RCCL bogus new policy, buyers beware!

[mikna]

Sorry everyone I can't type or process info fast enough to keep up with the barrage of replies. I'm trying.

[DirtyDawg]

13 minutes ago, mikna said:

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

It looks like these are the ports,  Port of Spain, Trinidad, Castries, St. Lucia, Scarborough, Tobago, Roseau, Dominica, Kingstown, St. Vincent, and St. George's, Grenada. Sounds like fun! And the prices are dirt cheap. Insides are just over $200 for the week.  🥳 For that price RCL can money grab on the excursions all they want!

 

Thanks for posting, If I can swing it I might be on that cruise with you! Off to check on flights!

 

 

 

[PolytheneGirl]

Just now, mikna said:

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

 

Possibly but they also run the risk of losing money with people cancelling instead so its not that simple? 

I'll be honest - I am fully expecting at least one of my ports for my Med cruise next year to still be like that. We had that suspicion when we booked so we booked something that we'd be ok with their tours or staying on the ship. 

I guess its partly about research and managing expectations. 

[mikna]

8 minutes ago, Magicat said:

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.

Thanks. We will. I just want to let others know before they book a RCCL cruise.

[dcgrumpy]

If you're leaving from Barbados the change has nothing to do with RCCL. Barbados has changed their policy. 

[dcgrumpy]

1 minute ago, mikna said:

Thanks. We will. I just want to let others know before they book a RCCL cruise.

It has nothing to do with RCCL. The reason for the change is a change in policy from the Barbados Government. 

[mikna]

6 minutes ago, davekathy said:

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. 

I tried, but they would NOT refund. We tried going through our credit card, but couldn't get the deposit back as it was too long ago. RCCL did offer us credit on a future cruise, but we want no part of RCCL after this. We will go back to using Norwegian for cheap & Silversea for luxury.

[mikna]

6 minutes ago, DirtyDawg said:

It looks like these are the ports,  Port of Spain, Trinidad, Castries, St. Lucia, Scarborough, Tobago, Roseau, Dominica, Kingstown, St. Vincent, and St. George's, Grenada. Sounds like fun! And the prices are dirt cheap. Insides are just over $200 for the week.  🥳 For that price RCL can money grab on the excursions all they want!

 

Thanks for posting, If I can swing it I might be on that cruise with you! Off to check on flights!

 

 

 

Don't forget you will have to pay them extra to get off of the ship, have to add that in.

 

I hope you enjoy your cruise!

[mikna]

6 minutes ago, PolytheneGirl said:

 

Possibly but they also run the risk of losing money with people cancelling instead so its not that simple? 

I'll be honest - I am fully expecting at least one of my ports for my Med cruise next year to still be like that. We had that suspicion when we booked so we booked something that we'd be ok with their tours or staying on the ship. 

I guess its partly about research and managing expectations. 

We did a LOT of research for this cruise. We found nothing stating that we would be held captive on that ship until we paid RCCL to debark. If we had, we would not have booked. Maybe you know a better place to search?

[PolytheneGirl]

1 minute ago, mikna said:

We did a LOT of research for this cruise. We found nothing stating that we would be held captive on that ship until we paid RCCL to debark. If we had, we would not have booked. Maybe you know a better place to search?

 

Maybe thats where managing expectations come into play? 

All I'm trying to say is that its fluid at the moment, things change. You could book the day before the ship departs and you might still be subject to changes in policy coming into play. Unfortunately it is what it is at the moment. 

As I said we booked somethign where we were happy to stay on the ship as well as get off. 

[mikna]

6 minutes ago, dcgrumpy said:

It has nothing to do with RCCL. The reason for the change is a change in policy from the Barbados Government. 

According to RCCL and the government person in Barbados I spoke with (don't remember a name) that is not correct. Even RCCL has repeatedly stated this is their own self-instituted policy.

[mikna]

Ok everyone I have to go to work, so won't be able to reply for a while. I'll get back to it tonight. Cheers!

 

[zekekelso]

First, I just want to thank the OP for the Bill and Ted reference. Always welcome. Second, if (if!) RCI is setting requirements above and beyond what the country requires, they won’t be the only ones. I know for example MSC is bubble excursion only for Mediterranean ports even though the ports don’t require it. 
 

[SMMRLUVN]

Another thing that is irritating is that shore excursions are selling out faster than I'm used to. If they are going to implement this, how about more than ONE of a certain activity, and wouldn't that also help with the crowding issue?

[mikna]

1 minute ago, SMMRLUVN said:

Another thing that is irritating is that shore excursions are selling out faster than I'm used to. If they are going to implement this, how about more than ONE of a certain activity, and wouldn't that also help with the crowding issue?

That's a great idea! Or they could just not impose the unnecessary, money-grab onerous policy in the first place.

[PolytheneGirl]

I read somethign on here that a lot of the cruise companies (not just Royal) were struggling to do more tours because of the fact that the people who run them are either not availble, are migratory/seasonal workers, etc so maybe that? 

Also - just speaking to my husband on this very topic and he mentioned that maybe that they are looking at the fact some ports have higher case numbers? So bubble excursions helps them to protect against people bringing cases back on board? (specifically thinking of the EU ports where it isn't required as such but numbers are vastly rising - maybe a way to continue cruising and protect the ships? Although, again from reading on here, I think some of the islands aer also seeing case numbers go up?) 

[HBE4]

35 minutes ago, mikna said:

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

 

I'm somewhat, pretty sure (at least 89.4% sure) that once an excursion is sold out, it is no longer visible in the cruise planner.  If someone cancels and frees up space, then the excusion will show up again.

 

Check back regularly and again when on the ship.  Good luck, hopefully in this era of ever changing policies by the minute, things go in your favor.  Don't be surprised if the itinerary changes a few days before sailaway.

[mikna]

Just now, HBE4 said:

 

I'm somewhat, pretty sure (at least 89.4% sure) that once an excursion is sold out, it is no longer visible in the cruise planner.  If someone cancels and frees up space, then the excusion will show up again.

 

Check back regularly and again when on the ship.  Good luck, hopefully in this era of ever changing policies by the minute, things go in your favor.  Don't be surprised if the itinerary changes a few days before sailaway.

We have been watching the excursion list for a long time. I even called RCCL and (after a 95 minute wait) they said they have no scuba excursions currently offered for this cruise.

[BirdTravels]

1 hour 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.

So same post, but it is no longer "illegal" to restrict Shore Excursions. 

 

And the response is the same. Right on the Royal Caribbean home page, same place as for the duration of the pandemic, is a link that clearly says "Learn about current health protocols and travel requirements." Should a passenger desire to learn about restrictions before buying a cruise, this is the place to go. There is no reason to flame the cruise line for providing the information required to make informed decisions is questionable. 

 

Royal would be more than happy to allow passengers to wander off on their own. It just happens that the countries that you want to visit don't want dirty Americans mixing in with the locals spreading disease. So, the countries you are visiting, not Royal Caribbean are restricting you to ship's tours which can be controlled and regulated by those countries. Not a money grab. Just compliance with the local regulations. 

 

If these protocols, which have been posted for a long time, are not to your liking, cancel the cruise. 

[chaswelf]

This should not be a surprise it's listed right on Royals healthy sailing page for Barbados departures.

[ZoeyVictoria]

The choice is yours - comply or don’t cruise.

[mikna]

2 minutes ago, BirdTravels said:

So same post, but it is no longer "illegal" to restrict Shore Excursions. 

 

And the response is the same. Right on the Royal Caribbean home page, same place as for the duration of the pandemic, is a link that clearly says "Learn about current health protocols and travel requirements." Should a passenger desire to learn about restrictions before buying a cruise, this is the place to go. There is no reason to flame the cruise line for providing the information required to make informed decisions is questionable. 

 

Royal would be more than happy to allow passengers to wander off on their own. It just happens that the countries that you want to visit don't want dirty Americans mixing in with the locals spreading disease. So, the countries you are visiting, not Royal Caribbean are restricting you to ship's tours which can be controlled and regulated by those countries. Not a money grab. Just compliance with the local regulations. 

 

If these protocols, which have been posted for a long time, are not to your liking, cancel the cruise. 

Wow people seem really desperate to clear RCCL's name. 

-I never, ever said anything about it being illegal.  

-We went to their 'health protocals' links before purchasing our tickets, and there was no mention of this policy. RCCL admitted to us, on the phone 4 times, that they instituted this policy after we booked. We did not "flame the cruise line for providing the information required to make informed decisions" we are unhappy with them changing the rules, AFTER we booked, to not let us off the ship unless we pay them money.

-These policies are NOT the individual Island policies! The individual countries allow us to get off at ports & use local providers. Really. I've personally spoken to them. Have you? This is, by their own admission, a RCCL policy.

 

 

 

 

[BirdTravels]

1 hour ago, mikna said:

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

Royal Caribbean is very good about bombarding passengers with emails about the protocols that are in effect for their cruise. If a passenger chose not to read those emails until a week before their cruise, that was their choice. The protocols are communicated over and over to avoid misunderstandings and to set expectations. We have been on multiple post-restart cruises and I am confident that the passengers on this cruise have got frequent emails as their cruise as it has gotten closer.

 

This type of passenger behavior is not uncommon across the cruise industry. Other lines have had issues with large number of passengers showing up to check-in without the requisite paperwork and registrations to travel to countries like Bermuda. And, sadly, some have been left behind on the dock if they don't have the information required to register before the ships departure. 

Edited November 23, 2021 by BirdTravels

[volk904]

So what your theory is Royal they allows passengers in other ports like St Martaan and St. Thomas and Mexico  has decided on your cruise only there is restrictions?  
 

There is a reason they are doing it either in Barbados and the other ports.  Maybe their covid levels are higher. 
 

I thought the cruise with confidence allows you to cancel until the week of the cruise?

[BirdTravels]

3 minutes ago, mikna said:

Wow people seem really desperate to clear RCCL's name. 

There are published protocols for this cruise which have been communicated repeatedly. If passengers fail to read the protocols, then it is hard to blame Royal Caribbean's fault. The post clearly shows that the passenger has finally taken the time to read the protocols.