A tip for Royals horrible website

[BillOh]

Do they even look at the usability? A couple of times I've went to make payments and when entering the reservation number, which is 7 digits, the form says that it must be 9 digits. I added zeros at the end (about 6 of them until the warning went away then hit backspace back to the correct 7 and made the payment. A dumb way to make it work. The usability part was bad enough. From a page that has your reservation number and sail date, you click on the payment and then it clears the screen and then asks you for that number. Why the head of RCI isn't going through their web and IT group and not just escorting people out the door is beyond me.

[FOXTROT]

I think the problem is so bad, they can't figure out where they are.

[Ken at the beach]

It’s almost like they want you to use a TA. Their TA website is a breeze to use with great functionality. I’m thinking that if they really wanted to fix it they could.

[voyager70]

It’s almost like they want you to use a TA. Their TA website is a breeze to use with great functionality. I’m thinking that if they really wanted to fix it they could.

 

Well if that's the case they've lost a D+ cruiser for life. I don't and will not evee use a TA. Shame on them for their pathetic website.

[Clarea]

It’s almost like they want you to use a TA. Their TA website is a breeze to use with great functionality. I’m thinking that if they really wanted to fix it they could.

I agree.

[voyager70]

Just to add I went to edit my previous post to correct an auto misspelling and it took me to a different poster altogether. Unbelievable

[suizas]

Do they even look at the usability? A couple of times I've went to make payments and when entering the reservation number, which is 7 digits, the form says that it must be 9 digits. I added zeros at the end (about 6 of them until the warning went away then hit backspace back to the correct 7 and made the payment. A dumb way to make it work. The usability part was bad enough. From a page that has your reservation number and sail date, you click on the payment and then it clears the screen and then asks you for that number. Why the head of RCI isn't going through their web and IT group and not just escorting people out the door is beyond me.

 

 

 

Ditto on that!

It makes no sense if we are logged into the website, have clicked on our reservation and then it asks you for the reservation and sail date. Oh my word!! I finally convinced my bf to cruise for the first time this summer and just this website is causing him to reconsider Royal Caribbean ever again.

 

 

 

 

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[John&LaLa]

On the few times I've not gone through a TA, I just pay over the phone. Easy peasy.

 

Occasionally I can't get to pricing, but that's about the worst experience I've had in the last few years.

 

All the points are right

Never lost a cruise planner reservation

 

Agreed it's not good, but it would not keep me from sailing Royal.

 

And now they may/will be incorporating SilverSea into the family. [emoji6]

 

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[graymadeb]

It is gradually getting better. I'm seeing a few features that are improving. Once I log in, it is automatically finding my reservations, showing on board credits available, etc. I have to agree that the TA site is easier to use....although they had their problems there too.

[voyager70]

Ditto on that!

It makes no sense if we are logged into the website, have clicked on our reservation and then it asks you for the reservation and sail date. Oh my word!! I finally convinced my bf to cruise for the first time this summer and just this website is causing him to reconsider Royal Caribbean ever again.

 

 

 

 

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Don't blame you. Check out Princess, they're great.

[Ashland]

A loooong time ago it used to work just fine. After all their so called updated versions...we end up where we are today. They have opted to fix something that never really needed it...:eek::loudcry:

[xpcdoojk]

On the few times I've not gone through a TA, I just pay over the phone. Easy peasy.

 

Occasionally I can't get to pricing, but that's about the worst experience I've had in the last few years.

 

All the points are right

Never lost a cruise planner reservation

 

Agreed it's not good, but it would not keep me from sailing Royal.

 

And now they may/will be incorporating SilverSea into the family. [emoji6]

 

Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk

 

 

I am out of pocket did they buy Silverseas?

 

I don’t understand what is so bad about a TA? They save me money and time. Yes, I know more than they do, but I just make them jump through hoops while I play golf. Not really a downside to a TA.

 

JC

[xpcdoojk]

Don't blame you. Check out Princess, they're great.

 

Actually, I cruised Princess once for 2 weeks, and I was pretty thoroughly unimpressed. Not bad, better than Carnival, not as good as HAL or Celebrity.

 

JC

[OfTheSeasCruiser]

I am out of pocket did they buy Silverseas?

https://presscenter.rclcorporate.com/press-release/19/royal-caribbean-to-invest-in-silversea-cruises-purchase-of-67-percent-stake-will-propel-the-growth-of-the-leading-luxury-and-expedition-cruise-brand-crown-jewel-partnership-strengthens-silversea-future-and-rcl-brand-lineup/

[Jarmo]

Just to add I went to edit my previous post to correct an auto misspelling and it took me to a different poster altogether. Unbelievable

Cruisecritic sucks?

[BEENSAILING]

On the few times I've not gone through a TA, I just pay over the phone. Easy peasy.

 

Occasionally I can't get to pricing, but that's about the worst experience I've had in the last few years.

 

All the points are right

Never lost a cruise planner reservation

 

Agreed it's not good, but it would not keep me from sailing Royal.

 

And now they may/will be incorporating SilverSea into the family. [emoji6]

 

Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk

 

Wait till Silverseas cruisers have to deal with the “Royal family” websites...

[bobmacliberty]

Pure speculation based on reading a few online articles about Royal's IT Department and their current CIO...

 

First, Royal is a major corporation with all of the typical constraints that involves. More specifically, budgets are finite and will often get reduced year to year for the company to save money. They may then need to make choices about where to invest/improve and where to just try to keep things running. Their criteria for making these choices will involve their strategic priorities and how these impact their bottom line.

 

Second, an article I read (from a couple of years ago) talked about their obsolete reservation system (called RES, 20 years old at the time) and their efforts to upgrade the system. They worked to upgrade the core reservation system pieces at a time and also then worked on the various ways to interface with that system...different "front ends" for TAs, their internal call center people, and public access web site. Their public web site may be the lowest priority of these front ends, given that they want to maintain a good relationship with the TAs. One article said that 85% of their bookings come from TAs. TAs may also use an industry standard front end that is easier for Royal to connect to than managing their own web front end. Maybe a TA here can talk about if they use a specific front end for Royal, or the same front end for many travel providers.

 

Third, Royal has put a very large focus on the IT systems that provide an improved on-ship experience. Think about the Quantum Class changes, the touch screens in elevator lobbies, the entertainment automation, the upgraded WiFi (where it works well :D), etc. We can argue how well that works, but I think that is clearly a higher priority for them.

 

Fourth, all of the internal workings of the ship need to be kept up/improved to maintain a good cruiser experience. The nav system, the engine controls, the seapasses for door access and charges, the various onboard safety related systems, the basic hotel management logistical systems for luggage, food, laundry, cleaning, etc. If I was in charge, this stuff would be the top priority and I'm guessing it is for Royal.

 

Fifth, when their new CIO joined Royal (3 years ago?) he wanted to transform their IT Department into using an agile model for working. Changing work processes/cultures is hard and may have taken (still be taking?) longer than anticipated.

 

The last thing I want to do is make excuses for Royal's embarrassment of a web site, but if parts of what I'm guessing above are true, I could see why it gets less attention than we all think it needs.

 

Links to the articles that I read:

https://www.cio.com/article/2389453/project-management/how-royal-caribbean-cruises-manages-it-on-a-floating-city.html

 

https://blogs.wsj.com/cio/2015/08/31/michael-giresi-joins-royal-caribbean-as-cio/

 

https://blogs.wsj.com/cio/2017/06/02/royal-caribbean-cio-anticipates-thoughtful-cruise-into-artificial-intelligence/

 

https://www.forbes.com/sites/peterhigh/2017/02/14/royal-caribbean-cio-sets-sail-for-digital-innovation/#48cd8ad0163c

 

https://enterprisersproject.com/article/2016/11/royal-caribbean-cruises-cio-get-comfortable-being-uncomfortable

[Cauzneffct]

Yup. We're looking at NCL for 2020 and beyond. It might be that we'll be so enamored with RCI after our Grandeur cruise next March that we'd overlook the hassle of the website, but it will be a pretty high bar.

[poncho1973]

I hate the Royal website, but I can't ever imagine a world that this would cause me not to cruise.

[BillOh]

I hate the Royal website, but I can't ever imagine a world that this would cause me not to cruise.

 

I'm in the same boat, pun intended. Good for them, I'm not a first time customer coming via the web.

[Havingfun2010]

For years, and every year, some website, of some company of someone I do business with, or an internal website, where I work, is modified and approved, and almost every time, it is messed up, and they have to fix it. Therefore, I am never to use any company ever again to do anything in this world that I like, or dislike if they touch a computer......LOL

 

I hate the website, but I'm still going on the cruises. Tomorrow, Carnival, will crash their system. Next month, it will be NCL.

[Ken at the beach]

Pure speculation based on reading a few online articles about Royal's IT Department and their current CIO...

 

First, Royal is a major corporation with all of the typical constraints that involves. More specifically, budgets are finite and will often get reduced year to year for the company to save money. They may then need to make choices about where to invest/improve and where to just try to keep things running. Their criteria for making these choices will involve their strategic priorities and how these impact their bottom line.

 

Second, an article I read (from a couple of years ago) talked about their obsolete reservation system (called RES, 20 years old at the time) and their efforts to upgrade the system. They worked to upgrade the core reservation system pieces at a time and also then worked on the various ways to interface with that system...different "front ends" for TAs, their internal call center people, and public access web site. Their public web site may be the lowest priority of these front ends, given that they want to maintain a good relationship with the TAs. One article said that 85% of their bookings come from TAs. TAs may also use an industry standard front end that is easier for Royal to connect to than managing their own web front end. Maybe a TA here can talk about if they use a specific front end for Royal, or the same front end for many travel providers.

 

Third, Royal has put a very large focus on the IT systems that provide an improved on-ship experience. Think about the Quantum Class changes, the touch screens in elevator lobbies, the entertainment automation, the upgraded WiFi (where it works well :D), etc. We can argue how well that works, but I think that is clearly a higher priority for them.

 

Fourth, all of the internal workings of the ship need to be kept up/improved to maintain a good cruiser experience. The nav system, the engine controls, the seapasses for door access and charges, the various onboard safety related systems, the basic hotel management logistical systems for luggage, food, laundry, cleaning, etc. If I was in charge, this stuff would be the top priority and I'm guessing it is for Royal.

 

Fifth, when their new CIO joined Royal (3 years ago?) he wanted to transform their IT Department into using an agile model for working. Changing work processes/cultures is hard and may have taken (still be taking?) longer than anticipated.

 

The last thing I want to do is make excuses for Royal's embarrassment of a web site, but if parts of what I'm guessing above are true, I could see why it gets less attention than we all think it needs.

 

Links to the articles that I read:

https://www.cio.com/article/2389453/project-management/how-royal-caribbean-cruises-manages-it-on-a-floating-city.html

 

https://blogs.wsj.com/cio/2015/08/31/michael-giresi-joins-royal-caribbean-as-cio/

 

https://blogs.wsj.com/cio/2017/06/02/royal-caribbean-cio-anticipates-thoughtful-cruise-into-artificial-intelligence/

 

https://www.forbes.com/sites/peterhigh/2017/02/14/royal-caribbean-cio-sets-sail-for-digital-innovation/#48cd8ad0163c

 

https://enterprisersproject.com/article/2016/11/royal-caribbean-cruises-cio-get-comfortable-being-uncomfortable

Royals site that TA's use is proprietary and not shared with other lines.

 

Oddly enough Royals TA site is night and day different than its public site while on other lines the public site is much better than the TA site.

 

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[molly361]

It’s almost like they want you to use a TA. Their TA website is a breeze to use with great functionality. I’m thinking that if they really wanted to fix it they could.

That's good for you not so good for me [emoji41]

 

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[molly361]

On the few times I've not gone through a TA, I just pay over the phone. Easy peasy.

 

Occasionally I can't get to pricing, but that's about the worst experience I've had in the last few years.

 

All the points are right

Never lost a cruise planner reservation

 

Agreed it's not good, but it would not keep me from sailing Royal.

 

And now they may/will be incorporating SilverSea into the family. [emoji6]

 

Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk

My points are right if I go into the old site but the new one missing the points from the last cruise although the cruise is listed on the new site

 

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[island lady]

Agree very frustrating. Ever time RCI comes up with yet another "improvement" change to the website...it gets worse and worse.

 

Geezz...guys...go back to when it was simple and easy.

 

Tech demons having way too much fun torturing us. :(:evilsmile::mad: