How Worried Should I Be????

[shayelle]

The solution kinda sucks but I would take it in a heart beat! Like you, I would never put my kids next door without a door.

 

I know your whole party is on deck 6 but to put it bluntly, do you want any "alone" time with dh or do you want to sleep on the same deck as 15 of your closest friends with you and dh in seperate rooms?

 

Sorry it got so messed up. I'm sure you guys will still have a great time.

 

have fun!

Shannon

[trvlgrl422]

I'm used to balcony cabins and suites and I just got off a ship where I was on deck 3 with a porthole. It really wasn't bad. You could still see out the window. I would do it again. Deck 3 wasn't that bad either. I would go for it. At least, you'll have adjoining rooms. You can meet up with your friends/family by the stairwell/elevators. When we've traveled with other people, they have always been on other decks. It doesn't matter at all. It's not like there's any room in the rooms to congregate anyhow. Have a great time!

[NAW2]

Just thought I'd let you know about my experience in having my children in a separate cabin. We took a family cruise on Carnival. The ship did not have connecting rooms, so my 4 kids ages 16, 14, 6 and 4 were in the cabin between our cabin (DH and self) and my sister's family. Sometime during the 2nd night of the cruise my youngest went out of his room to find his mommy and got locked out of his room. He didn't remember which room was ours. SO he just sat on the floor and cried. Luckily my brother in law happened to wake to go out to smoke and found him crying out in the hallway !!!! For the rest of the cruise he slept in the bed with US !!!! Talk about scare the **** out of me. From then on we always had connecting cabins for our cruises.

[garrahyd]

Thanks for the optimism..... Booked direct with RCCL Resolutions has been working on it since about 10:30 this AM (after an hour on hold). We are C&A... I like to be nice about things. I like to be patient and understanding. But if they tell my husband he's going to have to come running down the hall for a mid-nite booty call his head is going to explode LOL! I really don't want to be the ballistic shrew. I am hoping they will make this right. We had 8 cabins in our group last year, 7 this year..... Not that that makes us special, but still......

 

We had the same thing happen. I booked 3 rooms. My friend is taking two kids 7 & 9 and 2 teenagers 13 & 15 (teens are not hers, but her boyfriend's kids) She had connecting rooms with the little ones, but something happened and they moved the 3 cabins. All of a sudden, I noticed they were not connecting anymore.

 

We have been fighting this battle for months now. The cruise leaves in less than 2 weeks and they are still trying to find a solution. The TA and RCCL are working together, but it is tough with a quad in a sold out ship. There is NOT ONE quad available. I don't know what will happen, but they are working on it. Don't give up. Contact resolutions dept. The quality of my friend's cruise will dramatically be reduced if she can't have the kids connecting next door. You just can't leave young ones alone. Not even next door! If nothing else, she will sleep on the couch in the room with them. They at least should give an OBC for the error!

[trvlgrl422]

Just thought I'd let you know about my experience in having my children in a separate cabin. We took a family cruise on Carnival. The ship did not have connecting rooms, so my 4 kids ages 16, 14, 6 and 4 were in the cabin between our cabin (DH and self) and my sister's family. Sometime during the 2nd night of the cruise my youngest went out of his room to find his mommy and got locked out of his room. He didn't remember which room was ours. SO he just sat on the floor and cried. Luckily my brother in law happened to wake to go out to smoke and found him crying out in the hallway !!!! For the rest of the cruise he slept in the bed with US !!!! Talk about scare the **** out of me. From then on we always had connecting cabins for our cruises.

 

 

How scary! I could see how that could definitely happen. Once you close those doors, they lock. How traumatizing for all of you!

[Lisichka]

Alrighty..... Now I REALLY need advice. So I called again :mad: And after yet another hour it would seem that the only progress made was confirming what I already knew, that the cabins we are booked in are not adjoining. :mad: DUH. No kidding.

 

So the question now becomes, how low do you go? I am used to being on Deck 6 and up. The current reservation is on deck 4- but it put all 7 of the cabins in our party on the same floor. And it still has a window.

 

Their solution(which was created and offered this evening on my 4th phone call) is to move us to adjoining cabins on Deck 3. So we go from window to porthole and are now seperated from the rest of the group- all who only know eachother through us.

 

Do I suck it up and just be thankful and take the cabins? Do I angle for something for the trauma and inconvienence? Do I tell them their solution kinda sucks (which I think she gathered when I suggested this was a downgrade).....

 

Advice appreciated. I am a bit miffed, I will say, not only at the "resolution" but mostly at the process. I get that the ship is very booked, but I spent a long time and there are a few key phrases that go a very long way.... "I'm sorry, I understand how frustrating this must be for you" "I appreciate your patience while I look into this" "I'm sorry no one got back to you when they thought they would be able to" Nothing. Only "Oh, that won't do" when they figured out THEIR BOOKING AGENT moved 2 little kids.

 

Personally I would contact the BBB if they cannot resolve it for you. It is not as if you are the one who made the reservation. They did it for you, they made the choice to put the kids 3 doors down....they had better solve it.

 

Heck, I could not even book my 19 year old in a cabin 3 doors down, because that was against RCI's rules. And now they are telling you it is ok for a 4 and 8 year old? I am like you: no way would I even allow kids that young to sleep in a cabin alone unless it was a connecting cabin.

 

And a downgrade? What on earth for? This is their mistake. Not yours.

[realtreebar]

not much help here with the room situation! but on our cruise in january i looked at my reservation and the room number changed on its own. I called and they told me i did it! i had all the documents and told them this was not right. they basicaly said oh well. I was not excepting this at all I had to email Mr Goldstein and within the hour they gave me a phone call.and said sorry for the mix up and gave me an onboard credit for the mess up! so I would not down grade unless they were willing to reduce the price for the rooms on deck three,and gave you some kind of onboard credit for there screw up they admitted too! they have to fix the problem of splitting two young kids from there parents when they should have known better. good luck and keep us posted!:)

[Suzanne74]

any updates??

[Brooklyn1985]

A 4yr old and 8 year old ???? There is NO WAY I would leave them by themselves, you should have made a huge deal out of it right away. It is probably too late now.

 

You either have to put them in your room Or I would not go now. The kids are too young.

[cruisnpat]

Good luck and keep us posted.

[BonnieSte]

She said that her children are FOUR and EIGHT years old! No way would I put kids that age more than a connecting door away from me!

 

I second that!

[polodad]

I really sympathize, (my kids are grown, thankfully), but if i were you I'd be pissed. I saw a post the other day where someone here was charged for an item they didn't take from the mini fridge. They emailed Goldstein, the CEO of RCCL & received an immediate phone call for a $7 item.

 

If RCCL can do that then I'd suggest you immediately leapfrog & call or email the executive offices & explain that you have a group of 15, RCCL messed it up & they are JEOPARDIZING the safety of minors by not fixing it. I'd sure as heck let them know they have some liability issues here. Good luck.

[KStevens79]

Personally, I would make them upgrade me, not down grade the room. It's their mistake; make sure they find a way to fix it. I would at least ask for an OBC for their mistake. Keep reminding them it's their mistake.

I have had my share of RCI mistakes. All they way down to moving me out of my aft JS on the day I was boarding. Let's just say I kept my room. Then they tried to move me out of it the following week (it was a B2B). I spent the whole first week making sure I'd be in that room the second week and when we went to get our new Seapass card we were moved again...

Then there was the time we opened the door and a crew member was sleeping in our cabin...

Need I say more???

But I do agree with the others, those children should not be in a cabin alone!

Please keep us updated!

Karen

[pach]

I say go for the downgrade/adjoining rooms just to assure that you do have a connecting room for you and your children.

 

I would also assume you would be getting money back for this downgraded room, correct?

 

I also like the post about emailing Mr. Goldstein, go straight to the top, don't waste your time with these customer service reps who can't do anything for you.

 

Good Luck, keep us updated!

[Suzanne74]

Then there was the time we opened the door and a crew member was sleeping in our cabin...

Need I say more???

 

OMG - I need details!!!! :D

[luvbrady]

Thanks every one for the support. FYI we did not use a TA this year because the TA did squat for us on our last 2 cruises because it was 'smooth sailing' if you will. Did not see the need for the middle man. Of course, we may reconsider going forward.

With that addressed- LOL. I sucked it up and took the deck 3 cabins. Called C&A this AM after being transferred yet again to a closed department (we will be platinum after this cruise). The C&A rep got the cabin booked. When she asked if the resolution rep had said anything about honoring the pricing I said "NO, but you will be. In fact these cabins were less when we booked than the ones we had" They are now at $499 per person. Got our confirms and they did honor the lower price- giving us a bit of a credit per cabin, but nothing more than that.

I love the email idea and will be jumping on it. I have spent more than 5 hours on the phone with RCCL to resolve a problem not of my making. Not to mention hours here and talking with our fellow travelers LOL. I just would have liked the process to have been a little more supportive and empathetic. Even if they did not take responsibility, some sort of aknowledgment of the PIA it created would have been appro. Can you imagine if we had discovered this at boarding? A group of 14?? Me and hubby freaking out, kids running wild, my girlfriends and the aunt chiming in over our shoulders..... It would have been a mess LOL!!!

[philnpen]

I don't see why people don't use a good TA. We have gone the the RCL website and found cruises, then contacted our TA who arranged everything. We have even booked a cruise while on board and had the booking transferred to our TA. Once our TA gets notified she keeps up with everything. We have received discounts because I turned 55 after we booked and RCL was giving a reduced price for people over 55. That probably wouldn't have happened if I had booked directly with RCL. If the price happens to drop on our cabin ouir TA notifies us and we receive credit. Do we happen to have a great TA, orhave other cruisers had sorry ones? I happen to think mine is tops.

[KStevens79]

[quote name='Suzanne74']OMG - I need details!!!! :D[/quote]

Well, we had two inside cabins reserved for our very short 3 night Bahama's cruise; us in one, kids in the other (ages 17 and 19). We had no problem checking in!! Boarded the ship, went to our cabins (we had friends in the cabin next to us too), opened the door (very dark inside)...
I saw a red suitcase and this head popped up from the bed and they said, "go to guest relations, you'll be upgraded." I was so stunded I shut the door. The kids were already in their cabin. We gathered our carry-on's and went to guest relations. We were upgraded to outside cabins on a higher deck.
The upgrade worked for me, but our friends we left behind. They weren't upgraded because we didnt tie our booking numbers together.

Karen

[kbt2]

[quote name='KStevens79']
The upgrade worked for me, but our friends we left behind. They weren't upgraded because we didnt tie our booking numbers together.

Karen[/QUOTE]

Actually u r less likely to be "fairy" upgraded when there are numerous booking linked together. They don't typically upgrade everyone in large groups...easier to shift single bookings then numerous. So most likelt is why u got upgrade. Love those upgrade fairies, happened more often when DH and I travel alone, but not when we book numerous cabins.

[msraye]

I am wondering why RCCL doesn't just switch the folks in the adjoining cabin with your kids? Did anyone suggest that?

[luvbrady]

[quote name='msraye']I am wondering why RCCL doesn't just switch the folks in the adjoining cabin with your kids? Did anyone suggest that?[/quote]


Wouldn't that have been perfect??? Forget us, I've been praying for the upgrade fairy to come to THEM. Since we were in the cabin that adjoined theirs that was not a consideration.... Make it simple, make everyone happy, but NOOOOOO.

So I sent off an email this afternoon, and in keeping with being nice and not a total and complete shrew, I sent it off to C&A- figuring they are supposedly customer loyalty, right? Nothing thus far... And I specifically requested a call back to discuss remaining outstanding issues- like making sure we have queens in both rooms (kids preference), will we get new luggage tags, are we going to run into troubles with the excursion we booked and so on.....

How does one get Adam's email? Because the peeps in his office are about to become my new best friends if I don't get all call in the AM!

I really hate being this person. I worked in customer service/sales phone centers for over 15 years and I always hated when people felt the need to call in and B!tch and bully to get what they wanted, which was, most of the time, what I wanted to give them. Guess now I know why...

If anyone can tell me how to get that info I'd appreciate it.

THANK YOU ALL!!! I know these boards rock, and it's because of the info and experience everyone has been so willing to share. I can even take the criticisms with a grain of salt!!:cool: Preferably with a margarita attached...

[bigeagle12]

[EMAIL="agoldstein@rccl.com"]mailto:agoldstein@rccl.com[/EMAIL]

[luvbrady]

[quote name='bigeagle12'][EMAIL="agoldstein@rccl.com"]mailto:agoldstein@rccl.com[/EMAIL][/quote]

Added to the address book! Thank you, bigeagle!!!

And BTW- to Karen with the son serving overseas- blessings to you and your family. Thank you for your service and sacrifice. Wishing your son Godspeed!

[Merion_Mom]

[quote name='luvbrady']Wouldn't that have been perfect??? Forget us, I've been praying for the upgrade fairy to come to THEM. Since we were in the cabin that adjoined theirs that was not a consideration.... Make it simple, make everyone happy, but NOOOOOO.

So I sent off an email this afternoon, and in keeping with being nice and not a total and complete shrew, I sent it off to C&A- figuring they are supposedly customer loyalty, right? Nothing thus far... And I specifically requested a call back to discuss remaining outstanding issues- like making sure we have queens in both rooms (kids preference), will we get new luggage tags, are we going to run into troubles with the excursion we booked and so on.....

How does one get Adam's email? Because the peeps in his office are about to become my new best friends if I don't get all call in the AM!

I really hate being this person. I worked in customer service/sales phone centers for over 15 years and I always hated when people felt the need to call in and B!tch and bully to get what they wanted, which was, most of the time, what I wanted to give them. Guess now I know why...

If anyone can tell me how to get that info I'd appreciate it.

THANK YOU ALL!!! I know these boards rock, and it's because of the info and experience everyone has been so willing to share. I can even take the criticisms with a grain of salt!!:cool: Preferably with a margarita attached...[/QUOTE]

[img]http://mvmedstudent.files.wordpress.com/2007/05/ist2_2537105_strawberry_margarita.jpg[/img]

[polodad]

Brady-

I was the poster who said email the top & mention liability. You did email, but not the top. give it a try. I did some research for you. Go for it. A mom fighting for her 4 yr old is not a shrew.
A wife with a 4 yr old fighting with husband may be ..., lol

Good luck.

[email]agoldstein@rccl.com[/email]
[email]rfain@rccl.com[/email]