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.

Do you have legal expenses insurance with your home insurance? I suspect a letter from a solicitor might set their hats straight.

This seems like total bollocks. Just a quick look on their site suggests there are MANY 7 day cruises for 4 at that sort of price so this is not some pricing error, this is them being cunty mcfuckers!

Sorry your update hadn't loaded before I posted.
What a bunch of bell ends, no wonder you are upset

It's not just you OP! Just had a nosy on the "royal Caribbean cruising" Facebook page and there are multiple recent posts from people in the same boat (sorry!) as you.

One poster is saying that RC are blaming an IT bug on their website...?!

I really can’t believe it can be legal to tell you you need to pay x amount more and that you also can’t cancel. That seems completely inappropriate.

Sorry OP. I don’t have any new advice and there’s many people more knowledgable but I just wanted to say how awful they are (and like others, I would also now never book with them).

Maybe you should send this thread to their CEO letting them know the sharks we all think they are!

This is absolutely nuts. They should let this go as sorry for messing you around.
Though bet there's loads who have done same as you.

It’s clearly not an error they’re still selling it at the original price

this is awful. Note to self, never book with Caribbean.

But it also says they can change up to the point when the booking has been confirmed, and that only happens when the customer receives a confirmation invoice. It doesn't look as if OP has received that.

But you could presumably book the same thing through Iglo, in which case you could retain your hotel and parking bookings?

There’s loads of cheap cruise deals. I would take the refund and use the hotel and car parking for a different cruise.
If you can’t find one then fly out if Southampton and book a week somewhere else.

Cruise costs add up and Royal Caribbean are known for add ons. It will enevitably cost more than you think.

I wouldn’t give them my money after this frankly ( they also have a 50% share in Tui ).

Also I would share the complaints around. A complaint about misleading websites, complaints about poor customer services, complaints about onboard credit. Do a separate letter to the head of each department.
Resolver offer online help and are really good at solving complaints. They’ve helped with every case I’ve put forward.

This is awful!
Its got to be a scam that they do on lots of people.

My dream is to go on a cruise and I often look up the prices to get an idea of the price.
I couldn’t think of anything worse than scrimping and saving for just enough for them to turn around and say I owe even more!

I’d be telling them that you simply can’t afford it and you may be forced to cancel and go with a different cruise line.
Surely they would prefer to keep customers.

If you’re going to be rude at least read it properly “pp” means per person. You can easily do a cruise for £700 per person.

UPDATE
I got cut off, phoned back and, HOORAH, spoke to someone vaguely competent. We discovered that the £410 extra included over £300 in gratuities. I said that they could get those off for a start as I'd like to see some decent service before I paid those! Once they were removed I have to pay the extra of........£69!!! I'm just going to pay it as I can't take anymore stress but they have certainly spoilt the holiday for me before it has begun. I really hope all this was worth it for them for the sake of £69!!

Thank you so much for everyone's support. I have fired off a complaint letter to all the email addresses you gave me. I honestly hope they listen to all my phonecalls today to see just how shoddy their customer service is.

If anyone has a free minute and wouldn't mind sending them a quick tweet or adding to my facebook comments (under the 10 posts by them) so they can see how much this appalling service costs them I would be very grateful.

I agree.

They we’re who I wanted to go with but absolutely not now if they’re going to pull this crap.

OP I suggest you contact Citizen’s Advice. They may be able to help as they have both legal advisors and letter templates you can you, at the very least to get your money back for the additional
costs.

I would reluctantly pay the £69 extra but I would tell them afterwards that you will never book with them again.

I’m glad it’s all sorted now and I hope you have a love time.

I don’t have Facebook but I will definitely be telling people to be careful if they’re planning on booking with them!

I’m glad you got the answer you deserved and needed! That is a bargain for a week on Royal Caribbean so try not to let it spoil your holiday. Cruise holidays can be cheap but travelling with two kids on RC is generally pretty expensive, they don’t often charge much less for kids like P&O do for example. Enjoy your cruise and try not to let this experience spoil it.

It looks to me like that cruise shouldn't have been in the promo, so should have been £1700 higher. But to try to keep as many bookings as possible, they've looked at what they need to charge to cover the cost hence now asking for £400.

But they haven't told you that, they've told you the new price is £400 more. That's not enough of a difference to argue you should have realised the price was wrong. RC need to argue that the contract has been entered into on the basis of a mistake in order to cancel it. You're likely to need legal support - I doubt very much they'll just agree to you having the holiday especially if there's loads of bookings.

They can't force you to pay the extra - you either pay and keep the holiday, or don't pay and they cancel the holiday and give you a full refund. Do not tell them you want to cancel, make it clear they are the ones cancelling the previous contract and you have not agreed to the new contract at the increased price.

Glad you’re sorted. It’s really important to pay at least the suggested tips on a cruise as staff rely on them - they are paid little or no salary. It’s not right, but it’s why cruises are good value and you get exceptional service.

Take screenshots and contact the ombudsman, that or Rip off Britain. Sorry OP. If that would have happened in a shop they would have to honour the price.

Just realised I am late. Glad you sorted it out

Just seen your update - great news!

And totally shoddy customer service on their part, what an absolute farce.

I've been in pricing error situations on the tour operator side, most we sucked up (because you have to be prepared to prove it was an obvious error) but where we have had to cancel, it's done within 24 hours including system corrected.