Royal Caribbean Called Me

[OceanCruise]

My family had taken 6 Celebrity cruises (mostly suites or balconies) and we were booked on our very first Royal Caribbean cruise this summer. After we had booked there were many changes in policies/charges and also ports as you are all well aware. After calling customer service serveral times and getting inconsistent responses and misinformation, I wrote to Mr. Williams regarding my loyalty to Celebrity and expressing my disappointment and dissatisfaction with customer service and also the new charges on RC. I also requested correct answers to several questions. Several weeks after that I received a very nice call from a person at the corporate RCI office in response to my letter. He specifically told me that NO JUICE was free at breakfast without a card.Yes, that is what I was told. He also told me he had no information about the Cape Liberty parking/charges as it was not available yet. However, I informed HIM that the information was already available as I had, by this time, seen links to the port on the Cruise Critic board. We discussed the Johnny Rockets charges on my upcoming Voyager cruise and I was told only C&A members would get a free coupon.(so I guess charges definately will soon be fleet wide). I suggested RCI should give a free coupon to everyone who booked when it was free and he said he would note this. He did tell me that there were absolutely no plans to charge for mini-golf or rock climbing. I asked if there will be charges for entertainment and he told me they wouldn't do that as people expect that as part of a cruise. He was surprised when I informed him that other cruise lines had already tried this. He could not offer further info on the Labadee situation or tell me possible options if this stop was cancelled- just that the stop was not yet rescheduled for my cruise and that Labadee was still on the itinerary. I did express my disatisfaction with so many policies changing after we had booked. He gave me his personal extension and told me to call if I had further questions. My family ultimately decided to cancel our cruise as a direct result of all the policy changes and we did not want to risk having a 5th sea day on our itinerary if Labadee was cancelled. We were also concerned about the staff cutbacks and possible reduction in service.We are now considering a HAL cruise instead or a land vacation. Our travel agent is also appalled at all the changes and will now promote other cruiselines. I did later call the person at RCI back to inform him of my cruice cancellation. He agreed that if more people "talk with their pocketbooks" then maybe things will change. I do very much appreciate RC taking the time to personally call me.

[staylor]

We were on Serenade in Feb. and there was no charge for juice at breakfast.

 

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Ecstasy 1996, Fantasy 1997,1998,1999, Imagination 2000, Sovereign 2001, Fantasy 2002, Monarch 2003, Serenade 2004

[brn2crz]

A friend from church returned Sun from the Rhapsody,no juice charge at breakfast.

 

Cathy

NCL-Starward 1982

NCL-Seaward 1986

NCL-Norway 1992

Carnival-Celebration 1996

Carnival-Jubilee 2001

RCI-Rhapsody 1999

RCI-Rhapsody- 2003

Grand Princess or Rhapsody ?

2004

 

 

[OceanCruise]

It seems as if even the CORPORATE customer service reps still don't have the correct information regarding new policies. That is very disturbing to me.

[Catnip]

I am just off Brilliance (yesterday). No charge for juice in Windjammer or dining room.

 

"To live on the land...we must learn from the sea" (Calypso)

 

(26 prior cruises. Nobody cares, so why list them all?)

 

 

[Mark_K]

Fortunately, in addition to No Juice being free, so are Orange, Grapefruit, Tomato, etc. Wonder what No Juice tastes like. Probably a lot like Light Beer.

 

----------------------------------------------------------

 

"Nothing so needs reforming as other people's habits" Mark Twain

 

"Nothing so needs reforming as other people's formal night attire, poolside attire, child rearing practices, walk-talkie usage, chair hogging, seat saving, line cutting ..." Mark_K

[GaryWT]

I read these boards and look around alot and other than the charge at JR I am not sure of any other policy changes. I guess they started charging for soda in the dinning room but that was 2 years ago from what I read and they now include juice on the soda card. Please let me know if there are other changes that I have missed. The change at JR has been explained well and I do not have a problem with it. Sorry you cancelled your cruise but I am just wondering whjat I have missed.

 

Thanks

 

3/98 Grandeur of the Seas

4/00 Grandeur of the Seas

2/02 Enchantment of the Seas

04/16/05 Navigator of the Seas

[CruiserCanyon]

Royal Caribbean just might need money for their new ultra-voyager class ships, mabey they ran low on money or something.

[OceanCruise]

To Gary WT- To name some of the changes:Since we booked they changed the port of embarkation which is less convenient for us, they raised the price of the specialty restaurants, are now charging for cakes, have significantly raised drink prices, have changed the soda card program and fee, have changed the alcohol policy, increased the corkage fee,are charging for Johnny Rockets plus you still have to pay for soda there even if you have a beverage card. RCI is also not discussing options for the Labadee ports for end of the summer. They also have reduced service staff.

[Mark_K]

GaryWT,

 

You haven't missed anything, that's about it. That and much sturm und drang on the boards.

 

----------------------------------------------------------

 

"Nothing so needs reforming as other people's habits" Mark Twain

 

"Nothing so needs reforming as other people's formal night attire, poolside attire, child rearing practices, walk-talkie usage, chair hogging, seat saving, line cutting ..." Mark_K

[Hoopster3145]

On my 4 previous rccl cruises, no charge for juice!

 

1/01 NCL Majesty

1/02 NCL Majesty

1/03 RCCL Brilliance of the Seas

3/03 Carnival Jubilee

8/03 RCCL Navigator Of the Seas

1/04 RCCL Adventure of the Seas

3/04 RCCL Radiance of the Seas

 

 

8/15/04 Rhapsody of the Seas

 

14 DAY LEGEND OF THE SEAS PANAMA CANAL CRUISE (12/26/04)

 

3/13/05 SPRING BREAK on the Explorer of the Seas

 

[want2seaitall]

Unbelievable...I can't believe the inconsistencies with information that is given out about RCCL. I'm going to have to believe the folks who have recently returned from their cruises. I'm assuming that juice is available at breakfast at no charge at the Windjammer and dining room...but the purpose of adding it to the drink card...is so that people are able to get juice from the bars around the ship during the day. That would make more sense.

 

until my Majesty of the Seas cruise!

 

 

Carnival Inspiration - June 2003

 

RCCL Monarch of the Seas - July 2002

[royalcaribbeanfan]

To OceanCruise. We were on Voyager of the Seas in 2002. At that time they were charging for full cakes, the corkage fee was the same then as now, the price of the specialty restaurant is not different it just includes the tip now as most people thought it did before, the alcohol policy is the same just more strongly worded, and Labadee was destroyed. I'm not sure what you expect of the cruise line but go ahead and go on HAL. Have fun. Things change it's part of life. I don't always like the changes that are made. To me Johnny Rockets wasn't that great to begin with so if we decide not to go because of the charge, it won't be a great loss. And forgive me, but I have a hard time believing that not only do you have to purchase a soda card but you are charged a fee on top of that. I will check on that with RCI on Monday.

 

Happy Cruising

 

Patty

[Catnip]

Talk about inconsistancies.......I just got off Brilliance yesterday. I went to the Purser's Desk 2 different days in a row and talked with all 5 people at the desk about the procedure for getting my handicapped mother off the ship with some wheelchair assistance. I was told 5 different things to do, none of which helped yesterday morning!

You would think they woukld have a "SOP" for something like that and the "rules" about the juice/soda availability.

Go figure!

 

"To live on the land...we must learn from the sea" (Calypso)

 

(26 prior cruises. Nobody cares, so why list them all?)

 

 

[Host CMLA]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by OceanCruise:

I did later call the person at RCI back to inform him of my cruice cancellation. He agreed that if more people "talk with their pocketbooks" then maybe things will change.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>Why would an RCI person say something like this? It may be true but as an employee of the cruise line, he's talking himself out of a job by suggesting this to you.

 

Good luck with your new cruise choice!

 

Cecilia

 

I can be contacted at *****@aol.com

 

My Wedding!

 

[royalcaribbeanfan]

I agree with you Cecilia; something is fishy about this whole post. I'm glad it isn't only me who thinks so!

 

Happy Cruising

 

Patty

[Nancyquilts]

Catnip - Sorry you had trouble getting your mother off the ship. They must have this situation often and should have an easy way to do it. Hope the rest of your trip home went better. Nancy

[rudolph]

Actually, I would not want to visit Labadee again. When we were there... 4 years ago.... it was just as bad as Jamaica, and I value my life more than a visit to Haiti. I would opt for a sea day any day. Thank RCCL for taking our life into their hands!

[Catnip]

Here we go again with some RCCL fans not believing the original poster just because he had some negative comments about RCCL. Not every cruise is perfect and even the venerable RCCL can get some things wrong. I think the OP was just pointing out his own personal experience on RCCL. Nothing wrong with that.

 

"To live on the land...we must learn from the sea" (Calypso)

 

(26 prior cruises. Nobody cares, so why list them all?)

 

 

[abridalmaven]

Ok, so going to a riot torn island is a good thing? Any person who would be upset because of not stopping there is very niave and actually the word I was thinking of is much stronger than that.

And as for the OJ thing, so my friend who just got back from his cruise and said the OJ was free in the morning is a liar? Catnip how is that being a loyalist, those statements made by the OP seem just pain dumb. Ohhh I get it only the people who say negative things are to be believed? Again , no one forces people to stay with a line they hate, nor do they have to read any of the false nice things any of us say.

 

My vacation pics

http://community.webshots.com/user/abridalmaven

Norwegian Dawn May 23

[Guest OBAYbee]

Um...... didn't someone ask her what exactly had changed? I believe she answered the person who posted the question to HER honestly.

No reason to strike her down on here. My goodness.

 

 

 

[dougp26364]

I agree there have been a lot of changes over the last several months. Labadee was out of their control so I can't hold that against them. I don't want to go where they don't feel safe.

 

Johnny Rockets was inevitable if it is true that one had trouble getting a seat, it was over run with teenagers that were, well, just being teenagers. It's a shame just the same but it seems as if they were darned if they did something and darned if they didn't.

 

I'll wait unitl our cruise to pass judgement on the juice situation. From all the posts I've read, it appears that, despite what was said on the phone, it's still free at breakfast.

 

As for charging for the cakes.....PRAISE BE TO RCI! I'm hoping that it will cut down on all the celebrations that are only a few months off the date.

 

They've raised drink prices? I didn't know this. Of course, I'm not considering the cost of the drink as a reason to choose one line over the other. Could be because I only have maybe one or two drinks per day. Of more importance to me is the itenary and the cost of the cruise.

Charging for soda, the soda card and the poor quality of fountain drinks does distrube me. We paid for the soda card on our first cruise because I tend to drink a fair amount of it. Unfortunately, I found the quality so poor that I went to drinking canned beverages, water, tea or coffee. It is one area that concerns me and, if quality on RCI falls, it's one reason I could leave. This alone isn't enough to cause me to look at another cruise line though.

 

The one thing that reall does bother me is that, according to the posts I've read, the right hand of RCI doesn't seem to know what the left hand is doing. With any business, you need to have a majority of your employee's on the same page. This is causing me to look at other cruise lines and their prices. I gets me to reading about the other lines, their problems and their advantages. If customer service onboard RCI ships begins to slip, I'll start booking on other lines.

 

Customer service is number one on my list. On our last two cruises RCI customer service was exemplery. Now once off the ship CS is whole different matter. I can't get brouchers and I can't get my C&A magazine. These things frustrate me and make me feel as if RCI really doesn't care all that much about me as a customer. They can say they do, but I want them to show me they do by getting me the things they promise.

 

Future cruises

Monarch OTS - Mexico Baja 1/05

Explorer OTS - Eastern Caribbean 11/04

 

Past cruises

Vision OTS - Alaska 7/03

Legend OTS - Alaska 7/02

[IKE]

Just returned from March 28th Mariner and no charge for Orange Juice in morning at Winjammer or formal restaurant. Received a voucher for a free visit to Johnny Rockets as a Platinum member and to tell you the truth didn't think much of it. Food wasn't the greatest in my opinion. It never interested me to try it on other 4 Voyager Ships so since there was such a big discussion thought I would give it a try, naturally for free. I must say Hubby and myself were disappointed with it.....

[FOXTROT]

Was on the Mariner on the 3-21 sailing. The orange juice or any other juice was free. The guy bringing it around was singing & in great spirits. The cost of pina coladas was the same this cruise as was the last one as was the last one as was the last one. The price did not go up. Johhny Rockets to us was worth the extra charge. We could get seats anytime. The service was great. A cut back in service staff? Where? The bad food. PLEASE!!! The food was great. The service was very good. I would love to eat at these peoples home to see what they expect. If the food is so terrible why hasn't anyone starved to death. We left for breakfast, when we returned the room was made up. We left for dinner, when we returned the room was made up. Give me a break, what more do you want? I even heard the Mariner was a rocky ship. For 5 days you did not even know you where at sea. The wind & waves picked up a little. Hello, you are on a cruise enjoy the rocking.

 

Sorry for venting. It just makes me mad people beleive some of these stupid posts. They have not even tried RCI & they are knocking it. Ok, wife' & I enjoy bad food, poor service, being nickled & dimed to death 4 times a year. We also enjoy Labadee & were disappointed not going there. I enjoy our lives together so maybe thank you RCI.

 

Sovereign 598

Sovereign 599

Sovereign 500

Voyager 1100

Explorer 501

Radiance 1101

Majesty 302

Adventure 402

Enchantment 1102

Monarch 103

Legend 403

Navigator 1103

Mariner 304

Sovereign 504

Serenade 1104

[jnwilson]

Just back from the Serenade 3-28. There was not a charge for juice at any of the areas of the ship we used. The down side of this is that the orange juice is no longer of the fresh squeezed type. I'm pretty sure it is some type of juice from concentrate that they mix up. It was usually served at room temperature and was not great. I have to count this as another change RCCL has made, that we felt disappointed about.