I've been on the Freedom twice and had a wonderful time. A few times in my 40 some cruises with RCCL, I've had to complain to someone on the ship, but the problem was resolved right away. I'm sorry to hear you had such a bad cruise.
and I blame PARENTS not RCCL staff for kids running around late at night.
I agree. What is there about a vacation that makes some parents think that their children are no longer their responsibility?
I suspect if a ship's crew member notified the parents about the kids' behavior, RCI would be getting a lot of irate letters from parents, upset that someone disciplined their little angels.
The problem is that some of the kids' (and adults') behavior can be a safety hazard to other passengers. In that case, crew should definitely step in as soon as possible. I hope they do.
I agree with corkgirl 100% on this one. Childern running rampant on a cruise ship is NOT the fault of the cruise line. The parents are to blame for letting the children run rampant. The parents who bring their kids on a cruise and then leave them in the cabin alone expecting to be able to go out and party to the wee hours of the morning get the blame here.
Sounds like you got a bad room steward. It does happen. Maybe he was sick that week, maybe he had family troubles... who knows. They don't get to take time off if they are sick... I would have asked the guest relations desk to help out there but I would not have let it ruin my cruise.
I'm sorry about your experience. but like you said, your previous cruises were great. Sometimes you just get a bad experience.
__________________
================================================== ========== Carnival Cruise Lines:
Fantasy 90, Celebration 95, Victory 05, Conquest 05, Spirit 6/06, Freedom 6/08, Holiday 7/08, Victory 6/09, Valor 9/09, Dream 6/10, Splendor 8/10,Conquest 8/11,Magic 11/11,Triumph 4/12,Spirit 7/12,Freedom 11/12, Triumph 2/13 - The fire cruise
NCL Dream October 2006, RCCL Mariner OTS June 2007
it used to be a wonderful way to travel before the airline industry decided to cancel flights at the last minute to force you to book a 200.00 hotel rooms the night before to ensure you made it ontime for embarkation, 600.00 pp round trip for flights, 200.00 for a car to and from the airport, 100.00 in cab fare, this is all before you step on the boat!
Welcome to cruise-chat.
I fail to see how airline schedules are the responsibility of RCI. Frankly, it is not a good idea to fly to a cruise on the day it departs, and not because of airline schedules. Security events and weather can wreak havoc on flight schedules these days.
And I agree with corkgirl - wild kids are the parent's responsibility and not the cruise lines.
You are really willing to let one cruise affect you that much? You said you enjoyed the Freedom but not the Liberty. Did you register your complaints with the guest relations desk or just walk around steamed all week, waiting to complain after the cruise was done? Not much they can do at that point.
On my last three RCI cruises, my cabin attendant not only introduced themselves, they gave me their business card with contact numbers.
My cabin steward on the Liberty in March had her mother die during our cruise. She was on the phone a lot trying to book fare home. She did her job with tears streaming. It was a good reminder that this is not their real lives. It is just their job. I love to be catered to and pampered, true. But you just never know what is happening behind the scenes with anyone.
By the way--cruise #2 was hideous for us. If you didn't get a chance to sail on the Nordic Prince I would say fortune smiled on you. But look at my signature--the amazing and wonderful experiences and people we would have missed if we had hung up RCCL after that bad week. Your money is gone and that is rotten luck--I would feel the same in your shoes--but think about cruise #1 and weather-on. Personnel issues at any resort or cruise can be a real crap-shoot, but overall usually we have won and I am glad to have not given up on RCCL after one (really) bad experience.
__________________
Laurie
RCCL Nordic Empress 1993
RCCL Nordic Prince 1994
RCCL Explorer 2003, 2005
RCCL Navigator, 2004, 2007
RCCL Mariner 2006
RCCL Liberty 2008
RCCL Adventure 2009 Read and post cruise reviews
If people realistically think about things, we all have bad days in our job, Im not always smiling and cheery at work, I've off days too and the cabin attendant is after all a regular guy just doing his job. Maybe someone was obnoxious to him. They are not slaves, they are staff. Id like to remind people of this. I have only been on one cruise previous to this on Voyager, and will be Sailing on Liberty in october, I think that your experience will not put people off because to be honest, badly behaved kids come from bad parenting. Simple as That. I wish you the best of luck in finding a better cruise line than RCCL as I've met many who have cruised and say RCCL is the best. Unless you want to go to a smaller ship where you will have more staff per person than a larger ship.
Things do happen sometimes whereever we choose to travel. I, for one, have been only on two different cruise lines and can only say that we enjoyed both lines and never once in our four cruises have ever had anything but great service from everyone we came in contact with. Knock on wood or something because we are much looking forward to our next cruise in the spring. I have also been on two all inclusives and have had some other than great experiences; we don't let it ruin the reason we are away - VACATION !!
I wrote to Mr. Silverstein a two page letter about my experiences on the ship and received a letter back that I would get a 50.00 pp credit in the future when I book again. I spent over $5,000 for this trip for myself and my daughter, and will NEVER book a cruise with Royal Caribbean again
If I was going to send a ranting two page letter to a company I would at least get the President's name right. Then maybe they would take you a little more serious. I'm sure Mr Goldstein at least would.
For the most part, a cruise is what you make of it. If you have a bad experience on the ship there are other things to do, other places to eat, and always a new day. I can't imagine letting a bad experience ruin a vacation that cost over $5000 or $1000 for that matter. You've got to make life and a vacation count.
Linear Mode
