New York Woman Hops On Royal Caribbean Cruise. It Turns Into A Disembarkation Nightmare

A woman is calling out Royal Caribbean after her disembarkation experience made her question whether she’ll ever want to travel on one of their cruise ships again.

Across four videos, TikTok user Alyssa (@adciorio) explains how her disembarkation went from bad to worse—and why she now wants answers from Royal Caribbean.

According to Alyssa, she was traveling with her family of five on Royal Caribbean’s Oasis of the Seas.

What Happened On This Royal Caribbean Cruise?

At the beginning of their final day, everything appeared to be going just fine. The trip had been pleasant, Alyssa’s parents were set up to disembark on their own, and the family awoke so early that they had plenty of time to leave the ship. Their balance also appeared to have been paid for, as there were preauthorized charges on their credit card.

However, when they actually got to the disembarkation point, something went wrong.

She says, “I scan my SeaPass first. The gentleman tells me, ‘Oh, you have a message waiting for you at guest services.’ So at this point, my husband kind of pushes past my kids a little bit to say, ‘What message?’ And he says, ‘I can’t tell you that.’”

“Before anything else is said, I am grabbed by security and escorted off the line,” she continues.

What Happened Next?

Alyssa says she was then forcibly taken to guest services. As she was not expecting this—and did not know what this was about—she only carried her phone, SeaPass, and toiletry bag. She claims she was also told that her family could not join her.

“I now go to Guest Services and they say, ‘How can we help you?’” Alyssa recalls. “I am angry. So I said, ‘Well, I don’t know how you can help me. I was just ripped away from my family and not given any details. So, I don’t know why I’m here.’”

“She scans my SeaPass and she says, ‘Well, you didn’t pay your balance,’” the TikToker continues.

This was confusing to Alyssa, as she had just discussed the balance with her husband. They believed that everything had been paid. But, according to this worker, they had another charge for $140—a charge that Alyssa did not recognize.

“I’m already in panic mode because I’ve been ripped away from my husband and my kids and didn’t know why. And now she’s telling me something unfamiliar. But my brain doesn’t process, ‘Well, you should be asking what the $140 is for,’” Alyssa details.

From here, Alyssa begins asking how she can pay for the charge. She only has her phone. Plus, the agent claims that they cannot take a card number over the phone—yet is insisting that Alyssa still, somehow, settle the charge.

“I said, ‘Well, how am I supposed to pay this now? Because I don’t have anything. I don’t have an ID, I don’t have a passport, I don’t have credit cards, I don’t have cash—I don’t have anything, because you didn’t tell me why I was getting off the line,” she states.

It’s Finally (Partially) Solved

Eventually, the agent concedes that they can accept a card number over the phone. Alyssa calls her husband and gets a credit card number. The number is denied—which Alyssa says the agent declared loudly and was audible to others in the area—but when Alyssa writes it down for the agent, it goes through, which she speculates could be an indication that it was simply entered incorrectly the first time.

After all of this, Alyssa is able to disembark and eventually return home. That said, something about the charges stuck with her.

To start, Alyssa said there was nothing slipped under her door about the charges. Additionally, she said there was no effort made to contact her or her family to settle the charges prior to disembarkation. Plus, the charges themselves didn’t seem right.

“I am still so upset by this,” she shares. “I sit down on my steps in my garage and I’m like, ‘I probably need to make a complaint or something. It’s just not sitting well with me. Like, I really felt like she was out to embarrass me. The whole thing was so unnecessary—and what the [expletive] was this $140?”

When Alyssa looked at the bill, which was sent via email after she disembarked, she noticed what the charges were for—towels. This was odd, because towels were included with her suite. In short, it seems that this charge was in error.

Royal Caribbean Does Not Respond To Her

Alyssa then made it her mission to get a response from the company. She called Royal Caribbean and was on hold for over a half hour—only to get disconnected. In another instance, she was placed on hold for 25 minutes before being told her case was being escalated, though this did not seem to result in any response from the company. Alyssa also reached out via email, which, too, proved fruitless.

From here, she pursued other avenues. She emailed Royal Caribbean again. She mentioned the problems to her travel agent. The agent said she would go after Royal Caribbean through her own channels. Eventually, Alyssa was told she had a case number—though she claims that she still hasn’t received a proper apology or offer of a resolution.

“I don’t really know what I expect, but bare minimum, I need an apology,” she says. “Like, this is not OK.”

She adds that, while she initially believed she would still cruise with Royal Caribbean after this experience, she says she may reconsider, noting that Norwegian is also debuting boats that spark her interest.

Is This Normal?

Others on the internet have complained about being pulled away in a similar manner to Alyssa.

In one thread on Reddit, a frequent cruise traveler said that they “have seen people turned around when they scanned their Seapass card to get off the ship. Not allowed to get off the ship until their accounts are settled.”

Sometimes, these charges are proven to be erroneous, yet they can still cause issues for passengers. A TripAdvisor reviewer claimed they were not allowed to leave the ship due to a missing $60 payment. This payment was then shown to be a technical glitch; however, the passenger claimed they were still not allowed to depart, nor were they allowed to use a digital payment.

Eventually, they just offered to pay cash. While this was accepted, the passenger was told he could not be given a receipt to show evidence of his payment.

Further internet users have also claimed they were fraudulently charged for towels. While many say they were able to eventually resolve the situation with Royal Caribbean, the experience created an uncomfortable and unnecessary friction point for many vacationers—and may have, as in Alyssa’s case, caused them to reconsider future travel.

BroBible reached out to Royal Caribbean via email and Alyssa via TikTok direct message and comment.