Royal Caribbean changing cruise price after paying

[Mum1976Mum]

So, we have just about scraped the money together for a holiday in July. Lots of holidays out of our price range but managed to book a 7 day cruise around Norway for 2.7k - 2 adults, 2 kids. Booked it yesterday morning, paid in full, all good. I booked the hotel, parking, pet sitter etc. yesterday afternoon all non refundable. Got an email at 9pm last night to say price was wrong on website, price would not be honoured and offering me $100 in onboard credit (which we don’t need).

So this morning they still haven’t got in touch to tell me how much more I will have to pay if I don’t cancel. I phone up, it’s £1500 extra!!! I’ve now been on hold to speak to a supervisor for an hour but they say they won’t be able to do anything.

What on earth do we do? If we cancel we are £500 out of pocket. Any advice welcome. I’m so sad.

The fact that the cruise is still bookable at the price the OP paid means that trading standards would be interested
I read that you couldn't book these after some time. That once you get to the payment page, it didn't allow you to proceed.

They might well be, it’s false advertising.

Maybe you could tag the travel expert, Simon Calder, on Twitter and ask him.

Could this be a scam? Could their email account have been hacked?

According to their terms and conditions, the contract is formed when you receive the confirmation invoice. Even then, their terms allow them to change the price if there has been an error.

The email you received shows a promotional discount of £1538, which is roughly what they are claiming you underpaid. I wonder if someone has forgotten the promotion.

I doubt it as I’ve spoken to Crappy Caribbean numerous times today. Still no further forward but they confirm that the price was wrong and there will be an increase. Still no one with a clue as to what the increase will be.

Yes it’s that promotion that appears to me the issue I think. But there a still a promotion on the website in that the 3rd and 4th guests (the kids) cost £129.

Having looked at their terms & conditions, they seem to be acting within them and I'm not convinced the courts would find them unfair. However, I would point out to them forcefully that they offered a promotional price and, now you have been enticed to book and commit to other expenditure, they are attempting to withdraw the promotion. I would also point out that their own website and other websites are still offering this cruise at the promotional fare. Therefore, unless they honour their promotion and stick to the original price, you will refer them to the Advertising Standards Authority and trading standards, both of whom will be very interested in a company continuing to entice people with a non-existent fare well after they identified the error.

So royal Carribbean can advertise any cruise anywhere at any price then in 24 hours add another £1500. and there's no recourse. Not false advertising like it or lump it. They've plenty more mugs they can gouge

I work in travel insurance. There is no way this will be covered under any policy.

I can see a similar price (£667 per person in an inside cabin) with Iglu Cruise, who we normally book with. It is also allowing you to go through the whole booking process.

Perhaps contact another agent, explain the issue and see what they say? If they guarantee the booking at that price, let the Royal Caribbean booking cancel and re-book with another agent instead.

At the very least they should fully refund you.

They will refund me. Just not the £500 I’ve now spent on hotels, parking, pet sitter

Honestly, I’m just knackered after a year of cancer, family illness, job stresses etc. just can’t take another ‘cheap and cheerful’ break in the UK doing all the jobs I do at home every day. I just wanted a little holiday where I could do nothing. We had to shield for fucking 3 years!!! I knew it was too good to be true that we could catch a break.

if you only booked yesterday… generally cooling off period . Worth calling even if you still can’t cancel online. Gatwick official parking you can cancel up to date before for full refund!

andYou paid full upfront for pet sitter? Presumably existing relationship…

That would have been the cruise lines preference. They were only offering the 100 dollars as feature because they weren’t required to offer anything

Seems I can get original price with Iglu cruise. It’s so odd

A gesture

RC will be notifying sellers of error in pricing and that will take time for effect to be implemented

I feel for you OP
but I reckon you’ll find an even better holiday now

Sorry, I meant to try to reclaim the additional expenses she'd incurred as a result of RC cancelling the cruise contract.

shameful they can do this and yet stil the price is showing wrong for new bookings

when you use twitte dont dm them thats not public do a normal tweet tagging them and make a seprate hashtag aswell for royal carribbean cruises

I’ve done loads of tweets and loads of Facebook comments. Still no response

Contact newspapers, your mp and martin lewis at money saving expert

It is very short sighted of Royal Caribbean to behave like this.

Reputation also damage has a real cost, and they would be foolish to ignore it. People in the market for luxury cruises are generally looking for companies that won't treat their customers like shit.