Reigert2008

Serious question: Is traveling without your own toiletries a thing?  
 

We do a decent amount of travel and never thought about not bringing something, even if it was something from a previous hotel stay.  We also have some refillable bottles that we use since we buy our regular stuff from Sam’s Club or Costco. For toothpaste, we save what the dentist gives us and take those small tubes.

Since we always check a bag (Thanks Southwest!) maybe we don’t think about it and getting through TSA.

I’m not knocking anyone, just never thought about it!

Stay Safe

We're "Loyal to Royal!"

We did several Disney cruises since we are Disney geeks, but they kept getting more and more expensive so we thought we would try Royal as we have family that have cruised with Royal and enjoyed it.  The thing that got us to switch was we were on a Disney cruise and booked another "to get the onboard deal", which was fully refundable for 30 days or something.  We went to AAA and priced a Royal cruise  for the same week, with nearly the same itinerary and learned that we could get a Junior Suite on Royal and still save over $1000!

I felt really good about the decision, since I was eating lunch one day on the Allure while staring out at the Disney ship i had originally booked across the port and knowing how much money we saved.

We've done balcony rooms on Disney and Royal, but we always get the cheapest room, since we would prefer to do more trips and being that there is only 2 of us, space is not an issue and we are not in the room very much.  

We also typically travel during the "off season" where pricing tends to be really good.  I work in IT and have a really flexible schedule and my wife knows her schedule (she's a nurse practitioner) three months in advance, so we do a lot of short trips and last minute deals.

We made the switch and since I love rewards programs, we will stick with Royal and then Celebrity (since they match) until something terrible happens.  

Same with MGM resorts, they will match your Royal status to the MGM program, so it's like triple dipping!

Stay Safe

37 minutes ago, wannabecruiseexpert said:

When you have purchases from cruise planner on a cancelled sailing and you choose 125%, does that come in an email to you or do you have to call to get it transferred to a different sailing?

Based on my experience from May 2020, they canceled the purchases and then I received an email at some point that listed what my onboard FCC was for future use and the related "certificate numbers".  It was broken out by person, so both myself and my wife have individual onboard FCCs (each person received an email).  At some point you will need to contact Royal and have the Onboard FCC added to your future cruise.  

We have not yet added the onboard FCC to a cruise, and I assume a travel agent can do the "foot work" for you.  

There is a lot of conflicting information as to if I can spend the wife's FCC on my purchases and vice versa, but i'll cross that bridge later.  Mostly we only purchase the Refreshment drink package,  so it's not a huge deal.

Good Luck and Stay Safe.

https://www.royalcaribbean.com/cruise-ships/itinerary-updates

Not totally unexpected, but they did announce it.

There are some limitations to to the guidance and companies can still require masking.  It's a step in the right direction, but not a free for all yet.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/03/08/health/covid-19-vaccine-cdc-guidelines-fully-vaccinated/index.html

 

7 minutes ago, Floski said:

Geez, I'm an idiot.  

Not at all, it could still be 2023, I was afraid to ask since others in the thread just rolled with it.  It’s been a long year.

Stay Safe

11 minutes ago, Floski said:

I'm confused - are we talking 2020 or 2021?

 

 

Well, I assumed 2022, since we are already past February of the last 2 years, so I have been really confused.

As @Mattwould probably say, this is a prime example of time to use a good travel agent. They can help navigate this type of request and assist in completing the  disability request form.  I use the form for my CPAP, but there are a lot of other options on the form,

Good luck!
 

Stay Safe!

15 minutes ago, Neesa said:

@JillThat one is a sore spot for me! I have such a mess on my hands with multiple FCC and feeling it would not go I did not want another, so I asked Sharla to lift and shift to May 2022 but it was during that small window where RCCL said Lift and Shift had been essentially "cancelled". I was upset and since this was already an FCC @ 125% I just asked @Sharla to cancel under CWC as I would not give them any more money. Lone behold they offered the program again literally a week later; and then I was SOL, I was really upset with Royal, that is probably the most frustrating thing with them is their constant fluidity, I guess good and bad but I received the bad. So now I have received my FCC for that sailing that is short at least 1,000.00 but Sharla is looking into that for me. I got over it though, I didn't want to sail DCL again so I booked a 5 night Mariner June 2022 in my elusive 1804 that I will use the FCC for, whenever we can figure out the correct amounts. @twangsteris spot on when he advised to keep good accounting of the cancellations as well as the certificates etc. They may be certificates now but previously it was thousands of dollars, I found the problem because I keep really tight accounting, I believe! I'm very happy that you were able to move yours though, just wonderful. Sea you in the future....I was hawking Odyssey Thanksgiving 2022 but where the heck is it? Looking at Symphony for that week instead but my family is not really feeling it, what is wrong with them??? Take good care!

We have a cruise in August 2021 with final payment in May 2021, this is a family cruise with 3 total cabins on separate reservations.  While I have confidence that we will be on a ship, i have started the conversations with the other members about the possible options.  We are leaning towards making final payment to take whatever the best offer is, should it be canceled, but others may not feel the same.  I've had to let them know that whenever they make thier decision, they need to "just be happy" with it and not be frustrated if a better offer is available later.  It's a tough road that all of us have been riding, that's for sure.

Stay Safe

Just saw this article.

https://thepointsguy.com/news/antigua-barbuda-curacao-do-not-travel-cdc/

At this point we are shopping but not booking anything since we don't want to tie up extra money.  We had 3 cruises booked for 2020 and have moved two into 2021.  Only one was fully canceled, so we have the FCC that we will be using.  Until the first ship sets sail, we will hold off on booking so we don't have to deal with more FCCs.

Stay Safe

It sounds like everyone has the same reasons that I give to people on why you should just get the passport.  I'm going to keep telling people to get a passport since it really is easy and gives you that extra security that you can fly home in an emergency.  Thanks!

Stay Safe!

That's exciting, but I wish it wasn't Allure  We've been looking forward to the new terminal in Galveston, but we've been on Allure twice already and a third planned (cruise changed to Allure because COVID).  Maybe over time other ships will visit and we love Allure, just like to try new things!

We now have nonstop flights to Houston, so Galveston will be an "easy" port to get to for us.

Hello,
     I saw another thread about checking in with a passport, which got me thinking.  Other than cost, why would you not have a passport when going on a cruise?  I could see for a child that may "age out" before being able to renew, but my wife and i treat the passport as "another form of ID" and got our passports before we did our first cruise many years ago.  We've since planned other cruises with "first timers " and have convinced them to get the passport. Over all it seems easier to have the passport and not have to deal with your other important documents while traveling and it feels like it would be easier to replace the passport should you lose it and not have to replace the birth certificate if that was lost.  

We are a family of two, so we don't have the extra expense that other family may have, but we would have wanted our kids to travel with some type of ID "just in case" and we encouraged other family members to get passports for thier children.

I agree it's a "sunk cost" especially if you don't think you will use it again before renewal, but with the ways things change you never know when it may be useful.  For example, until very recently, our drivers licenses here in KY were not REAL ID compliant (I'll upgrade mine with renewal this year), so the passport ensured that we could still travel while KY was figuring out the REAL ID process if the extensions had not gone through.  Our extension was set to expire before COVID, but they have extended it to this year, but with offices being shutdown they are slower to get the REAL IDS out to people and it gives me comfort knowing that we have our passports for the travels we have planed for later this year.

Maybe I'm missing something that would be helpful when someone asks me about it in the future.  Thanks!

I have been lucky enough to get both my vaccine doses and i just assume that masks will be a requirement until at least 2022.  I would get on a ship tomorrow if I could.  i know how we cruise and i believe that we could do it safely without much modification to our normal activities.

Stay Safe

One of my COVID relaxation tricks was to plan trips of all types.  When things are better, we’ll have a great list to go off on!
 

stay Safe

We were on a 5N to Bermuda on Grandeur back in 2018.  We were supposed to do a 9N Canada on her in 2020,but COVID.  We enjoyed the atmosphere on the ship and you really get to know all the staff and really interact with them. Being a smaller and older ship, she doesn’t have as many perks, but we don’t do speciality dining or amenities that are “extra” so we don’t really pay attention to those offerings on any ships.  
 

we also only do inside rooms so not sure what the suites would offer.

we would totally sail on her again if the opportunity arose.

hope that helps.

Stay Safe

While it is still far too early to know anything, i do wonder how they will handle traveling parties.  We have a cruise on the schedule for August 2020, 3 rooms, 3 individual reservations, 1 kid under 16, all reservations are linked. If vaccines are required of all parties, but kids are not yet eligible, will they allow the other two rooms to cancel/rebook?  while we could still go and enjoy ourselves, it is not the vacation we have planned.  it'll be interesting.

Stay Safe

I would expect taxes and fees to be refunded to the original form of payment, and if you have not paid in full, i would expect the total on the receipt to be reduced.  That's what happened to one of ours when the ports changed.  I would reach out to your travel agent to ensure the receipt is updated.

Stay Safe

I read it to mean that the CDC wanted Royal to share what they have been doing to cruise safely, with them and the other lines. Much of this technology has already been patented and should be protected from theft.  Most of what they are doing is not so technical that it could not be easily figured out by the other lines on thier own.  Also, I think it would be naïve of us to think that the lines are not talking to each other behind the scenes about what has and has not been working.  I work in IT, in a 'medium size city", but the IT section of the city is really small and we all know each other.  You can bet that when there's a malware outbreak or something, that we are all chatting on the side about what was happening.

Stay Safe.

2 hours ago, Griffey said:

Thank you...I just found the Spectrum plans and most doors are on the port side.  I'm debating contacting a travel agent. I've booked multiple cruises for our family without the need of an agent and I'm a bit of a control freak but I might in this instance.  Thanks again for your help!

As a fellow “control freak”, I would recommend working with a travel agent.  I’ve done many vacations on my own (including cruises), but with the nuances involved with cruising, I always find it more helpful to have the travel agent to work things out when I get a crazy idea.  I’d think going on a new ship would be a perfect time to use a travel agent since details could be sketchy while being finalized.  And that doesn’t take into account anything beyond our control, like a  once in a hundred year pandemic.  Good luck!

I went back and forth on this a while back and am now at the point where I would certainly consider going on a test cruise for the following reasons:

1. We've learned a lot about COVID
2. Royal has been sailing overseas without any major issues
3. I have both of my vaccine doses
4. I need to get out of the house

we were comfortable cruising even during the early days, because we know how we cruise and we felt that with masks, social distancing, and sanitation measures, that we could do it safely without issue.  Our bigger issue was getting to the port and spending the night, but we think that is now able to be done fairly easily.  

The concern that many people may still have is that you can be a "carrier" of COVID and we certainly do not want to bring it back to our loved ones, so as as more people get access to the vaccine that will help as well.

Thanks and stay safe!

Thanks to everyone!  All of this was amazing information, when it is time for us to book our next cruise, we will certainly consider MEI !  

#StaySafe

Hello,

    I'm a long time lurker, first time writer, but have some questions about MEI Travel and their agents (which I hear are wonderful).  Thanks in advance.
 

• Once a cruise is booked with MEI, do the agents check for better deals when they are released?
• In general, how quick are they to respond to questions?
• How knowledgeable are they about the various ports of call?
• How knowledgeable are they with the embarkation ports and hotels/transportation?
• When paying for items, are we paying MEI and they they pay RCI or does the TA pay RCI directly using my credit card information.  I've had issues with AAA in the past with paying for some things with Disney.

We have a travel agent and we do enjoy working with them, but they are a "family friend" and travel agent is NOT thier primary job.  We've not had any real issues, but I do have to check thee deals on my own and ask for a re-price to ensure I get the best deal.  I'm a pretty hands on person, but love using the TA for cruises since I don't want to miss anything.  Typically, I book the cruise with the TA and then book the hotel and flights on my own since we utilize our rewards programs and get some benefits by booking directly.  

We have two cruises still scheduled for this year, but am thinking about making the switch with our next cruise we book.  I wanted to check here to get some information before I contact MEI and talk to an agent or two to see if we can make a good team for planning vacations.