Just off Freedom May 10 - 17th, Diamond and probably our last RCCL cruise.

[spammie]

Oh come on, they were shooting for a future OBC or a free drink package for their next cruise. :):eek:

 

WRONG! I was not looking for anything! We are Diamond on RCCL and have been very loyal to them because we have loved their product. I just wanted to share our experience and hopefully see this cruise line go back to caring about their loyal customers as well as their new customers. When you can remember the "good old days" on their ships it's hard not to feel disappointed with the way things are now.

 

Sorry for upsetting the RCCL cheerleaders. I very rarely post anything negative and just wanted to share my thoughts on our cruise and the response to the letter.

 

I'm well aware that Celebrity and RCCL are sister cruise lines. All of our experiences have been wonderful on Celebrity. When I said we were going to explore other cruise lines I didn't mean Celebrity.

 

Carry on and happy cruising! :)

[spammie]

What a condescending ES&D letter. Couched in very diplomatic terms, it was to-bad-so-sad, suck it up buttercup letter. RCL truly does not care.

 

Thank you! That's exactly how I read it. We had already decided to take our hard earned dollars elsewhere. Snarky comments from the cheerleaders are just childish and not necessary.

[NemoCrownie]

He fixed them, he's going to sail on Celebrity!...Ha Ha....:rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:

 

Would you say the same if someone was going from Carnival to Princess or HAL? RCI and Celebrity are owned by the same holding company but are separate and distinct entities that target a different demographic.

 

Spammie, I'm sorry you are getting flamed for your opinions but I appreciate your candor and posting the response.

[LoveyHowell]

Thank you! That's exactly how I read it. We had already decided to take our hard earned dollars elsewhere. Snarky comments from the cheerleaders are just childish and not necessary.

 

The cheerleaders are too scared to step out of their comfort zone and try another cruise line. They would just die without Royal Caribbean orchestrated schtick from cruise to cruise. If they ever tried different lines they'd feel different, but this forum is home base for the true believers. RCI can do no wrong in their eyes.

[Thetrail]

Would you say the same if someone was going from Carnival to Princess or HAL? RCI and Celebrity are owned by the same holding company but are separate and distinct entities that target a different demographic.

 

Spammie, I'm sorry you are getting flamed for your opinions but I appreciate your candor and posting the response.

Yes I would say exactly the same thing...:D

[Vizeman]

Just arrived back in the UK after a week in Clearwater following the 10th-17th cruise.

This was the first time we have sailed with RCCL, normally we use P&O.

I have to agree with a lot of the points made previously, but I am only comparing to P&O who don't have drinks packages (as yet). I did notice a difference in the way I was treated by the staff on RCCL compared to what I am used to. But like has previously been said, they have your money and don't really have to impress you with their service. Sad really, as that is one of the things I enjoy about cruising, being made to feel special.

We too purchased the Premium drinks package, but could not understand why they have to put stickers on the sea-pass. Surely it should flag up on your account when it goes through the till that you are on a package? On several occasions I had the fortune to have to go and see guest services to get drinks removed from my account!! which had 'accidentally been added'. Maybe they do this on purpose and rely on people not checking their account properly until they are home, by this time the consumer can't be bothered to ring up and complain and have the account corrected. Or is that just the cynical side of me coming through.

Having said all this I have to say the Freedom is a beautiful ship and we did really enjoy our week. Maybe this is because of the younger average age of the clientele compared to P&O, but I suppose we can't have everything.

[ryano]

Thank you! That's exactly how I read it. We had already decided to take our hard earned dollars elsewhere. Snarky comments from the cheerleaders are just childish and not necessary.

 

Its getting absolutely disgusting that well seasoned cruisers such as yourself can no longer come here and give a negative opinion on something without all the pom pom waving cheerleaders piling all over you :( Absolutely disgusting I tell you. I get to where I despise coming to this place more and more every day.

 

Thank you for sharing your opinions. As I said in the beginning, I echo much of what you said and agree with you 100%.

Edited May 26, 2015 by ryano

[Ocean Boy]

Its getting absolutely disgusting that well seasoned cruisers such as yourself can no longer come here and give a negative opinion on something without all the pom pom waving cheerleaders piling all over you :( Absolutely disgusting I tell you. I get to where I despise coming to this place more and more every day.

 

Thank you for sharing your opinions. As I said in the beginning, I echo much of what you said and agree with you 100%.

 

There are plenty of long time posters on this thread with a lot of RCI sailings under their belts that are not waving any pom poms.

[John&LaLa]

If you paid attention over the years you would know that your statement is simply wrong.

 

Ok, I'll bite. What have I missed that proves Royal reads this stuff. For a while they had a company account, but I don't think they have posted more than 100 times in the last year

[OMJ]

Just arrived back in the UK after a week in Clearwater following the 10th-17th cruise.

This was the first time we have sailed with RCCL, normally we use P&O.

I have to agree with a lot of the points made previously, but I am only comparing to P&O who don't have drinks packages (as yet). I did notice a difference in the way I was treated by the staff on RCCL compared to what I am used to. But like has previously been said, they have your money and don't really have to impress you with their service. Sad really, as that is one of the things I enjoy about cruising, being made to feel special.

We too purchased the Premium drinks package, but could not understand why they have to put stickers on the sea-pass. Surely it should flag up on your account when it goes through the till that you are on a package? On several occasions I had the fortune to have to go and see guest services to get drinks removed from my account!! which had 'accidentally been added'. Maybe they do this on purpose and rely on people not checking their account properly until they are home, by this time the consumer can't be bothered to ring up and complain and have the account corrected. Or is that just the cynical side of me coming through.

Having said all this I have to say the Freedom is a beautiful ship and we did really enjoy our week. Maybe this is because of the younger average age of the clientele compared to P&O, but I suppose we can't have everything.

 

I was on this same cruise as OP...my wife & I both had premium drink pkg...together we probably had close to 100 drinks, maybe we were just lucky, but we never had any issues with getting charged for drinks or even getting drinks. We also thought the majority (not all) provided excellent service. We have nothing bad to say about this cruise...just our experience.

[DebJ14]

Oh come on, they were shooting for a future OBC or a free drink package for their next cruise. :):eek:

 

There seem to be some people who complain after every cruise, regardless of the truth, because some lines are very generous with the future cruise discounts or OBC in response to complaints.

 

Back when I was a TA I had someone call wanting to book with one of these certificates. She flat out told me she had a great time on the previous cruise and ALWAYS complained to get the future discounts. I declined her business.

[breeze123]

They said they would share your concerns with the Food and Beverage Manager. Isn't that what you wanted? To make them aware?

 

I do think that voicing your concerns directly to RCCL is the best way to try to initiate change. Also, if only a handful of people on a ship of thousands complain about the service, they are going to take that with a grain of salt. Just like everything else, it's subjective. I wouldn't be surprised if they had some sort of threshold on complaints that needed to be reached before they really did anything about it.

[alfaeric]

We'll here's the reply. They really don't care. It's sad but we will take our business elsewhere.

 

Just to be clear, what response would have meant that they care, other than what they sent you back?

 

 

 

Its getting absolutely disgusting that well seasoned cruisers such as yourself can no longer come here and give a negative opinion on something without all the pom pom waving cheerleaders piling all over you :( Absolutely disgusting I tell you. I get to where I despise coming to this place more and more every day.

 

Thank you for sharing your opinions. As I said in the beginning, I echo much of what you said and agree with you 100%.

 

Well, telling people who don't undertand why the corporate response is that bad that they are terrible cheerleaders is pretty disgusting, too. As I see it.

 

Yes, they may be snarky- but it is realistic to wonder what the OP is looking for in terms of a repsonse.

 

They send a letter commenting on their preception of poor service, and the reply was that 1) service is important, and 2) they passed the comments on to the ship's management.

 

Then the letter apparently mentioned that the drinks were more expensive- and the reply was, yes it is.

 

So it's an open question what makes the answers so evil.

 

I can see going to a different cruise line if you don't like that drinks are more expensive. That makes sense.

[TC1957]

Let's all admit that the response received was really just a form letter. I could have written it myself. We can also admit that they will do very little (if anything) as a result of getting the letter...because there is nothing that can be done. I would even be willing to bet a meaningful sum of money that NOBODY other than the staff person that wrote the response even know the letter exist.

 

On a ship with 3,000 passengers, if 30 send in letters (or emails) with complaints about service, attitudes, quality of food and/or drinks, etc. people at "corporate" will just look at the numbers and say "Wow, 99% of our passengers have no complaints" and continue with the cost cutting measures. Even if they adhere to the old saying that for every one that complains there are ten that feel the same way and say nothing they are still looking at 90% of they passengers being happy.

 

They are so large that it will take a mass migration to lines not owned by the same holding company before they will even consider moving back in the other direction.

[alfaeric]

Let's all admit that the response received was really just a form letter. I could have written it myself. We can also admit that they will do very little (if anything) as a result of getting the letter...because there is nothing that can be done. I would even be willing to bet a meaningful sum of money that NOBODY other than the staff person that wrote the response even know the letter exist.

 

 

So what SHOULD they have written? What answer in a letter would have made you feel better?

 

Especially if you belive that nobody got the feedback that the letter says it will do- which implies that nothing they say will get done.

 

Noting that, what could they have written?

 

And I'm not saying that as if there's nothing that could be done, I'm asking WHAT SHOULD THEY HAVE WRITTEN? What response to the letter would be correct?

[Ocean Boy]

Ok, I'll bite. What have I missed that proves Royal reads this stuff. For a while they had a company account, but I don't think they have posted more than 100 times in the last year

 

There have been times in the past when RCI has responded directly on a thread and other times when RCI has asked Cruise Critic administration to respond on a thread in their behalf. I don't have specific thread examples for you have have zero inclination to do a search. There have also been some CD's from RCI that post here that have said that RCI does monitor the board.

[TC1957]

So what SHOULD they have written? What answer in a letter would have made you feel better?

 

Especially if you belive that nobody got the feedback that the letter says it will do- which implies that nothing they say will get done.

 

Noting that, what could they have written?

 

And I'm not saying that as if there's nothing that could be done, I'm asking WHAT SHOULD THEY HAVE WRITTEN? What response to the letter would be correct?

 

As with the OP (apparently), if it were me and my mind was already set on looking at other cruise options nothing that could have been written would make a difference. That is also why I think the reply was a form letter (maybe glorified form letter if that makes you feel better) because they are basically hearing from a FORMER customer, not an unhappy customer.

 

As for what they should have written...this was fine. It was professional, hit all the corporate talking point on their methodology of the changes, their commitment to good customer service, etc.. I just do not think that a member of Senior Management is going to see complaint letters for less than 1% of the passengers sailing with the company. They might get a summary showing the number of complaints broken down several different ways on a periodic basis.

 

So I will summarize my feelings;

 

1) The letter was appropriate, well written and professional.

2) The highest ranking person that saw the actual note of complaint was the person who composed the letter.

3) There will be no changes even considered as a result of the complaint.

4) There is less than a 50% chance that anyone, above the person who wrote the letter, was or will be made aware of the specific complaints.

5) If anyone actually on the ship that the unhappy customer sailed is given the information it will go no further than the person who received it and no action will be taken.

[alfaeric]

As with the OP (apparently), if it were me and my mind was already set on looking at other cruise options nothing that could have been written would make a difference. That is also why I think the reply was a form letter (maybe glorified form letter if that makes you feel better) because they are basically hearing from a FORMER customer, not an unhappy customer.

 

As for what they should have written...this was fine. It was professional, hit all the corporate talking point on their methodology of the changes, their commitment to good customer service, etc.. I just do not think that a member of Senior Management is going to see complaint letters for less than 1% of the passengers sailing with the company. They might get a summary showing the number of complaints broken down several different ways on a periodic basis.

 

So I will summarize my feelings;

 

1) The letter was appropriate, well written and professional.

2) The highest ranking person that saw the actual note of complaint was the person who composed the letter.

3) There will be no changes even considered as a result of the complaint.

4) There is less than a 50% chance that anyone, above the person who wrote the letter, was or will be made aware of the specific complaints.

5) If anyone actually on the ship that the unhappy customer sailed is given the information it will go no further than the person who received it and no action will be taken.

 

See, that's what I don't understand- how can it be well written and (likely) hit the specific thoughts of the concerned letter, and a form letter at the same time?

 

To me, a form letter would not address specific concerns at all- but more of a just "thank you for sailing with us" kind of reply.

 

The two are very different.

 

Then the assumption of only 1% of managment seeing it- by assuming that, no letter would be good enough. No matter what. If you send a letter under that assumption, then there's no point what so ever in sending a letter in the first place, as the reply would only make you more upset. You have already judged the response to be bad before even sending anything.

 

This for any company.

[John&LaLa]

There have been times in the past when RCI has responded directly on a thread and other times when RCI has asked Cruise Critic administration to respond on a thread in their behalf. I don't have specific thread examples for you have have zero inclination to do a search. There have also been some CD's from RCI that post here that have said that RCI does monitor the board.

 

And I recall a Hotel Director that said they don't follow this foolishness.

I guess I can just give examples like you did and expect everyone to take it as gospel.

 

BTW, what would you suggest I search for - Official responses from Royal Caribbean management?

 

Thanks anyway

Edited May 26, 2015 by John&LaLa

[Ourusualbeach]

And I recall a Hotel Director that said they don't follow this foolishness.

I guess I can just give examples like you did and expect everyone to take it as gospel.

 

BTW, what would you suggest I search for - Official responses from Royal Caribbean management?

 

Thanks anyway

 

Here's all the postings by Royal Caribbean international. They really just answer the fluffy stuff but they do read. Sometimes more regularly than others judging by their posting history.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/search.php?searchid=71961583

[John&LaLa]

Here's all the postings by Royal Caribbean international. They really just answer the fluffy stuff but they do read. Sometimes more regularly than others judging by their posting history.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/search.php?searchid=71961583

 

Thanks for the information, I will try and get caught up. This is what is great about CC community, sharing information in a positive manner

[John&LaLa]

Here's all the postings by Royal Caribbean international. They really just answer the fluffy stuff but they do read. Sometimes more regularly than others judging by their posting history.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/search.php?searchid=71961583

 

no luck for me on the link

 

Sorry - no matches. Please try some different terms.

 

maybe i'll play with it, slow night

[John&LaLa]

There have been times in the past when RCI has responded directly on a thread and other times when RCI has asked Cruise Critic administration to respond on a thread in their behalf. I don't have specific thread examples for you have have zero inclination to do a search. There have also been some CD's from RCI that post here that have said that RCI does monitor the board.

 

And I recall a Hotel Director that said they don't follow this foolishness.

I guess I can just give examples like you did and expect everyone to take it as gospel.

 

BTW, what would you suggest I search for - Official responses from Royal Caribbean management?

 

Thanks anyway

 

I was wrong on the "foolishness" statement, it was " don't have time to read all that stuff" see below. hopefully i will be able to link old posts a little better in teh future. i'm still learning.:o

 

Originally Posted by ckrobyn View Post

Okay, here is the update on lounger cushions straight from Michael Rasmussen - Hotel Director. They were thrown out during drydock and were supposed to have been replaced, but they have yet to receive the shipment. He did not know when they would arrive, but for those of you on the next cruise, you won't have them.

Interesting to note that when I mentioned CC, Michael made it clear that they " don't have time to read all that stuff" and the way he said it made me believe that they don't take it all that seriously, or see it as a forum for helpful feedback. That's too bad.

[Ocean Boy]

And I recall a Hotel Director that said they don't follow this foolishness.

I guess I can just give examples like you did and expect everyone to take it as gospel.

 

BTW, what would you suggest I search for - Official responses from Royal Caribbean management?

 

Thanks anyway

I don't expect anything I write here to be taken as gospel any more than I would give that level of credence to anyone here that I don't know. Feel free to disregard anything I write on these boards if you feel I post unhelpful information.

 

If you want you can read post #39 on this thread. It is a recent one that I can still remember.....

 

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2206241&page=2

Edited May 27, 2015 by Ocean Boy

[Ocean Boy]

And I recall a Hotel Director that said they don't follow this foolishness.

I guess I can just give examples like you did and expect everyone to take it as gospel.

 

BTW, what would you suggest I search for - Official responses from Royal Caribbean management?

 

Thanks anyway

 

Is this the same hotel director that told Robyn that they got rid of the cushions fleet wide and then the ship docked at a port next to Navigator and, what do you know, the loungers on the balconies had cushions?