Royal Carribean- the used car salesmen of vacations

My Husband and I planned a trip out of the Port of Los Angelos on Royal Carribean's Vision of the Seas that traveled the the Mexican Riviera on July 6, 2008.

I did the the on-line "check-in" like the Royal Carribean agent told me to do to avoid lines. I assumed "checked-in" meant checked-in. Apparently, not so! Royal Carribean's staff are all confused about what this means as well.

We arrived at 2:55 for a 5 o'clock sail time and checked our luggage with the Royal Carribean porter, who told us that we had plenty of time to get our children something to eat and sent us to a restaurant a block down the street.

When we arrived back at 3:55, no one was able to give us clear instructions on how to park our vehicle nor told us that there was a shuttle from the parking lot to the terminal. It was 4:05 when we got to the terminal and we were told that we would not be allowed to board due to coast guard regulations requiring the manifest to be sent. We went round and round with very hostile and rude Royal Carribean agents and all they did was get our luggage off the ship throw it back at us minus one bag. At this point my eight year old daughter and I are both devestated and crying. NO ONE CARED! We demanded a refund and were told we would have to contact customer service in the morning. There was no one with any authority who could help us. We kept getting told that "WE" weren't taking any responsibility. Royal Carribean passed the buck to everyone but themselves.

My husband contacted Royal Carribean the next morning and they said tough luck too because we had not purchased the very expensive non-refundable trip insurance - we had no intention of cancelling! Because we had not spent an additional $200 (non-refundable), we would not get our $3500 back. Too bad you naughty cruise vacationer! It's all YOUR fault!

I contacted the Coast Guard to check into the rules about the manifest and they told me that they could have sent an addendum to the manifest and let us on board had they really wanted to do so. So, Royal Carribean lied to my husband and I about this very important rule!

We have been told by customer service that our only remedy is to contact the legal department. My husband is an attorney, so we are in the process of starting litigation. I assume they believe that most people won't take them to the mat since hiring an attorney is more costly than eating the cost of the cruise, they messed with the wrong people this time. It will cost us almost nothing to pursue this and now it's the principle of the matter.

Nothing can make up for seeing my daughter in tears and making her experience the disappointment of not getting to go on the "big boat", but a refund or voucher to try again would help.

I also have security concerns about the people they hire as porters. They are day laborers hired from the Port out of the Longshormen's union. Are these people background checked? They are taking responsibility for your luggage and around children. As citizens, do we really want to sit by and allow boats to have different laws than the rest of the country? I am a preschool director and every person who comes in contact with our children down to the janitor/ security must have an FBI fingerprint background check on file to work in our facility. I somehow doubt that this is happening for these porters, but would be relieved to find out that they are. I intend to take this issue up with my congressman. Hopefully he'll listen, since Royal Carribean has significantly increased it's spending on lobbyist over the past 10 years.

If anyone would like to join me in safeguarding the rights of cruise consumers, please contact me. Just remember, airlines would never be allowed to get away with treating consumers this way, the FAA prevents it. Due to ancient maritime laws, consumers have almost no rights in their dealings with cruise lines. They spend a great deal of money on lobbying, so the only way it will change is if consumers contact their US congressmen and force cruiselines to treat US citizens the way every other US business is expected to do.