cruisnseas

No. Instead, The Grande will be a formal restaurant and you book that restaurant for the night in which you want to dress formally.

For cruises leaving off the east coast, manifests close at 12pm EST the day before the sailing. It is often said as "24 hours" before the cruise because the cruise does not begin (to Royal) at the moment the ship sails, it begins when you begin checking in which is often around noon.

I know many people that work at this facility. It has been there since 2007. The wages mentioned are for entry level and non management positions can pay up to $20+ an hour for agents.

As for the comment about "no training" not at this center. Each agent goes through 6 weeks of training before ever taking a call. The truly terrible agents are often the outsourced agents who receive very little training.

As for "why Oregon?" For a lot of reasons. At the time it wasn't a 24/7 facility but had hours to support West Coast customers. Then, as they ramped up it made sense to move customer support positions out there as they had this big, new facility. You'll very rarely ever talk to anyone in Miami anymore and Wichita is all but gone from Royal. Even the executive response team will be in Oregon soon (the folks that answer Adam's emails....)

My dearest bouhunter,

 

So you have put me in my place. I am a non compassionate, elitist pontificator.

 

Thank you for that since you know me so well.

 

Getting to your comments, yes I have worked all my life, unless of course you know better than me that we stay at home Moms have a life of leisure.

 

If you think stay at home Moms don't work than I will guess you are a Man or a woman who never had children. No Mother would ever think such a thing.

 

Or maybe you think it is only work if it is outside the home and you get paid for it?

 

My comments are a different story? But of course your comments to me were so nice.

 

If I am forced to give a ten on all questions on a survey regarding my experiences on a cruise ship and with it's staff then the survey has no meaning which is why I said I usually don't complete surveys. But what does it matter what I think or say, you know much better than I what I am really all about now don't you? Pontificator indeed!

Of course being a SAHM is work. But it isn't the same as work in the service industry. Unless, of course, your children could fire you if they felt you missed a certain goal?

Also, you comments that "no mother" would think SAHM's don't work is BS. I know plenty of moms that don't think SAHM do the same level of work. Stop generalizing. It does no good.

I think this is Malarky! I do not believe an employee will be fired, demoted or otherwise chastised for not getting a ten. That is ridiculous! Where is the proof of this? If I give an employee straight 9's across the board for good service they will be punished? I don't think so.

 

Maybe some employees tell you this but that doesn't make it true. You think Royal spends all the money on doing these surveys so they can justify firing and punishing their employees? Come on...if you really believe that then why why would you give such a Company your business?

You can think it is malarkey all you want. But I worked many years at Royal. They can and DO get fired for not meeting goal. That goal is 10 across the board.

And it isn't just Royal. This is a very common practice in service industries. If it isn't a 10, it might as well be a 0. This is commonly stated outright by management.

While it is annoying, it is so obvious most of you have never worked at a job where your pay and employment were reliant upon a survey.

The reason they do their spiel is because if they get an 8 or a 9 you may think that is still great but their boss thinks it is terrible. If it isn't a 10 it might as well be a 0. It is unfair but these employees are just trying to keep their job. Punishing them for this is beyond unfair. It is petty.

Awesome for you! Enjoy the suite

It will continue to cover ChoiceAir, however. And, before people panic, if you booked CruiseCare and your airfare before the change date (not sure the exact date anymore) you are still covered. I want to say it was around June 1.

All I will say is this: if you think they cannot already track you via facial recognition onboard the ships you are absolutely crackers.

This is a fairly simple business concept. They are creating value. The company I work for does the same thing. We have certain products that we will not discount right now. It doesn't matter if we are selling 0 of those products and someone would buy 100 if only we give them a 5% discount. We won't do it, because we are creating value and if we discount it that would mean we value the product at a lower level.

In addition, Royal has an entire team that uses complex models to determine overall revenue if price is X versus if price is Y. If overall revenue of price X is higher than Y even if Y would sell more rooms, they will price at X. Even with rooms available, they could be at or near 100% occupancy with triple and quad rooms.

It isn't an issue with their website. Not all rooms hold 4, and those that do are held out of inventory to accommodate those that really need them. You need to call to book this.

I'm sorry for your loss.

Here are the terms you were looking for

5. Changes to the reservation may be permitted, subject to availability and any other restrictions and any applicable cancellation charges.

 

6. This certificate is nonrefundable, is not replaceable and has no cash value if lost, stolen, altered, photocopied or reproduced in any way.

And therein lies the problem. Had you changed the date rather than cancel your January cruise you would have been fine under term number 5 but since you cancelled it falls under 6.

https://www.royalcaribbeancertificates.com/terms.aspx?

Your definition of "piddly" is a lot different than mine...do the math.

There is more than one "Head Waiter." On my ship we had 8. So if you figure 3,000 passengers, of which 95% tip (I'm being awfully generous here...) you get:

$0.75 x 3,000 = $2,250/day

3,000-5% = 2,850 pax tipping

$0.75 x 2.850 = $2137.50

$2,137.50 / 8 = $267.18 per day in tips.

Our head waiters worked an average of 14 hours (B: 6am - 11am ; L 12:00 - 4:00 ; D 5:30 - 11pm)

$267.18 / 14 = $19/hour

And that is for the Head Waiter. The numbers go way down for the wait staff.

You get no OT pay, no health or retirement benefits, you are on your feet all day long, you have less than 10 minutes to eat most of your meals, you barely sleep, you work 7 days a week for 6 months serving some really great and some really horrible people.

Is $19/hour bad pay? No, but it also isn't $240,000 a year.

But it's her birthday! Surely they can make an exception for that?

I really hope you aren't serious. These restrictions exist because of liability insurance. If something were to go wrong (your big risk in a spa is infection - particularly with pedicures) and the birthday girl were to become terribly ill Steiner (the group that runs the spa) would hold complete and total liability because they knowingly disregarded their insurance requirements. It is outrageous to think they should do this over a birthday wish.

As a hiring manager, don't mention it until you have an offer and then make it part of the negotiations. It isn't their business until then and it may lower you on the list of candidates.

I don't believe Royal would ask about your insurance but I guess its really up to you whether or not you find it ethical to be credited twice.

90 Days is the average. Sometimes they open at 120 days, sometimes at 60 days. It isn't a "glitch" (especially if they are also unable to access it - they don't use the website) so much as it simply not being ready yet.

I don't remember it being any different now than it is then. Prices dropped then, they drop now. Most did not drop at the 72 hour cutoff though. THey usually still dropped shortly after final payment dates.

This has been standard for almost 4 years now. Think about it: with Standard Air (the old air program) everyone pretty much came in at the same time or in 2 or 3 groups. Now you could have 500 people coming in at 300 times. Unless the transfers are organized specifically for those that require it, this would be difficult to manage. Plus, since there is little profit in ChoiceAir for Royal (typical for any "agent" selling airfare which is essentially their role in this) comping the transfers would eliminate any profit they do make. So, you pay for them!

I wouldn't plan on it. With the way crowding can be on these ships (everyone seems to need to be THE FIRST ones off) even if the ship is fully docked exactly on time and Customs moves quickly it could easily take 30+ minutes to get off the ship. When I was on NV in February we left at 9 on an excursion (different exit) and people were just starting to walk off for the non-RCI excursion lines.

I still see the BOGOHO pricing when I do dummy bookings on my 2015-2016 cruises. I expect (like everything else IT does) it will take them a day or two to reset the system and reload the new pricing metrics.

I'm all for calling out Royal's IT but they have zero to do with pricing. Pricing on the website feeds from the internal reservation system which is set by Revenue. IT is uninvolved in that process.

Also, 2015-2016 BOGOHO sale is through 7/15/14

Royal sees the "24 Hour Hold" as a official booking. They once said to me, "when you hold a cabin, it's a booking"

 

They would not honor the WOW sail once because I placed a hold, let it expire because I changed my mind. Two days later WOW sale and I booked it, but no OBC because I had a "Hold" two days earlier. They would not make an exception so I requested a refund.

 

Less learned - If you put a hold just know it could cost you if you don't book.

 

Michael

If you get a booking number you have a booking, no? Why would anyone think otherwise?

I am always amused at the parents that squeal "I'm not perfect don't judge!" Do you also say the same when a child is left in a blazing hot car? After all...not parent is perfect.:rolleyes:

Huge difference between the items on your list and jumping BACKWARDS into a SHALLOW pool off a HARD ledge.

You dont actually need to do a mock booking. You can request your TA send you a Guest Copy of the confirmation directly from Royal Caribbean. No reputable TA would refuse such a request because the bottom dollar amount SHOULD be the same - even if it breaks down differently.

You most certainly can be put on the No-Sail list for chargebacks that are deemed frivolous.

But the more common occurrence is that your card is blocked. If you do it with another card they will prohibit any credit card use by a particular guest (often associated with Crown/Anchor numbers)

There is a big difference between a "perfect" parent and simply recognizing that it is wildly irresponsible to encourage your child to perform a maneuver that could have permanently disabled or killed her. You are really quite lucky. I hope you know that (even with all the snark you have given off)