Beware of Booking RCCL MIA/FLL Post-Excursions w/ Airport Transport

[JaneStarr]

Great Idea In Theory when you have a late flight to book an excursion which drops you (and your baggage) at either MIA or FLL, but...

 

My family has been sitting in FLL airport since 10:30 a.m. for our 6:44 p.m. flight (which is now delayed again). We debarked Brilliance OTS at 7:30 A.M. as instructed on our Excursion Tickets. We were supposed to be on a tour of the Everglades before being dropped at the airport late afternoon.

 

RCCL messed up the baggage handling...somebody "in authority" had "Red" tagged bags bump priority 2 Lavender (early tours) and they never did put them out until 2 hrs after waiting...No RCCL rep in terminal to help...nobody cared about our tour w/ airport & luggage transfers..Porter was only one to help...went out back to find all the Lav. tagged bags stacked on luggage carts in back...never put on conveyor..Blue tags put out in sequence after skipping most Lavender. At least 12 passengers were affected.

 

By 9:30 a.m., when we got past customs, RCCL Pier Coordinator (or whatever his title) was not empathetic at all. "Your tour left at 8:45 a.m. w/o you. You were late...You will need to pay for Greyhound bus to airport (5 extra hours early) and then call 'tour company' 800 number for refund." There were two groups of 4 in our family (both FLL and MIA ending point) plus at least 2 groups of 4 and 2 who got left behind. Pre-paid tour booked through RCCL which included luggage and transfer to airport left w/o at least 18 paid passengers due to RCCL baggage issue.

 

Somehow, they did end up waiving the additional Greyhound bus airport transport fee.

 

Thanks a LOT, RCCL! We totally followed directions: bags all tagged and out in hallway at proper time last night. We all debarked as instructed on pre-paid RCCL post-tour Everglades 8:30 tour tickets with at 7:30 a.m. departure listed from 5th deck Pacifica Theatre.

 

I emailed details to Crown & Anchor contact. Will post follow-up with results.

 

JaneStarr

[cruisinfanatic]

Sorry you missed the tour. You shouldn't have any problem getting refunded. Just Call the post cruise phone when you get home. Royal Caribbean owes you the money, not the tour. Now, what went right with your cruise?

[CruisinDawn]

Do you have to collect your bags then go to the bus? We have an La excursion after our Monarch and have never done a post cruise tour before.

 

BonVoyage

Dawna

[combine]

Yes, you MUSt collect your luggage yourself from the area inside the building and then take it outside to the relevant tour bus. There were people on our Evergaldes tour that arrived at the airport with no luggage. They had thought it would be done automatically.

[CruisinDawn]

Yes, you MUSt collect your luggage yourself from the area inside the building and then take it outside to the relevant tour bus. There were people on our Evergaldes tour that arrived at the airport with no luggage. They had thought it would be done automatically.

Thanks :D

[tocanada]

Some of us had the same problem when we got of Brilliance in November after the transatlantic crossing. We had the correct lavender tags but some of our bags did not appear. A tour rep told us that our 2 hour Miami tour was about to leave and we were told to forget about our luggage and get on the bus. They took us on the tour, then brought us back to the terminal where our bags were found and then we were taken on a different bus out to the airport. On this bus, I met one person who missed the tour completely and was very upset that the tour rep had not tried harder to find everyone booked for the tour.

 

The tour was great and I am glad I did it but it was a frustrating experience after a wonderful cruise.

[JaneStarr]

Sorry you missed the tour. You shouldn't have any problem getting refunded. Just Call the post cruise phone when you get home. Royal Caribbean owes you the money, not the tour. Now, what went right with your cruise?

 

Point is not just the $58 x 4 = $232.

We all spent 2 hours waiting for bags that were apparently bypassed intentionally by "someone in authority from RCCL"" plus an additional 3 hours at airport (in addition to unaviodable 'planned' airport time and flight delays). NOBODY was available to us to resolve problem before it was too late. This is just unacceptable and poor customer service!

 

Outside, RCCL Pier Coordinator implied we were at fault for "being late". We spent 5 hours that were supposed to be on tour in the pier terminal and at the airport with all our luggage. This left a bad final memory. I am usually very satisfied sailing RCCL (even at holiday time), but this cruise just did not "come together" well for us. I'm not blaming anybody in particular, but Murphy's Law seemed to be in effect (except for smooth travel to the ship by all 18 family members on 12/23 from various locales).

 

I refused to let a bunch of little annoyances spoil my trip, but RCCL still needs to be accountable for better communication & customer service.

 

BTW, we had GORGEOUS weather!

 

Jane

[cruisinfanatic]

Point is not just the $58 x 4 = $232.

We all spent 2 hours waiting for bags that were apparently bypassed intentionally by "someone in authority from RCCL"" plus an additional 3 hours at airport (in addition to unaviodable 'planned' airport time and flight delays). NOBODY was available to us to resolve problem before it was too late. This is just unacceptable and poor customer service!

 

Outside, RCCL Pier Coordinator implied we were at fault for "being late". We spent 5 hours that were supposed to be on tour in the pier terminal and at the airport with all our luggage. This left a bad final memory. I am usually very satisfied sailing RCCL (even at holiday time), but this cruise just did not "come together" well for us. I'm not blaming anybody in particular, but Murphy's Law seemed to be in effect (except for smooth travel to the ship by all 18 family members on 12/23 from various locales).

 

I refused to let a bunch of little annoyances spoil my trip, but RCCL still needs to be accountable for better communication & customer service.

 

BTW, we had GORGEOUS weather!

 

Jane

Your bags are not handled by Royal Caribbean employees after they leave the ship, so why do you say that Royal caribbean did anything intentionally

[GarysGirl]

I don't balme RCI for this, but I have to add a warning about checking your bags in with American Airlines at the Miami pier in order to avoid having to lug them to the airport. When we returned from our cruise this past Monday, we checked our bags in with American Airlines representatives at the pier at about 9:00 am for a 3:15 flight. Our flight ended up being delayed for almost 4 hours due to weather in Chicago, during which time the plane was sitting at the gate in Miami. Despite all the time they should have had to load luggage onto the plane, ours never got there! Of course, we had to wait in line at the baggage claim for over an hour to be informed that they didn't know where our luggage was but that it would "probably" be coming in on the next flight, and we could hang around for another hour to see. After already arriving four hours late, we didn't so much feel like waiting on the chance that our luggage would come, so we ended up getting the luggage late the next evening. The worst part is, this is exactly what happened to us the last time we checked our luggage with American at the pier! We obviously won't be doing that again.

[katiebeth]

cruisinfanatic,

 

Give Jane a break, she has a very valid concern. I don't blame her at all for being uspset. It sounds like poor customer service on RCCL part. Jane did what she was suppose to do. She is right about the refund, it was the time and the inconvenience and the lack of customer service that were the bigger issues.

 

I am mostly on Celebrity boards, but it is a shame that very reasonable people can't have a legitimate concern without others being critical. (happens on Celebrity as well). There are some that don't want to hear anything negative whatsoever about about someones cruise experience.

 

I love Celebrity and have great experiences on RCCL as well. However, I think it is helpful to share both positives and negatives about our cruise experiences as others can learn from it. I think fair and balanced is the key. Obviously there are those that are way too "nitpicky" and are looking for something to go wrong, but most cruisers I believe try to be reasonable and fair.

 

Happy Sailing,

 

Nancy

[JaneStarr]

I don't understand your question. Maybe RCCL loses direct control of the bags once they leave the ship (I don't know because there was nobody from RCCL to explain to us and they have not yet answered my inquiry/request for refund).

I do know the following:

RCCL set up the color-coded baggage tagging, they sold us the prepaid excursion, their pier coordinator(outside) implied we were at fault for missing the excursion (along with a bunch of other passengers) even though it was totally out of our hands. They had no customer liaison inside the terminal to approach for help or at least an explanation.

Frankly, I feel it should be up to RCCL to find a way to avoid this problem or stop taking money for post-cruise excursions that they can't fulfill.

 

A little bit of customer service would've gone a long way here. I do understand that some things may be out of RCCL's control, but their lack of accountability is unacceptable.

I feel that they dropped the ball on customer service because they were just interested in "rushing us" off the ship to get ready for the next group. A bunch of us were left with a negative final impression because of this. This is the reality of the situation. I am not asking for a free cruise or anything extreme, but I resent being told to contact "tour company" for refund of money paid online through RCCL ShoreEx site.

[JaneStarr]

I don't balme RCI for this, but I have to add a warning about checking your bags in with American Airlines at the Miami pier in order to avoid having to lug them to the airport. When we returned from our cruise this past Monday, we checked our bags in with American Airlines representatives at the pier at about 9:00 am for a 3:15 flight. Our flight ended up being delayed for almost 4 hours due to weather in Chicago, during which time the plane was sitting at the gate in Miami. Despite all the time they should have had to load luggage onto the plane, ours never got there! Of course, we had to wait in line at the baggage claim for over an hour to be informed that they didn't know where our luggage was but that it would "probably" be coming in on the next flight, and we could hang around for another hour to see. After already arriving four hours late, we didn't so much feel like waiting on the chance that our luggage would come, so we ended up getting the luggage late the next evening. The worst part is, this is exactly what happened to us the last time we checked our luggage with American at the pier! We obviously won't be doing that again.

 

 

LOL, I can "Top that"...but I don't really hold anyone accountable for this. Our Delta flight from FLL to ATL and connection to ATL were both delayed. They even changed our terminal & gate at ATL at midnight creating a mass sprint through the huge airport. We didn't get home to BDL until after 3 a.m. and then waited an hour to report our bags as missing. One of our 8 bags seems to be lost for good as of Friday. The other bags arrived in group of 3 and 4 on Wednesday afternoon and very early Thurs a.m. At least Delta has communications in place (online missing baggage tracking as well as toll-free number) and answers email inquiries in a timely and polite manner.

 

See, cruisinfanatic, I am basically a reasonable person.

 

Jane, who still plans to cruise RCCL but would like to see improvements

[JaneStarr]

After almost 3 wks w/ no reply from C&A to my email, I emailed Adam Goldstein (President, RCI) & Richard Fain (Chairman & CEO, RCCL). The very next business day, I received an impressive & thorough reply from Corp. Guest Relations on behalf of the executive officers.

I am satisified that my pre-payment is being credited to my credit card and that RCI "cares" that our departure experience reflects poorly on their company. The apology sounded sincere, and they promised to forward the concerns mentioned in my correspondence to "appropriate management personnel". I hope that they really do re-evaluate their departure procedures and at least add some sort of RCI Pier Coordinator support inside the terminal to provide assistance & communication. At this point, I still would not book another one of these debarkation day excursions --not without way more information as to what went wrong and how it will be prevented in the future.

 

In addition, they are sending me some sort of "special goodwill savings certificates" for "use on a future Royal Caribbean cruise". I'm not sure what this means (probably only useful if I book another cruise in addition to the July 1 Jewel Baltic Cruise already booked under the right terms??), but I didn't ask for extra compensation. It was a nice gesture, at the very least.

 

They are also passing along my kudos about the concierge to the Hotel Manager and "commending" her. It sounds like corporate is at least "listening".

 

Jane