My family and I just got back from our nightmare that was our Caribbean
"vacation". OK, calling it nightmare is somewhat melodramatic, but
accurate. I'm looking for outcomes from similar experiences anyone
else may have had.
The original itinerary and our shore excursions were:
12/17 - Miami
12/18 - at sea
12/19 - Belize City, Belize (snorkling)
12/20 - Costa Maya, Mexico (kayaking)
12/21 - Cozumel, Mexico (trip to Tulum ruins)
12/22 - Georgetown,Grand Cayman (pirate encounter and snorkling)
12/23 - at sea
12/24 - Miami
Our first trouble was flying to Miami. We used Royal Caribbean to book
the air travel too. Unfortunately they made our 4 airline reservations
and only bought 3 tickets. Not what you want to find out hours before
your flight leaves. We had previously confirmed online we had
reservations for the 4 of us, but the missing ticket info was new. At
least, RC was able to immediately issue a new ticket for us.
Several hours after leaving Miami on the 17th, a passenger fell ill and
the ship was forced to return to Miami to transfer the patient to a
coast guard boat. Apparently the helo-pad couldn't be used to the
nature of the emergency.
However, having to return to port cost enough travel time that the ship
couldn't make it to Belize now. So, a modified itinerary was announced:
12/19 - Cozumel (stay overnight)
12/20 - Cozumel
12/21 - Georgetown
12/22 - Costa Maya
12/23 - at sea
12/24 - Miami
Note that Belize is gone entirely and that the other ports are now on
different days than originally planned.
We arrived at Cozumel and went on our Tulum shore excursion as planned.
We were one of the lucky ones whose tour operator was able to
accommodate our ship's itinerary change. Even then, there was utter
chaos on-board with RC not coordinating the ferries, tenders and other
shore excursions.
Later that day another itinerary change was announced:
12/20 - Cozumel
12/21 - Georgetown
12/22 - Montego Bay, Jamaica
12/23 - at sea
12/24 - Miami
At Georgetown, we tendered to the pier and were told that one of our
shore excursions was canceled and the other was over-booked and we were
on the wait-list. This is where we found out that the tour operators
had only found out of our itinerary change the day before! We'd
already known for 3 days. We ended up not getting on the 2nd shore
excursion due to the over-booking.
Finally, we made it to Montego Bay which we'd been told was the jewel
of Jamaica. At least it looked that way from the ship. Once you were
on land and had been continually offered drugs and aggressively pushed
for taxi rides, one comes to a different analogy.
Overall, the fallout from the disastrous decision to shift the entire
itinerary made this a very disappointing vacation as we only were able
to go on one of the 5 shore excursions we purchased. Given the
professionalism of RC, I am especially surprised of the poor planning
and execution as well as the lack of anticipation of the consequences
for the itinerary change. I feel bad for the one individual I
overheard trying to have his lost luggage sent ahead to the next port
as that kept changing. There was also a couple on the ship to be
married in the Cayman's that had to quickly change their plans.
There were so many people lodging complaints with Guest Relations that
they were simply noting there was a complaint from you and were passing
that onto the corporate folks with no other details about the complaint
needed. We got ours in too. The is already a response being made,
which is apparently unusually fast. My expectation is to be either
reimbursed (unlikely) for the cruise cost or offered a voucher for
another one.
On the positive side the ship, crew and food were very good. I have
sailed twice before with RC with no problems. Hopefully the next
cruise will be better.
I'd appreciate comments from others about this trip or similar
experiences. Bad PR can't be good in such a competitive industry.
-Greg
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