libertyelle

2 hours ago, Biker19 said:

Enchantment was still in port. 

This was our view of the launch from Enchantment. It was incredible! The sonic boom from the first stage landing rattled the ship. Our all aboard time was 6:30p, so the timing worked out perfectly.

My husband and I are booked for the 1/28 sailing and would love to know what the current situation is in the MDR and Windjammer, in regards to crowds and social distancing. Both venues were pretty full on our December Anthem sailing, but I'm hoping that might not be the case on Enchantment at the moment. We're trying not to bring Covid back to our kids (who are scheduled to go to a camp in February), and I'd rather not have to rely on room service or sneaking Sorrento's up to the room to make that happen. 😆

2 hours ago, Sunshine3601 said:

@RadioWhich MDR is for vaccinated guests on Anthem?    

Sorry I thought you mentioned in your review but I cannot find the answer.   

Currently on Anthem and it's the dining rooms on deck four: Silk and American Icon.

7 hours ago, BSocial said:

• Was your reservation only 1 or 2 adults in the cabin?
• Does your reservation include children under vaccine age (11 under) 
• does your reservation include teens 12+
• Is your reservation during holiday and US school vacations (higher occupancy with families on board)  Nov-Jan,

We have two adults in the cabin, as well as two kids- our vaccinated 13-year-old and unvaccinated 11-year-old (who we are hopeful can be fully vaccinated before the cruise, if the vaccine rollout for his age group is quick enough). Our reservation is for the Dec. 12th 12-night Anthem sailing.

Our chosen cabin is one of the few obstructed balconies that are classified that way due to a slight obstruction by the hull, as opposed to the majority of the cabins in that category that have much more intrusive lifeboat obstructions. I'm concerned that they'll move us into one of those since they are all technically the same category, which would be frustrating since we paid extra to choose our cabin specifically to avoid the ones obstructed by lifeboats and davits. If the hull obstructed cabin hadn't been available, I would have booked a normal balcony from the get-go. Fingers crossed!

We're in the same boat, with an 11-year-old who will need the first dose in his arm by November 7th to be considered fully vaccinated for our December 12th cruise. The FDA is scheduled to meet to consider the issue of vaccines for ages 5 - 11 on October 26th. If I recall correctly, the time span between meeting and shots being available for the 12 - 15 group was just under a week, so I'm hopeful we can squeak in under the wire if it follows the same pattern this time around. Final approval for the 12 - 15 group came in earlier in the day, and my 13-year-old was in CVS getting his shot after dinner that evening.

2 hours ago, toad455 said:

No word if the Anthem is coming over this October to Cape Liberty either. Her winter cruises seem like they'll be cancelled at this point.

Beginning in mid-December through mid-February, Anthem has a series of longer sailings of 9 - 12 nights from Bayonne to the Eastern and Southern Caribbean (with the exception of the 7-night Bahamas sailing over Christmas). With the present trend of stricter cruise ship requirements from those islands, along with the current limit on sailings longer than 7 nights (which may or may not be extended past the fall expiration of the CSO), I'm wondering if RCL won't just throw their hands up and switch those sailings over to the more predictable 7-night CocoCay / Nassau runs instead. 

7 minutes ago, karaloo said:

Do you know if you can shift a Kids Sail Free promotion to a week that is not a Kids Sail Free week next year, as long as it is within the the 4 week window?

I think that's allowed. The new cruise we shifted to didn't show up as Kids Sail Free, and we were able to move it and keep our original pricing.

40 minutes ago, kmb2010 said:

I am looking into possibly doing the lift and shift, my daughter is 12 this year and is under the kids sail free promotion, shifted it to next year she would then be considered an adult would they honor the price since it was a lift and shift?

We were in the same situation, with my son turning 13 in January 2021. We were able to lift and shift our fall 2020 cruise to fall 2021 and keep the same overall price that we'd had with the Kids Sail Free promo.

1 hour ago, Tatka said:

 

 Ads to sell cruises are in big letters, contract about switching ports at any time even before cruise are in small. I wonder how many cruises cruise lines would sell if this information about switch was written in large letters on Ads.

Exactly. We chose to book our Alaska cruise based on an advertising sheet with a giant heading reading "GLACIER BAY". If they hadn't finalized those contracts and it was subject to change, they should have not chosen to market specifically for that single port, or disclosed that it would be subject to change. Had I had that information up front, I would have booked a different sailing.

I've been on cruises that changed ports for a variety of reasons, so I know how it works. But I think in these kind of blatant bait and switch situations created by Royal Caribbean, not some unavoidable circumstance, that it's not too much to ask for a little consideration on their part. It's not like waiving a change fee a year out is going to hurt their bottom line, but affected customers will remember their greed when shopping for future cruises for years to come.

8 minutes ago, mets123 said:

You need to argue with RCCL, not us.

OP does need to escalate with RC, but there is value in having a discussion about their customer service practices. As Tatka mentioned, it raises awareness that these contracts can be used to shield bait and switch advertising practices and not just unanticipated itinerary changes due to weather or mechanical issues. And what incentive does RC have to address these issues if they aren't publicly known?

I think the OP is trying to express that this is a situation in which some leeway is warranted from a customer service standpoint, not that it is required under the contract.

For example, when all port stops to Cuba were cancelled, Royal gave a variety of options to affected customers on those sailings, including refunds, although it was a situation outside their control and they had no legal obligation to do so. So there is a precedent for providing compensation for cancelled port stops in the interest of customer service. But there seems to be no rhyme or reason as to how they make these customer service decisions, as evidenced by their handling of other similar situations.

Just now, Tatka said:

 

I know.. I just think Royal could be sympathetic and give some discount for this change, as I am reading many various posts on this matter. People booked it due to this itin, otherwise they could be on completely different ship. Discount could be then used to that ferry tour I described above. Just a nice gesture.

We had this issue with our upcoming Alaska cruise, which we booked based on RC's advertising for the port stop at Glacier Bay (which was a new stop for RC, so they were promoting it heavily with a one-sheet ad just for those sailings). They opted not to finalize their contract with the National Parks Service and cancelled the port stop for Glacier Bay instead. I wrote emails to everyone up the customer service chain of command asking to have the $100 per person change fee waived so we could switch to a more suitable Alaska itinerary, but they refused to do anything. I wouldn't expect any nice gestures or sympathy on their part.

Any word on when the new app will add texting on Anthem? (IIRC, only two ships have it as an option at present.)

While this scenario may be covered by the ticket contract, it's a terrible look for Royal Caribbean from a customer service perspective. For example, when the Cuba cruises were rerouted to alternative Caribbean ports earlier in the year (a situation totally outside of the company's control, unlike their decision not to finalize the NPS contract), they gave guests the option to cancel for a full refund or keep their bookings and receive a 50% refund. Yet in this situation they refuse to even waive the change fees? It's bizarre how they have no consistency in how they approach things from a customer service perspective, particularly considering this whole bait-and-switch vibe is a much harder sell than a change in government policy or a hurricane.

Oh, we booked when it was still Glacier Bay, before the itinerary change, so I'm not worried about the typos defense in our case. But I am concerned for people who may be in the process of booking and not aware of what they are getting. The entire situation is just being handled very ineptly by Royal.

Our sailing is even worse- both summaries still show Glacier Bay. That was part of the motivation for writing them, in addition to seeking a more fair resolution- it's indefensible to still be accepting bookings for this sailing while presenting customers with false information.

Unfortunately, our sailing is still showing as available for booking on the RC website with Glacier Bay on the itinerary, three days after the cancellation email was sent out. They also still have the sales flyer promoting these sailings specifically for Glacier Bay (http://www.creative.rccl.com/Sales/Royal/Alaska/19069206_GlacierBay_Flyer.pdf). The fact that they targeted their marketing toward this one specific port proves the point that this is a significant itinerary change for folks who booked these sailings based on that advertising push.

We sent an e-mail to the senior manager of guest experience, Carlos Jimenez - carlosjimenez@rccl.com, to request a more satisfactory resolution to this issue, and I urge everyone else affected to take a few moments to do the same.

4 hours ago, Saab4444 said:

Fact is that Royal officially received permissions to enter Glacier Bay from 2020 in the off season (Until May and from September) and they made a big marketing campaign about it. Thereafter many people like us booked only because of this. 

Exactly. We have sailed with Royal twice before and our itinerary changed significantly both times, but I didn't have a problem with it- stuff happens. This situation is entirely different. Based on the evasive response I received from customer service when I asked them point-blank why the change was made, I'm assuming there was some sort of failure to plan on their end.

They shouldn't have marketed cruises as going to Glacier Bay (and sell them at a premium) if they didn't have a reasonable certainty that it would happen. (And it is still available for sale on the website!) Bad weather, mechanical issues- fine. But this was avoidable - at the bare minimum, the possibility that Glacier Bay port stops would be subject to the whims of another cruise line should have been disclosed up front. So why should only the customers bear any of the inconvenience and/or added costs that resulted from Royal's decision, while the cruise line itself entirely avoids any consequences?

All I requested was a waiver of the change fee so I can switch to a cruise that is a better fit for my family. That doesn't seem unreasonable under the circumstances, but they prefer to hide behind the ticket contract rather than do what is fair. It's just lousy customer service.

19 minutes ago, Host Clarea said:

 

Time to hit social media.

Unfortunately, their social media response wasn't particularly helpful. But perhaps others in the same boat (ship?) can add to the discussion and change their mind. 😉

18 minutes ago, Tulsacoker said:

@libertyelle what are you sail dates. I understand your frustrations but seem as though all sailing when they first came out (not didnt have Glacier Bay on the itinerary, we got the email saying they were adding it in place of Skagway and now it goes back.   

But when we booked our sailing, it had already changed from Skagway to Glacier Bay. So we made our initial decision to book this specific sailing based on the inclusion of Glacier Bay.

3 minutes ago, Tulsacoker said:

@libertyelle what are you sail dates

The Sept. 4th Ovation sailing.

Spoke to Royal Caribbean and verified that they will not be offering any compensation or a waiver of change fees.

Our family booked our cruise specifically because it included the port stop at Glacier Bay- our family collects Junior Ranger badges from the National Parks, so we were willing to pay a premium to do it ($1200 more than a cruise on Ovation the following week with the same port stops we are now scheduled for). I think it's questionable from an ethical standpoint that they marketed cruises with this port stop (and still are showing it on the website) at a higher price point if they hadn't secured definitive approval from the NPS. We've been on cruises that had itinerary changes due to things outside of RC's control and rolled with it, but this feels different because the situation should have been avoidable.

On 3/31/2019 at 9:33 AM, Canadianmama3 said:

Anyone know if I lose the OBC from my vegas rewards if I re-book under a promotion like this? 

We were able to keep our NextCruise and MyVegas OBC when we repriced using the Kids Sail Free promo.

I read on another MyVegas post on the discussion board that OBC is not valid with Next Cruise. We booked an upcoming cruise in 2019 on Friday afternoon. My question is.... Has anyone booked through Next Cruise and been able to still use the OBC without losing any of the OBC you received from booking?

I booked a cruise with NextCruise at the end of May, and then successfully applied MyVegas OBC for both my husband and once we arrived back home. I received an updated invoice that showed our original OBC from NextCruise along with the two $100 OBCs from MyVegas.

We saw them in a JS this past March. I don't know if they are in other categories.

We had the USB outlets in our interior promenade room last month, so I'd assume they've made it to all of the staterooms.