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Royal poor customer care dealing with Anthem


Coach9

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Called Royal trying to get a full refund for this anthem cruise today and they are giving me the runaround.  I got 4 families in my party with children who are very upset including the adults and royal just keeps pushing the sail time back and even left out  the Nassau stop.  They are waiting to hear from the CDC about the results from the tests.  Problem is the the virus results take 48 hours.  Test was done Friday morning.  Basic math! Results won’t be back till Sunday morning,  so it just shows how they are playing a game.  Very upset with this whole situation.  Stuck in a hotel room in Newark

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I'm sorry that you are frustrated over this, but this is all part of cruising and you need to be prepared for that. There are all sorts of things that delay sailings, weather, mechanical failures, illnesses. You need to be prepared for delays and port changes. Calling someone at a call center will not have all of the information as this is a fluid situation. As far as the call center knows, the departure date has been pushed back a day, so of course they are not going to issue a full refund for the cruise. Its in your cruise contract that RC can alter the sailing as they see fit at any time and we as passengers have no recourse.

6. CANCELLATION, DEVIATION OR SUBSTITUTION BY CARRIER: a. Carrier may for any reason at any time and without prior notice, cancel, advance, postpone or deviate from any scheduled sailing, port of call, destination, lodging or any activity on or off the Vessel, or substitute another vessel or port of call, destination, lodging or activity. Except as provided in Section 6(e) below, Carrier shall not be liable for any claim whatsoever by Passenger, including but not limited to loss, compensation or refund, by reason of such cancellation, advancement, postponement, substitution or deviation

Others that are on your sailing have reported that RC is refunding the passengers the rate for the day, and any on board things like beverage packages etc. I feel that is more than fair. I also feel that it is wise of the cruise line to push back the sailing to thoroughly sanitize the ship out of an abundance of caution. The cruise will still be enjoyable even though it was shortened by a day. The kids will forget about the delay 10 seconds after boarding the ship. Roll with the punches and have a great cruise.

 

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9 minutes ago, emsff02 said:

I'm sorry that you are frustrated over this, but this is all part of cruising and you need to be prepared for that. There are all sorts of things that delay sailings, weather, mechanical failures, illnesses. You need to be prepared for delays and port changes. Calling someone at a call center will not have all of the information as this is a fluid situation. As far as the call center knows, the departure date has been pushed back a day, so of course they are not going to issue a full refund for the cruise. Its in your cruise contract that RC can alter the sailing as they see fit at any time and we as passengers have no recourse.

6. CANCELLATION, DEVIATION OR SUBSTITUTION BY CARRIER: a. Carrier may for any reason at any time and without prior notice, cancel, advance, postpone or deviate from any scheduled sailing, port of call, destination, lodging or any activity on or off the Vessel, or substitute another vessel or port of call, destination, lodging or activity. Except as provided in Section 6(e) below, Carrier shall not be liable for any claim whatsoever by Passenger, including but not limited to loss, compensation or refund, by reason of such cancellation, advancement, postponement, substitution or deviation

Others that are on your sailing have reported that RC is refunding the passengers the rate for the day, and any on board things like beverage packages etc. I feel that is more than fair. I also feel that it is wise of the cruise line to push back the sailing to thoroughly sanitize the ship out of an abundance of caution. The cruise will still be enjoyable even though it was shortened by a day. The kids will forget about the delay 10 seconds after boarding the ship. Roll with the punches and have a great cruise.

 

Helpful post....just roll with the punches.  Whether they have the right to do it, doesn't mean they should.  Also, I am pretty sure it's more than a day at this point.  Not saying there should be a full refund, but pro-rating the cruise is not an equitable solution.

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3 minutes ago, gatorskin76 said:

but pro-rating the cruise is not an equitable solution.

How is that not equitable? If I originally paid for a 7 day cruise that got shortened to say 5 days, and RC refunded me for the 2 days, and I got a 5 day cruise that I paid for seems pretty equitable to me.

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7 minutes ago, emsff02 said:

How is that not equitable? If I originally paid for a 7 day cruise that got shortened to say 5 days, and RC refunded me for the 2 days, and I got a 5 day cruise that I paid for seems pretty equitable to me.

That's because apparently you just roll with the punches.  However, a 5 day cruise isn't the same as a 7 day cruise.  I am sure they selected a 7 day cruise because they wanted to cruise for 7 days.  Surely you can see that.

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5 minutes ago, gatorskin76 said:

That's because apparently you just roll with the punches.  However, a 5 day cruise isn't the same as a 7 day cruise.  I am sure they selected a 7 day cruise because they wanted to cruise for 7 days.  Surely you can see that.

Yes, I do roll with the punches. What else can you do? Sometimes things are beyond our control, and I would much rather take a shortened cruise and have a blast and make the best of it, than take a zero day cruise any day.

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honestly I can’t comprehend how delusional someone can be. more than fair? pro rated refund is the bare minimum.  If you booked tickets to travel abroad and you were taken only half way and the airline said we will give you half your money back as a refund. would you think that was also more than fair and roll with those punches. talk more sense next time...

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21 minutes ago, groovybee said:

honestly I can’t comprehend how delusional someone can be. more than fair? pro rated refund is the bare minimum.  If you booked tickets to travel abroad and you were taken only half way and the airline said we will give you half your money back as a refund. would you think that was also more than fair and roll with those punches. talk more sense next time...

I once took a flight delayed by TWELVE hours. United screwed around from 6PM until 11PM with repeated delays, then finally pushed the flight until 6AM. At one point we boarded the plane and after sitting at the gate for about 30 minutes had to deplane (in the middle of the 6P to 11P nonsense).

In the end, after an hour on the phone I received a 100 dollar credit. The letter they wrote for me to submit to insurance put blame on themselves (United) so Chase wouldn't refund me (travel delay expenses). I spent $150 or so for a last minute hotel in Newark ... For basically 3 hours. Two Ubers to and from EWR. As well as meals.

So, the delay cost me probably $300 bucks and United gave me $100 and I couldn't claim the rest via travel insurance.

Know what.... I wasn't mad. I still fly United. They owed me one thing. A flight to Vegas which they provided.

I was happy to finally make it to Vegas for my guys weekend and obnoxiously wake up my friends.

Royal only owes these passengers an apology and a refund of a service they didn't receive (a day or so missed), expecting more is exactly what's wrong with society today.

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25 minutes ago, groovybee said:

pro rated refund is the bare minimum.  

Actually in the cruise contract, the bare minimum would be RC telling you to pound salt. The only time you are entitled to a refund of any kind is if the cruise is cancelled or terminated early due to a mechanical problem. Getting a refund and hotel costs covered up to a point is pretty fair 

 

25 minutes ago, groovybee said:

If you booked tickets to travel abroad and you were taken only half way and the airline said we will give you half your money back as a refund.

 

Thankfully I wouldn't have to worry about this because this is also covered in the airlines contract of carriage. If they have a flight that is messed up, they have to get me to that destination, which has happened to me. I got put on a flight,  to funny enough to Paris, and made it to my destination.

 

It pays to read the fine print

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2 minutes ago, emsff02 said:

Thankfully I wouldn't have to worry about this because this is also covered in the airlines contract of carriage. If they have a flight that is messed up, they have to get me to that destination, which has happened to me. I got put on a flight,  to funny enough to Paris, and made it to my destination.

YEP! And the airline doesn't care how awful the reroute is to get you from origin to destination. I remember SW cancelled a flight out of New Orleans about 3 minutes before boarding. Our reroute was the next day, with a 3 hour layover in MCO before the flight back to ALB (Albany, NY). Know what we got for that delay ... Hotel, food, Ubers, easy $500 cost to us .... $0.

LOL. 

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Wow, I hate to say this but people are so entitled these days. I read my contract, RC has the right to change or cancel for multiple reason. No where does it say I am entitled to a refund or prorated anything in the event of such happening. I don't think it is about getting over it per se, more like putting things in perspective. RC is giving up to $200 for hotel and food cost and 2 days worth of refunds. I bet if you took a 7 day cruise but were stuck on a ship for 2 weeks, you would be p*ssed if they made you pay for 2 weeks... because that's basically the logic. I get what I paid for and nothing else is good enough.

Bad things can and will happen all the time. I flew Air France business class to Egypt, 2 hours before my flight they cancelled the connection, told me it would be 24hrs of delay in Paris. I cancelled my hotel and made a new reservation.  It ended up being a 11 hour delay and there wasn't even any more flights available for almost 36 hours. My flight on the other airline had no business class or even premium economy service. When we landed everything was booked up and we had to book a room for the night at a hostel...in Egypt. I didn't sleep at all because we looked like rich Americans and were constantly being hounded. We lost out on two whole days. I had to fight and all I got was $536 for my troubles. I could have been mad, let it ruin my vacation, instead I "rolled with the punches" because life happens.

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I am one of the cruisers waiting. I completely understand and agree with RC on the precautions and delay. They should not have waited til within minutes of our (already delayed)  boarding time to make the call. It left a traffic jam and people scrambling for a place to go. We heard it from the porters an hour before any communication from RC. As i said, i am glad they were cautious, and as people stated they can change itinerary at there discretion, but they dropped the ball on how they handled it..... Now a question if refund is credited as OBC, and i dont spend, will it go back on CC?

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I think it would be poor customer service on the part of RC to let the cruise sail, not knowing the results of the test and putting all those passengers in danger. 

 Are those kids going to be more upset by waiting a few days or not going at all? Second day on the ship, those kids will have forgotten about it while the adults are still  mad, months after the cruise is over. That's what I love about kids. Short memories.

As @Ampurp85said you would be mad if you were stuck on one of those quarantined ships for two weeks and they made you pay for it. You'd say I only paid for a 7 day cruise. I didn't want a 21 day cruise and I'm not paying for that. And you shouldn't. You should pay for what you got and a pro-rated a cruise would be just that.  

The next few months are going to be very trying for the travel industry and travelers in general. Let's hope we all get through it with some civility.

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Now Monday....I am going to wait it out. They are covering hotel costs. Short cruise, but life is crazy sometimes.

 

We will set sail from Cape Liberty, New Jersey on Monday, February 10th. We’re currently finalizing our itinerary and compensation details and will share the details with you at 2:00 PM EST. We are trying our best to still make this a great experience for you.

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1 hour ago, Hagar said:

Changing a responding posters words into a direct quotation of "get over it" is a nice trick.

The other boards that thrive on that kink of misrepresentation are still open for business ?

I was going to stay away from this thread because it wasn’t really productive, but since you are specifically referring to my post I’ll attempt to explain what I said that you have taken offense to.  I said “essentially ‘get over it’”.  My use of quotes was not to create a direct quote of what someone stated, and what was stated is there for everyone to see.  I’m not sure why that is offensive.

if a response to most anything is the cruise contract says they can do whatever they want, that’s not really a productive conversation, even though it’s true.  

I meant no offense to anyone, but I do get irked when someone is told how they should “feel”.

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@gatorskin76 I hope you weren't offended by anything I said. I respect everyone's opinions and would hope mine would be respected as well. I just really hate the "owed" philosophy. I exclusively travel in October; which can be hurricane season, shoulder, rainy, and winter. All sorts of things have happened on my vacations but I go in accepting the risk.

RC would not go, after all that prep, and immediately cancel. The fact that they ended up offering the refund option is amazing.

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40 minutes ago, ctwilliams said:

Now Monday....I am going to wait it out. They are covering hotel costs. Short cruise, but life is crazy sometimes.

 

We will set sail from Cape Liberty, New Jersey on Monday, February 10th. We’re currently finalizing our itinerary and compensation details and will share the details with you at 2:00 PM EST. We are trying our best to still make this a great experience for you.

BROADWAY SHOWS!!!  Come From Away and Ain't To Proud To Beg would be top of my list.

This must be a pain for tons, but I always recommend a Broadway Show when life deals you lemons.

?

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Seem Royal is now stepping up.

Per: https://www.royalcaribbean.com/cruise-ships/anthem-of-the-seas-updates

As we advised, if you no longer want to sail, we completely understand, you’ll receive a full refund. You do not need to do anything to cancel, no need to call or contact us for this, as we want to make it as easy for you as possible. If you do not show up to the pier on Monday, we will understand that you decided not join us and we will automatically process your refund. You should see it on your account 3-5 days after our updated departure.

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3 minutes ago, CGTLH said:

Seem Royal is now stepping up.

Per: https://www.royalcaribbean.com/cruise-ships/anthem-of-the-seas-updates

As we advised, if you no longer want to sail, we completely understand, you’ll receive a full refund. You do not need to do anything to cancel, no need to call or contact us for this, as we want to make it as easy for you as possible. If you do not show up to the pier on Monday, we will understand that you decided not join us and we will automatically process your refund. You should see it on your account 3-5 days after our updated departure.

That should take care of it and I hope @Coach9 and their families are now headed home with some sort of peace of mind.

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1 minute ago, CGTLH said:

Seem Royal is now stepping up.

Per: https://www.royalcaribbean.com/cruise-ships/anthem-of-the-seas-updates

As we advised, if you no longer want to sail, we completely understand, you’ll receive a full refund. You do not need to do anything to cancel, no need to call or contact us for this, as we want to make it as easy for you as possible. If you do not show up to the pier on Monday, we will understand that you decided not join us and we will automatically process your refund. You should see it on your account 3-5 days after our updated departure.

I kept thinking, as some people were complaining that they weren't doing enough, "Just hang tight, this isn't over, their offers may change with time."  Auto-refunding for no shows without any communication is pretty awesome. Definitely disappointing, and inconvenient for those who've planned their week/vacation around it, but I think Royal is taking what is a really unfortunate situation, that they did not create, ,and doing their best with it.  I do feel for those whose vacations are altered, though.

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16 minutes ago, Ampurp85 said:

@gatorskin76 I hope you weren't offended by anything I said. I respect everyone's opinions and would hope mine would be respected as well. I just really hate the "owed" philosophy. I exclusively travel in October; which can be hurricane season, shoulder, rainy, and winter. All sorts of things have happened on my vacations but I go in accepting the risk.

RC would not go, after all that prep, and immediately cancel. The fact that they ended up offering the refund option is amazing.

I actually didn’t understand your post at first, but went back now and I get it.  No worries. FWIW, I don’t think that’s me at all.  I was never saying that RCL should necessarily give anything, just that due to the unique circumstance of the corona deal that I could understand someone being frustrated.

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Next worry reading over my annual insurance policy... one of the exclusions is "an epidemic".

 

GENERAL EXCLUSIONS

This  policy does  not  provide  coverage  for  any  loss  that  results  directly  or  indirectly  from  any  of  the  following general exclusions if they affect  you, a  traveling companion, or a  family member:

15. An  epidemic

DEFINITIONS

Epidemic: A  contagious  disease  that  spreads  rapidly  and  widely  among  the  population  in  an area  and  which  is  recognized  as  an  epidemic  by  the  World  Health  Organization (WHO) or Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

 

So far on the WHO and CDC site about the virus doing a quick glance/search for the word "epidemic" I didn't find any results.

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@SpeedNoodles That was my assessment too. I know there was a lot of frustration about the lack of communication but its hard to be transparent when you don't have all the facts. I am sure that RC will cover some hotel stays because of their insurance. But they may set restrictions like only for those choosing to continue on with the cruise.

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On 2/7/2020 at 11:24 PM, sk8erguy1978 said:

I once took a flight delayed by TWELVE hours. United screwed around from 6PM until 11PM with repeated delays, then finally pushed the flight until 6AM. At one point we boarded the plane and after sitting at the gate for about 30 minutes had to deplane (in the middle of the 6P to 11P nonsense).

Long-time lurker here, but just had to come out of the shadows for this one.  Was that the  flight from EWR to Las Vegas last August, by any chance?

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1 hour ago, roundabout said:

Long-time lurker here, but just had to come out of the shadows for this one.  Was that the  flight from EWR to Las Vegas last August, by any chance?

Nope. It was the 6:00PM flight on March 15th, 2019 flight UA 2216. Crazy flight, changed our gate a few times too, had us running around the terminal like sheep. We deplaned because the crew said they were about to "time out" and they never got another crew. Not sure if it was United, EWR, weather or a combination.

Glad to see United, EWR and Vegas runs are consistently late lol.

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