dutchcruise-SE

@Cruising Caribbean Thx, I hope so too. We've experienced overbooking in a hotel once before, didn't understand that either. But there you typically don't reserve a specific room, whereas on a cruiseship you pay extra to do exactly that, so it makes even less sense. Should probably have clarified that the trip to Maldives wasn't a cruise but would've been a stay in a fancy over the water bungalow on a tiny bit of sand. But after going through all that and two years of pandemic being "stuck" in one spot didn't feel as appealing. 😉 We're going the 28th on Odyssey of the Seas, Mediterranean cruise. Did have an unfortunate experience the morning after booking, where our travel agent informed us Royal Caribbean had listed the wrong price due to technical issues. We were expected to pay the difference then or our booking would not be reserved. We disliked that as well. Then we heard about all the post pandemic changes in service and menu's. And while things like chocolates on pillows, towel animals and eating two lobsters are minor details. It is the kind of experience that you get sold on as a first time cruiser. You do also feel like you paid for all that already, since it wasn't cheap by any means to begin with and in our case got retroactively more expensive within one night. (Already factoring in that the total spent would likely double by the end) So yeah, you do get a little antsy wondering where all this is going. @3Sisters We do have pretty extensive travel insurance, had that too back then, but they and the supervisory tourist organisation above them both pointed to either the government or TUI. The government hadn't made a call yet and TUI wanted either that or significant changes to the itinerary which could be claimed as unreasonable. They were betting on "just a different hotel" not being unreasonable enough. Despite not initially admitting that that's where they were steering us. But in the Maldives every island is it's own resort. A different hotel would therefore mean something entirely different. Which they ultimately agreed upon. Anyway we'll check if our insurance covers situations specific to cruises and add that if necessary.

Hi, first time cruisers here. I realise preparing for our first cruise by digging through a thousand websites has thoroughly primed the googles to think we now want to see everything going terribly wrong in the cruise industry. So I don't know how common this behaviour has really been over the years. Nevertheless it is rather concerning. For our anniversary/honeymoon at the end of May we have booked flights and hotels several days before and after the cruise. To think we could somehow be informed just 5 days before embarkation or on the day itself that we have to cancel all of that because of overbooking is insanity. If the world burns down, sure, we get that we wouldn't be able to cruise. But you'd think a 40 billion dollar company would know how to make a booking system by now. It is actively damaging my opinion of Royal Caribbean. Let alone if this line of thinking has simply become company policy by now. They better get their act together, quick. It brings up stressful reminders of the start of the pandemic, when nobody knew anything, no tests or anything existed but people were dying. We were scheduled to travel on a once in a lifetime dream trip to the Maldives then, after just coming out of a period of mourning after the loss of a family member. We kept a close watch on the situation as it developed and learned a week before that it had indeed spread to our intended hotel/island. The local government was rightfully terrified and moved people to different quarantaine islands. We knew that if we flew there, we would be moved and likely stuck in quarantaine as well. Not our idea of a paradise holiday. So according to their terms we had cause for cancellation. TUI however would not acknowledge this, trying to pretend things were peachy just so we'd be on our way and wouldn't be able to refund. Their willingness to risk lives to save a few bucks was frankly sickening. We went back and forth all week, which was very stressful. Until finally on the afternoon before our midnight flight, suitcases still in limbo on the bed, they finally agreed to a full refund. Then the next day our own country went into full lockdown and all flights were cancelled. The refund got overturned a week later and we had to wait a full year to get our money back. I had warned them in advance if they favoured the short term buck over customer relations now, they would lose a long term customer forever. Thus we will never travel with TUI ever again. Anyway, pardon my rant, the wound goes deep;) But this should at least serve to show that now is not the time to screw over your customers with poor service or nasty schemes. Save a few bucks now, damage your company forever. Please be better. Lastly I'm wondering about the formulation of that email. I see it mentioned and interpreted as a cancellation. But the text itself suggests 4 options, 3 of which are numbered. The 4th simply described as ignoring the email if you're not interested in the "limited offer". So what happens then? A game of chicken? Gambling how many people have the stress tolerance and steel bits required to weather simply showing up anyway? What then, pillow fights over who gets that balcony cabin you both booked? Or a good old wallet comparison and seeing who offers more? Or has that in fact already happened and option 4 is simply voiding your rights to a refund, but disgustingly worded as an opportunity? Lots of questions, genuinely interested to hear how these things end up going. So if anyone has suffered through all this, please let us know. Still very much looking forward to our first cruise.🤞