Frustrated with Royal

[DocLC]

Received a price drop yesterday for my Jewel cruise in January and could have even bumped up to a D1 from an E1; that parts all good. Unfortunately, Royal made us cancel the cruise and rebook, stating they couldn't adjust the price any other way. As a result, all of our prebookings were lost, resulting in a slight increase in cost of the Royal Replenish package and the need to rebook excursions and redo all of the online booking information. TA spoke to several different people at Royal and they all insisted this was the only way to make the adjustment.

 

Is this normal for Royal or was I an unusual case? We have a couple of other cruises booked; is this something I should suspect in the future if there's a price decrease?

 

Kris

[michelle]

Hmm this seems odd to me - sometimes I guess I can see why they have to do this though

if the NEW promotion you have requires you to book within a certain booking window

and you booked outside that window.  but they should warn you it will cancel all of

your pre-booked tours etc.      But most of the time, an agent or supervisor should be

able to re-price what you have - you can ask them to go to Resolutions and ask for

help if needed.

[DocLC]

Hmm this seems odd to me - sometimes I guess I can see why they have to do this though

if the NEW promotion you have requires you to book within a certain booking window

and you booked outside that window.  but they should warn you it will cancel all of

your pre-booked tours etc.      But most of the time, an agent or supervisor should be

able to re-price what you have - you can ask them to go to Resolutions and ask for

help if needed.

My TA did warn me about the cancellation and the consequences; sorry if I implied otherwise.  She did go to bat to simply adjust the rate.  However, it was some type of weekend or residential rate that put the balconies below the price of the oceanviews and interiors.  It was worth the hassle given the $300+ that we saved, but just annoying in the end.  Fortunately, we were able to get back into the same cabin, although there was a slight risk of losing that as well.  It would have just been more convenient had the rate been changed as I wouldn't have to repurchase everything and reenter all of our information.

 

Royal lost in the end as I reconsidered a couple of excursions in the process and opted not to rebook those with Royal and instead doing something independently.

[Matt]

When you rebook you can lose any discounts or sales you previously booked into but losing your excursions and drink packages seems excessive (or a fault in the booking system logic).  

[DocLC]

When you rebook you can lose any discounts or sales you previously booked into but losing your excursions and drink packages seems excessive (or a fault in the booking system logic).

 

It seems to be the fault of the booking system since it had to be redone as a new reservation. It seems to me that it would have made more sense just to override the price. The price reduction, though, was worth the hassle. Unfortunately, my TA had to work extra hard for it and spent a lot of time on the phone with Royal to get it done.

[Matt]

It seems to be the fault of the booking system since it had to be redone as a new reservation. It seems to me that it would have made more sense just to override the price. The price reduction, though, was worth the hassle. Unfortunately, my TA had to work extra hard for it and spent a lot of time on the phone with Royal to get it done.

Glad it worked out.  And there is why I love using TAs....let them do the work!

[michelle]

yep glad she/he worked hard for you ! trust me what seem logical to me day in and day out

like a simple price reduction - is the most complicated part of my day at time :D