Royal Caribbean did me wrong!!

[Curtis Lewis]

Hello everyone.

I have something to get off my chest.

My wife and I booked a 7 day cruise on Royal Caribbean Symphony of the  Seas cruise ship for Oct 27th, 2024 to Nov 3rd, 2024.  We were all set to go, but all of he sudden my wife's business partner had a stroke, then had a seizure in the same day about an hour apart from each other.

To give you some back story, my with and her business partner started a Commercial Real estate company together about 18 years ago. They are the  owner of the company and they now have about 30 employees (full time and contract)

Ok, with that part explained, again like I said, her business partner had a stroke AND a seizure. This happened about a week and a half before may wife and I were to leave on the curse. Needless to say, my wife could not go now. Because of her business partner's condition, it would impossible, for him to run the company and manage 30 plus employees for eight days while my wife and I are away on our cruise.

So, I called Royal Caribbean to see what my options were. Mind you, we did not get the insurance, so I did not expect to get any sort of refund. At the very least, my wife and I wanted to postpone the cruise until next March 2025. This would have given her business partner plenty of time to recover from his Stroke and seizure. 

I explained all of this to the customer service rep. Her response was for me to choose someone else to go with me on the cruise instead of my wife since she was the one who could not go. My jaw dropped when she said that. That option to me sounded ridiculous. I was not about to go on a cruise to the Bahamas and leave my wife here. And that is what I told here.

So, I then asked her if I could give the whole cruise to a relative, like my mother and her sister. They could go together since they are roughly the same age and enjoy their first cruise together. The customer service rep told me no, I could not do that.

This left me with only two options, pick someone else to go with me on a cruise that was originally booked for my wife and I or loose $3600 plus dollars. My wife and I had to pick the unfortunate choice of loosing all of the money. I told the customer service rep that I was not about to choose another person to go on a cruise with and leave my wife at home. Especially since we had booked the cruise to go together.

She said sorry, there was NOTHING she could do. So, we are out $3600.

Needless to say, my wife and I ARE PISSED OFF!!!!!

Curtis A Lewis

[Rage Shifty]

That is a horrible situation. Having said that, if you read the contract, it's pretty clear what happens if you have to miss a cruise after final payment. I never purchased the insurance until I had a ruptured appendix a day prior to the cruise and missed my cruise, losing all the money spent on the cruise. This blog and Matt's Youtube channel are wonderful resources for cruise advice, and he always recommends cruise insurance. Wish I had listened. 

 

[TXcruzer]

"I Was Cheap and Did Not Buy Insurance"

 

There, I fixed the title for you.  Sorry man, this is all on you, the rules are crystal clear when you make that deposit.

 

I hope your wife's partner recovers with no issues.

[WAAAYTOOO]

You always have the option of moving your cruise to a later date.  This option only cost $100 per person…but of course you would have to pay any fare difference…but it certainly beats losing the entire cost of your cruise.

[smokeybandit]

5 minutes ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

You always have the option of moving your cruise to a later date.  This option only cost $100 per person…but of course you would have to pay any fare difference…but it certainly beats losing the entire cost of your cruise.

I thought inside a certain timeframe before the cruise, you couldn't change it.

[WAAAYTOOO]

31 minutes ago, smokeybandit said:

I thought inside a certain timeframe before the cruise, you couldn't change it.

Yep.  You’re right.  After final payment you lose the entire deposit and possibly some portion of the fare (cancellation penalty).  I guess I wasn’t thinking about the OPs situation being so near the sail date.

[tonyfsu21]

3 hours ago, Curtis Lewis said:

Hello everyone.

I have something to get off my chest.

My wife and I booked a 7 day cruise on Royal Caribbean Symphony of the  Seas cruise ship for Oct 27th, 2024 to Nov 3rd, 2024.  We were all set to go, but all of he sudden my wife's business partner had a stroke, then had a seizure in the same day about an hour apart from each other.

To give you some back story, my with and her business partner started a Commercial Real estate company together about 18 years ago. They are the  owner of the company and they now have about 30 employees (full time and contract)

Ok, with that part explained, again like I said, her business partner had a stroke AND a seizure. This happened about a week and a half before may wife and I were to leave on the curse. Needless to say, my wife could not go now. Because of her business partner's condition, it would impossible, for him to run the company and manage 30 plus employees for eight days while my wife and I are away on our cruise.

So, I called Royal Caribbean to see what my options were. Mind you, we did not get the insurance, so I did not expect to get any sort of refund. At the very least, my wife and I wanted to postpone the cruise until next March 2025. This would have given her business partner plenty of time to recover from his Stroke and seizure. 

I explained all of this to the customer service rep. Her response was for me to choose someone else to go with me on the cruise instead of my wife since she was the one who could not go. My jaw dropped when she said that. That option to me sounded ridiculous. I was not about to go on a cruise to the Bahamas and leave my wife here. And that is what I told here.

So, I then asked her if I could give the whole cruise to a relative, like my mother and her sister. They could go together since they are roughly the same age and enjoy their first cruise together. The customer service rep told me no, I could not do that.

This left me with only two options, pick someone else to go with me on a cruise that was originally booked for my wife and I or loose $3600 plus dollars. My wife and I had to pick the unfortunate choice of loosing all of the money. I told the customer service rep that I was not about to choose another person to go on a cruise with and leave my wife at home. Especially since we had booked the cruise to go together.

She said sorry, there was NOTHING she could do. So, we are out $3600.

Needless to say, my wife and I ARE PISSED OFF!!!!!

Curtis A Lewis

Although it is unfortunate, a $3600 loss is a drop in the bucket for a business owner with 30+ employees. Book another cruise and enjoy it! 

[smokeybandit]

I don't think RC did anything wrong. When you book a cruise, you agree to terms and conditions, and all this is within those T&C.

I'm not even sure standard travel insurance would have helped.

[RockerDom31]

I had to double-check my travel insurance docs because I thought there were some job-related covered reasons. And there are, but it’s…

1) being laid off from your job

2) employer requires you to move 100+ miles away

3) starting a new full-time job

and there are some time limitations to those events.

So it doesn’t seem like the OP’s situation would be covered, at least with the kind of plan we have. I suppose a Cancel-For-Any-Reason plan would be needed in this case?

[Ryan79]

What did RC do wrong that wasn’t clearly spelled out in the T&C you agreed to? This is what travel insurance is for….if you can find a policy to cover anything by and everything (good luck) So you didn’t bother to buy insurance AND you are expecting RC to make an exception to their clearly spelled out terms and conditions because someone completely unrelated to you or your wife had a medical issue?? Seriously?? Who are you?? LOL

[CruiseGus]

They got no insurance of any kind.

SORRY BUT $3600 is nothing to someone with that type of business.

Call it education

Royal Caribbean did you NO wrong

[DoomSlayer]

Sounds like your wife needs to train someone to manage the business besides just relying on her business partner.  If this was such an issue, what would you have done if you had been on the cruise and her partner had this happen?  Ended your trip by disembarking early and paying to fly home from the Bahamas?  I am sorry about her business partner's health, and wish him the best recovery possible, but Royal has done nothing but follow the terms you agreed to when you purchased your trip.

[cedricmr]

@Curtis Lewis

and the credit card insurance?

[PhillyLady]

The main problem here is having a company that cannot function for a week without a boss.

Yes, the partner in the hospital needs to fully recover and remove himself from work, but it sounds like there might be a level of stress and micro-management  in the organization that is not fully addressed. Also, there needs to be delegation of duties and expanded assignments for staff so that all contingencies can be covered. Is there a succession plan? 

The Mrs. has access to Internet and can also make phone calls at ports to check in. Perhaps she feels guilty about going off on a vacation with her partner in the hospital.

Royal Caribbean has no fault and no responsibility.  I agree this event does not really fall under insurance parameters, either.

No one wants to lose money, so my advice is go on the vacation and just make the situation work.  The real estate company will not collapse, and maybe wife needs a break! If the partner would have had the attack while you were on the cruise, would the wife have flown home??

I hope the gentleman fully recovers, but he might also now be considering retirement, so wife better figure out how to run the company without him, and also determine how she can take a vacation now and then, or there will be no more cruises!  Best wishes!

 

[warrenz1963]

OP, I'm sorry you are going through this difficult time.

Edited October 25, 2024 by warrenz1963
original comment was a bit trolly of other responders

[ScottishRobbie]

Calling it now, One & Done.

[dustfsu]

3 hours ago, PhillyLady said:

The main problem here is having a company that cannot function for a week without a boss.

Yes, the partner in the hospital needs to fully recover and remove himself from work, but it sounds like there might be a level of stress and micro-management  in the organization that is not fully addressed. Also, there needs to be delegation of duties and expanded assignments for staff so that all contingencies can be covered. Is there a succession plan? 

The Mrs. has access to Internet and can also make phone calls at ports to check in. Perhaps she feels guilty about going off on a vacation with her partner in the hospital.

Royal Caribbean has no fault and no responsibility.  I agree this event does not really fall under insurance parameters, either.

No one wants to lose money, so my advice is go on the vacation and just make the situation work.  The real estate company will not collapse, and maybe wife needs a break! If the partner would have had the attack while you were on the cruise, would the wife have flown home??

I hope the gentleman fully recovers, but he might also now be considering retirement, so wife better figure out how to run the company without him, and also determine how she can take a vacation now and then, or there will be no more cruises!  Best wishes!

 

I was thinking the same thing. Why couldn't you put out a auto reply email and voicemail that says due to a medical emergency and a pre-scheduled non-refundable vaction  we will be closed for 7 days or maybe 8 or 9 if flying in for the cruise.  If you have other employees that you can't trust just to take calls and get information to call back when you get home then their is something wrong there. Im sorry your partner had this happen to them.  Also there are many people that have had to take work on their cruises, so you could of had her bring her laptop and cell phone and still could of worked if needed.  If a property needed to be seen on-site then that could wait a week.

[ScottD]

I KNEW as soon as I saw this subject line that the poster would have a "1" under their name.  

[tonyfsu21]

The time it took to craft the email has cost you and 30+ employees more than $3600 in lost time. Book another cruise (highly recommend Icon).

[wordell1]

2 hours ago, ScottD said:

I KNEW as soon as I saw this subject line that the poster would have a "1" under their name.  

That and a very common first and last name as their username.  There is definitely a pattern to these.

[Curtis Lewis]

15 hours ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

You always have the option of moving your cruise to a later date.  This option only cost $100 per person…but of course you would have to pay any fare difference…but it certainly beats losing the entire cost of your cruise.

I asked to do that and I even said I was willing to pay the difference and they told me that I couldn't.

[JimnKathy]

Unusual situation for sure.

I'm a little surprised that a 30-person company doesn't have a few trusted employees to keep the business on cruise control (pun intended) while one operating partner is recuperating and the other is only out for 1 week.

As another responder indicated, phone calls, texts and emails would be an easy solution for the wife to enjoy the Symphony sailing and still keep her hand on the pulse of the business. There are MANY cruisers who have to take an occasional "work break" while sitting in The Solarium catching some rays and sipping on a tasty mojito.

Real or not, this poster's story has some reasonable solutions offered up by some of the responses in this thread.

[tjcruisers]

We're on that cruise.

The op had no travel insurance, but even with travel insurance wouldn't have helped unless it was cancel for any reason. Maybe the op should answer why should Royal eat the cost? This late they won't be able to resell the room. My understanding the on any given cruise there are numerous people who end up not being able to make it, should Royal eat those costs as well? Start doing that and they wouldn't be in business that long.

 

Also as some have said, if you have an 18 year old business with 30 employees, there should somebody there who can take over for a week in these situations. 

[Doug_Texas]

I’m wondering why the boss didn’t give the wife a $3,600 bonus for cancelling the vacation.

[Vancity Cruiser]

While OP situation has some questions (why no insurance, why there is no employee in place that can manage business for a week) I do find cruise lines policy of not being able to 'gift' the cruise to someone else interesting. I assume this in place to avoid 'scalpers' trying to resell sold out cruises at inflated prices?

[FOB]

Standard travel insurance would not cover this as a cancellation reason (in the U.K. it needs to be a close family member) 

however I am surprised that as a partner in a business your wife doesn’t have a business travel policy that covers herself and the partner for this kind of scenario

can I suggest she needs to discuss the insurance needs of the company - particularly key man dependency and travel - although now that her business partner has already had a stroke it may be impossible to get insurance at an acceptable price as the risk to the insurer of having to pay out has just gone up by a large factor

[ZootTX]

Knew what kind of thread this was before I even opened it up...

[Crown&AnchorEsq]

Going to play devil's advocate on this one, but why could they not transfer the entire reservation to someone else?  

On 10/24/2024 at 2:16 PM, Curtis Lewis said:

So, I then asked her if I could give the whole cruise to a relative, like my mother and her sister. They could go together since they are roughly the same age and enjoy their first cruise together. The customer service rep told me no, I could not do that.

Leaving aside the contract language for a moment, clearly wife could get swapped out and you can book up to a day or two before  the cruise, so it cannot be a boarding/document issue.  If wife could swap her place why couldn't OP swap his place too? I see no logistical reason to prevent this.  Obviously, there is a business case to proscribe transfers, i.e. they do not want "scalpers" buying up cruise space and reselling it, so I understand why it is included in the ticket contract.  With that said, where there is a documented medical/business emergency why not waive that provision to let OP transfer his reservation to a family member?  There are the inevitably slippery slope arguments as to what would be acceptable vs. not. However, at the end of the day RCL is in the hospitality business so I would think you could give a representative some freedom to make judgment calls as to appropriate reasons to waive the assignment provision, or at the very least give them an opportunity to escalate to a supervisor.  

 

[WAAAYTOOO]

54 minutes ago, Crown&AnchorEsq said:

Obviously, there is a business case to proscribe transfers, i.e. they do not want "scalpers" buying up cruise space and reselling it, so I understand why it is included in the ticket contract.

This is why...Royal requires that at least 1 original name remain on the booking so that the entire cruise cannot be re-sold.  One of the 2 original names can change but not both of them.

[MLH]

If the tables were reversed and someone could not close on a house due to an emergency situation and could not buy the house,would you give them all the escrow back to use on another house?

[jarestel]

The issue is not what "could" be done... It's simply a matter of living up to the terms of the contract. We can all sympathize but this is a pretty cut and dried matter. 

[twangster]

I hope the partner is able to recover and get better soon. 

As a business owner I am surprised how willing you are to have Royal take the loss because of the partner's health issues.  At this last minute they can't sell that cabin so they would lose the money which you seem to be perfectly willing to let them do. 

Does your wife's business casually lose $4k and not blink an eye?  If it's okay for Royal to lose $4k then why isn't it okay for your wife's business to lose $4k?   

Given the last minute timing if you had set sail and then the partner had their medical crisis would you expect Royal to fly your wife home to deal with it? Of course not.

If you had bought CFAR insurance you'd be fine.  You chose not to.  That was a choice.   You should lose the money, not Royal.  I don't want my cruise fares to go up so Royal can cover their losses for someone else's unfortunate life events.