meg5

booked through RCI

In my world, if I had a customer who had been inconvienced at least an hour on the phone trying to correct a mistake. In addition, I knew that the customer would have to make further calls to re order and pay for something that they had already completed months before, . All for a reason that I could not explain why it happened, I would be offering something to them. But I probably have a higher standard regarding customer inconvenience and their perception of the efficiency of the brand of my company.

Please do not interpret that I am looking for a lot. And I want to emphasize as I did in my earlier posting - I have no complaint with the staff - I just think that a token gesture would be nice. Maybe put me on the upsell/upgrade email, maybe tell me your going to send a bottle of champagne to my room, maybe comp me the exursion.

I think this speaks to how much a company values the time and inconvenience of its customers when the company makes an error.

We all do. All companies do. I think that is the feedback I am going to give to Royal Caribbean

Good thought. No, I have not cancelled anything related to this reservation.

Has this happened to anyone else? I received two emails from RCI today - one from cruise planners to inform my shore excursion had been cancelled because of the cruise cancellation. At first I thought the itinerary had changed. I looked further down in my my email box and twenty minutes earlier there was an email from Royal Caribbean that my reservation had been cancelled as I had missed the final payment deadline.

I knew that wasn't true. My final payment date is August 29 as stated on my invoice. In fact, I had left a message on Saturday with my RCI Vacation Planner to call me as I wanted to pay the balance on my cruise.

I immediately called the number on the email and was just put into general customer service. The person on the other end could not explain what had happened. They confirmed that the due date was two days away. They put me through to a supervisor who would be able to reinstate the booking which happened. However, they couldn't reinstate the shore excursion as it had been permanently cancelled and needed time to process the updated info.

I had to call back a couple of hours later and book the shore excursion. Apparently the refund had already been issued to my credit card for the first booked excursion.

Both of the individuals from RCI were courteous, helpful and apologetic for which I am grateful.

What would you do? Would you pursue further?

My concern about the beverage RCI beverage policies that penalize longer cruises is the 2 bottles of wine limit. I think to be fair and equitable the policy should be 2 bottles of wine for every 7 days of cruising. It doesnt make sense to me that you can bring two bottles for a 3 day cruise and a 20 plus day cruise has the same 2 bottle limit.

I like the way you think!.. Some people think smoking a carton of cigarettes is worth it. So it is what makes you happy. We always buy the bev pkg when we cruise, just makes the whole experience easier. and we have figured it out. If you buy 5 drinks a day, the pkg pays for itself and that does not include what it would cost for coffee, soda, water, etc. So for us, it is just part of the vacation. Now, I have never gone on a cruise where it would cost me $1800 for a pkg. Might have to think about that:D:D:D

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Thanks for doing this. We are on this same cruise in October of 2017. I am following with great interest. We have an inside cabin as well - first time for an inside cabin but decided to try a virtual balcony.

Happy Sailing

Thank you for sharing this with the group. When you have a moment could you please email me the specifics about your TA. My email is mac.gillet@sympatico.ca Thanks

Happy Cruising

From a cruiser still working so challenged to take too many cruises, any change in the achievement of the initial Diamond level would be reason for me to switch to another cruise line.

First , because you cannot be continually adjusting these or it is a totally disingenuous process.

Royal Caribbean will immediately lose a younger clientele who are trying to be loyal to get the free drink perk that comes with Diamond. The lounge itself is insignificant - though nice perk it is the complimentary drink universe which is the domain that they must compete.

I am in disbelief that Status is granted to spouses and children. If they want to make a transparent and fair process. This is my suggestions for an immediate and fair process:

Immediately change policy that all levels must be earned by cruiser. No spouse or children being granted status. Don't grandfather that change.

Don't change the current levels for entry. If they do - don't grandfather those. Make everyone subject to the new requirements.

If basic level to Diamond moves up I won't be cruising again with Royal. I have turned down just as good deals with Celebrity (with free drinks) just to continue with my loyalty program.

First and foremost, I loved this cruise. One of the most relaxing vacations ever. I would have given this a 5 star rating except for some of their front office customer service practices and policies( see below)

PROS

itinerary - spectacular - the smaller British Virgin Islands - loved, loved it

overall friendly casual atmosphere of ship and ship mates

overnight in ports - wonderful added to the relaxation of the vacation - no rush to get off the ship to see the island

embarkation/disembarkation - effortless, no line ups - this alone is enough to convince me not to return to big ship cruising even with our preferred status on the big cruise lines not nearly as good as on Windstar

the ship was beautiful, well appointed - lots of space , chairs available, never waited seating mind you there was only 220 passengers on a 300 capacity vessel.

cabins - one of the loveliest I have had - well appointed, ample storage, well designed. I thought I would really miss my balcony but not so much

Motion - you could feel it. You knew you were on a ship. I like the motion nothing that . The ship hardly made a noise.

service on the ship - very friendly, so many of the staff knew our names after the first day

very few upcharges - specialty restaurants, soft drinks, specialty coffees all free

sports deck - free use of sports equipment, sailboats, water platform off the back of the ship - awesome

captain- friendly, professional, engaging was present among the guests all week, was at the end of the gangplank to say goodbye at disembarkation. Best captain ever.

bridge open

Closeness to the water - bow of the ship dark at night - stars spectacular- again felt like you were on a ship and not a floating hotel

laundry package - was a good deal and very handy to have your clothes washed or pressed.

just a souvenir shop not a lot of shopping. Again feeling of being on a ship not in a shopping mall

Deck BBQ -wonderful food, festive atmosphere.

Island BBQ - great food, great beach….crew work really hard to make this happen slugging all this stuff off the ship and to the beach. It was great.

Yacht club sandwich and coffee bar was great for a quick snack or drink after returning from shore

Room steward was excellent

BOSE sound system in room and DVD , free use of ipods, and DVD library

still send paper based cruise tickets….. love it.

CONS

customer service front office - didn’t ever seem eager to get or keep my business . Refused to honour AARP discount “because the price was already low - yet price went down significantly again after my booking”

price drop policy - I am well aware of the cruise lines not dropping prices after final payment and I am fine with that. However Royal Caribbean has always honoured any price drop post final payment with upgrading me to a cabin that my fare would buy at that price point, sometimes they will give onboard credit. Royal Caribbean does a good job of recognizing my early booking. They understand that if I feel disadvantaged by booking early then I will either chose another cruise line that is interested in ensuring that that I am treated fairly no matter when I book….or.. I will always book late. Windstar clearly has no interest in building customer loyalty from the front office perspective. Totally different philosophy once you are on the ship. They want to do everything to be sure you are satisfied and have a great experience. Kind of a Jekkyl Hyde thing going on. Many of the people that we met on the ship had booked last minute.

pool - hot tubs not available at night. The outdoor evening restaurant which is a wonderful feature is situated around the pool and hot tubs. We always enjoy hot tub at sea under the stars. Just doesn’t make sense why they set up here.

dining room - food was good, not great, not as good as dining room on Royal Caribbean

wait staff dining room- very friendly, eager to please but not as good as Royal Caribbean - English seemed to be more of a barrier in the dining room than on larger cruise lines

drinks were expensive even for a cruise ship. Once we get on the ship we refuse to think about costs but in the end I think the drinks were over priced

yoga - impossible in a small gym with machines making noise around you.

CONCLUSION

Would I recommend. Yes in a heart beat.

Would I sail with Windstar again? absolutely but will book last minute

Windstar must understand that their competitors pricing practices are much more friendly to early booking than late. I really don't understand their rationale. I certainly would never book again with them too far in advance. Perhaps that is why they are having to slash their prices closer to sailing.

If they don't have a price drop guarantee, they should be upgrading their existing guests to the level of cabin that their fare would now buy. It is such a common practice across the industry, and a gesture to their guests that booking early is still the best strategy.

Thanks for the replies.

Money is not the issue for me at all - just trying to gauge Windstar's customer service on the front end. I was just trying to determine others experience as well. I write a seniors blog on retirement and travel and was curious as to whether this was the norm or I just caught this Windstar customer service rep on a bad day.

So far not that impressed with Windstar front end - didn't recognize AARP discount on my original booking because of the price point - yet the price is lower now.

Nevertheless , I am super excited about sailing Windstar. From everything that I have read the service on board is wonderful.

Snow squalls are in the forecast today up here in Canada - winter is here.

We are sailing Windstar for the first time this January and really looking forward to the cruise and the British Virgin Islands - love them . We are experience cruisers including many transatlantics with Royal C, Celebrity, Seabourne and it is my experience with all of our previous cruises - when the price drops after final payment, the cruise line doesn't reimburse but will upgrade you to the cabin that your payment would now buy. It is not something they advertise but a practice that is common. Yesterday, I noticed the prices had dropped on our January cruise. I called Windstar not to ask for a reimbursement but to upgrade me to what my payment would now buy and was declined.

Has anyone else had the same experience with Windstar?