AlohaLivin

I don’t know what size the balcony is for the Grand Suite, but I think my husband my cry if someone took the OS from him since he sooooo loves a big balcony (his first cruise I would find him every single morning when my eyes opened already on the balcony) and there is so much space on the one for the OS. But so many options and there are benefits to all (early on we gave up a 1BR AquaTheater cabin because it’s too high to be useful for the theater we thought and the useful part of the balcony is much less as we see it than the one on the OS. But $600 is significant for 5 days... I would likely have said no too! Happy Sailing, Lynn

@CGTLH - he will forgive me, but will I forgive you (for my extra munchies ?). I am so ready to be gone!

@Lovetocruise2002. thanks for that info! We are new to RCL so I guess we will learn quite a lot of new ways to do things ? @CGTLH now that’s a mid-day snack LOL Note that I completely stealing your list for myself (but if you are onboard the Allure in the next few weeks, stop by and get a bite. ? I didn’t know if they bristled about bringing food for more than the occupants (or many more) - while reason suggests food is free, period, so it wouldn’t matter you never know when logic and policy might collide! ? Lynn PS I am so hungry now ?

We are sailing in an OS-1 bedroom on the Allure fairly soon (yay...? ). So we are likely to host a “get together” of somewhere between 15-30 cruise guests. It’s not a party, more a brief “drop over” of 15 minutes or so. We aren’t trying to feed hungry people, but rather to offer some minor refreshments (like cookies and/or cheese/crackers). Some non-alcoholic beverages would be great too if possible. We have experience with NCL and other lines, but this will be our first Royal cruise and we are not at all sure about what our options might be. In the suite’s menu on NCL, for example, there are options like cheese and fruit platters; would could get pitchers of juice free also, plus coffee/hot tea. But despite searching, I haven’t been able to determine what is available through room service or what any other option might be for light finger foods and/or non-alcoholic beverages. Note. This isn’t a business related venture, but a purely social one. Thanks for any info you can offer on this ? Lynn

@Matt Eeks... well I wrote a PM out and then got the message “Matt can’t receive messages”. Story of my month ?

Hi Matt - so can a reservation made through an online seller be transferred without it effecting the original, particularly the perks they may be from that initial seller? I have zero need to use mass sellers, my parents always used an agent, but the last two times I reached out to an agent they could not get close to what the skymiles, etc resellers were offering (e.g., prepaid gratuities, onboard credits). I would MUCH prefer to use an agent, without a doubt! I have not been able to find great answers to those questions before, but apples to apples I would love to transfer!

You know, not a single mention of a sale showed up on my iPad or my computer with Firefox. I can see some current prices in red that state it is a sale price, but no such warning existed on the two I was booking. Come to think about it, I do not believe that the little worm (I mean representative ? ) even asked which ones had changed prices. But I am now aware that the price for RCL changes often and may show in a different way on another device. It was just easier and time saving (given our current life schedule) to not waste time purchasing and then undoing it days later since at that point it did not for a moment occur to me the price would change in the blink of an eye! That’s worse than Macy’s ? We sail October 14. We had already booked the Haven 2br with my sister in tow for Jan 19’, but then decided we could squeeze another in! My husband served 30 years in the USMC and spent a lot of years “roughing it.” We married 14 years ago and the first cruise we did we had a nice suite, but then upgraded shortly before to their top suite - Major hubby has decided he likes traveling that way (and is especially in love with big verandas!). ? I’m pretty good at getting a deal, so that helps some. But it’s easy to get spoiled. Matt and Everyone - thanks so much for your help, I have to say I found these responses to be much more helpful and much nicer than so many boards. I really appreciate it very much! And Bob, I would be interested in knowing more .... And I will surely check back on the pricing of the excursions! But then maybe just going to Labadee is enough without an extra $140 excursion anyway... ?? The Beeze

Mljstr - that is insane on the Chops issue. It’s the kind of thing that makes me leary! jticarruthers - wow, that’s amazing there was that kind of change! But as to them not caring, maybe they do not but word of mouth matters in every business. I love the Haven on the Norwegian and could stay I definitely with them, but I did want to at least try RCL. But I also don’t want someone who doesn’t want me, man or cruiseline LOL

Bob, thanks for your comment (I’m going from bottom to top clearly LOL). In the past I have booked myself most often, but actually when through an larger online broker this time since we booked super late and the room we wanted seemed only to be on that site. Could you tell me my options once someone has booked via s 3rd party, if any? I ran into the same kind of issue with them too to a lesser degree (more disinterested and not helpful rather than outright rude). Related - I noticed on your blog the new sale. I am not sure it would apply to us, as in the end it wasn’t quite clear the discount she used (I think military, although I believe the 55+ and GA residence were the same?). I know I should call, but the next time I encounter smart mouth he is going to hear words he doesn’t know southern belles know and possibly some he has never heard! ? But is it even worth calling if there are no rooms like the one we have remainding?? Actually, I did book the st. Maarten tour independently with Eagle, but the two we wanted were necessarily via RCL (one the amiga snorkeling at Labadee and the 2nd a volunteer project in Puerto Rico (didn’t see anything remotely like those anywhere else). The Beeze

Tim and Michael - I really do appreciate the tip! But since I have already booked the cruise through an online “agent” I believe that option is out ? As a business owner myself, I would be furious if employees were losing customers for no reason. But it is easy for something like this to turn into someone’s decision “on principle” and it may turn into that for me. I will enjoy this Owner’s Suite and then probably just not return. It should be possible to deal with the actual employees of RCL, but I guess you are saying in your experience that isn’t true? Kind of makes me moving on even more likely. Bummer, really

Cruisers - I sincerely apologize for the length, it is hard to explain this without fully explaining! But we could use some folks experienced with RCL to help us with this puzzling problem. My parents cruised very early, in the 1970’s and sometimes took us with them (wasn’t a ton of fun back then if you were under 30!). As an adult we continued that tradition between major life events and our education. I have cruised most often on Disney, Holland America, and Norwegian. However, I have never personally sailed on RCL... that will change in fall 2018 when we will take our very first RCL cruise on the Allure! We have been super excited as we booked this late to sandwich between or NCL Cruise last June and one booked for next Jan. So I dug in, as I do, to researching excursions, learn about the ship, and try to figure the details after making the purchase only a short time back. But my excitement is now dropping like a lead ball. First, I had a couple of questions that I had not been able to find the answers and so on two occasions in the last weeks sent a message via “contact us” at the RCL site; while I received the auto reply, there has been nothing since on either. Then after researching the excursions, I put two in the cart at the NCL site (this was last Monday). But my husband and both work long hours and he has a long commute as well, so with that and checking on my sister who had surgery that morning, there was not enough time to go over them with my husband before lights out. When we got home from work Tuesday, I went over them with him and went to check out and my cart was empty. That was not the shop, the shot came when suddenly one excursion had jumped by $10 for both of us and the other had jumped by $22 overnight! In my years cruising I had not come across that before. So, I called RCL - I polite and explained the issue. But in response I encountered a young man who was not only rude, but also condescending and mocking. He said there had been a notification that there was a “sale” Sat-Mon and now it was off. I told him that I went in via a page other than the splash page, but on the excursion descriptions / cart items there was *nothing* about the price being a sale price and nothing about it being time limited. While I was exhausted Monday night, we most surely could have managed to stay awake a relatively brief time to save $30+! But I could not have known. When I told the representative that he said something like “well everyone else saw it, they were calling all weekend, do you think it didn’t show up on your computer alone?” He followed that with a comment that he could “submit a ticket to technical support” to report the lack of the notice/ads on my computer (only, per this rep). It was pointless, that was clear, so I hung up rather than deal with him longer. We have spent quite a lot of money on s large suite for this cruise, we really wanted to see what the RCL experience would be compared to the others. While I definitely did not and do not expect to be treated in any special way, I was stunned to be treated as if I were not even worthy of basic human respect. And the rep was wrong, there were *absolutely no notices* on the two excursions that we wanted - not a single indication that the price was a temporary or a sale price (on either the Amiga Island Experience or the Perla Community volunteer project). FYI - I also had written a message about this situation (my 3rd in 3 weeks) - but given that I have had zero response from the first two, I have to assume there is not anyone reading those that cares much. Sorry to unload, but I am so angry. Right now I am so sorry that we booked with RCL. I am 58 years old and since I have worked in mental health for the last 30 of that I have seen and heard quite a lot. Despite that, I was completely taken aback by the attitude and commentary that I heard on the phone call to RCL yesterday. If anyone has s suggestion as to how I might reach someone at RCL other than this kind of representative I would very much appreciate it. Maybe RCL really has so much business they don’t care if they lose us as guests, but it is rally beginning to seem that we may end our relationship with RCL before it has even begun. Thank you. The Beeze ?