steverk

The first line of your post said "I'm actually hoping for a change." I'm not sure you really meant that you wanted it to hit someone, but with a storm this powerful and with such favorable conditions, that's the only alternative to staying out at sea and creating rough seas.

Be careful what you wish for. A cat 4 hurricane coming ashore would be deadly to somebody. Unfortunately, rough seas is pretty much certain at this point. Royal will do its best to avoid that, but it is likely to be pretty rough for at least some of the time. If it makes you feel any better, I sail on Jewel leaving Bayonne on Thursday. That is likely to be rough as well.

Being a retiree, I would entertain accepting the offer. I always book through air2sea. I wonder if that would be refunded as wel?

While this storm could cause almost any problem you can imagine, it's likely to stay away from shore or the islands. I'd say, trust Royal to keep you safe and to make the trip as enjoyable as possible. That might mean an itinerary change, but probably not.

I asked about this on board once. The answer I received was to look for the person on Facebook. If you find them, the friend them and message them directly

Yes, very sad. I just read an article that NCL is going to resume sailing into Kahului on Maui. Perhaps that will be an option for Royal as well.

Perhaps there is a light at the end of the tunnel. I'm booked on a Celebrity cruise that stops at PDCC in June 2024. This weekend, Celebrity is having a cruise planner sale. Thrill Water Park Cabanas are under $1000. Still too high for me, but significantly lower than the new normal.

In my experience, you still get the points, but you can only redeem them directly through the airline

Are you diamond or higher? If so, contact the diamond concierge. I got lucky that way once.

I use Allianz with an annual policy. Cost wise it doesn't make sense for me to book on a per trip basis. Mostly I'm looking for medical and med- evac insurance. It covers much more, but I've always felt that you should insure against risks you can't afford to take. If I can't afford to lose the price of a cruise, then I should reconsider taking it.

You can book everything at separate times. No issues at all. As far as hotels, the started offering them about 18 months ago. Whenever I looked into them, they were always more expensive hotels than I normally book, so I never booked them through air2sea. Based on some of the other comments in this thread, I'm not sure if they still offer them or not. With or without a hotel, international or domestic, the air benefits are included and (in my opinion) are real, genuine valuable benefits that come at very low cost.

I'm happy to elaborate. On #1 I don't know exactly how they secure seats but they usually, but not always, do. The key here is don't pay off your cruise early. If you do, they.lock n the ticket. On #2 the phone number is 844 278 9745. They pick up 24x7. They've saved me twice now, but that's been fully covered in other threads on the topic. I always book air2sea.

1. You can book the flight today and owe nothing until final payment. You can also cancel, reprice or change your flight without cost until final payment 2. Air2Sea guarantees your connection. Meaning they will try to get you to the ship even if they have to fly you to the next port. They also assist with delays, missed connections, etc. 3. I don't think so. Booking direct will usually save you $50 or so, but the other benefits are worth that cost.

Assuming you can find a place to drop it, then no reason at all.

I have heard of Liberty avoiding Galveston because of a hurricane. I think it was Ike in 2008, but I'm passing this on second hand. Regardless, they went Florida instead and allowed people to either Disembark there or arrive a few days late in Galveston. I heard this when I took the all access tour on Liberty, so I'm confident it is accurate even though I don't have all of the details. This would be very rare. It would take something like a significant hurricane closing the port.

Voyager docked without issue. There's a strong wind coming from shore, but it still docked without issue. Carnival Valor tried twice and left.

As far as size is concerned, it's a large ship. Keep in mind Carnival is known for having "mega ships." Their fleet has 24 ships last time I checked. 22 of them are much smaller than Freedom. I will agree she's not a new ship, but the Freedom class is still my favorite.

Bring the passport. I've tried using the card on sailings before. It was hit and miss on being able to board. It's not worth the risk.

Well Grandeur and Voyager are now past the storm. The captain of Voyager was right. It really wasn't rough at all.

Let's hope everything turns out OK. Captain of Voyager says he expects moderate seas. That sounds optimistic, but what do I know? Grandeur has a more lively ride than Voyager.

I think Grandeur is going to have a bumpy ride. The low is now a minimal tropical storm. Voyager is planning to go west of the storm, so I guess Grandeur is doing the same. When I look at the maps, there isn't much room.

Voyager of the Seas is scheduled to depart Galveston this afternoon. Go to Costa Maya on Monday (48 hours) Cozumel on Tuesday (72 hours) and back to Galveston on Thursday (120 hours). As you can see, mother nature plans to make it an interesting cruise! Any thoughts on exactly what Voyager will do for an actual itinerary? I’m pretty sure they won’t sail through a tropical storm. Here’s my guess. They’ll cancel Costa Maya as soon as the passengers board. Even if they were to power through the storm, Costa Maya is very exposed. It’s unlikely that it would be possible to dock under the likely weather conditions. Instead, I suspect they’ll go to the Bay of Campeche and hide out on the lee side of the Yucatan Peninsula. Then they’ll evaluate the storm and decide to either got to Cozumel or ask for an exception to the PVSA and head back to Galveston.

I've sailed Liberty many times. She's my favorite. As far balconies, connecting has never been a problem for me. There might be a little more noise, but not a lot. As far as the worst, it was an aft corner. On most ships this is a great cabin. On Liberty, it's small with almost no shade. Lastly, GTY doesn't necessarily mean the worst. It means the one that is available when cabins are assigned. I've sailed in them several times and never had a bad one.

I've been a shareholder for several years now. I bought it for the shareholder benefit. Lately, it has performed very well, although I'm still underwater from where I bought it earlier. I've used the shareholder benefit many times. I've had issues with the on line submission. Sometimes, I'd submit and never see or hear anything again. Since then, I've submitted via email and found it much more reliable. Occasionally, I receive a response that they can't verify my ownership. A follow up email has always resolved this promptly. Send the email to [email protected]. Attach a copy of your brokerage statement to prove ownership. (You can use a marker to redact your account number and any other holdings, then scan it in, if you want to keep that information private.) In the body of the email I use the following text: Please process the shareholder benefit for my upcoming cruise as follows: Guest Name: XXX XXX Ship: XXX of the Seas Sail date: November 26, 2023 Booking number XXXXXXX My brokerage statement is attached. Thanks!

Here's my attempt at a spreadsheet to put numbers to the question. I hope many people find it helpful! refundable v nonrefundable fare optimizer.xlsx