Another lie by Royal Caribbean to a guest

[swedish1]

I'll bet if you call again you'll get a different answer.

[ddgleason]

I was just going to say the same thing. Call 3 more times and get 3 more answers all different. I agree with AquaHound. Not so much RCI the corporation as the guy answering the phone. And most of us have been frustrated at one time or another by that issue (which is a whole different thread).

[beachnative]

As others have said, not all of the reps are well-informed (just like in any other business).

 

Example: Last year I called the general number (not Crown & Anchor) and told the rep that I wanted to book a cruise by using one of my "Next Cruise Certificates". The rep told me that there was no such thing:eek::eek::eek:. I tried to explain and he insisted that there was no such thing. So, I nicely ended the conversation and called the C&A number and easily booked the cruise using my Next Cruise Certificate.

 

Learned my lesson and only call C&A now.

[Mark_K]

I'm not trying to be cheap or get away with anything. I spend plenty of money on-board be it at the spa, casino (very little), bar and other venues. This is not my point just giving a little background.

 

I only drink caffeine free diet soda, when I drink soda. Sugar makes me slightly dizzy and caffeine makes my heart a little racy and prevents me from sleeping properly (even 1 can!) I've been checked out medically and my doctor says I am just a little sensitive.

 

I call RCI to find out what type of beverages they serve on-board. After speaking to several people, one of which tried to convince me that diet coke was caffeine free, I finally found out that it is not served on board.

 

I asked if I could bring some on-board and was told I could not. I explained my situation and was told I needed a doctor's note stating it was medically necessary, lol.

 

I told the rep I understand that policies are needed but that a doctor's note was a little extreme. It wasn't like I was trying to bring on board something they serve already and why shouldn't I have my drink of choice on my vacation? It isn't like I can leave the ship and go to another ship or store or hotel and purchase it when I want to.

 

HERE is where the lie comes in. After the above comments the rep told me that it wasn't RCI's policies but that of the Department of Agriculture. I know from this board that Carnival's policy allows this so I called her out on it and asked her if that is what they are told to say. She said that "as far as she knows" that the policy is that of the Department of Agriculture.

 

Just to be fair I wanted to post Carnival's policy regarding alcohol that is in the guest contract from Section 8F

 

"(f) Except as noted below, Guests are prohibited from bringing alcohol on Carnival's vessels for on board consumption. However, at the beginning of the cruise during embarkation day, guests 21 years and older may bring on board, only in their carry-on luggage, one bottle, per person, of wine or champagne, 750ml or less. A $10 corkage fee per bottle will be charged should guests wish to consume this wine/champagne in the dining room, or a $14 corkage fee per bottle if consumed in the steakhouse. All alcohol, additional quantities of wine/champagne and excessive non-alcoholic beverages will be confiscated and discarded without compensation."

 

Additionally a phone call to Carnival (and I only had to speak to one person) revealed that each guest may also pack in their carry-on 12 cans/bottles, etc. 20 ml's or less of beverages.

 

So, why does RCI want to lie about it? I hate when companies try to hush my intelligence with their lies. Why don't they just come out and say that they make a LOT of money on soda and really want to prevent anyone from bringing it on board even when they are not serving their beverage of choice.

 

Best,

Sunny

How do you know they're lying? The Department of Agriculture would be the department to oversee food/drink brought on/off a cruise ship. It could just be a case of different cruise lines interpreting regulations differently.

[TubbyMrT]

Thats odd. My doctor would recommend water, but never soda.

 

Perhaps I should demand that they serve Dominos Pizza on board.

[X]

Look at it from the rep's point of view. Customer service reps have most likely never even been on a cruise before. This is probably some young kid making $10/hour. They answer standard questions and are given standard answers. Most likely the standard answer the rep's are told to give is "no you cannot bring soda on board per policy" and that is all the answers they are given.

 

The only 100% guaranteed way to bring soda on board would be to bring a doctor's note - which you were told. You probably didn't accept that as an answer since you told the rep that is "a little extreme" and kept prying for permission to bring soda aboard. The customer service rep most likely does not even have tools allowed to give you permission to carry on soda on board.

 

The customer service rep probably "lied" to you because they really had nothing else they could say. I'm guessing the customer service rep tried to explain why you can't bring soda on board and was probably misinformed.

 

It's ridiculous to expect a customer service rep to say "No you cannot bring soda aboard because we make a LOT of money if you don't". If the customer service rep's supervisor were listening in on the call, the rep would surely get reprimanded or fired.

[passion?cruising]

Celebrity Cruise Lines, a Royal Caribbean family member, allows two bottles of wine per cabin.

 

Customer service reps have a script that they cannot defer from. I wouldn't call that rep a lier. They just are not allowed to give personal opinions or direction.

 

It's policy vs consistency in enforcing it.

 

I took water onboard both ways....carry on and with a luggage tag. Once I was called to the luggage holding area and they told me I couldn't bring on water. I went to Guest Relations, told them if they could be consistent I wouldn't mind, but just because I gave the porter $5 to carry my water vs carry it myself, as I saw others doing in the check in, it's no reason to put my water in jail.

 

It was delivered to my cabin shortly thereafter. :D I expect the same would hold for soft drinks.

 

I had a friend who sailed on the 46 night Mariner repositioning and took on 8 cases of green tea. No issues. It's all just a matter of consistency and you can call them up on it as I did and they will make it right.

[Ocean Boy]

I don't know enough about the governing agencies to say one way or another. I can sympathize that you want to drink your soda on vacation, but why not just get a note from your doctor. If your doctor gives you a hard time, I think its time to find another one.

 

RC wants to make money, but there is no reason why they should or would, tell you directly... sorry we want to make money.

 

I can't tell you the types of notes that I get asked for. Most of them have to do with adults not acting like adults, not taking responsibility for their actions, and then wanting me to get them out of their messes.

 

As far as caffeine free diet soda, if there is no medical reason for someone to have to have something then why should a physician write a note saying that they should be allowed to bring it aboard the ship? If you just can't do without it for a week then help yourself at ports of call. If someone just has to have their particular brand of beer that isn't carried on the ships should a physician write a note for that too? If I cannot medically justify what I write then I don't write it no matter what the person making the request thinks.

 

Changing physicans over something like this.... just sitting here shaking my head.

[tikif6]

My doctor would probably write me a note stating I should STOP drinking diet soda all together, lol. But seriously, that seems a little extreme to me. I'm sure I could get my doctor to write it but what about people who don't have a doctor or who can't afford a doctor because they have no insurance?

 

 

Honestly, then those people who can't afford a Dr. shouldn't be going on a cruise at all? lol

[tikif6]

I have never had a problem bringing water and soda on board. On my last cruise (Aug 2010), I was a little worried about what I was reading on here so I didn't bring anything to the port. Then I saw people buying 12 packs of water and soda at the duty free. I went up to the RCCL rep who was standing right at the bottom of the escalator and asked her if that was ok to do and she said yes. We went to the duty free and bought a 12 pack of water and my parents bought a 12 pack of water and a 12 pack of soda and carried them right on board. Good thing we bought the water because, normally, we see someone selling water on your way out at each port but this time around we only saw them selling water once and it wasn't even right by where you go out so they could easily be missed.

 

What port was this? I will be sailing out of Beyonne, NJ. Do they have somewhere we can buy soda or water? Otherwise as others have said, I'll just take some from home and put it in my carry on. I Just figured that if the RCL members saw that we purchased the water/drinks from the shop in the terminal, it won't get taken away thinking we sneaked in alcohol in them from home.

[gerif]

Honestly, then those people who can't afford a Dr. shouldn't be going on a cruise at all? lol

 

Actually, I totally agree with that.

 

To the OP - I would say that the CSR's are often badly misinformed regarding the DOA regulations but they DO know the cruiseline's rules and were correct in telling you that all beverages were prohibited.

 

They do have diet Sprite as well as ginger ale (probably not diet though) and club soda available, all of which are caffein-free.

[MadManOfBethesda]

Is there a medical reason that someone can't go a week without soda, any kind of soda.:p

 

I was thinking the exact same thing. :rolleyes:

[raskage]

Fight the power!

[MAHA]

Is there a medical reason that someone can't go a week without soda, any kind of soda.:p

 

 

The OP stated that any caffeine causes her heart to feel racy and sugar to make her dizzy. That means no iced tea, hot tea, coffee, lemonade, and juices. Besides the desalinated water that many claim cause them to have swollen feet and legs, what is there for her to drink to not get dehydrated? The desalinated water may also not be good for anyone who has high blood pressure as there is still some sodium in it.

[beachnative]

They do have diet Sprite

 

I learn something new on this board every day. Diet Sprite. I'll start asking for "Jack and DIET" Sprite from now on. By doing this I might not gain as weight on the cruise (says something about how many Jack and Sprite's I order:D).

 

Thanks gerif. I should have thought to ask for diet Sprite on my own (but maybe that afternoon Rum and Coke got in the way.:cool:

[LeeGrant]

How do you know they're lying? The Department of Agriculture would be the department to oversee food/drink brought on/off a cruise ship. It could just be a case of different cruise lines interpreting regulations differently.

 

What would they have to do with a cruise in Europe for example?

 

Nothing!

[setsail]

The OP stated that any caffeine causes her heart to feel racy and sugar to make her dizzy. That means no iced tea, hot tea, coffee, lemonade, and juices. Besides the desalinated water that many claim cause them to have swollen feet and legs, what is there for her to drink to not get dehydrated? The desalinated water may also not be good for anyone who has high blood pressure as there is still some sodium in it.

 

Then why book a cruise when you know all these things ahead of time, yea, makes a lot of sense to me:D....And don't(leave out) eat the food,prepared with the water and don't use ice. also prepared with the water. I know why, because then one can post on CC about how cruiselines................

[TBone2K]

In another thread on the forum:

 

I read some of the posts on this thread but not all. I just spoke with the "special needs" department and was lied to.

 

Maybe it would be better if you posted all the facts in the original thread, then? Its very relevant that you spoke with speical needs, not customer service. Special needs can get you the answer you need to accomodate your requests. They are probably less familiar with the reasons, their mission is to get you a solution. So "get a doctor's note" is probably boilerplate for anything dietary.

 

No that it an excuse for making up some lame reason why the note is neccessary, but we've already beaten that horse to death.

[nonna5]

As far as the people that don't have a doctor, insurance or can't afford them.... I really don't think they should be spending their money on a cruise.

 

How does this have anything to do with the op question?

[Sonic2012]

I believe there's only a fee if you bring a wine or champagne bottle to the dining room to be served. I think they prefer it in your carry on, but they don't care. They still give chocolates to all categories at turn down too. I have a teen that's addicted to Mt Dew, still not sure what we're going to do about that....So, if RC is uptight about drinks does that mean if you have a drink (soda) you haven't finished in port you have to throw it away to board? Disney let us bring Starbucks food & drinks on the boat from Cozumel. I don't want to hear "but Disney....." my whole cruise, so hopefully this is where the comparisons end.

[Sunny_Skipper]

I understand the frustration, but I hardly think it qualifies as an outright lie. You were attempting to find a way to get them to bend the rules for you and they just decided to pass the buck to a government agency. There are department of agriculture rules covering the transportation of many food items, the agent you spoke with used that excuse and could very well have believed it to be true.

 

I was not trying to get them to bend the rules for me. I was stating overall in general that it was an extreme policy.

 

I love how people comment and totally try to interrupt what the other person was doing.

 

I specifically asked the rep in the special needs to department if that is what they told her to say and she responded with as far as she knows that's why. I'm presuming at that point if she just wasn't sure she could have said so and asked someone else.

 

Best,

Sunny

[raskage]

Sunny--

When we went through"security" in Bayonne, my pack sack on the X-ray machine had my stainless water bottle with a bunch of cords for electronic devices stuck around it. They didn't even blink.

I walked through the metal detector with a clip knife for fishing in my pocket, phone and all kinds of metal. Turned and looked, the walk through

Metal detector wasn't even turned on. Don't sweat it. If someone questions you, slip them a few bucks and smile. They don't care. They're not TSA or anything. But keep calling them on their lies!

[time4u2go]

The OP stated that any caffeine causes her heart to feel racy and sugar to make her dizzy. That means no iced tea, hot tea, coffee, lemonade, and juices. Besides the desalinated water that many claim cause them to have swollen feet and legs, what is there for her to drink to not get dehydrated? The desalinated water may also not be good for anyone who has high blood pressure as there is still some sodium in it.

Bottled water?

[Sunny_Skipper]

Is there a medical reason that someone can't go a week without soda, any kind of soda.:p

 

I love how people are trying to make it the guest's problem.

 

It's my vacation, not theirs. They are the big company making millions. I just want to drink the soda I like to drink, when I want to drink it.

 

And if you re-read my first comment I said "when" not that I "always" drink it. Besides, my drinking habits, or lack thereof are none your concern. this thread is about LYING.

 

It's no wonder the world is full of confusion when people can't follow a simple subject!

 

I don't mind if you want to veer from the subject to offer some advice but please don't make ridiculous statements like the one you just did! Seriously, you really sound like a self-righteous saint. Maybe you could start a thread about all the things you think people should give up while on a cruise!!!

 

ROFL

 

Best,

Sunny

[LarryL]

I was not trying to get them to bend the rules for me. I was stating overall in general that it was an extreme policy.

 

I love how people comment and totally try to interrupt what the other person was doing.

 

I specifically asked the rep in the special needs to department if that is what they told her to say and she responded with as far as she knows that's why. I'm presuming at that point if she just wasn't sure she could have said so and asked someone else.

 

Best,

Sunny

 

I tend to agree with you on the extreme policy on bringing non alcoholic beverages on board. Cruise lines should make it an internal policy to provide, at least some, drink alternatives to accomodate allergies or other negative reactions and have a published list.

 

These contacts, as it seems, often do not always have the right information. They should do the right thing and just tell you they don't know and have a list of those people who can answer you question. I never expect one person to know all but want to know I can get answers I can rely on. Not just cruise lines are guilty of this.

 

As far as the Dept of Agriculture goes I can tell you they could care less about canned soft drinks. Their focus is on fresh fruits and vegetables, for the most part and specific canned or processed items from very specific countries. Oh, and they look at items coming in, not going out.

 

I wish you luck.