Royal Cancelled My Fully Paid Cruise Reservation

[BillOh]

The anticipation of an upcoming cruise is all part of the fun of going on one and the overall experience. This stress that RCI is imposing on people is inexcusable and detracts from that anticipation window. I still say that they should just outsource their IT department to Amazon. They sell almost anything that has ever been invented and can get it to just about any address that exists. RCI can't cancel a drink package without screwing it up.

 

Thankfully, the product they provide and their ships are a different story.

 

 

You and I feel the same on this one. I think the OP said he got an email, I need to change email addresses. My current email is about 17 years old and full of spam, I could easily miss such an email. Can you imagine showing up at the port and finding you didn't have a cruise :mad:

[Scottee25]

Ken, who's thinking that if someone got the boot over every major screwup there wouldn't be anyone left in the IT department.

 

 

My thoughts exactly. Not to mention how difficult it is to find replacements for software developers, most places don't like to let us go. It's quite expensive both in time and money to find qaulified candidates.

 

Biker, who wonders if any IT guy got the boot over this.

 

Doubtful. While I can imagine how anxious this ordeal must be to the OP, on the surface, it's not a huge issue. Even if it has happened to a handful of people, the overall cost of this issue would still be considered pretty low. As an IT professional, I can assure you that I have made much larger mistakes and kept my job. I remember an incident early in my career when I was given a new application due to a developer leaving the company. I was given 3 days of turnover before he left. First weekend I received a call at 5AM on a Saturday morning that a client hadn't received their file so I instructed the datacenter to release the file. I didn't know better at the time but something else was supposed to update that file before it could be sent out and that process was delayed. This issue could have cost the bank millions of dollars and there were several big wigs that wanted my head delivered on a platter. Thankfully there was a manager (not my manager) whom I had a good working relationship. She went to bat for me and told them that the application had been dropped on my lap earlier in the week and I had only 3 days of information exchange with the previous developer. That I thought I was doing what was best for our customer and that it was an honest mistake on my part. She also told them that the problem could be fixed so it wasn't worth getting all worked up over. Thing is, she was the one who had to fix the problem and she still stood up for me.

 

So is it frustrating to have all these issues with RCCL's IT? It sure is. Does that mean someone needs to be fired? Not necessarily. It actually could be that they are vastly understaffed (developers are expensive and bean counters usually hate funding IT departments).

[Canuckle-head]

OP, any word on this getting fixed for you? I hope that it all works out!

 

 

I heard from our travel agent this morning. She has told me that Royal has assured her that our cruise reservation has been reinstated and that they are working to get all our other reservations (dinners, shows, etc) back and that Royal will call her back this afternoon to update her. Our travel agent had told us not to worry that we will be on this cruise.

 

Royal told her they have had a "glitch" in their system that they are looking into. That's a helluva glitch, cancelling a drink package and ending up cancelling your cruise!

 

I've received no email from Royal yet but I will log in and see if I have a reservation.

 

So, at least from what my Travel agent is saying, this is in the process of being fixed. I hope that's the case.

 

 

 

 

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[ImpulsivePuppy]

Glad to hear it Canuckle-head. Remember, trust but verify!! ;)

[Canuckle-head]

Glad to hear it Canuckle-head. Remember, trust but verify!! ;)

 

 

Following that advice, I just logged and, phew, we now have our cruise reservation back!!!! So relieved! Though we still have no beverage packages, show reservations, dining reservations, etc. Hopefully that will be fixed soon. I have a feeling I'm going to need that drink package the way things have been going!

 

 

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[crewsweeper]

Wow! What an ordeal! So glad you got the main cruise reservation back! Hopefully you'll get the other things too. And as bad/mad as you are now, you'll be able to relax and enjoy the cruise when it arrives. Like others here, I sure hope they'll give you some OBC.

[Dixie1337]

(developers are expensive and bean counters usually hate funding IT departments).

 

 

This is true! Internal IT departments aren't money makers, they are money spenders so they tend to not get on well with the 'bean counters'. But it's up to management to explain their worth. IT departments don't make money, but they sure can lose it.

 

I told my husband about this problem (we purchased sip & stream and I'm keeping a close eye on our reservation) and if we enjoy this first cruise he doesn't want to use RCI again with all the issues we've either experienced or heard about in the past couple of months.

[JessyCruises]

Following that advice, I just logged and, phew, we now have our cruise reservation back!!!! So relieved! Though we still have no beverage packages, show reservations, dining reservations, etc. Hopefully that will be fixed soon. I have a feeling I'm going to need that drink package the way things have been going!

 

 

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I am so glad to hear the cruise is back in your My Cruises. I have been checking My Cruises several times a day since people started reporting this issue. We leave on Sunday and the cruise is sold-out so I think it would be a harder fix if our reservation bombed out. Hopefully they get the rest of your reservations fixed sooner rather than later and offer you some kind of OBS or comp because of the stress!

[Buffalo Joe Cruiser]

Following that advice, I just logged and, phew, we now have our cruise reservation back!!!! So relieved! Though we still have no beverage packages, show reservations, dining reservations, etc. Hopefully that will be fixed soon. I have a feeling I'm going to need that drink package the way things have been going!

 

 

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That's great! Hopefully they add a little something extra for your troubles!

[royal girl]

This happened to us on our Oasis cruise. I couldn't get into my cruise reservation and I called my TA and he found out that RC cancelled our cruise right after final payment due date because they said I still owed $37 so I was past due!! :eek: Then I checked my cc statement and there was the whole amount for the cruise credited back to my card!! Thing is that I called our TA to make final payment and I paid on my cc what I was told I owed.

 

He was able to get the cabin reservation back but we lost all our dining reservations I had made and they wouldn't help get them back. So we lost out on times that we had wanted. I had to rebook them all and some were no longer available. That made me mad. And they said they would have chocolate covered strawberries and a bottle of wine in the cabin for us to make up for it and we never got anything.

 

I'm just glad I checked it out early enough to get our reservation back!

[JessyCruises]

I am so glad to hear the cruise is back in your My Cruises. I have been checking My Cruises several times a day since people started reporting this issue. We leave on Sunday and the cruise is sold-out so I think it would be a harder fix if our reservation bombed out. Hopefully they get the rest of your reservations fixed sooner rather than later and offer you some kind of OBS or comp because of the stress!

 

 

RCL just gave myself a mini-Panic attack.

 

I checked my email and had one from RCL. Uh Oh.

Subject line: "Important Travel Info For Your Upcoming Cruise". OH OH.

 

It was only just about Zika. My nerves...

[lbjen]

I'm glad it got sorted! I know it shouldn't be this way, but it's taught me to not mess around with anything on my booking!

[Pratique]

I'm almost afraid to even log in to the website to check on anything.

[skrapngal]

RCL just gave myself a mini-Panic attack.

 

I checked my email and had one from RCL. Uh Oh.

Subject line: "Important Travel Info For Your Upcoming Cruise". OH OH.

 

It was only just about Zika. My nerves...

 

I had a split second panic as well LOL

[Big_G]

Following that advice, I just logged and, phew, we now have our cruise reservation back!!!! So relieved! Though we still have no beverage packages, show reservations, dining reservations, etc. Hopefully that will be fixed soon. I have a feeling I'm going to need that drink package the way things have been going!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

 

Wow! Glad to see they got it fixed. Have a great cruise.

[Big_G]

You and I feel the same on this one. I think the OP said he got an email, I need to change email addresses. My current email is about 17 years old and full of spam, I could easily miss such an email. Can you imagine showing up at the port and finding you didn't have a cruise :mad:

 

Not to get too far off track but I had the same problem with my work email so I created a Gmail account and added my work email address. Haven't had a problem with spam since. Their spam filters are the best.

[Ocean Boy]

RCL just gave myself a mini-Panic attack.

 

I checked my email and had one from RCL. Uh Oh.

Subject line: "Important Travel Info For Your Upcoming Cruise". OH OH.

 

It was only just about Zika. My nerves...

 

 

I just found the same e-mail about five minutes ago for our cruise this coming Saturday.

[Ocean Boy]

Not to get too far off track but I had the same problem with my work email so I created a Gmail account and added my work email address. Haven't had a problem with spam since. Their spam filters are the best.

 

 

Gmail does have good filters. My in-box rarely has spam in it and I scan my spam folder every day and rarely find something in there that should have made it through to my in-box.

[A Pisces]

Glad to hear that your reservation is back! Same room as before, I hope, since you have kids in the next room? Good luck getting the rest of it fixed!

[JessyCruises]

I would like to think that anyone this was going to happen to, it would have already happened but I am still going to check multiple times a day until my butt is on the ship on Sunday. I do feel terrible for those that are not active on cruise critic and may have missed the emails from RCL with the cancellations

.

[Cuizer2]

I know your in BC, but its afternoon here, what happened? ;)

 

 

I'm where? Baja California? No. British Columbia? No. Before Christ? I'm not that old.

[LisaAtlCruiser]

Doubtful. While I can imagine how anxious this ordeal must be to the OP, on the surface, it's not a huge issue. Even if it has happened to a handful of people, the overall cost of this issue would still be considered pretty low. As an IT professional, I can assure you that I have made much larger mistakes and kept my job. I remember an incident early in my career when I was given a new application due to a developer leaving the company. I was given 3 days of turnover before he left. First weekend I received a call at 5AM on a Saturday morning that a client hadn't received their file so I instructed the datacenter to release the file. I didn't know better at the time but something else was supposed to update that file before it could be sent out and that process was delayed. This issue could have cost the bank millions of dollars and there were several big wigs that wanted my head delivered on a platter. Thankfully there was a manager (not my manager) whom I had a good working relationship. She went to bat for me and told them that the application had been dropped on my lap earlier in the week and I had only 3 days of information exchange with the previous developer. That I thought I was doing what was best for our customer and that it was an honest mistake on my part. She also told them that the problem could be fixed so it wasn't worth getting all worked up over. Thing is, she was the one who had to fix the problem and she still stood up for me.

 

So is it frustrating to have all these issues with RCCL's IT? It sure is. Does that mean someone needs to be fired? Not necessarily. It actually could be that they are vastly understaffed (developers are expensive and bean counters usually hate funding IT departments).

 

 

I too am a Software Developer and mistakes happen. We are all human after all! While I sure feel for the OP and would have been in a panic myself, I don't think this warrants someone losing their job.

 

I do get frustrated with RCCL's website and hope they decide to invest in it. However, IT is very expensive and their business is cruising! As long as they continue to do a good job on the cruise front - I will give them grace on the website.

[TC1957]

I too am a Software Developer and mistakes happen. We are all human after all! While I sure feel for the OP and would have been in a panic myself, I don't think this warrants someone losing their job.

 

I do get frustrated with RCCL's website and hope they decide to invest in it. However, IT is very expensive and their business is cruising! As long as they continue to do a good job on the cruise front - I will give them grace on the website.

 

 

We have seen threads about IT issues with them for years. Everyone understands mistakes can happen but eventually something must change.

 

How long will the guy that has the big office sit on his thumb and say "Oh well, mistakes happen"? Several hear have said they will not be booking another cruise after the ones they already have booked...and this should be an overly understand group.

 

A young lady that works for me mentioned today her husband suggested a cruise over the weekend for their late summer vacation. I mention Royal and she immediately said "Oh no, I have seen too many reviews about how bad things are trying to book online and plan. My husband likes to do those things himself and he said he would not consider them." This will be their FIRST CRUISE and they know about all the IT problems.

 

As a manager, I do my best to be loyal to the people who work for me. But if mistakes keep happening eventually something has to change. After all, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. If the CIO cannot fix the problems and get his team performing, at a minimum, at least close to an acceptable level then maybe his replacement can.

[hpy2b246]

I heard from our travel agent this morning. She has told me that Royal has assured her that our cruise reservation has been reinstated and that they are working to get all our other reservations (dinners, shows, etc) back and that Royal will call her back this afternoon to update her. Our travel agent had told us not to worry that we will be on this cruise.

 

Royal told her they have had a "glitch" in their system that they are looking into. That's a helluva glitch, cancelling a drink package and ending up cancelling your cruise!

 

I've received no email from Royal yet but I will log in and see if I have a reservation.

 

So, at least from what my Travel agent is saying, this is in the process of being fixed. I hope that's the case.

 

 

 

 

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Have you heard back on your extras? I was told they can not reinstate mine (3 zipline, 2 Internet, 2kids drink packages & the 2 sip & stream) back on to my reservation and that I will have to re-purchase at now prices. I'm upset because everything that I bought was on sale. They will offer me a OB credit but only if I rebuy at current non-sale prices.... so they screwed up, cancelled my reservation and everything with it. Now I have to spend more $$. So who wins? They do.

[grapau27]

That is disgusting service it was their mistake and they should have put it right. You do right to highlight on cc what shabby service they are trying to get away with to shame them.

 

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