Customer Service before departure

This is probably the area where I noticed the most drastic differences from a small ship,assistance before departure. While I've become accustomed to the exceptional customer service that I typically get from my small ship partners, working with a large ship company was very similar to the stereotypical poor customer service we encounter in today's technology laden world. Talking to a person about a question required a long wait time and then frequently the representative I reached didn't have the answer, provided conflicting or outright wrong information or didn't have the power to be able to help.

Since this was my first cruise, I was concerned about what services we might need to prebook in order to make sure that we didn't miss out on the activities that most interested us. When I first made the booking, no one went out of their way to walk me through this process as I might do for my travelers on a small ship booking so immediately I fell behind on deadlines. I tried booking shore excursions a little over 4 months in advance and found that all of my favorites were already full. This had me a bit panicked about other services such as specialty dining and entertainment/ activities onboard. I received wrong and conflicting information about what did (or did not) need to be prebooked and even when bookings were available. For example, I was told repeatedly that entertainment was not available to book until onboard. However, a few days before our cruise I downloaded the cruise app and found that, not only was entertainment available to pre book, but that most shows had been sold out. I definitely felt behind the 8 ball without anyone to call who I could rely on for accurate information or guidance.

Perhaps most distressing, I noticed about 30 days prior to departure that the cost of our cruise had dropped in half. Though small ships rarely offer last minute discounts, when they do, and when I have existing travelers onboard, my partners will nearly always reach out to me to offer a similar incentive for existing travelers. In the few cases where this hasn't happened, I've been able to advocate for my travelers and get some form of equivalent compensation. This was absolutely not the case with my large ship booking. When I called in to ask if they offered similar price protection, the cruise agent told me that they often do and that an account representative from the "Price Drop Team" would email me within the next few days. There was no way to speak to this team and no other options except to wait for them to reach out. A week passed and I checked back in, finally receiving an email 8 days after my call that stated 'on the date of you request, we did not have any cabins available for comparison in the same class'. I replied to the email with a screenshot taken on the day in question showing that indeed my same cabin category was available to book. The PriceDrop team responded to state that 'all decisions are final'. I asked if there was someone I could contact via phone to discuss, but my subsequent emails were completely ignored with no response  despite repeated efforts. 

This horrendous lack of support was jarring compared to my experiences with small ship companies. Even the most procedural oriented of the small ship companies will allow you to talk to a real person about an issue. I'm grateful that I didn't have clients booked on a large ship during the height of Covid as I can only imagine how frustrating this failure to respond to concerns could be.  Advance customer service overall I'd rate as a D (and, it's worth explicitly clarifying that I found some onboard staff exceptional so this is not a reflection on those hard working folks).