Royal Caribbean seriously needs to fix their website

[WendyKroy]

I have had nothing but problems on the site since booking my reservation with a travel agency. It took days to just be able to do online check-in. When I called, they said, "Yeah, you'll just have to log in either really early in the morning or late at night. Our site is having problems." This went on for WEEKS.

 

Now, I'm having issues trying to reschedule our specialty dining reservations online. So again, I call, and the person with whom I spoke tells me that their online system isn't functioning properly (surprise, surprise), and that I'll have to cancel the reservations entirely and start over again. I ask if she can just change the reservations over the phone, and she states that she can not.

 

I get two simultaneous messages in red at the top of the page:

Your changes have been made.

We are unable to process your changes at this time.

 

It's also looking like instead of charging me $50 for one night's reservations, I'm being charged for both the cancelled as well as the modified reservation ($100).

 

Come on, folks. This is the 21st century. There are plenty of good companies that could run the website so it functioned.

 

OK, vent over.

[unklez]

I have had nothing but problems on the site since booking my reservation with a travel agency.....................

 

Yeah their website sucks.

[sotonjoe]

I spoke to RCL UK today as I too was having problems with modifying speciality dining bookings online. Their response was that they were unable to manually override the system and that I would have to make anew reservation and cancel the old reservation once onboard.

 

Knowing there maybe have been delays in receiving the refund, I decided to wait till onboard and contact the restaurant concerned directly to change the time of my booking.

[bluecookies]

Odd. I've never had any problems.

[Moondawgie]

I hear ya loud and clear!

 

For months I could access my reservation by signing in, then all of a sudden I had to go through the whole long process by logging out and going to Online Check In ... RCI Cust Svc blamed my TA. Then all of a sudden it appeared again the original way ...

 

Then as I got information such as flights and passport info, etc. for my whole group (4 cabins, 9 people), I filled them in for on-line check in. Well, my information disappeared and the only thing left was the payment section. RCI Cust Svc said I didn't save the information! Not true.

 

I still don't have a correct answer about My Time Dining (booking before or on board).

 

I'm thinking RCI Customer Service people need some training and the website needs an intelligent administrator.

 

Thanks for the change to rant!

[JanineM]

I have honestly never had an issue, other than the usual Saturday night maintenance. And I check my ressies about twice a day because I'm watching for price changes.

[cruiseREF]

Same here... no problem for me.

 

I just wish they could let their international Crown & Anchor Society Members use their section on the website. Currently its only available to U.S Residents (maybe some other "first world" countries too).

[Broch]

Same here... no problem for me.

 

I just wish they could let their international Crown & Anchor Society Members use their section on the website. Currently its only available to U.S Residents (maybe some other "first world" countries too).

 

Quite right, there has been a message on our UK site that states that they will be extending the Crown and Anchor service internationally soon. That was only 3 years ago. So give them a chance, they are working on it. Ha Ha LoL

Edited July 20, 2009 by Broch

[celle]

Quite right, there has been a message on our UK site that states that they will be extending the Crown and Anchor service internationally soon. That was only 3 years ago. So give them a chance, they are working on it. Ha Ha LoL

 

It's five years since we first tried to access the C&A service for us (living in NZ). Same message as you get, same lack of progress. We even wrote to C&A once and they replied, "Soon". Yeah, right!

[WendyKroy]

I spoke to RCL UK today as I too was having problems with modifying speciality dining bookings online. Their response was that they were unable to manually override the system and that I would have to make anew reservation and cancel the old reservation once onboard.

 

Knowing there maybe have been delays in receiving the refund, I decided to wait till onboard and contact the restaurant concerned directly to change the time of my booking.

 

I was planning on waiting until I was on board, but the customer service person on the phone specifically told me not to do that, because the reservation I wanted to cancel was on the first day, and she insisted that if I didn't cancel more than 24 hours in advance I'd be charged for it.

 

I think I got it all sorted out (cancelled the old one, made a new one), but it should not have been that complicated.

[ajpack]

I tried to make a payment over the weekend on our 2010 cruise and the website wouldn't accept it. The customer rep said they are having problems. Also tried to check the price of another cruise today, and wasn't able to do that either.

[Rancher Dave]

Sounds like you have had more than your share of web site problems. I know on occasion I have had my problems with the web site as well but generally it has worked well enough.

 

Document in an email all of the specific issues and sent it to RCCL corporate so they can try to isolate and fix the bugs. Your pain may help others in the future. (Not that it excuses all you heartache with the system.)

 

Enjoy your cruise regardless of the web site!!!

[PrincesScuba]

Wendy, your problems may be related to the fact that your cruise is not a "regular" Royal Caribbean cruise, but a charter by Nickelodeon.

[Toddcan]

On a slightly related note: RC needs to make it easier to search for cruises. If you have ever searched on the Carnival website, you will see what a proper, user-friendly site looks like. Night vs Day in my opinion, with RC coming up VERY short.

 

People use the internet every day, and even the older generations (my parents, for example, who are in their 70s) are internet savy. For crying out loud (I got that experession from my Dad :p), make us WANT to search on your website.

[sotonjoe]

I was planning on waiting until I was on board, but the customer service person on the phone specifically told me not to do that, because the reservation I wanted to cancel was on the first day, and she insisted that if I didn't cancel more than 24 hours in advance I'd be charged for it.

 

I think I got it all sorted out (cancelled the old one, made a new one), but it should not have been that complicated.

 

 

Yes, it puts you in a difficult position if the booking is for the first night of the cruise because of the regulations you pointed out.

 

Out of interest, how did you manage to cancel the booking in the end?

[linkerbink]

I get two simultaneous messages in red at the top of the page:

Your changes have been made.

We are unable to process your changes at this time.

 

Don't ya' love it? I guess they're just covering all the bases!

[WendyKroy]

Wendy, your problems may be related to the fact that your cruise is not a "regular" Royal Caribbean cruise, but a charter by Nickelodeon.

 

That's what I assumed too, but it turns out I had a regular booking number, just like any cruise booked with any travel agent. It was just the site, not being able to access a large number of reservations. It's back to "normal" now (can see shore excursions, specialty dining, etc.).

[WendyKroy]

Yes, it puts you in a difficult position if the booking is for the first night of the cruise because of the regulations you pointed out.

 

Out of interest, how did you manage to cancel the booking in the end?

 

It was so confusing. I had to go back in and modify my reservation, making the number of people zero in the drop down. Then I had to go back in, and start a whole new reservation.

 

I have the dinner reservation now, but no guarantees that I'm not being double charged. The customer service person on the phone assured me all was fine, and I did print out the goofy confirmations so I'd have some proof later that I did in fact go in and make the change in a timely manner.

[WendyKroy]

Don't ya' love it? I guess they're just covering all the bases!

 

It did make me laugh.

[slrmerc73]

I’ve never had a problem with the website itself. No technical glitches whatsoever. But I did have a problem with an excursion I booked online. I booked a Segway tour and picked a specific time. There were no indications of any problems and the reservation went through just fine. I checked my booking and my excursions obsessively in the days leading up to the cruise. The night before the scheduled Segway tour, the excursion tickets were slipped under our cabin door. My mistake was that I didn’t bother checking the time on the tickets. Turns out they booked us for an earlier time so we missed our tour. We did get a refund so it wasn’t a big deal – but it was annoying. I mean, what’s the point of having online reservations then?

[sotonjoe]

It was so confusing. I had to go back in and modify my reservation, making the number of people zero in the drop down. Then I had to go back in, and start a whole new reservation.

 

I have the dinner reservation now, but no guarantees that I'm not being double charged. The customer service person on the phone assured me all was fine, and I did print out the goofy confirmations so I'd have some proof later that I did in fact go in and make the change in a timely manner.

 

 

That's it; worked for me too thanks to your instructions! I can't believe the RCL technical team I spoke couldn't advise how to do this though.:rolleyes:

[Fjumpo]

Greetings from a newbie here on the forums, but not a quite newbie to RCCL...

 

Has anyone but me experienced technical problems when trying to pay for a cruise on royalcaribbean.com as of late? I'm sitting, here trying to make the first payment for our 8 night eastern caribbean on Liberty this October. However, at the billing page, after entering my credit card information, all I get is the lovely error message "We are currently unable to process your request. Please try again later."

 

Any ideas? Tried both yesterday and today, still the same error message. I'm in Sweden, trying to pay with a swedish credit card. Shouldn't be a problem, should it? Worked fine back in 2004... :rolleyes:

[numberguy]

You're not the only one. I've been trying several times, just because I want to see what the page looks like. My partner is putting this all on his card, so he'll be paying, but I just want to see what their payment page is like.

 

I still have no idea.

 

--Michael

[HUNKY]

This year on Royal and last on Celebrity, I was unable to make my deposit payments.

 

Both times, after inputting all the info, the screens went blank. Both years I had to call the next day and do it over the phone.

 

I imagine this is why they want you to use a travel agent! Get's the monkey off their back.

[Ausgirl]

I haven't had any problems with the site -but my gripe is about the photos of the cabins - when we were looking to book our cruise, I wanted to see what the accomodation was like. Those photos (for all the RC ships) haven't been updated probably ever. I almost didn't book RC as the cabins looked old and outdated, until I saw their cruise brochure at the travel agent, with more recent cabin photos. Compared to other cruise line websites, this is not good at all.