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RCI: exchange for a cruise

Judy

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Looking at cruiserci.com, it appears to me that the way their cruise exchange works for Weeks members is that you give them 14 TPU's and a lot of money and they sell you a cruise. Is that accurate? I have a lot of TPUs at the moment and might be interested in exchanging for a future cruise, but not at the prices I'm seeing on the rci site.
 

silentg

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Looking at cruiserci.com, it appears to me that the way their cruise exchange works for Weeks members is that you give them 14 TPU's and a lot of money and they sell you a cruise. Is that accurate? I have a lot of TPUs at the moment and might be interested in exchanging for a future cruise, but not at the prices I'm seeing on the rci site.

I was going to do this and found it was cheaper to book a cruise with the cruise line than use my TPU and pay more than with the cruise price alone. I used Royal Caribean.
Silentg
 

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I cruise with Norwegian, and I've generally found that on that cruise line you can save some money per cabin, but not enough to make it worthwhile if you're only booking one cabin and you have another possible good use for the TPUs.

If, on the other hand, you're booking 2-3 cabins and you don't really have anything else you were going to use those TPUs for, it can definitely be worthwhile. You can book multiple cabins for a single exchange fee, and generally it's only worthwhile if you do this.

Several years ago I booked 3 cabins on a New England/Canada fall cruise for a group of friends/family and myself. Combining the savings across all 3 cabins (compared to prices directly from the cruise line) and subtracting the fees (RCI exchange fee, travel agent fees, etc.), we saved $1,900.

I have an upcoming Royal Caribbean cruise and when I priced that one out on the Royal Caribbean website and on RCI's cruise site, the price for the type of cabin I was looking for was the same. So obviously it won't make sense to use any TPUs for that cruise.
 

rickandcindy23

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RCI is really pushing cruise packages. I had the unfortunate experience of talking to a pushy salesperson at RCI. I told him he sounded just like any timeshare salesperson.

The prices were no bargain, and he kept offering other "bonus weeks" to go with the package. I was just cancelling a car rental I got through RCI, so it was so annoying to be transferred to a salesperson!
 

silentg

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RCI is really pushing cruise packages. I had the unfortunate experience of talking to a pushy salesperson at RCI. I told him he sounded just like any timeshare salesperson.

The prices were no bargain, and he kept offering other "bonus weeks" to go with the package. I was just cancelling a car rental I got through RCI, so it was so annoying to be transferred to a salesperson!

Also, on Royal Caribean you can check your reservation periodically to see if the price has changed, if so they will give you the lower price. Already did this on a cruise we are taking next April.
Silentg
 

Judy

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So then, what I'm seeing online is what I get? There's no way to give RCI, say 100+ TPUs and get a nearly free cruise?

By the way, rci.com now is saying there's no exchange fee for a cruise exchange. I can't find a mention of their travel agent fee. I suppose that's something they spring on you at the last minute.
 

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Also, on Royal Caribean you can check your reservation periodically to see if the price has changed, if so they will give you the lower price. Already did this on a cruise we are taking next April.
Silentg

Since cruise prices often change for very brief periods and you may not check during the period of the change, in my opinion, it's worth using www.cruisefish.com

Cruisefish will let you know anytime the price changes either up or down.
 

JustAllie

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So then, what I'm seeing online is what I get? There's no way to give RCI, say 100+ TPUs and get a nearly free cruise?

By the way, rci.com now is saying there's no exchange fee for a cruise exchange. I can't find a mention of their travel agent fee. I suppose that's something they spring on you at the last minute.

Nope, no way to use a bunch of TPUs and get a nearly free cruise.

I rummaged around to try to find the "no exchange fee for a cruise exchange" offer you posted about, but what I found was more of a "buy one, get one free" kind of deal called the RCI Cruise Pass.
 

Judy

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Nope, no way to use a bunch of TPUs and get a nearly free cruise.

I rummaged around to try to find the "no exchange fee for a cruise exchange" offer you posted about, but what I found was more of a "buy one, get one free" kind of deal called the RCI Cruise Pass.
It must have been the RCI Cruise Pass link I saw. Now that I look at it more closely, it only lets us out of paying the exchange fee on the second cruise booking within 12 months.
Not a great deal. Thanks for pointing that out.
 

JustAllie

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It must have been the RCI Cruise Pass link I saw. Now that I look at it more closely, it only lets us out of paying the exchange fee on the second cruise booking within 12 months.
Not a great deal. Thanks for pointing that out.

No problem.

Of course if you're an avid cruiser and booking multiple cabins on multiple cruises within one 12-month period, I guess the RCI cruise option does start to look pretty good. :D
 

Judy

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I called RCI Cruises and asked,
1. Do you accept Princess Future Cruise Credits?
2. Can I use more than 14 TPU's to earn a bigger discount?
3. Do you charge an exchange fee? How much?
4. Do you charge a Travel Agent fee?

The answer to question #2 was "No", but it took me at least three tries to find that out. The answer to all the others was something like, "Tell me what you want to book and I'll show you what a great deal we can offer you." I felt as if I were trying to get a straight answer from a timeshare salesperson.
 

JustAllie

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And presumably the answers to 1, 3, and 4 were "Yes." At least that's been my experience when booking Norwegian cruises through RCI.

The travel agent fee was $24.95 per cabin the last time I booked. I think it was listed on the receipt as a "processing fee."
 

Judy

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And presumably the answers to 1, 3, and 4 were "Yes." At least that's been my experience when booking Norwegian cruises through RCI.

The travel agent fee was $24.95 per cabin the last time I booked. I think it was listed on the receipt as a "processing fee."

And was the exchange fee the same as for exchanging a timeshare?

Was the price the agent gave you the same as what you could see on the RCI cruises website, plus the "processing fee" and plus the exchange fee?
 

JustAllie

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And was the exchange fee the same as for exchanging a timeshare?

Was the price the agent gave you the same as what you could see on the RCI cruises website, plus the "processing fee" and plus the exchange fee?

The most recent cruise I booked (for May 2017), I was charged an exchange fee of $129. Hmm, that seems low. Last year it was $219 for the previous cruise I booked.

The price was very close, but not exactly equal, to the amount I saw on the RCI website. I think it was actually a few dollars cheaper. I've always had trouble exactly matching the prices between the website and the invoices I actually receive, but they are always so close that I assume the website is not updated daily or the port fees & taxes are a bit off or something like that.

The processing fee never seemed to be revealed until I got the invoice from the RCI folks, but the processing fee is almost exactly equal to the RCI Platinum discount per cabin, so maybe I was just ignoring it because it all washed out.

Before you call the RCI cruise folks, print out the prices you see for your party size (e.g. 2 adults 1 kid) on the RCI cruise marketplace website. That way you can compare those prices with what shows up on the invoice, and make inquiries about any differences that are more than a few dollars.

This last time I booked, they only took 7 TPUs from my RCI account even though it was supposed to be a "standard exchange" and not a "reduced exchange," so I was not about to complain about a few dollars here or there. Especially since the few dollars difference between the website and the invoice seemed to be in my favor, even taking the processing fee into account. :D
 
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