RCCL bogus new policy, buyers beware!

[mikna]

We have always had fantastic experiences on cruises, but this is our first Royal Caribbean cruise. We had been looking forward to it, until RCCL started changing their rules, after we booked our cruise with them. I just want to inform other consumers before they book a RCCL cruise.

 

Royal Caribbean has instituted a new, money-grab policy that cruise participants are ONLY allowed off the boat if they book a Royal Caribbean shore excursion. EVERY COUNTRY we are visiting allows us to debark as long as we are vaccinated (we are) & pre-book with an approved local provider. However Royal Caribbean won't let you off the boat to do that; you can only debark for one of their paid shore excursions. Bogus! Furthermore they say it's because the CDC mandates it that way but... they don't. And even if they did, the CDC is a US government agency, and has NO control over a Norwegian (country) ship doing business in Barbados. They won't tell you this up-front of course; they don't want people knowing that they are held captive on that ship unless you pay Royal Caribbean to depart at any of the ports. This is their own self-imposed policy. 

 

We had to spend and extra $1200.00 to RCCL just for them to let us off the ship at ports. What a money-grab! And if you are an active person, their excursions kind of suck, too, unless you like to pay $90 to ride around in a van lol. They don't offer 1 single scuba excursion, in the Caribbean of all places. Half of the reason we booked this cruise was to scuba at all of these amazing islands, yet now we can't, & the ONLY reason is because RCCL won't let us.

 

This was NOT the policy when we booked; they changed it after the payments came in. If they had been straightforward about it we would never have booked, but I guess they don't want people knowing such things until after they pay RCCL money.

 

I have included a screenshot of one of 3 emails they have sent us stating that we can only debark for paid RCCL shore excursions. I have been on the phone with them multiple times asking about it, and they have confirmed each time that 1) it is the policy & 2) that it is their own self-imposed policy. They have said it's just a coincidence that it means they get paid more of our dollars because of the policy lol. Right. We had to pay them an extra $1200.00.

 

Again, this is NOT the policy in any country we visit; this is RCCL's own policy.

 

Anyway I just want others to know this before they book an RCCL tour since RCCL won't inform you of this until after you book. It's too late for us, but maybe not for others. Buyer beware!

[davekathy]

When and what itinerary? Welcome to CC. 

[mikna]

5 minutes ago, davekathy said:

When and what itinerary? Welcome to CC. 

Grandeur of the Seas starting in Barbados.

[cahaz]

Did you put in the right departure port to come up with the sail policies?

[davekathy]

6 minutes ago, mikna said:

Grandeur of the Seas starting in Barbados.

When? Month and year? 

[Magicat]

 

11 minutes ago, mikna said:

Grandeur of the Seas starting in Barbados.

So we are on the Grandeur of the Seas sailing out of Barbados in Feb.  The only ports affected by the restriction to use a Royal excursion are St. Vincent, Grenada and Trinidad.  Unless this has changed since our last email from Royal.  Here is diving excursion offered by Royal on their website for our cruise date.  Do you need some guidance on how to navigate their website to seek out excursions?

 

[mikna]

9 minutes ago, davekathy said:

When? Month and year? 

Not sure why that matters, but December 2021. Our flight leaves in a week.

[Magicat]

[davekathy]

2 minutes ago, mikna said:

Not sure why that matters, but December 2021. Our flight leaves in a week.

I tell ya why it matters as there are different itineraries leaving Barbados based on month and year. 

[mikna]

1 minute ago, not-enough-cruising said:

Sorry, ROYAL didn’t change anything. Individual  island policies are changing all the time. 
If one can’t accept that reality the. They should ask for their money back. 

But it's NOT the individual Island's policies. You would know this if you read either my entire post or the email I attached. The individual Islands allow us as, as vaccinated passengers, to debark for a local provider's tour. However RCCL doesn't allow it.

[mikna]

11 minutes ago, Magicat said:

 

So we are on the Grandeur of the Seas sailing out of Barbados in Feb.  The only ports affected by the restriction to use a Royal excursion are St. Vincent, Grenada and Trinidad.  Unless this has changed since our last email from Royal.  Here is diving excursion offered by Royal on their website for our cruise date.  Do you need some guidance on how to navigate their website to seek out excursions?

 

That's great for you that they offer scuba diving on your cruise. They don't on ours.

[Joseph2017China]

Well, the poster, and his friends were unable to read, and know that cruises destinations have been changing all the time, and each cruise you book, you take a risk of a change.  It's sad, but they want to blame others, or companies, but can never blame themselves for not keeping up to date with the ever changing rules at each port.  This is not a CDC policy, a RCCL policy, but rather a policy of independent countries.  

[PolytheneGirl]

3 minutes ago, mikna said:

But it's NOT the individual Island's policies. You would know this if you read either my entire post or the email I attached. The individual Islands allow us as, as vaccinated passengers, to debark for a local provider's tour. However RCCL doesn't allow it.

 

Which ports are you visiting?

[soremekun]

Inside info.  Here's the new RCG logo:

 

[Magicat]

2 minutes ago, mikna said:

That's great for you that they offer scuba diving on your cruise. They don't on ours.

Yeah that would suck if you were looking forward to something like that.  Like some here have mentioned, things are constantly changing.  Hope you can make the best of it.

[mikna]

1 minute ago, Joseph2017China said:

Well, the poster, and his friends were unable to read, and know that cruises destinations have been changing all the time, and each cruise you book, you take a risk of a change.  It's sad, but they want to blame others, or companies, but can never blame themselves for not keeping up to date with the ever changing rules at each port.  This is not a CDC policy, a RCCL policy, but rather a policy of independent countries.  

Man how many times do I have to write this... This is NOT the policy of the individual countries. I have personally contacted the individual islands we are visiting. RCCL have admitted to me 4 times on the telephone that it is their own policy, and NOT the individual islands.

[PolytheneGirl]

2 minutes ago, mikna said:

Man how many times do I have to write this... This is NOT the policy of the individual countries. I have personally contacted the individual islands we are visiting. RCCL have admitted to me 4 times on the telephone that it is their own policy, and NOT the individual islands.

 

Maybe they feel that putting this policy in place across the board is easier than having one thing on one island, one thing on another, etc? 

[Biker19]

5 minutes ago, mikna said:

You would know this if you read either my entire post or the email I attached.

Instead of relying on either the email version or the web site version of what's allowed from RCI, spend some time reading actual cruises to those ports and see what people actually encounter realizing things can change at any time.

 

Perhaps you don't know, but RCI's messaging both via email, Twitter, social media and web site have had and sometimes still have "inaccuracies".

[roseybaby]

41 minutes ago, mikna said:

We have always had fantastic experiences on cruises, but this is our first Royal Caribbean cruise. We had been looking forward to it, until RCCL started changing their rules, after we booked our cruise with them. I just want to inform other consumers before they book a RCCL cruise.

 

Royal Caribbean has instituted a new, money-grab policy that cruise participants are ONLY allowed off the boat if they book a Royal Caribbean shore excursion. EVERY COUNTRY we are visiting allows us to debark as long as we are vaccinated (we are) & pre-book with an approved local provider. However Royal Caribbean won't let you off the boat to do that; you can only debark for one of their paid shore excursions. Bogus! Furthermore they say it's because the CDC mandates it that way but... they don't. And even if they did, the CDC is a US government agency, and has NO control over a Norwegian (country) ship doing business in Barbados. They won't tell you this up-front of course; they don't want people knowing that they are held captive on that ship unless you pay Royal Caribbean to depart at any of the ports. This is their own self-imposed policy. 

 

We had to spend and extra $1200.00 to RCCL just for them to let us off the ship at ports. What a money-grab! And if you are an active person, their excursions kind of suck, too, unless you like to pay $90 to ride around in a van lol. They don't offer 1 single scuba excursion, in the Caribbean of all places. Half of the reason we booked this cruise was to scuba at all of these amazing islands, yet now we can't, & the ONLY reason is because RCCL won't let us.

 

This was NOT the policy when we booked; they changed it after the payments came in. If they had been straightforward about it we would never have booked, but I guess they don't want people knowing such things until after they pay RCCL money.

 

I have included a screenshot of one of 3 emails they have sent us stating that we can only debark for paid RCCL shore excursions. I have been on the phone with them multiple times asking about it, and they have confirmed each time that 1) it is the policy & 2) that it is their own self-imposed policy. They have said it's just a coincidence that it means they get paid more of our dollars because of the policy lol. Right. We had to pay them an extra $1200.00.

 

Again, this is NOT the policy in any country we visit; this is RCCL's own policy.

 

Anyway I just want others to know this before they book an RCCL tour since RCCL won't inform you of this until after you book. It's too late for us, but maybe not for others. Buyer beware!

It’s a small price to pay for remaining COVID free and enjoying the cruise. We were disappointed that we had to cancel our private tours in Spain but we were thrilled to travel to Europe again and RCCL did an outstanding job in keeping all safe.  The world is different, try to adapt.  

[mikna]

11 minutes ago, davekathy said:

I tell ya why it matters as there are different itineraries leaving Barbados based on month and year. 

I get that, sorry if I sounded snarky. I didn't mean to. I just thought it wouldn't matter what month we left because the policy would be the same.

[davekathy]

1 minute ago, mikna said:

Man how many times do I have to write this... This is NOT the policy of the individual countries. I have personally contacted the individual islands we are visiting. RCCL have admitted to me 4 times on the telephone that it is their own policy, and NOT the individual islands.

Bingo. RC's policies trumps the islands policies. Their ship their rules. Cancel your cruise and tell RC  you disagree with RCs protocols concerning this. 

[mikna]

1 minute ago, PolytheneGirl said:

 

Maybe they feel that putting this policy in place across the board is easier than having one thing on one island, one thing on another, etc? 

Maybe. Maybe they can get a bunch of extra $ out of their customers this way. 

[dcgrumpy]

4 minutes ago, mikna said:

Man how many times do I have to write this... This is NOT the policy of the individual countries. I have personally contacted the individual islands we are visiting. RCCL have admitted to me 4 times on the telephone that it is their own policy, and NOT the individual islands.

Which ports?

[davekathy]

1 minute ago, mikna said:

I get that, sorry if I sounded snarky. I didn't mean to. I just thought it wouldn't matter what month we left because the policy would be the same.

Only if the ports were the same for each month and year. 

[cured]

...

Edited November 23, 2021 by cured