LizzyBee23

We were just on Allure, and the ship itself was great... The cutbacks in service are noticeable (but are fleet wide). It helps if you ground yourself in the reality that we live in a world where everything is more expensive. I will say that AO on Allure did not live up to my expectations (especially in the 3-5 room). The staff there seemed cold, and generally non-communicative.

We stayed at an Airbnb in the Strand that offered cruise parking. With two families and two cars, it was by far the cheapest option for an overnight stay and parking. Would have been walkable for a Carnival cruise, ended up getting a ride to the RCL terminal (though a motivated person with little luggage could also walk).

It was pretty green last week! Needs a few finishing touches, but it's most of the way there.

What an odd place to hide a link like that. Thanks for the tip! (Found this thread searching specifically for Twangster's link... need that stickied somewhere).

Offers went out for our cruise on the 28th, according to FB group (I haven't personally recieved it, though will include the screenshots below). The offer is less generous... 100% refund (or booked on an equivalent sailing, no additional OBC), 50% FCC. Think we're about to see RCL test the waters with how low they can go and still get enough takers. Have a feeling we'll see some IDB's in the terminal next Sunday.

This article notes the language change with the 21 May sailing: https://www.cruisehive.com/another-oversold-royal-caribbean-cruise-whats-different/101524

In the group for the sailing before ours (5/21), which is the sailing after the one in the news story that started this thread... Apparently cancellation offers also went out for the 5/21 cruise. Seems like this may be the norm for Allure over the summer. Wonder if any of the other ships are experiencing this with such frequency.

At least the last few times I've noticed Delta asking at the check-in kiosks if you'd be willing to give up your seat, and to give them a number if so. I keyed in an offer last week for the first time... I was the first flight out, and had all day to get to where I was going, so figured I'd give it a shot. Turns out, they didn't need me, but I was wondering about the efficacy of that approach versus the one over the announcements. Of course, not much in common with asking someone to fully reschedule a vacation with nothing to show for the trouble.

Not sure any such standard exists now for cruise lines... Do they face any financial penalties at all for denying boarding, other than a refund of the fare?

I think these summer sailings will be a test, and especially this one... where the only alternative that really ends up with the buyer being in a better position is to take the shorter Voyager sailing.

I do wonder about that... I think I read at one point it was "random", but would not be surprised to hear that all of their random selections were below the 10th percentile in terms of fare revenue (and betting the financial impact for A2S would enter in here). We're actually booked on Allure at the end of the month, and only need a flight to get my husband back to work on a plane while the kids and I do our grand tour of grandparents for the summer. I suspect ours will be oversold, too (first sailing after most southern schools are out). I think we'd take them up on the offer of a full refund and an alternate sailing, but we're traveling in a group of 4 cabins. We're also very low revenue (booked when the fare was inexplicably low, and hasn't come within 60% of it since then). Wondering if we'd be first on the chopping block because of our low fare, or last because of the group.

Yea... I think the days of claiming it's an IT glitch are long gone. At this point, it's a feature... not a bug.

https://www.cruisehive.com/yet-another-royal-caribbean-ship-oversold-days-before-sailing/100832

This menu is different than one I received on request with a filename MENU ENG 2022 (got the file in Nov 2022). Prices on my menu were way higher (drinks $2-4, food in some places doubled).

Little French Key has quite a bit of drama on FB... Just started looking for excursions next summer.