GlowTheWeird

We also snagged one on Freedom for January. I didn't upgrade when I made the reservation (actually forgot about it until now) but I need to before I forgot again!

I was able to grab this one yesterday as well. I had been stalking it for weeks, hoping this date would become available again. Did you stick with the inside cabin? 

Celebrity from LA in 2022! 

 
 

That's me as well.  I put them on my file cabinet at work to remind me of better days.

For us.. we have to buy a ship magnet.. I know its dumb.. but we have to litter the Fridge with them lol 
 

As you all know, Dan and I are in FL doing some house biz.  We have finished all of that for now and are flying home tomorrow morning.  We are staying at the Miami Airport Marriott tonite for a very early morning flight.
While walking over to the bar at the Courtyard (so weird that everything at the Marriott is closed but the restaurant and bar at the adjacent Courtyard are open !) we happened upon a “registration” table for Royal Caribbean. Being the naturally curious (not to mention, nosy) person that I am, I stopped and chatted with the guy manning the table.  He said that he was registering new staff that were signing on with NAV.  He said they are just part of rotating maintenance crew and said he has no insight regarding cruise re-start, but it was still exciting to learn that new staff is allowed to come in and most notably, they are flying in.  I tried not to stare at the paperwork but I could see that the list of names looked to be fairly lengthy.  Can’t say that there is any smoking gun or intel that provides any real information but at least I did find out that they were headed to NAV.

On the way back, the table was unmanned so I snapped a quick pic of the table and sign.
Maybe ?  Maybe ?

Thanks everyone. I read all the cruise with confidence options but wanted clarity and you are all the best of the best ?   I think it may be in our best interest to wait a bit to see if we get cancelled by royal and just make that separate May booking. 
We were hesitant to do the lift and shift as it’s a few families that booked separately, with the lift and shift it appears you pick preference sailings, and I was worried we would all put the same preferences but get different sailings. Not sure if that could occur. Didn’t want to chance it. We also didn’t want to wait that long to see one another.  The May cruise is the same pricing as our original December cruise. 
 
Thank you for the advice. Avid lurker on the boards and always hop on those live streams on Facebook/Twitter when Matt does them.  I feel some of you all are famous! ? 

Maybe not entirely without benefit. I usually get a nice warm fuzzy feeling whenever I'm able to provide someone with a helpful answer to their question. I'd say that's a pretty decent benefit. ?

As you mention, the group here is awesome.  There is an incredible amount of experience and knowledge that is shared freely but at the same time graciously and without benefit to the person sharing.  It is remarkable.

Thanks everyone. I read all the cruise with confidence options but wanted clarity and you are all the best of the best ?   I think it may be in our best interest to wait a bit to see if we get cancelled by royal and just make that separate May booking. 
We were hesitant to do the lift and shift as it’s a few families that booked separately, with the lift and shift it appears you pick preference sailings, and I was worried we would all put the same preferences but get different sailings. Not sure if that could occur. Didn’t want to chance it. We also didn’t want to wait that long to see one another.  The May cruise is the same pricing as our original December cruise. 
 
Thank you for the advice. Avid lurker on the boards and always hop on those live streams on Facebook/Twitter when Matt does them.  I feel some of you all are famous! ? 

Thanks everyone. I read all the cruise with confidence options but wanted clarity and you are all the best of the best ?   I think it may be in our best interest to wait a bit to see if we get cancelled by royal and just make that separate May booking. 
We were hesitant to do the lift and shift as it’s a few families that booked separately, with the lift and shift it appears you pick preference sailings, and I was worried we would all put the same preferences but get different sailings. Not sure if that could occur. Didn’t want to chance it. We also didn’t want to wait that long to see one another.  The May cruise is the same pricing as our original December cruise. 
 
Thank you for the advice. Avid lurker on the boards and always hop on those live streams on Facebook/Twitter when Matt does them.  I feel some of you all are famous! ? 

Thanks everyone. I read all the cruise with confidence options but wanted clarity and you are all the best of the best ?   I think it may be in our best interest to wait a bit to see if we get cancelled by royal and just make that separate May booking. 
We were hesitant to do the lift and shift as it’s a few families that booked separately, with the lift and shift it appears you pick preference sailings, and I was worried we would all put the same preferences but get different sailings. Not sure if that could occur. Didn’t want to chance it. We also didn’t want to wait that long to see one another.  The May cruise is the same pricing as our original December cruise. 
 
Thank you for the advice. Avid lurker on the boards and always hop on those live streams on Facebook/Twitter when Matt does them.  I feel some of you all are famous! ? 

Unfortunately, L&S will not work for the OP because they are intending to rebook for May. The date restrictions for L&S mean they would have to switch to a date one year plus or minus 4 weeks from their original date. ?

Yes.  If you cancel under CWC, you will not receive a refund.  The only time you get a refund is if Royal cancels on you.  You will receive FCC for your full payment and that will be good for use until 12/31/2021.  How long it takes to receive it is questionable.  They say around 45 business days, but we have received ours as fast as a few weeks later, and some as far as about 45 days.  My latest one that I cancelled for December, we booked as a group.  Several people in my cabin already received their FCCs (about two weeks after we cancelled) and some others, including myself, have not received ours yet.  And for that one, we were all booked in one cabin.  Go figure, there's no logic to it.
Anyway, you did not say if you already made final payment for this December sailing of yours?  If you already did, what is the harm in holding out and not cancelling yet to see what Royal does.  That's what I would do if I had already made final payment.  I would wait until 48 hours prior to cancel in that case.

Correct. Until RC cancels the cruise, you cannot get a refund, just a FCC.
If RC cancels the cruise and you haven't cancelled yet on your own, a full refund is one of the compensation offers usually.
When Royal Caribbean cancelled its November sailings on October 6, they said FCCs would be automatically be sent via email by November 4th, 2020.

I would review the policies on Royal's Cruise with Confidence program.  You have several options, Lift and Shift at anytime, 125% FCC if Royal cancels or 100% fare refund if Royal cancels, 100% FCC if you cancel before they do or partial refund under the original terms of your booking if you cancel before they do. 
I have a Dec 2020 cruise and expect it to cancel.  This was paid for with a 125% FCC from a previous COVID canceled cruise from August.  I will take the 125% FCC when and if Royal cancels the cruise and use it in 2021.
My FCC was issued about 45 days after my August cruise was canceled.

I have cancelled my 4/26/20 & because I cancelled the cruise about 6 weeks before the cruise I had options of $1,000 refund (which is about Half of what that cruise cost) or receive a 100% FCC. I chose the FCC because I knew that I was gonna sail with Royal again & I have 2 more cruises on Royal for May & next December. It was somewhere between 30-45 days before I received the FCC in my email. 
If you are gonna cruise with Royal again then I would take the FCC which would either be 100% FCC or 125% FCC but if you need the money right now then please note that if you request for a refund it might be less than what you paid for the cruise or it could be the same amount that you paid for the cruise.
Since I cancelled @ the beginning of the cruising shutdown that’s why it took 30-45 days to receive the FCC in my email but since then I have booked 3 cruises & cancelled 1 of the 3 cruise and I received my money back faster than 30-45 days.

That's great news.  Celebrity (Eclipse) has made the Monterey stop over a limited season.    (Just the locals really don't like cruise ships interfering with their ocean view.)

Navigator is on the Monterey port schedule for summer 2023.

Would be great to see some west coast runs for Royal.  Opens up more options without having to change brands.

https://www.cruiseindustrynews.com/cruise-news/23684-royal-caribbean-evaluating-west-coast-cruise-program.html

There are advantages and disadvantages either way.   For us, if its a complex reservation (lots of people, special requests, complex logistics) travel agent, if its a simple one, we can take care of it ourselves (but we'll use an agent for most of those cases).   For those solo cases, I'll turn it over to the agent if they've been helpful in the past.

On my last 3 bookings, Michelle has been able to apply a military discount when none was showing on the website.  I can’t imagine that a RC sales rep would have done that for me.

Using a TA is about all of their services without a fee. It's more than just booking something, that's the easy part. It's when you run into problems/questions/concerns later that the value of a TA stands out.
Check out this blog post: https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2016/06/15/why-first-time-cruisers-should-use-royal-caribbean-travel-agent