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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 |
#2
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Just back from 01-04 Explorer of the Seas
"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. |
#3
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Just back from 01-04 Explorer of the Seas
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 |
#4
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Just back from 01-04 Explorer of the Seas
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 |
#5
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Just back from 01-04 Explorer of the Seas
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. |
#6
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Just back from 01-04 Explorer of the Seas
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. |
#7
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Just back from 01-04 Explorer of the Seas
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 |
#8
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Just back from 01-04 Explorer of the Seas
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. |
#9
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Just back from 01-04 Explorer of the Seas
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 |
#10
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Just back from 01-04 Explorer of the Seas
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. |
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