Oasis "Reclassifying" Cabins AGAIN

[uvadover]

Booked on holiday sailing, and this is the SECOND time we have been contacted by RCCL that cabins are being reclassified and that "We recently noticed that your stateroom's capacity cannot accommodate your party. As a result, we'll need to make a change to your stateroom."  We booked a long time in advance, chose our staterooms extremely carefully, and absolutely need connecting staterooms to accommodate our kids.  They did an initial reclassification during the summer where I had to pick new cabins - at the time, if was far enough in advance that there was some decent selection.  Now we are talking about a holiday cruise, fully paid, less than 90 days away, etc and they've told me I need to wait "a week or two" to be contacted for resolution.  That's extremely frustrating.  I know the cruise is nearly full for a holiday sailing, we have $5k worth of airline tickets purchased, etc.  Any experience with this or thoughts on how to proceed?  

[HOSKI]

Good luck, I don't understand how a cabin can suddenly hold less people.

[epanchenko]

They are adding cabins to Oasis.  In order to adhere to lifeboat limits, they have to reduce capacity of other cabins.

[uvadover]

5 minutes ago, epanchenko said:

They are adding cabins to Oasis.  In order to adhere to lifeboat limits, they have to reduce capacity of other cabins.

Maybe so, but this is the 2nd time in 4-5 months that they have recategorized MY cabins for the SAME sailing.  Just don't know how on earth that happens.  And I am going to be super ticked if I end up with crappier cabins because I really have no recourse.  $4500 worth of non-refundable airline tickets, hotels lined up for the days before the sailing...oh and I can't wait to go.  But this is tremendously frustrating, especially when they email you 1-2 weeks before they are able to talk about a proper resolution.

[kmorg1234]

I would be incredibly frustrated. Have you been able to escalate this to some higher management person?  Perhaps start sending emails up the food chain sooner rather than later so that you wind up with acceptable cabins.  It seems a little insane that they are not working with you to find you equitable (if not even better!) staterooms for your inconvenience.  I’m keeping my fingers crossed for you. 

[epanchenko]

7 minutes ago, uvadover said:

Maybe so, but this is the 2nd time in 4-5 months that they have recategorized MY cabins for the SAME sailing.  Just don't know how on earth that happens.  And I am going to be super ticked if I end up with crappier cabins because I really have no recourse.  $4500 worth of non-refundable airline tickets, hotels lined up for the days before the sailing...oh and I can't wait to go.  But this is tremendously frustrating, especially when they email you 1-2 weeks before they are able to talk about a proper resolution.

I am not saying it is right, I am just telling you the rationale.  I hope you get it resolved to your satisfaction.  I would be angry as well.

[soremekun]

All of this couldn't be figured out by Royal when the plans were finalized .... before the ship went in to be amplified?  Are they still making changes to the floor plans?

Edited October 2, 2019 by soremekun

[uvadover]

14 minutes ago, soremekun said:

All of this couldn't be figured out by Royal when the plans were finalized .... before the ship went in to be amplified?  Are they still making changes to the floor plans?

 

Beats me.  I booked last December or January.  Was contacted in May/June with exact same "issue" - cabins reclassified, so need to change cabins.  Now contacted again, inside 90 days.  The response is that I need to wait 1-2 weeks to be contacted by their special team with a resolution.  Why they didn't wait to notify when a resolution was available is beyond me.  Now I just sit and wait nervously.  I may not be as frequent of a cruiser as I would like to be, but I am RCCL Platinum, which isn't nothing.  I have been a loyal fan for many years.  This sours me big time.  And hopefully all turns out well, but not happy about the agita.

[NateUpNorth]

9 hours ago, uvadover said:

 

Beats me.  I booked last December or January.  Was contacted in May/June with exact same "issue" - cabins reclassified, so need to change cabins.  Now contacted again, inside 90 days.  The response is that I need to wait 1-2 weeks to be contacted by their special team with a resolution.  Why they didn't wait to notify when a resolution was available is beyond me.  Now I just sit and wait nervously.  I may not be as frequent of a cruiser as I would like to be, but I am RCCL Platinum, which isn't nothing.  I have been a loyal fan for many years.  This sours me big time.  And hopefully all turns out well, but not happy about the agita.

 

I think I'd be tempted to head over to one of their public social media platforms to explain your situation/ "nicely let others know"...... you may get contacted by the "special team" sooner than 1-2 weeks..............

[Sherri914]

Can I ask what type of cabin category you booked into?  (Inside, balcony, etc)  Just curious which ones they're reclassifying.  This would be incredibly frustrating.  I hope you get a satisfactory resolution. 

[Pratique]

9 hours ago, soremekun said:

All of this couldn't be figured out by Royal when the plans were finalized .... before the ship went in to be amplified?  Are they still making changes to the floor plans?

They continued to make changes to Symphony plans while construction was well underway. I don't know when the cutoff for finalizing plans occurs but it seems like they can and often do make changes very late in the process, even during construction.

 

In any event, reclassifying cabins can happen at any time and almost certainly is related to the lifeboat capacity. Why they won't honor existing reservations, though, I do not know. It feels a little like how the airlines intentionally overbook flights to make sure they are always full, and then it's luck of the draw to see who makes the final cut to board the airplane.

[vacationlover_mn]

How frustrating!

[rozen]

I am booked on Oasis in JS 

yesterday got email from RCCL that they are reclassifying the cabin and I will know the details only in 2-3 weeks

[uvadover]

1 hour ago, Sherri914 said:

Can I ask what type of cabin category you booked into?  (Inside, balcony, etc)  Just curious which ones they're reclassifying.  This would be incredibly frustrating.  I hope you get a satisfactory resolution. 

We have (or at least had) connecting standard balcony cabins.

[Iamcruzin]

11 hours ago, uvadover said:

Maybe so, but this is the 2nd time in 4-5 months that they have recategorized MY cabins for the SAME sailing.  Just don't know how on earth that happens.  And I am going to be super ticked if I end up with crappier cabins because I really have no recourse.  $4500 worth of non-refundable airline tickets, hotels lined up for the days before the sailing...oh and I can't wait to go.  But this is tremendously frustrating, especially when they email you 1-2 weeks before they are able to talk about a proper resolution.

Very  unprofessional. It's not like they didn't know about adding extra cabins in advance. These renovations are planned out. They should have shown the new deck plans and assigned the proper rooms then. I have booked cruises on other lines where they show current deck plans and future deck plans and you book according to what's available on whichever deck plan applies to your sailing.

[uvadover]

Update:  Two hours and fifteen minutes on the phones, including an escalation to a supervisor.  They've clearly nixed a bunch of the cabins that hold 3-4 people, so the 2nd of our connecting rooms with the 3 kids was the issue.  First I was told there was simply nothing that could be done, and we would just need to get two rooms next door - that's simply not an option with small kids.  Ultimately, they "found" two connecting rooms on Deck 8 (instead of Deck 12).  I was told "the good news is that it won't cost me any extra."  Needless to say, I would expect moving 4 decks DOWN to a much higher traffic deck would be less desirable and, therefore, less expensive.  I was told there would be no price accommodation.  

 

I asked why other people couldn't be shuffled around to accommodate us - perhaps there are sets of adults who don't really NEED connecting staterooms, for example, and could easily get by with nearby or next door cabins.  I was told "we can't possibly do that" - but of course, why could they move ME so easily?

 

At the end of the day, I have almost no leverage.  $4500 in flights non-refundable, cruise nearly sold out, actually cancelled a hold we had for Norwegian Escape for the same week, etc.  At the end I asked if there would be any goodwill/compensation, and the answer was a hard no.  I asked for further escalation, and that will result in a callback within 24-48 hours.  I am so beyond frustrated by this.  We're also booked on Ovation next summer and I am seriously rethinking that decision.  My platinum status may be pretty low but I am a relatively young cruiser and have been a loyal traveler many times.  

 

The representative did indicate that "quite a lot" of people were affected by this, so I'll be interested to see if there is more fanfare.  Frankly, if I had followed their direction to "wait 1-2 weeks," I would have most certainly been SOL.  

[FLACRUISER99]

Anyone think that RCI plans to increase lifeboat capacity in the future?

[Clarea]

2 minutes ago, FLACRUISER99 said:

Anyone think that RCI plans to increase lifeboat capacity in the future?

 

Have not seen that done on any Royal ship.

[FLACRUISER99]

5 minutes ago, Host Clarea said:

 

Have not seen that done on any Royal ship.

Maybe I'm missing something, Why add cabins if you have to remove folks from other cabins and have the same capacity as before?

[Clarea]

2 minutes ago, FLACRUISER99 said:

Maybe I'm missing something, Why add cabins if you have to remove folks from other cabins and have the same capacity as before?

 

Royal bean counters figure a better ROI.

[ONECRUISER]

1 hour ago, Host Clarea said:

 

Have not seen that done on any Royal ship.

Only thing close to that I imagine is with older ships Vision/Sovereign Class. As Launched they carried 3-4 Tenders each as about half or more Caribbean stops back then required them. This wasnt provided at many stops like is now. Now carrying hundreds more with added Cabins and now Lifeboats in place would assume they carry more passengers then ship Tender's did.

Edited October 2, 2019 by ONECRUISER

[Clarea]

4 minutes ago, ONECRUISER said:

Only thing close to that I imagine is with older ships Vision/Sovereign Class. As Launched they carried 3-4 Tenders each as about half or more Caribbean stops back then required them. Now carrying hundreds more with added Cabins and now Lifeboats in place would assume they carry more passengers then ship Tender's did.

 

Yep, they added staterooms to Vision class ships too.

[ONECRUISER]

3 minutes ago, Host Clarea said:

 

Yep, they added staterooms to Vision class ships too.

Then Sovereign/Majesty had 2 nice size Movie Theaters 1988-2000's until added 2 Dozen+ cabins. Miss those. On Radiance Class single smaller theater, always filled....

[Clarea]

7 minutes ago, ONECRUISER said:

Then Sovereign/Majesty had 2 nice size Movie Theaters 1988-2000's until added 2 Dozen+ cabins. Miss those. On Radiance Class single smaller theater, always filled....

 

We'e always enjoyed that theater on Radiance class.

[uvadover]

1 hour ago, FLACRUISER99 said:

Maybe I'm missing something, Why add cabins if you have to remove folks from other cabins and have the same capacity as before?

I assume it's because Guest #1 and #2 in a cabin cost more than Guests #3 and #4.  At least in my case, where I have 3 people in the second room.  They make more money selling Guest #1 and #2 in a new room, and free up the slot(s) by nixing the ability to have a 3rd or 4th guest in existing cabins.

Edited October 2, 2019 by uvadover