Dream Alaskan Cruise Ruined.

Cruises: 4-6 cruises

Review: 1

Helpful Votes: 35

Review summary

We have cruised before with Royal Caribbean as well as with other cruise lines, but generally prefer to travel with your company due to previous experiences and our easy accessibility to the port of Galveston. Flights for our family of 4 to Alaska and back from Vancouver added a considerable amount to the vacation cost of the cruise. This was the most expensive trip we had ever taken, by a mile. So needless to say, we were extremely excited about this trip! Below is a description of the issues we encountered during this trip. Below is based upon chronological order, not the order of importance. See, while my family’s health and our comfort was certainly the most serious, this trip had many shortcomings which you should be aware of. Issue: The ocean view window was falsely advertised. We received a small port hole window We booked one ocean view room and one interior room across the hall for our family, so that we would be comfortable and close by. We confirmed with both our travel agent and a Royal Caribbean representative that this was a window, not a port hole window as we had seen both styles in prior cruises. This was important to us more than any other cruise because of the constant scenery in Alaska, as I’m sure you can appreciate. This was also confirmed on our booking confirmation (attached) that we booked a full ocean view window, not a port hole window. Further, this is falsely advertised on your own website as seen in the attachment. The picture is NOT of a port hole small window, yet that is what we received! So it is no wonder we were provided incorrect information at every turn about the type of room we would be getting. Issue: Mold smell from the bathroom Upon checking into the room the first thing we noticed after the porthole window was the overwhelming mold smell from the cabin. We immediately called our travel agent and the front desk to voice our concern about both issues, especially given our recent family history of chemotherapy. We were told that the cruise was sold out and there was no opportunity to move us to a clean cabin. I felt that the staff was not taking us seriously in primary complaint (MOLD and my family’s health), due to our secondary complaint (FALSE ADVERTISMENT FOR PICTURE WINDOW), so we expressed repeatedly that we would take ANY room, even an interior downgrade to get out of this moldy room. The representative at the front desk informed us that there was nothing that could be done. At the same time the onboard representatives were telling me they couldn’t help, my husband reached out to customer support via twitter. They also reached out to the boat and got nowhere. Of course, your customer service and my husband can validate these messages if required. Prior to disembarking from Seward, we were provided with two options (not from Royal Caribbean, as had only said they couldn’t move our room), but as a practical matter. We could: 1) get off the ship and forgo the cost of the cruise (that’s right, we were told that there would be NO refund from Royal Caribbean even despite this problem), our planned vacation, return airfare out of a different city, etc. or 2) we could all four try to cram into our second room (a 2 person interior room) which did not contain mold or the foul odor. When discussing this with the Royal Caribbean supervisor, her only response was that she needed to know right now if we were going to get off the ship so she can make sure our bags are removed as well before we leave port. It blew our minds that with faced with these two options, customer service did not seek out any alternatives but basically said, “bye then, I’ll get your bags.” Throughout our trip, multiple staff members came to the now empty room to work on it. My suspicion is that something had gotten stuck in the drain and was rotting just below our floor, but I’m not sure. I can tell you that several employees performed a lot of work at the problem (fans and chemicals), but we could not detect an improvement, as soon as the shower was turned on, the smell came right back (thus my drain theory). Ultimately, only my husband used the room lightly, due to the lack of space. He stored his luggage in there as with the family in one small interior room, the room was incredibly crowded, as I mentioned it was a 2 person room. So we we forced to sleep 2 people to each twin bed. We were never able to properly use the room and the four of us extremely inconvenienced and uncomfortable living / sleeping in one interior room that was only deemed safe for two guests, not four. . Your staff was aware of this from before we left port, yet never found a way to make it better. This was very frustrating after meeting one guest on day 4 who had complained of being too close to the casino and the noise. They said that they were moved rooms, but she noted that she had a much higher standing in your loyalty program. While I have no actual proof of this happening, this person had no reason to lie to me and was genuine. If true, I find it offensive that we were not accommodated, as we had a legitimate health concern and were even willing to downgrade rooms or upgrade and pay the difference required, but were told there were no rooms available. Issue: Cupcakes purchased by our travel agent appeared to have been dropped and not replaced We received cupcakes from our travel agent that as you can see from the attached photos, were either dropped or otherwise disheveled. I’m not sure how much those cupcakes cost, but my travel agent got ripped off.

Embarkation

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

Onboard Activities

Entertainment

Children's Programs

Service and Staff

Ship Quality

Cabin / Stateroom

Ports of call

Seward (Anchorage), Alaska

Juneau, Alaska

Skagway, Alaska

Icy Strait Point (Hoonah), Alaska

Ketchikan, Alaska

Vancouver (Canada Place), British Columbia

Disembarkation

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