Traveling Mike

it does not look like there is a set pattern. One cruise UDP was available 6 months out. The other one did not have UDP, they offered 5 days and 10 day packages. Looking at my April 2025 cruises 12 day Singapore to Tokyo: UDP $470 & 5 day package $220 15 day Tokyo to Seattle: No UDP, 10 day package $360 & 5 day package $220 7 day Alaska: UDP $327 & 3 day package $132

this one was very good and they keep the group small. Unforgettable lagoon tour around Moorea 2024 (viator.com) I also did this one at Tahaa and it was great. 1/2 day Tahaa coral garden - departure Raiatea / ideal for cruise passengers 2024 (viator.com)

Below is what is on the website. It does say "Additional fees may apply to booking changes or cancellations" but that is the legal small print and not reality. If they did not allow us to cancel and rebook you would know because everyone would be having a fit. **************************************************************************************************************************************** Advance reservations and purchases may be made up to April 10, 2025. Prices shown reflect all savings and discounts. Onboard and destination experiences, features, itineraries, and guest conduct rules vary by ship and destination and are subject to change without notice. *Offer applies to purchases made June 7, 2024 - June 11, 2024, and applies to select sailings departing June 11, 2024 - June 30, 2025. Crown & Anchor June Savings offer applies to Crown & Anchor Society members, on select sailings departing June 11, 2024 - December 31, 2024. Offers are non-transferable and not combinable with Crown & Anchor discounts or any other offer or promotion. Additional fees may apply to booking changes or cancellations. Prices and offers are subject to availability and change without notice, capacity controlled, and may be withdrawn at any time. Royal Caribbean International reserves the right to correct any errors, inaccuracies, or omissions and to change or update fares, fees and surcharges at any time without prior notice.

I do not know why so many are saying such strange things. Just go to a slot machine. Pull money in from your account. As soon as you pull it into the slot machine you can cash it out. Take the ticket to the cashier and get your cash. It will charge your cabin account and at the end of the cruise it will go against what ever card you have on account. This also works when you have extra OBC. Note: You do not have to play (unless they recoded in the last month). You do not have to be a member of anything. You just need your room card and a room to charge on your cabin account.

I am sure your son will get all the benefits. I only say that because my last cruise I had midnight pizza a few time with a group of Tweens. About 1/2 of them get the free drinks a day and they shared with their friends. they would go over and get sodas on their 4 to 6 drinks a day.

I like this change. I am tired of looking for new cruises and seeing a price of $700 then when you go 4 more screens in you see the port fees and taxes takes it to $1000. the next cruise will be $700 and the port fees and taxes only take it to $800. this will make my browsing easier.

I just did that on my last B2B in April. I hit the 210 mark to get my second crystal. On my first cruise I just went to the Crown & Anchor desk and let them know what was going on. They looked up my account and confirmed the milestone. They made sure my points were updated for the second cruise.

You should have an account for each person. If you have cruised together you should have the same amounts of points. If you are not sure call crown and anchor and talk to them. I am guessing you have an account and did not realize it.

First of all make sure everyone is on airplane mode so they do not connect to the ship cellular. I also turn off the roaming on my phone. Second: when you get on the ship you can select the ship wifi from your cell phone. It should automatically load the ship page that asks if you want to connect to the free wifi or the paid wifi. You should select the paid wifi. the next step will show how to pay and one of the opions will be your paid package. Next it will ask you to select a user name. I just set that to my last name but you can set it to anything your family will remember. Then it asks for a 4 to 6 digit password. Then you are connected. When you connect to the ship wifi and it does not load the connection page go to the ships app. Select the right most icon of the three on the top; the one that looks like a little man. About two thirds of the way down you will see the option to connect to the internet. You will use the same user id and password for all three connections. it keeps track of how many devices are connected. If your family is switching between computers and cell phones make sure they sign out or it will tell you all three are taking and you will have to tell it to disconnect one.

with the GTY (Guarantee) cabin you could end up anywhere on the ship. I booked a GTY cabin last week when I booked a trans-Atlantic on the Allure. Once you get assigned a cabin you can call and get it changed but they must have a cabin you want with the same cabin catagory as the one they gave you. I do a lot of GTY cabins because I value the saved money over the location or balcony type. I would expect the worst cabin in the category and that way you will be excited about getting anything better. We have done the same cabin on the Allure and Symphony ships. The only differance is the Symphony has a dry slide that blocks part of your view. The Allure does not have the dry slide. You can see one of my videos on the Bordwalk Cabin on the Symphony. If you jump to the end it shows the balcony and views.

It seems that you are expecting OBC. Very few of my bookings have OBC given to me. The only ones that I expect OBC is ones I book while I am on a cruise and the Next Cruise program supplies the OBC.

I see you already decided. Just a FYI ... The balcony that looks over Central Park will be quiet except for the string quartet that plays in the evening. You can watch people and have a good view of a park. The Boardwalk balcony will be much louder and is good for people watching. If you are at the back of the ship you will have a view of the ocean and can watch the Aqua show from your balcony. The ocean view will give you a view of the ocean. When you pull into port it can be noisy in the early morning.

A couple days ago I saved $300 on one of my cruises based on the California resident rate.

I am worried about Celebrity. They have new management and I have been hearing bad things (changes). I have spent 3 months trying to find a cruise to go on solo and it does not exist. They have changed their pricing structure to convince solo cruisers not to go on Celebrity. They are charging us over double the price. It is cheaper to take someone with you. With less staff on the ship and charging extra for everything it seems someone in management has strange ideas of how to make money. it is not great service and have lots of people cruise.

Convince your kids to go to the kids are for part of the day. 90% of the kids love it, mine lived there when he was young Spend time watching videos of the ship and learn what is there before you get on the ship. That way you have an idea of what to find and enjoy. Food is free and everywhere. At dinner you can eat until you are full (or stuffed). Don't eat at the buffet every night, enjoy the main dining room and the experience that comes with it.

GTY booking takes a cabin space on the ship. If the ship is full they will assign them after the Royal Up is done trying to fill the Suites.

I have done lots of GTY cabins and cannot find a rhyme or reason behind how they do it. Two different times I booked multiple rooms and once I got cabins next to each other and the other time they were on different floors and different ends of the ship. I was able to look and find the same cabin category and get them to move the cabin to the same floor. Lately all the ships i have been on have been very full so I would not expect to be able to move cabins. On the other hand like you said you have an adult (22 & 24) to put in each cabin so it does not matter where they are.

This is what I did to make my travels easier... I am not saying it is for everyone or you should do it. I opened a Charles Schwab Investor Checking account. It comes with a high interest checking account and a brokerage account. I use both of these to keep my vacation funds. As long as there is money in these accounts I can vacation. The checking account comes with a Visa Debit card that can be used at any ATM in almost any country. Any ATM fees are automatically reimbursed to my account. This allows me to get foreign currency when I get to any new country. I can use the Visa card with no foreign fees. I changed my phone to T-Mobile Magenta Max 55+ plan. This gives me free Data and Text in almost any country. I have not found a country that I do not get the data and text. This allows me to use my phone for maps and google translate as soon as we hit a port or I land at the airport.

They did not do a very good job of displaying what they want you to have. it is to busy and confusing of where you ended up. It looks like they are trying to force you into the room they want you to have and not give you options.

No I don't get that service but that is not what I need. I agree to stay away from most big box companies. Costco Travel is not for everyone but it is good for me. I only need a company that is going to take care of my changes and problems. I am on the computer every day so i do all the monitoring and personal service. When I have issues Costco reps are paid by the hour so they will stay on the phone for days to make sure I am taken care of. For someone like me it works because I get the rebate and I take care of the personal service.

You can still do all your research and planning. Be in control of all of your decisions but have a travel agent to help you with the issues. I book 70% of my cruises with the cruise line but then move them to my travel agent (currently Costco travel) to help me with issues and give me a rebate.

two things: 1. if the price goes down after you purchase it you can cancel your purchase and re-purchase it. The only issue is the reimbursement will take a day or two and the new charge is now. 2. The changes in price and percent will be all over the board. Like @SpeedNoodles said look at the final price per day. Like a lot of stores they will raise the price then put it on sale. I have purchased items at 20% off and it was a lower price than when it was 50% off because the price went up. Also like @Doug_Texas said black Friday always has good prices but do not rely on it because all prices keep going up so back Friday might be good but good at a high price.

I ended up using 1 1/2 sticks of deodorant. I also had to purchase hair conditioner and it was twice the price I would have paid at home. Everything else was fine. I did Laundry at the end of the 10 day cruise and 1/2 way through the 17 day cruise.

I am sorry for the late response. I stayed at The Lord Nelson Brewery Hotel. It is a pub with 7 or 8 rooms above the pub. It was a great experience and I would stay there again in a heartbeat.

I have done a lot of GTY Cabins and have been assigned 6 months out and have been assigned 2 days out. For me, I book them because I do not care where it is so it is no big deal to wait.