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JasonD

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Everything posted by JasonD

  1. As the other posters have mentioned the "nine" products work well (Bonine, Dramamine). I was able to find a low dose Bonine at a military commisary in their house brand so i'd imagine it would be easy to find in a walmart or local pharmacy. We were on the Serenade in the Greek Isles last October and hit some really rough waters and high winds (gusts upward of 70mph). We had to skip Mykonos and headed straight for Turkey because it was too rough.. There were quite a few people feeling not so great that day and a huge sigh of relief when we docked in Turkey that night. Wife and I each took a half of a low dose Bonine and headed straight for the Champagne Art Auction and all we well in the world again... I have a video of the self leveling pool tables during that storm that are pretty impressive.. If I can figure out how to post them I will do so..
  2. Aye aye, Loyalty Ambassador will get a visit on the first of the three sailings... Then again on the second, in hopes that we can get it on the third... I hope it works...
  3. I look forward to hearing about what you did... We are definitely looking forward to it. They have just started posting the excursions but have yet to post anything else for the trip (dining/drinks, entertainment etc)...
  4. Michelle, Have you ever found that while they were working out the kinks they offered free/reduced priced things like drinks/specialty dining etc? Did they have the full entertainment offering? Interested to see how it truly differs from a standard sailing.
  5. Awesome, I now know someone on the sailing.. How was Anthem's?
  6. Has anyone successfully "fleeted up" in their C&A status and received the benefits as part of a B2B cruise? We are headed on a B2B2B in May/June and will get enough points to reach Diamond after the first night of the second sailing. I don't expect to see the benefits on the second trip, but would be great for the 3rd sailing. I've gotten mixed results from RCI when I call them as to whether or not we will receive the benefits.. The most common answer I've received is to "be persistent with the pursers desk" and get what you've earned....
  7. Does anyone have experience with inaugural sailings? We are headed on the Harmony B2B for what I think are the pre-inaugural sailings as they are 4 night/3 night trips before she starts her regular itineraries. We ended up with 2 boardwalk balcony rooms for the 4 of us, as the price difference between that and all 4 of us in one room was something like $200 total and are really looking forward to the extra space... Would love to hear everyone's comments on inaugurals..
  8. We are headed on the 7 night trip on the Navigator in May headed to Bergen, Olden, Alesund, and Stavanger with our two children (2&4). Anyone have any recommendations for must see things at any of the ports?
  9. I was trying to stay quiet on the topic, but guess it's not going to happen... First off, tip your people, especially if you have kids.. These folks bend over backwards to make sure that you and your family are taken care of. I've cruised as a kid with my parents, on spring break with just friends, as an adult no kids, and now with my young children and I will tell you never once have I doubted tipping anyone. Frankly, I generally give my room attendant an extra $20 at a min every trip. Not because I have to, but because I see how hard they are working for me. I will by no means say that myself and my family are messy people, but when you have 4 people living in a 200 sqft space for 7-9 nights as we have done, things can get disastrous quickly. There are toys, clothes, diapers, bottles, clothes, toys, clothes, strollers... you get the point i think... The space gets pretty small, and pretty tight.. And every morning when we leave the room, we think about how we should clean it up before we grab breakfast, because as those of you know who have kids, standing in the way of a 2-4 yo and their breakfast can be a fatal mistake. But I will tell you this, that room is always impeccably clean when we get back to it.. Often times we find the kids toys are set up in little scenes, like Toy Story is coming to life in our room. Another great example is things like diaper changes... Royal unfortunately does a TERRIBLE job with diaper changing stations in public restrooms throughout the ship.. Generally the only ones are up by the pool deck.. God forbid that the kid needs a new one during dinner service, you have to make the long haul back to the room to take care of it.. But I will tell you what.. I think i can count the amount of times on one hand that we've come back to the room to find a stinky diaper in there.. It's like they know that you've come in for that purpose and they sweep in and take care of getting it out.. I've always thought they had ninja skills in so many ways, this has always furthered that notion. And the dining staff, I could go on and on about how they are with the kids.. From making sure their drinks are there when the arrive, to having snacks on the table to the napkin art and the list goes on and on.. The majority of these people are their family behind, many with small kids of their own.. They so much enjoy taking care of the kids on board and will do just about anything.. One last side note, and I can go on and on and on and on about these little experiences, we've even had wait staff take our children on walks if they were done and not enjoying the sitting, just so we can enjoy our meal.. They take them for tours, yes my daughters have seen more kitchens on ships than most will ever see in their lives, and give them the attention so we can have an enjoyable experience... Tip the staff.. and hell, give a little bit extra at the beginning and see how wonderful of an experience you have.. Let them know you value their service, cause I'll tell you, if you get a bad egg it can turn your whole trip into a bust. And one last side, side note... Advice I always give people before they take their first trip... Talk to the staff.. Get to know them... They have some amazing stories and love to share!
  10. Sounds like a good problem to have to me....
  11. JT - It was a major factor in the decision. The most frustrating aspect was that it seemed they would only let me talk to one person with the resolutions dept... She was nice, but we exhausted our options with each other and she exhausted her authorities.. She had to keep going back to her mgmt, despite my requests to talk to them.. If I had to venture a guess, I would say I spent 3.5-4 hrs on the phone with her across a few nights..
  12. Take it from someone who is desperately searching for the models of one's before I started collecting (Enchantment being one of them) make sure you buy it on board. you dont want to be like me begging people to buy one for you (which never works :-( )
  13. I've been in the Connoisseur Club on Freedom and it was rather empty this past summer. On Monarch, the Viking Crown served as the Cigar area and on Allure the only place available was the top side pool deck bar... Don't remember exactly which one..
  14. I'm back in action after a relocation and slight break... I'll set the stage.. I stalked like crazy in March for RCI to release the 2016 European bookings and on the day they released, booked a Larger Ocean View Panoramic room on the Navigator OTS (1864) in May 2016 to Norway. There are only 2 of these rooms on the ship and offer incredible views out of the 133 sqft panoramic windows over the front of the ship.. The room is huge, 283 sqft and is one of the new ones they added.. We are a family of 4, ( 2yo and 4 yo) so we were excited for the space... September rolls around, and RCI decides to redeploy.. Takes one night off the trip, now a 7 night instead of 8 night.. No biggie, they contact you and ask you to re-book based on the protected rate minus the discount you receive for the day taken off. All is fine and dandy in September when I re-booked... I start looking around and find that Harmony has two short sailings prior to the "inaugural" sailing out of Southampton, and this just happens to be right before our Navigator trip.. I finagle it to get two connecting balcony rooms for a B2B on the Harmony (they didn't have any rooms for both sailings for 4 people) and it turns out to only be about $200 total extra for the adjoining rooms instead of moving for each trip.. All is fine and dandy, we get this booked.. Now we are on a B2B, a day on shore in Southampton, and then off for a 3rd one.. We get the points for Diamond on the first night of the second of the B2B and RCI claims that If I hound them enough they will honor Diamond on Navigator.. I get a call last week from the Resolutions group at RCI... It appears that the system had a "glitch" and allowed someone else to reserve my Panoramic room that I reserved on March 13th while the ship was being "redeployed". They reserved it on 14 September, before RCI had called me to arrange the redeployment. I have documentation dated 30 September stating I am in that exact room. They claim that because their booking date for the new sailing is newer than mine, I am the one to lose the room.. Initially, they offered me a Panoramic room with 250 OBC and no rate reduction despite it being a lower class room, or a balcony room with no OBC.. I took some time to think about it.. and didn't seem satisfied with it.. I had the room first, and have two separate documents with it listed as mine. So after quite a bit of running around, and trying to figure out if we were upset enough to cancel, RCI presented its final offer... 300 OBC and they gave us a family oceanview room (which is about 40 sqft bigger than the panoramic view but without the fantastic view). They were not willing to budge on a rate reduction. At one point they got up to $500 OBC if I took the regular Panoramic, but the space wasn't what we were looking for.. We opted to take the FO/300 OBC but I feel like I settled. I've been cruising with RCI for 18 years and never have I had this happen, nor have I felt that RCI really didn't care enough to put in serious effort.. I still don't feel like they really tried all that hard and I'm at a loss.... What would you have done?
  15. I say save the cash and spend it on another trip. We went on one in August and then again in October and my daughters were similar to yours in age. We found that we were hardly in the room so it didn't matter much the size of the room.
  16. You can't forget about the Champagne Art Auction....Always a good opportunity to take advantage of free drinks.
  17. I did it on the Liberty and loved every minute. Worth the $$$ IMO..
  18. For those that are interested in some of the technical aspects, here is a neat video of Quantum. http://techcrunch.com/2015/02/12/tc-makers-inside-the-it-room-of-a-high-tech-cruise-ship/?ncid=rss
  19. Totally agree. I took two within the past 6 months and they were very different from the 11 other cruises I had taken before that.. The thing that gave the most shell shock was the addition of VAT (value added tax) to everything on the ship! There was no duty free and in addition to the service on the drinks you paid the VAT. (VAT amount differs depending on where the ship begins its journey, i think it was something like 11-15% for the one out of spain and 22% for the cruise out of italy). As far as courtesy shuttles I honestly don't remember what we paid. I will say that for some of the ports, the "courtesy shuttle" wont get you into the "city" you are visiting. I.E the shuttle in Rome will take you out of the port and into the city of Civitavecchia where you can take the train here into Rome. The hardest thing that I have found about cruising Europe (We've visited: Barcelona,Marseille,Nice,Livorno(Florence/Pisa), Naples, Rome, Santorini,Ephesus, Athens, Kataklon,Crete) is that for the most part when you pull into port you are in the little port city and not the actual city worth seeing. We paid a lot of money for excursions and I'm glad we did, in the end I think we got the most out of our trip. Let me know if you have specific questions.. I'm happy to help.
  20. Have you had experience paying the difference? That is something that is not real clear as to what happens if you have a package and purchase a beverage that exceeds the cost limit.
  21. Or causing people like me to think more and more about an inclusive package....
  22. Any news on what will replace the Wine and Dine packages? You would think something would come out before summer travel season..
  23. Nevermind.... I found your write up on it...
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