Jim S

These prices seem too good to be true and I am wondering if that is because the cruises in May 2021 are still doubtful due to COVID-19. I have now booked the Crown Loft Suite for the 7 night May 2021 Mediterranean cruise. Hope it does not get cancelled like my other 7 cruises.

After checking the RCI website today for a 7 night Mediterranean cruise in May 2021 I see that a Crown Loft Suite (LF) is only £150 per person more than a 1 bedroom Grand Suite (GS). This certainly seems worth the extra cost.

Has any of the forum booked a Crown Loft Suite on Oasis Class ships? Do the onboard benefits justify the increase in price over that of a Junior Suite, i.e. £330.00 per person for a 7 night cruise.

I stand corrected. I see from booking.com that there are some hotels not too far from the port. I never noticed any on the three occasions that I have been there. I suppose that I was just not looking for them at the time. However, I still think that it would be better to stay at the airport or in Rome and take a taxi to the port on cruise day.

From what I recall, Civitavecchia is only a port and there are no hotels nearby. Best stay at the airport and take a taxi to the port, but this is quite expensive. I was quoted £100 ($130) for a taxi from the port to the airport at the end of a cruise that was cancelled due to COVID. The cruise line may offer a bus transfer but I think that is also quite expensive.

Yes that is correct, and RCCL come into that category as well if they provide flights along with the cruise holiday. That may well be the reason that RCCL stopped offering flights to reduce their liability.

Yes, it is not a very recent thing. The change took place several months ago. It might have something to do with the Travel Agents wanting to take care of customer travel arrangements to their financial benefit.

Does anyone know why RCCL no longer offer flights (and hotels) when booking a cruise on their website? In the UK, P&O and Cunard (Carnival Group) include flights and also port transfers in the price. I find this very convenient and saves a lot of time and hassle searching for flights and connections to match the cruise itenary. The prices are usually very competitive as well.

We have just booked Harmony for the 31 October 2021 transatlantic cruise as well. Previously we have done similar cruises on Harmony 2016 and Symphony 2018. Loved both of them.

Just been notified by RCI that our November 1st transatlantic cruise on Anthem has been cancelled. Fortunately this happened only a few days before the final balance was due. Will receive my deposit plus 25% in FCC. That’s now 5 cruises cancelled. Hopefully our next B2B cruises Jan/Feb 2021 on P&O Iona will go ahead but we are not overly confident as Iona is still under construction.

Good news for us . We keep our fingers crossed that our Trans Atlantic Anthem sailing from Southampton to New York on November 1st takes place and Bermuda is open for cruise ships on November 10-11.

We are booked on Odyssey for the Transatlantic Ft Lauderdale to Rome cruise in April 2021. Hopefully by that time things will be getting back to normal, well the “new normal” anyway, whatever that might be.

P&O (Carnival Group) operate mainly in Europe out of Southampton and also from Barbados in the Caribbean. They also have a world tour on one of their smaller ships every year. I received an email today confirming the cancellation of our cruise on the newly constructed Iona, which was scheduled for 19-25 September. All P&O cruises cancelled until October 15 at the earliest.

Better to call RCCL Customer Services. I’m sure it helped push my refund along. Had to wait about 30 minutes for an answer but the person I spoke to was very helpful. I told him that I was a loyal customer and was very concerned about the delay and to put a note on my file to that effect. Got the refund about a week later.

So what about the savings on this one???