They Cut the Cruise Short With No Refund

Cruises: 1 cruise (first)

Review: 1

Helpful Votes: 13

Review summary

My wife and I had an awful experience. We decided to go on a Royal Caribbean cruise for our honeymoon and were very excited because this was the first cruise we had ever been on. At first the cruise was pretty decent, the food was delicious, the atmosphere was really nice. However, the service was lacking and the crew was not very friendly. Then, on the second day of our cruise, the captain alerted us that the itinerary needed to be changed in order to prepare for the upcoming hurricane Irma. This change cut the cruise short a full day and cancelled two ports of call. The change itself was understandable considering the impending hurricane. What was not understandable was how Royal Caribbean treated the situation. The PA announcements by the bridge were brief and did not contain much information. When we went to Guest services to see if we would be refunded at all, they assured us that some sort of refund was in the works and that they would be giving everyone free internet so that all guests could make necessary travel plans. They said that we would be updated in about an hour. Well the update never came. The next day, the bridge announced that everyone could make free calls to the US via the phone in each stateroom (this apparently was instead of free wifi). However, offering free phone service was useless because we had no way of finding the phone numbers we needed. The entire crew at this point seemed to realize that most of the guests were unhappy, but instead of rallying to provide the best service, they instead became unconcerned with how the guests were doing and began performing their jobs apathetically. The entire atmosphere of the ship changed and everyone was miserable. On the last day my wife and I went back to guest services to check on the status of any refund. While in line, we overheard a manager heatedly debating with a customer who was also upset. The customer was asking about a refund as well, and the manager stated loudly to "check your contract, we don't owe you anything." upon seeing how rudely a manager was handling the situation, we left the line. We realized that Royal Caribbean's attitude was one of "Well, we have you money already, so it sucks to be you". When we got to our room we found the summary of charges to our account. We noticed that we had been refunded an amount for each port of call that was skipped, however the amount was negligible (about 16$ for each port). This action felt like a slap in the face. It felt as if Royal Caribbean had refunded the absolute smallest amount possible in order to appease the guests. Obviously, we were not appeased. The entire cruise was a huge disappointment. My wife and i had planned numerous activities in the cancelled ports of call that we were unable to enjoy, and instead of being refunded a reasonable amount so that we could find other activities on our own and salvage our honeymoon, we felt spit on. We spent an extraordinary amount of money thinking that this would be a once in a lifetime opportunity, and Royal Caribbean made a disaster out of it. We hope that someone will read this and attempt to rectify the situation, because as it stands we will never sail with RC again.

Embarkation

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

Onboard Activities

Entertainment

Service and Staff

Ship Quality

Cabin / Stateroom

Ports of call

Miami, Florida

Nassau, Bahamas

Cococay (Cruise Line's Private Island) Did not visit port

Key West, Florida Did not visit port

Disembarkation

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