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Awesome Upgrade from Royal (but I can't take it)


DocLC

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Printed luggage tags last night and then logged into my account on Royal's site to discover that I was upgraded from a G category ocean view cabin on deck three to a D1 balcony on deck 8.  GREAT upgrade, unfortunately, my wife is prone to motion sickness and the cabin in one in from the bow, so it's not going to work for us.

 

My TA is working to resolve this, but we weren't upgrade because of our C&A status.  She was informed that they've closed off some of the cabins to begin work pre drydock, so our original cabin isn't available.  As a result, the "revenue" department is involved, but we won't hear back until Monday because they closed early today.

 

I told my TA, who relayed this to Royal, that I don't care what category I'm in as long as I'm midship.  I've even offered to switch ships if necessary, so we'll see what happens.

 

Hate that I can't take the upgrade, but my wife said, "Absolutely not."

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When a women makes up her mind it's best to leave it be IMO. Sounds like your looking for a new room. Hopefully Royal sorts this out to your liking, not sure why this was left to the last minute, I belive your only 10 days away. I think they should be understanding that you need the center, I hope for the best. It's the not knowing that would bug me, we all plan these things long in advance, now you don't even know if you have a room 10 days out!

 

Best of luck.

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Ugh...I hope they're able to find you a nice balcony (or better !) amidships. I guess Dan and I are both fortunate. Neither of us gets seasick...even in the worst seas.

 

There's nothing nicer than that call from Royal with an upgrade. I'm very sorry that you can't take advantage of it. Maybe someone else will want the cabin they offered you and will give up their midship balcony.

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When a women makes up her mind it's best to leave it be IMO. Sounds like your looking for a new room. Hopefully Royal sorts this out to your liking, not sure why this was left to the last minute, I belive your only 10 days away. I think they should be understanding that you need the center, I hope for the best. It's the not knowing that would bug me, we all plan these things long in advance, now you don't even know if you have a room 10 days out!

 

Best of luck.

I have faith in Royal and my TA.  I told them that midship is a necessity, and I gave them and my TA the freedom to work it out.  I even said I'd accept a promenade view cabin with some OBC or being moving to the Freedom, Oasis, or Allure.  Trust me, they lucked out with me!  We booked the Liberty to experience one of Royal's bigger ships, so we're not married to her and can get the same experience on any of the ships.  While sailing from Galveston would be nice for a change, it's not a necessity.

 

Not knowing is a pain, especially with it being a holiday weekend; thus, it will be six days from sailing before we hear anything.  Plus, we leave on Saturday to go to the Grand Canyon with family and then are scheduled to head to Galveston on the 1st, so I won't even be home to deal with any of the changes that might occur.  Thankfully, that's what my TA is for.  :)

 

I am a bit worried based on what Royal reported to my TA.  If they have taken cabins offline to begin refurbishment work, I am concerned that it may impact the sailing some.

 

WaaayTooo,

 

We actually didn't receive a call for Royal nor did my TA receive any notice.  It was just changed by Royal without any notice.  I so desperately want to keep the balcony, but we had a rough sailing out of Tampa in 2005/2006, which ended up curtailing our sailing for about three years.  Fortunately, a midship cabin satisfies my wife and she finds solace there in rough seas.  Even worked on the Brilliance when we had waves crashing over our porthole and winds of 70 mph.  The motion was bearable in the cabin, less so elsewhere on the ship especially near the bow. 

​

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We actually didn't receive a call for Royal nor did my TA receive any notice. It was just changed by Royal without any notice.

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So you just logged in and suddenly you were booked in a strange room ? Did you have at least have a message in the "message" tab ? I have never EVER had anything under the message tab !

 

It kinda seems as if RCI was hoping you wouldn't notice that they had upgraded you ! Lol

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So you just logged in and suddenly you were booked in a strange room ? Did you have at least have a message in the "message" tab ? I have never EVER had anything under the message tab !

 

It kinda seems as if RCI was hoping you wouldn't notice that they had upgraded you ! Lol

Yep, just logged in and saw that the room had been changed.  Odd thing is that I was up late the night before and had just printed my luggage tags.  Logged in the next morning and saw that the cabin category and number had changed.  Was excited at first until I checked the location.  I never received any communication from Royal nor did my TA.  However, a couple of days before, she did receive a "flight change" notice from Royal, but it was blank and it was odd since I didn't book my flights through Royal.  Perhaps this was their attempt to communicate with my TA and their automated system hiccupped?

 

I'm eager to see how this gets resolved.  My wife is hoping we still get a balcony cabin, but I don't think that's likely.  Last word was that Royal was going to call other guests to see if they would accept our upgrade.

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My wife is also prone to motion sickness. She uses "Sea Bands" which circle the wrists and she has not had a problem on any of our cruises. She says they are available ay CVS, Walgreen's, WalMart, etc. Hope this helps!

My wife has some and has used them, too. She just feels more comfortable midship as the motion is less there.

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Just saw that they've moved us down to a Deck 2 ocean view, but I told my TA that it's unacceptable as it's a connecting cabin. We actually use the couch to lounge and a connecting cabin has a half size couch which doesn't work for us. I'd even take an inside as long as it wasn't a connecting cabin and had a pullman bed; I can't stand the sleeper sofas as they take up too much room and you end up with no place to sit at night other than the beds.

 

Did receive an updated itinerary for my 2017 Allure cruise today, however.

 

I'll post when I know more.

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We're stuck with a connecting cabin and Royal claims they're offering us $200 OBC as a good faith gesture, forgetting that we already had $50 to begin with. Still not happy given that I booked very far out and they pulled this change over a holiday weekend with no notice to my TA or me.

 

We'll make the best of it, but I'm very disappointed with Royal as I was super flexible on categories and even changing ships.

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I'm disappointed FOR you, Kris. I was hoping you would get a nice surprise and it's a huge disappointment. Maybe dropping Matts name will still work ?

Thanks. At least Royal's trying to make an effort, but making this change on Christmas Eve and then not resolving it until tonight was the real problem as all other alternates evaporated. I'm also concerned by their claim that they removed some of the cabins from inventory to begin renovation work. I surely hope this doesn't disrupt our onboard experience.

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Sorry to hear about all this hassle DocLC. Hopefully you can leave all the aggravation (and this cold dreary weather) behind when you see that big beautiful ship tomorrow. Have a great voyage and enjoy the warm Caribbean weather this week!

Couldn't of said it better, hopefully you and your wife have a great time. Enjoy.

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Thanks Steve and Jerel, I know everything will be fine and this likely wouldn't be a problem if I wasn't an uber planner and picked the specific cabin that I wanted. Had Royal just contacted us before the move, then it could have been resolved without such an issue.

 

Drive by the terminal today on the way to the Space Center. Super excited and bags are tagged. My son even said today how much he wished we could be on the Liberty today.

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We arrived at the port today which was uneventful since we avoided the traffic and parked across the street. Check in was relatively fast; unfortunately, we were informed at check-in that we owed $222 for our upgrade/downgrade fiasco. Guest Services is "investigating" after a half hour with them, but not a great start.

 

On the upside, the ship is beautiful, the food so far is good, and the fam is amazed at the Royal Promenade.

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... unfortunately, we were informed at check-in that we owed $222 for our upgrade/downgrade fiasco. Guest Services is "investigating" after a half hour with them, but not a great start.

On the upside, the ship is beautiful, the food so far is good, and the fam is amazed at the Royal Promenade.

Wow! (And not the "Wow" that Royal Caribbean promises). Total failure on their part. I'm glad you are looking on the upside because you still get to spend the next week on Liberty of the Seas!

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Wow! (And not the "Wow" that Royal Caribbean promises). Total failure on their part. I'm glad you are looking on the upside because you still get to spend the next week on Liberty of the Seas!

Thanks, Steve. I know we'll have a great, but there's a part of me that just wishes we had cancelled given the frustration this has caused. Fortunately, I have faith in Royal and my TA to resolve this. It's just unfortunate that showing an invoice from Royal showing a zero balance wasn't enough so now I have to wait for this to be resolved.

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Doc,  As a newbie 'hopefully' soon to be loyal RCCL customer, please keep us posted as to the resolution.  We, Cindy and I,  leave this Thursday out of Tampa, and are surprised to see how you've been treated thus far.   Have fun, Stay Safe, and ENJOY time with family and friends.

Rob-o

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Doc, how did you find out that you had a balance due ? Did they inform you at check-in ? I find that very strange as you would have had to pay your balance LONG before getting to the pier. They should have realized it was, at a minimum, an "unusual" situation...in fact, one entirely of THEIR doing ! So odd...you are the one that should be getting the $222, not them. I'm sure this will all be resolved but it just multiplied your already frustrating disappointment with the whole "room" thing.

 

I still say you should drop Matts name on 'em !

 

 

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Doc, how did you find out that you had a balance due ? Did they inform you at check-in ? I find that very strange as you would have had to pay your balance LONG before getting to the pier. They should have realized it was, at a minimum, an "unusual" situation...in fact, one entirely of THEIR doing ! So odd...you are the one that should be getting the $222, not them. I'm sure this will all be resolved but it just multiplied your already frustrating disappointment with the whole "room" thing.

 

I still say you should drop Matts name on 'em !

 

 

Before we were allowed to board, we were told that there was a message from the Port Agent and we were escorted down by the clerk to see her. I was expecting news of a cabin change, but instead I was told we had a balance due and in order to be allowed to board we had to sign a receipt acknowledging the amount owed and agreeing to pay it. We were further informed that it could only be resolved onboard, so we went to guest services, provided our Royal invoice showing the cruise was paid in full and thought the issue was redolved. The next day, we received a notice that the amount was in fact owed.

 

Back to Guest Services and neither a new person we spoke to nor the senior Guest Services officer could explain it and said that if the couldn't explain it then nothing should be owed. Finally on the third day it was confirmed that the amount owed was an error and the charge was removed from the folio.

 

We also did not receive our C&A robes, our Emerald C&A pin, nor notice of the Meet N Mingle, which the Loyalty Ambassador is checking into. We also due a credit for the arcade which hasn't been applied to our account despite numerous phone calls to Guest Services.

 

Note that these are one-off incidences. The vast majority of people will not experience these issues and for the most part service has been very good especially in the MDR. In addition, Liberty is a great ship with some very good entertainment. However, if I didn't know better, I could see how someone might think otherwise especially if this was his or her first cruise.

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Doc, As a newbie 'hopefully' soon to be loyal RCCL customer, please keep us posted as to the resolution. We, Cindy and I, leave this Thursday out of Tampa, and are surprised to see how you've been treated thus far. Have fun, Stay Safe, and ENJOY time with family and friends.

Rob-o

You have nothing to worry about. This is an unusual circumstance because of the upcoming dry dock. I'm sure your cruise will go off without a hitch. Fortunately, this is not my first cruise with Royal, so I know this is not the norm nor will it likely be an issue for anyone else.

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Hmmmm....I had a psychologist tell me once that everyone has a bag (thrown over your shoulder, I envisioned) in which resentments are collected and stored...and that sometimes these bags will eventually get full.  When the bag is full, there is nothing to do but toss it away along with source of the resentments.

 

Everyone's bag is a different size.  Let's hope your bag for RCI resentments is large enough to handle the MANY small collections you have made this week.  This is the kind of thing (particularly in the iterative way you seem to have collected them for this cruise) that can really spoil a good relationship.  You don't strike me as the resentful type but it certainly cannot be a good thing for your relationship with RCI.

 

Here's hoping that these are all in the past and that the rest of your cruise is resentment-free.

 

:)

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Thanks, WaaayTooo. In isolation, each is only a small annoyance, but you are correct that there can be an additive effect.

 

If this was our first cruise, we might be looking elsewhere as a result. As a whole, though, it's been a great cruise with some fun excursions. Heck, I'm sitting on the beach in Cozumel as I write this; how bad can it be? I would like the two hours back that Royal cut from our time in Cozumel that we were only notified about last night, but at least we have until 3:15.

 

The family is in love with the Freedom class and the entertainment has been very good and we're still going on our Serenade and Allure cruises this coming year. However, we also realize we are more itinerary than ship people.

 

Royal does need to reign in their onboard pricing, however. $6 for a grande frappe is ridiculous especially given the quality and price compared to Starbucks. $2 for air hockey is also a bit high, yet we found the prices at Ben and Jerry's to be reasonable.

 

P.S., Given that we know what Royal is capable of, it's easy for me to be a harsh critic. It's really just some disappointment, not resentment, as I know from experience that Royal is better than this. The good news is that I haven't overheard any complaints onboard, so I think these are one-off events.

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P.S., Given that we know what Royal is capable of, it's easy for me to be a harsh critic. It's really just some disappointment, not resentment, as I know from experience that Royal is better than this. The good news is that I haven't overheard any complaints onboard, so I think these are one-off events.

 

For the money paid for the cruise, you are far more tolerant than I...

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So they cut your stay in Cozumel by 2 hours ? Any reason ?

No reason was given and I don't think they see it as a significant change since we arrived an hour early. Of course, what are you going to do in Cozumel at 6 am? In the end, we left closer to 5 as a tour was late getting back because of the ferry. We arrived in Galveston on time, so why that wanted to leave earlier is beyond me. Best guess would be to outrun a cold front that we were suppose to pass and/or to get back to Galveston early to load supplies for the dry dock so that they can begin work while in transit.

 

On the upside, the Loyalty Ambassador comped us dinner at Chops for our troubles. She also assured me that there were no coming changes to the C&A program in the coming year despite the rumors circulating online.

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For the money paid for the cruise, you are far more tolerant than I...

Fortunately, I did get a good fare for booking early and Royal did extend some onboard credit for the room snafu. However, this is the first Royal cruise where my wife and I started comparing Royal to its competitors and considering alternatives, which is sad.

 

Overall, it was a good cruise and most importantly my son didn't want to leave, which means he had a good time.

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I'm telling you, brother. I keep trying to get my wife to try someone else. She's more loyal to Royal than I am. I believe that sometimes you can't know what you've got until you're experience the alternatives. Which is also why I want her to let me have many side girlfriends, but that's not working either. ;) :lol:

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