Symphony of the Seas - Update from onboard

[John&LaLa]

2 minutes ago, Jimbo said:

Just moving much to fast, just trying to recoup some of the lost money much to fast under the current conditions. You would have thought since they had so much time to think this over they would have had a better plan on the restart.

 

Makes you wonder doesn't if Richard Fain wasn't agreeable about how fast things were going and if this was the reason he is leaving because he didn't agree what was going on.

 

Makes you wonder?

 

No wonder here. I seriously doubt it has anything to do with this. Seriously 

[gmerick]

Wondering how the crew is doing.  Were all the crew quarantining on Anthem deck 6 and 7 aft earning wages?  Were they getting their share of tips?  What about what they would normally be getting directly from passengers?

 

Also feeling bad about those transferred to Vision and Rhapsody?  Do they get wages and tips?

 

 

[scorpluvsdolphins]

30 minutes ago, gmerick said:

Wondering how the crew is doing.  Were all the crew quarantining on Anthem deck 6 and 7 aft earning wages?  Were they getting their share of tips?  What about what they would normally be getting directly from passengers?

 

Also feeling bad about those transferred to Vision and Rhapsody?  Do they get wages and tips?

 

 

I think crew are guaranteed a minimum per month. 
I’m concerned for their physical and emotional health. 

[LeeW]

We've been emailing one of the Symphony waiters since our August cruises.  He sounds pretty depressed now.  These folks can only get off the ship at Coco Cay (maybe 1/3 of crew if not otherwise working).  In August he was very glad to be back working and earning money for his family.  No tips from customers now.  Before customers came back on the ship he was getting fixed gratuities from Royal but haven't wanted to discuss what happens now with him in email.

 

At least Symphony shutdown is only for a few weeks...maybe.

[CPT Trips]

On 1/7/2022 at 6:31 PM, John&LaLa said:

 

Plague ship is just a disparaging cheap shot.

Maybe not. The plague was what led Venice to implement, and name, quarantine.  
Just sayin’

[crashedfsu]

On 1/7/2022 at 5:34 PM, Ourusualbeach said:

The only other option that would get is a 125% FCC but I'm not sure how many takers their are for more FCC these days.

 

The other 2 options that they can take now are a full cash refund of move it to another sailing.

Royal cancelled my Symphony sailing on Jan 22. We used FCC's to book the cruise. Royal isn't offering another 125%, they're saying I can either have a cash refund or the original FCC back. I'm a diamond platinum and its an absolute slap in the face. They cancelled not because of guest health but because of "staffing"  but to not offer another discount, and just leave people high and dry when its too late to book another vacation is abhorrent. They won't even let me move the sailing to another ship that week, they're saying I have to use "new money" Am I missing something? Am I stupid for being loyal to a company that treats people like this?

[Biker19]

9 hours ago, crashedfsu said:

Am I stupid for being loyal to a company that treats people like this?

Asking the same thing in several threads won't help.

[PatMunits]

@crashedfsu I'm out of the same cruise and in the boat with regards to my loyalty to RCCL. I wrote my TA that I'm completely open to the idea of getting back whatever funds that have been devalued by time and inflation, and switching over to any other cruise company that my TA prefers over Royal Caribbean.

[ticketsunlimited]

5 minutes ago, PatMunits said:

@crashedfsu I'm out of the same cruise and in the boat with regards to my loyalty to RCCL. I wrote my TA that I'm completely open to the idea of getting back whatever funds that have been devalued by time and inflation, and switching over to any other cruise company that my TA prefers over Royal Caribbean.

I hope you do well on your new adventures.  Good luck.

[twinmom22197]

On 1/7/2022 at 6:14 PM, Teknodude said:

Just chiming in again.

 
From a crew perspective, many of crew were hating the current situation - such as the horrible Xmas cruise experience etc. 

 

Not being able to provide the experience guests expect was totally wrecking morale on board for crew and a lot were calling on RCI to call a time out. 
 

Crew were going down with covid, venues shutting, crew themselves living under draconian rules leading to crew morale plummeting, and the existing situation just couldn’t continue. 
 

I’m sure there are hundreds of disappointed customers out there, but RCI literally tried to run too quickly before they could walk, and have found out the hard way that right now it just wasn’t working with packed ships, and lack of crew.  
 

I’m in no way a RCI apologist - just totally support my partner who is suffering from the way these cruises have been run recently, and I think a time out was necessary so the company can regroup and get their ***** and protocols together and run (no pun intended) a tighter ship. 
 

Just my thoughts from someone indirectly affected by having a partner working on board Symphony. 

Have you heard anything from your partner if they expect this pause to go past 1/22?  We were on 1/22 and are looking to book 2/5 Symphony or if we should move to oasis 1/30 since its still sailing (for now).

 

Not sure if we should take the chance and stick with Symphony.  

We've been down this rabbit hole more times than I can count since March 2020. Lol

[Morecruisesplz]

On 1/7/2022 at 7:08 AM, bajathree said:

 

And I rest my case

No