fragilek

Re-read post #6.

No I mean that when they do the booking in their name (the only name given at the pricing stage other is just passenger 2) - there is no discount even with their C and A number

When I do it with my name and passenger 2 no C and A number - I get the same price as they get but when I add my C and A I get $400 off the total for 2 passengers.

I understand that with both passengers listed and both C AND A numbers given that we will only get one discount off - but it only happens if I am lead and put in my C and A number

The problem is its my MIL that want to book and she appears to get no discount even although she sailed the same cruise as me and has the same points - PS I have no other discount boxes ticked (as none apply)

There are still C&A discounts available to gold members on certain cruises, just not the balcony discount.

but why only me and not my DH or my MIL as we all have the same points.

If you've only sailed once before, they have crossed your number with another person. They've been known to do that before.

NOOOOOO! That links to all the problems we had on our cruise - My cabin was linked to someone else result- cruise from hell!!!!

What do I do my number was just assigned a few days ago and it only a few digits diff to my husbands which was assigned a hr or so later

You aren't getting a discount based on your C&A but there could be other reasons. Senior, place of residence, type of cabin. Did you book directly with RCl. It should tell you on your booking form.

My Dh and I live together and are the same age have only ever sailed on RCI once last year both in the same cabin lol so why do I get this good discount when I add my Crown and Anchor number into previous passenger booking forms and not him. - any ideas.

My mil is thinking of rebooking she has sailed with RCI once as have my husband and I (for those that remember our problems, once was probably enough ;)).

She is thinking of rebooking and with her crown and anchor number she gets no discount the same with my husband but I get quite a good discount. We all sailed the same cruise at the same time of year- mil week before us- Why do I get the discount/ should I get a discount at gold level (7 days sailed) if so should they also get it. I get it on RCI website and on others both UK and US sites

Confused!!:confused:

Update- the contact I had got back to me after a wait of 3 weeks. However, in his defense - he said he had been very busy :D- if he has to mop up the mistakes I am not surprised he is busy - probably manic- Any way he did refund the OBC we didn't get that day to my bank account and said he would contact the ship for clarification of what was going on on board- It must have been pretty evident that there were major problem here, as within a week we got a letter of apology and credit vouchers towards a future cruise - However, I don't think we plan to use use them- but their apology was nice anyway.

If you went on the Carnival cruise where it drifted for several days without working toilets your opinion might be different. Out RCI shows were first rate. Due to safety concerns my wife will not even consider Carnival.

I'm sure it would- however, I am not sure that my comparison was anti Royal - they were better at some things (pools, decor, live bands, Atrium entertainment and Isumi was amazing) but worse at others ( theater entertainment and MDR and in our case service - but I tried to avoid that in my comparison) That's our judgement versus our only other 2 cruises which where on carnival ships, so I am hardly loyal to any brand with only 3 cruises lol.

I have tried very hard not to let the issues cloud our judgement , both in this brief review and also while on the cruise (except for the one day when I had had enough). With the last few years of health problems as a family we are usually very level headed and know what is really important in life. Thus we still managed to enjoy most of the cruise, but may be you are correct perhaps as nothing went wrong in the previous carnival ones, there may be a slight case of rose tinted glasses- but honestly I was really trying to give a balanced review for those unsure how they compare.

Also as someone else mentioned some of the differences may be due med versus Caribbean although our last Caribbean cruise Valour from Puerto Rico had in fact less sea days (1) and was much more port intensive (longer port days than this med cruise which had 2 sea days and 2 full day port and 2 half day in port).

If it wasn't for the other issues we had we would not hesitate to have booked another Royal cruise based on our experience on this one - but after our customer service issues that will now not be the case.

Ok I am not by any means an experienced cruiser we have only cruised 3 times 2 with carnival and this recent cruise with rccl

Now some may have read about our problem on the recent cruise but they were customer service issues and do not reflect the whole cruise so to try and do a fair comparison I will not include that area here.

All three cruises have been on comparable sized ships - Carnival Valour & Legend and Royal Rhapsody. We do not fancy the large ships.

Boarding - not sure why this is a big issue and discussed so much but Carnival did seem more organised but this may be a US embarkation thing versus EU rome

Initial impressions- we loved them all - but I did think that Royal seemed a little classier.

Pool - defiantly Royal was best here they are bigger and the adult one was very nice, but would have been better if the roof went back earlier than 10.30 ish - It was like a greenhouse in there.

Sun bed availability - No doubt Carnival wins here - Our 1st sea day we did not expect there to be a issue we went to breakfast and then the pool at 9.45 - no beds all day - bearing in mind I have Lupus and MS so walk with sticks and my youngest daughter was on crutches - we had to sit on towels on the ground - getting back up was interesting for both of us.

Some people had smallish kids on beds (when they where even about) near us but did not offer for them to share one- I could not have done that and my kids would have had their bums pulled out of a seat if elderly or disabled people were standing (no I take that back I would just have given them the look and they would have got their own bums out!). -but this is not Royals fault

Cabins- Carnival without any doubt our royal sea view room would have fitted into my last carnival one more than twice - Carnival Valour sea view had 2 large picture windows bed facing one and a table and chairs at the other to sit/ eat and look out. But for the color scheme and age of furniture royal has it.

Room Service breakfast - Carnival best

Room service Menu - Royal best looked- I didn't use it on either cruiseline but my eldest said the steak sandwich was great.

Dining MTD- We had MYD- Carnival has this working like a dream - even on NYE - Royal should send a scouting party to see how carnival do this and you don't even book a time slot with carnival.

Dinng food- Carnival hands down better quality food with more adventurous choices -ie the have you ever range. We even fond the MDR breakfast in Royal not very good - we only went once and went the buffet for the other day - and we don't like buffets lol. On carnival we tried to go to the MDR for breakfast as much as our schedule allowed - this was especially relevant for me for gluten free option - almost none in MDR- but I could get pancakes and french toast and bacon in buffet not MDR.

Service in MDR- Again Carnival way way better

Entertainment

Pool stuff - we hate all the game show stuff so didn't watch on either.

Dancing poolside - Our girls love this and enjoyed both carnival and Royal - but found a lot less of this on Royal - only 2 sailaways had any stuff going on (probably a blessing in disguise as youngest cant resist dancing but due to a dancing injury the week before was on crutches).

Music Pool side - Royal here for us more live bands - less DJ stuff and a nice quiter adult pool.

Theater- Carnival here without doubt- live band for shows (girls play in wind bands so we like this)- More shows on carnival 2 a night where as Royal quite often had only 1 on. Brought in act on Royal was awful - he was doing balloon animals as part of it - HONEST

The atrium stuff was fun - a bit like haven/siblu/ butlins standard but good fun for teens all the same. - so Royal wins here

Night life- can't comment but after 12 the ship on Royal was dead - no issue for me and DH but girls thought the nightclub would have been better- but not able to compare with carnival as they were too young to go when we where on it. But what I did notice was there was very little poolside stuff at night time- shame really as was nice and warm out there- On carnival there were poolside dances on at about 9/10pm at night. This may be a med versus Caribbean thing and not royal versus carnival.

Over all customer services issues aside we enjoyed the cruise on Royal but for us Carnival provided better food and entertainment (except their awful DJ poolside).

If anyone is going on a Royal cruise soon - make sure and take all docs with you so you can prove what you have booked re dining OBC ect. Also I would advise to book mtd dining at the same time as the earlier sitting as any later and you may not be able to go to the show if they are only doing one (twice our only show was at 8ish). Check your balance regularly as they seem to like to add things lol. If you like Sushi then treat yourself to Izumi - it was fab the highlight of our cruise.

I thought from previous threads you had booked a guaranty and then tried to change to a different cabin after you got your cabin assignment but weren't allowed to due to UK booking rules? I know you had posted about going back and forth with the cruise line trying to get an accessible cabin but then you ended up changing your booking to two cabins but chose not to go accessible.

Yip that was sort of how it all started. The inital mistake was ours we didn't realise the rules in the uk were different to those in the US.

So we then debated on here what was best to do by the time we made our mind up to upgrade no disabled ones where left so we chose the large PV one instead - we then got bumped from that one (email sent ) to the same type but one but right next to lifts so not happy we upgraded again to the 2 cabins (we were a bit reluctant to do this as eldest is diabetic and heat can cause her problems with blood sugars through the night- as it was the 2 cabins worked out well and we decided it was just me being a paranoid mother and I was over worrying lol). It was that change caused the chaos that resulted in hrs of call to the call center (we also request shower seat to help - guess what it never arrived.)

As well as the things I previously mentioned - they changed our names - used my eldest middle name instead of her first and missed letters out of mine- tried to say we must have filled them in wrong so I had to send then a copy of our original invoice showing the names were correct at that point to avoid a fee to change.

But as well as the issue I mentioned earlier in this thread another big mistake was that they didn't transfer the deposit over so after final payment I got an email say the holiday may be canceled due to non payment of balance- I had already contacted customer services by email due to the other issues and they had already agreed compensation by this point so I at least had a contact to help me at that stage. He was very helpful and he could see on his screen all the mistakes that had been made- the reason he gave was that the computer systems were new and that all the Guatemala call center was just being trained up but he agreed that in this case the booking was a fiasco (he had no idea why Guatemala could not see the same info on their screen as he could and he planned to look into that ie invoice prices names OBC ect)

Yesterday I phoned and left a voice mail with this contact in the UK re all the onboard stuff and the fact I did not get the compensation promised so hopefully they will return my call soon. I will then post an update. I am not looking for anything other than the compensation I was promised as we will not be cruising with Royal again. We have cruised twice before with carnival with no issues at all and if we choose to cruise again we will stay with that parent company and if just my husband and myself we may try princess out.

We had a diner here and thought the food and service was fantastic. I had the hot plate of seafood and some sushi specially made to meet my diet needs. The rest of my family ordered off the menu and they all claimed it to be one of the best sushi meals they had had ever. (and they like their sushi) Service was also top notch.

Thought I would give praise where it was due to give balance my other comments about issues we had

I up graded and only had to pay the difference for the days left

Were you denied entry into MTD because the time you were there conflicted with the specialty dining reservation?

 

Or if you make a specialty dining reservation are you not allowed to attend MTD at all that day? I could see attending MTD for an appetizer, a desert, or anything else you might want.

 

We upgraded from an inside to an OV once. Caused absolute havoc with our MTD reservations as they did not follow the reservation.

 

Luggage tags also printed with the old cabin number.

I have no idea if it was because of the times being the same or if it was for the whole night as I didn't ask, we were tired as we had been traveling since Friday night with an o/n stop and a havoc run round Rome (well as much as a teen on crutches and a mum using a stick could run lol). So we just left thinking it would be a one off mistake. We had just faced much bigger issues (due to health problems) than missing a meal so we went with the flow.

I have to say that I had the same concerns, however, I did not see many over do it at all. I saw no one at all actually drunk - but we do not stay up much past the late show so maybe some do later on . Now over doing the food - that's a different story!

Just wondering...how long before your sailing did you book? I don't understand how something like this could happen.

We were booked in a different cabin but we were moved from it (all part of the before traveling issues we had) We then got a cabin I didn't want so up graded to 2 different cabins this last move was done in on the 6 April.

Summary of before cruise issues

1.bumped from cabin- no reason ever given

2. bad new cabin so we upgraded and split into 2 cabins got - new invoice - went to pay balance 1month later and they wanted a £200 more per cabin than on invoice - 2 hrs of call to sort- had to email someone high up (thanks for the email address I found on here who sorted it.

3. then they lost my OBC $900 that I had bought while booked in the 1st cabin and tried to say I hadn't any!! I had to get bank statements and email copies to get my OBC back

All this took hrs of calls to the UK Guatemala call center at great expense to sort out this was to be covered by the OBC compensation of $150 of which I only got $50 (that doesn't even cover the call costs)

What ship is this? I think I missed seeing which ship you were on.

 

Wow, sorry for all your hassles on a cruise for relaxation.:rolleyes: Geez.......you had every reason to be miffed.

It was Rhapsody of the Seas 12 july sailing.

What made everything worse was the week before the cruise my younger daughter injured her knee and was in hospital for 5 days (things had snowballed as while in e&a they had detected a potential heart issue so she was put into the cardiac ward as a result thankfully all heart tests came back fine but she will still need to be monitored annually from now on), we didn't get the go ahead to travel until Thursday and we were flying to Rome on the Friday night so we had had a manic time getting packed to go.

And I was already really stressed out with the potential heart issues - this probably added to me not being able to handle all the on ship problems. By the time Adriana got involved I was almost standing in tears at the customer service desk.

As I posted on here I had horrendous problems pre cruise with my booking and as a result I was to get OBC of $150 - guess what - not given - instead it was $50 - not a big deal, I was all set to just forget about it- at least I was on my cruise and could forget about all the booking issues and mistakes - but then:-

Day 1 went to my time dining to be told we were not allowed in!! as we had a diner reservation elsewhere- we did not - I have never even logged into that part of the site - no biggy - went to buffet- not what I planned but hey were are still on the cruise so we just go with the flow!

On return to cabin we had invioce for not turning up at chops - our booking showed that we had times in MTD every night - off to customer services - bill removed after having to argue (for 30 mins)and prove that my booking stuff shows mtd every night- with pre booked times

Day 2- Arrived at MTD - guess what we should not be there I argued and showed him my stuff which showed mtd reservations- we were fitted in at the back table ( had to go at a different time so we now missed the show) - no intro from any wait staff and I had to have steak as I had not been able to pre order the day before (diet needs) - but it was a nice steak so no worries and I was able to order meal for the next day.

Back to cabin and an invoice for not turning up at chefs table- back to customer services - they were not buying that I hadn't booked said we would need to pay - I said no way and asked for a print out of our invoice - guess what I had also been billed for spa - that day - I again said I have not been in the spa and in fact I do not even know where it is!! - The girl ROLLED HER EYES - YES ROLLED HER EYES AT ME!! -My husband had to go and get the spa girl (who was lovely and very apologetic) to prove she had not seen me ever!! oh and I have Lupus and i am on meds which mean I cannot have any spa treatments - The girls says we have to come back to sort it out in the morning as she cannot remove items form invoices.

Day 3 customer services (for 40 mins). It will be passed up-line and they are now looking into the situation and will get back to us later

Turn up at MTD - yip you get the picture - shouldn't be there - they say they can fit us in at the back again -we refuse to take the back table again and request proper wait staff - they obliged and what a difference - except one problem the make shift staff the day before had given me the wrong menu to order todays food from - so my food could not be made so it was a plain steak again.

We go back to our cabin early and I am very tied as santorini had taken a lot out of me. I just got to sleep when our phone goes - why are we not at chefs table! WHAT YOU ARE JOKING!!!- now awake within the 2hr window (I always sleep ofF my chemo meds - I start to be sick)- I had had enough-Back to customer services again

- This time I got a fantastic girl - Adriana- who sorted it all out - apparently someone else had been assigned our room before us and they had booked all these meals and spas ect - If it were not for her I was almost about to give up and leave the cruise at the next port.

Now my OBC has not been sorted out - but she tried. I am now awaiting a call back from the customer relations to try and get it back -

I also sent my daughters dress to dry cleaning that came back with a note saying they didn't want to clean it due to potential problems with material - good they didn't just go ahead - bad I was still charged - back to customer services to alter invoice again - by now I was looking for Jeremy Beddle! (uk folk will get the picture)

I have decided after all the issues over the 2 months leading up to the cruise and the issues on the cruise - It takes too much effort to cruise luckily we had a relaxing week on land in a lovely tuscan villa to enjoy after the cruise.

Rhapsody also had a fire last week-

don't know if it has been mentioned on here already but there was also a fire on the Rhapsody of the seas on the 12 July sailing (can't recall what night it was) but the bravo call went out some time after midnight, then cabins on deck 8 where evacuated to to allow them to be vented. The captain came on after the fire was out (about 40 mins after the call) stating that all was well now and the fire had been due to a industrial dishwasher. Not sure how long into the night the deck 8 passengers had to stay out of the cabins.

would this usually be assigned to someone in the guest booklet or on the sail pass or on line. As in the list of stuff ie booked dinning times is the only place this is mentioned.

Did the cruise you booked include a free drink package? I read that some European cruises have that as a perk. I have found that what is on my docs is usually what I get.

No there are 4 of us in 2 cabins but only 1 select drinks pack in the guest booklet in one of the cabins

Ok I have just finally got access to my guest booklets and one of them it says 1 all inclusive select package, however, I did not buy this but I was meant to get $150 compensation but have only been given $50. So my question is this do you always get what is printed on this doc or is it usually as flawed as the rest of RCI booking system.

Question 2 - I bought £500 worth of dollars as OBC and there is no mention of it here only the $50 - is this normal?

Thanks for all the help I have obtained on here- much more than RCI has given me

Frustrated 1st timer!!

thanks for that, do all ships even the small ones like Rhapsody offer dry cleaning

Hi I know most ships do drying cleaning - just checking that Rhapsody of the seas does it too. Ans that it has an over night service - any one have any idea of cost for an evening dress- daughter grad ball is 2 days before we leave so no time do get done ahead of cruise

I have never experienced as bad customer service as I have received through RCI uk call center.

We split our party from 1 cabin to 2 and chaos prevailed. It took me hours to try and sort out issues they created (phone bill over £25) - including spelling names wrong 3 times and then trying to say I had filled them in wrong and they wanted to charge me to change them - luckily I had my invoices to prove I didn't and that they were originally correct.

They then tried to change my costs and accused me of lying - they point blank refused to either allow me to email back the original invoice they had sent or pass me up line to speak with a manager. At the same time they 'lost' my OBC again tried to say I didn't have any - I had bought $600 worth at that point.

I gave up and contacted someone from RCI in the uk through email (can't recall the email address but search under my user name and in thread about my issues someone gave me it). They called me back withing 30mins of me sending the email and all issues where sorted straight away - he could even see all the mistakes that the call center had made on his screen. - I was also given compensation.

However, even when checking in on line I found they had changed my name back wrong and had to call again - the web site then said no luggage tags as sailing with 10 days and we are not sailing with in 10 days.

Their web is awful and all the customer service issues have taken their toll (hrs and hrs of calls) and I will not book through the UK again - If I cannot find a US TA I will cruise another line.

Hi this is our first RCI cruise I have just checked in on line and I have 2 questions.

1. It says no luggage tags as sailing is under 10 days away - but our sailing is in fact 2 weeks away. How much of a problem will having no tags be?

2. Says Cruise Documentation not issued - will be emailed - what is this documentation - we have checked in online and have printed the passes. When should we expect to get it? Do we need it?

Thanks again for any help