Changes to RC's best price guarantee?

[smokeybandit]

The old version:

 

The new version

And clicking "here" takes you to this

https://www.royalcaribbean.com/resources/best-price-guarantee

The key takeaway is fares may be excluded from the guarantee, which explains difficulty in repricing lately

This really dilutes the price guarantee and now any future repricing will be completely hit or miss.

[Traveling Mike]

I have already hit that with two of my cruises.  I called my TA for the price drop, they could not get it on their system so they called Royal to find out the new lower price is only for new bookings.  So it looks like we are back to guess when to book a cruise and be unhappy if the price drops.

[Scotsman]

I was fortunate, on Thursday I got just over $400 saved on a Greek island tour next summer then today (Saturday 22) I got another $350 off the same cruise, I’ve saved just over $1100 since booking the cruise earlier this year with four reductions in total 

[Doug_Texas]

16 hours ago, Traveling Mike said:

I have already hit that with two of my cruises.  I called my TA for the price drop, they could not get it on their system so they called Royal to find out the new lower price is only for new bookings.  So it looks like we are back to guess when to book a cruise and be unhappy if the price drops.

I also just changed a sailing date on a non-refundable deposit and was ready for the $100 fee pp but was not prepared for the surprise that I couldn’t get current discounted pricing shown on the web because it was “not a new booking”.  Adds new calculus to the refundable vs non-refundable decision.

[BoxerMomNC]

Recently ran into the same issue with upgrading from balcony to suite.  Cost difference was 2K in RCs favor however they wanted an extra 1K because it was not a new booking.  

[Peter D]

I’ve run into this new bookings only issue several times over the last week.   There is a lot of confusion in the promotions terms and conditions.   A simple comma changes the whole understanding of the guarantee.  For example:

BOGO60 applies to new, individual, and named group bookings at prevailing rates made November 4, 2025 – December 8, 2025…

 That comma between “new” and “individual” should allow for repricing current bookings.

Happy Birthday “HBDAY5CM” promo code (“Promo Code Offers”) is applicable to new individual bookings made between November 1, 2025 and December 8, 2025  (“Offer Period”)

Happy birthday on the other hand state “new individual” which should means that current bookings are not eligible.

The promotions terms also mention combinabilty of BOGO60, kids free etc.  but they might try to add promos that cannot be combined to them as work around.

anyhow, I guess I’ll try pushing back on commas within the terms and conditions when Royal says “new bookings only”. 

[JFCruise]

I don't know if this is relevant. But I just called because I saw a cruise I had where I could upgrade my stateroom to a higher category and still pay less. That cruise is part of the 'Black Friday Megadeal' that apparently doesn't let you reprice; but the agent was able to get me the same price I saw when doing a mock booking.

[smokeybandit]

 

[smokeybandit]

And now back to the old version? Did they get too much pushback from the change? And now seemingly completely open ended? Even the link that had all the verbiage about potential limitations is dead.

[Matt]

So.... it's the policy that travel agents have had for many years now actually in print for the poors regular people who book directly to see? 

Thank you MEI Travel for saving me from this issue for so long 

[smokeybandit]

Last year I had a few reprice attempts that my MEI TA said she couldn't get them to apply due to the brief change in policy.

[Pooch]

Booked our January 9 nighter last week.  This morning I got a code for $400 off 6+ nights after September.  At first my MEI TA said she couldn’t see it but I sent the actual code (which did say new bookings only) and it went through.  With a small difference in base price and the loss of $50 OBC, I still netted $284 off.

[DadX4]

I booked our upcoming Oasis cruise when it first became available a year and a half ago. Re-repriced successfully twice. We saved a total of around 15% of my original price. A couple of weeks ago I tried for a 3rd time got hit with the "new bookings only" line. If there are enough unhappy cruisers, especially the kind that take their grievances to social media, they will revert. In the end its a business and the bean counters make the decisions.

[Lucky]

I called tonight and saved about $150 for my Alaska cruise next year. It was the easiest reprice ever, less than 3 minutes with the agent and I was done.