Prroblem with RCL website

[BernardShawn]

Has anyone else been experiencing problems accessing the RCL website today? I have tried several times, and it seems to be the only website that I cannot get into today

[PSCruiser]

Yes, give it a few hours

[PSCruiser]

Just read elsewhere - might have something to do with the hurricane damage in FL.

[hardingk]

Me too, most likely bc of the hurricane

[luv2camp]

I know for a fact that MIA airport is without power. So I suspect that the RCCL Miami office is in the same situation.

[shipknotshore]

Same here - nothing but a link to a RCI webpage "Tropical Weather Update" - which gave the status of the sailings of their ships on the east coast.

Guess we'll have to give them some time - it must be a mess there.

[jeeppartsman]

98% of sfla is without power

[logan1_2000]

I was speaking w/ my TA yesterday and she told me that RCI was closed, so no maintenance or support on website. DCL, on the other hand, was open and answering phones a few hours to the north so they were up and running, but the lines in S. Florida were off-line.

[cmason]

crazy to have such a key business operation that vulnerable...sounds like they need to work on their website availability plan....

[sonnykub]

I'd wager it has something to do with the Royal Caribbean origin website being down. One way to look is that when you go to http://www.rccl.com, it normally should redirect you to http://www.royalcaribbean.com, but it doesn't, and appears to be down hard. It appears the origin server is in South FL (Miami).

 

I'd go further out on a limb and assume that since a company called Akamai caches/serves out http://www.royalcaribbean.com through content caching and hosting strategies, it's why you get the "we're sorry" page, and the link to the standby.royalcaribbean.com - at a minimum to ensure something is up in the case of a disaster. In working on websites using Akamai before, when the Akamai servers can't contact the origin (RCCL) servers, you can't serve a thing if it's not cached, and much of RCCL's content is dynamic (e.g., tailored to the individual).

 

All that aside, since there's a big push to things like the Sail and Sign card, reserving online, and eDocs, I'd say that this is a HUGE business case for RCCL to look at a full Disaster Recovery site to ensure their website doesn't have a single point of failure at the origin end.

 

Plenty of other companies use Akamai - like Yahoo and CNN - they don't have a problem staying up.

 

All that aside, my best wishes to all of the IT folks, their families, and the rest of the RCCL employees and residents of South Florida who were impacted by Wilma.

 

-Steve

[nfused2cruze]

I called RCI yesterday with a question and they were closed due to the hurricane. I did email them the question on their website but still have yet to hear fom them.

[ewheelock]

It usually takes 2 or 3 days or more to get an email reply.

[darrencantwait]

their website was fine last night. you don't think they are adding new Freedom of the Seas info to the hompage, and adding full deck plans, do you?

[DannyS]

The Port of Miami is currently without power. Seeing as the offices are on the same island, odds are they lost power too.

[Airb330]

Celebrity is down as well. I hope my reservation on hold is OK...I need to pay for it soon....

 

Kinda rediculous not to have backup servers somewhere. Silly decision on RC's part IMO. Hopefully things will be back to normal in FL soon.

[DannyS]

Clearly, there are backup servers somewhere - you're able to get the important information. You can't browse anything, or make reservations through their site, but the backup is providing the critical information to guests who are travelling in the next few days.

 

You can also do online booking and check prices through other travel sites - so there are clearly backups for reservations as well - just not through their website.

[fredw]

The website is back up now. I just left it to come here.

[SherriZ366]

RCCL has a reservation center in Kansas. They opened it after Hurricane Andrew closed Miami for several days. Don't know if this center handles any IT.