Shore Excursion Family of 4 Reservation Split between 2 times - WTH!

[kkling09]

We are currently cruising Anthem of the Seas, and today we are scheduled to stop in Coco Cay. My kids have been so excited for this excursion to go snorkeling with our family. I bought an underwater video camera so I can video the kids snorkeling for the first time. As a family of 4 we are in 2 different rooms, but when we made our excursion reservations we linked all of them together. So imagine my surprise and irritation when I noticed last night that 2 of our tickets were for 1 meeting time and the other 2 tickets had a different meeting time. I went to guest services (Shore Excursions was not open when I noticed the problem),but guest services couldn't help me. She put me on the phone with someone from Shore Excursions who told me that they had to split from 1 group of 80 to 2 groups of 40. I have no problem with that, but what I do have a HUGE PROBLEM with is that my family of 4 was split between those 2 groups when we had linked our reservations when they were made in Cruise Planner. He claimed that it goes my cabin number and they don't take linked reservations into account - that is BS! Why the hell have the ability to link reservations if they are going to ignore it. Someone at ROYAL really screwed up, and if my 9 year old's heart is broken they will not hear the end of this. Royal has the ability to make this right this morning and get us all on the same snorkeling excursion, and I hope they do. I will update later to let you all know if this error was corrected to our satisfaction (not going snorkeling is not an option!) or if you should steer clear of Royal if you want to do activities as a family.

[NateUpNorth]

That is a pretty big mistake, especially if you "linked" the reservations. I can understand your frustration.

It also seems like it will be a pretty easy fix. Take a breath, you're on vacation, give them a chance to fix the issue.

 

[Hogbay]

A 9 year old will not be able to disembark the ship by himself , it is a mistake .

[ShillyShally]

4 minutes ago, Hogbay said:

A 9 year old will not be able to disembark the ship by himself , it is a mistake .

This should definitely be pointed out, and I don't expect you'd have a problem finding anyone in the first group willing to swap to group 2!

[CRUISEFAN0001]

23 minutes ago, NateUpNorth said:

That is a pretty big mistake, especially if you "linked" the reservations. I can understand your frustration.

It also seems like it will be a pretty easy fix. Take a breath, you're on vacation, give them a chance to fix the issue.

 

Agree.  Many people don't realize you can have them link reservations to keep multiple cabin passengers together for excursions, meals, etc.

[LeeW]

Weird.  Normally when they split groups they keep each booking together.  Easy enough for them to move a group of two to the other time.

[tennislvr8]

12 hours ago, Hogbay said:

A 9 year old will not be able to disembark the ship by himself , it is a mistake .

If they split the adults and kids. They are assuming the one adult and one kid will go together. It sucks this happened but that's an option if it can't get fixed. 

[not-enough-cruising]

Another reason to book excursions independently of the cruise lines.

 

I hope they are able to fix it for you, please stop back and let us know how it worked out. 

[Ourusualbeach]

You should post this to Royal Caribbean’s twitter and Facebook accounts.  They are very responsive and will contact the ship to make it right.  

[uksimonusa]

9 minutes ago, not-enough-cruising said:

Another reason to book excursions independently of the cruise lines.

 

I hope they are able to fix it for you, please stop back and let us know how it worked out. 

A bit difficult to book an independent excursion on Coco Cay 😉 

Edited March 27, 2019 by uksimonusa

[not-enough-cruising]

47 minutes ago, uksimonusa said:

A bit difficult to book an independent excursion on Coco Cay 😉 

Oops! Failed to notice that one important detail

[S.A.M.J.R.]

On 3/26/2019 at 7:37 AM, kkling09 said:

We are currently cruising Anthem of the Seas, and today we are scheduled to stop in Coco Cay. My kids have been so excited for this excursion to go snorkeling with our family. I bought an underwater video camera so I can video the kids snorkeling for the first time. As a family of 4 we are in 2 different rooms, but when we made our excursion reservations we linked all of them together. So imagine my surprise and irritation when I noticed last night that 2 of our tickets were for 1 meeting time and the other 2 tickets had a different meeting time. I went to guest services (Shore Excursions was not open when I noticed the problem),but guest services couldn't help me. She put me on the phone with someone from Shore Excursions who told me that they had to split from 1 group of 80 to 2 groups of 40. I have no problem with that, but what I do have a HUGE PROBLEM with is that my family of 4 was split between those 2 groups when we had linked our reservations when they were made in Cruise Planner. He claimed that it goes my cabin number and they don't take linked reservations into account - that is BS! Why the hell have the ability to link reservations if they are going to ignore it. Someone at ROYAL really screwed up, and if my 9 year old's heart is broken they will not hear the end of this. Royal has the ability to make this right this morning and get us all on the same snorkeling excursion, and I hope they do. I will update later to let you all know if this error was corrected to our satisfaction (not going snorkeling is not an option!) or if you should steer clear of Royal if you want to do activities as a family.

Big mistake?  Absolutely.  

Should it be fixed?  Of course.

Should it have happened in the first place?  Of course not.

 

But how would your 9yo's heart be broken?  Even if they can't fix this, one adult goes with one child and the other adult goes with the other child.  Ideal?  No, but claiming a child's heart will be broken is nothing but hyperbole.  

[suesnake2002]

As soon as you board go to the shore excursion desk. Try to have them fix it. If not cancel and rebook as a group of 4. From what i understand spots are held back for on ship booking. 

Are the children in a room by themselves??  If so i agree that would be highly questionable to allow them off by themselves. 

[hazence]

S.A.M.J.R....what a petty and buffoonish post. So were you sitting slurping your corn flakes and decided to make a small churlish comment to someone who has a very legitimate complaint...to make yourself feel all puffed up? You offer nothing to the discussion and certainly nothing of value in regard to amending the posters situation. 

 

[hazence]

In post #45 on the Accident on Mariner thread...SAMJR replies...”So sue me.” to a correction of his OWN choice of words. But today, he is the Phraseology Police. 

 

I hope the OP has her issue resolved this morning.

[mayleeman]

11 hours ago, hazence said:

In post #45 on the Accident on Mariner thread...SAMJR replies...”So sue me.” to a correction of his OWN choice of words. But today, he is the Phraseology Police. 

 

I hope the OP has her issue resolved this morning.

I was the target of that "sue me" barb! And since I suffered such intense emotional distress, I am trying to figure out where I should sue him. And how to serve process. 

 

Actually, just glad someone read it the way I intended.

 

On this issue of the split reservation, I can understand the OP's frustration after making special preps for the excursion. I just bought a new UW camera, too, and I will be MAH if someone screws up our snorkeling excursions!

 

 

[S.A.M.J.R.]

21 hours ago, hazence said:

S.A.M.J.R....what a petty and buffoonish post. So were you sitting slurping your corn flakes and decided to make a small churlish comment to someone who has a very legitimate complaint...to make yourself feel all puffed up? You offer nothing to the discussion and certainly nothing of value in regard to amending the posters situation. 

 

I suggest you go back and read again.  Where did I say they didn't have a legitimate complaint?  In fact, the first three lines are me AGREEING this shouldn't happen and it should be fixed.   But that's ok, ignore that. 

 

But come on, having a child's heart "broken" because the family would need to separate to go snorkling?  I guess this incident would "ruin the cruise" also.  My point (and it's similar to my "sue me" comment) is people take a small issue and make it out to this huge inconvenience.   ie: "Making a mountain out of a molehill".   And no, I'm NOT calling the accident on Mariner a "small issue".  I'm talking about taking offense when I used the phrase "Act of God" as something that is out of everyone's immediate control.

 

And by the way, since according to you, I didn't add anything to the discussion and nothing to help the OP, what exactly did YOUR post add to the discussion aside from a slam on me?  And you helped the OP how? But that's ok, continue on. 

 

 

[hazence]

Here’s what my post added that yours didn’t...compassion for the OP instead of petty nitpicking about her choice of words. She used a common expression to indicate how disappointed her child would be if matters weren’t reversed. You chose to make a literal translation and “correct” her publicly which throughly undermined the first half of your post. 

 

Criticizing her did not add constructive advice. It was not kind. It was such a show of vanity on your part. 

 

You sure didn’t like your choice of words criticized, did you? Why not ...uhhh...do unto others, etc..

 

 

 

 

 

[S.A.M.J.R.]

3 hours ago, hazence said:

Here’s what my post added that yours didn’t...compassion for the OP instead of petty nitpicking about her choice of words. She used a common expression to indicate how disappointed her child would be if matters weren’t reversed. You chose to make a literal translation and “correct” her publicly which throughly undermined the first half of your post. 

 

Criticizing her did not add constructive advice. It was not kind. It was such a show of vanity on your part. 

 

You sure didn’t like your choice of words criticized, did you? Why not ...uhhh...do unto others, etc..

 

 

 

 

 

OK.  

[kkling09]

Here's an update to the situation: we were able to all go as a family on the excursion. When we arrived and went to the shore excursions area they were able to move all of us to the afternoon group. The current was a bit rough for the snorkeling so I am glad that my husband and I were both there to keep an eye on the kids, instead of 1 adult and 1 child in each group. We had a good day and Royal was able to fix the mistake. I'm still not sure why our linked reservation wasn't kept together, but it did work out for the best. 

Maybe "heart broken" wasn't the right choice of words, but when your 9 year old cries himself to sleep and sends a text with about 50 crying emojis to his teenage brother about the situation it seemed like the best way to describe the situation at the time. 

[Sunkissed Mommy]

I am happy to hear they fixed it.

 

I completely understand your reaction and words used.  My kids would be very upset to be separated as well.  My older one probably would cry too (he's only 6 right now).  But getting separated stinks when you've invested in a nice camera to capture the family moments.

[ShillyShally]

31 minutes ago, kkling09 said:

Maybe "heart broken" wasn't the right choice of words, but when your 9 year old cries himself to sleep and sends a text with about 50 crying emojis to his teenage brother about the situation it seemed like the best way to describe the situation at the time. 

Nope, you described it correctly!  While we can rarely get children to understand something is not the end of the world, their emotions can make it seem like that at the time, rational thoughts out the window if even possible.  It's only as an adult we miss those type of tragedies as adulting can pack some real doozies, many that are truly heart-breaking!

[ShillyShally]

33 minutes ago, kkling09 said:

Here's an update to the situation: we were able to all go as a family on the excursion. When we arrived and went to the shore excursions area they were able to move all of us to the afternoon group. The current was a bit rough for the snorkeling so I am glad that my husband and I were both there to keep an eye on the kids, instead of 1 adult and 1 child in each group. We had a good day and Royal was able to fix the mistake. I'm still not sure why our linked reservation wasn't kept together, but it did work out for the best. 

Maybe "heart broken" wasn't the right choice of words, but when your 9 year old cries himself to sleep and sends a text with about 50 crying emojis to his teenage brother about the situation it seemed like the best way to describe the situation at the time. 

So happy it was corrected and hope even with some rough currents you got some great photos to capture the memories!