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brb700 Royals inept "IT Department"


brb700

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Royal Caribbean's IT department should be fired. It runs the worst web sight of any of the cruise lines. Always something wrong

I wanted to book 8 cabins over Thanksgiving and have been trying for 2 weeks. I call in and they tell me it's because I use

Firefox. Guess what, every other cruise line is available on my Firefox account?????????????????? I ended up booking on Carnival.

I'm a diamond plus and it kills me to go somewhere else. I have 5 cruises booked on Royal but can't get the old cruise planner to load properly

even on Edge????????????? The IT Department needs to go to the other cruise lines a see how it's done.

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I may not enjoy the design of Royal's current website nor the features it provides yet I manage to cruise often using it.

As offered earlier in the thread Royal's policy is a maximum of four cabins can be booked on the website.  This is not an IT issue.

When you reach 4 cabins the " + " is greyed out and you can't add any more.  Not an IT issue.

 

1008248261_Maxcabins.jpeg.c0d7fd0a85b4d7e45d932dce674e6995.jpeg

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It's frustrating to not be able to do everything I want through the website with Royal so it makes it even more comfortable for me to just get a travel agent handle it, especially when booking such a large group of rooms!  They possibly could get you some extra perks because of the number of rooms and their reservations systems allows them to see what's available much easier than Royal's retail site.

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3 hours ago, brb700 said:

Royal Caribbean's IT department should be fired. It runs the worst web sight of any of the cruise lines. Always something wrong

I wanted to book 8 cabins over Thanksgiving and have been trying for 2 weeks. I call in and they tell me it's because I use

Firefox. Guess what, every other cruise line is available on my Firefox account?????????????????? I ended up booking on Carnival.

I'm a diamond plus and it kills me to go somewhere else. I have 5 cruises booked on Royal but can't get the old cruise planner to load properly

even on Edge????????????? The IT Department needs to go to the other cruise lines a see how it's done.

We use Firefox and don't have any special problems.  However, I do sympathize with your plight, and it is valid for you to share that RCI lost revenue because of your frustrating experience.  Although I have used computers since the 1980's, I don't especially like modern websites.  Each site is different, and what works for one doesn't work for another....lack of standardization.  I also hate it when I can't just search for a topic.  I have to do that outside of the website (e.g., Google search).  I am also tired of seeing lots of pretty pictures when I just want data so I compare cruise line X with cruise line Y.  With all of this in mind, I use a travel agent, as others have noted.  I let the TA run interference for me.  While I am not a Carnival fan, I've had friends who were.  Bon voyage!  But do feel free to return to Royal cruises now that others have shared their insights and workarounds. 

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3 hours ago, brb700 said:

Royal Caribbean's IT department should be fired

I have worked in Information Technology for over 30 years was many of us here do.  In the years we have been cruising, Royal's IT department has always had a way to go to reach the best practices standards employed by others.  All tasks involving technology are rapidly evolving.  RC is not a small uncomplicated business. 

Our answer for anything other than Cruise Planner purchases … use a Travel Agent.  It costs nothing and they will work with RC for you. :27_sunglasses:

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7 hours ago, HeWhoWaits said:

The maximum number of cabins that can be booked in a single transaction online is 4. 8 booked together always requires contacting Royal by telephone and working with their agents directly.

Yes I know the rules. I was trying to book 4 balcony and then 4 ocean view. we had 2 different groups.

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I agree that Royal's website can be frustrating at times, my last cruise took me all day to finally book (was almost a year ago); however, I reported the issues to their IT department, they do want to know. It's also upsetting that some features have been removed - like changing dining options & bed configurations & etc.

However, modern web development is a complex animal. Those who do web design / web development for a living can speak better on the topic, but a site like Royal's isn't a one week task. There are a lot of moving parts between what we see and what we do not see. 

I will say, since launch, the site has improved exponentially. Do they test properly? Probably not. Are some of their programmers inexperienced? Maybe. But, they are improving, and I am personally impressed with the Cruise Planner portion of the site. To make all that happen, all the different programming languages, databases and tools interconnected isn't easy.

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