New Website for Royal - Bugs!

[BobNoxious]

Apparently they rolled out a new "buggy" website for logging in, but now nobody can access cruise planners.   Maybe it will get fixed today?   Lots of chatter on twitter:

https://twitter.com/search?q=%40RoyalCaribbean website&src=typd

 

[DDemuth]

You can still access the Cruise Planner and Cruise documents by clicking on the "already booked" menu.  You will need your cruise confirmation number to identify a specific reservedd cruise.  Still a bit roundabout but at least better than no access.

 

 

[LetsTryThisPlace]

This is proof that Royal's IT doesn't follow proper release protocols. You never should do your changes on your live system until there is a tested version. They weren't even ready in the first place never mind trying to do testing on it. This is why version releases are important.

[rori]

I don't get an already booked option.  I only get an option to make a payment.  

[whitsmom]

I just checked mine and I was able to get in there; however, I sign in thru Crown and Anchor so maybe that is the difference.  I can't pay on my cruise thru there as I have a TA but I can buy/pay for excursions, drink packages and etc.

[DDemuth]

28 minutes ago, rori said:

I don't get an already booked option.  I only get an option to make a payment.  

 

Go here:

https://www.royalcaribbean.com/

At the top of the page on the right, there is a link for "already booked".  That will give you options to access cruise planner etc.

 

 

[jce2]

Such a terrible design!  How could anyone think this is an upgrade?  Sure, you can go to the "Already booked" option......but WHY??  Clearly you should be able to click on a cruise on your list and from there get all the options there are for that cruise (ie. the planner).  This seems to be a total disconnect!

 

[Matt]

2 hours ago, LetsTryThisTech said:

This is proof that Royal's IT doesn't follow proper release protocols. You never should do your changes on your live system until there is a tested version. They weren't even ready in the first place never mind trying to do testing on it. This is why version releases are important.

I can see where perhaps they hoped for a better outcome, but I am rather surprised they did not roll back.  24+ hours of essentially a dead account management site is unacceptable for a major company like this.

Their backend system is antiquated and overdue for an overhaul, so it's not a simple upgrade.  However, as you mentioned @LetsTryThisTech, the duration of the problems exhibited is really bizarre to see in production for this length of time.

[rjac]

2 hours ago, Matt said:

I can see where perhaps they hoped for a better outcome, but I am rather surprised they did not roll back.  24+ hours of essentially a dead account management site is unacceptable for a major company like this.

Their backend system is antiquated and overdue for an overhaul, so it's not a simple upgrade.  However, as you mentioned @LetsTryThisTech, the duration of the problems exhibited is really bizarre to see in production for this length of time.

So, has anyone called Royal to see what they're going to do about this mess? I tried and the young man I spoke with was absolutely no help at all. 

[DDemuth]

7 minutes ago, rjac said:

So, has anyone called Royal to see what they're going to do about this mess? I tried and the young man I spoke with was absolutely no help at all. 

 

That's because the person you spoke with probably worked in the IT Dept.   

[Clear Laker]

Martha Poulter new Senior Vice President & Chief Information Officer first big project - FAIL.  Good thing Royal Caribbean is in the cruise business and not the IT business.  It is frustrating for us who work in the IT world.

[Ray]

think those that programmed website have all been indulging in the  deluxe drinks package 

[rjac]

1 hour ago, Ray said:

think those that programmed website have all been indulging in the  deluxe drinks package 

Well, if they weren't before they rolled out this mess.....I'm sure they are now!

[PrincipalTinker]

12 hours ago, rjac said:

So, has anyone called Royal to see what they're going to do about this mess? I tried and the young man I spoke with was absolutely no help at all. 

Last night I started looking for information. I ended up on Twitter and sent a PM. First I was told the issues only affected “a small number of people” but they could not say when it would work. 

I focused on the fact that there was no warning and I can not find any information shared by the company to address concerns. As someone with a cruise in 35 days I am very concerned when RCL says I do not have a reservation.

After a number of messages back and forth they asked me my reservation number. At 8:14pm they told me to “hold on” while they checked. That was my last response.

I didn’t think they would make me feel worse but they did.

 

i am thankful to all of you and your tricks to get into the new website.

 

[princevaliantus]

If you have your reservation number, just input it in the "look up reservation" field and it should populate. All 7 of my reservations needed to be inputted and no further issues. Hope this helps.

[PrincipalTinker]

1 hour ago, princevaliantus said:

If you have your reservation number, just input it in the "look up reservation" field and it should populate. All 7 of my reservations needed to be inputted and no further issues. Hope this helps.

Unfortunately when I do that on the new site it says I do not have a reservation.

[Rede411]

On Facebook and other platforms I hear the website "should" be working by Monday by people who have spoken w/ Royal.  Looking at the current design, it's NOT easy to navigate.  It seems with every upgrade they offer less.  There was an upgrade about a year ago where before you could see all the "Suite" layouts where as now, they just list the perks of the Royal Suite experience but no actual pictures/layouts.  I really hope that this upgrade would bring that back and enhance other things but we will wait and see...

 

 

[TheCruising4]

Has anyone had any luck booking drink packages?  I was planning on getting our drink package today for our cruise in 28 days.  When I click on the cruise planner I get "Bad Request."  I've also tried to go to the FAQ/Help section and I get the same "Bad Request" page.  I'm not going to be happy if I have to purchase the package on the ship and pay a higher price...they need to solve this ASAP! 

[rjac]

@PrincipalTinker

Try this link: https://secure.royalcaribbean.com/mycruises/processLogin.do. That will get you into their website so you can access your reservation. If that does not work get back to us here on the board.

[twangster]

There is a possibility it is functioning as they intend.  Decoupling the Crown and Anchor login from future cruise planning, requiring each cruise to be accessed on its own, using the reservation number unique to that cruise.  Maybe this is exactly how they want it to function.

[rjac]

9 minutes ago, twangster said:

There is a possibility it is functioning as they intend.  Decoupling the Crown and Anchor login from future cruise planning, requiring each cruise to be accessed on its own, using the reservation number unique to that cruise.  Maybe this is exactly how they want it to function.

That may very well be. But, with this big of a change/upgrade it seems to me that Royal would have sent out an e-mail weeks ago telling us what was coming, what to expect and when it would be launched. I know, not everyone has signed up to receive e-mail from Royal....shame on them. But for the rest us of subscribers, who receive sale updates, new cruises, etc., it would have been nice to have been forewarned about this overnight mess!

[PrincipalTinker]

2 hours ago, rjac said:

@PrincipalTinker

Try this link: https://secure.royalcaribbean.com/mycruises/processLogin.do. That will get you into their website so you can access your reservation. If that does not work get back to us here on the board.

Thanks! That link works and I can see my cruise and everything I booked is there!

[rjac]

5 minutes ago, PrincipalTinker said:

Thanks! That link works and I can see my cruise and everything I booked is there!

Hopefully you have already done the online registration and printed off your cruise documents. If not, do it now before that link goes down or worse things happen to Royal's website!

[DunkelBierJay]

18 hours ago, rjac said:

So, has anyone called Royal to see what they're going to do about this mess? I tried and the young man I spoke with was absolutely no help at all. 

I tweeted at them requesting a timeline, and they just said to call their toll free number.

[rjac]

7 minutes ago, DunkelBierJay said:

I tweeted at them requesting a timeline, and they just said to call their toll free number.

Good luck with that! I tried that yesterday, I felt sorry for the young man I spoke with. He was absolutely clueless. It's a shame that Royal is subjecting their customer service personnel to this kind of abuse!

[livetothefullest55]

I am struggling as well. I can't  figure out how to add air or to change my main dining reservations. I really can't see anything about my cruise.

[livetothefullest55]

4 hours ago, TheCruising4 said:

Has anyone had any luck booking drink packages?  I was planning on getting our drink package today for our cruise in 28 days.  When I click on the cruise planner I get "Bad Request."  I've also tried to go to the FAQ/Help section and I get the same "Bad Request" page.  I'm not going to be happy if I have to purchase the package on the ship and pay a higher price...they need to solve this ASAP! 

I get that bad request sometimes and I was told to clear my cache and cookies. It worked

[rjac]

16 minutes ago, livetothefullest55 said:

I am struggling as well. I can't  figure out how to add air or to change my main dining reservations. I really can't see anything about my cruise.

Welcome to the message board! This link will get you to where you can log in: https://secure.royalcaribbean.com/mycruises/processLogin.do. If you can't add air or change your dining on line, you will have to call Royal. Good luck!

[PrincipalTinker]

3 hours ago, rjac said:

Hopefully you have already done the online registration and printed off your cruise documents. If not, do it now before that link goes down or worse things happen to Royal's website!

I know I saw a post another day that someone could print their documents I thought around day 40? I am 35 days out and I looked today. It says I will get an email when I can print everything. Would that include luggage tags? Can I do online check in now?

[Suzanne]

I printed out our set sail pass this morning....its only 2 pages now! YEA!!!  No luck on luggage tags. Can't find a link that works. 

We sail on May 5th. 

[rjac]

22 minutes ago, Suzanne said:

I printed out our set sail pass this morning....its only 2 pages now! YEA!!!  No luck on luggage tags. Can't find a link that works. 

We sail on May 5th. 

On the Count Down to Cruise page, under the Cruise Documentation heading in the  middle of the right side of the page, click on "check status", then select "check status" under the Guest Vacation Documents heading then select "print document". The luggage tags will be at the end of these documents. 

Oh yeah, try using this link getting into your account: https://secure.royalcaribbean.com/mycruises/processLogin.do. 

[Suzanne]

Thanks!  But it says our documents aren't ready yet. At least I know how when they are ready.

A thousand thanks! 

[DunkelBierJay]

4 hours ago, rjac said:

Good luck with that! I tried that yesterday, I felt sorry for the young man I spoke with. He was absolutely clueless. It's a shame that Royal is subjecting their customer service personnel to this kind of abuse!

I figured that would be the case for them, so I kept playing with the website, and was able to log in to my cruise planner from the home page. It prompted a login after I clicked on excursions. I couldn't get there logging in first. I printed My Calendar so I have a printed record of what I purchased in one place.

[rjac]

8 minutes ago, DunkelBierJay said:

I figured that would be the case for them, so I kept playing with the website, and was able to log in to my cruise planner from the home page. It prompted a login after I clicked on excursions. I couldn't get there logging in first. I printed My Calendar so I have a printed record of what I purchased in one place.

Try this link: https://secure.royalcaribbean.com/mycruises/processLogin.do. That will get you to the login in page. Just plug in your username & password.

[Traveler]

Although I could login with the direct link (thanks @rjac and I I found a dissimilar that "even if you do not see same things between the site and apps do not worry it will be ok"  I would wait with any updates until the site will be stable.

My recommendations, if your cruise is not in the coming week  wait with any updates transaction on the site (cruise planner changes for example) as RC did not finished the migration/upgrade process and things can be lost during this process.

So unless anyone wants to spend hours with RC customer care trying to find were is the special restaurant your order and paid for , just wait for Monday or Tuesday . My next cruise is in one month from now and that is what I am planning to do.

By the way , if anyone looking for a CIO job  in a major  cruise line  , it seems to me  that one going to be available soon  

[PrincipalTinker]

9 hours ago, Traveler said:

Although I could login with the direct link (thanks @rjac and I I found a dissimilar that "even if you do not see same things between the site and apps do not worry it will be ok"  I would wait with any updates until the site will be stable.

My recommendations, if your cruise is not in the coming week  wait with any updates transaction on the site (cruise planner changes for example) as RC did not finished the migration/upgrade process and things can be lost during this process.

So unless anyone wants to spend hours with RC customer care trying to find were is the special restaurant your order and paid for , just wait for Monday or Tuesday . My next cruise is in one month from now and that is what I am planning to do.

By the way , if anyone looking for a CIO job  in a major  cruise line  , it seems to me  that one going to be available soon  

You know, I would be much more understanding and accepting of these issues if I received any communication regarding the issues and timeline. Instead, I continue to get emails telling me there is a sale and I should book another cruise. Just one little email, “ we are experiencing difficulties and please accept our apologies. We expect this issue to be resolved no later than than March....” 

[Traveler]

3 hours ago, PrincipalTinker said:

You know, I would be much more understanding and accepting of these issues if I received any communication regarding the issues and timeline. Instead, I continue to get emails telling me there is a sale and I should book another cruise. Just one little email, “ we are experiencing difficulties and please accept our apologies. We expect this issue to be resolved no later than than March....” 

Totally agree with you , even now they could have send some email ...

[Frequent Cruiser]

How frustrating to technical and nontechnical people alike. As part of my login, they required me to provide additional information. I am assuming that they were doing that in order to perform their new authorization. That's not a bad thing, but I was surprised with all the issues with their upgraded site including: 

1. My current cruise was not shown on my account. I had to add it.
2. No prior cruises joined to my account and no way to add them.
3. No join with my Crown and Anchor account.

These are just a few initial issues I saw as well as a view providing less information for the current cruise information prior to check in.

That's all the debugging and QA I will do without getting paid. Seems that Royal Caribbean most likely used only Offshore only resources to upgrade their site.  eesh!!!!I I am mmore than happy to help you RC if you want a professional to QA your site and provide you with all the breakage, data migration an integrity issues.  professionalqaconsultant is my gmail information.

[Frequent Cruiser]

I am trying to get through to customer service about an upcoming cruise and have been on hold for OVER AN HOUR.... still waiting.

[jce2]

It is like they are programming on the fly, when they really should put the old site back up and work on this off-line.  Now there is in fact a "planner" link on my cruise box but once you click on it you are presented the same "Reservation Look-Up" panel that you would get from the main menu if you jumped to the planner without selecting a cruise first.  Even when they do get it working it is ugly (plain) as can be!