RCCL: Message to CEO - lost in translation

[Embracedbylife]

My comment was not meant as rude or harrassing nor do I think any of the others were. I was just pointing out the hornets nest you have instituted. There are ups and downs with any cruise. Life is not a dress rehersal enjoy it.:)

 

I NEVER said I wasn't enjoying life and NEVER said I didn't enjoy the cruise. I have a wonderful life and had a wonderful cruise and even complimented numerous individuals that made it extra special (waiters, room steward, etc). I am pictured by many on here as a mean idiot who is complaining for no reason, when I'm actually a pretty friendly, simple, light hearted, young 36 year old lady with the same concerns as 200 others and I decided to express them (like others did) and just wanted to hear in return "we'll pass this along, thanks for your comments".

 

That's all! My point was actually to give a comment in hopes of helping others avoid such situations, if possible. If it happened again tommorow I'd still say something to the guest service/excursion desk (they were adjoined), like I did that day. And maybe I'd get someone that would say they'd pass it along to those that organize the ports! For what it's worth :)

[Georgiagolfer]

I still don't understand the complaint against the Hotel Director as the OP began with. Staff does not have a responsibility to book tours, or to direct people to things they may lie as you debark in a port. OP seems to be hung up on this thing about being "blown off" 1st by the hotel Director on the cruise, then by guest relations. Just more of the "me,me, me" attitude.

[critterchick]

Thank you for reading and understanding my intentions. I did write to the Director on the ship as she was the Director of the Receptionists and Managers. As is apparent, I didn't act like a crazy person, and I didn't let it ruin my cruise as others are suggesting....but I was very happy to get off the ship for a change of scenery and sans sewer smells and other things. thanks for getting it! :)

 

You're welcome. Buy me a drink some day.:D

 

I still don't understand the complaint against the Hotel Director as the OP began with. Staff does not have a responsibility to book tours, or to direct people to things they may lie as you debark in a port. OP seems to be hung up on this thing about being "blown off" 1st by the hotel Director on the cruise, then by guest relations. Just more of the "me,me, me" attitude.

 

I think you have the order backwards. OP felt disrespected by Guest Services personnel and wrote a letter to the HD about it. Maybe HD saw the letter, maybe not (I'm betting not) but nothing was done onboard to assuage her annoyance.

 

Now, the person OP first encountered may not have meant to be rude - I have spoken with GSMs who have had to drill the concept of smiling into front desk personnel who are simply not accustomed to it in their home countries. And what OP saw as snippy may have been a language issue. There's no telling, but if she felt that they were being rude and condscending (not only to her but to other passengers, so much for "me"), then she was right, IMO, to try to let the HD know. As I said before, the comment card seems to be the most effective tool we have as passengers (and, unlike Carnival and Princess, who do them electronically, we still get to fill them out before leaving the ship while its fresh in our minds), but OP disembarked before the end of the cruise, so didn't get one.

[Embracedbylife]

:eek:Just finished reading all and have one comment OMG!

How the OP can blame the ship's staff for his gaf is beyond me. The whole thing sounds like poor planning and research on his behalf and the rest of the other 200-300 peeps that were clueless.

Sorry, but I have no problem saying this was all about "entitlement". If the excursion was full, it is not RCCL's responsibility to find something for Op to do while in Port. That was his responsibility. Yes, the lines of communication for RCCL may not be all that great at times regarding his complaints, but then I don't think he really had a case for that. But this shouldn't have been addressed to the hotel director and certainly not to Mr. Fain. And just because you didn't get a seat on "one" excursion because you didn't book early enough does not mean that it is a "poorly planned port". There are umpteen other excursions offered at that port. But only one train to where ever and it was full.

OP should have learned a lesson about planning. JMHO:cool:

 

I am a young lady so that would be "she". And all ship excursions were booked solid and there are few if any private tours in Flam and none I could find from February to June on the train ride. When we tried to book the ship tour it was sold out. The group tickets with the train also sold out. No private tours. The lesson I learned is not to post anything on this board but simple questions and answers....these boards are full of assumptions, judgement and rudeness. Maybe these are the same individuals shoving me around in the buffet line?? Lol. Trust me I am more easy going and always pre plan my ports. This is the one and only port I have come up empty with as can happen as it did to hundreds of us onboard.

[Embracedbylife]

This may be a possibility, however, seats are distributed on a percentage basis depending on the number of ships in port and a perentage left for the general public. OP did not indicate how many other ships may have been in port.

 

No other ships at port just us.

[Racing fan]

Many years ago on one of our first cruises when we got back home I was so impressed with our head waiter I did write to the RC CEO. Amazing but true I did get a written letter back from him thanking us to take the time out to praise the RC employee.. It was a form letter but a personal letter addressed to my family

 

Americans sometimes expect everything to be perfect when we go on vacation. We spend are hard earned monies and want to be treated perfectly. Sometimes you just have to accept the fact that the world in not perfect and enjoy the moment.

[BecciBoo]

Sorry, but it would never have occurred to me to even make a comment on the ship about this. I would have just said, "Oops, it's full, my bad, guess we'll just have to mess around." In fact I did do just that in our early cruising days. Missed one because I waited to book until onboard on our first cruise on Rhapsody. It was a lesson learned for me. And by your own admission, you waited until "all" the tours were sold out? Enough said. Didn't mean to be so critical, but I was dumbfounded by your willingness to place the blame on RCCL.

[swwake]

Embracedbylife, I understand that you state your original intent with this thread was to educate future cruisers in hopes that they will be able to avoid similar circumstances (not having anything to do at a port). Being on this forum for a few years, I know that people can be, or appear to be, harsh and critical. We have to be careful when we post things, especially criticism.

 

However, the title of your post, and its tone, seem to be an attack on RCCL and/or RCI for not handling what you thought to be a situation properly. I believe that is likely the reason so many have posted opposing views in response.

 

I stand by my original assessment that the cruise contract (I haven't read yours) likely does not guarantee availability of shore excursions at every port. The cruise line's rules explicitly state that the ship's departure will not be held for non-Royal Caribbean excursions. So they actually made an exception to delay departure. I doubt that the onboard customer service staff or hotel director have had any training in what to do in this specific situation, as it is not RC's obligation to ensure that your family is occupied onshore. Their training was probably in customer service and treating customers with respect, ensuring that they do everything within their authority to make your vacation pleasurable. You did not state that you were treated rudely, just that someone smirked (which may be subjective, they may just not have known what to do).

 

It's always fair for you to lodge a complaint, make a comment or recommendation on how things can be improved, and I am sure the company appreciates this. I'm not sure if you were looking for support against RC on this thread or just trying to educate others that this could happen to them.

[Paulxyz2004]

Dramaqueen comes to my mind reading the OP´s posts.

[wolfganghowell]

As a shareholder, I would be po'd if corporate did bother to respond to this.

 

OP - sorry your one port was a disappointment. However, as described it is a small port with a small population and most likely limited options. There are most likely many factors that prevent them from providing more excursions. What should have been a minor glitch has snowballed way out of proportion. I think sometimes we Americans expect everything to be handled in the "old fashioned USA way" which is just not going to happen often in international travel. And as others have said, your issues did not concern the Hotel Director. The attitude of staff should be done on comment cards and don't require a personal meeting. If the HD met with each passenger that wanted to complain about attitude, they couldn't possibly manage the ship.

 

It appears the vast majority here disagree with your view on this. That doesn't make you or anyone else here a "bad" person. When you post so dramatically on a message board, you have to accept that there's going to be some strong opinions.

[Artemis]

1. If you're blaming Royal Caribbean for missing the Flam railway experience, it was your fault, not Royal Caribbean's;
   
2. If you weren't blaming Royal Caribbean for missing the railway, but you were just trying to help future pax by advocating for a longer cruise day to accommodate afternoon train riders, you could've said that to Royal Caribbean (and here) in 2-3 sentences, i.e., no wonder that point was "lost in translation;" and
   
3. If you truly want to help future pax, it would be great if you posted a heads up on the Ports of Call>Northern Europe forum advising future pax that because the Flam railway excursion can sell out, they should book it ASAP and, if they're shut out, they should do the pre-cruise research and planning you didn't do to avoid disappointment.
   

When the more convenient method of sightseeing by letting the cruiseline handle it all falls through, it is the passenger's responsibility to take control of the research and planning. You apparently did that quite capably with regard to the independent land travel you enjoyed after making a deliberate early departure from the cruise. You simply needed to apply the same level of attention to your Flam Railway ride if it was important to you to experience that tourist highlight of the Norwegian fjords.

 

There are highlight sights all over the world that operate on a limited supply/demand model. The Flam Railway is one. If you had done your research, you would have readily discovered advance booking <by a variety of methods> is recommended during peak summer tourist season because the railway often sells out (due to popularity and the ticket allotments to large groups like cruises and tour buses!)

 

Specifically, when you found out in Feb. that all cruiseline excursions for June X were sold out, you could have immediately researched and quickly learned how to make an independent booking--there is plenty of information about achieving just that in all of the usual places, e.g., here on CC in the Ports of Call forum archives, TripAdvisor, Lonely Planet, Google "how to buy a ticket for the Flam Railway," etc. You could've booked an independent tour, formed a group on Roll Call (I note you talk about attempting to make the required 10-person group ticket purchase with fellow CC'ers, but you don't address when--you simply say it failed), purchased a ticket directly from the railway 90 days before June X, learned you could have trained up and biked down--any number of options were still available to you.

 

If you waited too late to avail yourself of those options, you could have initiated the discussion with Royal Caribbean pre-cruise about flexing the departure time by 15 minutes to accommodate the afternoon return trip, particularly if you had strength in numbers from your Roll Call (which might have also led Royal Caribbean to secure more seats/open up another excursion). And if your pre-cruise efforts to solve this with Royal Caribbean weren't fruitful, you could have (a) researched and come up with your own Plan B for how to spend a non-railway day in Flam, and (b) renewed the railway discussion with Royal Caribbean upon embarkation so the onboard personnel would have had some lead time to try to problem-solve. If you had port stops in Norway pre-Flam, you could've tried to purchase tickets at a train station. The day you arrived in Flam, you could've disembarked as soon as the gangway was opened to be among the first non-ticketed tourists seeking walk-up tickets. And when you encountered communication difficulties while trying to investigate the bike down option, you could've been more persistent. It is exceedingly rare to find a Northern European tourist attraction that has no English speaker!

 

Bottom line, OP, you didn't want this bad enough to make it happen....

 

I am sorry you had a bad day in Flam. Bummer! You said you're "young," so perhaps this was your first travel goof. Don't be too hard on yourself! I'm "old," and I've made a few whoppers over the years. :o But I've learned a lot from each one, preventing many a future mistake. And I've never made an error so big as missing something altogether when I've done my homework--it's that simple.

 

Best wishes on your future travels. :)

[englishlady]

News Flash....CEO's don't read read every e-mail that is sent to them. (If they did they wouldn't have time to run their companies.) These types of e-mails are read by assistants and forwarded to appropriate personnel for action.

 

I have to laugh every time I read that someone has written to Mr. Fain.:rolleyes:

 

Not to detract from the OP's "perceived" issues, I just wanted to put the record straight regarding CEO reaction to customer complaints. I recently wrote to Adam Goldstein, CEO of RCI. Within 3 business days I had an email response from a lady in the Executive Resolutions Department. Attached to her email response to me, was my original email, and Mr. Goldstein's reaction to it (at 11:45pm local time on a Friday evening) which was just ONE HOUR after I mailed it to him! He forwarded my mail to an Operations VP, asking him to look into the matter. The Operations VP responded back to Mr. Goldstein on the following Monday morning stating my frustrations were founded. RCI did some things to correct the problem, and then responded to me. I was amazed RCI sent that internal email trail to me. I've worked in customer service for a major software company for many years and sharing internal correspondence with a customer is unheard of. Please don't ever say CEOs don't read the mails we send .... and please don't say CEO's don't care, or don't do anything instrumental in bringing about a resolution to a customer satisfaction issue. I can't begin to describe just HOW IMPRESSED I am with how my complaint was addressed, and just how impressed I am with Mr. Goldstein!

 

Alma

[toocruisin2]

Being on this forum for a few years, I know that people can be, or appear to be, harsh and critical. We have to be careful when we post things, especially criticism.

 

..because there are too many folks on this forum that define themselves through their vicarious and possibly unhealthy relationship with a cruise line and any criticism rocks their boat? :rolleyes:

[Big_G]

..because there are too many folks on this forum that define themselves through their vicarious and possibly unhealthy relationship with a cruise line and any criticism rocks their boat? :rolleyes:

 

...or the complaint is frivolous at best. For some it's hard to believe the latter is also possible. But thanks for the diagnosis.

[Gone Fishing]

I totally understand the OP

 

I had a similar incident in Antiga.

 

I was drinking Piton beer at the little stand at the pier for 3 for $5

 

I asked the guys at the ship if we could stay a little longer and they said I could stay as long as I wanted but they had go. Large tropical storm on the way...

 

I decided to go with them, however I will be be back someday

 

Maybe I should write the CEO and see if he wants to hang out at the little beer stand and talk about why RCI messed up the OPs shore day. If we hook up I will also tell him to answer his darn email.. I will by the first round!!! :p

[ryano]

Many years ago on one of our first cruises when we got back home I was so impressed with our head waiter I did write to the RC CEO. Amazing but true I did get a written letter back from him thanking us to take the time out to praise the RC employee.. It was a form letter but a personal letter addressed to my family

 

.

 

Adam G personally replied to an email of mine at 8pm one night over a similar praise situation about my cabin attendant on Freedom. I figure the man hears so many complaints that he would appreciate something nice being said for a change and he did in fact.........He published my email in his blog. :)

[ryano]

...or the complaint is frivolous at best. For some it's hard to believe the latter is also possible. But thanks for the diagnosis.

 

Exactly. 15 minutes of my life that I will never get back. It was like a train wreck though, I just couldnt help myself from looking

[Guzzler]

Yes, you are quoting my post cruise statement that "We had a wonderful time touring Iceland after disembarking. We actually drove the entire ring road on days 2 and 3 - 832 miles total! It was quite a drive - magnificant time! "

 

Note: we got off the ship early! happiest day was disembarking and touring Iceland sans ship! :) You are being cute quoting me! thanks! I forgot how catty these boards can be....

Seems like you are over embracing, loosen up.