naf536

There was no calls or emails to let me know the order had not gone through

I rang the UK office and asked them to check my online order had gone through and was told that it was the Miami office that dealt with gifts and gear and that they are processed on cruise date basis and that the order would not be processed until 2 days before sailing.

I ordered from the website and did not get the items I had ordered and no payment was taken. I could not check to see if the payment had gone out as we did not want to pay the extortionate data roaming charges or make expensive phone calls to Miami.

I was left presuming that the order had gone through and then left embarrassed when they said I had not ordered anything.

I had confirmation by email as followed:

Thank you for your order!

4 weeks ago 12:14 PM

From: Royal Caribbean Shop Gifts & Gear giftsandgear@rccl.com

Dear naf536,

Thanks for placing an order for Royal Caribbean's Shop Gifts & Gear merchandise.

We have received your order form that was submitted on RoyalCaribbean.co.uk for Reservation Number 43xxxxx. Please note that your order is confirmed unless otherwise notified. We will contact you via email/phone if further information is necessary.

Thanks for choosing Royal Caribbean International.

Sincerely,

Royal Caribbean Shop Gifts & Gear

If they're holding funds because you used a debit card, yet another reason not to use debit cards.

 

In regards to the transfers, your problems are exactly why we use taxi's and not RCCL transfers. Taxi's are usually no more expensive, and you get where you want to go immediately without any confusion or waiting around for other passengers to fill a bus.

We had originally used cash for the account on board but then after we had decided to buy the premium photo package realised we did not have enough cash on us left to buy it, this is why we put down the debit card. If the photo guys hadn't charged us for the same thing 4 times, we would have been OK.

The transfers sucked and the first bus driver was rude and basically forced me into tipping him, even though the drive was terrible, he was on his phone the whole way and kept slamming his brakes on because he wasn't concentrating on the road.

I think the problem was that we bought the holiday as a package deal, if we were to do it again, we will arrange everything ourselves.

I don't think you are being unreasonable to say that you had several disappointments that were not your fault. If I have a confirmation, I assume that the product/service is going to be available. You are not alone. I purchased champagne and chocolate dipped strawberries to be delivered to my parents cabin when we all sailed for their 50th wedding anniversary. They weren't delivered. I assumed it had been a hectic embarkation and excused it, but went to Guest Services and asked. I was told it would be taken care of, but I guess I should have asked what that meant because they weren't delivered that day. Night two was the first formal dinner. The entire family (of 27) went to dinner and followed up with photos and the late show...only to find out that the strawberries and champagne had been delivered while my parents were gone. I'm sure a Loyal Royal cheerleader will ask why that was a problem, but it wasn't how we had planned this and it had been paid for with the promise of delivery on the day of arrival...waiting in the cabin. Little things? Maybe, but these things occur and they do affect how passengers perceive it. My parents were tired and sleepy and they just put the fruit and champagne in the fridge. The surprise was ruined, the money was wasted. Not a word or an apology, excuse...or even an explanation was given. When I mentioned it on the comment card, I got a call and was basically told, "..but you did finally receive it, right?"

I'm glad someone else has the same views as me.

I estimate that it would take an additional 20 seconds to have walked around so not that far really.

The smoking areas are in such a place that there is a number of different ways to walk through. It looked like people were walking through just to show their disgust.

We purchase pictures separately so I'm not sure I understand the problem with the pictures. We pay $20 for each one.

We took home 139 photos and the DVD with all of our photos on it, the problem arises with the fact that they are "holding" nearly $2000 for a package that costs $469.95 due to their incompetence to put through the till correctly.

I'm also unsure about bank holidays. You're saying NOTHING was open in port the day you were in france on the AOS? I would think a business opportunity fail on the part of the businesses in port but certainly not the fault of RCI. If you sail on any holiday you need to beware. I'll bet excursions ran that day.

We very rarely go on excursions as I think they are overpriced for what they are, we enjoy walking around the ports shops, these were all closed due to being a bank holiday

In Miami, what time was your flight out? I would think it would be safe to assume if you have a 9 or 10 pm flight you don't need to hang out waiting for your ride all day. You didn't ask at guest services? You just sat in a chair all day and waited for your ride? That makes no sense at all.

We made use of the hotels facilities whilst we were waiting, the hotel staff could not confirm any times. We did not use our mobile phones as the calls were costing about $5 a minute, this was realised after a $50 call to our bank to find out where all the money had gone (the money on hold from RCCL)

I had to laugh on a recent cruise on Oasis, My wife and I smoked in the smoking areas outside on decks 15 & 16 and was amazed at the amount of people walking through with towels round their faces and the look of disgust on their faces to the people who were smoking.

Even having designated smoking areas on a ship seems to disappoint a lot of people, even though they have a 95% smoke free ship. These people could have easily walked around the smoking area without making them go out of their way.

Some people really need to get a grip.

I took my third cruise last week on the Oasis of the Seas and whilst I really enjoyed my holiday, I feel that I have been let down by RCCL.

Every time I have cruised with RCCL, I have encountered a problem during each cruise.

The first cruise was on the Majesty of the Seas back in 2012, I had ordered some birthday gifts for my wife to be there for when we arrived, upon arrival they were not there, a trip to guest services and they were there the next day (a day too late). I shrugged this off and accepted that this could have just been overlooked, we got what I paid for eventually but was upset it wasn't there in time. We still had a great holiday and when we got back, we booked another two cruises with RCCL, one on the Adventure of the Seas and one on the Oasis.

My second cruise with RCCL was on the Adventure of the Seas back in May this year, the cruise was just a sampler cruise stopping off at La Harve in France, upon arrival, it soon became apparent that all the shops there were closed as it was a French bank holiday. This was very disappointing as there was not enough entertainment on the ship to keep people busy until the ship sailed back home. You would think that a company as large as Royal Caribbean would know which dates the ports would be fully open and closed. We did complain when we got back from this cruise and told them that we were thinking of cancelling the Oasis trip, they offered us $150 on board credit and we happily accepted this and started looking forward to the Oasis trip.

The Third cruise was the Oasis of the Seas trip, living in the UK, this was a big trip for us, 2 ten hour flights and a total of 10,000 miles round trip. Upon arrival at Miami airport, we had free transfers to the hotel, then to the ship and vice versa on return, this would have been great if we knew where the bus was. No signs and no paperwork to tell us, we took a chance and eventually found our way. We then had to wait for nearly an hour for the other passengers to find their way to the bus. On the way back from leaving the ship, the bus was outside waiting for us which was great, they dropped us off at the Sheraton Hotel by Miami Airport but did not give us a time they would be picking us back up, this left us hanging around the hotel most of the day doing nothing until the bus came back for us. we were dropped off at 9am and they did not come back until 6pm. We could have gone shopping at one of Miami's malls in this time had we known.

The ship and the ports were once again amazing, we had a great time, however the problems soon arose again. I had purchased a Grand Romance package for my wife as this cruise was classed as our late honeymoon. After meeting our room attendant, I asked him to sort it out whilst we were at dinner, imagine my frustration when he told me there was no package against my name, despite having the confirmation emails in my hand. I went to guest services who told me that the package might show up on their lists the next day (Sunday). Sunday came and went and still no package, the guest services told me that the package was never ordered, despite having the confirmation emails. I had no choice but to purchase an internet package on the ship to check the bank to see if they had taken the money. In all fairness, the money was not taken from my account but by now I was angry and also embarrassed every time I had to walk past the stateroom attendant.

I told my wife about the package I had "purchased" and we decided to foget about it and carry on enjoying the holiday, she could see that I was angry though and I was obviously putting a downer on the holiday at that point. The next day I was OK again and we enjoyed the time we had away.

The next part of the disappointment was with the Focus photo group, we had originally pre-purchased a photo book for $129.95, when we saw the photo book, my wife said that there was no way she was going to pay that much for it, it looked and felt cheap. We asked if we could pay the difference and have the top package at $469.99, this was agreed and we were charged $340.

On checking our account on the last night, we noticed we had been charged $340, $369.95, $369.95 & $369.95. We were then back down to guest services in the horrendous queues to try and sort this out. The photo manager came down to speak to us and said that the original transaction of $340 should not have been accepted as the pre-purchased monies of $129.95 was not available on the ship, so now they said they would remove all charges and then take one payment of $469.95 and a refund will be issued for the photo book that was pre-purchased. By the time this was all sorted, the night had disappeared, so our last night on the ship was wasted and we missed the farewell shows.

Royal Caribbean still have a "hold" on the money that we didn't spend on board and now we are back home, we have bills to pay with no accessible funds. We have been told that it will be cleared in 14 days. I wonder if I will be able to get away with telling the electric/gas/water/council tax companies they will have to wait two weeks ?

We have obviously been on the phone to Royal Caribbean to try and sort this out but they do not care, we even got to a point in the conversation when we said we don't think we will sail with them again in a hurry and the customer care operator had the cheek to say "yeah a lot of people try cruises with other companies but they always come back to us in the end !!! "

So overall, I am very frustrated with the way RCCL operate certain aspects of their cruises and their customer care is definitely lacking to try and keep customers coming back.

I feel like all I am to royal Caribbean is a $ sign. They don't seem to care too much if you experience problems. I do think it is a shame as we enjoy the ports of call, the entertainment, the food, etc. Just been messed about so much on every cruise so far.