Amazing Royal Carribean! Thank you for EVERYTHING!

[zuggie]

We were also on Liberty's "extended" cruise and very much agree that Royal went far and beyond what they had to do for us.

 

Also want to mention that while in Miami, Royal raided their warehouses and loaded on many pallets of relief supplies to be offloaded in Galveston. Also donated $200,000. to the relief effort. Class act, in my book. All this makes us proud to be "Loyal to Royal."

[grandgeezer]

We got awarded for our days on the ship. Two days before disembarking they gave us letters with platinum stickers for our cards.

 

I had full confidence that Royal Caribbean would not disembark us in Galveston. They have regulations to abide by and the army corp would not have cleared them to let us off in a disaster zone even if they wanted to. The fact remains that they didn't and on our last night offered for any of us to stay on the ship for more days or another week. They did not have to do any of this...the hurricane was not their fault and feeding and boarding people for extra days does cost them $. They lost a lot of money also. I applaud them!

 

They also boarded supplies in Miami for hurricane victims. They gave out care packages to passengers whose homes were damaged. This is just wonderful! Lets look at the positives!

 

For those that were left stranded in Galveston...I'm so very sorry. I fully believe that if they could have they would have helped you guys as well. They did the best with what they could control.

 

What they could have done is cancel the cruise earlier so people wouldn't have went down there in the first place. The whole world, except for RCL knew that cruise was doomed but they still waited until the last minute. They hung their hat on a "window of opportunity" that didn't exist that never showed up. Carnival didn't, though they had much more to lose having three ships involved, and if you followed their post, they weren't vilified anyway near as bad as RCL was.

What about the cruisers extra expense and lost vacation time? If you're going to respond with lack of insurance, or common sense about traveling in those conditions you might as well add a dig against people who knowingly live in those danger zones, you know eventually it's going to happen.

[Wanna Be Retired]

We got our Emerald sticker but we qualified within our first seven days. The second keg did nothing to get us to Emerald. When I check my profile on Royal's website I was given points for the first 7 days only. The other days may come a few days later, I do not know.

 

Local newspapers in East Texas, where I am from, say that the Port of Galveston and the Galveston City Authorities were the ones that told Royal no because they could not handle over 4,000 extra people and deal with them trying to safely get out.

 

I don't know what happened. I don't know what they were doing or trying to do. I do know that we had our luggage packed and set outside until Drew Devine, the Cruise Director, instructed us to take it out of the hallways and back in our rooms.

 

I am not disputing that they did not treat us well, but according to the information I was being given by friends and people who knew, there appeared to be (I cannot swear this to be true) a perception by others we were going to get off that ship if they could do it. I also heard about people who came to Galveston and were stuck in hotels. I did get a text from a Galveston friend who owns an AirBnB rental that offered it to us for free since she heard we were getting off the ship. In an age of technology, news travels really fast and people pass along information, be it good or bad, fact or fiction. When I called my boss to let her know I might not be home that next day, she already knew everything and was wondering why they were letting us off. Maybe they never were but a lot of people were certainly hearing something different.

 

I do not think they were trying to put us in harms way, but I also do not have a clue what information they had, either. I don't think anyone expected the damage to be as extensive as it was.

 

I do know for a fact that they were running short of certain food items and at the least may have been hoping to dock in Galveston to at a minimum see if they could get food delivered.

 

We will never know what exactly happened. We got through it just fine. We have great stories to tell and Royal spent a lot of money on us. We were safe and dry. I was not, however, the person trying to get on the ship and not knowing I would get refunded. I spent $16,000 to take this cruise because I paid for all my family to go. If Harvey came a week earlier and I was in danger of losing all that money I may be trying to get on myself. I did have trip insurance and would have probably gotten my money back, but I do not have a clue if my brain would be thinking rational or not. I am sure I would be laser focused on losing $16,000 and could have followed the advice of Royal and tried to head to Galveston.

 

We did get refunded for my husbands doctor bill for getting a few extra days of medication, a mistake we made for not taking enough medication, but I did send them a message that I would think they could waive $88 in a crisis. There were so many people in that office trying to get medication that they could not see everyone during the normal office hours. They had to shut the door and tell people to come back the next day. On the next to last day they refunded the $88.

 

I will plan my next cruise differently. A lot of our problems were of our own doing. I learned a lot from my mistakes. I think Royal Caribbean had a learning curve as well. I will stay loyal to Royal. I just think they fumbled at first, but guess what. So did I.

[ginger123snaps]

What they could have done is cancel the cruise earlier so people wouldn't have went down there in the first place. The whole world, except for RCL knew that cruise was doomed but they still waited until the last minute. They hung their hat on a "window of opportunity" that didn't exist that never showed up. Carnival didn't, though they had much more to lose having three ships involved, and if you followed their post, they weren't vilified anyway near as bad as RCL was.

What about the cruisers extra expense and lost vacation time? If you're going to respond with lack of insurance, or common sense about traveling in those conditions you might as well add a dig against people who knowingly live in those danger zones, you know eventually it's going to happen.

 

I get the frustration.....but they were trying to use this "window of opportunity" to get to you as well as take care of those onboard as well. It was mother nature at play here and no one could have predicted what would happen. There were extra expenses for those onboard as well. Some got off in Miami and flew home. We also lost vacation time with work. People were scrambling for medications in miami...they had a shuttle to CVS and waited to depart to make sure people got their meds.

 

Yes i do think you have to take some responsibility as well...common sense and travel insurance. That's what we did. We booked flights from Miami and decided at the last minute to take a gamble and just stay onboard the ship to Galveston. We made this decision based on the latest updates...but it was still a gamble. Our bags were out in the terminal in Miami and they brought our bags back on for us because we changed our minds at the last minute. All of this was a big gamble for everyone. Its very unfortunate that you were stranded in this mess along with everyone else.

 

Decisions were made with the best of intentions. Only mother nature is to blame here.

[time4u2go]

I get the frustration.....but they were trying to use this "window of opportunity" to get to you as well as take care of those onboard as well. It was mother nature at play here and no one could have predicted what would happen. There were extra expenses for those onboard as well. Some got off in Miami and flew home. We also lost vacation time with work. People were scrambling for medications in miami...they had a shuttle to CVS and waited to depart to make sure people got their meds.

 

Yes i do think you have to take some responsibility as well...common sense and travel insurance. That's what we did. We booked flights from Miami and decided at the last minute to take a gamble and just stay onboard the ship to Galveston. We made this decision based on the latest updates...but it was still a gamble. Our bags were out in the terminal in Miami and they brought our bags back on for us because we changed our minds at the last minute. All of this was a big gamble for everyone. Its very unfortunate that you were stranded in this mess along with everyone else.

 

Decisions were made with the best of intentions. Only mother nature is to blame here.

If you read the other threads about this, I think many would disagree.

[caribill]

An article in today's Galveston newspaper

http://www.galvnews.com/news/free/article_74cdc2a2-e178-55f9-928f-86ff8836e572.html#utm_source=galvnews.com&utm_campaign=%2Fnewsletters%2Fheadlines%2Fsaturday%2F%3Frefreshed%26-dc%3D1504348376&utm_medium=email&utm_content=headline

[Arizona Cruz Chic]

We've been sitting at home watching everything unfold in Houston, the ports and yes the Liberty. WOW...you guys were really taken care of....unlike all the reports of you "being stranded at sea" I was once stranded at sea with Hurricane Frances back in '04...what a way to be stranded!!!!!

 

For everyone leaving today or tomorrow, safe travels home!!

 

***

[Ocean Boy]

I get the frustration.....but they were trying to use this "window of opportunity" to get to you as well as take care of those onboard as well. It was mother nature at play here and no one could have predicted what would happen. There were extra expenses for those onboard as well. Some got off in Miami and flew home. We also lost vacation time with work. People were scrambling for medications in miami...they had a shuttle to CVS and waited to depart to make sure people got their meds.

 

Yes i do think you have to take some responsibility as well...common sense and travel insurance. That's what we did. We booked flights from Miami and decided at the last minute to take a gamble and just stay onboard the ship to Galveston. We made this decision based on the latest updates...but it was still a gamble. Our bags were out in the terminal in Miami and they brought our bags back on for us because we changed our minds at the last minute. All of this was a big gamble for everyone. Its very unfortunate that you were stranded in this mess along with everyone else.

 

Decisions were made with the best of intentions. Only mother nature is to blame here.

Plenty of people predicted what was going to happen.

[lbjen]

I get the frustration.....but they were trying to use this "window of opportunity" to get to you as well as take care of those onboard as well. It was mother nature at play here and no one could have predicted what would happen. There were extra expenses for those onboard as well. Some got off in Miami and flew home. We also lost vacation time with work. People were scrambling for medications in miami...they had a shuttle to CVS and waited to depart to make sure people got their meds.

 

Yes i do think you have to take some responsibility as well...common sense and travel insurance. That's what we did. We booked flights from Miami and decided at the last minute to take a gamble and just stay onboard the ship to Galveston. We made this decision based on the latest updates...but it was still a gamble. Our bags were out in the terminal in Miami and they brought our bags back on for us because we changed our minds at the last minute. All of this was a big gamble for everyone. Its very unfortunate that you were stranded in this mess along with everyone else.

 

Decisions were made with the best of intentions. Only mother nature is to blame here.

 

People were calling and begging to get a refund on their payment, or even to get transferred to another cruise elsewhere, days before the hurricane even made landfall. Your insurance doesn't pay unless the cruise is canceled. And most people just don't get insurance, especially if they're driving.

 

Royal were being made aware of the weather situation, by several people who were posting on their FB and twitter pages, James van Fleet even told one passenger that her father who works at the NOAA was wrong about the rain possibilities!

 

They were even made aware of the fact that the city of Houston were asking people to get on to their rooftops rather than hiding in attics while they were waiting to be rescued, 6.5 hours before they canceled the cruise. During those 6.5 hours they were still telling people that they had to be on the cruise or lose their money. The only acceptable proof to get the cancelation was a letter from your airline saying they had exhausted all possibilities, or documented proof that all of the roads on your route were impassable, and it could not be a screenshot of the city of Houston telling people to stay off the roads.

 

The extremes that they asked people to go to in this situation were unacceptable, and RC should be doing a lot more to make it right.

[Trainman-2]

RCI can't make everyone happy all of the time!

[rukkian]

RCI can't make everyone happy all of the time!

And some will never be happy with them.

 

While they could have handled it better, they were trying to get it done, but made the right call at the wrong time. Hopefully they learn from it, but no to storms are the same.

 

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[HallOfPromise]

The part I don't get is in the travel/entertainment industry, safety is supposed to always be number 1. Always. But rather than erring on the side of safety, it seemed RCI chose to side on trying not to make their inbound customers angry and/or on the side of revenue. Looks like they were hoping there would be a window of opportunity to dock, even though forecasts were looking dim at best. What they did, instead, was put their inbound customers in a very sticky situation, and added them into the already big problem in the area.

 

Not cool, in my opinion. It shows they have poor judgement. It's nice to know they treated everyone on Liberty so nicely, but they treated their inbound customers very poorly.

[nealstuber]

The part I don't get is in the travel/entertainment industry, safety is supposed to always be number 1. Always. But rather than erring on the side of safety, it seemed RCI chose to side on trying not to make their inbound customers angry and/or on the side of revenue. Looks like they were hoping there would be a window of opportunity to dock, even though forecasts were looking dim at best. What they did, instead, was put their inbound customers in a very sticky situation, and added them into the already big problem in the area.

 

Not cool, in my opinion. It shows they have poor judgement. It's nice to know they treated everyone on Liberty so nicely, but they treated their inbound customers very poorly.

 

 

 

Some of the same people who said RCCL should not have tried to dock on time last Sunday, were saying they should not try to dock this Sunday, that the port would never be open and it would be too taxing on the area to have these people come back to their cars and new cruisers go out. That this week's cruise should be canceled.

 

With the benefit of hindsight, looks like those people were wrong and RCCL was right about this weekend.

 

 

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[lbjen]

Not really. Some people felt it might be difficult for them to operate, and for people to reach the port, significantly earlier in the week when so much was unknown. We're talking about 1-2 days INTO the event, even the morning that they started rescuing people from rooftops by helicopter, RC were still telling people they needed to be here. It's a world of difference and you know it.

[karena1]

so glad to see something positive. Thanks for sharing.

[HallOfPromise]

Some of the same people who said RCCL should not have tried to dock on time last Sunday, were saying they should not try to dock this Sunday, that the port would never be open and it would be too taxing on the area to have these people come back to their cars and new cruisers go out. That this week's cruise should be canceled.

 

With the benefit of hindsight, looks like those people were wrong and RCCL was right about this weekend.

 

 

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I'm not concerned about who was right or wrong, especially here on the boards. To me, that's a bit childish. My concern is about the decision making and judgement made by Royal when it comes to safety and the well being of their customers... or us, in other words.

 

I'm concerned myself regarding Irma. It's still too early to know exactly where or when she'll hit, if at all, but Florida is a realistic target and I'm worried RCI may hold off on making a call until the last second again, similar to what they did with Harvey. I'll be watching Irma myself and may have to make my own decision before our flight.

[toxicfairy]

I am very happy that the people on the ship were treated very good and I thank God for their safety.

I am not trying to be Debby downer but I do wish they would do something for those of us who did not get to board on that Sunday and were left stranded. The 25% FCC would be wonderful if the prices for summer of 2018 weren't so high that even with the full refund and FCC it still does not cover the price of the same cruise :(

Gives a whole new twist to " My ship didn't come in" !!

I know people will yell "they don't have to give you a thing they can't control the weather" and while I know that is true they can however control the prices of the cruises and all I am asking is to re-book with the same price I paid no more no less.

[Artemis908]

So does RC cover the cost of air if the cruise is cancelled? Or if you get down there and then they say go back home? Or are you kind of screwed...

[Clarea]

So does RC cover the cost of air if the cruise is cancelled? Or if you get down there and then they say go back home? Or are you kind of screwed...

Only if you purchased air from RC. Buy insurance if you don't want to get screwed.

[lbjen]

That's what the 25% FCC was supposed to cover. RC seems to think anyone who sails from Galveston lives in Houston and drives to the port. One cruiser flew in from Sydney, Australia!

[nealstuber]

Not really. Some people felt it might be difficult for them to operate, and for people to reach the port, significantly earlier in the week when so much was unknown. We're talking about 1-2 days INTO the event, even the morning that they started rescuing people from rooftops by helicopter, RC were still telling people they needed to be here. It's a world of difference and you know it.

 

 

 

The key word in your quote is "felt". This weekend was way better than anybody thought and last weekend was worse than anybody thought. I do not believe anyone was rescued by helicopter from GALVESTON. Those who were supposed to fly in day before could not and those who were supposed to drive did not and nobody ended up paying for a cruise they could not take.

 

Areas closer to Houston got hit much harder and earlier than anybody THOUGHT and that's where the helicopters were. Some folks made the seemingly smart decision to stay off the island instead staying closer to Houston and it backfired because the storm was just weird. How big of a land radius is RCCL supposed to be responsible for? For how far in advance? This whole things looks bad for RCCL because Breeze Customers had more notice than LOTs Pax. But Carnival had to offer the option to cancel for Breeze because they thought Valor and Freedom were going to be a day late and there would be no place for Breeze to dock - and once a departure day is postponed the option cancel is always given. Freedom and Valor Pax had the same notice as LOTs Pax with respect to sail date. And on all 4 cruises I have yet to see a post from anyone who flew in for a cruise that did not happen.

 

Could RCCL have made it less stressful by offering the option to cancel? Maybe, if you were predisposed to cancel with limited information. But if you were predisposed not to cancel, having the option to do so based on your guess would be equally stressful, we faced that with Ivan 10-12 years ago: POC was closed to Mariner and everyone else and we were offered to option to figure out how to get to Miami or cancel. DW wanted to cancel, but I did not. We went, all was wonderful. But we're fixed time dining people, on cruises we trust others with more information to make the decisions for us.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Edited September 4, 2017 by nealstuber

[nealstuber]

That's what the 25% FCC was supposed to cover. RC seems to think anyone who sails from Galveston lives in Houston and drives to the port. One cruiser flew in from Sydney, Australia!

 

 

 

And they must have left long before either CCL or RCCL offered the option to cancel.

 

 

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[lbjen]

I give up. Michael Bayley himself could come to your door himself and tell you he was wrong and you'd say he wasn't. You're not interested in listening to reason so there's no point.

[nealstuber]

I give up. Michael Bayley himself could come to your door himself and tell you he was wrong and you'd say he wasn't. You're not interested in listening to reason so there's no point.

 

 

 

Don't give up so easily! [emoji6] If there is a reason why it is so important for RCCL to do something different than what Carnival did with Valor or Freedom, I'd like to understand it.

 

If YOU are interested in listening, hear that many want to take their vacation as planned and understand that RCCL was making every effort to make that possible - safely - and given how things turned out for all three groups in a truly unprecedented weather situation they did just fine.

 

You seem to be conflating the stress that was certainly endured by many, with safety. Absolutely, they have an obligation to keep those arriving, on board, and departing safe: and they did.

 

 

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[nealstuber]

Don't give up so easily! [emoji6] If there is a reason why it is so important for RCCL to do something different than what Carnival did with Valor or Freedom, I'd like to understand it.

 

If YOU are interested in listening, hear that many want to take their vacation as planned and understand that RCCL was making every effort to make that possible - safely - and given how things turned out for all three groups in a truly unprecedented weather situation they did just fine.

 

You seem to be conflating the stress that was certainly endured by many, with safety. Absolutely, they have an obligation to keep those arriving, on board, and departing safe: and they did. Of course it was stressful, for all three groups, but that's not the same thing, and that does come with the unpredictably of the weather.

 

 

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Sorry for hitting quote instead of edit ... too easy to make that error on an IPhone.

 

 

 

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