Booking from Europe

[MNfamilycruiser]

A friend of my daughters asked about booking a RC cruise - he lives in Amsterdam. If he was to book directly through Royal - would he go to the UK website?

 

What is different in booking from Europe vs. the US? Meaning if I was to explain how it works - what might I not realize/know about? I am familiar with booking here, and we use a travel agent - but would have no idea what to recommend for him.

 

In order to book a stateroom, at least one person in the stateroom has to be over 21?

[fragilek]

If booking through the uk - they cannot cancel without loss of deposit (or more depending on how near to sailing they cancel). you cannot make changes or get price drops. What you book is what you get end off. If you have to phone for any reason - it costs a fair bit if there are any issues.

[Alohaaloha]

If your friend has the option to access and book through the US site, I'd advise them to go with that.

There are very few, if any, advantages to the UK site. As the post above says, no price drops applied, cancellation penalties, and higher prices. I'm a UK resident and always use a US travel agent.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

[SadmanCruiser]

What is different in booking from Europe vs. the US? Meaning if I was to explain how it works - what might I not realize/know about? I am familiar with booking here, and we use a travel agent - but would have no idea what to recommend for him.

 

In order to book a stateroom, at least one person in the stateroom has to be over 21?

 

If you have a good travel agent, I would get them to book for your daughter's friend.

 

In Europe, we cannot take advantage of price drops and if we cancel (prior to final payment) we lose our deposit.

 

We do have certain more travel protection in the U.K. but in 10 years and 40+ cruises it would never have benefited me.

 

Like others, I use a U.S. agent to book most of my cruises.

 

Pete

[[g]cruiserke]

Let me be the dissenting voice and speak about my own experience: I'd advise your friend to book online on the Royal Caribbean site, with the country set to Netherlands.

 

I live in Belgium and like the Netherlands, we are too small a country to have a dedicated Royal Caribbean office. If I book via the Royal Caribbean site (set to country = Belgium) I get the best of both worlds - the same cancellation fee schedule as the US, but the payments are in my local currency, Euro.

 

This means I don't deal with the danger of currency fluctuations which can make your cruise much more expensive at final payment than you thought it would be when you booked.

 

I have on multiple occasions when booked like this and when noticing a price drop, cancelled my booking and rebooked at the new, lower price. There is no cancellation cost, and because the booking is in the currency of my credit card, no extra conversion fee.

 

And, for reasons I fail to understand, but am very happy with, the price of my next Royal cruise - Harmony o/t Seas next year August - was much, much cheaper when booked on the Belgian site than on either the UK or US one - total of 1,200 USD cheaper for two than booking via the US or UK site!

 

I just now did a mock booking of that Harmony cruise, and though the price has gone up sine I booked, on both the Dutch and Belgian site the cost of a D8 Balcony for two (with Diamond C&A discount) comes to 1,600 USD per person (but, again, quoted and to be paid in euro). Changing the country setting to US the price for the same cabins comes to 2,000 USD per person and changing to UK the prices comes to the same 2,000 USD (though quoted in GBP, natch).

 

So, I would strongly advise your friend to have a good look for the cruise he is interested in, and don't hesitate to book on the Royal Caribbean Dutch site.

[Biker19]

I would second the recommendation above - to have the least hassles book with your resident location. No way should you book the UK site. As I mentioned in another thread you could book any country site, you just need to set the residence to that country when paying. The terms and conditions seem the best on the US site and the US site usually has the best prices, but there are times when some of the European sites have better prices.

Edited October 20, 2015 by Biker19

[MNfamilycruiser]

cruiserke;48064988']Let me be the dissenting voice and speak about my own experience: I'd advise your friend to book online on the Royal Caribbean site' date=' with the country set to Netherlands.

 

I live in Belgium and like the Netherlands, we are too small a country to have a dedicated Royal Caribbean office. If I book via the Royal Caribbean site (set to country = Belgium) I get the best of both worlds - the same cancellation fee schedule as the US, but the payments are in my local currency, Euro.

 

This means I don't deal with the danger of currency fluctuations which can make your cruise much more expensive at final payment than you thought it would be when you booked.

 

I have on multiple occasions when booked like this and when noticing a price drop, cancelled my booking and rebooked at the new, lower price. There is no cancellation cost, and because the booking is in the currency of my credit card, no extra conversion fee.

 

And, for reasons I fail to understand, but am very happy with, the price of my next Royal cruise - Harmony o/t Seas next year August - was much, much cheaper when booked on the Belgian site than on either the UK or US one - total of 1,200 USD cheaper for two than booking via the US or UK site!

 

I just now did a mock booking of that Harmony cruise, and though the price has gone up sine I booked, on both the Dutch and Belgian site the cost of a D8 Balcony for two (with Diamond C&A discount) comes to 1,600 USD per person (but, again, quoted and to be paid in euro). Changing the country setting to US the price for the same cabins comes to 2,000 USD per person and changing to UK the prices comes to the same 2,000 USD (though quoted in GBP, natch).

 

So, I would strongly advise your friend to have a good look for the cruise he is interested in, and don't hesitate to book on the Royal Caribbean Dutch site.[/quote']

Thanks for the info

So you go through the royalcaribbean.co.uk but when the time comes to enter your personal information you are just putting in the correct country?

[[g]cruiserke]

Thanks for the info

So you go through the royalcaribbean.co.uk but when the time comes to enter your personal information you are just putting in the correct country?

 

No, you go to https://secure.royalcaribbean.com/ but you scroll all the way to the very bottom of the page, and in the left corner you select the country.

[Biker19]

Thanks for the info

So you go through the royalcaribbean.co.uk but when the time comes to enter your personal information you are just putting in the correct country?

 

The UK site is like it was done by a totally different company - it doesn't even have the country setting available like the other versions of the RCI site. As was mentioned above, unless you are actually resident in the UK, there's no reason to use that site to book. However, it is the best site to use to view cabin inventory.

[MNfamilycruiser]

cruiserke;48065193']No' date=' you go to https://secure.royalcaribbean.com/ but you scroll all the way to the very bottom of the page, and in the left corner you select the country.[/quote']

 

Aha! I never saw that before :D:D Thanks for the help

[RocketMan275]

 

We do have certain more travel protection in the U.K. but in 10 years and 40+ cruises it would never have benefited me.

 

Pete

 

Pete,

 

I see the claim that there are more protections when booking in the UK but I've yet to see anyone say what those protections are. Would you mind a brief explanation?

 

From what I've seen those protections are more for the UK travel agents than their customers. No price drops, no refunds on deposits, etc.

[fragilek]

Pete,

 

I see the claim that there are more protections when booking in the UK but I've yet to see anyone say what those protections are. Would you mind a brief explanation?

 

From what I've seen those protections are more for the UK travel agents than their customers. No price drops, no refunds on deposits, etc.

 

They are mainly around companies going bust. In the UK if booked through a company which is protected by certain bodies ABTA/ ATOL then the passenger is protected and will be brought back from abroad for free also any un-taken holiday will be refunded if a covered company goes under. Not really much if you are booked through big "safe" companies

Edited October 20, 2015 by fragilek

[RocketMan275]

They are mainly around companies going bust. In the UK if booked through a company which is protected by certain bodies ABTA/ ATOL then the passenger is protected and will be brought back from abroad for free also any un-taken holiday will be refunded is a covered company goes under. Not really much if you are booked through big "safe" companies

 

Thank you so much. I was curious because I've seen some make a very big deal out of these protections.