Vision of the Seas - Invite to Dine with the Captain

[Judi2112]

Just returned from a cruise to the Mexican Riviera on the Vision of the Seas and thought I would let folks know how you can be treated by RCI on a cruise...

 

Really enjoying the cruise and thought we were quite lucky when we received two lovely printed invites to dine with the Captain - the invites came with our names and cabin numbers printed on them (important later). We duly returned the RSVPs by 1pm as requested and looked forward to the evening and drinks reception that evening at 8.20pm.

 

Reported as requested to the Champagne Reception. Gave our names to the young lady checking off the guest list only to be told "Well, your names are not here. There must be a mistake your not invited and not on my list". My husband explained that we had received the named invites and showed her the card received and explained that we had returned the RSVP cards". She once again said "well not according to my list, you'd better wait here" and flounced off leaving us standing in the middle of the floor. To say the least we were mortified. We stood to the side and she returned 5 minutes later, walked right passed us and left the waiter for the Captain's table to say "Sorry, there's been a mistake you should not have been invited. The people who are at the table are important guest and there's no room for you". He then proceeded to try and buy us off with a bottle of wine. I was so embarassed by this time and didn't want to cause a scene that I said to him just forget it.

 

The next morning my husband spoke to the Hotel Director about what had happened and explained that we were reasonable people - they had 7 hours to contact us that day to explain there had been a mistake and a simple sorry would have sufficed but it went way beyond that when they didn't even try to contact us to say there had been an error - didn't anyone wonder who these two RSVP cards were from? The Hotel Director was deeply sorry and said the staff member who had been so rude came under the Cruise Director. He would speak to the Cruise Director about how rude she had been and said the situation should never have arisen. Later on that day my husband saw the Hotel Director and he asked if we had been contacted as the Captain had demanded she write a letter of apology to us. Needless to say, we are still waiting.

 

The one thing that really get's my goat is that we were told the "other" guests were important. What does that make the rest of us. I thought all paying guests were important. I've spend a lot of money with RCI over the last year and have 3 further long-haul cruises booked with them.

 

Just wondering how other's would have dealt with the situation if it had been them??

[TravelerThom]

OUCH! I totally agree with you that that was handled EXTREMELY poorly by RCI from start to finish. I'm not sure how you could have handled this any better - I know I would have been standing there flabbergasted.

 

BTW we will be on the Vision for two weeks the beginning of March, and I opened this thread hoping for suggestions on how we might get an Captain's table invite. Now I see that just getting an invite does not necessarily mean we actually get to dine with the Captain.

[medfordgirl]

oops duplicate post

[medfordgirl]

I too opened this thread hoping for tips on how to get to the captains table, however, if I were to get an invite now, I would check with everyone (hotel manager, concierge, CD, etc) before going. I am so sorry this happened, I would be moritfied too. Why don't you write the top guys at RCCL and include a copy of your invite, see what happens.

[English_in_Spain]

I think that is awful. As far as you know, were you the only ones invited 'by mistake'?

 

I think that you should have received a personal apology from the Captain (although he doesn't do the actual inviting it is done in his name) and an invitation to join him on another evening.

 

To me this like inviting someone to a party and when they arrive saying "sorry, you are not invitied".

[Judi2112]

I think that is awful. As far as you know, were you the only ones invited 'by mistake'?

 

I think that you should have received a personal apology from the Captain (although he doesn't do the actual inviting it is done in his name) and an invitation to join him on another evening.

 

To me this like inviting someone to a party and when they arrive saying "sorry, you are not invitied".

 

We know we were the only ones invited "by mistake". It was the talk of the ship's crew, everyone knew about it and said it was the biggest error to have happened onboard - it's seemingly never happened on that ship before.