mk-ultra

You're definitely not butting in, and I appreciate you bringing up sleep apnea as a health risk... a lot of folks don't know that "snoring" can be a larger issue. It's something (sleep apnea) both my dad had, and I've got. I've been looking at various options from CPAP to surgery for it. I haven't yet decided what direction I want to take, but I'm leaning towards the surgery rather than relying on something as cumbersome as CPAP.

During this round of website upgrades, there have been tons of issues for everyone. It's not really about logging out. I've had several periods where the RCI website showed me with zero C&A points, no upcoming cruises (with 3 booked), etc. The fix has been to go to my browser settings, search for any cookie that has "royal" in it, and delete it. Logging in after that... everything is back to normal. Procedure for doing this is browser-specific but if you Google "delete browser cookies" + Safari or Firefox or whatever you use, you'll get the gist.

Allure in May 2019.

Awesome info. Thank you. For my upcoming cruise in the 2BR Aqua Suite I'm 99% sure a couple of friends I cruise with regularly are going to join me and take the second bedroom. For me, the math works out. I'll be in Star class for about the same price I usually pay for Sky with a solo supplement. I've sailed with the same friends in a shared cabin... without separate bedrooms... and nobody strangled me. I think we'll be fine with two bedrooms.

My "suite point" (pun intended) is under $1K/night. If I really shop around, I can get something like an L1 Loft for ~$800 per night. Star anything is usually almost double the expense for the same number of days. For me, the only way I'm ever going to sail in Star class is to add 2-3 people to the cabin. And they're going to have to be outside of my snoring radius ?

Whoooo boy. Yes, I booked (for now) the 2BR Aqua Suite solo... but with the intent of adding one or two friends in the second bedroom. Just doing a little arm-twisting ? As someone who almost always has a solo cabin (I snore -- badly), there's no way I can talk myself into paying for Star class with a solo supplement. This one is a bit of a roll of the dice for me. If my some of my usual cruising pals can't make it, I'll cancel and eat the deposit.

I'm curious. Did you find the Star class was worth the premium? From the stuff I've looked at, the per-person tangible benefits (included dining, drinks, internet, yadda) are worth about $1400 for a 7 day cruise. The intangibles (genie, service, priority, seating, etc.) I haven't experienced yet. I've booked a 2BR Aqua Theater Suite next year to give it a try.

Called in for an October cruise I'd booked on Oasis in an L1 Sky Loft. Re-priced $672 lower. Ka-ching! My other two cruises after that have gone up in price since booking. Original fare: Cruise Fare $8654 BOGO NO REF DEP -$2127 MEM NO REF DEP -$150 Taxes, fees, and port expenses $113 Total Charge $6490 Re-price: Cruise Fare $8654 RES NO REF DEP -$635 BOGO NO REF DEP -$2114 DBUP NO REF DEP -$200 Taxes, fees, and port expenses $113 Total Charge $5818 Both $100 OBC.

One thing I haven't seen mentioned here is the extra points awarded if you're cruising solo. I cruise with friends, but I snore like a freight train... so I always get myself a solo cabin. I wasn't aware until recently that you get double points if you're paying the solo supplement. They definitely weren't being awarded to my C&A account. I also usually get a JS or above which doubles points, so the point breakdown for a 7 night solo cruise in a suite is: Base points: 7 Suite points: 7 Solo points: 7 I called RCI's Casino Royale agent to ask if I was correct in assuming my past 7 day cruises should have received 21 points instead of 14. Indeed, they should have. The agent fixed that in five minutes and I got a 21 point bump out of it. If you're cruising solo, definitely keep an eye on this as it looks like their systems doesn't automatically handle it. All 3 of my recent 7 day cruises we're shorted 7 points.

For me, the secret is to always get the horseradish and a bit of au jus. I friggin' love horseradish, so your mileage may vary. The au jus also makes it a little sloppy. I'm OK with that. I'm a little bit sloppy as well. I find a dark corner and eat my daily ration of one sloppy Kummelweck sandwich per day, with jus dishonorably dripping down my arms. Just the one, as far as anyone else knows.

Correct. The only Aqua Theater suites that are Star class are the 2BR ones.

Wow. For those of you (like me) in the IT world... all of these disparate RCI systems (reservations, payment, yadda) were running on IBM ASA/400s prior to launching the new web site. For those not in IT, ASA/400 series IBMs were rolled out in 1988 and sold through 2000. So... running on hardware at least 18 years old... up to 30 years old. Eeeeeeek. Cobbling together a web site front end to something like this antique hardware sucks (from an IT perspective) . I saw plenty of that in the 90s and into early 2000s... front stodgy institutions like banks and airlines... but in 2018? That's an IT shop that's been completely ignored and underfunded until things are so broken that it's a serious drag on profits.

Most RCI ships I've been on have 3 smoking areas. Pool deck starboard side aft, the casino itself, and the starboard side deck area just outside of the casino.

After the 3rd night, there was a bottle of champagne and chocolate covered strawberries in my suite with a tag on the bottle saying it was from the casino. Another bottle appeared in my suite on the 6th night, but didn't have the casino tag on it -- but I presume it came from them. The $750 off was great, but I think the biggest savings came from calling the casino agent line to apply it. She caught a bunch of additional discounts I could use (I'd booked a cruise for this December via NextCruise while onboard). With the $750 cert and a bunch of other discounts it knocked my (solo occupancy) Grand Suite from $5258 down to $2295.

I treat the automatic 18% gratuity as a baseline. I almost always tip pretty well in addition to that -- and (besides going to some folks who work really hard... 6 months without a day off), it never fails to get some really good service. Massive backlog at Schooner's? No problem. Want a double instead of a measured pour? No problem. Want your favorite beverage dropped off to you at the blackjack table without even having to ask? No problem. Wait staff, dealers, room attendants all appreciate being shown a little extra gratitude. I definitely feel like I get it back in being treated very well.

Bankroll for the week was $7K, though I never wound-up putting down $1K from that on any given night. More like $300-$600. That $3700 also includes dealer and server tips.

Yuppers. Just got off of Rhapsody. The crappy tables were 6:5. 3:2 was the best on offer. There were tons of people waiting for their chance to sit down at a 6:5 low-minimum ($3) table, that required that at least $1 of every hand be a side bet. That said, the casino had some really fun dealers... and I'm definitely not trying to advantage play -- just making sure I don't sit down at one of the patently ridiculous tables. Blew about $3700 over the course of a week, got $750 back as a casino cert I applied to my next cruise.