Terrible Experience With GCP On The Anthem Of The Seas

[dstryrwiz]

I have tried resolving this by working with the travel agency I book through and with Royal Caribbean directly to no avail, so I wished to voice my issues publicly as Royal has done nothing to quench my concerns and has completely belittled my complaints, while very valid. The travel agency agreed that this would be a good approach to move forward so others are aware of what I experienced, perhaps which may influence their opinion of Royal moving forward.

 

My wife and I finished a two week sailing on the brand new Anthem of the Seas at the beginning of July (the June 20th sailing in particular), and while the ship and entertainment were amazing, the experience, which was actually for our honeymoon, was marred by a quite terrible situation we were placed into. We were placed between two rooms that held children from the same family which had a number of other children also scattered among other rooms throughout the ship. It appeared to be a large family taking a family vacation. Normally, that would not be a big deal; however, these children became the neighbors from Hell.

 

Every day and night when my wife and I returned to our stateroom either to take a nap or to go to sleep we were greeted with loud banging, talking, stomping, or yelling from the neighboring rooms. Sleep was not something we could easily achieve by any means. In an effort to follow proper procedure and have this issue resolved, I filed numerous complaints about the noise with guest services to no avail. I was informed that under the Guest Conduct Policy if a family had multiple complaints filed against them that they would be at risk of being forced to disembark at the following port, which on a fourteen night cruise with nine ports, there were plenty of opportunities for that, yet that claim had absolutely no enforcement and my complaints went nowhere.

 

Additionally, with filing complaints to make guest services aware of the noise I was not even able to just call down as their phone system would fail to work as soon as it hit midnight as they were unable to setup their phone forwarding system, so this became my nightly routine getting ready for bed:

• Get undressed and lie down in bed
  
• Try and fall asleep
  
• Be rudely kept awake by my neighbors
  
• Try to call down to guest services
  
• Realize their phones still are not working right
  
• Get out of bed
  
• Get dressed again
  
• Go downstairs to deck 4 from deck 13 where my stateroom was
  
• Walk to the aft of the ship from all the way forward where my stateroom was
  
• Tell Guest Services that my neighbors are being loud yet again, making loud banging noises, talking/yelling, running up and down the hall, etc
  
• Them tell me they will send security
  
• Walk back to my room
  
• Wait a few minutes for security to arrive and explain the situation
  
• Check through my peephole as I see security stand in the hallway for a few minutes
  
• Notice security leave without doing anything
  
• Go back to bed hoping the noise won't be coming back, which sometimes it would and sometimes it wouldn't
  
• Repeat if the noises returned
  

This whole routine from when the noise would begin until security leaving would still usually take more than an hour.

 

This happened virtually every night, and during the day when taking a nap this would also happen, but the change would be that most times even if their phones were working, I was stuck on hold for upwards of 20 minutes resulting in the same need to walk down to guest services in person.

 

I was informed that the guests and their parents were spoken to about the noise, and I was assured it would be handled, but it never was, even up until, and including, the final night, which the neighbors were actually even louder than usual that night, and after calling down twice, as this was before midnight, I don't even think security came at all, even if they never did anything those prior times.

 

There were only two instances where security actually spoke to the neighbors when they were called, and with one instance the neighbors claimed it was the television we heard (an impossibility I may add given that the bass was entirely removed from the audio of the televisions in the staterooms), and another where literally as soon as security left, the children started to deliberately bang on the wall out of retaliation and I had to call security again which resulted in security telling me they were going to speak to the parents.

 

Security and enforcement of the Guest Conduct Policy were completely unacceptable throughout the whole cruise, and no one should ever be forced with dread about returning to their stateroom because of loud incessant banging. While on board I was repeatedly informed of the policy by Guest Services and my Stateroom Attendant, which I myself had not had the opportunity to read until after disembarking, and after doing so realized the guests were in violation of multiple sections, including:

• Inappropriate or Abusive Behavior - Including harrasment & offensive conduct
  
• Discourteous or Disruptive Behavior
  
• Parental and Guardian Responsibility
  

 

Additionally, I suffer from chronic migraines, so this definitely did not help me at all, especially given that some of the days I wished to retreat to my stateroom for a little quiet when dealing with terrible pain, but in many ways my stateroom was worse than the Royal Theater for my migraines because at least the loud music there was smooth, compared with the banging in my stateroom.

 

There is no way that the ship can claim negligence for this either as the stateroom attendant was fully aware of the loud nature of this family which even involved the children running up and down the hallways between the staterooms they inhabited, and one night they even stole our "Do Not Disturb" sign. Additionally, a senior guest services representative even offered us a slight compensation for the repeated inconvenience this caused us about two-thirds of the way through the cruise, yet the issue was never resolved.

 

My concern is if something like this cannot be addressed and resolved on a fourteen day cruise with nine ports, what hope is there if something like this happened on a seven day cruise with three ports? It seems entirely unlikely to be resolved, and this should be enough for most people to abandon a cruise line in itself, but my wife and I love Royal Caribbean's ships and entertainment, though this is something that should never happen.

 

Beyond our own personal experiences with the lax security on this ship, another issue we heard about included something we heard from a member of the staff who also expressed concern.

 

The staff member was telling us of a situation that happened where those under 18 got into one of the 18+ events then went behind the stage in the venue and got a hold on a beach ball that was not intended to be used during that event which they proceeded to throw around. This resulted in the beach ball knocking over a number of glasses causing them to shatter all over the dance floor.

 

At this, the staff member had to raise the lights and reduce the music, to which the other cruisers complained, but security should have helped prevent this in the first place.

 

Security should have helped in enforcing the age requirement (something quite easy to do due to the design of the seapass cards) as well as prevent access to backstage, or if unable to do that, seize the beach ball before it caused damage, in addition to detaining those who obtained it.

 

This incredibly lax enforcement of guest conduct is unacceptable and puts people at risk, even of injury, and that is never something someone wants on a vacation.

 

Upon return, we took steps in contacting Royal Caribbean about our circumstances through my travel agent, and their response to these issues is that they claimed it did not demonstrate a service failure on their part. Their view was that the other guests had spent the same money as us on the cruise, so they deserved to be able to act any way they wished without penalty, which is a complete contradiction of their Guest Conduct Policy.

 

With the final representative I just spoke to while on a conference call with someone from the travel agency I booked with, I was mocked, discredited, and basically told that they had done nothing wrong, and if it was as serious as I said, so far as considering it harassment (which by definition harassment is behavior intended to disturb or upset, and it is characteristically repetitive, which it was), that I should have told Guest Services I wished to file a police report. I expected the company to be able to take care of this, so it never occurred to me even to need to involve the police, and I did not even know that was an option, but regardless, many parts of the guest conduct policy do not even refer to criminal behaviors, as this one, while harassment, may not have been criminal harassment, but neither is saving seats in the theater, which is on their Guest Conduct Policy explicitly (which when I mentioned, the representative began to take a mocking tone).

 

The treatment of this situation was absolutely deplorable, and I just wish others to be aware of this failure to accept responsibility for this failure of service and to be wary with future sailings that Royal may not protect you from issues you may face if they don't deem them severely dire.

 

I apologize for the long-winded writing, but for a cruise we spent a lot of money on, and traveled to England for from New York for our honeymoon, we wanted it to be perfect, and having your sleep interrupted virtually every single night and even for naps during the day, with the issue never being resolved due to incredibly lax enforcement of the rules, severely upset my wife and I and we are both incredibly disappointed in Royal Caribbean for this and will be a bit more wary of cruising with Royal than we once were due to this, something we never expected especially when sailing their brand new flagship for our honeymoon.

 

I hope this helps other cruisers.

[kwbound]

I'm sorry the neighbors ruined your honeymoon. I would be upset too if I was unable to get any sleep. Did you ever try to talk to the parents yourself? Fortunately my husband and I are empty nesters and can travel when children are in school. We love kids, but we don't need to be surrounded by the little darlings on vacation! I hope your next vacation will be more relaxing.

[BillOh]

I'm sorry the neighbors ruined your honeymoon. I would be upset too if I was unable to get any sleep. Did you ever try to talk to the parents yourself? Fortunately my husband and I are empty nesters and can travel when children are in school. We love kids, but we don't need to be surrounded by the little darlings on vacation! I hope your next vacation will be more relaxing.

We will see if they come back for consolation or suggestions, or just joined the forum to vent and bad publicity.

 

Putting away my pompoms.

Edited August 8, 2015 by BillOh

[dstryrwiz]

I'm sorry the neighbors ruined your honeymoon. I would be upset too if I was unable to get any sleep. Did you ever try to talk to the parents yourself? Fortunately my husband and I are empty nesters and can travel when children are in school. We love kids, but we don't need to be surrounded by the little darlings on vacation! I hope your next vacation will be more relaxing.

 

The staff spoke to them a couple times, and our Stateroom Attendant introduced me to the father of those children, to which I voiced my concerns. He told me if that happened again to call his stateroom and he would deal with it. The next time that happened I called his stateroom, and there was no answer, to which I followed the same procedure as usual afterwards, and then I tried calling him the next time it happened, to which he told me he would take care of it, but the noise didn't stop, and these instances continued to repeat.

 

I honestly was just appalled by this. Royal tries to defend the actions by saying that they're just children and this happens, but the fact of the matter is that they are still violating the GCP and if they don't do anything about it more than just mentioning to please be quiet, especially on a 2 week cruise, people stop caring and determine that the enforcement has no teeth, so they could do anything they want without repercussion for their actions.

[kwbound]

We will see if they come back for consolation or suggestions, or just joined the forum to vent and bad publicity.

 

 

I'm not one who has a problem when people do that. It is after all Cruise Critic. When people are upset and looking to vent is often times when they stumble on CC for the first time. They post their complaint not realizing the flaming they may be opening themselves up to. There are many times when I don't blame them for not coming back.

 

 

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[hollykimalan]

An interesting first post. We lived next door to what became known, by us as the 'Crackhouse'. I know this was at home and not on a cruise. But the take home message from our experience was there is very little you can do about people like this, particularly when kids are involved. Complaining just makes thing worse. We eventually had to move out and now rent the house out.

[perditax]

Sorry. This would have driven me crazy (although I travel with ear plugs and a high quality white noise generator because I have ears like a bat).

 

I also apologize in advance for the people who are going to come to this thread and try to make this your fault.

[Royal2464]

Just a disgusting example of "free range" children being raised by ignorant, irresponsible progressive parents.

[FLCruisin'Mom]

I'd be out gathering video evidence on my iPhone by the second night. I spent 4 nights a week in hotels when I was an airline pilot and nothing gets results faster.

 

I always travel with good ear plugs, a white noise machine and a couple Advil PM nowadays. I would lose more sleep getting angry each time I had to deal with a softball or cheerleading convention that it just wasn't worth it anymore.

[Peeker28]

I wonder if you video taped the kids and the noise if that could have helped your case with guest services? When security came up did they witness or hear anything?

[fishywood]

My experience on both RC and X is that the GCP applies when a passenger allegedly commits an offence against a crew member. And only against a crew member. Nobody at guest services cares how offensive someone's behavior is unless they are the actual one offended.

 

On an X ship a crewmember made an explicitly anti-semetic gesture to me. Of course I formally complained. And I was called to a meeting with both the Hotel Manager and Guest Services Manager present where I was told if I did not retract the complaint I would be put off at the next port.

 

Same thing on Vision last September when a woman was loudly harassing the other eight passengers at the table at breakfast in the MDR. Was told by the head waiter in charge to just leave; we were not offered to be seated at another table. No consequence at all to that nasty piece of work for ruining eight others' breakfast--the waiter had abandoned the table rather than deal with her.

 

The GCP is just a big MFing joke.

Edited August 8, 2015 by fishywood

[cruisenfever]

To the OP, I would suggest that you send an email to Michael Bayley, CEO of Royal Caribbean International mbayley@rccl.com and explain what happened, but in a shorter version!:D Remember that a teaspoon of sugar goes much further than an ounce of vinegar.

 

Make sure to include a number where you can be reached.

[bilyclub]

This needed to get resolved onboard. Royal won't budge once the sailing is over. What kind of staterooms are we talking about? Insides? I would not expect cabins to be quiet during the day, though.

[cruisenfever]

This needed to get resolved onboard. Royal won't budge once the sailing is over. What kind of staterooms are we talking about? Insides? I would not expect cabins to be quiet during the day, though.

You are correct, it should have been resolved on board, but it appears that it wasn't and someone at Corporate should be made aware of this so that it does not happen to somebody else.

[setsail]

This would have been the perfect time (you were on for 2 weeks) to buy some internet time and send Baley an email while on the ship. He could have addressed the problem while the cruise was in progress.

[Reader0108598]

OP

 

So sorry this happened to you:( This is exactly why I do not cruise when the kids are out of school. It is not that I don't like kids it just that I don't like parents who do not parent onboard ship.

 

Reader

Edited August 8, 2015 by Reader0108598

[racerxspeedy]

Congrats on your recent marriage.

 

Sorry to hear that your honeymoon was not as expected and that the RC staff let you down. I hope this experience won't keep you from cruising again.

 

This has been a concerns every time I book a trip. If you cruise enough it's bound to happen. I try to cruise during the school year and book rooms at the end of the hall to minimize this risk. I still run into "groups" of kids blocking the stairwells and messing with the elevators on occasion. I'm not afraid to let the kids (and the parents) know if conduct is out of line.

[margeecruiser]

I believe the OP really had a problem. We had a similar problem on one cruise where the parents had a corner suite and had their children and I'm assuming a relative (Grandmother?) in the cabin next to us. These kids were noisy and the adults from what I think was an extended family playing some domino game in this room. I think this was the party room for the whole clan. In all our cruises, this has been our only bad experience with noisy neighbors. We also spoke with our statement attendant and guest services and the father? In the corner suite. No resolution. We just chalked it up to bad luck, but this was not a "milestone " cruise. Sorry for your lousy experience. I agree with others that you send an email to Michael Bayley. They need to help other cruisers from harassment from other cruisers.

 

Margee

[nelblu]

I feel for you guys. I had a situation with noisy cabin, but not because of passengers or children, but the loudness from the entertainment in the Atrium. We sailed on the Serenade some 5 years ago right after the refurbish and unfortunately they added add'l speakers to enhance the entertainment/music. Since our cabin was the first by the Atrium the noise permeated throughout and the elevators and into our cabin. I tried sleeping h in the balcony lounge chair--to no avail. They tried everything including closing the emergency doors during performances which made it worse as Paxs went to their room we could hear the door slam. Our cruise was a Medit. 12 niter which was tour intensive with tours beginning at 7AM and lasting some 10 hours. We needed sleep.

 

We complained to GS many times and finally referred to the GS manager. She was accommodating and on the 4th night around midnight we transferred to a lower category balcony cabin away from the Atrium. We had booked this cabin some 1.5 years in advance because it was a hump cabin with a large balcony--how disappointing. However, RCL/GS Manager awarded us $895 per in credit towards a future cruise--paid for our subsequent Oasis cruise.

[Cindy]

I feel for the OP...it can really be miserable to have a cabin next to unruly passengers, or, as happened to me, have a group of teens who take over the ship. I think this is an area where RCI needs to improve. It seems like they are so worried about offending passengers that they can't protect the rights of everybody by addressing the inappropriate behavior.

[Guest maddycat]

I have two questions: 1. Did you ask to speak to the hotel director? 2. Did you ask to have your cabin changed?

 

If guest services did not resolve the problem after repeated complaints, I would have asked to speak to the hotel director. I most definitely would have asked to have my cabin changed. If I got upset enough I probably would have tried to bring the matter to the captain's attention. It would have been interesting to see what would happen if the matter was brought up during the captain's corner.

 

I like another poster's suggestion to buy internet time and email RCI in Miami while still on the cruise. I have to remember to bring the contact info with me on future cruises.

[dstryrwiz]

I have two questions: 1. Did you ask to speak to the hotel director? 2. Did you ask to have your cabin changed?

 

If guest services did not resolve the problem after repeated complaints, I would have asked to speak to the hotel director. I most definitely would have asked to have my cabin changed. If I got upset enough I probably would have tried to bring the matter to the captain's attention. It would have been interesting to see what would happen if the matter was brought up during the captain's corner.

 

I like another poster's suggestion to buy internet time and email RCI in Miami while still on the cruise. I have to remember to bring the contact info with me on future cruises.

 

I asked to be moved and they told me the boat was completed sold out. I actually had free internet in every port, so if I had known the best route would have been to contact the CEO I actually could have done that, but I didn't know.

[dstryrwiz]

I wonder if you video taped the kids and the noise if that could have helped your case with guest services? When security came up did they witness or hear anything?

 

Security stayed for so little time, and by the time security came it was almost an hour after the initial instance. This was happening often around 1-2 AM.

[dstryrwiz]

Congrats on your recent marriage.

 

Sorry to hear that your honeymoon was not as expected and that the RC staff let you down. I hope this experience won't keep you from cruising again.

 

This has been a concerns every time I book a trip. If you cruise enough it's bound to happen. I try to cruise during the school year and book rooms at the end of the hall to minimize this risk. I still run into "groups" of kids blocking the stairwells and messing with the elevators on occasion. I'm not afraid to let the kids (and the parents) know if conduct is out of line.

 

Unfortunately we didn't have much choice in the timing given that my wife and I were graduating from, for her, college and, for me, grad school in May, and we placed our wedding on May 30th, so we couldn't do a cruise during the school year. We wanted to go on the Anthem since the Quantum went to China, and the only option for the Anthem that was closer to the wedding was to the Canary Islands which we thought wasn't as good an option as going to the West Med.

[dstryrwiz]

This needed to get resolved onboard. Royal won't budge once the sailing is over. What kind of staterooms are we talking about? Insides? I would not expect cabins to be quiet during the day, though.

 

It was a balcony room. The only reason we were hoping for quiet during the day was because they weren't quiet during the night and we were just hoping that during the day those kids wouldn't still be in the room, but no, we just weren't lucky enough for that to have been the case, they would stay in those rooms all day, including eating most meals in the room. This family also did something else that really annoyed us, but we didn't report it. They decided it was appropriate to save almost the whole first row of the theater for the first showing of We Will Rock You and 2 of the children were talking for almost the whole show. My wife ended up yelling at them quickly at one point because they wouldn't shut up and we were sitting next to them in 2 of the 4 seats in that row they didn't save.