we have booked a transatlantic cruise for april 2009. on the independance, We have just had notification that rccl will be taking one of our ports away for an extra day of cruising also they have changed the port of lisbon to madeira.when contacting rccl they said they have the right to do this and if we were to cancel we would not get our deposit back.we also checked if we could change the cruise to another one but once again they said we would lose the deposit.
we are relatively new to cruising but have 3 cruises booked with rccl in the next 12 months. i must say i will be cancelling 2 of the cruises now because i dont agree with there policys. and we will not use rccl again.
ie, 13 night transalantic cruise and only stopping at 3 ports of call distgusting.
I don't know if I'd say it is unfair. They may have had to do it for logistical reasons, and canceling a port is not an exclusively RCI thing. They all do it. If you use this as a criteria for canceling cruises you will quickly be fresh out of cruise lines! Also, by definition a trans-Atlantic cruise means mostly sea days and not too many ports. I just looked at the itinerary and don't see what is unreasonable about it - but then I prefer sea days to port days.
But beyond that - if your cruise is not until April 2009 I can't understand why you wouldn't get your deposit back. Here is the RCI refund policy. Perhaps they misunderstood and thought you said April 2008?
Originally posted by chris 2486:
we have booked a transatlantic cruise for april 2009. on the independance, We have just had notification that rccl will be taking one of our ports away for an extra day of cruising also they have changed the port of lisbon to madeira.when contacting rccl they said they have the right to do this and if we were to cancel we would not get our deposit back.we also checked if we could change the cruise to another one but once again they said we would lose the deposit.
we are relatively new to cruising but have 3 cruises booked with rccl in the next 12 months. i must say i will be cancelling 2 of the cruises now because i dont agree with there policys. and we will not use rccl again.
ie, 13 night transalantic cruise and only stopping at 3 ports of call distgusting.
Like Dave has already said, they do have the right to change or eliminate ports at their discretion. It rarely happens but when it does they should at least refund the port charges. I wouldn't let it turn you off to RCI as it could happen on any cruise line.
And we fully understand how frustrating having your ports change can be. I would say that any frequent cruiser has had this happen to them. Actually SonnyV just had a similar experience with his transatlantic cruise. But what can you do?
And you should definetly not loose your deposit on a cruise booked a year out. They must have mistaken the date for this April which would be within the time limits to loose your deposit.
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My transatlantic in April. The took the Azores off the itinerary leaving us with 6 days at sea. I had until 70 days prior to the cruise date to cancel, but I didn't. Now I'm a super happy cruiser, because I'm getting a balcony cabin for more than half my original price. They put cabins on sale to fill the ship. If a change in the itinerary is reason enough to cancel a cruise, keep in mind--it could happen on your next cruise too! No matter what cruise line you book with.
well sonny not all of us as lucky as you. we paid for a junior suite so i guess there going to lose out on $4000 now of us, for the transatlantic and many more thousands in the future as we wont be using rccl again.thankyou and good night
Chris, please be aware that itinerary changes are usually not the fault of the cruise line. There can be many reasons why a port is dropped. Sometimes the country decides there are too many ships docking at that port on a particular day, and they refuse to let one or more ships dock there, even though they were supposed to. Sometimes the timing of port visits has to be changed through no fault of the cruise line, making the stop too short to be considered worthwhile.
It's too bad you have to lose your deposit if you cancel; I know that's a difference between British and U.S. rules for the deposit. Just be aware that this unfortunate change of itinerary may have been imposed on Royal Caribbean through no fault of its own.
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