Leaderboard

To close this - I escalated, and escalated, and escalated until there was no one higher up to escalate it to ... and finally they agreed. It took what I consider an inordinate amount of time for them to accept my additional money, but they did. Now I'll have a balcony for 7 days to replace the 3 days in Old San Juan that we'll have to forgo pre-cruise due to the aftermath of Hurricane Maria. To top it off, my airline waived the change fees so that we fly in the day of the cruise, so all in all this was a good Monday. :)

First I would like to apologize ahead of time for some English spelling /grammar error I might do during this blog (and I will, promise you) as English not my first language. After the excuses, I can start, I am going to write this live blog which will cover a south Asia cruise since first I did not found too many blogs over this area and second I want to give something back to this wonderful site which I found to be very helpful , entertaining and most important very positive (comparing to many other site (which its name would not be spoken) that I found focusing on complains). The cruise which we are going to attend is 10 (well almost 10 ,I will explain shortly) days cruise from Honk Kong to Singapore on the Voyager of the seas. Here is the itinerary: 08 - October Hong Kong 11:59 PM 09-October Cruising 10-October Kaohsiung, Taiwan 11-October Cruising 12-October Cruising 13-Octover Nah Trang , Vietnam 14-October Hue/Danang , Vietnam 15-October Cruising 16- October Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam 17-October Cruising As you can see the embarkation is to 23:59 as the ship will arrive (without passenger) from mainland China. Now I hope that we will really set sail at the designated time and the 11:59 PM is not just so RLC will not need to change the name of the cruise to 9 days Hong Kong to Singapore … One can ask himself why I am starting this live blog a week before the start date ? well I have two good answers: 1. For me starting this blog now it also a commitment that I will need to update it and planning is almost 50% of the fun in cruises (quoting better than me) 2. We are actually starting the vacation few days before by flying first to Thailand and to be able and catch this flight I first need to come back from a business trip. For some reasons like the fact that my work colleges ask nicely, the customer insist and the most important somehow I need to pay for the cruises I found myself in this business trip which will finish few hours before my vacation starts. There is just a small problem, while the vacation starts in Thailand the business trip is to one of the south American countries which its name will not be reveled but let’s just say they have very good ceviche’s, they really like Llamas/Alpacas and if you will tell them that the original Pisco sour was invited in Chile they can get very offended. The plan itself is very simple (at least that is what I tried to convince myself with) , I finish what I need to finish , start to fly around the world with some connections, land at night at my home town just to take the vacation flight 5.5 hours later. I do hide one card in my sleeve, the same aircraft which will I take for my last connection is exactly the one I am going to take for my vacation (yes another connection) so if the last connection will be delayed also the next flight will. So you see it is very solid plan (it’s not) which I covered any problem that may pop (I did not) but hey, it makes live more interesting and if I will make it on time a very good story to tell. I have also created plan B if I will miss one of the connection and this is mainly to cry to my travel agent and beg her to find me an alternative route (One must love plan B) Now, you might ask why not to save some time and instead of flying to my home town and back to the connection point just stay at the connection airport and go from there (after meeting my belter half) ? Well apparently the gods of the airlines will not let you do something which actually make sense, you see I booked my vacation flights using award miles and while I could find the flights starting from my hometown going via the connection airport I could not find the same flight going directly from the connection airport plus if I would find it would cost more miles. I gave up on trying and understand the way the airlines works, so here we are. The good news is while I am written this I am already started my trip back , so currently I am in the airline lounge waiting for my next connection which appear to be on time. I promise to continue and update. For now , just so it will not be too boring I am adding pictures for one of the main reason I agreed to take the business trip:

Happy to report that early this morning I checked online again and notice that limit had been lifted. So I called RC right away to ask for the upgrade. In the end we are good, now in a suite with 1 1/2 bath and an extra pullman bed so the kids don't have to share a bed plus free gratuities for all Told the kiddies they would get their own room maybe next time lol. And yes, Matt, I booked with the NRD so it was my understanding all along that I would have to pay a penalty of $100pp for one of the cancelled rooms (not both rooms) which is what ended up happening. The remainder of my deposit goes to a FCC which can be applied to this cruise in a few weeks. Something interesting though, after reading bcarney's posts about his FCC, I did ask them what happens after I apply this FCC and sometime before sailing in March I decide I want to upgrade again, would my FCC be lost since already applied? They (agent and supervisor) assured me no it would not be, it would simply be reapplied by a supervisor since it is not expired and I am not changing the sail date or ship. They said this is done all the time. So what I have learned from all this is that the front end agents often do not know the rules and sometimes even the supervisor does not because with my case they had to go to a manager. With all this I was on hold for probably over and hour but worth it because it was good learning experience to not take the first agent's word for it all the time. And I may be in the minority here but I prefer to book and deal directly with RC because I can argue my own case and have control over my own booking. I blame it on my Type A personality lol.

Kayla, just wanted to say congratulations and best wishes to you and your fiancé as you take the next step in your life as a married couple. Hope the wedding is great and worth all the planning-related stress and anticipation. Have a great honeymoon, and we'll look forward to the report after you're back. Don't spend too much time Periscoping or blogging or what have you; you're newlyweds, you've got better things to be doing!

Thank you SO much, Joe. We are so excited and we can't wait to get on board Allure.

How about a list of things NOT to bring in a carry on: your neighbor a goldfish in a bowl an uncooked ham a sofa Anyone think of any others?

I just read this over at Cruise Critic, very informative read: https://www.cruisecritic.com/news/news.cfm?ID=8067&et_cid=3001988&et_rid=245092001&et_referrer=Boards - CC-US.

Let's see: First anniversary is paper -- tickets for a cruise, of course!! Second is cotton -- upgraded 1,000 thread count Egyptian cotton sheets for your cabin's bed Third is leather -- Ummm, I'm not gonna go there... Fourth is fruit -- The complimentary bowl of the stuff that comes with your suite booking! Fifth is wood -- Banister to the second floor of your crown loft suite! Sixth is candy -- That'll be the name of your genie! Seventh is copper and wool -- Of course, the bath and robes in the spa (they have copper tubs in there, right?) How far can we get with this? Ideas people (especially for the next few -- bronze, pottery, and tin!)

Here's my vent for today....So we are booked on Anthem in March 2018 in two connecting balconies at the moment (1 adult, 1 child in each room). Well this morning I happen to notice that there is a new Kids Sail Free promo which means this is now my way to convince hubby to get back into a suite. So I called RC right away with the understanding on my part already that by going from two cabins to one I will be paying a $100 service charge for the two people in the cabin that I will be cancelling and adding them to the other existing reservation. I was ok with that. Also, I have to mention that over the last two weeks, I have called RC on three other occasions inquiring about the switch to a suite and all three agents assured me that my penalty would be $200 (cause we have 2 in a room right now) and the remainder of the deposit in the form of a FCC. Ok, so I call this morning telling them that I want to upgrade (give them more money) and take advantage of Kids Sail Free and the agent tells me that I have to cancel both my reservations (and pick up a $400 penalty) to take advantage of the KSF offer. What??! I then continued to question him on how this would be different from me just getting a price adjustment (because I would not be incurring a penalty for that) and I also read the fine print on the KSF promo this morning and it said nothing about how it was for new bookings only which is what he kept telling me. I also let him know (nicely still at this point) that other agents had previously assured me that to go from two cabins to a suite I would only be cancelling the one reservation and he tried to tell me that they all gave me wrong information and that he had been doing this for years and he knows his stuff. So still not satisfied at this point, I requested to speak to a supervisor. He then put me on hold for about 10 minutes so that he could speak to a supervisor. Well as it turns out, he was wrong and I could take advantage of KSF and get a suite and just pay the penalty for 2 guests instead of 4. But....and this is where I got angry....as bad luck would have it, in the time that it took him to work all that out, their 3/4 capacity for this particular sailing had been maxed out! So now I can no longer put 4 in a room because of coast guard regulations and because he took so long to figure it out. Back to square one...I am not normally one to complain but I had to post this. Because just the other day I responded to another post about how most of the agents still don't know the rules around the new policies. Fingers crossed that some people cancel and I can call back....

There's still time! Err, I mean, congratulations!

These are the main reason, I've only had my luggage late one time, but it convinced me to start going the carry on route.

Agree with @BrianAlt I have a shoulder bag and a very small wheeled bag, but if you don't need it check everything and explore as already stated.

Congratulations, hopefully see you on board the week of the 15th, don't have as many as @eaglesfaninfl, but the wife and I are working on 38...

You won't be able to get into your cabin until around 1:30 and you might get on the ship 11:30 or earlier. You can explore and have lunch before you get into your cabin. I carry a shoulder bag, I have no issue with it. Others have small wheelies to crazy sized ones. Smaller the better, is my advice. You actually need a carry on if you plan to bring wine on with you.

Way to burst my bubble!! I totally wanted to bring my pet turtles! And I guess I'll unpack my sofa too. Ugh! My trip is ruined now! ;) So will I not be able to drop my carry on in my cabin? I know my other items won't be there, but that way I can at least go and drop it and then just enjoy the ship.

You'll have a great time! Congrats!

Good article and makes you realize just how bad these 2 hurricanes really were. But on a good note, sounds like that within the next 30-60 days most of these ports will be up and running and welcoming back tourists which will in turn help them recover!

Yes, the shuttle to town is available, but you wait a long time waiting for it to fill up. Its only about 75 steps from the shuttle place to the main gates of the port complex. If you walk out the gates (unlike some other places, this is PERFECTLY SAFE), there are plenty of taxis waiting. They are not allowed to come into the port complex so they wait right outside the gate. It is/was $2 per person to go to town, and $2 for the return trip. Walk out, grab a cab, go to town, enjoy! PRC

We had an amazing time. I hope you will as well. We ended up not scheduling any shore excursions & just walked around every port. Bar Harbor was our favorite. In Bar Harbor, we found an amazing photo gallery (Katahdin Photo Gallery / https://katahdinphotogallery.com/). The guy had some awesome photos that we bought. He even takes care of shipping them home to us. We also visited the Abbe Museum in Bar Harbor. If you like local t-shirts, check out Debbah’s Bar Harbor shop. I’m a big guy & was pleased to find some 4XL shirts! In Portland, I would recommend Gritty’s Brew Pub for lunch (http://grittys.com/). One of the local shop owner’s recommended it to us. My wife enjoyed her burger & beer, while I loved my fried shrimp basket. We found some amazing coasters with local photos from Peter Cordice (https://www.facebook.com/petercordicephotography/ ). He was selling them on a street corner on Commercial Street (I think it was Commercial Street). Both Bar Harbor & Portland had local ice cream shops that my wife & I meant to stop in after lunch but we never got around to that. Don’t make the same mistake we made . . . stop in!!!! St. John’s was OK. We explored there in the morning & went back to the ship to take a break. We ended up staying on the ship. Halifax was our 2nd favorite port. We walked all over the city. We stopped at the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic & had lunch at Salty’s. If you go to the Maritime Museum, go up the second floor to see how crowded the Titanic exhibit is. We made the mistake of exploring the main floor first. When we were done with that a Titanic excursion group walked in & the Titanic section was crowded. We meet a couple who enjoyed their visit to the Halifax Citadel National Historic Site. My wife & I are going to go there on our next visit. Bring your jacket, that couple said it was extremely windy . . . I got the impression that it may always be windier up there than it is around town. They also stopped by the Halifax Central Library that was just recently built. They were really impressed with it. We’ll probably stop there too at our next cruise. Be prepared for evening fog. We had 2 or 3 nights of dense fog at night. I thought it was actually a cool experience. We had fog almost the entire day on our first sea day. I hope you have as great of a time as we did!

Congrats Kayla! Next cruise goals...celebrate every anniversary with a cruise!

I keep a pill organizer with me in my brief case and TSA has never said anything to me, I am TSA Pre-check though.

We are planning Caribbean out of FLL late Sept 2018 on Oasis class for 3 pax can balcony. Heard there is a BOGO 100% promo often in October although this often does not include the third person. From history could anyone advise when the best discount and on board credit offer is likely to come up

Definitely I find the further out the better as once the cruise starts to sell out the rack rate goes up substantially which negates the discount. That said there was one Superior Grand Suite on our Ovation cruise in November that was originally $2000 more than our standard Grand Suite that is now $200 cheaper than ours. It is past the final payment date so it wasn't possible to change without penalty. It is also on deck 6 and we are on deck 12 and I also think the life boats may have interfered with our view.

We've not done an organised shore excursion before, but always preferred to use the shuttle buses and look around the ports of call ourselves. However, this time we decided to book a RC shore excursion in Gijon. It was titled 'Historic Covadonga with Asturian Lunch'. To quote the marketing on the RC website, this excusrion promsed we would immerse ourselves in Spain's rich history and natural splendor on a half-day tour including majestic mountain ranges, a sacred cave, a key battle site and a delicious lunch featuring typical Asturian fare. What actually happened was we spent too many hours on a coach due to the increased volume of traffic in the height of Spain's tourist season. There was no battlesite that we could see and barely any time at the spots we did stop at - due to the traffic we arrived at the sacred cave so late that the guide gave us only half an hour to look around but unfortunately the queue for the cave was over half an hour long so we had to leave it, and we also made a stop in a town which used to be the capital of Spain before Madrid. The guide took us on a short walk to see the Roman bridge in this town. The bridge was nice enough but due to everything running so late, we then had to walk back to the coach, leaving no time to explore the town and the shops. I'd have rather done this than seen the bridge. We stopped at a restaurant for lunch which consisited of bean soup (quite nice), a very tough escallope of chicken served with chips (we all left most of the chicken but ate the chips, which were really greasy) and a (watery) rice pudding to finish. I've still yet to research is this is indeed typical Asturian fayre but we were not impressed. To add to all of this the guide on the coach was as dull as ditchwater. He had no personality and offered very little in the way of information of what we were passing on the road, making the hours on the coach very boring. An entertaining guide would have probably gone some way to making a rubbish day a bit better. This excursion cost about £250 for 4 of us and we were all really disappointed and wished we'd stayed on board the ship. The volume of traffic was obviously no one's fault, however at one point the guide came over the speaker and said "August is the worse time to visit Spain. This isn't my fault"! (maybe he has experienced complaints before???). August is a busy month almost everywhere so my complaint is that RC or the shore excursion company should allow for the extra traffic on the road at this time of year and either make it a longer day trip or cut something out, allowing the guests to spend longer at other stops. On this occasion, my husband and son were not impressed the battlesite was missed completely as they are both into their history and was looking forward to that stop in particular. I guess you live and learn. This could have been a great trip if it had been better thought out, given the time of year.

We had a similar issue on Sint Martin for a 6hr tour of the sights. Ended up being nothing but shopping to "their" stores and when I wondered off to look at something else was hearded back he even grab my shoulder, they didn't like my reply, the only one who tells me what to do is my wife.....?. The bus was the slowest thing on earth, AC didn't work, so the bus members were going to complain on our return to the Ship. I think if it was just the wife and I they would have face palmed us off, but nearly 80% of the bus complained so we all received credit back. So moral of the story is safety in numbers if there is a problem.

Grandeur is Vision class, Serenade is a size up, Radiance class.

Oh good, I was afraid I was the only one who felt really uncomfortable with the implied undertones of those comments...

{sarasm:ON} Great first post. {/sarcasm:OFF}