All Inclusive offer - retrospectively available?

[CherryHintonBlue]

RCI are assailing me with emails saying that the Med cruise we have already booked for August 2015 is now "all inclusive" for a limited time. Do these offers apply retrospectively, or have we made a big mistake, booking early?

Edited November 2, 2014 by CherryHintonBlue
Added link

[krisko]

I have no idea what you're talking about...the email says if you book now you can get free premium drink package? Never heard of such a thing with Royal, need more details.

[Clarea]

I have no idea what you're talking about...the email says if you book now you can get free premium drink package? Never heard of such a thing with Royal, need more details.

Royal has offered free drink packages on some cruises out of the UK. This is the current deal:

 

http://www.royalcaribbean.co.uk/cruise-deals/#allinclusive

 

It looks like the deal is limited to new bookings made after Nov 1.

Edited November 2, 2014 by clarea

[Ourusualbeach]

The prices most likely went up from what you paid anyway in order to pay for the new promotion.

[gerif]

It's not unusual for special offers/reduced prices and the like to pop up from time to time for new bookings only and cannot be made retroactive. But, hey, you booked the cabin you wanted at the price you were willing to pay so be happy.

[Mim Lloyd]

I booked my July 2015 just before the free drinks and tips promotion was announced. RCI wouldn't give it to me so I cancelled the cruise and immediately rebooked it to get the promotion. I lost the original £300 deposit but the promotion is worth over £800 so I still gain £500. Oh, and the price of the cruise was exactly the same as the original booking.

[hummy0605]

We booked on the day it came out in feb 14 for an aug 2015 sailing. Got it for £850 pp cruise only. Booked friends on it a couple of months later and they got it for £90 pp cheaper so i rang up and ours was reduced.

 

We have now priced it up for friends and it is over £1300 each so we are really chuffed.

 

We repriced it when the all inclusive deals came out but it was putting an extra £600 -£700 on our price and we didn't feel it was worth it with going out on excursions

[CherryHintonBlue]

I asked Royal Caribbean if we could have the free drinks and gratuities package retrospectively. They said no.

 

The package is worth about £800 to our family, so it looked like it would be worth cancelling the booking, losing our £450 deposit, and rebooking as a new customer. Just like Mim above.

 

I rang to sort this out, expecting them to say "Yes, it's one of those things, let's save all the paperwork and just give you the drinks package for £450".

 

But of course

.

 

So I asked them to cancel the booking and re-book the entire cruise. It wasted 40 minutes of Royal Caribbean's time, and my time. Well worth it for me, but a crazy amount of unnecessary bureaucracy for the company.

 

And the nice postscript? The new holiday price is £250 less than I'd been charged the first time around! So a total saving of £600.

 

I guess that's the last time I'll be booking early with Royal Caribbean again. Next year I'll stop being so organised, and wait for the special offer season.

[Mim Lloyd]

Glad you got it sorted and like you I thought it crazy that RCI went through the rigmarole of cancelling and then rebooking rather than just adding the drinks package tips promotion and losing the original deposit. I'm also happy for you getting the new booking at a cheaper price! Like you I'll not be early booker in future!

[onlyonetrevorfrancis]

I asked Royal Caribbean if we could have the free drinks and gratuities package retrospectively. They said no.

 

The package is worth about £800 to our family, so it looked like it would be worth cancelling the booking, losing our £450 deposit, and rebooking as a new customer. Just like Mim above.

 

I rang to sort this out, expecting them to say "Yes, it's one of those things, let's save all the paperwork and just give you the drinks package for £450".

 

But of course

.

 

So I asked them to cancel the booking and re-book the entire cruise. It wasted 40 minutes of Royal Caribbean's time, and my time. Well worth it for me, but a crazy amount of unnecessary bureaucracy for the company.

 

And the nice postscript? The new holiday price is £250 less than I'd been charged the first time around! So a total saving of £600.

 

I guess that's the last time I'll be booking early with Royal Caribbean again. Next year I'll stop being so organised, and wait for the special offer season.

 

Glad it worked for you, that's great news :)

 

Every cruise that I was looking at including our Anthem cruise already booked for 2015 went up significantly the very day each time this promotion has been run.

 

There are big winners and losers with this so people need to be a bit cautious.