Vision of the Seas - a disgraceful cruise, any advice?

[ComputermanofEngland]

Actually, yes.

If Celebrity can send out a brand new cruise ship to rescue standed Brits abroad someone should have had the guts to stand uop to the plate and help out.

 

You have it in one, Celebrity is RCIs sister line and they cynically delayed the launch with journlists and travel agents to pick up Brits free from Spain. Great advertising! Meanwhile loyal paying customers with travel issues do not get the time of day to assist them.

 

In my book and practise the Priest who buys his own PC deserves the same porfessional attention and courtesy with his problem as the bank or stock exchange paying millons of pounds for their central computer. By the way I say this because I have personally had to help both!

 

I was on the Vision of the Seas on this Transatlantic crossing. 5-19 April 2010. To put the "naysaysers" coments iinto perspective:

 

There were less that 100 Europeans on this cruise but the key thing is that RCI as a US Cruise line advertised it as Trasatlantic without warniing of limited or no English entertainment. Surely this should be the simplest form of advise and courtesy to anybody travelling. We are not saying cruises MUST be in English but is a warning it is not too much to request? Notwithstanding this the entertainment "except for the mucians" was of poor standard compared to all other cruises I have been on.

 

The food was absolutely terrible lacking choice or taste and we never even saw any Gala dinners, Ice Carviings etc. It was like eating school dinners. From Lisbon the food choice and quality and entertainement was 1000% better. For example cheese, chocolate, mushrooms and ham became available and the Aquarius dining menu changed every night. Makes you wonder eh?

 

For teenage girls over 16 and under 18 then RCI's idea of activities is colouring or playing on a Wii, doh!

 

Several English Excursions were cancelled during the cruise and when in Tenerife a tour "labelled" as English ran there was nearly a riot by Brazilians who took advantage that it was not in Portuguese.

 

Asolutely NO and I mean NO infomformation was communicated to the ships passengers about the travel chaos ensuing and what would happen or the options at Lisbon desembarkation.

 

Please remember Lisbon to ANY South American airports continued to run throughout the Vocano event and over 1700 of the 1900 passengers were from South America. They could get home as planned!

 

The only information we managed to get was by the intermittent CNN and BBC World News service on TV plus by contacting friends, family and colleagues at home. Surely any decent holiday provider worth their salt would seek to re-assure their customers of the siutation and how they were monitoring and thinking about the situation (especially as so few were impacted and they knew who we were as they still had our passports details etc). You can imagine that many of the customers involved were retired so they really do need re-assurance in these circumstances.

 

Passengers had to force RCI into action the afternoon before dis-embarkation by convening a meeting to see what was known about the travel status and options. RCI Guest and Loyalty services were informed so they could send a representative to provide information. As was said they sent 4 security officers. Enough said.

 

Finally at the 11th hour we were offered the chance to stay aboard but as was indicated the price effectively doubled overnight by the time we go to re-registration. By this time of course airport transfers had long departed. And then no shuttles offered from the ship to the ferry port so we all had to walk with our luggage.

 

This is not an isolated instance of a lack of assistance:

 

http://www.cruise.co.uk/cruise-reviews/read_review_21836/

 

http://www.cruise.co.uk/cruise-reviews/read_review_21793/

 

http://www.holiday-truth.com/holiday_truths/cruise_reviews/15/

 

As somebody said earlier in this thread, the metal of a good company is not how they deal with things when they are going well but how they deal with things when they are going wrong. It was unprecendented but ignoring customers and being defensive is not an option in my book. Helping them through problems is how you obtain loyalty, I believe that's how I have the loyal 20 year customers I have now.

[CruisinGerman]

Dear friends:

 

I am terribly sorry you had this experience. First of all, RCCL should have told you that this was considered an "immersion" cruise, which means it is not geared from the start towards English-speaking persons.

 

Also, because it was a repositioning cruise, what usually happens is that the cruise line uses up the stocks it has been storing during the entire previous season and when it gets to its new position, for the new season, the crew and supplies are changed.

 

I assume you got a very good deal on this cruise, because immersion repositioning cruises are usually very inexpensive.

 

This seems to be your major complaint about the cruise.

 

Your comments about the ship's condition, your cabin, etc., seem to lead me to believe that you otherwise enjoyed your cruise.

 

Now, as far as RCCL handling (or not) the volcano situation:

 

Did you purchase an air/sea package or just cruise only? Did you purchase your trip from a European office of RCCL or from an EU travel agency?

 

If you purchased air/sea, then RCCL was responsible for you and treated you illegally. If you purchased the cruise only but air tickets -- both at the same travel agency -- your travel agency was responsible for you. Even if you purchased cruise only and air tickets on an Internal portal, there is still jurisprudence here in the EU that upholds that the cruise line is responsible for you because the system was shut down.

 

In any case, please let me know your exact individual circumstance and I will try to guide you as to what recourse you should take, because it is clear that RCCL acted illegally towards its EU passengers who are protected by much stronger laws than in the United States.

 

Kind regards,

 

Gunther and Uta

[hazence]

There is more to the story of Le Havre that day. The French transportation workers were on strike.

 

The Grand Princess Passengers were impacted by the strike. DrJohn says in his review "...in La Havre we had checked in and were sitting in the Princess Theatre at 6:45 am for our tour to Versailles when the announcement was made – there was a local strike and the buses could not leave the port. There was a lot of confusion and uncertainty..." DKNYC said "Had a little problem in France today . A strike by transportation workers (I think) blocked enterance and exit of tour busses for a while at the port."

 

It seems likely that the strike prevented taxis and shuttles from properly servicing the port, leaving the Vision passengers to walk to the ferry terminal.

 

So the European governments closed their airspace. As vulnerable travelers were trying to find their way home, the French strike, intentionally disrupting travel. Shame on them.

 

Plenty of blame to go around.

 

However, the French Transportation Workers were not milking the crisis for PR purposes. The head of their Union was not telling the media we are all in this together while doing NOTHING.... where he might have... with his own customers.

 

RCCL kicked their customers to the curb while USING the crisis to project a HERO image. Maybe laws do not require me to stop and help someone who is sick or hurt...but if I step over them in my rush to get to a media event and pose as some EMPATHETIC humanitarian... that pumps up my business...I call that obscene.

 

That is appalling. The effort put into creating a hypocritical SHAM for the media...should have been put...at the least...into organizing and creating avenues of advice and help for the people who put money in RCCL's pocket.

 

And gouging is just that...gouging...taking advantage when the customer is most vulnerable.

[CruisinGerman]

I have been saying all along that sending the Eclipse to Spain to "rescue" 2,000 Brits was a publicity stunt, to say the least.

 

In any case, the ship was actually chartered by Thomson and other British tour companies who were indeed complying with EU laws and taking responsibility for getting their customers home.

 

RCCL/Celebrity acted illegally and improperly in this regard. The "apology" letters they have been sending out around Europe offering a 100 euros or 100 pounds future credit are ridiculous.

 

Kind regards,

 

Gunther and Uta

[mcgorr]

Gunther and Uta thanks for your offer of help. My issue as I have said is not with the money but on the extremely low standard Royal Caribbean offered and also their dreadful treatment and exploitation of their guests when they were most vulnerable.

[mcgorr]

May I also say that the strike at the ferry terminal stopped at 10am and all tours were on their way by then and transportation back to normal.

[ERIE 13]

Is it beginning to seem like the bad cruises are starting to catch up to the number of good cruises. Just a thought

[wg6530]

Gunther and Uta thanks for your offer of help. My issue as I have said is not with the money but on the extremely low standard Royal Caribbean offered and also their dreadful treatment and exploitation of their guests when they were most vulnerable.

I know you remain dreadfully disappointed in RCL. I sincerely hope that the next company you select excedes your standards and that nature never again wreaks havoc upon your travels.

[jaybird1]

Is there any follow up to this from last year?

Some terrible comments here, I would like to know what the outcome was in the end.

 

I assume the OP has decided to go with a different cruise line after her experience!!