Laura

Age: 33
Occupation: Paralegal
Number of Cruises: 2
Cruise Line: Royal Caribbean
Ship: Voyager of the Seas
Sailing Date: February 26th, 2005
Itinerary: Western Caribbean

HORRIBLE TREATMENT BY CUSTOMER SERVICE STAFF AND HOTEL DIRECTOR. My boyfriend and I received appalling treatment as my luggage was negligently put on another ship the Navigator!! We were treated without empathy of the situation or without so much as an apology from the Director of Hospitality – Darren Budden as my luggage never arrived the entire cruise and after lies of being told that it would be shipped to various ports of call. This was not an airline error but rather a Royal Caribbean mishap at the port.

As a resolution, I was given a left over shipshape tee-shirt and a toiletry kit containing a small tube of toothpaste, one razor and a toothbrush to survive an entire week. The management on the Voyager offered us a token $150.00 and we were told that this was the company’s policy to compensate for the loss of a weeks worth of clothes without recourse. When I had appealed to his sense of fairness and asked for our expenses on board to be compensated he said it was not company policy, offering only to pay for a shore excursion without any understanding of the impact not having clothes – missed activities, the loss of memories not made or captured on photo, the inability to utilize the fitness facilities on board due to not having appropriate clothing and shoes and the overall stress and excessive time involved in efforts to find a solution to the situation that occurred. This apathy along with the additional stress at the end of our trip of being told our luggage would be waiting for us at port when in reality it was still on the Navigator made our trip, not the "vacation of a lifetime" that Royal Caribbean advertises, but more a "trip from hell".

They do not even sell regular women's clothes on board. I had to buy oversized shorts and a t-shirt and flip flops for $70.00 and all they offered us was a $150.00, when I was stuck buying their clothes at their prices!! We ate in our room on formal night, as I had not clothes to wear and I felt very uncomfortable. They don't even sell swimsuits on board, and our first port was Labadee, which sells nothing, so I had 4 days before I even had an option to buy a suit. This was a terrible experience, I really have nothing good to say about it. Yes we tried to make the best of it, but a week with only the clothes on your back, and then trying to find something suitable to wear at the ports, when all they sell are t-shirts and shorts, can make a woman stressed out and depressed. I'm sure most women would agree with that.

We could of had a nice vacation, if Royal actually gave a damn that they lost my luggage, but they did not. They said $150.00 and that's it. I had no underwear or bras and the ship didn't sell any.

We sent a letter to the CEO and President the week we returned and it has been 2 weeks with no response. How can they not respond to a customer complaint asking them to rectify the situation? It's all about customer service, and Royal has absolutely no clue what that means. They raffled away free cruises all week on the ship, but yet they screw over someone's current vacation and all they offer is $150.00? Pitiful. I could go on and on about how we were treated, but that pretty much sums it up, pitiful. And to top it off, it was only my bag and one other that was put on the wrong ship, and with over 3000 people spending lots of money, they could only offer us $150.00 for me to go a week without my belongings when we planned so long and took off work to have a "vacation of a lifetime". My advice -- skip this ship and Royal Caribbean all together. The food was not great, and the service throughout the ship was not what it should have been. It's pretty sad when customer service comes down to this.

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