twangster

If I’m not mistaken NCL used them too.

There is a not so fine line between PC and being crude. That's someone's kid/family/friend.

Great question. At the moment they are filling the ships. Being cash rich at the moment is a great time to invest in more ships and more private islands providing more ports for them to sail to. The flip side would be a down turn in the economy reducing demand. That might provide opportunity for frequent floaters who can still afford it to find some deals. Either way it's a win for cruisers with more ships, ports and variety.

Calling @J_Keeble. UK sailing from Southhampton being sold as all inclusive on the UK website. US guest booked through US website can't purchase the drink package in the cruise planner. Do you know if drink packages are sold on board when the cruise is being offered as all inclusive in the UK?

Must be a UK thing ? I'm about to head to the airport for a flight to Florida but have uploaded the several hundred images from this Alaska cruise to the new server. That uploading is tough to do over Voom so now that they are in the cloud I'll try to get them added back to this blog over the next few days from Indy.

Makes sense since it's reachable from Galveston. Provides another port for Oasis class from Florida too. Win-win.

It's also possible this particular sailing is being offered to UK residents booking on the UK website with the drink package bundled in. That sometimes occurs in the UK. Checking the UK website it does appear that is the case but only if booked on the UK website.

They had issues with UK cruises turning into booze cruises. Guests were over indulging and acting badly. As a result they have removed drink packages from some UK sailings, especially the short cruises but some 7 night cruises as well.

Case in point: This screen shot is from July 12, 2018. They updated Vision's itineraries and stopped advertising CocoCay: That's six months before the sailing they stopped advertising CocoCay and advertised Miami in it's place.

Not true. In my case they provided several months notice, well before final payment due date. In the case of OP in this thread they notified with around 60 days notice. At that point they stopped advertising CocoCay and advertised the alternate port. As someone who was impacted by this I’ve followed it very closely. Just like OP I was initially disappointed but once I researched it and understood why I got over it and moved forward. They were very transparent with my sailing and communicated well. If they were trying to be sneaky they would not have notified us well before sailing and came up with an excuse once we were on board. They didn’t do that. They stopped advertising CocoCay on the itinerary. I kept checking for price drops and saw they were not advertising CocoCay.

The only reason to stay on board in Labadee is if you are not a beach person. Yes there will be spa deals in port just as there are in most ports. Lines in places like the Windjammer will be shorter in port. If you desire front row chairs get off early. No different than the pool deck. Getting up at 10am on a sea day and expecting front row pool chairs is going to lead to disappointment. Getting off at Labadee late will yield similar results but plenty of seats further from the front line of the beach will be available. Cabanas and less expensive alternatives are popular so they sell out quickly. On a smaller ship that is less of any issue but still occurs. Book them early, months before sailing if it's important to you. Consider exploring Labadee beyond the beach. The nature trails, some excursions by boat that take you down the coast to see more of Haiti for example. I love Labadee. I'll be there soon, for nearly the 10th time. Still one of my favorite stops.

The other factor to consider is efficiency. By their own claim for example, Symphony is 25% more efficient compared to Oasis. Compared to older ships, gains in efficiency will start to play into the equation. At some point the ongoing operating costs as well as maintenance costs will make older vessels less appealing to keep in the fleet. If it costs $1,000 per 10 nm to carry 2,000 pax vs, $1,000 per 10 nm to carry 4,000 pax in the super thin margin cruise industry that's one thing. As fuel prices rise (as they will again) in the long term there is motivation beyond appearing to be green to operate efficiently for no other reason than to save money and therefore make more money. You might be able to keep an old vessel operating but it's very difficult to change it's operational efficiency. Changing some light bulbs to LED helps but most ships are built around the engines. It's very difficult to replace the power plants in a ship. Cheaper to sell them off and build new. Ships with very small fleets such as Disney can be effectively taken out of this conversation. Running four ships is very different to running 20 or 30 in a fleet and even more with sister companies. Boutique lines such as Disney or Silverseas and Virgin with just one projected ship have a very targeted market focus but aren't competitors in the mass cruise market where every dollar spent per passenger mile is critical to financial success.

Issues with fund holds are typically encountered by guests trying to use a debit card and are a result of the bank maintaining the hold just to be sure. They keep the funds held in a 'pending' state. Most credit cards, for anyone with good payment history, clear holds fairly quickly. If someone is close to reaching their credit limit a bank might decide to extend a hold to protect themselves. To be clear though, it's the bank or credit card company who maintain the fund holds, not the cruise line. We rented snowmobiles a few weeks ago. The outfit places a pending charge of $500 for damages which is refunded if you bring the machine back damage free. One younger member of our party was going to use a debit card for the damage deposit. They warned him his bank will likely keep the $500 on hold for an extended period of time, because that is what banks do with debit cards and pending charges.

They haven't closed CocoCay. Its taking ships business as usual. The confusion here is because they had planned on taking two ships on certain days. Two Vision class ships. When the pier didn't complete on time they couldn't accept two ships on the same day. One ship was given a new alternate port. One ship visited CocoCay as planned. They never closed CocoCay to work on Perfect Day.

Go to order history at the top (when in the cruise planner for that sailing). You can cancel it from there.

The Key is group under "Internet and more" so maybe the re-direct meant to take there but didn't take you all the way there. Besides, I see very little value in The Key on Vision or Radiance class for that matter. Full suite? No way I'd get The Key.

Typically JR is not considered a specialty restaurant and therefore is ineligible for the UDP. Having said that someone may very well post they've had success going there with it. So it's one of those YMMV since it can vary by ship. I've not tried to use the UDP at Sabor when it's open at 3pm. By that time I've broken down and eaten elsewhere and besides, when you have the UDP you eat so much food that eating lunch at 3pm would render dinner useless. I know there is temptation to try to maximize the value of the UDP but it is so... much... food. Usually by a sea day past mid-cruise I raise the white flag of surrender and skip lunch or grab a small salad in the WJ so that I can actually eat my dinner.

It's there site. Wait 15 minutes and try again. Use private or incognito mode as well.

Dining packages are offered at a discount compared to pre-booking each restaurant individually. The compromise you must accept is not being to make specific reservations ahead of time. You get it cheaper but have to have some flexibility. In many cases if you make it a priority upon boarding you can get very close to your ideal times and venues. If you wait upon boarding and deal with it in the evening or on day 2 you are less likely to get the times and venues you want. If there are specific restaurants, day and time you "must have" then you are better to book them individually and accept the higher price.

Welcome to the message boards! Royal is in the process of unifying all ships to the same hotel billing system. At present there are three check in experiences that vary in subtle ways. In the case of just asking for the last four, you will be asked to present the card in the terminal upon checking in just before boarding on day one.

Goes to show you never get the same answer twice. In 2018 I had the no-show scenario three times, the last in November with a WS Suite Guarantee. In all cases I called C&A after the cruise and they had my account adjusted for double (non-suite) and triple (suite) after verifying I did indeed cruise solo.

The only reason to stand in line at guest services upon boarding would be to add some cash to an onboard account. Some people don't have or don't like to use a credit card and prefer to keep everything cash based. Others, like myself add a credit during the online check in process up to 90 days away from sailing. You can also provide a credit card or change it when you arrive in the terminal before boarding. Charges on board are typically all in $ USD and for cruises out of the US region that might mean foreign transaction fees and exchange conversion for non-US residents. That might be another reason why some cruisers would prefer to keep it cash based.

Can you post the reference to this? I've had no-shows a handful of times on both Celebrity and Royal and always received double or triple points (solo in suite).

This scenario has occurred a few time for me, simply because I cruise a lot and while I hope my cruise buddies can go, sometimes for one reason or another they can't at the last minute. I've always received double points but like any solo cruise they don't always post correctly and a quick phone call to C&A fixes that. If you have pre-paid items for them I'd suggest cancelling those but do not remove them from the booking. There generally is no advantage to remove them. Taxes and port fees will be refunded. All other items prepaid items *should* be refunded. I'd cancel them off any excursions now, you can do that yourself through the cruise planner unless the cruise is tomorrow. For prepaid gratuity and drink package I'd drop by guest services upon boarding and have them work on those items for you.

Here is a tip - On the first day drop by the SeaPlex and take a picture of the weekly schedule of SeaPlex activities presented on the display monitors. The cruise compass is great but you only get it the night before and it only shows you things for the next day, one day at a time. Depending on your schedule you may have other things planned for 3 or 4 days away. By taking a picture of the schedule you can make sure to plan around SeaPlex activities over the whole cruise.