Urgent question - cancelled cruise

[robsmom]

Help.   It is the middle of the night and I am panicking.   I received an email from royal cancelling all my cruise planner activities for my May Italy cruise. My cruise is missing on-line.   I have a confirmation of final payment 2/5/19 from my. Travel Agent, but just checked online on my credit card and do not see a charge.    My suite is available on the RCCL website, but the total is $1500 more plus I had non-refundable deposits on the reservation.  There are 2 GS currently available, but other classes are sold out.     Do I wait until am to have the travel agent fix it and risk not having a cabin, or pay extra and rebook now? 

[Crazy planning mom]

I doubt the suites will sell out overnite.

Call the agent first thing in the morning.

Edited February 18, 2019 by Crazy planning mom

[robsmom]

I have emailed and left a message on his voicemail! 

[sunnyv]

I can't imagine having to wait to talk to TA, how frustrating!  I wonder if your TA had a problem transmitting the charge, forgot to actually run your CC, or the CC company mistook it as possible fraud and rejected the charge?  What was the due date of your final payment?

 

I know hindsight is always 20/20, but I check my CC online a couple hours after I make my payments to ensure it shows in pending and verify the TA processed the charge.  Then I watch my CC online to make sure it actually posts to my account. 

 

Hoping for the best outcome for you!  Please come back and let us know what happened.

[waterbug123]

4 hours ago, robsmom said:

 I have a confirmation of final payment 2/5/19 from my. Travel Agent, but just checked online on my credit card and do not see a charge.    My suite is available on the RCCL website

 

Sounds like you gave your TA the payment info so they sent you a confirmation, but never actually made the payment with Royal.  Maybe they forgot, or maybe there was a problem with your card, but if it was the latter I would think the TA would have been notified that it didn't go through and would have contacted you. 

We only use a TA occasionally, but my understanding is that Royal cannot/will not talk to you about your reservation if booked through a TA so your TA will be the one who has to try to fix this.

We had this happen on one of the rare occasions we used a TA.  Used a gal my BF's family has used multiple times and for some reason they just think she hung the moon, although I've never been that impressed with her.  Anyway, we had some of the kids with us so had booked an excursion through Royal.  I got a notification that it was cancelled.  Called Royal and all they would tell me was that it was because my entire cruise was cancelled, presumably for lack of final payment since it was right after the deadline.  The TA finally got it fixed but it was a few anxious days of waiting and she never really gave us an explanation.  She was very vague about what had or hadn't happened and it was clear to me that she had not made the final payment and simply didn't want to admit her error.

[LBumb]

And I’d call TA again

[BSocial]

Can you call Royal  and ask for a 24-hr courtesy hold on your suite, while you try to contact your TA? 

 

Good Luck!  Hoping for the best.  Please let us know the outcome, 

[honeybunches]

This is PRECISELY why I won't book with a TA.  I book only thru the cruise line and they are always available, 24/7.  They are extremely helpful and I have called in the middle of the night also, on those nights when I can't sleep.

 

[robsmom]

Update:  my agent was able to get my cabin back and is working on the details.   Hopefully I will know the entire answer today and will not be expected to pay more! Lesson learned on checking my Amex charges.   I got the confirm so was not really worried.  I booked a few more excursions after that, so never dawned on me that I may have a problem.  I have not gotten the credit card  the bill yet to notice  I rec’d the confirmation 2/5/19  Payment was probably due in the last few days as the cruise is 5/18/19 so that is when royal cancelled everything.    My biggest problem now will be getting all my excursions, dining etc. back.  Anticipate a discussion with the agent if I have to rebook them at current prices since most were Black Friday sales.   

[cruisegal40]

TA needs to make this right.  

[erby2283]

1 hour ago, robsmom said:

Update:  my agent was able to get my cabin back and is working on the details.   Hopefully I will know the entire answer today and will not be expected to pay more! Lesson learned on checking my Amex charges.   I got the confirm so was not really worried.  I booked a few more excursions after that, so never dawned on me that I may have a problem.  I have not gotten the credit card  the bill yet to notice  I rec’d the confirmation 2/5/19  Payment was probably due in the last few days as the cruise is 5/18/19 so that is when royal cancelled everything.    My biggest problem now will be getting all my excursions, dining etc. back.  Anticipate a discussion with the agent if I have to rebook them at current prices since most were Black Friday sales.   

 

Glad you got your cabin back but I'm with you - if you don't get the discounts on the excursions and other things you booked, I'd be pretty po'd too.

[Iamcruzin]

4 hours ago, honeybunches said:

This is PRECISELY why I won't book with a TA.  I book only thru the cruise line and they are always available, 24/7.  They are extremely helpful and I have called in the middle of the night also, on those nights when I can't sleep.

 

I usually never use a TA either but they were offering a large OBC that I was never offered before. It's through my big box Warehouse club and even though I haven't been able to contact the agent that I booked with I can get help from someone at all hours. I am making my payment a few days before it's due just to combat an incident like this.

[RazorbackIslandGirl]

I'm sorry that happened! If it were me the TA would be paying any differences. Don't mean to be hard nosed but, you paid on time & whatever the circumstances were the TA was notified by RCCL.

[Ourusualbeach]

2 hours ago, robsmom said:

Update:  my agent was able to get my cabin back and is working on the details.   Hopefully I will know the entire answer today and will not be expected to pay more! Lesson learned on checking my Amex charges.   I got the confirm so was not really worried.  I booked a few more excursions after that, so never dawned on me that I may have a problem.  I have not gotten the credit card  the bill yet to notice  I rec’d the confirmation 2/5/19  Payment was probably due in the last few days as the cruise is 5/18/19 so that is when royal cancelled everything.    My biggest problem now will be getting all my excursions, dining etc. back.  Anticipate a discussion with the agent if I have to rebook them at current prices since most were Black Friday sales.   

Royal has had this issue of cruises being cancelled for no reason in the past.  This sounds to me like it is unrelated to the final payment but instead to Royals screwed up Website.  

[Merion_Mom]

Just now, Ourusualbeach said:

Royal has had this issue of cruises being cancelled for no reason in the past.  This sounds to me like it is unrelated to the final payment but instead to Royals screwed up Website.  

 

Even if the charge never showed up on her credit card?  Nope, I'm going with TA error.

[Ourusualbeach]

3 minutes ago, Merion_Mom said:

 

Even if the charge never showed up on her credit card?  Nope, I'm going with TA error.

 

Thanks Carol, I missed that.

[HOSKI]

Please let us know what happened after you get all the details.  It's a great learning experience to share information.  

[cindivan]

I don’t know if it’s a  TA issue or not. But if it is, don’t think the primary issue is using a TA. Rather a particular TA. 

 

I understand many people have a strong preference and there a lot of stories supporting either side. Personnelly I prefer to take my chances with our TA of 18 years who has done a great job over a random RC phone agent who may or may not understand current policies. 

 

On our last cruise I just happened to be talking to my brother who booked directly through RC. I mentioned it was real now since we have made final payment. He hadn’t received a reminder. Or maybe he had but missed it. He called and luckily it was the last day to make final payment before his rooms would have been canceled. 

 

Good luck getting it all worked out.  And if it is a TA issue hopefully they will do what it takes to fix their mistake. 

 

 

Edited February 19, 2019 by cindivan

[ShillyShally]

19 hours ago, erby2283 said:

 

Glad you got your cabin back but I'm with you - if you don't get the discounts on the excursions and other things you booked, I'd be pretty po'd too.

Agreed, hope they make everything right and throw in something for the trouble!  Heck I check the prices of the drink package and my excursion and even though I only booked in January prices for the 4 of us have gone up enough I saved $100 booking those things earlier.

[waterbug123]

21 hours ago, robsmom said:

Update:  my agent was able to get my cabin back and is working on the details.   Hopefully I will know the entire answer today  

 

My money says that no matter what happened, your TA will blame it on the cruise line, so you'll never really know for sure.  You think he/she will admit to "It's my fault, I forgot to make the payment?"   I highly doubt it.

 

12 hours ago, cindivan said:

 Personnelly I prefer to take my chances with our TA of 18 years who has done a great job over a random RC phone agent who may or may not understand current policies. 

 

In my case described previously, it was a very experienced TA, who has worked with my BF's family for many years.  Initially my BF absolutely refused to believe that it could have been her fault, because he felt she was so experienced and such a professional that it was just out of the question that she could make a mistake like that.  TAs are human and humans can make mistakes.  But I would have much more respect for her if she had simply owned up to it.

[robsmom]

Still waiting.  As of end of yesterday the TA indicated that the cabin was reserved, but the department ar RCCL that he needs to apply my old deposit was closed for the holiday yesterday.  If all works out, I do not necessarily care who’s fault it is.   If I need to fight for things, then I will really care.  I am leaning towards it is the TA’s fault.   I have 2 cabins  booked with him for my parents and us in September.   Will revisit those if I do not get the right resolution.   

[puppycanducruise]

Good luck.  I hope you get a satisfactory resolution.

[LB_NJ]

I do use TAs from time to time, when there is enough goodies (e.g., OBC) to make it worthwhile.  Most of the time Big Box Warehouse TA version.  

 

However,  I always pay the final payment at least 2 weeks before it is due,  check to make sure it cleared the credit card company, and also verify that the cruise line shows the payment was made.  Although, the cruise lines won't tell you any details you can normally get them to tell you if final payment was made.  If necessary get the TA on the call with the cruise line.

 

It is a little bit of a pain however I factor all this in when deciding if I should use a TA.

 

If the TA screwed this up they should make good on all your cost increases. 

[BAYA]

On 2/18/2019 at 9:47 PM, cindivan said:

On our last cruise I just happened to be talking to my brother who booked directly through RC. I mentioned it was real now since we have made final payment. He hadn’t received a reminder. Or maybe he had but missed it. He called and luckily it was the last day to make final payment before his rooms would have been canceled. 

 

 

 

 I’ve booked the majority of my cruises directly with the cruise lines. I have never received a reminder when final payment was coming due. I didn’t know they even do that. One time I realized I’d missed the final payment day by One day but luckily my cabin had not been canceled and I was able to pay in full. That was on Celebrity. 

 

[knon24]

Since this thread has been revived.. I'm very curious to what the final outcome was.