Greg,
I hope you never get sick on a cruise.
--
Greg
"Greg" wrote in message
news:1167172041.784551.253160@n51g2000cwc.googlegroups.com...
> 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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