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Royal Caribbean - Connections, Cancellations

Royal Caribbean • Cancellations, changes • Crime • Illness, injury • Lost luggage --- News • Cruise Lines Agree To Refund $21 Million In Fuel Surcharges • New Jersey Sues Royal Caribbean

Roy of Charleston SC (9/8/04):
Hurricane Frances destroyed most of Florida's cruise ship terminal at Port Canaveral. The Port is closed and will be closed until Saturday 9-11-04 if all of the dredging is completed by that date. The Port officials have been very responsive and proactive.

Royal Caribean continued to state that the passengers would be required to leave from Port Canaveral until 3:50 PM on 9-08-04 at which time I received an email stating that the Sovreign of the Seas would sail from Port Everglades near Ft. Lauderdale. "Buses will pick up guests and drive them to the ship." Florida government officials have asked Floridans not to return until Friday 9/10/04. This cruise line is requiring guests to drive in tremendous traffic jams in an attempt to catch a bus to a ship which is now leaving from a different port. They have not offered any cancellations or rebooking as has their competition.

Hurricane Ivan defeated their plans to race to Cozumel, Mexico for a few hours of beach time on ths 3-night cruise. My wife and I are going to make a dash for the Port Canaveral bus station. Two other couples who were traveling with us are seeking legal counsel. The #2 Cruise line does not seem to know how to apply for insurance claims for lost business due to the hurricanes without torturing its guests.

Damage Resulting: We must drive in heavy traffic against the direction of the Florida government officials to ride a bus to a port to catch the ship for an abreviated cruise.

Amy of Houston TX (9/8/03):
I made a reservation through Expedia.com about six weeks ago and paid for my cruise completely (by credit card) at that time. This week I found out about a work conflict that is going to require me to push my cruise date back by one or two weeks. When I contacted Expedia and then (later) Royal Caribbean directly, I was told that to move my sailing date back by one or two weeks would mean that I have to cancel my cruise and then re-book.

I do not want to cancel my cruise. I want to move the date back by a few days, same boat, same cruise, just push the date back slightly. At this point if I cancel and re-book, my cost for the same cruise will almost double. This seems unreasonable to me. I expected to pay a “penalty” or “up charge”, but this seems excessive. I have never had an experience like this before when slightly changing travel plans so far in advance of my travel dates. I’ve paid penalties before but not 50% of the cost of the package, plus the additional cost of the up charge. This really constitutes an almost 100% penalty.

I have reviewed the "contract" carefully and Royal Caribbean does not state anywhere that postponing a cruise is the same as cancelling a cruise. They are very careful not to state this anywhere so that they have the right to take advantage of their customers.

Dora of Bristol RI (8/5/03):
I booked a cruise for 27 people for the week of 2/15/03. Some of the people we were travelling with made reservations to leave the night before. Some of us could not. When we got to airport (TF Green) we found out that our flight had been cancelled due to snowstorm in Chicago (our layover). We tried to get another flight but were unable to.

After standing in line for hours trying to get a flight to our destination (Florida) we were able to get a flight out of Boston but only directly to San Juan. When I contacted our travel agent (Cruise Brothers) she made hotel reservations for us. After we got to San Juan we called Royal Caribbean and were told that they would pick up the expenses. We stayed for 2 days until the cruise ship arrived. We were charged for 1/2 day at the hotel because we did not check out before noon. No one told us to do that; and the cruise ship was not due to arrive until 4 o'clock, so we stayed and were charge.

We incurred extra expenses such as food and taxi's getting to and from airport. We had not planned on this -- we were going on a cruise and everything was paid for. We have been trying to get reimbursement from someone -- Royal Caribbean or the travel agent. We have not had any success. I have filed a claim and now they are telling me that unless I had insurance, they cannot honor my claim. That is not what we were told. My family waited a very long time for this vacation, and it was a nightmare.

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