Melissa Wilkins

Age: 27
Occupation: Sales & Marketing Manager
Number of Cruises: 2
Cruise Line: Royal Caribbean
Ship: Majesty of the Seas
Sailing Date: March 14th, 2005
Itinerary: Bahamas

This is an excerpt taken from the letter we sent to Royal Carribean after the cruise.

My husband and I thought that someone should know the difficulties that we had on our cruise. Most of this we were told time and again was simply ROyal Caribbean's policies and that there was nothing they can do, but we thought maybe our experience might be shed some light on some issues so that they may be corrected for your other customers as we have decided we will not be cruising with you again.

This was our first time sailing on your cruise line, but not our first time cruising. This time we were cruising with the entire family for a relatives wedding. (14 people total, 7 rooms- 3 of which, including ours were suites) This issues started on our arrival. We were told to be there at 10am for early boarding. When we arrived a porter asked for our bags. We were a little hesitant, because some of the items were needed in order for us to get ready for the wedding, but we were assured they would be waiting for us in our rooms within the hour, and this would make it much easier for us to board and lighten our loads. Impressed we handed over all of the bags. When we got to the boarding place, there was a delay because the other passengers had not made it off the ship yet. We sat and waited and then a wedding coordinator escorted us through the check in process and onto the ship. By this time it was past 12, but we thought we had enough time to get ready for the wedding which we were told was at 1:30pm.

As soon as we entered the ship- by this time nervous about having enough time to get ready, we were accosted by a man- A.J. about purchasing wine. My husband, father and I had already extensively perused your website, as this was my parents first cruise and we wanted things to be a smooth as possible. A.J. was very rude and abrupt informing us that right at that minute, right there, we had to purchase our wine for dinner for the entire cruise. Having already looked at your site, we told him we wanted to buy one of the packages, and we were in a hurry due to the wedding. He told us that the packages are not offered on this cruise. I asked him about the site to which I was condescending told that you do not offer packages on this short of a cruise, then we were told we had to order right that minute if we wanted wine with dinner, because it was such a short cruise, we would not have a wine porter and most likely not even an assistant waiter, and if we tried to order wine with dinner, they would be so busy that it would take 30 minutes for us to receive the wine. That really put a pleasant spin on the service to expect for the rest of the cruise! We asked if we could speak to someone later as we were in a hurry and to look over days of menus to choose just the right wines would make us late, we were told that this would be our only opportunity so if we wanted wine with dinner during our cruise we had to do it right then. I was very upset at this, already nervous and in a hurry, and my mother was frantic so we left to go to our rooms, while my father and husband stayed behind to order- and we were never informed, once, about the nice 15% gratuity AJ made on our 8 bottles of wine we ended up ordering!

We made it to our rooms only to be told that the rooms would not be ready until 1pm. We informed them that we were there for a wedding at 1:30 and we were told to go get lunch and come back! Finally about 12:45ish, a nice porter (I wish I had gotten her name, we were staying on level 10), let us in anyway, although the rooms were not ready so that we could prepare for the wedding. We got to our rooms only to discover that our luggage was not there! We went back to the spot by the elevators where some luggage was being dropped off, and were allowed to rummage for our bags. We found everything but 2 carry-ons, and rushed to get ready (by this time it was past 1). Unfortunately 1 cary on had all of my mothers make-up and hair supplies. The other carry on had all of my fathers medications! We then went on a frantic search, checking the front desk, porters, everything. By this time the wedding was in 15 short minutes! My mother did the best she could, and at 1:30 they found her bag (by then too late to be of use) but still no medications. By this time we were late, and all of the luggage on our floor was delivered! We were told the bag was lost but they would do there best to find it. My dad decided to attend the wedding (not telling my brother who was getting married the problem) then if they did not find the bag he would have to get off the ship. You can not imagine what this felt like on what was suppose to be a joyous day. On our way to the elevators (by now late), the very nice lady who helped us earlier came running down the hall with the bag.

When we sat down to dinner, we discovered that our server was the ever impressive AJ. We were stuck with his snotty behavior the entire cruise. He was so rude, everyone in our party (all 14!) commented on it! For example, when he asked for the dessert order, I said- oh, may I get some coffee with that, he snapped at me telling me that was the busboys job! When we asked for our wine, which we had purchased, he told us someone else would be bringing it. If we hadn't already spent so much for the cruise, I would not have gone back at all into the dining room! The busboy or assistant waiter, I think Marius, was the shining light and savior- so polite and nice and always smiling. The head waiter only introduced himself and spoke to us the night we were suppose to tip him.

One night, the cruise featured a midnight buffet. We were starving by then, having walked around the island. (I did not eat anything on the island, we even came back to the ship for lunch before heading out again.) I have a seafood allergy and am very careful. I informed the waiter at dinner, and I checked every label. If I am uncertain about something, I don't eat it. Anyway, about 12am, I began to feel very hot, and my skin felt very tight. A fellow passenger remarked that I looked very flushed. I went to my cabin and looked in the mirror and saw that a severe rash had covered most of my face and that I had hives all over my chest and neck. My husband and I went to the pursers office where we asked if any store sold benedryl. I was told that I would have to see the doctor and it was after hours, so it would be $105 plus the normal fee- about $150, plus the cost of the medication which would be about $35. I was livid! I am certain that something was mislabeled or contaminated. I am SO CAREFUL! I know what makes me ill! This is pure extortion! A benedryl tablet costs about $8.00 for an entire BOX! I had carried some with me, as a matter of fact, but could only find 1 tablet, and new from the severity of the reaction, I would need 2. Having no choice, we went to the doctor where someone came out to go over the charges (at least you guys were thorough about these fees, unlike the rest of the cruise). I asked if they could just sell me the benedry as it was obviously a food allergy and they at last allowed this, so I got my 10 pills at $35.00. (I honestly just don't see how you can live with yourselves on this one. Extorting money from a sick passenger for something that was obviously caused on the part of your employees. This really just makes me sick thinking about the position I was put in.)

Before we had left for the cruise, we had ordered Champaign and strawberries to be put in my parents room. We ordered them on Friday. When we returned we saw that we had been billed an extra $10.00. When we called, we were told that it was a late order, as it was ordered on Sunday. We said no, it was ordered on Friday. We were then told that due to time changes. etc. we were late. My husband explained that nothing on your website tells about the $10 fee, or even the cut off time for late orders. He did say the person that helped with this was very nice and checked your website and said, yup, nothing there. In defense of your company, we were refunded the $10.00.

This is not to say that we did not have some people who stood out, like Marius. Even our room steward was pleasant, but for the most part, the crew seemed tired and wanting to do as little as possible. Nobody was helpful, questions were an intrusion, and AJ was just down right rude. The only time anyone made conversation was to sell you something.

And your private island! It was so windy that they stopped taking people out there, but we had made the last boat out. Where it was so windy, we were asked to come back early and spent the entire afternoon in a line waiting for the shuttle to take us back. Again the only pleasantness we encountered there was a man peddling drinks.

All in all it was a very expensive lackluster experience. I cannot in good faith recommend Royal Caribbean to any of my friends or family, nor would we choose your cruise line in the future. The ship had many amenities, but a rock climbing wall cannot substitute for good customer service. In fact, most of the disasters we encountered would have seemed better if someone had just cared or if we had received the proper information from your site or your employees.

Thank you for your time. Hopefully this can help you and hopefully stop you from losing more customers.

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