Phillip
Itinerary: Bahamas
Sailing Date: April 26th, 2010
Age: 33
Occupation: Electronics Tech
Number of Cruises: 1st Cruise
My wife and I just got back from our anniversary cruise with
Royal Caribbean on the Majesty of the Sea. This was our
first trip with them and most definitely our last. We were
supposed to leave out of Miami on 4/26/10, but due to
thunderstorms over Miami we had two cancelled flights and
about a four-hour delay on our last flight. We knew at the
time of the delayed flight that we were going to miss our
ship. I had to scramble to find a flight and hotel in
Nassau. This is a complicated process in the airport with
just a cell phone.
This is the point where my
disgust with RCCL began. I contacted a representative of
RCCL and told them my situation. I was told that there was
nothing they could do except notify the ship that we may be
boarding in Nassau. The trip was paid well in advance and I
would have been out of $1200 if we were unable to make the
cruise. Its hard to muster the thought that RCCL had no
concerns or help a paying customer in a time of need. Well
we made it to the ship in Nassau, and had more trouble with
guest relations pertaining to all necessary documents needed
on board.
There were several other guest that had missed their flight
and ended up in Nassau. Before we boarded the ship, the
other guests all received envelopes but there was not one
for my wife and I. Later we found out the envelope would
contain the necessary information on how to deal with US
Immigration in Key West since we missed them in Miami. There
were also several small issues dealing with paper work not
being delivered to our state room on deck 8. Guest Relations
keep blaming this on the state room attendants, my thought
was, who was suppose to give the attendant the paper work
anyway!
When we arrived in Key West and waited in a long line on
deck 3 to get onto the island, my wife thought she heard
them call our name to go to guest relations. Because I did
not want to lose our place in the long line, I went up to
guest relations to inquire. When I approached guest
services, the line was extremely long so I asked a nearby
crew member if our name was called. He didn't know and told
me to wait in the guest services line. Thinking our name was
not called (why would it be) I proceeded to find my wife
still waiting in line. About 15 minutes later, we tried to
exit the ship. We were then pulled to the side when entering
our seapass card and were escorted to immigration, just to
be told that we could have been in really big trouble for
trying to exit the ship.
My wife was in tears. He then looked at our passports, told
us we are ok to exit, but to get in the next line for non-US
citizens, that took us another 20-minutes to go through.
Shaken up we made a day on the island. Upon reboarding the
ship from Key West, we asked to speak to a guest relations
manager. One was not available and we were told they would
call us in our room. We have not heard from them yet!
Then, on departure morning, we received a statement of
charges to our seapass card. It told us to visit guest
relations to settle our account, even though we had signed
up online to link our seapass to our credit card, just like
most people do. Later we found out that guest relations
should have asked to see our credit card upon boarding to
execute that process. Upon returning home, we called a
customer service supervisor that seemed unconcerned and
proceeded to tell us that most individuals are happy with a
simple apology. Each of these items in itself seems
miniscule, but Royal Caribbean did not show proper customer
service in any of these situations, which added up to be one
big disappointment in the company.
If it were not for the friendliness and professionalism of
the wait staff, security, and shore excursion staff, this
trip would have been a complete waste of money. What if
someone was unable to pay or find a flight and hotel to
board to ship at the next port of call, would RC have any
more concern or help since they already had their money in
hand? I doubt it! We did learn two valuable lessons. One,
fly to your departure city the day before. Two, don't depend
on RCCL to assist you in any way if trouble arises!
By the way, there were other couples in the airport in the
same situation but were traveling with Carnival. Carnival
scheduled their flight and hotel in their next port and paid
for it. And no, they didn't have travel insurance either!
