Brenda Moran
Cruise Ship Passenger Blacklisted
Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines Attacks After Bad Review
Mrs. Moran had posted the compensation, glowing at what great customer service she received and that, apparently was the wrong thing to do. Some posters, went right off the deep end, labeled the compensation an act of 'scamming RCCL' and teaching others how to do it too.
RCCL contacted Cruise Critic and begged them to remove the postings, and they contacted Moran and asked her to remove the posting as well. Both, contacts have been confirmed. What RCCL has tried to do, is muzzle this 'victim' of poor service, and keep others from finding out two things.
First, to cover up that RCCL has these kind of problems and does not resolve them to satisfaction while the cruise is in progress, was a primary agenda. There should be a dozen spare cabins on all cruises, just for such emergencies. No passengers should have to endure what the Morans went through on that cruise. They should have been immediately moved to another cabin. Second most important, was that if you complain long enough and loud enough, you can get fairly compensated.
Most of the time fair compensation requires an advocate such as television station consumer affairs advocate or an attorney. To get this level of compensation, for a single cabin incident, where the entire ship's passengers were not affected with their cumulative power to force fair compensation, was something of a shock.
One on one, the cruise lines are much less likely to give you any compensation, and if they do, it is a credit on the next cruise. Obviously, if you had the trip from hell, and were sober enough to realize it, you might not want to cruise with that line again. This would mean the credit on a future cruise would be useless. They are counting on that.
Consider if you will, a vacation that includes white water rafting, sky diving or climbing Mt. Everest. Many, I am sure, would scoff at the opportunity to do those things, while others would pay dearly just to have the chance. Fun, is in the eye of the beholder and sometimes being scared to near death or risking life and limb is the time of a life. Not for me, but I acknowledge that these types of thrill seekers do exist, and most of them are not abusers of drugs or alcohol. It would diminish and dull their thrill.
This policy of cruise industry compensation is much different than that of land resorts. A few years ago my family took a trip on a holiday weekend. The town was entirely booked up. On day two of a three-night trip, the water main busted out by the road, and the entire resort was without water. We came back to our suite at 4pm to see a note on our door, and promptly went to the front desk.
There, we were told we could stay or leave, and either way we would be refunded for night 2 and 3 of our stay. They were very polite, embarrassed and apologetic. We opted to stay, the crew worked on the water main the entire night, the water came back on early the next morning, and we were pleased.
That to me, was more than fair compensation for having to run to restaurants to use the restroom that evening. Clearly it was not their fault, in the least, but they understood our level of inconvenience, and did everything they could to ensure we would come back, which we did.
I didn't have to ask for it, didn't have to beg for it, didn't have to write a letter for it, didn't have to find an attorney or advocate to help me get it, AND I didn't have to post a negative review on a website. That is the way honorable businesses treat their customers, not just some times, but every time. It is also not the way the cruise industry has typically handled passenger complaints.
What you will note in that story, is the resort did NOT offer to give us a credit on a future vacation. Why? Because if had they, not many would have come back. The idea is to make us happy this time, with an instant refund, so we do come back, time and time again. I credit this to one thing, and one thing alone. With resorts, there are tens of thousands to chose from worldwide. If one doesn't meet your expectations, there are plenty more to chose from.
With the cruise industry, you have a few dozen cruise lines to choose from, including small ships and large ships alike, as well as fresh water ships. It is what we call in my industry, a narrow nitch. Point blank, they pretty much have you over a barrel. If you decide you don't want to cruise a specific line, or you get blacklisted, such as in this case, the field has drastically diminished.
RCCL upheld most of their offer to the Morans. The Moran's got their $500 check in the mail, but RCCL canceled the 20% discount on the next cruise, when they blacklisted the Morans.
It is good to know, that according to RCCL's policy, you either take their poor service and keep your mouth shut, or you will never cruise with them again. Given that, why would you want to cruise with a line that has that attitude?
They do not aspire to perfection. In order to achieve excellence, you must aspire to perfection. Excellence is the result of failed perfection. Most people, would accept that.
But, when you aspire to mediocrity, the end result is often complete and utter failure. In this case, Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines aspired to the level of failure, and accomplished their goal.
This is the second time in the past two months a passenger and their family have been blacklisted by Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines because they complained, at least that we know of. The other case is here.
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