Bazza

Hi RCI gurus. Looking at a 2024 cruise on an Oasis class ship. Good offers on today (ends tomorrow) with a reduced deposit and savings on the cabins. Difference between a sea view balcony and a junior suite is about £1400/$1800 on Oasis and £1100/$1500 on Symphony - both for 14 nights on back to backs. Big advantage with Junior suite is it will give me double C&A points and jump me up to Diamond so future cruise will benefit from that, but when you factor in flights from UK will add over $1200 to the trip is it worth it? The discussion with the boss/wife will take place tonight but wondered what the experts thought?! Thanks

We always take 'too much' despite saying "never again" - although to be honest the 'too much' last time was less 'too much' than all previous 'too much' times! We do tend to mix the clothes across the 2 cases though - some of mine in hers and vice versa as I know one day the airline will lose one of our cases!

Grandeur 14 night from Barbados on 20th Feb - was told 740 passengers. For an old lady she was lovely

@Caribbean Hope wife fully recovered....

Thank you, good luck and have a great trip!

I am sure it would have been a lovely picture!

Hi @VoidoftheSeas Sailing on Grandeur 20 Feb (is that what you are on?). Booked it over a year ago when first released - no idea if makes a difference to RoyalUp emails??! Booked ocean view cabin, amazing deal at the time and was allocated cabin on deck 2. Paid my balance a couple of weeks early - again no idea if makes a difference - and had RoyalUp email 6 Jan. Made a bid £5 ($7) over minimum (which was discounted by I think 25% at the time too) to upgrade to balcony. Went back to check a couple of days later and it said not eligible for upgrades, checked again over the next week or so and same message so assumed that was that. Last Friday get an email to say FABULOUS NEWS! Upgrade approved to balcony on deck 7 - this for just £175pp ($235) which for 14 nights I think is pretty good value Good luck with yours.

@Caribbean as per @LCWind's comment, I hope she is ok. Thanks for all the updates. And congrats on 30 years

Thank you @Caribbean. Glad you are having a good time Looks like my itinerary is going to change - possibly 2 trips to Grenada (one near start and one near end) replacing Trinidad. Do you knw if we will just be able to grab a water taxi to Grand Anse from the cruise port (that is what we did on our previous visit)? Looks like you had some great excursions. Enjoy the remainder and safe onward journey

Whatever the outcome of this question can I claim Mario as my dad???!

Hi @Caribbean Hope you are having/have had a great trip. Could you kindly update on the ports etc as we are due on the Grandeur Feb 20. Out itinerary changed (briefly!) on my payment page with Aruba going from an overnight to a single day and Trinidad being replaced by Antigua and Dominica but it has gone back to the original schedule now. Most of the excursions we have booked through RCI but we have booked a local guide in Panama - I saw your comment about certain locations having different rules so wondered if you could let us know how you got on (and off!) at each port We arrive in Barbados 2 days earlier and have requested the latest possible check in for the ship so we can have the full day on the beach. From your previous post I am hoping the whole check in at port will be pretty easy - we have both had double jabs and boosters plus will be having PCR in UK <72 hours before boarding the ship. Thanks in advance. Barrie

Hi. This is helpful if not seen before. https://www.royalcaribbean.com/gbr/en/faq/questions/prohibited-items-onboard-policy Small scissors will be fine. It says no power cables but others will have more experience on if they do get taken as have seen other posts about non-surge being ok. No idea on knitting needles I'm afraid - assume somebody will know. Enjoy....!

Just realised how old the initial post was! Doh.

I am in no way an expert (not even a US citizen!), but I was supposed to be coming to Orlando last year and had pre-booked some transfers with this chap after doing some research. http://www.orlandotaxiservice.com/ Martin was very helpful and I am sure would have been a good choice if we had made it. No harm in getting a few quotes!

Hope you have a great trip - good luck and keep us posted!

This is on my payment page so I am guessing they have done something wrong on their side of the system Sail date definitely what I have booked and itinerary definitely not what is showing everywhere else I mentioned!

Happy New Year one and all. Logged in to my account today to check when balance was due for Grandeur cruise on 20th February and noticed the itinerary was different on that page than what I had booked. I then checked my cruise planner plus also if I was making a new booking and they both show the original schedule. The change seems to be the removal of Trinidad from the trip, changing Aruba to 1 day and not an overnight but adding Antigua and Dominica as 2 new stops. Not an issue if this is the case. Comparison of the 2 attached if I did it correctly!. However, as I have shore excursions planned I called RCI's contact centre to check. A very helpful agent looked at the itinerary but he could not see anything about the changes on any internal emails etc. and the system still showed the original stops. If anybody else is booked on this cruise could you check on your payment page if the list has changed for you please?! I am more than happy with either itinerary and no doubt an email will follow if it is changing! Compare schedule.docx

@gabeb848 the public spoke! https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/22/world/europe/boaty-mcboatface-what-you-get-when-you-let-the-internet-decide.html

This is today's listing for me in UK

Hi @CruisingOz Grandeur booking next February has Voom packages available and they are listed most days. However I have noticed that some days they are not shown but back again next day. Managed to get a good deal last month for the 14 day trip for 2 devices with streaming for about 30% less than it is showing today so def worth checking daily.

Our 3 x B2B out of Sydney in 2018 was on Ovation and she was amazing. The first 10 days were around New Zealand and the last 14 were to Singapore via Brisbane/Darwin/Kuala Lumpur - and both were fantastic. However, the middle part bolted into the 27 day trip was a 3 day 'taster cruise' which took us just off the coast of Australia. I think the same people from @CruisingOz's Carnival experience were on for those 3 days as it was not an enjoyable atmosphere! Finding people passed out in the elevators, people confined to cabins for being drunk and disorderly and having to tip-toe around vomit in numerous places was a little off-putting!! With hindsight we should have got off at Sydney with some hand luggage and spent 3 days enjoying the amazing city and local beaches!! So for the topic of the thread, would not avoid the ship but would avoid the actual 'trip'!

Thank you @WAAAYTOOO @SPS @twangster

Hi all. Maybe I cannot see it, but is there Park Cafe on Grandeur and if so where??! https://www.royalcaribbean.com/gbr/en/cruise-ships/grandeur-of-the-seas/things-to-do/park-cafe Looked on the deck plans and it is either well hidden or I have looked right at it and ignored it!! Thanks

Only been on 3 ships to date with 3 different companies - Ovation for 3 B2B cruises, Azura with P&O from Barbados and Musica with MSC as part of a package that included the Rio Carnival. Although I also did a 2 day marketing conference on P&O Oriana many years ago so could count that too I guess! All of the ships were great in their own way, and each cruise memorable, but I would not rush back to MSC purely due to the lack of customer service shown by the 'senior' staff and the lack of care they showed when I had an issue with the drinks packages we had pre-purchased months before they changed their package names. Absolutely no complaints about RCI or P&O, which is why I was excited to get booked on Grandeur next Feb. Even if not as modern as Ovation, it sounds like most people on here have glowing opinions of her!

Dining packages are now listed so grabbed a 5 night one.... drinks packages are considerably more expensive than this time last week!