deep1

Thats kind of how my friends from South Africa used to do it. Draw for the winner... They decided asa group what length trip, what time of year and what departure port then put all the ones that fit that criteria in a hat or bucket and drew... They then fashioned a sight seeing trup around the dates of the cruise. Almost always they started in New York then Florida where they would leave foor the cruise then come back and tour somewhere else. A couple times they even did two cruises...

Thats a big part of the issue... Even at the supervisor level many conflicting answers on what should be a simple subject...

I'm curious as to some of the more "creative" ways... Flipping a coin, drawing lots, throwing darts at a list.... C'mon we have some colorful people in this group, I'd like to hear ideas off the beaten path...

Curious, what goes in to your choosing a cruise? Ex wife chose cruises based on partying. Both the ship and the destinations were picked that way. Early on, I picked cruises kind of last minute based on an overly stuffed work schedule... Frequently short they were "getaways" . More recently a combo of bigger ship and cruise length coming into play. Now: As I near pseudo retirement lots of factors playing. Itineraries that either my Fiance' or myself haven't done. Eastern , Western, Southern Caribbean need another round. I've done Alaska but she hasn't and thats high on the list. Trans Atlantic to Rome and maybe a b2b med adventure from there? Trans Pacific Tahitti on the bucket list. (If any way to sneak in side run to Bora Bora thats in play as well) . All if these I'm doing for Itinerary first but also selecting larger ships... So ..... Im kinda all over the place on what goes into my decisions... You?

As much as I have loved sitting ine the background laying in wait for the stars to line up I'm likely gonna give the TA way a try. As I near pseudo retirement my cruose frequency and number of advance bookings will go way up... As it is even with a few its abear keeping up with them or monitoring refunds etc. I'm not sure why they do it the way they do. "Here's $15, $23, $7, $31, $10 and $14" to get to $100. No xplanations what each number is supposed to represent.... Why not "here's your $100". Then we get to their invoce math. $750+ $750+ $500 should equal $2000 but almost always they have a different number that needs to get fixed... Very recently I made a booking with a $500 deposit. The invoice showed only $450 deposit but $50 OBC????????

The finding 1 in 4-5 was the norm so long... I could deal with it... Zero for about 15 is tough. This really has become a headache since sailing resumed.... I used to run all inclusive big game fishing charters to the Bahamas from Florida. I handled air, lodging, food, beverage, fishing, processing catch and shipping back stateside. It became easy, like being on auto pilot. I didn't mind. I actually preferred doing it my self. This used to be that way. Yes there were way confusing things that I had to learn like their math and how they juggle charges. Sometimes I came here for help other times I just slowly learned to avoid trying to use logic in dealing with them. This last episode I knew the fixes as I have done it before . Sadly , most didn't. If not for that social media rep figuring it out (she didn't know the fix at first) I'd still be on hold and going grayer than I already am.

I'm sure most everyone here has had some phone agent issues , at least for those who use them. Back in November we had a positive test for COVID and had to cancel a cruise on Symphony. They knew the situation and it was to be a refund. A couple days later I received a notification that they were issuing FCCs instead. That wouldn't work because our two teens would not be joining us on any near future cruises. So it began. Mind you it was supposed to be a refund not a FCC. We went at it for nearly 10 hours between holds and supervisors and this and that! I thought we had it straightened out. The next day I saw the FCC's still in place. Back to the frint lines. They offered up transferring the FCC's to my name and frustrated I said ok. That set off another 6 hour marathon that involved calling my Fiance' at work and the kids in school to get permissions!!!!!!! We did a couple sailings since and just booked Oasis in the fall for just us adults. Went to use the FCC's. Mine fine... Fiance's fine... Kids that were supposedly transferred? Nope!!! Three hours on phone a few nights ago. Them wanting to call the fiancee and kids again???? My language deteriorated quickly and they assured me it would be fixed before I woke. Didn't happen. I tossed a note on social media message form but no reply. Back on phone. 2 hrs getting nowhere. Cut off while transferring to supervisor. No call back despite them having my call back number. Second time cut off but did get a call back assuring me it was fixed. I checked.... nope. I planned to call today, but at 4 AM eastern daylight time here came an answer to the message I left on social media page. By 5 AM it seemed we were all set. Not quote but with another call of an hour we are $36 dollars from being right. Close enough. Sorry the description is so long but it pales in comparison to the 23 hours I personally invested in getting this right. I'm no stranger to running into incompetence (poor training) with some reps but usually I find a sharp one in short order. I lost track of how many people I worked with on this mess in that time but I can say I never found a songle knowledgable sharp crayon in that whole box. The closest I found was the social media rep who though very slow eventually got most of this fixed... In the past it seemed if I cycled through 4 or 5 reps I'd hit on one that was really good. This involved something like 10-15 with none being particularly well versed. I try to be polite and get to know the reps. In the past most were working remote but at least in the states. More and more I'm running into them being based much farther away. I'm not casting asperions at their education or those countries but that geographic divide and them having to be put on hold for hours is really making things harder than they need be. I mentioned that it used to be if I talked to 4-5 reps one was usually very well versed and could get stuff done. I don't see that or at least this time I didn't. Does anyone have tricks as to how to connect with the better trained reps in the current climate? If you find one is there some way to be able to get back to that one in the future? Am I missing the boat not using a travel agent?

There are deep sea fishing excursions from RCL that do better than I might have thought at Roatan. Most trips producing small tuna and nice wahoo. Roatan and Costa Maya both have excellent reef for snapperor grouper and flats fishing for Bonefish and Permit. . I cant remember who I used in Cozumel but it was good day I had there a few years back. It was a bertram 31 adequately rigged that we just walked in an office not far from the port and booked... . We had a a couple sails a white marlin a cero mackerel and 5 nice wahoos that day. Funny, somehow wahoo wound up on the menu that night as a "special"

Now if I could ever get my own C+A situation fixed...

I didn't get destroyed too bad but in switching fiance back to sharing room with me somehow they removed her C+A status... Spent hours fixing that. But it is fixed...

Paid in full long ago...

He did get his first and wasn't exactly honest about his second... He has time to get second for real but is being difficult.

I'll work on the language some and refine it. The boy refuses masks, isn't fully vacced and doesn't want to. The girl is afraid of the big bad "petri dish" and if she tests positive it could be a problem with her scholarship.

I would hope being sister companies RCL would do the same...

That sounds great but I don't know that I would get anything back for the no shows... This is why I'm asking...

Any suggestions what I can do to soften the blow whatever it may be?

Two balconies... Fiancee and her two teens were supposed to join me this next cruise in about a month in two balcony rooms. Teen girl has invite to some snow skiing thing that she insists on attending. Boy in position that he can't miss any more school than he has. I'm trying to bribe the girl by letting her bring a friend but its not really gaining any traction. Most likely I have to cancel the kids and one of the staterooms... Am I gonna get hammered on this transaction? Are they gonna get silly and issue fcc's in the kids names (like they have done before?)? Or are they simply gonna refund or fcc half the fare to me?

I know its probably been asked and answered a bunch of times. I did a look and cant find though... We have our 18 y/o likely going skiing rather than join us for our March cruise. Our 17 y/o is on the fence. If he could bring his friend, he'd likely go. The friend has certified birth certificate but a New Jersey license that doesn't have that special star (NJ doesn't issue to minors). Would that be a deal breaker getting him on closed loop US departure/ return? What permission paperwork from his folks would we need to get and bring? I'd prefer bringing him/ them to cancelling one cabin and two guests...

I'm so sorry to hear that...

He was paid in full and had to cancel just a few days before his trip.

He was surprised... He was expecting FCC. He mentioned the agent was very nice and understanding as well. . If I had known what a hassle it is with being put in name of guest instead of the one who paid for it, Limited time to use it and can't use for parts of the fare, I would never have accepted mine a long time ago... My next trip I have combo of old FCC , FCC that was issued at 125% and a heap of cash for upgrades... Thats why I was wondering what he can expect in return...

A friend of mine just had to cancel his upcoming sailing for undisclosed reasons... He had been bumped off several others (during shut down) and this was a rebook using FCC... He was expecting the result to be another FCC. Instead, they set him up for a refund to original form of payment (45 days) without him even asking. They said he could do that or book a similar cruise right now. He wasn't prepared with an alternate sailing in mind so he accepted the refund. Is this something new? My last cancel they went fcc which I didn't mind because I rebooked right then. Will he get back full amount? Or will they go back several sailings to his original cash amount with other considerations for other outlays upgrading, etc.?

Yaaayyyy they got it right and I got my proper replacements.... Third time the charm....

On some of the ships a "cross" symbol indicates pullmans...