twangster

As I've thought about this and in particular your last sentence in reference to your daughters accepting this: I can safely predict that won't be an issue. You have displayed great patience and resolve as this has played out. Sure at moments it has gotten to you, and how couldn't it? In the end you let it play out, maintained faith in Sharla and MEI Travel and worked towards a resolution. That is commendable. Our children watch and learn from us in subtle ways none of us appreciate from their early years to later in life. My kids have endured flat tires, locked up brake calipers, hotels that didn't come close to the brochure, flights delays, lost luggage, pets pass and so on. It didn't take me long to learn that their reaction mirrored my own during life's challenging moments. This is a process for them too but I'm confident you will find they handle it with as much grace as you have despite how frustrating it has been. After all, they learned that from you.

If I recall Matt recently scored an upgrade to a suite at little or now cost by checking just before final payment due date. Definitely pays to check.

Awesome news!

Welcome to the message boards! The overall area near Old San Juan and New San Juan where the airport is located isn't very big compared to Miami or Ft. Lauderdale. Virtually any hotel in the general vicinity that has decent reviews within your budget will suffice for a night. There are no hotels where you can walk from the hotel to the ship. Uber can't pick up at the airport but works pretty well around the rest of San Juan. Ask your hotel if they have late check out or consider dropping your bags at the ship at 10am and then head to Old San Juan to explore the old city. It's a great city rich in history. Consider it another port on your itinerary and explore it, don't just board the ship there like you might in South Florida.

You'll love the loft suite - from the minute you first open the door to your final departure. Thanks for blogging!

Haunted by the @hayley_bopp at the moment. Here is her Indy live blog https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/boards/index.php?/topic/6830-independence-14th-28th-july-med-liveish-blog/

Could be... I have relatives in Jolly Olde England.

Hoping MEI can still work their magic. Don't let one intern programmed to work from a script cause you to throw in the towel.

Adventure had been planned for a while, starting in 2016 I think. Those materials were bought, paid for and in a warehouse waiting to be installed. For other ships I suspect they had to limit themselves. Add skypads and slides to more ships or include cabin renovations but on fewer ships. This stuff all costs money and money only goes so far. Since I don't spend a lot of time in my cabin, I'm okay with it. Sure I'd love new decor but then they would have to raise fares to do cabins and the new features.

Always at a table for two, by myself. Tables are so close though that if you have friendly neighbors you can have a conversation. I actually prefer this and usually get great service. In and out in under 45 minutes, sometimes faster.

Many of us are here because of the environment you have noted. I have met people cruising solo as I often do who also had My Time Dining and we went to eat together. We both provided our cabin numbers at the hostess. There tend to be tables for two, four and then some larger tables. You can ask to sit at a shared table but in my experience the default approach would be to sit a party of 3 at a table for 4 and leave the last spot empty. As a solo cruiser I've never been placed at a table with 3 to fill in the last spot. I don't know what happens when people who have traditional dining try to eat with MTD guests. If that occurs perhaps you could come back and let us know how it went.

Many excursions will meet in the theater. Groups will be escorted to a tender much like the buses on Radiance. Depending on group sizes multiple excursion groups might share a tender. This of course impacts self-explore guests who just want to tender, likely leading to the warning that 7:30am starts peak tender operations. If two excursion groups have consumed 2/3 of one tender then the remaining seats will be filled with guests who have queued up and are waiting for a tender. As a result non-excursion guests can face some wait time while they ensure excursion guests get to shore promptly. Some excursions feature a boat that comes directly to the ship to pick up guests. Scuba diving, snorkeling, other water based excursions often fall into the category. It depends if the excursion boat is suitable to dock beside the ship to load guests. Some small snorkel boats are not. Guests with suite or concierge access can often get tender priority from the concierge. Diamond access for tender priority varies by ship. On Anthem at CocoCay Diamond didn't do anything for me, I had to get a ticket just like a pre-gold did. Coming back to the ship there is typically no differentiation. Excursion guests coming back queue up with everyone else. Queues on land to return to the ship can be lengthy.

It appeared for Ovation today. It wasn't there a few days ago. I'm 300+ days out so not surprised I couldn't make reservations yet.

Other terminals or those close by are used by many different cruise lines. Royal operates many ships from Miami and some days there is more than one ship in port. Plus sometimes ships based elsewhere call on Miami as a mid-cruise port of call, stopping for the day. All of this exceeds what the new terminal will handle, especially on weekends. While the idea sounds interesting I can't imagine it not having a significant impact on port operations. Weekends are when the port is busiest for cruise ships. Traffic for tens of thousands of cruise ship guests would be a nightmare likely causing arrival and departure delays. I was in Toronto and worked on the TV crew for it's first Grand Prix event. The road changes and closures then had a significant impact and that wasn't on an island and used fewer public streets. Cool idea but I would expect strong opposition to this on weekends at the busiest cruise port in the US.

I know you have been looking at Mariner reviews. @Lovetocruise2002 will be on Mariner in August and I'll be on Mariner in September. Look for scopes and a live blog. I'm excited to see the Amped up Mariner.

Looks like s fund raiser of sorts. Guess they are banking on people willing to pay higher rates in the name of the event and to visit "Paternoville Coco Cay". For sure. I wish there was a website that tracked partial ship charters or large group events.

I saw that too. They probably fell into the trap that many people do. When you are looking at a ship and start looking at activities the Royal site can drift away from a particular ship and display activities from other ships. It's not obvious if you don't notice where you have been led on the website.

Why would Royal do this to existing guests this close to sail date? Million dollar question. My only wild guess is that an interim payment is due for Spectrum and they lack cash reserves to make that interim payment. How do you come up several million on short notice? Charter a ship. I've joked before that there is a surprise cruise planner sale every time they need to make another payment for the ship that's being built at that moment. Same effect. Quick way to generate cash flow that's cheaper than borrowing the money. There are sale events every week now it seems. Why? If Royal can fill all their ships and booking are so strong, why the need for so many promos and sales? Ships sail full but often some of those cabins are filled at basement rates at or below cost. The cabin beside you may have paid twice what you paid or half what you paid. Despite their policy they don't discount to fill the ship - they do. Look at Alaska right now. End of August Radiance $499 pp. Less than half of the normal price for that cabin mid-season. They can't fill the ship so discounts are happening. Florida residents benefits from FL rates and specials that come and go. Matt got a suite on Brilliance at balcony rates that isn't available out of state. Michael Poole has bragged about single supplements being waived that weren't for out of state residents. That's how they fill ships. They don't market those specials, if you happen to be on the website and find them, winner! With a charter all cabins are sold from Royal's perspective. If the charter company can't fill the ship, the charter company takes the hit, not Royal. If the charter company sets the price too high, they face the consequences and they absorb all risk. This FAQ is very telling if you read between the lines: How should the client price the staterooms in a Re-Sale Full Ship Charter? The client is responsible for determining the pricing model for a Re-Sale Full Ship Charter program. Due to anti-trust regulations, Royal Caribbean International cannot legally advise the client how to price staterooms on a chartered sailing. Current retail pricing may be used as a guide but is a snapshot of the pricing on a particular day. This pricing would never apply to the entire ship nor would it remain constant throughout the booking life cycle for the sailing. In other words part of Royal's secret sauce is knowing how and when to adjust pricing on a cabin by cabin basis, on a day to day basis, on a sailing by sailing basis. Absolutely they could, but choose not to. They sort of elude to that when they suggest they don't typically charter within 12 months of sail date. That 'policy' wasn't followed in the cases of Enchantment and twice on Navigator for March 2019. BTW - I found the charter for Enchantment. https://happyvalleycruise.com/ - Just in case anyone is wondering... who would charter a ship? The other oddity for chartering a ship with only 8 months to sailing is that the charter company has only 8 months to market and fill the ship. Royal needs two years to work their secret sauce. Why on earth would a charter company take the risk and try to do this on such a compressed time schedule? Seems risky to me.

Should have put a hold on it. ?

I'll likely be hung over from a last night with BigSoberRon on Symphony but we can try! I was just going to use Lyft from Miami to Port Everglades getting off Symphony at my leisure since there is no point getting to Serenade too early. I might need to find a laundromat though.

I'm hoping the letter is just the initial offer. As Royal wades through the hundreds of impacted guests on a case by case basis hopefully we'll hear better news for @alamode123.

Hmmm... "Son, it's better you don't come so we can get the drink package" - you know you cruise too much when...

? Don't rush it, see what develops with Royal. It's eight months away. My teens are all (sort of) grown up. I understand exactly the dynamic going on but hopefully Royal will come through for you. Having said that, it occurs to me how not only have they alienated a past guest, they've alienated a next generation of cruisers. Wall Street should be excited by that... not.

Well in that case, YOLO. Or maybe WHID? Or possibly WCGW? It's refundable so I have some time make sure it works (I might be moving in July). Ok @Lovetocruise2002 - balls is in your court. Will you come and entertains us with cow stories?

? I've been accused of acting like a 12 year old. Can someone add me to their cabin using Kids Sail Free?