RCI Playing Games? Bait and switch?

[Milwaukee Eight]

15 hours ago, sfaaa said:

Not a lawyer either. But when a seller knowingly sells or advertises a product it can no longer deliver sounds like fraud to me.

The ships are not flagged in the US. 

[Milwaukee Eight]

10 hours ago, SRF said:

 

This is the problem.

 

They KNOW that the cruise will not sail.  But they keep taking money for it.

I am about to dispute the charge with my card company.

To me, it would be a huge risk to make final payment for a March cruise. If it sails, I believe it would be at a reduced capacity. 
 

M8

[A&L_Ont]

When we saw the CDC order, well before final for our March week cruise, we just cancelled before final payment and took the FCC for our no refundable Star Class sailing.
 

I wouldn’t have made final payment on any cabin, just to get my full payment and deposit back. Either the FCC will be good in a year or no one is ever cruising again. I’d sooner risk $530 in FCC than pay the full cruise off, only to have them change their policy or declare bankruptcy etc. It’s not the option I like but it is the smartest one. 
 

I’m not sure why the OP would not cancel before final and get their deposit back, or if it is non-refundable realize they booked it that way for a reason well before the pandemic was acknowledged. It is not much of a benefit but at least people aren’t getting docked a $100 fee before the FFC.

Edited December 8, 2020 by A&L_Ont

[Milwaukee Eight]

5 minutes ago, A&L_Ont said:

When we saw the CDC order, well before final for our March week cruise, we just cancelled before final payment and took the FCC for our no refundable Star Class sailing.
 

I wouldn’t have made final payment on any cabin, just to get my full payment and deposit back. Either the FCC will be good in a year or no one is ever cruising again. I’d sooner risk $530 in FCC than pay the full cruise off, only to have them change their policy or declare bankruptcy etc. It’s not the option I like but it is the smartest one. 
 

I’m not sure why the OP would not cancel before final and get their deposit back, or if it is non-refundable realize they booked it that way for a reason well before the pandemic was acknowledged. It is not much of a benefit but at least people aren’t getting docked a $100 fee before the FFC.

Our strategy as well with our non refundable deposits. 
 

M8

[poocher]

Cancelled our March Rhapsody sailing yesterday ☹️.  Final payment was due Sunday and I could not justify handing over more money at this time.  We already have a L & S for March 2022 on Harmony so will have our TA apply the FCC to that.  The uncertainty was driving me nuts (ok not a long drive these days!)

[molly361]

30 minutes ago, Milwaukee Eight said:

To me, it would be a huge risk to make final payment for a March cruise. If it sails, I believe it would be at a reduced capacity. 
 

M8

And IF they do sail in March I would be very surprised if they are 7 day ones

Edited December 8, 2020 by molly361

[bigrednole]

16 hours ago, sfaaa said:

Not a lawyer either. But when a seller knowingly sells or advertises a product it can no longer deliver sounds like fraud to me.

Then Sony is in a lot of trouble with the PS5. The cruise line can sell anything and everything it wants. To them until directly stated by the CDC it is available. They have not been pressured to cancel March cruises, yet. One of those slapping healer preachers could be the miracle we are looking for. On December 25th, everyone can tune in, put their head on their tv, and let him slap the covid from everyone and make everyone immune. That way cruising can begin immediately (for those that are Sheldon Cooper...that was sarcasm).

 

The reality is there could be more than enough vaccine available where that cruise could take place if the requirements are changed to allow vaccinated sailings. All the cruise lines are better off delaying as long as possible to cancel cruises. Be thankful they are doing it several weeks/months out. They could wait until day-of. 

[Sunshine3601]

18 hours ago, SRF said:

So, CDC put out cruise guidelines on October 23, 2020.  As I understand it, all cruises over 7 nights are NOT allowed up through at least November 2021.

 

If this is the case, why is RCI taking final payments on 12 night cruises in March of 2021??????

 

This is at least dishonest, and at worse, maybe illegal.

Remember you have options.  You can lift and shift your sailing to a cruise feb/mar or april of 2022.    Have you checked your l&s options on their website?

Or You can move your deposit to a new booking 

Or you can request a fcc for your deposit if it was NRD

Or you can make final payment then when the 12 night is cancelled you get full cash refund.

 

 

[hloakes]

18 minutes ago, Sunshine3601 said:

Remember you have options.  You can lift and shift your sailing to a cruise feb/mar or april of 2022.    Have you checked your l&s options on their website?

Or You can move your deposit to a new booking 

Or you can request a fcc for your deposit if it was NRD

Or you can make final payment then when the 12 night is cancelled you get full cash refund.

 

 

 

One of the problems is they have increased the prices a lot for future cruises. When we booked our eight night in July we had no idea this would be going on and now may be punished. I do not want a L&S that has a short expiration. My wife is a teacher so we have limited time when we can go. 

[nelblu]

1 hour ago, Milwaukee Eight said:

To me, it would be a huge risk to make final payment for a March cruise. If it sails, I believe it would be at a reduced capacity. 
 

M8

That's the rub.  I have 4 cabins for the Easter Anthem sail.  How will they determine who sails or who doesn't.  My suspicion is that this sail will not occur if it's depending on vaccines.  My TA usually takes final payment  month prior to RCL. This did not occur and was told that they are trying to follow RCL timeline.

 

Ps.  I booked Oasis sail for Sept. '21 as the price for a CP balcony was a steal, between the balcony discount, residential and senior discounts.  Plus, I needed to apply my FCC and bottom line it will cost me $760 for a solo.  As my FCC is not  at risk, unless the company goes belly-up, I'm gambling/investing the deposit for the bottom line price of the cruise.

 

[lovescats5]

It gets a little tiring hearing everyone bash RCI.  I know they could do things different and maybe better but I do not think they are any different than the other cruise lines.  I have a friend who had Disney booked and had trouble with their cancellation also.  The CDC has become the new God and they are doing whatever they want and it is all political.  Get rid of Fauci and things could get much better.  As for Twangster, we were also caught in the Allure fiasco and they put us on Liberty.  My TA was not in the office (go figure, he never is) so someone else called Royal with me on the line and I talked to 3 different people and got our reservation moved to Symphony, still in the A1 we had at a price protected price.  We saved over $15,000 because I was not willing to accept the Liberty transfer.  Of course, this is a political post so will probably get deleted.  Oh well..

[Mikew0805]

13 hours ago, twangster said:

The whole CDC gag order rubs me the wrong way.  It's one thing for a public health agency to issue an order limiting the operational length of a cruise for public health purposes.  It's another matter to regulate what a company is allowed to talk about a year in the future.  

 

"If you even talk about a cruise longer than 7 days we are shutting you down".  

 

That ventures into a freedom of speech issue.  They banned them from operating a cruise longer than 7 days.  Why ban marketing activities?  Government overreach pure and simple.  Stick to operational bans, stay away from gag orders.  

 

I could not agree more.

[firefly333]

13 minutes ago, lovescats5 said:

It gets a little tiring hearing everyone bash RCI.  I know they could do things different and maybe better but I do not think they are any different than the other cruise lines.  I have a friend who had Disney booked and had trouble with their cancellation also.  The CDC has become the new God and they are doing whatever they want and it is all political.  Get rid of Fauci and things could get much better.  As for Twangster, we were also caught in the Allure fiasco and they put us on Liberty.  My TA was not in the office (go figure, he never is) so someone else called Royal with me on the line and I talked to 3 different people and got our reservation moved to Symphony, still in the A1 we had at a price protected price.  We saved over $15,000 because I was not willing to accept the Liberty transfer.  Of course, this is a political post so will probably get deleted.  Oh well..

I took the liberty transfer. But my awesome ta got me a corner aft. I certainly didnt save a ton like you, but I still wanted to go.

 

Once covid is over I want to look at something more exotic, but I really wanted allure. Lol I lost jewel too, I'm going to be liberty 'd out. 

 

I saw some blogger named Bruce last night, who seemed to want to stir things up. The title of that blog was something like are these ponzi schemes. He says some cruisers have filed lawsuits in florida...but didnt say which line. There was a ncl ship in the picture I recognized from the garish decorations on the ship.

 

He gave a example of a guy bought a europe for 8k, got 125%, next cruise was 12k, ok, cancelled, now the next one is at 15k, he asks for a refund, and they say all he can have is future cruise credit. The 125% sounds more like celebrity or rcl? Idk if ponzi schemes are the right word. I decided those fcc are hard to use and the 2nd cancellation I asked for a refund, only took 1 smallish fcc. .. which naturally I havent been able to use as there are no cruises sailing yet. 

 

But it does sound like a few have filed cases to get their money refunded. 

[Jeremiah1212]

How come no one had issues paying deposits, sometimes years in advance, when cruises were sailing? The whole bait and switch (which it is not), ponzi scheme, interest free loan, etc. discussion is nonsense. Cruise lines have structured their debt this year for years. Why not just cancel the cruise now? 

 

Cruise lines in general are certainly not free from fault here. Early on they did very, very little to help themselves and unfortunately are now feeling the ramifications of their inaction. 

 

[firefly333]

11 minutes ago, Jeremiah1212 said:

How come no one had issues paying deposits, sometimes years in advance, when cruises were sailing? The whole bait and switch (which it is not), ponzi scheme, interest free loan, etc. discussion is nonsense. Cruise lines have structured their debt this year for years. Why not just cancel the cruise now? 

 

Cruise lines in general are certainly not free from fault here. Early on they did very, very little to help themselves and unfortunately are now feeling the ramifications of their inaction. 

 

Tbh until now I almost always booked last minute. I got pulled into this whole cancel, oh 125% bonus, great, booked ahead, cancelled, cancelled again thing, and the lift and switch. But this might be first time I've booked ahead I can remember. I get the urge to go, go look at prices and options, pick one a month or so out and hop on.

 

I have learned a lot about rcl idk reading these boards thru covid and some giving me the itch for suites and hearing artic cruises and something more exotic. But booking ahead is all new to me. I'd love to try a TA but dont dare do one right now and be where I cant get to a port every couple of days, but I'd sure like to try one, right now I'm just reading others doing it. 

Edited December 8, 2020 by firefly333

[travelhound]

21 hours ago, SRF said:

So, CDC put out cruise guidelines on October 23, 2020.  As I understand it, all cruises over 7 nights are NOT allowed up through at least November 2021.

 

If this is the case, why is RCI taking final payments on 12 night cruises in March of 2021??????

 

This is at least dishonest, and at worse, maybe illegal.

Your cruise will probably get canceled.  If you want peace of mind, then maybe you should consider doing a lift and shift to move it to 2022.

[mommao729]

Is cruise with confidence still an option?

 

i have an 8 night cruise in May. They know they aren’t going to be sailing. My final payment is due February 21st. 

 

I looked into lift & shift, that won’t work for us. I don’t want to cruise on the explorer. I heard it really needs upgrades. So that is out. That seems to be our only option. 

 

Already have an fcc applied to the cruise in May. Have another cruise in August. 7 night. I’m hoping things will be better. I have a deposit on that one. Also, have one booked for October. Paid the taxes on that one and am supposed to apply an fcc that I have. 

 

The issue I have is I keep applying fcc’s. The cruises keep getting cancelled. Don’t want to lay anymore money out. Don’t want anymore

 

Will royal give me a refund under cruise with confidence if i used an fcc? I also have onboard credit from switching my onboard credit over plus the extra 25%. What will happen with that?

[firefly333]

4 hours ago, hloakes said:

 

One of the problems is they have increased the prices a lot for future cruises. When we booked our eight night in July we had no idea this would be going on and now may be punished. I do not want a L&S that has a short expiration. My wife is a teacher so we have limited time when we can go. 

The 7 day mandate ends nov 1, 2021, so there may be some 8 days a year later allowed. 

 

We have all been punished or rewarded back and forth during covid. Only thing you can do is wait and see what options are given then,. Waiting drives me crazy too. I'm booked in april and everyone says for sure I will be cancelled  ... but what else can I do but wait some more? Everyone is tired of waiting. 

[Sunshine3601]

7 hours ago, hloakes said:

 

One of the problems is they have increased the prices a lot for future cruises. When we booked our eight night in July we had no idea this would be going on and now may be punished. I do not want a L&S that has a short expiration. My wife is a teacher so we have limited time when we can go. 

In your case, it is possible they may simply shorten your 8 night cruise to a 7 night cruise.    Based on the current CWC rules your July cruise would not be eligible for a L & S.

 

I have a 9 night NE/Canada cruise booked for Sept and I suspect they will either change the itinerary/shorten the cruise or cancel.    

As we have all learned with this Covid mess everything changes month by month.   

I hope and think we will be in a much better place next summer.🙂

[Ashland]

2 minutes ago, Sunshine3601 said:

In your case, it is possible they may simply shorten your 8 night cruise to a 7 night cruise.    Based on the current CWC rules your July cruise would not be eligible for a L & S.

 

I have a 9 night NE/Canada cruise booked for Sept and I suspect they will either change the itinerary/shorten the cruise or cancel.    

As we have all learned with this Covid mess everything changes month by month.   

I hope and think we will be in a much better place next summer.🙂

Ill be looking with interest what they do with your 9 nighter...we have the Oct 14th sailing.

[Barley928]

On 12/7/2020 at 2:24 PM, SRF said:

Unfortunately, I am thinking they are just doing that.

 

If they were being honest, they would have slipped the final payment date a few weeks.

 

I took FCC on the last one they canceled.  But when they cancel this one, I think I want all my money back.  Especially with them playing games.

 

But knowing RCI, if I take the FCC, they could actually give me +25% on the money that came from the previous FCC 125% deal. 😄

No they will not.  They made plenty of $ errors on FCC so far and have deducted mistakes from my clients total on their FCC.  If you use an FCC they give back the exact amount and anything you paid over it.  No doubling on 125% FCC’s already applied.  Take the 100% refund.  They do not apply them correctly and the problems and time you will put into is not worth the mounts.  Unless of course you had it from an expensive large suite.

[Hammergirl]

42 minutes ago, Barley928 said:

No they will not.  They made plenty of $ errors on FCC so far and have deducted mistakes from my clients total on their FCC.  If you use an FCC they give back the exact amount and anything you paid over it.  No doubling on 125% FCC’s already applied.  Take the 100% refund.  They do not apply them correctly and the problems and time you will put into is not worth the mounts.  Unless of course you had it from an expensive large suite.

This is true. My poor TA was on the phone with RCCL yesterday for 3 HOURS trying to get my FCC fixed. We unfortunately had a non-refundable deposit so got a $1000.00 FCC, for 4 of us. Royal put one FCC in each of my kids names and 2 in my name.....none for my husband. Because you can only apply one FCC per booking they were telling my agent they could not apply the second one in my name to my other cruise. She argued and argued with them that one of them belonged to my husband and they said she needed to speak to a supervisor (who of course was not available to speak with her and would need to call her back). As of last night she still had not heard back from anyone. This jacking people around has completely turned us off of cruising.

[firefly333]

16 minutes ago, Hammergirl said:

This is true. My poor TA was on the phone with RCCL yesterday for 3 HOURS trying to get my FCC fixed. We unfortunately had a non-refundable deposit so got a $1000.00 FCC, for 4 of us. Royal put one FCC in each of my kids names and 2 in my name.....none for my husband. Because you can only apply one FCC per booking they were telling my agent they could not apply the second one in my name to my other cruise. She argued and argued with them that one of them belonged to my husband and they said she needed to speak to a supervisor (who of course was not available to speak with her and would need to call her back). As of last night she still had not heard back from anyone. This jacking people around has completely turned us off of cruising.

By the time my 2nd cruise was cancelled, and rules to apply had changed at least 3 times, including couldn't use for deposit   ....I asked for a refund for my 2nd cancelled cruise. Of course the rules changed again and now you can apply fcc to deposit. .. at least now they seem to have decided on a set of rules.

 

Sorry you are having this problem. Your ta should be able to handle it, dont sweat it. Surely your ta is capable of getting it fixed. Sorry you dont have my ta. 

[Hammergirl]

9 minutes ago, firefly333 said:

By the time my 2nd cruise was cancelled, and rules to apply had changed at least 3 times, including couldn't use for deposit   ....I asked for a refund for my 2nd cancelled cruise. Of course the rules changed again and now you can apply fcc to deposit. .. at least now they seem to have decided on a set of rules.

 

Sorry you are having this problem. Your ta should be able to handle it, dont sweat it. Surely your ta is capable of getting it fixed. Sorry you dont have my ta. 

I am sure that it will be fixed too. I just feel really bad for my TA having to go through all this with them. I wish I could just get a refund on everything, that would be ideal. However we had suites so those deposits are non-refundable if we cancel. We cancelled our August cruise so got the FCC. We also have a March cruise booked that we know will not go, so we are applying that FCC to that and then have to pay the $6000.00 final payment in a few days only to wait for them to cancel it and at least get all the money for the March trip back. We will still have that FCC from the August cruise, but at least the exp. date will extend a little bit. I REALLY wish I could just have my money back for that one too since it looks like we will not be able to use it before it expires.

Edited December 9, 2020 by Hammergirl
added text

[Barley928]

1 hour ago, Hammergirl said:

This is true. My poor TA was on the phone with RCCL yesterday for 3 HOURS trying to get my FCC fixed. We unfortunately had a non-refundable deposit so got a $1000.00 FCC, for 4 of us. Royal put one FCC in each of my kids names and 2 in my name.....none for my husband. Because you can only apply one FCC per booking they were telling my agent they could not apply the second one in my name to my other cruise. She argued and argued with them that one of them belonged to my husband and they said she needed to speak to a supervisor (who of course was not available to speak with her and would need to call her back). As of last night she still had not heard back from anyone. This jacking people around has completely turned us off of cruising.