80+ Cabin Temps 8 out of 12 days - Refunded $200 !

Ship tip

**WARNING TO RCI AND ANTHEM PASSENGERS** We sailed on the Anthem of the Seas Jan 6-18 2019 Some Cabins did not have any Air Conditioning for most of the trip, some cabins were without for only a day or 2. The cabins who experienced the outages had temperatures as high as the mid 80's (F) 30 (C) - Passengers were given the ROYAL run around when going to Guest Services - Captain Ban never even admitted there was an issue until about the 6th day, when he announced there was an issue, he apologized, and stated it would be fixed in a few hours. By the next morning, the AC issue had not been fixed, he then stated on his next announcement it would be fixed 'By Tonight' it was not fixed of course. We were told by Guest Services 'It will be fixed by 2:30am. Each ETA they gave wasnt accurate at all. I know some of these issues take time to troubleshoot, and to fix, I understand that. Being a technician you NEVER state something is going to be fixed by a certain time - because you now have set an expectation, when its not fixed you only anger your customers more. The heat was so bad in some of the cabins, that there was a family with a child with a fever, they had no where to go to tend to this child. There were passengers laying in their beds with ice packs on their chests. Some passengers tried to sleep out on the decks. The inside cabins suffered the most, where as the balconies and suites could at least open their door and get some relief by dropping the temperature down to the outside temps. Every trip to GS recieved the same song and dance (and I TRULY believe they never informed their GS of any real information) I'm a paralyzed veteran - I can not sleep on the deck chairs, heck I cant even get INTO a deck chair without A LOT of assistance, imagine trying to get me back into my wheelchair We were an inside cabin, unable to open our 'Virtual Balcony Door' for relief. I was offered a friends cabin to get some rest who had Air Conditioning - a standard 26" wheelchair does not fit through a standard cabin door of 20-24 inches. So there goes that possibility. I am left with 1 and only 1 option, our cabin, and its 80+ degree heat. The last 4 days of the cruise, our Windjammer and Dining staff were looking haggard, as some of their cabins were also affected - little to no ice available - I received my cheesecake at dinner which is usually refrigerated and firm, it was room temperature and so soft, I thought it was going to melt. The next to the last night, the temperatures finally started to go down, now to the upper 70's - No.. the AC wasnt fixed as the Captain had announced. We were in cooler waters as we returned to New Jersey. We received the attached letter in our cabin. RCI being big hearted as they are, 'Gave' us a refund. $200 for an inside cabin for 8 days of suffering ! Oh that is ok, if you were a balcony you got $300, and if you were a suite $400. ONLY TO AFFECTED CABINS - NOT ALL CABINS. Some families had 2 cabins side by side, BOTH with the same issue - 1 cabin received $200 and the other received nothing. RCI's reason for the refund. "regrettably, we've had some technical issues with our Air Conditioning system which has INTERMITTENTLY (?? No AC for a consistent 8+ days is 'intermittently'??) affected parts of the ship. As a result some guest staterooms have unfortunately been impacted. When you choose to sail with us, we always ain to provide you with a wonderful cruise experience and we are sorry we've fallen short in providing some of you with a (HERE's THE KICKER!) Comfortable environment to WIND DOWN AND RELAX. Since when is a cabin only to Wind Down and Relax, NOTHING about unbearable sleeping conditions, with little to no sleep for those days. They treated our issue as if it they lost A/C in one of their pubs or dining rooms for a night. ! Those affected are not asking for full refunds - (even though the same time Oasis of the Seas received 100% refunds, because about 3 or 4% of the passengers and crew came down with Norovirus, and they had to return to port 1 single day early.) but we would like a fairer compensation than $200 ! (a total insult and slap in the face) There $200 didnt even pay for our parking at the cruise terminal ! When folks went to guest services about this minute refund, we were told 'You will have to call Customer Service when you get home' we tried, and are told 'You needed to take care of this when you were onboard' we tried ! Several passengers wrote to RCI express how bad it was to be trapped on one of their ships with no A/C for 8+ days. RCI's response ? -------------------------------------- "Thank you for contacting the Executive Office of Royal Caribbean International. On behalf of our Executive Team, I am pleased to respond to your email. I am very sorry for any inconvenience caused by technical issues with your stateroom air conditioning. I understand your disappointment and can assure you that your feedback has provided us with the opportunity to initiate and make improvements to avoid these same issues in the future. I recognize your cruise was intended to be a special vacation for you and your family and am terribly sorry to learn how your experience was negatively impacted. Beginning January 12th, 2019 some guests onboard Anthem of the Seas experienced issues with their stateroom air conditioning not cooling properly. The technical issue affected a portion of the staterooms onboard. Our Chief Engineer and staff worked diligently on correcting the issue as outages were reported. Whilst onboard, you were offered compensation in the form of onboard credit per stateroom. When we offer compensation, our goal is to provide an opportunity for you to return and have the experience we had hoped to provide. After reviewing your concerns with our Leadership Team, we feel the onboard credit offer is fair and reasonable. With that being said, we must remain consistent with all of our guests and will not be providing any additional compensation. --------------------------------------- THOSE OF US WHO EXPERIENCE THE LONG OUTAGE, WITH HIGH TEMPERATURES, WOULD LIKE TO BE REIMBURSED WITH A FAIR COMPENSATION - $200 FOR AN INSIDE "OVEN" FOR 8+ DAYS IS A TOTAL JOKE !!