Royal Caribbean Hawaiian Cruise Nightmare and Changes (USA and Canada 2024)
I feel like I've been really messed around by Royal Caribbean and this Hawaii Cruise that I booked well over a year ago. First of all, it's very frustrating that their single occupancy rate is almost the same as their double occupancy rate. For an all inclusive, all you can eat and limited but all you can drink 14 day cruise, it was just the taxes that were an extra to book for 2 people instead of 1.
The original cruise I booked was literally a dream come true and I couldn't have been happier to find it. It ticked off all the places I wanted to visit and was just wonderful. I was originally booked for the Quantum of the Seas ship. It started in Vancouver, British Columbia and then travelled down to Victoria, British Columbia, before stopping in Seattle, Washington. I loved that this allowed me to visit 3 cities in Canada and spend 1 - 2 days in each and Seattle was a place I really wanted to visit because of Grey's Anatomy (although I know little is filmed there nowadays). The ship then travelled down to San Francisco for a couple of days, before moving onto Hawaii and stopping at 3 different islands. From memory, it was the same ones as the new itinerary: Maui, Kauai and Oahu, but Kauai could have also been the Island of Hawaii.
5 months later, I then got an email saying that my cruise had been cancelled. I was honestly devastated. I had been looking forward to this cruise for months and months and the rest of the trip had been completely based around the cruise, with flights and hotels. They gave me a couple of options to either transfer to an alternative cruise or to get a partial refund. They also said I would be $100 per passenger on board credit and could claim back any existing flight or hotel bookings.
Well, by this point the hotels in Hawaii were absolutely extortionate so it wasn't even worth the travel cost for 2 nights, and that was something that was really on my bucket list. I ended up choosing to take the transfer option and selected the recommended Ovation of the Seas cruise which set off 3 days later and landed 1 day earlier so was much shorter.
I originally paid £1641 for the cruise for 2 people. Believe it or not, the new price of the "alternative" cruise was originally quoted as "£1814.88". They then gave me a new price of £1536. I was shocked! I was fuming and immediately wanted to speak to someone in person because to me, for 4 less nights and a much worse itinerary, it should be much cheaper. To top it off, when I originally looked during the time I booked, I specifically remember it being just under £1200. When I brought this up, they said that they couldn't honour that price.
At this point, the new itinerary now didn't stop in anywhere in Canada, it didn't stop in Seattle or San Francisco. I was originally also disappointed that it only stopped at 2 of the Hawaii islands, with a day at sea on the Napoli Coast, but was later told on the phone it would defintely stop in Kauai as well and the app just hadn't been updated.
I was fuming. I kept ringing but was told they couldn't do anything. I asked if they could offer a free upgrade to a balcony room as I'd booked the cheaper interior room. No. I asked if I could have internet (£15.97 per day) or a refreshments package (£28.29 per day) thrown in. No. I asked so many things to try and lower the price because I just thought it was very unreasonable and completely unfair.
Finally, just when I was about to give up, I got a call from one of the managers in an office somewhere. It came out of nowhere and was very unexpected. I had no indication they were going to ring and I was shocked that they did to be honest. However, I was so glad he did and it finally felt like things were getting sorted.
He profusely apologised for the cancellation and the miscommunication with members of the team. He kept saying they made a mistake and that it shouldn't have happened. He told me I was absolutely right and that the price they were giving me was completely wrong. He told me, they would honour the price I paid per night and transfer the same rate. Of course, this wasn't personally still what I thought was of equal value, given it didn't stop at 4 of the places that I had been really excited to go to, but I somewhat understood the principle.
The final cost given ended up being £1031 for 2 passengers, and as my mum then decided she didn't want to go, I got the second passenger taken off, which meant I didn't have to pay £93 for her taxes, so the final price has ended up being £938. I also got $100 credit applied which equated to £80.42 because apparently the original email was wrong and it was $100 credit per cabin and not per person.
Then moving onto the refunds for pre-booked flights, accommodations and trips. They said they would reimburse these up to $400 per international guest. It took 3 months to end up getting a refund and that was only because I kept chasing it and chasing it and sending tickets, booking documents, screenshots and bank statements. I had to prove things weren't refundable by speaking to each of the airlines, hotels and trip providers customer services. It was an absolute nightmare. By the time they were finally prepared to give me a refund, there wasn't much to refund, but frustratingly I had lost all my Exchange Transaction Fees which were around £50.
- One of the flights had changed by an hour, so I was able to cancel it free of charge
- The hotel had managed to resell my room so they were able to refund me
- I ended up deciding to go to San Francisco separately by myself so I had begged the activity provider to allow me to bring the dates forward by a few days and they kindly said yes
The only thing I couldn't cancel was the flight from Hawaii which was booked for the original departure date, which was now a day too late. I should have really just kept pushing for them to provide me with Hawaii accommodation but I was so pissed off by that point, I just wanted the money back. I ended up booking an overnight flight which means it's going to be a little tricky to decide what to do with a day in port, but I felt it was probably cheaper than paying for an extra hotel night.
When I read the terms and conditions, it very clearly said: "As per ABTA When your trip is cancelled, your cruise operator should offer the choice of an alternative or a refund. When a sailing is cancelled and an overnight stay becomes necessary, your cruise operator should offer you accommodation free of charge, if possible. This can be on board the ship, or ashore. The cruise operator is also free to look at other options, such asking you to go home, or to make your own arrangements and offering to reimburse your expenses. The cruise operator may limit accommodation costs to €80 (approximately £66) per night per passenger for a maximum of three nights.". This was never offered despite me then needing additional accommodation for 4 nights that has actually worked out quite expensive.
After all this, to top it off, less than 2 weeks before departure, the itinerary then changed again! Now, there is no stop in Maui and instead an extra 2 days in Honolulu, and a day at sea next to Kauai. I'm just really disappointed in the whole thing. The whole point of the cruise was to be able to go to a range of the Hawaiian islands which I was so excited about! As well, as of course the earlier stops but I've had more time to get used to that. I just feel like they've put guests in a position where they can't do anything else.
By the time you read this, I'll have already be on the cruise but I really hope it is worth it because booking it has been very stressful! Of course, I'll be sharing a full review on my return to the UK. If anyone else has problems with them in the future, the best emails to contact them on are RoyalGuestRelations@rccl.com and royalcustomerserviceuk@rccl.com. I would just send it to both always!
Comments
Post a Comment