Chadster

Changed from Grandeur on 5/14/20 to Adventure on 6/4/2020. Still going to New England and Canada!

In the immortal words of Ric Flair... WOOOOO!

AHHHHHHHHH! Thanks to quick work by @AnnetteJackson and Kelley at MEI (and of course, Sharla, even though she's off on her getaway!), I was able to leverage MEI's presence on/sponsorship of this board to snag one of the aft balcony cabins that popped up for the June 4 sailing of Adventure of the Seas! I went from booking myself into an interior cabin on Grandeur a little over a month ago to the exciting notion that I'll get to have a great view as a newer ship with more options for dining and activities sails away and along! It wasn't a free upgrade, of course, but when all is said and done, I'll have spent just $400 extra to be on a newer ship and have an aft view and spacious cabin, plus a little to get myself up to Cape Liberty! THANK YOU SOOOOOOOO MUCH, MEI TEAM!!! ? Maybe now, I can breathe and take a break from obsessively watching availability and pricing, all while plotting and planning. I tend to get laser-focused on things, and I certainly have been with my upcoming cruise. What a ride -- but oh, my, what a sailing it'll be at the end!

Okay, this might be a deal-breaker. I'm a solo cruiser and I need both my gently-used Hyundais. ?

How much did she save you? I don't think you mentioned it. ? All I know is, these are clearly very fluid times with inventory, and now is definitely the moment to have a travel agent/advocate on your side!

She's off until Friday on a getaway, and even offered pass a booking request I made today along to someone if I wanted to book before she got back on land. I don't know about anybody else, but to me, that's good customer service. Given the availability of my preferred cabin type on my target cruise as of this moment, I told her I think I can wait til then, but if that changes, I'll let her know.

Just as a note -- I was able to track down the cruise I think you're talking about based on the different prices I got on mock bookings. Here's what it looks like to my non-educated eye: Booking 2 people gives you an option to let Royal pick your room (aka, a GTY). That's $229/person ($622 with tax total). If you pick your own as 2 people, it's $389 each ($778 plus tax). Booking solo, you don't get the GTY option, and therefore pay the "normal" rate.

I'm officially dehydrated from drooling.

Thanks for this heads-up, Annette; I had originally considered doing this, but wondered if that would cause an issue. All the more reason I'm glad I'll be changing dates now!

Thank you both for the insight; doing a day-of, nonstop flight from Washington early enough cuts my cost considerably, according to my amateur travel math. An e-mail has been dispatched to my travel agent, and I shall be switching to Adventure! "Lady G" will still get my love on my Christmas cruise! ?

So, I've taken Royal's recent policy announcement as an opportunity to evaluate my options for my planned trip to New England and Canada. Currently, I'm set to go on Grandeur out of Baltimore on May 14. I'm currently in an interior and considering an upgrade to an OV (basically right across the hall from my current cabin, and the one I'll be in for my Christmas trip to the Bahamas). That upgrade will run me about $230 as of today; I can have a friend drive me to Baltimore, so there aren't any real additional transportation costs involved there. Alternatively, it looks like prices have dropped for a sailing of Adventure with the exact same length (9 days) and intinerary just a couple weeks later out of Cape Liberty. With the refund, I could get a promenade view cabin for about $400 (which includes transportation to/from Newark and a hotel the night before the cruise, just to be safe, even though I could get a flight into Newark early on cruise day no problem). So basically, a $170 difference between the two options. Plus, pushing the date back even a couple of weeks would hopefully calm some people in my life who are a bit freaked out, despite my attempts to reassure them with facts about the current situation. ? For me, this cruise is 90% about the ports, though I do love sea days (I get 3 with each itinerary). I'm not big into things like water slides or FlowRiders or what-have-you. That being said, I really like that Adventure has a few extra dining options -- plus, it has mini-golf. Yes, I know it's a silly activity to get excited about, but it's been a lifelong passion! ? Of course, those figures are all based on the fares found on Royal's web site and not having talked to a travel agent (or Royal) yet. So, there might be extra OBC out there or something to be had. For those who may have sailed on both "Lady G" and Adventure, what are your thoughts?

Chalk mine up to not feeling very creative at the moment I created my account. It's one of the many nicknames my friends and family use for me. Usually on message boards/forums, I try to come up with a name that somehow ties in to the theme of the board -- so I really should've come up with something involving cruising. But, you know, other times, I like pulling out my all-time favorite...and now I wish I had. "Landshark". That sounds like a creature longing for the sea, no? Well, when it's not delivering candygrams.

Just thought I'd share: I just got off the phone with RCCL over a different matter, and I happened to ask the agent about this program; they said to expect the FCC to take 3-4 weeks, and of course, if you booked with a travel agent, you have to undertake the process through your agency. I'm sure that last part goes without saying, but I'd hate for anybody to wait on hold for 45 minutes or more to be told you have to call someone else! ?

Everything I've seen indicates 90 days for cruises longer than 5 days. I'll tell ya -- I'll never again pay in full weeks ahead of the final payment date; the travel agency I booked with before I found this blog and MEI has been a pain ever since they got that money. ?

So, if someone with a non-refundable deposit cancels after final payment, do they get the deposit back as part of the FCC? I know they do if they're outside of final payment, but RCCL didn't seem to address the situation after final payment (like cruises coming up in May, etc.). I know that normally, the deposit wouldn't be refunded under any circumstance inside of 90 days. I'm pondering doing this both to ease other people's minds and to take a new, later cruise that's slightly longer with an expanded itinerary.

That's just a little cheaper than that cruise has been tracking for awhile -- I was keeping an eye on it for a friend of mine in Washington State who thought it might be a cool alternative for her and her girlfriends to a Vegas trip. I almost pulled the trigger on a last-minute (as in Sunday) 7-day sailing on Anthem out of Cape Liberty. Glad I didn't, though -- I apparently have a stomach bug, and none of my hazmat suits are in fun tropical colors. ?

This may be the greatest cruise tip in the history of cruise tips.

I'm looking forward to my cruise with Celebrity next year for many reasons, but the smoke-free casinos is a big plus!

I doubt I'll end up bidding -- partially on advice from Matt in one of his videos that popped up as a result when I was googling "RoyalUp". When dealing with categories like ocean view or ocean view balcony, I think I'd almost rather pay whatever the upgrade price is and be certain where my cabin is. I was looking around at current availability for my May cruise on Grandeur, and with the current pricing, a minimum bid on an ocean-view cabin is basically the same as I'd pay for a straight-up upgrade -- and the bid is considered "weak" by the algorithm. Plus, if I won the bid, I wouldn't have any say over my cabin location -- and with what's available, that's a risk I'm not gonna take. Also, there can be a bit of sticker shock. As a solo cruiser, I had to remember that bids were per person based on double occupancy. So let's just say I definitely won't be bidding on a balcony. ?? Balcony was the highest category I could submit a bid for.

Interestingly, I didn't get an RoyalUp invite, but on a whim, I decided to try the web site -- not to bid, but to see if it worked. I'm 70 days out, and it takes me to the bid screen. On my December 2020 cruise, I get the "only available 30 days prior" message; that one's not paid in full yet.

When looking at the prices, don't forget that some of them might be for new bookings. I thought the price of an ocean-view dropped to less than what I paid for an interior, but it turned out it was a sale price that wasn't valid for existing bookings.

This includes cruises on any RCCL subsidiary as well, correct?

I echo both the endorsement for MEI and for Sharla; she's been both helpful and patient with me as I find my way as a still-wet-behind-the-ears cruiser. I honestly wish I'd found a good travel agent sooner -- I made some costly mistakes...and discovered a cruise that would've been an upgrade for me over my upcoming one in every way. I'm still looking forward to my 9-day trip, but if I knew sooner what I know now because of a travel agent and this blog... ?

Back on Feb. 21, I booked a December cruise to Nassau/CoCoCay on Grandeur, and yesterday, I noticed there were $100 OBC rewards available -- so I grabbed one. Followed the instructions, emailing Club Royale with details of the cruise and my personal info -- verifying my contact info, my citizenship, and my age. This afternoon, I got an email stating that it's been applied to my cruise. Not too shabby for having an extra tab open in Facebook and/or letting my phone do something while it sits next to me while I'm at my desk. ? If I end up deciding on a voyage to "test cruise" one of the larger ships later this year, I'll grab another with my available loyalty points (you can use two rewards in a rolling 180-day period, so I could use another later this year).

If I end up getting the Voom package for my May cruise (I kinda like the idea of disconnecting for a few days!), I'll likely get The Key because prices are running so close -- though being on a smaller ship like Grandeur does limit some of the benefits. ?