I wanted to tell you about some of our interactions with Guest Services on both
DCL and on Royal Caribbean's Anthem when minor issues came up. It was interesting to me how it was handled on Disney and how it was handled on Anthem.
I will do the overall customer service comparison when I do my final thoughts... this post is just on a couple of "isolated" interactions.
I'm not sure which
Disney Cruise it was anymore (we did 4) but on one of them, DH and DS were playing in the arcade. DS (who was probably 6 at the time) won a game and should have won a prize, but the prices for that level were empty... It would have been something small like a key chain anyway, and DH told DS it's not a big deal, he had fun playing and was going to leave it at that. As they were coming out of the arcade, a cast member was walking by so DH told him that the prizes were empty in the machine and that was it. Cast member said he will mention it to Guest Services. DS forgot about it 5 minutes later, and everyone went on with their day. When we returned to our stateroom in the evening, there was a surprise for DS - a Phineas plush tucked in DS's bed with a note. There was also a couple of treats and a $10 card to spend in the arcade. I didn't even know about this at first because I wasn't with them when they played in the arcade, so DH told me the story. I said wow you complained about that? (We don't complain about minor stuff) DH said he didn't complain to the cast member, didn't ask for anything - yet this is how DCL handled it.
Another time on DCL, it was on the Fantasy actually, I went to register for the Mixology class on embarkation day. The computer system was down when I got there, so the cast member said that he wasn't sure if there is still room, but took our names down and said they will call us if it's a go. We did not receive a call, or we missed a call so I never attended the Mixology. On the last night we noticed we were still charged for it. So I went to Guest Services and told them that we never attended as it wasn't confirmed if there was room or not. The cast member just said "You didn't take the Mixology class?" No? Ok, we have applied the credit to your account. Thank you. That was it. I was prepared to give them the story of how the computers were down etc, but honestly the CM just did it without any hassle.
Anthem of the Seas - The first night we came back to our stateroom, the stateroom host had already prepared it for the night with a sofa bed for DS. DH was standing beside the sofa bed when DS went to sit it on it. At that moment the sofa bed collapsed on my DH foot. It was the metal mechanism that collapsed. DH wasn't sure if there is something wrong with it, he is pretty handy but said that he would rather have them take a look at it. I could see he was in pain too, his foot was swelling fast. We called Guest Services, said that the sofa bed collapsed on his foot, and they sent maintenance within 10 minutes. Maintenance guy came in and looked it, said that apparently the bed wasn't locked properly. DS finally went to sleep, so did DH, I tried to get him to go see the doctor and he refused. He's a stubborn one. His foot didn't look good, and I was afraid something was broken. DH said there is no way he is walking in a brace the rest of the cruise anyway... fine I finally got fed up trying to get him to go. He was more or less mad that this happened to begin with, and what if it was DS that it fell on? DS weighs a whopping 68 lbs... Shortly after DH fell asleep, Guest Services called and asked if he was ok. They said the maintenance guy told them the sofa bed fell on DH's foot. I said his foot is swollen but he seems OK at the moment. They asked if they can send a Nurse to see him, DH didn't want that either.
The next day we got a call again from Guest Services to check on DH, and they asked again if we want to see a doctor. DH was better at this point and swelling was going down, so we said it's OK. They kept asking if they can do anything else for us? We said it's OK. They ended up sending a bottle of wine and chocolate covered strawberries to our stateroom anyway. DH said it was nice they were trying to follow-up, but this was more of a big issue then no prizes in the arcade.... Our stateroom host never said a thing about it though.
The other interaction we had with Guest Services on Anthem was similar to what happened on Fantasy, there was a charge for something on our folio that we didn't agree with. It was from a bar and only for like $5, but since we had to go to Guest Services on the last night anyway, DH brought that up. They said it was something from the bar. We said we have a drink package, and have not gotten any drink that was $5 above the $13 limit. They said well maybe you got a drink in a souvenir cup. Nope. Well you must have. No, we didn't. Finally DH said forget it, not going to argue with you over $5. They never took it off, and we did pay it. I immediately thought back to
Disney Cruise line just removing the wrong charge from our account. And it was for $30 and not $5. Maybe it's just who we got, but I couldn't believe (especially knowing we have a drink package) that Guest Services would argue over $5 with us.
That's it, these are a couple of things that stick out in my head.
Next up is the Night life on Anthem v. Disney and a summary
The solarium and Two70 look absolutely awesome.
. Hopefully this thread can continue on with other RCCL experiences, similar to the Carnival thread. As someone looking to branch out a bit, I find it so helpful to hear the experiences of former DCL cruisers on other lines.
