GTY Cabin passenger's cruise cancelled day of sailing

[ultimate_ed]

https://www.reddit.com/r/royalcaribbean/comments/185ni0s/overbooking_on_the_day/

Saw this one this morning and found it pretty shocking that this guy is finding out when he arrived at the port that RCCL didn't have a room for him.

From what I've gathered in the comments, this was a first time cruiser with a GTY booking.  It's not clear, but it appears that there may have been a dozen others who were also denied boarding due to overbooking the ship the as well.

That's some disappointing inventory management to be sure.

 

[smokeybandit]

Gotta be more to it than that. Those are some extremely poor options, unless that's an Aussie law thing.

[Xaa]

yeah, day of is not something we hear and the comp is very low.  I think screwing them on the day of should be full refund and free passage on the replacement itinerary at the least.

[twangster]

Wonder if a cabin got trashed by a guest and was taken out of service.  That actually happens.  Stateroom attendant told me one time some drunk guests took everything in cabin that wasn't fixed to a wall and threw it all overboard in the night.  Bed, tables, chair, pillows, literally everything went overboard.  

Another possibility is a group of cabins flooding from a broken pipe like a pool drain.  It's localized but impacts several cabins.  Those guests are moved and consume the GTY cabin allotments.  GTY guests get screwed.  Cabins get new carpet and are restored but it takes a few days.  

Not everything that happens on board makes the news or social media.   Anyone who has worked in the hotel industry has a bunch of interesting and weird stories that never make the news.  

Agree though it is pretty weak compensation for boarding day.  Imagine if you travelled to reach the port, spent a night in a hotel, etc.   

[ScottD]

11 minutes ago, twangster said:

Wonder if a cabin got trashed by a guest and was taken out of service.  That actually happens.  Stateroom attendant told me one time some drunk guests took everything in cabin that wasn't fixed to a wall and threw it all overboard in the night.  Bed, tables, chair, pillows, literally everything went overboard.  

Another possibility is a group of cabins flooding from a broken pipe like a pool drain.  It's localized but impacts several cabins.  Those guests are moved and consume the GTY cabin allotments.  GTY guests get screwed.  Cabins get new carpet and are restored but it takes a few days.  

Not everything that happens on board makes the news or social media.   Anyone who has worked in the hotel industry has a bunch of interesting and weird stories that never make the news.  

Agree though it is pretty weak compensation for boarding day.  Imagine if you travelled to reach the port, spent a night in a hotel, etc.   

He states that he is on the pier with about 12 other groups that got the same notice... 

[Doug_Texas]

I have had 2 cruises cancelled by RCL (not weather of COVID).  Never this close to sailing though.  They do not financially compensate airfare or hotel expenses.  I know this has happened before.  I don’t think the savings of GTY offsets the risk involved.

[ultimate_ed]

8 minutes ago, Doug_Texas said:

I have had 2 cruises cancelled by RCL (not weather of COVID).  Never this close to sailing though.  They do not financially compensate airfare or hotel expenses.  I know this has happened before.  I don’t think the savings of GTY offsets the risk involved.

I've never actually booked a GTY room as I've always wanted to specify groups of rooms close together.  I've considered it for future cruises where it would just be my wife and I with one cabin, but this does give me pause.

It also means that I'm never going to skip the travel insurance, especially when there's air travel involved.

[bobroo]

Just a guess from left field but I'd say something structural/mechanical is effecting an area of the ship. It is entirely possible folks with assigned cabins in this area got reassigned elsewhere and an unfortunate few who had GTY cabins got put into rooms that are uninhabitable and therefore received the bad news at the cruise terminal. I'd also guess that those that were denied boarding were the lowest fare paying passengers for that voyage. 

If I was the guy who just yesterday wrote the $2B check for Icon of the Seas; Yeah....print out the manifest sorted by cruise fare paid--highest to lowest. Then take a pair of scissors and cut off the bottom 13 rooms. Those are the people who are denied boarding. Oh! and what did we last compensate those on Radiance in Alaska this year??? Eww....<glances again at checkbook>.... just give 'em a 25% FCC. 

 

 

 

[twangster]

Also possible they guessed at the number of cancellations wrong.  

In previous times there was more folks making last minute changes.  Now that fare are higher, I think fewer guests are cancelling in the last 30 days since they have more skin in the game.  

Or... they needed cast and crew cabins for something.  When a new entertainment cast comes on board there is overlap with the existing entertainment cast.  If they time it wrong and the new cast can't take over (sickness, injury) they need those guest cabins longer than expected.  Or if a 3rd party maintenance team needs to be brought on board and stays longer than expected.  

Could also be increased CV cases for crew requiring isolation cabins being consumed.  

[Doug_Texas]

1 hour ago, twangster said:

Also possible they guessed at the number cancellations wrong.  

In previous times there was more folks making last minute changes.  Now that fare are higher, I think fewer guests are cancelling in the last 30 days since they have more skin in the game.  

Or... they needed cast and crew cabins for something.  When a new entertainment cast comes on board there is overlap with the existing entertainment cast.  If they time it wrong and the new cast can't take over (sickness, injury) they need those guest cabins longer than expected.  Or if a 3rd party maintenance team needs to be brought on board and stays longer than expected.  

Could also be increased CV cases for crew requiring isolation cabins being consumed.  

Exactly.  It’s the same overbooking process as the airlines use.  At the end of the booking window there is usually unsold inventory.  Cabins come back into inventory as you approach the 90 day full payment window.  At the end, GTY and “Royal Up” assignments are made.  When you book GTY you are trading dollars for risk.  >95% of the time the booking systems work with no passengers displaced.  The higher demand the sailing is (kids school breaks, casino sailings, holidays), the higher the risk in GTY.

[smokeybandit]

I'm more inclined to think it's a last minute lack of rooms. Even in the overbook situations they notified people a week or so ahead of time.

[twangster]

I emailed a crew position today for a different ship and immediately got an out of office reply.  They will be "gone" for 5 days starting yesterday.  They will return on day 3 of the next cruise.  It's not a 3 day cruise.

This is on a different ship but I suspect there are some crew needing to be by themselves not in a crew corridor for a few days.  Five days to be specific.  I'm thinking maybe a group of guest cabins at the end of hallway were allocated for this purpose.

[bretts173]

24 minutes ago, twangster said:

I emailed a crew position today for a different ship and immediately got an out of office reply.  They will be "gone" for 5 days starting yesterday.  They will return on day 3 of the next cruise.  It's not a 3 day cruise.

This is on a different ship but I suspect there are some crew needing to be by themselves not in a crew corridor for a few days.  Five days to be specific.  I'm thinking maybe a group of guest cabins at the end of hallway were allocated for this purpose.

It certainly makes sense as to why no further details were given in the letter.  It makes more sense than simple overbooking, especially considering the number of rooms and the fact that if this was a regular policy/occurrence we would have been hearing about it for longer.

We are going through a new wave in Australia at the moment and have always been pretty strict in the management side.

[bretts173]

Passenger has updated after a few emails they have offered a free cruise with drink package.

[Djbird]

Just ran across this on reddit (looks to be Australian based cruise):

 

[Xaa]

6 hours ago, bretts173 said:

Passenger has updated after a few emails they have offered a free cruise with drink package.

That's more in line.  I don't think day of cancellations are frequent and that's a good thing.  What a horrible slap to be right there in port.  It's tough enough when the letter comes 6 weeks out.

[Starrynight0154]

GTY puts you in a queue and you get a room only if one is available it looks like. I’d be upset if I found this out day of sailing and was offered what’s in this letter. 

[Xaa]

I don't think this should be looked at as a change in GTY policy or a big risk booking a GTY.  This is a one off for circumstances we don't know, but must have been both unforeseen and urgent.

I would also be upset to get this letter, but I don't think we should make it more than it is.

[smokeybandit]

That's much better. There has been precedent set for overbooked (no matter the reason for the overbook) to refund + give a free cruise.

[ultimate_ed]

I had posted this in the News section so you may want to look at the comments there as well.  (I always struggle a bit with deciding whether a topic should go in the "News" section or this "Discussion" section, but anyway).

 

As a follow up - one thing that stood out to me was that this cruiser hadn't received a room assignment before arriving at the pier.  Since it was a first cruise for them, they didn't find it odd.

I'm curious how common that is for a GTY booking to not know your room number until you arrive at the port?  It seem like other discussions I've read with GTY bookings it's common to get the room number at least a few weeks ahead of the sailing.

[RCIfan1912]

https://www.cruisehive.com/royal-caribbean-ship-overbooked-guests-left-behind/116935

 

If this is correct and it happened like this is a terrible, disgusting job by Royal Caribbean. I mean I'm honestly speechless at this one. This is piss poor and unacceptable. 

Everyone knows how much we love Royal Caribbean but this is ridiculous. 

[Xaa]

There are 2 threads about this already.  It happened, nobody knows why, comp was increased to a free cruise with Drink package.

[Rooty]

On 11/29/2023 at 12:49 PM, RCIfan1912 said:

https://www.cruisehive.com/royal-caribbean-ship-overbooked-guests-left-behind/116935

 

If this is correct and it happened like this is a terrible, disgusting job by Royal Caribbean. I mean I'm honestly speechless at this one. This is piss poor and unacceptable. 

Everyone knows how much we love Royal Caribbean but this is ridiculous. 

I just contacted my travel agent i have Sydney cruise on Ovation  in early 2025 for a JR Suite GTY ,  but all the suits are sold out already and i still have not gotten a room assignment and will have airline flights and hotels so i asked my travel agent to ask if Royal can give me a cabin assignment sooner then later since all the suits are showing as sold ,,,  I would be furious if i was cancelled like the people in this article ,       i will see what happens .

[RCIfan1912]

49 minutes ago, daha699 said:

I just contacted my travel agent i have Sydney cruise on Ovation  in early 2025 for a JR Suite GTY ,  but all the suits are sold out already and i still have not gotten a room assignment and will have airline flights and hotels so i asked my travel agent to ask if Royal can give me a cabin assignment sooner then later since all the suits are showing as sold ,,,  I would be furious if i was cancelled like the people in this article ,       i will see what happens .

Oh I hope this does not happen to you or anyone else. This should NEVER happen to anyone. I could not imagine the looks on my kids faces if we showed up at Cape Liberty and were denied boarding Anthem because of some complete BS. We had our first guarantee balcony last month on Liberty and honestly now it might have been our first and last. And i was thinking of booking a suite guarantee at some point. Now I'm not sure. 

[Rooty]

There is no excuse to Over Book some people use this as a once in a Lifetime Vacation ,  they work there whole  lives for this , Not all have money or time to just do cruises on a Regular Basis ,  I am so Mad that this could happen to anyone ( Over Book )  because of Greed that is what it is and nothing more !!!!!!!!!!!

[Xaa]

You'll be fine @daha699.  None of us know, but it's really doubtful this was a traditional overbook situation based on greed.  Those situations are historically addressed weeks in advance with letters and volunteers.  This situation smacks of something of an urgent nature that came up the day of requiring the reconsideration of a group of cabins.

I'm all for picking your room for a ton of reasons, but extrapolating the one instance of day of cancellations to mean GTY is somehow more dangerous or risky than it has ever been is probably overkill.

[Rooty]

2 hours ago, Xaa said:

You'll be fine @daha699.  None of us know, but it's really doubtful this was a traditional overbook situation based on greed.  Those situations are historically addressed weeks in advance with letters and volunteers.  This situation smacks of something of an urgent nature that came up the day of requiring the reconsideration of a group of cabins.

I'm all for picking your room for a ton of reasons, but extrapolating the one instance of day of cancellations to mean GTY is somehow more dangerous or risky than it has ever been is probably overkill.

If this was a one off you would be probably correct but this has happened at least three time in past three years that i am aware of ,  and if people accept it and not voice there concern, companies will make this a normal Practice,  and that is the fear of mine,  Companies do things to test the waters and see how things are perceived that is what some company's do ....  Like airline over book as a standard Practice ,  If cruise line start doing that as a standard Practice ..  That is not acceptable .

And could really hurt people and Families 

[Xaa]

I don't know of the other 2 times there were day of refusals.  Can you guide me to info there?  I'll educate myself on them.

For me, this isn't their MO for overbooking, they do have an MO which is letters seeking volunteers many weeks in advance.

Emergencies can come up and if they do, on day of, you can’t put people in cabins you expected in good faith yesterday but are uninhabitable today.

Feel free to worry as much as you like, and you might be right that it's a calculated attempt.  I just don't see that and based on their normal operation around overbooking, lean toward some emergency for this one.

 

[Rooty]

2 hours ago, Xaa said:

I don't know of the other 2 times there were day of refusals.  Can you guide me to info there?  I'll educate myself on them.

For me, this isn't their MO for overbooking, they do have an MO which is letters seeking volunteers many weeks in advance.

Emergencies can come up and if they do, on day of, you can’t put people in cabins you expected in good faith yesterday but are uninhabitable today.

Feel free to worry as much as you like, and you might be right that it's a calculated attempt.  I just don't see that and based on their normal operation around overbooking, lean toward some emergency for this one.

 

Here is one of the articles i have found real quick for you and i have heard there is another , those are the ones i know of 

 

Royal Caribbean International has contacted select guests booked aboard an upcoming sailing on Wonder of the Seas with the unfortunate news that the cruise is oversold and their original stateroom bookings are not available. Guests have been offered an alternative, but not everyone may be happy with the option.

Wonder of the Seas Overbooked

In an email sent to impacted guests, Royal Caribbean International has informed them of the overbooking. “We’re sorry to inform you that due to an unexpected inventory error, your scheduled Wonder of the Seas December 11th, 2022 sailing is currently oversold in certain stateroom categories,”

[Rooty]

3 minutes ago, daha699 said:

Here is one of the articles i have found real quick for you and i have heard there is another , those are the ones i know of 

 

Royal Caribbean International has contacted select guests booked aboard an upcoming sailing on Wonder of the Seas with the unfortunate news that the cruise is oversold and their original stateroom bookings are not available. Guests have been offered an alternative, but not everyone may be happy with the option.

Wonder of the Seas Overbooked

In an email sent to impacted guests, Royal Caribbean International has informed them of the overbooking. “We’re sorry to inform you that due to an unexpected inventory error, your scheduled Wonder of the Seas December 11th, 2022 sailing is currently oversold in certain stateroom categories,”

Here is another from 2018  and this was just a 30 second  research ....

 

Guaranteed & Overbooked = BUMPED

https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/boards/index.php?/topic/6639-guaranteed-overbooked-bumped/

[Xaa]

Got it, the December 2022 where they sent out a letter with an offer for volunteers to sail free on the same cruise in an inside cabin well ahead of arrival at the terminal and a thread from a one off poster 5 years ago about which other posters here were skeptical if it even occurred.

That's not enough for me to worry about the GTY category or panic about getting to at the terminal and being turned away.

Even if the 2018 one is real, a five year gap between this kind of situation doesn't really make it common.

[Rooty]

1 hour ago, Xaa said:

Got it, the December 2022 where they sent out a letter with an offer for volunteers to sail free on the same cruise in an inside cabin well ahead of arrival at the terminal and a thread from a one off poster 5 years ago about which other posters here were skeptical if it even occurred.

That's not enough for me to worry about the GTY category or panic about getting to at the terminal and being turned away.

Even if the 2018 one is real, a five year gap between this kind of situation doesn't really make it common.

Normaly you would be correct but the cruise  i am questioning is a month long vacation and it took a act of god for my wife to get the time off , and her boss told her to never ask for anything again like that , and  $4000 airline flights from florida to Australia and and $2500 of hotels , so yes i am worried !!!!

[Vancity Cruiser]

8 hours ago, daha699 said:

There is no excuse to Over Book some people use this as a once in a Lifetime Vacation ,  they work there whole  lives for this , Not all have money or time to just do cruises on a Regular Basis ,  I am so Mad that this could happen to anyone ( Over Book )  because of Greed that is what it is and nothing more !!!!!!!!!!!

As others have pointed out earlier I'm sure there was some very unfortunate extenuating circumstances. A GTY booking is exactly that, a guaranteed room. This was the first instance of this happening, its not like its a regular occurrence.

[Xaa]

You're going to be fine @daha699

[TXcruzer]

2 hours ago, Vancity Cruiser said:

As others have pointed out earlier I'm sure there was some very unfortunate extenuating circumstances. A GTY booking is exactly that, a guaranteed room. This was the first instance of this happening, its not like its a regular occurrence.

This is far from the first instance of this happening.  Rare? Yes, but there are several involuntary boarding denial instances in the past few years.

A GTY booking does not guarantee passage, neither does an assigned cabin booking, contractually speaking.

[Vancity Cruiser]

1 hour ago, TXcruzer said:

This is far from the first instance of this happening.  Rare? Yes, but there are several involuntary boarding denial instances in the past few years.

A GTY booking does not guarantee passage, neither does an assigned cabin booking, contractually speaking.

Its happened with cancellations ahead of time. First time it has happened at the port

[TXcruzer]

12 minutes ago, Vancity Cruiser said:

Its happened with cancellations ahead of time. First time it has happened at the port

No sir, that is incorrect, links to examples above, others easily found on cruise blogs.

[Mike n Ky]

We booked a guaranteed ocean view balcony through Next sailing January 27...the current booking for that cruise, same balcony category, is being offered today at almost double what we paid. We have never done this before on a cruise so it is obviously a concern for us. If I recall others here have gotten their room assignment well before the cruise. Is that correct?  

[DoomSlayer]

1 hour ago, Mike n Ky said:

We booked a guaranteed ocean view balcony through Next sailing January 27...the current booking for that cruise, same balcony category, is being offered today at almost double what we paid. We have never done this before on a cruise so it is obviously a concern for us. If I recall others here have gotten their room assignment well before the cruise. Is that correct?  

Sometimes it was early, especially when they were restarting from the covid shutdown.  But I don't think it is so early now.

[bretts173]

On 12/2/2023 at 4:34 AM, daha699 said:

Normaly you would be correct but the cruise  i am questioning is a month long vacation and it took a act of god for my wife to get the time off , and her boss told her to never ask for anything again like that , and  $4000 airline flights from florida to Australia and and $2500 of hotels , so yes i am worried !!!!

The Titanic sank a while ago, Ill take my chances.