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Anyone have the Allure bookings moved/confirmed to Wonder of the Seas today yet?


KenCP

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We've decided to keep our downgraded CLS to JS Wonder reservation - for now, and hope that over the next 6-8 months we'll be able to move back into a full suite should someone cancel their reservation.

We have an October 20 deadline for requesting a full refund.  That deadline is pretty meaningless.  After the deadline, if we decide to cancel, we would forfeit $200 of our deposit as a change fee and the rest of the deposit would be an FCC that we can apply to a cruise we've booked for early 2023.

So we're willing to risk $200 for cancelling late, and wait to make a final decision on the Wonder cruise before the full payment deadline.

We remain extremely disappointed and frustrated with Royal Caribbean for how poorly they've handle the transition of their customers who had purchased the most expensive suites on the Allure and were then moved down to Junior Suite (for the same price).

Hopefully when this crisis has passed, and they've finished handling what could be over 300,000 reservations impacted by the Wonder change - that Royal Caribbean will reconsider their policy for transitioning reservations between ships:

  • Cabins on the new ship should be assigned based on priority - original cabin category and then within that date of the reservation and/or C&A points
  • If downgraded, the fare should be adjusted to the fare of the new cabin, as of the date of the original reservation
  • If downgraded from Star to Sky or Sky to Sea, the customer should be given the option to purchase the lost amenities at a reasonable price
  • And in consideration for the inconvenience, the customer should be provided an OBC based on the number of nights on the original cruise

If they had done this for the Allure to Wonder transition, more full suite customers would have been impacted, but the impact on each customer would have been less - and by treating everyone fairly, customers would likely have accepted any downgrades that happened.

Unfortunately, that's not what they did...  And it's too late to go back and do something reasonable...

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7 hours ago, DropDeadFred said:

New joiner here, but D+ cruiser.

Has anyone reported being upgraded out of this switch process?

Hi - welcome to the blog.

My answer is, "sort of". I had booked a Grand Suite 2 bedroom on Allure and have been "upgraded" to an Aquatheatre Suite 1 bedroom. According to Royal's categorisation and pricing, this is indeed an upgrade. However, although the cabins are about the same size (but the balcony for the Aquatheatre is huge), I prefer the position of the Grand Suite - much quieter as there is often noise on the Aquatheatre balcony from the movie screens and show rehearsals. There are only two of us on the booking so we don't need the second bedroom or bathroom, although the latter is nice to have.

I think, seeing as there aren't any any GS 2 bedroom on Wonder, I would have preferred an Owners Suite, which is also a step down from the Aquatheatre Suite. But I am definitely not complaining. After all, this is still a great cabin and the price has been retained from Allure. So, given this is a new ship, this is a very good deal.

For context, my sailing is for September next year, in the Mediterranean. I think competition for rooms may be a little less intense than it is for US sailings.

John.

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36 minutes ago, JohnUK said:

I had booked a Grand Suite 2 bedroom on Allure and have been "upgraded" to an Aquatheatre Suite 1 bedroom.

I wasn't as lucky. We are a family of four. There isn't final word yet as I haven't heard back from Royal Caribbean. However, the website currently tells me that my Grand Suite 2 Bedroom has been downgraded to two standard rooms with a (small) balcony. That's quite a downgrade, if you ask me. Not sure how the suite class benefits are affected.

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The deadline to accept new cabin was Oct 20. I see a few suites available in June. These are likely a result of reservations being cancelled due to new room assignment. 
I know of two families who cancelled after being switched from two bedroom grand suites to Junior suites.

Interestingly the current price for Junior suite on Wonder is higher than 2 bedroom grand was when ship was Allure.

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On 9/22/2021 at 5:44 PM, AlmondFarmer said:

I can confirm this information. I spoke with both my agent and Royal Caribbean representative in Crown and Anchor. Process will take up to two weeks. 
I have two friend families who were in 2 bedroom grand suites on Allure which Wonder does not have. I will report back what transpires for those on the blog wanting the full “scoop”

I have this same situation. What stateroom did they end up with?  Thank you

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  • 3 weeks later...

I guess we are some of the lucky ones then.... We've gone from the Allure 2 Bed GS to a 2 Bed Aqua Suite.

I feel for anyone disadvantaged by this.

I guess some karma is working in our favour? We booked Indy from Southampton and RCL moved the ship back to Florida and cancelled everyone's bookings and gave everyone a voucher to use. So, we are using that voucher to discount this trip :)

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  • 4 weeks later...

Wonder of the Seas for some time has not shown a transatlantic sailing in April 2022 Fort Lauderdale to Barcelona. I went to the RC site today, 12/14 and Allure of the Seas is back with it's original April 24th 2022 sailing to Barcelona. Please tell me we are not going to have switch everything back to Allure. I hope this is just an error. The final payment is due soon for us sailing on Wonder.

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1 hour ago, Kevin J said:

Wonder of the Seas for some time has not shown a transatlantic sailing in April 2022 Fort Lauderdale to Barcelona. I went to the RC site today, 12/14 and Allure of the Seas is back with it's original April 24th 2022 sailing to Barcelona. Please tell me we are not going to have switch everything back to Allure. I hope this is just an error. The final payment is due soon for us sailing on Wonder.

I'm not seeing Allure TA to Barcelona.  Did I misunderstand?

 

Screen Shot 2021-12-14 at 5.59.21 PM.jpg

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1 hour ago, FionaMG said:

It shows up if you search just for transatlantic sailings.

Screenshot_20211214-234739.thumb.jpg.2884d5f38b2e0daef23c5a8a9780e65a.jpg

But the date clashes with the 8-day April 22nd sailing that's visible on your screenshot. 

 

I did try that but Allure doesn't appear for me that way, on a computer.  Maybe only on a mobile device.

58109605_ScreenShot2021-12-14at7_51_58PM.thumb.jpg.cd8442026a05c12f1a54cec70b941809.jpg

1799569002_ScreenShot2021-12-14at7_52_12PM.thumb.jpg.a90dca9f7c8c476be1d81473fe747073.jpg

But then again it claims there are 14 but only 13 appear.  

 

 

 

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3 hours ago, FionaMG said:

That's interesting. I was using my mobile phone. A case of Royal IT and/or interns strike again, maybe?

It came up that way on my Chromebook and only listed the Allure TransAtlantic on April 24th.  I clicked on it and it gave me an Ooops so it wasn't bookable.  I certainly hope it is a glitch of some kind.  I'm very excited about going to Spain on Wonder even though I originally booked this cruise on Allure.

I read somewhere that since Wonder will be leaving 4 days earlier, the arrival in Barcelona will be 4 days sooner.  I haven't made any arrangements for a hotel in Barcelona yet.  I'm looking for recommendations.  Also, there was talk about guests being able to stay on the ship for those 4 days ... is this true??? ... even if I'm not doing a B2B.  I'm considering making it a B2B for this reason but I don't think it will be feasible.

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57 minutes ago, Dad2Cue said:

I haven't made any arrangements for a hotel in Barcelona yet.  I'm looking for recommendations.

I guess it depends what sort of hotel you're looking for but we use the Ibis Barcelona Centro (Sagrada Familia) https://all.accor.com/hotel/7567/index.en.shtml when we stay in Barcelona. As you can guess from the name, it's right by the Sagrada Familia (if you haven't visited this it's an absolute must - buy tickets online in advance from the official website here: https://sagradafamilia.org/en/). There is also a metro station a very short distance away that connects you to the rest of the city.

Ibis is a budget chain belonging to Accor Hotels that you'll find throughout Europe. The rooms here are comfortable, the staff are really friendly and helpful and they have a pretty decent buffet breakfast.

If you sign up to the Accor Group loyalty programme on the website you'll get a small discount on the price of the room.

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  • 4 weeks later...

It's been a few weeks so I thought I would give an update to my experience with the upcoming Wonder of the Seas transatlantic from Ft. Lauderdale to Barcelona on April 20th, 2022. I paid off my cruise late December, but had to make a tweak to my flights from Air2Sea last week. I changed to an earlier departure flight and the folks at Air2Sea were more than accommodating to make the change. The price even went down a few dollars so happy me. The following day I logged into my cruise and low and behold I saw that a $408 "balance still owed" had popped up. After an hour on the phone, RC figured that when I changed the one flight, my cruise purchase price went up. Still puzzled on how that works but they straightened it out and now I am paid in full again. I even have a credit coming for the cheaper fight. I inquired with the agent about Wonder not showing up for the transatlantic and she stated that with reduced capacity in place that the ship was technically booked full. Makes sense. One thing I would love some insight into is the Taxes, Fees and Port Expenses that show up for Wonder on this cruise. My ocean-view balcony lists $761 for Taxes, Fees and Port Expenses. This is easily the most I have ever had to pay for such expenses. More than double actually. I have paid much less and visited more ports in the Caribbean on other cruises. I checked the return trip fare for a similar cabin leaving Barcelona and arriving in the U.S. in October and the fees were only a little over $300. Does anyone have a similar situation and does anyone know why those costs are so high on this trip?  The agent did not have an answer. Also I have yet to book accommodations in Barcelona so any more info on where to stay for a few days at a reasonable price would be great. After two weeks, someplace with a laundromat would be ideal!

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