spotthedog not defending the airlines handling of this as it is a woeful customer experience however do you know the exact reason for the delay? Could it have been slot delays at dublin or LGW? You say yourself there was snow at the time. I can tell you from personal experience that the smallest amount of snow has in the past month sent airports at both end unserviceable. I myself was stuck on a flight the other day at STN due to 1cm... reason being that the runway was closed, then when it did open we had a slot and were number 7 for departure. Moved up several spaces but then RWY was shut again and remained so till the flight was cancelled.
Now I ask you what would you have done? You as the captain have sent a ready message to control saying that you are ready an immediate departure. You now have to keep the pax seated as the tower may be saying you should push in the next ten mins. Many of the times we as crew know a little more than the pax but not much in regards to when the airport will open. If you let pax deplane then you have to do a security search, then reload the aircraft. You let pax move around and it takes an age to get them seated again so you can push. By the time that is done you have missed your slot. Your now stuck at the gate waiting for a new slot to be issued. Its a bit of a juggling act trying to keep all the balls in the air at the same time.
Its up to the captain to release the cabin crew and if he thought it best to keep them seated surely he thought there was a chance of movement soon? But I wasnt there so cant tell you. You should send a complaint letter to RYR and see if you get a response.
The problem with telling pax the whole truth is that in many cases its the worst thing you could do. Pax get upset and it takes only one to start a scene. Yes a simple statement of we are delayed due RWY closing but again I cant say what was going on. I can tell you what I would have done and hindsight is a great thing. Yes you should be apologized to so I urge you to complain.
RYR is good at what it does. Transporting a hell of a lot of people and generating profits. However being good at generating profits doesn't always mean treating the customer as they should be treated, BA terminal 5 lost baggage ring a bell?