Kids Sail Free Re-Price/Upgrade (TODAY)

[Ronaldo807]

Has anyone been able to re-price or upgrade an EXISTING reservation with the kids sail free promotion today without having to cancel and rebook?

 

Our TA assisted with this on Thursday for one sailing we have in June, then got stonewalled on another sailing yesterday, and is saying as of this morning that it was a glitch in the system that Royal Caribbean has corrected and is for new bookings or cancel/rebook only.

[smokeybandit]

I repriced mine Thursday 

[Matt]

Yup. You're able to reprice with this new offer

[Ronaldo807]

16 minutes ago, Matt said:

Yup. You're able to reprice with this new offer

Frustrating that our TA got it done on Thursday, but has gotten nothing but pushback on this other one. Unfortunately it may mean going to the executive team for resolution.

[Marlena]

We were able to reprice 2 cruises for this year.

[Kirsten]

I literally booked a KSF cruise yesterday and repriced it today.  It was $200 less today; I called and they gave me the lower price without any issue.  They are supposed to honor it if the price is lowered, as long as it's before you make your final payment.

[Peter Yang]

Just had our October cruise repriced yesterday and was able to save $450. 

[BowTieBrigade]

Ours told me that she could not reprice a sailing because all of our cabin types had been booked

[Carotthat]

12 hours ago, Kirsten said:

I literally booked a KSF cruise yesterday and repriced it today.  It was $200 less today; I called and they gave me the lower price without any issue.  They are supposed to honor it if the price is lowered, as long as it's before you make your final payment.

I had a final payment due (not much), after repricing everything was paid instantly. But our FCCs also were credited with the overpaid amount.

So - are the FCCs now valid again a year or have the original validity?

[WAAAYTOOO]

6 hours ago, BowTieBrigade said:

Ours told me that she could not reprice a sailing because all of our cabin types had been booked

Are you trying to change your room ?  This doesn’t sound right.  Repricing (if remaining in the same room) shouldn’t be about availability.

[RCIfan1912]

I don't know if we technically cancelled and rebooked or just repriced because our travel agent, John from MEI took care of the whole thing. We booked or rebooked or repriced with KSF. We went from a balcony guarantee to a spacious ocean view balcony cabin# 9528 and saved 250 bucks. Great deal and it pays to have a great travel agent. 

[WAAAYTOOO]

Any time you change cabin categories it is technically a cancellation and rebooking even though it is seamless to you and the booking maintains the same booking number.  In that case you certainly must have availability.

[BowTieBrigade]

1 hour ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

Are you trying to change your room ?  This doesn’t sound right.  Repricing (if remaining in the same room) shouldn’t be about availability.

No, we are trying the panoramic suite on Adventure for the first time and are super excited for that experience. Our travel agent was able to upgrade our cabin on a different sailing for less, but not reprice the Adventure sailing. She said Royal would not apply the promotion because there are no available cabins within the category. I presume RCCL is invoking the "applies to new bookings" caveat, but I've always understood a reprice to, technically, be a cancellation and rebooking so...  

[ScottW3]

It took 3.5 hours yesterday with a rep and resolutions, but I was able to add KSF to an April '23 sailing that was originally booked last year. It's an A2 category that's sold out on that sailing. They did make me reprice, but it was only ~$500 more in order to save $3100. 

My suggestion is to not accept, "It's not possible." First the rep said its for new sailings only, but offered to check with her team. After a while she came back and said it is possible, but their system won't allow it. She then offered to call resolutions and came back with, "They are unable to add the promotion due to a technical issue." She offered to contact another resolutions person who was able to add it to the first 4 people in the cabin, but said the system wouldn't let them add it to the next 2 kids in the room. No offer to contact someone else at this point but I insisted. Another 30 minutes later it was added to all 4 kids. 

Just stay positive, be nice to the rep, and stay persistent.  

[WAAAYTOOO]

48 minutes ago, ScottW3 said:

My suggestion is to not accept, "It's not possible."
stay persistent.  

There’s the best advice ever !

[RCIfan1912]

2 hours ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

Any time you change cabin categories it is technically a cancellation and rebooking even though it is seamless to you and the booking maintains the same booking number.  In that case you certainly must have availability.

Interesting info, thanks. I hope the booking number stayed the same because we are supposed to get double points for this cruise. Thanks again for the clarification. 

[Ronaldo807]

Unfortunately my TA basically threw in the towel after trying again on Saturday. This is the downside of not being able to get these things done yourself. We will see if the executive office team can help and it might be time for a new TA after completing our existing bookings with her. It's too bad because she/her company have always had the best prices or onboard credit offers for Royal.

[Oneoftheks]

If kids cruise free why are they charging me $712.00 when I try to book my daughter with my husbandang my  reservation?

[ScottW3]

4 hours ago, Ronaldo807 said:

Unfortunately my TA basically threw in the towel after trying again on Saturday. This is the downside of not being able to get these things done yourself. 

I booked through a travel agent but called myself. Once the rep realized it was possible and was willing to add KSF, I gave her my travel agents cell phone and she called her right then and there. 

[WAAAYTOOO]

2 hours ago, Oneoftheks said:

If kids cruise free why are they charging me $712.00 when I try to book my daughter with my husbandang my  reservation?

Chances are your base fare has increased since you originally booked.  In order to book KSF, the booking must be repriced, so most likely the fare is now higher, even with KSF.  You don’t always save money with KSF.

[TracyRevell]

Keep a close eye on this, although it's kid's sail free, they usually increase the adult prices to absorb much of the cost. They are certainly not free when you add up the overall costs compared to when kids sail free is not available.

[SaveTheSharks]

13 hours ago, Oneoftheks said:

If kids cruise free why are they charging me $712.00 when I try to book my daughter with my husbandang my  reservation?

I don't get it either. I'm getting the same (albeit CA$879). Maybe I'm not understanding the promo.. Here's a sample of pricing something out on RC's website

 

[Oneoftheks]

I am with you don't get the charge for child ,I am going to call as I already booked last night

[Sharla]

18 hours ago, Ronaldo807 said:

Unfortunately my TA basically threw in the towel after trying again on Saturday. This is the downside of not being able to get these things done yourself. We will see if the executive office team can help and it might be time for a new TA after completing our existing bookings with her. It's too bad because she/her company have always had the best prices or onboard credit offers for Royal.

You need a new TA.

[Kirsten]

16 hours ago, Oneoftheks said:

If kids cruise free why are they charging me $712.00 when I try to book my daughter with my husbandang my  reservation?

Is it a Kids Sail Free cruise?  Not all dates and ships are KSF; when you choose a cruise, it will let you know if it's included in the KSF sale.  For example, 5-day to Bermuda on August 27th on the Adventure is a KSF sale, but if you choose a different date for the same cruise, it's not KSF.

[GKMCruising]

2 hours ago, SaveTheSharks said:

I don't get it either. I'm getting the same (albeit CA$879). Maybe I'm not understanding the promo.. Here's a sample of pricing something out on RC's website

 

For some reason, Royal isn't putting the KSF as a separate line item when you view the pricing, but it's included in the 30% off every guest. It breaks it out better on the final invoice you receive after booking.

[AshleyDillo]

3 hours ago, SaveTheSharks said:

I don't get it either. I'm getting the same (albeit CA$879). Maybe I'm not understanding the promo.. Here's a sample of pricing something out on RC's website

If you math that 30% off every guest discount it is actually way greater than 30% off of guests 1, 2 and 3 listed out there ($2999 + 2999 + 879 = 6877; 30% of that is only 2063 and they're discounting it 3519). It's way more of a difference than the cost of guest 3 listed above so I would definitely say it's building the KSF into the total.

[SaveTheSharks]

1 hour ago, GKMCruising said:

For some reason, Royal isn't putting the KSF as a separate line item when you view the pricing, but it's included in the 30% off every guest. It breaks it out better on the final invoice you receive after booking.

 

40 minutes ago, AshleyDillo said:

If you math that 30% off every guest discount it is actually way greater than 30% off of guests 1, 2 and 3 listed out there ($2999 + 2999 + 879 = 6877; 30% of that is only 2063 and they're discounting it 3519). It's way more of a difference than the cost of guest 3 listed above so I would definitely say it's building the KSF into the total.

Ha. Got it... Thanks! Make sense now. Royal Math! Wish it could've just been made simpler as showing the child at $0 + port fees.

[AshleyDillo]

6 minutes ago, SaveTheSharks said:

Ha. Got it... Thanks! Make sense now. Royal Math! Wish it could've just been made simpler as showing the child at $0 + port fees.

Absolutely.  A good way to check may to price out 3 adults and then price out 2 adults, 1 kid in the same room category and see if the bottom line is indeed different at what you are looking at.

[Ronaldo807]

2 hours ago, Sharla said:

You need a new TA.

It's frustrating for sure, but talking with her further she has at least 10 other customers that she has run into the same issue with and has repeatedly been told that it can't be done. Supposedly it's gotten to a point where she is now meeting with the district manager to resolve these issues. I did email the executive office over the weekend and they resolved the issue last night and suggested that they will be communicating with the phone representatives to address this. 

I have been sailing with Royal Caribbean since 2006 and I would argue that their customer service and IT, currently,  may be the worst I have ever personally experienced.

[Sharla]

1 hour ago, Ronaldo807 said:

I have been sailing with Royal Caribbean since 2006 and I would argue that their customer service and IT, currently,  may be the worst I have ever personally experienced.

This is definitely true. I can only hope that it improves soon.

[BowTieBrigade]

I circled back with my travel agent and she is also frustrated by RCCL's customer service and IT right now. She said she was told that one of my sailings should be eligible for KSF, but the "system" wouldn't allow the rebooking. Apparently, she's supposed to follow up with them tomorrow.

[smokeybandit]

1 hour ago, Ronaldo807 said:

I have been sailing with Royal Caribbean since 2006 and I would argue that their customer service and IT, currently,  may be the worst I have ever personally experienced.

I've had much much worse customer service. But their archaic IT system is insane for a multi billion dollar company.