Leaderboard

Booked 3 more! Or should I say Jacki at MEI Travel will convert three holds into bookings whenever the RCI system is back up from its overnight maintenance. With these three new bookings I've sailed or am scheduled to sail (with a booking) on every ship in the current fleet. I'll deal with Spectrum once her schedule becomes available. Might have to save up for a suite on that ship to experience the rumored suite only areas. All of my bookings involve a travel agent.

That is awesome!! What a great way to really experience YOLO! I personally can't wait to see every picture and blog from your experience. As always, it's like we are somewhat there with you from your awesome photos! You Rock @twangster even though you're a BOT.?

You forgot something.....Beat Navy!

To me, there is nothing more irritating than when Royal (and other Corps, to be fair) tells me that they are "enhancing" my experience with some new change to their policies that, invariably, do NOT enhance my experience. The casino is famous (especially recently) for this one. They proudly announce how much BETTER things are going to be for me when, in reality, they have made it harder for me in so many ways ! If you're changing your policy, just say so but don't try and convince me and everyone else that it's a change for my benefit. It almost NEVER is.

I'll add my two cents, although I think everything's been said about the value add of TAs. I can't say enough good about Michelle Cunningham. I switched my upcoming cruise on Oasis (3 weeks from today!!) to her immediately after booking (at WaaayTooo and other's recommendations). Michelle has been excellent, even saving me a significant amount from my initial cost on my already too expensive suite. I'm probably the worst customer for a TA because I do all the research myself (I can't tell if my family likes that I spend hours doing this or not...) and usually know exactly what I want. So I take away that fun for the TA ?. I will add, though, that whether you are a detail person like me or you just want someone else to handle the details, I think the TA makes a lot of sense. If for no other reason then they build the rapport with the right people to make good things happen. You *might* get lucky on your own and talk to just the right person, who's having just the right day and get a special something on your own, but the TA gets that treatment all the time. And they do it on your behalf. Oh and I agree with the earlier post, too, about setting up a separate travel savings account and having money automatically moved into it each pay period. It accumulates fast, especially if you "forget" about it until you need it. I just checked mine and, yup, I've got casino money for this cruise! Yay!!

Love Mykonos and Athens. Must try gyros over there and lemon potatoes.

Opps , Just saw I reacted on another thread , anyway , after all the wonderful advises here we decided to go with the Greek Islands option. We already booked the cruise and tickets. we will fly two days before the cruise so we will have at least a full day to tour Venice. Panning to book hotel in the mainland outside of Venice 15 minutes from the airport (we will land quite late)15-20 minutes by train from the city and 30 minutes from the cruise terminal , some of the hotels are offering shuttle to the cruise port , still need to check that. Hotels inside the city are very expensive and more important its not that easy to travel inside the city with luggage. Trying to add the new cruise to my account seem to be the most problematic part now , amazing (or maybe the fact I am still amazed that something is not working with RC site is the amazing part)

@Lovetocruise2002

We'll be on Grandeur for the first time in April 2019, Bermuda & Charleston. Can't wait! Haven't been on a ship that small since the 1990s. Will be an adjustment, for sure!

Hi! My husband and I are new here and are sailing on Harmony 9-15-18. We live in Southwest Florida. Second cruise but the last one was in mid 90's so we are kind of considering this our first cruise. This will be first with RCCL, but I'm sure not the last. You all seem like a wonderful group and we enjoy reading all the helpful posts. We are Lori and Larry

In my opinion, at a certain point in your life spending $100 for comfort is sooo worth it. I say go with your heart and book the slightly more expensive option in Fort Lauderdale. Your sanity and anxiety level are worth at least a hundred bucks.

We were tendered to shore at Mykonos so we landed in the heart of the town. It is typical Greek cobbled streets and alleyways with plentiful small bars and shops. We walked through the town to some ancient windmills that are very picturesque. There are also some classical Greek churches with coloured domes that make for charming views. A lovely place that retains the character of Greek style.

Just drink 3 Kraken Lavaflows, then 50° will seem warm!

add me to the list as well. i wasn't even aware of this until @Matt made mention of this in the recent TA thread. Sorry it took me so long to get here!

Also, for what it’s worth I’ve lived in Fort Lauderdale for 41 years and I avoid Miami Dade county like the plague. I find it to be dirty, congested and full of reckless drivers. My advise (although bias) would be to spend the extra money and fly into FLL and enjoy your favorite restaurant and then wake up and take a leisurely drive to the port of Miami via I-95 or US-1 (if you have more time and want to avoid 95).

We are sailing for the 2nd time on vision next summer for a 12 day greek/med cruise. We sailed on vision for our first cruise and the smaller ship has a lot of pros. I loved the fewer crowds, the ability to get into smaller ports, and the amazing service. No, we didn't have the big bells and whistles (most of which I don't use anyway) and I might miss the promenade next time, but it was an amazing cruise. Give the smaller a try... esp. For the new ports and the better weather. I can't wait to go to santorini, mykenos and Athens! Jane

Personally I love sea days for the relaxation they offer. I don't need a cruise director loading up the schedule with hairy chest or belly flop contests to keep me occupied. Give me sea air and a sunny day - I'm all set. Homework, hanging out in the pool, rock climbing, maybe some trivia, bring a book book to sink into. Quality family time without bumper cars or a flow rider. But only you know you, and you are not me. Nothing wrong with that. Research the ship, if you are concerned it isn't right for you, listen to your gut. Not every ship is right for every person.

hi Matt I have just contacted MEI and spoke with Michelle as I am totally ignorant on how a TA works I have asked her to baby me along which she so kindly said she would so here I go starting a new chapter in my travel book thoroughly excited about the future and thank you for steering me towards this new to me service

Cause you know what's it's like to be stuck between bickering kids for 3 hours!! lol Thanks Matt!

If I run across any, I'll be sure to post on the blog

I just emailed Heather at MEI to book it for me tomorrow for April 2020! @JLMoran you and wife would love the ship, it's so intimate, the girls might be a bit bored but it's a great itnerary! You get more bang for your buck too. Parking is $15 per day versus $20 at Cape Liberty. I say go for it!

Okay..enough is enough! Y'all made me book a cruise and it doesn't look like I'm the only one...fess up, who else book a cruise within the last 48 hours? Now I'm looking at another cruise ?

We can get much cheaper flights to FLL than MIA from here, have Allegiant and Frontier airlines which are generally much more affordable than Delta or United. We usually use a third party transportation company (SAS if I remember correctly) and have never had a problem getting to port of miami flying in the morning of the cruise. The transportation company driver uses the express lane on I-95 and we usually breeze right on by even if there is some heavier traffic. Seems like it usually takes about 35-45 minutes. Its funny how you can look up in the sky at FLL and see planes on their approach to MIA and think that yea, for that extra 5-10 minutes of flight time we saved over $100 a person!

Interesting they show distinct departure times on day 1, like it will spend the night at sea and dock again in the morning. When I've overnight-ed in other ports, no departure time is listed on the 1st day in port. I guess they don't want guests roaming around in the dark.

EXCELLENT choice ! Have a great time !

Love la bamba. We are in there for take out all the time!

I booked my return flight from Baltimore less than 45 days. I was able to book the same price as the first day SWA announce the schedule. So @Lovetocruise2002 go ahead and book your flight.

This was my first ship. Somehow I keep getting my blocks on this ship. I will be getting my third one this June.

I noted on Adventure last month, like on Freedom class, there are loungers as Matt illustrated above that are roped of for "Gold Card" (GS Suites and above). I'm assuming Mariner does as well. Not exactly a suite sun deck like on OA/QU class but it's something.

? but then the joke is on me as I have to sit with them! Thank you Tony. That is pretty much what I have read from doing my research this weekend. So what you are saying is just don't leave FLL earlier than that correct? If that is the option we decide on. What about coming back to FLL from MIA on the Friday? Traffic ok going northbound on a Friday morning? Thanks all for the input so far. This is great food for thought. @JLMoran, I'm going to test the 60 day flight plan ?

We'll have to take a picture! (you should know now I NEVER offer to be in a picture).

If you leave Fort Lauderdale around 9:30-10:00am you will be good to go on I-95 Southbound. No big deal. You will be at the cruise port roughly 35-45 min later.

I've never had a problem on my 3 cruises over spring break (teacher married to a teacher). The 6 and 7 night cruises are fine and I agree the 3 and 4 night seem to attract the college spring breakers. The teens and kids on my cruise were busy doing their thing and they didn't bother me... and I work with kids and usually am super sensitive about my break! Jane

Never in a lifetime will I fly in the day of a cruise...not with the stress... but you could fly out the same day.... then you only have the one side commute to FLL. That doesn't help though if you fly into FLL though! I have only gotten into FLL but I would say go where you want. The traffic back is irrelevant if you fly late enough and just factor it in on the way in. I personally would tell my teens to deal if all other factors were the same (it wouldn't be a deal breaker) but if the other factors toward fll, then hey, tell them you made that the first factor and win mom of the year points lol! Jane

This was taken in 2016 on Allure. Glad to know the product used is the "real deal". Well some of the frozen product at least.

Hi @Lovetocruise2002! First, I like your new "title". ? We live in Central Florida. We have cruised out of Miami and Fort Lauderdale multiple times. Traffic on I-95 between FLL and Miami on both Monday morning and Friday morning, during rush hour, will no doubt be nightmarish. I-95 can become a parking lot at any given time. It sounds like you really want to stay in FLL, but maybe fly into MIA and stay in South Beach instead. South Beach is a beautiful area, plenty of restaurants, and very close to port. I can't recommend a hotel because we've never stayed there. I can recommend Joe's Stone Crab. https://www.joesstonecrab.com/. They don't take reservations. Go when they open. It was awesome. Have a wonderful cruise! I can't wait to read your blog on it. I have Mariner booked out of Port Canaveral for a B2B in January 2020.

Yeah, and for us old farts, it gives us something to look forward to!

Based on the pricing we've seen so far, I don't think its egregious at all. In fact, their prices are lower than I was expecting. Look at how much Atlantis charges for its water park passes, as a good example. At the end of the day, this represents choices. There will still be plenty of beach to go to and plop down and enjoy like you always have. If you want to spring for a cabana or water park pass or ride on the helium balloon, you can do that. I think it's better to have those choices rather than RC roll the costs into everyone's cruise fare and then you pay for experiences you aren't going to be using. I cannot wait to see what the finished product looks like

One other thing for me is my relationship with people that entrust me with their trips - we take our clients and our friendships/bookings with them very serious - Certainly MEI Travel supports this blog and we are thrilled to be doing that. And WE CAN"T TELL YOU THANK YOU enough for entrusting us to handle your cruises - thank you - thank you - but its the relationship with Matt and the Blog that is also of great value as well to me. AND - I have many clients that after 10-12 years of booking with me are friends too They don't just book cruises- they book all trips with me - and now I'm moving down to their Kids Trips as well - its awesome! And once I learn your likes/ etc. I don't have to come ask you "what type of cabin? what dining" I try hard to get to know your likes/dislikes so we work as a Team - and other MEI Agents do this as well. TO me - besides all things listed here in the post about perks and supports -its about that relationship too!

Twangster - great points - and Lights On !

To try and put this thread back on track, that is one reason why I use MEI and Michelle, because I know that everything will be like I like it and if not she will get it fixed for me. The shopaholic part, after reading a blog the other day about Harmony, I would have booked a Harmony cruise if the summer 2020 cruises were out, lol.

Could not agree more with what you said. In some many facets of travel, going on your own is often encouraged, but when it comes to cruising, using a TA is such an advantage!

A "good" travel agent should not be charging you hidden/extra fees outside of the ones imposed by the cruise line. I would hesitate to book with any agent charging me extra.

I ALWAYS make monthly payments on all of my cruises booked through MEI. Granted, it is never less than $100 each but Michelle does this for me each and every month and there are generally 4-5 of them to do. I have always paid off my cruises in this manner. I divide the balance due by the number of months that I have left and that is my monthly payment. Kind of like installments ! While it all comes out the same in the end, I avoid the heart attack of owing thousands at final payment. I know it's just a way I'm fooling myself into thinking "I'm not really spending THAT much" but it works for me !

MEI has been a wonderful agency to work with, proactively letting me know if my fare is still the best, sale after sale. Long before I joined this site, over years of travel I built a relationship with others and I maintain that relationship. Once booked, you are free to continue to use the cruise planner to make My Time reservation, entertain reservations, Voom purchases and so on. The only thing I've noted using a TA if if you want to change cabins. If you booked cabin 1234 and suddenly cabin 4567 becomes available, instead of calling Royal you have to call your TA. That has yet to stop me with 34 Royal cruises booked or completed. In the end, all of those 34 will have involved a TA (plus many others on other cruise lines before I came over into the light). I've yet to find a reason why not to, even when applying C&A balcony discounts.

Just realizing i've never introduced myself. Name is Todd and i'm from a small town just north of the Dallas metroplex (Wylie). My wife and I will be married 7 years in October. I have 2 boys from my previous marriage (14 and 16) who definitely keep us on our toes. Michelle and I both took our first cruise in 2012 for our honeymoon. We chose Mariner out of Galveston and instantly fell in love with cruising! Second cruise we took our boys on Carnival Breeze which was a blast for all of us but she and I quickly felt like we were missing something. We were in such awe of Mariner and while Breeze was a great ship, the overall feel of it just wasn't the same for us. Not to say we won't try Carnival again but we've opted to book our next 2 cruise back on Royal (Liberty in '19 and Harmony in '20). As an added bonus, through our love of cruising, we've also (re)introduced both of her sisters and husbands to cruising again. Both couples last cruised back in the early 90's. 2 of them went on our Breeze cruise and loved it so now we have all 4 of them coming with us on Liberty next year which will be great! As for me, i'm the obsessive planner and want to know everything about our trip LONG in advance. She leaves me be and doesn't want to spoil the excitement ahead of time so i have to make sure i parse out my info to everyone, keeping it minimialistic at best so as to not burn everyone out. LOL i can't figure out why none of them are as obsessed as i am HAH! anyway, happy to be here. It's a very refreshing break from all the drama over at the other site. Love getting to know everyone here and appreciate all the feedback i've received so far on my questions. Cheers!

We will be going to Cozumel three times this Summer. My husband says if I spend wisely this Summer, I can book a cruise on our last cruise in August.

My Alaska ship internet experience is limited to Celebrity at the moment, until June on Explorer. Since Celebrity is part of the RCCL family I am expecting similar internet on Explorer as I had on Celebrity and I know it will not match Oasis class internet. Oasis uses O3b technology. That technology is available at +/- 50 degrees latitude. Alaska is well outside of this footprint. So far out of the footprint that even normal satellite coverage for the lower 48 is largely fringe coverage up there. On Celebrity I experienced this fringe coverage. Some times it was pretty good, some times it was pretty bad and some times it was just okay. My cell phone worked in all ports so between the two I managed just fine, but make no mistake it's not as good as the coverage in the Caribbean. Unless you are one of those who believes the earth is flat, you'll have the curvature of the earth working against you.

A trick when booking MTD for the first time is to use the "Plan All Cruise Dining" button. Using this presents a page where you can make all reservations at once for each night and "purchase" them only once. You do have to scroll past all the other dining options to find "My Time".

Check out this thread: A guy posted a work around on how to make MTD reservations on HOTS. I was having the same issue, and his solution worked for me. Hope this helps.