Family member in hospital, RCL can't contact us

[spookwife]

I too will be sailing on the Enchantment in January and called Royal due to the fact that I have ailing elderly parents and was given the following phone number in case we needed to be reached:

 

1-888-724-7447

 

I'm wondering now if this is the correct phone number directly to the Enchantment.

 

no it is not direct to EN( or any ship) it is the main line that is used to contact ALL ships. you will also need the name and cabin number of the people you need to contact. In theory you are supposed to be connected to said cabin where you will either leave a voice mail or , if lucky, the occupants will pick up. you call that number and you are forwarded.

 

what looks like happened in the OPs case is that the VM did not work for some reason and the occupants never got the message

[Debde]

Thanks everyone!! good advice to be taken and used!!

 

Luckily-my son is usually with us and he has international on his phone so I give her his phone number to call. if he is not-I always check my cell phone for messages.

The direct line for her to have will make her feel better to have that too.

[orville99]

And I believe also for Carnival and other ships

 

I believe each line has its own number.

[goodycruising]

On a side note, we had an issue with our old dog being very unwell while we were away a few years ago. We had advised our friends that if he got worse to take him to the vet and if nothing could be done have him put down and don't have him lingering in pain. The vet would not do that without our express permission and we had a really horrible time trying to get in touch and the ships phone was a really bad connection and we could hardly understand each other from it breaking up.

 

So now we leave a letter of authority for the friend that looks after our other dog. Also I spent the last 3 days of that cruise crying and feeling miserable, and we cut short our visit to relatives as we just needed to get home and were not in a visiting mood.

 

Not quite the same importance as children and parents, but letters of authority are a very good idea for all sorts of matters.

[Cushing985]

Carnival has been in the news lately and not in a good way. But, we must separate the "Corporate Giant" from the humans who actually work there.

 

My wife and I were on a 15 day cruise to Hawaii R/T from San Diego last April. On the third day our cabin phone rang. It was our son who was calling to let us know our loved Greyhound died in his sleep. Amid all of the tears and pain I asked him how he got hold of us. He told me he called Carnival Customer Service in Miami and they arranged to patch the call directly to the ship. They also told him because of the nature of the call he wouldn't be charged.

 

Midway through the call we were disconnected (sat phone issues). So, I called Customer Service onboard the ship and they immediately reconnected us...again without charge. I think between the two calls they lasted around 20 minutes.

 

Because of this Carnival has a special place in my heart and I have to believe a simple mistake was made by Royal and yes, they should be notified and possibly they'll take action to ensure it doesn't happen again.

[loyalroyal17]

Thank you everyone for your responses. I will give the info to my brother and hope that there are no issues back home.

[Guest maddycat]

Make sure you leave medical insurance information with whoever is watching your son and a letter authorizing them to act on your behalf. As far as getting in touch with you on the ship, we have found that texting is the cheapest and easiest. We also tell our son we will check our email at a certain time each day.

 

I would have the letter notarized.

[SherriZ366]

Check with your cell carrier. Incoming texts are free with many plans. We turn off roaming and then turn the phone on once a day for messages. It is also cheaper with many carriers to call back using the cell instead of ship to shore.

 

If they called and got a survey, they at least understood the message didn't get through? Strange that the operator would refuse a note or to attempt again for proper voicemail box. It is a bit concerning. RCCL should be notified. Were they charged the $7.95?

Verizon charges 5 cents for incoming texts and 50 cents for outgoing texts. Charges for phone calls are around $2.95 per minute. I turn off the data also until we get back to the home port. You can get good instructions about how to turn off data from your carrier --that's where the large charges are. Edited December 20, 2013 by SherriZ366

[tabbi_cakes]

We learned from this episode that you can give your relatives a "power of attourney" or something like that that allows them to make medical decisions in your absence. If you worry about your kids you can probably do this for some peace of mind.

 

My best friend is going on a cruise and is giving me medical proxy over her dogs care if something happens.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[JanineM]

We always tell our family members to call the ship's emergency line (as already noted), but also tell them to send me an email if there is an emergency. I check email at least once a day on the ship, and/or in an Internet cafe onshore.