Royal Caribbean do not do weddings! Run as far away as possible!

[charlieselwyn]

The communication that the other members of the OP's group needed to contact their travel agent(s) to cancel says it was just the OP's booking that was canceled.

 

If the cruise had been canceled for all passengers the OP would have had a different first post.

 

That is not correct, RC cancelled all members of our party.

[charlieselwyn]

The Spa and Salon are NOT part of Royal Caribbean, they are an independent concessionaire. If you wanted to talk to the salon manager you should have contacted Mandara Spa corporate (if that is the company running the salon) and work through it that way.

 

I think you did not realize that the wedding services of the contracted company do allow for a lot of customization. Also seems a bit unfair to block out other passengers from the Chef's Table when it is a public cruise.

 

RC did not mention this to us that the spa and salon are not part of RC.

 

We were happy to buy out the chef's table so we could have a private meal after our wedding.

 

Is that unfair for other guests?

[charlieselwyn]

Are there any other cruises sailing out from that port on that same day? Maybe you can book with them.

 

 

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I think there was a Carnival cruise but we didn't want the same scenario to occur with Carnival (not saying that it would).

[charlieselwyn]

If OP mentioned possible forthcoming litigation, said anything like, “You’ll be hearing from my attorney” or otherwise led the RCI team to believe a lawsuit might be coming, it might be corporate policy to cancel any business the complainant has.

 

Back when I worked in a call center for a large corporation, if a caller said anything like the above we were to terminate the call with a canned spiel about being unable to continue this conversation and no further contact would be permitted until the customer submitted a letter stating they would not bring a lawsuit. Otherwise the only department they could be in contact with was Legal.

 

Most callers would calm down considerably when presented with this information but we did have a number of hotheads that couldn’t see reason and ended up on our blacklist. It’s just a bad business practice to continue to interact with anyone who has said they will sue you, even if they stand zero chance of actually winning.

 

 

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Just so you are aware, this was only mentioned after we had been told that our wedding and cruise had been cancelled by RC not before. Why would we need to take legal action on our wedding and cruise?

[charlieselwyn]

Yep. Lots of companies have that policy. It basically tells the neutral observer all they need to know. I'm sure RCL couldn't get things in order on their end, but that letter pretty much confirms that some heated things were said by OP as well and once there was a threat of litigation, boom. Cancel everything and let Legal deal with any further contact.

 

Again, no legal action was even mentioned before we were told that our wedding and cruise had been cancelled.

[charlieselwyn]

I doubt we'll hear from OP again. He hasn't posted in some time. I know there is more to this story; I just don't think we'll ever hear it. ;)

.

 

And what more is there to this story! What is it that you guys keep trying to did for? Not sure why everyone on here is picking holes in our story but if you don't believe us then that is your opinion! Feel free to spend your own free time in contact RC to find out more information but there is no more information to find and I have proved everything we said with communication from RC.

[charlieselwyn]

I used to deal with people like this on a regular basis( wedding registry coordinator for a national department Store chain.

 

they may swear up one side and down the other that they were nice and polite and had minimal questions and requests, but the reality was.. a good 85% of the time an outside observer would call it excessive demands that would ultimately never please the customer in the first place no matter what the company and its employees did. so we 'fired' them as customers.

 

Is asking to speak to the salon an "excessive demand" and we were told by the team in the UK that this would be possible! The wedding team also told us that it was possible to book out the chef's table otherwise we wouldn't have asked for it!.

[charlieselwyn]

I've been coordinating weddings "on the side" "for fun" for a few years. Funny thing happened when I finished my Master's and you'd think I'd had more time to coordinate weddings "for fun": I STOPPED. It is not a job for the faint of heart. So many people to please and so much emotion. When you're a project manager you can present facts. But often with a bride or her family you get the emotional response of "it's her day and she should get what she wants." Oh boy. Let's call in the flying peacocks to spell out the bride and groom's names in the air at precisely 4:12 pm.

 

It always went like this when we'd meet at her friend's wedding:

OMG! You're so great!! Will you do my wedding?

Then I'd ask for specifics - Date and Time? Do you want me for the whole day or just the ceremony or what? I coordinate - I don't plan.

Never failed - I need you oh just for the ceremony part which is at 4. So let's say 3-6.

Send payment and all done

Oh wait. Can you come when I get my hair done and when the caterers get there - so now can you be here at 9 am that morning?

Oh can you stay and meet the rental company that will be there at 11:30 pm to pick up everything?

Oh can you do rehearsal dinner?

Oh can you come meet the DJ?

Oh can you come look at the venue?

Oh can you come meet the caterers?

Oh I've changed my mind. Can you meet me at a different venue?

 

The final straw was when I had the groomsmen be really nasty to me and refuse to practice during rehearsal that night. You said yes to the groom to be a part of his wedding. It doesn't mean just drinking beer at the reception.

 

Yeah, totally done. I can only imagine what it's like on a cruise line......

 

Not sure how relevant this is.

[spookwife]

RC did not mention this to us that the spa and salon are not part of RC.

 

We were happy to buy out the chef's table so we could have a private meal after our wedding.

 

Is that unfair for other guests?

 

 

yes if Royal was not giving you an ADDITIONAL reservation on top of the ones that are normally available to all passengers. if Chef;'s table is only offered on sea days( no idea, but as an example) unless they offer to seat you on a different day or time then you are depriving the rest of the passengers the opportunity to book the publicly available seats.

[charlieselwyn]

yes if Royal was not giving you an ADDITIONAL reservation on top of the ones that are normally available to all passengers. if Chef;'s table is only offered on sea days( no idea, but as an example) unless they offer to seat you on a different day or time then you are depriving the rest of the passengers the opportunity to book the publicly available seats.

 

That is the decision RC came up with not us! We just agreed with them about that idea! It wouldn't be possible for any public seats to be available as we had booked all the seats and paid for them all.

[spookwife]

Is asking to speak to the salon an "excessive demand" and we were told by the team in the UK that this would be possible! The wedding team also told us that it was possible to book out the chef's table otherwise we wouldn't have asked for it!.

 

 

your attitude and how your made your requests are key. you may claim til the cows come home that you were polite and non confrontational. but the reality is, other people probably didn't see it that way.

 

did it ever occur to you that the team in the UK was WRONG?! as for the chef's table, final authority on that rests with the Food and Beverage manager and they absolutely have the right to deny a private dinner if you are demanding a time and date not reasonably accommodated due to the chef's commitment elsewhere .

 

many times things can ONLY be arranged on board. if that is unacceptable to you, for whatever reason, the cruise line is not at fault and should not be expected to disregard that just because you want them to.

 

bottom line is, some customers will never be pleased no matter how much a vendor/company/ manager bends over backwards for them. and they just decide it is less trouble to say sorry, but we cannot accommodate you.

[jessykaw]

I think there was a Carnival cruise but we didn't want the same scenario to occur with Carnival (not saying that it would).

 

 

 

Not sure of Carnival’s itinerary, but you could possibly book a port wedding privately. Would depend on port times. Also, it would need to not be a tendered port as those sometimes get cancelled. Cruise weddings tend to be pretty cookie cutter. Kind of just show up and “do it”. Using a private company in a port would allow for more personalization.

 

 

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[charlieselwyn]

your attitude and how your made your requests are key. you may claim til the cows come home that you were polite and non confrontational. but the reality is, other people probably didn't see it that way.

 

did it ever occur to you that the team in the UK was WRONG?! as for the chef's table, final authority on that rests with the Food and Beverage manager and they absolutely have the right to deny a private dinner if you are demanding a time and date not reasonably accommodated due to the chef's commitment elsewhere .

 

many times things can ONLY be arranged on board. if that is unacceptable to you, for whatever reason, the cruise line is not at fault and should not be expected to disregard that just because you want them to.

 

bottom line is, some customers will never be pleased no matter how much a vendor/company/ manager bends over backwards for them. and they just decide it is less trouble to say sorry, but we cannot accommodate you.

 

That may have been the case but the team in the US didn't say it couldn't be done! We never demanded any time or date, we just picked from what was available to book and this was confirmed.

 

We were aware of this and this was something that we could book online and did book.

 

That doesn't work when we only asked a few questions and yet people from all different teams kept giving us different answers.

[charlieselwyn]

Not sure of Carnival’s itinerary, but you could possibly book a port wedding privately. Would depend on port times. Also, it would need to not be a tendered port as those sometimes get cancelled. Cruise weddings tend to be pretty cookie cutter. Kind of just show up and “do it”. Using a private company in a port would allow for more personalization.

 

 

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Yeah that is what we thought, it's a shame they didn't just sell us that instead of leading us down this path and promising us things that were not going to be possible.

 

We are going to arrange something much closer to home.

[Underwatr]

That is not correct, RC cancelled all members of our party.

Just going by what you told us they had told you.

 

Additionally, I understand you have requested me to cancel the reservations, flights and remaining holiday arrangements for your wedding attendees. Unfortunately, they will need to reach out to their respective travel agents to make these changes. I apologize for any frustration this may cause.

 

But perhaps there were messages from Royal Caribbean other than what you've shared here. That's OK.

 

But I think my earlier post was replying to someone's question whether Royal Caribbean had canceled the cruise altogether, not just for members of your wedding party.

 

 

 

[sanger727]

The Royal Caribbean representatives at the end of the phone in a crisis are obnoxious, arrogant and delight in their power to make the little people suffer whilst they sit on their big piles of money congratulating themselves on the misery they spread.

 

 

OP, I don’t know what the whole story is but it’s statements like this that cast your version into doubt. Do you really believe that anyone in the cruise business or the wedding business delights in and congratulates themselves on spreading misery?

 

This is an extreme exaggeration and has everything to do with you and your emotionally charged view right now and nothing to do with them. Which casts doubt that the entire issue is more to do with you than them.

 

I won’t pretend to be an expert on the cruise wedding business but I am an expert on conflict resolution. There are 3 sides to every story; ‘yours’, ‘theirs’, and the truth lays somewhere in between. They did not cancel your wedding for asking too many questions and I think deep down you know that. If you can figure out why they did cancel your wedding you may have success moving forward with legal action.

 

 

 

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[CruiseGal999]

Care to clarify what you mean?

 

There's 2 sides to every story. Sometimes 3. The OPs 'story', RC story & the REAL/truth story. That usually lies somewhere in the middle of all the emotional hype.

[CruiseGal999]

This is what Royal Caribbean have on their notes but we were not sent this via email.

***

From the notation on your booking it appears that we've made multiple attempts to help establish your wedding, fulfill your requests, and ensure you had the best possible experience. I'm so sorry these efforts fell short. It appears a decision has been made to no longer conduct business with you as we're unable to fit your needs. You've been advised that the other members of your group are booked with travel agencies and can communicate with us on cancelling if they choose, as we're still within the final payment window. These responses have come from multiple members of our management and executive teams. I apologize for these experiences.

***

No legal action can actually be taken against companies like this as they have a the ability to cancel the cruise at any point and for any reason.

 

We are not trying to pull the wool over anyones eyes or fabricate a story that we have made up.

 

My partner and I have spent months back and forward trying to plan the perfect wedding and Royal Caribbean told us that their best was not good enough, even though their employees were capable of actioning our requests (we have an email to prove this).

 

Happy to share as much information as you like if you still don't believe what we are saying but we are sharing our experience to warn other people that this is the service we have received and want other people to be aware of how Royal Caribbean has treated their customers.

 

It appears that you are somewhat of a Bridezilla and RC clearly saw that no matter WHAT they did .... it was not and would not be good enough. They logically cut their losses to save a day of misery knowing you would not be happy on THE day. Now, again, it appears that you are having a tantrum and if you can't sue them (as it's been stated), you will villify them in social media to get your revenge.

 

Seems like RC was VERY smart and whatever crystal ball their using ... it's dead on.

[ricew001]

It appears that you are somewhat of a Bridezilla and RC clearly saw that no matter WHAT they did .... it was not and would not be good enough. They logically cut their losses to save a day of misery knowing you would not be happy on THE day. Now, again, it appears that you are having a tantrum and if you can't sue them (as it's been stated), you will villify them in social media to get your revenge.

 

Seems like RC was VERY smart and whatever crystal ball their using ... it's dead on.

 

My post that the OP said she didn't see how it was relevant - that's how it was relevant. Brides can be very hard to please and I never backed out, although I wish I had on several occasions. I was a one woman show; I can only imagine how difficult it is for a cruise line to meet the demands of brides who are picky. I've seen a few brides who are like I have my gown whatever else happens it's all good. But seems like this person had a lot of demands based on that email from RC.

 

No matter what, I'm sorry it didn't go her way but like someone else said, the emotion seen in several of these posts tend to shed some light on what RC was experiencing. I'm sure they didn't do everything right either, however. Like someone else said - 3 sides to the story.

[SuiteTraveler]

My recommendation to the original poster is that they and their guests use their airline tickets all fly into whatever city they were going to embark the ship from, have their wedding there on land and then afterwards go on honeymoon wherever they want. Their guests can still use their plane tickets and the refund from the cruise for a nice vacation or to go on another cruise from the same or another close by port. What I wouldn't do if I were the wedding couple is waste time bemoaning what has occurred or waste money and time pursuing legal action. It is over and done with. Life is too short to waste time on something like this.

[charlieselwyn]

Just going by what you told us they had told you.

 

Additionally, I understand you have requested me to cancel the reservations, flights and remaining holiday arrangements for your wedding attendees. Unfortunately, they will need to reach out to their respective travel agents to make these changes. I apologize for any frustration this may cause.

 

But perhaps there were messages from Royal Caribbean other than what you've shared here. That's OK.

 

But I think my earlier post was replying to someone's question whether Royal Caribbean had canceled the cruise altogether, not just for members of your wedding party.

 

That is how they word their emails to make it sounds like RC are being helpful when RC are not actually helping anyone.

 

Yes RC cancelled the cruise for our entire party.

[charlieselwyn]

OP, I don’t know what the whole story is but it’s statements like this that cast your version into doubt. Do you really believe that anyone in the cruise business or the wedding business delights in and congratulates themselves on spreading misery?

 

This is an extreme exaggeration and has everything to do with you and your emotionally charged view right now and nothing to do with them. Which casts doubt that the entire issue is more to do with you than them.

 

I won’t pretend to be an expert on the cruise wedding business but I am an expert on conflict resolution. There are 3 sides to every story; ‘yours’, ‘theirs’, and the truth lays somewhere in between. They did not cancel your wedding for asking too many questions and I think deep down you know that. If you can figure out why they did cancel your wedding you may have success moving forward with legal action.

 

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We do believe this as this is what RC and their wedding team decided.

 

If you don't believe us then that is fine, feel free to book your wedding with RC and their team and feel free to let me know how that goes.

 

Well RC did cancel our wedding and cruise.

 

No legal action can be taken because RC have the ability to cancel at any time for any reason (this is in their terms and conditions).

[charlieselwyn]

There's 2 sides to every story. Sometimes 3. The OPs 'story', RC story & the REAL/truth story. That usually lies somewhere in the middle of all the emotional hype.

 

We are sharing our experience with RC and their wedding team.

 

Everyone has their own experience dealing with companies and this is our experience.

 

There is a facebook group called wedding brides (or something like that) and my partner received over 30+ people who had experienced the same poor service.

[charlieselwyn]

It appears that you are somewhat of a Bridezilla and RC clearly saw that no matter WHAT they did .... it was not and would not be good enough. They logically cut their losses to save a day of misery knowing you would not be happy on THE day. Now, again, it appears that you are having a tantrum and if you can't sue them (as it's been stated), you will villify them in social media to get your revenge.

 

Seems like RC was VERY smart and whatever crystal ball their using ... it's dead on.

 

We asked for nothing that was impossible and RC clearly do not like people asking questions.

 

We are sharing our experience of what happened when we booked our wedding with RC.

 

Everyone is entitled to their own opinion and feel free to continue like we did and not listen to people experiences.

 

Nothing wrong with sharing what happened to us so people are aware of how big companies like this treat the little people.

[charlieselwyn]

My post that the OP said she didn't see how it was relevant - that's how it was relevant. Brides can be very hard to please and I never backed out, although I wish I had on several occasions. I was a one woman show; I can only imagine how difficult it is for a cruise line to meet the demands of brides who are picky. I've seen a few brides who are like I have my gown whatever else happens it's all good. But seems like this person had a lot of demands based on that email from RC.

 

No matter what, I'm sorry it didn't go her way but like someone else said, the emotion seen in several of these posts tend to shed some light on what RC was experiencing. I'm sure they didn't do everything right either, however. Like someone else said - 3 sides to the story.

 

We knew that certain things could not be changed as we were planning to get married on a cruise but to ask questions and then be treated like this by RC is not correct.

 

RC may think they are doing their "best" but that is just a way of saying that they don't want to deal with us anymore and it's better just to cancel everything (that way we have no leg to stand on and no experience to share, as it never happened).

 

We didn't have a long list of demands and nothing we asked for couldn't have been sorted (RC confirmed what we had asked for direct from the spa team after they had cancelled our cruise.