twangster

1 hour ago, Sabrinaklai said:

Has that been on your cruise planner for a while?  It still doesn't show up in mine for March...

I booked ~45 days away, it was there from that point, listed under activities, same price both Anthem cruises.

Heads up - long pants and closed toe shoes required (no flip flops).  No video but photos are allowed (obviously).

I'm sailing on Anthem 12/2 and so far, only St Maarten has been changed to St Thomas.  San Juan is still on the itinerary.  I'm really looking forward to St Thomas as I have some history there.

I'm hoping San Juan doesn't get dropped if for no other reason then to get there and spend some money.  I know local residents have been hit hard and the loss of tourism is almost as devastating as the hurricane was.  They still have bills to pay like the rest of us and income from a tourism related job helps to give them hope and a sense of purpose.  

It's $99 on Anthem coming up.   I did it on Harmony earlier this month for $119.  I posted pics and a brief description in my recap in the Live Blogs.  Scroll down to day 5.

Harmony 9/30-10/7 Recap

2 hours ago, KLAconQueso said:

I'm definitely glad we had the ocean view balcony - I feel like that's the only time we saw the ocean. We were aft near the entrance to the boardwalk on deck 6, and that was an amazing location. 

I was recently aft deck 6 with a balcony on Harmony and I loved the location.  On other Oasis class I was higher up and the ocean seemed so far away.   You can go down to the jogging track and get some ocean time, there are a couple of chairs on the stern below the aqua theater with a nice views aft plus a few other places along the jogging track to peep out.  

Enjoyed some of your scopes, thanks for those and congratulations!

In no particular order:

• Night time stroll in Central Park  
• Zip line / Ultimate Abyss / Perfect Storm water slides
• Lounge in the solarium, kid free
• Take in some live pub music / Jazz on 4 / piano in Schooner bar
• Love and marriage show

Here is Allure from May.  Only managed to capture 1 side though.  Definitely must have stopped by a bar this time.

This is from Oasis October 2016 so its one year old, but it will give you an idea.  Sorry for the crumpled page, I must have stopped by a bar on the way back to my cabin :) 

Boarding lines vary at some ports.  In Baltimore Gold was lumped in with the never sailed, but its a small facility and went pretty quickly.

They do load special offers onto your SeaPass card as a C&A member.  Offers get better with status, but even Gold members get something.   

Here were the offers as a Gold member on Grandeur a couple months ago.

6 minutes ago, mbk999 said:

  ... it's a lot simpler going in and out of FLL than it is Miami.    

FLL is a breeze.  Suggest a window seat on the left side of the plane after the cruise.  This was Allure after our cruise in May as we climbed out of FLL.

25 minutes ago, mbk999 said:

When is that move?   I'm booked on an Oct 18 sailing on the Allure.  Not that it's a huge distance between Miami and FLL but it would definitely alter travel and hotel plans.  

Seems like October 2018 sailings remain in Ft Lauderdale.  November 5 2018 she sails from Miami for the first time. 

The last Ft Lauderdale sailing returns to Ft Lauderdale on Nov 4.  Her next sailing departs Miami the next day, Nov 5 as a 6 night.  She then returns to the regular 7 night Sunday departures from Miami.  So they are not changing arrival and departure ports during the cruise, they have a night off to move to Miami.  Most likely to keep it a closed loop cruise, otherwise there are implications to having different embarkation and debarkation ports for a cruise.

Frustrating yes, but I've also been in situations where prices increased dramatically, much more than I paid.    So it goes both ways.  

Like getting a mortgage on a house.  We all want the cheapest rate but if you lock in and close it then rates drop we are bummed, but if rates increase we are happy.  

Ah, the dance of the cruise ships.   I like when they move them around, some ports are easier and cheaper to fly into than others and it gives local residents a different ship to explore.

On 10/22/2017 at 11:00 AM, Sabrinaklai said:

For our Harmony sailing, we were in a GS and it never showed up on our Cruise Planner.  We ended up asking the concierge to make reservations for us when he contacted us a week before sailing.  You can also make reservations once on board.

Same experience on Harmony.  i replied to Concierge email in the days before the cruise and it was done.

I had heard others state they made CK reservations in the cruise planner but for Harmony it was never in the cruise planner.  For an upcoming Anthem cruise I see CK in the cruise planner but alas I'm not in a suite so no access. 

I was there last October so I understand.  Royal Caribbean has a healthy following of dedicated cruisers - Loyal to Royal.  High ranking C&A guests will be on your ship.  They've sailed a lot, they know the routine, they'll be asking too.  I'd plan on sailing in the cabin booked, but it never hurts to ask.    

On other ships when I've booked a suite I've paid a healthy price to do so.  One way or another, I will make it on board.  As you've suggested, emergencies happen, but short of a suite guest having an emergency, its unlikely someone just won't show up.  Not even for balcony cabins, or ocean view or inside.  Most folks book a cruise fully intending to take it.  

It never hurts to ask, all they can say is no.  However if someone is going to get an upgrade its most likely going to be someone with a high level of Crown and Anchor status which is understandable, reward frequent guests.  What's your C&A level?

46 minutes ago, Mcohen1993 said:

I’m still waiting for my drink package to reduce. Harmony for April 21 and it has said $55 a day for as far as I been looking. Once it goes down I will cancel and rebook it. Will use savings for excursions if they are still available.

Lots of time.  Check the week of US Thanksgiving, often sales then.  Maybe over Christmas, President's Day, random weekends, etc.  Check the message boards here frequently, @Matt  often posts when a sale is announced.  

Woohoo!   Goes to show, it never hurts to ask.  Enjoy your cruise!

4 hours ago, Sabrinaklai said:

The Vitality Cafe, that is the one in the spa/gym that everyone is referring to, does sell the fresh smoothies. I was able to get them with my deluxe drink package on the Allure and Harmony. The protein powder is what is extra. Your drink package won't cover that.

Confirmed.  I took a photo of the Vitality Spa smoothie offerings on Harmony a few weeks ago.  Mine came out to $6.25 and was covered by the deluxe package.  i didn't try to add  any supplements.  Mine was very good.  

I definitely saw very different results in cabin availability direct versus through my agent when booking the Alaska Group Cruise over the weekend.  RCI direct had 4 cabins available on deck 9, agency had 12 cabins available on deck 9.  Two cabins overlapped and both offered them, the rest were unique to each - two only RCI offered, ten only agency offered.  

6 hours ago, JLMoran said:

I've learned from talking with my local craft store owners that a lot of these places are so small that they only do draft offerings, no bottles. They also don't brew in enough volume where they could likely satisfy anything as big as a mid-size cruise ship with a couple thousand passengers.

This is a good point I hadn't considered.  Another ship on some other line has put a micro brewery on a recent ship.  I wonder how much is for show versus actually producing enough volume to satisfy every sailing given the space committed to this effort.

39 minutes ago, jurrjurr said:

 Not sure if it is worth to challenge RCCL's interpretation of BOGO50.

Drink Package #1 + Drink Package #2 = $716.10

Your math looks good to me too.  However the BOGO concept with RCI uses fuzzy logic.  I learned this with my 1st booking when a few days later they offer 50% off 2nd guest.  Cool!  I thought, that should save me a bunch.  Turns out the 1st guest price increased so when the 2nd guest 50% was applied it ended up 2% higher compared to what I paid without the BOGO.  I suspect the same fuzzy logic is at play with this BOGO.  

1 minute ago, rjac said:

My gripe with this whole drink package deal is their math....

Am I wrong here or does RC have a super golly wampus high speed low drag hand held computer integrated calculator to perform simple (?) math calculations on their packages? I'm almost afraid to look at excursions and dining "deals".

 

 

Yeah, agree with you.  No consistency across the fleet either.  Freedom is $44, Anthem $46.  Grandeur back in August was $41.  Then there is the "free Voom" with deluxe bundle, except that is measured against the on board price, not the pre-cruise deluxe only price.  Confusing marketing.  My Anthem Voom/Deluxe bundle went from $54 one day to $56 the next day.  

I also think longer cruises should have lower prices.  12 nights on Anthem the combo Voom/Deluxe is almost $800 per person.  I think not.   

I can see the exemptions being abused and they'll have to make them tougher.  In this day and age of social media word will get out how to get around the policy.  I've contributed to that by sharing my email on exemptions. 

I can honestly report I've never shared a drink from my drink package. When I've sailed all over 21 in the cabin did buy the package,  but I wonder how many upset people fall into the category of "My SO only drinks 1 or 2 glasses of wine at dinner so its okay, those rules don't apply to us, its just 1 or 2 drinks".

Ten glasses of wine over a 7 day cruise at $10-12 per glass plus gratuity is $120-$140 in stolen drinks and lost revenue.  

If you have Voom Surf and Stream you can stream the parade on a phone or tablet while on the ship.

Here are the channels available on Harmony.  If one of these stations is broadcasting the parade, you'll possibly see it.  You'll notice that the American broadcast networks are absent (ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX).  Often the content among these channels are international feeds as opposed to what you can get while in the United States so content isn't always predictable.