RCL Web Site Not The Best

[JamesEM]

I was trying to book a cruise and the site went down (great), not only are there cut backs on the ships, obliviously there are cut backs on the IT staff.

[MaritimeR&R]

The site went down because of the new sale - every 3rd day free (I believe its just for the Caribbean).

[bUU]

People also complain about the Holland America and Carnival websites, and about Cruise Critic too for that matter. Does anyone know whether Royal Caribbean still has their website in house? If figure that they're have it running at Amazon or Google by now.

 

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[nelblu]

It is the worst. Gone are the days when one could change decks and identify more available cabins than they show.

Recently, I did a mock booking for a CP balcony for Feb. '19 Symphony OTS cruise to get at pricing. Then called my TA and asked for a specific cabin/bed placement based on my previous experience with Oasis/Allure. My TA tells me it's not available. I asked my TA to check with RCL as I could not understand since it's almost 2 years in the future. Guess what, she came back and advised me that said cabin was available--boy, was she irked.

 

More recently, was planning an Easter '19 family cruise on Anthem. Went to their web site and indicated 3 cabins. It is so a difficult process--asked for 3 ocean view cabins and it would only allow me deck 7 for 2 ocean views and an inside cabin on deck 3. Tried multiple times, but finally

gave up.

 

I don't understand in today's environment the lack of flexibility in a booking process. I'd rather they brought back the old version.

[bUU]

I don't understand in today's environment the lack of flexibility in a booking process.

Knowledge is power. More details of availability and pricing are readily available through the public website the more competitors have access to those details as well. In addition, way they're doing it seems to give them the ability to direct the typical passenger to The Cabins that they'd like to sell next. Only folks such as those of us Persnickety Cruise Critic members would be looking at a deck plan and picking out a particular cabin and then going to see if that cabin is available, the folks so motivated are going to do the work and find the way to get what it is they want anyway.

 

Carnival went one step further. With their online booking engine it's actually hard to find the more expensive but more flexible pricing deals. If you don't root around for it you'll think the only way to purchase a cruise is with their early saver discount, when it's still available, which is only refundable via credit on account that you have to use for another Carnival Cruise within a year. It's just another level of control that translates somehow into better profitability.

 

 

 

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[nelblu]

It's stupid on their part, because it forces knowledgeable frustrated cruisers to go to a TA and incur a comms. or use their resources (CVP), therefore costing them even more.

 

Simply dumb, could you imagine Amazon having a search/booking engine like these cruise cos. are offering.

[bUU]

It's stupid on their part, because it forces knowledgeable frustrated cruisers to go to a TA and incur a comms. or use their resources (CVP), therefore costing them even more.

There's no way to know that without doing the research and gathering up the objective evidence. People are much weirder than one would expect. It isn't safe to assume that just because something makes sense that it would guide every American consumer's individual behavior - because that is absolutely not the case. Over the last 35 years an understanding of the consumer marketplace developed that rivals our understanding of arithmetic. The advances in how well "they" can monitor "us" and use that insight to predict our behaviors have been remarkable.

 

A good rule of thumb is that if a mass-market service provider or or retailer or manufacturer is doing something it's probably because they know something about us consumers, something perhaps that we don't know but surely something that they are exploiting to their advantage in terms of profitability.

 

A note about cruise lines and travel agents: This was discussed on one of the forums here on Cruise Critic I think 2 or 3 weeks ago. Someone was nice enough to post the details about why Cruise Lines especially would prefer to see more of their customers going to travel agents. It isn't the kind of competitive relationship as one might think. The Cruise Lines' Core Business is hospitality aboard ships, not sales transactions.

 

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[Pratique]

Recently, I did a mock booking for a CP balcony for Feb. '19 Symphony OTS cruise to get at pricing. Then called my TA and asked for a specific cabin/bed placement based on my previous experience with Oasis/Allure. My TA tells me it's not available. I asked my TA to check with RCL as I could not understand since it's almost 2 years in the future. Guess what, she came back and advised me that said cabin was available--boy, was she irked.

 

I have noticed when doing mock bookings that sometimes the selected cabin becomes unavailable for 15-20 minutes and then shows as available again. I assume that the system is putting a temporary hold on the cabin and releases it if the booking isn't completed within a certain amount of time, but I am not certain this is how it actually works. Just a recent observation.

[Clarea]

I have noticed when doing mock bookings that sometimes the selected cabin becomes unavailable for 15-20 minutes and then shows as available again. I assume that the system is putting a temporary hold on the cabin and releases it if the booking isn't completed within a certain amount of time, but I am not certain this is how it actually works. Just a recent observation.

This happens especially if you "X" out of the browser, rather than properly exiting the reservation.

[Beachammo]

It's stupid on their part, because it forces knowledgeable frustrated cruisers to go to a TA and incur a comms. or use their resources (CVP), therefore costing them even more.

 

Simply dumb, could you imagine Amazon having a search/booking engine like these cruise cos. are offering.

When I was booking with the Royal rep last week he told me less than 5% of the customers that call in know exactly what cabin they want. He said most just want the cheapest option for each cabin category and to be sandwiched between cabins from noise.

 

He said when they do bring up an area....it's that they want to be close to elevators.

 

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[John&LaLa]

There's no way to know that without doing the research and gathering up the objective evidence. People are much weirder than one would expect. It isn't safe to assume that just because something makes sense that it would guide every American consumer's individual behavior - because that is absolutely not the case. Over the last 35 years an understanding of the consumer marketplace developed that rivals our understanding of arithmetic. The advances in how well "they" can monitor "us" and use that insight to predict our behaviors have been remarkable.

 

A good rule of thumb is that if a mass-market service provider or or retailer or manufacturer is doing something it's probably because they know something about us consumers, something perhaps that we don't know but surely something that they are exploiting to their advantage in terms of profitability.

 

A note about cruise lines and travel agents: This was discussed on one of the forums here on Cruise Critic I think 2 or 3 weeks ago. Someone was nice enough to post the details about why Cruise Lines especially would prefer to see more of their customers going to travel agents. It isn't the kind of competitive relationship as one might think. The Cruise Lines' Core Business is hospitality aboard ships, not sales transactions.

 

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You seem to be quite knowledgeable on many things marketing related. Any idea on why Royal abandoned a thriving market on the West Coast?

 

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[ThirstyCruiser]

A good rule of thumb is that if a mass-market service provider or or retailer or manufacturer is doing something it's probably because they know something about us consumers, something perhaps that we don't know but surely something that they are exploiting to their advantage in terms of profitability.

 

A good rule of thumb perhaps. But at the same time lets not forget the wake of failed companies no longer in business because of mistakes they made. I am not saying RCL is at risk for going belly up. But companies are run by humans and humans make mistakes, or non optimal decisions.

 

 

When someone complains about how RCL is doing something or not doing something, or has a suggestion for a new idea, the response can't always be "They are a big company, they can do no wrong, they have thought of all possibilities and whatever you see now must be the best and for good reason."

 

I wonder if RCL's upper management has a realistic understanding of the performance and functionality of their website. I suspect not. They are likely shown demos of new features or designs of the site in tightly controlled environments - one specific browser is used, a specific version of that browser is used, on a specific device running a specific O/S, probably hitting a test URL hitting a web instance with no other traffic. Works great!!! Looks great!!!! Roll it out! In the real world - fail. #sad #FailingRCLwebsite

 

And if RCL doesn't want us booking direct, then turn it off, or dumb down the site so it only shows what they intend, but that works 99.99% of the time. I don't buy the argument their flaky website operates they way it does by design. Plain and simple their QA testing is inadequate.

[bUU]

When I was booking with the Royal rep last week he told me less than 5% of the customers that call in know exactly what cabin they want. He said most just want the cheapest option for each cabin category and to be sandwiched between cabins from noise.

Thanks for the info. It is not surprising.

 

You seem to be quite knowledgeable on many things marketing related. Any idea on why Royal abandoned a thriving market on the West Coast?

I can tell you how a world-class service provider would go about making such a decision. Of course, they're not going to share the results of their internal work publicly, so all we can do is guess what they learned by looking at what they did (abandoned the market). Clearly, they found other investments within their portfolio that were likely to pay greater dividends long-term.

 

 

 

A good rule of thumb perhaps. But at the same time lets not forget the wake of failed companies no longer in business because of mistakes they made. I am not saying RCL is at risk for going belly up. But companies are run by humans and humans make mistakes, or non optimal decisions.

Of course, so we're talking about things that we won't really know for sure for a few years, i.e., whether the company is successful or not. And, in reality, you'll never know whether a specific decision was correct or not, unless the cruise line itself says so. Otherwise, it'll be piled together with the impacts of all the other decisions.

 

So we have to play the odds: What's more likely? A very profitable, growing company making the right decision for themselves, or instead that a second-guessing by consumers focused on the consumers' own best interest rather than the company's, being a better decision for the company than the company made itself. Which do you think?

 

What consumers are best at is determining what they like better, themselves, individually. And at determining how they can best take advantage of what's offered to satisfy specific needs and desires. I wouldn't trust the cruise line (FAQs) in that regard, as opposed to what passengers say about such things.

 

 

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Edited April 1, 2017 by bUU

[ThirstyCruiser]

So we have to play the odds: What's more likely? A very profitable, growing company making the right decision for themselves, or instead that a second-guessing by consumers focused on the consumers' own best interest rather than the company's, being a better decision for the company than the company made itself. Which do you think?

Odds are 99% of what they do is spot on.

99% of their website I have no issue with. I actually quite like it. The booking part needs help.

 

 

They are not infallible, and no one is smarter than everyone.

 

 

They are very well run and my favorite cruise line, and I will continue to sail with them, despite their website's booking features, not because of their website's booking features. The 3 future cruises I have with them were not done thru their site. Funny, someone could say "See! Who needs their site to book." Someone else might inquire with me and come to learn I tried and failed to book using their site and had to use an alternative method. I didn't give up and booked using alternative means. Calling C&A direct; using a 3rd party online travel agent that specializes in cruises. I doubt their conversion rate is 100% for people that want to put their fist thru the screen when trying to use their site to book.

 

 

I once started a thread about the mini bars, asking why do they bother keeping them stocked. They can't be making money on those things when you factor in the overhead of inventorying them constantly, the power to run them, the constant calls they must get for billing disagreements, justified or not. Whoo boy did I get flamed on that one. How dare I question the all knowing RCL.

Several months later, mini bars are thankfully going the way of the dodo bird. I'm not stupid, I don't think lil' old me and my one post caused that decision to be made. I just bring it up as an example that sometimes the cruise line is not doing everything 100% correct, and maybe the average cruising schmuck has a better perspective on a particular topic than the shielded decision maker up in the ivory tower.

 

 

I work in corporate America. I know how bad news gets sanitized every step up the management chain. Who knows, maybe the QA testing grunts are identifying the stinker that their booking site is, but it goes from this site doesn't work all the time to the site has an occasional issue to the site once in a great while it has has an issue to you couldn't book but if you tried again you could to you can book if you try to you can book - works great! No one wants to give their boss bad news, so bad news gets marginalized up the chain.

Edited April 1, 2017 by ThirstyCruiser

[bUU]

I suspect though that at the same time you posted what you posted about mini bars a bunch of other people (perhaps some of those that flamed your comments) posted other things about mini bars like the cruise line should make things less expensive in the mini bars. You were right; those other people were wrong: What does that tell us?

 

But I think what gets lost sometimes in the discussions about the websites, and I mean on several Cruise Line forums this discussion goes on, is that the changes that are happening are happening for a very specific reason. And it's the same reason we have a new updated look for Cruise Critic. These are not mistakes. They are deliberate. And yes the end result is not necessarily that every user will have as good of an online experience as they used to. Compromises must be made, especially when you're talking about bringing a whole new class of device into consideration.

 

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[moopetguy]

Does anyone know whether Royal Caribbean still has their website in house? If figure that they're have it running at Amazon or Google by now.

 

For me, anyway, when I visit the .com site, the front end is on Akamai's content delivery network. When I visit the co.uk site, it's using Amazon Web Services. It's definitely not self-hosted by RCI. Most problems with the RCI web site(s) are due to crappy software, though. Not poor infrastructure.