karl_nj

You are correct; it's not like MSC and Disney where you have to sail every 5 years to keep your status. With Carnival's new rewards program, status resets for everyone every 2 years, and everyone starts from scratch again. Sailing a cheapo 3 night cruise every 2 years won't help keep your old level. It's gone no matter what you do. Instead of rewarding lifetime loyalty, it's "what have you done for me recently"

And on the other hand, Royal has figured out how to use new technology and good terminal design to improve the boarding process for all of their customers.

Presidents' day week in Feb would be high season, but I agree any other week in Feb would be low season.

Sounds like you made a great decision. The Green is way better for spending, with 3x for travel and dining. Just like Sapphire Reserve, before Chase ruined it.

Oh, very strange. I've booked two even younger kids alone in their own room, by themselves. But they were in the cabin directly next door. Were you not able to find a cabin next door or across the hall? I use a travel agent, so that tends to help with these things

No, I'm considering dropping the Sapphire Reserve and going for Amex Green, which will get me 3x membership rewards points for cruises.

yeah... i really think they are going to expand their credit card portfolio. maybe there will be a high annual fee on that encourages spend on the card. maybe even give you automatic status at a mid level

keep in mind even the pack n plays are smaller then you would expect. which is good since the room is small, but it was a bit of a shock to all of us (kid included)

yeah, i'm a little worried. Carnival started charging for room service and once-a-day cabin service. Now look where we are...

The rewards points actually expire after 3 years; the stars you earn over a 2 year period which decides your level for the next 2 years. You need to spend about $33K in that 2 year period with carnival to hit the top level (100k stars, 3 stars per $ spent)

I wonder if Royal will end up moving to the scheme that lines like NCL do. Everyone gets charged corkage when you bring the bottle onboard. So you pay it even if you drink the bottle in your stateroom.

Yeah, I agree; I found out about these overnight cruise ferries a while back, so when I knew I was going to be in that part of the world, I figured it was my opportunity to check one out.

That is a good question. I'm not seeing the yellow dot anymore anyway. I think it was from this cruise, which was a one way overnight on a baltic cruise ferry from Tallinn to Stockholm, that had like a quick little 'technical stop' in the middle of the night for, I assume, some sort of duty-free loophole.

It's a pretty cool website: The Cruise Globe

Good thinking -- that is actually why I'm sailing the following week... my youngest is still in high school, and we live in NJ

I agree, seems sketchy, but I did a search and others report seeing this too, when they book directly with royal:

I'll be on one week later!

That's interesting that Royal is giving up on >7 night cruises out of Florida too. I was hoping to start doing some longer cruises, deeper into the Caribbean, in a few years when we are less beholden to the school schedule. Will be interesting to see what lines offer sailings like that in a few years, once I have that flexibility. I know there are some lines, like Princess and Holland America, that liked to flip between a 7 night eastern and a 7 night western and would also let you book both together as a 14 night. But since they have to get back to the originating port, you can't go out as far with those.

Well, there are plenty of other cruise lines out there. I don't restrict myself to royal. For some reason Celebrity abandoned Bermuda during the summer months. I found this somewhat shocking, since Celebrity was created for the NY->Bermuda run, but that's the change they made for 2025 and 2026. We'll have to see what happens in the future, but instead of sailing to Bermuda on a Celebrity ship, I'll be on Norwegian Aqua in June of 2026, and I'm looking forward to checking out a new ship. It's been a while since I've sailed on NCL.

But isn't it only Oasis class ships that are shifting to only offering 3/4 night sailings? There are still other ship classes on royal that have longer sailings. Celebrity doesn't have any Oasis class ships either.

Celebrity actually has better 'kids sail free' deals, since kids are <18 instead of <12. But you are right, there are way fewer kids on Celebrity.

Connie out of Tampa the week after Christmas. costs for flights to Tampa weren't too bad, compared to Miami/Fort Lauderdale, or San Juan, since it's a prime time for travel.

Pub has more IPA's than I recall from my last royal sailing. I wonder if that is going to be the case for me on Anthem in August. (and CSV is a great file format)

I solve this problem by not eating a bagel outside of a 75 mile radius of the statue of liberty...

Yeah, no Pork Roll on LI. I only learned about it when I moved to NJ. Which is really kinda weird, if you think about it. Though I'm now in North Jersey, where the proper term is Taylor Ham.