LizzyBee23

Posted on a FB group... Seems a pretty direct admission Ovation is understaffed in more ways than one.

It has the same net effect, so perhaps this is a distinction without a difference.

And would you look at that, the short term plan is to cut guest capacity. At some point this becomes a safety issue, in addition to being wildly bad for business. The idea that 1-2 months of reduced capacity may lead to insolvency (while possibly true) doesn't really trump that. "Last week the U.K.-based Cunard Line, a Carnival Cruise ship, drastically cut down on the guest capacity for the Queen Victoria and Queen Mary 2, and P&O Cruises canceled seven sailings of Arcadia last month. Both cancellations were due to limited crew availability, which would have negatively impacted guest services."

A FB group I'm in has someone discussing COVID among crew. Evidently someone's genie was pretty candid with them regarding the state of the crew onboard (also mentioned many were new... lots of mishaps including a bartender serving alcohol to a minor who ordered a virgin drink, and countless stories about having to deal with room charges/double grats, etc.) Take with a huge grain of salt, but I'll say the sheer quantity of these takes dwarves any other sailing group I've ever participated in on FB or elsewhere.

Keep checking! Sometimes early ones will get released again.

I don't disagree, and I think you and I are in different spots: we can move our vacation around a bit (though it would be annoying, and I got my DBP at a price that would be pure unicorn these days). I want to make an informed choice, and it's hard to do that. I also think we as consumers are within our rights to raise a little muck when things aren't right... Otherwise these temporary annoyances become permanent once all involved become a bit too complacent. And honestly, maybe that's where the market is heading anyway (perhaps temporarily), because of just how relieved some people are to be back onboard. Why would RCL do anything differently if it can fill ships with people who have extremely "flexible" expectations? There are only a few things that will really mar our experience (AO not being open, hours long meal times)... We'd absolutely change sailings or make radical adjustments over those.

@Pattycruise, thank you for acknowledging that not being up front with passengers is bad for marketing when your product is failing to live up to expectations. That's self-evident, and kind of makes my point. As for the poo rolls down hill: another reason it would be best for RCL to accept responsibility for missteps with booking. If you gave someone who was rightly disappointed in the fact that headliner shows we're conspicuously absent from the schedule a token amount of OBC, and they continue on with the cruise merrily, would that not also be good for the workers? As it stands, RCL is essentially giving customers a singular choice that doesn't cost the cruise line anything, but does "roll downhill". I'm not willing to fault someone for making that choice after paying thousands for a vacation that just doesn't deliver on it's promise, even if it's not a choice I would make.

I think that's more than a semantic difference, and I take your point. I think it was easier to extend a bit of grace and be satisfied with the experience when it was evident the measures RCL was trying to take to ensure guests were well taken care of... Even if it meant you didn't get to see a show, or couldn't get reservations at AO (ensuring our kids have fun was/is important to us, so obviously those were a bigger deal to our little family than say, my cruise addicted in-laws). With capacity soaring, those measures have vaporized, it seems especially on a ship like Ovation that just doesn't seem ready for primetime. I would argue that dips into substandard, and not necessarily just "different", if the accounts onboard are true. I am sensitive to the notion that the loudest voices are often overblown, but there are a lot of them and it's hard to argue with pictures.

I kind of get it... RCL seems unwilling to compensate people for a substandard product, while now booking at full capacity. I understand that the cost of COVID mitigation is high, but if you ask your customers (who you lured on the ship with promises of entertainment or amenities that never materialize) to bear too much of that cost to push you into the black, well... What's that old saying? Poo rolls downhill?

I agree it can become intractable really fast... Would have preferred to see them keep capacity at 75%ish, or put something in place kind of like the airlines when they become oversold. Even if they ultimately decide to do nothing, communicating that things are not ideal and taking their lumps with healthy doling out of OBC is better than leaving everyone in this quagmire. Sorry if I seem short... Feeling disappointed, again. Gets tiring!

Sure, and that kind of flexibility is something we can afford, too. But 3-4 hours for a dinner service? Whole mornings spent in lines to disembark at port? And not to mention things like Adventure Ocean and the North Star being closed. The sum total approaches unacceptability really quickly. And sure... I'm willing to acknowledge that a COVID outbreak can change the way things are onboard quickly. I think it's reasonable to expect Royal to react in a way that also protects the guest experience... Perhaps by, at a minimum, allowing no new bookings on the ship experiencing a staff shortage?

Sure, but right now we could still pivot to a ship or sail date that isn't plagued (excuse the word choice) with problems. Much harder to do that once we're already onboard. I have reached out to RCL through social media, and only got vague answers in response. Optimism would suggest they're trying to get better every week, so our sailing may be the best yet. Realism suggests past performance is the best indicator of future performance and we should jump ship while we can. Kind of hard to swallow the ambiguity when we know full well RCL's logistics planners have the answers we want.

I get that no one has definite answers, maybe some suggestions for how we might get them? My sailing leaves on Friday, and despite the supposed staff shortages, RCL is still selling berths. That doesn't really make sense to me, which makes me think I'm missing something.

COVID isn't new, though. If they can't react to it, they shouldn't be sailing with the number of people they are (or advertising a product they have no hope of actually delivering).

I'm worried for the same reason you are: supposed to be onboard next week. It seems intractable (short of cancelling the next few sailings or paying out to reduce capacity) and this is an expensive vacation. Rather not blow the dough for excuse making, and we would be more than willing to move to next month if RCL would give honest answers/projections.