GTY Cabin passenger's cruise cancelled day of sailing

[ScottD]

People are taking this way out of proportion and it is EXTREMELY rare. If you are THAT worried about it, then go ahead and pick your room. But I have my first GTY room booked for July and I have 0 worries about it. 

[ScottD]

On 12/1/2023 at 4:57 PM, TXcruzer said:

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

There is only one other example of it happening at the pier in that link, and the person posted ONE time, never came back to the boards and updated us, never answered anyone and had just created the account to make that post, with a shady username. The person sounds like they either mis-understood the situation or it was resolved. The one last week is still the only confirmed case I've seen of this happening. 

[Ampurp85]

@ScottD I agree.

I think people seem to be overlooking the fact that the person was never assigned a room. That means when the manifest closes at 48hrs, they still didn't have a room. No room and probably no muster station on their setsail pass.

Being a new cruiser is no excuse for not doing due diligence. Royal was also at fault but......they could have saved time, money and headache with a call.

People can book what they want but this is not a good reason to not book gty.

[TXcruzer]

2 hours ago, ScottD said:

There is only one other example of it happening at the pier in that link, and the person posted ONE time, never came back to the boards and updated us, never answered anyone and had just created the account to make that post, with a shady username. The person sounds like they either mis-understood the situation or it was resolved. The one last week is still the only confirmed case I've seen of this happening. 

Search the internet and other boards; several verified reports of involuntary boarding denial, at the port on embarkation day, in the last 2 years or so

37 minutes ago, Ampurp85 said:

@ScottD I agree.

I think people seem to be overlooking the fact that the person was never assigned a room. That means when the manifest closes at 48hrs, they still didn't have a room. No room and probably no muster station on their setsail pass.

Being a new cruiser is no excuse for not doing due diligence. Royal was also at fault but......they could have saved time, money and headache with a call.

People can book what they want but this is not a good reason to not book gty.

I agree, a GTY room has no bearing on who this happens to.

[fireclan]

44 minutes ago, Ampurp85 said:

@ScottD I agree.

I think people seem to be overlooking the fact that the person was never assigned a room. That means when the manifest closes at 48hrs, they still didn't have a room. No room and probably no muster station on their setsail pass.

Being a new cruiser is no excuse for not doing due diligence. Royal was also at fault but......they could have saved time, money and headache with a call.

People can book what they want but this is not a good reason to not book gty.

Royal Caribbean states on their website that a guarantee room can be assigned in advance or on the day of sailing. In a post by @twangster in 2021, he mentions the same. 

As a more experienced cruiser, you or I might be concerned if no cabin had been assigned by the week of the cruise but a relatively new cruiser would probably think this is totally normal for a guarantee.  I respectfully disagree that the cruiser shares any responsibility in this fiasco by not doing "due diligence".

[RCIfan1912]

So now we are blaming the person who booked and paid for the cruise. Now that's a new one and actually a bit stunning. As an experienced cruiser I would be frantically trying to find out why I wasn't assigned a cabin number but everything I read is they can issue that cabin number the day of sailing. What the heck is the person supposed to do? Royal Caribbean needs to take the L on this one and we need to accept that. If it was some kind of flooding issue then Royal Caribbean needs to explicitly say what exactly happened. This is unacceptable. 

[JFCruise]

On 12/1/2023 at 11:34 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 !!!!

I believe the odds of your airline cancelling your flight/not allowing you to board are higher than the cruise ship doing so.

[RCIfan1912]

2 minutes ago, JFCruise said:

I believe the odds of your airline cancelling your flight/not allowing you to board are higher than the cruise ship doing so.

Let's not make the airlines customer service the bar here. If we do we have really sunk. 

[JFCruise]

Just now, RCIfan1912 said:

Let's not make the airlines customer service the bar here. If we do we have really sunk. 

The poster I was answering to was said they were worried about RC canceling their cruise after spending a huge amount of money on flights and hotels. I'd be more worried about the airline than the cruise line - because, of course, airlines customer service is incredibly bad.

[TXcruzer]

44 minutes ago, JFCruise said:

I believe the odds of your airline cancelling your flight/not allowing you to board are higher than the cruise ship doing so.

without question

[TXcruzer]

1 hour ago, fireclan said:

Royal Caribbean states on their website that a guarantee room can be assigned in advance or on the day of sailing. In a post by @twangster in 2021, he mentions the same. 

As a more experienced cruiser, you or I might be concerned if no cabin had been assigned by the week of the cruise but a relatively new cruiser would probably think this is totally normal for a guarantee.  I respectfully disagree that the cruiser shares any responsibility in this fiasco by not doing "due diligence".

Well said, we have had more than one GTY booking where a cabin was not assigned until we were at check in (we had one where room assignment changed shortly after our first drink at the Trellis Bar)

[Ampurp85]

I stand by my statement. I am big on taking ownership. Ownership is not blame. People like to interpose words all the time, especially blame and scam. I'm just saying if my setsail pass still showed absolutely nothing, I would have done something before I spent on hotel and flights. People who spend any money on anything should be of the same mind.

Do I think royal was wrong. Absolutely. My whole point was some stress could have been avoided. I think, imho, people seem to forget these are businesses. The fact that gty have anything to do with the current CEO and changes amaze me. You don't like gty, fine. But imho this example is not a reason to avoid it.

This was an extremely rare instance.I believe Quantum not only has a broken Northstar but other issues. They could have had to have maintenance crew come on. A myriad of reason. Again the whole thing sucks and the original offer was laughable. But to take this as the end-all be-all reason against gty is too much to me. Just my opinion.

[RCIfan1912]

1 hour ago, Ampurp85 said:

I stand by my statement. I am big on taking ownership. Ownership is not blame. People like to interpose words all the time, especially blame and scam. I'm just saying if my setsail pass still showed absolutely nothing, I would have done something before I spent on hotel and flights. People who spend any money on anything should be of the same mind.

Do I think royal was wrong. Absolutely. My whole point was some stress could have been avoided. I think, imho, people seem to forget these are businesses. The fact that gty have anything to do with the current CEO and changes amaze me. You don't like gty, fine. But imho this example is not a reason to avoid it.

This was an extremely rare instance.I believe Quantum not only has a broken Northstar but other issues. They could have had to have maintenance crew come on. A myriad of reason. Again the whole thing sucks and the original offer was laughable. But to take this as the end-all be-all reason against gty is too much to me. Just my opinion.

If you don't think things have steadily gotten worse since this new CEO has taken over is laughable. 

[Ampurp85]

18 minutes ago, RCIfan1912 said:

If you don't think things have steadily gotten worse since this new CEO has taken over is laughable. 

I don't think things have gotten steadily worse. I think things have changed. Change can be positive or negative. I do think some unfavorable changes have occurred. But it's a toss up as worse. I also wonder because the same changes Royal has made, so have the other cruise lines. Actually so has airbnb, hotel/airline loyalty, hotels and airlines in general. Let's see restaurants, grocery and retail stores. I don't think anything is truly what it was before the pandemic. Even before that.....things change.

This gty situation could have happened no matter who was CEO. I'm not going take anything negative and just blame the CEO.

[bobroo]

I would encourage everyone here to read and reread through this story and use it as a learning tool. Apply the lessons to every upcoming cruise you have in the future.

Meaning: Passengers miss embarkation on every sailing, on every cruise line. There are a bazillion reasons why and one of them is that they are turned away by the cruise line for a reason they will never find out. So....thinking about an upcoming cruise you may have  'What would you do if you missed the boat?' I don't think you need to have an explicit plan but you should table the thought and talk about it beforehand. Someone who drives to a port and does a short haul 3 or 4 nighter the answer might be as simple as turn around and go back home. If your next cruise is grail cruise packed with bucket list items that you have spent a small fortune for... then having the Plan B is as important as packing your suitcases. An important note about the Plan B: folks here will chime in and say 'I'd never let that happen' or 'I always have trip insurance' or 'Michael Bayley is my FB friend' or 'I book refundable'  none of that means squat. I look at it as my butt is in Brisbane and I don't have a ship to get on, I need create a vacation (or a way back home) with the funds in my wallet and contents of my suitcases. OK...GO!

Another lesson is to see that Royal choses to give bad news in the embarkation terminal. They delay and therefore don't call, or email, or use the free online chat, or notify your travel agent. They wait till you show up at embarkation. Again, it's likely you'll never find out the real reason for the denial. This is very much the culture of RCCL. I'll allow you time to scratch your head and wonder why it is so important for me to provide all this contact information to Royal when booking the cruise, signing into the website, and  UGH! online check-in if they ain't ever gonna use it?

 

As a guy who has been on 50 some Royal Caribbean cruises and flown to every one, yes; I have made it on every boat. However, there have been no less than 5 times the wolf was knocking on the door. And even though I made it through those five difficult times, it was very obvious to see that it might have gone completely the other way. So I'm here to tell you if you are going to make cruising a part of your life, it's not a matter if you'll ever miss a sailing but rather; could it be your next one?

I begin rolling my dice again next Thursday, wish me luck.

 

 

 

[JFCruise]

@bobroo - I would that that, just as important, is learning from what happened to others so that if it happens to you, knowing your options. So now we know that there is a small chance that you are denied boarding in the port - what can you do?

First of all (and even if it isn't explicit in the whole story), is to not lose your cool. Don't yell at the people at the port since they aren't the ones making decisions. It's also easier to get on their good side and win their empathy if you are calm, instead of yelling at them.

And if you get a laughable offer (like what was originally offered), you can and probably should negotiate more. IMO - whether you have or don't have travel insurance is irrelevant and I would expect RC to refund me 100% for my cruise and any flight/hotel expenses, or even some sort of reimburcements for gas/parking/etc if I didn't fly but still traveled by car. It was stated above that the OP was offered a free cruise with a drink package on top of what they originally offered. So there is room to negotiate.

As for the vacation days from work, that sucks. But hopefully you can work out something at your place of work and they are understanding of the situation.

[Pattycruise]

5 hours ago, Ampurp85 said:

. I'm just saying if my setsail pass still showed absolutely nothing, I would have done something before I spent on hotel and flights. People who spend any money on anything should be of the same mind.

 

My only experience with a GTY the set sail pass did not show anything until 2 weeks after online checkin.  I checked daily and knew to do the barcode trick.  Learned that here-not everyone knows to do that. .  The cabin did not populate on the pass  until even closer to the cruise. Finally we all know a GTY assigned cabin is still subject to change. That said saying to wait until you get a cabin assignment to book airfare and hotel  would likely lead to ridiculously high fares/rates and the possibility that the planes/hotels might be booked up. 
 

 

[JFCruise]

54 minutes ago, Pattycruise said:

hat said saying to wait until you get a cabin assignment to book airfare and hotel  would likely lead to ridiculously high fares/rates and the possibility that the planes/hotels might be booked up. 

People are overreacting to a single (honestly, pretty bad) instance. It's not like Royal Caribbean denies boardings like this every week or so. From what I've seen in this thread, there are like 3 instances in the past 3 years or so. Given the sheer amount of sailings by the company in the year, the percentage of cruises where it happens is minuscule, and not really worthy of any worry.

[Ampurp85]

48 minutes ago, Pattycruise said:

My only experience with a GTY the set sail pass did not show anything until 2 weeks after online checkin.  I checked daily and knew to do the barcode trick.  Learned that here-not everyone knows to do that. .  The cabin did not populate on the pass  until even closer to the cruise. Finally we all know a GTY assigned cabin is still subject to change. That said saying to wait until you get a cabin assignment to book airfare and hotel  would likely lead to ridiculously high fares/rates and the possibility that the planes/hotels might be booked up. 
 

 

Not at all saying to wait to book. Said I would be less inclined to travel. Most people are flying in a couple of days, 1 day before.

I want to stress that this whole situation was fubar. I don't agree with how it was handled. My original point was not to judge gty cabins by this example as there were tons of unknown factors including the fact that they probably were never assigned cabins. And knowing that gty cabins can be assigned at any point until sailaway there is some onus on the cruiser.

[bobroo]

Can I change your mind @Ampurp85?

Royal Caribbean does a piss poor job of explaining what it sells. They rely on blogs, you tubers, social media, etc. to be their marketing and sales departments and inform passengers on exactly what is going on and assumably correct information is going to be received. 

So if a first time cruisers only source of information is the RC website, of course they are going to show up to the Brisbane cruise terminal without a clue and are an easy swindle. 

 

 

 

[smokeybandit]

28 minutes ago, bobroo said:

Can I change your mind @Ampurp85?

Royal Caribbean does a piss poor job of explaining what it sells. They rely on blogs, you tubers, social media, etc. to be their marketing and sales departments and inform passengers on exactly what is going on and assumably correct information is going to be received. 

So if a first time cruisers only source of information is the RC website, of course they are going to show up to the Brisbane cruise terminal without a clue and are an easy swindle. 

 

 

 

I'll take Monday Morning Hot Takes for $400, Alex

[bobroo]

Oh! this thread is getting shut down....3...2...1....

[Ampurp85]

2 hours ago, bobroo said:

Can I change your mind @Ampurp85?

Royal Caribbean does a piss poor job of explaining what it sells. They rely on blogs, you tubers, social media, etc. to be their marketing and sales departments and inform passengers on exactly what is going on and assumably correct information is going to be received. 

So if a first time cruisers only source of information is the RC website, of course they are going to show up to the Brisbane cruise terminal without a clue and are an easy swindle. 

 

 

 

There is no need to change my mind. While I very much agree with your statement. I still think my point is being lost. No blame whatsoever on cruiser. Point is mainly about not using this as the perfect example to not book gty. 

[Linda R]

On 11/28/2023 at 7:33 AM, ultimate_ed said:

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.

I agree, always book travel insurance.  I also do not do GTY cabins.  I do not want a cabin in the bow, so always book the cabin location.

[Linda R]

On 12/1/2023 at 10:34 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 !!!!

flights and hotels should be covered by travel insurance.  And possibly the cruise if not fully refunded. 

[mom2mybugs]

I have done 3 gty cabins and never had any trouble.  In fact the locations have been great.  We are doing another in June and I'm not at all worried.  I think this was a fluke and things happen.  We get insurance every time (and now cancel for any reason since Allianz screwed our family out of over $10000 but that's a whole other thread) and assume the best because frankly, the gty cabins save us a ton of money.  Until it goes way South on location or we get turned away, I'm just not gonna worry.  Mai Tai anyone?  Jane

[Suchacruiser]

I guess GTY means that the ship sails full. The industry mantra is “GTY isn’t standby, like on a plane,” but they sure treat it like it is. Look, if 40 days out, I see a balcony cabin on a website that’s open, and I plunk down $2500 in full for cabin #1234, but there’s a GTY person for the balcony category who paid in full $1800, who do you think will get that cabin? Maybe, that GTY customer will get an upgrade to a bigger balcony cabin, or with my loyalty points, they upgrade me. Point is, the GTY customer doesn’t have the bottom line on their side. I wouldn’t book GTY for this reason. 

[smokeybandit]

8 hours ago, Suchacruiser said:

I guess GTY means that the ship sails full. The industry mantra is “GTY isn’t standby, like on a plane,” but they sure treat it like it is. Look, if 40 days out, I see a balcony cabin on a website that’s open, and I plunk down $2500 in full for cabin #1234, but there’s a GTY person for the balcony category who paid in full $1800, who do you think will get that cabin? Maybe, that GTY customer will get an upgrade to a bigger balcony cabin, or with my loyalty points, they upgrade me. Point is, the GTY customer doesn’t have the bottom line on their side. I wouldn’t book GTY for this reason. 

99.9% of passengers who book GTY never have any issues.

[TXcruzer]

17 hours ago, Suchacruiser said:

I guess GTY means that the ship sails full. The industry mantra is “GTY isn’t standby, like on a plane,” but they sure treat it like it is. Look, if 40 days out, I see a balcony cabin on a website that’s open, and I plunk down $2500 in full for cabin #1234, but there’s a GTY person for the balcony category who paid in full $1800, who do you think will get that cabin? Maybe, that GTY customer will get an upgrade to a bigger balcony cabin, or with my loyalty points, they upgrade me. Point is, the GTY customer doesn’t have the bottom line on their side. I wouldn’t book GTY for this reason. 

If you see a room for sale, that means there are enough allocated to GTY bookings. 
Your scenario just isn’t reality.