GKMCruising

25 minutes ago, KristiZ said:

No, I did Chef’s Table. They are actually offering the Taste of Royal tomorrow but I think we will not be going. It is a seafood-heavy menu. 

Gotcha. I forget that they're two different things sometimes.

@KristiZ Isn't this what you just did on the repositioning cruise?

35 minutes ago, smokeybandit said:

I'd happily subcontract out to RC to implement this stuff. Heck I'd work for in-kind payment of cruise credit

When I was in college in the late 2000s, I worked as an IT help desk co-op for the Institute of Nuclear Power Operations. The travel department was the absolute worst if an issue came up, because apparently all their systems still had to run a bunch of ancient software from the MS-DOS era in order to communicate with airlines and various other legacy systems. But you'd think that surely Royal could find an IT department that didn't seem to have *every* system stuck in the MS-DOS era...

15 minutes ago, PG Cruiser said:

After several glitches, I was able to check out and seal the deal.  Although it doesn't look like a very good deal.  At $217, it's pricey!

Yup. I snagged ours for Wonder at $196/pp, I think. Hoping for a further drop with Black Friday sales but I'm doubtful, lol.

3 minutes ago, AshleyDillo said:

It would be great if Royal would make these things possible.  Have you ever tried using cruiseplum? It has some of those features. I know it will break it down by per day and per person costs for 1-4 people and you can also specify you only want to see Star Class.

I haven't - I'll have to check that out when the sailings for 2023 drop. I already have a full dance card with two sailings in 2022 - living in GA means working around my available vacation time - I can't just pop on a weekend cruise whenever I want, unfortunately.

I think someone else mentioned it in another thread, but I'd like a way to search based on overall room price for a specific type of room, regardless of itinerary. For instance, if you wanted to try out a  Star Suite but didn't care about the specific ship or ports, you could just sort to find the cheapest one currently for sale.

I'd also love a way to see the default price as more than 2 people. I've picked what I *thought* was the cheapest week of an itinerary, only to have the price jump majorly when I told it I was sailing with 3 people instead of 2.

33 minutes ago, twangster said:

Slow today... just got the reference.  

Don't feel bad - I didn't get the reference until you posted saying that *you* didn't get the reference.

6 minutes ago, jticarruthers said:

The buffet is going to be an interesting one. I agree with liking the concept of no one else "handling" stuff ... but executing it is a bottleneck and its going to get worse as capacity increases.

It might be a slight bottleneck at first, but once everyone gets used to the change - both cruisers and crew - I think it'll run smoothly. Windjammer has always been a less-than-speedy process for getting food, at least in my opinion.

7 minutes ago, Jill said:

Ohhh I need to find that hotel! Lol We’re on Wonder in March too

This *should* link to the right hotel deal.

https://mysnaptravel.com/vQKaOR

34 minutes ago, D Alt said:

any northern lights sightings during your cruise?  was the sky clear or cloudy?  

Love all the photos! this is a must trip. 

No, no northern lights during our cruise, as far as I'm aware. It was a bit too cloudy the night after Skagway when we'd have been far enough north to see them.

34 minutes ago, CruisingOz said:

Thanks for the pictures, brings back so many great memories. There is nothing like Alaska, we have to go back one day

Thanks! Australia is on my personal bucket list - might not cruise there but would love to come spend a couple weeks.

If we're just driving in and crashing somewhere the night before, I don't particularly care to pay for somewhere high-end, so I'll usually go for whatever is cheapest that's *not* a sketchy motel.

Managed to snag a room at Best Western I-95 (not the airport/cruise port one) in March for our Wonder sailing for under $100/night through SnapTravel. There was a great rate at one of the beach resorts for around $150/night, but after they added taxes and then apparently a $30 "resort fee," I just couldn't justify an extra $100 for amenities I wasn't going to use and a room I was only going to be in for less than 24 hours. 

59 minutes ago, Chili said:

A report by someone currently on Ovation.

 

 

I am currently on the Ovation on the last Alaska cruise.  The crew has been told that they will be sent home later this month and will return to Ovation in January for sailings out of Australia.  They just received this INFO two days ago.  
 
 

Yeah, that's what I heard from my waiter from last month, we've stayed in touch since I got back. She said they're going home until after the new year - I asked if they're all coming back to Ovation or going to different ships, but haven't heard back from her yet on that point.

9 minutes ago, Chili said:

When Ovation first went to Alaska,people where asking for information about it .
Some said they wouldn’t book it because they only served rice and wouldn’t be able to read the signs.

They had to change the gaming tables because they where red.
All very trivial,I agree  but  some thought it life threatening.

Yup. These types of people want to "see the world" but are so afraid of other cultures, it seems. Just don't get it.

On 10/2/2021 at 11:46 AM, pkcruiser said:

 

I have not seen any reviews of people sailing with an under two year old.  I'm hoping to give insight as to what it's like with two young unvaccinated children, one requiring a mask and one not.

Thankfully, not as bad as you might fear. Our daughter turned two literally the day we set sail. We had masks with us for her, but she was never asked to put one on. Granted, we didn't put her in the nursery program at all, so it might have been different in that situation.

Most of the shows had "family" showings, so she really didn't miss out on much of the experience. Yes, being unable to get off and walk the shops on port was unfortunate, but overall it was a very minor price to pay for being able to sail again.

1 hour ago, PG Cruiser said:

Is there a link on the Royal website for the Welcome Amenity or do I have to call C&A for that?  I'm seeing a "Royal Gifts" link on my profile but it is a bad link.

 

 

I *believe* I heard someone say you had to call C&A for all that stuff now, but I'm not 100% positive. 

Also, I'm impressed Royal IT managed to go above and beyond and get a 400 error instead of the usual 404...

2 minutes ago, jack_c4321 said:

I don't recall a godmother being named for Odyssey of the Seas. Aren't godmothers usually announced before the inaugural cruise?

Yes and yes, but also COVID. The inaugural for Odyssey got moved... I don't even remember how many times.

On 10/8/2021 at 1:20 PM, Matt said:

One kid’s result came back almost exactly 40 minutes after we took it. The other hasn’t come, and woman here said it was invalid and have to run the test again. 

I think I jinxed you with my comment. Sorry about that!

9 hours ago, CrznTxn said:

We asked the personnel at the pier in Seattle that question on why we had to show it to three different people (yes it was three different people who could literally see each other). They told us they are from three different agencies so they must check themselves. Maybe one of the day these folks will get together and we can have one checkpoint again. Until then I supposed it is good that people have jobs. Either way it was really fast from the bus drop off to onboard the ship (15 minutes).

I don't remember having to show papers more than once in Seattle, but we also had a two year old, so they helped get us through quicker since we were going to have to wait on the same day COVID test.

8 minutes ago, PPPJJ-GCVAB said:

No you do not save original promos…you get whatever is being offered at the time of reprice.  
If you booked online or through Royal you can call…they will not reprice if you are not saving money.  You will need to have your TA do this for you if you used one for your booking.  A few times when I have called I actually saved more than I thought I was going to!  

Ok, yeah, that's what I thought, but got mildly confused by the way one of the earliest posts was phrased. I've already had several price drops but wanted to make sure I wasn't potentially missing another one right this second. Think I'm going to have to wait until the Cyber Monday / Black Friday sale to get a better deal than what I've currently got, but I'm going to keep checking daily anyways.

4 hours ago, Ampurp85 said:

I saw this happen in Vegas, I went solo for my 30th. Met a lady on the airplane celebrating her divorce, both staying at the Luxor and we hit it off. We decide to hang out, since we had similar plans. After dinner we hit the slots and I hit a $2300 mini jackpot and claimed my winnings. When I came back she had hit jackpot, a little over 100k. She told me she was going to cash out and meet me at the show, so I left for cirque du soleil Zumanity. She never showed, I assumed she was maybe shopping or met someone. Came back because it was my birthday and I felt lucky, she was still there and down to her last hundred dollars. She did hit another mini jackpot but I think it was less than $4k. I always pocket my wins and just play what I was comfortable losing....if I feel like playing more.

I don't care if it's purely winnings or not - once you've won it, it's your money. Cash out and go home. I never spend anything more than my free play cash - some trips I wind up a few bucks richer, other times I walk out empty handed. But I guarantee you if I somehow got lucky enough to hit a jackpot with just the $6 on free play, I wouldn't keep going. 

1 hour ago, CrimsonCruiser said:

Price drops on the other hand happen almost all the time because the fares fluctuate and you can get that new fare by either contacting your travel agent or Royal directly and saying "hey I see this new price for my room can I have that?" and they will essentially rebook you but if they do it right, you won't lose your room or any other benefits you got on that initial booking.

Will they reprice if the fare drops but not the total price based on the sale?

For instance - right now my cruise fare for an inside on Harmony is $1313/person for the first two people, $854 for the third. After all the sales from when I last repriced are applied, it brings the total amount for all three people to $2190.

If I do a mock booking for the same sail date and room,  the fare has dropped to $1227/person for the first two people. But, the current sale isn't as good with the promos, so the total amount for all three is $2379. 

I assumed that the total amount was the only thing you could reprice from, so I wouldn't currently be able to save anything, but if I can reprice just the fare and protect the original promos, I'd likely come out at least a hundred bucks cheaper or so. If that's the case, how do I need to word it when calling Royal so they don't inadvertently screw something up with the booking?

10 minutes ago, Chili said:

I don’t know about wonder going to China,it was was dramatically westernised at the last minute.
It will be interesting to see if there’s any signage in Chinese.

Given that there's still some random signage in Chinese left on Ovation, I'd be more shocked if there *isn't* at least a little bit of signage that got missed.

3 minutes ago, CruiseGus said:

when you say a few weeks ago are you talking the last full week of September or earlier?

Slightly earlier. We were on board September 10th - 17th.

18 minutes ago, Jacqui said:

Symphony in 2 weeks...got $446 OBC a few weeks ago then checked my credit card the other day and have a credit from RC for $477.  I have no clue how I got both OBC and refund but I'll take it!

Bank error in your favor.

I had the same thing happen a few years ago with a cruise that got shortened dramatically due to Hurricane Irma. I wound up with a FCC *and* a refund - we asked Royal about it, they said anything we'd received they weren't going to take back, even if it wound up being an error / double payment.