New RCI Cruise Planner Issues

[Thosewerethedays]

I am using a Mac computer running Safari for internet browser. I have had the same issues at work on a PC using IE. When I called the Shore excursion help desk they also had the same issues and were not able to book anything for me either. They said it was due to the system upgrades that are going on for the past 2 weeks.

 

Just spent another 56 minutes on the phone with shore excursion help desk and again they are not able to book my shore shore excursions??? They said that as of the evening of May 31 they thaught they had the problem resolved. Not even so much as an apology for the hours I have waisted of being on hold while they try to "fix" the issue. Not impressed Royal Carribean!

[WestfieldTraveler]

I got a web site error that caused a mix-up in scheduling, so I can't book a show (Frozen) for the time I used to have a Chef's table reservation. When I moved the Chef's table reservation, the error showed up, but the reservation moved (at least it shows that it did). But I can't book anything in the old time.

 

When I try to, the attached screenshot (if you can read it) CLEARLY shows that the system is trying to cancel my Chef's table reservation on a night other than when I am trying to book Frozen.

 

I've spend several 30 minute plus sessions on the phone, and as asked to, filed a help request with their web help, which takes several days to do something, which did not even help, and they did not even do anything on the second request I put in. (Royal, if you are reading this, see [THREAD ID: 1-1S78D9L])

 

I'm in IT, and just finished reading a book called "The Phoenix Project" which is about upgrade to computer systems that is going really bad because the IT department does not have it's act together. Maybe it could have been written about the upgrade that Royal is going through right now...

 

Their biggest problem probably is the inability to really test their complex booking system, or else they would not be saying "thought it would be fixed" because they would have known in advance.

Edited June 2, 2014 by WestfieldTraveler
photo fix

[WestfieldTraveler]

and a better image of my incorrect reservation issue (just getting the hang of this technology - and the test forum!)

 

 

Edited June 2, 2014 by WestfieldTraveler
fixed post

[Thosewerethedays]

Just spent another 56 minutes on the phone with shore excursion help desk and again they are not able to book my shore shore excursions??? They said that as of the evening of May 31 they thaught they had the problem resolved. Not even so much as an apology for the hours I have waisted of being on hold while they try to "fix" the issue. Not impressed Royal Carribean!

 

 

 

Finally Success!!!! After another 45 minutes on the phone this evening I was able to find a RCI rep that could in her words "trick" the system to allow my family of 3 to book and more importantly pay for our shore excursions. Not impressed with your customer service nor your IT department Royal Carribean. How sad is it that I actually felt like I had won something when she said my payment had been accepted, when in reality all that had happened was I gave Royal Carribean over 9k of my money. All I can say is good luck if you are having the same issues in paying for shore excursions or your cruise reservation. It took me over two weeks and countless hours on the phone to finally get a rep that knew how to trick the computer to work.

Edited June 2, 2014 by Thosewerethedays
spelling

[Pilot53]

I booked 3 sets of dinner reservations and paid for them for 6 of us. Now I cannot finish check in on line as the system thinks I still owe money for it, but everything is paid for. I have all the info in, but because the system thinks I need to pay for something. Royal knows about it and is trying to fix it. I said in 13 days. I am worried they kill the reservation to fix it and while dead, someone else gets my reservation. I have a JS on the hump on the Oasis.

[Vanilla]

I hate the new cruise planner. I have called 11 times and spent several hours on the phone with RCI planner "specialist". They can see they took $287 from my acct on May 14 - but they can't verify what that payment went to. I keep telling them its my show excursions in Labadee but they can't confirm that... they just keep saying "we know there is a problem and it will be corrected before your ship goes out"... well, its been 18 days, and I leave in 18 days .... I want written confirmation for my purchases - but they can't provide anything except they took that money toward some type of payment. AUGH.......

[mutrax]

I hate the new cruise planner...

Well, it's our first cruise and so far the Cruise Planner has been a nightmare. I've called 4 times CS and all they say is that the problem is going to be fixed in a couple of days... since May 17th. So far, all my reservations are lost in some tape backup in the middle of the sea !

BTW, just got an e-mail from Shore Excursions to say they recovered my reservations (NOT!) and that I've to send my credit card number... for excursions that I've already paid !! For the beverage packages, dining and other stuff, no smoke on the horizon.

Christian, QC

[MAZ100]

Hi

 

After trying to book your excursion , drink package and dining are you getting an email confirmation..

 

I haven't received one email confirmation as of yet and it has been over a week that I booked everything

[Mickeylee]

Hi

 

After trying to book your excursion , drink package and dining are you getting an email confirmation..

 

I haven't received one email confirmation as of yet and it has been over a week that I booked everything

 

Yes, I received emails within 10 minutes of booking several drink packages.

[MAZ100]

thanks for the response now starting to worry none of mine dining and excursion reservation went through

 

My friend also on the same ship hasn't received any email confirmation for what he booked either last week..

 

This sucks..

[GTO-Girl]

Finally Success!!!! After another 45 minutes on the phone this evening I was able to find a RCI rep that could in her words "trick" the system to allow my family of 3 to book and more importantly pay for our shore excursions. Not impressed with your customer service nor your IT department Royal Carribean. How sad is it that I actually felt like I had won something when she said my payment had been accepted, when in reality all that had happened was I gave Royal Carribean over 9k of my money. All I can say is good luck if you are having the same issues in paying for shore excursions or your cruise reservation. It took me over two weeks and countless hours on the phone to finally get a rep that knew how to trick the computer to work.

 

At least you got to speak to someone who made the effort to "trick" the system. The lady I talked to last night insisted the reason I couldn't book an excursion was I was more than 60 days out....:eek:

 

I finally gave up even trying to convince her she was wrong......she sounded like a disinterested robot.

Edited June 3, 2014 by GTO-Girl

[autumnquest]

I had MAJOR issues booking an excursion in Jamaica for our June 7th cruise on Oasis a few weeks back. The site wasn't able to process our credit cards. We tried with both of our bank cards. So we called RCI and it turned out we were charged twice. They processed a refund to our bank account which went through within 4 business days....but....when I checked our reservation, it wasn't showing the excursion we were still charged for AND showed a balance of $180. So again I called and spent over an hour on hold through the various attempts to figure out what happened. They said it would be fixed and we would see a 0 balance within 5 days..absolutely. I said I would call if it wasn't and they assured me it would indeed be fixed. Sure enough, 6 days later....it still showed the balance and it was 2 weeks to embarkation and I couldn't get a set sail pass issued until this was resolved. I also feared that my trip would get canceled automatically due to non-payment. i spent another almost 2 hours on the phone with someone who had actually been working on the problem over the last several days and she couldn't understand why it hadn't gone through. Lots of polite and sincere apologies, but I was tempted to ask for OBC or some other kind of good will gesture for all of my time that was eaten up on hold with them and the frustration and angst.

 

I've never had any trouble with Royal Caribbean before, so in the end, as long as it was resolved (and it was the next day...0 balance), I am not apt to get too burned about it. But yeah, the problems with the reservation system are bad. I'm printing out all of our payments from the website just in case because my documentation doesn't show the jamaica excursion though the calendar does and the documentation DOESN'T show our drink packages, but the payments do and the overview shows 2 drink packages, just not which ones.

[chazg]

Yesterday, when I saw the change the cruise pre-planner my first response oh, no! After checking our 4 pending cruises, Royal's IT department did not disappoint me. IT history has repeated itself. I always wonder why when something is working why do they have to change it for the worst.

 

On our Freedom cruise it shows two diner reservations and two entertainment choice picked. Prior to the change all we have is the character breakfast and Ice show. I can not see what has been selected. Well we have time to work it out.

 

Why does everyone blame the IT Department! These issues usually are caused by the Web Developers which in some cases are contractors and not the Internal IT Group. I have worked it IT for over 20 Years and 98% of these issues are related to bad programming and not the IT Team itself. Give Us Guys a Break, LOL!!!!! :D

[Thosewerethedays]

At least you got to speak to someone who made the effort to "trick" the system. The lady I talked to last night insisted the reason I couldn't book an excursion was I was more than 60 days out....:eek:

 

I finally gave up even trying to convince her she was wrong......she sounded like a disinterested robot.

 

Don't give up. I had to call every weekend until I got a rep that could figure out a way to trick the computer enough to accept our reservation and money.

It has nothing to do with being 60 days out like the rep told you, our trip does not leave until August 24 2014 followed by the august 31 sailing. If I remember correctly I booked my first excursion for the August 31 sailing in February. Best of luck to you. I totally get your frustration.

[arthurfowler]

Why does everyone blame the IT Department! These issues usually are caused by the Web Developers which in some cases are contractors and not the Internal IT Group. I have worked it IT for over 20 Years and 98% of these issues are related to bad programming and not the IT Team itself. Give Us Guys a Break, LOL!!!!! :D

 

Yeah, because subcontractors aren't the responsibility of the IT department neither is testing.......

[Vanilla]

11 phone calls, a couple hours spent on hold, 4 emails, a letter of complaint sent to RCI headquarters....finally ~ my onboard purchases are now showing up on my payment history. My reserved shows, shore excursions and drink package is on my cruise calendar! PRINT....just in case it goes missing again.

[arthurfowler]

What email address did you use? I couldn't find one.

[CrazyChickenLady]

Is anyone else still having issues with the website? I want to purchase the alcohol packages but its just not loading at all. :confused:

[Mac303]

Is anyone else still having issues with the website? I want to purchase the alcohol packages but its just not loading at all. :confused:

 

Just tried to make specialty dining reservations, for the December cruise, the dining page won't load.

I was able to view other portions of the planner but dining just won't load.

[gcruise25]

They are still experiencing problems. First, I couldn't get the excursions(mid May) and was told to give them a week. It still didn't work. I called again and was told still problems. Then I booked an excursion and it went through. Last week I tried to book the rest of my excursions and it told me 3x that my credit card wasn't good. I received an email saying they were booked and charged. When I called to make sure I booked the excursions I was told it was a system problem. Yesterday I cancelled an excursion and booked another one. They tried sending me emails confirming which were empty. I was told it must be my computer and I need to contact the tech dept. Last night I learned it was a system problem and not my computer.

I have wasted a lot of time on this. I have learned that RCCL doesn't value peoples time.

Their new system was suppossed to be "user friendly".

[gcruise25]

Does anyone have the phone number of corporate offices or fax number.