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Several RC initiated Room Changes prior to Sailing


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New to the blog but wanted to see if this was commonplace with RC and if we had any recourse.

Booked (directly through RC, no travel agent) 7 day cruise out of Miami this November over a year ago because we are traveling with 12 plus family members and wanted to get rooms in a row/somewhat close together AND make sure we had 2 adjoining rooms for my husband, I and our 4 kids.  Booked all oceanview balconies in a row and thought we were set.  RC has changed our rooms twice already over the past year and we were lucky enough to find 4 together w/ the 2 that adjoined each time we got moved.  However, just got a call last night, about 6 weeks before sailing, saying they had to move us again and now all 4 cabins are still 'together' in a row but the kids are no longer adjoining our room. I said this wasn't acceptable because we need to have access to our young children and they said there's nothing they could do.  Of course this close to sailing there are no other adjoining rooms available on the ship.  The 3 times they've moved us, the reason has always been "The room configuration does not allow 4 persons any longer". ???? Well, when we booked it did, so what happened ?????  Their answer to this was "The change was made to best accommodate our passengers." 

I asked for other options such as a comp upgrade to a suite to fit all of us (none avail they said), to give us two rooms - the original adjoining where I could keep the smaller two of our kids and give the teenagers their own room on the other side of ours (of course, I asked for it at no charge because this wasn't our doing and no surprise, they said no), I asked for something, even a free excursion or shipboard credit for our trouble and for my husband and I having to sleep separately so one of us could be with the children, and they said 'they are not offering any kind of compensation for the change'.

I'm flabbergasted, we booked over a year in advance to assure we had rooms together AND  adjoining for our extended family vacation only to be told we're getting a completely different configuration 6 weeks before we sail and there's nothing they can do.  Has this ever happened to anyone else before? Are they privy to just move rooms around especially giving travelers not the equivalent (they are still balconies, just not adjoining) room prior to the cruise?  Do we have any recourse? I am hitting dead ends with anyone I talk to at RC.

Thanks!

Nicole, WIsconsin

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That's so strange. I am sorry you are dealing with this. I've never had my rooms changed, so I can't speak to you - but it seems odd that the room configuration is changing. Probably more like higher paying clients are driving some revenue decisions by the cruise line. But the 3 person adjoining sounds good - do they have any of those?  

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They claim the have ZERO adjoining rooms left.  I agree, doesn't matter how many you book in each room b/c can figure it out once you get on, but they claim they don't have ANY adjoining left.

I agree as well, that other travelers must be wanting the rooms we had originally been booked in and they're configuring them to suit their needs and bumping us around. Doesn't seem right, especially when travelling with kids, the adjoining is so important for safety reasons of keeping an eye on them.

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39 minutes ago, GrandmaAirplane said:

Escalate the issue, it’s unacceptable.

100% agree here.  I'd be fuming!!!

Escalate is the corporate buzz word you need to use. Tell the tier one person (typically the first person you speak with) that you need to escalate this to on onshore (USA)supervisor. They changed your cabins to accommodate someone else or someone else's mistake. They can undo it too.

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Are you using a TA?  If so, this is a great time for the TA to advocate on your behalf.

Is your upcoming sailing on Oasis?  There have been reports that this is happening due to the re-configuring of cabin capacity to accommodate the addition of the new cabins during the AMP.

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This happened to us on Navigator.  The new staterooms were changed from the original passenger capacity after the renovation.  The original JR suite that I booked for my 4 kids was only listed for 2 after the renovation.  My TA was told about 6 weeks prior to our departure and in my case our rooms were originally put on different decks.  Luckily for me, my MEI travel agent escalated the situation and found 2 adjoining aft staterooms.  I have a feeling that RC moved someone else out of the room.  The best part was my TA waited until after she found what she knew would be an acceptable room configuration to tell me ?

Keep escalating the situation.  Ask to speak to a supervisor.  I know people have had good luck complaining on FB messenger and/or twitter.

You still could do this room with you and your younger children in the room for 4 and the 2 teens in your 2 person room.  However, I completely understand this isn't what you wanted and you should get some compensation for the trouble.  

Good luck!

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I have the same issue. We booked in September 2018 for our cruise in March 2020 on Oasis of the Sea. They have moved us twice. No upgrade. I am told the same thing that the room configuration has changed but when I look at the new deck plan it shows that all the rooms are for three people. I am so disappointed. I have emailed the headquarters several times...not much help, no upgrade. I will never put a non-refundable deposit down. It's too late to dispute it with my credit card. I will never go again on Royal Caribbean. They have barely any choices for the rooms since it is 5 months prior to sailing. I usually book early in order to pick the best location for us.

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2 hours ago, gnomecruising said:

Yes, on the Oasis. We are the first sailing after the AMP so doesn't give me a lot of confidence all the bugs will be worked out. Heck, it may not even be ready to sail on time.

Oh!  I am on that sailing as well.

I wouldn't take no for an answer here and I would keep escalating.  Have in mind what you would accept as a resolution.  How much OBC would they need to offer you for you to consider it "fair" for you and your husband to have to sleep in separate rooms so there's an adult in there with the young children.  It helps to have something specific to ask for when bargaining for a resolutions.  

If you haven't talked to Crown & Anchor directly you may want to call them.  It should be a smaller call center and perhaps they can escalate you to somewhere that can do something about your situation.  (800) 526-9723

It's a shame that it's past final payment date or I would suggest that you transfer your booking to a TA for help with this.

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9 hours ago, melski94 said:

This happened to us on Navigator.  The new staterooms were changed from the original passenger capacity after the renovation.  The original JR suite that I booked for my 4 kids was only listed for 2 after the renovation.  My TA was told about 6 weeks prior to our departure and in my case our rooms were originally put on different decks.  Luckily for me, my MEI travel agent escalated the situation and found 2 adjoining aft staterooms.  I have a feeling that RC moved someone else out of the room.  The best part was my TA waited until after she found what she knew would be an acceptable room configuration to tell me ?

Keep escalating the situation.  Ask to speak to a supervisor.  I know people have had good luck complaining on FB messenger and/or twitter.

You still could do this room with you and your younger children in the room for 4 and the 2 teens in your 2 person room.  However, I completely understand this isn't what you wanted and you should get some compensation for the trouble.  

Good luck!

Definitely head to Twitter...seems that is the spot that they watch for anything negative and amazingly respond quickly to acquiesce. 

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1 hour ago, monctonguy said:

Never heard of that..makes NO sense.....something is missing here.

 

To be all moved once would be a big deal, and could be explained with a revamp of the ship perhaps..but multiple times.....something is off. We don't have the full story or something.

What ship is this on?

They're booked on a revamped Oasis ....... My initial thoughts were, were they booked GTY?

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Thank you everyone for the comments and ideas.  We were 'choose your own room' so we did pay the higher price to pick specific rooms. We did that because of the large group of us travelling together and we wanted to be all on same floor/next to each other plus the adjoining rooms was the big push why we chose our own.

 

I plan to try all avenues listed in all the above posts this afternoon after work.  I welcome any addt'l suggestions people have as well just in case I don't get anywhere this evening.

Thank you for all the tips!

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Definitely post on social media with this, and make it clear just as you wrote it here:

29 minutes ago, gnomecruising said:

We were 'choose your own room' so we did pay the higher price to pick specific rooms. We did that because of the large group of us travelling together and we wanted to be all on same floor/next to each other plus the adjoining rooms was the big push why we chose our own.

Also emphasize the legitimate and serious safety aspect of having the adjoining room for your children.

Your demographics hit exactly where RCCL’s marketing is aimed at... point out that your experience demonstrates that RCCL may not be the best cruising choice for families after all, since Royal cannot be trusted to keep families together and safe - even when reserved far in advance and having paid for the ability to choose your cabins.

Also highlight the stress that this is causing you.

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2 hours ago, monctonguy said:

Never heard of that..makes NO sense.....something is missing here.

To be all moved once would be a big deal, and could be explained with a revamp of the ship perhaps..but multiple times.....something is off. We don't have the full story or something.

What ship is this on?

I've heard of it happening in a variety of cases.  They release itineraries so far ahead that they don't take into consideration what changes will be coming down the line when a ship goes into dry dock or gets AMPed.  Whoever is responsible for making the decision to release the itineraries for booking may not even know of the potential changes.  Then it becomes a comedy of errors later when you have to fix these situations.

In the Oasis AMP they are adding new cabins that didn't exist before.  This tends to affect capacity when it comes to things such as lifeboats, muster station, and I'm sure other minor engineering consequences of putting more people in a once public area.  So they decided to reclassify other cabins that had 3- and 4-person capacities to only allow bookings for 2 people.  This has a chain reaction effect for anyone booked into these cabins that are now over the capacity requirements.  For some of these displaced folks they got an email letting them know that this had happened and that Royal would reach out in a few weeks when they got it resolved to let them know their new cabin assignments!  I'm sure they're going through the process of shuffling folks around to fix all of this.  

What I'm not seeing offered is any compensation for being moved when you booked to choose your room.  Any reports of being upgraded or incentives for being moved were only after the guest became a "squeaky wheel" about the situation.

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Prepare a short e-mail with the gist of what has happened and that, despite several attempts at fixing this situation, you keep getting the “no, we can’t help you” response. Ask that you want exactly what you had paid for and reserved in advance, and say why you specifically booked the cabins that you did. Ask for help from his office in resolving this situation.

Send this e-mail directly to the CEO: mbayley@rccl.com

Good luck.

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1 hour ago, AshleyDillo said:

I've heard of it happening in a variety of cases.  They release itineraries so far ahead that they don't take into consideration what changes will be coming down the line when a ship goes into dry dock or gets AMPed.  Whoever is responsible for making the decision to release the itineraries for booking may not even know of the potential changes.  Then it becomes a comedy of errors later when you have to fix these situations.

In the Oasis AMP they are adding new cabins that didn't exist before.  This tends to affect capacity when it comes to things such as lifeboats, muster station, and I'm sure other minor engineering consequences of putting more people in a once public area.  So they decided to reclassify other cabins that had 3- and 4-person capacities to only allow bookings for 2 people.  This has a chain reaction effect for anyone booked into these cabins that are now over the capacity requirements.  For some of these displaced folks they got an email letting them know that this had happened and that Royal would reach out in a few weeks when they got it resolved to let them know their new cabin assignments!  I'm sure they're going through the process of shuffling folks around to fix all of this.  

What I'm not seeing offered is any compensation for being moved when you booked to choose your room.  Any reports of being upgraded or incentives for being moved were only after the guest became a "squeaky wheel" about the situation.

Yeah..Would  be a one time thing based on the changes...that's why I asked what ship it was.

 

Also, it wouldn't happen 3x...something is not making sense here....especially for multipe rooms each time?!

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