NextCruise department and I'm not sure what to do next.

We got off our cruise on Saturday, November 12. On Friday, November 11, we filled out a form to book a NextCruise.

The following day I received two (2) confirmations, and my card was charged for $400. I did not ask for two bookings, only one.

I figured this would be an easy fix, as it is obvious the two bookings were made minutes apart.

I have now spent over 5 hours on the phone with RC, and am no closer to getting my $200 back than I was earlier. Since I was on a cruise booked by a travel agency, BOTH of these new bookings are tied to the agency, and THEY are in charge of my reservations. I have tried contacting the travel agency, as has RC. We cannot get ahold of them (it was an online deal, I don't actually know these people.)

RC says there is nothing I can do until we get in contact with the travel agency. Even though this is RC's fault, they say things to me like "as a one time courtesy we will be able to cancel once the travel agency requests it" etc.

It has been over a week, and many wasted hours of my life. I'm about to dispute my charge with my CC company and move on, but I just want RC to do the right thing. I cruise with them all of the time, have never used NextCruise before, and honestly this really sours my opinion of them as a whole.

As a side note, I have already booked the first (and only legit) cruise, as we had 7 days from getting off the ship to get our casino offer.