Royal Caribbean International will offer compensation to 130 passengers of the Seren

[readytotravel44]

Who should have cautioned? RCCL? How? By calling all 2600 passengers? That's a bit much.

 

quote]

 

 

There are automated systems used to make phone calls. A person doesn't have literelly make the calls. These systems are used in schools, cities, etc.

 

I thought it was interesting that my mother-in-law was to fly to Hawaii from Philadelphia. The airlines called her the day before and told her they would fly her out THAT day if she wanted to go because flights would not be leaving the next day. She had to scramble to tie up loose ends (packing, housesitting, travel to Philadelphia...) but managed to make the flight they suggested. I was sooooo impressed with the airlines for making such a terrific effort for their guests.

 

Yes, she made it to Hawaii safely!

[bigeagle12]

The big issue for me ist that those 164 people (I heard announcement made circa 4:30 on Seranade of the Seas), should have been notified of a potential problem by email as early as Friday afternoon, August 19. By 5:00 pm on that date, it was clear that Irene, still a tropical storn, was bearing down on San Juan. I know because I received a weather report from my company about the oncoming storn and its potential effects on San Juan on Friday late afternoon.

 

There is no way that 2 days prior RCI could have ever predicted the possibility that they would leave early. Unless all those people lived under a rock and did not have access to cable, internet or newspapers they would have known about Irene and should have started making alternate travel plans if they were concerned.

[Arnold1]

Bigeagle12,

RCCL is a company whose business model requires it to have constant information about all 2600 people aboard that vessel prior to its sailing, so they have the information.

 

RCCL uses email to regularly convey information to the aforementioned passengers, such as when they want to remind you to pick up excursions or sign up for my time dining.

 

So, it CAN communicate directly to this group of 2600 IF IT OPTS TO DO SO.

 

Why they did not do so is the question.

 

You say that it is the passengers responsibility. Travel decisions are of course ultimately ones that the traveller is responsible for making.

 

In this case; however, RCCL did not warn anyone ahead of time. As I mentioned in my previous post, the red flags were up by Friday night as far as warning to me was concerned. This means RCCL could or should have had similar information. Had they posted what they knew passengers could have attempted to use their travel insurance or could have purchased the last chance insurance that was offered. So why not offer the news? RCCL was offering similar news about Emily on its website weeks earlier. So, why change.

 

In fact, I looked at RCCL website on Saturday evening and found no information about the cruise I was to take the next day. I thought it odd, especially in light of the fact that RCCL had provided information regarding the Emily tropical storm weeks earlier. Inconsistency is even worse than not doing anything at all. In this case, they seem to have approached how they handle these events in a real Jekyll and Hyde way. We need to have a predictable RCCL.

 

Ultimately, these passengers are probably out of luck as far as any legally cognizable claim out of RCCL; however, the public relations reprecussions are immense. CNN ran an article comparing the different responses between RCCL and Carnival in connection with Hurricane Irene related cruises. Carnival is paying expenses for its people according to this article. There are some pretty bright people at Carnival HQ. IMHO Macy's needs to follow Bamburger's model here as far as Irene storm response is concerned. It is the difference between good and bad publicity.

[time4u2go]

RCCL was still tracking the storm and trying to keep their fleet and their customers safe. The main thing is that nobody got injured - they kept everyone safe DURING the storm and in my books they did their job very well.

 

Really? How exactly did they keep those passengers that showed up for the cruise after it had left, safe?

[time4u2go]

Just my ever so humble opinion but is it really anyone's business if they are not one of the affected 130? I know I'm new to posting here but I've been reading awhile and never understood the mindset that they owe uninvolved people an explanation.

 

So do you not watch or read (or discuss) any news items unless you are directly affected?

[piscesgal223]

Royal Caribbean messed up.There is no denying that. I don't get what good Cruise Critic's keeping it going does.

 

For another thing, there have been mis-steps by other cruise lines that were just as bad-or worse- but Royal Caribbean mess up *once* and they're the bad guys? Oh-kaaay.

 

 

This doesn't change my plans to cruise with Royal Caribbean next year, though.

[DaytonCruiser]

Royal Caribbean messed up.There is no denying that. I don't get what good Cruise Critic's keeping it going does.

 

For another thing, there have been mis-steps by other cruise lines that were just as bad-or worse- but Royal Caribbean mess up *once* and they're the bad guys? Oh-kaaay.

 

 

This doesn't change my plans to cruise with Royal Caribbean next year, though.

 

Cruise Critic is just doing their job, why would they ignore this story? Royal had to know the exact compensation would be reported eventually on this board, so there was no reason to ignore CC request for information.

 

All the cruise lines have messed up(more than "once") and they have been called on it.

 

The issue really isnt if people will stop cruising a line, its more about how the various lines deal with their customers when issues arise. That should be something that is of interest to anyone that cruises.

[piscesgal223]

What annoys me(sorry) is how everyone goes on and on about "look at how Carnival stepped in". Carnival is not perfect. No cruise line is.

 

 

CC is belaboring the issue.Personally, I think they bullied RC into doing what they did.Not a popular opinion,I'm sure, but. *shrug*.

[Pushka]

What annoys me(sorry) is how everyone goes on and on about "look at how Carnival stepped in". Carnival is not perfect. No cruise line is.

 

CC is belaboring the issue.Personally, I think they bullied RC into doing what they did.Not a popular opinion,I'm sure, but. *shrug*.

 

I wouldnt have a clue what Carnival did, I do know what RCL didnt do.

 

I am grateful to CC for exposing this issue. Opened my eyes that on a corporate level, they dont really care about the customer but sit behind their "Terms and Conditions".

[piscesgal223]

Not saying they're not in the wrong..but RC have stepped up and said they are going to do something..now. Great.

 

But continuing to post articles about how terrible RC are because of what they did is(IMO) beating a dead horse.

[DaytonCruiser]

Not saying they're not in the wrong..but RC have stepped up and said they are going to do something..now. Great.

 

But continuing to post articles about how terrible RC are because of what they did is(IMO) beating a dead horse.

 

So you think they should have just posted that Royal stranded the passengers and not do any follow up? At what point was it overkill for you?

[piscesgal223]

After the announcement from RC, Cruise Critic should have dropped it. CC's coverage of the situation comes off like schaudenfreude,IMO.

[piscesgal223]

It's old hat to be sure-and the fact that CC seem to take so much pleasure in reporting it is-for lack of any other phrase-disturbing.

[Arnold1]

Nobody is beating a dead horse when the information continues to be misunderstood. The horse aint dead yet!

 

RCCL new deal for those who missed it:

 

According to an article in yesterday's USA Travel section, those passengers who made it to Aruba will get 30 percent off on a future cruies - but no hotel or aircraft reinbursement for the time and expense of getting to Aruba from San Juan. This is still much less than half a load and not as good as what Carnival provided. Carnival paid for hotel and airfare of all guests who missed departure. See this link to the USA Today Article, which is where I obtained my information:

http://travel.usatoday.com/cruises/post/2011/09/royal-caribbean-hurricane-irene-stranded-passengers-puerto-rico/545577/1

 

You need to understand the power of the blog. Nobody is trying to make RCCL look bad. I'm not. I had a great time on my cruise. I just want to make sure the next time that I cruise with them and a similar situation pops up they handle it like Carnival because it is the right thing to do. The people left behind could be me next time. In fact, I listened to one of the women complain to me about feeling let down after they came aboard. The tainting of the others from such stories spreads like a virus. Who wants that?

 

Had they made any announcement that they could be leaving earlier than expected it could have allowed people to opt to use their travel insurance with flights coming in close to the launch time. We don't know how many people would have chosen that option and the resultant effect on the amount of lost revenue on the ship. So, RCCL can't have its cake and eat it, too. No announcement means take care of your guests that were stranded in my humble opinion.

 

This episode will not make me buy travel insurance in the future unless I see that the cruise lines begin to provide info pre cruise pertaining to weather and potential effects on changes to schedule, so that I get a real sense of what they may be thinking. I would try other cruise lines before doing so with my reasons stated in posts made earlier.

 

As I said, I had a great time on my cruise and will write about it in the appropriate part of this forum.

[jessicalorene]

Can we just say travel Carnival if you like their customer service so much better and be done with it? Dollars speak more to a company then bitching on the internet

[Ocean Boy]

There is no way that 2 days prior RCI could have ever predicted the possibility that they would leave early. Unless all those people lived under a rock and did not have access to cable, internet or newspapers they would have known about Irene and should have started making alternate travel plans if they were concerned.

 

Considering how long RCI has been sailing the Craibbean during hurricane season, unless the folks running this cruise line live under a rock they should have been more aware of the possibilities of what might happen and been concerned enough about their customers to get some warnings out.

[Ocean Boy]

Can we just say travel Carnival if you like their customer service so much better and be done with it? Dollars speak more to a company then bitching on the internet

 

Nope. The issue is not to walk away from RCI but to get the cruise line that we prefer to patronize to improve its customer service. When my dog pees in the house I don't take her to the pound and go get a new dog.;)

[dfishner]

Nope. The issue is not to walk away from RCI but to get the cruise line that we prefer to patronize to improve its customer service. When my dog pees in the house I don't take her to the pound and go get a new dog.;)

 

You should of thought about your comment two days ago so you would of saw it was going to make me laugh so hard that my coffee in now on the screen, will you please remit my OBC and give me 30% off my next cruise..

I loved your comment about the dog It really cracked me up.

[Cruzaholic41]

Nobody is beating a dead horse when the information continues to be misunderstood. The horse aint dead yet!

 

This horse died last week and for some reason was resurrected to be beaten again. But hey, keep posting - This thread is only 19 posts away from catching up to the other thread where people are saying the exact same things. No, that's not a beaten horse. :rolleyes:

[Karma5]

The weather is also not the pax fault. Why should the cruise line be able to abscond with their money and not provide the contracted service when they did not fulfill their half of the contract? Sure, the weather forced the port to order them out early, but if the passenger has a ticket that says the ship sails at 8:30pm and they show up at 6:30pm and the ship has already sailed, the pax have done everything right and still got the shaft. It's not the passengers fault either. They should at least get a refund or fcc because services were not rendered even though the pax fulfilled every reasonable expectation as outlined in their contract. No reasonable person would think that the cruise line is in any way entitled to just keep the money. Sometimes businesses just have to eat some expenses because stuff happens like this. It's part of doing business. To somehow try to shift all liability to the customer in this case is morally wrong. Someday when a similar situation hits YOU, you will be outraged. Trust me.[/quo

 

I agree with you:)

[Cruising89143]

If you think that being concerned about how a company acts and treats its customers in the type of situation that we have been talking about all has to do with being nosey then so be it. Feel free to go on with your life concerning yourself with you. I'm not even quite sure why you are reading and posting to this thread since it obviously has nothing to do with you.

 

 

I think we have someone here trying to do damage control for the cruise line.:rolleyes: LOL!!!!!

[honeybee85]

Ah, no. How can you make this statement if a) you are not nosey and b) it wasn't on the media?

And that statement is wrong anyway according to people who were actually left behind and who posted on another thread.:rolleyes:

 

Ah, yes. I can make that statement because a) as I previously advised a former colleague of mine had a guest that was left behind in San Juan and was notified by the cruise line the day after it happened what the compensation would be and b) see a.

 

Just because all of the guests had not heard yet does not mean they weren't announcing it to travel agents. As a board full of travel agents I would expect folks here to understand Royal is notorious for leaking info to travel agents before their guests.

 

I'm not defending them, they handled it poorly and way worse than Carnival did. Nevertheless, they didn't offer compensation because a bunch of people cried on the interwebs. They did it before it even hit CC.

[Aquahound]

I'm not defending them, they handled it poorly and way worse than Carnival did. Nevertheless, they didn't offer compensation because a bunch of people cried on the interwebs. They did it before it even hit CC.

 

I really don't see how that could be true. The problem was, while RCI was being dragged through the mud, they said nothing. In fact, when this story first broke on CC, the latest comment by RCI was they were not compensating. If, in fact, they were in the process of compensating people, why wouldn't they say it? Did they want bad press for some odd reason? Sorry, but I just don't buy it.

[honeybee85]

I really don't see how that could be true. The problem was, while RCI was being dragged through the mud, they said nothing. In fact, when this story first broke on CC, the latest comment by RCI was they were not compensating. If, in fact, they were in the process of compensating people, why wouldn't they say it? Did they want bad press for some odd reason? Sorry, but I just don't buy it.

 

Since when is their inconsistency news? Remember Explorer's sailing to nowhere last year? Corp said no we aren't compensating while they were mailing out FCCs and applying OBC.

[piscesgal223]

Can we just say travel Carnival if you like their customer service so much better and be done with it? Dollars speak more to a company then bitching on the internet

 

Exactly. Not a big fan of Carnival, but if you like them, cruise with them. The "Carnival is SO much better than RC" stuff gets old really fast.Sorry.:mad: