Rick Miller Posted March 21 Report Share Posted March 21 Good morning, I have been following you guys for a year or more now due to the wealth of information you share and have participated in more than one of Matt's live sessions on Monday's leading up to our first cruise last July 2023. I doubt he would remember, but if he does, I had dropped him a few Superchats asking about things like accommodating 18 people in the main dining room for my wife's BDay. We had a big group, hehe. :) In fact, that's sort of why I am posting. I want to preface my issue with a bit of background on our trip to put it in perspective. We planned a 7 night Eastern Caribbean cruise that included a day at Coco Cay. In fact, with only 2 other stops planned and 4 days at sea, Coco Cay was SUPPOSED to be the highlight of our cruise vacation which occurred on the final day of the cruise. On this trip we took 18 people, all family and friends. We had 4 Grand Suites, a junior suite, 2 balcony rooms, a promenade view room, and one interior room. During this cruise we were celebrating a few milestone events. A 40th birthday (family friend), a 50th birthday (best friend/brother in law), a 75th birthday (mother in law) and on a personal note, my wife turned 43 while on the trip BUT the overall point of the trip itself was our 25th wedding anniversary ALL of which took place during the summer months but none directly during the cruise except for my wife's BDay. Of the 3 ports and 4 days at sea all anyone was excited about was the Coco Cay stay, and for good reason. Going all out, I opted to book and pay for TWO cabanas for our day there. I booked one in thrill waterpark for our combined 7 kids and a second one in Coco Beach Club for 9 of the adults (Mom and Dad in law opted to just get the Coco Beach Club pass). For each I had to pay a mini fee for the extra person plus ended up getting snorkeling gear for a few of the kids and a souvenir or two. All in all though I spent ~$6000 on Coco Cay ALONE. We can ignore everything else I spent as my focus here is Coco Cay and aside from the story I am about to tell below had a GREAT time the other 6 days. Due to unforeseen circumstances the ship got delayed at one of the port (Tortola) thanks to a few errant passengers that may have gotten themselves into trouble. The ship also had to divert on day 6 (I think) to Turks and Caicos due to a medical emergency in which a passenger had to be transported via lifeboat to the main island for treatment. Both of these set the ship schedule back by roughly 8 hours. When all was said and done, Royal Caribbean was forced to push back the Coco Cay day from a standard 8am-5pm schedule to not even arriving TO the port until just before ~3pm. The Captain was gracious enough to stay an extra bit of time but ultimately we were shuffled back to the boat somewhere between 6pm and 7pm EST. This took our Coco Cay day from 8+ hours to less than 4. I asked both the concierge and customer service desks if there was anything that could be done about the EXTREMELY large amount of money I spent for our excursions there in the hopes of getting some sort of credit to make up for the lost time, lost use of amenities, and loss of general sun time and fun time. I was told BY BOTH that I should be sure to fill out the surveys at the end of the cruise asking to be contacted and explain my issue there. They both assured me Royal takes the surveys seriously and even stated that how the crew gets recognized as well so they KNEW it would be taken seriously. I did exactly as told to. I filled out the survey and waited.....and waited... and waited... till roughly October. I made a phone call to Royal. I don't recall the number or where I found it on their website but when I called I got a general customer service person but they didn't seem to know what to do with my call. (wrong dept maybe). Anyways, that person, who didn't seem to know how to escalate my situation told me they would inform their supervisor who would then have someone get in contact with me, but it was possible I would just see some sort of onboard credit on my next cruise. I booked 2 more cruises shortly after this. One, we just got back from Mar 11th. It was a 4 day, Eastern Caribbean, from Mar 7th - Mar 11th on Independence of the Seas only stopping at Labadee, Haiti. The second cruise I booked was a 7 day Alaska cruise for my wife and I, our 2 boys, and one long time girlfriend. As you may have guess by this post, I had no ship credit during the 4 night cruise a couple of weeks back and no one else ever tried to contact me. Not trying to hash up an issue from a different ship, 6 months prior, I did not say anything DURING this past cruise. Once we returned home I filled out the survey as asked, once again, but also dug in a bit to find the TRUE customer service contact to reach out to. I sent an email to royalguestrelations@rccl.com re-explaining everything that had happened last July on Wednesday Mar 13th. They responded yesterday, a full week later. I explained everything above in similar detail and said all I was really asking for was a bit of a ship's credit since we had planned on continue to cruise with Royal. Don't get me wrong though, I asked for a BIG credit ($1500) but expected some sort of a negotiation. Additionally, my wife and I hit PRIME status on Casino Royale curing this past cruise and even though we only have 2 cruises under our belt so far (with a planned Alaska cruise I am now rethinking) are still only 8 points away from Platinum status since we booked a Grand Suite on our first cruise and a Junior Suite on this past one. I told the guest relations desk all of this. Hell, we were even offered $600 in ships credit while on board to book our NEXT cruise, so its not like they don't just hand them out for good business sense. At one point in my explanation of everything I even stated I understood the "change in itinerary" policy that even YOU GUYS always mention and I KNEW Royal had ZERO "obligation" to give me anything. I just felt that due to the extraneous circumstances, the amount of people we had, and the amount of money I and our family spent AND was planning on continuing to spend with Royal that my situation should be looked at on more of a individual basis and that providing me a good ship's credit would go a LONG way to show my value as a customer and probably impact Royal in a miniscule and even negligible way. All of which I stated in my email to them. Apparently I am just a minnow in their sea of whales because the response yesterday felt like an insult..... I am pasting below. To me, this feels like a slap in the face. "HAHA, NO, we arent giving you anything, but let me spew out all this love for your money in your face and tell you how happy we are to get out of any obligation to you and be as obtuse and condescending as possible all while expressing our gratitude for your dollars". UGH....to me, its cringy. Whats even more upsetting is that the rep below mentions the importance of bringing up your issue WHILE ON BOARD, which I did, AND included that in my original email to them, but its as if that's the excuse for not compensating me??? Where is the ownership here?? As a customer I tried many things and am just being moved in circles so the next group DOESNT have to help. Now, I have no recourse after being pointed BACK IN TIME to my Cruise in July. __________________________________________________ Hello Rick, Thank you for your email. I am sorry for the delay in my response and appreciate the opportunity to assist you. I am sorry to learn of your shore excursion was delayed in coco cay. There may be times when things do not go the way we had intended. We understand your disappointment regarding the change in your cruise's itinerary. Unfortunately, we are unable to offer compensation. Nevertheless, we truly apologize if our decision causes any disappointment. All comments are taking very serious and reviewed with our management team. It important to bring up any issue while you are onboard to our customer service desk so they may further address your concerns onboard. Thank you for bringing your concerns to our attention. Your comments have been documented and reported to our operational teams for further review. We understand your vacation is important to you and it is important to us too. We hope all our guests will take away only pleasant memories of the time spent with us. We hope you allow us the opportunity to welcome you back onboard again soon. Sincerely, Martha Filgueiras Royal Guest Experience Management ___________________________________________________ I was actually BLOWN AWAY this was their stance. How can I get assistance here? I am BEGGING RCB (Matt) to give me a path or, if even within your abilities, help directly. Is there an escalation path through guest services? A customer care director I can reach out to? An "office of the President" type of help desk to handle more complex cases? I would be happy with a name and an email. I even considered just doing look ups for the board/CEO/etc... to get any sort of email to send my case to but decided to get guidance from you guys first since I fully believe you are the experts here. The current case they have probably closed already is: Adventure Of The Seas / 15-Jul-2023 / 561298 / 3-68505426149 / Miller Anything you can do to help is appreciate but I am obviously not here to press any issues with you guys so if you can not help, I understand. Thank you, Rick Miller PPPJJ-GCVAB 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AshleyDillo Posted March 21 Report Share Posted March 21 Sorry to hear this happened to you and I hope someone on the blogs can give you some ideas of who to connect with to try and get this some traction. The biggest takeaway from this is whenever there is a problem on the sailing you need to make sure you resolve it prior to leaving the ship. Once you leave the ship, there's less urgency for someone to assist you. Onboard you need to leverage every resource you have (Guest Services, Concierge) and escalate until you talk to someone who will do something. If you ever have an issue with a Shore Excursion and make a complaint onboard they often will give a refund, but you do need to be persistent, polite, and do not let them just put you aside and firmly stand your ground and talk to someone higher up. How much you spent and your loyalty is irrelevant. They should have listened to your complaints onboard and tried to offer a solution while onboard. Neesa, Jamesszy94, 27th Lady and 4 others 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Riley Posted March 21 Report Share Posted March 21 If you have travel insurance you may be able to make a claim, depending on the policy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rick Miller Posted March 21 Author Report Share Posted March 21 2 minutes ago, Riley said: If you have travel insurance you may be able to make a claim, depending on the policy. Thanks Riley. I will check to see if there is anything in the policy we had that would include something like this. As much as I KNOW we had insurance I will fully admit I didnt read through it thinking it would only be necessary if we had to cancel last minute for relevant reasons. I did attempt to send my story/email to the "office of the president" but I am not sure how much traction if any that would get. In any case, thank you for your reply. I will look into it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doug_Texas Posted March 21 Report Share Posted March 21 I have had no experience with reimbursements after the fact but have had great success on board cancelling for refund before arrival at the port. As soon as the itinerary change is announced my efforts to cancel for a full refund have been honored on the ship before arriving in port. I know this doesn't address your desire for financial compensation after the fact, sorry you went through this. Villageidiot and Rick Miller 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pattycruise Posted March 23 Report Share Posted March 23 Mbayley@rccl.com make your complaint much shorter and more concise.’ cruise date and ship reservation #’s Brief sentence-booked abc cabins. problem -did not get your full days worth of hours due to late arrival State asked about compensation from (insert names ) while onboard State call /email to customer service State response by Marth F and date State what you want from them Prorated $back? closing:looking forward to a resolution to this. Sign off Name, Crown and anchor # Phone # not sure if attachments are a good thing…could send your email to spam so perhaps offer to forward correspondence if needed PPPJJ-GCVAB, Rick Miller, 27th Lady and 7 others 8 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rick Miller Posted March 24 Author Report Share Posted March 24 On 3/22/2024 at 11:59 PM, Pattycruise said: Mbayley@rccl.com make your complaint much shorter and more concise.’ Thanks Patty! I sent an email to both Bayley and Liberty and I got a prompt response from the executive office. I have a call set up with a representative of the executive office this upcoming week. Hopefully this will have a happy ending and I dont get banned or something, lol. Much obliged to all for the help and advice! Rick tingtang, Gilley and Pattycruise 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MLH Posted March 24 Report Share Posted March 24 Here are a couple of avenues. Home - Elliott Report Local BBBs serving United States | Better Business Bureau® It should have been dealt with onboard and they seemed to have passed the buck to the land people. Any FCC's or refunds go against that particular ships bottom line of profit so some ships have a harder time extending refunds. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Posted March 25 Report Share Posted March 25 Sorry you ran into this situation. As others pointed out, in retrospect, always deal with problems like this onboard. Start with the shore excursion team, escalate to their manager if necessary. If that doesn't get what you want, I'd ask to speak to the Hotel Director. If you're in a suite, you could start with the suite concierge. Unfortunately, once you're off the ship it's tough to get resolutions for an issue like this. WAAAYTOOO and Rick Miller 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pattycruise Posted March 25 Report Share Posted March 25 1 hour ago, Matt said: Sorry you ran into this situation. As others pointed out, in retrospect, always deal with problems like this onboard. Start with the shore excursion team, escalate to their manager if necessary. If that doesn't get what you want, I'd ask to speak to the Hotel Director. If you're in a suite, you could start with the suite concierge. Unfortunately, once you're off the ship it's tough to get resolutions for an issue like this. The above and If it’s not logged in at guest services it’s like the conversation never happened, take the time for guest services to LOG the complaint-not just listen to you-LOG it. Logging will take about 5 minutes by the time they go through all their screens. additionally a phone call to Royal from the ship is an additional log that you attempted to resolve the issue while onboard. WAAAYTOOO 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid4c4 Posted March 25 Report Share Posted March 25 You didn't receive the product or services which you were promised and paid for thus creating a fraud. I think fraud applies in this case as the vendor was notified of the violation of the contract and took no action to correct the deficiency. I would file a compliant with RCCL, BBB and challenge the charge with my credit card provider. My guess is the company is depending that most people will simply walk away and not challenge the situation. This emboldens the company to continue these types of practices. Bill Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ampurp85 Posted March 25 Report Share Posted March 25 3 hours ago, Paid4c4 said: You didn't receive the product or services which you were promised and paid for thus creating a fraud. I think fraud applies in this case as the vendor was notified of the violation of the contract and took no action to correct the deficiency. I would file a compliant with RCCL, BBB and challenge the charge with my credit card provider. My guess is the company is depending that most people will simply walk away and not challenge the situation. This emboldens the company to continue these types of practices. Bill I have to respectfully disagree. This is not fraud. The OP got exactly what they were promised. The promise was to go to PDCC, utilize the cabana, beach club, etc. It was not a promise that they would be there 8-5pm. There is no money back guarantee that anyone will have the exact hours of time at any given location, that is stated in the cruise contract. Doug_Texas, GatorCruiser and Paid4c4 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rick Miller Posted March 25 Author Report Share Posted March 25 Jumping back in for a sec.... just to level set a bit. From the RCCL side. This was not fraud The BBB will NOT be contacted by me The contract was followed as best as I understand it. If you have zero sympathy nor empathy for anyone else like Ampurp85, I got what I was promised. Shame on you if your a Bears fan purp!! We gots to stick together!!! due to situations out of anyone but God's control Royal had to cut short the last day of the sailing at the port of Coco Cay from 9hrs to ~4hrs (and MUCH later in the day). From my side. 18 first time cruisers who specifically picked a lesser amount of ports so we could spend more time on the ship and cap it off with a long day at Coco Cay (sold hard by RCCL and everyone here.... no fault of anyone's, that place is AWESOME) all being their to celebrate MULTIPLE milestone events including a 25th wedding anniversary. 11 Adults who just wanted to lavishly chill at coco beach club for the day but instead got told to order as much food up front as possible because no one knew when the food service was ending due to the time change. Along with the additional chaos that came with everyone cramming bars and hoarding servers to help them due to it. 7 kids who all got to go to the water park (24 down to 16 so I say "kids" lightly) and honestly spent 2 hours of line waiting to ride 4 slides or so before getting shuffled back to the boat. 4 sets of snorkel gear for the kids that wanted to use them 2 Cabanas (Thrill Waterpark + Coco Beach Club [beach not overwater]) + 2 coco beach club passes due to cabana limitations 1 Wallet to rule them all!!! (I was the one with the wedding anniversary) No need to get rough with one another this post was about asking for help, not debates, hehe. Look, I get it, crap happens. All that I am saying is sometimes the rules that are meant to protect the cruise line can hurt the customers. I am sure, at least I hope so, I am somewhat of an outlier here on the entirely of the situation, but just felt I did not get my moneys worth and have been shuffled around by everyone I asked about it... the first of which was the concierge on behalf of the 4 of us that had Grand Suites. I wasn't even asking for money, I only ever requested ships credit which is almost handed out like candy if you book WHILE on the ship anyways.... oh, which we ALSO did. In any case, I WAS contacted by RCCL and will be speaking with them on Wednesday about my issue. I will update the thread, good or bad though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ampurp85 Posted March 26 Report Share Posted March 26 @Rick Miller I don't understand how you gathered I have zero sympathy or empathy from my post but okay. Not a bears or sports fan in general. Just wanted to point out no fraud was committed. I have been checking in hoping for your (positive)resolution but post like that infuriate me. DDaley 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rick Miller Posted March 27 Author Report Share Posted March 27 Good afternoon everyone! I am happy to report after a very relaxed and fun conversation with Ardi from RCCL my problem is now resolved. He contacted me when he said he would, was extremely professional, was able to almost read back my dilemma above (which was a feat in and of itself considering how long it was), and was happy to assist overall. Pretty sure I am a lifer now. HAHA! Wonder how fast I can hit diamond..... prolly not as fast as I hit Prime in the casino.... bwahahaha Maybe I will see some of you on our next sailing! Thanks for all the help RCB team and members!! Rick Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fireclan Posted March 27 Report Share Posted March 27 I'm happy all is well. This is the RC that I remember when I first started cruising with them in 2006 after numerous Celebrity cruises. WAAAYTOOO 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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