twangster

A couple of months ago I found reference on the RCI website as if it was still a thing but then I found reference on the website to it being killed off.

True. There was that day in 1947... I'm just happy to see Canada finally got the internet and folks could find the blog. Probably explains the increase.

And the stubborn Canadian brings it all back to Hockey...

Right now there is a cost to use the island. There always has been. You don't see it, it is contained within your cruise fare. The island has never been 'free' just like meals are not 'free' and entertainment is not 'free'. They are included in your cruise fare. Using your logic, why stop at Coco Cay? "Welcome to Cozumel! $100 to leave the ship please" - I never see that happening. Coco Cay will be remain the same. Included in your cruise fare for those activities that are complimentary. It would be disastrous PR to deliver guests to any pier then charge a fee to step off the ship. Imagine how the competition would gobble that up and use it against them.

Quantum doesn't. I am also booked on Quantum in 2019 on a refundable fare. Voyager does.

Not on this cruise, it's only 5 nights. RC direct only suites get any OBC. It's well into 2019 so I'm hopeful pricing will improve over the next 400 days.

NRDB

Yikes. Not good. I guess that's the danger of prepaying a 3rd party transportation company. I just use Uber or Lyft. I check both because if one doesn't have any drivers close by the rates go into demand pricing. On my last Galveston return to Hobby airport Lyft wanted $135 while Uber was $50.

While that is displayed during the booking process, it isn't required at this time (it used to be a while ago). I booked MTD almost exclusively and prepaid gratuity isn't required. I usually choose to add prepaid gratuity but that is my choice, it isn't required.

Pop quiz... who thinks Royal's website is totally awesome? For those who doubt why a travel agent can be a great resource, how did you answer the pop quiz? What makes you think the best price is always displayed on the totally awesome Royal website that you think is so great? Here is an example of one of the three cruises I just booked with MEI travel. Using my D+ C&A balcony discount for a 6D balcony the Royal website the total is $2,122.85. That doesn't include gratuity and no OBC is offered. I though this was going to be the price of this cruise. Jacki York with MEI responded to my request for a quote for the same cruise, same 6D aft balcony. I asked her to include gratuity. The total is $1,471.35. That's $651 cheaper and it includes prepaid gratuity plus $50 OBC. YOLO! Book it! Seriously if you have ever had issue with or grumbled at the Royal website, why would you trust it so much booking your own cruise? If I had booked this on my own using the Royal website, I would be paying $2,122.85. What did it cost me to save $773? Zero. MEI doesn't charge fees for their services. This doesn't happen on every cruise I book, but since I book a lot of cruises I've seen enough examples to know the value of a free quote from MEI Travel.

Likes It's San Juan. Love this port and embarking there is like getting an extra stop on the cruise. Evening departure, gives more time to explore San Juan and enjoy the lights of the city during sail away. Relaxed day one. You start deep with the Caribbean so you can visit islands that are harder to reach from the US Mainland without longer cruises Often cruises fares are better (fuel costs are lower on some itineraries since you start deep in the Caribbean) Dislikes Airfare can be higher than flying to Florida (often offset by lower cruise fares) Fewer flight options coming from Colorado, flight times

People never like it when you change anything, especially a web site. Carnival has gone through several iterations each drastically different and was 'shocking' each time they did it. If these recent changes had gone perfect and everything worked out of the gate people would still be moaning and complaining. I don't think any company has to warn or notify users they intend to give their website a facelift. People are upset because it changed. The fact that it was executed poorly just amped that up a notch.

For now? Working on the stubbornness are we?

Some people enjoyed the deserted island feel of Coco Cay but others found it boring with nothing to do. Some people are not beach people who can waste a day lying on a lounger. The. Entire. Freaking. Day. I'm not sure where the prediction that a free beach day will be taken away in the future. I just don't see that happening, ever. That would amount to being charged just to step onto the pier and I don't see that ever happening. Pricing will be driven by supply and demand. If 99% of an Oasis class ship buys the all day water park pass, they will raise the price. If they set prices too high and not enough people buy it, there will be frequent sales or it will be offered at a lower price. They prepared a business model to sell this to the board. They ran pricing predictions and cost modeling. It's a for profit business with shareholders they answer to. Some people just don't like change. I see that as choice. Now I can choose to do more on one visit, less on another, much like my Labadee strategy now.

On Adventure early May, they missed my welcome aboard beverage but did have four bottles of water and some cookies. Petit fours a few days into the cruise. C&A beach towel gift for D+. Other D+ reported getting their bottle of wine so I think mine was just overlooked.

No company marketing department is going to sign off on a negative statement that admits anything isn't 100% roses and kittens. These migrations and upgrades have been pretty painful from a customer perspective. The scope of the CF leads me to believe it's much larger than the IT department. Hopefully they've learned some valuable lessons.

Those over water cabanas look like something from the South Pacific. Very cool.

The last thing I need is more time to look at more cruises.

I was just reading this! Great blog that answers a lot of questions for me. I'm excited!

I'm thinking this is one best handled directly. Having said that... I've not tried to do so through a TA, I've always cruised with a fellow drinker and we both bought the package or I cruise solo and it's irrelevant.

Jacki is going to busy tomorrow, I have multiple cruises booked through MEI that she will no doubt, proactively check for me with this sale and with future sale events.

Nothing wrong with that, it's your choice. Some people could care less what TV channels are provided on a ship as they don't watch TV. For other's it is important to them. I don't drink soda so the price trends of soda packages are interesting to observe but have no impact to me, much like the price of internet packages have no bearing on some cruisers. With several thousand people on ship you can expect a wide diversity of likes and dislikes. No one way is right or wrong, to each their own.

Satellite rates are without doubt, much higher than domestic rates, but they aren't increasing. With increasing satellite providers leveraging low earth orbiting constellations rates are actually coming down. Yet Voom has increased 40% in one year, while other cruise lines using the same provider are rolling out much less expensive internet options. Each of us vacation differently. The purpose of a cruise is not to disconnect from the world. I suppose if someone cruises once every few years they can pursue that option. For someone who cruises once every few weeks or months a cruise isn't about disconnecting from the world, rather living for brief periods of time on a ship.

I feel your pain with respect to balcony discounts. They really become more meaningful at each level. I've progressed up through C&A levels fairly quickly by cruising solo and cruising often. This has allowed me to observe some perks like the balcony discount at different levels over a short time period. Royal is doing a lot more frequent sales and marketing campaigns then they used to several years ago. Those aren't always combinable with C&A discounts yielding that $1 your experienced at your current level. Having made it to Diamond Plus I can confirm the balcony discounts are real and I'm sailing in balconies more than I used to. I've observed the balcony discount becoming better and better at each level. It can vary on a per cruise basis, based on other promo rates so it may not always appear great if you only cruise every few years and you happen to pick a particular cruise where the balcony discount isn't as high as other cruises. It varies by ship as well - not all ships have the same balcony cabin ratios as other ships. Here is a random sailing in January 2019, first without any C&A discounts Now with C&A discounts For a different ship on a longer cruise this looks different, first with no C&A discounts Now with C&A discounts Note that balcony rates are cheaper than Ocean View rates. I see this quite a bit now which is why I am sailing in balconies more now than ever before. I've even seen where the discounted balcony rate is within a few dollars of the inside rate. I've found a good travel agent who looks at all available rates including rates that aren't present on Royal's website. On occasion she has flat out told me the C&A rate is not the best rate for that cruise while on another cruise it is the best rate. I have a couple cruises booked where the refundable rate was cheaper than the non-refundable rate presented on Royal's website. That's an the advantage of a good travel agent - they don't just look at Royal's website like you and I can, they see into the system and can see more than what is displayed on the website. When I was gold I had to choose between Radiance of the Seas in Alaska and Celebrity. I chose Celebrity because I wanted to try them. In doing so I missed out on earning C & A points. As I've progressed up through C&A it has occurred to me at each threshold I would have been there already had I chosen Radiance back then. I don't regret sailing Celebrity but it has cost me in terms of progressing up the C&A ranks. Keep an eye out for a deal on a suite cabin, even a junior suite. You earn double C&A points with a suite which can help you move up through the C&A levels much faster.

@Truth - welcome to the message boards! I'm not sure when you are sailing Allure so keep in mind that over the next several months Royal Caribbean has hinted at a new "chat with others on your booking" feature in their Royal app for ships like Allure. We don't know when they might roll that out but if they do you can be sure it will be discussed here on this site.