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A Florida man returned from his latest cruise to find his vehicle splotched with hardened sea salt at Port Canaveral. What he did in response earned him and his wife a lifetime ban from Royal Caribbean.
This former Diamond member of Royal Caribbean’s loyalty club is asking me for help after his actions had unintended consequences. He hopes I can clean up this “misunderstanding” and get him back in the good graces of the cruise line.
Sometimes a mediation request hits my helpline that is so bizarre that I have to wonder if I’m being punked. This is one of those cases.
Unfortunately, this cruise passenger’s placement on Royal Caribbean’s Do Not Sail list is 100 percent real. He has lost all the benefits he earned during 20 years of loyalty to the cruise line — a loss that hit him hard.
Here’s what happens when a passenger miscalculates their value to their favorite cruise line and files a frivolous lawsuit.
Parking at Port Canaveral for a cruise aboard Celebrity Apex
Last April, Eric J. and his wife arrived at the parking garage at Port Canaveral, where Celebrity Apex was waiting. They would soon be embarking on a seven-night Caribbean cruise aboard the ship.
Although the couple had parked at Port Canaveral for decades without a problem, this time was different. The indoor parking garage which they preferred was full. Eric was directed to the overflow lot, which is open air.
Eric says he was annoyed by the inconvenience, but he followed the directions of what he thought were “Celebrity staff.” After parking his Ford Expedition in the outdoor lot he and his wife made their way to the ship.
“We had to take a shuttle to the terminal,” Eric recalled. “It was all very strange. I wanted to park where we always parked during our cruises.”
But soon the couple settled into their cabin and the parking lot annoyance faded into the background.
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However, on the day they returned from the cruise, that parking lot annoyance morphed into full-blown anger.
“My car had severe paint damage from the sea at the Port Canaveral cruise terminal.”
Eric says that when the shuttle dropped them off at his car, he immediately noticed a big problem.
“My vehicle was covered in hard, white specks of sea salt,” Eric says. “I hoped a standard car wash would remove it.”
The next day he took his vehicle to a local car wash and paid $35 to have it cleaned.
According to Eric, that car wash didn’t do the trick. His vehicle was still caked with salt, which he believed was eroding the paint every moment it was left there.
Next, he hired a mobile car wash and detailing company to come to his home. Eric hoped their team could “repair” what he called “severe paint damage.”
That deluxe service, which included bug removal and a professional handwashing, cost an additional $370.
After the mobile detailing unit completed its work, Eric was satisfied that the alleged damage was repaired. Then he turned his attention to his next mission: to get the cruise line to reimburse him.
And he was not going to stop until he received that compensation — and that is an understatement.
Asking Celebrity, then Royal Caribbean to pay for the car wash and detailing
First, Eric called Celebrity Cruises’ customer service, explaining that his car had been damaged while parked at the terminal. He asked that the cruise line repay him $405 — the cost to “repair” his vehicle.
Celebrity’s answer was — as most would expect it to be — a hard “no.”
The customer service team suggested that Eric review his contract, which shows that parking is not included in the cruise.
Fact: Passengers who park at Port Canaveral use facilities operated by the Canaveral Port Authority, not the cruise lines. Just as airlines don’t provide airport parking, cruise lines don’t include terminal parking in their contracts of carriage.
That detail did not deter Eric at all. He went through his cruise contract to determine how to escalate his complaint, and he discovered an arbitration clause.
He then filed a “Demand for Arbitration” with the American Arbitration Association (AAA) against Royal Caribbean. The AAA is a nonprofit organization that administers arbitration and mediation proceedings between consumers and businesses.
To initiate the arbitration process, Eric paid a $225 filing fee and submitted his “paperwork,” which included his car wash receipt($35), the mobile detailing invoice ($370), and his cruise contract. He also attached a few photos of the alleged damage to his car and his parking receipt.
The American Arbitration Association asks Royal Caribbean for a $375 mediation fee
After Eric filed his case with the American Arbitration Association he added that $225 fee into what he expected Royal Caribbean to cover. Not only that, but the AAA requires the business to pay a $375 fee as well.
Now, this cruise passenger expected the cruise line to pay over $1,000 to settle his misguided complaint.
AAA declines to pursue the case against Royal Caribbean
Royal Caribbean ignored Eric’s Demand for Arbitration, and one month later, the AAA’s Consumer Filing Team informed him they would not be pursuing his complaint further.
So Eric went down to the Flagler County courthouse and filed a small claims lawsuit against his favorite cruise line — RCCL.
That’s when Royal Caribbean reached the end of its tolerance for Eric’s shenanigans.
Royal Caribbean: “You are permanently banned from this cruise line and all its affiliates.”
One morning, soon after filing the paperwork for his lawsuit against RCCL, the phone rang at Eric’s home. He picked it up and a person identified himself as a representative of Royal Caribbean. Initially, Eric thought the cruise line was finally taking him seriously and was calling to “settle.”
Related: Surprise! Your favorite cruise line put you on the Do Not Sail list
He could not have been more wrong.
The caller got right to the point: Eric and his wife were no longer welcome to sail with Royal Caribbean. Not only that but they were also permanently banned from cruising on Celebrity and Silversea.
Eric could not believe what he was hearing.
“I have been a loyal customer of Royal Caribbean for over 20 years!” Eric told me. “We have never had a problem before.”
His two decades of loyalty to RCCL made no difference. The decision was final, the caller told him. Eric hung up the phone, stunned by the cruise line’s harsh actions toward him and his wife.
His next move was to contact Consumer Rescue.
Consumer Rescue investigates: What am I missing?
When I received Eric’s request for help, I read through it several times to try to make sense of it. But I could not.
“I must be missing something. Why would the cruise line be responsible for salt damage to your vehicle?” I asked. “Royal Caribbean does not monitor or control the lots at Port Canaveral. But yes, filing a lawsuit against a cruise line will absolutely get you permanently banned from the entire group.”
Unfortunately, the more Eric explained, the less clear his reasoning became.
Because RCCL/Celebrity failed to respond in their own designated forum, the AAA administratively closed the proceeding and directed us to file our claim in small claims court. We expected someone to call us to settle this matter.
This is not a matter of us filing a lawsuit without first attempting to resolve it. Our first recourse was contacting customer service for redress, who directed us to the contract. The contract directs us to arbitration and mediation. We followed the directives, and RCCL/Celebrity did not respond.
We certainly did not believe RCCL/Celebrity would permanently ban us for following their own claim procedures as outlined in their own contract. We have been traveling with RCCL/Celebrity for more than two decades without a single incident. We are Diamond members in good standing and often travel in suites. Clearly, this is a misunderstanding, and we remain hopeful that you may intervene and resolve this matter before [the court date].
We are willing to voluntarily withdraw this matter to restore our business relationship, benefits, etc., with RCCL/Celebrity. Please help us resolve this unfortunate misunderstanding.
Eric explaining his lawsuit against Royal Caribbean
I already understood that he had filed these claims. What I didn’t understand was why he thought the cruise line should pay for his car wash and detailing.
Eric then told me that Celebrity employees had directed him to the outdoor lot. According to him, that meant Celebrity had accepted responsibility for what happened to his vehicle during the cruise.
Canaveral Port Authority responds: parking is “at your own risk.”
There was a big problem with Eric’s assumption that Celebrity staff had sent him to the uncovered lot. The parking lots at the terminal are staffed by Canaveral Port Authority — not the cruise lines.
I contacted the Canaveral Port Authority to find out what it considers its liability to be to cruise passengers who park there. My executive contact shared this information with me.
Hi Michelle,
Sincerely, Canaveral Port Authority Communications
Cruise guests who park a vehicle at a port-operated parking facility are provided a receipt for the fee paid on the back of which is the disclaimer. I’ve attached a copy of it to this email.
The evidence Eric submitted to the court (and to me) included the front of his parking receipt. It identified the Canaveral Port Authority as the parking operator. Had he flipped it over he would have seen the fundamental problem with his lawsuit.
Not only was he pursuing the wrong company with his parking complaint, but the disclaimer specifically tells him he parked his car at his own risk.
And there was another problem with the foundation of Eric’s complaint. He insisted that Celebrity’s customer service directed him to his contract to determine how to escalate his complaint. In reality, he was directed there to review the document to see for himself that parking is not part of his cruise.
When the AAA declined to pursue his case, he misinterpreted that to mean they were “instructing” him to file a lawsuit. But that wasn’t what the letter said at all. It simply said that the AAA did not intend to go forward with the mediation so, “Either party may choose to submit the dispute to the appropriate court for resolution.”
Eric received no instructions from either AAA or the cruise line to take his demand for a car wash and detailing to arbitration or to a court of law.
But that is what he did.
Related: These cruise passengers were all banned forever. Here is why
What is causing this cruiser to escalate a baseless complaint?
I am always willing to go to bat for consumers who have been wronged. I dig into contracts, read through fine print and more to help the travelers who contact me — and I do it all for free.
But I am also fair in my reporting and when a consumer is in the wrong, I tell them. Since Eric had been misinterpreting messages about his complaint all along, I wanted to make sure he didn’t do the same with my words.
Eric lives in a coastal community in Florida. His car is regularly subjected to conditions similar to those at Port Canaveral. His car wash and detailing receipt showed his vehicle received a full deluxe detailing to remove bugs and shine it up. There is no mention of damaged paint.
Although I am typically not as blunt as I was with Eric, I wanted to leave no room for confusion. I believed he was pursuing a frivolous complaint, and I told him so.
I also thought there might still be a chance that if he dropped his lawsuit and apologized to Royal Caribbean for the “misunderstanding,” the cruise line might reverse his permanent ban.
It seemed to me that someone or something had misguided him every step of the way. And I had a suspicion about what it was.
Is AI behind this frivolous lawsuit against Royal Caribbean?
The reality is that more and more travelers are being misled by artificial intelligence. They overlook the warning at the bottom of AI-generated responses: “AI can make mistakes.” Instead, the confident answers from their chosen AI agents convince them to make baseless demands and file nonsensical complaints. And because these programs often reinforce what users want to believe, they can hallucinate “facts” that simply aren’t true.
Related: Here is why using AI to write your travel complaint is a bad idea (My report for The Points Guy)
When an unusual request for help lands in my inbox filled with legal jargon, irrational demands, and hard deadlines, AI is usually the culprit. Eric’s complaint against Royal Caribbean checked all the boxes.
I asked him directly if he was using AI to guide his efforts to get the cruise line to pay for his car wash and full detailing.
He neither confirmed nor denied using AI. Instead, he reiterated that he was simply doing what the cruise line and AAA had told him to do.
Related: Celebrity Cruises denied boarding to us. Whose mistake is this?
Not a case for Consumer Rescue
Unfortunately, Eric was unwilling to concede that this might have been his mistake and not the cruise line’s. But he hoped I could still bring his request to be removed from the Do Not Sail List to Royal Caribbean.
Hi Michelle,
Thank you for your review of this matter and I appreciate your blunt observation for clear understanding. As you are aware, in the line of business cruising, disputes arise on a daily basis as evident by the long customer service lines. How disputes are handled are vitally important.
Here, customer service dismissed our concerns and referred us to their contract for their dispute resolution process. The cruise did not respond to AAA notice for some reason and left us with the only other alternative asserted by the AAA.
At this point, we remain willing to resolve the matter in withdrawing our claim. Given our history of good standing and unblemished records, are you able to resolve this matter? We appreciate anything that you can do.
I had done all I could to help this former RCCL Crown and Anchor Society Diamond-level member.
I explained that unless he withdrew his lawsuit and stopped misinterpreting the guidance of Celebrity and AAA, I could not help.
Related: Did Norwegian Cruise Line ban this guy for complaining about itinerary changes?
Eric was polite and thanked me for my time.
His case against Royal Caribbean is still on the docket and I’m interested to see if the cruise line sends its attorneys there to fight the case. In Florida, a judge can order the plaintiff to pay the defendant’s attorney’s fees if it is determined that the lawsuit is frivolous. I shared that information with Eric, who seemed surprised.
It is unfortunate that someone or something encouraged a loyal cruise passenger with over two decades of cruising on their favorite line to throw it all away over a car wash. But that is exactly what happened here. (Michelle Couch-Friedman, Chief Fiasco Fixer and founder of Consumer Rescue)
