Very unpleasant experience on EXPLORER OF THE SEAS

[thelasttime]

Hi everyone, I just went on my third cruise, 2nd time with RC and had a horrible experience. I was shocked and would love to see if someone here in the community was on the same trip and had a similar experience. I am pretty confident that this is going to be my last time working with Royal Caribbean

 

Explorer of the Seas // Embarkation Date: 02/23/14 // Port of Calls: Port Canaveral, Nassau, Cococay

 

Here are just some of the incidents:

 

1. On our first night, Sun, Feb 23 sometime between 10p and 2a in THE CHAMBER, my friend requested a Michael Jackson song from the DJ. The DJ looked at her and said, “Where the **** did you come from,” as she walked away, I watched as the DJ had a disgusted look on his face. Immediately, I try to bring this to more than one bartenders’ attention and none of them could help and were ill-prepared on how to help a guest in a situation like this.

 

2. On the morning of Fri, Feb 28th around 8:30a EST in THE WINDJAMMER at the beverage station located on the port side of the ship towards the front side of the ship a staff member was very rude to me. The person working the station that fills the cups with orange juice, apple juice, water, etc snapped at me. I had a few empty cups and rather than just leave them anywhere, I thought I was doing him a favor by politely putting my used cups in his area so he could easily dispose of them. He snapped at me and said, “DON’T PUT THOSE THERE! THOSE ARE DIRTY!” His delivery was terrible.

 

3. Another day in THE WINDJAMMER I was using the ice machine in order to fill up my gym water bottle, a staff member snapped at me and said to stop what I was doing and pointed at a sign that said I wasn’t allowed to refill water bottles. I was completely in the wrong here as I didn’t see the sign but her delivery was terrible and very rude.

 

4. Despite Royal Caribbean’s campaign to “Save the Waves,” I noticed that the ships’ decks were littered with empty cups and beer bottles. Items that I had put down nearly 2 hours earlier were still sitting there. I can remember once incident where I took it upon myself to clean up multiple items and put them on the bar, the bartender simply looked at me and had no acknowledgment whatsoever. This was on Thursday, February 27th at THE SKYBAR.

 

5. The people sitting at our dinner table were celebrating a birthday one night and the wait staff failed to bring out a birthday cake that was pre-arranged by her mother, instead, it came out 2-days later with her name misspelled.

 

6. After taking advantage of the ship’s WIFI service for just 5-short minutes I was shocked to see that I was billed more than $20, thankfully, an individual in guest services helped me by reversing the overages.

 

To top it off, we were never able to go to Cococay because the weather made tendering to the island unsafe. I understand that this is out of everyone's control but how come they don't have some sort of make-good for these situations? Perhaps go to another island? Comp people's drinks that day? Maybe some cute little apology note in your stateroom with a $10 credit for the gift shop or something?

[seaofwonder]

It seems like you have very high expectations that would be better served on another line.

 

5 had nothing to do with you.

 

They fixed the wifi problem.

 

Cococay gets cancelled all the time and is mother nature's fault. Per the cruise contract they only owe you a refund of any port taxes.

 

 

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

Edited March 6, 2014 by seaofwonder

[xeriod]

Welcome to cruise critic. Its a treasure trove of information if accessed ahead of time.

[cruisinfanatic]

Hi everyone, I just went on my third cruise, 2nd time with RC and had a horrible experience. I was shocked and would love to see if someone here in the community was on the same trip and had a similar experience. I am pretty confident that this is going to be my last time working with Royal Caribbean

 

Explorer of the Seas // Embarkation Date: 02/23/14 // Port of Calls: Port Canaveral, Nassau, Cococay

 

Here are just some of the incidents:

 

1. On our first night, Sun, Feb 23 sometime between 10p and 2a in THE CHAMBER, my friend requested a Michael Jackson song from the DJ. The DJ looked at her and said, “Where the **** did you come from,” as she walked away, I watched as the DJ had a disgusted look on his face. Immediately, I try to bring this to more than one bartenders’ attention and none of them could help and were ill-prepared on how to help a guest in a situation like this.

 

2. On the morning of Fri, Feb 28th around 8:30a EST in THE WINDJAMMER at the beverage station located on the port side of the ship towards the front side of the ship a staff member was very rude to me. The person working the station that fills the cups with orange juice, apple juice, water, etc snapped at me. I had a few empty cups and rather than just leave them anywhere, I thought I was doing him a favor by politely putting my used cups in his area so he could easily dispose of them. He snapped at me and said, “DON’T PUT THOSE THERE! THOSE ARE DIRTY!” His delivery was terrible.

 

3. Another day in THE WINDJAMMER I was using the ice machine in order to fill up my gym water bottle, a staff member snapped at me and said to stop what I was doing and pointed at a sign that said I wasn’t allowed to refill water bottles. I was completely in the wrong here as I didn’t see the sign but her delivery was terrible and very rude.

 

4. Despite Royal Caribbean’s campaign to “Save the Waves,” I noticed that the ships’ decks were littered with empty cups and beer bottles. Items that I had put down nearly 2 hours earlier were still sitting there. I can remember once incident where I took it upon myself to clean up multiple items and put them on the bar, the bartender simply looked at me and had no acknowledgment whatsoever. This was on Thursday, February 27th at THE SKYBAR.

 

5. The people sitting at our dinner table were celebrating a birthday one night and the wait staff failed to bring out a birthday cake that was pre-arranged by her mother, instead, it came out 2-days later with her name misspelled.

 

6. After taking advantage of the ship’s WIFI service for just 5-short minutes I was shocked to see that I was billed more than $20, thankfully, an individual in guest services helped me by reversing the overages.

 

To top it off, we were never able to go to Cococay because the weather made tendering to the island unsafe. I understand that this is out of everyone's control but how come they don't have some sort of make-good for these situations? Perhaps go to another island? Comp people's drinks that day? Maybe some cute little apology note in your stateroom with a $10 credit for the gift shop or something?

Your cruise was ruined I'm sure Edited March 6, 2014 by SeaUs

[reallyitsmema]

Sorry you didn't like your cruise but other than the DJ's inappropriate comment to your friend, I am not seeing the "horrible". Coco Cay gets missed because of weather, it is a safety issue, they are not going to tender to the island if it is too rough. Putting dirty glasses where the servers are filling drinks makes no sense. Filling a personal water bottle is a hygiene issue.

 

If you are unhappy with Royal Caribbean, by all means, sail with some other cruise line. Just don't expect things to be perfect anywhere or you will be disappointed.

[bouhunter]

1. On our first night, Sun, Feb 23 sometime between 10p and 2a in THE CHAMBER, my friend requested a Michael Jackson song from the DJ. The DJ looked at her and said, “Where the **** did you come from,” as she walked away, I watched as the DJ had a disgusted look on his face. Immediately, I try to bring this to more than one bartenders’ attention and none of them could help and were ill-prepared on how to help a guest in a situation like this.

 

Exactly what kind of "help" would one look for in this situation?:rolleyes:

 

 

4. Despite Royal Caribbean’s campaign to “Save the Waves,” I noticed that the ships’ decks were littered with empty cups and beer bottles. Items that I had put down nearly 2 hours earlier were still sitting there. I can remember once incident where I took it upon myself to clean up multiple items and put them on the bar, the bartender simply looked at me and had no acknowledgment whatsoever. This was on Thursday, February 27th at THE SKYBAR.

 

What does Saving the Waves have to do with some empty cups lying around? Unless the staff was pitching them overboard.........

 

5. The people sitting at our dinner table were celebrating a birthday one night and the wait staff failed to bring out a birthday cake that was pre-arranged by her mother, instead, it came out 2-days later with her name misspelled.

 

They missed the birthday cake for our daughter that we'd paid for last year. It was delivered at dinner the next night after we mentioned it, and they gave us a bottle of wine. We realize that things happen, enjoyed the cake and wine, moved on and enjoyed our cruise. Life is too short to get worked up over something as trivial as this. Our 14 year old daughter accepted this minor error better than you apparently could

 

 

To top it off, we were never able to go to Cococay because the weather made tendering to the island unsafe. I understand that this is out of everyone's control but how come they don't have some sort of make-good for these situations? Perhaps go to another island? Comp people's drinks that day? Maybe some cute little apology note in your stateroom with a $10 credit for the gift shop or something?

 

Sure why not. Miss a port and give 4000 people free drinks all day. Are you serious?!?!?

Sounds like you definitely need to move on to another cruiseline.

Edited March 6, 2014 by bouhunter

[PattyG12]

It sounds like your friend maybe surprised the DJ? While the response was unwarranted, sometimes the delivery sounds worse than it was meant to be. I really hope you enjoy whatever vacation you decide to try next as I had the same things happen on Carnival so none of these complaints are only on Royal Caribbean.

[cruisePAC]

I'm sorry that you didn't have the cruising experience that you expected and that the rest of us look forward to on RC. Just a heads-up: please know that it is unlikely that you will get much sympathy from a board where 99% of the regular readers/posters are "loyal to royal."

It sounds like each incident could have been easily forgotten, but when you add them up, they made for an unpleasant experience. I've cruised multiple times with RC and there has never been any occurrence that I've wanted to complain about. I guess if I think hard enough, I could make a short list. But, we've had so many positive experiences that these far outweigh any frustrating incident. Keep in mind that the crew are from various countries with different customs. For example, we were talking candidly with a bartender one night. She told us that the crew was given a talk about body language. She said to us, "Body language! What is that? In my country, there is no such thing." Maybe so.

Regarding your second observation: putting used cups next to clean ones was a health concern. The staff tries very hard to control the spread of infectious disease on the ship and what you did didn't help to control it. And who knows...maybe the staff had a stressful meeting the day before about this very topic, so it was fresh and raw on the mind of that staff member.

I hope that you enjoy your future cruise experiences on whichever cruise line fits your expectations.

[LMaxwell]

To top it off, we were never able to go to Cococay because the weather made tendering to the island unsafe. I understand that this is out of everyone's control but how come they don't have some sort of make-good for these situations? Perhaps go to another island? Comp people's drinks that day? Maybe some cute little apology note in your stateroom with a $10 credit for the gift shop or something?

 

What other island would you like them to go to? Coco Cay is RCI's private stop and as such is outfitted with amenities (cooking areas, running water, bathrooms, beach equipment, docks for tenders...tenders!). Going some place else isn't practical or even really possible.

 

Everyone going on any cruise knows there is always a chance of missing a port of call due to conditions beyond the Captain's control (weather). This is especially true of a tender port. Why on Earth would a cruise line open the bar for free or hand people money for missing a port of call that was beyond the cruise lines control? You had a sea day with activities and food instead of a beach day with food. Sure, it sucks to miss an anticipated port of call, but it happens, on every cruise line, all the time.

[cage keeper]

I'm sorry. Never should a staff member treat a guest rudely. It's the stuff you put up with when you work with the public. Even if the guest were wrong there is a way to convey your point in a polite manner. Sorry, guess I was just raised differently.

[pcur]

#2 and #3 are pretty serious health policy no-no's. Instead of thinking this was a bad experience, perhaps being happy you now know what can pass germs and viruses around on a cruise ship?????

 

#4: why were you leaving your trash out on the deck, and then complaining brecause it was still there 2 hours later?

 

#5 is not a deal-breaker IMO.

 

#6 got fixed, so it's a moot point

 

#1 was unacceptable, but not the bartender's problem. I would have complained to Customer Service the next day.

Edited March 6, 2014 by pcur

[cage keeper]

I'm sorry that you didn't have the cruising experience that you expected and that the rest of us look forward to on RC. Just a heads-up: please know that it is unlikely that you will get much sympathy from a board where 99% of the regular readers/posters are "loyal to royal."

It sounds like each incident could have been easily forgotten, but when you add them up, they made for an unpleasant experience. I've cruised multiple times with RC and there has never been any occurrence that I've wanted to complain about. I guess if I think hard enough, I could make a short list. But, we've had so many positive experiences that these far outweigh any frustrating incident. Keep in mind that the crew are from various countries with different customs. For example, we were talking candidly with a bartender one night. She told us that the crew was given a talk about body language. She said to us, "Body language! What is that? In my country, there is no such thing." Maybe so.

Regarding your second observation: putting used cups next to clean ones was a health concern. The staff tries very hard to control the spread of infectious disease on the ship and what you did didn't help to control it. And who knows...maybe the staff had a stressful meeting the day before about this very topic, so it was fresh and raw on the mind of that staff member.

I hope that you enjoy your future cruise experiences on whichever cruise line fits your expectations.

 

Very nicely put.

[Aquahound]

If I'm to be honest, I kinda expected something else after you used the terms "very unpleasant," and "horrible experience." While I agree staff in the service industry should not be condescending in their comments towards guests, it seems you might be a little sensitive.

 

By the way, the EOS just experienced a significant noro outbreak that was all over the media. When someone tries to fill their water bottle from the ice machine, I can't say I blame them for being aggressive. It shouldn't take a sign for people to know how unsanitary that is.

[thelasttime]

Very nicely put.

 

Totally agree, thanks.

Edited March 6, 2014 by thelasttime

[mjldvlks]

I'm sorry. Never should a staff member treat a guest rudely. It's the stuff you put up with when you work with the public. Even if the guest were wrong there is a way to convey your point in a polite manner. Sorry, guess I was just raised differently.

I agree that rudeness by staff is inexcuseable. But most of what OP has set out involves situations where is is impossible to judge because we weren't there. OPs definition of and tolerance for being "snapped at" may be quite different from mine. So while I sympathize with OP, I am not ready to take OP's side either.

[Friend100]

Thanks OP.

 

This is a fun way to start my boring Thursday, and it also allows me to appreciate more about myself and the people around me.

[thelasttime]

Thanks! It just doesn't make sense to me because people with the the beverage packages can refill the cups that they get, isn't that the same thing?

 

You may have misunderstood, I am not leaving my trash all over the place. I am referring to putting an empty cup near my chair on the deck when I am finished with it. After picking it up to walk it to the bar I noticed many other empty cups and trash on the deck on my way to the bar.

 

Maybe, cruising just isn't for me.

[PORT ROYAL]

Hi everyone, I just went on my third cruise, 2nd time with RC and had a horrible experience. I was shocked and would love to see if someone here in the community was on the same trip and had a similar experience. I am pretty confident that this is going to be my last time working with Royal Caribbean

 

Explorer of the Seas // Embarkation Date: 02/23/14 // Port of Calls: Port Canaveral, Nassau, Cococay

 

Here are just some of the incidents:

 

1. On our first night, Sun, Feb 23 sometime between 10p and 2a in THE CHAMBER, my friend requested a Michael Jackson song from the DJ. The DJ looked at her and said, “Where the **** did you come from,” as she walked away, I watched as the DJ had a disgusted look on his face. Immediately, I try to bring this to more than one bartenders’ attention and none of them could help and were ill-prepared on how to help a guest in a situation like this.

 

2. On the morning of Fri, Feb 28th around 8:30a EST in THE WINDJAMMER at the beverage station located on the port side of the ship towards the front side of the ship a staff member was very rude to me. The person working the station that fills the cups with orange juice, apple juice, water, etc snapped at me. I had a few empty cups and rather than just leave them anywhere, I thought I was doing him a favor by politely putting my used cups in his area so he could easily dispose of them. He snapped at me and said, “DON’T PUT THOSE THERE! THOSE ARE DIRTY!” His delivery was terrible.

 

3. Another day in THE WINDJAMMER I was using the ice machine in order to fill up my gym water bottle, a staff member snapped at me and said to stop what I was doing and pointed at a sign that said I wasn’t allowed to refill water bottles. I was completely in the wrong here as I didn’t see the sign but her delivery was terrible and very rude.

 

4. Despite Royal Caribbean’s campaign to “Save the Waves,” I noticed that the ships’ decks were littered with empty cups and beer bottles. Items that I had put down nearly 2 hours earlier were still sitting there. I can remember once incident where I took it upon myself to clean up multiple items and put them on the bar, the bartender simply looked at me and had no acknowledgment whatsoever. This was on Thursday, February 27th at THE SKYBAR.

 

5. The people sitting at our dinner table were celebrating a birthday one night and the wait staff failed to bring out a birthday cake that was pre-arranged by her mother, instead, it came out 2-days later with her name misspelled.

 

6. After taking advantage of the ship’s WIFI service for just 5-short minutes I was shocked to see that I was billed more than $20, thankfully, an individual in guest services helped me by reversing the overages.

 

To top it off, we were never able to go to Cococay because the weather made tendering to the island unsafe. I understand that this is out of everyone's control but how come they don't have some sort of make-good for these situations? Perhaps go to another island? Comp people's drinks that day? Maybe some cute little apology note in your stateroom with a $10 credit for the gift shop or something?

 

Other posters have had an input, but what I did not see was if things were so bad why did you not call a meeting with the Hotel Director?:rolleyes:

One last point, never known this before, where the ship run out of bottled mineral water?:eek::eek:

[trev71]

id probably say something to someone too who tryed bringing dirty cups to a clean area, as well as the water bottle situation, this ship from what i read went threw the noro virus so they are really strict with them rules. i dont understand the cake situation though it had nothing to do with you personally. I hope you enjoyed the rest of your cruise there must have been some postive things that you could have posted for us too.

[ryano]

I clicked on this thread expecting a LOT worse than this. :o

[Cruzn Fool]

I think that is what you get for requesting a Michael Jackson song :p

 

Just kidding, maybe you are right, cruising might just not be for you or your expectations are just way to high. I also don't appreciate or expect rudeness but have rarely experienced it myself on any of the cruise lines, at least not to the point where it ruined my vacation.

 

I had a bad start to one cruise with similiar small things that just added up to make it unpleasant. But I figured out very early during the trip that my expectations had been set pretty high by a prior cruise and I was then able to relax and not take all of those things so seriously. After that I was good to go.

 

Vacations are supposed to be fun and stress free so I hope you find something that fits your needs.

[CruisingChick]

Thanks! It just doesn't make sense to me because people with the the beverage packages can refill the cups that they get, isn't that the same thing?

 

You may have misunderstood, I am not leaving my trash all over the place. I am referring to putting an empty cup near my chair on the deck when I am finished with it. After picking it up to walk it to the bar I noticed many other empty cups and trash on the deck on my way to the bar.

 

Maybe, cruising just isn't for me.

 

You should give cruising another chance. Maybe on a different cruise line. My DH and I have been on cruises where if it had been our very first cruise we might not have gone back. Each sailing on each ship can be totally different.

 

Sorry you encountered such rudeness by staff members. That is uncalled for. This happened to us in the past on 2 different cruises and we did put in a complaint with the person's supervisor.

[ChipLondon]

One day people will realise that the place called Coco Cay actually does NOT exist, it is just the cruise lines way of stating they will call at a private Island, and then keep us all on the ship for an extra day :D

 

 

 

.

Edited March 6, 2014 by ChipLondon

[DrD]

Sorry that happened. I've done RCCL 3 times and never had such an experience. It seems that some ships are better than others, no one's ever complained about such rudeness on FOS for example (that I know of.)

 

I'm on the side of the crew though for #1. MJ? Really? The DJ prob has little kids. (Just kidding, sort of.)

[ryano]

One day people will realise that the place called Coco Cay actually does NOT exist, it is just the cruise lines way of stating they will call at a private Island, and then keep us all on the ship for an extra day :D

 

 

 

.

 

HA! Big_G here on cruise critic is 0 for 4 as far as making it to Coco Cay! :eek: