Comments on: “We definitely feel we were ambushed by Royal Caribbean”

By: Dave

Dave — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 06:22:53 +0000

This is not about the fuel charge but about a RCCL program called Next Cruise. You purchase a Next Cruise onboard to pick your sail date at another time and you will receive onboard credit based on the length of the cruise. I purchased several next cruises between June-Oct 2007 to be used for 2009 sail dates as Next Cruises do not have expiration dates. I put 200.00 deposit down on each one as it’s 100.00 a person. In December I sailed with friends and encouraged them to buy Next Cruises to get an OBC of 200.00 for a 9 night cruise. On Dec. 15, without warning and after we came home from our cruise on Dec. 14, RCCL changed the OBC for 9 night cruises and reduced it to 100.00 instead. They refuse to honor the 200.00 OBC amount they promised us for 9 night cfruises when we purchased the Next Cruises. Next CRuises are purchased from the Loyalty Embassodor onboard the ships and we had all been told we’d receive 200.00 OBC for a 9 night cruise. I am a diamond member of RCCL and the bulk of our cruises out of the NY area are 9 night cruises. I feel they should honor the OBC we were promised at the time we purchased them which was before the policy change on 12/15/07 but they refuse. I will no longer support this program as I can’t trust they will not change it again. The Next cruise program was suppose to be the same as booking onboard with the only difference we could choose our sail dates at a later time. Had we booked a cruise on the ship at that time instead of buying a Next Cruise we would have received the 200.00 as usual. This was classic bait and switch. You may want to do an article about this issue also. As for the fuel charge, it has been added to all my 2008-2009 cruises that were booked way in advance of the fuel charge policy. We had no warning like Carnival gave their people to pay in full and they would not be charged the fuel charge. On the DAY RCCL announced it, you could pay THAT day if you were fortunate enough to know about it and if not too bad, you were charged period. Perhaps the drop in stock they have now is not just because of the economy but because of issues like this.

By: Paula Coulter-pissed off

Paula Coulter-pissed off — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 18:03:28 +0000

I just called Costco Travel to pay for our 4 night “Spring Break” trip and was informed that the price jumped $47. After an hour of arguing with Costco and Royal Carribbean I have gotten nowhere. Both would cancel our trip at no charge. We planned this trip with numerous neighbors so we aren’t the only one effected. We have children that are looking forward to their first cruise. We have hotels booked, etc. This fuel supplement is the biggest scam I have ever run across. No where on my Costco document does it state that they can increase my cruise for fuel, it is dated in July 2007, I would imagine that they have changed the wording since.

Count me in for the class action law suit and this will be my last Royal Carribbean cruise trip!

By: Robin Scheel

Robin Scheel — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 13:03:50 +0000

Our cruise with Royal Caribbean leaves in March. We were never notified about the increase but seen it on the Internet. The price of our cruise went down by $20 per person and so we argued that point last night. Even though Royal sent us two reminders that our money is due 1-3-08 they never notified us in person about the increase and they have our email address. This is our 5th cruise but first with Royal Caribbean. We even argued the point that if we were given the option to pay ahead of time we would have done that to avoid additional costs, because we were lead to believe from the website that if you paid before November you wouldn’t be charged this fee. We have several college students going with us that are on a budget and they picked this criuse according to what they could afford. Last night my husband was told that we will be given a gift for our extra cost and my husband stated that he didn’t want the gift he wanted the money from the gift. We have recieved money from previous class action suits where our other cruises charged additional taxes, so I can see this is in line for another class action suit. Royal caribbean stated that this is on the internet that they can charge you additional money anytime they see fit. Can imagine budgeting for a Wedding… locking in prices on based how much money you have to spend and then two months before the wedding the hall states they need money to pay the heating bill and if you don’t like it “cancel”. All arrangements are made… people are coming and they have you by the throat. Well all our arrangments are made with hotels locked in during College Spring Break to catch this ship and they have us by our throats. And how long did they know that they were in trouble or going to raise this fee, or add it to the website. At the time that I place my reservations??? If so they should have raised their price.. its like bait and switch.. expect their switching the price, which I thought was illegal to do so.
Robin Scheel – Not a happy Sailor!!

By: Joe F.

Joe F. — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 16:04:57 +0000

Hey – anyone – I’ll be happy to speak with you personally about any concerns you have over surcharges.

In fact, if I am correct, you and a companion can cruise free for life in a suite – email me @ joe@weatherby-associates.com to discuss your anger or if you to get even a little . . .

ESPECIALLY if LeMoore is correct that RCCL changed the contract on purchased tours and is trying to enforce provisions that were not present in its contracts when people booked cruises.

By: Le Moore

Le Moore — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 22:25:50 +0000

Hello to everyone! I am the person who contacted Mr. Elliott about this whole issue. I was really surprised to read what Mark said on December 12th.

Mark stated:

Why does everyone say that it doesn’t exist?

21. Carrier reserves the right to impose a supplemental charge relating to unanticipated occurrences including, but not limited to, increases in the price of fuel. Any such supplement charges shall apply to both existing and new bookings (regardless of whether such bookings have been paid in full).

http://www.royalcaribbean.com/content/pdf/CTC_Not_For_BR.pdf

This is from the rccl site. All the contracts that I could find on the site have this line.

This wording is in all my docs going back as far as 2003.

I say that I just looked AGAIN at my documents from my RCCL Alaska cruise THIS August and my documentation STOPS at paragraph 19!!!! I will check my other documents that I have saved to see if they are the same. I REALLY wish I would have printed the documentation from the RCCL web site BEFORE they changed everything. Once it was changed there is NO way that I can figure out how to “see” the older documentation as it was posted on their web page previously.

I stand behind my statement that “We definitely feel we were ambushed by Royal Caribbean.”

As of today OVER A MONTH LATER, I have NOT received any correspondence from RCCL, except for a canned response to MY e-mail, even though they have 3 phone numbers, my home and business address and my e-mail address. We booked one of our cruises directly with RCCL WHILE ON OUR ALASKA CRUISE and the other cruise DURING THE ONE OCTOBER WOW sale.

Since we dealt directly with them, I would have thought they would have thought that it MIGHT have been courteous (or make good business sense towards a LOYAL customer) to at least contact us with such a change AFTER WE PAID OUR REQUIRED DEPOSITS in GOOD FAITH. We thought we had a CONTRACT for these cruises and the ONLY change that could happen would be if there was GOVERNMENTAL FEE OR CHARGE.

By: Mike Goldinger

Mike Goldinger — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 19:28:38 +0000

How many people buy a car put money down on go pick it up, and are going to pay a higher price? Nobody, RCCL did not tell us about addition cost I found it on websites. We called they said they new about it 16th, but had to have your trip paid by the15 of November! Pretty fishy Lawsuit are great when you know a big company is in the wrong!

By: Dave

Dave — Sun, 16 Dec 2007 01:52:56 +0000

Just a quick update about the Surcharge and Canadian customers.

I read on the Canadian Cruiser site at the thread http://www.thecanadiancruiser.com/vBulletin/showthread.php?t=297 that Carnival (plus Costa, Cunard, Holland America, Princess and Seabourn) are reversing the fuel surcharge for Canadians that booked before the announced surcharges (the thread references http://www.traveldailynews.com/pages/show_page/23633)

The thread discussion seems to suggest that the travel agents may have been left “holding the bag” since Canadian Law prohibits this type of despicable corporate behaviour.

My guess is RCCL will follow suite soon enough.

Now, if the surcharge is reversed for Canadian customers, does this mean it will have to be increased for the non-Canadian customers to cover RCCL’s “unanticipated cost” of not being able to rip off all customers equally. What a joke.

By: Joe F.

Joe F. — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 15:35:15 +0000

Lets take this a step further. RCCL operates the same ship, on the same itinerary, with essentially the same number of people, on a cruise, week after week after week.

Is the amount of fuel used ‘unanticipated?’ I think not.

Is the cost of the fuel ‘unanticipated?’ I think not. Except for whatever fraction of fuel cost is bought at market price above a hedged price, and thereafter more than it was last week, last year or whenever, it is not unanticipated.

Since they reference the cruise itself in th contract, should the fuel surcharge not relate to how much more YOUR individual cruise cost that what wsa ‘anticipated?’

Inquiring minds want to know. ‘

By: Dave

Dave — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 04:25:23 +0000

Mark:

How in the world did you manage to find the contract link on the Royal Caribbean site? I looked for a long time and it’s certainly not under “legal information”. I even tried their “site map” link to no avail. Can you tell me, click by click, the way to get there?

When I booked my cruise I had no knowledge of the “contract” referenced (perhaps it has been updated after I paid my deposit, how the heck would I know). What I had available was a cruise brochure and a price quoted by my travel agent. Further, the cruise brochure (see my previous post) seems to contradict clause 21.

I’m no lawyer, but companies, especially those dealing with the public, can’t simply write anything they want in a contract and have it enforceable. There are often other, shall I say higher order, restrictions such as common law, federal, state, and provincial laws and regulations governing their behaviour. I’m sure it’s even more complex than I could imagine.

To make the point, the unofficial word from my travel agent is that Royal Caribbean will be reversing my fuel surcharges because of (if you can believe this) a TICO (Travel Industry Council of Ontario) regulation prevents it.

I will update my post when I get an official response.

Joe: Great posts.

By: Joe F.

Joe F. — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 17:22:00 +0000

Mark – your para 21 does not say what you think it does. . .

The charges must be ‘unanticipated’ in order to be chargeable. RCCL has stated in its quarterly 10Q filings with the SEC that their fuel charges are:

1) predictable in amount
2) predictable in quanity
3) hedgable in amount and quantity – and they do hedge.

Thus, so long as RCCL knows what its fuel expenses are expectedto be, guess what, they are not ‘unanticipated.’ The only time that fuel surcharges can be added is when they are in excess of the predicted / budgeted fuel cost for the trip. You see – RCCL has only limited ‘unanticipated’ increases in cost. They know what the cost of the cruise will be – thats how the price it.

Further, how can a 5 day cruise burn the same amount of fuel as an 8 day cruise, yet they have the same fuel surcharge.

A company that burns lots of fuel needs to budget for it? Correct? I have ZERO problem paying them what an ‘unanticipated’ cost might be in certain circumstances, such as when they have a contract provision for it, but that means that as the payer of the charge, I then have the right to examine their books to make sure that it truly is an ‘unanticipated’ fee.

Heck, like I said in my prior email, RCCL has no real liability to transport you anywhere – they can change the cruise to a lifeboat ride around Biscayne Bay and have no liability for doing so. Obviously, it is not going to be interpreted the way it is written – just like the use of the word ‘unanticipated’ has a meaning. RCCL SHOULD have just said “We add a surcharge for any increased cost in an amount that we determine.” if you are going to have a contract as anti-consumer as the one they use – well – why not?