Disgusted with RCL and Rhapsody Cabin changes!

[TheMiz]

Any changes made after the fact will cost the line a few dollars. It really is all about the bottom line. Cruising has become so popular that this type of problem may become more common since there are so many new customers that will fill the ships.

 

Yet just 7 days ago CNN reported cruise line sales down 11% since the first of the year, or the first quarter. Not sure if 11% would really bother them maybe we will find out after the stockholders meeting the end of May.

 

I would bet their eyes would really open up should they be down another

10% for the second quarter.

[papakaiser]

Then why doesn't someone do it?!!

 

Oy!!!!

 

I'm not going to. I have no dog in this fight.

 

Ya' know, you can lead a horse to water, but....

:rolleyes:

Ya know. I sail in 10 days. RCI has made two things clear. They won't be shamed into doing the right thing, and they don't want my business.

 

They save 300 bucks. I save 4 thousand or more to spend elsewhere. Its a win-win. Thanks for the idea.

[LucysCruise]

I'm losing all faith I had in RC. I have been looking around for another cruise line, and possibly a replacement to our cruise booked in March 2013. If they can treat their faithful passengers with such cold hearted, disregard; then what is next?

 

I can understand that there are a lot of people that complain just to get something for nothing, or they just can't be pleased. But right is right, and wrong is wrong. And this is very simply "WRONG" in the eyes of anyone and everyone. We all know, the second group of passengers are not going to be happy if they are moved. Yet, there will be a loser. But the majority would be much more understanding of the loss than the original group of passengers are. We've all grown up knowing that 'first come, first serve' rules. I just don't get RC's reasoning.

 

And picking who to play nice with OBC's and who not? Your name's Sue. My mothers name was Sue. I like you, you get $500. But Drake, now he sounds like a tough guy. He gets $250. And he darned well better like it, or he can take a hike. Obviously, they aren't looking at the membership levels; Diamond, Diamond +. Bill, did you smile when you spoke with them? They say you can hear a smile in your voice over the phone. Next time, try grinning like a fool :D. Seriously, makes more sense than anything else at this point.

[papakaiser]

I'm losing all faith I had in RC. I have been looking around for another cruise line, and possibly a replacement to our cruise booked in March 2013. If they can treat their faithful passengers with such cold hearted, disregard; then what is next?

 

I can understand that there are a lot of people that complain just to get something for nothing, or they just can't be pleased. But right is right, and wrong is wrong. And this is very simply "WRONG" in the eyes of anyone and everyone. We all know, the second group of passengers are not going to be happy if they are moved. Yet, there will be a loser. But the majority would be much more understanding of the loss than the original group of passengers are. We've all grown up knowing that 'first come, first serve' rules. I just don't get RC's reasoning.

 

And picking who to play nice with OBC's and who not? Your name's Sue. My mothers name was Sue. I like you, you get $500. But Drake, now he sounds like a tough guy. He gets $250. And he darned well better like it, or he can take a hike. Obviously, they aren't looking at the membership levels; Diamond, Diamond +. Bill, did you smile when you spoke with them? They say you can hear a smile in your voice over the phone. Next time, try grinning like a fool :D. Seriously, makes more sense than anything else at this point.

Well Lucy. My voice doesn't reflect smiles very well, and I have never been one to sugar coat anything.

 

My guess is Ms. Dolphin doesn't subscribe to the catching more flies with honey rather than vinegar theory, anyway.

 

But thanks for the laugh.;)

[Kim Fontaine]

No matter what the situation , the best way to voice your disapproval is BOYCOTT! If more people would do this and others follow suit ... they would lose money: Years ago in Chicago women refused to buy bread because of pricing: In a short time the price came back down : So anyone dissatisfied with the cruise line book with another line and tell them why:

[Cuizer2]

Yet just 7 days ago CNN reported cruise line sales down 11% since the first of the year, or the first quarter. Not sure if 11% would really bother them maybe we will find out after the stockholders meeting the end of May.

 

I would bet their eyes would really open up should they be down another

10% for the second quarter.

 

An eleven percent drop in booking will definitely get Royal Caribbean's attention.

[dfishner]

Sorry to say I do not believe anyone is going to boycott RCL over this except maybe some of those who were screwed by this situation. I also do not believe anyone is going to the TV over this either..I am very disappointed by how RCL handled the situation but is it enough for me to say I will never cruise with them I do not.

 

RCL has a history of doing stupid things, in the past I found myself saying I am never going to cruise with them when they did something stupid I find myself saying it is not the ship I am mad at but RCL Corporate and the lack of communication and how they roll out policies before thinking them through or just doing some inane things like this. I still believe RCL is one of the best on board experiences and as long as I can seperate the ship from corp I am comfortable with booking them..

 

.The best thing to do is to let them know how you feel by either emailing RCL or calling Corp relations which I have done in this situation and others as well and in the future when booking an RCL cruise I will be extremely careful and watch over my reservation.

[TheMiz]

Sorry to say I do not believe anyone is going to boycott RCL over this except maybe some of those who were screwed by this situation. I also do not believe anyone is going to the TV over this either..I am very disappointed by how RCL handled the situation but is it enough for me to say I will never cruise with them I do not.

 

RCL has a history of doing stupid things, in the past I found myself saying I am never going to cruise with them when they did something stupid I find myself saying it is not the ship I am mad at but RCL Corporate and the lack of communication and how they roll out policies before thinking them through or just doing some inane things like this. I still believe RCL is one of the best on board experiences and as long as I can seperate the ship from corp I am comfortable with booking them..

 

.The best thing to do is to let them know how you feel by either emailing RCL or calling Corp relations which I have done in this situation and others as well and in the future when booking an RCL cruise I will be extremely careful and watch over my reservation.

 

 

 

While I agree with you about the boycott , I am not sure about the TV cause. But I think it would be hard to find a station or network willing to help, as I stated before you have to be in their viewing market etc.

 

 

 

But in your post you suggest being extremely careful and watch over your reservation , what I don't understand is how watching over that would help?

[ollienbertsmum]

But in your post you suggest being extremely careful and watch over your reservation , what I don't understand is how watching over that would help?

 

I thought that too ! Apart from getting your suitcase and sitting outside the cabin door until now and your cruise date .... it seems that the guest is defenseless.

[desertpilot]

Sorry to say I do not believe anyone is going to boycott RCL over this except maybe some of those who were screwed by this situation. I also do not believe anyone is going to the TV over this either..I am very disappointed by how RCL handled the situation but is it enough for me to say I will never cruise with them I do not.

 

RCL has a history of doing stupid things, in the past I found myself saying I am never going to cruise with them when they did something stupid I find myself saying it is not the ship I am mad at but RCL Corporate and the lack of communication and how they roll out policies before thinking them through or just doing some inane things like this. I still believe RCL is one of the best on board experiences and as long as I can seperate the ship from corp I am comfortable with booking them..

 

.The best thing to do is to let them know how you feel by either emailing RCL or calling Corp relations which I have done in this situation and others as well and in the future when booking an RCL cruise I will be extremely careful and watch over my reservation.

 

To me, the ship and corporate are the same thing, especially when corporate affects where I'm going to be on the ship. I wouldn't try to separate the two. Somebody up there is making decisions for everything, and while there's a long chain of folks between Miami and what happens on the boat, ultimately poor management will trickle down to your on-ship experience at one point or another.

 

I can assure you that, whether this thread influences others or not, word of mouth is a powerful thing. I've already turned off over a dozen folks from RCI through work and family channels. When we cruise, we almost always choose the cruise and our companions follow suit...so guess what line our crowd won't be going on? Not to mention that had this not happened, we would have ultimately hit Diamond status or better in our life (I'm only 35 right now and we've been averaging one a year...many, many cruises ahead of us). All in all, just my measly influence is likely in the ~$100-200k range with regard to future revenue for the line...all that over their refusal to do the right thing. And, of course, I'm not alone...if there are just a handful of folks as passionate as I am, that's a seven-plus-digit mistake.

 

Will there be other customers to backfill all that revenue? Most likely, in the short term at least. Will there be if they continue this sort of mistake handling? Well, let's just say I wouldn't buy RCI stock.

[papakaiser]

Couldn't agree with you more, Chris. RCI needs about 75,000 passengers every week to fill their ships. Do the math over 52 weeks. At some point, their pool of new cruisers dries up, and they're left with their reputation, such as it is.

[setsail]

Quarter Ended March 31,20122011Passengers Carried

1,277,5711,214,809Passenger Cruise Days

8,683,2038,445,699APCD

8,299,8008,100,296Occupancy

104.6% 104.3%

 

 

Looks like the first qtr. is up over last year

[MikeDaDog]

Here is the kicker folks EVEN if you do watch your reservation like a hawk. Your cabin number never changed so your reservation didn't change either. The room moved, not the cabin number so most folks have no clue even now that they are not where they thought they were. I would love the have the spy cam footage of folks walking up to "their" cabin on the first day and finding their keys don't work. Talk about making popcorn and watching the show...

[dfishner]

To me, the ship and corporate are the same thing, especially when corporate affects where I'm going to be on the ship. I wouldn't try to separate the two. Somebody up there is making decisions for everything, and while there's a long chain of folks between Miami and what happens on the boat, ultimately poor management will trickle down to your on-ship experience at one point or another.

 

I can assure you that, whether this thread influences others or not, word of mouth is a powerful thing. I've already turned off over a dozen folks from RCI through work and family channels. When we cruise, we almost always choose the cruise and our companions follow suit...so guess what line our crowd won't be going on? Not to mention that had this not happened, we would have ultimately hit Diamond status or better in our life (I'm only 35 right now and we've been averaging one a year...many, many cruises ahead of us). All in all, just my measly influence is likely in the ~$100-200k range with regard to future revenue for the line...all that over their refusal to do the right thing. And, of course, I'm not alone...if there are just a handful of folks as passionate as I am, that's a seven-plus-digit mistake.

 

Will there be other customers to backfill all that revenue? Most likely, in the short term at least. Will there be if they continue this sort of mistake handling? Well, let's just say I wouldn't buy RCI stock.

 

I am not going to disagree with you at all, I had my issues with RCL Corp in the past and am not shy about saying what I think about some of their decisions, but when I do go on their ships I never have had a bad experience always has been positive and I am amazed that they seem like two different entities and that has been my experience so far with them. I am not loyal to Royal or anyone else it is just a preference.

 

If you made your decision never to cruise RCL and do not say anything except on here it accomplishes nothing. They have no idea that you left, they have no idea that you told family and friends not to cruise them either they will never know. how could they?.You stike me from your reply to say what is on your mind..Then tell them it makes no difference if you will never set foot on a RCL ship again let them know the reason why they lost you as a customer you can do that by emailing or calling Corp relations trust me you will get their attention, I did both email and I did speak with corp relations and said my piece..If you do not do it for anyone else then do it for the customers who were screwed by this ordeal and let them know that is the reason why you are no longer a customer.

 

Whatever you do it is your decision and respect that..

[Cruising89143]

Sorry to say I do not believe anyone is going to boycott RCL over this except maybe some of those who were screwed by this situation. I also do not believe anyone is going to the TV over this either..I am very disappointed by how RCL handled the situation but is it enough for me to say I will never cruise with them I do not.

 

RCL has a history of doing stupid things, in the past I found myself saying I am never going to cruise with them when they did something stupid I find myself saying it is not the ship I am mad at but RCL Corporate and the lack of communication and how they roll out policies before thinking them through or just doing some inane things like this. I still believe RCL is one of the best on board experiences and as long as I can seperate the ship from corp I am comfortable with booking them..

 

.The best thing to do is to let them know how you feel by either emailing RCL or calling Corp relations which I have done in this situation and others as well and in the future when booking an RCL cruise I will be extremely careful and watch over my reservation.

 

I agree Dale. While I too am not happy about how RCI handled this situation and a few others, it's not enough to make me swear off the line for good. They have some of the best ships and crew in the business. While we are stepping away from RCI to try another line, we will be back one day. Those Oasis class ships are hard to pass up.:)

[critterchick]

I agree Dale. While I too am not happy about how RCI handled this situation and a few others, it's not enough to make me swear off the line for good. They have some of the best ships and crew in the business. While we are stepping away from RCI to try another line, we will be back one day. Those Oasis class ships are hard to pass up.:)

 

I agree, as well (although I'm not as sold on the Oasis class;)). I know that corporate policies trickle down to the ships to the point of having to beg for real half & half for my coffee because some beancounter thinks that we won't care that they're providing 2% milk. But so far (knock wood), every cruise we've taken on RCI has been terrific, whether 2 nights or 14. Having said that, we're branching out to Princess and Celebrity, since Princess is still sailing from our home port of Los Angeles and Celebrity has some itnteresting itineraries at a good price.

 

I did watch my reservation like a hawk, and as soon as I saw that the new deck plans were loaded (even that took them 2 days), I was on the phone with RCI. I was just lucky that nobody had snagged our corner aft yet - the person booked on the other side lost her cabin and is now our neighbor. So watching really won't do any good, I'm afraid, not that I don't check periodically just to be sure we haven't been bumped for some random reason.

 

At least RCI isn't going to have the same mess with Grandeur, as they took a different approach numbering the new cabins so as not to have to renumber anything but 8000, the OS all the way forward on the portside. Presumably they can watch over that single cabin and make sure that nobody who paid for an OS ends up in a JS with no balcony.:eek:

[Cruising89143]

I agree, as well (although I'm not as sold on the Oasis class;)). I know that corporate policies trickle down to the ships to the point of having to beg for real half & half for my coffee because some beancounter thinks that we won't care that they're providing 2% milk. But so far (knock wood), every cruise we've taken on RCI has been terrific, whether 2 nights or 14. Having said that, we're branching out to Princess and Celebrity, since Princess is still sailing from our home port of Los Angeles and Celebrity has some itnteresting itineraries at a good price.

I did watch my reservation like a hawk, and as soon as I saw that the new deck plans were loaded (even that took them 2 days), I was on the phone with RCI. I was just lucky that nobody had snagged our corner aft yet - the person booked on the other side lost her cabin and is now our neighbor. So watching really won't do any good, I'm afraid, not that I don't check periodically just to be sure we haven't been bumped for some random reason.

 

At least RCI isn't going to have the same mess with Grandeur, as they took a different approach numbering the new cabins so as not to have to renumber anything but 8000, the OS all the way forward on the portside. Presumably they can watch over that single cabin and make sure that nobody who paid for an OS ends up in a JS with no balcony.:eek:

 

Now that RCI is updating the Vision class with more specialty dining, we would also give them a try.

[Ocean Boy]

Now that RCI is updating the Vision class with more specialty dining, we would also give them a try.

 

They would have to gut the middle of ths ship and run a Royal Promenade down it before I'd get on a vision class ship. But that is just me.

[critterchick]

They would have to gut the middle of ths ship and run a Royal Promenade down it before I'd get on a vision class ship. But that is just me.

 

Probably not just you.:)

[MDSue]

If you made your decision never to cruise RCL and do not say anything except on here it accomplishes nothing. They have no idea that you left, they have no idea that you told family and friends not to cruise them either they will never know. how could they?.You stike me from your reply to say what is on your mind..Then tell them it makes no difference if you will never set foot on a RCL ship again let them know the reason why they lost you as a customer you can do that by emailing or calling Corp relations trust me you will get their attention, I did both email and I did speak with corp relations and said my piece..If you do not do it for anyone else then do it for the customers who were screwed by this ordeal and let them know that is the reason why you are no longer a customer.

 

Whatever you do it is your decision and respect that..

 

I have not written a letter personally, although I have thought about it. I'm assuming (maybe incorrectly) that they have followed this thread. I probably should write and explain why this situation has bothered me enough to not book with them this year even though I've had two absolutely wonderful cruises with them in the past.

I just cannot get past the fact that they have not offered an explanation for why they will not rectify the error they made and restore the rooms to the original bookers.

The mistake itself is not what caused me to choose another line, but it is how they handled the situation after it became known.

The only solution in my mnd is to call the people who were allowed to book someone else's room and apologize profusely while explaining what happened and that they must give the room back. I'm sure some of these people will be rightfully upset, but ultimately, mistakes happen. It is up to RCI to correct the mistake and clearly they had no intentions of doing so.

I do wonder what their response would have been if Inside Edition or other major newstory aired this story instead of the drinking story. What would their reasoning be for not doing the right thing? That's what I want to know because right now, as a result of their lack of response, I believe they simply don't care about these customers and they are counting on this situation not affecting their bottom dollar.

 

Perhaps a letter is in order

[travelin_nat]

It's going to be real interesting when the first cruisers return from Alaska. I imagine that brown stuff is going to hit the fan when the first people try to get into their corner aft and discover that it is no longer their cabin. Sure wouldn't want to be guest relations on that cruise!

[Cruising89143]

They would have to gut the middle of ths ship and run a Royal Promenade down it before I'd get on a vision class ship. But that is just me.

 

Since we don't dine in the MDR, the additional specialty dining venues really appeals to me.

[BecciBoo]

At least RCI isn't going to have the same mess with Grandeur, as they took a different approach numbering the new cabins so as not to have to renumber anything but 8000:eek:

 

Its just sad that whomever was doing Rhapsody's new cabins didn't have their brain in geer and it could have been this simple fix to just have different numbering. It would've taken 10 minutes to number the new cabins with new numbers instead of the old ones.:cool:

[loubetti]

Here's the RCI share price trend recently. It has not improved over that last 12 months either.

 

http://www.google.com/finance?q=NYSE%3ARCL

 

A year ago they were at around $40 a share, now around $26.

 

Any questions? I expect there will be some, and valid ones too!

[rubrrick]

Apparently that is not all that they have done to the Rhapsody. My DW just boarded today, with her elderly parents, and sister and BIL. The Rhapsody now lists 8550 and 8558 as AW JS's. They are both shown on the new chart at Royal Caribbean, as having the same space.

 

Well, guess what? 8550 is a "true" AW JS, with room to move around in a wheel chair, but 8558 is a standard size JS...........with a shower.

 

So, people in a wheel chair, beware that 8558, and 8058 are both standard JS's but with a shower. Royal Caribbean should show them as standard JS's, not AW, IMHO!

 

I know that lately Royal Caribbean has changed (and not for the better) but, folks, this is not truth in advertising.:mad:

 

I know that there is a poll floating around about JS's and bathtubs vs showers, but when they just pull the tub and put in a shower, and call it an AW........not right!

 

Rick