Royal Caribbean is unethical
 

After two years of research and planning it was decided that my family reunion would be on the Royal Caribbean Freedom of the Seas sailing from Miami on August 10th 2008. As a family we booked eight cabins and had all of our deposits in place by October 1st 2007. We then got some good prices on air fare and purchased non changable/cancellable tickets for our trip to Miami.On Jan 24th 2008 we were notified by Royal that all of our reservations had been canceled. They had been canceled because Royal had decided to charter the ship to a private company that week and not honor any prior reservations. THEY SOLD THE SHIP TWICE AND WE WERE LET GO!!!
When I called Royal they offered us $100 per cabin for any fines an airline might charge for changing dates. They also offered a $200 on board credit if we decided to try our luck again and pick another date. They informed me this was their legal right and thats the way it goes sometimes.Legal who knows, ethical no way. Do you have any idea how much work went into this? they replied were sorry. How can they get away with this? Eight families ready for a reunion out in the cold holding thousands of dollars worth of usless airline tickets. They think it might be easy to get 25 people to change work vacation schedules and have enough money to throw away airline tickets.This is underhanded and unethical business practice. If you are booked on the Freedom on August 10th think again. You will probably get your phone call today placing you out in the cold. Is it common practice that a cruise line can cancell a trip 7 months before sailing because they had a higher bidder? Please respond and thank you.

I would be so angry I could not see straight. I have heard of this happening and do not think it is ethical.

I would write a concise, polite but pointed letter to whoever is head of RCCL and see what they can offer you.

Also, do some research and see if there is another cruise on same dates from Miami (or even FLL or someplace else in Florida). Then I would ask RCCL to cover additional costs to get you to that port and/or pay difference - not likely they will do the latter, but perhaps the first. Especially check Celebrity since they are in same company as RCCL.

I know at this point you do not want to have anything to do with them, but at least you perhaps could cut your losses.

And if you do not sail on an alternate ship/itinerary during August, I would also pray for a really big tropical storm during that week.

While your anger is understandable, this happens quite often these days in the cruise business.

At least RCI offered an OBC and to pay the change fees.

It is ethical and they reserve the right per the passenger contract to cancel or change the sailing at will.

Sorry for the bad experience.

Do you really believe this practice to be ethical? I am in sales and I can promise you this, If I sell you something I would never cancel you out because somebody offered me more money for thesame item. I just don't do business like that. A deal is a deal the way I do things.

I have heard of this happening before when a ship is chartered and it is in the small print of cruise documentation/brochures. It may be legal but it sure seems unethical! I would be furious and do feel RCI owes you more than what they're offering.

I guess the best thing you can do is try to find another cruise with similar dates etc. so all is not lost with your airline tickets. Hopefully, it will work out for you and your family can still find a way to have a wonderful reunion. Good luck and keep us posted.

Go to Travelocity and do a cruise search. Carnival has 2 7-night cruises leaving from Miami on 8/10/08 and shorter cruises leaving 8/11/08 from Miami. That is what I came up with in a very short search. If you don't like Carnival, I would guess you could find another line out of someplace like FLL or even Tampa.

I would still be mad - but be a hero to your family and rescue their family reunion.

And I suggest you call the alternate cruiseline and explain the situation to them. They may be so eager to create good will after what RCCL did you may even get some special deals or perks. Just do it soon because there is an entire shipload of prospective passengers now looking for alternate vacations.

The only thing that surprised me is a whole ship of this size got chartered. I wonder what company could afford it.

I am in sales as well and have been all of my professional life and yes, I believe it is ethical since the policy is stated in the passenger contract should the cruise line decide to execute their option to charter.

What would be unethical would be to guarantee that the sailing would not be chartered and then to do so anyway. Cruise lines give themselves lots of outs to change ports, port times and entire cruises at their discretion. To fill the ship with a charter guarantees far more than just filling cabins as these sailings include gratuities, drink packages and other things that are very profitable for the cruise lines.

I had a cruise line cancel my honeymoon cruise 48 hours prior to the day we sailed just 15 months ago. It was a mechanical problem that was being handled in a drydock and I knew about and called before I booked non refundable hotel and car for post cruise. They swore just 10 hours before they pulled the plug that my sailing was leaving on schedule and the problem had been fixed.

That IMO is unethical as they provided totally inaccurate information just 3 days prior. It not only cost us money, but we had to find a substitute ship at very late notice and ended up on RCI, a line we avoid because they attract so many families. Our perfectly planned luxury cruise honeymoon turned into just the kind of trip we worked hard to avoid.

Consider yourself lucky you got so much warning.

"And if you do not sail on an alternate ship/itinerary during August, I would also pray for a really big tropical storm during that week." - LOL =D> :))

RCCL's Liberty sails from Miami on the day before on 9th Aug - same sized ship as Freedom.

Is it possible? If so you can ask RCCL to book you all onto Liberty at their own expense, plus pay for changes to flight dates.

The airtickets may be non-refundable but you can use the value of tickets to book another flight, plus the change fee.

Unfortunately, this happens on all the lines. I just read about HAL doing the same thing. People are upset on another board concerning this.

I guess the moral here is that it is not a good idea to plan a family reunion on a cruise. It's not a dependable way to bring that many people together for a week.

shanal, I feel for you. I can only imagine the planning, expense, etc., and the excitement of getting all this taken care of- then being so let down. Good luck in the replanning, whatever you decide to do.

Sadly it does happen. I remember reading about a similar situation on MSC cruises. That is a family booked a reunion vacation and got bumped to meet the needs of a much larger group. I read about this for NCL too. Personally I don't feel it is ethical simply because they tell you aforehand that it can be done. Actually I think there is seldom if ever a huge disclaimer up front when you book. Its hidden in the fine print of course. Can there be adequate compensation for ruining a familys reunion cruise? Can the disappointment be allayed? It would take ALOT more than what they offer. JM2C.

Sorry to hear about your cruise. You could try an all inclusive resort in Mexico. It would be about the same price for a week. Free food and drink with your room. I have done this in Puerta Vallarta, Cozumel and Cancun. It was a lot of fun.

This does happen with some regularity, unfortunately, and even on some very upscale cruise lines. The cruise line's contract does allow them to do this, and it's legal, if annoying to you.

I'm going to assume you made all your bookings yourself and that you didn't buy insurance. This is precisely the point at which it would be helpful to have the help of a knowledgable travel agent, and you have plenty of time to sort this out, so don't despair. Ask a travel agent to help you devise a solution by changing over to a different cruise or moving the party to a resort.

As alot of other posters have suggested, look at other cruises leaving from Miami and Fort Lauderdale around the same time, or switch your travel plans by a day to get a better range of choices. I think that might be a better solution than changing to a completely different week since most cruise lines have itineraries originating in Miami or Fort Lauderdale and since many cruises leave on the weekend.

August 10 is a Sunday, so look for cruises on Saturday, August 9, from both Miami and Fort Lauderdale, and aside from some airfare change fees, for which you have been promised compensation, you shouldn't have to cancel the entire trip.

Be sure to get the promise from RCI in writing to cover your airfare change fees before you make all these changes (that's $800 after all), and if you decide to book on a different RCI ship, make sure you get those promised shipboard credits.

I would value (and try to patronize) any cruise line which does not exhibit this kind of customer abuse. Does anyone know if there is such a line that we may "reward" with our dollars for being ethical?

I can't think of a single cruise line that doesn't allow full-ship charters on occasion, and when that happens less than 12 months in advance, then paying passengers can be bumped. I'd be interested to hear from anyone on this topic. How prevalent is paid-passenger bumping for charters? My take on this is that it's a rare but regular occurrence.

Full charters were recently announced on HAL, Celebrity, RCI and SeaDream as discussed on cruise critic by bumped passengers. I am not sure how you would define "rare" but I think this is great business for the cruise lines and cannot imagine any who would trun it down.

Atlantis for example is doing many full ship charters these days.

I do not believe it is unethical, simply business.

Hi...Sorry this happened to you. I see it's Nickelodeon that chartered the Freedom. Mighty big company to compete with!

Seems to me that the offer of $100 per cabin is a little stingy. That only covers half of the passengers' airline ticket change fees, assuming that there are two passengers per cabin, and the airline's fee is $100 per ticket. And since the OP mentioned that there were 25 people involved, $800 towards change fees is really paltry.