Post-Disaster Promises by RC Not Kept - Bad Publicity Incoming

[SG65CB]

Expect more bad publicity for Royal Caribbean after a new post on Reddit undoubtedly will go viral. A passenger on the Blue Lagoon Ferry that sank says Royal Caribbean promised the passengers free Internet service to notify family, reimbursement for lost items, and reimbursement for the excursion itself. 

 

The person who was aboard the ferry with their family says RC is now giving them the runaround for the reimbursements and reneging on promises. 

 

They describe how their children were traumatized from the incident. 

 

"We were on an excursion in the Bahamas through RC. Our ferry carrying about 150 people to the excursion sank, and 1 person died. A toddler needed cpr and was luckily brought back. Our kids are traumatized and won’t go near water since the incident.

 

"While on the cruise, the ship made great promises to make up for the disaster. (It happened from a combination of a ferry in need of maintenance, untrained crew, and kinda rough waters). The promises were reimbursement for lost items in the wreck, to free internet access to contact family, and obviously reimbursement of the excursion. But due to the way RC does things, it will take 1-2 weeks for refunds to show up.

 

"Now its almost 2 months since and almost nothing. Every time we call they say they’ll get back to us and don’t. Just today they said no internet is reimbursed and we need to go to a 3rd party and log our lost items, when we spent time doing that right after on the ship.

 

"It seems like RC told us everything we wanted to hear while onboard so no one caused a scene, but then ignoring everything afterwards."

 

https://www.reddit.com/r/royalcaribbean/comments/18nvpd9/excursion_disaster_relief/

 

[firefly333]

7 minutes ago, S.A.M.J.R. said:

Doesn't matter IMO.  If a company says it's going to do something, it should do it.  Now, I would like others to confirm they were told the same thing, even better if someone got it in writing.

 

Assuming the passenger is telling the truth, why WOULDN'T you want a company you give give your money to to stand behind their word?

Yea proving someone said they would issue a refund is probably going to be hard. 

 

Of course I expect a company to do certain things, but I'm less and less surprised lately. Customer service was crazy the other direction when I started out.,

[Chiliburn]

I got a letter on my front door on the last night of a cruise about a month ago .

 It said 100% credit and after a month of dealing with Miami . I have trouble getting 20% .

 

So much for their word let alone getting it in writing.

 

 

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

30 minutes ago, firefly333 said:

Yea proving someone said they would issue a refund is probably going to be hard. 

 

Of course I expect a company to do certain things, but I'm less and less surprised lately. Customer service was crazy the other direction when I started out.,

If this is the only person claiming it, then I have serious doubts.  But saying the guy is just claiming he's a victim, and the sinking was "tame" isn't right either.  

12 minutes ago, Chiliburn said:

I got a letter on my front door on the last night of a cruise about a month ago .

 It said 100% credit and after a month of dealing with Miami . I have trouble getting 20% .

 

So much for their word let alone getting it in writing.

 

 

Just curious, what went wrong during your cruise for you to get that letter?

[Chiliburn]

3 minutes ago, S.A.M.J.R. said:

If this is the only person claiming it, then I have serious doubts.  But saying the guy is just claiming he's a victim, and the sinking was "tame" isn't right either.  

Just curious, what went wrong during your cruise for you to get that letter?

On the first day, opened the door and there was water running out of the ceiling.

They pulled the ceiling out to repair a pipe ,it took all day . The cabin was wet for 2 days and there was a big dryer in the cabin.

And no hot water for the whole cruise ,apparently the cabin had a issue before.

[kitkat343]

The weird thing is that nothing promised here is a significant  cost to RC.   The cost of the excursion, reimbursing lost items and especially free internet is nothing to RC, and they should have promptly paid these reasonable costs quickly.  We aren't talking about lawsuits for emotional distress, just (at most) a few hundred dollars worth of money per passenger, assuming everyone had expensive camera equipment with them - what else would they have taken that was expensive on this excursion?

Edited December 22, 2023 by kitkat343

[Sunshine3601]

16 minutes ago, kitkat343 said:

The weird thing is that nothing promised here is a significant  cost to RC.   The cost of the excursion, reimbursing lost items and especially free internet is nothing to RC, and they should have promptly paid these reasonable costs quickly.  We aren't talking about lawsuits for emotional distress, just (at most) a few hundred dollars worth of money per passenger, assuming everyone had expensive camera equipment with them - what else would they have taken that was expensive on this excursion?

I don't understand why royal would say they would reimburse for lost items.   That tab could add up quickly if people start claiming lost jewelry, phones, cameras, money, etc etc.

[kitkat343]

1 hour ago, Sunshine3601 said:

I don't understand why royal would say they would reimburse for lost items.   That tab could add up quickly if people start claiming lost jewelry, phones, cameras, money, etc etc.

Oh - sorry - I was thinking of what people actually would have taken on this excursion, not what they might claim.  I leave all jewelry at home on vacation.  I guess the cost of the tour plus a reasonable estimate of what people might have lost (a camera, a phone) would be a better choice.

Edited December 22, 2023 by kitkat343

[kernow]

If this is true it's terrible.

 

I think it's odd that they did not immediately refund the cost of the excursion onboard as they usually do this routinely if there is a problem. Only a couple of weeks ago we had the cost of an excursion refunded, there was only a small issue and we would not have expected a full refund whereas in this situation I would expect a refund and maybe even some compensation for the upset. 

 

@Chiliburn horrible that they don't want to honour your letter but I think the key is to get it signed by someone in authority onboard. If you remember the cruise we were both on last year on Ovation, I got covid and could not do the b2b. I got a letter signed by the GSM onboard stating I would get a full refund which I got a couple of weeks later with no problems. Others in the exact same situation as me but no letter had problems getting that refund. Unfortunately it seems nowadays RCL will get out of anything they can.

[jean87510]

9 hours ago, SG65CB said:

Expect more bad publicity for Royal Caribbean after a new post on Reddit undoubtedly will go viral. A passenger on the Blue Lagoon Ferry that sank says Royal Caribbean promised the passengers free Internet service to notify family, reimbursement for lost items, and reimbursement for the excursion itself. 

 

The person who was aboard the ferry with their family says RC is now giving them the runaround for the reimbursements and reneging on promises. 

 

They describe how their children were traumatized from the incident. 

 

"We were on an excursion in the Bahamas through RC. Our ferry carrying about 150 people to the excursion sank, and 1 person died. A toddler needed cpr and was luckily brought back. Our kids are traumatized and won’t go near water since the incident.

 

"While on the cruise, the ship made great promises to make up for the disaster. (It happened from a combination of a ferry in need of maintenance, untrained crew, and kinda rough waters). The promises were reimbursement for lost items in the wreck, to free internet access to contact family, and obviously reimbursement of the excursion. But due to the way RC does things, it will take 1-2 weeks for refunds to show up.

 

"Now its almost 2 months since and almost nothing. Every time we call they say they’ll get back to us and don’t. Just today they said no internet is reimbursed and we need to go to a 3rd party and log our lost items, when we spent time doing that right after on the ship.

 

"It seems like RC told us everything we wanted to hear while onboard so no one caused a scene, but then ignoring everything afterwards."

 

https://www.reddit.com/r/royalcaribbean/comments/18nvpd9/excursion_disaster_relief/

 

I saw this as well.  Pathetic.

[bretts173]

To me this makes no sense. Why would they refuse the compensation of such a small amount of money for the publicity. Often communication issues or wires crossed more than not on these situations.

[firefly333]

10 hours ago, S.A.M.J.R. said:

If this is the only person claiming it, then I have serious doubts.  But saying the guy is just claiming he's a victim, and the sinking was "tame" isn't right either.  

Just curious, what went wrong during your cruise for you to get that letter?

Odd you quoted me as saying it was lame. I didnt say it was. You got the wrong poster. I remember reading that post but dont see it but it wasnt my post. 

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

45 minutes ago, firefly333 said:

Odd you quoted me as saying it was lame. I didnt say it was. You got the wrong poster. I remember reading that post but dont see it but it wasnt my post. 

Sorry, was quoting you, commenting on your post, but then bringing in PP's comment.  Didn't mean to imply that you said that.  Sorry for any confusion.

[cruiseboy89130]

On 12/22/2023 at 2:54 AM, Chiliburn said:

I got a letter on my front door on the last night of a cruise about a month ago .

 It said 100% credit and after a month of dealing with Miami . I have trouble getting 20% .

 

So much for their word let alone getting it in writing.

 

 

Terrible! But not that much surprised...🙄

[Pellaz]

Royal should have refunded the excursion cost immediately, as is standard for any "failed" excursions. 

They should also have offered free internet to affected guests who did not already have Wi-Fi, and a comp to those who did, to be able to contact family, handle lost items, etc.   The wi-fi would cost them a negligible amount anyway. 

However, I'm not so sure Royal is liable for lost items on the excursion.  If anything, the Blue Lagoon charter company CERTAINLY would be.  They should have already contacted the victims about it.  Good grief, their boat sank and it could be due to negligence.

 

And of course, this is a situation where trip/cruise insurance would signify greatly.  

[lovescats5]

Why should Royal reimburse.  It was not their boat that sank, go after the tour company, they should pay.  Then again, they are small compared to Royal so I guess everyone is suppose to expect the bigger company to pay for everything.