Royal Cancelled My Reservation for no reason

[CruisingEngineer]

I got an email today saying my internet package had been cancelled for my May sailing. When I called and waited on hold for over an hour, I was told my cruise reservation had been cancelled. What the heck? I didn't cancel anything and because it is a group booking through the travel agency and the group department is closed, I have to call back tomorrow. I contacted my TA and she says everything looks good on her end and payment isn't due till April. She will contact the group department tomorrow. Has anyone else had Royal randomly cancel your reservation? This is disconcerting and makes me not want to book more cruises with Royal if I can't trust them to not randomly cancel my reservation.

[SpeedNoodles]

It has happened occasionally by accident.  I know it happened to @Matt once, and here's a thread about when it happened to another person.

 

[Heymarco]

Here is a fascinating read on the subject. Hope you didn’t have a frenemy cancel it.

https://www.elliott.org/cruises/royal-caribbean-canceled-cruise-help/

[SpeedNoodles]

23 minutes ago, Heymarco said:

Here is a fascinating read on the subject. Hope you didn’t have a frenemy cancel it.

https://www.elliott.org/cruises/royal-caribbean-canceled-cruise-help/

While interesting, this is extremely rare, and unlikely what happened.

[AKcruiser]

We booked an Alaskan cruise on radiance of the seas in June last year.  The final payment was due this week.  I went online to make my final payment a week early and noticed there was a discrepancy in the invoice amount and the balance due.  Rather than pay online (the online balance due was $490 more than what we owed) I called and waited an hour to speak with a customer service representative.  He was very nice and stated he saw there was a glitch in the system. He said he fixed it and  I paid the correct amount over the phone. He had me wait on the phone  until I got the email to confirm the balance was paid in full.  We received the email showing the balance was paid in full.  I checked the website and it still showed we owed $490.  He said it would update overnight and the problem would be solved.  I logged in the next morning and he was correct that the website showed zero balance due.

Fast forward to yesterday.  I logged in to look at an excursion and my reservation was gone.  After another hour wait to speak with a rep, she told me the reservation had been cancelled for not paying in full by the deadline and that a refund had been issued.  She reviewed it all and  it had been paid in full.  We spent the next 2 hours on the phone with a gentleman in another department who cancelled our flights and then rebooked our reservation and then rebooked our flights.

Luckily we didn't have anything else booked and they were able to give us the same room.  Bit they said it would take 48 hours to update in the system so I am still not able to verify that everything is correct.  After reading similar stories I am concerned that I might still have other issues with the booking. 

I spent my time calling them proactively to let them know there was a glitch and they still did not get it right.  Then they cancelled it without notifying us.  What if I hadn't checked the reservation and the room was sold?  We have traveled other cruise lines and have never had any issues at all.   Did we make a mistake going with RC?

[Snowchaser]

If I set foot on Symphony this weekend it will be a huge relief as my cruise has been accidentally canceled twice by Royal now!    Both times happened after I had already paid in full and my account showed zero balance due.  After a lot of time on the phone both occurrences were resolved, drink packages were rebooked as well but prices were a lot higher so I was given cruise credits to make up the difference.  From what I gather from the rep is the issue is an internal accounting problem.  Our booking was a L&S from last year to a much more expensive cruise now and behind the scenes a credit was to be issued that the system isn't picking up creating a balance due that you cant see. 

[Kirsten]

I paid in full more than 30 days before the balance was due and received an email for another invoice at the 30 day mark.  I called RC and it turns out that through a glitch, it kicked off my daughter's FCC so it was saying that I had a balance due.  They extended my final payment due date and reapplied the FCC, saying it would take a few days for the FCC to go through.  I'm really glad I paid before the final payment was due because if I had waited until 30 days, it may have cancelled my cruise because from their point f view, I hadn't paid the final amount.

[deep1]

I always pay in full way way in advance. More than once though paid in full I have seen "pay remaining Balance" still active. Once for a couple hundred bucks and once for $9!!!!  Both mistakes but would have resulted in a "non payment cancellation"...

 

[jrey51]

This happened to me actually, or rather to my TA, a couple months ago. Called in for a fairly routine re-price, and agent ended up cancelling my booking (plus as on-board purchases - drinks, excursions, etc.).

Look weeks to sort out, and was especially frustrated since some on the excursions I had were now sold out. But, eventually TA got it all sorted and got me some hefty OBC to compensate. 

[Lisa in TX]

Found this old thread today, this was reassuring that my situation will get worked out. RC overcharged me for an excursion (total was $520 but my CC was charged for $936). It was definitely this item, but the customer service reps at RC were unable to fix it for me. The last one I spoke to advised me to file a chargeback with my CC to escalate it within Royal. I trusted he knew what he was talking about, huge mistake. It triggered a cancelation of my entire room and everything I had booked for my family who is also traveling with me in two other rooms. We are supposed to sail in 30 days, the ship is fully sold out. My travel agent got them to confirm it was their error and that I would be reinstated but its unclear if my original room is still available. She has been working with them for 2 days now to get this fixed. If I weren't traveling with other people who would be sorely disappointed if this trip got messed up I wouldn't care if they just refunded me everything. And now its Friday evening so I have to wait until Monday for them to resume working on this (the accounting department is involved). SO frustrating.

[Xaa]

So glad you have a TA to get this sorted @Lisa in TX

[BrianB]

Welcome to the boards...hopefully everything gets worked out for you and you have a fantastic cruise!

As you can see from the other posters with a similar issue…they are ‘one and done’ or ‘hit and run’ posters which makes their tale of woe suspicious. 

Hopefully you are not one of them. Please post again with your results. We’d really like to know if your issue gets sorted or not.

[Matt]

@Aitza Figueroa Welcome to the message boards, but this forum is an UNOFFICIAL site with no relationship to the cruise line.

You need to contact iCruise, which is your defacto travel agent and have THEM deal with Royal as to why it was cancelled. It's the agent's job to be your intermediary in these sort of situations.

They can at the very least get you an explanation why it was cancelled. 

Secondarily, NEVER Post your reservation number or personal info related to your reservation on a public forum.

[teddy]

10 minutes ago, Matt said:

Secondarily, NEVER Post your reservation number or personal info related to your reservation on a public forum.

For sure. 
 

That pdf doc should be removed. 

[Juan Rodriguez]

This just happened to us today. We got an email saying our reservations for our cruise at the end of June were cancelled and to contact our bank. We called our bank and the full payment was processed without issues May 29th.  Called RC this afternoon and were told that our reservations had been “flagged” and they were not allowed to give us additional information. And again to contact our bank. We called our bank while the RC rep was on the line. Our bank rep offered to provide them with a  confirmation number for the transaction but they refused. My wife kept insisting on an explanation and she finally transferred us to the resolutions department. That lady was not helpful at all. She just said that a full refund would be issued but they were instructed on not giving a reason. Needless to say we’re extremely disappointed and frustrated because we were not given a reason.

[Lovetocruise2002]

29 minutes ago, Juan Rodriguez said:

This just happened to us today. We got an email saying our reservations for our cruise at the end of June were cancelled and to contact our bank. We called our bank and the full payment was processed without issues May 29th.  Called RC this afternoon and were told that our reservations had been “flagged” and they were not allowed to give us additional information. And again to contact our bank. We called our bank while the RC rep was on the line. Our bank rep offered to provide them with a  confirmation number for the transaction but they refused. My wife kept insisting on an explanation and she finally transferred us to the resolutions department. That lady was not helpful at all. She just said that a full refund would be issued but they were instructed on not giving a reason. Needless to say we’re extremely disappointed and frustrated because we were not given a reason.

Did you make a purchase or a refund on Black Friday by any chance?

[Atlantix2000]

I'm thinking the refund but "instructed not to give a reason" suggests that someone in the party was flagged as being on something like the no-fly list.

[smokeybandit]

1 hour ago, Atlantix2000 said:

I'm thinking the refund but "instructed not to give a reason" suggests that someone in the party was flagged as being on something like the no-fly list.

Instructions to contact the bank seems odd though.

[Pattycruise]

5 hours ago, Juan Rodriguez said:

This just happened to us today. We got an email saying our reservations for our cruise at the end of June were cancelled and to contact our bank. We called our bank and the full payment was processed without issues May 29th.  Called RC this afternoon and were told that our reservations had been “flagged” and they were not allowed to give us additional information. And again to contact our bank. We called our bank while the RC rep was on the line. Our bank rep offered to provide them with a  confirmation number for the transaction but they refused. My wife kept insisting on an explanation and she finally transferred us to the resolutions department. That lady was not helpful at all. She just said that a full refund would be issued but they were instructed on not giving a reason. Needless to say we’re extremely disappointed and frustrated because we were not given a reason.

Mbayley@rccl.com

thats the CEO, his staff should respond. Your TA should be handling this but personally I’d send an email, include dates/times and who was on the call and express your dismay and request this be rectified immediately. 

[michaelp1446]

I'm a little confused about the post... Isn't final payment due around 90 days prior to the sail date? May 29th processing  for a cruise the end of June doesn't make sense to me.

[Vancity Cruiser]

32 minutes ago, michaelp1446 said:

I'm a little confused about the post... Isn't final payment due around 90 days prior to the sail date? May 29th processing  for a cruise the end of June doesn't make sense to me.

Unless they booked and paid in full within the 90 day window. 

I am so thankful to have never been through this. I cannot imagine how disappointing this must be. The only time I've had a cruise cancelled was when Royal cancelled our cruise on Symphony in January 2022 due to omicron less than 24 hrs before we were scheduled to sail. I was devastated, but my wife (who because of her ADHD thrives under crisis mode) worked her magic and 16 hours later we were boarding Norwegian Joy. At least in this case Royal gave us 100% refund and 100% future cruise credit although they did nothing about flights.

[fishernrex]

Adding to this -  4 times in 3 weeks, I received an email that I owed "x" on a reservation that was previously paid in full.  Culprit was supposedly a glitch in the system that kept refunding me that same amount of money.  I would make the payment and within a day I would receive a refund/credit.  Adding to the confusion/dysfunction was the main reservation page didn't show any $$ owed.  Ultimately, I had to have that reservation cancelled and another created so it didn't keep happening.  I was fortunate in that we didn't lose the cruise. 

[Lovetocruise2002]

1 hour ago, fishernrex said:

Adding to this -  4 times in 3 weeks, I received an email that I owed "x" on a reservation that was previously paid in full.  Culprit was supposedly a glitch in the system that kept refunding me that same amount of money.  I would make the payment and within a day I would receive a refund/credit.  Adding to the confusion/dysfunction was the main reservation page didn't show any $$ owed.  Ultimately, I had to have that reservation cancelled and another created so it didn't keep happening.  I was fortunate in that we didn't lose the cruise. 

I am stuck in the same loop for my July sailing, except mine the complete opposite. It keeps showing I overpaid. So we are stuck in the loop also of refund/credit, but the end result is that I overpaid my final balance. They wanted to cancel it and create a new one, but because I have shore excursions that I do not want to lose (Europe), I opted not to for now and see how it goes. Fingers crossed.

[kristophestucker]

Oh no, that sounds super frustrating! I've had a similar issue with a hotel booking once. It turned out to be a glitch in their system. It's great that your TA is on it and hopefully, it's just a misunderstanding. Hang in there! On a side note, when I traveled through Germany, I found the Deutsche Bahn timetable really convenient for planning my train journeys.