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Andy & Sheryl Unwin

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Posts posted by Andy & Sheryl Unwin

  1. On 10/20/2023 at 4:31 PM, WAAAYTOOO said:

    @Zacharius and @cmich068 have it right.  It’s about volume/frequency and $$.  Back when I traveled a lot for work, it made sense and cents to stick with particular brands and the rewards were great.  Now that I have retired and my statuses have all lapsed, I have no incentive to stick with anyone in particular.  Now it’s all about price and convenience.  Whatever works.

    I guess the one piece of advice I will offer is do NOT chase loyalty points for the sake of discounts/perks.  Unless you plan on traveling a lot, the frequency programs are probably not going to help you that much.  

    Totally agreed. Pre-Covid I was on the road something like 40 weeks a year. I had status with American, Delta and Southwest, all of which are now long gone. There is no chance of them returning now.

    I also lost status with both Hilton and Hyatt brands. However, I was fortunate enough to gain "Lifetime Titanium" status with Marriott. So that in itself ensures benefits if I stay at a Marriott brand hotel.

  2. As a former serving member of the Royal Navy, I genuinely rebelled against the whole idea for many years. As a professional sailor I had a jaundiced view of floating "Gin Palaces" one I freely admit was not correct. Finally though, I had to come up with something for one of Sheryls birthdays so I bit the bullet and booked a 5 nighter on Brilliance.

    From the moment my feet touched the deck, I changed my mind. Once more I could feel a ship under me, her motion, her machinery, her vitality. I was hooked. While leaving harbour from Tampa, I loved every moment. From assessing wind speed and direction, currents, potential hazards and more, it all came back. Later, after passing under the Sunshine Skyway and making her way to sea, Brilliance brought back so many lost memories.

    Cruise ships will never bring me quite the same feelings as one of the grey ladies of the sea, after all they have a different intent and purpose. But they are close enough that this old sailor loves them dearly. I can close my eyes and reminisce, which is as close as I will ever get again.

     

  3. An immediate suggestion (although likely no longer needed), is focus on a single static object. This is simple to do and much easier when sat still. When walking, shift from one stationary spot to the next. Try not to look out of windows.

    There are suggestions above about green apples and ginger, both of which work.

  4. We usually have first breakfast of coffee and danish delivered to the cabin at about 0700.  We enjoy it on the balcony then scrub up and change for second breakfast in the MDR.

    about an hour later, will find us in the Windjammer for a small snack and coffee.

    We did this on Freedom in September, so yes the MDR is open for breakfast.  Very good it is too.

     

  5. 44 minutes ago, Styrofoam said:

    I did a 4 night cruise to Cozumel out of Galveston back in November.  It was great.   we spent about 55.00/pp per day for the drinks.  

    We had such a great time that we booked another for ourselves and her parents in Feb'23, same exact sailing...   Now, when we've booked, the drink package is at 101/pp PER NIGHT??!?!?!

    I understand that the drink packages vary per sailing but the price for alcohol has DOUBLED in 6 months?  It feels outrageous.  Are the drinks onboard 26/drink now instead of 13 like before?  Can anyone explain this?  I'm incredibly frustrated by the doubling of the price.

     

    Not the first time I have heard this.  The drinks onboard Allure last month were $13 range so I dont think any have doubled. Personally, I would decline the DBP for that price. Even I cant break even on it

  6. On 4/10/2022 at 8:04 PM, Rackham said:

    https://www.royalcaribbean.com/blog/a-very-royal-recipe-ranger-cookies/

    Here's how to make them. Royal shared the recipe a few years ago.

     

    On 4/13/2022 at 3:45 PM, Andy & Sheryl Unwin said:

    Thank you, I have passed that to Sheryl and hope to enjoy the results

    I am very pleased to report a successful outcome.  There are about 50 ranger cookies in the pantry now.  They are, delicious.

  7. 55 minutes ago, Mike farrone said:

    Just booked a junior suite on anthem. 8 day cruise April 23 to may 1 2023 out of port liberty NJ. Are junior suites worth the extra money. This is my first time in a junior suite?

    Thats a subjective personal assessment. What I will say is Sheryl and I love the JS for a host of reasons. Extra space, bathtub and walk in closet chief among them.

     

  8. 13 minutes ago, YOLO said:

    Sort of like us last week.  We had a free Bahamas/Caribbean cruise (from points on our BOA RCCL VISA card) for Harmony in 2020 that was cancelled.  So we rolled that into a JR Suite - our first Suite in all of our 22 years cruising on RCCL!  Now I am doomed.  Cecile wants all our cruises to be in JR Suites!!!  So last week, while in our JR Suite, we booked the ANTHEM b2b for the 2023 Norwegian Fjords in room 11636 - a JR Suite...

    The closet, extra room and the bathroom really do make a difference dont they?  We do love the JS and although we cant justify the cost every time, we shall endeavour to book one as often as we can.

  9. 13 minutes ago, YOLO said:

    Ceil and I cruised 22 years to get 171 points - all pre Covid and all non-suites.  We averaged about 1.5 cruises per year, but not all Royal.  So we make D+ on our November cruise and sailed for the first time as D+ last week.  Double Points didn't help us at all.  And I don't think they ever will.  Seriously we will never get to Pinnacle...

    I think we have been incredibly fortunate with the Double Points offers. It was an incredibly astute move by Royal to offer it. I wish more had been as fortunate.

  10. 13 minutes ago, Cakemeister said:

    We have three double-point cruises, one in 2021 and two in 2022. All are plain-Jane 7-day cruises out of Galveston. That 21 extra points won't do anything as we are already Diamond and well short of Diamond+, but it's three less cruises I need to take to get to D+. And I'm cheap so that's several K $ for free! I like free!

    7 minutes ago, LovetoCruise87 said:

    Yep...that's a big jump from Diamond to Diamond+

    My own feeling is it will remain that much of a jump too. If Royal were to (say) make the gap 50 points, it would I think be unfair to those who already made it to Diamond+

  11. 8 minutes ago, jay1021 said:

    I/we have 49 points now, mostly earned in suites.  We cruise in 30 days on a 7 day cruise, so that's 14 more points because it's a suite, double those points and that's a total of 77 which puts us into Emerald.  But, we won't benefit from that because we earn it while on a cruise and were in Star Class so it doesn't matter anyway.  Our next cruise after this one in 30 days is in November on an 8 day cruise.  So, 8 points + 77 = 85 points, that puts us into Diamond but because we earned it on that cruise, we don't benefit from it until the next cruise after that.

    Very similar yes. We did our last cruise as Platinum, the next one as Emerald, and the one I havent booked yet as Diamonds.

    In and of itself, its not the most important thing in the world. But we really do want to feel we have achieved something out of the debacle that was the last 2 years.  Besides, its a bit of harmless fun.  I doubt we will make Diamond + till I am well into my dotage though.

  12. 16 minutes ago, jay1021 said:

    Almost exactly the same situation here.  

    For sure Diamond status will come in useful when I book our 25th anniversary cruise. The official date is 12/10/2023, but likely we will celebrate any time between 12/01/23 and 03/31/2024.

    It will be first cruise for example where we dont have the DBP. There will be plenty of other opportunites for booze.

     

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