First Time, Last Time, NEVER AGAIN!

[MrSmoofy]

It's the southern caribbean cruise. San Juan, St. Thomas, St. Kitts, Aruba, Curacao.

 

I've not been to Aruba or Cuacao so would be open to suggestions in the lines of Shopping/Sight Seeing.

 

Might I suggest you try Irie tours in Curacao. They offer all kinds of tours. We did the all day beach hopping tour with Sylvian van Ommeren and he was awesome! It was the best day of our cruise! We loved Curacao!

 

Awesome thank you, just emailed them to ask some questions.

[Paul65]

Sorry you have had so much trouble. I can assure you that this is not an across-the-board problem, because I've never had any trouble checking on my cruise and things like dining and excursion options from their website. I've not even tried to call them, because all the information I need seems readily accessible.

 

But, there are obviously some problems, because you're, by far, not the first to complain about difficulty with their website.

 

Now, if you're looking for travel insights and advice about various ports, there's limited info on the website about that, but there are a couple different travel websites that specialize in that kind of thing. Royal Caribbean will take you to the ports, but that doesn't mean all their employees are port experts.

[bigboffs]

When reading this RCCL board keep in mind that there are a few ROYAL Cheerleaders who quickly defend the cruise line. Some of the responders are also quite nasty in their comments hiding behind screen names.

 

The RCCL web site was recently "updated" and it still has things that need to be corrected. We are patient that this will happen.

 

We have learned that when calling any call center late in the evening, week ends and holidays we at times get customer no service

 

We have found that onboard the crew are always in the hospitality business but on shore it sometimes seems those people are in the hostility business.

 

Enjoy your cruise!!!

[CORKY_Q]

Sure once I get to the boat it might be totally awesome but the money I'm paying for is for start to finish not just the middle to people who actually work the ship who are some of the most underpaid hardest working people they are.

 

Actually, once you get to the boat, that's when your Royal Caribbean (or any other line's) experience begins. Excursions may be purchased through the cruise line, but they are not operated by the line/ship.

 

What you are seeking is like requesting guidance about the shopping experience in ports; you cannot expect the line to really guide you. Yes, I know about the shopping guide lectures once aboard, but those are underwritten by the shops in the ports and the cruise line gets a kickback.

 

I really hope you get on board with an open mind. Any day at sea should be better than a day ashore. :)

[MrSmoofy]

When reading this RCCL board keep in mind that there are a few ROYAL Cheerleaders who quickly defend the cruise line. Some of the responders are also quite nasty in their comments hiding behind screen names.

 

The RCCL web site was recently "updated" and it still has things that need to be corrected. We are patient that this will happen.

 

We have learned that when calling any call center late in the evening, week ends and holidays we at times get customer no service

 

We have found that onboard the crew are always in the hospitality business but on shore it sometimes seems those people are in the hostility business.

 

Enjoy your cruise!!!

 

Cheerleaders haha it's more like bloods vs crypts.

 

Yes website mostly doesn't work for me.

 

As for the call center YOU are right on there. I started calling during the day instead of after work or at night or weekends and it's a night and day difference on what they know.

[tlatrice]

Yes they have said you can only book through the cruise line.

 

Which excursion was this?

[MrSmoofy]

Which excursion was this?

 

The Senic Rail Tour on St. Kitts

 

http://www.stkittsscenicrailway.com/

Edited April 1, 2015 by MrSmoofy

[Funky Chicken]

I just read all six pages of this thread. I am respectfully offering the following observations.

 

In each of your posts (OP), there are undertones of frustration, which is understandable.

 

There are also references to how hard you work and "Bloods and Crypts" all over the place. It's "Crips" by the way.

 

You come off like a very angry person. You may or may not be one, but the internet is not three dimensional. Nobody can hear you speaking the words you write, so all anybody has to go on is the text itself.

 

It sounds like you really need this vacation!

 

I am the first to admit that RCI has a piss poor website. It is truly embarrassing for a company of this size to not have their IT presence together. This is why I use a travel agent for RCI cruises. I book trips on another line direct thru their website because it WORKS. RCI's doesn't. That's the way it is. Next.

 

I have never bothered to call them for planning and assistance. I wouldn't expect somebody sitting in a call center to be able to do anything except try to sell me something.

 

The answers to all your questions (and the relief from your anger/frustration/ranting) are here and elsewhere on the internet.

 

There has been good advice given all thru this thread, and I will repeat it for you.

 

TripAdvisor is a FANTASTIC resource for information on what to do on specific islands, with reviews from people who both

A) WENT THERE AND DID THINGS

and

B) Felt compelled to share their experiences whether good or bad.

 

I have been on 3 cruises since 2012 on both Royal and Disney. The info I got from TripAdvisor was absolutely invaluable-it made our trips what they were, and it came from people like you and me who just want to have the best trip possible. I found out everything from how much a cab should cost to how to make sure our allergy requests are honored to which of the beaches on a given island would be the best fit for us. A couple hours of searches and I had everything I needed to hit the ground running. My wife was astounded when we stepped off the ship and I knew exactly where to go and what to do on our own, and NO Cruise line would have helped me get that done.

 

It's not their job to help you save money and discover things in a given port that they aren't SELLING. The staff onboard is usually better, but by the time you are onboard you may not have a chance to do the most popular things. That's why our plans are made before we ever set foot on the ship and in most cases we do things separate from the ship's excursions. The only time I will defer to a ship's excursion is in an instance where I am concerned about getting back to the ship on time.They will hold the ship at port for a ship-booked excursion but if you go out on your own, they WILL leave you behind. I have personally watched that happen, and I am sure many other posters here can say the same thing.

 

These forums can help you get your head wrapped around what to expect on the ship 1000 times better than the talking head at RCI's 800 number.

 

You are not going to get what you want by calling them. It DOESN'T MATTER whether that is a good thing or a bad thing. It just IS. Why keep banging your head against the wall?

 

You are the one paying for this vacation. You are the one traveling. You are responsible for your own enjoyment and making the best of whatever may come along.

 

What kind of vacation do YOU want? Figure it out using the resources that WILL answer your questions instead of continuing to complain that RCI is a horrible company and go make it happen. It's your money, it's your stress level, and it's your vacation.

 

I hope you sort it out and enjoy yourself despite the rocky start.

[MrSmoofy]

I just read all six pages of this thread. I am respectfully offering the following observations.

Thank you for taking the time to do that I feel most won't before the reply.

 

There are also references to how hard you work and "Bloods and Crypts" all over the place. It's "Crips" by the way.

Sorry I'm not up on my gange name spellings :D Also I wouldn't say "all over the place" but I could be wrong.

 

You come off like a very angry person. You may or may not be one, but the internet is not three dimensional. Nobody can hear you speaking the words you write, so all anybody has to go on is the text itself.

Agreed, I'm not an angry person people consider me the total reverse of that as I'm typically the cool level headed nothing bothers me laid back kind of person.

 

It sounds like you really need this vacation!

YES!

 

I have never bothered to call them for planning and assistance. I wouldn't expect somebody sitting in a call center to be able to do anything except try to sell me something.

They are selling the excursions they should know about what they are selling.

 

I have been on 3 cruises since 2012 on both Royal and Disney.

I've actually been on 18 cruises. Up until last year I did at least one a year so I'm not new to this dance.

 

It's not their job to help you save money and discover things in a given port that they aren't SELLING. The staff onboard is usually better, but by the time you are onboard you may not have a chance to do the most popular things.

I'm not asking them to save my money or discover things. I'm asking general questions about the ship and cruise as well as questions about the excursions that they are selling I expect them to be able to answer questions about what they are selling I would not expect them to answer questions about something they are not selling that would be silly.

[sippican]

Mr Smoofy.

First of all i agree with much of what Funky Chicken has said. It seems that what you consider helpful responses on this thread are the ones that you wanted to hear.

I see that you still have not taken the great advice to post your questions on the "Ports" forums.

I also don't see if you have considered the great advice to use a travel agent (free and will give you most, if not all, of the support you have requested here - with perhaps some freebies thrown in) - is it too late to transfer your booking to one?

Why waste your abundant energy in continuing to try to change the way things are done at RCI? Put your efforts into creating a fantastic vacation with the resources and support you have been offered here.

FWIW - we cruise diffeent lines (not Royal Cheerleaders), but customer service representatives on the other end of the phone lines for other companies are no more gifted from one line to another. So I guess, we cruisers are willing to settle for what you have determined "por service" for alot of money.

Hmmmmm ..... wonder what keeps us coming back?

[CORKY_Q]

Mr Smoofy.

First of all i agree with much of what Funky Chicken has said. It seems that what you consider helpful responses on this thread are the ones that you wanted to hear.

I see that you still have not taken the great advice to post your questions on the "Ports" forums.

I also don't see if you have considered the great advice to use a travel agent (free and will give you most, if not all, of the support you have requested here - with perhaps some freebies thrown in) - is it too late to transfer your booking to one?

Why waste your abundant energy in continuing to try to change the way things are done at RCI? Put your efforts into creating a fantastic vacation with the resources and support you have been offered here.

FWIW - we cruise diffeent lines (not Royal Cheerleaders), but customer service representatives on the other end of the phone lines for other companies are no more gifted from one line to another. So I guess, we cruisers are willing to settle for what you have determined "por service" for alot of money.

Hmmmmm ..... wonder what keeps us coming back?

 

Soooo wish there was a "LIKE" Button.:D

[sippican]

Sorry - duplicate post

Edited April 1, 2015 by sippican

[MrSmoofy]

Mr Smoofy.

First of all i agree with much of what Funky Chicken has said. It seems that what you consider helpful responses on this thread are the ones that you wanted to hear.

I see that you still have not taken the great advice to post your questions on the "Ports" forums.

I also don't see if you have considered the great advice to use a travel agent (free and will give you most, if not all, of the support you have requested here - with perhaps some freebies thrown in) - is it too late to transfer your booking to one?

Why waste your abundant energy in continuing to try to change the way things are done at RCI? Put your efforts into creating a fantastic vacation with the resources and support you have been offered here.

FWIW - we cruise diffeent lines (not Royal Cheerleaders), but customer service representatives on the other end of the phone lines for other companies are no more gifted from one line to another. So I guess, we cruisers are willing to settle for what you have determined "por service" for alot of money.

Hmmmmm ..... wonder what keeps us coming back?

 

Must be the popcorn.

[Aquahound]

Must be the popcorn.

 

Huh? :confused: That's an odd response to what sounded like good advice.

[Paulette3028]

Mr Smoofy.

First of all i agree with much of what Funky Chicken has said. It seems that what you consider helpful responses on this thread are the ones that you wanted to hear.

I see that you still have not taken the great advice to post your questions on the "Ports" forums.

I also don't see if you have considered the great advice to use a travel agent (free and will give you most, if not all, of the support you have requested here - with perhaps some freebies thrown in) - is it too late to transfer your booking to one?

Why waste your abundant energy in continuing to try to change the way things are done at RCI? Put your efforts into creating a fantastic vacation with the resources and support you have been offered here.

FWIW - we cruise diffeent lines (not Royal Cheerleaders), but customer service representatives on the other end of the phone lines for other companies are no more gifted from one line to another. So I guess, we cruisers are willing to settle for what you have determined "por service" for alot of money.

Hmmmmm ..... wonder what keeps us coming back?

 

I love your reply.....and your experience with customer service representatives on other lines just is wonderful to hear.....what I can say, is my experience with Royal customer services reps have been fine....and I expect a lot from CS representatives, because I am one in my own company.

 

But I want to answer your last question....What keeps us coming back? The answer is simple....a great time is had once on board....and isn't that what it is all about. Not the popcorn, as MrSmoofy, would like to hope.

[Funky Chicken]

I'm not asking them to save my money or discover things. I'm asking general questions about the ship and cruise as well as questions about the excursions that they are selling I expect them to be able to answer questions about what they are selling I would not expect them to answer questions about something they are not selling that would be silly.

 

I am not disagreeing with you on this point. The people on the phone should have more answers than they do. They should have more details than they do. You have every right to expect better service on the phone than you are getting from them.

 

You are NOT going to get it. Get over it.

 

I don't see anybody coming to RCI's defense in this thread. Most of us agree with you. Nobody's picking a fight with you over that.

 

The lack of information on the phone is not going to change between now and the day of your sailing.

 

You can continue to circle back around to this issue after 7 pages of people trying to guide you and continue to be disappointed with RCI.

 

That's not going to make your trip better.

 

It's time to change the conversation to "how can I get what I need" instead of "RCI can't/won't give me what I need".

 

Or not.

 

Your call.

[susancruzs]

A puzzling read this thread for someone in their sixties, totally clueless about a cruise when I first cruised, somewhat amazing to me. I never would have called and expected cruise line personnel to know ship details, excursion information, etc., no way. I'm not a cheerleader for any line. I'm cruising RCI this year, Princess in 2016 and who knows for 2017. Why stress yourself out planning a trip, when it is supposed to be enjoyable?

 

Years ago I started reading travel magazines, travel books and brochures cover to cover. Now with the internet age, when I choose a new ship I haven't sailed on I check here, other sites, and several places which are just ship oriented. Doing a web search with the ship name brings up volumes of info. I guess I'm not understanding what is so complex and urgent.

[twoontheisle]

Imagine my shock and awe, when I looked at the friends on the profile of the OP....

[CRUISEFAN0001]

A puzzling read this thread for someone in their sixties, totally clueless about a cruise when I first cruised, somewhat amazing to me. I never would have called and expected cruise line personnel to know ship details, excursion information, etc., no way. I'm not a cheerleader for any line. I'm cruising RCI this year, Princess in 2016 and who knows for 2017. Why stress yourself out planning a trip, when it is supposed to be enjoyable?

 

Years ago I started reading travel magazines, travel books and brochures cover to cover. Now with the internet age, when I choose a new ship I haven't sailed on I check here, other sites, and several places which are just ship oriented. Doing a web search with the ship name brings up volumes of info. I guess I'm not understanding what is so complex and urgent.

Best post in this thread.

 

Agree - and Thank You!

[Paulette3028]

I'm not asking them to save my money or discover things. I'm asking general questions about the ship and cruise as well as questions about the excursions that they are selling I expect them to be able to answer questions about what they are selling I would not expect them to answer questions about something they are not selling that would be silly.

 

I am not disagreeing with you on this point. The people on the phone should have more answers than they do. They should have more details than they do. You have every right to expect better service on the phone than you are getting from them.

 

You are NOT going to get it. Get over it.

 

I don't see anybody coming to RCI's defense in this thread. Most of us agree with you. Nobody's picking a fight with you over that.

 

The lack of information on the phone is not going to change between now and the day of your sailing.

 

You can continue to circle back around to this issue after 7 pages of people trying to guide you and continue to be disappointed with RCI.

 

That's not going to make your trip better.

 

It's time to change the conversation to "how can I get what I need" instead of "RCI can't/won't give me what I need".

 

Or not.

 

Your call.

 

The reality is that MrSmoofy wants what the Royal representatives can give him to change....and that isn't happening, now or in the near future. But he had gotten PLENTY of advice on how to get what he needs, from others....and won't take it -- therefore the problem is MrSmoofy, not the system.

 

In today's world you can glean so much knowledge and information from the internet via searches, then with the magic of CC get real world experiences that far outweigh anything that a clerk in an office has had, because most of them have had NO first hand cruise experiences.

 

So MrSmoofy....try to find a way to enjoy your upcoming cruise...but I am betting the odds of that are slim, because of all this pre-cruise activity that isn't going your way....and probably nothing on the ship will go your way either, is my guess.

[Aquahound]

Years ago I started reading travel magazines, travel books and brochures cover to cover. Now with the internet age, when I choose a new ship I haven't sailed on I check here, other sites, and several places which are just ship oriented. Doing a web search with the ship name brings up volumes of info. I guess I'm not understanding what is so complex and urgent.

 

I'm the same way. Heck, I saw that sweepstakes here on CC for Hurtigruten and I went and researched all I could about their ships and itineraries before making an entry to see if it was something I would enjoy....and that was for a FREE cruise!

[Bailey & Sophie]

The Senic Rail Tour on St. Kitts

 

http://www.stkittsscenicrailway.com/

Check my previous post (#93).

This particular excursion MAY NOT be available.

We took this excursion in February and half way through it the engine blew up and the train completely stopped. The buses were at the end point, and had to come and get us, which took about an hour.

If the engine has not been repaired yet, the train can't run and the excursion won't be offered.

[poncho1973]

When reading this RCCL board keep in mind that there are a few ROYAL Cheerleaders who quickly defend the cruise line. Some of the responders are also quite nasty in their comments hiding behind screen names.

 

The RCCL web site was recently "updated" and it still has things that need to be corrected. We are patient that this will happen.

 

We have learned that when calling any call center late in the evening, week ends and holidays we at times get customer no service

 

We have found that onboard the crew are always in the hospitality business but on shore it sometimes seems those people are in the hostility business.

 

Enjoy your cruise!!!

 

I see absolutely no cheerleading in this thread and think this term is drastically overused on these forums. It's like some weird catch-all when someone doesn't agree with you.

 

I'm pretty sure you'll find that the overwhelming majority of posters have either had website or phone issues at some point. They didn't let it turn them into a Bitter Betty or Debbie Downer.

 

Read this entire thread, it's not "ROYAL IS BEST! U WIN THE INTERNET WITH ROYAL!" it's mostly just people with much more realistic expectations than the OP.

 

If I call any company and order a product, I expect them to have a certain level of knowledge of their products. I also expect them to read me details of that knowledge from some sort of a script in the process. I do not expect the person manning the Amazon help desk to be a skilled technician making $150,000 a year and understanding the nuances of every product sold on that website. I expect them to be some person making minimum wage (or worse yet, overseas making half of the US minimum wage) who has some customer help program up in front of them.

 

I'm still trying to figure out if the OP gets these kind of SUPER USER customer service reps at other companies. I'd love to know where I can go for that.

[BND]

We have never called the cruiseline to get info because we can get everything we want/need here and for the most part we get consensus on any question asked, which is more than you can say calling RCI. We have had issues with searching on the website, but once again most questions can be answered here by people who have just gotten off a particular ship, etc. The biggest problem with RCI is that the people answering the phones may live in Oregon (I know that a few do) and are working from home and have never taken a cruise.

 

I have been following this thread and I agree with the above poster. OP,you have a wealth of info here, but you don't want that. You want to "fix" them right this second. Not going to happen. I also agree that you probably will not have a good time since you're so determined already that you're done with RCI.

Edited April 2, 2015 by BND

[Paulette3028]

I see absolutely no cheerleading in this thread and think this term is drastically overused on these forums. It's like some weird catch-all when someone doesn't agree with you.

 

I'm pretty sure you'll find that the overwhelming majority of posters have either had website or phone issues at some point. They didn't let it turn them into a Bitter Betty or Debbie Downer.

 

Read this entire thread, it's not "ROYAL IS BEST! U WIN THE INTERNET WITH ROYAL!" it's mostly just people with much more realistic expectations than the OP.

 

If I call any company and order a product, I expect them to have a certain level of knowledge of their products. I also expect them to read me details of that knowledge from some sort of a script in the process. I do not expect the person manning the Amazon help desk to be a skilled technician making $150,000 a year and understanding the nuances of every product sold on that website. I expect them to be some person making minimum wage (or worse yet, overseas making half of the US minimum wage) who has some customer help program up in front of them.

 

I'm still trying to figure out if the OP gets these kind of SUPER USER customer service reps at other companies. I'd love to know where I can go for that.

 

I also believe the OP has gotten valuable help from fellow cruisers who have lots more tangible experience than what is reasonable to expect from a customer service rep on the phone. Like you I would like to know what company has provided him with the SUPER USER customer service he is seeking.

 

I have a friend that works for a tech company is support and everything they say comes from a script board on their screen. They have no real background in fixing repairs nor personal experience with the problems themselves. Imagine calling them for the tech support you needed. Yet, for 90% of issues it works out just fine.