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AshleyDillo

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Everything posted by AshleyDillo

  1. There's tons of options out there. If the point redemption for OBC was better it might be worth using the Royal one. I have a card that gives me 3% cash back on travel so that's a guaranteed 3% return on my slot machine room charges
  2. Oasis doesn't sail to Alaska..perhaps you mean Ovation?
  3. My method is to use a card that gives better than 2X points on the $1
  4. Put your aunt and your kid in the real bed (split into 2 singles) and you and your wife could take the couch.
  5. It isn't against the rules but I'm not sure how saying the name would make a difference until they resolve it for you (makes them look good) or fail to resolve it (makes them look bad).
  6. True..they possibly have experience and know exactly what to ask for if any of their clients has had this issue in the past. Either way they should do everything in their power to get a resolution for you and if they drop the ball, they're responsible for re-instating the cruise if it comes to that. Even if you controlled the reservation yourself, even getting past the call center gatekeepers to the right people to speak with about would take a lot.
  7. Keep the South Beach beach bed. There are only a couple of beds at the Beach Club and they're by the pool.
  8. Unfortunately that's a drawback of a bigger agency..less personal service if you don't have a single point of contact to stay on top of this for you. It's super frustrating and folks in a similar situation have had their cruise canceled for non-payment because of it, so definitely stay on top of your TA to make sure it is actively being resolved especially as you get close to the final payment date. I read those having the issue would try to make the extra payment (effectively an overpayment) to ensure their cruise wasn't canceled but the payment system didn't recognize there was a balance so it wouldn't take a payment.
  9. I have used them a couple times when cruising out of NOLA. It was worth the savings to me over the terminal parking since it is so close. I even stayed at the Hampton Inn & Suites Convention Center the night before and just scheduled my Fulton parking to start that night and left my car there for the hotel stay too. They have a shuttle to the port as well which was convenient the time I stayed there.
  10. After the 18% service charge you are looking at nearly $4 per soda. If your husband would get good use out of the alcohol package, you can call Royal Caribbean and they will allow you to purchase the Refreshment Package and let him purchase the Deluxe Package. You do have to call to split the purchase in this manner, the Cruise Planner won't allow you to do it online.
  11. No... @smokeybandit is referring to cruise fare price drops. If you want to reprice a Cruise Planner purchase you need to cancel and rebuy at the lower price. It's advisable to always cancel through the Cruise Planner as it will generate a cancelation email for your records. If you call in to cancel, I would make sure you have a cancelation email before hanging up. Credit card refunds always take significantly longer..the purchases go through immediately.
  12. If you are driving and staying the night before and parking at the port, I would look at alternatives not on 17th unless the hotel you are booking on 17th has free parking for the night of your hotel stay. I would stay over by Dania Beach off of I-95 instead. It's 10 minutes to the port without traffic but most of the hotels in the area should have your parking included. Parking is pay on the way out and with a card. They have machines to pay at before you walk back to your car. Look for them as you leave the parking lot to get on the ship so you know where they are for when you return. And take your parking ticket with you to avoid running back to the car. The closest lot to the terminal for Oasis will make you pull through the luggage drop-off before parking. It's up to you if you want to drop off as it's a surface lot so there aren't elevators to deal with like at Port Canaveral. If that closest lot fills up they will send you to the adjacent surface lot which is just a little bit of a further walk. Finally the overflow is a parking garage over by the other terminals. If you arrive early enough though you should have no issues snagging the surface lots. As far as port entrances, it really doesn't make a difference which you use. I just use my GPS and it sends me whichever way is the quickest depending on traffic. None of the hotels are within the ID zone.
  13. This is what I have successfully used in the past. If you have a lot of luggage I suggest dropping the luggage off at the terminal prior to parking there. Getting an elevator down in the parking deck can be difficult with all the luggage..unless you can handle stairs. I either drop luggage off or drop someone in my party off with the luggage before parking. Returning isn't as much of a problem. They do have a shuttle to take you to the port if you don't want to walk it. The walking distance is further than the driving distance because of the one way streets. In a vehicle you have to drive all the way around the convention center while walking you can just walk up the street to the terminal.
  14. They're usually self-led and if they're advertised in the Cruise Compass, it is usually listed as Friends of Dorothy.
  15. If the cancelation doesn't happen in enough time before the Cruise Planner closes, the refund will appear as OBC on the ship. The most recent announcements of port changes have been well in advance of the Cruise Planner closure for their respective sailings, but the refund process could take weeks. You can jump start the process of the refund by proactively canceling your Labadee excursions if you have any booked.
  16. What are you basing the flights on? I can't find flights that far in advance on my end yet. I'm trying to estimate based off of what it would cost to go June this year and what the pricing is for a flight 6 months from now.
  17. Sorry to hear this happened to you and I hope someone on the blogs can give you some ideas of who to connect with to try and get this some traction. The biggest takeaway from this is whenever there is a problem on the sailing you need to make sure you resolve it prior to leaving the ship. Once you leave the ship, there's less urgency for someone to assist you. Onboard you need to leverage every resource you have (Guest Services, Concierge) and escalate until you talk to someone who will do something. If you ever have an issue with a Shore Excursion and make a complaint onboard they often will give a refund, but you do need to be persistent, polite, and do not let them just put you aside and firmly stand your ground and talk to someone higher up. How much you spent and your loyalty is irrelevant. They should have listened to your complaints onboard and tried to offer a solution while onboard.
  18. With the Bahamas port fees it is surprising they would add another Bahamas stop was my thinking. CocoCay at least makes sense because that's a captive audience for Royal. This is the Apr22 Indy sailing, BTW. It was a casino comp I earned on a cruise in October.
  19. I have never personally had a claim for this because this coverage usually is not available for Florida residents. Anecdotally I have heard people were able to collect on this coverage even prior to sailing if the cruise line modified the itinerary. This is not to be confused with the coverage for pre-paid excursions which is a separate claim and included under the majority of trip insurance policies. Nationwide Universal Cruise Plan is one policy I have seen with this coverage (https://travel.nationwide.com/plans/cruise) In this screen shot the $100 is the flat coverage for an itinerary change and the $250 is the limit they would pay on a claim for non-refundable excursions.
  20. I'm on 2 Indy 4-nt sailings that changed Labadee to Grand Turk. Never made it to Grand Turk when I used to sail Carnival, so excited to check it out. Of course folks are complaining because Labadee included food/drinks with beverage packages and obviously that's not the same situation in Grand Turk Im also on another Indy 5-nt sailing that was Nassau and Labadee. The itinerary is now Bimini, Nassau, and CocoCay. Not sure why they added Bimini and our CocoCay day will be shared with Icon. Good times.
  21. Book it online from your offers page..they come back with an invoice and you can decide whether you want to accept or not. If you don't want it and want to check out another sailing pricing with the offer then you can call. I redeemed a couple of those BOGO offers (before they cut my offers off again) and it was surprisingly cheap. I ended up with a 4 night solo sailing for $300 total which is better than I can usually do booking with no casino interference.
  22. Welcome! We have the Roll Calls for the Group Cruises in the parent forum..join the convo over here: https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/boards/index.php?/topic/44044-independence-of-the-seas-jun-21-2025-jun-29-2025-8-night-northern-city-escapes-cruise-royalcaribbeanblogcom-group-cruise/
  23. I see this sailing in my cruises but I have no idea what's transferred over and what hasn't since this is another one of the use it or lose it inheritance sailings for me. We originally were doing a B2B with the 22nd sailing and the following 3 nighter. They allowed those doing the same to switch the 3 nighter to this new July 19 sailing with no penalties or change fees. The invoice may still need adjustment in price. I think I saw a TA email warning of this.
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