Royal Caribbean Covid change of policy Email?

[nlcentralchmps03]

Where are you sailing out of? Interestingly enough, we received the below email from Royal for our Stockholm departure today

 

 

[Ferry_Watcher]

The OP might as well cruise without the grandchild, as it appears that the child's mother will not allow the 12 yr old to be vaccinated.  The grandchild may decide to be vaccinated herself when turning the legal age in her home country.  Until then, the grandparents should enjoy travelling while they are still in good health. 

[topnole]

2 hours ago, nlcentralchmps03 said:

Where are you sailing out of? Interestingly enough, we received the below email from Royal for our Stockholm departure today

 

 

This is very interesting.  Thanks for sharing.   

[Elmer_Fudd]

On 6/7/2022 at 1:16 AM, Biker19 said:

Curious, what good would such an email do at this point? You know the policy and good luck with getting a refund but rehashing the very poor communications on RCI's and TA's part won't solve your problem. You, like many others before you, have figured out that RCI sucks at messaging - as the saying goes, let it go, get your refund and move on.

Real simple - we just wanted to see exactly what information re the change in covid policy was sent out and by whom - travel agent and/or Royal Caribbean so we could go back armed with this to our travel agent.

[Biker19]

3 minutes ago, Elmer_Fudd said:

Real simple - we just wanted to see exactly what information re the change in covid policy was sent out and by whom - travel agent and/or Royal Caribbean so we could go back armed with this to our travel agent.

RCI messaging is so inconsistent not everyone gets the messages. So even if someone else got it, doesn’t mean it was sent either to you or the TA. You already know the policy changed (to what it is now) sometime after you booked. Not sure what you expect the TA to do?

[Elmer_Fudd]

On 6/7/2022 at 12:34 AM, icsys said:

I am sure the OP is FULLY AWARE of covid and has already stated that at time of booking a child aged 14 only required a negative covid test prior to boarding.

 

The OP seems to suggest a lack of notification of policy changes rather than no knowledge of any policies at all.

Thanks for your post icsys, much appreciated as that is exactly how we see it.

 

Anyhow, we have now managed to unravel what went wrong - our TA called RC over the 'phone with our booking and somehow RC had a letter missing from our email address, hence we received no notifications of changes to the Covid policy for minors from RC.

 

Our TA insists the fault lies 100% with RC, but personally I feel there may be blame on both sides and am very surprised that confirmation of the booking made by phone was not then followed up with an email to RC or that RC did not then send confirmation back to the TA?  If they did it clearly wasn't checked properly to ensure the vital details were correct.  

 

So a big thank-you to all those who contributed positively with constructive comments.  No thanks go to the poster who felt it acceptable to be sarcastic when we were having a tough time and were simply looking for help and maybe some answers.  Cured? I doubt you ever will be.

[Itchy&Scratchy]

On 6/6/2022 at 7:34 PM, icsys said:

I am sure the OP is FULLY AWARE of covid and has already stated that at time of booking a child aged 14 only required a negative covid test prior to boarding.

well, if someone booked a 2022 cruise back in Jan 2020 - there wouldn't even be a negative covid test requirement at the time of booking. Could that be used as a justification for not following the protocols for a 2022 sailing?

 

On 6/6/2022 at 7:34 PM, icsys said:

The OP seems to suggest a lack of notification of policy changes rather than no knowledge of any policies at all.

 

if her TA didn't provide RCI with her correct contact info - then TA is to blame for the "lack" of notifications. 

Edited June 8, 2022 by Itchy&Scratchy

[Another_Critic]

8 minutes ago, Itchy&Scratchy said:

if her TA didn't provide RCI with her correct contact info - then TA is to blame for the "lack" of notifications. 

Based on the OP provided information, I would put most of the blame on the TA (assuming OP gave the correct information) and some blame on OP for not verifying that the information was correct on both the RCCL invoice and the TA invoice.

 

Of course, I don't know the 3 sides of the story.

[cured]

On 6/6/2022 at 5:34 PM, icsys said:

I am sure the OP is FULLY AWARE of covid and has already stated that at time of booking a child aged 14 only required a negative covid test prior to boarding.

 

The OP seems to suggest a lack of notification of policy changes rather than no knowledge of any policies at all.

He is asking for ADDITIONAL compensation over and above the refund because he did not get an email. That is absurd in this world of non-stop covid news, at least from Royal Caribbean.

 

He absolutely deserves a refund and maybe even some OBC from the spectacularly poor TA. I can't believe a TA doesn't have enough customers to not know about vaccine mandates because they didn't get one customer's email letter.  What about all the other customers? Isn't it the TA's job to keep up on protocols?

Edited June 8, 2022 by cured

[cured]

On 6/6/2022 at 5:54 PM, Weim said:

The rules on covid have changed so much and been up and down for the last few years. But, I do believe if you book with a reputable travel agent then it is up to them to inform you of the current changes in policies. Sounds like this is either down to the travel agents in question or Royal Caribbean themselves.  Strange how they decided on an age of 12 and above for vaccinations on ‘children’ yet under 16’s can’t go in the ‘adult’ section of the cruise ships! 

The 12 and older was not randomly decided by Royal Caribbean. It is the age range for the next set of FDA approved vaccines.  Cruise lines either have their vaccination set at 5 and above or 12 and above.

 

How in the world do you see a link between the age range for an adult area and the FDA age ranges for vaccines?

[coops]

Sorry but you really should have been checking Protocols on vaccination status updates. Things can change daily. Of course your TA is going to blame RCCL . But really it is up to the consumer to know what you need to travel if its on a plane , train or cruise. No compensation should be awarded. Sorry. But hopefully a lesson learned. Hopefully you will get your full money back. 

[Sunshine3601]

5 hours ago, Elmer_Fudd said:

Thanks for your post icsys, much appreciated as that is exactly how we see it.

 

Anyhow, we have now managed to unravel what went wrong - our TA called RC over the 'phone with our booking and somehow RC had a letter missing from our email address, hence we received no notifications of changes to the Covid policy for minors from RC.

 

Our TA insists the fault lies 100% with RC, but personally I feel there may be blame on both sides and am very surprised that confirmation of the booking made by phone was not then followed up with an email to RC or that RC did not then send confirmation back to the TA?  If they did it clearly wasn't checked properly to ensure the vital details were correct.  

 

So a big thank-you to all those who contributed positively with constructive comments.  No thanks go to the poster who felt it acceptable to be sarcastic when we were having a tough time and were simply looking for help and maybe some answers.  Cured? I doubt you ever will be.

I am sorry if I missed the update.    But what was the outcome.     Were you able to cancel and get full refund or are they issuing a FCC?

[Joseph2017China]

This does not help the poster, but is an example of what happens in the last two years.  I booked a cruise, knowing exactly what was required at time of booking.  Since that date, over an 8 month period, the rules changed 3 different times of what was required.  I can't imagine during this period that I wouldn't check on a regular basis what the rules are.  Plus, people like to blame the TA, than blame RCCL, where the TA blames RCCL and RCCL blames the TA, but 100% of the blame for not keeping up with ever changing rules is the consumer.  RCCL posts all changes on the web-page

[BND]

I just went back in my email and the requirement for 12 and up to be fully vaccinated was in the Healthy Sail Protocol email we received on Nov 10, 2021 and our TA was notified on Oct 25, 2021.  We have received the protocol email for all four of our cruises (2 b2b's) Nov/Dec and April.  Anyone who isn't getting emails needs to check their profile on Royal and make sure their email address is there.  We use a TA and we are notified for each cruise, as is our TA.  I also regularly look at the protocols to see if there are changes, plus checking CC.

Edited June 9, 2022 by BND

[mndity]

21 hours ago, Biker19 said:

RCI messaging is so inconsistent not everyone gets the messages. So even if someone else got it, doesn’t mean it was sent either to you or the TA. You already know the policy changed (to what it is now) sometime after you booked. Not sure what you expect the TA to do?

I am not sure the quality or consistency matters here.  This is Covid19 people!!  All a person needs to do is listen to the news once a week to know what is going on in the world.  This isn't about the Bars closing earlier on the ships.  This is serious stuff!!  Not knowing what the Vaccination guidelines are for a minor person in your group is more on the parent or guardian than is being admitted IMHO.  Sure the TA should monitor it, and RCCL as well, but if I had a minor in my cruising party I'd be monitoring it every day.

[dcgrumpy]

I received an email on 9/21/21 about 12 and up needing to be vaccinated. I'm not sure if it was the first email that was sent but it's the only one that I can find. Yes the TA definitely should have notified the OP. I just don't understand how anyone with a vacation planned doesn't check to see if protocols have changed in the last 10 months.