Royal Caribbean Apologizes for Excursion Pricing Glitch

Image: Aquaventure at Atlantis, Paradise Island. (photo courtesy of Atlantis, Paradise Island) (Atlantis Paradise Island)
Image: Aquaventure at Atlantis, Paradise Island. (photo courtesy of Atlantis, Paradise Island) (Atlantis Paradise Island)
Rich Thomaselli
by Rich Thomaselli
Last updated: 12:21 PM ET, Tue March 21, 2023

In the end, this is just a business. And businesses don't give away products for free.

Give Royal Caribbean credit for trying to quickly right a wrong. With "credit" being the keyword here.

In what appears to be a growing problem, Royal Caribbean suffered another computer glitch in which it offered an excursion at a price that was far below what it really cost.

According to CruiseHive, it wasn't egregious rather just a mistake. Earlier this month, the cruise line listed a popular shore excursion to the Atlantis Aquaventure Waterpark in the Bahamas for just $64.99. Naturally, people jumped at it.

When ships call in Nassau, many passengers like to spend the day at Atlantis and the water park as it offers dining, activities and beach time. In reality, the excursion cost $249.99.

It was a computer glitch and the cruise company quickly atoned for it.

Of course, passengers were upset that the cruise line did not honor the mistake. But it's kind of hard to do so with that deep discount. It clearly was a mistake. To make it right, Royal Caribbean offered a full refund of the $64.99 as well as a $50 onboard credit.

In a letter to passengers who bought the excursion at the original price, Aurora Yera-Rodrigues of Guest Experience points out that "recently, there were a series of system glitches that uploaded incorrect information onto our system, including pricing for our Atlantis Aquaventure Waterpark tour. Our teams worked diligently to resolve the issues and they now reflect correctly in My Royal Cruise."

Critics were quick to point out that Royal Caribbean did raise the price of the excursion to $309. Earlier this year, the cruise line did have a similar computer glitch and apologized to passengers for a misguided text message.


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