WAAAYTOOO

The jeweler I always use in St Thomas is Dynasty Dazzlers. They have shops in the port compound (Havensight) and also downtown. I have no idea if they are a Rolex dealer or not but I know they're reputable. If they don't sell Rolex they can recommend someone.

The owner is Raj but I usually deal with his mother, Bimla. Tell her Raye and Dan say "hi".

Expect to pay between 1/3 to 1/2 of what you would pay in the US. I know you know the value so you'll be fine.

You cannot smoke a cigar in the casino (only cigarettes and/or vapes.  No pipes, either).  To my knowledge, since they no longer have a Connoisseur Club on the ships (I don't think the O class ever had these), there is nowhere inside where you can smoke a cigar.  I think you can only smoke a cigar outside on the pool deck. 

I have heard the same....so it will be an interesting chance to contrast.  I just hope it's not horrible, as I will be on there for 21 days !  

LOL

I don't want to hijack this thread or turn it into "look at the great deals on other lines" but I will just say that I booked the Transatlantic "maiden voyage" (I'm sure it's not really the maiden voyage) of the new MSC Seaside out of Venice to Miami (21 days) in one of their Aurea Suites for $177 PP/PD.  I couldn't believe the price !  It is not as all-inclusive as the RCI Star Class but it's almost as good.  Their all-inclusive package does not include all specialty restaurants or internet but it does include all beverages and their top drinks are $8 vs $15 on RCI....plus it includes 3 shore excursions.

So I'm willing to try them out !  They also status matched our RCI D+ so we are [Voyager Club] Black level, which is their top loyalty level even though we have never set foot on an MSC ship before.

What's a K-Love ?

I have done this exactly once.  It was not for a cruise, but for a free weekend in Vegas - which was really awesome, BTW.

The best way to handle this (and any pushy sales person) is to tell them before they even have a chance to open their mouth, "I'm not buying anything".  They will probably just rush through the presentation and let you go on your merry way.

So is this like 7 days from now or a year and 7 days from now ? (2017 or 2018 ?)

Welcome to you, Joe and the rest of the fam.

Happy to have a new inmate in the asylum !!

:P

I will add my 2 cents.  I, too, think that Adventure is a better choice, especially if you have cruisers that will use the water slides and Flow rider.

I love both ships but for someone looking for maximum outdoor entertainment, Adventure is the clear winner, IMO.

The only place where I can say that Jewel would be superior to Adventure is, the aft balconies on the Radiance class are far better, IMO, than the aft balconies on either the Voyager or Freedom class ships.  The structural steel on the aft end of the V and F classes definitely diminishes the aft view where the R class ships have a beautiful, unobstructed aft view.

Generally speaking, yes. Drink packages and Internet are discounted online. You can also get a decent discount for the spa if you book services on embarkation day.

They often have very good pricing on port days, too.  If you are at a port where you don't really care whether you get off or stay on board, go to the spa !

Unfortunately, "last minute" doesn't get you much these days. RCI has (supposedly) done away with any last minute discounts. Whether they are still slipping in some Florida resident discounts that are hidden to the general public, I do not know but it has been my experience that the prices just continue to rise as the sail date gets closer.

I have seen an occasional price drop on some of the foreign origination ports but even those are rare, anymore.

Some of the older and smaller ships will have fairly low pricing on the shortie itins but on a per-days basis they are still not much of a bargain - especially during high season (summer, spring break and holiday cruises).

Unfortunately the best prices are going to be on long lead bookings unless RCI reverses its "no more last minute deals" policy.

...and all documentation....

From what I remember from our Dec NAV cruise, the fridge was empty but there was a "order sheet" to use if you wanted anything stocked in the fridge.

I agree that this is a much better system.  #1, it leaves the fridge available for use if you have something you want to put in there, #2 it avoids unintended/erroneous charges and #3, you only get what you want in your fridge.  I guess you could add #4, the bar service person no longer has to bother you to "check" the fridge unless you do have it stocked, in which case I guess he/she is still going to come by occasionally.

So the mini bar service has not actually STOPPED, it's just been modified.

We don't know how much it's going to cost yet. There is another thread where we're discussing the fact that the Grandeur and a couple of other ships are up for sale. We figured if anyone's going to buy it it might as well be us !

It just MIGHT be a little out of our price range though. We probably won't get the scratch together until after you sail. No worries...

Whaaaat ?

Billy gets a call-ahead on his whiskey ?  Does that actually mean Scotch ??

Here's something new I did NOT know about.  Please provide details...

:blink:  :blink:

:D. I mean on board credit is on board credit right???? lol

I'm not sure exactly what this is referring to....but just remember.  You can and WILL lose your OBC (if it is part of a booking promo) if you reprice a cruise to take advantage of a lower fare and that same OBC is not offered as part of the promo.

So having OBC doesn't mean you will retain OBC in some cases.

I remember that place, I think it was on the Allure.  Didn't Oasis have a seafood place in the same spot?

Yes.  The seafood place on Oasis was bad but Rita's was awful.

I think one other ship put a Rita's on.  I think maybe it was Radiance or one of the Radiance class ships.  I think it was just as bad on that ship as it was on the Allure.  Glad it's gone (from Allure, at least....).

I saw that it's usually reserved for higher tier C&A members, but I just wanted to see if anyone experienced doing that before? Here's what it says on their site.

 

Crown & Anchor Stateroom Upgrade Policy:

Our ships regularly sail at full capacity. Therefore, opportunities to upgrade are offered on a limited basis. If available, upgrades may be offered at the sole discretion of Royal Caribbean to Diamond Plus and Pinnacle Club. To determine which members may be extended an upgrade, we will consider the member’s Cruise Points and tier level, stateroom category paid and booking date. 

This is the answer to a different question than the OP asked.

This kind of upgrade is done well prior to boarding.  If there is going to be a cabin upgrade (we have gotten exactly 1 such upgrade in 30+ cruises), they will usually call you a number of weeks before the cruise although I have heard of people whose upgrade just "appears" without any call.

The original question was can you get a discount once on board.  I believe the answer to that question is - never.

RC knew they couldn't put Taco Bell-esque food up there.

...you mean like Rita's Cantina ?

:P

We are in Richmond.

We're just a little north of you, in Woodbridge.  I find Baltimore to be very convenient but the lack of cruise destinations is tiresome.  I guess we're just going to have to opt for the longer cruises out of Baltimore and be happy with the Vision class ship.  So far, the travel to Florida has been the best option but we may have to reconsider now that Grandeur is doing longer cruises.

...and if we're all going to chip in and buy the Grandeur, we can take it anywhere we wanna go, right ?

@waaaytooo - When I was booking my cruise for the 9-day Northern European coastal through CR for the Oct. sailing, they gave me the casino rate + an additional $300 VIP discount.  I mentioned to them that I will be on the Oasis this March and from my gambling "action" would more than likely get the $1000 value cruise cert which I intend to use for the next one.  CR said that they will only apply $700 (Max discount @ $1000) even the value on the cert is $1000 on an already existing casino rate booking.  I guess they have not changed their policy yet in terms of stacking the savings. 

Well, that is a new twist too !  Even that would be acceptable to me.  My biggest fear is that they will not allow me to add ANY additional "discount" beyond the casino rate.  

In the past, they would not allow me to add a certificate value to any cruise where any Club Royale discount had already been applied (they did not, at the time, anyway, consider the casino rate to be a discount).  So on bookings where I already had some kind of certificate or other casino discount, they would not apply the new certificate.  That was ok with me.  I just moved to the next one and applied the certificates (there were 2 of them.  One for me and one for Dan) and even though that booking had been discounted with the Casino rate, they still applied both of the certificates.

Things have been in flux with this program for longer than I can remember and it seems like the rules are different every time I call !  As long as they allow me to continue to receive a highly discounted casino rate, waive the 5% convenience fee, serve me free drinks in the casino and allow me to use the certificates that I earn, I will be happy !  So far, it's ok but I have been reading that others haven't been so lucky.  Maybe it's the fact that we are both "old VIP" program members.  Some of the things I have read suggest that they are allowing the old VIP members more latitude than the new Club Royale members.  I really just never know what the answer is going to be every time I call them for something.

I've never heard of anyone getting an upgrade once onboard whether it's a paid or a free upgrade.  I don't think they do that.

Up until very recently, the cruiser certs have been very useful to us.  We have been able to apply every one we have received to a existing cruises - even cruises that had already been discounted at a casino rate.

HOWEVER, I have been reading on CC that very recently Club Royale has begun to disallow applying cruise certs to both existing bookings and in conjunction with casino rates....so if that is true, the certs will be basically useless to me as the casino rate is always more valuable than the cert value, and I always book my cruises way in advance.

I guess I will find out fairly shortly as we each received a cert on our recent NAV cruise.  I have absolutely no interest in booking anything that they are offering for "free" so I will try and apply these to one of our already-booked casino rate bookings.  If what I've been reading is accurate, they will not allow me to do that.  I guess I will just have to try and see what happens !

Welcome to you both !

Room service is complimentary unless it's in the middle of the night (can't remember the restricted hours but hardly anyone should be ordering room service during those hours !).  I think the delivery charge for room service during those restricted hours is $3.95 or something close to that.