RCI Voyager of the Seas - X'mas Cruise Review (Pre-cruise)
My family loves cruising, and this is our fourth cruise on Royal Caribbean. Our other cruises with Royal Caribbean had been on the Oasis of the Seas and the Mariner of the Seas. We have previously also cruised with Norwegian Cruise Line and Star Cruise Line. We have also previously cruised out of the Caribbean, Mediterranean and Asia.
This cruise would be our first cruise out of Australia and first one during Christmas. Our family of 6, 4 parents over 60 and 2 adult kids over 30. We are an international family living in Asia and Australia.
Booking Process
This cruise would be our first cruise out of Australia and first one during Christmas. Our family of 6, 4 parents over 60 and 2 adult kids over 30. We are an international family living in Asia and Australia.
 |
| Voyager of the Seas docked in Sydney Circular Quay (Source: Flickr John Copwer) |
We started planning our cruise holiday about 12 months before the cruise and decided on the 11 night New Zealand cruise out of Sydney, Australia during Christmas. When the Buy One Get One (BOGO) half price offer came, we decided to strike when the iron was hot. What we realised by canvassing the different RCI websites and phone lines was that same cruise, same cabin was charging significantly different prices (even after currency conversion). The difference was up to A$4000 per cabin (Grand Suite). We booked online with RCI Australia in the end as they provided us with the best price.
Our initial plan was to have my brother and his wife to share a cabin with my husband and I and to book a Grand Suite. By the time we were booking the cruise (12 months out), we booked the very last Grand Suite with a sofa bed. The cabin we booked 1248 - was much less than ideal in terms of location. Located right in front of the lift lobby and right under the pool deck, we did have our concerns with noise issues.
Mum and Dad, and my brother's in-laws booked a balcony cabin each.
The Big Problem
A few months after booking the holiday, my sister in-law became pregnant and we realised that RCI would not allow her to board the vessel as she would be too far in the pregnancy. By this time, we were facing losing a very large deposit. Also as this was festive holiday cruise, the cancellation without fare penalty period was shorter within 90 - 150 days (instead of 71 - 150) of sailing . Their travel insurance also refused to provide cover for the cancellation.
Royal Caribbean customer service provided us with these options:
1. Find a friend to share the room with you and pay $100 to change name.
This was RC's best solution. But it was impossible as to find a friend willing to share the room with you, and willing to fork out a few thousand per person.
2. Cancel the room booking. Lose $1200 of deposit, which can't be claim on insurance, and $400 worth of onboard credits. And book another room (balcony or lower) at a higher per-person cost than the original booking.
3. Cancel the 2 people to become a twin share room instead of a quad share. As they would have to cancel the old booking and rebook in their system, the BOGO offer would be forfeited, so would the $400 onboard credit. This meant my husband and I having to pay $6000 more.
The inflexibility of RCI's cancellation because of "misfortune" policy really irked us. We eventually found our own solution, which wasn't the best either, but would be the least out of pocket. Mum and dad to share the room with my husband and I. This way, we lost the deposit for the balcony room instead of the grand suite. RC also gave us a $50 discount on the name change. This would be the first time sharing a room with Mum and Dad in more than 20 years,
The Smaller Problem
2 weeks out from the cruise, we started checking-in online. The system is pretty fiddly and did not like my web browser. Then the real troubles came. Unfortunately when we were checking in online, we realised that RC made mistake when changing Mum's name over to the Grand Suite. Mum has her married name hyphenated with her maiden name in her passport. RC conveniently dropped the maiden name. Mum called up RC customer service to get the problem rectified.
The customer service representative at RC was less than polite. They accused her of registering her name wrongly and demanded she pay $100 to change the name. Mum isn't quite the lady just to push over, and got pretty mad. She explained again that the name change was RC's fault when changing the cabin over and she refused to pay for their mistake. The customer service representative then said she'll speak to her manager.
The customer service representative then returned to say "as this is your first mistake, we'll waive the charges for you". Mum got seriously mad at her, took the fee waiver and hung up. Mum went on ranting the next 30 minutes of how ridiculous this was.
Speciality Dining
We're a foodie family and more than willing to pay for a better meal. We were able to book speciality dinning reservations online about 2 months before the cruise. We also booked all the My-Time dining as the "sensible" times of 6 - 7:30 pm were fast running out.
When booking Royal Caribbean was promoting if you booked 3 or more speciality dining we would get 20 - 30% back in cruise credits, given on Day 1. We maximised this with 3 bookings to Chops Grille, celebrating Dad's birthday, Christmas Eve and My birthday. However there's no written confirmation that there would be cruise credits back - so I'll be playing a wait and see with RC with this one. Also to add to our worries, this promotion is no longer advertised!
Room Decoration
We also purchased a set of "Happy Birthday" room decoration to surprise dad through the online shop. It would be dad's big birthday, and we weren't going to let that slip! In addition, we would be bringing some Christmas decorations to make our "home away from home" more festive.
Concierge
One week before the cruise, we received an email from our suite concierge. The email explained the benefits of the suite and concierge. The email also provided us with the menus for all speciality dining venues and spa.
Packing
Packing to cruise to New Zealand at this time of the year can be quite challenging. The weather fluctuates from anywhere between 8'C and 35'C (46'F to 95'F). We figure the trick was to dress in layers, but this meant packing whole lot of clothes! Thankfully Royal Caribbean doesn't have a baggage weight limit. Also as my husband and I live in Sydney, we won't be having troubles with connecting flights. So, we would be packing additional things for the rest of the family which are heavier - such as clothes washing detergent, family size sun screen, etc. We also managed to squeeze in a wash board and brush, to alleviate the need to bring even more clothes.
Flights and Accommodation
For our family not living in Sydney, we opted not to go for the Air 2 Sea options and booked flights directly as this provided us the most flexibility. We also booked the Meriton Apartments in Zetland and Waterloo for our family.
We'll continue posting more about our experiences on the Voyager. Watch this space as we board our cruise soon!
Related Posts
Voyager of the Seas Grand Suite 1248 Review
Voyager of the Seas - New Zealand Cruise
To subscribe to my blog, please Like on our Facebook page.
To support my blog, please click on one of my sponsor's advertised links :)
Our initial plan was to have my brother and his wife to share a cabin with my husband and I and to book a Grand Suite. By the time we were booking the cruise (12 months out), we booked the very last Grand Suite with a sofa bed. The cabin we booked 1248 - was much less than ideal in terms of location. Located right in front of the lift lobby and right under the pool deck, we did have our concerns with noise issues.
Mum and Dad, and my brother's in-laws booked a balcony cabin each.
The Big Problem
A few months after booking the holiday, my sister in-law became pregnant and we realised that RCI would not allow her to board the vessel as she would be too far in the pregnancy. By this time, we were facing losing a very large deposit. Also as this was festive holiday cruise, the cancellation without fare penalty period was shorter within 90 - 150 days (instead of 71 - 150) of sailing . Their travel insurance also refused to provide cover for the cancellation.
Royal Caribbean customer service provided us with these options:
1. Find a friend to share the room with you and pay $100 to change name.
This was RC's best solution. But it was impossible as to find a friend willing to share the room with you, and willing to fork out a few thousand per person.
2. Cancel the room booking. Lose $1200 of deposit, which can't be claim on insurance, and $400 worth of onboard credits. And book another room (balcony or lower) at a higher per-person cost than the original booking.
3. Cancel the 2 people to become a twin share room instead of a quad share. As they would have to cancel the old booking and rebook in their system, the BOGO offer would be forfeited, so would the $400 onboard credit. This meant my husband and I having to pay $6000 more.
The inflexibility of RCI's cancellation because of "misfortune" policy really irked us. We eventually found our own solution, which wasn't the best either, but would be the least out of pocket. Mum and dad to share the room with my husband and I. This way, we lost the deposit for the balcony room instead of the grand suite. RC also gave us a $50 discount on the name change. This would be the first time sharing a room with Mum and Dad in more than 20 years,
The Smaller Problem
2 weeks out from the cruise, we started checking-in online. The system is pretty fiddly and did not like my web browser. Then the real troubles came. Unfortunately when we were checking in online, we realised that RC made mistake when changing Mum's name over to the Grand Suite. Mum has her married name hyphenated with her maiden name in her passport. RC conveniently dropped the maiden name. Mum called up RC customer service to get the problem rectified.
The customer service representative at RC was less than polite. They accused her of registering her name wrongly and demanded she pay $100 to change the name. Mum isn't quite the lady just to push over, and got pretty mad. She explained again that the name change was RC's fault when changing the cabin over and she refused to pay for their mistake. The customer service representative then said she'll speak to her manager.
The customer service representative then returned to say "as this is your first mistake, we'll waive the charges for you". Mum got seriously mad at her, took the fee waiver and hung up. Mum went on ranting the next 30 minutes of how ridiculous this was.
Speciality Dining
We're a foodie family and more than willing to pay for a better meal. We were able to book speciality dinning reservations online about 2 months before the cruise. We also booked all the My-Time dining as the "sensible" times of 6 - 7:30 pm were fast running out.
When booking Royal Caribbean was promoting if you booked 3 or more speciality dining we would get 20 - 30% back in cruise credits, given on Day 1. We maximised this with 3 bookings to Chops Grille, celebrating Dad's birthday, Christmas Eve and My birthday. However there's no written confirmation that there would be cruise credits back - so I'll be playing a wait and see with RC with this one. Also to add to our worries, this promotion is no longer advertised!
Room Decoration
We also purchased a set of "Happy Birthday" room decoration to surprise dad through the online shop. It would be dad's big birthday, and we weren't going to let that slip! In addition, we would be bringing some Christmas decorations to make our "home away from home" more festive.
Concierge
One week before the cruise, we received an email from our suite concierge. The email explained the benefits of the suite and concierge. The email also provided us with the menus for all speciality dining venues and spa.
Packing
Packing to cruise to New Zealand at this time of the year can be quite challenging. The weather fluctuates from anywhere between 8'C and 35'C (46'F to 95'F). We figure the trick was to dress in layers, but this meant packing whole lot of clothes! Thankfully Royal Caribbean doesn't have a baggage weight limit. Also as my husband and I live in Sydney, we won't be having troubles with connecting flights. So, we would be packing additional things for the rest of the family which are heavier - such as clothes washing detergent, family size sun screen, etc. We also managed to squeeze in a wash board and brush, to alleviate the need to bring even more clothes.
Flights and Accommodation
For our family not living in Sydney, we opted not to go for the Air 2 Sea options and booked flights directly as this provided us the most flexibility. We also booked the Meriton Apartments in Zetland and Waterloo for our family.
We'll continue posting more about our experiences on the Voyager. Watch this space as we board our cruise soon!
Related Posts
Voyager of the Seas Grand Suite 1248 Review
Voyager of the Seas - New Zealand Cruise
To subscribe to my blog, please Like on our Facebook page.
To support my blog, please click on one of my sponsor's advertised links :)
Comments
Post a Comment