Royal Romance Rant

[fooshrock]

So here's the story. I have a wedding booked on VOS for October 30, 2005. After reading on this board that if too many people are in another wedding party it might effect your reception I decided to give them a call. They told me that there is another wedding booked on this date and it was pretty big, so I asked them if I should make my final reception arrangements soon and they said Yeah, I guess. I call back ten minutes later and they tell me the other wedding party is too big and I cannot have a reception!! They say I can only have a ceremony for 40 people including sailing guests (which I have 20). I was hysterical! I have spoken with them lots and lots of times and not once did they tell me this was a possibility. I already sent out invitations for 75 people and have gotten a lot of responses back. I asked my parent's to give them a call and they spoke with the girl for an hour and all she said was there's nothing we can do. She would not let them speak with a manager. She was very unhelpful. The only thing she said I could do was switch to another sailing date. After an hour and a half of having a mental breakdown. My fiance, called and spoke with a manager and after a lot of convincing she said we could have the reception, but we would have to have the formal luncheon. We were going to have the two hour buffet because we wanted to have the dj. At least we can still have the reception. How do call 75 people and dis-invite them to a wedding.

 

Thank god I found this board or I would have never even thought to call RR. Everyone I have ever spoken with there has basically told me as long as you make the final arrangements 30 days prior, your good.

 

So a word of warning to everyone, book your reception right away!

 

I cannot believe how RR runs a business. Everytime you call them, someone gives you different information. Most of the people act as if you are bothering them if you ask them a question. I know they have it locked down, but shouldn't they try to be a little helpful and advise people correctly and make them feel comfortable with their experience. They should know wedding planning is very stressful.

 

Well, thanks for letting me rant!

 

Good luck to everyone

Lori

[Shannon_525]

I am sorry you had to go through that, now I am getting nervous my wedding is not until Aug. 6 2006 but I already have 53 sailing guests booked and I am on Explorer going from Bayonne to Bermuda. I actually just called RR and they said everyone is in a meeting and that they would call me back today. I hope everything ends up beautiful for you guys even if it isnt exactly what you wanted keep me posted and let me know how everything goes. Good Luck

 

Shannon

[love2vacation]

. I actually just called RR and they said everyone is in a meeting and that they would call me back today. I hope everything ends up beautiful for you guys even if it isnt exactly what you wanted keep me posted and let me know how everything goes. Good Luck

 

Shannon

 

Do you suppose they were in a meeting about their customer service??;) That is ridiculous- I think you are right, the worst part would be trying to univite people. But do you think all of them were really planning on coming on the cruise? Maybe you can do a small reception when you get back???

 

From reading these boards most everyone seems to end up with a good ceremony it is just the stuggle to get there that is maddening.

 

I guess if you can survive RR you can contend with anything that crops up in a marriage. The best advice I can give is focus on the marriage part and not the other "stuff".

 

Good luck to you.

[kenandlaura06]

That is absolutely ridiculous!

[dcdiva]

I am confused. You say you booked your "wedding", but did you also book a reception? Perhaps I misunderstood, but if you you booked only a wedding, RR is in no way obligated to "hold" reception space for you. For all they know, you won't be having a reception at all. If you did book a reception and now they are telling you they can't honor it, well that's another story. But you can't expect RR to keep space available until you get final head counts and make decisions about final arrangements.

 

I booked my ceremony and reception about 6 months out. We had no idea exactly how many people we would have, or even exactly what options we'd add. But I was able to work with RR over the months to add, remove or modify things. We finalized the head count and details 30 days out, but the reception was booked from just about day one.

[fooshrock]

What happened was RR told us we had up to 30 days prior to the wedding date to make arrangements for the reception. Not once of the 20 times we talked to them did they tell us that if another wedding has a big group we might not be able to have a reception. We were under the impression that since there are only two weddings allowed in a sailing, that this wouldn't be a problem, and we had no reason to believe otherwise, since this was NEVER told to us. Obviously, there was a lack of commication here.

 

If we had known what the situation was, we would have booked the reception immediately, this was NEVER suggested to us. We were waiting to see how many people were coming and from what they told us, we had up until 30 days prior.

 

What should have been properly communicated was that until you pay nothing is guaranteed. This was never told to us, and like I said we had spoken with different people about 20 different times asking questions about the reception and not one person mentioned anything about this, or at least suggested that we get going on booking the reception. In fact we were told we "had time".

 

Bottom line is everytime we speak with a representative we get a different answer to the same question. Why did they tell me that I wouldn't be able to have any reception and only 40 people in total for the ceremony, when after an hour of crying and trying to reason with RR my fiancee calls and they say no problem you can still have the reception, just not the buffet. I specifically asked if this was possible and the girl said NO you cannot have any kind of reception, there's nothing we can do. I almost had a mental breakdown for nothing.

 

That is my point.

 

Lori

[jane02]

Dear Lori,

I am so sorry that you have had all this added stress. I am sure you will have a lovely wedding and everthing will be perfect.

Jane

[fooshrock]

Thanks Jane! Now that my reception is paid in full, the stress level is much better. Now I just can't wait to go on the cruise!

 

Lori

[DoubleAK]

Glad to hear everything worked out for you. In my dealings w/ RR, what you're told depends on who you talk to. Some reps there believe the policies are set in stone and won't budge on any exceptions, while others are willing to bend the rules to accomodate your wishes.

 

Why do some of them have awful customer service skills and have no empathy for your issues? Because they can. I was even told by one nasty rep that they didn't care if I cancelled because they'll always have lots of people booking weddings through them.

 

Based on my experiences with them and the horror stories from others on this board, I've learned to keep their involvement with my ceremony to a minimum. We're still using them for the on-board ceremony, but it will be no-frills, and we're having the reception the night prior at a hotel.

[MentalVacation]

I feel your pain. Glad you got things worked out on this issue, but continue to be diligent, and get things in writing. I cannot emphasize this enough. Things do not always work out in the end. I hate to be a naysayer, but there have been quite a few unhappy post-wedding on this board as of late. (Not to say there haven't been some great results, but be diligent ladies. Diligent and determined!)

 

I am happy, but it is largely of my own making, not b/c of an exemplary job done once onboard, and it was in spite of many issues the day of. You can find my review if you look way back. We were married May 14, 2005 on the CB. Different cruiseline, same company.

 

Maybe I missed it, but who is your wedding coordinator? Or who have you done the most talking with?

[fooshrock]

They never really gave us a wedding coordinator. Everytime we call we get a different person. The one who told us we couldn't have the reception's name was Marina, I think. Now we are dealing with Janet and she is being helpful.

[kenandlaura06]

Glad to hear everything worked out for you. In my dealings w/ RR, what you're told depends on who you talk to. Some reps there believe the policies are set in stone and won't budge on any exceptions, while others are willing to bend the rules to accomodate your wishes.

 

Why do some of them have awful customer service skills and have no empathy for your issues? Because they can. I was even told by one nasty rep that they didn't care if I cancelled because they'll always have lots of people booking weddings through them.

 

 

Wow! I can't believe that. That is terrible.

[Shannon_525]

After I read this post I got in contact with RR because I was under the same assumption as Lori that you were supposed to wait until you had a head count to book. But I actually booked my reception two days ago because have 53 people sailing, so I booked that many so far. I am now only dealing with Veronica from RR she is excellent, helpful and resonds to email almost immediately(the longest I waited for a response was 1 day). We do not have to have a final head count until 30 days prior but now we are guaranteed the lunch buffet reception for two hours. My wedding is not until Aug 6 2006 but I recommend everyone do it all early because you can always down grade if you need too.

Lori-- I know you will have a beautiful wedding, enjoy it and let me know how it goes. And thanks for this post I would have waited if I didn't read it.

 

Shannon

[MentalVacation]

That is a name I haven't heard, but if she is helping, that is great.

 

I know other people have said it, but get arrangements/extras/etc. in writing. That may be as simple as doing most of the discussions/confirming via email, even if you have to just write something up in email and state "This email confirms my understanding that we agreed to X, Y and Z" and then you will get a confirmatory response. Save them. They will help you as you get down to the last days, and should anything arise, they will be proof of an agreement that you cannot produce if you do everything over the phone alone. As everyone on here has noted, this is a bulk business, and you as the bride have to be the one who makes sure they know you from the next bride, and keep all the special details you want straight.

 

Good luck!

[sas80]

et's see... they need me to sign off within 24 hours...

 

I have a question which I asked them, via email, last night...

I also called and left a voice mail this morning......

 

24 hours is rapidly approaching and I have yet to get an answer from them so that I can sign off.....

 

typical, unprofessional, screams "we really dont give a rats a** about you, just your money"

 

They Suck - and there is nothing I can do about it, I am trapped

[sas80]

And now they want me to answer this questionaire......which i am going to leave blank, lest the ruin my wedding because of my negative comments.

They obviously dont read any of the responses to these anyways.....

 

QUESTIONNAIRE

 

In order to assure that we keep high level of customer care and service for each of our present and future

 

wedding couples, the Management Team of Royal Romance Wedding Department would like to ask you

 

to fill out the following questionnaire. Please assist us with your comments below.

 

 

Communication:

 

How well were the instructions and information regarding weddings provided to you when making your wedding

 

arrangements? Please circle:

 

Exceeded expectation Satisfactory Unsatisfactory

 

 

Friendliness:

 

How was the tone and attitude of your wedding coordinator(s)? Please circle:

 

Exceeded expectation Satisfactory Unsatisfactory

 

 

Overall Customer Care:

 

How do rate your wedding coordinator(s) on the overall service and care received? Please circle:

 

Exceeded expectation Satisfactory Unsatisfactory

 

 

Comments:

 

 

 

Thank You!

 

We appreciate your reply to this questionnaire.

[Happy ks]

Hold off and don't send the questionnaire in until after the wedding, if you so wish, but don't ever leave anything like that blank. They need to know what issues need to be corrected, if they don't hear it from the customer, who else will tell them? Also, keep a record of names, so you can let them know which ones are rude.

 

Years ago, I worked for a hotel and arranged banquets, many of them wedding receptions. Although we did not arrange flowers, officiants or their music, we handled all of the reception details. We had our fair share of Bridezillas, overbearing MOB/FOBs, interfering in-laws, know-it-all-friends, you name it, show up in our office to try to tell us our job, we always kept in mind it was a special day for the bride and groom and tried to be as helpful as possible. We never had a bride, or parents return unhappy with our services after the fact. A lot of it was because we knew what we were doing, we did it all the time and a bride (hopefully) only goes through it once. Brides are nervous about every detail and some of those details you worry so much about are just in the days work for the suppliers.

 

This company needs to know what their weak points are and it sounds like they need a new contract, or brochure to explain the finer details to their customers. We had options for our reception halls, we would spell it out in advance, if their party size changed, they could let us know in advance and change to a larger/smaller room (if available). We would have them contact us 3 months out with a tentative head count. Being local, we would invite them on a day with a similar wedding, so they could see first hand how their room may look.

 

After going through all this for several years, plus my own wedding, I can assure you you will not have a perfect day. But, no one but you will realize everything is not perfect, so you have to let some things go. Don't worry if the reception room changes, don't worry if the music isn't your selection, don't worry if the flowers aren't what you envisioned. The most important part of the wedding is the marriage, all else is fluff.

 

I'd like to follow your thread as I have a niece thinking about planning an onboard wedding a year from now. I know she will rely on me a bit for advice, she's never been on a cruise or planned a wedding and I have done quite a bit of both.

 

I do hope your wedding is a memorable and happy occasion and that you finally find peace with your coordinator.