Stay away from RC.

[goodycruising]

Writing on the survey for them to ring back, rarely seems to work. Surveys are about adding up the rating points to the company.

 

Ringing them means you are talking to the front line person, who may care, but has no authority. Even that person's supervisor I would doubt has authority to do much.

 

I would write a letter, and send it registered. They may take a few weeks to reply, as we have been told they will get in touch with the ship staff to clarify your issues. The ship staff may need to investigate as well.

 

We had issues about 5 years ago on our first cruise. We already had a credit given on-board towards a future cruise, but we felt we were brushed aside on our main issues that time, wrote them a letter to head office with no expectations, as we were never going on a cruise again. They responded, and did offer a higher credit which we didn't care about, as we still were never going again!

 

We did decide a year later to give it another go, as over time we did remember a lot of the nice things, and we have just finished our 12th cruise with RCI/Celebrity. We have had some niggles along the way, but have overall loved our cruising. Last 2 cruises we did have some issues, so we have now written again. Head Office just needs to know sometimes that when issues are brought up on-board that the way they have been handled is not good.

 

As far as food goes, I would recommend Celebrity from our experiences. As has been said here though, food is subjective and can come down to personal tastes. Sometimes though, it is terrible, and then we bring up the issues straight away. Then you can go from there in escalating it if you don't get a resolution.

 

So many return cruisers can't all be wrong or stupid in going back for more, but sometimes there is just a combination of things that go wrong, and just because people haven't had that experience themselves does not make it false.

[tomko2]

One of the best ways to deal with a situation with such a porter, who is actually a very highly paid unionized longshoreman, is to take a photograph of him so he can be identified to the cruise line. In this case where he was constantly using bad language, intimidation and threats I would have done a video.

They are then very unlikely to carry on with their actions and carry out their threads if they realize you have done either of the above. ;)

 

You are not allowed to take photos, etc. in the Port Area. I was about to take a photo one day and was quickly approached by a security person telling me I was not allowed to do that and to put my camera away.

I may have heard wrong but I believe someone told me it has something to do with Homeland Security.

[LMaxwell]

As far as the luggage, Well you tip! You might not like his language, but he handles your luggage. So therefore he is not going to take care of your luggage. I know everyone will say, it's their job to handle it tips or no tips, but guess what. That's reality! Kind of like you never piss off the person who handles your food. Those things you hear about, do happen in real life.

 

As far as the other things, well once again it's life. You have to make the best of it. The sex toy may or may not be a sex toy. The waiting for the rooms. Well maybe the person that was in that room was the last person off the ship. To make it seem that your whole vacation was ruined is a stretch. Just have to learn not to stress over the little things.

 

Actually the porters are paid fat salaries down here and you will often see signs no tip needed. In fact, all the porters do it load bags onto the aluminum carts, not to the ships. I don't think the porter did anything to the handle on his bag; I think that's just luggage being handled; could have happened on the ship. It is pretty common, that's why Royal offers to repair luggage, because they know it's just part of the game.

 

OP also said they didn't get into their room until almost 5PM. Not normal.

 

If I found a greasy sex toy in my room and it didn't belong to my wife the Hotel Director would be on a first name basis with me immediately.

 

I got a 20% future cruise credit, without asking for anything at all, when my door lock failed and Maintenance and Security had a pissing match over who was supposed to deal with it at 2AM. And that's the only real negative that happened to me. OP surely is due at least that much compensation.

 

I wouldn't blame them for never sailing Royal again though.

[robtulipe]

You are not allowed to take photos, etc. in the Port Area. I was about to take a photo one day and was quickly approached by a security person telling me I was not allowed to do that and to put my camera away.

I may have heard wrong but I believe someone told me it has something to do with Homeland Security.

That restriction is inside the terminal and on the embarkation ramp. Where you typically drop off the luggage is outside just off of the public roadway where there is no such restriction.

Even if there was a restriction I would still quickly take the shots I needed to identify such a bad porter. The cruise line should be made aware of such people providing such terrible and horrible services and really represents them. His union would likely fight like hell to support and protect such a vile person if any action was taken against him. If this was to happen at least he might considered what the consequences could be from such action on his part.

Edited February 28, 2016 by robtulipe

[kalliekae]

As far as the luggage, Well you tip! You might not like his language, but he handles your luggage. So therefore he is not going to take care of your luggage. I know everyone will say, it's their job to handle it tips or no tips, but guess what. That's reality! Kind of like you never piss off the person who handles your food. Those things you hear about, do happen in real life.

 

As far as the other things, well once again it's life. You have to make the best of it. The sex toy may or may not be a sex toy. The waiting for the rooms. Well maybe the person that was in that room was the last person off the ship. To make it seem that your whole vacation was ruined is a stretch. Just have to learn not to stress over the little things.

 

This is how we would react, too, but obviously the op reacted differently.

Also, we had a nice experience with our luggage handlers in FLL. Yes, we tip well, but they were very nice and polite before they ever saw a tip.

 

To the op, I'm sorry you had a negative experience and I hope you continue to cruise on another cruise line with far better results. However, most of us enjoy Royal's ships and have not experienced what you have.

[jerseygirl74]

Navigator of the seas

 

My suggestion is to do a snail-mail letter & send it to main office in Miami. I had a cruise several years ago that had major problems. After they received my letter, I received a phone call from one of the VPs. I had all sorts of documentation which I faxed to him after our phone call.

 

He credited our account for our hotel in San Juan & gave each of us (3) $300 vouchers.

 

Hopefully, someone will contact you...if they want to keep you as a "Loyal to Royal" customer.

[Paulxyz2004]

Let me start by saying the ship itself and all of its amenities are great. We enjoyed the variety of activities. We also through the ports of call were very nice and enjoyed Jamaica a great deal. That being said this is how our cruise with Royal Caribbean went…

 

 

 

 

My wife and I saved for this trip for a long time and we were very excited to be able to go. We spent a long time reading reviews and looking into cruise lines. We have been on 2 other lines (Carnival and Norwegian) and we were happy with them. I do not believe that our expectations were out of line and we try to be very grateful for every experience we have. Our trouble started as soon as we got to the port of Fort Lauderdale. While in line waiting for the porter to take our luggage we over heard him VERY loudly cussing and complaining about how he was only getting small tips. This went on for the entire 5 min or so while we waited in line. He seemed to get louder and more angry as we got closer. When it was our turn he stuck his hand in my wife's face and said very roughly "do you have a tip for me"? We had decided not to tip him because of his language and attitude (VERY BAD DECISION). As we walked away we talked about what he might do to our luggage. So we now got on the ship and headed to our room.

 

One Thing you should notice in regards to the porter is they are not employed by the cruiseline and the cruiseline has no real say in which porters are working there. That same porter works there regardless which ship and cruiseline is docked there on any given day.

 

 

We found our floor but we were stopped and told our room was not ready because they were behind scheduled. We were told it would be around a half hour and we were ok with that. We spent about 45 min looking around the ship and then headed back to our floor. Again we were told that the room was not ready. So again we walked around while we waited. It ended up that we waited over 2 hours to get into our room. Still not upset by this point. Things happen. When we finally got in the room we started to unpack our carry on's and look at the room a bit. The room itself was typical in size and layout and what we expected and paid for. What we found as we looked closer was disgusting. I went to put some things in the draw next to the bed and found a male sex toy.

 

 

 

 

The draws on both sides of the bed were full of an oily substance (you can guess what that was I’m sure). We immediately went to the front desk to complain and ask that our room be thoroughly cleaned. The guest service person was very apologetic and said she would take care of it. We headed back to the room and waited. While waiting we found that the safe was broken and not working. By that time the room attendant and his supervisor came in and took the trash can the toy was now in and said they would clean the room. A few min later he came back with the toy in his hand and tried to tell me it was a party favor they were handing out during the last cruise and that it was not a sex toy. I have pictures if you would like to see them and I am not naive. From what I had heard of the last sailing and what I know of things I can say that %100 that it was a sex toy and that it was disgusting! They cleaned the room but the drawers remained oily the whole trip.

 

To me it doesn´t matter if this was a sex toy or not. It´s unacceptable to find any leftovers from previous occupants in your room. So yes a complaint about this was well inorder. The question remaining to me is - if the drawers remained oily for the whole trip, have you followed up about this issue with Housekeeping? You definitely should have, as otherwise they thought it was corrected.

 

 

 

So now it was past dinning time and our luggage was just getting there. And as expected the handle on our suitcase was broken. Back to the customer service desk again. The person at the desk asked that we bring her the luggage and that they would try to fix it and if they could not that they would compensate us for the suitcase. She told us that she would call us the next morning to let us know the outcome. We were as polite as possible with her but upset by that time. The next day was a day at sea and seemed to be ok for the most part.

 

While I can see why your blame for the broken handle goes towards the porter, nobody knows for sure. It is unfortunate, but lets face it it´s part of travelling. Luggage handling is rough, be it on flights, Cruises or elsewhere. Luggage breaks, it´s just part of daily travel life and a case for insurance.

The handle could have been destroyed By the porter, but it as well could have just broken along the way.

I´ve had it happen before and usually the Airline, Hotel, cruiseline, etc. are trying to accomodate for the immediate Need (finishing the trip) and then sort it once at home.

 

 

 

We did start to notice two things that made us a wonder if this was a norm for Royal Caribbean. The majority of the staff had a very hard time understanding English and small things were let go for longer periods of time. For instance one night in the dining room I ordered stake and the server repeated shrimp. I said not steak and again he repeated shrimp. Finally I said no steak and pointed to the steak on the menu and he smiled and nodded and walked away. When the dinner came he brought me shrimp. This was a common thing with the majority of the staff. We also noticed things like dirty dishes being left to sit on tables for a very long time. Or cleanliness issues not being addressed for a very long time. All of the other cruises I have been on the staff was on the ball and took care of these issues quickly. The next morning came and went and we got no call about our luggage but we had a day planned so I did not want to bother with it

 

Probably somewhat like 98% of the crew are not native english Speakers, so yes miscommunication can happen. I might be more forgiving in that as I´m not a native english Speaker myself.

Having cruised many different lines I´ve never seen real cleanliness issues, but yes there might have been times when dirty dishes were not collected for some time. To be honest never bothers me unless I want to sit at the table which has not been cleaned yet and there´s no other place to sit. When that happens, I just call some staff member over to get it done. Won´t ruin my day.

 

 

 

 

We headed to our stop on Grand Cayman and our excursion. We were supposed to do a 4.5 hour excursion with part of that time spent swimming with stingrays and part swimming with dolphins. As we got there they sent us through some type of bird encounter which we found odd but we went along with it thinking it was filling time until the boat was ready. Next we took the 20 min boat ride to the sand bar where the sting rays were and spent around 15-20 with them before being told to load up. After the boat ride back to shore we were loaded back on the bus to go back to our ship even though every person on the bus except for 2 was agreeing that we paid to swim with the dolphins. They said that that was not part of the price and to talk to Royal Caribbean. So back to the ship and back to customer service we went. This time we were told that our issue was going to be brought to the attention of the excursion manager and that he would call us. At the same time I asked about our luggage and was told that they could not fix it and was given a very poor quality suitcase would probably half of what I paid for the one that was broken. With out a call or any follow up we notice a $20 credit for our excursion and not a word (call) about the mix up. So we missed well over half the excursion but were only given less than quarter of our expense back. Not real fair and not very professional if you ask me but they didn't bother to ask.

 

It Looks like at least customer Service addressed the excursion issue, albeit the Outcome was not to your satisfaction and theycould have been more proactive in contacting you about it.

 

 

 

 

 

The next night we went to a show and I purchased a drink for my wife and I before the show. The theater was not that busy yet. The waiter brought us our drinks and he gave me my card and recite. back. I didn't bother to look at the card I guess that was my fault but 4 hour later when we tried to get back in our room I found out that I had gotten the wrong card and that someone was using mine so back to customer service we went. This time we asked to speak to a manager. We just wanted to get off the ship by this time.

 

The exact same Thing happened to me, though it was not in the theatre, but in the Dining room. I´m pretty sure it´s not an uncommon occurance and yes we Need to blame ourselves at east Party for it, for not checking if we get our sepass back. Afterall those bar Service People are humans and make mistakes. We certainly Need to take some responsibility as well. BTW I would think this is something Happening on every line as well.

 

 

 

 

We were brought into a back office and spoke to the assistant service desk manager. After telling him our story he polity apologized and said something along the lines of these things happen let me buy you a dinner in one of the specialty restaurants. We explained that we were not looking for a hand out but that we wanted to know if this was normal or if it was just us.

 

 

 

 

Finally he set us up to go on the wave runners in Labadee even though we had an excursion planned. we accepted thinking we could do both. The next morning we headed to the stand where the wave runners were and we were told that it had been canceled. We found out a few minutes later from another passenger that they had received a call the afternoon before letting them know that it was canceled. That means that the assistant manager the night before knowing how upset we were didn't bother to check and set us up on an excursion that had already been canceled. And yet another let down.

 

 

 

The food in the main dining room was so so all week but that last night we actually got up and left due to the quality of the food. The chicken was like shoe leather and my wife said her food tasted funny. So now that I have said all that you deiced was it just us and we had a fluke string of bad luck or is it this way all the way around Royal Caribbean. You deiced.

 

 

Happy with the edit now? :/

 

It sounds to me that the assistant Manager tried to make it right for you and I highy doubt he knowingly put you on a cancelled excursion. Why would he do that?

 

Sometimes when it rains it pours.

 

I don´t blame you for turning your back towards RCI. It´s your decision on how to spend your vacation Dollars.

 

To me nothing you reported, not even piled up into one cruise, would have put me off, but we all are different. Definitely not a case of "Stay away" for me.

 

Hope you will have better luck in the future.

[yuvraj]

Looks like a string of bad experiences which will most likely put you off sailing with RCI. Put it down to experience, these things happen and can leave a bitter taste.

 

It would be good if these problems didn't occur but they do. At one time or another I have encountered similar problems. Luckily not all in one go and I have come to accept that sometimes things don't go smoothly and cruise lines have rogue employees. I have a way of not letting such things spoil my holiday and I have a way to avoid some problems. For example, I rarely book an excursion and accept an element of risk that it might disappoint or not be as advertised. Experience has taught me that.

 

I have sometimes received the wrong sea pass card when ordering a drink. On one occasion, the spa lost my card and they made me queue up at guest services to get a new one. I have met obnoxious porters. I have found broken drawers in my cabin. I have come across waiters in MDR from hell. One was very scary and intimidating. Put us off going to the dinning room. Any problem you can think of, I have probably experienced it. However, here is the thing, not all the problems were on RCI ships. I have sailed on a variety of cruise lines and accepted that problems and mishaps occur.

 

In my experience, RCI is generally very good at trying to resolve problems while on the ship. Sometimes it may take several visit to guest services. Sometimes you might need to chase. Sometimes they screw up but they make best efforts to address a problem if they can.

 

I would agree that some cruise lines are better than others. More likely some ships are better managed than others so people experience fewer problems.

 

In my experience, RCI is not a bad cruise line and all the ships I have been on have been well managed. There is an occasional hiccup but never enough to spoil my holiday or put me off from returning.

 

I would conclude that there are no guarantees over a perfect holiday. If you are unlucky then you might encounter a string of problems. Perhaps how you deal with them matters when it comes to whether it spoils your holiday.

[peppersjap]

I hope people noticed the one person who disappeared from this thread was the original poster? I know things go bad occasionally but this has BS written all over it. I highly doubt they would bring anything back that could remotely be referred to as a sex toy. That item would have been discarded very quickly. I am impressed though by how polite people are on this site!

[Paulxyz2004]

I hope people noticed the one person who disappeared from this thread was the original poster? I know things go bad occasionally but this has BS written all over it. I highly doubt they would bring anything back that could remotely be referred to as a sex toy. That item would have been discarded very quickly. I am impressed though by how polite people are on this site!

 

Well I for one did not notice this. Unlike many other threads started By on post wonders, the OP came back 10 times with replies after his initial OP.

 

It´s now about 12 hours since the OP posted the last time, which I wouldn´t think about it being strange as it has been a Saturday night and the OP might have had better Things to do.:)

[tomko2]

I hope people noticed the one person who disappeared from this thread was the original poster? I know things go bad occasionally but this has BS written all over it. I highly doubt they would bring anything back that could remotely be referred to as a sex toy. That item would have been discarded very quickly. I am impressed though by how polite people are on this site!

 

 

OP has no other threads or posts other than this one --- I am inclined to agree with you and it is not even April 1st.:eek:

[Coralc]

OP has no other threads or posts other than this one --- I am inclined to agree with you and it is not even April 1st.:eek:

 

OP posted quite a bit before s/he left the thread to eat dinner, go to work, read, shop, etc. etc. . Surprisingly, not everyone lives on Cruise Critic. :eek::D

[Paulxyz2004]

OP has no other threads or posts other than this one --- I am inclined to agree with you and it is not even April 1st.:eek:

 

Most likely we will never know, but unlike many other complaints I think the OP has only mentioned stuff which actually happens all the time and everything OP posted has happened to others before and will happen to others in the future.

 

It´s not unusual that Posters come to find CC with complaints and it´s usually, like in this case as well they won´t find much sympathy (which I´m fine with btw). Headlines like "stay away" always draw Attention from the crowd, which the Posters want to draw. However it mostly does not go into the direction it was intended.;)

 

I do not believe Posts like this on any social media have a real Impact on a Business like a cruiseline.

[mjkacmom]

They could then be easily identify so do you really think they would be that foolish if they realized you had done so. I certainly wouldn't.

I would do so while waiting in line and after handing in my luggage if I saw this sort of action from any porter.

Actually I've only had a veiled thread once, where else but checking in for our very first RCI cruise many years ago when their ships sailed from the Hudson side of Manhattan, NYC. The porter basically said "How about a good tip so your bags will be very well taken care of" and I did give him a few $. He basically just threw our bags onto a cart and went on to intimidate his next victim. This was like 15 years ago. This was way before recording devices, especially video ones, were so readily available.

To be fair, most tip $2 per bag in NYC, so a few bucks were probably thought to be an insult, a challenge. Since they don't work for the cruise lines, I really don't think it's fair to blame the cruise lines for porter issues.

 

I think the offer of a fee dinner for the card mixup was more than fair.

[hollon]

Why should he try another RCI cruise? The OP had a substandard experience and has nothing to fall back on to know that this is unusual. Many people don't get a lot of vacation time and vacations are not cheap either. I would not risk my future time and money on a company that provided that experience. For better or worse, companies often get one shot to make a happy customer. If someone goes out and buys a Ford and the car turns out to be nothing but problems the chances are that their next car is not going to be a Ford.

 

I understand completely - I was referring to maybe sometime in the future, ONLY if he wanted to. I understand, I'd try another cruiseline before I would try rccl again, if I were the OP w/ all those problems., and yes, vacations are NOT cheap. We all try and save, didn't mean to sound rude, mean, etc, I just thought by all of the CC members saying this is NOT normal, then Maybe try rccl again at a later date :)

[DrD]

Not tipping is bad karma. Next time give the guy a few bucks.

[north29]

OP sorry for the cruise adventure not being what you expected. A lot of things could have gone wrong for RC, some things they or any cruise line cannot control.

For example, room cleaning delays, maybe a sick room steward or YES lack of proper number of room stewards. This reason, I always clean or wipe every part of my cabin, every cruise. Shore excursion can vary slightly, and not tell RC, no excuse if the price is the same as they charge RC.

The luggage handler, should have been reported period, if what you say is true, or maybe you are a little over sensitive and they do seem a little aggressive at times

[robtulipe]

To be fair, most tip $2 per bag in NYC, so a few bucks were probably thought to be an insult, a challenge. Since they don't work for the cruise lines, I really don't think it's fair to blame the cruise lines for porter issues.

Yes, we tip or pay the bribe to the longshoreman even though they are likely already making well over $30/hour. It's a small price to pay in order to avoid a hassle. That first time out of NYC cruise 15 years ago that longshoreman spent more time intimidating us then the less than 10 seconds it took for him to bend down and throw our 2 bags on the right behind him cart and he got $3 if I recall correctly, which was all the singles I had and remember that was 15 years ago.

Let say a longshoreman does this once every 3 minutes when it's really busy in the late morning which, IMO, is a long time between each handling so at $4 per couple with 2 bags they are getting an extra $80 an hour, likely most if not all of which is undeclared income tax wise. Even a buck a bag gets them more than their hourly wage.

Sailed out of Bayonne last month which was the fifth time out of NYC and are sailing out of there in just over a week time. I can't recall ever running into any behaviour like the OP described in our 51 cruises except for what I posted about that first NYC cruise.

Yes, I know that the so called porters are longshoremen who don't work for RCI but they are providing a service for that cruise line. I don't expect to be intimidated/threated or put up with any such behavior by them and will follow up vigorously and profusely onboard if I were subjected to such especially if my luggage was damaged after such an incident. :D

Edited February 28, 2016 by robtulipe

[F27TW]

One of the best ways to deal with a situation with such a porter, who is actually a very highly paid unionized longshoreman, is to take a photograph of him so he can be identified to the cruise line. In this case where he was constantly using bad language, intimidation and threats I would have done a video.

They are then very unlikely to carry on with their actions and carry out their threads if they realize you have done either of the above. ;)

 

or .. they will grab your camera, throw it in the water along with your luggage and beat you up. :D

[F27TW]

.... and to the OP ... I'm still waiting to see a pic of what you found in that drawer ... come on now .. share it with us !!

[FOXTROT]

Usually would not agree with most bad posts about RCCL ship's. BUT, in your case with the Navigator I have to agree with you. We did a back to back on her & we had problems we have never encountered. We also had several issues rarely encountered. Did we have fun? Yes. Will we cruise with RCCL again ? Yes, getting too close to Pinnacle to change.

 

Our problems were: Boarding both times. Customer Relations. 2nd week dining staff.

[hmorrow]

Tried to get into the cabin @ !:30 the first time but after 5pm before we got in.

 

The porters are the face of RC wheter they work directly for them or not.

 

We reported the toy and were made to feel like it was our fault some how and the room still did not get cleaned as requested.

C

If it was just the taste of the food we would have been happy with the cruise over all.

 

The customer service was TERRIBLE !!!

 

No

Anyone who travels knows that cruise porters work for the port of the city the port is in. Just like at an airport- porters work for the airport - not a specific airline

 

Not the face of the ship or plane. Just porters-

 

Sorry you didn't like your cruise

Helaine

[robtulipe]

or .. they will grab your camera, throw it in the water along with your luggage and beat you up. :D

 

Lets just say they could try... and I leave it at that. :D ;)

Edited February 29, 2016 by robtulipe

[JamesEM]

I look at one time poster complaints with a grain of salt, if not a 5 pound bag.

[Powersboyee2]

Usually would not agree with most bad posts about RCCL ship's. BUT, in your case with the Navigator I have to agree with you. We did a back to back on her & we had problems we have never encountered. We also had several issues rarely encountered. Did we have fun? Yes. Will we cruise with RCCL again ? Yes, getting too close to Pinnacle to change.

 

Our problems were: Boarding both times. Customer Relations. 2nd week dining staff.

 

Sorry for being way off topic but... how did they handle the B2B turnaround on this ship? We are doing a B2B 5 and 9 night next april. Any info you could provide would be greatly appreciated :D Was there a lunch in the MDR or anything as such? etc etc