Got through (finally) to the Crown and Anchor phone desk

[island lady]

1 hour ago, lovesthebeach2 said:

THATS EXACTLY WHAT I KEEP SAYING TO MY DH! 
sorry for all the caps, but I’ve been saying this for months, once all the “loyal” guests cruised right after they resumed sailing and helped them get back on their feet, Fain left and brought in the new guy who wants us gone, I know they’re in the business to make money, but if things go south on his new agenda, many of us that cruise WAY more then for “weekends” once a year, as they’re advertising all the time on TV, we’ll have moved on.

 

We already have.  😉  Still have a few RCI cruises to take yet that are booked, but the bulk of our cruise dollars are now going to Viking. 

[Another_Critic]

Called 800-526-9723 on March 13 around 8 PM.  Was on hold for approx. 6 minutes.  Call was then answered by a real person.  Changed my D+ amenity, then inquired about missing points on a past cruise.  26 minutes total, including initial hold time and research of missing points.

 

YMMV.

[orville99]

20 minutes ago, Another_Critic said:

Called 800-526-9723 on March 13 around 8 PM.  Was on hold for approx. 6 minutes.  Call was then answered by a real person.  Changed my D+ amenity, then inquired about missing points on a past cruise.  26 minutes total, including initial hold time and research of missing points.

 

YMMV.

Not surprised, because the system wasn't broken in March.😇

[orville99]

41 minutes ago, island lady said:

 

We already have.  😉  Still have a few RCI cruises to take yet that are booked, but the bulk of our cruise dollars are now going to Viking. 

We have two 2025 cruises booked on X (7 night out of PC and an 11 night out of FLL), and are in the process of booking a 30 night RT for September 2025 out of NYC on the QM2 to the British Isles and back. Once we burn through the 19 currently booked RCL cruises, it is Katie bar the door from then on.😇

[lovesthebeach2]

1 hour ago, island lady said:

 

We already have.  😉  Still have a few RCI cruises to take yet that are booked, but the bulk of our cruise dollars are now going to Viking. 

We still have some a royal cruises, at least one we will most likely cancel on Icon, 

but we’ve booked on Celebrity and Silversea now…..I guess it’s still in the same circle of RCCL, but hope it’s different and if not we’ll move on too and try Viking Ocean cruises

[lovesthebeach2]

1 hour ago, island lady said:

 

I would love to cruise that line...it's on our wish list.  Fell in love with the looks of the Silverseas ship we saw while in Brazil on the WC.   Beautiful!  

I’ll let you know! It looks beautiful and is brand new, so we’re VERY excited! We’ll be on for a 14 nighter to Alaska!

[island lady]

51 minutes ago, lovesthebeach2 said:

We still have some a royal cruises, at least one we will most likely cancel on Icon, 

but we’ve booked on Celebrity and Silversea now…..I guess it’s still in the same circle of RCCL, but hope it’s different and if not we’ll move on too and try Viking Ocean cruises

 

It was indeed a real breath of fresh air when we did Viking last year for a 3 week.  Wow...back to what cruising used to be.   So happy to have 5 booked for the next couple of years....long cruises...not the short ones.  😉 

[island lady]

50 minutes ago, lovesthebeach2 said:

I’ll let you know! It looks beautiful and is brand new, so we’re VERY excited! We’ll be on for a 14 nighter to Alaska!

 Perfect!  Enjoy!  🙂 

[bouhunter]

Since being Prime at the casino a few years ago we pretty much book and organize everything through them.  Their phone reps are amazing and always pick up quick.  Of course it's also nice that most of the cruises are now "free" 🙂

 

That said, we've never had any issues with the normal RCCL phone line and staff, once they pick up.....

 

 

[pcur]

2 hours ago, bouhunter said:

That said, we've never had any issues with the normal RCCL phone line and staff, once they pick up.....

 

 

 

The whole reason I started this thread is the access to speaking to Crown and Anchor, or just about any live person, at RCCL was "blockaded" by an automated phone tree: the recorded prompts to supposedly get you to a live agent.  This happened sometime in early April while I was on a cruise for 15 days.  It's also been all over various Facebook groups.

 

No one seemed to be able to get through.  One person here on CC said to ask for technical help, and then ask to be transferred.  I tried a few days ago with a "Crown and Anchor" reply, and said it was about my Crown and Anchor membership number (just to keep the auto prompts moving through to the next prompt).  That got me transferred to the C&A Agent.

 

So, as mentioned before, if you haven't tried to call since the first week of this month, you would not have experienced the extreme frustration of no one to talk to.  Hopefully, now we can reach them.

 

Oh, and they DO know they have a problem.

 

I used to work for Southwestern Bell's Voicemail software development subsidiary here in CA.  It's all pre-recorded prompts, BUT you have to program the "tree" of further actions properly, and test it thoroughly.  This was obviously NOT done by RCCL when they turned their phone system over to automation.  So, we as customers, have had to developed our own "work-arounds" and share them.

Edited May 12 by pcur

[hellsop]

On 5/11/2024 at 2:15 PM, fenton04 said:

Geez I called the super secret loyalty number yesterday to choose an amenity since we just graduated to diamond plus.  I was on hold 20 minutes to only get connected to someone who could not help me. The agent said will transfer you to the loyalty department.  I said WHOA I would like that number.  It was the same number I dialed!  What in the world?

This can happen with a queue overflow in some systems. That is, after a while of being on hold for a specialist, the VRS (Voice Response System) just passes you to any open representative, kind of just to see if your question is of a nature that doesn't really need the specialist. Good ones will recognize you being transferred back to the specialist queue from inside, though and flag that you're to wait for the specialist this time instead of going back to open general reps. 

[fenton04]

12 minutes ago, hellsop said:

This can happen with a queue overflow in some systems. That is, after a while of being on hold for a specialist, the VRS (Voice Response System) just passes you to any open representative, kind of just to see if your question is of a nature that doesn't really need the specialist. Good ones will recognize you being transferred back to the specialist queue from inside, though and flag that you're to wait for the specialist this time instead of going back to open general reps. 

Got it thanks.

[TYMAN]

Called yesterday to update my two amenities. Did the "book new cruise option" then was forwarded to C&A live person. Took all of two beers, and I'm a quick drinker. Ha! Now I'm waiting for RCCL to update my C&A level from D+ to "Crown" Lol!!!! (Joking, but who knows) 😉