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.