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RockerDom31

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Everything posted by RockerDom31

  1. I have seen these sporadically. I think it’s a neat idea but I found that most people don’t use the phone feature. I do, however, think there should be a Freestyle drink menu posted somewhere so people know exactly what to tell the crew member by the time they get there. Maybe somebody who has been on a cruise recently can chime in but I imagine a lot of indecisive folks driving the crew members crazy. I know I get a little impatient when I’m at Wawa and somebody is literally scrolling through the entire menu of drinks and only to choose something like plain coke. Speaking of which…it wasn’t until Day 2 or 3 that I realized that the Freestyle machine wasn’t the only way to get soda on board with the deluxe drink package. I didn’t know that they had cans of soda in Windjammer and traditional sodas like coke, Diet Coke, and sprite at the bars - silly me.
  2. I haven’t done either cruising or staying in a resort since the pandemic started but I’ve done extensive research deciding on which direction to go for our next vacation. I think the scales are slightly tipped to the cruise ship side as far as the safer route. For resorts, I saw mostly procedural improvements (e.g. intense cleaning and encouraging social distancing). For cruise ships (specifically RCCL), I noticed procedural AND facilities improvement with revamping medical facilities and hvac air circulation. I would feel a lot safer on a cruise ship than in a grocery store, retail store, or even my own workplace. Ultimately, cruise ships and resorts have the same 2 primary goals: *to make money *to keep everyone safe (which is basically synonymous with avoiding bad publicity) and they’re going to do whatever it takes to accomplish this.
  3. I have used those prepaid cards to buy an Amazon Gift Card (yes you can do this!) and use the Amazon credit with whatever I may need. With Amazon credit, you can use partial amounts. A few cruise-related items: https://www.amazon.com/SAFEGO-Portable-Travel-Lockbox-Combination/dp/B07DJZ95FS https://www.amazon.com/Magnetic-Powerful-Neodymium-Corrosion-Protection/dp/B075J9WNSY Lanyards Vaccine card holder (if applicable) USB power hub (I like Ankers)
  4. I watched bits and pieces of this episode and it made me wonder what exactly would she have wanted to happen? To let her just go back on the ship and pretend that she didn’t test positive? I think Royal Caribbean did the responsible thing. Maybe it did get a little fumbled along the way (if what the person reported was indeed true) but at the end of day, this person did test positive and RC had no other choice but to discharge her from the ship (and as far as I can tell from the video, the crew did so with politeness and respect). Call me crazy but if I tested positive for Covid, my first thought would be of the health and safety of me, my family, and my friends and not “Royal Caribbean is out to get me!! Let me turn on Facebook live”
  5. Also, make sure the dates are the same when you are comparing too. I have fallen in that trap before!
  6. I would make sure that you are comparing apples-to-apples. Is prepaid gratuities, travel insurance, refundable deposit factored in? Is it a guarantee rate or choose your room? I am almost positive that MEI uses the same rates as what is published on RC’s website. So if everything is indeed exactly the same terms, I am positive that MEI will use the rate that’s online at the moment of booking. Let’s put it this way - MEI wouldn’t intentionally charge you more and even if they did, you can get it re-priced anyway. Many people on this forum have successfully re-priced their cruise fare.
  7. I hope not to stir up any trouble here but… I will NEVER take the daily gratuity charge off. The employees (both in front of and behind the scenes) deserve every penny of that and more!
  8. Thanks for that info! I was wondering how a Covid-positive patient can board an aircraft. I was assuming it wasn’t commercial.
  9. So it was only a matter of time before this happened and the handling of this situation is miles different than in 2020. I hope the two boys recover quickly and that they and their families are healthy. Now I do have a cruise-related question here…do we know if this family will incur any additional costs? Or does Royal pick up the cost of treatment and travel back home? If they do, is this procedure Royal-specific? Or is it laid out in that CDC document?
  10. Just keep in mind too…it’s not just about having a Travel Agent. It’s about having a GOOD Travel Agent. A GOOD TA will work with you in good times and bad. Also, you mentioned you booked “recently”. I believe you have 60 days from booking to transfer to a TA.
  11. Just passing along a story about NextCruise to help with your decision. In August 2019, my wife and I booked an August 2020 cruise at the NextCruise desk. We paid the reduced deposit (non-refundable) of $100 pp and got $100 OBC. Thinking we were doing the right thing, we paid off the cruise before final payment date. Cruise was cancelled and we opted for the full cash refund. However, $250 pp was given back as FCC. We were expecting $100 pp since that was deposit. Apparently, according to our travel agent, if we didn’t make any payments, we would have gotten $100 pp deposit as FCC back. But since we paid for the cruise in full, the deposit refund issued was upped to $250. Therefore, we didn’t necessarily get “all” of our cash back. In the grand scheme of things, this wasn’t a big deal since we used the $500 to put a deposit on our August 2022 cruise. I’m sure somewhere along the way we signed something that laid out the refund policy for NextCruise. Just a heads up!
  12. 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.
  13. Ah I was two seconds too late with my post! But yes, this was what I getting at.
  14. 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.
  15. 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.
  16. Also…if you prepay gratuities, it locks in that daily charge rate.
  17. 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!
  18. 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!
  19. 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? Did it charge your card and then apply the FCC? Or will it apply the FCC first and then not charge your card? Btw, my plan was to book the cruise and then immediately transfer to MEI. However, I just filled out the yellow MEI quote box on the home page. Maybe I should just wait for a response and work through it with an MEI agent? Thanks!
  20. 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 until you actually book and see the prices in the cruise planner. You can make guesstimates, but prices for these things vary ship-to-ship, sailing-to-sailing. I'll happily concede my points if these are no longer the case. My wife and I watch every single penny that goes into and out of our lives so we like being able to get the "big picture" cost.
  21. 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”! ?
  22. 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.
  23. 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!
  24. 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!
  25. 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 and I also would like to do a Sandals vacation (for the parts of the Caribbean that RC doesn’t go to from NJ!) Thanks! -Dom
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