dswallow

I do hope that whoever is looking out for vaccine issues for you and your son at least do recognize that the mRNA vaccines may not have a parallel to vaccines that have caused previous reactions and will look more closely at trying to identify the reasons for the previous reaction before blanketly avoid any vaccination. The same issues experienced before may simply not apply here.
 

The limitations right now are:
1) You cannot find out what Future Cruise Credit Certificates you have.
2) If you use a portion of the balance of a Future Cruise Credit, you can't find the balance from it since the balance will be reissued as a new Future Cruise Credit certificate, and not immediately, but within 2 to 4 weeks.
 
It really gets very frustrating continuing to deal with the antiquated processes behind these Future Cruise Credit certificates.
 
Yes, it would be nice to be more flexible like with how credits are associated with individuals from the original reservation but sometimes can be used slightly differently depending on the circumstances of the new booking and people on the reservation, but there are some basics that could be done almost immediately...
1) The Future Cruise Credit is associated with the booking number from which it came. The booking number from which it came is associated with a Crown & Anchor number. Minimally, immediately, it should be possible to let a Crown & Anchor member view current Future Cruise Credit certificates and their current status (i.e., if used or not, etc).
2) It should be possible to either reduce the balance on a Future Cruise Credit as it is used, or to immediately issue a new certificate with the remaining balance once some portion gets used; either way, it shouldn't take 2 to 4 weeks, and should be possible to immediately apply amounts from a Future Cruise Credit to multiple bookings.
 

The Cruise Planner sales generally last a week and then there's generally a 2 to 3 week period before the next one begins. The specific sale dates usually get skewed in a way that permits a major US holiday period to be within a sale period. For instance, the current sale ends on May 5, 2021. Memorial Day weekend is coming up. The next sale will include Memorial Day weekend. That probably means it will start about May 28, 2021 and run through June 2, 2021. That is also a bit long between sales, so we might see the current sale get extended for a few days or another week, or we could see the Memorial Day weekend sale start earlier. 
The flyer describing the sale usually comes out 3 to 5 days or so beforehand. Check the URL https://creative.rccl.com/Sales/Royal/Promotions/Snapshot_of_CruisePlanner_Offers every few days; it will be updated with the next upcoming sale before that sale begins.
The prices on items generally begin to change in the late afternoon or evening prior to the first day of the sale. It can take as long as another day for the percent-off banners to appear correctly on the graphics in the Cruise Planner, but the pricing is generally correct by this point. Similarly all the banners will disappear once the sale ends, but the prices don't necessarily revert immediately. Some will. Some may change to a different price point. Some may remain at the sale price for an indeterminate extra period.
Each sale tends to focus a little bit on some specific smaller group of things getting a bigger-than-usual percent-off discount. So while a lot goes on sale, only some subset gets a "good" sale price for that sale, so stay watchful. There's also a pretty consistent range for many items. Beverage Packages usually see 20%, 25% or 30%-off sale pricing, for instance.
Anyway, if you pay attention to them long enough you'll pick up on the patterns of how things progress. ?
 
 

You no longer access Air2Sea/ChoiceAir directly; you go through the menu at royalcaribbean.com. See it under "Manage My Cruise" then "Book a Flight".

It takes you to: https://www.royalcaribbean.com/flights/bookFlights
 

Upload your proof of vaccination on the Royal App under check-in; they're validating those so you'll get some actual feedback if something is acceptable or not before you get to the terminal.

Upload your proof of vaccination on the Royal App under check-in; they're validating those so you'll get some actual feedback if something is acceptable or not before you get to the terminal.

Upload your proof of vaccination on the Royal App under check-in; they're validating those so you'll get some actual feedback if something is acceptable or not before you get to the terminal.

I most always book Ocean View Balcony. I have Boardwalk View Balcony rooms booked on Oasis. But there were 3 times I did Promenade View Interior and twice just an Ocean View.

In total, including as much as I've managed to track, which includes airfare when needed, hotel stays when needed, transportation, parking, drink/internet packages (so far have always purchase the deluxe beverage package and VOOM SURF+STREAM every single time), and the occasional unlimited dining package, plus insurance costs, onboard incidentals, and gratuities... and in reality I have no doubt there's probably well more than $1,000 across all that I've not tracked well. But those would truly be very incidental expenses. But not including any (very occasional) gambling expenses. And I suppose one day I may go back through it all and fine tune it a bit when I can identify some missing items (sometimes it's more difficult to attribute some costs, like if I'm combining a cruise trip with a business trip, how should I attribute airfare, for instance).

Anyway based on what I have been tracking I will have spent $74,452.10 to reach Pinnacle Club status when I do reach it this coming January, on my 31st Royal Caribbean sailing with a total of 259 cruise nights since October 2016.

(1) You can browse without a reservation.




(2) At the top of the page when you're browsing flights, with or without a reservation, you can change the dates.

 

 
(3) If you use a travel agent, why would you use a travel agent that isn't able to handle your flights as well, via Air2Sea or otherwise?

 

I just wanted to give you some general price history on those sailings... maybe it'll make you feel less upset over it if this shows you got a decent price overall anyway. Of course, it could show you booked at a peak price. 🙂

You no longer access Air2Sea/ChoiceAir directly; you go through the menu at royalcaribbean.com. See it under "Manage My Cruise" then "Book a Flight".

It takes you to: https://www.royalcaribbean.com/flights/bookFlights
 

You no longer access Air2Sea/ChoiceAir directly; you go through the menu at royalcaribbean.com. See it under "Manage My Cruise" then "Book a Flight".

It takes you to: https://www.royalcaribbean.com/flights/bookFlights
 

You no longer access Air2Sea/ChoiceAir directly; you go through the menu at royalcaribbean.com. See it under "Manage My Cruise" then "Book a Flight".

It takes you to: https://www.royalcaribbean.com/flights/bookFlights
 

I capture the data myself and can generate them.

I capture the data myself and can generate them.

It's the broad category, which means especially with suites, when Junior Suites become unavailable, the price jumps considerably because most other suite types are far more expensive; and when they become available again the equivalent drop gets shown. But as a general guide, it's pretty useful to see trends.

It's the broad category, which means especially with suites, when Junior Suites become unavailable, the price jumps considerably because most other suite types are far more expensive; and when they become available again the equivalent drop gets shown. But as a general guide, it's pretty useful to see trends.

Up until final payment date you can always call and have a booking repriced using current rates/discounts/promotions, including the Balcony/Suite discount from your Crown & Anchor tier. So anytime your booking would price out less than you previously paid you can do this. But they can't simply adjust a discount already set on your booking as discounts are based upon remaining balances after applicable discounts get applied in a certain order, so everything changes.
 
Now some countries don't allow this, like UK-bookings have never been repriceable like this; they had to cancel subject to non-refundable deposits and rebook to get current rates -- though at least during the Cruise With Confidence period, everyone has had benefit of repricing, even up through 48 hours before sailing.

The Cayman Islands Plans to Reopen for Cruises in Late January 2022 (cruisehive.com)

Every technical change is vetted through Royal Caribbean's' Technical Confusion Mandate Enforcement Department before it goes into production to ensure it gets implemented in the way that presents the most confusion for anyone to figure out what it means.

I just wanted to give you some general price history on those sailings... maybe it'll make you feel less upset over it if this shows you got a decent price overall anyway. Of course, it could show you booked at a peak price. 🙂

Problem is Royal Caribbean is acting like it's possible to get to the terminal doors +/- 5 minutes of a specific time, without providing any means to wait anywhere around them. Some people fly into JFK or LGA, or other airports, too; some may stay in NYC hotels and face a drive of indeterminate time. Even people "local" could be driving from West Virginia, and the further away you are, the more you're gonna need to leave some extra time to account for traffic problems, or getting lost, or other issues along the way. It's like airlines saying to arrive 3 hours before your flight these days. Arrive exactly where?
 
Sure, undoubtedly, some people aren't even trying to match up with their check-in time. But people who try still can reasonably end up much earlier or much later than that check-in time. And frankly it's just a really ignorant attempt at "scheduling" on Royal Caribbean's part, in denial of the real world. Previously it was "unenforced" scheduling, which spread people out, in general, reasonably well. Enforced scheduling leaves people stuck in crazy, impractical ways. Well, actually it leaves them blocking traffic at the terminal in places like Cape Liberty, since all traffic is routed to the same place and there's no separation of traffic until you're right on top of the terminal. 🙂

Problem is Royal Caribbean is acting like it's possible to get to the terminal doors +/- 5 minutes of a specific time, without providing any means to wait anywhere around them. Some people fly into JFK or LGA, or other airports, too; some may stay in NYC hotels and face a drive of indeterminate time. Even people "local" could be driving from West Virginia, and the further away you are, the more you're gonna need to leave some extra time to account for traffic problems, or getting lost, or other issues along the way. It's like airlines saying to arrive 3 hours before your flight these days. Arrive exactly where?
 
Sure, undoubtedly, some people aren't even trying to match up with their check-in time. But people who try still can reasonably end up much earlier or much later than that check-in time. And frankly it's just a really ignorant attempt at "scheduling" on Royal Caribbean's part, in denial of the real world. Previously it was "unenforced" scheduling, which spread people out, in general, reasonably well. Enforced scheduling leaves people stuck in crazy, impractical ways. Well, actually it leaves them blocking traffic at the terminal in places like Cape Liberty, since all traffic is routed to the same place and there's no separation of traffic until you're right on top of the terminal. 🙂

Every technical change is vetted through Royal Caribbean's' Technical Confusion Mandate Enforcement Department before it goes into production to ensure it gets implemented in the way that presents the most confusion for anyone to figure out what it means.