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Day 4 - La Spezia. What a wonderful day , finally the weather was much better and finally it was a full day without any conference calls. As I shared at the beginning of this blog my main plane was to rent a car , drive to Milan and retrieve my cell phone from the airport lost and found, but since I already got a new cell phone and my numbers were duplicated I decided it can wait. We did not had any plans because of my cellphone so we decided to take it easy and just visit the city , let our legs take us wherever it feels like. We started to walk on the boardwalk of this nice city and we were stoped by some girl offering us to buyt tickets to Portovenere which is a nice town near the bay , we said thank you but skipped it as we already visit it last time. 200 m after another one offered us a private bought tour to the same place, we refused that also until finally we came to something which looked crowded , apparently it was the ticket booth for the HOHO boat to Cinque terre , you pay 35 Euro for a full day boat services which allows you to get off in each of the villages and get on the boat again later for the next village. Just to compare, same excursion with RCL will cost around 120 $. As we saw its almost the time for the boat to leave, we had a short discussion between us if to take it or not as it's a full day activity and decided to go for it , my spouse told me "you want to take it so you will have many pictures for the blog right ?" Well I can not argue with her ?. On the boat we took the time table we got and tried to calculate the best route and strategy to maximize the number of ports we visit (without drinking package) , we found out the best route for us. We past Portovenere but decided not to go off there so we continued all the way to Manarola , a very lovely village with great views. We spent half an hour there. we took the boat to Verenazza where we proamed around and ate quick lunch. Next we stopped at Riomaggiore as it was already in our way back...  continued...

Never discuss politics, religion, and drink sharing ?

Might be time to lock this thread up.

It’s a shame you didn’t look at this Blog prior to attempting to make your reservations. The advice and suggestions here are spot on and would have provided you with words of wisdom and guidance in booking your first cruise! Now, you have a bad impression of RCL and cruises altogether, which is a real shame. Cruising is awesome and RCL surely delivers! We always use a travel agent, at no cost to us, to handle everything! Takes away any chance of confusion or possible stress. Hopefully, you can get everything sorted out and go on your first cruise! I’m sure you would enjoy it. And if you don’t, I’m sorry.

Day 9- Sea Day Today demonstrated that weather in the Baltic can be quite unpredictable. We started the day surrounded by thick fog- it was like we were sailing through a cloud (and meant the view from the outlaws balcony was as good as from our inside cabin!) Breakfast was in the main dining room. I had the French Toast with Bacon and it was really good- much thicker and fresher than from the WindJammer. Whilst we were eating breakfast the fog suddenly lifted, and glorious sunshine replaced the mist. We had booked Henry in for two hours at nursery. We decided to make the most of the sunshine and sat outside to play some Rummikub. It was quite crowded, so we went to the outside seating of the Wimdjammer, right at the aft of the boat (which may have accidentally lead to a second breakfast...just to make sure I was right about the French toast!). This seating is often quiet, but the view is spectacular and it’s really a good place to eat and relax. We found ourselves getting sunburned and the fog turned into a distant memory. Things turned a bit gloomy however when Captain Ante came over the PA system to say that we had slowed down and changed direction (we hadn’t even noticed!) due to a passenger becoming critically ill and needing to be taken to shore by the Swedish navy. The rescue boat pulled alongside the ship and the passenger was transferred that along with one of the doctors from the ship. This meant we had to wait for the doctor to get back, but Captain Ante said this wouldn’t effect the itinerary as we still had plenty of time to make it to Skagen at full speed. It was quite sad that someone was so Ill, but also reassuring to know how quickly and efficiently the crew manage these situations. For lunch, we went back to the MDR. I think lunch is the meal that the MDR does particularly well- there’s always been a wide variety on the menu which changes a lot as well as the legendary salad bar. Today, I had the seafood and tomato risotto which was fantastic, and for dessert we shared Cherry Custard Crepes and Caramelised Banana Mille Feulle - both of which are vying for the title of best desserts on board! With Henry enjoying a post-lunch nap we decided to try out the cinema for the first time as it was showing Aquaman. It’s tucked away between the Pub and the Theatre on deck 6 and it’s quite neat and quirky. We arrived as the film was starting and only just got a seat because it’s quite small but the same film seems to play back to back throughout the day. The projector is a bit dated but it’s a great way to spend some time. Whilst the film was on, Captain Ante came back over the address system to say that we’d been back on our way but, unfortunately, another guest had been taken critically ill and so we’d need to take them aboard also. I don’t think they were related or caused by the ship! This did turn out to be a delay that couldn’t be mitigated , and so the Captain said the best option available was to arrive in Skagen 3 hours later than planned tomorrow. I guess that’s a small inconvenience when health and life are at stake. By this point, the weather had literally become gloomy. Undeterred, we headed at Henry’s insistence, to the pool for our afternoon swim. I’ve never been able to figure out a pattern to the water temperature. In St. Petersburg, at 30 something degrees and pure sunshine, it felt freezing. Today, in grey and windy conditions it felt like a bath! We then headed back to get changed ready for the second formal night, which we’d eat in the dining room for. People seem pretty relaxed about the dress- I saw about five tuxedos (including one on Henry who became a hit with the ladies!), a few lounge suits, but most were just slacks, shirts and blazers. The food in the MDR was really good tonight- we had, between us, Asparagus Soup, Fried mushrooms, Hallibut, Beef Wellington, Chicken Schnitzel and Pecan Pie. It was rounded off with one of the celebration Birthday cakes which Henry refused to share! Entertainment this evening was “BowJangles”. I was on bedtime duty but Mrs. M went to see it and said it was very clever. It was a string quartet who did quite a bit of comedy. She said it was quite clever but that there were a lot of musical jokes “We’re out in the ocean...The High C” and that a few people walked out! She enjoyed it though.

There is a reason that many of us use travel agents to book with Royal. They then have to deal with the website and customer service phone nonsense and all the stress and headaches that come with it. I think it was less a bait and switch scam and more just a website glitch and a customer service agent who just couldn’t comprehend that and/or didn’t believe you for some reason (but still very annoying and I understand your frustration!) If you are willing to give Royal another try, I would try having a travel agent rebook it so that they can navigate that for you. The nice thing is that they come with lots of knowledge and experience and it costs you nothing extra. They get paid by Royal so it’s a win/win.

Well it really depends on where you are going as well. 1. You might not be able to board the ship. 2. You will be fine. 3. You will be detained, imprisoned and executed. Number 3 is not that likely though.

Matt is the site owner. Now you are introduced.

THANK YOU!

I am so with you. I am actually surprised by MANY people’s responses here. Including ones I would never expect it from. Thought this forum prided itself on being bigger people than those who critique their cruises on that other forum??

Don't listen to them. Not all of us here at royalcaribbeanblog are like that. Is sad to see how some people on this board has become more and more hostile like the usual members of the "other site". Please don't be discouraged by some people who only appears to be trolling. I completely agree with all that you said.

Could you imagine the emails Richard Fain would get if the Towel Animal was not folded correctly or had some hanging threads??

It seems that many people find their way to this message board via google and not by way of the main website/blog and the excellent information that is found there. Here are some links to some of the many articles aimed at first time cruisers on this site. They all recommend using a travel agent along with a bunch of other tips and insights. Best of luck. https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2018/01/03/first-time-cruisers-what-know-booking-royal-caribbean-cruise https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2016/06/15/why-first-time-cruisers-should-use-royal-caribbean-travel-agent https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2017/10/30/8-cruise-tips-first-time-royal-caribbean-cruisers https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2014/07/17/first-time-cruisers-ten-mistakes-avoid https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2015/02/28/first-time-cruisers-what-you-need-know-about-taking-royal-caribbean-cruise

Enjoying the show, please continue to entertain me :)

You've got it backwards. You get a discount for allowing RC to choose your room. As for "needing to pay more", this is no different than if you book an airline flight and select a seat with extra leg room or an emergency exit row seat. Preferred room options come with a higher cost. In your original post, you wrote in big, bold letters "assuming this meant", so yes, you did assume. I understand this isn't your first foray into travel, but cruise vacations are different from land vacations. I'm not sure why you did not stop when you reached the point of not seeing the options you expected and completed the booking. I'm sorry your first experience was not to your liking, but I think your experience and/or expectations were out line with pretty much everyone else here. If you think you've discovered some vast conspiracy by Royal Caribbean to dupe their customers, well, I'm sorry to say that simply is not the case. Reading your experiences speaks to a first time cruiser who made assumptions and ended up with a different result than they expected. My advice going forward is to give RC another try, but employ some of the advice and strategies we all happily share. I think with a bit more footwork, you could easily come away with a great cruise vacation.

Go see it twice! Holy cow it was cool. Don't pay at attention to a story or anything. Just watch the performance and the moving TVs and the music. Sit about 6 rows back from middle section, we were in the second row and needed to be back a couple. But, for us, was fantastic ... tonight is We Will Rock You

Am I the only one calculating calories when everyone is talking drink packages? ?. I’d rather eat my calories!

This is what i typically use:

WOW. Just WOW. If you can go see We Will Rock You twice .... do it .... it was by far the best show we have ever seen on a RCL cruise. #period

Agree. I wouldn't like to be treated like this if this was my first time posting something on this forum...

Prayers for healing for your wife and strength for you and your family. I am glad that the insurance issues regarding your cruise did not add stress to an already stressful situation. I hope to hear all about your wife's recovery celebration cruise in the very near future.

Fixing to start We will rock you ... first the front rows reserved for key folks Packed house... show last night canceled due to technical stuff

This was hilarious!

As Twangster said, this would basically be a re-booking. I think that, perhaps, you were hoping that couple #4 could just slip into couple #2's cabin and do a even trade-off. Unfortunately, it does not work like that. They would have to rebook into couple #2's cabin and it would be repriced not only from an inside to a balcony, but also at the prevailing rate. To be honest, $92 is a great price to move from an inside to a balcony ! I think it's a bargain and if they can manage to regain couple #2's location so that you are again a 3-some, that is a great outcome. Good luck. I hope it works out.

I don't think they are worried about the 2 couples that are remaining in the <no longer connected> balconies. It sounded to me as if they are trying to move the 4th couple, who was stranded off somewhere else, into the balcony room vacated by couple #2.....at which point they would re-unite as a 3-connected-balcony trio.

I think they care because they wanted to open their balcony dividers and make one huge balcony..

I apologize for any posts that you felt were attacks on yourself. Now and then we get someone who comes in here and posts outlandish accusations about a horrible experience and then never come back to provide any feedback. It does not excuse anyone insulting you by any means. I can appreciate your dedication to following up with posts in this thread and I can tell from your responses that you're not being unreasonable, but did have a first-time negative experience. I really think if you gave it another shot and followed some best practices, you could easily avoid the pitfalls you ran into previously, and then enjoy a great cruise vacation.

"Assuming" is the key word here. You assumed, instead of verifying. This is a classic example of why working with a travel agent, and NOT booking on your own (especially for first timers) is so important. There is no bait and switch, just a consumer who didn't do their homework, guessed at what things ought to be, and was disappointed in the outcome.

You must keep that last picture of Henry to show all his future love interests!

Can you cancel and rebook? Or cancel and use a travel agent?

Last night and tonight received large print cruise compasses which was nice. I'll be sure to post all of them when I get back.

In our room tonight+royal caribbean 50th anniversary cake served to all tables tonight.

This is totally me! I'd actually rather eat AND drink my calories, but alas, my body has other ideas!

Yea, I get it, but I've been in this situation before, I was on the phone with Royal after an online booking, and I was just trying to move the room closer to the elevator bank and the agent kept going on about 2's, 3's and 4's and what I wanted was a 6 and there would be a $100pp difference, WTF, all I want to do is move closer to the elevator, so we went through it again, finely I stopped them and said, what are you talking about with the numbers and letters? They explained the designations to me, explained that some are valued more than others due to proximity to things, etc., at that point I said give me the room and I'm ok with the $100pp. I'm not bashing anyone, but I'm hoping some future cruiser reads these blogs and figures all of this out before they get upset and start bashing Royal. We all have to be vigilant with how we spend our money and make good educated choices, otherwise we'll be giving our bank account information to a Saudi Prince...

CK (finally) sunset

I'm also from Seattle. We did a 7 night cruise to Astoria, OR, San Francisco, and Victoria B.C. last fall on the Explorer out of Seattle. Great trip and the weather that time of year in S.F. was amazing. Now that the Ovation has replaced the Explorer I don't see it offered, but I would definitely do that one again.

Day 7 - Labadee I think this has been our most enjoyable day. This is the first time we actually used the suite area on the Labadee beach. I think it was about 9:45ish or so when we finally got everyone ready to get off the ship and go to the beach. It was very nice and not crowded. The main side was a little more crowded, but it didn't seem unbearable. Just first come first server on different spots with chairs and stuff. If you are able to access the suite area, you'll exit the ship and go to the end of the pier. From there, you'll meander a little towards the left. On the right side will be a loading area with someone there coordinating getting people on a golf cart to take you down to the suite area, or you could walk it. It's really not that far. Once there, you'll get a wrist band to show that you have access. You'll go inside the area and grab some chairs or if you reserved a cabana, you'll get one of those. There are people there to escort you to a place. I highly, highly recommend getting a few chairs in the SHADE - it's really hot and being able to cool or sorta cool off under some type of shade is a good thing. Oh, and drink a crap ton of water. You don't realize how much floating in salt water and being in the sun - while extremely nice, is very draining of the water outa your body. The beach on that side is really nice and calm for snorkeling, so we pretty much stayed in the water. The girls floated on little rafts that they'll bring you - no charge, unless you want to tip the guy that drags it 25' to you o_0 No, I don't mind tipping for most things, but there are a few things where it seems a little ... um ... not-tip-worthy. But, to each his own. Little man and I snorkel'd around a lot. He was collecting all kinds of shells and coral and stuff and making a big pile. My underwater camera died shortly after we got started but I got a few pictures. It showed like 75% charged but you know batteries these days, they suck. And to top it off, it's one of those funky batteries you have to take out and put in this box thing and plug it into the wall. So, i resorted to trying to figure out how to use my phone camera to take water pictures. Now, I have the Galaxy S9+ which is supposed to be water proof ... bbbuuttt .... yeah, not going to take to many chances to see if that's really true. Well, what I would do is start a video and then sorta flip the phone upside down and stick it underwater to record some cool underwater videos. Once I clean up the pictures, I'll toss quite a few out here. Around 11:30, i guess it was, lunch was served. The suite area has it's own section where the staff from the Coastal Kitchen show up and serve lunch. Pictures of the lunch will be posted soon, along with more pictures of the suite beach, so be patient ? Lunch consisted of burgers, hot dogs, salad stuff, mac/cheese, ribs, lamb chops, sirloin steak and lobster. Yes, all of that was served. Do me a favor, just think about where you are when you go grab something to eat. It's like 90 HOT degrees out there, you probably haven't drunk enough water and you want to gorge yourself on .... uh ... lobster and lamb chops. Ok, so I didn't do that - I had 2 burgers and only 1 lamb chop (does that count towards my filet count). IMPORTANT! This is for those of ya'll who like to consume a little alcohol on the beach. Be mindful that some of the staff there sometimes don't get in a hurry. They also don't seem to care who or what people order. Our 14 yr old daughter ordered a cranberry red bull and the lady behind the bar gave her a cranberry and vodka - like wtf. She knew that wasn't right, so dumped it out - glad we don't have to pay, otherwise i would be pissed they charged some weird amount for that drink that was never asked for. Also, they have these really cool looking drinks you can get inside a real pineapple. Don't waste your money, if you have to pay for one. I think they are like $12 or something like that. My wife got one and most of the drink started leaking out some crack in the pineapple - yeah, there goes your alcohol. I got one for my son, virgin daiquiri thing that we were going to share. Well, we couldn't get it through the straw because the ice chunks were too big, so we had to use a spoon. Ok, no problem, right? well, the freaking middle of the pineapple was still there. #fail yeah, you would get more drink just ordering from a glass. Consider yourself warned ? Moving on now, we swam / snorkeled for quite a few hours - forcing the kids to drink water and take breaks to reapply sunscreen a couple of times. I walked down the way to the shops and was pretty much bombarded with calls from the guys there trying to get me to talk / buy something with them. It way to aggressive for my tastes. I mean, I understand trying to pawn your wears and stuff - but some of these dudes were just standing under a tree hollaring. Glad I didn't take the family with me. Nothing at the shops that wanted me to take the family back, so that was good. I did pickup a couple of cheap flippy floppers for the kids, since those ding-dongs didn't bring their sandals and only had socks / t-shoes. Back on board around 2:30, as we had our trapeze session at 4. We wanted to get cleaned up a little before doing that. Well, some of us did - others, lucked out. Dang kids called both the showers first - I got one that i have to tell him to wash twice and i have another who tries to drain the freaking hot water tank. (oh, yeah - we renovated our house and installed a separate hot water tank so she would stop draining ours. we now have our own dedicated hot water tank for the master bath) After they cleaned up, they were gone like a freaking rocket. Uh, bye - be at the trapeze by 350 dad-gummit. Trapeze. Let me just tell you a little bit about this. it only lasts like 15 minutes and most of that is waiting for a few others to swing. You climb up this tall ladder in the SeaPlex (where the bumper cars are), and stand on a little platform at the ceiling with two staff members. The pull the handle thing over, you grab it, step off and swing. If you can, you put your feet between your legs and hang upside down while swinging (harder than you think), then back to swinging for a second while someone on the ground is asking if you want to do a flipping dismount. Again, more intimidating than you think. You dismount or just drop on this big air-bag, rolloff and your done. Now, the reason i said all this was for two things. The first being - if you are not confident in your ability to hold onto the bar during the first swing, you might want to skip this. We saw a few people step off and pretty much get half a swing in before they lost their grip and fell on the air bags. Good thing it's free huh? The second, it's not as exciting as spending a little extra time trying to swing around and grab another bar or something else. it's pretty short and sweet. Each person's swing only lasts between 5 seconds (those who can't hold on) to may 90 seconds (those who can flip over with their knees and then do a flip for a dismount) 4:45 we got a private tour of the behind the scenes for We Will Rock You. Yen was able to get a couple of the performers to walk us through the different areas behind the scenes, performer dressing rooms and how they move under the stage to get into different areas. Our daughter has been in multiple drama performances over the past ... uh, 4-5 years, i think, so this was something we thought we be cool for her to see. They gave us the tour and we got to see the performers setting up for a practice run. One of the performers took the time to talk to our daughter about her experience in how to she became a performer on the ship and where she went to school and things she studied. it was truly a great thing for her to spend a few minutes with us answering some questions. #GoYen 6:30 was dinner at Wonderland with reservations to see Spectra at 9. Plenty of time, right? Well, for just two of us we finished with about 30 minutes to spare. For a larger group, add another hour between events. So, in some prior posts here i tossed out a ton of pictures as we were going through our courses. We tried the Wonderland thing - no desire to do it again. The concept is pretty cool, but there just wasn't anything that makes you go 'oh snap we gotta do that again', type feeling. Our waiter was nice, but seemed sorta like he was new. All the food we had was just ok ... the only good thing we liked was the shrimp in a cup thing. Don't ask me what all the different 'elements' were because, even though they explained the idea - once you eat it, it just doesn't really stand out to let you know you consumed some element. it's hard to explain, i guess. I mean, there was this earth dish - and it sorta looked like it had dirt, which is the idea - but when you tasted it, it just tasted like some veggies with grounded up pumpernickel bread. the atmosphere was kinda cool, the chairs were comfortable - but like i said, for us, it's not something we would do again. I will say, however, the concept is interesting and if you have the time and money and are board, then consider it just for the experience ... don't do it for the food. 9pm - Spectra ... Ok, first off let me say GO SEE THIS TWICE! Now, let me follow that up by saying, I'm a really big movie fan (though, I suck at movie trivia). With watching movies, i really enjoy the music, sound, lights, motion and all the 'stuff' that goes on to make the movies. We did a private tour a few days ago and our son was invited to hang out with one of the tech guys during the show. Seeing all the behind the scenes and the workings is just cool to me. I am a big science channel nerd and love watching how stuff gets made. Seeing all the robot arms for the tvs, each worth a few million each (they are actually the same type of robot arms that build cars), also seeing the trap doors of how the performers move around for different scenes was just amazing. With all that, watching the show - we were just mesmerized by the music, the dances and the effects on the big window wall and the choreography of the robot arms with their tvs. Honestly, I have no idea what the show was about - lol - I just enjoyed listening and watching the performers. Sure which i could dance like that #IWouldBreakSomething This show only lasts for about 45-50 minutes, We Will Rock You - I hear is right at 2 hours #BigBladder After the show, our son was super happy he got to watch how they ran the technical aspect of the show. He was so glad he did that and was able to have that experience. #GoYenAgain I would talk about the casino, but not happy with it right now - ha. Now, we do enjoy playing around the slots in the casino but we have a strict budget. If we run outa money for the night, it's an early night ... if we win a little extra, we can stay out a little later or have some extra play money for the next day. We don't spend outside of our budget - that's a very strict rule we both agree on. So, like i said - not happy with the casino right now, so you guess'd it ... it was an early night - lol The next two days are at sea, so we are drawing close to the end - which is very sad. I think i've scoped most everything on the ship - well, things that i thought people would be interested in. I did manage to find the concierge club - which is sorta stupid where it's at. It's on the back of the ship on deck 12, by itself. I mean, i don't even think there are any suites back there by it ... maybe a grand suite. I'll toss up some pictures in a little bit, but doesn't appear to be used much. Few people were there grabbing some breakfast items. It was extremely quiet in there. You feel as if you are in the library and have to be quiet - not cool. the same sorta space is apart of the coastal kitchen on the oasis classes, which, for us is the best way to combine those areas. I also went and found the work-out area, at the front on deck 16. Yeah, it's pretty much just a big area gym with lots of machines, free weights and some other workout type stuff. not for me - i hate working out, i need to actually do something productive - lol. Ok, off again - finished my burger / fries / sparking water and cranberry here in the coastal kitchen. I got about an hour or so to kill now before the We Will Rock You 2-hour show starts. I'll be tossing Labadee pictures and some other pictures up later today. Oh yeah, we have Chef's table tonight. That should be interesting ... as we don't drink we'll have to order white and red grape juice - hahah.

Henry looks like he's loving that cake ?

I checked as well..sounds like the OP is correct. And I am surprised others here aren't aware of that..its been like that for awhile on Royals website.. OP did not ASSUME(even though he said that but)...its printed in black and white.......so it is deceiving...and of course there is lots of small print at the bottom about NRDB and all the rules and regulations. it is defn NOT straight forward at all..especially for a first time Royal cruiser.... To be honest I am not even 100% sure about all the ins and outs and rules and changes and what shows and doesn't show when it comes to Royal and I have cruised a dozen times with them....and I cant even find where the Redfundable deposit price is now...

The guest in the interior cabin will have to pay more to upgrade to a balcony and they will be charged based on today's current rate for the balcony. What you may have paid for your balcony in the past is irrelevant.

Interesting.... I've never actually booked a cruise on Royal's website. I have, however, made many, many mock bookings, and every time I've selected "You pick your room" as I simply don't like the idea of a guarantee room. In every case, after selecting this, I was given the option to look at deck plans and select the room of my choice. I can therefore understand that if this didn't happen for the OP, he is now rather frustrated. I don't buy the concept of "maybe there was only one room left" as when it gets to that stage, Royal will generally remove the option to pick your own room and all you can book is a guarantee (in my experience anyway). From this, I think a few people here have been very harsh on the OP.

I think so. Or let me put it this way, we leave our bags on the chair on embarkation day while we enjoy a swim. I'd advise to keep the bags within vision of whatever pool you are at and keep bags closed, etc.

Can you provide the exact cruise that you were going to book (Or booked)? Ship and date, room category you were looking at? I've booked upwards of 12 cruises on Royals web site (and 100 if not thousands of mock bookings) and I have never seen this issue, when it says click here to pick you room it always redirects me to a floor plan where I select my room. I now use a travel agent mainly for simplicity reason, I don't have time to do the research that I used to, so I let them do the research and present me with options. I currently have 7 future cruises booked through 2021 and have not had any of the issues you describe. I have seen issues where 1 browser verses another browser will receive different feedback from Royals web page, but most of the time this is a security or pop up blocker. I have found the best results using Chrome and opening an incognito session.

Thanks for the heads up on the Nassau day pass British Colonial Hilton. I made reservations via Resort for a day website to use the resort this weekend. After contacting the hotel & website, they did confirm the pool is under construction and they are building a swim up bar. They did offer us a full refund from our deposit ($20pp) if we decided not to go. After thinking about it, we took the refund and have made other plans. Thanks for the heads up! @KristenM

We always use our AAA travel agent for bookings, although we research RCI website online. In your shoes, I would be angry about the glitch in the website, but I don't think it is bait and switch. Hopefully, your experience will help them fix the problem before others are affected. I have heard others state they get better service from Crown & Anchor folks than from the RCI phone centers. Again, having an agent has been wonderful for us over the years.

Hi my name is Vincenza and my boyfriend's name is Joseph. We are both from Queens, NY. Last year went on my first vacation with my boyfriend, a RC Cruise. Loved it so much we are going on another RC Cruise in Dec 2019. Will be blogging about our cruise in the live cruise blog section of message board on this website. Can't get enough cruising info. Love RoyalCaribbeanBlog.com

So cool @TheHobbys definitely following this blog! Can't cruise Star Class, me and my boyfriend get interior stateroom when we cruise but Loving ur blogging on ur experience...ahh only if only lmao lucky you, ur fam, and any other star class guest. Ok ok I can't lie. Even in interior stateroom on RC Cruise me and my boyfriend loved the cruise experience. Happy Cruising.

I used the Website for my first 2 cruises, on the first 1 had had no issues and everything went smoothly, on the second there were issue. Amount on invoices did match what they had on their system, I owed more than the statements they sent to me stated, transfers I'd booked apparently weren't book... bit of a nightmare. Since I've switched to using a TA (Mostly from being on here and reading peoples advice) its been smooth, well at least for me, maybe the TA is fighting off all these things that previously I had to but if they are they are doing it very well and keeping the stress of me and the family. Its certainly something I'd now recommend to others now as its no extra cost for you and makes things soo much easier. I really hope you get everything sorted as a cruise can be such a relaxing/fun/exciting way to holiday. Don't give up on it

Round 4 dessert

I suspect Royal is constantly looking at opportunities to break into new markets or tweak & find new ways, of making past markets more attractive & viable to its bottomline. One consideration is overnight stays in some major U.S. cities like SF or LA on 7N cruises to/fro Vancouver. Explorer ots have done that in the past...still, with the Amped project in play, this may make things more attractive. Also, a 4N and/or 5N sailing from LA to any Mex port & back may provide a more attractive alternative...same scenario out of San Diego. Finally, maybe invest & creating a private island like at Islas Coronado or Islas de Todos Santos, for an example. There are ways to increase the viability of the West Coast market imo; no doubt, a huge amount of capital would need to be invested, similar to their Private Island Initiative, they plan to build in certain markets around the world. Dubai have certainly shown how to construct artificial islands...if Royal want to go that route as well.