Delivering the Wow!
One of my responsibilities as Senior Vice President of Land Operations for Royal Caribbean International is an area we call Guest Port Services (GPS). GPS is the team of professionals that meet you either at the airport or at the pier when you check in for your cruise. We refer to ourselves as the department of First and Last Impressions since we are your first point of contact prior to your cruise and generally the last people you see before you leave to go back home.
In South Florida, the airport and pier staff are all Royal Caribbean employees as we have year round operations. During the busy Winter months when many of the ships are back in the Caribbean, our Miami and Port Everglades pier agents assist over 50,000 guests on any given weekend. That is a lot of customer touch points!
I have been with Royal for 11 years and seen my fair share of both complimentary and complaint letters over this time. However, I recently received a letter from one of our guests who had a situation prior to boarding Oasis of the Seas in Port Everglades that was worth sharing.
This family was traveling from Newark, NJ on Continental Airlines. It was the mother, her two children and the grandmother. When they arrived at the pier in Port Everglades, they realized that one of the children had inadvertently left her passport on the airplane. It was in the seat pocket in front of her seat. Needless to say, the family was distraught as they thought their long planned vacation was going to be ruined as they could not board without proper credentials.
Our pier staff immediately jumped into action to help. While the grandmother called Continental Airlines, our pier staff called our airport supervisor and he was able to make contact with the local Continental airport staff. It turned out that the aircraft had already pushed back from the gate for its return flight to Newark. The airport staff was able to call the pilot who then had a flight attendant locate the passport. The flight attendant brought the passport into the cockpit and the pilot opened the cockpit window, tossed the passport down to a ramp agent who then delivered it to our waiting airport supervisor. The airport supervisor gave it to our pier supervisor (who had driven to the airport) who then rushed back to the pier and gave it to the family. Crisis averted!
The family was so grateful to our staff for the extra effort in salvaging their vacation that they wrote a very complimentary letter that called out the people from both Royal Caribbean and Continental Airlines who went above and beyond to help them. I was so impressed by the effort of our team that I thought it important to share with our readers of this blog. Our brand has many great WOW moments and this was one of them.
That is an outstanding story. Makes one proud to be a stockholder of a company that invented the WOW.
Thank you for your support, Bob.
This just goes to show one of the reasons WHY Royal Caribbean has the reputation that it does! Kudos to all persons involved in saving this family’s vacation!
We know the team appreciates your kudos, Francine. Thank you.
This story is a WOW indeed, both on the part of RCCL and Continental Airlines, who i worked for for 10 years. This story truely embraces the spirit of what customer service is. Working together! Thank you for sharing!
We appreciate your kind words, Elayne. We are very proud of our team as well as Continental Airlines for helping to deliver this WOW.
Woo hoo!!! AWESOME job, RCI staff and crew. You had all the bases covered!!
Thank you, Shelly, we’re happy the entire crew was able to come together to make this happen for the family.
KUDOS to you and Concinental for this amazing story. This is why we love RCCL and we will be on Freedom (again) Jan. 15–our fifth RCCL cruise.You folks really go the extra mile and our friends hear about it. We did a 50th anniversary cruise with all our kids and grandkids 5 year ago. Made unforgettable memories. Thank you!
Thank you for the kudos, William. We’re excited to welcome you back onboard this January.
Great job! Love to see the fabulous customer service!!Puts you at the top of the cruise lines for sure!
Thanks, Suzette, we are happy to hear it.
Great story. Royal Caribbean has been wonderful to us as well.
Thanks for your comment, Maria.
LOVE TO READ ABOUT THIS WONDERFULL OUTCOMING FOR THIS FAMILY. CRAIG MUST BE VERY PROUD OF HIS STAFF AND RIGHTFULLY SO… CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL
We are very proud of all parties involved, Joseph. We’ll be sure to pass along your comment.
RCI staff have always gone above and beyond for guests. We took a cruise tour on Radiance of the Seas in Alaska in July, 2006. Our flight from Dallas to Anchorage was running very late due to weather in Dallas. The office person for RCI told us that we would have to get our own transport to the hotel, but when we arrived at 11pm, RCI staff were there with signs and a big bus to take us to the hotel. We had a wonderful vacation.
Thank you for sharing your own story with us, Joanne. We are happy that we could go above and beyond for you.
Wow very lucky. When my wife and I travel I hold on to the passports. The second we get them handed back to us I have them ziped up in my bag right away. Cant afford to lose that. I am glad their trip was not ruined
It sounds like you have an excellent system worked out, Trevor. Thank you for sharing with us.
That is a great post. Everyone went above and beyond, but that doesn’t really surprise me with Royal Caribbean. Everyone that I have ever dealt with have been fantastic.
We’re glad to hear that, Tammy. Thank you for your comment.
Excellent story. Even though our kids are 23 and 20, I’ve still hung on to all passports in a ziplock-type bag. As soon as we’re done showing them, I collect them all so we always have them.
That said, it was nice to hear that RCI came through for this family. Rescued their vacation from what could have been a sad situation.
That is a great way to ensure that they don’t get misplaced, Jim.
royal caribbean is the best in service. no matter what it is. my family took our first cruise ever on majesty of the seas on aug. 15-20 2011. we had the best time and everyting was awesome. a freind traveled with us and the 2nd night we went to eat in the dinning room downstairs, he has some health issues,we thought something happened. and when he did not show up for dinner after us waiting for 45 min. I went up to his cabin to see if he was up there. I kept knocking on the door and he would not answer. so I went back down, and our waiyer, Abel asked if I found him. no I said, so the host, Romeo said he would call his room to see if he is there. our friend answered the phone, and Romeo said that our friend told him he fell asleep and did not hear anything. he was down in the dinning room in 10 min. after that. Thanks Royal! we all will definently be back soon. Olga
Thank you for sharing your story, Olga. We are happy to hear that everything worked out.
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To add to our “WOW” experience we have had on our sail in Sep ’11, that top it all. My husband and I have been contemplating to invest in stock with RC.. and now we have no doubt doing so . Proud to be a part of the best company to invest in…
Thank you for your kind words. We’re glad you enjoyed your cruise.