RockerDom31

Also, the Northstar on Anthem only goes straight up. I believe some other Northstars go out the side of the ship. I don’t know which ones do though.

Ah I was two seconds too late with my post! But yes, this was what I getting at.

I would love it if they did! (Full disclaimer here - I live in Jersey) As far as I can tell, there wouldn't be any legal reason why they couldn't do this. But I think all cruises out of Cape Liberty (Freedom and Oasis) this summer have been canceled. I'm purely speculating here but I would think it would have to do with travel time to and from Caribbean ports. Any cruise out of Cape Liberty requires at least 2 sea days to get to anywhere in the Caribbean or Bermuda.

Yeah I am not seeing any excursions or other cruise planner purchases for San Juan either. Or Labadee. Only excursions for St. Marteen is available to book. Our cruise is more than a year away so I just figure things will start popping up when it’s closer.

Also…if you prepay gratuities, it locks in that daily charge rate.

Update: Daniel W from MEI took care of everything from start to finish! The whole process was done via email in one day. My wife and I are officially booked for August 5, 2022 Oasis of the Seas out of Cape Liberty. FCC from the canceled cruise was applied as the minimum deposit. Daniel was straightforward and easy to communicate with. He was very thorough and detailed. I would highly recommend him and MEI!

That’s probably the safer play - I’ll just wait for MEI to reach out and I’ll work on it with them. Thanks @Matt! Helpful, as always!

Hi All, My wife and I are making our plans to go on an August 2022 Caribbean cruise out of Cape Liberty on Oasis of the Seas (going to San Juan, Labadee, St. Marteen). This was to replace our August 2020 cruise that was canceled. As a result, we each received a $250 FCC. Based on my research, I am allowed to use the $500 in FCC to use as a deposit, correct? When I get to the final reservation page, it is still asking for credit card info before clicking on the finish button. I did put in both certificate numbers to meet the minimum $500 requirement. Did anyone else run into this

I wish it was easier to do "mock bookings" online to plan out cruise costs. First, you can't get to the breakdown of the "final cost" of the cruise (including the total cost of the prepaid gratuities, fees, taxes, etc and any discounts applied) without putting in personal info. I just put in fake info just to get past this page but it's annoying nonetheless. And the annoyance continues when you try to re-price after booking since you have to go through that process all over again when there is a sale. Also, you can't get the cost of things like beverage, dining, or spa packages unt

Haha. It’s actual a local Mom-and-Pop company in the town where I work. We actually found them at a wedding show when we were planning our honeymoon. We planned three international vacations with them and we only ever paid for the cost of the trip. Now they have “re-branded” and fees are everywhere! Oh here’s another fun fee - “reservation change fee, $50 per person, per change” and yes, that would have been charged had we “lift-and-shifted”! Amen to the advice said all over the site and forum -“Use a GOOD travel agent”!

My interest would be on the higher side if I knew that I could book with their air2sea program. And I know that it is best to fly in the night before but if memory serves me correctly, there’s not too many Holiday Inns in Nassau for a quick 1-night stay - lots of resorts that have a minimum stay. I could be wrong so please please someone correct me if I am! Being from NJ, we have 5 airports to choose from and I’m almost certain we can get to Nassau from any of them.

Yup - $150 per person - $300 total. It was not a fun transaction. And unfortunately, this clause was buried in their fine print terms and conditions. THEN, they had the audacity to try to have us come back to them “for a special rate of only a $100 per person planning fee”. They had never charged us before but I guess now they are. So good riddance to them! Out of respect to that company, I won’t mention who they are. But I will be reaching out to MEI once we can start booking again! I hear they are great :-) thanks all!

Just to piggy-back off this topic... If we cancelled a reservation and (begrudgingly) paid the cancellation fees to my former TA, my relationship with that TA is now done, correct? I have zero obligation to return to them? Or to even talk to them ever again? Once we decide to use our FCC’s, will they get a notification that we did? I am definitely considering MEI but I don’t want to break any honor codes or anything between TAs. Thanks!

My wife and I used a local TA and they were great when we planned our honeymoon a few years ago. And we didn’t have to pay them anything except for the cost of the trip. Now they are charging a “consultation fee” ($100) just to plan the trip and when we had to cancel our cruise in August 2020, we got hit with a $150 per person cancellation fee! It’s looking like it’s time to switch. Throughout this blog, people have been singing the praises of MEI travel so it’s definitely something worth looking into. Besides Royal Caribbean cruises, do they also do other types of travel? My wife an

Yes - I believe many people on this board make it an almost-daily practice to check Cruise Planner prices (including myself!) I'm still new to the cruising game but here's some advice I've picked up - It is almost always less expensive to book ahead on Cruise Planner than on the ship during the cruise. If you don't want to check daily, I would definitely subscribe to update emails from RC and from Royal Caribbean Blog and check the prices when a sale is posted. If you purchase something on Cruise Planner and then find it less expensive at a later date, the "return" to yo