WAAAYTOOO

Here is what I recommend. Book all of the cruises that it will take to push you into D+. That way, if they DO change the rules on you (and I have heard these same rumors) then you can make the case that you had already booked all of the cruises you needed to make D+. I did this when I was about to make Diamond the last time they changed the rules, and they grandfathered me in as Diamond with no problem at all once I passed the original threshold. They were actually very gracious about it. I was surprised.

I think the trip from Houston to Galveston is significantly longer than the one from Orlando to Port Canaveral. I've only sailed out of Galveston once but I seem to recall that the trip was lengthy. ...and as you have already mentioned, there is WAY more to do in Florida than in south Texas. All other things being equal, I would probably pick the Freedom. I'm not sure Saturday Night Fever makes up for all the other cons.

LOL. I have to laugh. If they REALLY scanned to check on cancel-rebooks then that is all they would do ! ...and what would they do if they found one ? Do you really think they would cancel your cruise or take away your OBC ? Of course not ! That's a stupid thing to even say to a customer. There is a fatal flaw in the whole "available only to new booking" promotion and that is that unless you are past your final payment date you can ALWAYS choose to reprice your cruise (which is, essentially, cancel and rebook). As many have noted, it rarely pays to do that, especially if you booked your cruise way in advance and the base price of the cruise has gone up (as they almost always DO when RCI gets ready to roll out some new promo)...but that is what is called "the cost of doing business" and RCI shouldn't ever complain about people rebooking an existing cruise to take advantage of a promotion.

...which makes you wonder why they are keeping her....

It's been a few years ago but we took the ferry from Cozumel over to Playa del Carmen and I don't remember it being particularly rough. I will say though, that neither my husband nor I have any problem with seasickness so it might have been rough and we just don't remember it. I absolutely love Playa del Carmen. I think it's adorable. I have never spent any real time there but I just like the looks of it.

Why is it that I will go to check on availability of a cruise one day it will show the cruise as "sold out" and then I will go back later and there will be LOTS of rooms available - ANYthing but sold out ? That happened to me very recently. I was looking to see what was left unsold on my Christmas cruise on the Grandeur and it showed SOLD OUT in every stateroom category. Of course, that left me with the impression that the ship was, in fact, sold out. I went back and checked (as I do EVERY day) and suddenly there are rooms in EVERY category showing available. I'll bet there are over 100 cabins available on that cruise right now but last week it was showing SOLD OUT ! I find this completely confusing. So when is a cruise truly "Sold Out" ? Do travel agencies "reserve" a bunch of rooms and then release them back to the cruise line if they can't sell them ? ...and why would a TA do that when they cannot discount the cruise anyway ??

Welcome ! We are a very friendly group here. Even those of us who are experienced cruisers learn a lot. Not a lot of the negativity or rudeness that you find on some of the other sites (cruisecritic, for one !).

Actually, now that I look at them, ALL of the Oasis class ships' deck plans have changed...they ALL say "Main Dining Room" now...so I guess they are ignoring the fact that they butchered the MDR on the Oasis and Allure and renamed each of those 3 restaurants. Interesting....

I noticed on the new deck plans for the Harmony that the 3 MDR levels are just labeled "Main Dining Room". Does that have any special significance ? Are they going to leave the MDR "open" like the old Oasis and Allure used to be ?

Ok...well I guess this has all changed then. What a shame. Those open balconies on adjoining cabins makes such a nice big space. Too bad. ...and of course, you're right. What Ship's captain in his right mind would violate company policy on a [presumed] safety issue ! Enjoy your cruise and thanks for letting us know about this change. Sounds like Matt may need to do an updated post. :)

On sea days, the casino opens at 10 AM for slots and the table games generally open at 1:00. The casino is not open 24/7 but generally closes around 3AM if there is business to support that. Otherwise, they may close earlier. The Oasis and Allure have 2 Texas Hold 'Em table games - one in the smoking section and one in the non-smoking section but oftentimes the one in the non-smoking section remains closed until the evening hours (usually 8:00 PM) (in fact, the non-smoking section is generally closed in its entirety until nighttime and it will close first, when the crowd starts to thin out, while the smoking section remains open until late). The Oasis and Allure used to have 3 electronic poker tables that were in their own section but when I was on the Oasis in Jan. (after the most recent renovation) they had removed one of the tables (leaving 2 remaining) and had removed the tables from their special space and turned the "poker room" into a high roller area which is NEVER used. So the answer to your question is yes, they have poker cash games but they are on the electronic tables. Most of the cruise lines and even most of the RCI ships have removed their electronic poker tables but they remain on the Oasis (and I assume, the Allure as well) for some reason. I guess the good news is that the electronic poker tables can remain "open" even if the casino closes since there is no dealer. Of course, the electronic table still takes a 10% rake (up to $15) even though there is no dealer to pay !

Well, that's a shame if it's true. Why in the world would they refuse to open partitions that are designed to be opened. Will be interested to find out what happens.

I'm not sure if the ability to open the balcony partitions is particular to specific ship classes or not, but I know for sure that at a minimum, SOME balcony partitions can be opened. I've seen plentry of photos of adjoining balconies with open partitions. I am surprised and disappointed to hear that you got an apathetic (at best) customer service representative on the line. It's that kind of "help" that causes so much angst with new cruisers or those not familiar with RCI's normally very helpful service. I hope you are able to get staterooms that meet your specific needs. If you don't get satisfaction by calling directly to RCI I recommend you get Michelle at MEI to help you. She is so great with groups.

Yeah, and we could be wrong, too ! :)

Not so sure I want apps on my TV. Guess I will check it out. Probably not though. Thanks, Matt !

I've generally had good luck with the OBC resulting from the specialty dining discount...it's the OBC from our RCI Visa points redemption that has been hit-or-miss with us. On one cruise in particular we had been expecting $250 OBC from the credit card and it never did appear on our SeaPass account. Normally they say to check your account on Day 2 for your OBC, which we did...but it wasn't there. Having learned a lesson about this on previous cruises we had brought the email from the Redemption Center validating the redemption and they still didn't take care of it until we finally just blew up at Guest Services one afternoon. He finally looked at our SeaPass balance, saw that it was quite high and said, "...looks like you are having a good time..." and just gave us the $250 credit to our account. I don't think there was ever any official validation of the redemption at all....he just did it. I learned 2 things from that exchange. #1, they DO have the power to "take care of it" if they want to and #2, document EVERYthing. As noted above, once you get off the ship it is TOO late to settle any kind of OBC dispute.

That's a great question, Melinda ! I don't really know the answer but I suspect that each cabin that fulfills the requirements for the discount would receive the OBC as opposed to 1 cabin getting it all.

What a great tip ! I didn't realize that you could test silver with a magnet. So...if it isn't pure silver then it will "stick", right ?

I am such a tech dolt. I don't even know what Roku is or what it does. Does it work with TIVO ?

I don't. :( :(

Honestly I have never heard of them refunding ANY remaining OBC. We were on one of our very first cruises years ago and made it a SPECIAL point of charging NOTHING - not one single charge the entire cruise. We were so proud of ourselves. Then when we were leaving we went by Guest Services to make SURE nothing had been charged only to find out that we had $50 OBC that we lost b/c we had not charged anything to our SeaPass account. Needless to say that was the last time we worried about charging to our account. We NEVER have any problem not using all of our OBC...not since that first time when we lost it all !

I tried to record it last night but I don't get AWE :(

Lol...good point. Guess the credit card co. needs to know you're going out of the country.

Very interesting. I had no idea how they worked the authorization thing. I guess it makes sense that they can't wait until the very end to find out if you can afford everything that you've charged ! I periodically hear peoples' names being called over the loud speaker to check with Guest Services. I have always imagined that these were people who were having "authorization problems" but I'm sure there are other reasons why these names are called. I'm just glad it's never been me !

The last time we cruised out of Port Canaveral and went down a day early, we rented a car for the day and drove one way - then took the Royal Caribbean shuttle back to the airport at the end of the cruise. It was not prohibitively expensive to do a one-way car rental. We picked up the car from Hertz at the Orlando airport. Because we wanted to visit the Cape for the day, we stayed in Cocoa Beach. If you book at the Residence Inn, Cape Canaveral, Cocoa Beach (321-323-1100) the car rental office and the hotel are connected by a parking lot, so dropping off the car when you are done is VERY easy. It's no more than 100 steps from the Hertz office to the hotel. VERY convenient and you can keep the car as long as you want on Saturday. The car rental place closes (4:00, I think) but they have a drop box where you just leave the keys. They have no idea what time you drop it off. We arrived in Orlando (9:16 AM), rented the car, toured the Cape, ate dinner and dropped the car at the Hertz lot around 8:00 PM, then walked over to the hotel and had a very restful night's sleep before getting up the next morning and going to the ship. The Residence Inn is very convenient to the port and they shuttled us over to the ship on Sunday morning. The new pier at Port Canaveral is very nice - lots of nice restaurants right there. It was all very, very convenient. Unfortunately I don't have the receipts for the car rental but I recall that it was very reasonable to pick up the car at the airport and drop it off at the Cape. The Residence Inn cost $217.43 including taxes and everything, which isn't bad for a single night at the Cape on a Saturday night (that's the most expensive single night to stay in a hotel, in nearly all cases). So it really depends on what you want to do in central Florida. If you aren't going to one of the amusement parks, I recommend going on to the coast the day before and spending the night nearer the port. Obviously if you are going to do something closer to Orlando you would probably want to stay in Orlando for the night and go to the port the next day...but I am such a worry wart...I always want to get to where I am going as quickly as possible to avoid last minute commuting delays...but that's just me. I would highly recommend the Hertz-Residence Inn connection though. It worked out very well and the hotel got us to the ship so there was nothing to worry about once you dropped the car off.