BigPapi21

We have heard great things about Virgin. We are gonna try them. A little more expensive but adults only.

“Anyway, I do hope the OP tried to address this on board to deal with issues immediately instead of stewing on it, and then finding flaws as time went on. We've had WAY better luck getting things dealt with on board, INCLUDING unexpected compensation. “ Please know that we tried to address these concerns while on the ship with GSV. I left out of the original post that we tried to address these issue half way through the cruise. There were several at seas days. The towels and linens we more than one occasion, the broken jacuzzis in the solarium was for the entirety of the cruise. We removed peoples names out of respect. We were not looking for compensation. We believe that RCL taking families money on a Christmas cruise knowing this was its condition is just unethical. The ports were fabulous and we spent as much time off the ship as possible. We were not looking for issues but were reminded every time we returned to the stateroom.

We have removed names of RC employees and ours. The letter with names was sent in December to RC, there has been no reply. Last week we contact RC and they offered us 15% of our next cruise. We refused and felt it was better to share our experience here. They don’t care and there is very little that is Grand about this ship. We have sailed three lines and on multiple RC ships. They should be ashamed of themselves for taking families money given with what we found. We have had no response written or otherwise from RC. RC rates this ship as 4.5 stars, laughable. Cruisers Beware! “We want to thank you and your colleague, xxxxx, for speaking with us regarding our experience as guests on Grandeur of the Seas from December 17-27. Our cabin number is ****. As we expressed during our time together we have been exceedingly disappointed with the condition of the ship, the condition of our cabin, the quality and variety of food. As returning guests to the RC brand we have become accustomed to a certain level of quality in service, environment, and dining. As we mentioned, our experiences with all of the staff has been pleasant on every level. Your people are truly the strength of your company. The RC website rates the ship at 4.5 stars out of 5 where it says “Game Changing Getaway on the Grandeur of the Seas”. As you acknowledged during our time together, RC is aware of the condition of this ship and plans to place it in dry dock in March for service. That does little for the passengers who are now onboard or will sail between now and March. Even so, RC continues to operate this ship internationally out of US ports and charge its passengers full sailing price knowing that it is subpar, in disrepair, and in need of serious and thorough renovation. Charging passengers full price for these conditions, some of whom we imagine are first time cruisers or have saved to have a RC experience, is at best poor management and at worst unethical. This is the conclusion we arrived at given our experience. As we alluded to during our meeting we have tried to be thoughtful and reasonable in providing feedback regarding this 10 day cruise. The ports of call have certainly been everything we had hoped for and our time off the ship was great. During our meeting we mentioned a “list” of concerns and experiences we have had that has made this voyage, which is quite likely our last with RC . We have attached the list below along with photos and videos in this and another email of 2 being sent to you including some of our additional concerns that we did not cover during our meeting. Recognizing that the Grandeur of the Seas is an older ship among the RC fleet, our experience has been unbelievably below standard in maintenance of furnishings and amenities for which we paid RC in good faith. The age of the ship was not a deterrent for us given our previous experience with RC and the belief that the age of the ship did not matter as long as it was well maintained. You indicated during our discussion that if the ship was not maintained, it would not be able to sail. While we are no experts on the mechanical necessities to make a ship sea worthy, the deplorable interior conditions and lack of maintenance of the ship’s public areas does not appear to be part of the equation. We are shocked. When we purchased this cruise no representative from RC contacted us with notification or warning that furniture would be tattered, torn and worn out, the ship would be filthy in many places, that the jacuzzi would be non-functioning and the pool in the solarium would be so aesthetically unpleasant that we would not get in it due to the rust and mildew stains. No one contacted us to tell us that the internet would be significantly problematic, that flooring would be in ill repair (in some instances dangerous), or linens and towels would be stained or unclean and threadbare. No one described that we could expect a hanging thermostat or caked dust in our stateroom. As we discussed, if this was a land resort that we walked into and experienced any, let alone ALL, of these issues, we would have found other accommodations and changed our itinerary. Unfortunately, given the nature of cruise travel, we could not do this which left us trapped with these conditions for the whole of our 10 day vacation. Most frustrating is the fact, that over our ten days of vacation, as the attached will show, in almost every area, we spent the majority of our time on a filthy and ill maintained ship. Knowing from our conversation that RC is aware of many of these issues yet continues to operate it without addressing them, we conclude that RC is choosing to maximize profitability at the expense of passengers’ time money and memories. Removing the subjective perceptions of quality and variety of food and entertainment, the attached photos, videos, and our narrative experiences, the renumeration you have offered pales in comparison to the loss of trust in RC as a company operating in good faith. It is our hope that you will connect us with someone who can explain the condition of the Grandeur of the Seas as acceptable and effectively defend accepting people’s money without transparency as to its condition. Thank you for your time and attention today. We want to again recognize that quality of your crew. They too deserve to live and work in better conditions. As indicated, this is the list referenced above. Unacceptable Conditions 1. Dirty, stained or both bed and bath linens 2. Threadbare towels 3. Furniture (a majority of) stained, dirty, worn and broken in most every areas 4. Railings at aft of ship by rock climbing wall area worn and splintered from lack of varnish 5. Our room had clearly not been deep cleaned in quite awhile. Dust and crumbs etc. I had to use a washcloth to clean behind the sconces and the shelf above our bed 6. Additional stateroom bedding stained, dusty and shoved under bed in a crumpled mess 7. Ice maker in our floor “broke” according to our steward so I had to find my own ice for our room twice a day every day from day 3 to day 9 8. The thermostat in room is hanging off the wall 9. Chlorine smell in our hallway 10. Furniture and flooring every room is dirty and in disrepair 11. Solarium is deplorable condition. -Hot tubs in Solarium don’t work -Non slip tape in disarray around Solarium pool -Rust, mildew stains, broken tiles and lack of any attention makes it a completely foul place to be 12. WiFi doesn’t work most of the time. Can’t use it in room 13. App is barely functional and deficient of correct info 14. Food below par in every aspect except for room service and chops 15. Windjammer served the same food every day (there was one new entree choice switched every other day) for 10 days. The food quality is horrible. 16. Entertainment variety was insufficient for 10 day cruise 17. Men’s restrooms by Casino are in ill repair and sinks not functional 18. Men’s restroom by Giovanni’s has missing patches of wallpaper (noticed this trend in several other places around ship) 19. Fitness room is equipment is unbelievably outdated 20. Rotting deck thresholds in front of many doors.