7-nite S.Caribbean from San Juan on RCCL Serenade of the Seas

January, 2011

I am new to this site. Before my last Royal Caribbean cruise I would have been with those thinking some of these were written by whiners or worse. I'm Royal Caribbean Crown & Anchor Platinum with 8 cruise credits. I have loved every one of my previous five RCCL cruises, but my Royal Caribbean cruise (a 7-nite, S.Caribbean cruise from San Juan in January, 2011) was not a good experience. After a lot of consideration I decided people who check here should at least know how miserbale things can get.As a Platinum memberI probably unrealistically expected to be heard and treated respectfully when sewage backed up through the toilet into my balcony stateroom on Deck 7. Understand, it was notmy toilet that malfunctioned. Promises that it would be promptly repaired and cleaned up went unkept. Several hours later my calls to Housekeeping and then later to Customer Relations produced more promises "even though they were very busy", another visit to inspect the stateroom, but in the end no action.

As bedtime approached Ireceived the news from the Stateroom Attendentthat I would be temporarily moved to an interior stateroom on Deck 3 until repairs were made. And four nights later I was still there. I made inquiry and was promised that a refund of the difference I had paid between the Deck 7 balcony cabin and the inside Deck 3 cabin would appear on my final bill. When I received my final bill, the promised refund was not there. Customer Relations had "no record" and only my first SeaPass card showing my Deck 7 stateroom number convinced anyone behind the desk that I was telling the truth. Only then did anyone move to correct my final bill. Royal Caribbean offered no apologies, no regrets and no compensation for inconvenience other than what they were legally required to surrender to me - and I had to get aggressive to receive even that.

What I want people who make the effort to read this to know is that this could happen to them - and Royal Caribbean may or may not be very accommodating.
SandyT.