Freedom of the Seas Heads Up

[A6cruiser]

Mrobertson,

Sorry to hear that trip was so bad. RCCL should give you a discount at least on a future booking.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

[patrickusaf08]

I will say this. Working on aircraft I know that sometimes there might not be an aircraft in the area that has the needed equipment or crew to perform an at sea landing or hoist of a injured person. Does turning around and loosing a port suck absolutely. Should they give everyone the same compensation on every cruise absolutely. I did not like what RRCL did to people who got on the ship and got no notice for port changes but now that they have advertises the port changes so I could change my schedule I would go and take the cruise credit and onboard credit to buy a new watch for my self.

[PLEIKU68]

A ' little girl stops breathing , they can't afford a helicopter' and you are mad they had to amend schedule. What if that was your child ! I really think you need to get your priorities in order. You have a wonderful day now :mad:

[LMaxwell]

A ' little girl stops breathing , they can't afford a helicopter' and you are mad they had to amend schedule. What if that was your child ! I really think you need to get your priorities in order. You have a wonderful day now :mad:

Whatever medical care is needed will be administered without checking someone's ability to pay. The USCG does not bill people direct anyways. And I can't find a comment about affording medical evacuation or not. Not sure where you get that. Perhaps I glanced over it?

 

I am glad Royal does what is in the best interest of guest and crew safety. That should go without saying.

 

That aside the 12/7 guests got shafted compared to the week before and weeks subsequent. RCI is using a medical excuse to absolve them of doing the right thing for the other 4000 guests on board. Ship happens. It's part of cruising. But RCI response to 12/7 guests makes no sense when taken in context of what they did immediately before and after that week. It's not like the medical emergency is reason for the shortened itinerary before that event occurred.

[aloha43]

I too was on the Dec 7th sailing and requested a future cruise credit and was told no one on the ship received on. If indeed you did receive a future credit im curios to know the amount per person. If you did receive anything can you please contact me so I can plead my case to them as they were vary rood.

mbernal at ewaste1.com I have to say this was the cruise from hell as I call it.. Please read my concerns and problems I wrote to them..

 

This is a letter that I had wrote Royal Caribbean about our (group of 7) cruise experience and their response was im sorry there is nothing I can do to help you. If we gave you money back we would have to give everyone on the ship the same thing. I was hoping you could give me some advice or assist me in any way possible. . Thank you for your time.. Melissa

Where do I begin! Let me first start off by saying my husband was so agents taking a cruise saying it was too structured (did not like being told when to eat dinner and times to get on and off the ship). I finally talked him into going in Jan 2014 on the Oasis of the seas. Let’s just say he LOVED it ranted and raved about it to his parents and his sister. We loved it so much we booked another one right away WITH them. We were so excited to show them what we had experienced.

My father and my husband dropped us off at the cruise on departure day and then headed back to drop off the rental car (budget) after running into traffic and arriving at budget at 3:40 they were closed. So the drove to port and paid $120.00/day to park, they went to get on the ship at 3:55 and were told they could not board the ship. We were standing on our balcony watching them getting turned away. My children were standing there crying as the ship sailed away without them. Both children climbed into bed and said they did not want to do anything without their dad and grandpa there. To make a long story short it was devastating for them and also me. They then flew back to Detroit after there they realized if they could get a one day passport they could fly into Jamaica and board the ship. We my husband let the ship know they would board the ship with the flight numbers. When we arrived in Jamaica we were trying to meet a location to make the best of the day. We ended up meeting up in a not so nice beach area. After the little bit of time there we went to board the ship. There my husband and father took over 3 hours being passed back and forth from customs on the gangway to the service desk. After a long flight and all the confusion it was frustrating for them and us.

After the boys missing the first port we were looking forward to getting off the ship at the Cayman Islands but with the propulsion problem that the ship was having our trip was cut short. With this being said we were really looking forward to Mexico but an announcement from the captain saying there was a life or death situation on the ship and we need to turn around and we would not be going to Mexico. I called to guest services inquiring and they stated “the family could not afford a helicopter”. When she said that my stomach turned and I thought they are taking away a port from so many people because “the family could not afford the helicopter” That was a huge disappointment for our family. My husband and father paid a fortune to fly into Jamaica for a crappy beach there, a short visit at the camion island and a missed port. They will not let a passenger board the ship 45 min before sailing but will let a passenger dictate where the ship goes because they don’t have the funds for an air flight.

Now we can move onto the cruise itself.

I loved that we had an 8:00 dinner time but have to say the quality of food was dramatically different from when we traveled on the Oasis of the Seas. Our Steaks were fatty and the tiger shrimp was dramatically smaller then before just to list a few. With my grandparents being Diamond members and saying the smaller ships are more personable and attentive to you we were excited travel on this ship. Another disappointment! The waiters were slow and had to wait for drinks, even refills on the kid’s drinks. We were sat at the back of the dining room and witnessed one of the waiters getting into trouble by one of his managers and other staff member were coming to the one waiter’s defense. It’s something that a guest should not have known about or even witnessed.

Broken propulsion:

We were not notified of the ships broken propulsion until the second night as an announcement was made then. Our dinner table was on deck 3 at the back of the ship. We felt the ship rock and sputter more there then anywhere on the ship. It was so bad that both my children felt sick the whole trip even while taking motion sickness medication. (Never needed in prior cruises) The vibration at the dinner table was so bad my sister got sick every time at the dinner table she was not able to eat and even vomited 2 out of the 6 nights we went to dinner. If we would have known about the propulsion problem on the first day and known then that the Cayman Island was going to be cut 3 hours and the Mexico trip being shortened as well my husband and my father would have not flown into Jamaica for little bit of time on the island. We could have/would have saved the $1000.00 flight and just booked another cruise. I feel Royal Caribbean knew about the issues and failed to mention it to us until later in the cruise. If we would have known we would not have flown into Jamaica. With that being said.. if the cruise was working properly( as we thought when we got on) we would have still been in the Cayman Islands when the little girl stopped breathing. Our Island was cut short 3 hours! We turned the ship around 2.5 hours after leaving.

Internet:

I called to inquire about the internet before booking this ship as I need to log onto my work server and work from the ship (as I did on the oasis). I arrived to the ship paid for the internet and could not log onto my server. I talked with the front desk who was talking to the it department who said it was impossible; apparently the Oasis of the seas has a different band width then the freedom. I had to try and work from my cell phone which was very time consuming. Because I was not able to log onto the server I had to make calls from my cell phone (I hate to see that bill). Very disappointing to know I was told one thing and then when I get there it’s something else.

Air in the room:

I noticed in the room that the air was not working properly but it was no big deal for me as my mom’s room had extra room for us to sleep.( my dad was not on ship) So we just bunked together in her room. When my husband arrived he had to call the maintenance crew to come and fix it. (They were able to)

Wheel chair:

My sister had food surgery in Sept and was able to walk but after all the walking required a wheel chair. We went down to the service desk and they were great and said they would send one up quickly. After an hour one was delivered to the room. It would have been great if it would not have been broken. We called down to the service desk and they said they didn’t have another one available at that time. So we kept trying to use the broken one stopping ever 100 feet or so fixing it again and again.

Shower:

Our shower had a gap in the door and no matter how you showered or pointed the sprayer a puddle of water ended up on the floor. See attached photos.

Leaving:

Because my husband and father arrived in Jamaica we were pulled to the side when trying to exit the boat(understood) We were placed in a room(photo) were we had to wait over 1.5 hours for a security guard/customs to escort us off the ship. Because of the wait it caused us to miss our flight.

I have to say this was the worst vacation that I have gone on. We call it the cruise from HELL. We were on the ship so long we could not wait to get off. This cost of vacation time, time off school, loss of work that I was not able to get done on the ship, the cost of airfare to get back home. This is something that you took from us.

Im hoping that you or someone in your department can help me. We are your average family who booked a cruise a year in advance who made payments. This was something that we were looking forward too. I am hoping you can assist me in compensation or money off another cruise. Thanks you so much for your time. I hope you have a wonderful day. 

 

I'm sorry....but your cruise from hell started because your husband and father missed the ship due to getting the car back after closing time. RCI had nothing to do with that. The rest was just bad luck, a sick child and missed ports due to propulsion problems that have been going on for a while. The delay getting off the ship....again, if your father and husband hadn't missed the ship that problem wouldn't have arisen.

 

They have to right to alter the itinerary and couldn't predict the medical emergency.

[PLEIKU68]

Whatever medical care is needed will be administered without checking someone's ability to pay. The USCG does not bill people direct anyways. And I can't find a comment about affording medical evacuation or not. Not sure where you get that. Perhaps I glanced over it?

 

 

It's in the 5th paragraph of her rant.

[LMaxwell]

Whatever medical care is needed will be administered without checking someone's ability to pay. The USCG does not bill people direct anyways. And I can't find a comment about affording medical evacuation or not. Not sure where you get that. Perhaps I glanced over it?

 

 

It's in the 5th paragraph of her rant.

Thank you. I did miss it. That's an absurd thing for guest services to tell anyone in any circumstance as not only is it NOT true but also none of anybody else's business why a particular medical action was taken versus another.

[Paulxyz2004]

Originally Posted by mrobertson.bernal

I too was on the Dec 7th sailing

 

 

 

I´m sorry but there´s not many Points in your Long winded rant that are the fault of RCI.

 

First of all and IMO the start of a bad trip for you was the missed ship. This is entirely not the fault of RCI. It was you cutting it too Close and missing the ship. This includes the extra cost for parking, flights and of course the hold up at debarkation has nothing to do with RCI either. They have no influence on the US customs and Immigration and it was a result of your missing the ship.

 

Internet is never a guaranteed Thing on a ship, especially the availabillity of VPN´s or Access to certain Servers. An an inexperienced cruiser you might not have known this but it´s again nothing to complain about and it can happen to you on any ship / line.

 

Broken air condition - well you could have had this fixed right away without having to bunk in the other room if you had called right away. What´s your complain? Not their fault you didn´t call. They fixed it when you did.

 

Wheelchair - well you can consider yourself lucky you even got a wheelchair. The cruiselines do not usually have wheelchairs for use onboard during the cruise. They do have some for embarkation / debarkation and emergencies, but People with injuries / disabilities Need to bring their own / rent one from a third Party.

 

Maybe your shower issue could have been resolved by calling as well ( you didn´t mention if you called or not)

 

Anyway, given that the most parts of your rant are your own fault or at least not the fault of the cruise line, there´s not much substance left to your letter.