WAAAYTOOO

The experience that I have had is....if you rebook (which is essentially what you are doing) AFTER the drop dead final payment date, they will charge you a cancellation penalty equal to whatever it is....depends on how far past the final payment date it is....AND then they rebook you at whatever the current price is (in your case you say that the price for the promenade view is less than the old inside price) so if you are getting by without paying the penalty for basically cancelling your cruise (and rebooking) then I think you are probably lucky. I agree with the others though...you should be getting whatever current incentives they are offering on that booking. Perhaps they are saying that the tradeoff is that they are not charging you the penalty for cancellation after the final payment date. That's the only thing that makes sense. Basically, when you reprice a cruise (whether it is the result of a price reduction or the result of an upgrade/change of cabin category), you are, for all practical purposes, rebooking the cruise in its entirety. Sometimes the loss of whatever incentives and/or price difference is not worth whatever perceived price reduction you might believe there to be. Trust me, the cruise lines do NOT like to give money back and they almost never do. Good luck ! I hope you are able to get the upgraded cabin and any current incentives...which seems like the fair thing to me.

Steph, thank you so much for the head's up on this ! I was able to book the BIG 8330 A1 on 11 Feb ! I haven't had it repriced yet at the CR rate but I went ahead and booked it online so that I wouldn't lose it. Later today I will have it repriced at the CR rate. What a WONDERFUL surprise to find these big AquaSuites available online ! They usually hide them and do not allow just 2 people to book these 2 BR suites. I am now going to cancel my May 2017 Harmony cruise, which I probably couldn't have taken anyway...I only booked it b/c it was the big A1 but I would certainly rather cruise out of FLL than fly to London !! Good recon on this ! Thanks again ! I will let you know how it prices out in the end.

Steph I didn't even see any 2017 Harmony itineraries. I will call CR tomorrow. Where does this cruise go ?

Steph, I am sooo happy for you. I got a similar deal on the Harmony in May. For some reason they had the big suites in general inventory instead of having them blocked off. You got a better deal than I did though...the Club Royale deal on my cruise (May 29 2016 London to Barcelona)was not the normal 50% that they usually offer and the BOGOHO was a better deal than the CR deal. I ended up paying $8681.56 (for 2 of us). Maybe I will try again and see if they are offering a better CR rate than they originally quoted me.

I will admit...it's hard to go back to a "regular" cabin once you've experienced the suite life. In fact, I have NOT gone back to a regular room since. I have 6 cruises booked (not sure I can actually take them all) at the moment and all are Grand Suites or above. I was even lucky enough to snag an A1 (deck 8) Aqua Theater suite on the Harmony in May. You normally have to have at least 4 people to book that suite but for some reason it was available online so I snatched it up. That should be VERY suite ! I fully recognize that I have fallen directly into corporate RCIs branding trap. I concede.

The Royal Suite is #1 Presidential can be bigger but not better

Montoc, I would not hold my breath for an "upgrade". I have heard of a handful of people who have gotten upgrades - mostly D+ and Pinnacles - but they are very elusive and almost never (none that I am aware of) on any kind of routine basis. In my opinion, it's laughable that they even advertise upgrades. It has happened for me exactly once. We were on the Oasis in Jan of this year and had booked a Boardwalk balcony. A couple of days before the cruise RCI called and said they had a D1 oceanview balcony and asked if we wanted to upgrade. Since it was our first cruise as D+ we figured we were now "in" and would be offered these kinds of upgrades routinely. Nah....hasn't happened. In fairness, I think that the RCI ships are going out close to full most of the time and upgrades are just not there. On the other hand, I have been on a few ships, from time-to-time (primarily TA or repositioning ones) where there are many rooms unbooked. You rarely find out about this situation...but on the Explorer repositioning cruise out of Bayonne in May we had an unfortunate encounter with a Nor'easter which resulted in a broken glass window, flooded decks, flooded elevators on the port side (midships) and 2 disabled lifeboats as a result. The ONLY reason we weren't made to return to port and disembark was b/c there were enough empty rooms that those 2 lifeboats were not needed to meet capacity. Otherwise, we would never have known that there were that many empty rooms on that sailing. In that particular case we were already in the #2 suite on the boat (Presidential Family Suite) so there wasn't much to upgrade for us....but I honestly did not hear of anyone else getting a complimentary upgrade on that sailing....but it certainly could have happened. I just think they are extremely rare. The same thing is true for the military discount. I don't know why RCI is the only major cruise line that basically does NOT routinely offer military discounts. They offer them very rarely and do not advertise it well at all...you have to just stumble up on them. I think I booked 1 time and was offered a military discount...in the end my Club Royale discount was far better than the military or C&A discount so we didn't use it but you almost never see them. It's a shame, really. Why advertise that you offer military/police/first responder discounts and them make them nearly impossible to use ? BAD PR as far as I am concerned.

I agree with Montoc. There are some ports that have their embark act together better than others but for the most part, RCI has gotten the whole embark thing down to be very efficient. Why mess with it ? It sounds like there were sooo many problems with this process on the Quantum. Of course, I realize that it was new and with all new things there will be glitches....but it sounds like they made a relatively simple process unnecessarily complicated. I also agree about the photo. Really ? I'm not going to be providing photos for myself or anyone else in my party ahead of time. That's an unnecessary burden...particularly considering that they didn't even have the photos that people sent when they got ready to embark on the Q. Not gonna happen. ...and the embark order... I can't imagine that they aren't going to have special boarding priority for C&A passengers or suites passengers no matter WHEN they arrive. If they mess with that they are REALLY going to piss off their money-makers. As Matt suggested, they can provide arrival/embark times in hopes that some will adhere to them and hopefully space the embark process out a little to avoid crowds but I don't see them truly enforcing it.

Back before we became D+ my husband and I took the All Access Tour (as D+ we now get some selected ship tours but trust me, they are nothing like the All Access Tour). I cannot remember how much we paid but it was pricey. It was a very good tour and I felt it was worth the money but I can understand some thinking it is too much. We got 2 chef's aprons and 2 nice totes as gifts. I use those aprons CONSTANTLY. We were on the Radiance of the Seas. I will tell you one thing...they took us ALL OVER that ship. We even got a tour of the Captain's quarters which isn't part of the tour (more about that below). We went on a very extensive tour of the galley (it's a miracle how they feed all of those people at all hours of every day !!!), the theater, the crew area, including their dining room and "recreation" area, the bridge, the forward area of the ship where they stow and deploy the anchors, the laundry, the garbage and recycling area and the engine control room. The only place they did NOT let us physically enter was the actual engine room...but we did get to look in through a port hole. How did we get into the Captain's quarters ? Prior to our cruise, the Radiance had been on a New England cruise out of Boston. Coming out of Boston harbor the ship ran smack dab into a Nor'easter (the same thing happened to us on the Explorer last year coming out of Bayonne on her repositioning cruise). The Radiance encountered a very large wave that broke over the 5th deck and the Captain had mentioned (during the Captain's corner talk) that he had photos of that wave. Since the All Access Tour consisted of exactly 2 people (my husband and me !...obviously the only 2 too stupid to pay that kind of money for a ship's tour !) the Captain took us to his quarters to show us that photo. The Captain has some NICE digs...but surprisingly, no balcony...at least on the Radiance. They told us that it is tradition that the Captain must enter the bridge from the starboard bridge entrance and the Chief Engineer must enter using the Port side entrance. It is bad luck if they enter the bridge from the other's side. Who knows how THAT got started. Therefore, the Captain's Quarters are always on the Starboard side of the Ship and those of the Chief Engineer are always on the Port side. Maritime traditions and superstitions are very interesting.... I will always remember that tour. I learned SO much about how the ship works and how they do so much with so little space (the laundry was amazing !). I know it was expensive but I think it was worth it.

Welcome ! I'm envious that you are cruising so soon...have a wonderful time !

RCI has never comped me a room....but like you, I have been comped a room by NCL after just ONE cruise ! The level of play is going to be an even bigger issue once they implement the new program, I think. The worst part of the new program will be the requirement to requalify periodically, which right now you do NOT have to do. I will take the comps while I can get them. As with all things recently, I fear the cost is going up and the benefits are going down.

The casino rate is certainly more lucrative for us than the C&A benefits...at least for now. Currently the casino rate is 50% discount off the FULL price (not the 25% BOGOHO price) which actually calculates to about 43% off. I'm not sure how they calculate it....but even with my D+ discount I can't come close to that with C&A bennies. Of course, as with all things RCI they are redoing the casino VIP program so I'm not sure how much longer I will continue to get that awesome rate. It also varies by ship. I did not get the casino rate for my sailings on the Harmony next year....so you never know until you call to see what your rate will be.

On the topic of chasing points, I will say that RCI was extremely generous to me when I was approaching Diamond status. I guess I WAS chasing points. I had booked all of the cruises that would give me Diamond status when they announced that they were moving from a per-cruise to a per-night basis and at the same time, adding new levels. Needless to say, I was NOT happy when I found out that they had moved the goal post on me...but I called the Loyalty desk and explained that I had already booked all of the cruises to attain Diamond status and they "grandfathered" me and allowed me to move to Diamond level when I completed that last cruise. Points-wise, I was still short but segment-wise, under the "old" system, I had made it...and they honored their promise and made us Diamond anyway. It was maybe the one and only time that I felt like they really valued my loyalty. Since then....not so much.

Too bad you can't count casino charges. My account is usually in the $20K range by the end of a cruise ! ...but I spend almost nothing else onboard so I doubt I will be a beneficiary here. This will probably end up being a hybrid program like all of the airlines are going to now....a combination of segments and dollars. If they went TOTALLY to dollars then the suites customers (those who spend big $$ up front) will come out ahead (AGAIN!) and if they stick with cruise nights (segments) then it will not change from what they have now. I fail to see how this is going to reward loyals, particularly. It will give the same benefits to those who cruise once as to those who are loyal cruisers.

This is the first I've heard of this but I guess it doesn't surprise me. It hasn't been that long ago that they changed the points from # of cruises to # of nights. Everything seems to be changing. I have been hearing for a long time that they were going to be re-assessing the tier levels AGAIN. It seems like every step I take towards the highest tier (which USED to be Diamond until they added D+ and Pinnacle) they keep moving the target on me. To be honest, I'm not sure it's worth it anymore. It seems like the perks are slipping away. I suspect that if they change this to a dollar basis that they will push everything up even further and probably reduce benefits again. It seems hardly worth all the effort.

Montocguy, I would definitely recommend you just do the longer cruise...especially with airfare being the big cost for you (I have the same problem !) It sounds like your goal is to reach Diamond. If that is really the goal, and you are rather ambiguous about the means of getting there, I think the single, longer cruise is the way to go. Not only are the longer cruise more FUN, but the TAs (or repositionings) are very affordable on a per-day basis.

Jerel, I could not agree with you more about Cruise Critic. I have sworn NEVER go to back to that site. The people on that site are so snarky and rude. I absolutely hate it and I will never use it again. In contrast, the readers and users on this site are very courteous and positive. It makes a huge difference. Do we agree on everything that RCI does ? Heck NO but we aren't rude to one another even if sometimes "vent". I like it...and I hope it stays this way !

As many of the posts I've read today suggest, I don't believe RCI is really all that interested in loyalty for the average cruiser so much. It's all about the suites cruisers - getting and keeping them. They have far too many "low level" loyalty cruisers who are going to do nothing but cost them money for perks, in the long run. I really don't they care about anything else right now.

It's already even worse than that on the Oasis and I assume, the Allure as well. When we cruised on the O in Jan it was our first cruise as D+. We were so excited to finally get to go to the Concierge lounge only to find that there WAS no longer a Concierge lounge...just a Diamond Lounge and a Suites lounge. The Suites lounge only allows gold card holders - Grand Suite and above and Pinnacles. So on the a Oasis class even the D+ have been downgraded. This decision (by RCI) is what has forced us to suites only, which is, I assume, their plan. It worked for us. NOW with the new a Suites tiers I fear that some of the Suites perks for GS are going to vaporized too. I just can't seem to catch a break. As one writer said earlier, if I did not have SO much time and money already invested with RCI, I would jump ship - pun intended.

I don't know if it includes specialty dining or not...but that would be awesome ! I think the new suites packages will include specialties but not sure if it currently does.

Congratulations, Marc !! You got a real bargain. All of this may change when the new suites program kicks in but for now.... 1. You will have a gold card. WAHOO !! 2. Luggage tags - YAH !!! 3. You will be contacted directly (email) by a Concierge (maybe 5 days prior to sailing ?) who will introduce him/herself to you and tell you that they are there to assist you with whatever you need (dinner reservations, etc.). If you are visiting either CocoCay or Labadee, he will offer to reserve your Cabana and give you the choice of which one you want. If you choose to rent a Cabana, the cost associated with this will be added to your SEAPASS account...you will NOT be required to prepay like you do for all of the other reservations made before embarkation. That may also be true for specialty dining, beverage packages or anything else that you pre-purchase at that time, but I do not know that for sure. I do know that the Cabana was added to my Seapass account. 4. You will be able to go into the Concierge Club any time of day or night. That doesn't have a lot of value for most of the time, but there will be continental breakfast in the morning (not really a breakfast at all...far better eating somewhere else) and in the evenings there are pupus and cocktails. Far better experience in the evenings than in the mornings. 5. If you go to any tender ports, you will be able to go up to the concierge lounge and have the Concierge personally escort you down to the tender. The Concierge has a card that bypasses all floors (the elevator goes nonstop from the Concierge deck to the embark deck). You will "cut" in line and immediately board a tender. Note that this escorted process only works on outgoing. You will have to fight for a ride back to the boat along with everyone else ! 6. On the Oasis, on port days we were able to eat breakfast in Chops from a full service menu. Since Chops was open for lunch on sea days, they did not provide this service on sea days. 7. You will be able to order room service from the full dining room menu (not just the limited room service menu). This is a huge perk. You can have your lobster dinner delivered to your room and eat on your balcony while sailing away from your port of call. VERY nice 8. You will have a reserved section in the main theater, ice show and pool deck. If you are D+ you already enjoy this perk. 9. The Concierge lounge will have a library of DVDs that they will let you check out. There will be a DVD player in your suite. 10. They will press your formal wear on the first formal night. 11. There are a number of invitations you will receive such as an event with the senior officers and a couple of tours that you can take - tour of the bridge, tour of the entertainment venues and tour of the galley. Obviously, these perks probably vary from ship to ship but I think they are pretty standard.

Yes, you guessed right. As a rule, the TA cruises have an older and more senior (LOOOOOTS of Diamond Plus and Pinnacle members) cruisers. They (retired)are the only ones (as a rule) who can take this much time off. I believe the TA I was on there were exactly 6 children on the entire cruise. If you want a cruise free of children this is the one for you ! Personally, I prefer sea days to port days so this kind of cruise is ideal for me. I spend most of my time in the casino so I don't care about changes of scenery...but I suspect that those who long for activities and ports, on a cruise, may well find 6 or 7 consecutive days at sea to be boring. This is also a cruise where you can get an inside cabin and not have to worry about missing a lot of interesting scenery. There isn't any. Water is water....and there's LOTS of water on a TA. If you're looking for a cruise to save money, accumulate cruise points, be free of children and have LOTS of days at sea, this is definitely the right option. I can't wait for the October TA on the Harmony. WOOHOO !!

From what I understand, use of the Thermal Spas will be one of the perks for the new suites program (sans JR suites). That's going to be a nice amenity.

The new terminal at Canaveral is very nice. There are some nice restaurants near the terminal and it is a very easy in and out. The only complaint I have about that new terminal is that the new traffic area where the busses drop off is so narrow that the busses stick out into the traffic lane and cause congestion. I don't know why they didn't make that lane just a little bit wider so that the busses do not stick out into the driving lane. It isn't a big problem it just seems like a design flaw that could have been easily avoided.

If yours is a standard 7 night cruise, most likely the formal nights will be nights 2 and 6. That is the usual config.