Reigert2008
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Posts posted by Reigert2008
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It’s also important to note that not all the ships have a Freestyle machine. It seems odd that every ship doesn’t have at least one in the Windjammer. I recently learned this, and I’v3 cruised many times on several different ships.
https://www.royalcaribbean.com/faq/questions/what-are-coca-cola-freestyle-machines
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It’s best for each adult to have their own account and the name on the account must match the name on the ID.. when you do the testing they want to make sure that the account logged in is owned by the person taking the test.
it could be different for children,but I do not have that information
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For the foreseeable future, I’d recommend that you always have a mask. While municipalities may not have any requirements, individual locations may. We were just in New York City and at some stores they required masks to enter. Some places also asked for proof of vaccination, so you should probably carry that with you as well.
at the end of the day, it’s easier to have the mask or vaccine card and not use it than it is to track all the rules for whichever places you’re going to be visiting. I suspect things will be more “normal” in 2023, but 2022 will probably be a transition year.
Good luck!
- ChessE4, Scott Wooten, Pooch and 1 other
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8 hours ago, TRagone said:
I did the same thing and repriced our cruise and lost our $50 OBC but netted $250 savings.
I could not pay online and had to call (with an hour on hold). No problem because we saved on our upcoming cruise! However, we have now received emails every day saying we have a $0.00 balance and must call to pay. After another call (and hour long hold), I am told all is fine. Although, I now received emails for both that OBC telling me to pay zero, and for the cruise itself saying I owe a zero balance but it must be paid to avoid cancelation. I’m sure this is just a glitch, but I will be calling again today to make sure our cruise, which is completely paid for, is not canceled.
I agree. While I appreciate the $50 OBC I had, we only care about the Total Cost of the Trip when I look at "the books". I'm always chsing the cheapest price on each item flights, pre/post hotel, cruise, cruise planner, transfers, etc...
For one of our remaining 2022 cruises, we've already used our Rapid Reward points to get the round trip flights for free, so that was really awesome! If I can get us the hotel for free through Marriott, I'll be on top of the world!
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4 hours ago, Ampurp85 said:
The op made purchase online but paid for it with promotional OBC. They repriced and lost the OBC so now they have a balance. CP does glitch so it probably wouldn't allow to go back and pay the balance they now have with the loss of OBC due to repricing.
22 minutes ago, ChessE4 said:Copy. I think a work-around would be to cancel and then rebook. Then the new purchase could be paid for with credit card.
For clarity, here was the chain of events
Booked Cruise which included $50 OBC from Royal CaribbeanBooked Drink packages using $50 OBC
Repriced cruise (saving $187 total) this caused us to lose the $50 OBC from Royal
Received email from Royal letting me know I now had a balance and when the deadline to pay was. email instructed to call to make payment
Called Royal and made the payment
@ChessE4 - I could have cancelled and repurchased, but my original price was $5 a day cheaper than the current price, so it wouldn't have made sense to do that at this time. Paying the additional $50 was the better option.
I looked in the CP and i think because i had already purchased, it just doesn't know how to take the extra $50. Not a big deal, but I have reached out to Royal with a suggestion to add a link in the email that allows you to pay the additional funds online. I'm not sure how often this would even occur, so it's probably not a big deal.
I do have another cruise this year that my TA is working to see if it can be repriced cheaper and if so will have to call again, since it also has $50 OBC associated with it.
Thanks everyeone!
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18 hours ago, heythere said:
Hello. Looking to book a cruise for June 10-17th, departing from Cape Liberty NJ and returning to Cape Liberty NJ. It is the oasis of the seas and stops in the Bahamas if I am remembering correctly.
From what I’ve seen online, I’ve received mixed messages in terms of passports being required or not. Since the cruise is so soon and we unfortunately were not able to pay for it sooner, we are really short on time. It’s five of us going, and I plan on getting my passport next week. However I am nervous that the five of us will not have passports in time for the cruise. I have read online that this type of cruise would allow for birth certificates, and was wondering if anyone could really confirm that they’ve used this ( mainly since Covid)Did you experience any issues? Two of them are five years old, and my mom has to get a new birth certificate as well which takes 5-8 weeks alone. Passports seem to be difficult at this point. Just hoping I can get any insight on this.!
It is best for everyone to have a valid passport that doesn’t expire for at least 6 months after your trip. Should an emergency occur, you cannot just fly home from a foreign country without the passport. Should someone become sick or injured and have to stay in the foreign country for an extended period, you will probably need to fly home.
Can you cruise without a passport? Yes, In some cases. You may be too close to your timeframe to get the passport now and if someone needs a new birth certificate, you may not get that back in time either. From a stress point of view, I would not try to cruise this June and take this time to get passports for anyone that needs ones and plan a cruise for later in the year or next year.
good luck.
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Due to a recent change to one of our bookings, we lost the $50 OBC that we had used to purchase some items in the cruise planner. Now we have a balance to pay. Is there a way to do this online? I'm on the phone now waiting and don't see it in the planner, but figured I's ask just in case. Thanks!
(We did a reprice and even after losing the OBC, we're still ahead by $137, so it's all good. )
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agree with @twangster, i was supposed to be on the 8N Allure repositioning cruise from Florida to Texas, but they canceled it (although the ship is still moving there around this time) and none of the replacement options worked for us. The worst part is that they wouldn't price protect our Cruise Planner purchases. We had the refreshment package at $18 a day. Took a few sales, but we did get that price again eventually. Seems like they could do something for the CP purchases, if you or your TA "move" to another cruise like we did. I totally get not protecting it if someone cancels the cruise and then rebooks, but ours was just a move. Now we're on a 8N on the Harmony which will be amazing.
Still a bummer! -
While I trust Royal, I'd question who is servicing the ATM machine. Sure in an emergency, I would have to use the ATM, but it is probably best to bring cash along with you. I personally treae the ship ATM like I would with the random ATM you'd see on the street, chained to a pole
If you know you are going to need some cash, I'd suggest that you just bring it with you so you don't run the chance of the ATM being broken/empty or a policy change in the casino that prevents you from getting the cash. You can then use the casino/atm as a "backup option" if you need additional cash.
Also remember that the ship is mostly cashless, so you probably won't need as much as you think. We always take cash with us for additional tips, casino play, and port purchases, and every time we end up with too much and re-deposit it at home.
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Was watching @Matt's video from March 29, 2022 and it appears that Liberty of the Seas does not have the freestyle machines. Can someone confirm this? We're sailing on her later in the year and while we will most likely keep the Refreshment package for my wife, she may decided to drop it if she cannot get the Powerade zero from the machine. Thanks in advance!
Link to Video --
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15 minutes ago, Reigert2008 said:
While I suspect that OP will not return, I’m sure somewhere in the fine print of the cruise agreement that rooms can be changed at anytime and appropriate compensation provided. In this case, it appears that the rooms were upgraded so that’s the compensation. Without all the details, I can only recommend again that you use a good travel agent who could stay in front of these types of thing and ensure reservations are linked and such to prevent splitting apart. Good luck!
Not a lawyer, but I suspect this section of the cruise contract from December 2021 allows for the room change, where it says lodging or any activity on or off the vessel.
7. CANCELLATION, DEVIATION OR SUBSTITUTION BY CARRIER:
a. Carrier may for any reason at any time and without prior notice, cancel, advance, postpone or deviate from any scheduled
sailing, port of call, destination, lodging or any activity on or off the Vessel, or substitute another vessel or port of call,
destination, lodging or activity -
40 minutes ago, Deanne Weindel said:
I would like to file a complaint. I scheduled this Family cruise for my existing and soon to be new family last year (2021). I specifically booked adjoining rooms for my daughter, her two daughters, my future son-in-law and my future granddaughter. I also booked myself, husband and grandson in a room in close proximity to his mom and two sisters and I also booked a room for my son, his wife and 3 year old grandson close to my room as I will be helping with watching him so they can enjoy some night shows, etc. RCCL has decided to change the rooms. While I appreciate being upgraded to 3 balcony rooms, we would rather stick with what I had originally scheduled. How can RCCL do this 2 weeks before we sail. The 3 teenage girls (who will shortly be step-sisters) want to be in rooms close to each other. RCCL has moved my daughter to room 10196 while leaving my soon to be new family members on the 7th deck. My son, who I will be helping with the 3 year old, is now on the 6th floor while I am in 10200. Please help me understand how RCCL can arbitrarily move us without taking into consideration the planning I did on the phone with RCCL. We are also celebrating my son's 40th birthday as well as my daughter's recent engagement. I have never had a cruise line do something like this.
While I suspect that OP will not return, I’m sure somewhere in the fine print of the cruise agreement that rooms can be changed at anytime and appropriate compensation provided. In this case, it appears that the rooms were upgraded so that’s the compensation. Without all the details, I can only recommend again that you use a good travel agent who could stay in front of these types of thing and ensure reservations are linked and such to prevent splitting apart. Good luck!
- CruisingOz, Canadian Cruiser and Neesa
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4 hours ago, Lexster said:
Ooh, neat! I hope they make more in the future. It's easy to feel left out of fun drinks if you don't drink alcohol.
Totally agree! I’m loving the new mocktail menu. The blueberry nojito is probably my favorite. The Bionic bar also had a pretty good list of non-alcoholic options.
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Another thing to look for is whose purchases were put on the credit card.in my experience, the OBC starts with the person named first and then goes to the second and so on. I suspect your wife’s package was paid for fully with OBC this the refund in OBC. If you booked everything at once, the last person on the receipt is probably the once that went to the credit card.
example (made up numbers)
OBC available $50
i buy two drink packages for $100 each
myself — $100
my wife — $100when I use the OBC, it goes to my drink package
myself — $50 OBC, $50 credit card
my wife — $100 credit card
if I cancel just my package, I expect to get $50 in OBV and $50 to the credit card.
however, if I cancel just my wife’s package I expect to get $100 back to the credit card.
once again,this has been my experience when repricing, but YMMV
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1 hour ago, Matt said:
I prefer the crew serving simply for sanitary reasons. Also, I always overserve myself, but that's a secondary issue.
Of course, it never stopped me from going to Windjammer pre-covid.
I agree, I’m a big fan of AYCE buffets and before COVID, it was the trade off of going to the buffet and taking a chance or not enjoy8ng what I want to eat. I always figured “that’s how buffets work”, but with COVID, we’ve see it is possible to have a great buffet experience while being served. It’s still AYCE and can take as many trips as you like.
TL;DR I’m not a fan of self serve coming back.
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11 minutes ago, Tinng321 said:
I am a paraplegic and this June will be my first cruise out of NJ on the Oasis. I am bound to a manual wheelchair. Besides routine clothing, I will have to bring with me my shower chair. Will I be able to bring my foldable power chair as well? I would like to use the power chair when I’m In CocoCay and Nassau. Attached is a photo of the power chair.
Hello,
I highly recommend you contact the special needs department of Royal Caribbean, they may be able to lessen the amount of things you have to bring with you, like the shower chair.n if you are using a TA, then I also recommend you work with them. I’ve included the link to the special needs site where you can put in some basic information and get the process started. Good luck!
https://www.royalcaribbean.com/resources/guest-special-needs
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If we had a list of reasons to always work with a good travel advisor, I'd add this to the list.
- EmptyNestTravels and MikeK
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We typically book Inside GTY cabins, but it depends on the ship. some ships (looking at you Liberty) have inside rooms on Deck 2 which is too low on the ship for us, so we picked our own room on deck 8 (and it was actually the cheaper option). However on an Oasis class ship, even the lowest inside cabins are well above where we would feel comfortable, so it works out for us.
We are in the camp of barely being in the room, so any room is good for us.
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16 minutes ago, Kirsten said:
I like how you can still communicate with others in your party without Voom if you download the Royal app and use the chat feature. Will the chat function also work on an iPod or iPad that doesn't have cell phone capabilities?
I'd assume that if the app works on the device, that the chat feature would work when connected to the ship wifi. I suspect that your bigger issue would be that the app stops working and becomes unsupported on the iPod. We used to have an extra phone that we only used on Wifi at Disney and at some point we had to stop using it since the app required a certain level of iOS and the device could not install that version.
I looked at the app in the App Store and it looks like the App requires iOS 13.0 or later on the iPhone and iPod Touch.
- dr martini, Kirsten, KristiZ and 1 other
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Wasn’t sure where to post this, but on Twitter today and noticed someone’s picture. Great picture @twangster!
- CannukCruiser, twangster and KristiZ
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11 hours ago, peytonhead said:
Read an interesting article about adding a surcharge for fuel due to high fuel prices:
https://www.yahoo.com/finance/m/8c40c98a-bc56-33e0-9451-fb6c68ac8310/royal-caribbean-carnival-.html
Article doesn't show what the fee is for RC and the contract doesn't. Has any one had a fuel surcharge applied recently or previously? Can RC add a fee to a cruise that is fully paid for and also under 30 days?
I think this article is just click bait to get the ad revenue, sure the cruise lines could add a fee for fuel (airlines could as well), but I suspect it would be a last resort since some number of people would just cancel or use their cancel for any reason travel insurance to get out of the cruise. The article even says that none of the cruise lines have added a surcharge or have said that they would. Most of the data that was referenced pertained to earnings calls and in those they are focused on keeping the shareholders happy and to not have share prices fall if people are nervous.
while no one can predict the future, I’m not too worried about Royal adding a surcharge in the near term.
Like the shareholders calls and financial statements, these comments contain forward looking statements and can change at any time
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4 hours ago, Leighq said:
I’ll just bring my switch and play animal crossing in my room and yell at my little animals by myself in my room. I have no desire to watch neckbeards drunk playing whatever game and yelling in Klingon that someone beat them.
This is a great idea. I have a switch and don't bring it on cruises, but I bet as things get back to normal you could probably get some good gaming going on with Mario Kart and Animal Crossing.
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3 hours ago, OurSlowSimpleTravel said:
Any parents with children with special needs? Looking for advice/tips/suggestions on how to make our cruise go smoothly.
Planning far in advance to be best prepared and hoping to make cruising our yearly trip.
This will be my 4th cruise, 2nd on Royal, but first as a mother. I will also be traveling with my brother (usual travel companion) and my parents. Next cruise (2024) I will most likely be going alone with my daughter. My daughter will be 5 for her first cruise but developmentally maybe a year old. She is also very tiny and most likely to be about the size of a two year old by then. We are booking Oasis because they have the "baby" pool so she can have some water fun while in a swim diaper. She is just starting to walk (almost 4 years old) but will be walking by then. Not long distances though and I will still be bringing a small stroller. She is non-verbal and has some sensory issues.
Looking for general tips, excursion advice, dining suggestions (she has dietary restrictions for eating plus feeding tube for all liquids), mobility advice, activities for sea days etc.
Thanks!
I would certainly reach out to your travel agent or Royal to ensure you have correct information direct from the source. However these links may be able to assist as well.FAQ about accessibility — https://www.royalcaribbean.com/faq/topics/accessibility-disability-needs?country=USA
special needs form — https://www.royalcaribbean.com/resources/guest-special-needs
the special needs form covers a ton of things and there’s an option to have Royal contact you.
good luck!
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On 2/22/2022 at 3:01 PM, SaveTheSharks said:
These might sound like really silly questions, but being a first-time cruiser, I'm not quite sure what to expect/anticipate!
Thankfully, dining related attire has been covered quite a few times already in previous posts... But I have other attire questions such as:
- I'm assuming you could wear your swimshorts/swimsuit with a tanktop/shirt/coverup around the ship on the ship during the day without feeling awkward or out of place?
- What if you've just gone swimming at the pool, fun at the waterslides, or hung out at the hot tub... Despite towelling dry, there's going to still be some dampness to your swimwear -- do people just continue on their day around the ship with damp swimwear to air dry? Or is that a faux pas, and recommended to go back to the stateroom and change?
- On port excursions, I assume wearing comfortable attire appropriate to what you plan to do on port, but what if you plan on visiting both a beach area + other non-beach activities? Is it considered appropriate to be walking around the city in full-on beach wear? How would you change? I also reckon taxis wouldn't want you to hop in and have you leaving their seats all wet either?.... Unless that is all normal and good?
Just to note, women need to have a coverup and men need a shirt on to dine at the Windjammer or places such as Loco Fresh up on the pool decks. Wasn’t a problem for us, but the crew member working Loco Fresh on the Oasis kept getting people complaint when she reminded people of the rule.
You may aso need shoes, but I’m foggy on that one.
of course, your experience may vary, but that’s what it was two weeks ago.
Does cruising too much make you too critical?
in Royal Caribbean Discussion
Posted
I think that there will always be a certain segment that will complain about anything.I also think that as you do things more you just notice things that others don’t. However I think the complainer group also had a lot of “do you know who I am” when it comes to status and think they should have more say in things. I’m a “problem solver” as part of my career, so I do write suggestions and leave them at the front desk when things are “off”, but there really has to be some major issues for me to complain about something.
I’m curious how you know they were Pinnacle? I would never think to mention my C&A status and would find it weird if someone asked me about it.
We are more of a “go with the flow” type of traveler.