AussieCoasterKing

Hi Guys
 
Like everybody I really want to book our next cruise! Only thing is we have a lot of personal obstacles which will mean we may not be able to go.
 
So, should I just book anyway? What are the limitations to changing the booking later and how soon before the cruise can I change it without penalties?
 
Also, we don't know if both our children will be able to cruise with us, if it's only one of them she will share a cabin with us. What would happen to the booking for the second cabin? Can we simply alter the booking so she's in our cabin or will we loose the deposit made on the second cabin?
 
Any advice greatly appreciated.
 
Luke

Same! Currently looking for videos on Freedom after listening to your podcast made after its dry-dock!  :)

Check out YouTube to see if anyone has posted a video of your room. Search by ship name and room number. That way you can get a glimpse of what your room, or one that is close by; looks like.
 
Susie and I always post videos of our room. We go through a lot of trouble to select our rooms and assume there are others that do the same.

If you have your cabin number you can even look it up on the Internet to ensure your happy with it. You will find a lot of information on locations to avoid on every ship. My must is to have cabins above and below us. This ensures noise is kept to a minimum.
 
Welcome to cruising! Hopefully you find it as enjoyable as the rest of us!

If you have your cabin number you can even look it up on the Internet to ensure your happy with it. You will find a lot of information on locations to avoid on every ship. My must is to have cabins above and below us. This ensures noise is kept to a minimum.
 
Welcome to cruising! Hopefully you find it as enjoyable as the rest of us!

I'm working on an idea for a RC cruise planning timeline blog post to give folks an idea of ideal times to plan things out.  Please respond with anything I missed or any mistakes I may have made
 
24-12 months before your cruise start looking at cruise itineraries to pick the right one for you.
 
Check RoyalCaribbean.com for available sailing dates and cruise options.  Depending on when you're looking, deployment schedules may limit how far in advance you can actually book.  
 
Be sure to also look at deck plans for which staterooms have most space (i.e. hump staterooms). Also consider using cruisedeckplans.com to be able to drag the decks above and below your stateroom to ensure your room isn't going to have noise bleed.
 
Put a deposit down on the sailing you want and to reserve the stateroom you want.  You can change or cancel the cruise without penalty for several months while you continue researching.
 
Research if trip insurance for your cruise makes sense, perhaps due to hurricane season or if there are health risks involved.  Royal Caribbean offers insurance as well as third party suppliers, which are often cheaper.
 
Look at excursions after placing your deposit.  When excursions become available varies widely but it's best to start looking at what Royal Caribbean is offer as early as possible.
 
90 days before cruise Final payment due for all holiday cruises (Christmas or New Years Day)
 
Online check-in becomes available
 
Start researching third party shore excursion options.  
 
75 days before your cruise Final payment due for 7-night or longer cruises
 
74 - 65 days before your cruise For those on 7-night or longer cruises, check again for available staterooms, dining, entertainment or shore excursions that may have become available due to other guests not making final payment.
 
60 days before your cruise Final payment due for 3, 4 or 5-night cruises
 
Around this time dining and entertainment reservations will become available on royalcaribbean.com
 
59 - 50 days before your cruise  For those on 5-night or shorter cruises, check again for available staterooms, dining, entertainment or shore excursions that may have become available due to other guests not making final payment.
 
49 days before cruise E-docs and luggage tags are available to download and print.
 
15 days before your cruise Last chance to reserve online using Cruise Planner.
 
4 days before your cruise Last chance to book specialty restaurants, spa or salon services. Last chance to complete online check-in at royalcaribbean.com. You must complete and print out your SetSail Pass by now.
 
72 - 24 hours before your cruise Check into your airline online
 
Do one last check of weather expected for your cruise.
 
2 days before your cruise Last chance to purchase Gifts and Gear from Royal Caribbean.

Smart. It's the best source of advertising any cruise line could hope for in the end.

Or get a single cabin and do a back-to-back cruise; same cost and same number of points if you have the time.

Sounds fantastic! We did 5 weeks when we went to USA. People thought we were nuts going that long but I think if your going to travel that far make it worthwhile. Makes me laugh when people complain about flights that are 4 or 5 hours long though!
 
Make sure you tell us all about it when you get back! Throw Washington in there and thats what I plan to do but we'll have to go back to Disney World again!

Sounds fantastic! We did 5 weeks when we went to USA. People thought we were nuts going that long but I think if your going to travel that far make it worthwhile. Makes me laugh when people complain about flights that are 4 or 5 hours long though!
 
Make sure you tell us all about it when you get back! Throw Washington in there and thats what I plan to do but we'll have to go back to Disney World again!

Thanks, we are really looking forward to it. I feel like we might be a little rushed but we just want to see everything.....oh and I forgot to mention 2 days also in San Fran lol

Wow! That's a vacation!

We are also doing an Alaska cruise with princess, New York, Las Vegas and Hawaii on the way home.. About 7 weeks in total.

The way RC (and the cruise industry works) is American TAs cant really do business with customers outside of US or Canada.
 
I'd recommend asking around family or friends.  Otherwise, start googling companies near you and when you find them, send each a couple of questions that you'd consider to be moderate in difficulty to test how the agents handle them.  This way, you can get an idea of their level of expertise! 

I would LOVE to find a TA in Australia that knows anything about cruising. On our last cruise a group of travel agents were getting a tour of the ship. I told them to give me there business cards and they thought I was joking!  ^_^  :lol:
 
ANY suggestions would be appreciated! I've met two american TAs (including Michelle on here) I'd love to use but I don't think thats practical. 

Hi Guys
 
We are back from getting married at sea on the Radiance! While we had a bit of an issue with a slab of concrete being passed off as a mattress the rest of the trip was wonderful! We had arranged to be married on the helipad but not only was it too windy (which I expected) it was really rough seas that day but we were able to have our ceremony (it was only us and our two kids) in Chops Grill. Much nicer then the Star lounge or whatever its called.
 
Our issue with Royal Romance was more based on living in another country and the hopeless VOIP phone service they have to use, but I do agree with MarriedonRRC, the staff onboard were fantastic including the captain! When we were late to the ceremony he was completely understanding. He spent another 20 minutes after the service just talking to us. To add to our wonderful time he also invited us to have dinner with him and gave us a tour of the bridge. He spent so much time talking to us and was generally engaged with us, we felt very special. On top of that though, everybody onboard was wonderful, the staff and fellow cruisers all made us feel like VIPs.
 
While I'm not sure about cruising on older RCCL ships again due to being explained that we should expect "firmer" beds on older ships we really did love all the other aspects of Radiance.
 
Oh and we didn't get any upgrade as the ship was fully booked but at least I asked.
 
Thanks everyone for your advice.
Luke

Looks that way. Personally I prefer Mexican but it was still really nice.
 
I could go a big serving of calamari right now... or nachoes!  :)

Hi All
 
Somebody asked me to find out what was happening at Rita's on Radiance of the Seas.
 
I spoke to the manager and she confirmed that Crabshack is here to stay year round while it cruises Alaska and Australia and they are looking at expanding Crabshack to other ships (she didn't know if that meant replacing other Cantina's but I suspect it does).
 
The simple explanation was that they can make more money which is certainly true based on our bill. Food was great though. Its open for dinner and lunch on sea days and dinner only on port days. You can only reserve a table with them direct at this stage as it's a one off so they won't be able to be booked online, although it was busy at times its probably not necessary anyway.
 
They have also put up zip up awnings which greatly helps with the draft.
 
As far as the food we think it was pretty good and well worth the money.
 
If you have any other questions let me know.
 
 

Hi Guys
 
We are back from getting married at sea on the Radiance! While we had a bit of an issue with a slab of concrete being passed off as a mattress the rest of the trip was wonderful! We had arranged to be married on the helipad but not only was it too windy (which I expected) it was really rough seas that day but we were able to have our ceremony (it was only us and our two kids) in Chops Grill. Much nicer then the Star lounge or whatever its called.
 
Our issue with Royal Romance was more based on living in another country and the hopeless VOIP phone service they have to use, but I do agree with MarriedonRRC, the staff onboard were fantastic including the captain! When we were late to the ceremony he was completely understanding. He spent another 20 minutes after the service just talking to us. To add to our wonderful time he also invited us to have dinner with him and gave us a tour of the bridge. He spent so much time talking to us and was generally engaged with us, we felt very special. On top of that though, everybody onboard was wonderful, the staff and fellow cruisers all made us feel like VIPs.
 
While I'm not sure about cruising on older RCCL ships again due to being explained that we should expect "firmer" beds on older ships we really did love all the other aspects of Radiance.
 
Oh and we didn't get any upgrade as the ship was fully booked but at least I asked.
 
Thanks everyone for your advice.
Luke

Thanks for the report Luke and a big congratulations!  Sounds like you had a great time and the ceremony, despite the weather changes, was a success!

Hi Guys
 
We are back from getting married at sea on the Radiance! While we had a bit of an issue with a slab of concrete being passed off as a mattress the rest of the trip was wonderful! We had arranged to be married on the helipad but not only was it too windy (which I expected) it was really rough seas that day but we were able to have our ceremony (it was only us and our two kids) in Chops Grill. Much nicer then the Star lounge or whatever its called.
 
Our issue with Royal Romance was more based on living in another country and the hopeless VOIP phone service they have to use, but I do agree with MarriedonRRC, the staff onboard were fantastic including the captain! When we were late to the ceremony he was completely understanding. He spent another 20 minutes after the service just talking to us. To add to our wonderful time he also invited us to have dinner with him and gave us a tour of the bridge. He spent so much time talking to us and was generally engaged with us, we felt very special. On top of that though, everybody onboard was wonderful, the staff and fellow cruisers all made us feel like VIPs.
 
While I'm not sure about cruising on older RCCL ships again due to being explained that we should expect "firmer" beds on older ships we really did love all the other aspects of Radiance.
 
Oh and we didn't get any upgrade as the ship was fully booked but at least I asked.
 
Thanks everyone for your advice.
Luke

Hi Guys
 
We are back from getting married at sea on the Radiance! While we had a bit of an issue with a slab of concrete being passed off as a mattress the rest of the trip was wonderful! We had arranged to be married on the helipad but not only was it too windy (which I expected) it was really rough seas that day but we were able to have our ceremony (it was only us and our two kids) in Chops Grill. Much nicer then the Star lounge or whatever its called.
 
Our issue with Royal Romance was more based on living in another country and the hopeless VOIP phone service they have to use, but I do agree with MarriedonRRC, the staff onboard were fantastic including the captain! When we were late to the ceremony he was completely understanding. He spent another 20 minutes after the service just talking to us. To add to our wonderful time he also invited us to have dinner with him and gave us a tour of the bridge. He spent so much time talking to us and was generally engaged with us, we felt very special. On top of that though, everybody onboard was wonderful, the staff and fellow cruisers all made us feel like VIPs.
 
While I'm not sure about cruising on older RCCL ships again due to being explained that we should expect "firmer" beds on older ships we really did love all the other aspects of Radiance.
 
Oh and we didn't get any upgrade as the ship was fully booked but at least I asked.
 
Thanks everyone for your advice.
Luke

How late can you stay in the cabin? A nap after breakfast sounds pretty good!  :D

Thanks Matt. I'll ask onboard what the situation is for Australians.
 
BTW I have my soon to be wife listening to your podcast now. She's loving them! She might even send you her thoughts on RCCL Vs Celebrity once the wedding business is delt with.
 
Luke.

You don't have to leave when they call your number.  Usually latest time to leave is between 9-9:30am.  
 
Trust me, the crew will let you know when it's time to leave :P