Customer Service

Complaint

0
acsarmored
Country: United States
About two weeks ago my wife and I decided to book our first Royal Caribbean Cruise from Galveston, TX to the Western Caribbean. Our decision was prompted by a comment my father made to me about trying to find a way to get together and see one another.

History:
I am 50 years old, and never met my biological father until four years ago when I was 46. I searched for over 20 years and was able to locate him in Oklahoma. I live in California and we do not share the same last names as I was adopted. Our relationship is very good, and last year we were invited to take a cruise with them to a different part of the Western Caribbean. My wife is a school teacher, and her vacation schedule did not coincide with the cruise, so we were unable to go.

Two weeks ago, my father told me that he wanted to coordinate our schedules so we could spend some time together again. He told us he was going on another cruise on the 19th of February, and I told him that when he returned, we would work on getting together. When I got off the telephone, my wife and I discussed surprising him, by going on the same cruise. It just so happens that she is on her one week break during that time so, without him knowing, we booked the cruise.

I telephoned RCCL to get some help in simply surprising him on-board ship. Perhaps getting them to seat us at the same table for dinner on the first night. You would think that this would be a simple request. I had managed to obtain my fathers booking number prior to calling RCCL. I went through four different people on two call to RCCL, ending with a supervisor who outright refused to assist us.

They insisted that they could not assist us unless we told my father in advance, which would ruin the element of surprise. Although my wife and I have extensive river cruising experience throughout the world, this is our first real large "Cruise ship" experience. Our other ship experiences have been fantastic and we found great cooperation by those lines. As to my request, the supervisor at RCCL told me that I would simply just have to find him on board ship amongst the 2500+ passengers.

I have a bad taste in my mouth already about RCCL and hope this is not the beginning of a very disappointing experience. I am just disappointed in the lack of customer service. I asked several times for them to simply help me arrange something, even if it was not sitting at the same table at dinner and they refused. As a business owner, customer satisfaction is my top priority. It is too bad that Royal Caribbean apparently does not take the same business approach.

DC, San Jose, California

Comments

  • 0
    TJDH
    I've cruised with RCCL for the last ten years and their customer service as continually gone down hill in the last few years, charging more but removing most of the perks which made RCCL stand alone, every cruise there has been something else taken away.  There was a time they would bend over backwards to help you out.  I had a problem on my last cruise in October of 2012.  When I got home and tried to resolve or discuss the problem with their customer service, it was like pulling teeth.  I talked to several people and only got robot responses, they were all obviously reading from a guideline defined by RCCL's top executives. I was told over and over again, I'm sorry that is against our policy.  My once fantastic review of RCCL has been diminished.  I was once one of their best non-paid salesmen, but now I am searching for a new yearly vacation where my money well be appreciated, maybe I'll try a river cruise.

Post a new comment