Topic: Royal Caribbean - Right Royal Rip Off???

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Sadly this is the way Royal Caribbean so called Customer Services operate. The only thing they are good at is quoting Terms and Conditions. No amount of reasoning with them will work. I am a Diamond Member and no matter what the situation; RULES ARE RULES as far as they are concerned. Whatever happened to customer satisfaction when sometimes a small goodwill gesture would go along way - I dont know.
Its like trying to get blood out of a stone, despite trying various tactics all you ever get is a standard pre formatted response.
The only good thing about Royal Caribbean is their price promise - Book, see the same grade offered at a lower price and they will give you a price match.

Have you any tips on how close to sailings Royal Caribbean drop their prices, or is it just a case of continuously looking?

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Have you any tips on how close to sailings Royal Caribbean drop their prices, or is it just a case of continuously looking?

Just keep checking online, as often as you want. If you see a price drop just call or have your TA call if booked via a TA. Make sure when you see a price reduction to scroll all the way to the bottom of the page, make sure there is not a disclaimer that says * for new reservations only.. sometimes they do. Last time we sailed we had 3 price drops, two before final payment and one after, I saw another one but when I scrolled down I saw the * or I would have got that one too. They will refund $ if before final payment and OBC if it is after final payment.

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Have you any tips on how close to sailings Royal Caribbean drop their prices, or is it just a case of continuously looking?

It really is a case of checking as frequently as you can. AND acting upon it as quickly as you can. With their fluid pricing, the price can alter daily and sometimes by the hour. You need to know the base price of your cruise before your Travel Agents discount and monitor this on the Royal Caribbean Web Site.

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The former. Definitely. ;)
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It seems the saying by Doctor Suze applies here.
"Be who you are and say what you feel,because those who matter dont mind,and those who mind dont matter."

I think you can get good and bad in most organisations.I've dealt with RCCL a few times and found most staff pleasant but some more flexible than others and prepared to go the extra mile and it was very notceable when they did!.Always worth ringing back or asking for a supervisor.The principal here is trying to get them to accept that whilst they have followed the T&C's they could make a gesture on board credit being the most obvious.

You have been probabkly the only lucky one - We wrote to them. our cruise club rang them, we wrote to the UK m/d and then to the Chairman in the USA. We had a fair case, including a blind mother's illness, explained it politely, but they refused to give us second hand breath. I willlingly lost my deposit to wash my hand of them - they suck in our opinion and thankfully there are cruise lines who do appreciate customers -

Hogsthorpe Cruiser

Surely cancellations as a result your own or family illnesses are covered by your travel insurance. I know my insurance covers the loss of deposits for cancellation or curtailment for many reasons, illness, jury service, redundancy or even a burglary at my house.

Not for our reason. We had booked for Christmas/New Year 2010/2011. My mother in law, in her 80's suddenly lost her sight and has been registered blind. We did not want to leave her alone over Christmas and New Year, but as another member of the family could look after her in January 2011, we wanted to go on the cruise leaving in January - which was identical, and actually will leave the day our orignal cruise would have docked.

Royal Caribbean had no heart at all - couldn't care less..A total shower

Hogsthorpe Cruiser -

This is what I don't understand with Customer Care - I know rules are rules but surely there are exceptional cases where they can be bent. It's not as if you were asking to change your dates a month before you had to sail.
It's even more difficult to understand as in the US folk can cancel and get their deposit back with no problem whatsoever.
Maybe someone should organize a European protest and have the same rules applied here.
They could have wanted a doctor's certificate and have told you that even if the January cruise was cheaper they wouldn't refund the difference (even that is a bit hard)
Maybe having seen it here, RCI will have a change of heart.

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Carolyn have just read that May was half term where Sept isn't - still would like to know if there is any difference with price, cabin etc.

For my sons school May is not the half term. I booked last June with RC from 15 May for 2 weeks thinking I was booking for the half term but it turned out that the half term has been moved to the 1 June for 1 week. I had to change from RC to Celebrity so we could go away in the half term as the school would not allow 2 weeks out but will just about go with 1 week. I now realised why that 15th May cruise was such a good price with $300 OBC and free car parking. Never mind you can't win them all.