I work on 'independence of the seas'!

[ROYAL CARIBBEAN DUDE]

But do they really arrest people?

 

I have personally never heard about a jail onboard, or seen a guest be detained.

[ROYAL CARIBBEAN DUDE]

I was kidding about putting shoplifters in the brig. However, I could see them putting shoplifters off the ship at the next stop.

 

I have actually rarely seen guests being disembarked off the ship for bad behaviour. But the few times I have witnessed it, it's not nice to see happen.

[SFBayAreaShipLover]

Most ships now days have a room or rooms that is like a bare steel room for place folks if needed, weather crew or passengers. Very much like navy ships that call them brigs

 

 

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[Miryam1234]

I have personally never heard about a jail onboard, or seen a guest be detained.

 

 

 

Ou yes, there is a "jail" onboard. Many Royal ships have been built in Turku, I've seen the facility on Freedom and Oasis while touring the ship just before it was released. It's downstairs by the I95.

 

 

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[TBone2K]

subscribing...

You don't need to do that, just go to the top of the page and under Thread Tools, just choose Subscribe.

 

Anyway, back to the OP, great to see you back. The thread seemed to disappear for a while there.

[plo888]

Hey Chris,

 

Following and enjoying posts.

How does the ship and/or the company handle complaints in service or food?

 

There seems to be a growing # of posts on cruisecritic with less than satisfactory experiences; are there are steps being taken to elevate the experiences people who spend money on RCL?

[chengkp75]

Not sure he'd have first hand knowledge, since he doesn't work for RCI.

[Brighton Line]

While not RCI, NCL does or did a "Dinner with an officer" program and we got the Chief of Security for our dinner. It was very interesting and he was an American, at the time only American on any NCL ship in security let alone the Chief.

 

Not only passengers but crew was his responsibility and for the Breakaway size ship he has a very small staff in the teens. As we left we waved to him as he was down on the dock inspecting on coming pallets as part of his review he does on turn around day.

[poncho1973]

Hey Chris,

 

Following and enjoying posts.

How does the ship and/or the company handle complaints in service or food?

 

There seems to be a growing # of posts on cruisecritic with less than satisfactory experiences; are there are steps being taken to elevate the experiences people who spend money on RCL?

 

I would venture to guess that the number of cruisecritic passengers in the grand scheme of total cruise ship passengers around the globe is INSANELY small.

 

I know there are some folks around here that truly believe they wield a big stick, but they don't.

 

Any piece of your customer base should be important, but there are a lot of people around these parts who are too big for their britches when it comes to complaints.

[chengkp75]

While not RCI, NCL does or did a "Dinner with an officer" program and we got the Chief of Security for our dinner. It was very interesting and he was an American, at the time only American on any NCL ship in security let alone the Chief.

 

Not only passengers but crew was his responsibility and for the Breakaway size ship he has a very small staff in the teens. As we left we waved to him as he was down on the dock inspecting on coming pallets as part of his review he does on turn around day.

 

He must have been forgetting the Pride of America, where the entire Security department, are US citizens. :o

[plo888]

I would venture to guess that the number of cruisecritic passengers in the grand scheme of total cruise ship passengers around the globe is INSANELY small.

 

I know there are some folks around here that truly believe they wield a big stick, but they don't.

 

Any piece of your customer base should be important, but there are a lot of people around these parts who are too big for their britches when it comes to complaints.

 

I guess i somewhat agree with your reply regardless of whether they are who they seem they are, but was hoping to see if Chris had any input to the matter.

 

Cruisers are dropping $5k min on their vaca and should get, the Royal Caribbean experience they advertise. Its been a while since ive cruised as i often do fly and stay vaca. Last cruise i went on was RCL and i enjoyed it and am planning anthem next month but reading some negative feeds.

[chengkp75]

I guess i somewhat agree with your reply regardless of whether they are who they seem they are, but was hoping to see if Chris had any input to the matter.

 

Cruisers are dropping $5k min on their vaca and should get, the Royal Caribbean experience they advertise. Its been a while since ive cruised as i often do fly and stay vaca. Last one being RCL and i enjoyed it, but am planning anthem next month and am reading some negative feeds.

 

Most cruise lines will have weekly "revenue" meetings of all the department heads. Things like passenger complaints, and reduced DSC amounts, as well as the figures for onboard revenue and cabin yield are discussed. Things like persistent complaints will be kicked upstairs to corporate if it needs their input, or dealt with onboard if possible.

 

The concession supervisors, who Chris work for, are not, in my experience, in these meetings, since they are internal to the cruise line. Problems with concessions would be dealt with by the Hotel Director. That is why I don't believe Chris would have any input as to how complaints are handled.

 

I believe that what pancho is saying is that the "audience" on CC is about 5% of the cruising population, at max, so what may appear to be a large number of complaints or poor reviews, may not accurately reflect the experience for the vast majority of passengers.

[Biker19]

Cruisers are dropping $5k min on their vaca and should get, the Royal Caribbean experience they advertise.

While everyone should get a satisfactory experience, regardless of what they spent, I think you are way over what the typical customer spends on their cruise.

[waverley7]

You don't need to do that, just go to the top of the page and under Thread Tools, just choose Subscribe.

 

Anyway, back to the OP, great to see you back. The thread seemed to disappear for a while there.

 

Oh good, that's what I thought and then it was here again. Thought I was losing my marbles! ;p

[Joebucks]

Really cool stuff here. I never once even thought of the idea of doing such a thing. I really wish I would have heard of this in my younger years. Now that ship has sailed (pun not really intended). The pay doesn't seem that bad especially considering that is what line levels would make in similar businesses and you don't have to worry about car insurance/payments/gas, good, rent, utilities, etc. Plus, if you worked your way up, there is some serious money to be made.

[CruiseDucks]

Yes this is correct! My retail company handles all the stock for Indy. Main reason for this is because my retail company is based out of the UK, and Indy sails around Europe every year.

 

There is definitely shot glasses you can buy, but I'm not sure how they look compared to other ships.

 

Thanks for the reply! That's good to know. We have some generic Crown and Anchor ones that we bought on Indy (the ones with the coloured bubble bases) but want one with the ship name on - it doesn't matter to us if they don't match the ones we have from other ships. We're next on Indy in May, so will keep an eye out then!

[ROYAL CARIBBEAN DUDE]

Anyone who attempts to do that with all the cameras on the ships is plain stupid.

 

It still happens! And when it does, there's not much I can do about it.

[ROYAL CARIBBEAN DUDE]

subscribing...

 

You're awesome!

[poncho1973]

I believe that what pancho is saying is that the "audience" on CC is about 5% of the cruising population, at max, so what may appear to be a large number of complaints or poor reviews, may not accurately reflect the experience for the vast majority of passengers.

 

Indeed. Thanks Chief! If half of the people who write reviews on cruise critic (which in and of itself would be way too many) were hating their cruises and pumping out poor review after review... that's just a fraction of the members of cruise critic.

 

IF we use the 5% number, half of those people AT LEAST don't review their cruises. That's already 2.5%. And if half of those are negative (and they aren't half negative) that would be 1.5%. These numbers are getting smaller and smaller and smaller and smaller.

 

Cruisers are dropping $5k min on their vaca and should get

I've never spent close to that on a single cruise out of all the ones I've done. Shoot, my entire Med cruise AND my Norway Fjords cruise are slightly less than that COMBINED.

[drrich2]

To briefly touch on a tangent, reviews on Cruise Critic for cruises are somewhat like those on Trip Advisor, or for that matter product reviews on Amazon. Probably a fairly small minority of customers trouble themselves to write one online, but those are the people whose input gets 'published' where it's viewed by prospective customers researching their cruise options. And it can influence community opinion on this forum, thus having an indirect effect.

 

After I buy something on Amazon, I often get an e-mail from the vendor asking if I'm happy with it, and basically indicating that if I'm not PLEASE give them a chance to 'make it right.' Especially small vendors trying to achieve/maintain a good name.

 

Royal continues to fill ships, from what I understand, and is vastly far from a 'small vendor.' But reputation and product reviews matter. They won't redesign the line at every complaint, but when enough people complain enough and talk of switching (or just do it), it matters.

 

After all, their success doesn't stop them sending my family frequent e-mails & paper mailings hawking their latest 'sale.'

 

Richard.

[ROYAL CARIBBEAN DUDE]

We'll miss the Labyrinth, as I think it's slated to be removed during drydock. :o

 

That's a shame. I think the reason for this, is because Labyrinth isn't really utilised enough during regular cruises. I've only ever been in their twice.

[ROYAL CARIBBEAN DUDE]

Ou yes, there is a "jail" onboard. Many Royal ships have been built in Turku, I've seen the facility on Freedom and Oasis while touring the ship just before it was released. It's downstairs by the I95.

 

 

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I must have walked past it a million times without realising.

[ROYAL CARIBBEAN DUDE]

Hey Chris,

 

Following and enjoying posts.

How does the ship and/or the company handle complaints in service or food?

 

There seems to be a growing # of posts on cruisecritic with less than satisfactory experiences; are there are steps being taken to elevate the experiences people who spend money on RCL?

 

We have 'deliver the wow' training every few months to help us stay on top of service. But maybe we need to do this more frequent.

 

I'm not sure how the food departments take into account their complaints. I believe the standard of food on the bigger ships, may not be as good as the smaller ships. Preparing food for larger quantities of people, may affect the standard.

[SFBayAreaShipLover]

I totally agree, having sailed on many size ships, have always found the food quality changes. Have a very good friend Mario A that worked as F&B manager for sitmar and Princess many years ago. He always dreaded the larger ships, as was much harder to provide top quality. Those were the days they made ceasr salads, and cooked fettuccine at you table.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[ROYAL CARIBBEAN DUDE]

While not RCI, NCL does or did a "Dinner with an officer" program and we got the Chief of Security for our dinner. It was very interesting and he was an American, at the time only American on any NCL ship in security let alone the Chief.

 

Not only passengers but crew was his responsibility and for the Breakaway size ship he has a very small staff in the teens. As we left we waved to him as he was down on the dock inspecting on coming pallets as part of his review he does on turn around day.

 

This is such a nice experience. I'm sure the Chief Of Security has some interesting stories to share. His job sounds like it could be stressful.