Cruising with Royal Caribbean cruise lines, or some another ship lines? Think twice!
There are things you should know that they don't (or won't) tell you before you agree to go! Please read below for the whole truth in cruising, or "Shanghaied to Nassau" - Cruiser Beware
Royal Caribbean does seem to be worse than most other cruise lines, we made every polite attempt to get some satisfaction, and found after much effort to contact them that they "never compensate". Others need to know the whole truth about cruises, lost time and bad vacations.
Don't count on going anywhere near where you planned. Royal Caribbean (and some other cruise lines) reserves the right to change the trip, ports of call, at any time, and they often do! (read the very small print). Royal Caribbean will not make these problem right with the consumer (that is you, ever! This can cost you a lot of money!)
Look at safety. Those boats are foreign registered for a reason. American registered boats must have adequate fire prevention and safety equipment, and enough life boats for everyone, foreign registered vessels requirements are much less stringent. You do not have the same assurances you would have on an American craft. (More on this in the links below!)
The Cruise lines will tell you it is because of safety or other matters, there can be several reasons. But the truth is they want to make money and could care less about you. Our first time with them was fun, the second trip was not. They changed our "port-of-call" twice and not for the better, so they are batting 50%. I might also mention this was not a safety thing, we were stuck. We call this vacation "Shanghaied to Nassau".
You have no choice in the matter, you can't cancel your trip once you have booked it, you have no recourse, even if you have bought the insurance, you loose 100% of your fare.
You can expect no satisfaction if you complain, other than a insincere apology. I have no idea why they have a whole department of people who offer nothing other than a canned answer, trained parrots could do the job for peanuts.
Royal Caribbean International operates by other names too, so don't think there are many other cruise options.
The Ships are not a United States registered vessels (to avoid U.S. safety, taxes, and dumping restrictions.) Even though it is operated, and booked out of Florida, the home port is Nassau B.S. and registered in Norway in most cases.
On the good side, there is a lot of food, served in large quantities, at all times. The boat is a floating smorgasbord.
I will be adding to this site and warning others who risk their time, money, and vacations. as they come in. If you would like to add a story or concern. please email me at cruise_problemsmindach.com 12-04 content and Register Trademarks are used for informational purposes only under U.S. fair use agreements. All rights are reserved 2004 /05.
More Royal Caribbean horror stories. They do seem to be worse than any other cruise line!
Royal
Caribbean
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Cancellations, changes
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Crime
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Illness, injury
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Lost luggage
<---You won't believe the facts and Safety Violations you can find here to many
to list on this page. All you need is the ship's name. I look up our ship
"Enchantment of the Seas" and found several violations and dumping problems -
sewage. Provided by (below)
I did not know about the pollution violations (I was shocked), I believe most boats still dump at sea, and not just garbage! This practice needs to be stopped for ships operating out of the US where most of their profits come from, where is "Green Peace" when you need them?
http://cgmix.uscg.mil/PSIX/PSIX2/VesselSearch.asp (Same link as above)
Contact at;
Greenpeace
702 H Street, NW, Washington, DC 20001
Phone 800-326-0959