Royal Caribbean International

That's the CEO email, right?

 

So, if I understand correctly, in order to contact RCI there are two options: the "Contact us" form or an email to the CEO?

 

I looked for a "customer service" email address but didn't find one

Hello justpat, our Guest Relations team can be reached at royalguestrelations@rccl.com.

Hi MrsZ,

We'd be more than happy to assist you. Please let us know how we can help. Thanks.

It is so sad that RCCL has mislead information on release of the Caribbean schedule for the Harmony. Corporate and other stated the Caribbean schedule would be release today and that the Crown and Anchor Members would be getting an meal for today. They also stated it would be on line.

 

None of us have gotten an email on the Harmony nor information is posted on the Crown and Anchor page.:(

 

I called just to find out you have to call in and do not know when the Caribbean would be release.

We apologize for the confusion. The booking window for Crown & Anchor guests opens on March 31st, and the Winter Caribbean itineraries open on April 2nd. We hope this information helps.

12 days to go and I'm heading out with the family on the Allure...so damn excited!

 

I wanted to ask if I should buy some short range walkie-talkies for the cruise or does RCL offer something on-board?

Thank you for your question, nojretlas. We do permit walkie-talkies onboard. However, some may be confiscated if they interfere with bridge communication. Should you like to purchase some onboard, you have that option as well.

Ok we still can't decide if both/ one or none of DH and I will buy the beverage packs. If we do I will get the prem and DH only the select. Now here is my problem/question.

 

If only I get a package and he pays for beer/ wine or get the select only one will he be able to go to the bar with my card and get my drinks - (I have read that a wondering waiters were in short supply). Is there a chance we would get pulled up doing this.

Hello, fragilek, thank you for your question. As long as DH has your Seapass when he orders your drink, he shouldn't run into any issues. We hope this information helps, and we look forward to welcoming you onboard.

New European sailings will be ready to book on March 19, 2015, followed by Alaska later in the month. Exotic destinations are expected to debut mid-April.

Learn more here: http://www.royalcaribbean.com/statichtmlpage.do?cid=sm_ext_dplymn_scl_8445&pagename=adventure_collection

Hello everyone. We apologize for the inconvenience. The Concierge Lounge policy on the Enchantment was incorrect and has been fixed. Diamond Plus members may continue to enjoy this venue.

Hi Patreke,

We apologize for the inconvenience. We are working on resolving this issue. In the meantime, please try pasting this work-around in your browser: http://www.royalcaribbean.com/?wuc=CAN&StickToDomain=USA

Thank you.

Sorry to hijack, but interested to know if packages are now available on 3 nights trips? We are having a mini break on Anthem in October which is just 3 nights, I seemed to recall that 3 night sailings were going to have beverage packages available, however it's not showing as available to purchase on my pre cruise planner? Any info appreciated.

Thank you for your question, Peardrop. We do have beverage packages available for purchase on 3-night sailings now. You should be able to add them in your Cruise Planner within 90-60 days of your cruise. We hope this information helps, and we look forward to seeing you in October.

Are there any other ships in the fleet, besides the Explorer of the Seas, that have the Tuttie salad bar in the dining room on sea days?

Thank you for your question, Whitnee1. There are Tutti Salad Bars across the fleet in Brasserie 30, in the Main Dining Room on sea days. On the Quantum of the Seas you can find it in American Icon Grill. We hope to welcome you aboard soon.

First off we are not picture takers so this quick review will not offer page after page of dinners or beaches. But I will offer a few thoughts from someone who has 4 cruises under his belt and got to experience Royal Caribbean for the 1st time.

 

Trip: 6 of us from Chicago sailed out of San Juan on 2/28 and returned on 3/7. we arrived a day early and stayed at the Marriott the night before embarkation.

 

San Juan: We had been to San Juan before and although Old San Juan is nice, I am not a big fan. Traffic graffiti and bars on windows had always left a negative impression of the city and this trip did not change that. The parts that the taxi drive through remind me of the roughest areas of Chicago and make me question our safety while in town. I did not think out taxi was going to even make it to the hotel as the driver stalled it whenever we came to as stop, which was often in the SJ traffic jams. The hotel was nice but for $275 night it was not great. At night a security guard would not let us on the beach because it is "Unsafe" we said we would not go into the water and he said he was not talking about the ocean. This just supports my earlier opinion of San Juan.

 

Embarkation: Our checkout time was 11:00 and even though we received an e-mail stating that we should arrive at 2:30, we decided to just take a cab to the pier and see what happens. I'm glad we did. we arrived around 11:20 and there were no more than 10 other passengers in the check-in area. With no wait we went to the counter, signed a few more papers and had out room key. Within 15 minutes of arriving, we were at the Sky Bar ordering drink. By far the best embarkation I have ever experienced. The room was ready at 1:00 and after we ate at the buffet we unpacked and started our vacation.

The muster drill was at 8:00 and because we had My Time Dining, we decided to skip the MDR and just eat on the Lido. The timing of the drill seemed to make dining plans a little difficult that first night.

 

The ship: So I had heard that she was a little worn down and ready for her dry dock, but I did not see anything that would make me call her "worn". She is beautiful vessel and has a great layout. Now are only 2 sets of stairs/elevators so if you are in the aft of the ship you do have to head midship, then go up, and then aft again for the buffet, but she is small enough it did not seem to matter. we had heard that she was a full ship, but I never felt cramped (except for the sea day). Sure the pool was busy but the adult pool always had space and the pool bars did not ever get too backed up. The rear of the ship on deck 6 is called the Safari Lounge and other than bingo, it seemed like a huge waste of space. It is a beautiful area, but did not seem to hardly ever get used. To date this is my favorite ship that we have been on.

 

Dining: As I stated we had My Time Dining, mostly because we do not care to care to be sat with others and feel that the early seating makes us rush back from the ports and the late seating means you are finishing around 10:00. So MTD works well for us. We did end up eating almost evey day at 7:30 so we kind of tried to establish our own seating. I did try and call several times and make a "reservation" but the phone was never answered and the mailbox was always full. That being said, our wait was never more than 5 minutes for them to find us a table.

 

Our first night in the MDR was fine, our waitress and assistant, did just fine, but were completely un-remarkable. Not to say the service was poor, but I can barely remember that she was a female. Our 2nd night we were seated (just the 6 of us) at another table, and our waiter and assistant were so much fun. They engaged us, were funny and really made our evening. each subsequent night we requested their table and were granted our request. The duo did not fail to deliver great service, a wonderful attitude and even some magic. They were by far the best servers we had ever encountered on a cruise.

 

I will not go into food detail as everyone has different tastes, but I will say the overall quality is a big step up from Carnival. Every meal was 1st class and plentiful. If you could not decide between entrees, you would usually end up with 2. Even the food at the buffet was better that any other cruise we had been on. The only downside, is on a smaller ship you don't have the choices in the buffet that you do on a large ship (deli, fish and chips, wok).

 

Cabin: We had a balcony stateroom (highest class) on deck 9 near the aft. The balcony was very spacious and the only one we have had that was bigger was an aft balcony on the Carnival Freedom. The room was typical, but seemed to have more storage than others. The shower was a bit on the small side but "rounded" shower doors did give enough space to do the job. The water pressure and temperature was quite sufficient so no complaints there.

 

Passengers: Seeing as Royal is a little more expensive than Carnival, it was no surprise that the type of cruiser seemed to be a little more affluent, respectful and overall more mature. We did not run into folks wearing robes in the buffet or overly intoxicated 20 somethings running around. We also did not have many older guests with walkers and oxygen tanks, like we had on Princess, so this was a good demographic for us. Plus do to this time of year, there were very few children on board, which we prefer.

 

Crew: Overall the crew seemed to do a good job. I mentioned our waiter and assistant were highlights, as were a few bartenders that shared a lot about themselves and while they will not remember me in a week, I will certainly remember them. Our stateroom Steward was nice and kept the room clean (which was all we ask), but did not stand out. We met the Cruise Director a few times and he was nice enough. We did run into the cranky bus boy on the lido deck, but nothing that would effect our trip.

 

Entertainment: we really enjoyed the traveling steel drum band and Bill the piano player at the Scooner Lounge. I went to 3 shows, two were the comedy shows and both were by the same comedian. We all enjoyed his two shows and wish there was more comedy. I really enjoy the comedy on cruises and this is one area that I think Carnival is better. They have the comedy clubs and have a comedian almost every night. The other show was a magic show / mind reader show. Some of his stuff was good, but he reminded me of an act on Americas Got Talent.

 

Overall: I certainly enjoyed this voyage and felt that Royal Caribbean did a great job. The ship was wonderful, the food was great and we really liked the ports of call. We will most likely be booking our next cruise (in 3 years) on a Radiance Class ship.

 

Please feel free to ask question and I will do my best to answer them as quickly as possible.

 

Cheers

-F-

Hello, F. Thank you for your feedback. We'll make sure to share it with the appropriate teams for review and improvements. We're pleased to hear that you enjoyed your first cruise with us, and look forward to welcoming you aboard again soon.

Hi Judi,

We apologize for the inconvenience and are currently working on resolving this issue. Please try again in a few hours. Thank you!

As many of you have noted, we made an update last night to our web site, http://www.RoyalCaribbean.com.

You will see big changes to our home page and the way you search for a cruise on the site. We've added better tools and filters on the Cruise Search page, more details about the itineraries and ships, and more! We have additional updates to the site coming in the future. For now, we welcome your feedback and thank you for continuing to be loyal to Royal Caribbean.

We went through a TA. Does that make a difference. Paid w/cc

We recommend speaking with your Travel Agent, as the time may vary.

Thanks for sharing this information with us. It's better to know in advance rather than getting surprised.

 

I'm hoping we'll continue to see input from RCI here in the Cruise Critic forums.

Hi Daghis,

No problem! We're always listening to our fans. Thanks for your feedback!

We will be doing some maintenance on our web site, http://www.RoyalCaribbean.com starting at 9:00 PM EST. The site will be back up Wednesday morning.

Thank you in advance for your patience.

Well we are off and sailing on Enchanment in 10 days with a couple of newbies. My question is...Is there a Chops on Enchantment??? If there is can I book a reservation for chops online for us and them or would they have to book it themselves? I am asking because of course we would all want to sit together and I am footing the tab. This is the 3 day cruise and we would like them to have a feel for eating in the Windjammer, MDR and a Specialty on their first cruise. :cool:

Hello Mike J., thank you for your question. We do have a Chops Grille on the Enchantment. Should you like to make reservations with other cruisers to dine there, your cruise reservations would need to be cross-referenced. Then, you'll be able to make arrangements for everyone to dine together in Chops.

Had to cancel a cruise. Never did that before and was wondering how long it takes to receive a refund

We're sorry to hear you had to cancel your cruise. You should be receiving your refund within 3-5 business days. We hope this info helps!

Hello,

 

We will be doing our first B2B next year on the Navigator. Since we have never done a B2B I had a question.

 

Are you required to get off the ship (I'm assuming you do) and then can you get right back on, I'm assuming one would have to get back in line to check in etc which isn't a big deal since all you will have in your hands are your cruise docs and passports?

Hi there, thanks for your question. We do require that B2B guests go through Customs on turnaround day. It's typically done after guests disembark, so it's a fairly quick process. Should you have further questions, the staff at our Guest Relations desk will be more than happy to assist. See you next year!

Just read an article on this and it says both ships will be home ported from Southampton next summer.I personally think the article means Ovation.Here's the link.

 

https://www.facebook.com/belfastcruiseshipwatch?fref=nf

Hi there! We'll be releasing information about this soon, so please stay tuned.

Hi Hannah,

We are so happy to hear that you enjoyed your surprise. We hope you and your husband have a phenomenal cruise!

We are first time cruisers. cannyou bring beer on board.

Hi there! We're looking forward to welcoming you onboard for your first cruise. Although we don't allow guests to bring beer onboard, we do allow two bottles of wine per stateroom. Also, there is no corkage fee. In addition, you can purchase a beverage package once you board, which can include beer and wine. We hope this info helps, and see you soon!

I'm scheduled to board Liberty tomorrow and haven't received any email from Royal Caribbean telling me not to show up. So I'm keeping my fingers crossed. :D

We'll see you tomorrow!

Back to Royal after six years...the ups and downs

 

A great price and the chance to cruise with some fun cruise buddies had us on the Adventure of the Seas on Valentine's Day. More recently we've been cruising on Celebrity, Azamara, and last year Windstar and we've grown to enjoy the small ship experience. But we had a great week and it's fun to mix it up now and then and it keeps the cruise experience fresh.

 

Up...embarkation went very smoothly. A short wait outside the terminal but no lines inside, so we were lunching in less than an hour. Antipasto from Windjammer did the trick, but ok, we were missing the table clothes and free pouring wine and smiling service of Azamara. Hey you get what you pay for and we were happy paying less this particular trip.

 

Up...the room was fine, we liked the circular shower doors! No clingy curtains. Room was clean, typical layout. Due to the age of the ship the balcony had that closed in feeling.

 

Down...never had any idea if we even had an assigned room steward. No paperwork telling of benefits, no pen and paper to leave a note, always a late reset on room. A note on the back of a receipt took care of some of this but we missed the personal attention we've had on other cruises.

 

Up...diamond benefits rock! We loved the lounge or preloaded drinks. No drink package was needed. We enjoyed a pre dinner drink or two, brought in a glass of wine for dinner, and sometimes still had time for a post dinner drink. We brought home two fun photos we probably wouldn't have paid $45 for. We did eventually get our robes for our room. Sorry to be a brat, but we have grown to just expect them...

 

Up...dining room service in my time dining was great with Jesus and Dashan. We were able to sit in their section each night even though our times sometimes varied and we sometimes sat in different configurations. Somewhat less flexible than walking in with smaller ships, but fun to know you had the same servers each night.

 

Down...food quality was quite hit or miss. Hardly ruined our cruise and we definitely gained weight! But you have to know, and we did, on this size ship you are going to get banquet food...a wedding quality banquet, but not much more. We wished there were some other dining options available, even for an up charge.

 

Up....entertainment options. There were some great individual performers, comedians and musicians. We were blown away by the quality of the ice show...not to be missed! It was definitely unexpected. And let's just say you won't experience "the Quest". On Azamara's Quest. Man, people will do anything for attention!

 

Down...you don't need to look for attention on smaller ships. The hotel director isn't going to stop poolside and ask if the temp is to your taste on the Adventure. The captain isn't going to ask to join you for coffee. But Up...you do pay for that in its way.

 

Down...disembarkation. Too many people, too much luggage. Ours was nearly lost in the terminal but eventually found. A smaller ship is much more civilized in this area.

 

Bottom line...for a week in the Caribbean Royal is a fine choice, and value. But when we want pampering during an intensive European cruse we will be back to smaller ships like Azamara who can also park in very handy spots! Very glad we gave Royal another whirl, and will likely do so again, but only in certain situations. Please don't flame me Loyal to Royal enthusiasts. We obviously found lots to like!

Hi there, we're happy to hear you gave us another try! Thank you for all of your insights, positive and constructive. It's feedback like this which allows us to improve the services that we provide all of our guests. We have forwarded your thoughts to our operational teams for review, and will be sure to make improvements where needed. Thanks again, and we look forward to welcoming you onboard again soon!

Can anyone suggest luggage tags to fit the tags for the ship? Or do you just tape them on? I guess we should put them on after we get off our flight and arrive at the port.?

Hi there! Thanks for your question. We recommend folding along the lines indicated on the paper for your luggage tag. That way, they're as sturdy as any other tag!