Next Cruise Onboard Team - useless

[kevinyork]

We were onboard Indy a few weeks back. I had anticipated a change of promos for the UK Royal offers and on the day the new promo was offered I priced it online and went to the Next Cruise office. I told them the ship and sailing date, the cabin grade, the dining preference and offered our loyalty numbers to get a balcony discount. The easiest booking ever. Whilst it took some time the lady did it. We wanted Mytime dining but she said we would have to prepay tips (something I didn’t want as we had onboard credit to use) but I went with it.

 

So all booked I called Royal to get our Military discount applied. After what seemed like hours they said the second leg of our B2B wasn’t confirmed and was just on hold. I went back to the Next Cruise office and they took a look. The girl was a trainee and the manager next to her wasn’t helpful and they bickered in front of me. Eventually she said they would email Miami to sort it.

 

Anyway on our return home, this forum gave me the info that tips don’t have to be paid upfront for Mytime dining (at least since 2015). So I called Royal and asked for the tips to be removed from both legs of the B2B. That took 30 mins (on a chargeable number) but they said they had done it. Later the invoices were emailed and one of them had lost the OBC for booking onboard so I called again. Another 35 min call and he said his manager would apply it and the invoice would be through shortly. No invoice for 48 hours.

 

So I contacted them via Facebook and after two promised resolutions I got the correct invoices through.

 

So that left me thinking. Why would a next Cruise person onboard say that tips were mandatory for Mytime dining when that changed 2 years ago? I’m sure now it’s a revenue exercise to increase their overall onboard sales revenue figures. Plus her inaccurate info led to over an hour of phone calls to resolve the removal of the tips and the reinstatement of the correct onboard credit after the tips were removed.

 

I would have expected that their onboard Next Cruise team would have been the best in dealing with Royal bookings (given its all they deal with) and would be fully informed about Royal’s procedures and deals but in fact I came away feeling as though they felt they had done me a favour and that I knew more than they did.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[LeesSummitCruiser1]

Sadly, for the last few years booking on board has become an ordeal. We usually know more than the agents. They are one of the few employees not trying to up sell any extras with cruises. I don't really understand why the on board booking staff have become so poorly trained. I get the impression that Royal does not care about on board bookings any more.

 

They used to sell Celebrity and Azamara. You don't even hear about them anymore. The agents used to know about all the ships and ports and could really sell a cruise. No longer is that true.

[lv2bcruzin]

Never had an issue with booking onboard and the staff has always been helpful. Granted in general we already know the cruise and cabin we want to book, but even when we haven't they have always been great. Pretty much like most cruise customer service.. YMMV.

[c-leg5]

Never had an issue with booking onboard and the staff has always been helpful. Granted in general we already know the cruise and cabin we want to book, but even when we haven't they have always been great. Pretty much like most cruise customer service.. YMMV.

 

 

I agree they are not very helpful, or well trained. Last time I went exactly like you knowing exactly what cabin and sailing I wanted and online price. They couldn't find or match the price. Guess what I booked it online. I don't need to waste my vacation time discussing or arguing with them.

[Biker19]

As with most front line customer service, they are robots reading off the script from their screen.

[vburke86]

I just booked my first time with the future cruise desk and when I came home I found the cruise online for cheaper even with the onboard incentives... they pushed things through my travel agent (Costco) as i requested but it has been an absolute nightmare trying to get it to the same price that it shows online. Last night I spent 2 hours on the phone and Costco came back saying royal corrected some of the issues but there was still a $27 overage (originally it was $2500 so it came down a lot) that they couldn't figure out why as well as $100 on board credit I wouldn't be receiving.... so I called back again tonight to Costco and this agent understood the price issue still and he just spent an hour with royal Caribbean but they were not able to get it to adjust down, and I will need someone who was already done for the day to do it, so I now have to call back again tomorrow! At this point I think both Costco and royal should up their incentives to me... 3 hours on the phone and it's still not fixed is crazy!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[yuvraj]

I am from UK so perhaps different terms but I have always had to pay gratuities upfront if booking My time dinning. Surprised to hear that it isn't mandatory but most likely one of many favourable terms which only apply to US residents.

 

As for experience with next cruise sales, I generally don't trust anything they say but often find them helpful with getting pricing and looking through options. Most frustrating thing for me is how long they take to give me simple figures. Plus they don't tend to back up promotional claims and verbal assurances with something in writing.

[kevinyork]

I am from UK so perhaps different terms but I have always had to pay gratuities upfront if booking My time dinning. Surprised to hear that it isn't mandatory but most likely one of many favourable terms which only apply to US residents.

 

.

 

 

I am from the UK too and booked onboard under the UK promotion. I found out that gratuities being compulsory upfront for MyTime dining was dropped in 2015 via this site.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Clarea]

I am from UK so perhaps different terms but I have always had to pay gratuities upfront if booking My time dinning. Surprised to hear that it isn't mandatory but most likely one of many favourable terms which only apply to US residents.

 

As for experience with next cruise sales, I generally don't trust anything they say but often find them helpful with getting pricing and looking through options. Most frustrating thing for me is how long they take to give me simple figures. Plus they don't tend to back up promotional claims and verbal assurances with something in writing.

If you insist, you can get the prepaid gratuities removed if you like.

[leaveitallbehind]

Just my opinion, but based on prior experiences I would tend to agree with most of the comments in that the on board future cruise staff is not the most customer focused or knowledgeable resource for the service they are supposed to provide.

 

Interestingly I have found that with their sister company, Celebrity, the opposite is generally true with a very well trained and customer facing staff. But I also find this typical of Celebrity in general compared to RCI, which is one of the reasons we have shifted our cruise planning almost exclusively to Celebrity in recent years versus RCI.

 

I will also add that with all the changes RCI has made in recent years with the future cruise certificates, OBC levels for on board bookings, etc., there really is not much value to booking on board anymore. Again, just my opinion.

Edited October 1, 2017 by leaveitallbehind

[luvscruising2007]

We were on Explorer a few years back. I was getting the Future Cruise certificates and a nice young man gave me the forms and we submitted them He had the receipt in our state room as promised. He was a helper in the future cruise office. His main job on board was as a singer or dancer. Just an observation as to why there may be issues sometimes.

[vburke86]

Both companies have redeemed themselves... I just got a call from them (I didn't have to call today as they told me to do) and they got everything adjusted as it should be to the correct price and the proper on board credit... so I am happy.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[kevinyork]

We were on Explorer a few years back. I was getting the Future Cruise certificates and a nice young man gave me the forms and we submitted them He had the receipt in our state room as promised. He was a helper in the future cruise office. His main job on board was as a singer or dancer. Just an observation as to why there may be issues sometimes.

 

 

 

Unfortunately the service may have deteriorated since then.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[luvscruising2007]

Keith, you probably right. I believe RC is discouraging the on board bookings. I used opportunity because of the reduced deposit and OBC. We'll be rethinking this on our next cruise.

[kevinyork]

Keith, you probably right. I believe RC is discouraging the on board bookings. I used opportunity because of the reduced deposit and OBC. We'll be rethinking this on our next cruise.

 

 

 

I’m Kevin, but by coincidence my late father was Keith. I found the on board team to be disinterested and uninformed. The presentation of their benefits was pretty weak.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[linedancer]

I also agree that they are not informed or very helpful. We tell them we want a balcony. Looking for the best deal and they book us in the highest price balcony. And now with the non refundable deposit you need to make sure you get what you really want. Don't think l will use them again. I rather do my own research.

[Norwich Cruiser]

I have never had a good experience with the next cruise department and don't bother with them anymore.

Cannot beat cruise critic and doing your own research for information.

[Roofire]

We'd echo the comments raised in this thread.

 

We were a party of four on the Indy in June and booked a fly/cruise for Symphony sailing out of Barcelona. The onboard booking credit offer was the draw into booking onboard, and to be fair the staff were pleasant and efficient at the time. We diligently checked the paperwork and took their word that we could add a couple nights stay in Barcelona either side of the cruise, by contacting the Telesales team as they didn't have that capability on board.

 

 

To cut a long story and many phone calls short, we were told we'd need to pay a transfer charge to add a pre-cruise stay (per person), also somehow the genders and middle names of some of our party had become jumbled, which were only visible to us when we went to reserve our seats on the flights directly with the airline. This would have a big issue for us as the names on the tickets must match those on your passports.

 

On balance, the OBC offer did not offset the hassle we have had sorting these issues out ourselves. Another life lesson.

[birdylady]

I constantly find it amazing. A company that generally presents a great product ( cruising) can't seem to get most anything else right. They push the on-board bookings at most events. And if you try to do this you usually have to wait a while (even if you make an appointment). Then what should be a 2 minute process (for those of us that know exactly what we want) tends to take forever and usually not completed accurately. We used to try to always book the next years sailing while on board, but between the aggravation and the reduction in return for the money (in the case of future cruise with unspecified dates), it is not worth the hassle. And while I'm at it the same goes for their IT department. That is such a mess, which I'm sure doesn't help the on board agents either. They either need to better train or discontinue the on-board booking process. Heck, they could turn that area into another bar and just make their revenues that way..

 

Erika