Evilgrin72

2 minutes ago, Biker19 said:

Yes, the denial email should come later tonight.

OK, thanks.  I made just minimum bids because I'm fine with the stateroom we have, so I didn't really expect to get any of them, just a shot in the dark.  At this point, I'm just ready to remove any false hope for a miracle.  😄

25 1/2 hours from boarding and I have 4 bids out there - all still show pending and are able to be edited/deleted.  Is this normal/common?  I keep waiting for some movement either way and it's just stasis.

Once I'm in the cabin I booked, I'm definitely not moving, so should I just wait until cabins are available tomorrow and then cancel them all?  I believe our departure time is 5 PM and I'm pretty sure Royal Up said that bids are editable/cancellable up to 3 hours prior to departure if they haven't already shown accepted or expired.  Please correct me if I am wrong on this...

*convenience fee may apply 

Anyone know if it DOES apply and how much it is? 

10 hours ago, jerseyjjs said:

 

 

    In Playmakers, they show at least SIX of the early Sunday NFL games and all of the late Sunday afternoon NFL games.  The Aqua theater only features ONE game.  So if you want to watch all or one game that's not on the big screen, Playmakers is where you'd want to be.

They have Sunday Ticket in Playmakers? 

Finally, at long last, this got resolved. After two more long, sometimes contentious email chains with both the resolution team and the executive office, they appear to have wiped out my balance due. They also issued back just shy of $300 in unused FCC and gave me an extra $100 on board credit for my aggravation. 

I still want to step onto the ship without them telling me I still have a balance due before I fully believe it at this point, but the site does show no balance due. If this is in fact over, it was far more arduous and frustrating than it should have been, but in the end it was resolved to my satisfaction. I don't have to boycott RCCL, but will absolutely look at other lines more seriously going forward. 

Don't join an existing group! Be MJ, not LeBron. 

Walk in there, sit down, and take on the groups of 6 all by your lonesome. This is what I do when the wife is doing something else. If you cannot prevail, it is of no concern. No one expects a lone wolf to defeat an entire pack. But when you do win? Oh, there are few better feelings in this world. When you triumphantly hoist that 19 cent piece of plastic gloriously embodying your victory, there's a brief feeling of exhilaration, sure. But the true satisfaction comes when you make eye contact with whomever is the alpha in the group of 6 and see that bewilderment in his or her eyes. That look that you'll know is this individual trying to process how one person could single-handedly best their entire group. It's confusion for sure, but mixed in there is just a soupcon of subservience. They'll know that the REAL alpha has arrived to take their food stock, commandeer their women and children.  It looks almost like a child's love.... 

Also, bonus points if you're wearing a Slayer t-shirt and two-fisting a Foster's oil can and a shot of tequila. Trust me on this, it really amps up the befuddlement factor. 

Hey, I got a response from Michael Bayley's office! 

They apologized for all the difficulty I've had applying my FCCs and the misinformation I've received from customer service. They thanked me for my loyalty and patronage and for being a C & A member. 

I now owe $50 MORE than what the CS rep told me I owed. This is insanity. 

At this point, my best bet may be to just cancel my drink and Wi-Fi packages so that I can at least hopefully see that money again sometime in March, let them keep the $800 I gave them in June 2019 for the original cruise and the $200 I gave them for a deposit on this one and just no-show. I'll be out a thousand dollars but I'll get that much back just canceling the packages. 

1 hour ago, ILCTCRUISER said:

Carol, there’s a saying about “hitting the nail on the head” and your advice here does just that.  We tried to resolve an issue with RCCL’s Resolution Dept for much, much too long.  We kept getting the run-around:  “The team is working on it.”  In fact it was a case of addition and subtraction.  I read this post and slapped myself on the side of the head:  Of course!  When the answer you’re getting makes no sense, it’s time to move your complaint up the chain.  We sent an email to M Bayley and A Yera-Rodriguez.  We simply explained the circumstances in a very calm manner.  We did this yesterday.  Today, a call came from a manager of the Resolution Team, who apologized, admitted they’d made a mistake (again, addition and subtraction), and promised a refund for the amount in question.  Good advice for all.  

I, naturally, received no such consideration. They have not dignified my e-mail with so much as a form letter response. I assure you, my e-mail removed all of the vitriol contained in the OP and simply included facts. I did convey disappointment in the way things have gone so far, but did so both professionally and cordially. Nothing back at all. Perhaps the guy from page 1 was right and they simply don't care if my family and I take our business elsewhere. We'll be happy to do so. I love RCL ships, but despite the consistent denigration of Carnival on this subforum, I found my experiences on that line to be more similar than different when compared to Royal. I've been interested in giving Princess a try as well. I won't be cruising again soon anyway due to my impending move, but when I do ultimately sail again, it won't be on RCCL. 

1 minute ago, DCPIV said:

 

I like your spirit(s)! 🤣

 

We hope to be on board Liberty in January (knock on wood). I might have to throw a snifterful of Grand Marnier over the rail in your honor! 

HAHAHAHAHA!  I actually laughed out loud at that - I needed that.  Thanks, bud. 

Just now, DCPIV said:

 

Dadgum, man. My heart goes out to you and your family. 

 

I'm not sure what I'd do in your place, then, if that email doesn't produce results. I suppose I'd do a gut check and decide if I could manage to enjoy the cruise. If so, I expect I'd take the hit and go. If not, I'd just cut bait. No sense throwing good money and time after bad. 

Thanks, man - really nice of you to say. Appreciate the sentiment. 

It doesn't look like I have much choice. I don't expect the e-mail to accomplish anything, in fact - I don't really even anticipate a response given how things have gone thus far. If I refuse to pay the balance and just tell them I don't like the protocols and cancel, all they'll do is issue me a FCC that I'll never use and I'm just out $1,000. I may just go, keep my drink package and brush my teeth with Rumple Minze, get snifters of Grand Marnier and throw them overboard, hand out Jager shots to kids. OK, maybe not that last one. 😂

1 minute ago, Coralc said:

They have. I've been reading about all of your issues about this for a while. That is a bummer. I wish I had some advice other that writing to the top. But I don't. 

 

We've always managed to make it work out after lengthy phone calls, but sometimes it takes some finagling. 

You have a terrific memory! I just don't even know what to do, I thought all the finagling (I've spent in excess of 4 hours on the phone with them over this damn cruise already) had finally sorted it out, but this (what I thought was) last call today seems to have done more harm than good. I somehow managed to convert a 91 dollar credit into a useless (to me) FCC AND I can't cruise unless I give them another $181 to convert into more useless scrip money. 🤔

14 minutes ago, DCPIV said:

Wow. You really have been shafted with a number of shafts in a number of places. You have all sorts of reasons to be ticked off. 

 

I hope that email gets results. There's no way I'd be on hold on the phone again. 

 

As for whether I would pay up if there is no good result, my free advice (unsolicited, I know, but it's worth every penny) is that "it's not about the money" supports a bunch of choices, including just taking the hit and enjoying one more cruise with your mother. 

That ship has sailed (pun intended again.) She can no longer cruise unless something changes, which is unlikely. That's obviously not RCL's fault, but it was a major bummer when that 2020 cruise got canceled, because that was almost certainly our last chance. The rest of the family/group cashed out 18 months ago and moved on, I'm the only schmuck who said "Hey, I don't need the money to get by... Why not let them hold it? Sure, it's not much, but I'm sure everyone who does this right now is helping them weather the storm."  What a sap. It just makes all of this more irritating. 

2 minutes ago, Sunshine3601 said:

If you refer to your cruise invoice it will show the breakdown per passenger so if you got one of those sales for % off 2nd guest that would be the reason why the difference per guest.

Fccs are definitely stackable as I just used 3 small ones.  2 were mine, 1 my hubbies to upgrade our cabin.

I have it and yes, it is a % off second guest price. My best guess is the guy who did the reprice did something to get the FCCs applied in full but did something wrong and now they see his mistake. Only instead of finding a way to fix it, they're just telling me I owe them more money and that if I can't use the FCC they're willing to give me in exchange for paying them more put of pocket, that's just too bad. That's egregious. If I pulled that with one of my customers, I'd lose him/her for life for sure. That appears to be my only remaining recourse. 

1 minute ago, Biker19 said:

You certainly have won the lottery in terms of getting the least helpful and uninformed CSRs - FCCs should definitely be stackable. Up to you if you want to invest time in calling enough times to get this sorted. A better approach might be the route @Merion_Momsuggested.  . 

Already took that route, we'll see. I don't know how much more time and energy I have to devote to sitting on hold listening to the same annoying Perfect Day ad on a loop just to be told some other BS story. If it doesn't get sorted, I'll just be done with RCL forever. 

13 minutes ago, Biker19 said:

Somewhat recently applying an FCC to a booking counts as cash in case you want a refund. You could upgrade, apply all of your FCCs and then ask for a refund when canceling. 

I asked on the phone today if I could do that and they told me all refunds would be issued in the form of FCCs. Maybe I need to call 3 more times and sit on hold for an hour to find someone else willing to give me a different story. And I can't even apply any remaining FCCs because despite what I was told, they're clearly not stackable and sharable. That's the crux of this, I suspect. The credits they want to issue me are 220 in my name and 70 in my wife's. They've bungled this from the very beginning and have apparently just made it worse every time they've "helped." 

Just now, Ocean Boy said:

That person's comments were no reflexion on you and you owed no explanation.

 

As far as FCCs go, I've always been more comfortable with my money sitting in my bank account. Stories like yours just reinforce my stance. Goid luck.

I just don't care for the "I'm sure they'll miss you" garbage. I'm in the business of customer satisfaction myself. If RCL doesn't value my business, I'll happily give it to Carnival or Princess. 

You're a wise man, thanks for the well wishes. 

32 minutes ago, maureencruiser said:

I feel your pain and couldn't resist clicking, what a headline!!  They can't explain what happened to my $1323 FCC.  It's just gone.  Do send a concise email to M Bayley, they're very good there.  They ended up giving me credit to replace the missing FCC.  Take a deep breath, send only the facts and see if they can help you.  Good luck and never say never, lol. 

I would have really been pissed if this was over that amount of money. As it is, it's not about the cash, it's the principle of the matter. If I hadn't even called today to get a status on the refund, I'd at least be able to cruise without giving them another 200 bucks. All this is because of incompetence on RCL's part, but I'm expected to take it on the chin as a result. But hey, I can get another FCC so I can spend more money to get back what you owe me. GTFOH. 

17 minutes ago, ZoeyVictoria said:

I took refunds for every single canceled Royal Caribbean cruise except one.  Never again will I take an FCC.  I thought, “It is only $214 pp, what could possibly go wrong?”  First, they issued my SO’s FCC to the person I had previously cruised with, right up until his death in 2017.  He died before the cruise was even available to be booked and was at no time on the booking.  It just went downhill from there, including making a math error when eventually applying the FCCs that resulted in a $486 deposit shown for a cruise that required a $500 deposit.  So, they cancelled that cruise over an erroneous $14 shortage.   There were many more errors made, but my TA spent a lot of time and effort trying to straighten it out and eventually it was (mostly) corrected.  A valuable lesson was learned, and there will be no more FCCs for me.

I wish I'd read/heeded stories like these before I took the FCC.  I would have grabbed the cash and run.  I would have saved money over and above the 25% AND not had to go through all this aggravation.  What a fool I am.  I actually thought I was helping RCCL.  🤣

4 minutes ago, Sam Ting said:

I hope you can enjoy yourself on your cruise.  A few years ago we got shafted too, but I think it was NCL.  We ended up going on the cruise and not spending one cent extra. We had a wonderful time eating at the free restaurants and partaking in the free activities. We didn’t even give them our credit card when we boarded. Have a great trip!  Who needs their jewelry, perfume or play their ripoff bingo games anyway. 

I have UBPs and WiFi packages booked for myself and the wife.  It might be cutting off my nose to spite my face, but I'm strongly considering canceling all of that.  Not that big a deal to unplug and stay sober for 5 days.  I'll save a hell of a lot more than they're bleeding out of me.  Plus, I can get loaded off of cheap beer in Cozumel off-ship if I really want to party one day.  I wonder how long I can get away with counting cards at the blackjack table before they catch on and back me off.  🤣  With my luck, I'd probably lose anyway.

2 minutes ago, binro01 said:

@Evilgrin72 I would suggest using a reputable TA in the future. During the spat of cancellations last year, I was so glad to have a TA to be my buffer between the cruise lines and my wishes and desires. She kept me in the loop every step of the way and I did not have to spend 1 minute on the phone with anyone from the cruise line. Sometimes a TA can be your best asset.

I used to do that - in fact, the original booking I made in June 2019 for the canceled 2020 cruise was made with a TA.  Once it got canceled and the FCCs were issued, I booked the replacement cruise myself directly with RCL.  Another mistake.

10 minutes ago, Tapi said:

You’d be surprised. Carnival fully refunded my credit card within 10 days of canceling my cruise. And I still don’t know how, but MSC managed to apply a future cruise credit from a cruise that they canceled to a new reservation. Then applied funds from another booking that I voluntarily canceled to that new reservation, all in one very pleasant call and maybe 20-30 minutes of my time. 

 

To the OP, I agree with others. Keep your communication short, to the point, and void of emotions. Hope you can get everything squared away!

That's how it should have gone here too, I have no idea what on Earth is going on.  I did exactly that.  Thanks for the well-wishes and I will let you know how it turns out.

17 minutes ago, DMWT Cruiser said:

 

I'm sure that RCL will be crushed to hear that a customer who booked a $399 cruise is never, ever going to book another cruise with them and neither will all of their family, all Emerald or above and 20+ year "loyal to Royal" cruisers.

 

I'm certain that you will find the customer service much, much better at Carnival or MSC...😑

 

Hope you are able to make the best out of your situation.  As another poster suggested, if you can tone down the vitriol, you might consider contacting Michael Bayley and calmly and dispassionately expressing your disappointment.  Keep it short and simple.  Perhaps they will work to make it right.

The only reason I was booked on an inexpensive short cruise is because my mother was going and she's on a fixed income and won't let us pay for her.  She took us on a bunch of cruises when we were young and her health is rapidly deteriorating and she is no longer able to get around well, so she can't travel to ports that are far away and can't be on a ship longer than a few days.  We wanted to go on one last cruise with her while she still could.  I typically book suites on 7+ day cruises and have spent probably 6 figures over the years with RCL.  Same for both my brothers.  You can save the commentary.  I'm also a business owner and ALL my customers are important to me, not just the high rollers.  It would matter to me and it should matter to them.

I did exactly that.  We'll see.  I'm not hopeful.

17 minutes ago, Merion_Mom said:

Not that it does you any good whatsoever, but as soon as they started cancelling, I took the cash refund for EVERY SINGLE CRUISE without a second thought.

So did my mother, my brothers, my friend - I was the only dope that took the FCC.  It wasn't really about the 125% because I just assumed they'd jack the rates up 25% anyway, but I really wanted to support the company by not joining the land rush to get money back.  I'm not even a shareholder, just a sucker, apparently.

15 minutes ago, Merion_Mom said:

 

Send your description of your ordeal to ayera-rodriguez@rccl.com and mbayley@rccl.com   Be calm and clear, and omit the foaming-at-the-mouth parts.  (not that I blame you; I just want you to get results)

I'll do that, thanks.  I'll be as pleasant as I was to the rep on the phone (sincerely, I was - it's not her fault) - I just have no idea why they would yank around a long-time loyal customer like this.  Man, I wish I'd just taken the cash out option.  I would have somehow come out ahead financially even though the cruise I booked is cheaper than the one for which I got the original credit.  Not to mention the hours and aggravation that have accompanied re-booking.  Great way to thank those that let you hold their money interest-free for a year and a half.

Booked a cruise on Mariner of the Seas for April 2020 that got canceled due to COVID, a group of 10 of us.  Once it got scrubbed, the other 8 took their cash back.  If only I'd had the foresight to do the same.  I foolishly let RCL keep my money and took the future cruise credit.  What a mistake.

July 2021, I finally booked a replacement cruise departing on Thanksgiving.  After months of RCL predictably running non-stop "2nd guest XX% off sales" just so that I couldn't apply the entire FCC to a new cruise, I learned that they'd made FCCs stackable and sharable among passengers on the same reservation/in the same stateroom.  Great.  Only, that was very difficult to actually apply.  I probably spent 2 hours on the phone with various reps trying to get them evenly applied.  Still never happened, no matter what I did, I ended up with FCC left over.  Whatever, I got tired of dealing with it and just booked.

Fast forward to August - the price on the cruise drops precipitously.  I call Royal and ask to get a stateroom upgrade to a balcony as the balcony price is now less than what I paid for an oceanview.  Told there were no balconies available, even though I was looking at a mock booking I was doing on my computer and they very clearly had balcony cabins available to book.  All right, I swallow my words again and accept their offer of a $91.44 refund to my credit card and the zeroing of my remaining balance due ($181.)  The refund will hit my card within 45 days.  Sure.

Fast forward to late September, after the 45 days had passed.  Called again, spoke to another rep.  he can see the refund requested, but it hadn't been processed yet.  It would be posted to my card "within 10 business days."  OK.

Today is November 2nd, credit still not posted.  I call again, they tell me they see it, but nothing has been done.  They ask if I can hold for "3 to 5 minutes."  I say sure.  One hour and 10 minutes later, the rep comes back and says she spoke to the resolutions department and that the previous rep who did the re-price back in August "did it incorrectly."  Not only am I not going to receive the promised refund, but they're going to issue me another future cruise credit for $270, but I now owe them $181, even though I'm well past final payment and my balance shows $0.  I tell them that this is unacceptable and that I do not want another FCC, especially as I am moving in January and am not going to be able to cruise again before the FCC expires, so that is literally useless to me.  They put me on hold again, then come back and tell me that there is absolutely nothing they can do.  No upgrade, no onboard credit, nothing.  If I don't pay the additional $181, I will not be allowed to board.  I cannot cancel and get my money back.  I'm just f@#$ed.

It's not a ton of money.  The original cruise was $399pp.  I accepted the FCC to let them hold my money and stay afloat (pun intended) through COVID, figuring I could find a similar cruise for $499pp (original price x 125%) later.  That was the exact cost of the cruise I rebooked before the price drop.  The same stateroom after the price drop was about $365pp.  The FCCs should have covered that entirely, with a small amount left over.  Yet, somehow not only did they make it impossible to apply the credits evenly, they are now holding my reservation hostage unless I pay them more money on top of the $200 deposit I already paid and accept it back in the form of an unusable (to me) $270 FCC.  I don't even understand their math - if the re-priced stateroom was $365 each and I've paid $200 already and now they expect another $181 to cover taxes and fees, then the FCCs I applied only covered $530.  If the two credits were for $499 each, shouldn't I be entitled to $469 in FCCs, not $270?  That's even if I accept that what they designate as an "error" by their rep is somehow my responsibility to cover?

I don't even know what I'm going to do about this yet, but I do know that I will NEVER sail on Royal Caribbean again as long as I live and neither will anyone originally booked on this cruise from my family.  That's 10 people, all Emerald or above, and 20+ year "loyal to Royal" cruisers.  They may end up getting another couple hundred dollars from me in the end because I don't know what else to do, but they've forfeited tens of thousands in future business from my family alone.  And I'm sure I'm not the only one who's experienced something like this.

Farewell, RCL.  You're dead to me.  Over a couple hundred bucks.