First time on RCCL...maybe the last...

[Yorkvillain]

Wow..negative attitude...really ROFL...

 

I'd rather just relay my experiences, in detail, so that others might benefit from my situation. I basically just told it as I experienced it. I never said that I was going to have a bad time on the cruise. BUT I must point out, that if RCCL can't handle their reservations better than this, it does not bode well for the line IMO. If you are loyal to royal, good for you. But for someone that was more than willing to give RCCL a chance, it isn't going well at this point. I certainly can go on board with a stack of papers and get all this sorted out at Guest Services. My point is, why should I? I made all the reservations through their reps or online and they all got lost. That's not my fault, so I turned to RCCL to rectify the situation. They couldn't step up to the plate, so I don't think my attitude is all that negative. I will take my stack of paper with me to the ship and I will go to Guest Services and get all this sorted out. Again, it isn't what I signed up for, and it isn't they way I want to spend my much needed vacation time. And if this is how RCCL does business, then they don't need me as a customer. Pretty simple to me.

 

Nahhh, no negative attitude from you at all. Nada.

[sunsetbeachgal]

OP,

 

My stepdaughter was assured, after web site problems, by a call from RC to her home just prior to our cruise that a prebooked character breakfast was booked. When we got on board, nada. After getting the runaround and sent to the fourth person, she finally got it settled. That was on our embarkation day after waiting in line for an hour and a half to go through the passport check line at Port Canaveral, then my luggage being impounded in the "naughty room" on Deck one supposedly for liquor or liquids in my suitcase, that turned out to be their mistake...but after a nice glass of wine and dinner served by a great wait staff, all was good!!

 

It will all work out, hopefully! ;)

Edited April 12, 2014 by sunsetbeachgal

[FromSea2ShiningSea]

jlat,

 

Can you come back here after your cruise to let us know how it all went, how they resolved the issue for you. I'm curious to know.

 

I would also love to know how you enjoyed Jewel of the Seas to the Southern Caribbean. I love JOS and this is one that I am very interested in taking- before it goes into refurbishment.

 

Meanwhile, I hope you have a great time on JOS! Make sure you check out Seaview Cafe. Yummy food!

[Paulxyz2004]

I understand you are annoyed by the lack of knowledge from the call Center, fair enough.

One Thing however I don´t understand. Why do you Keep saying they lost your reservations and you have to go through some hassle one onboard. :confused:

 

Most likely all will be fine. Had you not checked at that Point you would have gone onboard and to your cabin to find your tour tickets on the Counter and showed up at the specialty Restaurants and all would have been fine.

 

No I can´t 100% guarantee you all is fine, because things can go wrong at times, but the disappearance from the Website is not part of the plot.

 

If you booked your tours a year in advance they should even be included in your edocs as well.

 

Breathe and relax, stop the "they´ve lost my ressies" attitude and Change it to a "all is well, it´s their regular procedure to wipe out reservations shortly before sailaway day" attitude.

 

If all this makes you mad enough to not give your Business to RCI in the future again that´s fair enough again. We live in a free world and it´s your choice. I´m not exclusively sailing RCI, but I do like them and Keep coming back and your experience does not Change my view, but we are all different and I consider this a good Thing.

 

I´d like to hear from you post cruise what happened about the reservations once you got onboard.

[SteveH2508]

I would really love to hear more about your problems.

 

Having been on many many Royal Caribbean cruises, including the Independence, I cannot even conceive of "not getting fed", etc.

 

Third night on board - went for MTD at about 7.00 pm - told there was 30 to 45 min wait so we went for a drink for 30 mins. Returned to the same story - rinse and repeat until no time left for MTD so we went to the buffet at 9pm to see the doors closing. Buffet manager kept it open for us for a few minutes.

 

Add this to our sit down breakfast being forgotten in the MDR one morning and sometimes waiting 15-20 minutes to get a drink at a bar (Schooners? and in the casino) we were less than impressed. Never had these problems on NCL cruises (and there is much more choice of out of hours food).

[papaflamingo]

I certainly understand your concern. No one wants to go all the way to a port for a much anticipated cruise only to find out that they lost the reservation. But honestly, showing up to a much anticipated cruise without any documentation that you have a reservation is not what I do. I download all paperwork into my laptop, and I always carry my laptop. If necessary I'll boot it up and show them. Never had to, hope I never will.

But reading all the posts, seems that Royal Caribbean is trying to do the best they can to resolve the issue. It's not like they said "nope, nothing here, too bad for you." The OP states quite clearly that a number of people were working on it. But it's a computer. If it isn't there, it isn't there. The OP is angry because they don't know why. Well, maybe they DON'T know why. It is clearly an unusual event. If this happened to everyone's reservation then they'd know why. I fly airplanes for living. The airline I work for uses computers for everything. Sometimes things get dumped for no reason. Sometimes we get routed weirdly and no one knows why. They are computers.

But if the OP has a Setsail pass (sounds like he didn't print it in time), then no worries. They'll make good on all he paid for. Hassle? Sure. Unusual? Sure. A reason to hate Royal Caribbean and never sail on them again? If that's how you feel.

Conversely I sailed on NCL (OP's usual line). I had an "interline rate" (airline employee rate). We got no paperwork and were told we'd get our cabin assignment at the pier. No paperwork, nada (that was standard for interline on NCL). We showed at the pier. My wife (who is not the boldest person I know) asks if there is any chance of an upgrade. The guy checking us in looked up and proceeded to loudly chastised her saying "you didn't read your paperwork! You are not to ask for upgrades!" I immediately stated that I would have read our paperwork, if I had received any! Then he said we could upgrade if we wanted. Go on board and look at these cabins and lt them know if we wanted to upgrade. Really? After being yelled at?

RCCL treats "interline" rate passengers as "real passengers." We felt NCL treated us at checkin as "excess baggage."

We had a fun cruise. We didn't let it bother us, and just laughed at it. But we cruise Royal Caribbean because we just like them better. To each his own.

[Hyuaul]

His name is Bill Martin and maybe you should listen to what he has to say.

 

Thank you for the link. Answered many of my "whys?", got me "onboard" with their mission(OK, I know about their their mission) and can rest and accept SOP and it being a business- I am just $$$.

debbie

[drarill]

Thank you delirious! I intend to!

 

Wishing you safe travels and happy cruising.... we are having a beautiful, sunny day here in San Juan!! Enjoy your cruise....:)

[bigboffs]

As frequent cruisers, we are repeatedly amazed that RCCL can build and operate great ships providing great cruising experiences, yet have a public IT system that often is poor and/or unreliable at best ( especially while onboard a ship). .

[Starry Eyes]

If this is how RCCL does business, they should at least let their front lines know it. They should let their resolution department know it, because of the 4 employees of the company that I talked to, not one, explained that all the reservations are wiped out of the system 2 days before the cruise. Maybe cruise critic should start doing support for RCCL? Like I said, I've never sailed with them before, so I didn't know that I could not print out my schedule a day or two before the cruise.

 

Peace to you brother!

 

I hope you find that all is well once you board today. either way I hope you will post to let us know how it turned out.

 

As to letting the the telephone people know this stuff...that is certainly the hope. there is probably a lot of turnover in those jobs and there are lots of little details (like deadline to pre-book on line) that slip past some reps. Not a unique problem for RCI, but surely a frustrating one. when we get an unexpected negative answer, we might ask the rep to check with the supervisor, but they resist or if that fails, we politely hang up and try again another time with another rep. that seems to work better than persuing it with the same rep, as rep (and supervisor) are apt to just dig in their heels, sticking to the same mantra, perhaps because really do not know better.. I do think the resolutions department tried to tell you that the info was on ship at this point, but you had trouble believing them. I base this upon your original post, "resolution department....Then I get this jewel...Don't worry sir the boat knows what you have reserved....Hmmm, so I ask her, does she see any of my reservations on her screen? No sir....So I ask her how the boat would know my reservations when they are out in the water on another cruise?? More silence.." Perhaps the silence was because the phone reps do not need to know exactly how or when info is transitted to the ship for the next sailing. Perhaps they were silent because they were trying to find a way to politely explain to a distraught customer that in the digital age, they are indeed regularly communicating with their ships. Still, I think somebody was trying to tell you that the info should be on the ship, even if you could not longer access it on line.

I truly hope those assurances were correct in the end, and that all reservations are perfect when you board (I like to double check any really important reservations once I board, even if all seemed well on line). have a wonderful time.

[CruiseAddict1982]

Not to make light of the problem, but is it that hard to print out your confirmations and take them with you?? I do that anyway, for everything, I trust NOBODY but myself and the papers I have in my hand.:eek:

 

 

I'm with you

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

[hellsop]

Third night on board - went for MTD at about 7.00 pm - told there was 30 to 45 min wait so we went for a drink for 30 mins. Returned to the same story - rinse and repeat until no time left for MTD so we went to the buffet at 9pm to see the doors closing. Buffet manager kept it open for us for a few minutes.

 

I'm confused; you went to MTD, got added to the lists and told to come back in half an hour, and there was no table ready shortly thereafter? Or was this a

 

"Sorry, 30 minute wait from now"

"No trouble, we'll come back later"

 

and nothing done either side with the expectation that readiness would happen then?

[SteveH2508]

I'm confused; you went to MTD, got added to the lists and told to come back in half an hour, and there was no table ready shortly thereafter? Or was this a

 

"Sorry, 30 minute wait from now"

"No trouble, we'll come back later"

 

and nothing done either side with the expectation that readiness would happen then?

 

Basically it was as you quoted. On NCL you would get a beeper and a drink voucher (or you could go to the other MDR and see if the queues were shorter).

 

RCCL did not seem to have those options. When you see two floors of the MDR almost empty and the third (MTD) floor full with queues, it is not rocket science to move the overflow down one level (same menu, same galley after all).

 

The other nights were OK - but - we did not seem to have the options which we would have got on NCL - that's my point.

 

There were many RCCL regulars complaining about the service as well - so it was not just us.

[Starry Eyes]

Basically it was as you quoted. On NCL you would get a beeper and a drink voucher (or you could go to the other MDR and see if the queues were shorter).

 

RCCL did not seem to have those options. When you see two floors of the MDR almost empty and the third (MTD) floor full with queues, it is not rocket science to move the overflow down one level (same menu, same galley after all).

 

The other nights were OK - but - we did not seem to have the options which we would have got on NCL - that's my point.

 

There were many RCCL regulars complaining about the service as well - so it was not just us.

It may not be so simple for two reasons. First, the tables on the first two floors are reserved for early and late dining. If early in the evening, you look down and see empty seats below, it may simply be that early diners are still filing in and some are tardy. On my recent cruise some tables of people showed up late (some routinely, others once or twice); though late they were admitted and served. The Madre'd cannot seat my time people down there because the assigned diners may show up late then be furious when their seats are occupied. Or those diners may have returned late from shore, yet may wish to show up just for desert to chat with their tablemates; their waiters likely would wish to accomodate such a request. By the time they are sure the assigned people are full-meal no-shows, it is probably too late to seat overflows from my time, as slower diners may finish in time to turn the table for late dining.

Second, it is highly likely that the work pools and tips are handled differently for mtd and traditional assigned dining. If the traditional dining waiters must do part of mtd waiter's work, they will likely want part of the tip pool. Wouldn't you?