Royal Caribbean Has Wronged Me, But In Legalese It Is Actually On Me

Royal Caribbean Has Wronged Me, But In Legalese It Is Actually On Me

Kristyn Meyer is on a journey to make herself the best human she can be. These posts are a reflection of that. She welcomes your support via reading and through commissioned affiliate links within her posts! Please subscribe to her email list to stay up to date on all of her shenanigans! (psst… there’s a free gift involved)

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I have a complaint.

And you, my hopelessly devoted blog audience, are going to hear about it.

I have nobody else to tell. Royal Caribbean doesn’t care that I am upset; my travel insurance has no feelings about it, and the backup travel insurance couldn’t care less.

It all starts in May 2023….

I was perusing travel sites, as I routinely do. I came upon a cruise itinerary that captivated my attention. 18 days sailing between a boatload of countries (get it?!) that included the following:

• Dubai
• Oman
• Jordan
• Egypt
• Other part of Egypt
• Jerusalem
• Cyprus
• Athens

Doesn’t it sound delightful? I quickly called Jacob over, and he shared my enthusiasm. It seemed like the perfect scenario – these were all places we wanted to see but didn’t necessarily want to devote an entire vacation to. Doing it via cruise would give us an opportunity to visit them as day trips and then return to the boat later on for a healthy portion of American food and English speakers.

The Excursions Sealed the Deal

As we started to look more into it, our excitement level continued to grow. The pyramids of Giza and the Sphinx?! Walking the path Jesus took to his crucifixion in Jerusalem?! Taking in the incredible rock formations in Jordan?! You can’t go wrong!

We paid the deposit and decided that it was a done deal, we were going. Had we ever cruised before? Nope. Should we explore whether we like it or not before embarking on an almost three-week one? Probably.

We had a year to figure it out. I was quite sure it would all work out perfectly in the end. As it turns out, I quickly learned that Royal Caribbean has wronged me in many ways.

I Was Wrong

In a rare turn of events, I was wrong. Everything didn’t work out perfectly in the end. Ultimately, the situation took a devastating direction when war broke out in Israel on October 7, 2023.

These things were in the back of our minds when we booked. Not that we personally expected anything to happen, but there is a significant history of conflict in the Middle East, so it’s something that we considered. However, we also assumed (and shouldn’t have) that the precautionary measures we had in place would cover us if such an event were to occur.

Royal Caribbean Received a Call

As most would guess, I wasn’t going to proceed with this cruise. Not only do I care about my personal welfare, but I have two young children along for the ride. I wasn’t going to expose them to unnecessary and unsafe conditions.

My first step was to reach out to Royal Caribbean. I first sent them an email to see if they had any updates on our itinerary with the current events taking place. Our cruise was one leg of the Ultimate World Cruise that RC was putting on, and there were going to be many people who would be on that ship for 9 months, visiting all the various destinations.

The generic response that I got was just that they weren’t sure what was going to happen as of yet. The cruise date was for May 2024, our final payment was due at the beginning of February and we were currently in October.

I gave it about a week or two and called the Royal Caribbean number. After explaining our situation and the events that were obviously happening, all they told me was that a decision would be made later.

What I knew was that I wanted to cancel. But I also knew that by paying my deposit and booking the cruise, I gave up a lot of rights when it came to changes.

American Express Received a Call

When I paid the deposit on our cruise, I specifically used my American Express card. We have the Platinum, which has a slew of travel insurance coverages. It covers things from lost baggage, delays, purchase protection, etc.

**Side note: Despite what I’m about to tell you, the card’s benefits are incredible. If you use my referral, which is linked right here, you can get 80,000 miles after meeting the initial spending requirement. I’ll get 20,000 miles myself, which will definitely be put to good use!

**Side Side note: Our four roundtrip plane tickets to Paris were done for around 80,000 miles 😉

I decided to place a call to Amex.

Their customer service was far better than Royal’s and I was connected right away. After listening to my situation and how Royal Caribbean wasn’t planning to make any decisions in the near future, they helped me brainstorm the options.

While the Amex travel protection would cover many aspects if the cruise was cancelled, there was a big thing in my way. The travel has to be a round-trip situation, and being that we only paid the deposit of our cruise, it wasn’t considered round-trip.

It didn’t matter that our flights there and back were booked and paid for; in order to get a refund on our deposit, we would have to pay for the cruise in full. Not only that, we would only get the refund if the company officially canceled the cruise.

But, she continued to tell me that there may be a second option. She transferred me to a supplementary insurance department. I was told that there was a possibility that if I enrolled into this type of policy now that it would grant me the power to cancel and recoup my deposit even without RC canceling it on their end.

Sign me up!

There was just one hiccup.

The insurance policy DOESN’T COVER WARFARE.

All that fine print? Yeah, be sure to read that. It never even occurred to me that warfare would be an exclusion from these types of policies. You can be reimbursed or compensated for a million other things that are out of your control, but warfare? Nope. You should have seen it coming.

Swallowing a Noteworthy Financial Loss

My husband and I had decided early on that we would cancel the cruise regardless of whether or not we would get our deposit returned. There’s no price on safety. We are fine taking some risks in life, but some cross the line of what we feel comfortable with.

Even though RC would likely choose different ports to avoid Jerusalem, we still didn’t feel comfortable. At the time, airlines were limiting flights to some of our other ports, including Egypt and Jordan. There were many travel advisories in place. We just knew we were out the money, and we had to come to peace with it.

We didn’t outright cancel the cruise, however. Just in case Royal decided to cancel, we wanted to have the option to rebook something else or get our money back. But that didn’t happen, so we received a notification on February 10th that our reservation had been canceled.

Royal Caribbean Inserts a Backhanded Business Move

Not a week and a half later I got an email notification that someone posted on the cruise message board I had joined for our sailing. The subject line said something about the cruise being canceled! The speed at which I flew to that website was astonishing.

Royal Caribbean conveniently decided to cancel the cruise just a week after the final payments were due, knowing that those who didn’t make their final payments wouldn’t be eligible for a refund.

Because of the timing, there was nothing we could do. We never paid it in full, so we couldn’t put in a claim with travel insurance. Royal Caribbean washed their hands of us.

What we did learn was that we could have possibly transferred our reservation to another sailing. However, that was never expressed to us in our communications with the cruise line, so I don’t believe it was available for our specific kind of reservation.

People on the message board reported a mix of responses from the cruise line. Some were out and out, told that it was canceled, and offered a refund or future cruise credit. Others were told there were two alternative itineraries being considered. Those who received that message had a week to review the two options, vocalize their first choice, and then Royal Caribbean would announce their decision. It wasn’t a vote. It was just Royal Caribbean asking for their opinions but not necessarily taking them into consideration.

Am I Mad?

Well, I’m not happy. But I also knew what I signed up for when I paid the deposit. Cruises are notoriously difficult to change without fees and a headache. I know this from the last time we attempted a cruise to Alaska. My husband has decided that God is trying to tell us not to get on a cruise, and maybe that’s the case.

With the flight credits and miles we got back, we are taking the family to Poland. Is it the complete opposite of the Middle East? Yup. But there’s no war going on (knock on wood). So get ready for stories of pierogies, salt mines, science, and a whole lot more! But not Auschwitz. I can’t traumatize my kids this young.

P.S. My new book is out! You can find Leo and the Puppy Intruder online at Amazon, Walmart, Barnes and Noble, and IngramSpark!