$7.95 Room Service Charge

Can't wait to see the newly improved bacon and eggs.

This is another Nickel and Dime move! I switched to Celebrity a few years, ago and was anticipating booking with a Royal, again now that I cruise with my grand. I enjoy room service for breakfast on the mornings of my excursions. The orders are ne Dr right and not very good, so I wouldn't pay 7.95 plus a tip.

My post to their Facebook page:

 

I am very disappointed to see that complimentary room service will be discontinued on yours ships. I am disappointed not because I care about room service itself (though the fee is a continuation of the disturbing nickel-and-diming occurring increasingly on your ships), but because of how the elimination of this amenity is being rolled out.

This is not a price change, but the elimination of a complimentary amenity that has been standard on Royal Caribbean ships for years. It is a perk that guests booking trips on your ships have understood to be included in the price they paid. At this very moment, it is listed as a Complimentary Dining Option on your website. To eliminate this amenity for those with no financial recourse to make a change because their Final Payment date has passed reveals the very low regard in which you must hold your loyal Guests. As somebody who until this point has enjoyed your product, this has been eye-opening, and extremely disheartening.

Their reply:

Hey Brian. Our aim was not to disappoint our guest but to introduce a new premium room service menu in order to enhance your dining experience.

You put that so eloquently! Customer service assured me for some reason it will not go in effect on April 1st cruise on FOTS.

I hope others call because I get a different answer each time I call!

I just got the same reply from them " don't mean to leave a bad taste in your mouth but we are trying to introduce a new premium room service". Yada... This is exactly what NCL told their customers. Since then they can't give their cruises away without offering ' free' everything.

You put that so eloquently! Customer service assured me for some reason it will not go in effect on April 1st cruise on FOTS.

I hope others call because I get a different answer each time I call!

Yes, what I do is ask a question three different times and pick the answer I like best...:D

You put that so eloquently! Customer service assured me for some reason it will not go in effect on April 1st cruise on FOTS.

I hope others call because I get a different answer each time I call!

You are on the first cruise after March 27, so it wouldn't start until April 1.

I don't love the change, but honestly all I ever order is coffee & and fruit plate in the morning anyways. So it looks like no change for me. I usually eat a small breakfast, because let's be honest, lunch is usually 2-3 hours away! ha.

Since Royal Caribbean lives by the "Supply & Demand" model, let's see if this up charge works and people actually pay it. If not, I'm sure there will be a change.

The worst part is that they didn't properly inform people of this change while they were booking a cruise. It should have been clear at the time of booking that there will be a high charge for room service. Also, the fee isn't cheap. Going from free to $7.95 per delivery is huge.

My husband and I took a Carnival cruise and they didn't seem to offer much on their free menu. I saw the RCL menu and told my husband how they offered better items for free. Now I guess we won't be ordering room service at all. It's a disappointment when changes are made to the charges after you have booked the cruise. Those changes should have been stated during booking.

Since Royal Caribbean lives by the "Supply & Demand" model, let's see if this up charge works and people actually pay it. If not, I'm sure there will be a change.

100 rooms right now pay $0.

Revenue = $0

new charge

Let's say 99 rooms don't order. Less food waste. 1 room orders. $7.95

Revenue = $7.95

This charge isn't ever going to go away. you may see them add some salads or cold sandwiches with no extra charge.

I never cared for "hot" breakfast (it never is). but some of the other items that are gone from years past were quite good. Wonder if they return as premium offerings.

We sail in 67 days and I am just thinking about this room service thing a bit more. No way I will pay $8 for room service. I can afford it, but will not pay it simply on principle. So if I want breakfast on our balcony now where can I pick up breakfast from and take back to my cabin? Can I take a tray of food out of the Windjammer? Any other options? We will be sailing on the Oasis and it is my first time on this ship.

I was wondering about tray options too....do they have them available in park cafe? If so, anyone want to guess how quickly before they ask you not to remove trays from the area?

To start off, do I like the change, no, however do most of you realize that Royal has been charging for room service on the Quantum class ships and Harmony for a while now? I am assuming they are getting people to pay so are "upping the anty" by rolling this out to all ships with a higher charge. Simple solution, don't pay the charge. If enough people boycott the room service charge it will go away. My thought though is people will pay it and the charge will continue increase. Is it right, no, but I see all cruise lines doing this in the future.

We used to cruise at least once a year, but have started looking at other options as all lines are starting to go this nickel and dime way. It used to be something special to go on a cruise now it is just another vacation option for many. Cruise lines are looking for the newbies who are willing to pay for all the little things, not those of us who know how it used to be 😔

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I just sent an email to Michael Bayley expressing my displeasure of the new fee and the size of the new fee. I recommend everyone do this and post on their FaceBook page. Enough negative press can sometimes make a difference (not likely, but it happens).

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We sail in 67 days and I am just thinking about this room service thing a bit more. No way I will pay $8 for room service. I can afford it, but will not pay it simply on principle. So if I want breakfast on our balcony now where can I pick up breakfast from and take back to my cabin? Can I take a tray of food out of the Windjammer? Any other options? We will be sailing on the Oasis and it is my first time on this ship.

Yes, you can grab food in WJ and take tray back to room. I think crazy how much they are charging. To go from 0 to $8.00 is a big jump and I will not pay it but what really gets me is to add this fee to a cruise already paid in full sucks.

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I just sent an email to Michael Bayley expressing my displeasure of the new fee and the size of the new fee. I recommend everyone do this and post on their FaceBook page. Enough negative press can sometimes make a difference (not likely, but it happens).

 

 

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Can you post email address please ?

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I wonder, has RCL ever reported the number of room service meals / cruise? of course this would vary depending on class of ship, maybe trying to continue this on 5000+ passenger ships has the staff stretched too thin?

Is this an effort to make more money off a service, or an effort to reduce the demand for a costly service that they don't want to continue?

I sent this to Michael Bayley this afternoon:

Mr. Bayley,

I have just read a reproduction of a press release describing a drastic change in the room service policy on RCCL.

If it is an error of some sort, my apologies for taking your time.

If not. . .

I have cruised RCCL eleven times and have Diamond status. I have five more currently booked; two of them paid in full; one as soon as March 27.

I will be Diamond Plus by my January 20, 2018 cruise.

The status is not that important to me, and it is not an attempt to flaunt it. I just wanted to reflect my familiarity with RCCL.

My wife and I very rarely use room service, but there are times when it is pleasant, especially with the Windjammer closing at 8:30. To shift to a $7.95 charge seems like an outrageous and very sudden change.

But this is what bothers me most.

At the time I booked these cruises, room service was listed as complimentary (other than the late evening charge). As a matter of fact, at this very moment, your Dining offerings on your website still lists room service as complimentary. How can you release the change on March 15 while you are still advertising that it is complimentary? How do you take away something I have paid for, that your company has reassured me is part of my cruise experience? Is this even legal?

And the lack of a lead in time is appalling. If I know at the time of payment of this policy, then it is my decision to accept or not. Fair enough. But you are going to introduce this drastic change in two weeks?

This is not remotely responsible and suggests bait and switch.

It's bad enough that RCCL continues to advertise Centrum aerial shows as the WOW factor on Vision and Radiance class ships, though I've not seen one in my last three Grandeur cruises.

I might not want room service on my upcoming and booked RCCL cruises, but I would fully expect it to be available as assured me at the time of booking.

And the absurdity of it still being promised as before on the website. Very disappointing to the point of unethical.

And people will not find out until they are actually on the cruise. Will the charge then be a surprise unnoticed until the end of the cruise?

The company should be ashamed; you should be ashamed.

With the erroneous $12.30 bottled water charges, that is an extra $20 per stateroom! :mad:

I think when bombarded with sales pitches for the pay restaurants (Chops, etc.), I'll just let them know that I can't afford it because I had breakfast in my room that morning!

 

 

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Giddyup! :p

Can you post email address please ?

 

 

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mbayley@RCCL.com

CEO name is Michael Bayley

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I also suggest posting on their FaceBook page. Many are expressing displeasure there and it is a more public venue. RCCL is replying or many posts "with a standard response" but at least they are seeing the upset customers.

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Room services was always a nice little treat that I liked to take advantage of. I certainly won't be doing that anymore on my upcoming Allure sailing in April.

 

It's really too bad that RCI has decided to take away this free perk and instead charge a rather hefty $7.95 for it. I can understand if they extended the $3.95 late night charge to any time of day but $7.95 seems like just a huge cash grab even if they slightly upgrade the menu.

 

For my next cruise I was considering both NCL and RCI... but now that RCI has matched NCL in the room service charge that's one less advantage RCI had over NCL and will factor into my decision on which company to go with later in the year.

I would venture to say that if RCCL was really honest and wanted to give a credible explanation for charging the $7.95 for all room service orders, they would make the changes to upgrade their menu first, and then implement the extra charge!

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I understand meatloaf will be on the menu and when the tray comes it will have a pepper grinder

You put that so eloquently! Customer service assured me for some reason it will not go in effect on April 1st cruise on FOTS.

I hope others call because I get a different answer each time I call!

Well the strategy here was clearly to degrade and dumb down room service and add upcharges so that when they put BACK normal room service previously offered and widely available for free on other lines, everyone would go woo-hoo and slay leather for $7.95 + upcharge + grat. I'm not buying into that.

I am going to compare my expenditures for upcoming RCCL cruise with all the upcharges and packages I had to purchase to hope for a reasonably nice and comfortable vacation to what I spend on Windstar or Oceania with what they include - like free alternative dining, wine with meals, etc. Film at eleven.

To start off, do I like the change, no, however do most of you realize that Royal has been charging for room service on the Quantum class ships and Harmony for a while now? I am assuming they are getting people to pay so are "upping the anty" by rolling this out to all ships with a higher charge. Simple solution, don't pay the charge. If enough people boycott the room service charge it will go away. My thought though is people will pay it and the charge will continue increase. Is it right, no, but I see all cruise lines doing this in the future.

 

We used to cruise at least once a year, but have started looking at other options as all lines are starting to go this nickel and dime way. It used to be something special to go on a cruise now it is just another vacation option for many. Cruise lines are looking for the newbies who are willing to pay for all the little things, not those of us who know how it used to be 😔

 

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No, no. no. The room service charge is not going to go away. The room service EMPLOYEES are going to go away. So they may "upgrade" the menu, but with less staff the ticket/order times will remain long. I'm in the biz and this is "A" route to go down but it's not going to make customers happy or loyal...

I would venture to say that if RCCL was really honest and wanted to give a credible explanation for charging the $7.95 for all room service orders, they would make the changes to upgrade their menu first, and then implement the extra charge!

 

 

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I see this as primarily a way to add what RCCL calls a premium service for additional revenue = way to add $$ to the bottom line. I worked in large company in sales / marketing for years and had to do the same thing... sell something as a value added service to justify a price increase while trying to not anger customers / lose them.

It is important to keep in mind there are always 2 conflicting entities in business.

1 - Customers who you are always trying to retain and have a good level of customer satisfaction. Those posting here are focused on this side of the equation.

2- Owners / shareholders. RCCL is a public company and has a fiduciary duty to shareholders to do what it can to increase revenue and earnings. A CEO will not last long if he can't do this.

Unfortunately I don't see where RCCL did a very good job of addressing the 1st group to make it somewhat of a "win-win" for both sides. I posted on the FaceBook page that there were other things they could have done to try and give customers a feeling of a "win". For example, they could have kept a limited menu of room service items as complimentary during limited hours while still rolling out their premium, higher cost items.

Maybe RCCL has some marketing gurus who predicted this negativity and are waiting for some initial reaction to then roll out a modified plan to make loyal customers feel like they were listened to. Probably not, but they definitely should have done a better job of announcing this / selling this.