Wilson

7 hours ago, mworkman said:

If you go to Magen's Bay...take cash with you.  There wasn't an atm machine or vendor that would take atm cards when we were there, but that was in Jan this year.

We were at Megan's Bay earlier this month. $5 cash to get in, but beach vendor accepted credit and debit cards for booze, food, loungers and umbrellas. Waitress walking up and down the beach kept great care of us. 

I don't recall ever seeing a place on a Catamaran to lock valuables. I have been on my share of snorkel excursions over the past 20 years and have NEVER experienced a single problem leaving our belongings on the vessel that took us out. Did I feel a little uncomfortable the first couple of times? Sure, but don't worry. Tour operators can't afford to be blasted on social media with allegations of theft. We don't hesitate to leave our things and trust that the crew will watch everything. 

Welcome to Royal Caribbean Blog message boards!

Just now, Lovetocruise2002 said:

Was this for a 2019 sailing? 

Sorry, I have had too many deluxe beverages tonight. Dec 2018

Just paid $50 a day for the deluxe/voom combo for our upcoming 7 night Freedom sailing.

Went down in my case. Just paid $50 a day for the deluxe package AND Voom for our upcoming Freedom sailing.  

On ‎9‎/‎14‎/‎2018 at 5:06 PM, KJ1231 said:

Is it possible to use the myVegas and the credit card points on the same cruise? E.g, book the cruise using the credit card points for a partial discount and then using myVegas points for OBC? Or do you have to use one or the other? For the two cruises coming up we've already paid for our excursions and MEI is covering gratuities so I don't anticipate having much of a bill on the ships since we don't  drink much in the way of alcohol.    So we'll just have to go on another RC cruise......

You can combine both but only for onboard credit. You have to redeem your MyVegas points first and book the cruise within 14 days. They will give you an email address to send your redemption code and someone will call you to book. Another option is to redeem MyVegas points and call Casino Royal with your redemption code at 1-888-561-2234. Transfer your booking to your favorite MEI agent for their perks and then redeem your Royal credit card points for more onboard credit. You can’t use Royal Card points for cruise booking discount and then cash in MyVegas rewards. 

We redeemed all our Royal Visa points and cancelled the card. There are many other cash back cards that pay significantly more than Royal Visa and you use the cash to pay off cruise. 

Our Sam’s Mastercard pays the following back in cash:

5% on fuel

3% on travel and dining 

1% on everything else 

I know this doesn’t help with your current scenario, but something to consider for the future. We are getting significantly more cruise cash using a different credit card.  

50 minutes ago, Joe01 said:

If Liberty is your favorite ship, do you think she has a good crew? That's another determining factor.

It's been just over a year since we were last on Liberty. I can say at the time the crew was outstanding and also on the two previous Liberty sailings. One of the things I really love about Royal is that the crew is generally exceptional fleet wide.

I hope this does not happen in the US. Although I swore I would never do another 3 or 4 night sailing that includes flights, I have two booked for 2019. I should probably consider buying the drink packages now. I like buying in advance and paying off, but not 6-9 months out. I usually do it 2-3 months prior to the cruise when it's on sale.

3 minutes ago, rjac said:

Please share their name with us and we'll speak very highly of you! 

LoL sorry...

Woodwind Tours https://www.woodwindbonaire.com/

We used them last year and look forward to seeing them again in Dec. We will definitely book for the RCBlog New Years Eve group cruise in 2019 as well. 

If you are going to book some excursions outside the cruise line you might want to check with that specific tour company. Some sell out several months in advance. One of our favorite snorkeling companies out of Bonaire are so highly rated that we locked in our spot a year out.

Welcome to Royal Caribbean Blog!

We love cruising out of Galveston and Liberty is our favorite ship.

I might be a little biased since we live in Texas.

We have been using the Sam's Club Mastercard for three years now. Pays cash back annually as follows: 5% on fuel, 3% on travel, 3% on dining and 1% on everything else. Like the Costco card there are no annual or foreign transaction fees. We charge everything on the credit card (except mortgage and car payment, but wish I could) and always pay off the balance monthly.

38 minutes ago, Michael Vitale said:

Wilson, it cost me almost $1300 for us to go to San Juan out of DFW. Never again. 

Damn! We paid about half of that. American on the way down and Southwest on the return.

Thx Matt. Back to research. Definitely don’t like hiking in hot and humid. Earlier flight would cost us each $182. Passing on that. 

Our flight does not leave until 4:45 so we were looking at Royal post-cruise excursions since they all include airport transfers. We are interested in the Bacardi Rum Distillery tour and the El  Yunque Rain Forest Hike. The only other two options are city tours. We are flying in two days early and will have covered the city and making time for extreme ziplining at Toro Verde. 

Has anyone done the Rain Forest Hike or the Bacardi tour?

Any other suggestions?

5 hours ago, twangster said:

I'm not a Dr. Pepper drinker but I recall someone saying Liberty had it.

Dr Pepper big in Texas and was definitely on Liberty last time we sailed her. 

On 6/14/2018 at 5:49 PM, fonemanbob said:

Wish I had known this years ago.  And I have been sitting home for 10 weeks due to foot surgery.  Glad I know this now as I will be having knee replacement surgery next month.  Gentleman start your engines.  

Wishing you the best in your recovery. I played frequently while recovering from shoulder surgery a couple years ago. I never pay to play.

Unfortunately MyVegas does not give the rewards return that it did in the beginning. I am happy that I was able to cash in while the getting was good. 

7 hours ago, jurrjurr said:

Disappointed they did not reinstate the $250 obc reward. 

Me too! I enjoyed cashing in on that one at least twice before it disappeared  

Royal rewards available again. 

Yes it’s a silly game, but it’s free and I have cashed in for upwards of $1,000 in obc. 

The website has had issues for...well too long. I have had several different problems. I emailed and it took three weeks for them to respond. In the mean time the issues worked themselves out before they got back to me. 

Most recently I was unable to access my online check-in. Took several days but it finally let me in. 

With this my only suggestion is to keep checking back and it will probably be updated eventually. 

6 hours ago, mworkman said:

@Wilson I haven't seen RC there for awhile now...did they drop out?

They did this once before and returned a month or so later. I posted a message on the MyVegas FB page, but doubt they respond. 

17 hours ago, coneyraven said:

See if you can get an even better deal getting a Voom - Drink Combo Package ..... They don't advertise them too often, but trust me, this bundled package does exist.

Good suggestion. I look for this every sailing. Even though it was "on sale" for Alaska GC it was less expensive to book each individually.

Request to be on a waitlist, but check frequently yourself. I discovered available cabins, booked it and never heard from Royal even though there were multiple cabins that opened up.

I have not seen Royal Caribbean in the rewards section for several days. MSC still there. 

7 hours ago, TheStigggg said:

Its roughly 1 point per $5 gambled in slots. Table games are anyones guess.

7 hours ago, CGTLH said:

Has been one point for $5 coin in on slots and $10 for video poker. Table games, who knows how it ends up being calculated.

Looks like I will always remain at the Choice level.