Need some perspective

[Sittin'OnTheDock]

What is important to one person isn't always important to another.

 

That being said, the flowrider is important to the OP. And even if the flowrider isn't important to me, it is an issue if problems aren't addressed in a timely manner.

 

The flowrider is not rocket repair and shouldn't be down for long periods. Its main mechanical components are pumps and piping...kinda simple once it's dialed in.

 

Royal has been running flowriders long enough to have the spare parts figured out. Sounds like someone dropped the ball.

[momofmab]

I agree - it shouldn't be hard to keep spare pumps and piping on board. I think the crew should be 100% honest about what's happening with the repair. If they have no intent to repair for the entire week, don't tell passengers, "We're working on it." Be honest and tell them that they don't have the parts and can't get them at any of the ports - the guests can then move on and not have false hope that it will be fixed. I'm always so much more annoyed when the airlines lie about multiple delays when they know a plane just isn't going to fly that day because they don't have a crew. Just tell me upfront and I'll rent a car.

 

There's definitely no guarantee that anything is going to happen as it's supposed to on a cruise (or on a land vacation). While I would never book a cruise just for a Flowrider, I may book a cruise for a specific port of call and if that port gets canceled, I would be similarly disappointed. I don't think it would ruin my whole cruise but if it were a bucket list port, it may take me a couple of days to get over it.

 

I wonder how much it would cost to put a Flowrider in your backyard?

[sparks1093]

By saying "we're working on it" what they very well may mean is "we're waiting for parts to get here", and in any event the person running the flow rider probably had no information about the maintenance issue anyway. Things do break and they can't carry every part with them that might break. I can certainly understand your concern but if your only interest is a flow rider it might be better to go to a water park with one.

[RaleighDavid]

I have 2 conflicting perspectives - yup I'm like that :)

 

Perspective 1:

F

Royal Caribbean

Flowriders have been on ships for years. They have them on 13 ships with a total of 16 Flowriders. At this point they should have maintenance and repair down to a science. Spares packages should be available at key ports for when these failures happen. In addition, staff should be able to relate to guests in a way that indicates they understand the frustration and are empathetic to the situation. Furthermore if a Flowrider goes down on a ship with 2, they should increase the open hours of the remaining Flowrider to try to handle the extra demand and/or perhaps offer a discount for private / semi-private time.

 

If it were me I would have gone to Guest Services and requested a free private booking at the Flowrider for my family.

 

 

Perspective 2: Ship Happens

I am a planner. Contingencies are my life. I never go anywhere without 2 or 3 backup plans in case something goes wrong - it's just built into my DNA. When I step onto a cruise, there is no 1 (or 5) activities that could ruin my cruise - unless they run out of booze, food, and working toilets.

 

 

My advice to the OP:

• Enjoy the time you have with your family - with or without the Flowrider. There will come a time you will miss every moment
  
  
• Use these events as teachable opportunities for your kids - life is FULL of disappointments. How we navigate them and learn to stay happy is what makes us strong adults
  
  
• Find a land-based Flowrider park. I recommend one near a National Park so you can enjoy the wonders of the country! Also perhaps find one near a Wakeboard cable park.
  
  

Edited June 5, 2018 by RaleighDavid

[BillOh]

I agree with you that things like this should be in working order barring some unforeseen emergency. But if these pumps are going down routinely, they should have spares on hand that can be popped in or they should address the reason that they keep breaking. I would be bummed also if that was something I was really looking forward to doing. However, I have very low expectations and would not book a vacation on a cruise ship just to do one thing.

 

When Freedom, the first ship with a flowrider, lost a pump, they had to wait till they returned to port and the pump was lifted by crane up to deck 11, I didn't see this , but they had to wait to return to the home port. On a side note, it seems to me Royal's crew is trained to give the easiest answer that gets people to go away.

[Clarea]

... On a side note, it seems to me Royal's crew is trained to give the easiest answer that gets people to go away.

Yep!

[rimmit]

I, like many of the previous posters, also have had many things go wrong. Sometimes on vacations in which the logistics to get to these destinations is IMMENSE. As in takes an entire week of flights and boat rides combined to get to these locations as there is no other way to get there, only to miss out on not just one, but multiple stops, many of which would be considered bucket list. Some of which were the entire reason you would go on these trips and spend tens of thousands of dollars and leave empty handed.

 

Those sometimes are the breaks of traveling, and if you travel enough things will and do go wrong. I have missed ports, missed excursions, been left behind by a tour, lost baggage, missed flights, went to the wrong airport, pick pocketed, gotten off a flight only to realize our connection is at another airport (flight issues have been less since the internet, but before the internet you were relying primarily on TAs, now you can research everything), lost IDs, had my room broken into(land hotel, not on a cruise ship) and had thousands of dollars in photo equipment stolen just to name a few. We once overslept for our Paris excursion because my staterooms phones ringer was not working and my back up alarm which was room service never arrived that AM. We initially thought we missed room service because we did not pick up the phone because it never rang. We came to find out later we missed it because room service was so bombarded with orders that AM that they actually never delivered a many orders. They gave us and everybody else some chocolate covered strawberries for our trouble, which is a small token in comparison to missing a port due both phone and room service malfunctions.

 

Thankfully, I had been to Paris before but my wife and kids hadn’t and they were pretty disappointed.

 

The bottom line is you have every right to be disappointed. You have every right to be upset over the way RCI handles the issue. However, one thing should never make or break a vacation, or you will forever be disappointed.

[suesnake2002]

I think you need perspective. Just bad luck. And harmony has been running for two years. She cruised europe first.

Cruising is for the general experience. You can't put all your emphasis on one aspect.

Remember you are on a ship.

I had my first full suite on harmony in march. I was so pumped about labadee. Suite beach, special barbecue, sail away on helipad. Felt i was getting my money's worth on these perks.

Well as it was we couldnt dock and had another sea day. Disappointed, yes. Could it ever happen again,yes.

 

I understand that this was weather related ( by nor'easter up north) But alot of things are out of our control. Whether mechanical or mother nature. It's how we handle it.

 

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[cruisegirl1]

I can understand the frustration. Sort of like booking a cruise for a particular port stop and that stop being cancelled. Also, I’ve sailed during inclement weather and the working flow rider was closed anyway.

 

Op-if you like cruising I would give it another try for all the other activities. You note that there was one flow rider open so if the activity is important, you’ll have to wait in line. I thought a previous poster had a good idea of booking a dedicated flow rider session. Or, there are some ships that have an accommodation level that allows you to always go to the front of the line. This might be another viable option. If all else fails, and the flow rider is the main draw, than as suggested, a visit to a land park might work for your family.

 

Good luck for future travels.

 

M

[DISFANS3]

Don;t give up the ship.. Must have a back up plan..

[Tapi]

I'm always so much more annoyed when the airlines lie about multiple delays when they know a plane just isn't going to fly that day because they don't have a crew. Just tell me upfront and I'll rent a car.

 

 

As an Airline Pilot, I wish there could be a way for every passenger to experience and understand everything that goes on behind the scenes, not only at the airport, but at headquarters and in various locations in order to make each flight go.

 

When you see a flight that goes through multiple delays only to get canceled after a lengthy wait, it’s not because the airline was lying to you all along, but because it was in the process of exhausting every possible option before pulling the plug on a particular flight. This may include shuffling crews around, calling and allocating reserve crew members, extending duty periods, and offering additional incentives to off duty crew members, among others.

 

Sometimes, the last consideration is the one to materialize in order to make the flight go, but other times it’s not. On your end, it may seem like there should be a simple yes/no answer, but on our end, there are so many moving parts to a yes/no question, that it can be mind boggling for many passengers, which is why agents keep the information provided to the passengers as elementary as possible.

 

I have personally given passengers detailed insight when we have a lengthy delay that could result in a cancellation as to why it’s happening, and while some passengers have the capacity to understand what’s going on and they are satisfied with the explanation, there are many more who walk away even more frustrated and angry because the explanation leaves them more confused, and they conclude that we are hiding something from them. It’s frustrating for them, but it’s frustrating for us as well. But I can’t blame these passengers for not understanding in a few minutes what I have learned over decades of experience.

 

While I can’t vouch for every airline operation, I can tell you that for mine, cancellations are the absolute last resort. One cancellation costs us thousands of dollars in profitability and lost revenue, not to mention hundreds of personal lives that are affected by one cancelation.

 

Next time that you’re sitting at the airport waiting for a flight, convinced that the airline is lying to you, consider everything that I’ve written. And understand that while your flight is still on the board, that means that the airline is in the process of exhausting every possibility to get you where you need to go, legally and safely.

 

To translate that into this post, the same can be applied to the issue with the flowrider. If there’s no way that this piece of equipment will be up and running during the duration of the cruise, the cruise line should let the passengers categorically know. But while resources to get it operating are still available, they cruise line will continue saying that they are working on it. At the end, it may get fixed, but it may not. In my humble opinion, the best thing to do is to trust is that they are indeed working on it, rather than to believe that there’s some conspiracy theory or that the cruise line is lying.

 

 

 

 

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Edited June 5, 2018 by Tapi

[NateUpNorth]

Do you have a right to be disappointed? Sure you do. Flowriders are massive marketing items for Royal, and clearly it's working if that's why you book with them. I hope you filled out the post cruise survey with your comments.

 

And pay no attention to the "what are you whining about, no big deal" replies here. You should see what happens when pepper mills disappear from the dining room, the bread comes in a basket insead of individually hand delivered, tablecloth discussions, exclusive lounges end up getting shared or reduced in size, and no end of other "minor" items.

[RaleighDavid]

As an Airline Pilot, I wish there could be a way for every passenger to experience and understand everything that goes on behind the scenes, not only at the airport, but at headquarters and in various locations in order to make each flight go.

 

Tapi - I abbreviated your post, and while I understand and agree with your post, as a *frequent* air traveler for work I have to just point out that yes - airlines often lie to passengers. It happened on both sides of our flights to/from our cruise last week. Airline announces a delay of approximately 30 minutes. I check the incomer and it's listed as arriving less than 10 minutes before our new departure time. We ALL know that there is no way we are making that new departure time, and sure enough it was pushed another 20-30 minutes to account for the turn.

 

That's a minor lie - but it's those kinds of things that make it hard for us to believe what you are saying. They were not going to switch equipment on those flights. They were not looking to swap crews. They were just plain shaving the bad news - which is a lie.

[Tapi]

Tapi - I abbreviated your post, and while I understand and agree with your post, as a *frequent* air traveler for work I have to just point out that yes - airlines often lie to passengers. It happened on both sides of our flights to/from our cruise last week. Airline announces a delay of approximately 30 minutes. I check the incomer and it's listed as arriving less than 10 minutes before our new departure time. We ALL know that there is no way we are making that new departure time, and sure enough it was pushed another 20-30 minutes to account for the turn.

 

 

 

That's a minor lie - but it's those kinds of things that make it hard for us to believe what you are saying. They were not going to switch equipment on those flights. They were not looking to swap crews. They were just plain shaving the bad news - which is a lie.

 

 

 

That is one thing that used to be a head scratcher for me as well. But I finally got an answer from operations that makes sense to me. As you may have experienced, a posted arrival time for a flight that’s already airborne can vary by a few minutes depending on various factors, including air traffic and ground taxi times. Sometimes a posted arrival time can be shaved by 10-15 minutes if air traffic control doesn’t need you to fly the complete arrival procedure (specially at larger airports), and if they give you direct vectors to the airport. In addition to that, you may have a taxi time that’s shorter than average if you clear the runway and have direct access to your gate. Considering a quick turnaround time of 30 minutes where there are no further delays, the posted departure time is a “best case scenario” prediction but not necessarily realistic.

 

So by posting a departure time for the outbound flight following what seems like an illogically short ground time, operations takes into account the possibility of an early arrival. This also helps in getting passengers to return to the gate earlier rather than later, and to start gearing them up to board as quickly as possible. The last thing that the airline wants is to delay the flight further while they wait for passengers straggling around the airport. You’d be surprised at the number of passengers that walk away when a delay is announced, go sit at the bar, and then return to the gate AT the posted departure time only to realize that the gate has been closed and the plane is pushing back without them.

 

So there’s some logic to the madness, although from your end it may seem like they are flat out lying to you.

 

 

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Edited June 5, 2018 by Tapi

[Mr. Click]

There is something in the OP's statement that makes me think twice. It is Royal's response of "oh well, sorry, stuff happens". We were on the Indy for 8 nights last week. On three different days our toilets did not flush when we pushed the button but they did flush on their own. Day one we talked to our cabin attendant and she made some phone calls to find out that a line was clogged and "they were working on it". Second day it happened we mentioned it to her but took the complaint right to guest relations, they said "oh sorry, working on it". Third day it happened we got the same response with a bit of attitude. On our last day onboard I did get a phone call from guest relations asking if the toilets were working and offering a discount on a future cruise. I said yes they are and that we would accept their offer and see what happens. They then said "the letter will be in your stateroom by this afternoon". We left the ship the next morning for the airport with no letter, no nothing but the toilets did work. The toilet was not the only issue we had but it was a major one, the others were minor stuff that fell in the annoying category and you where you could say "oh well"... anyway my point is guest relations/customer service are not Royal's strong point. The toilet issues did not ruin our vacation, we made sure we had a great time but booking with Royal again is not a likely thing for us. OP, you have every right to be unhappy with Royal and their lack of response. The Flo Rider has been around long enough for them to know that the pumps do fail and spares should be on board.

[alfaeric]

Seems to me, for this particular issue, couple of things of perspective needs to be learned...

 

1) what is actually breaking. No question, you will not learn this from the ship, but I think the flowrider builders are really around, and it may be possible to find out from them what is going on.

 

2) based on 1- what is the work that it takes to fix it?

 

While I'm on board with not being happy about stuff that isn't being worked on, it would be nice to know what CAN be worked on while the ship is out at sea. Things like plumbing should be capable of being repaired all the time, and stops at ports should not be needed, as this is a normal maintenance item and is critical for a clean and operating ship. Things like the Flowrider- I'm not so sure about it- one poster suggested that a crane is required to lift out the pump- if that's the case, then there's no way one can expect the ship to repair it when not at the home port.

 

Things like supplies are interesting- some of those things are contracted out so far that they are supposed to be delivered at the right rate at a single port (normally the home port). So when they run out- something broke down in the supply chain. Given how much money is made on drinks, I doubt that it's intentional to run out of stuff like that.

 

Anyway, the expectations need to be tempered with what can be done- and that is also tempered by the criticality of the failure. Like the flow rider is a lower priority than the flushing plumbing, LOL...

 

Since the flowrider is such a key to the investment of this vacation, I'd think that the time spent learning that would be pretty valuable.

[lbjen]

I've been on 3 cruises now with Flowriders. Liberty, Oasis, and Allure and havent experienced them breaking down. I'm thinking you might have had bad luck twice, and I understand you questioning if this is common. Just like McDonalds ice cream machine "breaking down" when you do that late night ice cream run. (That's a conspiracy of mine)

Perspective is this..if my kids were bent out of shape about the flowrider not working, I'd tell them that "ship" happens, but seriously there are 100 other things that is spectacular about this cruise/trip. I'd also probably do my "The closest I got to a vacation when I was your age is visiting family in Ohio", but each to their own. My youngest has wanted a slide ship since when went on Liberty and I just tell him "we pick the ship not by just slides but places, time, and $$" I'm pretty sure your kids still had a great time and really dont care. Just think..it could be worse..you could have been a cruise who got cancelled by weather,got sick while on board, or trip got cancelled by charter.

 

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I can confirm your ice cream machine theory! I used to work there and cleaning it was one of my jobs. It takes quite a long time and it’s very detailed, so you try to get it done while you have enough staff to spare someone.

[lbjen]

Personally, I think you really just had bad luck. You obviously still got in some Flowrider time, and there was the rest of your time on the ship with the other amenities, you didn’t book with the intention of being on the Flowrider 24/7. I can understand your frustration that it happened twice, but ultimately you probably still had two pretty great vacations.

 

My cynical side does wonder whether they were really broken at all, or if they just didn’t have the staff to run both. I don’t anything last RC anymore.

[TheTruthCanHurt]

[ Please give me your perspective. This is really bothering me that I've now spent over $10,000, on 2 different cruises, where the one things we really went to do was never available because of something that I think Royal CAN control. Am I making too much of it?

 

You are not making too much of it, you are simply taking the wrong vacation. Clearly from your words above you spent 10,000 for the sole purpose of riding the flowrider. since you keep using the full amount of your cruise, that is what one would assume.

 

There was one flowrider working and if the only reason you are on the ship was to ride the flowrider, what does it matter how long it takes?? from your words you were not interested in anything but that?

 

My advice as others have said would be to take a vacation to somewhere that was only flowrider, it would be much cheaper and probably cause you less disappointment.

 

So no, I dont think you are making too much of it.. but if you are willing to spend 10000 to ride a flowrider I think you could custom tailor a much better experience. If I knew I was going to be hugely dissapointed if I did not get to experience one small offering on a vacation and it would ruin my vacation. I would probably try to find something that specifically offered what I wanted to do.

[391hpa]

Such a bummer! I would be disappointed as well. As for the crew’s lack of empathy, perhaps it was due to the amount of times they had the exact same conversation with multiple guests and their attitude went from apologetic to apathetic. Doesn’t make it right since they’re in the business of customer service, but it might be the reason for the lack of empathy.

 

Out of our 9 cruises, 2 of them had TERRIBLE weather. One was during an unfortunate cold snap and the temperature was barely in the upper 50s/low 60s and overcast for the most of the cruise. It was sleeting when we landed in Miami! The second one we had massive rain and wind for the first 5 days of the cruise. It was insane.

 

In both cases, the crew tried their hardest to be positive and upbeat but after hearing passenger complaints for days on end, you could see the apathy set it. It’s unbelivable what people where saying ... as if the crew could do anything about the weather. By day 5, I was waiting for the crew to jump in the lifeboats and flee the scene. We still managed to have a great time because whaddya gonna do. :) I’ve never seen SRO at trivia before and the bingo snowball jackpot was massive. Lol.

 

Btw, I’m not trying to minimize your frustration. Just trying to give a possible rationale for the crew’s attitude. I hope you have good flowrider experiences in the future!

[cruiselvr04]

I too would be disappointed. However I think cruising or perhaps any vacation is like that, just like life.

 

We have done over 30 cruises and have missed ports of call, had excursions canceled, shows we were really looking forward canceled for injury’s, etc.

 

Our last cruise was a big birthday for me. We planned a private island off Labadee and chefs table for that day. Both were canceled. Big bummer. However you just have to go with the flow. Was it disappointing? Yes. Did it ruin my day or the cruise. No because I didn’t let it. I still turned .....and had a lovely cruise. And by the way we missed a port of call due to high winds and had big plans that day too. So we booked another cruise to go back there! Lol

 

If this is the main thing your kids want to do on vacation go somewhere on land and flow ride all day. A cruise is so much more than one thing. It’s food, entertainment, ports of call. The flow rider should just be the icing on the cake not the main attraction. Just my opinion. I think you still got your money’s worth. We don’t touch the flow rider. We still feel it’s a great vacation.

 

Should the cruise line be able to repair while underway? In a perfect world. But I suppose it depends on how complicated the problem is. I’ve seen elevators out all week. That would seem less complicated then a flow rider.

[ATCMickey]

Thanks all for the replies. That's exactly the kind of feedback I was looking for and it's very much appreciated.

 

To address a couple questions:

 

-the Flowrider was down the entire time (both times)...basically down the entire 7 days and no repair was ever done that caused it to resume function

 

-I didn't go to Guest Services to complain because that's generally not my nature. It's got to be really bad for me to consider that and this is something that while might have really irritated me, it didn't make me really mad...that's why I was asking for perspective. My decision is NOT about whether to ask for Royal to compensate me, it's about whether Royal is serious enough about their maintenance that I can trust these things will be available when I cruise, or whether they're unreliable enough that we should quit considering the Flowrider as a factor in deciding who to cruise with

 

-we've also gone to landed Flowrider locations. We've also done the private session thing on the ship too. We like cruising. Having a Flowrider available as part of the cruise is a very good deal compared to the price of the landed locations. There have been other cruise lines that we have been interested in but the thing that has swayed us back to Royal has been the Flowrider availability as part of the cruise. It's kind of a 2 birds-1 stone thing...get to cruise and get to Flowride for one price

 

-I haven't, by any means, paid $10,000 just to use a Flowrider...that's preposterous on its face. But I did choose to give Royal $10,000 for 2 of their cruises rather than give it to Princess or Viking or NCL; and the reason that tipped the scales was the Flowrider. Even though landed locations can be really expensive, they're not $10,000 worth of expensive; but they also don't give me a room, food, entertainment, and transportation like a cruise does

 

-several people have brought up weather as a comparative example. Respectfully, that's why I cited I don't believe the Royal can control the weather and would never fault them for a missed port or itinerary change due to weather...what I do believe Royal can control is their maintenance practices and service-ability of the equipment on their ships. Several years ago we sailed on Allure. One of their azipods had failed and we missed a port because the ship could not maintain sufficient speed to make the port. I put this in the same category as the Flowrider. I wouldn't fault Royal because weather caused a missed port, but if you're failing to maintain your vessel and I miss a port, another story

 

-to my pilot fried...I've been an Air Traffic Controller for over 30 years and I'm sure we've talked more than once. We too have equipment that breaks. I also know the lack of sympathy and that we get from flight crews even though we do the best we can to keep them informed. At some point it's not about explanations, it's about results. I'll refrain from any analogies since this is about my vacation and I already spend enough of my life at work

 

Thanks again to all for your perspective. I think what I take from this is that what I really need to do is to not consider the Flowrider as a factor in deciding Royal vs another line. Assume that the thing will be broken and decide. That might mean we still sail with Royal, but it might also mean that we try new things.

 

Thanks again everyone,

 

ATCMickey

[rukkian]

Thanks all for the replies. That's exactly the kind of feedback I was looking for and it's very much appreciated.

 

To address a couple questions:

 

-the Flowrider was down the entire time (both times)...basically down the entire 7 days and no repair was ever done that caused it to resume function

 

-I didn't go to Guest Services to complain because that's generally not my nature. It's got to be really bad for me to consider that and this is something that while might have really irritated me, it didn't make me really mad...that's why I was asking for perspective. My decision is NOT about whether to ask for Royal to compensate me, it's about whether Royal is serious enough about their maintenance that I can trust these things will be available when I cruise, or whether they're unreliable enough that we should quit considering the Flowrider as a factor in deciding who to cruise with

 

-we've also gone to landed Flowrider locations. We've also done the private session thing on the ship too. We like cruising. Having a Flowrider available as part of the cruise is a very good deal compared to the price of the landed locations. There have been other cruise lines that we have been interested in but the thing that has swayed us back to Royal has been the Flowrider availability as part of the cruise. It's kind of a 2 birds-1 stone thing...get to cruise and get to Flowride for one price

 

-I haven't, by any means, paid $10,000 just to use a Flowrider...that's preposterous on its face. But I did choose to give Royal $10,000 for 2 of their cruises rather than give it to Princess or Viking or NCL; and the reason that tipped the scales was the Flowrider. Even though landed locations can be really expensive, they're not $10,000 worth of expensive; but they also don't give me a room, food, entertainment, and transportation like a cruise does

 

-several people have brought up weather as a comparative example. Respectfully, that's why I cited I don't believe the Royal can control the weather and would never fault them for a missed port or itinerary change due to weather...what I do believe Royal can control is their maintenance practices and service-ability of the equipment on their ships. Several years ago we sailed on Allure. One of their azipods had failed and we missed a port because the ship could not maintain sufficient speed to make the port. I put this in the same category as the Flowrider. I wouldn't fault Royal because weather caused a missed port, but if you're failing to maintain your vessel and I miss a port, another story

 

-to my pilot fried...I've been an Air Traffic Controller for over 30 years and I'm sure we've talked more than once. We too have equipment that breaks. I also know the lack of sympathy and that we get from flight crews even though we do the best we can to keep them informed. At some point it's not about explanations, it's about results. I'll refrain from any analogies since this is about my vacation and I already spend enough of my life at work

 

Thanks again to all for your perspective. I think what I take from this is that what I really need to do is to not consider the Flowrider as a factor in deciding Royal vs another line. Assume that the thing will be broken and decide. That might mean we still sail with Royal, but it might also mean that we try new things.

 

Thanks again everyone,

 

ATCMickey

 

You seem to have a good perspective. I would wonder if there is a way to do a poll as to how often there has been a flowrider that is down the whole time. I am guessing it is a pretty low amount, but I have only been on one ship that had it - allure this year. Both were operational all week, but that is way to small of a sample. If I had to guess, I would say you were just very (un)lucky.

 

In a perfect world, they would be able to fix any issue with a flowrider on board at any time, but the reality is that they have to choose how many backup items (parts) and whether to have flowrider technicians actually onboard. It may well be that they only break down very rarely, and keeping an expert on each ship is just not worth it.

[clochette]

My kids also love the flowrider, and we do only sail on ships that have them, as it is a very important part of the cruise for them, they would also be crushed if it was down for the entire cruise, I do think that you do have bad luck, in all of the cruises we have taking on Royal 11 of them we only had 1 time with a problem that was on Independence on the last day of the cruise, I guess we have been fortunate.

I do feel bad for you and can see how disappointing it would be

[euphscott]

I wonder how much it would cost to put a Flowrider in your backyard?

 

 

$400,000 - not that I asked or anything...