Royal Caribbean Cruises Reviews

Pros

Great promotional opportunity and recognition for good work. I was challenged a great deal to grow and develop in my role.

Cons

Slow moving. Will trip over a dollar to pick up a penny. Senior executive team can be overly conservative in their approach.

Pros

Recognized Company in the cruise industry

Cons

The ups and downs of making money and the taunting received from other employees when you are not.

Advice to Senior Management

Learn to work issues that do not affect the overall business on an arbitrary basis.

Pros

Beautiful building, full of light.
Gourmet food in the cafeteria for only $4 for a whole meal
State of the art fitness facility with the best fitness coordinator on the planet
Working with travel agents is much nicer than working with direct guests
Incentive pay
Pay is good for this area

Cons

1. Because the groups/STAR department has more training than individual reservations, the company literally dumps calls from 12 different departments on us constantly, but requires us to keep up with the 300 groups assigned to each one of us without giving us extra time off the phone. If we are five days late making our call outs for group deadlines, we lose our incentive pay, but we aren't given the time to do our jobs. So, many times we work off the clock so that we can stay on top of things. Then, when a bunch of people left the groups/STAR department for several other departments, they only hired about 1/3 of the replacements they needed for the people that left, and just increased the number of groups we each have to handle. Their reasoning was that we are getting our work done, so they don't need as many people. Right. It's because we are working without pay so that we don't get penalized for not getting our work done!!!

2. 50% of the shifts offered to us in Springfield either have split days off (like Wednesday and Sunday), or a closing shift. I understand that they need to staff the closing shifts, but everyone hates them because we have to clear the queue before we can clock out. Sometimes we are there an hour after closing. The company needs to offer higher pay for people assigned a closing shift. That way, people would take the shift by choice and other people could take some of those primo shifts. I might take a closing shift by choice if it paid a dollar an hour more.

3. The new Quality Assurance scoring is ridiculous. The intent of it is great - better customer service, but they need to make it a coaching thing and not tie it to our incentive pay. I've rarely seen anything as nuts as this company's new QA system. It's Alice in Wonderland.

4. The top ten ranked people in our department are on leave through the Family Medical Leave Act. Those of us who show up for work everyday get ranked lower because we get more QA scores and more opportunity to commit some faux pas like saying port charges instead of "non-commissionable cruise fare." If people aren't there, they should not get top ranking. Those of us who do OUR jobs and THEIRS both, should be rewarded with top ranking.

Advice to Senior Management

1. Pay $1.00 an hour more for closing shifts.
2. Go back to the old QA system and coach for better customer service.
3. Find a way NOT to give us split days off. Other companies figure it out, why can't you?

Pros

Flexible Work Schedule
Good Pay compared to other companies
Benefits are good

Cons

Internal Communication could be better

Pros

it;s a one rule fits all in the company and upholds industary to a high level

Cons

The long months away from home which should be reviewed to a shorter contract for CM willing to pay fully for their airfare return.

Advice to Senior Management

Please be willing to understand CM should they act a certain way because they may sometimes have problems which they need support even if it's someone to talk to and not only look at it as a Zero tollerance rule.

Pros

The company provides an opportunity to travel the world.

Cons

The position I was in never allowed the time off requested. Instead would give you only some of the days requested off to pressure you not to take any vacation time.

Pros

Great co workers both shore side and onboard ships

Best hardware in the contemporary market

Good employee rates if you can sail last minute

Benefits are good but company does not match your 401

Cons

Limited advancement opportunities unless you are personal friends with upper management

Employee rates to sail are sometimes not approved until the day prior to sailing, making it impossible if you live out of the state of FL to take advantage of a cruise vacation

Marketing materials need to be more destination focused and not include caricatures or paper dolls.

Advice to Senior Management

Consult with the sales team when it comes to creating marketing materials. The gift box idea was horrible and such a waste of advertising dollars.

Pros

The people that work on ships are fantastic. They really make my shore side job enjoyable. They can clearly see the end goal.

Cons

Pay is severly lacking. Benefits are non existant. No match with 401K. Have to work evenings and weekends, as well as while on your vacation. HR is clueless and one sided. Often times they don't even respond to your emails. Executive management will not listen to anyone but themselves. Us pissons couldn't possibly have a noble idea. Too many people worried about their bonus. Much of their day is spent justifying their bonus. The profits are not shared with the employees. Only upper management is rewarded. They increase upwards of 18-50% in 2010 and the employees received just 3.5% The cruise request is rigged and you are often not told until the night before if you are approved for a cruise. Can't use that benefit unless you live in Miami, unless you want to spent a fortune for last minute airfare. Politics is too huge - and it determines raises and promotions. Women are not paid equally to the men. Extensive travel is in economy with crappy hotels while executives are first class and 5 star resorts.

Advice to Senior Management

Share in the profits. Listen to your employees that are not middle or upper managers. Get rid of the multiple layers of red tape. Hold HR accountable. Treat people as people rather than as a herd of cows.

Pros

Friendly and competent individuals that will work together as a close knit team to deliver solutions
Open environment to share and bounce ideas and opportunity to take lead on initiatives

Cons

Outdated technology and bloated enterprise software.
Lack of test cases and no code review process

Pros

Beginning your career trying to earn in experience in practice what is good and not so good about your work.

Cons

Once you've passed this trial period, becomes hard to achieve any progress further, bringing you to a stop on your goals.

Advice to Senior Management

It's necessary to look inside the internal politics of each ship as it tends to be sparse the survey on them.