Royal Caribbean Royally Ticked Me Off!

[GLOCKer]

Royal Caribbean Royally P---ed Me Off! I don't know why I waited until today to post about this, but I'm still a little sore about it and it's still on my mind, from a cruise my wife and I took back in July!

 

In July, my wife and I did the 7 Day Scan Russia cruise of the Northern Baltic with a two day stay in St. Petersburg. Because my wife and I would probably never be in that part of the world again, we wanted to see Moscow, and because Royal Caribbean listed that as an excursion, we booked the cruise. Afterwards, the excursion disappeared, so I booked one to Moscow with an independent tour company.

 

The night before our excursion to Moscow, Luke Aerosmith, the Cruise Director, stated that there was an immigration preclearance list for Russia, and you had to be on a Royal Caribbean cruise to be on the list. My wife and I were concerned because we had to be off the boat IMMEDIATELY to meet our driver and escort for the ride to St. Petersburg airport to make our flight on time.

 

We woke up EARLY and were the first to be in line to disembark the ship. We met with some staff and explained our situation, and they assured us that as soon as they could let us off the ship, they would make sure we got off in a timely manner. We asked if we were waiting in the proper place, and we were assured we were waiting in the right place to get off to make our flight. My wife started being suspicious of this though when she saw people being pointed towards another part o the ship, so we asked another person. We were told flat out that we probably wouldn't be let off the ship until about an hour and a half until everybody else got off, because we didn't book a Royal Caribbean excursion. When we explained that we had a flight to make and if we missed it, we'd loose thousands of dollars in the cost of our tour, she replied, "Well, you can't get off yet unless you want to swim." She cited the immigration pre-clearance list that Royal Caribbean provided to the Russian immigration authorities as the reason we couldn't get off.

 

My wife talked me into going to the other end of the ship, and I stopped at guest services. Their best solution was to allow me to call our tour company. They answered and got angry, stating, "They can't hold you against your will on the boat if it's docked and they are allowing people to get off. Make them let you off the boat, we're afraid if you don't you wont make your flight!"

 

My wife and I found a sympathetic crew member in the section of the ship where the Royal Caribbean excursion customers were gathering that allowed us to wait with them and disembark first.

 

So my wife and I were the first to clear immigration, and I asked the officer if there was a pre-clearance list from Royal Caribbean. She said no. She looked really confused. I confirmed with her that Royal Caribbean does not provide a list to the Russian immigration authorities prior to the ship docking listing person's to be "pre-cleared."

 

So what exactly is my beef with Royal Caribbean?

 

Listen, I don't think my wife and I are special and should be allowed to cut a line or given preferential treatment for any reason (heck, we were up EARLY and waiting to be first). But I'd say our particular situation could have allowed for some consideration. I am not a person who is accustom to getting his way when ever he wants, and I don't throw tantrums when I don't get my way.

 

My beef with Royal Caribbean is that we were LIED to several times and shown indifference to our situation several times. The staff could have cared less about our situation and lied to our faces! I was left for a long time feeling sick to my stomach that we were going to miss our flight and end up paying a lot of money to be stuck on a ship all day. The anxiety of the moment alone was enough to ruin the trip.

 

The awesome group of people we dined with suggested we should go and complain to the guest relations desk so that we could get a free bottle of wine or something, but that would not have fixed the issue, and I'm not the type to complain so to just get something like that for free.

 

Yep, over three months later, and it's still has me upset.

 

If anybody is wondering, the Moscow excursion turned out to be the best part of our vacation and was worth every penny. The rest of the cruise was enjoyable, minus my seething anger at Royal Caribbean during the rest of our time on ship. But if you ever get an opportunity to see Moscow, jump on it!

 

Edited September 30, 2014 by GLOCKer
Added photo...

[steamboats]

I´m missing one point: Did you have a visa?

 

I´m pretty sure that RCI has to hand out a list to the Russian authorities as you´re not allowed to disembark if you don´t have a visa or are with an organized tour (by RCI or a certified tour company which is giving you the proper paperwork).

 

Somehow RCI has to make sure to get those people on their tours off the ship in an organized manner. With other cruise companies you can´t leave the ship prior to the tour groups (especially when tendered).

 

steamboats

[lady_cruiser]

Even though you had to jump through hoops to get off the ship I am glad you were able to. Very nice picture.

 

I think the problem with Royal Caribbean is world-wide. Not only with cruise lines but from small businesses all the way up to big corporations. Its called "Lack of Communication." Some people will get one piece of information while another person gets another piece of information and all concerning the same scenario. Its ashamed but its true. Thank goodness you were persistent.

[spectroman]

This not Royal's Fault at All, This is the Russian Governments crazy rules and regulations.

[tahqa]

There are different rules for people doing cruise ship excursions and for those doing outside excursions. The people doing cruise ship excursions don't need a visa to go ashore and everyone else does. I suspect that the cruise ship (and Russian border officials) prefer to let cruise ship excursions off first because it's easier and quicker processing for them. Plus, the cruise ships most certainly give priority to THEIR excursions because it's one of the selling points for booking with them. Also, keep in mind that border officials aren't always the most keyed in people and more so in Russia.

 

So, the short answer is that there is most certainly a pre-clearance list given to the Russian officials regardless of what the clueless border official told you.

 

Here are the rules (from http://petersburgcity.com/for-tourists/visa/cruises/):

 

Russian tourist visa waiver for liners tour participants

 

Russian Tourist Visas are not required for liners tour passengers participating on their liners organised tour. All passengers who elect to participate on a their liners' tour in St. Petersburg, including Private Vehicle tours and the tour to Moscow, may disembark the ship for their tour without a Russian Tourist Visa provided they present the following to Russian Immigration:

• A valid passport.
  
• A liner's tour ticket.
  

Passengers who wish to sightsee outside of a liner's tour MUST obtain an individual Russian Tourist Visa before leaving home; visas cannot be obtained during the cruise. Should you wish to obtain an individual Russian Tourist Visa, you will need to be sponsored by a licensed Russian tour company. This company will provide you with the necessary Visa Support Letter and documentation to obtain your individual Russian Tourist Visa. After obtaining this information, it is necessary for you to contact the visa service of your choice or the Russian Embassy for the procedures to obtain the visa. Passengers on their liner's tours (visa requirements waived) will be disembarked first upon arrival in St. Petersburg; passengers with individual Russian Tourist Visas will disembark after the tour passengers and must present the following to Russian Immigration:

• A valid passport.
  
• Russian Tourist Visa
  
• A voucher confirming service arranged by the Russian tour company sponsoring visa
  

We anticipate independent passengers with individual Russian Tourist Visas being able to disembark at approximately 9:30AM and therefore recommend that any independent services be arranged no earlier than this time. Passengers who have not purchased one of the available tours and do not possess an individual Russia Tourist Visa, or whose visa is not properly supported by the proper documentation, will not be permitted ashore in St. Petersburg. Visas cannot be issued during the cruise. In order to apply for a Russian visa, a guest must have a valid passport, which does not expire within 30 days of the last day of the cruise.

[Anubi]

So sorry to hear about that and I'm glad you pushed the issue and made your trip to Moscow.

This problem seems to be on all the cruise lines. DH and I had booked a Baltics cruise on Celebrity Constellation and had booked a private tour of St. Petersburg. We were warned by friends who had been to St. Petersburg that the cruiseline, in their case Princess, would try to herd anyone who was not going on a ship sponsered shore excursion into a dining room so that their shore excursions could disembark first. This had nothing to do with the visa issue as the private tour obtained them for us ahead of time and warned us not to let the ship's personel detain us by using this excuse. In any case, we ended up missing the cruise :( but our friends who did make the cruise said that they saw and heard ship's personel sending people who were not on the ship sponsered shore excursions to the dining room.

[lemonade-sails]

GLOCKer, I just wanted to thank you for posting your experience. I'm sorry that happened to you, but so glad you persevered and it worked out for you and your wife to make it to Moscow. Fantastic picture!!

[workingonlytocruise]

First, why wouldn't they allow their own customers to disembark first? I'm not a big defender of cruiselines - not by far, but common sense says their customers go first.

 

Second, when doing the Baltics the Russians are in charge and you leave when they say you leave. If they want certain people first, that's the way it is.

 

If you are with a private company and it's licenced which it should be, they will provide your visa. They send you your booking invoice/information and you must present it at immigration when you depart the ship.

 

Did you speak to guest services at some point during the cruise? I understand your frustration but you need to also understand that the cruiseline is always going to put their customers first - in the Baltics or Caribbean.

 

BTW - they don't owe you anything and for those who suggested they even owned you a bottle of wine - why?

[alfaeric]

Look at the bright side, at least you know what you won't be doing in the future.... Especially if it makes you mad 3 months after it happened.

 

But one thing to think about- being that everyone is telling you the same thing- I would doubt that they are lying. They are just telling you the wrong information. Lying would mean they know the right info, and intend to fully tell you the wrong thing for their advantage.

 

Seems to make more sense that the actual correct information isn't all that widely known. For sure you need a visa. The question is how is that information organized for the Russian border agents. And how the ship organizes that information so that people can get off the ship in an organized manner.

 

If you REALLY think that the entire group of people were lying to you, well, the end result is the same thing- you probably won't be on an RCI ship again.

[estebofarr]

I, too am glad you were persistant and had a fabulous day.

Unfortunately they hedge (lie) when dealing with large numbers of people all wanting something. I agree they should have been truthful with you, but try to let go of the anger and enjoy the good memories.

[akcruz]

Not pile on, but I do think others are giving you some very good advice. The only other thing I would tell you is that maybe you should have gone to guest services before your port stop to explain your situation to them and find out what was going to happen before you got there.

 

Years ago we tendered into Grand Cayman. We had a private excursion and knew that we would have to wait for the cruise sponsored excursion to get off first. Since it was a tender port this was even more critical as we didn't want to just stand in line with the rest of those without sponsored excursions. After explaining to guest services our timing and that we did understand we could be first, they were very accommodating. They had us go to the same lounge as the sponsored excursions and fit us into the first tender they could. We never forced our situation on them, but worked with them.

 

I am glad everything worked out for you in the end, but next time I would suggest being a little more pro-active prior to the day of to hopefully have things go smoothly. As others have said, this is not just a RCI thing, it is a cruise line thing.

[GLOCKer]

I just want to be clear; there is no difference in the Russian Federations eyes between a person on a Royal Caribbean excursion or a private excursion.

 

To clear immigration, you either need to have a valid visa or a valid tour ticket. If you have a valid tour ticket, you must remain with an agent of the tour company. There were no issues with clearing Russian immigration and I found it to be much simpler than everybody had made it out to be. My wife and I stepped off the ship, up to the immigration window, and an agent looked at our passports and tour tickets before stamping our passports. It took literally 2 minutes. And we were the first to be off the ship, not on some pre-cleared list that turned out to be imaginary.

 

In the case of Royal Caribbean's excursions, they were actually run by the same companies that offered the private excursions. It's the same tour ticket. My wife and I did the research on this before we booked anything.

 

My wife and I also did stop by guest services the night before after hearing the announcement, and we were told it shouldn't be any issue with a big friendly smile. But sadly, that did not turn out to be the case.

 

Again, my biggest beef with Royal Caribbean is being lied to with indifference. I paid a lot of money to be on the ship. I paid a lot of my money for luxury service. I did not pay to be lied to.

 

I figured I would post up my experience for others so they can be aware of what they may be facing and admittedly, because I'm still sore about the subject. When I filled out the guest survey, no one from Royal Caribeean contacted me to find out about the situation, and that points out to me how much they care. I'll be thinking twice about booking a cruise on Royal Caribbean in the future too. I know from other posts that it seems to be a behavior of all of the cruise lines, but so far, I've only been lied to by Royal Caribbean.

 

Just for added information, this was my wife and I's second cruise. Our first cruise was through Royal Caribbean (a family trip with my in-laws) and it was wonderful! I found the service on this cruise to be just a touch below our first Caribbean cruise with them. I discounted it as just what may happen on a smaller ship. There were small niggling things that were adding up to make my wife a little annoyed. I was fine until the Moscow excursion. The bar staff was by far the highlight of my time on the cruise ship! :D I had one bartender that was always appearing with my drink of choice in hand whether I was in the dining room or the Schooner Lounge.

 

I'm not a hard person to please. All I ask for is for the people I'm paying money to, to not to lie to me, with a smile on their faces, and a smart-a-- comment!

 

ETA:

Here are a few more photos from Moscow!

 

 

 

Edited September 30, 2014 by GLOCKer

[steveru621]

I'm still at a loss to understand why you were expecting special consideration for a non-RCI excursion? "There shouldn't be a problem" is not a lie, it is an expectation. RCI did not cancel your excursion, it was canceled by the tour company that had signed an agreement with RCI. It's happened to us many times, and is usually due to minimum numbers required by the tour operator to be profitable. You were extremely fortunate to have any notice at all.

 

The fact your tour was canceled and your replacement cost "thousands of dollars" is irrelevant. The time and money of the other passengers is just as important.

 

You will need to pardon my <rant>; there seems to be an increasing number of threads complaining about the lack of "special treatment". I have an early flight, I have an excursion whose timing left no room for error, and on and on...

 

You have my sympathy, traveling is hell, and anxiety is around every corner. Let go of it, because you will never enjoy traveling if every encounter turns into a test of wills.

[Yorkvillain]

Great pictures!

[LBumb]

great photos

you made the trip, focus on that

[GLOCKer]

I'm still at a loss to understand why you were expecting special consideration for a non-RCI excursion? "There shouldn't be a problem" is not a lie, it is an expectation. RCI did not cancel your excursion, it was canceled by the tour company that had signed an agreement with RCI. It's happened to us many times, and is usually due to minimum numbers required by the tour operator to be profitable. You were extremely fortunate to have any notice at all.

 

The fact your tour was canceled and your replacement cost "thousands of dollars" is irrelevant. The time and money of the other passengers is just as important.

 

You will need to pardon my <rant>; there seems to be an increasing number of threads complaining about the lack of "special treatment". I have an early flight, I have an excursion whose timing left no room for error, and on and on...

 

You have my sympathy, traveling is hell, and anxiety is around every corner. Let go of it, because you will never enjoy traveling if every encounter turns into a test of wills.

 

I guess you didn't actually read my post. My complaint wasn't about the excursion being dropped by RC. It wasn't about the cost the excursion turned out to be outside of RC (it was actually the same). My complaint was being lied to about being allowed off the boat. My complaint was about being lied to. About being assured that if we stood and waited at a particular spot, we would be off the boat at a certain time meanwhile they had no plans of letting us off the boat at that particular time. I'm over the anxiety it caused. I'm not over being lied to my face.

[GLOCKer]

great photos

you made the trip, focus on that

 

I think I will. I've made my public complaint about RC. Like I said, I probably wont book with them again. Maybe it's time to try Celebrity!

Edited September 30, 2014 by GLOCKer

[reallyitsmema]

I think I will. I've made my public complaint about RC. Like I said, I probably wont book with them again. Maybe it's time to try Celebrity!

 

Try Celebrity but it is very common for all cruise lines to allow people on cruise line excursions off the ship first at a port. Do not book private excursions that require you to be off the ship too soon after a ship is scheduled to get to port. Many times, ships are late arriving to a port which can also cause you to miss an excursion.

[steveru621]

I guess you didn't actually read my post. My complaint wasn't about the excursion being dropped by RC. It wasn't about the cost the excursion turned out to be outside of RC (it was actually the same). My complaint was being lied to about being allowed off the boat. My complaint was about being lied to. About being assured that if we stood and waited at a particular spot, we would be off the boat at a certain time meanwhile they had no plans of letting us off the boat at that particular time. I'm over the anxiety it caused. I'm not over being lied to my face.

 

I read your post at least 5 times, so your snarky response is off-base.. My comments are what I came away with. Your expectations of getting special treatment were not met, therefore you were lied to. It is only my opinion.

 

You are assuming that because the crew members were mis-informed you were being lied to. You are certainly entitled to that opinion, you were there, I was not. But was I wrong in reading you were expecting special treatment, because you had to disembark IMMEDIATELY (your emphasis), and this tour cost you thousands of dollars?

 

My opinion is irrelevant, but you did post this on Cruise Critic after all. What were you expecting? Did you you just want to warn us that crew members lie on a regular basis?

[COMBOY]

I've reread the OP threads several times and I don't understand how RCI lied. Maybe about this bogus "per-clearance check list"? Whatever the case...It is standard procedure that all RCI pre-booked shore tours get priority disembarkation. All independent tours go last. When you book an independent tour you are to the mercy of the cruise lines and they know it. They want you to book their tours because these tours are profit centers for the cruise lines and they are under a lot of pressure to sell as many tours as possible and these passengers get priority. They really can't tell you that so they make up some sort to bogus excuse to keep you at bay. Most people accept it; but in your case-you felt lied to. Booking an independent tours with flight arrangements is sort of risky IMO because you don't when you will get off the ship. The only way to get around this is hopefully get a sympathetic ear and the crew let you get off early; but there is no guarantees this will happen. I really understand the OP frustration and how they felt the unfairness of the cruise line. But it's their cruise lines and their procedures. You might want to write a letter to guest relations and advise them of what happen to you. I wouldn't expect any thing in return, but it's important to let them know what you experienced.

[Paulette3028]

Royal Caribbean Royally P---ed Me Off! I don't know why I waited until today to post about this, but I'm still a little sore about it and it's still on my mind, from a cruise my wife and I took back in July!

 

In July, my wife and I did the 7 Day Scan Russia cruise of the Northern Baltic with a two day stay in St. Petersburg. Because my wife and I would probably never be in that part of the world again, we wanted to see Moscow, and because Royal Caribbean listed that as an excursion, we booked the cruise. Afterwards, the excursion disappeared, so I booked one to Moscow with an independent tour company.

 

The night before our excursion to Moscow, Luke Aerosmith, the Cruise Director, stated that there was an immigration preclearance list for Russia, and you had to be on a Royal Caribbean cruise to be on the list. My wife and I were concerned because we had to be off the boat IMMEDIATELY to meet our driver and escort for the ride to St. Petersburg airport to make our flight on time.

 

We woke up EARLY and were the first to be in line to disembark the ship. We met with some staff and explained our situation, and they assured us that as soon as they could let us off the ship, they would make sure we got off in a timely manner. We asked if we were waiting in the proper place, and we were assured we were waiting in the right place to get off to make our flight. My wife started being suspicious of this though when she saw people being pointed towards another part o the ship, so we asked another person. We were told flat out that we probably wouldn't be let off the ship until about an hour and a half until everybody else got off, because we didn't book a Royal Caribbean excursion. When we explained that we had a flight to make and if we missed it, we'd loose thousands of dollars in the cost of our tour, she replied, "Well, you can't get off yet unless you want to swim." She cited the immigration pre-clearance list that Royal Caribbean provided to the Russian immigration authorities as the reason we couldn't get off.

 

My wife talked me into going to the other end of the ship, and I stopped at guest services. Their best solution was to allow me to call our tour company. They answered and got angry, stating, "They can't hold you against your will on the boat if it's docked and they are allowing people to get off. Make them let you off the boat, we're afraid if you don't you wont make your flight!"

 

My wife and I found a sympathetic crew member in the section of the ship where the Royal Caribbean excursion customers were gathering that allowed us to wait with them and disembark first.

 

So my wife and I were the first to clear immigration, and I asked the officer if there was a pre-clearance list from Royal Caribbean. She said no. She looked really confused. I confirmed with her that Royal Caribbean does not provide a list to the Russian immigration authorities prior to the ship docking listing person's to be "pre-cleared."

 

So what exactly is my beef with Royal Caribbean?

 

Listen, I don't think my wife and I are special and should be allowed to cut a line or given preferential treatment for any reason (heck, we were up EARLY and waiting to be first). But I'd say our particular situation could have allowed for some consideration. I am not a person who is accustom to getting his way when ever he wants, and I don't throw tantrums when I don't get my way.

 

My beef with Royal Caribbean is that we were LIED to several times and shown indifference to our situation several times. The staff could have cared less about our situation and lied to our faces! I was left for a long time feeling sick to my stomach that we were going to miss our flight and end up paying a lot of money to be stuck on a ship all day. The anxiety of the moment alone was enough to ruin the trip.

 

The awesome group of people we dined with suggested we should go and complain to the guest relations desk so that we could get a free bottle of wine or something, but that would not have fixed the issue, and I'm not the type to complain so to just get something like that for free.

 

Yep, over three months later, and it's still has me upset.

 

If anybody is wondering, the Moscow excursion turned out to be the best part of our vacation and was worth every penny. The rest of the cruise was enjoyable, minus my seething anger at Royal Caribbean during the rest of our time on ship. But if you ever get an opportunity to see Moscow, jump on it!

 

 

You have been given lots of opinions/ideas from many responses.

 

My only suggestion is to send an email to the Guest Relations department in the Royal Home Office. Their email address is royalguestrelations@rccl.com.

 

This department hears from cruisers that had difficulties on their previous cruises.

[FLACRUISER99]

I've reread the OP threads several times and I don't understand how RCI lied. Maybe about this bogus "per-clearance check list"? Whatever the case...It is standard procedure that all RCI pre-booked shore tours get priority disembarkation. All independent tours go last. When you book an independent tour you are to the mercy of the cruise lines and they know it. They want you to book their tours because these tours are profit centers for the cruise lines and they are under a lot of pressure to sell as many tours as possible and these passengers get priority. They really can't tell you that so they make up some sort to bogus excuse to keep you at bay. Most people accept it; but in your case-you felt lied to. Booking an independent tours with flight arrangements is sort of risky IMO because you don't when you will get off the ship. The only way to get around this is hopefully get a sympathetic ear and the crew let you get off early; but there is no guarantees this will happen. I really understand the OP frustration and how they felt the unfairness of the cruise line. But it's their cruise lines and their procedures. You might want to write a letter to guest relations and advise them of what happen to you. I wouldn't expect any thing in return, but it's important to let them know what you experienced.

I agree as there is no guarantee that the ship will stop at all never mind be on time. The OP should be happy that everything worked out for him.

[Cindy]

I think I will. I've made my public complaint about RC. Like I said, I probably wont book with them again. Maybe it's time to try Celebrity!

 

I loved Celebrity, but my experience with them disembarking in Russia this summer was very similar to yours on RCI...all the cruise lines really want to get the people who have paid for their shore excursions off first, and they use various tactics to accomplish that. It's been discussed at length on the Ports-of-Call/Baltics threads. Tour providers will tell you you have every right to disembark, and they are technically correct, but all the cruise lines still do everything in their power to give their own tours a head start.

 

In our case, a group of us were all together waiting for an announcement when my husband happened to look out a window and saw people disembarking from the forward gangway. We quickly walked forward and joined the line...we were off and through customs in no time. I think they made an announcement about 10 minutes after we disembarked.

 

Instead of being so angry 3 months after the fact, why don't you celebrate the fact you got to take a cruise and an excursion to a place many can only dream of seeing? Life's too short to sweat the things you can't change!

Edited September 30, 2014 by Cindy

[LILynn]

I have been on most major cruise lines all over the world. The people on ship ship sponsored excursions are always the first ones off the ship. It's just the way it is. I always plan accordingly when booking a private tour.

[Yorkshire-Pudding]

Glocker,

 

Slightly off at a tangent but my family and I are booked to visit the Baltics and Russia in July 2015 but on Celebrity. We are seriously considering a trip to Moscow on the first of our two days in St Petersburg so would love to hear a little more about your private trip. From your initial post you flew to Moscow, how did you return to St Petersburg, was it a return flight or did you get the high speed Sapsan train? How long did you actually spend in Moscow?

 

Wonderful photos by the way.

 

Regards