Surprise!

Yesterday I was on the RCCL site to set up dining with our friends. There will just be 4 of us, that is great. I booked the My Time Dining for us - we all like to go early. That is a perk with RCCL that you can book ahead and not have to call everyday when onboard to book it. Anyway, that is all set.

I thought I would poke around and see what excursions might interest us in Roatan, Honduras since it was to be a new port for us. To my surprise the only excursions listed were in the Bahamas. I didn't recall we were going there - Hmm... Sure enough, there has been an itinerary change! It is surprising NOT to have been notified about this. Since I was messaging my friend all the while, I told her. She had not heard either. She was off to call the TA (travel agent) to see what was happening. The TA was not happy as she didn't know about this either. Our booking is part of a larger "group" booking (why we got the good price) and apparently somewhere along the line the news did not make it to us or even the TA. I was not really bothered by this as I have not been to Nassau, Bahamas before and it looks lovely. I see that we will be docked there so visiting the city should be easy and interesting as well. 

Shortly after speaking with my friend, the TA called. It was a very nice surprise that we have a couple options because of this itinerary change. 1) We can cancel for a full refund and get 15% off the next cruise we book, 2) We can have an OBC (on board credit) for 50% of the cruise cost (not counting taxes/fees of course). We chose the latter and we will have $560. OBC. Unlike other OBC, whatever we do not use will be credited back to the card we booked with. Wow - that is a super perk! 

In addition, the story from the TA is that there is some maintenance of the ship that has to be done in port over the course of a couple days. This is obviously why they are offering the generous perk to keep people onboard. Even if the sailing ends up not being full, it is better than taking the ship out of service for the week. Overall, we are quite happy the way it turned out!