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CocoCay dropped-Grand Bahama instead, not so Merry Christmas


Boston Babe

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I got the infamous email last night that on our February cruise on Grandeur,  The Perfect Day at CocoCay is experiencing a "minor delay", so going to Grand Bahama instead.  Anyone else get this?  You really just have to laugh at this point. Oh  well, you're still on a cruise!  Merry Christmas to all!!

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24 minutes ago, Boston Babe said:

I got the infamous email last night that on our February cruise on Grandeur,  The Perfect Day at CocoCay is experiencing a "minor delay", so going to Grand Bahama instead.  Anyone else get this?  You really just have to laugh at this point. Oh  well, you're still on a cruise!  Merry Christmas to all!!

Need to check my cruise.

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10 minutes ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

.  I would just hope for a sea day but I’m sure they wouldn’t do that.

I'd rather do a sea day ANYDAY than Grand Bahama!  Awful....  Guess we will enjoy the ship!  Are you and Dan having a great time?  Is Francis still the concierge? I'm hoping he's still on in February.

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While it is disappointing to say the least, the comments and reactions on the GoS fan page were rather "interesting", if not funny (rolling my eyes) ..

One guy was like, "the shits gonna hit the fan" --- "I'm a D+" (if you knew the guy, you'd know that stating his status is part of every sentence) --- you know what?  I don't care.  In fact, repeatedly bringing it up is a turn-OFF to most people.  Although, in his defense, this cruise was to replace one that was canceled in March, so, I def. understand the frustration and disappointment ---- but it's how you handle it that can/may determine the outcome.

I learned long ago, when dealing with a situation, handling it with kindness and understanding will always get you further ..... copping an attitude, like this guy, acting like his status makes him better than everyone else (pinky finger extended), will get you No Where, even if you are way up the C & A ladder.

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After receiving the "Merry Christmas" email about RC dropping the CocoCay stop on the cruise I decided that after 12 cruises with RC I'll never cruise with them again.  Who are the kidding, a "minor delay".  The Island isn't going to open until May 2019.  They knew long before the last payment date for this cruise that they were going to make this change but they waited until no one could back out and get a refund. I called them to see if they were going to compensate their customers for their lack of planning and was told that there wasn't any compensation being offered at this time. Great way to do business and keep customers.

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Just now, Bill H said:

After receiving the "Merry Christmas" email about RC dropping the CocoCay stop on the cruise I decided that after 12 cruises with RC I'll never cruise with them again.  Who are the kidding, a "minor delay".  The Island isn't going to open until May 2019.  They knew long before the last payment date for this cruise that they were going to make this change but they waited until no one could back out and get a refund. I called them to see if they were going to compensate their customers for their lack of planning and was told that there wasn't any compensation being offered at this time. Great way to do business and keep customers.

Bill --- you may be able to provide some insight --- I wonder if the issue was NOT Coco Cay, but rather, getting the ship over to Freeport --- perhaps some prep-work that would need to be done before the actual drydock in March .... just a thought ....

I'm with you though, I can't imagine this was something that "just happened"---certainly NOT weather related --- I'd almost bet it would have to do with maintenance that would need to be performed at Freeport, and the availability of space over there. 

Is it crappy?  YEP --- If I were on that sailing, would I expect some "love" from RCI? yep, especially if Coco Cay was to be one of the highlights of the cruise.

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6 hours ago, Boston Babe said:

I'd rather do a sea day ANYDAY than Grand Bahama!  Awful....  Guess we will enjoy the ship!  Are you and Dan having a great time?  Is Francis still the concierge? I'm hoping he's still on in February.

Yes, we are having a great cruise.  First port stop today was St. Croix.  We did not get off the ship (it rained). Tomorrow is Antigua and we have a catamaran excursion.  Praying for nice weather.

The internet has been horrific but better for the past 24 hours. Apparently they rebooted something and we are at least able to stay connected!

Yes, Francis is still the Concierge.  He is great. He comes to see us every morning while we’re having b’fast in Chops.  We had no problem at all getting specialty dining in the restaurants of our choice during the “special” holiday nights.  My guess is that demand for the upcharge Christmas meals wasn’t there.  We ate wherever we wanted. Meal fatigue is getting to us, though. Very grateful for a Port day today so we could skip the big lunchtime meal. I don’t even know where we’re having dinner tonite.  I can’t remember !  Francis will know...

The shows have been good.  Casino has been kind.

Something interesting...  Has anyone ever gotten a gift from Housekeeping ?  We’ve gotten gifts from C&A, from the casino and from the Concierge but never received one from Housekeeping before. It is a rather complicated-looking “7 piece wine set”. It uncorks, recorks etc. Very odd.  Speaking of gifts, we received 4 royal Caribbean tote bags from Loyalty.  Uhhhh....  2 is certainly more than we need but 4 ?  We trotted 2 of them back down to the Loyalty Ambassador and said, “WTF” ?  Dan had asked for RC beach towels but apparently those are precious, scarce and completely unavailable so they sent tote bags.  He assured us that we had ordered totes all around and declared that he would send us something else but that we could not have towels as he didn’t have any.  Earlier this afternoon we received 2 Royal Caribbean beach towels.  Apparently 2 of the rare prizes were unearthed from somewhere.  I HATE that they have removed the ability to choose your C&A reward gifts online. You now have to call them to get anything changed and obviously they f’ed it up. Whatever.  We are now the proud owners of 2 RC tote bags and 2 RC beach towels.  God only knows what we will get in Feb on Anthem.

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4 hours ago, KJ1231 said:

We're still on for CC on 3/10....

Hope you're right.  While waiting for over a half hour to speak to a supervisor about my complaint, the piped in commerical message kept repeating that "The Perfect Day at CocoCay would be available in May 2019.

Good Luck, I hope they're not waiting until you can't get a full refund before they sent you the "special email". 

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1 minute ago, Bill H said:

Hope you're right.  While waiting for over a half hour to speak to a supervisor about my complaint, the piped in commerical message kept repeating that "The Perfect Day at CocoCay would be available in May 2019.

Good Luck, I hope they're not waiting until you can't get a full refund before they sent you the "special email".  

We made final payment last week so wouldn't be surprised to get "the special email". Probably while we're on Brilliance next week.... If we get Miami or Freeport we'll probably stay on the boat.... I have cabana reserved on CC so was just going to be a relaxing beach day...

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  • 2 weeks later...

I have only done one cruise so far (have two more booked) but am already amazed at how all the rules seems to favor the cruise line and not the customer.  I dont know of any other "entertainment/travel" industry that is this lopsided!  Fortunately my first trip went without a hitch (except for the underwater earthquake scrapping some Cayman expeditions.....) so I am not personally tainted at this point.  I dont have a problem with last minute changes due to weather, but find it absurd you can be rerouted because the line is too incompetent (yes, it IS incompetency!) to forecast dry dock schedules, or can simply wipe out reservations to allow a charter of the ship.  I do realize these issues are industry problems and not just RC. 

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On 1/4/2019 at 4:20 PM, Bill H said:

What ticks me off is they are still advertising CoCo Cay as a stop on a lot of their Bahama cruises listed on their website.  Looks like "bait and switch" to me.  This will be my 13th cruise with RC and definitely my last.

Royal Caribbean is still going to CocoCay, so nothing is bait and switch.  There are exceptions, but it's far from the norm.  If you book a cruise to CocoCay, statistically you have a very good chance of going there, especially once the pier is open.

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 1/7/2019 at 9:38 AM, Matt said:

Royal Caribbean is still going to CocoCay, so nothing is bait and switch.  There are exceptions, but it's far from the norm.  If you book a cruise to CocoCay, statistically you have a very good chance of going there, especially once the pier is open.

Tell me Matt, what do you call it when something is advertised and after you pay for it (without an opportunity for a full refund) the advertiser changes the product. 

There is no way whatever RC shouldn't have known in advance their construction on Coco Cay would prevent ships stopping there but they decided to continue advertising it as a port of call.

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I've been on 2 RC cruises in 4 months (one the last week of aug, prime season for hurricane disruption and the week before Christmas which saw storms blowing through the itinerary and disrupting lots of vessels).  Both went to CocoCay without issue.  Just saying.  ?

Also their construction is behind schedule anyway.  Pier was supposed to be done some time ago based on reading just on this discussion forum.  It is well know (like for decades now) that cruise ships can change ports of call at any time.  The primary reason ships don't stop at coco is when the seas have large swells because it is dangerous to board the tenders from the ship which is just anchored near the island.

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16 hours ago, Bill H said:

Tell me Matt, what do you call it when something is advertised and after you pay for it (without an opportunity for a full refund) the advertiser changes the product. 

It tells me you ought to read that cruise contract you agreed to when booking a cruise. You agreed by booking the cruise that RC is under no obligation to actually go to any of the ports advertised.  

I get that you're upset your cruise isn't going to CocoCay, but unfortunately things happen.  Sometimes rides at Disney World have to close due to maintenance or the Space Needle is not open to guests due to a private event, refurbishment, etc. Nature of travel sometimes.  But it's not a deliberate plot to fool guests into booking a vacation under false pretenses.

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On 1/16/2019 at 2:40 PM, Bill H said:

There is no way whatever RC shouldn't have known in advance their construction on Coco Cay would prevent ships stopping there but they decided to continue advertising it as a port of call.

The pier was originally supposed to be completed nearly a year ago.  March 2018, then June 2018, then December 2018, then January 2018, then March 2019.  It's a complex project that has been years in the making clearing protests and environmental hurdles along the way.

If their construction contractor (an American company by the way) notifies them of another delay they have no choice but to alter more sailings where they intended to have two Vision class ships share the pier.  That's the nature of construction underwater - sometimes you get into the project and discover something that calls for another approach and re-engineering.

Let's be clear, the impacted cruises involved two ships that were supposed to use the pier on the same day.  No pier, only one ship can visit that day.  

On the itineraries that were impacted they stopped advertising CocoCay many months ago.    I just sailed one of them.  

There were a handful of itineraries that were impacted.  That's it.  No other ships impacted.  They are not just randomly cancelling calls to CocoCay.

The intent was to have two Vision class ships share the new pier.  That will eventually happen.  When the pier wasn't ready for those ships that were double booked they had to make a decision and one of the two ships had to find an alternate port. 

For me on Vision last week we went to Miami instead.   That was changed and we were notified many, many months ago.  They stopped selling that cruise with CocoCay listed long before final payment due date.  For OP on Grandeur she was diverted to Grand Bahamas.  Same deal - Grandeur lost and Enchantment lucked out. 

There remain some Vision and Grandeur itineraries that were not impacted.  Next week for example the Vision ports of call are reversed in order compared to what I just sailed.  As a result, she isn't double booked with Enchantment into CocoCay.  That's why they continued to sell that particular Vision cruise with CocoCay still listed - it's still going there.  

Not bait and switch.

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Sorry Matt, but this isn't a "maintenance" problem.  They're advertising "The Perfect Day at Coco Cay" starting in May 2019.  Sounds like they closed down the entire location to do a complete make over which would include substantial planning in advance.  How long ago do you think they were aware of the impact on the upcoming cruises.  I understand the cruise contract completely but I don't agree with the disrespect for their customers who unknowingly booked a cruise thinking that Coco Cay was one of the ports.  

PS Here's a quote from an email I received from RC after I inquired above Coco Cay in July 2018: 

"Thank you for contacting the Shore Excursion Inquiry Desk.

Hope you are having a good day.

Please note that by February of 2019 which is when you will be visiting us we have plan to have open already Oasis Lagoon, Chill Island, Chill Grill and Up, Up and Away.


Thank you. We hope you find this information useful. If you have any other question or request, please let us know.

Regards,
Karla Rodriguez
Shore Excursions Inquiry Team | Global Tour Operations | Royal Caribbean International | Celebrity Cruises | Azamara Club Cruises
1050 Caribbean Way, Miami, FL 33132 | Fax: 305-539-4131 | Email: shorex@rccl.com"

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20 minutes ago, Bill H said:

Sounds like they closed down the entire location to do a complete make over which would include substantial planning in advance.  How long ago do you think they were aware of the impact on the upcoming cruises.  I understand the cruise contract completely but I don't agree with the disrespect for their customers who unknowingly booked a cruise thinking that Coco Cay was one of the ports.  

They haven't closed CocoCay.  Its taking ships business as usual.  

The confusion here is because they had planned on taking two ships on certain days.  Two Vision class ships.  When the pier didn't complete on time they couldn't accept two ships on the same day.  One ship was given a new alternate port.  One ship visited CocoCay as planned.

They never closed CocoCay to work on Perfect Day. 

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3 hours ago, L454S said:

BUT, they kept advertising it as a stop even though they knew it would not be on the agenda. All while touting the pleasures of their island.

Not true. 

In my case they provided several months notice, well before final payment due date.   In the case of OP in this thread they notified with around 60 days notice.  

At that point they stopped advertising CocoCay and advertised the alternate port.  

As someone who was impacted by this I’ve followed it very closely.  Just like OP I was initially disappointed but once I researched it and understood why I got over it and moved forward.  They were very transparent with my sailing and communicated well.  

If they were trying to be sneaky they would not have notified us well before sailing and came up with an excuse once we were on board.  They didn’t do that.  They stopped advertising CocoCay on the itinerary.  I kept checking for price drops and saw they were not advertising CocoCay.  

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