**Canceled Cruise because RCCL web site SUCKS!!!!!!!***

[antmaril]

I am not technically savvy AT ALL. I use an IPad Air2 and can never access a secured page of RCCL. I never have this trouble with any other website. If I want to research an RCCL cruise, I use one of the travel websites. I have no idea why I can't use the RCCL website in its entirety.

[nelblu]

Well my brother and his Wife and the couple they was bringing has had enough. I can't say I don't blame them. I tried to log in my self today and it sa the same thing every time. It has been like this for 4 weeks now. I have also called and called.

 

He pretty much summed it up like. If there service sucks this bad before I get on the ship I don't even want to get on.

 

This was going to be his first one also.

 

WAY TO GO RCC. WAY TO GO!

 

 

Your header indicates that you have cancelled you upcoming cruise sailing in 24 days. Between the airfare (assuming) and cruise fare, I'm not sure whom you are spiting except your financial pocket book. I hope you are not serious or maybe you are independently well to do.:D

[Shak]

I have learned to use Internet Explorer for all my searches in Royal Caribbean and use Chrome for everything else. After I am done with my searches in IE I delete my cookies and everything goes back to normal the next time I visit Royal Caribbean. It does suck that I have to go through all these hoops to search RCI web site.

 

Shak

[Derek78216]

 

The fact that RCCL doesn't support the most used internet browser is the problem. It would be similar to them only having a mobile app for a Windows phone and not for Android or iOS. I guess they're doing enough business where they're ok losing some because of this.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[njm5378]

Use the vacation planners, that is what they are paid for. Mine is Marie and she is fantastic. I usually communicate via email with her and rarely use the website anymore. She handles my booking, changes, cruise planner purchases, price drops and anything else I need. She can tell me of availability faster and with better accuracy than I have ever experienced with the website. With all the issues that people are experiencing why bask in the self-torture that is the website?

[ewenix]

I must be jerk to work for because if my CIO tried to use the excuse of "other travel related sites have issues" they would quickly become my FORMER CIO. My philosophy is, I don't give a rats rear how bad other sites might be...I want ours to be very user friendly, and one of the most reliable and best functioning sites on the internet.

 

I tend to agree with you, since 'best' is not quantifiable and 'user friendly' is arbitrary depending on the user. Reliable can be done but in IT getting from five 9's of uptime to six 9's of uptime is often an order of magnitude difference in cost. You would have a hard time convincing me that even 3 or 4 times the cost to get that reliability in most business because the return on that investment is going to be very low.

 

There are people posting things like 'the site has been down for 4 weeks' and 'I should be able to use any browser and it should work flawlessly every time.'

 

I won't dispute that the poster has had a problem for the last 4 weeks but the site hasn't been down for 4 weeks.

 

Technology is a constantly moving target. If you really think you should be able to use *any* browser, then you'd have to agree that your credit card data is not safe since there cannot be any guarantee of current encryption standards.

 

The RCCL site has problems and I would agree it could and should be a lot better. But an awful lot of the claims being made are simply ridiculous.

[TC1957]

I tend to agree with you, since 'best' is not quantifiable and 'user friendly' is arbitrary depending on the user. Reliable can be done but in IT getting from five 9's of uptime to six 9's of uptime is often an order of magnitude difference in cost. You would have a hard time convincing me that even 3 or 4 times the cost to get that reliability in most business because the return on that investment is going to be very low.

 

There are people posting things like 'the site has been down for 4 weeks' and 'I should be able to use any browser and it should work flawlessly every time.'

 

I won't dispute that the poster has had a problem for the last 4 weeks but the site hasn't been down for 4 weeks.

 

Technology is a constantly moving target. If you really think you should be able to use *any* browser, then you'd have to agree that your credit card data is not safe since there cannot be any guarantee of current encryption standards.

 

The RCCL site has problems and I would agree it could and should be a lot better. But an awful lot of the claims being made are simply ridiculous.

 

 

I agree that technology is a moving target. But answer a couple of questions for me.

 

How often have people tried to get to Facebook and been told it appears the site is on vacation? Cute...but if you are a business that relies heavily on a web site cute doesn't cut it. I think there is only one time in their history the Facebook site has gone down and it gets a somewhat decent volume of traffic occasionally.

 

How often do you hear people complain that they cannot conduct business with Amazon? It may be my circle, but I have never heard anyone say, or post on any site, that they wanted to spend money with Amazon and couldn't because of the site?

 

Honestly, I have never heard of anyone who has had a problem getting tracking information updates from FedEx and I bet they have a decent volume world wide.

 

Those examples tell me its possible...just need the desire in top management.

[ewenix]

I agree that technology is a moving target. But answer a couple of questions for me.

 

How often have people tried to get to Facebook and been told it appears the site is on vacation? Cute...but if you are a business that relies heavily on a web site cute doesn't cut it. I think there is only one time in their history the Facebook site has gone down and it gets a somewhat decent volume of traffic occasionally.

 

How often do you hear people complain that they cannot conduct business with Amazon? It may be my circle, but I have never heard anyone say, or post on any site, that they wanted to spend money with Amazon and couldn't because of the site?

 

Honestly, I have never heard of anyone who has had a problem getting tracking information updates from FedEx and I bet they have a decent volume world wide.

 

Those examples tell me its possible...just need the desire in top management.

 

Funny, you're proving my point.

Royal Caribbean sells cruises through TAs, phone sales, Next Cruise desks on board, and on *multiple* websites (US & UK.) So the website is just a piece of the action and is a sales tool.

 

You mention Facebook. They do one thing and they put their money into it. Here in Iowa they just broke ground on the 4th data center in Altoona. When it's completed it's expected to cost $1.5 billion. Compare that to the ~$1.3 billion cost for an Oasis class ship. Again, Facebook is investing in their business just like Royal, but you're comparing it to one of Royals sales vectors. I'm 100% sure RCCL could make that investment into a website and it would be the greatest damn website you've had the pleasure of using. But what is the return on the investment? They spend the money on new ships and the ships keep sailing full. If they spent the money on a better website will the ships be sailing *more* than full?

 

Amazon, similar to Facebook puts enormous amounts of money into infrastructure. To the point that they sell it to other businesses. Even then they still have outages. They had an AWS outage a few months ago that took down hundreds of businesses for several hours.

 

My point is that the website is functional but not the best, and it won't be the best because the cost to make it so won't change the bottom line enough to offset the cost of the change. Sure it would make some passengers more happy when booking, but if 100 people had trouble with it out of one 6000 passenger sailing didn't you still get revenue from those 6000 passengers?

[dolfansam]

Well my brother and his Wife and the couple they was bringing has had enough. I can't say I don't blame them. I tried to log in my self today and it sa the same thing every time. It has been like this for 4 weeks now. I have also called and called.

 

He pretty much summed it up like. If there service sucks this bad before I get on the ship I don't even want to get on.

 

This was going to be his first one also.

 

WAY TO GO RCC. WAY TO GO!

 

Clear your web browser cookies. This maybe the problem. I have been on the site multiple times in the last few weeks without any issues.

[sprint213]

I've just about completed the worst experience with RCL that I have had in over 10 years. (I say just about because I've just discovered another problem that will take another phone call.)

 

I needed to cancel a cruise that we had made while on board a Baltic Cruise earlier this year. We knew that we would change the cruise but the onboard staff really talked me into booking through them and we did. (You can change anything, anytime and I bought that line!) After 1 1/2 hours on the phone last night (because all we wanted to do was switch the booking) I gave up and said just cancel the cruise and I'll take care of it.

 

Today I just booked a cruise for September and paid in full and the site displayed everything wonderfully. When I went to check the information through the My Cruises portal it showed I had a balance of nearly $650.00! I was WOW'd alright! I quickly called the help center (and received a person that you could hardly understand) and he checked out the reservation. It had totally dropped the credits that were previously applied. After about 30 minutes he was able to get the reservation back correct - BUT - he told me to continue to watch to make sure that they did not disappear again and the balance reoccur. I have never had anything like this happen before. It seems that even some RCL employees don't have faith in their site.

 

As to accessing their site I have problems sometimes with IE but can always access the site through Chrome. I liked the old reservation system better (as far as room selection) but the new site does look better.

 

I will say that the person I spoke with last night, Michelle and the person I spoke with tonight, Sergio were both very professional and helpful as they could be. (The supervisor that was helping last night was terrible.)

 

After all is said and done we are still Loyal to Royal and wish that they could understand that.

[CTCruiser76]

Ok - I'm a knucklehead .... I was experiencing the same issues as the original poster and I "thought" I was using IE for all my browsing, but alas I am not. I am using windows 10, but the default browser is Windows Edge..... oops - I forgot about that......for anyone using Edge, just click on the 3 dots in the upper right hand corner of the browser and then click on "Open with Internet Explorer" and walla .....the RCCL website works as expected !! Now - I am not saying its top notch - but everything works as expected !! Hope that helps !!

Edited July 15, 2017 by CTCruiser76

[John&LaLa]

 

The fact that RCCL doesn't support the most used internet browser is the problem. It would be similar to them only having a mobile app for a Windows phone and not for Android or iOS. I guess they're doing enough business where they're ok losing some because of this.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Chrome incognito works fine for me.

 

 

 

Sent from my HTC One_M8 using Forums mobile app

[Biker19]

After about 30 minutes he was able to get the reservation back correct - BUT - he told me to continue to watch to make sure that they did not disappear again and the balance reoccur. I have never had anything like this happen before. It seems that even some RCL employees don't have faith in their site.

If you spend any time here you'd know that that happens quite often - hence the guidance from the CSR. It seems to happens less often if you leave the booking alone or if you book with a TA.

[xpcdoojk]

Funny, you're proving my point.

Royal Caribbean sells cruises through TAs, phone sales, Next Cruise desks on board, and on *multiple* websites (US & UK.) So the website is just a piece of the action and is a sales tool.

 

You mention Facebook. They do one thing and they put their money into it. Here in Iowa they just broke ground on the 4th data center in Altoona. When it's completed it's expected to cost $1.5 billion. Compare that to the ~$1.3 billion cost for an Oasis class ship. Again, Facebook is investing in their business just like Royal, but you're comparing it to one of Royals sales vectors. I'm 100% sure RCCL could make that investment into a website and it would be the greatest damn website you've had the pleasure of using. But what is the return on the investment? They spend the money on new ships and the ships keep sailing full. If they spent the money on a better website will the ships be sailing *more* than full?

 

Amazon, similar to Facebook puts enormous amounts of money into infrastructure. To the point that they sell it to other businesses. Even then they still have outages. They had an AWS outage a few months ago that took down hundreds of businesses for several hours.

 

My point is that the website is functional but not the best, and it won't be the best because the cost to make it so won't change the bottom line enough to offset the cost of the change. Sure it would make some passengers more happy when booking, but if 100 people had trouble with it out of one 6000 passenger sailing didn't you still get revenue from those 6000 passengers?

 

Congratulations!!!! Said without any snarkiness or humor. This is the best post ever on one of these rant threads.

 

They are a hotel at sea company. Their primary investment is in ships and personnel to man those ships. They are not an "internet company". Which all those do is sell us ways to waste money and time. What is important to RCI is that their ships sail on time, safely and profitably. Facebook the most destructive company in the history of the planet. Let's you post stuff you shouldn't and lets you peer into peoples lives and bedrooms in ways that are only healthy compared to Caliqula.

 

Basically FB is *********** that you can feel good about. So, they better have an outstanding web product because there are thousands of other real *********** webs you could be watching instead of your healthy attraction to your friends lives....

 

I agree RCI's web page is not perfect, but it is not as bad as you people say. Sure compared to Amazon it sucks, but it is actually better than most of their competitors.

 

JC:halo:

[LMaxwell]

Their website is a dumpster fire but phone works fine. Sounds like you need to relax with a cruise vacation

[FOXTROT]

Everything was working perfect, then about 5 weeks ago it went south. Get all kinds of error messages. Have tried other browsers. Computer is about 5 years old. I believe it is my problem.

[pafam4]

We have had so many problems with the website. We would see a great price on a balcony cabin, try to book online, it would take our credit card info, then wouldn't complete the transaction. When we called RC, we were told that price wasn't available, but a higher priced cabin was. They told us it must be our computer.....

 

The next day, saw the same low price, my husband tried to book again, same error. Tried different browser, same result. Tried a work computer, same problem.

 

Called Royal again, explained the above. They asked for screenshots of the low price and that the site had allowed us to almost complete the booking, which we sent. Three layers of management later, they won't honor their website prices.

 

Since we are traveling with family who already booked, we booked a cabin anyway. We are extremely dissatisfied with this experience so far. Although this is our first cruise with RC, It isn't our first rodeo, having cruised multiple times on three other lines. We can only hope the cruise itself is much better than the purchasing experience.

[pafam4]

Congratulations!!!! Said without any snarkiness or humor. This is the best post ever on one of these rant threads.

 

They are a hotel at sea company. Their primary investment is in ships and personnel to man those ships. They are not an "internet company". Which all those do is sell us ways to waste money and time. What is important to RCI is that their ships sail on time, safely and profitably. Facebook the most destructive company in the history of the planet. Let's you post stuff you shouldn't and lets you peer into peoples lives and bedrooms in ways that are only healthy compared to Caliqula.

 

Basically FB is *********** that you can feel good about. So, they better have an outstanding web product because there are thousands of other real *********** webs you could be watching instead of your healthy attraction to your friends lives....

 

I agree RCI's web page is not perfect, but it is not as bad as you people say. Sure compared to Amazon it sucks, but it is actually better than most of their competitors.

 

JC:halo:

 

From my experience, it is far, far worse than their competitors' sites. We have booked about 10 cruises via 3 different cruise lines' websites without any issue at all. To be honest, I was shocked with how badly the website performed and how poor their customer service has been. They basically accused us of lying about the price we were seeing online, despite the screenshots they requested. I was so looking forward to our first Royal Caribbean cruise, and I hope the onboard experience is much better than our purchasing experience.

[always_cruisin]

From my experience, it is far, far worse than their competitors' sites. We have booked about 10 cruises via 3 different cruise lines' websites without any issue at all. To be honest, I was shocked with how badly the website performed and how poor their customer service has been. They basically accused us of lying about the price we were seeing online, despite the screenshots they requested. I was so looking forward to our first Royal Caribbean cruise, and I hope the onboard experience is much better than our purchasing experience.

 

 

 

I agree. It's worse than their competitors. The TA site is even worse. I spent three hours today trying to confirm two bookings and I was not able to. I never have this problem on Princess, NCL, Disney, etc.

 

I filed a complaint with the TA Facebook group and my business development manager. This is ridiculous.

 

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

[chrisby]

While I have had occasional issues with their website that was on their end, typically clearing my cache also fixed problems. I use Chrome, which is great but sometimes I have issues like that with it.

 

Sent from my K88 using Forums mobile app

[CRUISEFAN0001]

Since I'm in the tech business for many years...I'll try to give a "non-techy" answer to the original main point...

 

Since there are a number of web browsers out there...a user's experience on any web site might vary based upon which browser they happen to use.

 

The reason for this is that web site components (which present text, graphics, animations, video, etc.) often - but NOT always - support multiple browsers.

 

In addition, the web site administrators who maintain the sites also tend to have a varied level of browser skill support.

 

Our experience:

 

Royal Caribbean's website is presented inconsistently on different browsers, both in terms of stability as well as performance and speed. Furthermore, there are times that their website "misbehaves", especially on search-related functions such as looking through available cruises for certain time periods.

 

While it is a challenge to sustain any website well via multiple browsers. That said, the team supporting the Royal Caribbean does only an "average" job of presenting a stable and reliable site when compared with other travel-related sites. There's a clear opportunity for improvement, as many posts on this site will attest to regularly.

[Seacruise]

Agreed!!! The issue is the browser not the website... I found this out while using chrome.. after the first few times I couldn't access the search engine .. switched to explorer and no problem at all.. chrome works fine to look at my reservations but not to search a cruise...

 

So please tell me how a Browser will fix a problem with RCI website when the set-sail pass has the cruise finishing 3 days before it really does?

How about crossing the Date line and the cruise shows 23 days when it is a 24 day cruise. Also with this came the fact that in North America the cruise was to finish on the 16th and on the Ozzie site it showed the 17th. Those in OZ phoned RCI and were told it does finish in Seattle on the 17th .....Australia time.... Some people got caught on this because their return flights were booked for the 17th not the 16th when the ship arrived.

What about showing dinner shore excursions (about 8 of them) and selling them for the night the ship leaves for the cruise at 5:00PM?

What about linking cabins and TA's not able to access your reservation? This is still a problem? Oh yes I have found that if cabins are linked one can see all the information of any cabins that are linked. I do believe this problem has been fixed, finally.

How about No Visa information for the port agent in India and calling them only made the matter worse.

Have you ever been in your reservation and had RCI call you asking you to log out because they need to access your reservation? I have, and it is still a problem today. I consider this one rather funny.

How about the website showing one price and calling your TA shows that price doesn't exist, yet you have a screen shot showing it does?

 

Would you like me to go on?

I have spent hours with the Vice Presidents Office of IT as they are upgrading the system fleet wide "next" year at a huge cost telling them of the problems. All problems I have stated have been verified by them and I was getting daily calls asking me to check to see if the problem was solved. Some problems could not be solved because the system is so old.

Oh yes I was never told what year the upgrade would be completed.

 

Do these sound like browser problems to you?

[gliles]

HAHAHA well that's a little harsh, we love Royal but their website does suck. Right now I can't get to the search from Chrome, just get a blank page. And often times it's completely down. Then there's the fact that if by chance my husband is looking at the reservation, I can't at the same time. That's ridiculous. But the cruises are great so I tolerate it!

[graphicguy]

OP....not sure this makes a difference now since you already cancelled your cruise. But, I've always had good luck actually talking to someone at RCCL. Call their (866) 562-7625 number next time for reference. They'll be happy to help.

[hurdlesfun]

Well my brother and his Wife and the couple they was bringing has had enough. I can't say I don't blame them. I tried to log in my self today and it sa the same thing every time. It has been like this for 4 weeks now. I have also called and called.

 

He pretty much summed it up like. If there service sucks this bad before I get on the ship I don't even want to get on.

 

This was going to be his first one also.

 

WAY TO GO RCC. WAY TO GO!

I know what the problem is, I had the same issue, if you are using internet exployer it will do that, try using google crome and it works fine.