Unacceptable, RCI...

We just received our travel documents for our cruise (via email) that we booked a couple of months ago. At the time of booking, we chose the second (later) seating for dinner, and this was accepted at the time and the seating was plainly marked "available".

Now, as you've probably surmised, our documents show us being seated early, at 6pm. Plus, we're traveling with another couple with whom we want to be seated, and they, too, chose the later seating.

DW called RCI this morning, and the operator said "gee, I don't know how that happened, but I can put you on the "waiting list" to get on the second dinner seating".

That's totally unacceptable. My thoughts are these: The later seating was available when we booked, and we specifically requested it. Anyone who booked after we did should be bumped, if necessary. I believe that's the fair thing to do. It is a first come, first served world, afterall.

Look, I know some would read this and think a dinner seating time is kind of petty, and shouldn't cause consternation. I understand that, and I know there are important things in the world and some trivial. But this is our vacation, and this is our money. This is one of the things we've paid for, and it does make a difference.

Come on, RCI. You need to do better than a "waiting list".

I believe this is where RC makes their biggest mistake. On our cruise more people were upset and mad about the dinner seating than anything else. What happens if they do not get it right is that people have to wait in long lines the first day on the cruise trying to fix everything and they do not see a problem with that. Their answer is our service will be great no matter when you eat or who you eat with. hey miss the point of the important thing is that we eat when we want and with who we want to eat with. We requested to be near some people we were going with, we are a family of . Well our 5 were split between 2 tables and the people we wanted to sit with were seated on 3 different floors so they just do not care and it is a shame.

They left it up to us at 6 PM to fix it with the people that we were sitting with. So fight now as it will only be worse once you get on the ship. If you have a bad first day, the rest of the week will reflect this.

Do you have a reservatin confirmation that shows you choose second seating and it was confirmed. Also is your reservatiojn linked with the othe couple you are going with so RCI knows to seat you together? If you have a confirmation and the reservations are linked I would call RCI back and ask for a customer service supervisor.

Did you book thru a TA or directly with RCCL? Did you get any sort of written confirmation at the time of booking? If you ordered via the internet, did you get a screen capture?

This is exactly what it says on our confirmation:

Dining Preference: Second Seating (Available)

Now they are trying to say "the travel agency made a mistake as the second seating was NOT available when you booked". Of course, this is Royal Caribbean's own travel site for online bookings.

So, we are on a "priority" waiting list, whatever that means. Not happy.

The confirmation (and booking) was from RCC Reservations.com

And yes, the above was cut/pasted from our confirmation email.

To my knowledge and I could be wrong, dining preferences are never confirmed until you board. They are marked.. "late seating preferred". On another thread I related how my DH and I were seperated from our party of 12 at dinnertime on Carnival Triumph. Just keep calling and maybe RCI will confirm late seating for you. If not, go immediately to the dining room after you come on board. Maybe they can accommodate you better at that time. Good luck!

I think that is your problem right there. I just checked a confirmation we have and it says "Second Seating Confirmed"! There in lies the difference, Confirmed vs Available. You may not have had the assignment confirmed and others slipped in ahead of you.

Good luck and I hope they get you in the slot you want. Hopefully there will be some folks who wanted first seating but were assigned second.

Tks, Bonnie, but if what you say is true, how could they say that the late seating is all booked up if nothing is confirmed until boarding?

I just can't buy "the computer made a mistake" reason. If a simple program like what it would take to keep track of a small number (in computer terms) of people can be that faulty, then there would be utter chaos in the RCI system.

When someone books a reservation and sets a preference, the program simply subtracts the number of available positions. Nothing could be simpler. It's highly doubtful that an online booking --automated as it is-- would return an untrue condition like "available", and then even confirm it.

My gut tells me (based only on instinct) that we were bumped, probably by some frequent (as in "repeat") travelers who happened to book late. That, if true, would be most unfortunate.

I think that is your problem right there. I just checked a confirmation we have and it says "Second Seating Confirmed"! There in lies the difference, Confirmed vs Available. You may not have had the assignment confirmed and others slipped in ahead of you.

Why would I need to confirm anything after the reservation was made? There's no mention of having to go back and nail down any details on a reservation. I think this is just semantics. How, then, would someone "slip in" ahead?

RCCReservations.comis an online TA that sells RCL cruises. They are not Royal Caribbean.

Just go to the dining room after you board and they will change your dining time. They are very accomodating and their will be as many people who have late seating that want early as there are the other way. Don't worry, I've changed by dining seating many times like this.

This may be a little long, but bear with me. A few years ago we booked Grandeur of the Seas and even tough the booking was about 8 months before the sailing, we were put on "wait list" for first seating. Upon boarding the ship we saw that we were assigned to second seating. I went to the library where the maitre'd was supposedly handling the people dissatisfied with their table assignments. The line was a mile long and some guy handling the line said that the maitre'd was busy with those cruisers who HAD NO table assignments. So he wrote my name on his clipboard and he told me to come the main dining room the next day at noon and the maitre'd would be there to resolve any problems. Next day I showed up at the dining room door and there was another long line......but after a few minutes he called my name and I went to the head of the line. The maitre'd made all kinds of apologies and said that there just were no available tables for first sitting.

I didn't get upset with him, but calmly said to him that if I did not get first sitting that Royal Caribbean would never see me again......and this was about

my 10th sailing on Royal Caribbean. Later in the day, I returned to my cabin and found a note under the door from the maitre'd telling me to come to the restaurant at 6PM and that there would be a table assigned to me for the first sitting. At least he was a man of his word and he did assign us to a table for six and we had a great time with a nice group of people. Having been on more than 40 cruises I have learned that you should be mildly aggressive but not demanding, and don't lose your temper, and most times things work out in your favor. One other alternative that we all now have is that you can choose a cruise line that offers "free style dining" or "anytime dining" or "personal choice dining" etc. etc. Hope you readers out there found this interesting.;)

Seeing how little the people on the phone actually know. How much do you want to bet that there is a waiting list for the early seating as well?

The confirmation (and booking) was from RCC Reservations.com

 

And yes, the above was cut/pasted from our confirmation email.

Cruisinfanatic hit it on the head. You did not book your cruise through Royal Caribbean!!! Your complaint should be with your TA that didn't secure late seating at the time of booking. The "confirmation email" (from your online TA, not the cruise line) says second seating was available. It does not say it was requested or reserved.

RCCReservations.comis an online TA that sells RCL cruises. They are not Royal Caribbean.

Now that's an interesting and important point. But I could swear all of this booking went though the RCI website first. So, if my anger is misdirected at RCI vs. RCC, then apologies are in order to RCI.

However, they all tap into the same reservation system, no doubt. So, there again is a problem that still needs to be dealt with.

Cruisinfanatic hit it on the head. You did not book your cruise through Royal Caribbean!!! Your complaint should be with your TA that didn't secure late seating at the time of booking. The "confirmation email" (from your online TA, not the cruise line) says second seating was available. It does not say it was requested or reserved.

See my post above...

As someone who is a first time cruiser, I am relying upon the expertise of others (and the very, very helpful tips and advice by volunteers here at cruisecritic) to get this thing done right, reservation-wise.

Why wouldn't a travel agent "lock in" a preference at the time of booking? Does that make sense to anyone? And if there was a problem, why wouldn't it be caught before the final cruise documents are issued by the cruise line?

If I book a cruise, and am asked my preference for a dinner seating, why would I, as a customer, have to call the TA back at some future time to make sure they locked in my dinner seating? And how am I supposed to know this in advance?

Anyway, I'm hoping this thread is useful for no other reason that if this is happening to me, it could happen to others. I've fired off a not-so-subtle email to RCC Reservations detailing my concerns. I'll post my response from them when I get it.

Tks for the responses here.

See my post above...

 

As someone who is a first time cruiser, I am relying upon the expertise of others (and the very, very helpful tips and advice by volunteers here at cruisecritic) to get this thing done right, reservation-wise.

 

Why wouldn't a travel agent "lock in" a preference at the time of booking? Does that make sense to anyone? And if there was a problem, why wouldn't it be caught before the final cruise documents are issued by the cruise line?

 

If I book a cruise, and am asked my preference for a dinner seating, why would I, as a customer, have to call the TA back at some future time to make sure they locked in my dinner seating? And how am I supposed to know this in advance?

 

Anyway, I'm hoping this thread is useful for no other reason that if this is happening to me, it could happen to others. I've fired off a not-so-subtle email to RCC Reservations detailing my concerns. I'll post my response from them when I get it.

 

Tks for the responses here.

You are absolutely right. Your TA dropped the ball, period. You requested one seating and got another. Chances are very good that every thing will work out for you though.

Have you considered taking the early seating? I have found that you'll miss or have a difficult time seeing some things going on on the ship with late seating. I prefer early for that reason. Good luck!

Heyitsrick,

Your TA dropped the ball here. You do not have to confirm anything. But if your assignment said available then your TA did not go through the process of confirming your seating assignment. Our TA or RCL always confirms our request so we know we will be dining when we want to. The Second Seating Confirmed we got on our reservaton means that we have second seating and that we will get second seating. Sorry if you were confused about the wording.

Another thing you should check is if you have confirmed cabin assignments. Some TA's will sell cabins and you do not get a confirmed assignment until just before cruising. These usually cost a bit less but you take the chance of where the cabin is located. This could be important if you want to be right next to the people you are traveling with.

Yup, the way I see this, it is a TA problem. You booked with a TA that did not lock in your dining preference. Available is very different than confirmed! Your TA dropped the ball, and sadly, you didn't catch it. You can try once you get on board to get second seating, but it sounds to me like this one wasn't the lines fault.

Thanks to all, and it does appear that RCC (TA) and not RCI is at fault here. I wish I could change the title of the thread to reflect this, but I cannot. But lesson(s) learned.

I'm still awaiting a response from RCC Reservations on how they expect to ever get my business again (in so many words). I'm wondering if I should continue to hold my breath, however. ;)

We've travelled with others numerous times, and always make sure our reservations are linked (even if we've used different TA's), so we can end up dining together. We've never had a glitch that way. Get your travelling companions reservation number, call your TA and have them link your reservation. Your travelling companions should probably do the same. Perhaps that will solve your problem quickly.

You are absolutely right. Your TA dropped the ball, period. You requested one seating and got another. Chances are very good that every thing will work out for you though.

Have you considered taking the early seating? I have found that you'll miss or have a difficult time seeing some things going on on the ship with late seating. I prefer early for that reason. Good luck!

My husband and I sailed on the VOS on 9/24/04 also.

The officical Royal Caribbean website is at http://www.royalcaribbean.com

However, if you make a common spelling mistake, you get RCC reservations, an online agency: http://www.royalcarribean.com

In my opinion, this is sort of an opportunistic manoeuver on the part of this agency.

To the original poster, I'm sorry you've had an unfortunate experience with your reservation. I think you and your cruising companions will be fine if you head straight to the dining room (or designated meeting place) and speak with the maitre d' upon boarding. As was said before, be polite but firm and persistent. Good luck.

I hope you have a wonderful cruise. :)

The officical Royal Caribbean website is at www.royalcaribbean.com

 

However, if you make a common spelling mistake, you get RCC reservations, an online agency: www.royalcarribean.com

 

In my opinion, this is sort of an opportunistic manoeuver on the part of this agency.

Well, this explains a lot. My DW made the reservations online, and I'm going to have to razz her about her spelling! Tks...

However, if you make a common spelling mistake, you get RCC reservations, an online agency: www.royalcarribean.com

 

In my opinion, this is sort of an opportunistic manoeuver on the part of this agency.

In TOTAL agreement, that it is a sleazy and deceptive practice by that online agency.

To the OP, be SURE that the agency has LINKED your reservation for dining with the other one. In fact, have THEM verify that your reservation is linked to theirs as well. If they still have late dining and you are linked you will have a better chance of clearing the waitlist prior to sailing.

Good luck, I hope you get it all worked out. :)