empress first 6 sailings canelled

[LMaxwell]

Not so much of a red flag. Even if the galley areas weren't such a concern, the majority of the crew would be doing very little, as you can only shove so many people into one area.

 

.

 

Yes, but it was reported the crew had an embargo for posting and the last week or so a lot of crew were suddenly posting quite a bit of recreational activity. If they weren't onboard doing final finishing touches/cleanup, it sort of lead me to believe others were onboard doing more substantial work. Just my line of thought.

 

This is a major black eye for RCI. Surely, SURELY, they knew this was coming more than 5 days before the first re-scheduled revenue cruise...

 

Wonder what their corporate roster on LinkedIn looked like 2 months ago compared to today...

[reallyitsmema]

Yep...my TA confirmed. We were one of the lucky ones to have a second cruise cancelled. This was to be our first...we will absolutely cancel and never set sail with RCI

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

 

I completely understand why you would want to walk away and never sail RCI again. I would suggest you cancel your cruise and take the 100% cruise credit and just walk away for a little while. Time heals and maybe in a little while, you will decide to give it a second try. Look into different ships and choose one that has a track record. Personally, I would stay away from Majesty too, though that might not be a popular opinion.

[Ocean Boy]

I completely understand why you would want to walk away and never sail RCI again. I would suggest you cancel your cruise and take the 100% cruise credit and just walk away for a little while. Time heals and maybe in a little while, you will decide to give it a second try. Look into different ships and choose one that has a track record. Personally, I would stay away from Majesty too, though that might not be a popular opinion.

 

I agree completely.

[Maybug7]

I completely understand why you would want to walk away and never sail RCI again. I would suggest you cancel your cruise and take the 100% cruise credit and just walk away for a little while. Time heals and maybe in a little while, you will decide to give it a second try. Look into different ships and choose one that has a track record. Personally, I would stay away from Majesty too, though that might not be a popular opinion.

 

 

Unfortunately it's not that easy....we have four young kids and jobs that need to be scheduled around. We are still waiting for the refund for the change flight fees for the last canceled cruise $400! Our budget doesn't have any room for this extra $. We splurged because we had never taken a honey moon or vacation and the first cruise was during our 15th anniversary. This next one happened to fall over my birthday. Now we are stuck with flights and no vacation with two weeks notice.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

[beachnative]

Our phone just rang and it is Royal Caribbean calling to tell us that our May 19 Empress cruise is canceled.

 

The details of options will be emailed to us but we were asked if we wanted to hear them over the phone.

 

It disappoints us because we were looking forward to sailing on the Empress but will book something else or stay in Ft. Lauderdale.

 

After 19 years of cruising with Royal Caribbean we are not ones to walk away from them because of a cancellation.

Edited April 20, 2016 by beachnative

[John&LaLa]

Unless she's moved, she wasn't in drydock a few days ago, just alongside a wet berth. And Jewel should be out of the dock by the time Majesty comes along.

 

And remember, USPH deals with far more on the ships than just the galleys, though that's what's being mentioned. It could be A/C, restrooms, pools, water systems, lighting, or even the condition of crew cabins. Though a complete galley gut job would be my suspicion. USPH is so severe with equipment condition that most galley equipment that is perfectly fine for use in shore restaurants, have to have all the screws replaced with special fasteners because both slotted and Phillips screws are difficult to clean the slots. Pullmantur may have replaced equipment over the years, with stuff that doesn't meet USPH standards.

Freedom galley tour in March. There is half an inch of water in almost all the ceiling lights of Appetizers prep area. Tour leader said it was from bakery above. They were working on it. [emoji6]

 

Sent from my HTC One_M8 using Tapatalk

[chengkp75]

I just went back over the timeline, and saw that the transfer of Empress was announced at the beginning of November, along with the announcement that she would have an "extensive" shipyard. So, this tells me that RCI had technical superintendents onboard over 4 months prior to the Cadiz shipyard, yet the failure of equipment and "infrastructure" to meet USPH requirements was not noted until sometime during the Cadiz shipyard? I understand that sometimes you think you can repair something, but when you start to take it out, it shows up more problems (I have a 200 year old house after all), but it seems to me that folks like SeaKing should have been called in to look over the problems long before the Cadiz shipyard, and they could have given time and cost estimates, both for best case and worst case scenarios. It sounds like RCI went with a "best case" scenario, and it bit them in the butt, and now they have a "worst case" situation.

 

But none of this should have resulted in 12 days notice of cancellation (first round) or 5 days (second round), especially when they are talking another month of work (after the original extra month). This is the largest "cluster f" that I've seen in the industry for quite a few years.

[Clarea]

I just went back over the timeline, and saw that the transfer of Empress was announced at the beginning of November, along with the announcement that she would have an "extensive" shipyard. So, this tells me that RCI had technical superintendents onboard over 4 months prior to the Cadiz shipyard, yet the failure of equipment and "infrastructure" to meet USPH requirements was not noted until sometime during the Cadiz shipyard? I understand that sometimes you think you can repair something, but when you start to take it out, it shows up more problems (I have a 200 year old house after all), but it seems to me that folks like SeaKing should have been called in to look over the problems long before the Cadiz shipyard, and they could have given time and cost estimates, both for best case and worst case scenarios. It sounds like RCI went with a "best case" scenario, and it bit them in the butt, and now they have a "worst case" situation.

 

But none of this should have resulted in 12 days notice of cancellation (first round) or 5 days (second round), especially when they are talking another month of work (after the original extra month). This is the largest "cluster f" that I've seen in the industry for quite a few years.

In my business, we would call it a WCCF, meaning World Class.

[midnight sushi]

What is this? The RCI refunds circus

 

 

Edited April 20, 2016 by midnight sushi

[reallyitsmema]

Unfortunately it's not that easy....we have four young kids and jobs that need to be scheduled around. We are still waiting for the refund for the change flight fees for the last canceled cruise $400! Our budget doesn't have any room for this extra $. We splurged because we had never taken a honey moon or vacation and the first cruise was during our 15th anniversary. This next one happened to fall over my birthday. Now we are stuck with flights and no vacation with two weeks notice.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

 

Talk to your TA and see if they can find something that works within your time schedule. You have already made arrangements for kids and work, so see if your TA can help you. Consider going to the Keys or someplace in Southern Florida. You will get a full refund of what you spent, so use it to take that birthday trip.

 

The future cruise credit will be good for either a year or two. Put that aside and decide how to use it later.

[chengkp75]

Freedom galley tour in March. There is half an inch of water in almost all the ceiling lights of Appetizers prep area. Tour leader said it was from bakery above. They were working on it. [emoji6]

 

 

Sent from my HTC One_M8 using Tapatalk

 

Unfortunately more common than it should be, but trust me they were working on it. The problem is that in the galley areas, the piping for a given deck runs in the overhead space of the deck below, along with the electrical cables and ventilation ducting, and the one place the ceiling isn't completely sealed is where the cable enters the light fixture (you'll note that the fixture is sealed to the ceiling). USPH requirements limit the number of access hatches that can be in walls and ceilings, so we typically rely on the almost universal Filipino plumber (5'2 and 110lbs) who can snake himself 40' through an area at most 2' high, over and under cables and ductwork, to find the leak, and then we have to prefabricate new sections, and feed this and the tools necessary via the same path to him.

 

The NCL Pride of Aloha/Norwegian Sky galleys had their piping so bad, we ended up taking down the entire galley ceilings to access and renew all the piping at one time. What a nitemare that was.

[alexkrn46]

Unfortunately it's not that easy....we have four young kids and jobs that need to be scheduled around. We are still waiting for the refund for the change flight fees for the last canceled cruise $400! Our budget doesn't have any room for this extra $. We splurged because we had never taken a honey moon or vacation and the first cruise was during our 15th anniversary. This next one happened to fall over my birthday. Now we are stuck with flights and no vacation with two weeks notice.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

 

I feel horrible for you. Does the Independence or Enchantment have any openings or other cruise lines...........

[Sunkissed Mommy]

I feel bad for the people who have now had two cancellations and the people from out of town who now have to deal with airfare/ hotel issues. It sucks. it really does. Royal messed up. 5 days notice (even 12 days) is not acceptable.

 

I do think they are doing things a bit differently this time though. Im on hold at the moment to switch my cruise (I live in S Florida so I am fortunate that I dont have air/hotel complications) and they are offering a bit better deal than the last round of cancellations. Switching us to same category on Enchantment (phew, I got a steal on a JSon Empress the day it opened) and a nice OBC. I can't comment on taking care of air/hotel because it does not apply to me.

 

I am hoping they take care of those inconvenienced by this. I dont blame the people who never want to deal with Royal again. First impressions mean a lot.

[OTownNick]

The $10mm cost over run really sucks, but there's also lost revenue. It will hurt their forecast for the next quarter, so I'm not happy about that as a shareholder. I HOPE heads will roll over this fiasco. It's easy to second guess now, but it's obvious something like this should have been handled differently..

 

I'm booked on Majesty for 5/27 and I'm sure it's not goin to be canceled!! Now I'm wondering if they will try to make up the extra $10mm by cutting the MJ refurbishments (or other ships) a little more?

[John&LaLa]

Nice, the cool thing was you could see the movement of the ship in the water. I just assumed the cover was to protect the bulbs

[Ocean Boy]

Freedom galley tour in March. There is half an inch of water in almost all the ceiling lights of Appetizers prep area. Tour leader said it was from bakery above. They were working on it. [emoji6]

 

 

Sent from my HTC One_M8 using Tapatalk

 

I am surprised that they didn't confiscate your camera for taking that picture.:D

[ctsharpie05]

Call now...Cancel...And be done with it

 

I would love to but I would only get a 50% refund. I am just going to plan a different vacation that week so if we get cancelled I won't have to worry.

[beachnative]

Our phone just rang and it is Royal Caribbean calling to tell us that our May 19 Empress cruise is canceled.

 

The details of options will be emailed to us but we were asked if we wanted to hear them over the phone.

 

It disappoints us because we were looking forward to sailing on the Empress but will book something else or stay in Ft. Lauderdale.

 

After 19 years of cruising with Royal Caribbean we are not ones to walk away from them because of a cancellation.

 

I just got off the phone with a delightful "Re-accomodation" agent.

 

We switched to the Enchantment 4-day sailing May 16 for the same VERY LOW price that we paid for the Empress and received a $100 on-board-credit added to our current on-board-credit….and we'll still go to both Coco Cay and Key West (plus Nassau…not a favorite:eek:).

 

We are NOT unhappy. We'll book the Empress for a later date and sail on her to Cuba.:)

Edited April 20, 2016 by beachnative

[reallyitsmema]

I would love to but I would only get a 50% refund. I am just going to plan a different vacation that week so if we get cancelled I won't have to worry.

 

Have you called and asked them to work with you? You might get someone who is sympathetic.

[djandnic]

Now after being cancelled for the second time within 10 days of leaving, I am officially done with RC!

 

If they can't manage and inspect their process any better than this, and then on top of it screw over people, now some of us twice, I bet I can find a better cruise line than this! :mad::mad::mad::mad:

 

See ya RC, I hope it was worth losing a twice or more a year cruiser!!!

[Sunkissed Mommy]

I just got off the phone with a delightful "Re-accomodation" agent.

 

We switched to the Enchantment 4-day sailing May 16 for the same VERY LOW price that we paid for the Empress and received a $100 on-board-credit added to our current on-board-credit….and we'll still go to both Coco Cay and Key West (plus Nassau…not a favorite:eek:).

 

We are NOT unhappy. We'll book the Empress for a later date and sail on her to Cuba.:)

 

See you onboard :)

We also switched to this date and got a nice OBC, we're booked in a JS so I am guessing the amount is different depending on the type of room.

[Sunbeachfun14]

I would love to but I would only get a 50% refund. I am just going to plan a different vacation that week so if we get cancelled I won't have to worry.

 

I am on the same cruise as you (June 11). I just looked at my cancellation policy online and it says until April 29 it's a $100 per person fee. I am very seriously thinking of taking it and moving on. There's a NCL cruise that leaves June 11 I'm looking at instead. I will pay a little more but it's a 7 night instead of 5 and they have several promotions. I don't want to get to the end of May and be stuck with a cancellation. Good luck to all.

[coaster]

Wow, what the heck happened to this ship while it was away from RCI?

 

 

One of the many videos out there. Search Navio Empress on You Tube. Young crowd in every video I have viewed on cruises that included alcohol. Ship apparently took a heck of a beating and neglect under Pullmantur.

 

Edited April 20, 2016 by coaster

[seaweavers]

Just switched to Enchantment for May 6. It's only a three-night cruise but we got a grand suite for close to the price of junior suite on Empress plus the on board credit. Just really bummed because we wanted to go to Key West, which is why we booked that one. No other dates work for us, so back to Nassau we go. Just one night away from diamond!

[John&LaLa]

I am surprised that they didn't confiscate your camera for taking that picture.:D

 

He acted like it was no big deal. I was the one that pointed it out as I was taking the photo