Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines

The company has many classes of ships and each class is different and has its own way of enchanting its guests. That is why you can say that there is a ship and a class for everyone and every taste. Another thing I find very important and have found true on each ship is the cleanliness. During a day, everywhere you look there is a crew member cleaning the different areas with a smile on their face. Once you try a cruise on any of RCI's ships you will surely want more and will say "I am loyal to Royal".

If I had to suggest an area of improvement, I would have to choose the food. The food at buffet is okay, and main dining room food is a bit better. Specialty dining areas are wonderful, but there's an up-charge for those. The quality of the food options included in the cruise fare could stand some improvement. However, with all other things that RCCL provide, I continue to sail with them despite this, as in my humble opinion, they still rank the best so far.

Therefore with all these issues, why would I ever want to give RCCL any additional monies for future cruises above and beyond the "future cruise credit." I think it's absolutely immoral of a customer facing company to accept this as the only alternative. I would like to point out that I understood prior to the announcement 11/6/2020 why some of my funds were being issued as a credit as I chose to cancel and not RCCL (even though you know COVID-19), and had accepted that some of my money would be held for future use, however I will not tolerate being bullied by a multi-billion dollar company when the return to sale date is extended for the very same reason that I needed to cancel sooner.

This was the Monday/Tuesday before our cruise was supposed to sail, and I will further note that when we looked at our Sail Passes, we had still had not been assigned a room, which tells me they knew very well that they weren't going to be able to set sail that following Sunday. When we called to cancel, we were told we had to take a Cruise with Confidence certificate good until the end of 2021. Not knowing then how extensive this pandemic would be, we agreed. A few days later, our cruise was cancelled by the cruise line and all of those passengers were offered the choice between a full refund or the Cruise with Confidence program that we were offered. To be clear, the week of my cruise was the first week of cancellations across all cruise lines. Every subsequent week was given the two choices.

Fast forward to a few weeks ago, I regrouped with my friends, and with the outlook looking grim for travel even next year, not knowing when the vaccine will be ready or when it will be safe to travel, I decided to call Royal Caribbean to see if I could get us a refund on our cruise certificates. I had heard they were giving out full refunds now, and on top of that we are living in extraordinary circumstances, and our cruise was in that first week of cancellations when things were so hectic.

We were hoping to get money back, especially for parts of our group who have been financially impacted by the pandemic, and regroup to reschedule the cruise once we knew for sure things would be safe (we were thinking this would most likely be in 2022). Additionally, we took a look at the cruises on sale for 2021, and most if not all of the cruises are more expensive and prices were climbing. If we were going to use the cruise certificates, which was supposed to help us reschedule seamlessly with no additional cost, we would end up having to put even more money into the cruise on top of what we already spent.

With all of that in mind, when I called I was hoping to speak to a representative or a manager so I could explain our unique situation (since we were in that brief window of time between the guidances being posted and the cruise being cancelled, so we were not afforded the same choices the rest of the passengers were. I was told unceremoniously by the customer service agent that a refund was impossible and that I would not be able to speak to a manager. After I called several times, I was able to get two service requests in and was told I would be speaking to a manager shortly. Instead, the cases were handled by the 'enterprise' customer service team, who also refused to let me speak to a manager or escalate my complaint.

They were very condescending and told me that since I followed CDC and State Department guidelines and did the initial cancellation, I didn't want to cruise badly enough with Royal Caribbean and therefore didn't deserve a full refund of my money. Mind you, my cancellation and the cancellation of the cruise were mere days apart. We are living through extraordinary circumstances, and my situation could only be applicable to a handful of people who had cruises the week of March 15th, 2020. I was told all sorts of things about how impossible a refund would be, even though I have worked extensively in customer service and know that there is always an escalation process and a way to get your money back.

They refused to give email addresses, refused to transfer me to a manager, and insisted that the only thing they could do was give me a generic email where I could give them 'feedback'. What, exactly, does that help anyone with if you are refusing to hear the feedback I am giving you in real time? If you refuse to help your customers, how is giving feedback going to change this situation at all?

I would have been happy to rebook in 2022 or later. If the cruise had sailed after we cancelled, I would have never called customer service at all. However, we're in the midst of an unprecedented pandemic, the cruise was completely cancelled a matter of days after our initial call to Royal Caribbean, and now we are stuck with cruise credits that are not worth the same amount they were because all of the cruise prices have jumped. I normally do not ask for refunds in situations like this, because we all know what we sign up for, but these are unprecedented times and I cannot believe my group is being pushed off all because we chose to follow the federal health guidelines that were posted at this point.

I know that other cruise lines have not given their customers nearly the same amount of grief that I am seeing other people are dealing with, because they know the value of good customer service and keeping their brand name intact. I am still arguing with Royal Caribbean now, and even with all of the reviews, even after all of the calls and trying to get someone to hear our situation, they refuse to listen. I have never in my life dealt with a customer service department that outright refuses to help people, especially in the midst of a pandemic.

In conclusion, after all of these headaches, I will never board a Royal Caribbean cruise ship again, and I am telling every person I know about their utter lack of compassion and understanding during these difficult times. They say that a company's response during COVID-19 is really indicative of their character, and all I have to say is that Royal Caribbean is sorely lacking in it. I will now only cruise with Disney Cruise Lines, because I can expect Disney guest service to go above and beyond to help in any situation possible. I would really caution anyone thinking of going on a cruise after this pandemic is over to think twice before booking a Royal Caribbean cruise, because they are certainly not going to do you any favors, and by the looks of the reviews I am seeing everywhere, they have left a lot of people hanging high and dry when it comes to refunds.