Just back from 01-04 Explorer of the Seas

I just returned yesterday from a 9 day Caribbean on the Explorer of the
Seas. Got welcomed by a small snow storm ..... I guess I'm back in the real
world again.

This was my third cruise in the last 12 months , and my fifth overall . I've
sailed with Royal Caribbean , Carnival , Norwegian , and Holland America .
I'm not an expert yet .... but am starting to have some experience to draw
on , and I think I can say Royal Caribbean is at the bottom of that list
regarding customer satisfaction. I'm not referring as much to the product
they offer , the ship was incredible ( although the cabins were pretty beat
up ) , the food was very good for the most part , and the shows were
excellent . Except for the casino staff , the crew were all friendly and did
a good job . The itinerary was pretty bad , but I suppose I should have
researched it a little better before I booked .

I am referring more to customer relations ... or lack of . I cruised Royal
Caribbean 7 years ago , and can say things sure have changed since then. We
experienced a number of problems this cruise including a 5 hour delay in
embarking , no food in the only 24 hour eatery , missing a port , no towels
by the pool after seven or even available from housekeeping , and a very
obvious policy of trying to separate passengers from every possible dime.
Not all the problems were the fault of Royal Caribbean (medical emergency ,
weather) - but the way they choose to handle those problems that were beyond
their control , combined with their lack of concern about rectifying those
within their control , all led me to the conclusion that selling the cruise
is more important than actually providing the best possible experience for
their customers . While they were very good at apologizing for a situation ,
and pointing out that whatever the problem was wasn't their fault , they
sure weren't willing to go the extra step to solve it , instead just pass it
on to the passenger .

One example of this is when the pizza oven broke in the only 24 hour food
venue. It was about 2:00 am , the casino was just closing , and people were
hungry . I stopped in for a bite to eat , and there were 3 crew members
wiping down tables, filling napkin dispensers , act . I ordered pizza , and
was told the oven was broken . Ok - that can happen ... so I ordered the
only other thing on the menu , a sandwich . I was told they were out ....
they went through more than usual because they had no pizza ! I suggested
they make some more , as people kept coming in looking for food . I was told
that job was the cooks - and he wasn't there. They were very sorry , it
wasn't their fault , but there was nothing that could be done about this
unfortunate situation. I was amazed at this . They did suggest room service
, but that's about a two hour wait , and you also have to stay in your cabin
in the meantime . I made two suggestions to them , but both were "
impossible at this time " . One was to either get the cook or go in the
kitchen and make a tray of sandwiches themselves . After all , there were
three of them with little to do as there was no food except for some
cookies. The other was have the full service kitchen ,- one deck down , and
capable of preparing meals for thousands of people and was currently staffed
and operating providing room service meals and doing prep work for
breakfast , - make them up a couple of trays of food and send it up . I
won't believe either suggestion was "impossible " . It simply just wasn't
very important to have food , and not worth the trouble getting it , it was
just easier to smile and make excuses and do nothing .

This was not the only example of this attitude , but I won't get into other
issues here . My point is just Royal Caribbean seems to have taken big step
away from good customer service - in fact this was the worst cruising
experience I've had , and I've not ever heard as many other people have
negative things to say about their cruise as I did during this one. In fact
, even several crew members were openly critical of management - the room
steward said we couldn't get enough towel's because management was " too
cheap " to have enough to go around , and complained that she always had to
run around from room to room to get unused ones to give to people who needed
them , or dig them up elsewhere . I'm convinced this great towel shortage is
merely a way to keep people from stealing them ... I understand they are
supposed to keep of track of how many you use and you will be charged for
any you don't return.

Anyway .. this is turning into a rant , which wasn't my intention. Has
anyone else noticed what I have ? Is Royal Caribbean willing to give up
customer satisfaction for a few extra dollars ? Do they seem less than
average to anyone else ? I doubt anything negative I experienced on this
cruise would have happened on any of the other lines I've recently been on ,
and was very surprised by Royal Caribbean . Even Norwegian , known more as a
budget line , had significantly better problem solving policies and an
overall desire to make your cruise as good as possible. Never had a problem
on Carnival , and Holland America bent over backwards trying to make people
happy .

Any feedback would be interesting , especially from someone who was on the
same cruise.




Ray

"Ray" wrote in message
t...

It sounds as though a few problems, aggravated by crew members who didn't
care, made the cruise a negative one. I haven't been on RCI for a number of
years & have been with Princess & NCL, not because of RCI's reputation but
that Princess seems to offer us incentives to return & we're satisfied with
the line.
I suppose if I had wanted a towel after 7 PM I would have been annoyed but
after a full day at the beach or pool I'm not looking for one at that time
(as most others aren't). The next day I would have planned ahead & taken an
extra one to be prepared.
Not to defend the crew members at the pizza place but they probably weren't
food handlers although they could have gotten their supervisor to correct
the situation. Strange. It only takes a few apathetic crew members to give
the company a bad impression.

On Jan 14, 9:25*pm, "Ray" wrote:

Is Royal Caribbean willing to give up
customer satisfaction for a few extra dollars ? Do they seem less than
average to anyone else ? I doubt anything negative I experienced on this
cruise would have happened on any of the other lines I've recently been on

Ray,

I have a cruise on Explorer of the Seas - my first on a Voyager class
- coming up in just over 2 months so I read your post with great
interest. I don't think what you experienced is limited to RCI. In the
last 18 months I've taken cruises on Celebrity, HAL, Princess and
Carnival, and beyond that by just another 12 months NCL and RCI. I've
been taking cruises, nearly every year, for 25 years - often 2 or more
per year (lately 3-4 per year). I have also been on other cruise lines
such as Cunard and Costa as well as other lines that no longer exist.
The cruises I've taken recently on all the major lines have been
underwhelming, leaving me with the feeling that I should have done
better with my time and money.

My perception is that while the ships being built by the mass market
lines get more and more magnificent, the hotel side of the business
grows more and more homogeneous and mediocre. The lines attempt to be
all things to all people and the end result seems to be that they all
do a lot of things merely "ok" and one or two things exceptionally
well. I'd never expect anything but average on a ship carrying 3000
+/- passengers.

Perhaps the only way to get "above average" or truly superior cruises
is to book the up-market lines such as Oceania, Silversea, Seabourn,
Regency and maybe Crystal. The pattern here should suggest smaller
ships with much lower passenger capacity. In fact, beyond the three
cruises I have booked in 2008 (two which are firm - both aboard
Explorer, the third is up for grabs) I'm considering taking far fewer
cruises on more premium lines.

Warren

Ray wrote:
I just returned yesterday from a 9 day Caribbean on the Explorer of the
Seas. Got welcomed by a small snow storm ..... I guess I'm back in the real
world again.

This was my third cruise in the last 12 months , and my fifth overall . I've
sailed with Royal Caribbean , Carnival , Norwegian , and Holland America .
I'm not an expert yet .... but am starting to have some experience to draw
on , and I think I can say Royal Caribbean is at the bottom of that list
regarding customer satisfaction.

You're scaring me, Ray! We're leaving on the Explorer next Friday. As
with Boomer, I don't think the particular problems you singled out would
have been issues for me, but I'd hate to think they were indicative of
the entire cruise experience.

I'll keep my fingers crossed and be sure to let you know how it turns
out when we get back.

~ Peri

Ray, While you only have 5 cruises under your belt your well on your way
to being a cruise expert. I now have 21 cruises under my belt and I
still am learning secrets. I only sailed one Voyager Class Ship and got
some "indifferent" attitude from a crew membered so I know how that can
really leave a bad impression on you.
I think the cruise lines (as a whole) don't do enough for the late night
passengers in the food department. Years ago - 15 or so - Carnival used
to roll out a breakfast buffet outside the disco starting around 2 AM.
Bacon, eggs the works. They also had a make your own crape buffet.
Lets not forget the midnight buffets. Its now all been replace by 24
hour pizza. As soon as that oven went down a manager should have been
contacted, maint. called and the kitchen notified to begin wrapping food
to transport to the pizza area. All room service food is prepared and
wrapped anyhow. They should have had a backup plan in place in the
event of that oven going down (which I'm sure happens all the time -
running 24/7) and always have 1 station on the ship serving food at all
times. I think its unacceptable for any line to have more than a 30
min. wait for room service. 2 hours at 2AM is poor staffing.

Well... it wasn't as much that they didn't have towels available , it was
more that in general they were made difficult to come by . Even BEFORE seven
, you couldn't just get a towel , you had to exchange a wet one for a clean
one . After seven , you can't even do that .Housekeeping became the best
place to get them , thus causing the difficulty for the room attendant to
easily locate any

As far as the pizza oven situation , it wasn't really a pizza place , it was
a 24 hour sandwich \ pizza \ coffee shop , and a supervisor was the one who
suggested room service.

I'm not exactly nit picking ... the cruise wasn't ruined by these things .
I'm just making an observation about Royal Caribbean in general. There were
other issues , an absolute fiasco at the terminal during embarkation. The
ship left 5 hours late , and 3000+ people were kept in a terminal that was
clearly too small for everyone , half had to stand by their luggage the
entire time . Most were not notified of the delay in advance , and during
this time we got very little information regarding the situation. My party
had to wait in line on 3 times , once to check in , a few hours later to get
our cabin keys , a few hours after that to get a shuttle when it was
finally time to board the ship . Each line was 45 minutes to an hour , and
involved making your way through a crowd milling about because there was no
place to sit . No place to leave your bags , so everyone had their carry on
with them , which made making your way through the crowd very difficult...
and apparently this was not the first time this has happened . The first
time they made everyone wait outside in the cold for 4 hours , so I guess
this was better . They are absolutely unprepared to deal with a problem like
a big delay , the ship holds far more people than the terminal can support.
I felt a small onboard credit would have gone a long way to make the people
happy .... I asked for a soda card for my 10 year old , and was told that
Royal Caribbean's position is that they did not cause the delay , so were
not responsible for any inconvience suffered by the passengers. Well...they
didn't cause the delay , but the way it was handled caused 75 % of the
inconvience !

Anyhow , again , we survived all these things and more , and still had a
good time , but it just became apparent that Royal Caribbean doesn't seem to
mind that much if their passengers aren't real happy.


"Boomer" wrote in message
. ..

"Ray" wrote in message
t...

It sounds as though a few problems, aggravated by crew members who didn't
care, made the cruise a negative one. I haven't been on RCI for a number
of years & have been with Princess & NCL, not because of RCI's reputation
but that Princess seems to offer us incentives to return & we're satisfied
with the line.
I suppose if I had wanted a towel after 7 PM I would have been annoyed but
after a full day at the beach or pool I'm not looking for one at that time
(as most others aren't). The next day I would have planned ahead & taken
an extra one to be prepared.
Not to defend the crew members at the pizza place but they probably
weren't food handlers although they could have gotten their supervisor to
correct the situation. Strange. It only takes a few apathetic crew members
to give the company a bad impression.

Warren ,

Thanks for the input . I've been on some of the lines you mentioned , and
ALL seemed better at guest relations . I'm not expecting a superior cruise ,
just what I perceive to be average . This particular cruise was well below
average regarding handling of problems , and even a willingness to do so .

Take all the problems out of the equation , and it would have been at
least average , mainly because there would have been no way of knowing that
they were lying when they said that they wanted us to have a great time !

They do talk the talk .... however when put to the test failed miserably .


Ray .















"Warren" wrote in message
...
On Jan 14, 9:25 pm, "Ray" wrote:

Is Royal Caribbean willing to give up
customer satisfaction for a few extra dollars ? Do they seem less than
average to anyone else ? I doubt anything negative I experienced on this
cruise would have happened on any of the other lines I've recently been on

Ray,

I have a cruise on Explorer of the Seas - my first on a Voyager class
- coming up in just over 2 months so I read your post with great
interest. I don't think what you experienced is limited to RCI. In the
last 18 months I've taken cruises on Celebrity, HAL, Princess and
Carnival, and beyond that by just another 12 months NCL and RCI. I've
been taking cruises, nearly every year, for 25 years - often 2 or more
per year (lately 3-4 per year). I have also been on other cruise lines
such as Cunard and Costa as well as other lines that no longer exist.
The cruises I've taken recently on all the major lines have been
underwhelming, leaving me with the feeling that I should have done
better with my time and money.

My perception is that while the ships being built by the mass market
lines get more and more magnificent, the hotel side of the business
grows more and more homogeneous and mediocre. The lines attempt to be
all things to all people and the end result seems to be that they all
do a lot of things merely "ok" and one or two things exceptionally
well. I'd never expect anything but average on a ship carrying 3000
+/- passengers.

Perhaps the only way to get "above average" or truly superior cruises
is to book the up-market lines such as Oceania, Silversea, Seabourn,
Regency and maybe Crystal. The pattern here should suggest smaller
ships with much lower passenger capacity. In fact, beyond the three
cruises I have booked in 2008 (two which are firm - both aboard
Explorer, the third is up for grabs) I'm considering taking far fewer
cruises on more premium lines.

Warren

Rick ,

A comment about midnight buffet ... the Explorer had one and it was nice
.. Last June , I was on the Noordam and they had one , too . However , when I
got there at 12:30 it was already over and put away ! It seems it started at
11:00 and ENDED at midnight , because most of the passengers on HAL's
Alaska cruises are elderly and want to go to sleep earlier . I thought that
was pretty funny .


Ray

"RICK DAVIS" wrote in message
...
Ray, While you only have 5 cruises under your belt your well on your way
to being a cruise expert. I now have 21 cruises under my belt and I
still am learning secrets. I only sailed one Voyager Class Ship and got
some "indifferent" attitude from a crew membered so I know how that can
really leave a bad impression on you.
I think the cruise lines (as a whole) don't do enough for the late night
passengers in the food department. Years ago - 15 or so - Carnival used
to roll out a breakfast buffet outside the disco starting around 2 AM.
Bacon, eggs the works. They also had a make your own crape buffet.
Lets not forget the midnight buffets. Its now all been replace by 24
hour pizza. As soon as that oven went down a manager should have been
contacted, maint. called and the kitchen notified to begin wrapping food
to transport to the pizza area. All room service food is prepared and
wrapped anyhow. They should have had a backup plan in place in the
event of that oven going down (which I'm sure happens all the time -
running 24/7) and always have 1 station on the ship serving food at all
times. I think its unacceptable for any line to have more than a 30
min. wait for room service. 2 hours at 2AM is poor staffing.

Peri ,

Don't worry , I'm sure the cruise will be fine . The ship is nice ,
food's ok , and hopefully you won't have any issues that need to be worked
out . Just stash some beach towels away , bring some bottled water , and
don't expect to be able to iron your clothes unless you bring your own iron
.. If you want to watch football , try Dizzy's on the deck 14 instead of the
sports bar on deck 5 , much less crowded as most people won't know it's
there . They have 2 tv's. If you go to the Dominican Republic , be a little
careful . There is a cave tour there that is pretty good , and if you go to
the beach you can parasail for about $40 dollars .

We've been to St Thomas before , this time did Coral World and Coki Beach
which are next to each other . It was a real good day , I'd recommend it.
Can pet sharks , feed stingrays , and much more . They have a web site if
you're interested.


Ray


"Peri" wrote in message
...
Ray wrote:
I just returned yesterday from a 9 day Caribbean on the Explorer of the
Seas. Got welcomed by a small snow storm ..... I guess I'm back in the
real world again.

This was my third cruise in the last 12 months , and my fifth overall .
I've sailed with Royal Caribbean , Carnival , Norwegian , and Holland
America . I'm not an expert yet .... but am starting to have some
experience to draw on , and I think I can say Royal Caribbean is at the
bottom of that list regarding customer satisfaction.

You're scaring me, Ray! We're leaving on the Explorer next Friday. As
with Boomer, I don't think the particular problems you singled out would
have been issues for me, but I'd hate to think they were indicative of the
entire cruise experience.

I'll keep my fingers crossed and be sure to let you know how it turns out
when we get back.

~ Peri

Ray wrote:

I was told that job was the cooks - and he wasn't there. They were
very sorry , it wasn't their fault , but there was nothing that could
be done about this unfortunate situation. I was amazed at this .
They did suggest room service , but that's about a two hour wait ,
and you also have to stay in your cabin in the meantime . I made two
suggestions to them , but both were " impossible at this time " . One
was to either get the cook or go in the kitchen and make a tray of
sandwiches themselves . After all , there were three of them with
little to do as there was no food except for some cookies.

BTW, I had a great time on the Explorer. Like you mentioned, the
service, the food and the entertainment was pretty good.

It is a shame the pizza oven broke, but these things happen.
Unfortunately, it happened on your cruise. Since the pizza oven broke,
everyone ordered the sandwiches, so they disappeared way too fast.

The three men who were bussing tables and filling napkin dispensers,
were not cooks, they were busboys. They did not have the authority to
break into the kitchen and begin making sandwiches. I guess they could
have, but they would have been reprimanded, and I know you would not
have wanted that to happen. The problem, IMO, is in management. If they
knew the pizza oven was broken, they should have anticipated the run on
sandwiches, and planned accordingly. This was a mistake on their part,
and passengers suffered because of their mistake.

If I were you, I would complain to Royal Caribbean. If you do, please
let us know what they say.

As far as the towels by the pool, you are right, they can sometimes be
difficult to get. The only cruise line, I have used, that offers free
access to an unlimited amount of towels, is Celebrity. NCL may still do
that, but I do not cruise with NCL anymore. HAL might. The other
cruise lines, give you one towel. After watching the towel hogs, I can
see why they changed the rules, but I agree with you, it can be
inconvenient.

Better luck next time, Ray.