WWTBAM Bored

KT and Saucy might want to think about their next cruise posts here.

A Cleveland couple has been banned from Royal Caribbean lines for life for complaining too much about their cruise and posting some negative reviews on a cruise bulletin board.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24711659/

silverscreenselect wrote: A Cleveland couple has been banned from Royal Caribbean lines for life for complaining too much about their cruise and posting some negative reviews on a cruise bulletin board.

That's a pretty interesting article with a lot of points worthy of discussion. Overall, I'd say Royal Caribbean made the right call.

I contacted Michael Sheehan, Royal Caribbean’s associate vice president of corporate communications, to get the cruise line’s side of the story. Sheehan says since 2004, the Morans sailed six voyages with two of the company’s lines. “On all but one of those sailing the Morans felt there were a variety of service failures they experienced,” he said. “In a small number of cases we agreed and compensated them appropriately. In most cases, however, we disagreed. Having concluded that we are unable to meet the expectations of the Morans, we have told them that they would be best served by sailing with another company.”

I complained about the Carnival Cruise that we took for our honeymoon.

My biggest complaint was having twin beds that wouldn't lock together.
They offered me a $200 voucher good for my next cruise.

I don't ever plan on going on a Carnival Cruise again.

silverscreenselect wrote:KT and Saucy might want to think about their next cruise posts here.

A Cleveland couple has been banned from Royal Caribbean lines for life for complaining too much about their cruise and posting some negative reviews on a cruise bulletin board.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24711659/

Carnival won't mind anything I have to say, I don't think. With the exception of one or two minor things (which will become obvious in the next few installment) I had a great time and would sail them again, and definitely recommend this particular cruise.

Unfortunately, yinz're gonna have to wait til tomorrow for day 2...busy busy busy here at work today.

silverscreenselect wrote:KT and Saucy might want to think about their next cruise posts here.

A Cleveland couple has been banned from Royal Caribbean lines for life for complaining too much about their cruise and posting some negative reviews on a cruise bulletin board.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24711659/

I've been on three different cruise lines - Royal Caribbean, Norwegian, and Holland America, and truth to tell I couldn't tell you which one was which. The ships' designs/layouts are almost identical, the service the same, etc. I enjoyed all three of the cruise lines but I don't think there's that much difference among them.

earendel wrote:I've been on three different cruise lines - Royal Caribbean, Norwegian, and Holland America, and truth to tell I couldn't tell you which one was which.

Not surprising, since elwing handles all your travel planning!

When's your Alaskan cruise, ear?

All but one of my five cruises was with Windjammer. Rather a unique experience compared to the floating hotels. Or "pieces of sh*t", as the ship captains at Windjammer tended to refer to them as.

It was a rather casual cruising experience where bathing attire was NOT frowned upon in the dining room or any other part of the ship and you didn't have to worry if you liked your tablemates because they could be and often were different every night. By the time you returned you just about knew every guest and crewmember on board.

I would go again. That is if the company hadn't completely destroyed itself in the last few years.

Sad.

MarleysGh0st wrote: That's a pretty interesting article with a lot of points worthy of discussion.

Yet everyone seems to be talking about their own cruise experiences instead of the issues mentioned in the article.

Bored tangentiality* at work!





*And I thought I was reaching a bit with this word, but it's a real one that fits the situation!

MarleysGh0st wrote:

silverscreenselect wrote: A Cleveland couple has been banned from Royal Caribbean lines for life for complaining too much about their cruise and posting some negative reviews on a cruise bulletin board.

That's a pretty interesting article with a lot of points worthy of discussion. Overall, I'd say Royal Caribbean made the right call.

I contacted Michael Sheehan, Royal Caribbean’s associate vice president of corporate communications, to get the cruise line’s side of the story. Sheehan says since 2004, the Morans sailed six voyages with two of the company’s lines. “On all but one of those sailing the Morans felt there were a variety of service failures they experienced,” he said. “In a small number of cases we agreed and compensated them appropriately. In most cases, however, we disagreed. Having concluded that we are unable to meet the expectations of the Morans, we have told them that they would be best served by sailing with another company.”

Still comes down to "complain publicly about the service once too often and we'll kick your butts to the curb." RC's response does not address which complaints were felt to be legit and which they disagreed with. It's almost impossible for the cruise line to be perfect, but for the amount of money you're spending with them, you want it to be as close as possible. I would have liked more of a rebuttal on RC's part.

MarleysGh0st wrote:

earendel wrote:I've been on three different cruise lines - Royal Caribbean, Norwegian, and Holland America, and truth to tell I couldn't tell you which one was which.

Not surprising, since elwing handles all your travel planning!

When's your Alaskan cruise, ear?

Late June.

Ear, what cruise line and what ports are you hitting?

We're doing an Alaska cruise in August.

gsabc wrote:Still comes down to "complain publicly about the service once too often and we'll kick your butts to the curb." RC's response does not address which complaints were felt to be legit and which they disagreed with. It's almost impossible for the cruise line to be perfect, but for the amount of money you're spending with them, you want it to be as close as possible. I would have liked more of a rebuttal on RC's part.

Well, I don't think that RC wants to turn this into a public "trial" about the truth of each and every complaint and the sufficiency of their responses to same. I get the impression that this couple started taking these cruises with notebooks in hand to carefully log every complaint they could think of--and some cruise passengers can think of lots of complaints!

Is it so wrong for a company to say, "If you're consistently unhappy with our service, don't buy any more"?

I also found it interesting that the couple posted their complaints on a message board and that some of the others on that board reported them for encouraging others to scam the system.

MarleysGh0st wrote:

gsabc wrote:Still comes down to "complain publicly about the service once too often and we'll kick your butts to the curb." RC's response does not address which complaints were felt to be legit and which they disagreed with. It's almost impossible for the cruise line to be perfect, but for the amount of money you're spending with them, you want it to be as close as possible. I would have liked more of a rebuttal on RC's part.

Well, I don't think that RC wants to turn this into a public "trial" about the truth of each and every complaint and the sufficiency of their responses to same. I get the impression that this couple started taking these cruises with notebooks in hand to carefully log every complaint they could think of--and some cruise passengers can think of lots of complaints!

Is it so wrong for a company to say, "If you're consistently unhappy with our service, don't buy any more"?

I also found it interesting that the couple posted their complaints on a message board and that some of the others on that board reported them for encouraging others to scam the system.

Without seeing the messages or any of the previous dealings, we're getting less than half the story. There are, indeed, people that try to game the system to get freebies and discounts. These two may be part of that set. I do find it suspicious that they kept going on these cruises, but then, maybe they just wanted to take advantage of the offered discounts.

My own complaint on situations like this is the offered "compensation". I wrote to tell you that I thought your service was crappy and not worth the money I spent. So I should then spend MORE of my money to use the service again, even at the offered discount?? Gimme some cash back, pal!

gsabc wrote: My own complaint on situations like this is the offered "compensation". I wrote to tell you that I thought your service was crappy and not worth the money I spent. So I should then spend MORE of my money to use the service again, even at the offered discount?? Gimme some cash back, pal!

That I'll agree with. I had my own experience with receiving a cruise voucher, for the infamous "Cruise That Never Left Drydock". Cruise line went bankrupt before I ever had the chance to redeem it--not that I really wanted to.

According to this article, the couple did get a real $500 check for their promised cruise credit, along with the letter banning them from future cruises.

MarleysGh0st wrote:

gsabc wrote: My own complaint on situations like this is the offered "compensation". I wrote to tell you that I thought your service was crappy and not worth the money I spent. So I should then spend MORE of my money to use the service again, even at the offered discount?? Gimme some cash back, pal!

That I'll agree with. I had my own experience with receiving a cruise voucher, for the infamous "Cruise That Never Left Drydock". Cruise line went bankrupt before I ever had the chance to redeem it--not that I really wanted to.

According to this article, the couple did get a real $500 check for their promised cruise credit, along with the letter banning them from future cruises.

Only BECAUSE they complained and posted some more and that letter was being sent. Otherwise, the compensation was going to be a $500 credit toward another cruise.

gsabc wrote:Only BECAUSE they complained and posted some more and that letter was being sent. Otherwise, the compensation was going to be a $500 credit toward another cruise.

So complaining until they got banned for life was a good thing!

It finally got them out of that vicious cycle of taking another crappy cruise to compensate for the last one.

Cruise lines are very generous with on-board credits for present or future cruises and will often bend over backwards if passengers have anything resembling a legitimate grievance. Plus, I've found the degree of service on cruise ships above what we often get at hotels and restaurants here in the US.

I got the impression that these people were definitely trying to job the system by inventing or exaggerating complaints well beyond what actually occurred. They are the equivalent of the people who put insects and other foreign objects in their food to get either a free meal or a lawsuit out of it. Frankly, few people who actually go through what they supposedly had happen to them would be so passionate about continuing with that particular cruise. The cruise line apparently was willing to put up with it for a while, but their repeated postings about what they were doing caught up to them (Just as ABC has monitored these Boreds in the past, cruise lines monitor popular boards like Cruisecritic).

Personally, I wouldn't go on an RCL cruise unless it offered an itinerary I couldn't get elsewhere, but it's not a knock against them. We've had three great experiences with Carnival, whose rates are much lower than the other lines, so I see no reason to change.

silverscreenselect wrote:Personally, I wouldn't go on an RCL cruise unless it offered an itinerary I couldn't get elsewhere, ...

What about entertainment you couldn't get elsewhere?

http://www.shipsanddip.com/theexperience.php

If you watch much news, if you have a spouse or girl friend/boy friend to dispose of, a cruise is the way to go. The number of cases of "overboard and dead/missing" has been way too frequent in the past few months.

I once got a letter published in a travel magazine to the magazine's ombudsman.

I went to the Fiesta Americana in Puerta Vallarta. The last night we were there, they had a wedding by the pool between the hotel and the beach. They had the loudest band I've ever heard, and the band played until 4:00 am.

All night long, the management said that the wedding was almost over. It was so loud, nobody could sleep. Had I known it was going to go on until 4:00am, I would have gone out partying or something.

Fiesta Americana gave me a discount on a future reservation. Never used it because typically, hotel/airfare combos from Houston back in the day were cheaper than just airfare.

Hmmm, well my epistle should earn me a 100% freebie cruise, donchathink?

nitrah55 wrote:Ear, what cruise line and what ports are you hitting?

We're doing an Alaska cruise in August.

Holland America is the cruise line. We're on the ship for five days. As to the itinerary, I'd have to refer you to my travel agent. The trip starts June 20 and ends on July 4.

You think my firends, who just got back from a cruise to Bermuda, should write about their time on a message board?

They were on that Norwegian Cruise ship where the lady fell from her balcony to her (most likely) death off the coast of New Jersey.

They circled the area for eight hours looking for the woman (at high speed, the ship had a nice lean to it while circling).

They had to stay on board for another eight hours when the ship docked at Bermuda, while authorities questioned just about everyone on board, and then took the lady's boyfriend off in handcuffs (later he was released, since there was no evidence of foul play).

Then, later on, there was another delay because there was a fire onboard ship!

On top of all this, it rained incessantly, and, as they were worried about sending their kids to the kids area after the lady falling incident (remember, at that point, no one knew if it was foul play or not), they had to deal with a massive case of cabin fever for a couple of days.

Fun times! Makes me want to go on a cruise....NOT!

kayrharris wrote:If you watch much news, if you have a spouse or girl friend/boy friend to dispose of, a cruise is the way to go. The number of cases of "overboard and dead/missing" has been way too frequent in the past few months.

I think it was because Kay wrote this - and - this just cracked me up.

Very matter of fact and suggestive.

Funny as all get out.