Just off Radiance - address to write to guest relations with complaints?

[WrittenOnYourHeart]

Not discounting the internet complaint - but I will say that Alaska is NOT known for its WiFi or cell reception. It would be interesting to see how it does in a place that is...not as isolated.

[MisterBill99]

Not discounting the internet complaint - but I will say that Alaska is NOT known for its WiFi or cell reception. It would be interesting to see how it does in a place that is...not as isolated.

I'm not sure what Alaska has to do with poor WiFi. It's satellite based from the ship's antennae/dishes.

Edited June 6, 2016 by MisterBill99

[WrittenOnYourHeart]

I'm not sure what Alaska has to do with poor WiFi. It's satellite based from the ship's antennae/dishes.

 

And cell service is also satellite-based. From my experience the past two summers (and that of people on pretty much every cell network - as well as talking with people who LIVE in Alaska and deal with limited satellite-based things on a daily basis), it DOES matter as satellite-based things simply do not operate in Alaska as well as they do in the contiguous 48.

[Sallyandtex]

Thanks OP for your information.

Shame they stuffed up the cake, but that seems minor compared to our treatment on the Voyager. We had many issues, including being treated Iike criminals when THEY stuffed up our seapass ID photos, not being able to access our cabins for 3 hours once aboard, assured fixed then not allowed back on ship after first port, not once but twice!

No apologies or a free drink or anything.

Plus the whole floor plumbing backed up and wasn't fixed for 24 hrs.

 

I was hoping a smaller ship like Radiance there might be better customer service.

Fingers crossed the toilets will be working as that is a major thing that can ruin a holiday.

Edited June 6, 2016 by Sallyandtex

[happy_trees]

Good and interesting to hear your thoughts on the cruise. We just got back from the same cruise.

 

Sorry they couldn't get the cake correct -- that is a lot of stress over something that should have gone off without any trouble.

 

I agree Voom was horrible. And the sad thing was each day, Guest Services had a different answer for why it wasn't working that day. What really confuses me is that some people said they had perfect connectivity. Wonder what's happening that some people had trouble regularly, and some people had none. Does it prioritize certain devices?

 

I agree that the staff was really good. Our stateroom attendant was spectacular and our waiter and assistant were phenomenal.

 

Our whole hallway had toilet issues (filling with yellow water, not really flushing) two days.

 

My one last thing that just went wrong was an offhand comment the shopping lady Kimberly made, saying I was too poor to get the last charm (on the last sea day) for those cheap Diamonds International charm bracelets. She sort of let her mask down when telling me she hated people trying to scam the system by not spending enough to get the charms ... fortunately, I can buy online the one she wouldn't give me. Her comments were just so at odds with the way the rest of the people who worked on the ship had been acting.

[awestover89]

And cell service is also satellite-based. From my experience the past two summers (and that of people on pretty much every cell network - as well as talking with people who LIVE in Alaska and deal with limited satellite-based things on a daily basis), it DOES matter as satellite-based things simply do not operate in Alaska as well as they do in the contiguous 48.

 

Yeah, some satellite services (Sirius for example) don't work at all in Alaska. As for the ship internet, most of our roll call reported the same issues, but I didn't have any problems at all with it, except when we were in port in Skagway. The entire rest of the cruise we were very happy with the internet. Downloading apps took forever, but I was able to watch Youtube videos, check email, and even play games with no problems. We didn't try Netflix or video chats, but were very happy with the internet overall. Not sure if we just got lucky, or what.

 

I will agree with issues like the left hand not knowing what the right was doing. We ran into similar issues including charges on our account that nobody could explain, and casino dealers who all had different blackjack rules.

 

We did have toilet issues as well, no flooding, but it would seemingly randomly refuse to flush

[gwt119]

Good and interesting to hear your thoughts on the cruise. We just got back from the same cruise.

 

Sorry they couldn't get the cake correct -- that is a lot of stress over something that should have gone off without any trouble.

 

I agree Voom was horrible. And the sad thing was each day, Guest Services had a different answer for why it wasn't working that day. What really confuses me is that some people said they had perfect connectivity. Wonder what's happening that some people had trouble regularly, and some people had none. Does it prioritize certain devices?

 

I agree that the staff was really good. Our stateroom attendant was spectacular and our waiter and assistant were phenomenal.

 

Our whole hallway had toilet issues (filling with yellow water, not really flushing) two days.

 

My one last thing that just went wrong was an offhand comment the shopping lady Kimberly made, saying I was too poor to get the last charm (on the last sea day) for those cheap Diamonds International charm bracelets. She sort of let her mask down when telling me she hated people trying to scam the system by not spending enough to get the charms ... fortunately, I can buy online the one she wouldn't give me. Her comments were just so at odds with the way the rest of the people who worked on the ship had been acting.

 

We were on the 5/27 sailing. The VOOM service was non existent. I have an issue with RCI false advertising high speed internet, you pay money expecting this and get nothing of the kind. Guest Services was terrible- really rude.

[awestover89]

We were on the 5/27 sailing. The VOOM service was non existent. I have an issue with RCI false advertising high speed internet, you pay money expecting this and get nothing of the kind. Guest Services was terrible- really rude.

 

Yeah, I'm really curious about the internet issues. Aside from Skagway we had no problems with the internet at all, and we alternated between 4 different phones, a tablet, and a laptop. We had the 1 device surf + stream. There was one other person on our roll call who said they had no problems, everybody else had issues.

 

Now, I never did the speed test, and I've never had internet on a cruise before so I can't compare, but it was faster and more reliable than I was expecting.

[tahqa]

FWIW Voom uses LEO (Low Earth Orbit) satellites that orbit around the equator and the Alaska runs are in their limited service area. So it's still VOOM but it's just too far away from the satellites and at too oblique of an angle to get decent speeds and latency.

 

The coverage area is shown here... http://www.o3bnetworks.com/service-coverage/

 

Granted... they probably shouldn't be pushing the VOOM in areas where they know it's limited. :(

[gwt119]

Yeah, I'm really curious about the internet issues. Aside from Skagway we had no problems with the internet at all, and we alternated between 4 different phones, a tablet, and a laptop. We had the 1 device surf + stream. There was one other person on our roll call who said they had no problems, everybody else had issues.

 

Now, I never did the speed test, and I've never had internet on a cruise before so I can't compare, but it was faster and more reliable than I was expecting.

 

My husband is in computer security and he said part of the problem is that there aren't enough routers and the placement of them on the ship is poor. Too many people and not enough capacity.There was only one router near our aft cabin and it was to cover the aft and most of the hallway. You would lose the connection, try to re-connect, get a message you couldn't get back on, then have to log in all over again. It is really deceptive advertising to market it as high speed internet. I get we're in Alaska and at sea, but high speed it is not.

[kinosh]

Good and interesting to hear your thoughts on the cruise. We just got back from the same cruise.

 

Sorry they couldn't get the cake correct -- that is a lot of stress over something that should have gone off without any trouble.

 

I agree Voom was horrible. And the sad thing was each day, Guest Services had a different answer for why it wasn't working that day. What really confuses me is that some people said they had perfect connectivity. Wonder what's happening that some people had trouble regularly, and some people had none. Does it prioritize certain devices?

 

I agree that the staff was really good. Our stateroom attendant was spectacular and our waiter and assistant were phenomenal.

 

Our whole hallway had toilet issues (filling with yellow water, not really flushing) two days.

 

My one last thing that just went wrong was an offhand comment the shopping lady Kimberly made, saying I was too poor to get the last charm (on the last sea day) for those cheap Diamonds International charm bracelets. She sort of let her mask down when telling me she hated people trying to scam the system by not spending enough to get the charms ... fortunately, I can buy online the one she wouldn't give me. Her comments were just so at odds with the way the rest of the people who worked on the ship had been acting.

 

Would it be rude to throw champagne at Kimberly's face while she's hawking those fake diamonds to us?

[Thetrail]

A Handwritten Letter to:

 

Mr. Michael Bayley

President and CEO

Royal Caribbean International

1050 Caribbean Way

Miami, FL 33132-2096

 

is the best want to communicate the issues you want addressed.

 

Next would be a Typewritten Letter.

 

Last would be an email...

 

Dennis

Mr. Bayley will never read that handwritten letter, that would be my LAST choice, not my first....K.O.

[MisterBill99]

Mr. Bayley will never read that handwritten letter, that would be my LAST choice, not my first....K.O.

Yes, it must be a generational thing (especially given the reference to typewritten). He's not likely to personally read an email either, but at least it's easier to forward around internally.

Edited July 26, 2016 by MisterBill99

[MisterBill99]

My husband is in computer security and he said part of the problem is that there aren't enough routers and the placement of them on the ship is poor. Too many people and not enough capacity.

I don't want to question your husband's technical knowledge but the Voom system works well on many (dare I say most) Royal ships, so either the router placement on the ship you were on was unique or something else was going on.

 

I would not disagree with the claim that prior wifi implementations had issues. But Voom worked great for me on Oasis and Anthem.