RCCL cancelled cruise due to the ship being chartered

[bhickeyb]

Hi,

 

We had been booked on the Voyager of Seas to sail out of Hong Kong on 2nd of July 2017 this year as part of our honeymoon,

 

Yesterday we received a phone call from our travel agents to say that Royal Caribbean have decided to charter this cruise and therefore our booking has been cancelled. They have offered us a rebooking on any other cruise if the price is the same and as a compensation they have offered $100 of on board credit. I was shocked that a large company like RCCL would treat paying guest like this! Is this a common occurrence and is $100 likely to be all the compensation we receive?

 

We now have to rearrange our entire honeymoon as a result of this and it's looking like we will not get to take a cruise as I can not find a cruise out of Asia that works for our dates.

 

Very annoying!

 

If anybody has been in this situation I would really appreciate any advice on how to deal with RCCL.

 

Thanks in advance,

 

Brian

[sparks1093]

I will only say that it's not RCCL that does this but other cruise line's as well. If they have a chance to fill a ship with a charter they will jump at it and there will be very little forthcoming to those who were cancelled.

[Military Guy]

Personally I wouldn't deal with any cruise line that canceled my confirmed cruise without satisfactory compensation. What happens to people who have already made their own arrangements for air, tours and pre/post stays?

[Clarea]

RC normally offers OBC, price protection, and airline change fee reimbursement. Price protection means that they should have given you several alternate cruises to choose from where you could book the same stateroom category at your current price. I would at least ask the travel agents about the price protection and airline change fee reimbursement.

[Hlitner]

We have been outspoken, for many years, about this type of cancellation. It is our view that the industry should adopt a basic "passenger bill of rights" that covers this type scenario (and others) and specifies major compensation. Our issue is primarily about cruises that are canceled inside of 10 months prior to the cruise....because of airline ticketing policies allowing ticketing within 330 days of a flight. The OPs cruise was chartered with only 5 months notice....which means many booked on that cruise will have likely purchased their own air!

 

We would point out another RCI (and other cruise lines) issue where the cruise line will book a very large group (sometimes 1/2 of the passengers or more) and not inform other passengers of the presence of the large group. These groups will often take over many public areas of the ship...which deprives other passengers of the full use of the vessel.

 

Hank

[1025cruise]

Unfortunately, this is normal behavior.

 

However, it is usually done more than 6 months out.

[cruisemom42]

I think all of the cruise lines do this; doesn't make it any better though. Sorry about your plans -- hope you can work out an alternative with Royal.

 

As Hank says, the worst part is the short notice on cruises where airfare is substantial. I agree there should be some standard protection of passengers when charters are made after airfare, hotels, tours, etc. may be already booked.

[donaldsc]

The attitude of the cruise companies is - we own the ship so we make the rules. Someday read your cruise contract which confirms what I just said. Better yet -maybe you should not read it because you will find that you have absolutely no rights at all once you get on the ship and you will never book a cruise again.

 

DON

[candycaramel]

Find out who chartered it. Pay the surcharge , go on the cruise you want and party with whatever group it is..

 

Sent from my Trio AXS using Forums mobile app

[sfaaa]

$100 OBC is not substantial but definitely not the worst. NCL only offered me $50 OBC when it cancelled my cruise last year.

[ontheweb]

We once had a river cruise chartered out from us by Uniworld after we made final payment. They offered us what they considered better (more expensive cruises) and an upgrade, but we wanted the specific area.

 

We eventually got our money back; but it is much harder than paying them, and went on a land trip to Amsterdam where out cruise was supposed to start and end. And of course we would never even consider using their services instead. I also told them that we no longer wanted their brochures and considered their ads by e-mail as spam.

 

We did our best to discourage anyone from using their cruises.

[Nitemare]

Find out who chartered it. Pay the surcharge , go on the cruise you want and party with whatever group it is..

 

Sent from my Trio AXS using Forums mobile app

 

New leader for worst advice every on Cruise Critic

 

A) It could be a private charter

B) It could be a group with whom the OP wouldn't want to cruise

C) pay more money to do the same thing they originally planned to do? Why don't you pay the difference?

[cruzeluver]

While charters are quite common, it is not common for them to occur only five months out as so many will have already booked airfare. Typically the ones I have encountered are booked a year or more out so those impacted have not purchased flights and have adequate time to re-book. I would not be happy about this and would be requesting more than a lousy hundred bucks.