My wife and I have recently returned from a back to back cruise in the Caribbean on the Freedom of the Seas sailing from Port Canaveral in Florida and have provided the following feedback to Royal Caribbean: Firstly, may I say, that overall we had a wonderful two weeks with our friends who we were introducing to cruising for the first time and it was a wonderful celebration of our 30th and 25th wedding anniversaries respectively.
My wife and I have been on many cruises over the years, a number of which have been with Royal Caribbean and to date have had no reason to provide any constructive feedback, however, there were a number of issues on this cruise experience, that we believe need to be highlighted, as we feel that Royal Caribbean are beginning to put profit over service and this is beginning to impact on what is normally a magical cruising experience.
That said, the service from the Stateroom Attendant, waiters and Assistant Waiters, were exceptional on both stages of the cruise and I can only provide 100% positive feedback to those gentlemen who provided such wonderful service over the two weeks.
If we had to pick one stand out service during the cruise, it would be for Gemmy who was our waiter in the first week.
He was so attentive to providing such excellent service and if Royal Caribbean have any form of recognition or reward scheme, then Gemmy should be nominated.
Also, the food throughout both cruises was, as always, of such a high standard, especially bearing in mind that the kitchen staff were preparing meals for over 3500 people; quite unbelievable.
Our main issues were experienced during the second week and also at the end of our cruise.
As stated, my wife and I are regular cruisers and have been on more than one back to back cruise.
The main reason that we cruise, is for the standards of service, the food and drink and the entertainment.
With regards to the entertainment, you can hopefully understand our disappointment when, with the exception of the comedians, the shows contents, were exactly the same in week two as they were in week one.
I am sure that the Cruise Director (Casey) would argue that the illusionist was different and with regards to the individual fronting the show, then I would agree, however the content of the main illusions was the same even though it was a different illusionist and this left us feeling cheated.
This led to the first example of poor service as I fed this back to the Cruise Director by writing a note to him in his question box (as advised by Guest Services) and did not receive any acknowledgement at all.
In fact it has led me to believe that this is the reason why I have not received the feedback survey e-mail as I feel that they do not want to hear constructive feedback! With regards to the shows, even the questions at the ‘Love and Marriage’ gameshow were exactly the same and never deviated from script! In the second week I had an issue with a Special Package that I had purchased for beer and wine.
I chose the package, in the main, because I like a glass of wine with dinner and thought the packageto be good value.
Prior to purchasing the package, which I did in August 2014 (well before joining the ship), I went online to confirm which wines I could have as I knew that the wines I could choose were price limited.
I was therefore very pleased to find out that one of my favourite wines, an Australian Shiraz, was only $7 per glass and therefore covered in the package and I drank this at dinner every night of the first week.
On the first night of the second week, I chose the same wine only to find that I was being charged for it.
When I explained that it was part of the package, I was shown the wine list and the wine price had increased to $9 per glass and was therefore no longer part of the package! Granted I was only charged $1, plus gratuity, which was the difference of the maximum package price per glass($8) but this was not the point.
The principle was wrong and further to this, I refused to sign the sales receipt until I had had it confirmed why the price had changed.
This refusal was totally ignored and I was charged anyway!! I discussed this with the table head waiter (a South African lady) and requested that she find out the price of the wine on the previous cruise, a request that I did not think was either a difficult nor unreasonable.
I had to request this a further two times (three in total) before she informed me that the bar manager had said that it was not possible.
I find this unbelievable and extremely poor service and am still irritated and disappointed that, during the second week, there were only three red wines that I could choose from on the Special Package and I made this clear to the Head Waiter but again, no response.
Finally, as British passengers don’t normally fly from America until the early evening, on the day of departure on previous cruises, the cruise companies normally take the departing guests on a trip to a shopping mall or something similar, prior to taking them to the airport.
My wife and I have experienced this gratuitous process with Cunard, Princess and P&O and not unreasonably expected the same from Royal Caribbean, especially being as we left the ship at 08:45 and were not due to fly until 18:45.
Alas, this expectation was unfounded and instead we were dropped off at the airport some nine and a half hours before the flight.
Not only that but it was five and a half hours before we could check in! I find this appalling and it was as if Royal Caribbean were saying ‘Thanks but your cruise is finished and so goodbye and go and fend for yourself!’ it was a really disappointing end to our most memorable cruise.
Like I have said, we love cruising and our friends still thought it to be the best holiday that they have ever had, however, if the standards of some customer services deteriorate as quickly as they have,then I am sorry to say that cruising with Royal Caribbean would not continue to be the same high standard as cruising with other companies.
I hope that these comments for what they are, which is to feedback concerns of issues and some behaviours that could, if left unchallenged, affect the companies reputation and I do not believe that Royal Caribbean would want this as I know they have always prided themselves on providing exceptional cruises and customer service.
