twangster

My evil plan is working!

Oh, and welcome to the message boards!

Go for it, but don't be surprised if they chuckle and politely decline. NextCruise isn't what it used to be, at least in my experience. With so many sales and promos every few weeks Next has become hit or miss. Now if I see what I perceive to be a good price, I book it even if I have a cruise next week. Be aware, Next is only non-refundable deposits now. In January I sat at Next while I had my regular travel agent on the phone held up to my ear. Right there I shopped them, got their best price, asked my agent, took three steps away from Next and booked a refundable fare to NZ cheaper through my agent than Next non-refundable with their OBC factored in. Plus no $450 deposit. Same cabin, same sail date. YMMV.

I've seen this trend on other similar excursions like the dragon coaster at Labadee. One ride $26, all day pass $35. The Labadee zip line has always been on its own so not surprised this one is as well. I wouldn't be surprised if the different between 1/2 day water park and full day water park become bigger. However if there is an hour wait for a water slide and you only have a 1/2 day pass, there will be lots of complaints, bad social media coverage. Royal is famous for watching sales trends and adjusting prices. If too many people gobble up the $44 pass, it will increase in price. Basic supply and demand. Demand goes up, prices go up.

https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2018/06/01/royal-caribbean-opens-perfect-day-cooccay-excursion-bookings With pricing, at least for some of it.

Seems to vary by cruise port. Port Everglades cut the forms some time ago. Cape Liberty still used them a couple weeks ago. it's up to US Customs, not the cruise line.

Young grasshopper, a wise man on this site once said "YOLO!, book it!" Discussion with girls - "We can find you a sitter for while we are gone, or you can cruise in an OV cabin. What would you prefer?".

And Voom at $17.99 to $19.99 for many of my 2019 sailings! 14 nights @ $19.99 - $280 for internet. Yikes! There goes the live blogs...

@Lovetocruise2002 BWAHAHAHA

Personally I love sea days for the relaxation they offer. I don't need a cruise director loading up the schedule with hairy chest or belly flop contests to keep me occupied. Give me sea air and a sunny day - I'm all set. Homework, hanging out in the pool, rock climbing, maybe some trivia, bring a book book to sink into. Quality family time without bumper cars or a flow rider. But only you know you, and you are not me. Nothing wrong with that. Research the ship, if you are concerned it isn't right for you, listen to your gut. Not every ship is right for every person.

My best guess is that the port couldn't accommodate her on a specific date. The port in Barbados isn't that big. With other cruise lines adding ships it's possible they gave that slot away to another cruise line or maybe they have to do dredging operations one week. I can only imagine the logistics of trying to plan cruise itineraries. Calculating range, fuel consumption, ports that can take mega ships versus smaller ships, or 1 mega ship and two small ships, or 3 large ships and a medium ship, or 2 large ships plus 3 small ships, or... At a certain point like a game of musical chairs someone gets blocked out of the port.

If I lived in FL I would have by now. Flying all that way for a 4 night cruise? Airfare is expensive right now. I think not. You'll just have to come on a group cruise!

Symphony block is in the fall 2018. This augments my 2019 block strategy nicely including getting one on Vision.

I did 19 nights on Anthem in December, a 7 followed by a 12 night B2B. I live blogged here: https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/boards/index.php?/topic/5068-anthem-112517-712-b2b/ In January I did another 9 nights and live blogged here: https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/boards/index.php?/topic/5387-anthem-11919-9-night-bahamas/ Between the 3 cruises I sailed up or down the coast 6 times, 3 down, 3 up. I recall talking in my blogs about the dreaded "long pants day". Fortunately Anthem is a perfect cold weather ship with a huge indoor pool that is kid friendly plus a huge adult only solarium. It's a nice solarium too. I wasn't in a suite though, that would have been sweet!

All this talk about booking cruises has caused me to book two more! Who started this thread anyways? It's his fault! RoyalCaribbeanBlog.com Group Cruise aboard Freedom of the Seas - Here I come! My 2019 cruise ship dance card is starting to fill in nicely. Both booked through MEI Travel in appreciation of their support towards this site. Somebody stop me. Seriously, somebody needs to stop me.

Welcome to the message boards! The patty and buns are identical to WJ. The sauce they use and the availability of onion rings is the key differentiator IMO.

No comment. I'm not touching that list!

Direct bookings can be switched to a TA but there are rules that have to be followed. These are there to safeguard and respect each agency as well as the guest. You wouldn't want an illicit travel agency slamming your booking over to them when you have never heard of said travel agency. It generally has to be switched before final payment due date. There are likely other rules that I don't know. There is an exception process that I've had to use after final payment due date to effect a switch. Do perks change with volume? Sure. Like most companies, repeat customers tend to be rewarded. As far as MEI - they sponsor this site. There are costs to running this site, posting cruise compasses, storing photos that some people like myself post a lot of, etc. It is not insignificant to operate this site. MEI through their sponsorship helps towards that. While one TA might give you OBC or a dinner or a bottle of wine in your cabin, MEI helps to keep the lights on at RoyalCaribbeanblog.com. All things be equal, since there are no downsides to using a TA that I've found, if nothing else using MEI allows this wonderful site to exist. Eventually once you build a relationship with them as a repeat customer, what ever you work out is between you and them.

Or the cleaning people unplugged the server under someone's desk that holds a script that no one knew about yet the whole website database relies on. I'm still trying to figure out if RCCL is one of those companies that only sees IT as a expense on a balance sheet and refuses to fund it properly. When it comes to IT, you get what you pay for.

No fees that I've experienced. Last week I booked the RoyalCaribbeanblog.com Mariner Double Dip to Cococay Group Cruise through MEI. I booked the B2B in a balcony. A day or two later I changed my mind and decided to downgrade to an inside cabin. I'm doing Mariner in an aft balcony this year so I figured I'd save some $$$ and I plan to spend most of the group cruise out of my cabin so I"ll be fine in an inside. No change fees or complaints from MEI despite what I am sure was a bunch of work with Royal to effect my switch on both sailings of this B2B.

I booked Quantum out of Singapore for 2019. If this rumor comes to fruition, I wouldn't be able to book Spectrum using the same agency.

Alliteration will get you no where ?

Haha - Fake FB birth date. You see? You can't believe anything on FB...

Both work for me, plus the Celebrity website appears to be normal. Happy Friday!

More Spectrum rumors - US based agencies may not be able to book Spectrum for a period after launch. Might be a couple years. Pure gossip at this point.