We are writing to you today as loyal Royal Caribbean "cruisers" in the interest of improving Royal Caribbean's customer care when unusual situations occur. All we are asking from you with this letter is your attention and your consideration of the issues which still disturb us regarding the customer care we received, and your commitment to a higher level of training for the crew members who interact with customers after a traumatic event.
We recently found ourselves in a very unusual situation on our May 28, 2011 cruise on the Independence of the Seas. As we were returning to the ship at all aboard time in the Port of Gibraltar on the 31st of May 2011, a terrifying explosion rocked the port, causing injury to a number of passengers and workers. While we were very fortunate to escape physical injury from this terrible event, we were completely traumatized while we watched in shock as our ship quickly pulled out of port away from the fire caused by the explosion, leaving us behind. We were left alone to find our way to Cannes, the next scheduled port on our cruise. The port agent did take things in hand and arrange for us to fly to Nice the next day. We made our own arrangements to stay overnight with family nearby. We spent nearly 14 miserable hours in airports and in transit the next day. Once we arrived in Nice, we made our way by taxi to Cannes. We received a rather unkind email from Royal Caribbean (our only contact from RCI), forwarded by our travel agent, informing us that RCI would not reimburse our expenses for the travel to Cannes to meet the ship.
We also discovered that no arrangement for a hotel in Cannes had been made, and we had to make several phone calls in order to eventually get this problem solved by the port agent in Gibraltar. When we finally arrived back to our ship on the 2nd of June 2011, we expected to meet with Royal Caribbean representatives to help us cope with the event which had ruined our cruise vacation. We were kept waiting for six hours before that meeting occurred. When we finally were able to meet with the guest services manager, we were surprised to encounter a somewhat hostile attitude, which seemed to imply that we were somehow at fault for the event which interrupted our vacation. It took four days of meetings to achieve a resolution which was to the satisfaction of RCI more than us. During this time, we were made to feel as though we were at fault. We were already stressed and traumatized by the explosion and the fact that the ship left us behind and the two days we had to spend (in the clothing we were wearing with no access to our medicines) trying to rejoin the ship on our own were terrible. We felt completely abandoned and disregarded by Royal Caribbean.
In the interest of improving customer care, we would like to offer the following after-the-fact suggestions. Had this protocol been followed in our situation, it would have made all the difference in the world and we would not have felt nearly as stressed, traumatized, and abandoned as we did. We would have felt that RCI cared about us.
1. The trauma and uncertainty of our situation could have been instantly remedied if arrangements had been made to tender us immediately back to the ship. We completely understand why the ship had to make an immediate move (prior to the published departure time) out of its berth in the port for safety after the explosion. We do not understand why our safety was disregarded. Had we been tendered back to the ship while it waited a safe distance from the port, the further trauma of our traveling on our own to Cannes while we were still suffering from shock could have been avoided.
2. An immediate call should have been made to us by a customer care representative aboard the Independence. This representative should have inquired about our well-being, inquired whether or not we had our passports with us, and asked if we had adequate cash to travel to Cannes to meet the ship. No contact was made and no concern for us was expressed by anyone aboard the Independence.
3. The customer care representative should have made certain that arrangements were made for our flights, taxi and hotel, and informed us of these. Periodic phone contacts to check on us should have been made at least once per day during the time we were away from the ship. No phone calls were ever made to us by RCI or any member of the crew of the Independence. We should also have been given a phone number by RCI that we could call so that we could access the representative in case of problems.
4. When we finally met the ship in Cannes and reboarded, the customer care representative should have immediately met with us. We were kept waiting for six hours. We lost our opportunity for a day in Cannes. There should have been some semblance of care communicated to us - care for our well-being, for the trauma we had endured, for the stress of our being left behind, and for the rigors of our travel to meet the ship. A simple note in our cabin upon our return, and perhaps some small amenity like a vase of flowers with a "welcome back" message would have been a nice gesture. A small gesture like that would have made all the difference in the world to us. It would have made us feel like we mattered, like we had some value to RCI as a customer.
While we realize that our situation was an unusual one, we would like to suggest that some training be conducted so that Royal Caribbean customer care staff are better equipped to deal with passengers who have experienced a traumatic event. An emphasis should be placed on care for the passengers who have endured such a horrific experience. We offer this input with the hope that RCI will take steps to insure that any future passengers in a situation such as ours are treated in a more appropriate, sensitive, and caring manner than we were. We, like the majority of Royal Caribbean passengers, had saved our money for many months to pay for what should have been a wonderful vacation aboard the Independence of the Seas. Instead, our vacation was ruined, not by the explosion itself, but by the complete lack of customer care we experienced at the hands of representatives of RCI after the explosion.
This lack of care for us is the lingering after effect of our experience and completely destroys the memory of the good days of our vacation. To put it simply, we feel disappointed and betrayed by the way we were treated. We have continued to choose Royal Caribbean for years as our cruise line because we enjoy the beautiful ships and the level of service we've experienced aboard our Royal Caribbean cruises in the past. And please know that we received excellent service from our waiters, cabin attendant, and other crew on this cruise - it was only the customer care staff who were uncaring. In this situation, our loyalty to you was repaid by your disregard for us. Thus, we can't help but wonder if loyal Royal Caribbean customers (we have achieved the Diamond-plus level in the Royal Caribbean Crown and Anchor loyalty program) are treated with such blatant disregard as that which we experienced. What would a first time customer have experienced? We also can't help but wonder if it is time for us to investigate other cruise lines which might place a higher priority on customer care and be better prepared to deal with an emergency situation such as ours.
We sincerely hope that our experience offers a learning opportunity for RCI that will result in a higher level of staff training and sensitivity, which hopefully will result in a much higher level of care for any future customers who might find themselves in a similar traumatic situation. As for us, it will take us awhile to determine whether RCI still meets our needs as a cruise provider. A continuing relationship of any kind requires a level of commitment from both sides. We have to decide whether we can risk the potential for betrayal before we cruise RCI again.

