Oshunj

3 hours ago, flamingos said:

 

I took my first Holland cruise last month and loved it - but one of the few disappointments was the Lido buffet.  Nice enough, but lacking variety and it was basically the same every day. It had far fewer options than the Windjammer.

 

Tastes vary.  If you look for disappointment, you will find it. 

I’m thinking this is really my answer! tastes vary. I really liked the simple fare of the lido…baked chicken fish or pasta with a protein is all i need for a 7 day cruise. My cruise mates say i’m mad though! haha 

6 hours ago, Seannie said:

Which ship were you on?

Jewel of the Seas - I’ve been on others in the RCCL before. Hated the food! And I’m not a foodie. I’m on the cruise for other than food related stuff….but disgusting is disgusting!

Have heard the specialty restaurants are very good. idk, paying upwards of $3000 i just wonder if i should expect Okay versus disgusting 

6 hours ago, firefly333 said:

 

 

I wanted filled donuts and they did 2 kinds of avacado toast. I dont want guacamole for breakfast. I think tastes vary. Some will love what you didnt. I liked the premade eggs. You didnt. Dont judge all ships based on one cruise or one ship. 

This was very we stated as I would have loved avocado toast and did abhor the filled donuts.

But I will say that my complaint is not necessarily with the food provided and more about the quality of the food provided. (though i did complain about the no Baked chicken but give me a little leeway! :-))

e.g., a horrible donut versus an okay donut versus a gourmet donut. I’d expect a 7 day cruise in europe to have okay donuts in the buffet dinning room….not disgusting. And let me tell you, the desserts and donuts were absolutely not fit for dogs. 😮

For as much as cruises cost, at least for the majority of people making an average wage, I think food onboard a cruise should be palatable. This is not including the specialty restaurants that incur extra charges. And I’m not talking about gourmet chef style food either!

I was disappointed to go onboard and not see your basic baked or roasted-chicken and fish  at the buffet. Omelette station in the morning was subpar with “pre -made” omelettes….and missing ingredients if you asked for a fresh one.

What do you think? Am I asking too much for the main buffet dining area on a 7 day cruise? Should I expect sub-par food at the buffet.

Note: Holland America may have spoiled me with their pasta station and grill station.

To be fair, when I complained, a nice young attendant had a chicken filet grilled up for me.  

Followup- Called the cust service number after getting some cryptic emails about not being able to open attachments in the email I sent . This was after waiting 30 days after sending initial email, and then, emailing again for a status after the 30 days.

When I responded with receipts attached again yesterday, I received the same automated email response, minus the reps name.  First automated email said “hi, this is Jane Doe, your representative for this inquiry”; 2nd automated email said, “ Hi, this is , your representative for this inquiry”. ::eyeroll::

Decided to call and after a few transfers, hours on hold, and disconnections…spanning into this morning, I finally got to speak to someone who took my credit card # for reimbursement.  I’ll document the relevant details. 

1.  Physical receipts required, SOL for the hotels and restaurants where i forgot to get it or lost it. (wonder why people ABHOR big business & Corporate America)

2.  Call support #: select 6 for Post Cruise questions (Then when a human quickly answers within 30 sec to 1 minute, ask to be transferred to Post Cruise department ::eyeroll::). Now wait online for at least 40 minutes; Yesterday I waited for an hour.

3 Provide number to get call back incase of disconnection

4. Have booking number, sail date available 

5.  Have email address used to send receipts to rccl.

6. Have cc# used for booking cruise - said it was preferred but apparently not required???

7.  Rep said card should reflect credit back in 5 to 7 days

8.  No email sent with confirmation of what was done but the rep seemed very knowledgeable, experienced, and quickly handled the request. If I had to guess, I would say this credit will happen as she mentioned. but you never know.

9. Lastly, The rep found the emails I sent and opened the images of the receipt while I was on the phone with her. She also itemized them and gave me the amount she could credit. She also put me on hold to get the credit approved.  Didn’t appear to check the $250/day hotel ; $150/day food allowance but I don’t think I went over that amount.

Will reply back when (if) I get the credit.

So yeah, hoops they make you jump through the hoops!  Corporate America (Global big business) is just so sad….why do we have to treat human beings this way!

Alas, I may be getting a subset of what I am owed based on their “promise” to cruise with confidence during a global pandemic! Shame on Big business! Shame!

I've gone through the process and received the automatic email re: refunds (note it didn't specify the reimbursement policy).  Just curious if anyone has been successful in their request for reimbursement when testing positive on the cruise.

Welp, this is disconcerting....State department is advising against getting on cruises. Wonder what the cruise industry response will be.

This is the first step in saying if theres a problem on your cruise dont be surprised if we (US Gov) dont intervene....

(still hoping things calm down or my trip to london/amsterdam is going to tragic in that it wont happen.  This is the first time i have started to worry)

https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/international-travel/before-you-go/travelers-with-special-considerations/cruise-ship-passengers.html?fbclid=IwAR23mRlu4-382HLuSM8i0KWQBSaZ4heDniggmxR3kBR6e2EgWiKr6B0EseM

Saw the email, and thought, well that's a normal "we have a few things to work out" email.

reading the one persons critique it seemed only about the food! to be honest i don't like the cruise food either way & im going for the music so as long as there is sustinence i'm good.

The other issue noted was the cleanliness of the ship/stateroom! 😡that would irk me too!

it is carnival and as i heard they cater to a younger more active crowd (midnight on average carnival ship is more lively,no?) so i'd expect a dingier ship (more warn down).

And the service sounds VERY IRRITATING and i would be complaining as well.

What i did not read, i think, is complaints about not seeing shows or long lines to enter or reserve seats and then being turned away.

and sounds like they are trying to fix these blips. we will see though.

The company's newsletter last weekend for the three jazz cruises (The Jazz Cruise, The Smooth Jazz Cruise and Blue Note at Sea) confirms that there were a lot of complaints about the ship. I won't post it again here as I've already quoted it in this post: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?p=52421797#post52421797

 

There were a couple of snapshots in that thread from people on The Jazz Cruise, and my own potted summary was in these posts on the HAL forum: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?p=52269639#post52269639 and http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?p=52277190#post52277190.

Pretty late responding...sorry about that. My thoughts and feelings are the same. I have been a very happy and satisfied cruiser of SJC for 5 years. Only went on supercruise to expand my horrizons and see what the hoopla was all about.

All that to say I'm still pissed!

But to put this in perspective I wouldn't have gone again had the cruise been perfect! I'm more interested in the jazz artists versus R&B and singers. The artists, as always, were exquisite! Have no complaints, only praise (well, except for wanda sykes and jill scott, but artists can have a bad day!). My preference is more instrumentals and less singing.

i can see how people who have gone on the cruise for years and love the product will give them another chance. I can't say what I'd do; it's such an emotional train wreck. i mean, this wasn't a weekend trip to Vegas that was screwed up. It was my yearly week off work and $3000 + alcohol ruined. $300 off "next time" along with scapegoating the blame is really a tough pill for me to swallow. I just don't have that kind of time and money to squander when there is a better product competing for my money.

I'll say this, I'm a very hard critique of customer service. But you can endear yourself to me by being upfront, polite, respectful, and empathetic. CJSC was none of that. They hid, letting mostly volunteers face the wrath of angry customers - which is almost worse to me than screwing customers over. They did the "i'm sorry, but" apology which as we all know is not an apology. They did not take full responsibility for the full failure of their sailing, and that the $300 off next cruise is a NCL benefit of repeat customers alludes to the top brass at the organization did not experience any "discomfort" or "monetary" hit as did their customers. Furthermore, as I hear it, a good portion of people had already signed up for 2017 cruise with non refundable deposits and monthly payments.

I say all this just to point out that CJSC handled this so very poorly before, during, and after the cruise & I cannot in good conscience say i would ever go on another, without maybe change of ownership/management.. I don't know how they could have made up for the madness for me personally, but a $300 off "next years" cruise damn sure ain't gonna do nothing but increase my blood pressure!

😐

In other news, at least we have a president in the U.S. that "will make america great again"!

😶

Oshunj...just curious, now that there has been a 2 week, post cruise cooling off period for everyone, has your perspective of the events onboard that week changed or stay the same and as a result, what (if any) actions have you taken (i.e. if you were booked for 2017 on the Breakaway did you cancel, are you looking at another competitor's offering,are you considering taking advantage of the $300 credit etc)

 

I have been following the CJSC Facebook page on their website and it appears the number of new postings per day have slowed down significantly...the page that shows the availability of 2017 cabins has not been updated so we do not know as of yet, if the negative experience has caused mass exodus from folks who were booked (or is it an indication whether they did or did not purchase travel (trip) insurance with the "cancel for any reason" rider

 

this was our 7th straight CJSC and usually by this time the website would post photos of all the performances and positive guests testimonials and videos of the artists Q&A's and most of us would be looking forward to early December when the first wave of performing artists would be announced

 

I'm not sure then even Oliva Pope (Scandal) "spin" could repair the PR damage...however after 6 straight years of incredible experiences, I would be inclined to give CJSC another chance (after taking 1-2 year break)

 

would love to know your take on it

A few facebook comments about the Capital Jazz Super cruise. I just learned that you had to call the restaurants to reserve dinner shows & go to box office to reserve Dance theatre of harlem! This is only 1/7th of the story. I tempered my disgust and enjoyed myself and the shoes i was able to get in. But now that i'm home I need to explain how utterly gross and unprofessional this event planning (lack of) was. And there is no excuse for the complete failure of a well established organization to so clearly drop the ball and screw up and waste 3500 people's time & money! and further to blame it on a technology glitch...For those who were lucky enough to see all shows they wanted, great! I'm not as selfish to be satisfied while 1/3 of the people didn't get to see all they wanted. And it's unfair to say, oh, your attitude was bad, therefore CJ deserves another chance! Emotions are real and everyone does not process anger & disappointment well. That is why there is an industry for crisis management & PUBLIC relations, & customer service, etc.etc.

Note: this is not my experience but i thought i'd share a fellow facebooked experience which you can read for yourself on CJSC facebook page comments. I.can vouch for most of her experience as it was mine as well. also note this only Day 1 :

$300 dollars....that's if you had an interior or a suite

Here is my Day 1

No staff member greeted us at overflow hotel (greeted all previous years by CJP staff)

No staff member greeted us at terminal (greeted all previous years)

No staff member in the hall checkin in (greeted all previous years)

Norwegian didnt tell guests they had to fill out the health form before getting to the front of the line

I saw the back of a staff member when i passed the artists check in room

No staff member in the waiting hall upstairs

Greeted by Norwegian staff when setting foot on the boat. (greeted all previous years)

Directed to Atrium

I see a long line for guest services but no staff. No direction.

I leave my mom in the line to go look for a bathroom and I overhear someone say to get to a kiosk to book shows.

I go back, grab my family and tell them to line up at a kiosk.

While in line, I'm spying on those in front of me to understand system.

Still no staff in sight.

It's 12:32pm and Ken Ford and Michael Colyar show is grayed out, therefore sold out.

The people in front of my line tried to book all shows available for six people so it took them 54 minutes. I had two more people in front of me. One gave up waiting and left the line. I helped the person in front of me.

I booked what I could for me and my brother. By 1:15pm, an Ojays/Ledisi show was grayed out, the George Wallace show was gone, Angie Stone/Eric Benet was taking our reservation. And where were the other shows? Were they already sold out? I hadn't even seen Howard Hewett, Jazz Funk Soul or Regina Belle.

Here is an example of the process we had to go through after traveling to MIA, checking into a port/cruise, setting down our carry on items on Deck 6 and figuring out on our own that we had to book at that moment:

Make sure kiosk is on the homepage

Click the next button in the lower right hand corner

On the 2nd screen, click the Entertainment tab

Then from there you had 3 options:

choose for 10 artist blocks about (where were the rest of the shows?)

pick the quantity of people for the reservation

pick the date you wanted to reserve

So lets say we picked a date. Then...

Pick the show you wanted to reserve if available

Pick the day (if applicable - some shows had two choices)

Pick the time

Put your ship card in the slot at the bottom of the kiosk

Put in your room number

Select the people in your cabin who want to attend selected show (if you all have different choices, you had to do this all over again for the next choice)

Press the 'book' button

Wait for system to process

Press Ok

At this point, either you were confirmed by the screen, denied or the screen timed out

Now back to the homepage

Repeat for another show.

Guests hadn't even seen their rooms yet, or the ship! We downloaded that app ahead of time for it not to work for most of the cruise. People were asking other guests for help. Some guests figured out there were kiosks on every floor near the stairs and ran that way. We heard an announcement around 1pm to go to your rooms to book but we had stood so long in line we didnt want to leave and take that chance. Thank goodness we didnt because the tv system didnt work either!

WHO WANTS TO DO ALL OF THIS? Luckily I had planned what I wanted to see so I had an idea of what to book but had to rearrange a lot of things because the shows I wanted originally were not available and that affected the rest of the week. I had to remember a schedule, when to line up, schedule some time to eat somewhere during the day and twice I waited in line just to get to the front and hear, "I'm sorry, we're full". I still haven't seen parts of that ship. I didn't have time to eat at any specialty restaurants all because seeing the musical acts and making sure I got IN THE ROOM was more important to me.

The safety drill (kind of) happened. I actually saw a CJ staff member standing around then. Some woman was on the kiosk as the drill was starting and they made her stop booking after she had waited for 2 hours. It wasn't until after the safety drill at 3:30pm(??) did someone tell us that we had to book dinner reservations for JFS, Regina Belle, Walter Beasley, etc. So we rush to our room and get on the phone to be on hold for 45 min. When a Norwegian staff member came on, we reserved what we could get ( I believe it was for Regina Belle and Lee Ritenour) but we were told all brunches were sold out. It's close to 5pm on Day 1 and those are sold out too? Then this person told us to reserve for some other show, we had to call the box office number and hung up. It was after 5pm now so the phone just rang and rang. We figured the box office, of our cruise ship, on day 1, was closed.

So that means we had to book on a kiosk (or an app or tv system that didnt work at all), call the restaurant line (or line up at Le Bistro I was told later on that week) and call a box office line to book shows for a cruise I had already paid for.

To add insult to injury, I heard a rumor that guests at the host hotel the day before had a small window of opportunity to book shows!!

Norwegian's system is built for Norwegian, not CapJazzProd. It's also not built for all guests to hit the system at once like we did. We anticipated a crash so we arrived to port early but it still didnt matter because we weren't informed, ahead of time, of everything that we had to do. The communication on this cruise was horrible. At least program the kiosk to do one full itinerary of one guest in ONE SHOT. The process I described above was only for one show at a time!

I made it into a Headliner show that night and Pat Prescott apologized for the confusion. She shouldn't have to apologize. She's there to host! A staff member at that venue asked me my opinion on the day. Mind you this was at 11:30pm, Day 1, and it was the first time I had spoken to a CJ staff member about anything. I started telling him about what I had described above here in this post and before I could finish my 2nd thought on the kiosk system, he asks me "well who's fault is that?". Well it isn't my fault. He proceeds to tell me how it was Norwegian's fault and then says that I should have a better attitude about it because "you are on the boat after all". He said that sht on Day 6 as well and I was over it by then. I was the guest. I don't care who's fault it was at that moment. I want it to be fixed. What I don't want is for staff to tell me that I'm wrong when I speak about the venues being too small or for staff to blame someone or something else. That was the theme of the week - "It's Norwegian's fault". It was very disheartening, especially going through the week and finding out about the host hotel bookings and the preferential treatment of those who complained the hardest. Also how did the small percentage of us know what to do to get the bookings in the first place?

Most times you would find me and my family in the back of the rooms dancing because we were just thankful to make it in the venue and that's not right.

Day 1.