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RCCL PreCruise Hell

CORoadie
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CORoadie

CORoadie

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Day four of trying to book shore excursions, a dinner at one of the specialty restaurants and spa services. Total on hold time has to be well over 12 yours, over 10 today alone. 6 hours spent trying to do things online only to keep getting error messages on their website for a variety of things. Even when we did get a real person they were not helpful until we finally got to a manager but basically all we got was a promise that they would try and get us in on the things we had been trying and trying and trying to get, even though their was plenty of availability when we first started to try. They blame IT problems but give me a break, if your website is having problems get some extra people on the phones or at least post messages on the website telling people there are problems. Our emails have gotten nothing back but an automated response... "Thank you for contacting us. This is an automated confirmation that your email has been received. Our representatives will reply to your inquiry in the order in which it was received. Please reply only if you need to provide additional information related to your original email. Follow-up emails regarding the status of your query may further delay your response.

 

We appreciate your patience and understanding as we work to service your request."

 

This is by far the WORST customer service I have ever had in any vacation style business. If I could cancel and not have to eat all the other monies for flights and such I would in a second.

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rummenroman

rummenroman

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I swear Royal's IT department couldn't set up a home wireless network, much less run a multi-million dollar website. It's just par for the course with their website. There has also been several threads about the long hold times as of late. The 'kids sail free' promotion seems to be overloading their call center(s).

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crazyventures

crazyventures

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I swear Royal's IT department couldn't set up a home wireless network, much less run a multi-million dollar website. It's just par for the course with their website. There has also been several threads about the long hold times as of late. The 'kids sail free' promotion seems to be overloading their call center(s).

 

I would say their website is in serious need of an overhaul but I don't want to give them any ideas. :p Every time they "upgrade" it they just make it worse!

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Bmorecruiser021

Bmorecruiser021

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Honestly though their call centers need work to! I was on hold for 2 hours tonight, which isn't what I'm upset about. What I'm upset about was when I got someone on the phone, it took them half an hour to fix my problem and then another HOUR to give me advice on my cruise and try and convince me to purchase a drink package and specialty dinning package :0 No wonder there is such a long hold time. The "cruise specialists" are more interested in chatting you up and trying to sell you something then moving along and getting to the next customer. Has anyone else had this issue!?

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

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bouhunter

bouhunter

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I swear Royal's IT department couldn't set up a home wireless network,

 

I would say their website is in serious need of an overhaul but I don't want to give them any ideas. :p Every time they "upgrade" it they just make it worse!

 

Too funny. :D:D I have to admit we've never had any real problems with the website and phone service has been great, but it's scary how many people post here who've had problems.

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Royal2464

Royal2464

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Personally I have never had any problems with the website. However I primarily use the "My Cruises" and C&A members sections. I only use the booking section for research. When I am ready to book I email the specifics to my TA. If there are any problems or delays from that point forward she takes care of it. I know a lot of people like to personally manage their reservations, but it sure is easier to let your TA do it. If I find a lower price or anything that requires modifying my reservation I email her and she takes care of it. You do not save any money dealing with the frustrating IT end of the business, so why do it yourself?

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kicker

kicker

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Personally I have never had any problems with the website. However I primarily use the "My Cruises" and C&A members sections. I only use the booking section for research. When I am ready to book I email the specifics to my TA. If there are any problems or delays from that point forward she takes care of it. I know a lot of people like to personally manage their reservations, but it sure is easier to let your TA do it. If I find a lower price or anything that requires modifying my reservation I email her and she takes care of it. You do not save any money dealing with the frustrating IT end of the business, so why do it yourself?

 

We'll spoken. Gee, I tried to do a search on CC for website problems but Search

is disabled! Things happen, no website can be perfectly suited for everyone's wants and needs. I've used Royal, Carnival, Disney, Celeb, Princess sites with some regularity, and all have different advantages & disadvantages. Personally (maybe because I use it more than the others), I find Royal's site to be the easiest to navigate. As this poster states: if its that difficult for you, let a TA help.

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joepeka

joepeka

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Posted (edited)
Personally I have never had any problems with the website. However I primarily use the "My Cruises" and C&A members sections. I only use the booking section for research. When I am ready to book I email the specifics to my TA. If there are any problems or delays from that point forward she takes care of it. I know a lot of people like to personally manage their reservations, but it sure is easier to let your TA do it. If I find a lower price or anything that requires modifying my reservation I email her and she takes care of it. You do not save any money dealing with the frustrating IT end of the business, so why do it yourself?

 

I know this doesn't solve the OP's problems but I agree and it's the ability to not have to deal with stuff like this that keeps me with our great TA. I've never had any problems with RCI's web site but then again, I've done very little on it other than research and make MTD reservations - our TA handles almost everything.

Edited by joepeka
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Big_G

Big_G

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I'm with Merion_Mom. A few more details about the cruise would help. Maybe they're just too far out from sailing to book anything. I've never had a problem with the website nor customer service but maybe I've been lucky so far. I'm not sure who stays on hold for 10 hours though. :confused:

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lovesthebeach2

lovesthebeach2

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Posted
Personally I have never had any problems with the website. However I primarily use the "My Cruises" and C&A members sections. I only use the booking section for research. When I am ready to book I email the specifics to my TA. If there are any problems or delays from that point forward she takes care of it. I know a lot of people like to personally manage their reservations, but it sure is easier to let your TA do it. If I find a lower price or anything that requires modifying my reservation I email her and she takes care of it. You do not save any money dealing with the frustrating IT end of the business, so why do it yourself?

 

I'm glad to hear that you have no issues but I just went to the site to pay my balance and was shocked to see that my cruise reservation has been INCREASED by $1,380.00. I've been on hold now for half hour.... Just to pay my balance. That is ridiculous and not acceptable. I booked the cruise by calling, I won't ever do that again.

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mckinna

mckinna

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All you really need to know is that the OP has never posted before. Every time I see "post 1" i know it's gong to be a bunch of crap.

 

I don't think it's a load of crap. Maybe embellished a little- not sure how someone has the time to stay on hold for that long, but DH and I had a terrible time trying to take advantage of the price drop to our upcoming cruise. He did stay on hold for almost 90 minutes (had the phone on speaker while doing other things), only to be cut off after they finally came on the line. Called back, of course going to the end of the queue, waiting another hour before finally hanging up.

 

Called again the next night, and it took a good 2 hours to get our 2 rooms fixed. They did apologize, and said we would have a bottle of wine in our cabin for the trouble. It's really inexcusable for a reputable company to have such poor customer service. And I call taking over 4 hours on the phone poor service, and a bottle of wine won't change that.

 

And as for the "use a TA and you won't have this problem," it shouldn't take a 3rd party to intercede just to get something done more efficiently. We have not had good experiences with TA's, and I would never again give over control of the planning to someone else.

 

Flame away at me. This isn't my first post.

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joepeka

joepeka

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Posted
I don't think it's a load of crap. Maybe embellished a little- not sure how someone has the time to stay on hold for that long, but DH and I had a terrible time trying to take advantage of the price drop to our upcoming cruise. He did stay on hold for almost 90 minutes (had the phone on speaker while doing other things), only to be cut off after they finally came on the line. Called back, of course going to the end of the queue, waiting another hour before finally hanging up.

 

Called again the next night, and it took a good 2 hours to get our 2 rooms fixed. They did apologize, and said we would have a bottle of wine in our cabin for the trouble. It's really inexcusable for a reputable company to have such poor customer service. And I call taking over 4 hours on the phone poor service, and a bottle of wine won't change that.

 

And as for the "use a TA and you won't have this problem," it shouldn't take a 3rd party to intercede just to get something done more efficiently. We have not had good experiences with TA's, and I would never again give over control of the planning to someone else.

 

Flame away at me. This isn't my first post.

 

You've had some bad experiences with TA's which is unfortunate but we didn't say anything about giving over the planning to a TA. You should do all the research and planning yourself and know what you want before calling the TA. Just give over the hassle of making changes and fixing problems to the TA... something that seems to be bothering a lot of folks lately about dealing directly with RCI either on the phone or via their web site.

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houstoncruisers2001

houstoncruisers2001

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Posted

Flame away at me. This isn't my first post.

 

All i'm saying is that 9 out of 10 first posts are about some horrible ordeal that the OP suffered through and couldn't wait to sign up with Cruise Critic and share their horror story with us all. Then they disappear off into the depths of cyberspace never to be heard from again.

 

What are the odds of that?

 

You have to take those posts with a HUGE grain of salt.

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