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The
Rita Rhapsody
Nightmare
Written by Marla Archer
November 26, 2005
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WHAT A DIFFERENCE A
YEAR MAKES
Our second SSQQ Cruise of Year 2005 - the Rhapsody Reunion Cruise
in late September - was without a doubt the
most challenging experience I have encountered in my newfound career
as a "travel agent" .
It was just one short year ago
that I had taken the
cruise of my dreams. Rick and I got married
aboard the Rhapsody, I had presents sent to my cabin daily by the
Senior Staff, I got to have dinner with the Captain, and he even
treated us to a private meeting on the bridge.
For the entire trip I was treated like a Fairy Tale Princess.
One year later I was so depressed by the
time our cruise started, there was a part of me that really did not
even want to go.
What on earth happened?
I will begin our story by going back to June 2005.
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COURTNE SMITH IS FIRED
The
2005 Rita Rhapsody Nightmare began the day I lost Courtne Smith, my
"hero" at Royal Caribbean. He was the most talented group specialist I
have worked with to date. Anyone who read Rick's story about last year’s
“Wedding Cruise” in 2004 will understand how important Courtne was to the
success of that trip. (Wedding
Cruise)
I want to emphasize that Courtne did not
resign; he was fired!
I don't understand why an organization would fire such an outstanding
employee, but my recent experiences with the Royal Caribbean Corporate
Monster have begun to give me a hint. Unfortunately I had no way of
contacting Courtne, so the reasons for his demise remain a frustrating
mystery to me.
On Monday, June 20, I received the following e-mail from James Magyar:
----- Original Message -----
From: JMagyarrccl
To: marlassqq
Sent: Monday, June 20, 2005 4:55 PM
Subject: Fw: Need another balcony cabin for Alaska
Hello Marla
Courtney is out of the office at this time indefinitely. Unfortunately
for the RD on 07/16/05 there are no balcony staterooms available to book
at this time. I processed the payments that you also emailed Courtney
for the individual reservation in the Cat Y. I am currently researching
the document situation, and hopefully will have an answer first thing in
the morning.
Regards,
James Magyar
Partner Advocate, Team Safari
Royal Caribbean International
.............................................
I phoned James Magyar. He confirmed
Courtne's dismissal and let me know that a new group specialist would be
in touch shortly.
I was in shock! Courtne is gone; what was I going to do? Courtne assisted
me in putting together the best cruise possible on the Rhapsody in 2004.
He knew the SSQQ group's needs inside and out. How can this be????
The timing could not have been worse. Tomorrow my
"day job" required me to leave for a ten-day stay in Dallas to attend our
biggest market of the year. I was deeply worried because it would be next
to impossible for me to stay in contact with a new "specialist" at RCCL
while I am away.
THE PROBLEMS BEGIN. TYLER JAMES TAKES OVER
The next day Tyler James entered the picture. I can say without hesitation
Mr. James was the main reason my Rhapsody Reunion trip fell apart although
I should add he had plenty of help.
----- Original Message -----
From: TJamesrccl
To: marlassqq
Cc: isharerccl
Sent: Tuesday, June 21, 2005 1:19 PM
Subject: 6704714|transfer information request
Good Afternoon, Marla!
Hi, my name is Tyler James and I am your new Partner Advocate
and will be taking care of all of your groups' needs from now on. I am
writing in regards to your group on the Radiance of the Seas 7/16/05 and
the transfers you are requesting. In order to fulfill your request for
this
roundtrip transfer request, I need the following information:
*Flight number and carrier for both the arrival and return flights,
*Departure and arrival times for both the arrival and return flights,
*Departure and arrival gateways, and
*Departure and arrival dates for each of the flights.
Without this information I will not be able to confirm this transfer. I
would be most appreciative if you could accommodate and will get it done
for you immediately. Have a great day, Marla.
Thank you,
Tyler James
Partner Advocate
Trade Support and Services
Royal Caribbean International
.......................................
From his letter, Mr. James seemed like a
good guy. His request sounded like an easy do, yes??
NO!!!! I labeled this incident Headache
One. I tried and tried to call the man up without success. Finally I ended
up calling someone else to get this simple request handled.
Tyler always had a reason why he couldn't
handle my requests. You will see this for yourself as I go on.
Headache Two came the moment Mr. James was put in
charge. While I was in Dallas, I
found out in a phone conversation that several of the 2005 Rhapsody
passengers were cancelled due to strict new policies Royal Caribbean had
implemented.
"All passengers must be fully deposited and a roommate assigned at the
time of first deposit or risk cancellation."
Was I warned they would be cancelled??? No. It
seems while I was in Dallas the passengers were just cancelled from the
trip behind my back with no warning. I cynically wondered if Courtne’s
habit of trying to cooperate was one of the reasons he was fired. He
looked out for his passengers even if it meant not enforcing every rule to
the letter! He trusted me and worked with me on all problems. And he lost
his job. Makes you wonder….
I stared at my phone in disbelief. They had cancelled over a dozen
passengers from my Rhapsody Cruise over a technicality!! They had
refunded them their deposit. What kind of business cancels their clients
over a technicality?? The technicality involved holding cabins with only
one occupant. All they had to do was ask me to combine
the guests two to a room, a task I would have done with little effort.
Instead over one-third of my group was no
longer on the ship’s passenger list.
I sighed in dismay. I was helpless at the moment because I was in Dallas
while my Rhapsody file containing all the
pertinent info remained in Houston. There was
nothing I could do about the cancelled passengers. Stupid me. I suppose
I should have foreseen some rule follower would find it so urgent to
cancel passengers for a trip four months away that he couldn’t wait two
days till I got home. Oh well.
Rhapsody would have to wait until my return. I left Dallas Tuesday
morning. The first thing on my agenda was to get this mess straightened
out.
----- Original Message -----
From: Marla Archer
To: tjamesrccl
Sent: Tuesday, June 28, 2005 1:00 PM
Subject: Rhapsody 9/25/05 Sailing Group 1805013
Hi Tyler,
Please call me at the number below to discuss this group ASAP. I am
back in my office.
.........................
No return call, so I e-mailed
again.
----- Original Message -----
From: Marla Archer
To: tjamesrccl
Sent: Tuesday, June 28, 2005 2:16 PM
Subject: Group Financial Status for Group #1805013
Hi Tyler,
Please send an updated group financial status. I will be working on
pairing up the individuals tonight. I will send all required info to
clean my group up and get the deposits current.
Thank you.
.........................
I did receive the Group Financial Report
and made all the necessary adjustments to reinstate the cancelled
passengers. I might add that all this work was completely unnecessary.
It took me five hours to straighten
out the mess!!
You don’t believe me? Please see the following e-mail.
----- Original Message -----
From: Marla Archer
To: tjamesrccl
Sent: Tuesday, June 28, 2005 5:47 PM
Subject: Rhapsody Sailing 9/25/05 Group # 185013
Good Morning Tyler,
I have spent the past 5 hours sorting through the report and hopefully
have addressed all issues. It appears that several of my passengers
were cancelled from the group. After reviewing what I have left open, I
request the following things to be done.
CAT D1
1. Please add Judy Jo Baiamonte back to the group. She was cancelled.
Place her with Maureen Brunetti #6405370.
CAT H
2. Please add Abbie Barbley back to the group. She was cancelled.
Place
her with Phyllis Porter #5557987.
3. Please add back both Robert Joseph Friske and John M. Faulk. They
were
both cancelled.
4. Please add back both Stefani Callihan and Jean Munnerlyn. They were
both
cancelled.
5. Please add back Eva Lue. She was cancelled.
Add Mary Nettle as her roommate.
6. Both Cynthia Bozeman #5557986 and Julia Ghozali #7118081 were
supposed to
be category H. Please move them in together in a cat H.
7. Gary and Betty Richardson were cancelled from the group. Please add
them
back. I will be using tc credit to cover their passage.
8. Add Tamara Sword.
CAT M
9. Charge George Sargent #6260112 $250. He was issued a refund. I
don't
know why.
10. Please add Donald L. Schmidt back to the group. He was cancelled.
Place
him with Iqbal Nagji #6391862.
11. Please add Gary D. Ladd in with Bruce Hanka #6238873.
12. Please add Cynthia J. Diggs in with Leslie Goldsmith #5556845.
13. Move Lei Wang #5556850 in with Holly Soehnge #6392764 as her
roommate.
14. Please add Barbara Sherwood and Diane Case into a cat M.
15. Remove Vince Moreno from the group totally.
I think that ties up all my loose ends. Will you please send me a new
group financial status after all the changes are made? I checked the
Royal Caribbean website and saw that there was still space available in
all categories requested, so it shouldn't be a problem.
I certainly hope things will get easier! Thanks for your helping
working through all of this.
..........................................
No response from Tyler, so I sent
the following e-mail.
----- Original Message -----
From: Marla Archer
To: tjamesrccl
Sent: Wednesday, June 29, 2005 1:04 PM
Subject: I am in the office
Please call. I can't get through to you.
What's up on my Rhapsody Group #185013?
.........................
By fax I did receive the updated Group
Financial Status and reviewed it for changes. Unfortunately there will
still a half dozen mistakes, but for the most part the problem had been
solved.
In the mean time all sort of problems were happening on the Alaska Cruise.
By now I had discovered Tyler was useless in taking care of our group
needs. By phone he told me he had several hundred groups that he was
responsible for. He said I should just call the 800 Group Department line
for service.
Because of the problems beginning to brew, I followed his advice and found
that it was easier to go through ANYONE ELSE in the group department at
Royal Caribbean rather than deal with him. From that point on I used
Tyler only if I had to.
----- Original Message -----
From: Marla Archer
To: tjamesrccl
Sent: Thursday, June 30, 2005 7:46 AM
Subject: Rhapsody Sailing 9/25/05 Group #185013 Details to Handle
Thank you for your efforts in pulling my group back together.
There are still some remaining "issues":
1. Somehow, Jan and Robert Milz 5558820 were changed from a D1 to an M.
I never requested this. Please have them moved back into a D1.
2. Judy Jo Baimonte 6405370 payment of $250 was applied to Maureen
Brunetti (same booking #) Please move to Judy Jo.
3. Were you able to get a category H from individual reservations for
Tamara Sword? She was the only name that wasn't on the group financial
status detail.
4. Errors on names: Please correct.
Marla Gorzynski Archer 6371582
Abbie Barbley 5557987
Cynthia Louise Bozeman 5557986
Mary Nettles 6366824
Gareld McEathron 6367781
Catherine Bryant 6371737
Barbara Leslie Barkley 6391915
George Sargent III 6260112
Thanks!
...........................................................
The July Alaska Trip went very
successfully. Upon my return, I began tying up loose ends on the Rhapsody
Trip.
Unfortunately one month before the trip was to begin, I was told from this
point on I would need to work with Mr. James. This was not good news. My
immediate reaction was to get sick in my stomach.
----- Original Message -----
From: Marla Archer
To: tjamesrccl
Sent: Wednesday, August 31, 2005 1:42 PM
Subject: missing documents from group 185013 Rhapsody sailing 9/25/05
Hello Tyler.
I have not received the following cruise documents for these passengers:
Julia Ghozali booking id # 6161551
Beth Hendricks same as above
Stefani Callihan booking id # 6364974
When will I receive these documents? I have a group meeting planned on
Sept. 11th to hand out the cruise documents.
Please respond. Thank you.
............................................................
I had to send one email after another
simply to beg him to respond. Finally I got a reply.
----- Original Message -----
From: tjamesrccl
To: Marla Archer
Cc: isharerccl
Sent: Thursday, September 01, 2005 10:54
AM
Subject: 185013|Rhapsody sailing 9/25/05 missing documents from group
Hello, Marla!
I received your email and I have called documentation to check on the
progress of the missing documents. I was advised that they have been
reprocessed this morning and in three days they will be mailed out UPS
ground or first class air.
Marla, if you have any more questions concerning anything, feel free to
email me again. Have a great day!
Thank you,
Tyler James
Partner Advocate
Trade Support and Services
Royal Caribbean International
.........................
Guess what? The documents never came.
However this soon became the least of my worries. A big
storm appeared headed our way.
HURRICANE RITA!!
The entire coast of Texas was put on a serious hurricane ten
days before our cruise was set to sail. One month earlier the nation
had watched in horror as Hurricane Katrina had brought New Orleans to
its knees.
As a result, we were all incredibly skittish as Rita made its slow
progress in our direction. I watched as Rita brushed by Key West. It
was predicted to hit somewhere in Texas in five days!!
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For several days it appeared the hurricane
was going to land about 200 miles west of Houston near Matagorda Bay. If
this direction held up, Houston would get a lot of rain but be spared
major damage. Rick and I crossed our fingers.
I immediately feared the hurricane would disrupt our
trip. Rick scoffed, but I knew better. Something told me we were in for
big trouble. I wasn't the only one - the phone began to ring constantly.
My
95 cruise passengers were phoning and emailing me ratatat to ask what to
do. I tried to get information to pass on to my
passengers, but Royal Caribbean drove me nuts. No one could give me
a straight answer on how they intended to handle my cruise.
I checked the RCCL website hourly and passed on new information as it was
posted. I was at wit's end because the people at Royal Caribbean's
customer service continued to tell the Rhapsody passengers to contact me.
What good was that going to do? I WAS COMPLETELY IN THE DARK!!
When I woke up on
Thursday before the trip, I immediately turned on the TV. I gasped at
the news. Rita was now predicted to hit Houston squarely in the jaw
and level Galveston in the process. I woke
Rick up. He and I stared at the TV in disbelief.
Our worst fears had been confirmed. Houston was squarely in the
Bull’s Eye. We got dressed and had some coffee. As we were watching
the bad news on TV, I got a phone call from someone at RCCL who said I
was in charge of handling all changes.
What are they thinking? Don’t they know a hurricane is about to hit
us? I was furious!! So I fired off this e-mail.
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-----
Original Message -----
From: Marla Archer
To: tjamesrccl
Sent: Thursday, September 22, 2005 7:40 AM
Subject: Group 185013/Hurricane Rita
I was given a contact named Olga located in Miami at ext. 30546. She
isn't answering her phone.
I am looking at a 175 mph Hurricane Rita coming at me. I was given an
800 # for my passengers to call for cancellations. Whoever is answering
the phone at Royal Caribbean is saying the cancellation needs to be done
with the agent.
What is it that you people don't understand? I am not going to sit here
and risk my life to do your job for you!!!! I am evacuating!!!!!!!!
The number I was given for my passengers is 1 800 205-9812 ext. 8088.
...............................................................
Not
surprisingly, Tyler never replied to my e-mail. Meanwhile Rick and I
continued to watch the hurricane map on the TV screen. We shook our heads
in disbelief at the images of half the city stuck on the freeways. That’s
when we decided it was too late to evacuate. We decided to hunker down as
best we could. We proceeded to go to the studio to board up and gather
whatever flashlights and batteries we could find. We then came home and
boarded up our house and began the wait.
Later
that day, it became clear that Rita had shifted again thanks to the
high-pressure area that had kept us from having rain for a month. This
time the high-pressure zone came in handy – it saved our city! We had
missed the bullet.
So I went back to work on the cruise.
Meanwhile our passengers were full of anxiety. First they all
scrambled to cancel, then they scrambled to rejoin. Every change of
mind just added to the confusion.
Unfortunately, RCCL was not well set up to handle thousands of
last-second changes. The point of this next e-mail is to show Royal
Caribbean's difficulty at handling the confusion.
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-----
Original Message -----
From: Marla Archer
To: Eduardo Garcia
Sent: Saturday, September 24, 2005 4:35 PM
Subject: Reinstating your reservation
Hi Eduardo,
I have just spent over an hour and one-half on the phone working with
Royal Caribbean trying to get you and Sarah back on the trip. Your
original cabin was gone. When you check in at the pier they will
assign you a new cabin. You will need to pay again. I will be
forwarding you an email from Royal Caribbean should documentation become
necessary.
..................................................
Please note the time of my e-mail to Eduardo. He had phoned me earlier in
the afternoon about getting reinstated on the trip. After spending over
an hour on the phone working with someone in customer service attempting
to get Eduardo back on board, I was told that someone at the top would
have to approve this request. I wondered why a simple transaction like
this required the review of a higher-up? After all, they already had his
information on file including security checks.
The woman then added once it was “approved”, I would receive a confirming
e-mail. As with most promises, I never received a confirming e-mail.
Fortunately Eduardo did sail and in his original cabin. Why it had to be
this difficult made no sense. Over half the ship was empty! Why couldn't
they simply reinstate him without a fuss???
That is when I realized clearly that Royal Caribbean was so big and the
confusion of dealing with Hurricane Rita problems was so great no one
could give me a straight answer. Instead they referred me to someone else
or said they would get back to me (but never did). It was a nightmare. No
one knew what to say!
THE MUTINY
Originally our cruise was to have left on Sunday, September 25. However
Royal Caribbean posted that our cruise departure would be delayed till
Monday, September 26. Rick and I looked at each other with concern. It
was true that thankfully Hurricane Rita had harmed neither Houston nor
Galveston, but both cities were facing enormous traffic problems with all
the people trying to return home at the same time. Neither of us relished
the thought of fighting the traffic trying to get to our cruise, but we
were prepared to do so if necessary.
Now I had to face a new headache. At least 2 members of our cruise
actively tried to persuade other cruise members to reschedule the entire
trip to another date.
On the one hand, I wanted to postpone the trip just as much as they did.
The stress from Rita had been enormous. We were without power for two
days. We were tired and we were miserable. The last thing I felt like
doing was “take a vacation”. If I had a choice, I would spend time
helping Rick take down the boards and put the house back in order.
But rescheduling the trip for a hundred people and coordinating it with
the SSQQ schedule (I do registration the first and second weeks of each
month) would be difficult. I believed it would be next to impossible for
nearly 100 people to agree on another time AND also get time off from
work. I predicted we would lose over half our original passengers.
So I rolled the dice and put my foot down. I told the group we were
sailing on Wednesday/take it or leave it. I said there was no way we
could reschedule this trip. People had their vacation time approved for
NOW. NOW was the time to go.
Thankfully, our group responded favorably to my decision. The mutiny
attempts ceased. In all we only lost 10 people from our original group of
95. By comparison, the enormous “Bead Group” out of Grapevine, Texas, with
250 people was scheduled for the same sailing as us. They completely threw
in the towel. They weren’t the only. Lots of people cancelled. Not us.
As a result, SSQQ had the ship practically to itself for the trip!
While I was trying to hang onto my group, I also did my best to take care
of the people who had decided to cancel. My next e-mail to Tyler was in
regards to cancellations from the cruise.
----- Original Message -----
From: Marla Archer
To:
tjamesroyalcaribbean
Sent: Sunday, September 25, 2005 12:09 PM
Subject: Cancellations due to Hurricane Rita on Rhapsody Sailing
The following passengers have canceled from group 185013 due to the
change
created from Hurricane Rita:
Eva Lue 6366824
Melvin Auster 6917188
Denise Weinberg 6917188
Harvey Huisenfeldt 6917190
Charlene Torrest 6917190
Juliene Carney 6392764
Gary Ladd Booking #6238873.
Please process their letter of credits as offered on the webpage.
Thank you.
....................
Now
came another headache. RCCL postponed our trip a second time.
Word came down that the Monday departure
had been moved to Wednesday, September 28. This meant our trip had been
cut in half. After all the work I had done, I was sick with
disappointment to see this trip in shambles. 3 days at sea. Oh boy!
But I
still had a job to do. The pressure on me mounted as I tried to tie up a
million loose ends. The phone was ringing constantly.
THE CANCELED COCKTAIL
PARTY
Things changed on a daily basis and every change meant more work for
me.
My biggest problem was rescheduling all our onboard
activities since our original plans were now useless.
This turned out to become a major headache that caused me to come as
close to losing my temper since the time they expected me to answer my
phone in the middle of Hurricane Rita.
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Now that the trip was shortened, I had to
reschedule every one of the SSQQ group activities. I grimaced because I
had no choice but work through my “Specialist”. As I typed up my email I
idly pondered the question of how a Specialist could “Special” with 300
groups to handle.
I sent Mr. James this e-mail the Saturday prior to
our sailing.
----- Original Message -----
From: Marla Archer
To:
tjamesrccl
Sent: Saturday, September 24, 2005 12:32 PM
Subject: Rhapsody Sailing Group 185013
Hello Tyler,
I just got the word that my group scheduled to leave tomorrow will now
be leaving on Wednesday.
I need to firm up times for my cocktail party and dance lessons in the
Shall We Dance Lounge.
Please see if the Shall We Dance Lounge is available on Wednesday around
7 - 8 pm for the Cocktail Party and a couple of hours in the day on
Thursday, and I am assuming I can still keep my scheduled time of 2 -
4pm on Saturday.
..............
As usual, I was left waiting for an answer.
SECOND E-MAIL REQUEST:
----- Original Message -----
From: Marla Archer
To:
tjamesrccl
Sent: Tuesday, September 27, 2005 1:10 PM
Subject: Cocktail Party on Rhapsody for Group 185013
Hi Tyler,
Any word from Domenic on the Rhapsody as to when we will be able to
schedule our cocktail party and dance classes in the Shall We Dance
Lounge?
...............................
I never got a reply and I was running out of time. I
decided to phone instead. To my shock, Tyler actually took my call! He
told me he needed to confirm everything with the onboard coordinator, a
man named Domenic.
Tyler stated that I needed to find the Group Coordinator on the ship as
soon as I boarded. The Coordinator would work with me at that time on
rescheduling our activities. Then Tyler dropped a bombshell. He said THERE
WAS ABSOLUTELY NO WAY WE COULD HAVE THE COCKTAIL PARTY WEDNESDAY EVENING.
My rage and frustration almost got the better of me. Inside
I steamed, but I held onto it. I asked, "Why not?"
After all, our group was so large this
amenity was something we had earned. Tyler responded that Domenic, the
Coordinator, had told him it was impossible and to forget about it.
I gave up. I knew it was useless to argue with the man. I wondered why I
even bothered. For the next day, I was sick with worry about what to tell
our guests if Tyler was indeed correct.
What makes this particular story so ridiculous is it turned out we had our
cocktail party Wednesday evening as planned with no fuss.
Why Tyler behaved as he did never made any sense to me. His words
directly contradicted what Domenic told me later in several ways. I have
never worked with a less helpful, less informed professional in my entire
life.
Fortunately things worked out anyway. As unhelpful as Tyler was, Domenic
was just the opposite. Once we got on board, Domenic helped us in every
way that he could.
What a relief!! Every event went off without a hitch. Mind you, I had to
scramble a little. For example, once I learned the Cocktail Party was "ON"
after all, I frantically ran from cabin to cabin posting sticky notes on
the passenger's doors. I cannot tell you how badly I needed that first
drink!
Not only did that night’s Cocktail Party
come off smoothly, as far as the SSQQ Group Activities were concerned on
our shortened trip, they all went GREAT!!! We owe a huge thanks to
Domenic Crescenza, our Rhapsody Onboard Group Coordinator, for a job well
done. In fact, the entire on-board experience was terrific!!!!
TO MY SURPRISE, EVERYONE APPEARED TO HAVE FUN
After all my worries, I was surprised to see the trip turn out a lot
better than I expected. For one thing, at least we weren’t attacked
by pirates. The way things had been going, even that would not have
surprised me.
Instead by some miracle, a happy spirit quickly
developed among our group.
The dance lessons were fun and well-attended, every night we had the
dance floor to ourselves, new hot tub stuffing records were set, one
couple got engaged, another is “about” to get engaged, and several
romances flourished. Amazingly, everyone had a great time ANYWAY.
As they say, "All's well that ends well".
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That said, I was far too tense to actually
enjoy the trip the way I wanted to. On the one hand, I was relieved to
see my guests enjoying themselves. Every one of us was shell-shocked to
some extent. But everyone else seemed to bounce back faster than I did.
First I had been scared to death by the
danger of Rita's fury.
Then for five days I was frustrated
beyond belief by the complications of half our passengers changing
their minds on an hourly basis coupled with my own inability to get
any straight answers to tell them.
Worst of all, the one man who should have been helping me keep it
together was useless. I felt so helpless at continually being forced
to rely on a man who frankly did not do his job.
I also had to deal with my depression over seeing a year of hard work
nearly ruined. I had been looking forward to making this trip a
success!!
Maybe now you know why I wasn't
smiling in the pictures of me on Day 1 at the hot tub. Speaking of
the hot tub, I had no idea I was about to jump from pot into the
frying pan.
Little did I know that as soon as the
trip ended, two new ordeals would be arriving on my doorstep.
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ROUGH SAILING AHEAD
The trip itself
went smoothly, but I was in for some serious rough sailing when we got
home.
We returned from the trip on October 2. Two days after I got
home, I received a phone call from the doctor telling me some tests he
had run had revealed a potentially dangerous tumor.
Uh oh. I was scared out of my wits.
I went to the doctor the next day and we scheduled surgery. I knew I
had to postpone it till after the Halloween Party, so basically that
gave me a month to worry. And worrying is something I do very well.
Soon I realized
I had another problem on my hands. There were two business issues from
the cruise that needed to be handled. Our passengers had been
promised a 50% refund (after all we only received half a trip).
Second, they were also promised a $100 letter of credit. RCCL was to
issue this to each person as a measure of appreciation for all the
trouble our passengers went through.
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I thought the decision about the refund was fair and
the letter of credit was a nice gesture. However I had not anticipated how
slow RCCL would be to handle the financial details. Second, I never
anticipated that I would become the lightning rod for everyone’s
frustration. Although I didn’t have anyone’s money, as the travel agent
of record I was expected to have the answers.
Unfortunately none of passengers had any idea how
hard it was for me to get a straight answer from Royal Caribbean. I spent
the next month spinning my wheels in total frustration. Absolutely nothing
was accomplished on their end nor would anyone give me any clue who was in
charge or what was being done.
Here are a few emails to illustrate their intransigence.
----- Original Message -----
From: Marla Archer
To:
tjamesrccl
Sent: Thursday, October 06, 2005 10:35 AM
Subject: Letter of Credits for Group 185013 (Hurricane Rita)
Hi Tyler,
Group 185013 is back from the 4-day cruise on Rhapsody. I am getting
several emails from the passengers who cancelled from the trip about
their letter of credits. Do you know when these 'letter of credits'
will be issued?
As a reminder the following passengers cancelled due to Hurricane Rita
and the change from a 7 to 4 day cruise.
EVA LUE 6366824
MELVIN AUSTER 6917188
DENISE WEINBERG 6917188
HARVEY HUISENFELDT 6917190
CHARLENE TORREST 6917190
LEI WANG 553596
LIANGANG YE 553596
GARY LADD 6238873
JUILENE CARNEY 6392764
RITA MOORE 7670496
SARA GARCIA 5556409
Please advise how this situation will be handled. Royal Caribbean's
customer service is telling the passengers that the letter of credits
will be issued from the travel agent. I haven't been given any
instruction in regards to this matter.
Thank you for your prompt attention.
.................
TYLER'S RESPONSE:
----- Original Message -----
From:
TJamesrccl
To: Marla Archer
Cc:
isharerccl
Sent: Thursday, October 06, 2005 2:17 PM
Subject: 185013|Letter of Credits (Hurricane Rita)
Good Afternoon, Marla!
I checked into it for you, and I have been advised that you are to call
our redeployment desk and they will assist you with the LOC's. Call
1-888-305-4549 and give them the passengers' information, and they will
take care of it for you. I wish that there was a way for me to take
care of it personally but, unfortunately, that isn't possible. I'm sure
that they will be swift in their actions and will provide quality
service that you deserve.
Have a great day!
Thank you,
Tyler James
Partner Advocate
Trade Support and Services
Royal Caribbean International
................
I phoned the 800 number Tyler had given me. I was
given Ileana Dominguez as my contact, but they did not put me through to
her. So I emailed Ileana.
---- Original Message -----
From: Marla Archer
To:
idominguezrccl
Sent: Thursday, October 06, 2005 3:08 PM
Subject: Fw: 185013|Letter of Credits (Hurricane Rita)
I was given your name by the person who answered the phone. Please
issue letter of credits for the cancellation below from my group 185013.
Also, how are the 50% credits being handled for the passengers who
sailed?
You may contact me at the phone number below.
Marla Archer
SSQQ Travel
713 862-4428
713 862-2550 fax
....................................................................
I received no response from Ileana Dominquez. I
phoned several times, but it did no good. I received no return calls from
Ms. Dominquez. Was I getting the runaround? It sure seemed that way.
In the days to come, I received a never-ending barrage of calls and emails
from our passengers requesting information. I was quickly being driven
crazy because Royal Caribbean's customer service gave out inaccurate
information by telling the passengers to call me for further information.
Meanwhile, I couldn't get a return phone call or email from Royal
Caribbean to save my life!!
These unanswered cries to RCCL went on for weeks. Nothing was accomplished
despite my daily attempts to get answers to the questions of the SSQQ
cruise passengers. It was a "dog chasing its
tail" mess of great proportions.
Every day it went something like this: Passenger calls RCCL, is told to
call or email me, they call or email me, I know nothing, I call or email
RCCL, they don't respond, passenger gets mad at me. Two days later they
call RCCL, are told to call me, and the game starts again. This was not
fun.
On October 17th, Royal Caribbean sent an error-filled Guest
Financial Summary (GFS) report to my travel agency sponsor. RCCL appeared
to want to make the problem go away by giving each passenger $250
regardless of the category sailed and then make the travel agency
responsible for the issuing the refunds. It also appeared that Royal
Caribbean didn't want to address the cancellations from this cruise. When
I saw this report, I was outraged because it was filled with
inaccuracies. This meant that some of our guests who were owed $425
(balconies) and $305 (oceanviews) were going to get cheated.
I called my travel agency to ask them to intercede. Two days later on
October 19 there was a breakthrough of sorts. A man from RCCL named Darren
Diaz sent an email to the travel agency who sponsored my work for this
cruise. He inquired about some of the problems with the refunds and the
letters of credit.
They forwarded his message to me and I promptly fired off this email:
----- Original Message -----
From: Marla Archer
To:
DarrenDiazrccl
Sent: Thursday, October 20, 2005 1:52 PM
Subject: Fw: GFS FInals. Prior to 50% and post 50%
Darren,
I am the group leader and travel agent for Group #185013. Rhapsody
9/25/05 Sailing
I cannot make heads nor tails of what RCCL did in regards to refunds.
There are huge discrepancies in the most recent GFS for this group.
1. Are the passengers that cancelled prior to the
sailing due to Hurricane Rita being sent the letter of credit as
promised on the website? I am showing these passengers as being charged
cancellation fees. Official cancellations were emailed to Tyler James
the group specialist because customer service refused to take the
passengers calls. The passengers involved are as follows:
a. Melvin Auster
b. Juilene Carney
c. Harvey Huisenfeldt
d. Gary Ladd
e. Eva Lue
f. Rita Moore
g. Charlene Torrest
h. Lei Wang
i. Denise Weinberg Auster
j. Liangang Ye
2. Two passengers are showing being totally cancelled and refunded, yet
they actually sailed with us!
a. Kenneth Ham
b. Donald Sheppard
3. Why are some of the passenger's credit cards showing refunds from
Oct. 17th, yet the majority are not? All passengers were charged
directly for their fares. No group credit card account was used. Why
wouldn't all passengers be refunded in the same manner?
4. When will the promised $100 future cruise credits be issued?
I am the direct link to the passengers. I handled all the bookings and
also sailed the cruise. I know all the specifics. Will you please
contact me so we can discuss the matter?
The passengers are getting restless for their promised refunds and
credits.
………………..
DARREN DIAZ RESPONSE
----- Original Message -----
From:
DarrenDiazrccl
To: Marla Archer
Sent: Thursday, October 20, 2005 2:52 PM
Subject: Re: Fw: GFS FInals. Prior to 50% and post 50%
Hi Marla,
Can you please give me a call. Ext#32169
My e-mail is wacky. Sorry.
Sincerely,
Darren Diaz
Group Accounting Help Desk
Trade Support & Service
Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd
....................
I immediately called Mr. Diaz as requested. For a
second I thought we were going to get to the bottom of this mess.
Unfortunately Mr. Diaz never returned several messages I left for him even
though he asked me call him in the first place!!
I was darkly amused to note his email worked whenever he wanted it to, but
not when I needed some answers. It was pretty obvious that no one wanted
to put anything in writing if there was any chance it could backfire. I
was having no luck getting cooperation from anyone at RCCL.
I decided to email him again.
----- Original Message -----
From: Marla Archer
To:
DarrenDiazrccl
Sent: Thursday, October 20, 2005 2:40 PM
Subject: Re: Fw: GFS FInals. Prior to 50% and post 50%
My specialist, Tyler James told me that he cannot handle any of these
issues and referred me to someone else - a I. Dominguez who never
returned my calls. Who exactly can answer customer service related
issues? When the passengers call the 800 customer service line they are
referred to the travel agent. I cannot get anyone at Royal Caribbean to
respond. Who is the supervisor in charge of group related customer
service issues?
DARREN DIAZ RESPONSE:
----- Original Message -----
From:
DarrenDiazrccl
To: Marla Archer
Sent: Thursday, October 20, 2005 3:30 PM
Subject: Re: Fw: GFS FInals. Prior to 50% and post 50%
I am unable to answer any of the multiple questions regarding letters of
credit or anything involving Customer service.
I special fared everyone who was in the group LIVE....Not Cancelled
Guests.....to 50% the GFS shows this. Any other issues need to be
directed to your Specialist or Customer service. The passenger refunds
are on the way to your travel agency. Those are the totals from the
last e-mail.
Sincerely,
Darren Diaz
Group Accounting Help Desk
Trade Support & Service
Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd
..........
MARLA THE CROOK
The two weeks that followed were probably the most frustrating weeks
of my life. The Rhapsody passengers were relentless. Their patience
was running out with RCCL, but unfortunately a lot of their anger was
directed at me. In a bizarre turn of events, the people in RCCL
Customer Service began to tell the passengers that I was holding their
money.
Let me state for the record this was
total nonsense.
My life was hell. Every day I received calls and e-mails questioning
me as to when the refunds will be issued. Meanwhile I was going in for
surgery for suspected cancer the same week as RCCL was telling the
world I was hoarding their money. Royal Caribbean's customer service
continued to give out erroneous information stating that I was holding
the passenger's funds.
What utter nonsense! As if worrying about dying isn’t enough, now I
am being accused of being a liar and thief. Take a quick guess what
kind of mood I was in.
|
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I was caught between a rock and a hard place. Royal Caribbean was
passing the proverbial buck and I couldn’t get anyone from Royal
Caribbean to help me solve this mess.
I was fit to be tied. I called our travel
agency to ask them to intercede. They call the Houston-based RCCL travel
representative. He announced he had spoken with the RCCL powers that be
and had resolved the situation. He says that customer service would not be
giving out inaccurate information any longer. Wonderful.
Meanwhile the phone calls continue to pour in telling me that Royal
Caribbean is insistent that they have refunded the agency and we are
holding the funds. The "rep" accomplished nothing. When was this going to
end?
Finally Rick suggested I ask Adriana, a talented agent at our sponsor
agency, for help. Adriana told me to send her a detailed email of the
situation. Then she forwarded my e-mails to her contacts at Royal
Caribbean. I don't know how Adriana worked her magic, but miraculously
the logjam opened up!!
THE STORM BEGINS TO CLEAR
Two good things happened. First, biopsies from my surgery showed the
suspicious tumor was benign. Thank goodness! Now I could clear my
mind to worry about something really important like getting refunds.
Sure enough, my luck was turning. Within a week of my talk with
Adriana, the same Ileana Dominquez who wouldn't respond to my calls or
e-mails in mid-October was on the phone.
|
 |
Carefully Ileana and I reviewed each passenger's refund amount. Ileana
made the proper adjustments and processed the refunds immediately. The
refunds were issued on November 16th with the money credited
directly to each passenger's card. On the same day, the $100 Letters of
Credit were issued and mailed to me. Soon after I sent out an email
announcing the good news.
LOOKING BACK
After all the disinformation and confusion of the
past couple months, I decided to write this story to clear my name. I want everyone to
know I tried as hard as I could from start to finish.
Looking back, it took Royal Caribbean seven weeks to respond. RCCL’s
original promise had been six weeks. In retrospect maybe their
performance was not really too bad considering Royal Caribbean had to
close up shop in Miami for a couple of days because of Hurricane
Wilma.
However I wonder how long it would have taken them to solve the
problem if I had not constantly pursued the issue. I am still
perplexed why no one with authority would take
a call, return a message or respond
to an email for six weeks!
I am also incredulous that the people at RCCL Customer Service
appeared willing to say anything just to get angry customers off their
back even if it meant making my life miserable.
|
 |
I am glad to see my efforts finally paid
off. I am sorry RCCL was so slow to respond, but I promise you it wasn't
for lack of effort on my part.
We have a good thing going here at SSQQ.
It is obvious to me that people enjoy traveling with a large group. Each
year I want to build on our success and explore all sorts of amazing
places. However we aren’t going to get very far if some of you think I am
a crook or a deadbeat.
The entire affair has been one of worst experiences of my life. Adding
salt to my wounds, I haven't even been paid yet. I am still waiting for my
whopping $1000 commission from this cruise.
As an ironic footnote to this dark tale, just as I was putting the final
touches on writing this story for Rick's Newsletter, I received the
following email today.
----- Original Message -----
From: Charlene Torrest
To: Marla Archer
Sent: Saturday, November 26, 2005 1:26 PM
Subject: Re: letter of credit from cruise
Marla,
We have phoned Royal Carib. They say
that the travel agent has to call the Group department before we can get
our full refund back. Can you do this as soon
as possible? We would like to book a cruise in January & need the
letter of credit.
Charlene Torrest
Harvey Huisenfeldt
Thanks for your immediate attention to this matter.
............
Charlene and Harvey
were two of the ten people who canceled. They were due a letter of credit
for the cruise portion of their purchase.
In other words, RCCL never sent them the credit
which amounted to around $1,080. I could
not believe they had not received this letter. Let me explain why.
For the fun of it, I did a search on the name "Torrest" in this story I
have written. The name came up three times.
This showed beyond a
shadow of a doubt that I had
previously sent
written explanations to THREE different agents at RCCL that Ms. Torrest
and Mr. Huisenfeldt had canceled their trip.
Plus I relayed the same
information personally over the phone to Ms. Dominquez two weeks ago.
Four different times I gave them this information and
none of it did any good. Just as ironic, according to
my records, one member of the group sailed completely for free and they
wouldn't even bill her despite the fact I pointed out the error.
I
went over the status of every passenger one by one with Ms. Dominguez. How
hard is it to get it right? Welcome to the
exciting world of the travel agent.
But at least I tried. After reading my
story, I hope you will realize I tried as hard as I could to do a good
job. I may not have always gotten the results I wanted,
but it wasn't for lack of effort.
I guess I had to learn the hard way that the travel industry isn't
always as glamorous as it pretends to be. My friend Adriana tried to
explain that this can be a brutal business at times, but I had no idea
it
was this crazy!
There are no free rides in life and that includes CRUISES!
READY FOR THE TIMES TO GET BETTER
Fortunately my
frustrations are evaporating with the passage of time. I am putting
Rita Rhapsody behind me.
There is no way we are going to have this kind of bad luck
again (knock on wood)! Besides, now that I have survived the experience, I think I
can handle practically anything (except maybe the pirates).
I am ready to try again in
2006. I
have scheduled cruises to the Pacific Northwest in late May,
possibly another Rhapsody Trip in late
August, plus an ultra-cool trip to New England in late September
to see the changing of the leaves. I will be posting the information on the SSQQ
web site in early December.
|
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You might be surprised to learn
that both trips are scheduled with my
sometimes friend and sometimes nemesis - Royal Caribbean.
As much as Royal Caribbean drove me nuts,
I am still convinced they are the best cruise company in the industry.
All I need for
Christmas is a better Specialist…
Wish me luck!!
Marla Archer
Marla@ssqq.com
|
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