Royal Caribbean transfers not arrived?

Hi,

I have all my transfers booked with Royal Caribbean. Airport to hotel, hotel to port and port to airport. ( We are staying in Rome for 3 days prior to our cruise)

I was wondering if anyone had not been picked up by Royal and if so what had happened?

Also is there someone there to meet you?

I 'm asking as I know on cruise day there will be more people arriving so a rep would be there but we are arriving 3 days before the cruise so wanted to know of anyone else's experience.

Thanks

Hi,

 

I have all my transfers booked with Royal Caribbean. Airport to hotel, hotel to port and port to airport. ( We are staying in Rome for 3 days prior to our cruise)

I was wondering if anyone had not been picked up by Royal and if so what had happened?

Also is there someone there to meet you?

 

I 'm asking as I know on cruise day there will be more people arriving so a rep would be there but we are arriving 3 days before the cruise so wanted to know of anyone else's experience.

 

Thanks

Hi,

They are but I was wondering if anyone hadn't been picked up or if they got to the airport and there wasn't a RC rep there to take you to the hotel.

Hi,

They are but I was wondering if anyone hadn't been picked up or if they got to the airport and there wasn't a RC rep there to take you to the hotel.

Hi

I would not worry, whenever we've flown in there has always been a rep at the airport holding a board up for passengers. Even if it's earlier than cruise day they know which flight you are coming in on so will make arrangements to meet you. Happy cruising.

Yes, it has happened to me back in 2012, but it is worth detailing why so you can avoid it happening to you. :)

It was the first RCI cruise (but not first cruise ever) and despite paying for airport transfers, no 'tickets' were provided in the cruise e-documents (nor was I expecting them due to assurances from both the Australian Royal Caribbean office and travel agent that tickets weren't necessary). As such I wasn't on the list of passengers to be picked up. An hour or three was spent at the airport waiting and thinking the transfer was just running late (with the transfer's phone number not being answered), and it was only by chance somebody with a Royal Caribbean clipboard/sign entered the specific terminal I was waiting in due to another passenger being picked up whom had just landed on a later flight (with a transfer ticket!) ... this representative was until that point at another terminal of the same airport waiting for somebody else, as I wasn't on their paperwork (as I had no ticket). In the end, the transfer vehicle took me to the ship anyway which was docked in Sydney Harbour (after showing some evidence transfers were booked) and due to the inconvenience Royal Caribbean refunded the transfer costs post-cruise. After these events and further delays relating to check-in queues*, I finally stepped aboard the ship around 3-3:30 pm or so, despite landing at the airport late in the morning.

*Long queues during check-in was a reoccurring issue for larger ships in Sydney at the time, but these days it is much smoother due to both staggered check-in times (determined by stateroom deck) and expansion of the cruise terminal building.

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TL;DR: Waited hours at airport for a paid RCI transfer without any ticket and only got on due to another passenger arriving in the same airport terminal as me, albeit hours later, who had a ticket that the transfer vehicle had come to pick up.

As long as you have the transfer listed in your cruise docs I think you will be fine (and if you don't, enquire before you go to avoid similar events that happened to me also happening to you). :)

We have been sailing with RCI for 30 yrs and as others have mentioned our experience has been that there is a rep and everything runs smoothly. However this wasn't the case with our latest trip so it is worth sharing our experience.

We booked flights, hotel and transfers with RCI directly. We didn't get the transfer vouchers until we chased. In our case it was private transfers arranged via a third party (Holiday*Taxi). For the outbound transfer (hotel to port) we were required to call a US number and confirm by phone. For the transfer from port to airport no confirmation was required but we had to call to chase as it hadn't arrived even 15 mins after time booked.

It appears that RCI offers different transfer options. If you have a private transfer booked on your behalf (car or mini bus) then the details will be on the voucher. If it is a shared transfer where effectively RCI has arranged a coach then I would guess an RCI rep would be present.

Note that in our case there was no RCI rep to meet and greet us at the airport or at the hotel.

My suggestion would be to check whether the details with RCI before you leave and make sure you have contact numbers in case something goes wrong.

My experience is with Fly/Cruise to Miami travelling from UK. So will be different to Rome.

The lesson I have learnt that even with all the previous experience, don't assume anything, check everything and be prepared for all eventualities.

Thank you for your replies. That's my biggest fear is being left at the airport.

I haven't got my documents yet as we aren't going until August but I now know what to look out for and chase up if they aren't there. We have booked the whole package through Royal via a travel agent so I will be getting her on the case too if the vouchers don't appear.

Thanks all