Fed up with royal caribbean - never again

[long4theocean]

We cruised on the Liberty of the Seas March 14th with a group of 43. The air was purchased along with the cruise. When we arrived at the airport at 5am to fly out, I was advised that RCCL had not paid for my son's ticket. He had a seat assignment that I had checked on so I assumed everything was good. I had talked to Delta confirming the reservation and seat assignments. They were making last call so we paid 50.00 to change my husbands name to our son's name. It was his senior year Spring Break with a lot of his friends and their families. There were no tickets to purchase as everything was oversold.

 

I called Royal Caribbean while in Atlanta and got no help. I called again when arriving in Miami and spent the whole rest of the afternoon on the phone with them. They tried to offer my husband a flight with a 12 hour layover in Chicago and then said if we found one to go ahead and purchase it and then get it reimbursed when we arrived back home. We got him a one way to San Juan for the whopping price of $905.00. At least that went well, he arrived just before the ship and met up with us. Onboard they acted very cool and like they did not understand why I was so upset. He missed his first 3 days of vacation.

 

It is now 2 months later and we still have not received payment back. I called the first day back and they had me file an insurance claim which was denied since it was Royal's error. When I call to check they told me the other day that they only cut checks once a month. That is crap. So we should receive a check in the next 2 to 3 weeks. We did receive 300.00 each future cruise credits, but my husband promises that he will never cruise with them again, so those are of no use to us. Just when I reach Platnium. This is just so upsetting to think that this is their mistake and then they take 3 months to pay back almost 1000.00 dollars. If we do not receive it by the end of the month we are contacting an attorney. This is just wrong. This was my first time to do air thru Royal and last.........

[Heard02]

You have every reason to be mad.

I'm glad you are sharing with others!!!

[Janet Foster]

Call the radio station, TV station, local paper.. Once RCCL hears of the bad publicity they may react. I am so sorry you have to go through this.. I do remember reading about you on your Roll Call posting.... I think this is terrible.

[The Grumpus]

Just curious, did just one person in your family set all this up? I have a tough enough time trying to set up cruises with my family of 6 and I use a TA.:rolleyes: Can't imagine trying to deal with 43 people's different needs. You'll probably be reimbursed but that doesn't really do anything for missing the first 3 days of the cruse. Have they given you any speculation as to how just that one ticket payment was missed?

[CrusinAgain]

I'm so sorry to read this. We had purchased cruise air before and it was horrid. Not as bad as yours where they didn't buy a seat but they had my family and friends spread all over the full plane for a 9 hour 1-way trip and no one sat together and no one when asked would let us sit together - none of us. The cruises wait until the last 30 days to purchase the air and of course we get what seats are left over. After that experience, I do not ever want to have to purchase air from the cruise line again. They should be apologizing and getting that check out to you immediately instead of you having to wait. If they don't take care of their customers, another cruise line will.

[Rancher Dave]

Definitely a bad situation. I agree with others, this is one reason booking your own air or having your TA book it for you is a good idea.

 

Personally I want to control what airlines and flights I'm on...so would likely never allow the cruise line to take this on for me.

 

Did you talk with Resolutions or with someone in Adam Goldstein's office? Pressure the top to make good on their promises. I suspect ultimately you will get paid, but I really do wonder how your son could be checked in and have a seat assigned if the tickey was not paid.

 

Did Delta ask folks to get off the flight to accomodate overbookings? I wonder if it really was a RCCL error or a Delta error? Just a thought. Regardless, it is sad to miss 3 days of vacation.

[Merion_Mom]

We cruised on the Liberty of the Seas March 14th with a group of 43. The air was purchased along with the cruise. When we arrived at the airport at 5am to fly out, I was advised that RCCL had not paid for my son's ticket. He had a seat assignment that I had checked on so I assumed everything was good. I had talked to Delta confirming the reservation and seat assignments. They were making last call so we paid 50.00 to change my husbands name to our son's name. It was his senior year Spring Break with a lot of his friends and their families. There were no tickets to purchase as everything was oversold.

 

I called Royal Caribbean while in Atlanta and got no help. I called again when arriving in Miami and spent the whole rest of the afternoon on the phone with them. They tried to offer my husband a flight with a 12 hour layover in Chicago and then said if we found one to go ahead and purchase it and then get it reimbursed when we arrived back home. We got him a one way to San Juan for the whopping price of $905.00. At least that went well, he arrived just before the ship and met up with us. Onboard they acted very cool and like they did not understand why I was so upset. He missed his first 3 days of vacation.

 

It is now 2 months later and we still have not received payment back. I called the first day back and they had me file an insurance claim which was denied since it was Royal's error. When I call to check they told me the other day that they only cut checks once a month. That is crap. So we should receive a check in the next 2 to 3 weeks. We did receive 300.00 each future cruise credits, but my husband promises that he will never cruise with them again, so those are of no use to us. Just when I reach Platnium. This is just so upsetting to think that this is their mistake and then they take 3 months to pay back almost 1000.00 dollars. If we do not receive it by the end of the month we are contacting an attorney. This is just wrong. This was my first time to do air thru Royal and last.........

 

 

This sounds absolutely horrendous.

 

I don't know with whom you have been speaking so far, but try Corporate Guest Relations.

[Mikensusanl]

So sorry to hear about the difficulties you encountered. We always book our own airfare and cruise for that matter. We used a TA once for our first one and decided we could do this just as easily on our own. I understand that for such a large group it poses a host of challenges to deal with.

I really hope this all works out for you.

[Holly g]

Oh my goodness! I would have been upset as well!

[octagonmike]

There are a lot of complainers on here but yours is probably the most justified I have read in a while.

 

That's really bad service.

[wraithe]

We cruised on the Liberty of the Seas March 14th with a group of 43. The air was purchased along with the cruise. When we arrived at the airport at 5am to fly out, I was advised that RCCL had not paid for my son's ticket. He had a seat assignment that I had checked on so I assumed everything was good. I had talked to Delta confirming the reservation and seat assignments. They were making last call so we paid 50.00 to change my husbands name to our son's name. It was his senior year Spring Break with a lot of his friends and their families. There were no tickets to purchase as everything was oversold.

 

I only have one question, how do you get a seat assignment if the seat isn't paid for? That sounds like a Delta problem to me. I hate it that your vacation was so screwed up, Hope it gets worked out.

[jtwisconsin]

I am so sorry about your flight problems and how long it has taken to get reimbursed. I also make my own travel arrangements (I fly often for work so am used to doing it myself) and always suggest others do the same.

 

If you ever do find out exactly how this could have happened (especially after a seat assignment has been made) I am sure that I am not the only one who would appreciate you letting us know. I wouldn't be surprised if this was a Delta mistake and not RCI.

[QueensChick]

I'm so sorry that this happened to your family. It's outrageous! I understand that mistakes happen, and this one is a whopper, but at this point RCI should be bending over backwards to make amends. I hope it gets resolved to your satisfaction.

[kicker]

Wait A Second: I don't think anyone else mentioned this, but if he had a seat assignment there must have been room for him on the plane, so why couldn't he have just paid for the seat at that time? I've heard of bad flight schedules from RCI (we never use their air anymore after our first cruise had our family of four sitting in different parts of the plane), but something is not making sense here. I'm not trying to flame the original poster, but something doesn't add up.

[lounger]

After reading this post I must admit I'm getting a little nervous.We booked our November 22,2009 Freedom of the Seas cruise/air through Royal Caribbean.I will definitely be making a few phone calls as it gets closer to our sail date.

Thanks for the warning!!!

[Sue L]

After reading this post I must admit I'm getting a little nervous.We booked our November 22,2009 Freedom of the Seas cruise/air through Royal Caribbean.I will definitely be making a few phone calls as it gets closer to our sail date.

Thanks for the warning!!!

 

 

You haven't paid in full yet. Look for your own air and cancel the cruise air, then you know exactly what it happening, no guessing and no surprises.

[octagonmike]

After reading this post I must admit I'm getting a little nervous.We booked our November 22,2009 Freedom of the Seas cruise/air through Royal Caribbean.I will definitely be making a few phone calls as it gets closer to our sail date.

Thanks for the warning!!!

 

 

 

I'm sure this is a VERY rare occurence.

[crusinmama06]

After reading this post I must admit I'm getting a little nervous.We booked our November 22,2009 Freedom of the Seas cruise/air through Royal Caribbean.I will definitely be making a few phone calls as it gets closer to our sail date.

Thanks for the warning!!!

 

Unless RCCL had a fabulous deal on cruise air, there is no reason to use it in PA, especially if you are flying out of Phillie (I see you are in the Poconos). I've taken direct flights from Phillie to MCO and they've been $117 round trip. RCCL flights for the same PA airports are always more. So I would double check that. It just doesn't seem worth it to me.

 

Long4TheOcean - That would be horrible and I understand why you would be so upset. I hope you get some kind of resolution out of it. And please come back and update us.

[MrZoey]

I am so sorry to hear about the terrible experience you and your family had!

Our first cruise was with Disney(9 years ago), and we had some problems with the air part of the trip. After that I swore to always take care of our own flights. A couple of years ago we had some flight cancellations on Delta, and all our bookings got transfered to another flight automatically (we were notified by text message while sitting on the runway, the steward hadn't even been told we were going back to the gate). Everyone else around us, who had booked with other vendors (such as travelocity), did not have such a seamless change. I almost think the airlines take care of the people that book directly with them first, then everyone else. I hope you have your issues fixed soon!

[long4theocean]

I didn't include that I am the travel agent that took the group. I had many problems throughout with RCCL and the group but everything had been resolved. Everything looked in order with all of the tickets. The one thing that I am grateful for is that it was at least in our family and not one of my customers. I already got on the plane crying, I cannot even imagine how stresssed I would have been if it would have been one of my customers.

 

It is making it very hard to want to sell any RCCL. I have been trying to steer people another direction.

[djhuff]

This is a tough one to figure out. RCI should step up to the plate and help on this, but I can see where there were problems at the airport with multiple people on the transaction.

 

This is the main reason I buy my air directly from the airline when possible. Even when you go through online travel sites, you really are not buying from the airline, you are buying from another company, and that is the way the airline sees it too. If there is a problem, it's easier for the gate agents to blame the travel site/cruise line than to work out the real issue. If you bought from them, it's between you and the airline. If there is a problem, one of the two standing at the terminal is at fault, so resolutions can be reached without getting a third party involved.

 

Sorry to hear about this. Hope it works out for you.

[lil nemo]

The problem is there air dept. which by the way is entity but is separate, So the right hand doesn't talk to the left hand!

We did air with RCL this last cruise, never never never again!

I suggest not using there air program. Most problems solved! poof!

[long4theocean]

Wait A Second: I don't think anyone else mentioned this, but if he had a seat assignment there must have been room for him on the plane, so why couldn't he have just paid for the seat at that time? I've heard of bad flight schedules from RCI (we never use their air anymore after our first cruise had our family of four sitting in different parts of the plane), but something is not making sense here. I'm not trying to flame the original poster, but something doesn't add up.

 

Here is what I believe happened. With it being a group the group air department sets up everything. They take care of the seat assignments and everything. The reason that we were not able to purchase a seat is because every flight has a no show factor figured into the numbers. Thirty minutes before a flight departs seats are released, which means that if the flight is oversold this allows this seat to be assigned to someone else. The reason there was not a seat to be bought is because it was zeroed out, in other words nothing left to be sold. I do not know about how much it was oversold because we got to the gate on last call. There were people waiting to get aboard that did not make it. Royal Caribbean has admitted that it was there error.

[long4theocean]

You haven't paid in full yet. Look for your own air and cancel the cruise air, then you know exactly what it happening, no guessing and no surprises.

 

I agree. Royal's air is way to overpriced in most situaions anyway.

[ziggypup]

Did you at least enjoy the cruise?