Fed up with royal caribbean - never again

[Hombre59]

I don't think the future cruise vouchers, + reimbursement is even enough for this situation. That would be horrible, ruins everyones first 3 days, not only his.

[Aquahound]

Is it possible the airline screwed this up and then blamed it on the cruise line? These sort of problems aren't exactly uncommon with the airlines. Just because air was booked through the cruise line does not mean the cruise line has any control over the air carrier. It would be very easy for them to blame RCI for their own mistakes.

 

I'm not minimizing this or criticizing the OP. I just have a lot of experience with terrible service from airlines. This may not be RCI's fault.

[NYCRUISR]

Oh my goodness! I would have been upset as well!

 

TOTALLY. I don't know how well I'd do in that situation.

[cruisinfanatic]

You might think it is a "silly question", I think it is poor business practice on your part.

I agree. Who does a TA think they work for?

Who pays the commission?

[luckyprincess]

Is it possible the airline screwed this up and then blamed it on the cruise line? These sort of problems aren't exactly uncommon with the airlines. Just because air was booked through the cruise line does not mean the cruise line has any control over the air carrier. It would be very easy for them to blame RCI for their own mistakes.

 

I'm not minimizing this or criticizing the OP. I just have a lot of experience with terrible service from airlines. This may not be RCI's fault.

 

Later in the thread the OP said that RCCL has admitted the mistake was theirs.

[long4theocean]

so how did the op's son and husband get home? was there a seat assignment for the return? did the husband have to pay from miami to home? did rci cover that? what a pain. for me the whole airline thing is like a really long visit to the dentist and then you're on vacation! the only time we used cruise air as we booked last minute it took us from fll to chicago to new hampshire. never again. if rci has admitted fault where is the money already!!!

 

RCI had booked the return seperatley as all of the group that had purchased air through RCI were on the same flight. Absolutley no problems on the return.

[long4theocean]

I agree. Who does a TA think they work for?

Who pays the commission?

 

I work for myself. I sell their product and I expect them to handle what their side of it. I am a customer as well. I pay my way just like anyone else. They do pay commission, as well as they do collect money. I belive that I am entitled to complain as I have given them ample time to take care of this situation, which they have not done. I am quite sure that if you were out 3 days of vacation plus $1000.00 you would be very upset also.

 

I am on here to cause an argument, I am simply here to let others know how RCI has handled this situation.

[aloha43]

We cruised on the Liberty of the Seas March 14th with a group of 43. The air was purchased along with the cruise. When we arrived at the airport at 5am to fly out, I was advised that RCCL had not paid for my son's ticket. He had a seat assignment that I had checked on so I assumed everything was good. I had talked to Delta confirming the reservation and seat assignments. They were making last call so we paid 50.00 to change my husbands name to our son's name. It was his senior year Spring Break with a lot of his friends and their families. There were no tickets to purchase as everything was oversold.

 

I called Royal Caribbean while in Atlanta and got no help. I called again when arriving in Miami and spent the whole rest of the afternoon on the phone with them. They tried to offer my husband a flight with a 12 hour layover in Chicago and then said if we found one to go ahead and purchase it and then get it reimbursed when we arrived back home. We got him a one way to San Juan for the whopping price of $905.00. At least that went well, he arrived just before the ship and met up with us. Onboard they acted very cool and like they did not understand why I was so upset. He missed his first 3 days of vacation.

 

Just curious.....:confused:

 

If your husband made it to the ship on time, how did he miss his first 3 days?

[Gonzo70]

Just curious.....:confused:

 

If your husband made it to the ship on time, how did he miss his first 3 days?

 

He made it on time to a port call the ship had travelled to.

[cruisinfanatic]

I work for myself. I sell their product and I expect them to handle what their side of it. I am a customer as well. I pay my way just like anyone else. They do pay commission, as well as they do collect money. I belive that I am entitled to complain as I have given them ample time to take care of this situation, which they have not done. I am quite sure that if you were out 3 days of vacation plus $1000.00 you would be very upset also.

 

I am on here to cause an argument, I am simply here to let others know how RCI has handled this situation.

I would never book my own air and on only one occasion I have recommended it to a client. You as a TA know what a mess a cruiseline can make of air and you should have known better to recommend it to anyone let along book it yourself.

I'm sure you'll get your money back. The bigger the company, the more customer satisfaction seems to decline. Not always, but sometimes. As you said, RCL took responsibility. There are issues with every cruiseline AND company in the world. Read the horror stories on the other cruise line threads.

[aloha43]

He made it on time to a port call the ship had travelled to.

 

Oh, ok. Thanks for clearing that one up.

[rcmjs]

call Vicji Freed and tell her all thi sany bad publicity will get you somehwere ....... this is the Nation of WHY NOT>>>>

so Why Not help you out and call adam goldstein and richard fain.....

and complain,,,,,,,,, all the time........

believe me i am on war path myself.......

[PhoenixCruiser]

call Vicji Freed and tell her all thi sany bad publicity will get you somehwere ....... this is the Nation of WHY NOT>>>>

so Why Not help you out and call adam goldstein and richard fain.....

and complain,,,,,,,,, all the time........

believe me i am on war path myself.......

 

We need details!!!

 

Was your husband recently fired?

 

###

[long4theocean]

Just curious.....:confused:

 

If your husband made it to the ship on time, how did he miss his first 3 days?

 

He was not on the ship until we arrived in San Juan. He met the ship there.

[long4theocean]

I would never book my own air and on only one occasion I have recommended it to a client. You as a TA know what a mess a cruiseline can make of air and you should have known better to recommend it to anyone let along book it yourself.

I'm sure you'll get your money back. The bigger the company, the more customer satisfaction seems to decline. Not always, but sometimes. As you said, RCL took responsibility. There are issues with every cruiseline AND company in the world. Read the horror stories on the other cruise line threads.

 

I personally had never had or heard of problems before with the air. The price difference that they had versus purchasing on our own was quite substantial. We booked all of this last year when the oil prices were so high, but caught it before RCI had raised their air. Big mistake on my part. Lesson learned for sure. Like I have said it is the customer service that is so upsetting.

[Theresa522]

There are a lot of complainers on here but yours is probably the most justified I have read in a while.

 

That's really bad service.

 

I totally agree!!

[alexkrn46]

I am not a lawyer, but it seems like this maybe a good case for small claims court, sorry for the problem a grand is too much to be out of pocket.

[Davey Interweb]

You might think it is a "silly question", I think it is poor business practice on your part.

 

I agree. Who does a TA think they work for?

Who pays the commission?

 

Uh, I don't know of any travel agents who work for Royal Caribbean. Plenty of agents are both complimentary and critical of any given cruise line, even in their posts right here in these very forums. Why shouldn't they provide honest opinions and/or feedback based on their own personal experiences? Agents aren't paid commission to glorify or hype a particular cruise line, they're paid to create and service bookings for their clients.

 

You must be thinking "do not bite the hand that feeds you" or something like that. I don't think that sentiment really works here.

[emdia43]

Every transaction by RCCL or the airline is on their computerized records for anyone to pull up and see who exactly canceled the flight and why!

Why are they dragging their feet- passing the buck?

[emdia43]

call Vicji Freed and tell her all thi sany bad publicity will get you somehwere ....... this is the Nation of WHY NOT>>>>

so Why Not help you out and call adam goldstein and richard fain.....

and complain,,,,,,,,, all the time........

believe me i am on war path myself.......

'

Also if one of your local TV stations has a 'Troubleshooter' segment you can get them involved, it seems a phone call from them works wonders.

A couple of days ago one of our local stations got a $1800 refund for a local family. This family had one child with a lifetime history of health problems.

He got sick on the day they were to fly to Florida. Of course they had not purchased Travel Insurance :mad: but after all their phone calls, Dr letters and so forth did not get the result they demanded, they called the TV station.

Someone called Lisa Calderone at RCCL overturned the decision and said they would make an exception.

If they can give that family their $1800 back they should be giving you and your husband a free cruise. What a farce!

[ccletzgo]

I don't understand how he had a seat assignment without it being paid for.. Delta will not assign seats without payment.:confused:

 

Something certainly went terribly wrong.

 

I just wanted to add, it may have happened when data entry was being done. Either on Royals side, or deltas side. I also am an agent and I had clients going round trip slc to Cancun. All purchased. Within 48 hours I had to do a spelling correction before the flights were ticketed. Somewhere between the booking engine I use and delta, (they still blame each other) on one of the persons SLC to CUN leg got canceled. They still had the Cun to SLC, but NO WAY TO GET THERE. We would have never known if it were not for the client checking there credit card statement and noticing that the amount of one persons ticket was less then the other..

 

What a mess. WE barely got them on the flight with one seat left and of course it was priced higher then before! Not only that it was first class at over $1,000 a round trip ticket...

 

anyway, back to the point I was making.. someone in data entry caused it to happen... I bet my bottom dollar. Were there any name or spelling corrections done after the booking?

[reallyitsmema]

I didn't include that I am the travel agent that took the group. I had many problems throughout with RCCL and the group but everything had been resolved. Everything looked in order with all of the tickets. The one thing that I am grateful for is that it was at least in our family and not one of my customers. I already got on the plane crying, I cannot even imagine how stresssed I would have been if it would have been one of my customers.

 

It is making it very hard to want to sell any RCCL. I have been trying to steer people another direction.

 

Uh, I don't know of any travel agents who work for Royal Caribbean. Plenty of agents are both complimentary and critical of any given cruise line, even in their posts right here in these very forums. Why shouldn't they provide honest opinions and/or feedback based on their own personal experiences? Agents aren't paid commission to glorify or hype a particular cruise line, they're paid to create and service bookings for their clients.

 

You must be thinking "do not bite the hand that feeds you" or something like that. I don't think that sentiment really works here.

I have no problem with a TA voicing their opinion, positive or negative. I think it is poor business practice for a TA to come here and say they are steering clients in another direction because of a single problem they had with their personal reservation. I would expect a travel professional to handle a problem professionally.

[The Grumpus]

I don't understand how he had a seat assignment without it being paid for.. Delta will not assign seats without payment.:confused:

 

Something certainly went terribly wrong.

CC, if you read post #23, the OP explains the seating issue. I had the same question in mind until I read her explanation.:)

[ccletzgo]

Every transaction by RCCL or the airline is on their computerized records for anyone to pull up and see who exactly canceled the flight and why!

Why are they dragging their feet- passing the buck?

 

To this day no one will accept responsibility for one of my clients legs of a round trip got canceled and its been 6 mos:eek:

 

My guess is delta..:rolleyes:

 

 

Thanks grump, i meant to delete that first statement in my post after I caught up..Thats when I added the rest of my horror story... Thanks.

[kaylorcc]

To this day no one will accept responsibility for one of my clients legs of a round trip got canceled and its been 6 mos:eek:

 

My guess is delta..:rolleyes:

 

Any time you get two businesses working "cooperatively" on the same venture, there's a good chance that if something goes wrong, they'll blame each other til the bitter end. My mom just spent a week going back and forth between two health insurance companies trying to figure out why somebody had double-billed my grandma for time she's spending in hospice. They blamed each other for a full week until finally a rep for one of them casually admitted that, whoops, it was their fault. No apologies for the wasted time on 5-6 phone calls, mind you. :rolleyes:

 

To the OP, if RCI has admitted that it's their error, just keep hounding 'em. And if this is going to affect which cruiseline you book with in the future, let them know. Even if you don't get additional compensation (and I hope you do-- $300 is a fairly meager amount for the nightmare at the airport plus missing 3 days), at least it might save somebody else the trouble of having to go through what you did. Good luck.