Couple charged nearly $100,000 for dinner onboard cruise from Fort Lauderdale

MIAMI, FLORIDA - MARCH 14: Royal Caribbean Symphony of the Seas Cruise ship which is the world's largest passenger liner is seen docked at PortMiami after returning to port from an Eastern Caribbean cruise. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images) (Joe Raedle, 2020 Getty Images)

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – A couple onboard Royal Caribbean’s Symphony of the Seas was mistakenly charged nearly $100,000 after dining at one of the ship’s specialty restaurants.

According to cruisehive.com, the incident happened Sept. 5 at the ship’s Jamie’s Italian restaurant.

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The couple, who was on a 7-day eastern Caribbean trip that departed from Fort Lauderdale, ordered crispy calamari and garlic bread for appetizers, followed by penne Pomodoro, arugula and parmesan salad, and then finished their meal with lemon meringue cheesecake and hot chocolate with vanilla ice cream.

But Alex and Alicia told Cruise Hive they were shocked when they found a $98,638.93 charge on their shipboard account.

It turns out an ID number was mistakenly typed into the gratuity box rather than the correct dollar amount.

The couple says Royal Caribbean reversed the charge, but the charge still showed up on their American Express card, which caused them not to be able to use it for the rest of their vacation.

“This has been pretty stressful to deal with while on vacation,” Alex told Cruise Hive. “We had our card decline while off the boat on an island, presumably because this authorization was locking up the available credit on the card.”

Alex told Cruise Hive he is grateful that he at least used a credit card and not a debit card as “real” funds would have then been affected by the error.

Local 10 News has reached out to Royal Caribbean for comment and is awaiting a response.


About the Author

Amanda Batchelor is the Digital Executive Producer for Local10.com.

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