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Notlad

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Posts posted by Notlad

  1. 26 minutes ago, Ampurp85 said:

    You can either have your wife do a no-show and get the taxes and fees refunded. OR you can call/have you agent reprice as a solo. The problem with the latter is that you will pay prevailing rates which may or may not cost more. It is best to do a mock booking to see if this is worth it. 

    The only problem is that if you do a no-show, you might not get the extra point per night because you didn't book as a solo. If you reprice as a solo, you will definitely get the extra point. This is where the whole "ymmv" thing come into play: some people have done a no-show and not got the extra point, some have. 

    Thanks!

     

  2. I have several cruises that I booked and paid for two thinking my first wife would be traveling with me but it looks like I will be making these cruises alone as she is taking a break from traveling. I know in the past I have Matt address how to handle this but I can't remember his advice. Should I call Royal in advance to notify them that only I will be traveling or should I wait until I check in and let them know then. For some reason I am thinking Matt suggested the latter method. I know I will only get the port fees and taxes refunded for the second person not traveling and I know that I should be able to get double points cruising alone. Maybe that is why I think I remember Matt saying to just cancel the second person when I check in. Help!

  3. I was booked on the Allure of the Seas transatlantic Crossing for next October 30th that was cancelled. Royal Caribbean set my travel agent a message that they were transferring the Allure passengers reservations to The Wonder of the Seas transatlantic Crossing leaving the same date and also from Barcelona. This was supposed to have been completed by October 13th and when it wasn't and my travel agent inquired she was told they would have it all sorted out by the end of October. I'm very nervous about this whole situation. I already had my 18 night Grand Voyage with MSC I was supposed to be flying out to Genoa Italy for today canceled. 

  4. My counter to The Key not being worth it is that if this is the cruise going to Maui it is a Tender port and I have read that many times rough waters causes delays and in that instance having The Key to get Tender priority would be a big plus. I got The Key for $24.99 on our Greek Island cruise September 2019 because we were going to get an internet package anyway so it wasn't that much more and I knew we had at least one tender port, Santorini. I would not pay more than $25 per day though.

  5. If you are looking for bargains and nobody has mentioned it yet you can set up a Google Flights tracker based on the dates you want to travel. I did that for our Nasvhlle to Rome flights last Septermber and for months the fare never varied within a small range. Then one Saturday I remembered to check my tracker and it said if I booked an American Airlines flight through British Airways as a codeshare I could get 2 round trip tickets for what the price had been for 1 ticket for months. The info was so detailed it even said this price was only good to book by phone but the price included the $50 booking by phone fee BA would charge. I grabbed my phone and booked it ASAP! Oh, and on that same google flight tracker the two tickets I bought for about $1200 total would have been $2700 had I booked the same flights direct with American Airlines that day.

  6. The travel agent that was quoted made the most sense and what I have felt they would do. I think clearly the buffet concept will remain but with crew serving folks and probably better plexiglass protection for the food where it is visible but not subject to someones sneeze, etc. These changes may sound simple but it is going to require a lot more headcount than is currently required to run Windjammer. Holland America is in good shape in this regard as their buffet is already designed for crew members to serve passengers for most things.

  7. Yesterday I snagged The Key for $19.99 for our December 2020 Harmony cruise. I have been tracking the pricing for many months for this cruise and this was by far the least expensive it has been. This is the same price we paid for it last September on our 9 night Greek Island cruise on Brilliance. My anecdotal observation is that it costs more on the larger ships like Harmony so I feel like we got a bargain.

  8. Life is all about risk management. If I were in my 20's or 30's and healthy I would probably take advantage of the current and coming cruise bargains. However I am 61 and a diabetic. My wife is 68 years old. The mortality rate for someone my age with diabetes who get the coronus virus is 7.2% vs the overall rate of 3.4%.

    With a cruise ship being a giant petri dish I believe you have a much greater chance of catching the virus due to the close quarters should a fellow passenger have it. With that in mind my risk management assessment says my wife and myself need to not cruise until this pandemic subsides. Thankfully our next cruise isn't until the beginning of December so hopefully things will be better then. However our 40th wedding anniversary trip to England in August is worrisome at this point.

    I fully support the Federal government warning people about the increased danger of catching the coronovirus on cruise ships. Hopefully in coordination with the CDC the cruise lines can put some good screening measures in place that at the least includes temperature checks before boarding and ideally as test kits become available testing of passengers (not sure if that is feasible unless the test is an instant one). I know at least one cruise line is screening passengers for fever. That is a limited measure though because it appears coronovirus has a 2 to 5 day period after infection before fever and other symptoms.

  9. On 3/9/2019 at 1:10 PM, WAAAYTOOO said:

    I had a similar experience with Norwegian.  After 1 cruise with them, we received a free cruise.  We went on that cruise and then never heard another thing from them.

    I can promise you that $100 will not do anything to get you a free cruise on RCCL.

    Oh it was more than $100 on the HAL cruise! LOL!! Just in the past it has only been about a $100 on my previous cruises including RCCL ones.

  10. We took a 4 year break from cruising then tried HAL's Nieuw Amsterdam the end of November last year. I usually only gamble a hundred bucks on cruises, including my past RCCL ones, but this time I gambled a bit more although at the end of the week I only lost $137. I was shocked two weeks after returning home to get an email with "exclusive casino offers' that included free inside cabins on a lot of sailing and inexpensive upgrades to other catagory staterooms and suites. April 7th we are going on our "free" cruise (we still had to pay port fees , taxes and airfare to Florida but still a $1200+ value free). We could have upgraded to a balcony for $598 total and a suite that would have cost me $4300+ to book otherwise for just $1598. Would have definitely done the suite if we didn't have a 2 1/2 week trip to Italy and Greece in Septyember that includes a 9 night Greek Island cruise on Jewel of the Seas.

    While we are on Jewel in September I will gamble more than the hundred bucks or so I have in the past on RCCL and will be curious to see if I start getting casino offers like HAL sent me.

  11. It's fun reading everybody's status and strategy for moving up. Also I appreciate the good advice on trying to go ahead and book the one additional cruise tht will be me to the 80 in case they change the program and I need to ask them to grandfather me in. My only issue is that we took our first HAL cruise after Thanksgiving last year and HAL thinks I am a big enough gambler that they gave me a free cruise next month on their new ship Nieuw Amsterdam. I would like to book an Alaska cruise for 2021 but don't want to jump the gun just in case HAL decides to keep on giving me free cruises. Who knows though if this September I impress RCCL enough in the Casino maybe I will get some good casino offers from them!

  12. I did the all access tour on either Mariner or Independence, can't remember which right now, and it was very much worth it for me. I am fascinated by cruise ship operations and so to see I95, the food storage area, giant freezer and refrigerator rooms, engine control room and last but not least the brdige was fascinating. I wish I had done it years before. We spent probably 15-30 minutes on the bridge and got to ask the Captain any questions we wanted to. By the way the only two places we had serious security was the engine control room and the bridge. If anybody would have had intentions of doing something nefarious they would not have gotten very far!

  13. I thought I was sitting at 30 points Crown & Anchor points but when I looked discovered I was actually at 36. Our next Cruise in September will be our first as Platinum. Finally out of the basement! After this September 2019 9 night Greek Island cruise on Jewel we will be at 45 points. I have booked a 15 night Caribbean / Transatlantic crossing junior suite on Independence of the Seas for May 2020 which with the doube points will be 30 added to my 45 for a total of 75. That means by the end of May 2020 I will be only 5 points away from Diamond status! After a four year break from cruising starting last November with a cruise on HAL I am back in the game!

  14. 1 minute ago, AGSLC5 said:

    to get benefits you need to earn points. You earn points by either putting your room key in the slots or if you play table games giving it to the dealer to get scanned in. The only way to get benefits is to gamble a very good amount. If you plan to spend $100 or $200 don't count on getting any benefits. I play Blackjack and gamble 4-8 hours per day at $25-$50 a hand and still I am only going to be In their "Prime" 2nd tier level. 

    Thanks for the info. After our first HAL cruise a couple of months ago my quality time in the casino earned us a free cruise we are taking April 7th so I am curious to see how RCCL operates their casino guest program since our next two cruises will be on RCCL. We have cruised RCCL several times before but really didn't gamble on the ships then.

  15. On 3/4/2019 at 7:22 PM, TheStigggg said:

    I just got off Independence this morning. I had one of the interior cabins in that hallway. I really liked being able to just walk out onto the pool deck in less than a minute. I would def book that hallway again, hopefully the suite next time haha.

    A couple of months ago we had an interior cabin in  almost the same exact spot on Holland America's Nieuw Amsterdam and really enjoyed it. I usually book midship so was concerned about being right at the front but the only issue that came up was on the last night crusing back to Ft. Laudersale. Middle of the night some weird loud noises  and vibration we didn'ty experience at all the other six nights. We were actually above the pool deck and only one deck and a few steps from the private cabana we had rented for the week. It was heavenly!

    This will be our first junior suite ever (we usually book inside cabins and have had a few balcony ones as well). We will be celebrating our 40th wedding anniversary so splurging.

     

  16. 14 hours ago, Diane.M said:

    i booked a limo in Oct, i obviously chose a untrustworthy one.  He never answers emails.  We paid in full in Oct and yesterday he ran a charge for over 1000.  I have to wait til it clears to dispute.  I am waiting for the limo service to return my call. ?

    In the mean time I would like to book a limo service with good recommendations from actual people. I did research for days before booking this limo but I obviously failed.. it is confusing because the names are all similar.

    Thanks for any help.  We are new to cruising and I wont let this ruin our first cruise.  

    Wow! I hate to hear you had such a bad experioence. I do a lot of research and check reviews, etc for things like limo companies but I read just the other day that for $60 someone can buy a few hundred positive reviews for their site / business. I had a similar situation to yours a few years ago in Honolulu. Small limo company that I booked as a surprise for my wife to take us from the airport to our hotel. He never showed up and when I called the number just got a recording. Luckily for me at the limo waiting area there was another limo driver with the opposite problem. His booked fare never showed up. After an hour of so and a bit of chatting he told me he couldn't book me directly as that violated taxi / limosine rules for the airport but if I called his office and booked him he could take me right then so I did. I left a voie mail with the limo service I had booked that I expected no charges to my credit card and to their credit they didn't. However they also never emailed or called with an apology.

    When I am in Miami or Fort Lauderdale for a cruise now I use Lyft or Uber.

  17. On 3/4/2019 at 6:18 PM, CrusingWithMatt said:

    Thank you so much for sharing your experiences. The only thing we're really nervous for is getting sea sick. Neither of us really like taking medication. Plus we paid for the deluxe drink package ???. We plan on using ginger pills and see bands hoping for the best but will bring with some Bonine as backup.

    Do you guys tend to get motion sickness from other things? Like trips in cars, amusement park rides, etc? If not I wouldn't worry about it. Unless you encounter heavy seas there is very little motion on these large modern ships. During a t/a if they encounter rough seas they will deploy the stabilizers which will help a lot as well. 

    Sounds like you have a good plan with the ginger and seabands. I would take some Dramaine II (the version that doesn't make you drowsy) just in case. 

  18. A few years ago when we did a T/A to Rome one of the members of our Roll Call group on the CC forum arranged transportation and opened it to as many people as wanted to sign up. When all was said and done he had a full size tour bus full of people signed up! The only glitch was we had to wait a bit for the bus but once it got there it was great and took folks to their hotel ,or if their street was too narrow like ours was, close to it. I don't remember the particulars but I do remember it was much less expensive than any other alternative. 

    Said all that to say you ought to check out your ship and date's CC roll call and see if some enterprising person hasn't done the same thing or at least maybe folks have posted solutions they have found. We have a Greek Island cruise in september leaving and returning to Rome and on our roll call a guy arranged private transportation for 8 and let the first six people who signed up join in. My wife and I did so we have transportation from the port to the airport for 23 euro's per person including tip. Much less than a private car or taxi for two.

  19. I would love to go on one of those but WOW that pricing is not budget friendly, I know there are a lot of expenses involved in them booking the guests, venues on board, etc and they are in it to make some money as well so it may be fair pricing but still high for a cruise / Star Trek convention.

    My Star Trek fan dreams came true in 2016 when I won two of 500 tickets to a private Star Trek fan event held at Paramount Studios in Hollywood. It was to promote Star Trek Beyond and Star Trek's 50th anniversary. It was in May 2016 and the stars of the film as well as producer JJ Abrams and director Justin Lin were all there as well as an entire soundstage of costumes and props from the film. We were given a swag bag that included limited edition numbered posters, custom t shirts, champagne, etc, etc. Best of all we were given "golden tickets" inviting us to the world premiere of Star Trek Beyond two months later in San Diego. The world's first outdoor IMAX premeire. So of course I had to fly back to California again from Nashville for that! LOL!!

  20. Thanks guys! I can't believe I couldn't find that pick. Also good to know this location was liked on Mariner. We have cruised on both Indy and Mariner before but before but that was 6 and 4 years ago. Interestingly enough we just cruised on HAL's Nieuw Amsterdam in almost the same exact location on the ship and really enjoyed it so this location intrigued me on Indy.

  21. During the May 2018 refurbishment 6 cabins were added to deck 11 on Independence of the Seas. I am booking junior suite 1106 that is one of these but I am hving trouble finding out any information about it. Nothing on YouTube or Google about the 3 new junior suites added. These 6 cabins are the only passenger cabins on deck 11 and were carved out of space taken from the Spa.

    If you have sailed on one of the three new junior suites deck 11 please post your review. Or if you have seen any info online please post a link.

  22. Our very first cruise as a married couple was on Brilliance of the Seas first transatlantic crossing bck in 2002 when she was just about 6 weeks old. We went from Harwich England to Boston. It was the great northern route and we happened to get caught in the edge of Hurricane Gustav. We had one day of 80 mph winds and 40 foot swells. All outer decks closed. It was pretty exciting. We had a balcony cabin on deck 9 and the swells were so hight the spray was hitting our glass door 

    Brilliance is a beautiful ship. The Radiance class ships have lots of glass, etc and I have read many recent accounts saying that RCCL has kept Brilliance in great shape. We will be cruising on one of her sister ships, Jewel of the Seas, on a Greek Island cruise this September.

    As far as weather and conditions during your crossing it may have more to do with what route you take than the month. I am guessing from your embarkation port and ports of call that you will be taking the Southern route crossing the Atlantic and both times we have done that the water has been incredibly calm. It was like the ship was moving through a swimming pool. On the Northern route even the times we have done it where we did not encounter a tornado the seas were rougher but not a problem. We never got seasick.

    Our next T/A on RCCL will be a 15 nighter like yours but on Independence of the Seas in May of 2020. My favorite cruises are ones like these where you have a combination of port intensive days and then a bunch of sea days in a row to enjoy the abolute solitude of being on the ocean away from anything.

    I think you are going to have an amazing time!

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