Anybody Else Experiencing Royal Issues?

[rolloman]

Not sure what the heck is going on with Royal but things seem to be in disarray. I have two very recent stories. On Indy, I checked in, immediately went to muster station for sign off. A couple hours after I received a text that said you have 1 hour to go to muster. I thought... hmmm...must be a boilerplate message to everyone because the Captain was on the intercom saying he would hate for people to miss this cruise for not mustering. Shortly thereafter I get another text...you have 30 minutes left to complete muster. So I went down again just as a precaution. They basically laughed at me and said you are good. Fast forward to 8pm I get a letter handed to me by the room steward that said go to the Star Lounge at 8pm for a make-up muster drill.  I sprinted down there and made it by about 8:10pm...nobody was there. At this point I just went to the Diamond Concierge and she said she would handle it... she stated something about system down at the time I must have attended. Ridiculous.  Now for event number two. I do all the paperwork for my in-laws, they recently sailed on the Allure of the Seas. I made sure they took their payment receipt, passports, covid tests, boarding passes and I completed their info 100% on the APP. Ok, so once at the terminal they presented their paperwork and mother-in-law was told we don't have a record of you only your husband. She then was bounced around from Supervisor to Supervisor and finally they let her board. Once onboard, they found only one keycard in the room...grrrr...so she stands in the Guest Services line for a card. Of course they  once again say they have no record of her. More time consuming back and forth happened and then she was given a card. As it turns out, the card did not work for her Diamond drinks, onboard purchases or going ashore. More cards were created...same crap happened. So they did not go ashore and she used her husbands card for purchases and Diamond drinks. So when the cruise was over...guess what...she was not allowed off the ship because the card was no good...more back and forth...more line standing to just get home...what a freaking nightmare. So I ask...what the hell is going on...I know they are short staffed but seriously.... are these issues because of untrained crew? 

[h20skibum]

Had the second scenario play out for me a few years ago on Harmony.  They had a record of my wife, but not me.  I ended up with a half dozen cards from that cruise, screwed up show reservations, shore excursions, etc.  Had to make daily trips to GS to try to sort out the problem of the day. 
 

So, no, it is not unusual. 

[firefly333]

I went to muster on one liberty 3 times. They kept saying I'd checked in. Kept getting reminders for hours this went on. They said sign out of thr app and then sign back in .. pain in the neck. 

[John&LaLa]

2 minutes ago, firefly333 said:

I went to muster on one liberty 3 times. They kept saying I'd checked in. Kept getting reminders for hours this went on. They said sign out of thr app and then sign back in .. pain in the neck. 

 

Happens to me frequently, but never Laura 

[Biker19]

11 hours ago, rolloman said:

are these issues because of untrained crew? 

No, the wonderful RCI IT system.

[Ocean Boy]

10 hours ago, h20skibum said:

 

So, no, it is not unusual. 

The OP's story is bad enough. To know that it us not unusual makes it even worse. And that type of unneeded aggravation should certainly deserve some compensation. The only way this stuff gets fixed is if it costs RCI.

[Ocean Boy]

10 hours ago, John&LaLa said:

 

Happens to me frequently, but never Laura 

Apparently those 700 C&A points that Laura has on you mean something!😄

[BND]

What did your app show for muster?  When you've done it it shows as complete on the app so I'm curious where the disconnect is.  4 times and it's worked fine so far for us.  I have never heard of the second scenario happening.  If she had a copy of her boarding pass and could show on the app that is really strange.   

 

You need to email MIchael Bayley (goes to his staff) with all the specifics.  They need to know the specific things that are occurring and not the generic complaints about IT.

 

I will say,  my youngest DS is in IT.  He's IT engineering management now (Gov contractor with clearances) but the turnover rate can be really high.  Someone is always dangling a carrot in front of them because the demand for good IT people is really high.  My DS company has given him a promotion and 4 raises in the last 18 months to keep him, not that he's been looking but they don't want him to leave.  So, getting good IT staff and having them stick around is hard.  My DS gets contacted by Google every couple of months.  I'd be willing to bet RCI's IT issues are tied to turnover rates and how hard it is to get people who really know what they are doing.

Edited June 10, 2022 by BND

[rolloman]

11 hours ago, h20skibum said:

Had the second scenario play out for me a few years ago on Harmony.  They had a record of my wife, but not me.  I ended up with a half dozen cards from that cruise, screwed up show reservations, shore excursions, etc.  Had to make daily trips to GS to try to sort out the problem of the day. 
 

So, no, it is not unusual. 

Thanks, sorry to hear. This certainly validates the need to bring your paid in full receipt with you. It was such a shame because it was their first cruise back from Covid and actually may be their last due to age and logistics. I was really hoping they would have had a wonderful time but this really spoiled any chance of that. 

[rolloman]

10 hours ago, John&LaLa said:

 

Happens to me frequently, but never Laura 

Just curious...has this occurred on multiple ships or just our current local ship Indy? 

[lovescats5]

On Symphony in March we boarded and went directly to the muster station to check in.  He then got several notices that he needed to complete the muster check in.  Lucky for us we just told our genie and it was taken care of immediately, he was the one who took us to the muster station.  Funny that our of the four of us it was only my son who had trouble.

 

[h20skibum]

7 minutes ago, rolloman said:

Thanks, sorry to hear. This certainly validates the need to bring your paid in full receipt with you. It was such a shame because it was their first cruise back from Covid and actually may be their last due to age and logistics. I was really hoping they would have had a wonderful time but this really spoiled any chance of that. 

I was going to link the review I did for that sailing that detailed the problems we encountered, but for some reason, the pages in the review keep freezing (at least they do on my iPad)

 

Anyhow, if you want to try and pull it up, it is listed in my signature for a sailing in 2018.  Or, if you do a search for Harmony and Me H20skibum cruise critic, it should bring up a google link. 

[John&LaLa]

1 hour ago, Ocean Boy said:

Apparently those 700 C&A points that Laura has on you mean something!😄

 

Starting to narrow the gap next weekend

[John&LaLa]

28 minutes ago, rolloman said:

Just curious...has this occurred on multiple ships or just our current local ship Indy? 

 

Allure and Harmony come to mind.

 

But when both were in PC

 

Hopping on Indy next Friday

[nelblu]

I had 2 issues on my Easter Anthem sail.  Checked in via a laptop and entered all of the basic information but would not allow me to print the Set Sail pass.  No indication of what was omitted or screwed up.  Decided to enter on my phone still was having issues.  Called the IT dept. and someone is telling, me something, but I did not understand her due to her accent. I was able to pick up country of birth.  So, I go to my phone and re-enter my country of birth, however no luck.  Read on this board that a poster was having the same problem as the country of birth kept dropping off.  Finally, after about 3 other times it worked.  The frustration is that there's no indication of where the mistake or omission happens.

 

The 2nd issue was making reservations for the North Star on the APP.  There are 2 versions--one is for pay on sea days and the other on port days is gratis.  Supposedly, the reservations open up at 8AM each day.  So. on the first port day, I immediately try to make reservations and it tells me that it's all sold out.  I said to myself maybe my fingers are not as fast as others in keying on the phone.  Tried on the 2nd port day and the same message.  I was going crazy, and the problem was that there was one final port day, otherwise I would be shut out.  I tried getting some staff to help, but they were getting nowhere.  I finally turned to the D Concierge, and he made some excuses, but no promise.  I muttered something to myself and hoped.   Got a call late in the afternoon that my 4 reservations were in the system--I said to myself--Hallelujah!

[nelblu]

25 minutes ago, John&LaLa said:

 

Starting to narrow the gap next weekend

ow many 4X or 6X do you have on tap.😀

[John&LaLa]

7 minutes ago, nelblu said:

ow many 4X or 6X do you have on tap.😀

 

One 4x and possibly one 6x

 

Laura is with me on the rest of the 'doubles'

 

She's hinting on dropping some portion of world cruise, so that would move me really close. That trip is 528 points

[MightyMike]

This isn't specifically related to checking in to the muster station, but I received an email from Royal Caribbean before the cruise to report to Guest Services and redeem the old "Dine, Drink, Discover" perk I was grandfathered into (due to multiple Lift & Shifts). 

 

Royal Caribbean had staff stationed at the Guest Services line whose sole purpose was to kick people out of the line. Their job was to shorten the Guest Services line by forwarding people to other places if they could be more efficiently handled there.

 

Soooo.... Even though my letter said specifically to report to Guest Services, the person kicking guests out of the line thought that I would be better served by the Beverage Sales staff. So I was sent to that line. 

 

As you can probably guess, the Beverage Sales staff had no idea what to do. After consultation, they decided the best place for me to go was to the Dining Sales line. I have no idea the logic they used in coming to that conclusion--other than perhaps to get me out of their hair.

 

That was a really long line, and once people got to the front, they each took their time scheduling and rescheduling dining times to best fit their plans. Finally, I got to the front of the line and presented the email. His response? (Wait for it.) "You need to go to Guest Services."

 

So now I am back in the Guest Services line approaching the same person who kicked me out before. I refused to even talk to him and stayed in line. Once I got to the front, all was resolved.

 

So yes, I am another person who has encountered some particularly annoying Royal issues that simply shouldn't exist.

[HicksRA]

In talking to a guy in the SL on my last cruise, he was on the 2nd leg of a B2B and had done the Sunday turnaround, did the muster and he and his wife were sitting on their balcony relaxing when a security officer opened their balcony door and told them they needed to do muster. 
 

After explaining that they’d already done muster he said ok and left. 
Problem was, when he closed the balcony slider, he locked it, leaving the man and his wife locked out of their cabin on the balcony. 
 

They were stuck on the balcony in the hot sun for 3 1/2 hours until they could holler at someone on another balcony to call guest services to open their slider. 😀

[nelblu]

5 minutes ago, HicksRA said:

In talking to a guy in the SL on my last cruise, he was on the 2nd leg of a B2B and had done the Sunday turnaround, did the muster and he and his wife were sitting on their balcony relaxing when a security officer opened their balcony door and told them they needed to do muster. 
 

After explaining that they’d already done muster he said ok and left. 
Problem was, when he closed the balcony slider, he locked it, leaving the man and his wife locked out of their cabin on the balcony. 
 

They were stuck on the balcony in the hot sun for 3 1/2 hours until they could holler at someone on another balcony to call guest services to open their slider. 😀

It was a bad 3.5 hours, but I was laughing uncontrollably as to the stupidity of the security person.

 

 

[OCSC Mike]

Yikes! Maybe this is one reason why the balcony doors on Harmony unlock from both the inside and outside?

 

I doubt it was so my young nieces in the connecting balcony next door could let themselves into our cabin as they constantly did last week.

[h20skibum]

5 minutes ago, OCSC Mike said:

Yikes! Maybe this is one reason why the balcony doors on Harmony unlock from both the inside and outside?

 

I doubt it was so my young nieces in the connecting balcony next door could let themselves into our cabin as they constantly did last week.

That is somewhat disconcerting to hear.  Even though they have balcony dividers, I would not want someone to be able to get in the cabin by climbing balcony to balcony.

 

Years ago, on a trip to Hawaii, we watched some college kids as they climbed from balcony to balcony on the 18th floor of our hotel.  Those were much harder to do than the ones on the ship.

 

Ah, the idiocy of youth. 

[rolloman]

3 hours ago, h20skibum said:

I was going to link the review I did for that sailing that detailed the problems we encountered, but for some reason, the pages in the review keep freezing (at least they do on my iPad)

 

Anyhow, if you want to try and pull it up, it is listed in my signature for a sailing in 2018.  Or, if you do a search for Harmony and Me H20skibum cruise critic, it should bring up a google link. 

Thanks, I pulled it up. Wow...exact same issue. I think your situation was even more complicated since you pre-paid and pre-booked shows. They need to come up with a solution for this situation to use fleet wide. Obviously, as of today, they are still winging it and compounding it with senseless stress on the Guests. Could you share the email where you voiced your complaint? Thanks!

[h20skibum]

27 minutes ago, rolloman said:

Thanks, I pulled it up. Wow...exact same issue. I think your situation was even more complicated since you pre-paid and pre-booked shows. They need to come up with a solution for this situation to use fleet wide. Obviously, as of today, they are still winging it and compounding it with senseless stress on the Guests. Could you share the email where you voiced your complaint? Thanks!

I had called them first, and they gave me an email address.  I forwarded them our documents and copies of all the sea pass cards, and copies of the business cards from the people we talked to on the ship. 
 

It helped that I was doing that review, because I was essentially documenting the problems.  
 

The email address they gave me was

 

royalguestrelations@rccl.com