Adventure of the seas is not going out of San Juan on the 23. No refund either.

[djbobbydeese]

Adventure of the Seas: September 23

Due to the uncertainty of the timing of the port re-opening in San Juan, we anticipate our new departure date will be Wednesday, September 27, sailing a 3-night itinerary to Antigua and St. Kitts.

We know these changes are disappointing, and we are truly sorry for the storm’s impact on your vacation. Should you choose to sail with us we will provide you with a refund of 60% of your cruise fare paid in the form of a refundable onboard credit, and an additional 50% future cruise credit, for a cruise booked within the next year.

If you are unable to travel and need to cancel your cruise, we will provide you with a 100% future cruise credit, for a cruise booked within the next year. Pre-booked shore excursions will be refunded to your original form of payment, and you will have the ability to book excursions in our new ports of call once onboard.

 

[jce2]

1 minute ago, djbobbydeese said:

Adventure of the Seas: September 23

Due to the uncertainty of the timing of the port re-opening in San Juan, we anticipate our new departure date will be Wednesday, September 27, sailing a 3-night itinerary to Antigua and St. Kitts.

We know these changes are disappointing, and we are truly sorry for the storm’s impact on your vacation. Should you choose to sail with us we will provide you with a refund of 60% of your cruise fare paid in the form of a refundable onboard credit, and an additional 50% future cruise credit, for a cruise booked within the next year.

If you are unable to travel and need to cancel your cruise, we will provide you with a 100% future cruise credit, for a cruise booked within the next year. Pre-booked shore excursions will be refunded to your original form of payment, and you will have the ability to book excursions in our new ports of call once onboard.

 

A bit mis-leading subject title.  There is in fact a refund.  In fact, from the sounds of it, there are several options for refunds.  What is true is that you cant simply get a refund and walk away.  form what I have read on the various other cruises effected this season , this seems pretty normal.  My question would be how the 50% cruise credit works?  50% of the cost of this current cruise or 50% of the cruise I take next?  I could see this as a real wind-fall.  I still go on a cruise now (though shortened) then turn around and book a more extravagant cruise (like Alaska with a balcony!)

 

[djbobbydeese]

17 minutes ago, jce2 said:

A bit mis-leading subject title.  There is in fact a refund.  In fact, from the sounds of it, there are several options for refunds.  What is true is that you cant simply get a refund and walk away.  form what I have read on the various other cruises effected this season , this seems pretty normal.  My question would be how the 50% cruise credit works?  50% of the cost of this current cruise or 50% of the cruise I take next?  I could see this as a real wind-fall.  I still go on a cruise now (though shortened) then turn around and book a more extravagant cruise (like Alaska with a balcony!)

Not misleading at all. there is No refund. If you think having a use or lose credit that expires in a year

 is a refund.....your  not applying to much common sense. Secondly  YOU CAN NOT GET TO SAN JUAN to make it to the new sailing date of September 27th.

[DocLC]

I agree that a cruise credit is not a refund, but this is something you could take up with your credit card company and/or the cruise line. Even so, they'd only be online to refund 60% as they are still sailing and the cruise contact gives them a lot of latitude, which is why travel insurance is important even more so during hurricane season. 

[jticarruthers]

If the credit works the same way as the one we received from Adventure last year it is a $ value equal to that % of part of the fare that you paid for the current cruise. It is only calculated on the commissionable fare not the full fare so it is a little less than you would expect.

For example, if you paid $1000 + taxes and fees for the AOTS cruise on 9/23 you would probably get about $400 (being 50% of the $800 commissionable fare, not 50% of the $1000 full fare).

[monctonguy]

I have thought Royal has handled Irma pretty well, but I have a feeling things are going to start to change as these cruise lines are losing a lot of $$ with the hurricanes IMHO.

 

Offering someone a future credit that expires and there is no guarantee that the credit will even cover the cost of rebooking a cruise is defn NOT a refund!

 

Not to mention, getting to SanJjuan would be a nightmare now..plus a 7 day cruise down to a 3 night cruise means you now have 4 extra nights in a hotel to pay for if you cant change your flights or there is a cost to it.

 

When someone books a 7 day cruise..they sure as hell didn't want a 3 day...should be a full refund. In this case, Royal is defn dropping the ball IMHO.

[davelliott]

I wouldn't want to fly from where I am, on the east coast, to San Juan for just three days.  I would also be disappointed in this change.

I just checked for some sample airfares and what I found was interesting.   I checked for fares leaving on 9/26 and returning 9/30.  Southwest shows nothing available, so I checked Delta.  They do have a flight from Atlanta non-stop to San Juan for $440.  But, from Raleigh through Atlanta (on the exact same flight) to San Juan is $201.  I found it odd that I could book from Raleigh for less than half of what someone from Atlanta would pay and be on the same plane.  When I went to San Juan a couple of years ago, I paid around the $300 - $400 price.  I would have loved to have paid only $201 for that flight!

 

[ellcee]

29 minutes ago, monctonguy said:

Not to mention, getting to SanJjuan would be a nightmare now..plus a 7 day cruise down to a 3 night cruise means you now have 4 extra nights in a hotel to pay for if you cant change your flights or there is a cost to it.

That's if you can find an open hotel...

[Orange Crush]

17 hours ago, djbobbydeese said:

Not misleading at all. there is No refund. If you think having a use or lose credit that expires in a year

 is a refund.....your  not applying to much common sense. Secondly  YOU CAN NOT GET TO SAN JUAN to make it to the new sailing date of September 27th.

Call them and politely ask about a refund.  They might have some leeway in granting them and just didn't advertise it in the email.  If you booked through a travel agent, call your travel agent first.  They probably know the real scoop already and what you can expect.  Also, travel agents can call in and get to reps with a little more power than the public-facing hotline.

7 minutes ago, davelliott said:

I wouldn't want to fly from where I am, on the east coast, to San Juan for just three days.  I would also be disappointed in this change.

I just checked for some sample airfares and what I found was interesting.   I checked for fares leaving on 9/26 and returning 9/30.  Southwest shows nothing available, so I checked Delta.  They do have a flight from Atlanta non-stop to San Juan for $440.  But, from Raleigh through Atlanta (on the exact same flight) to San Juan is $201.  I found it odd that I could book from Raleigh for less than half of what someone from Atlanta would pay and be on the same plane.  When I went to San Juan a couple of years ago, I paid around the $300 - $400 price.  I would have loved to have paid only $201 for that flight!

 

The airlines do this all the time.  It's an insanity only a Marketing MBA could've dreamed up.  They collect data based on what people are willing to pay to fill a plane to get from point A to point B and how profitable it needs to be in order to be worth their while for a given leg and then figure out how to arrange their routes.  Raleigh to Puerto Rico might be $201, but Raleigh to Atlanta might be $300, even though it's the same plane.  They need to get enough people to Atlanta to fill the plane going to Puerto Rico, so they give a break to people passing through and make up the difference of people stopping at Atlanta.  They're burning more fuel and running a whole extra plane for you, but they get to overcharge some other poor sucker so it all works out in the end.

And they get really angry if you try to game their crazy system.  There was a whole website set up to track things like this that would tell you the cheapest way to get somewhere by skipping the extra legs of a flight.  The airlines sued.

[djbobbydeese]

2 minutes ago, Orange Crush said:

Call them and politely ask about a refund.  They might have some leeway in granting them and just didn't advertise it in the email.  If you booked through a travel agent, call your travel agent first.  They probably know the real scoop already and what you can expect.  Also, travel agents can call in and get to reps with a little more power than the public-facing hotline.

The airlines do this all the time.  It's an insanity only a Marketing MBA could've dreamed up.  They collect data based on what people are willing to pay to fill a plane to get from point A to point B and how profitable it needs to be in order to be worth their while for a given leg and then figure out how to arrange their routes.  Raleigh to Puerto Rico might be $201, but Raleigh to Atlanta might be $300, even though it's the same plane.  They need to get enough people to Atlanta to fill the plane going to Puerto Rico, so they give a break to people passing through and make up the difference of people stopping at Atlanta.  They're burning more fuel and running a whole extra plane for you, but they get to overcharge some other poor sucker so it all works out in the end.

And they get really angry if you try to game their crazy system.  There was a whole website set up to track things like this that would tell you the cheapest way to get somewhere by skipping the extra legs of a flight.  The airlines sued.

We have, answer was sorry corporate decision .

 

[djbobbydeese]

56 minutes ago, monctonguy said:

I have thought Royal has handled Irma pretty well, but I have a feeling things are going to start to change as these cruise lines are losing a lot of $$ with the hurricanes IMHO.

 

Offering someone a future credit that expires and there is no guarantee that the credit will even cover the cost of rebooking a cruise is defn NOT a refund!

 

Not to mention, getting to SanJjuan would be a nightmare now..plus a 7 day cruise down to a 3 night cruise means you now have 4 extra nights in a hotel to pay for if you cant change your flights or there is a cost to it.

 

When someone books a 7 day cruise..they sure as hell didn't want a 3 day...should be a full refund. In this case, Royal is defn dropping the ball IMHO.

 

[Orange Crush]

Wow.  Maybe some bad publicity and shame might change their mind, but I wouldn't hold my breath.  I would definitely post on Twitter and other social media about this.  That occasionally gets results.

This is a really tone-deaf bean counter decision.

[jticarruthers]

Not really surprised, although nothing like the magnitude (either in the real world or the cruise world) I battled the system last year for my AOTS disappointment and learned the hard way that now that business is booming again they can take a hard line on customer issues and know that there will be plenty of new customers lined up on the pier waiting to fill any empty spots.

I would definitely be filing a complaint with my credit card company that they did not deliver the product and have refused to offer a refund. Arguing that a cruise leaving on a different day with a completely different(and much shorter) itinerary requiring you to pay for new flights and hotels is the same as the original product ordered would be pretty unbelievable.

[twangster]

Some credit cards come with forms of travel insurance.  Why don't you rebook using the full credit offer?