Anici80

If you look up Man overboard ncl escape april 19 2017 there is a YouTube video of the announcement on the freedom of the seas where the captain explains what happened.

Not sure why this is a problem. You requested adjoining rooms, which are side-by-side. You didn't request connecting cabins, which have a door on the inside of both cabins to open up and make them connecting.

 

I am sorry that you are having problems, but agree with other posters that I think it's more of a communication problem between you and the TA.

There was no confusion about what we wanted. We discussed the door between the cabins and she made reference to how much smaller it makes the space. There was no miscommunication about what we were looking for. If I had gone into detail about our entire encounter my post would have been a novel and it would have defeated the purpose of my actual concern. I got stuck with a travel agent who was not knowledgeable about my cruiseline after choosing one recommended by the cruise-line. I am the one doing all the work and having to send screen shots of what rci has and needs in order to change things.

Zqvol, I'm not sure why you replied.

No, The celebration can't be entered at any time by anyone if you have a travel agent. That is why I sent the screen shot to them.

They asked me while I was originally there with them in person while they were on the phone with rci if I wanted the my time dining. At that time I didn't know about my time family dining and apparently they don't either. When I found out about it and emailed her to change it She assumed it was the same thing and said I was already signed up for it.

I'm making a deal out of this because if more people knew what to do when your travel agent knows nothing about your cruiseline making for an unhappy customer then agencies would be stepping up to ensure the agents were more informed. At least I would like to hope so.

Over the years we have used many different cruise agencies (currently have 4 agencies on our personal favorites list). To us, an agent/agency is only as good as their last booking, the quality of their service, and whether they are offering the best deal (prices and amenities car vary by thousands of dollars depending on the agency). In the case of the OP, just put it down to experience and look for a better agency the next time you are planning to book a cruise. Personally, we stick with high volume cruise agencies (found online) since they are the one's that can usually offer us the best deals (in terms of price, knowledge and amenities such as OBCs).

 

Hank

I went with a local hub to a high volume agency. Is there a way to check on volume by hub?

I think I will stick to the cruise site from now on unless an agency has an outrageous good deal.

Adjoining cabib are next to each other, connecting cabins have a connecting door. Which did you request?

I wanted connecting cabins as we have a family of 5. My first preference was to have it over the boardwalk but would have been happy to be in Central Park. I told her this and had to correct her when she was on the line to Royal Carribean as she kept telling them I only wanted boardwalk. In the end I was ok with the side by side room but wished I could have been the one on the phone with RCI. She kept giving them the code for a non connecting room and saying we wanted our cabins together. The rci rep tried clarifying with her but I wonder if he just got frustrated with her and deciddd to just give me side by side room because of it.

The travel agent owns your booking and she has to give permission to release it and may charge you a fee for doing that.

 

In my experience, good travel agents are few and far between. So much so, that I gave up on using them back in the 1990's and have never bothered to use one since unless I have to use them to book a high end cruise (for example Uniworld) and then, I make sure and go over the complete reservation with the agent line by line before I agree to anything, double and triple check the documentation sent to me. It helps that these upscale cruises are mostly all inclusive - less for the travel agent to screw up.

 

IMO, stick with this travel agent. Don't make any more changes, fix it yourself once onboard and after this don't use a travel agent again unless you absolutely have no choice or you can use an online travel agency where you do all the booking yourself in order to receive free onboard spending.

Thank you. I will try to push the travel agency to fix the dining option before I submit my final payment and then will definitely not be using a travel agent again unless like you said it is for onboard spending. It's not worth the hassle of having to wait for the middle man.

Actually it's quite easy to understand that the ta signed me up for my time dining based on my saying I found out about my time family dining. That wasn't even the actual point behind the post. My point was what do you do when you have a travel agent who is clearly not knowledgeable and you end up having to do all the work?

I'm not understanding your reply because clearly it advises possibly doing all 3 choices I am clearly at the crossroads on.

I have not come across much advice on what to do when you get a poor travel agent other than stick with it for now and don't do it again.

I have cruised multiple times directly through royal Caribbean with no problem and have always heard you should go through a travel agent because you get more assistance and better deals. I decided to try it for my cruise in June and am not happy.

I wanted an agent I could visit locally and chose one from RC website recommendations supposedly with their seal of being a RCL specialist. This agency is not small.

The agent we got knew nothing about RCL cabin codes when we tried getting an adjoining room. We now have side by side cabins (which was fine). They knew this was a birthday cruise and didn't add it as a celebration. I emailed twice before they added it due to them telling me I could do so on my own though RCL which I had to send screen shot showing no I couldn't. Now I find out RCL has "my family time dining" which I believe to be different from "my time dining" and not able to get the agent to clarify as she has told me she already has me signed up for it.

My family time dining allows the kids staff to pick up your kids after a quick diner at only one specific time so you enjoy desert and coffee. My time dininggives you the availability to eat when you want but mentions nothing about kids staff picking up kids if you eat early.

Do I 1.) keep doing my agents job for her? 2.) call the agency to request speaking to a manager about switching agents or 3.) beg RCL to switch my booking to them?