jbrinkm

3 hours ago, Cactus527 said:

The biggest question I'm still wrestling with is: if I just want to chill out and lay somewhere on a beach at PDCC, should I do it at Hideaway Beach or not? On the one hand, I've done PDCC so I know what's around the island. The Hideaway Beach pass was only $20...

Potato may attempt to help, but I'm not sure how useful she's going to be...

You could use the $20 Hideaway Beach for this cruise to test whether or not you like it (and do you like it $60 worth for your next cruise?) - $20 does feel like a low commitment cost. 

Our dog is Pancake (a Golden) - we didn't name her but I love that it is her name.

17 minutes ago, Ryan79 said:

Your flight time has nothing to do with the disembarking group you get assigned UNLESS if you booked air through Royal. Otherwise there is no mechanism for Royal to even know when or if you are flying after getting off the ship. 

I have always filled out a survey about my travel plans onboard and then been assigned a coded tag based on that information. 

We've never had an early enough flight that I've paid attention to the start time of disembarking with luggage assist (only the end time, as we have often been one of the last off of the ship). What time, assuming everything goes smoothly with a scheduled 7am arrival time, would the earliest people be let off to collect their luggage? I assume they would assign people with earlier flights to the earlier disembarkation group? If you've ever been in the first luggage group, do you remember what time your flight was?

• I am not interested in self-assist as we have too many bags
• I will make my own risk assessment as we have insurance if things go wrong - I know that things can happen!

On 2/23/2024 at 1:06 PM, jbrinkm said:

Ugh, I bought the soda package for my husband and I yesterday while on sale to give myself a little time to decide if we really want it (I had purchased for my parents and my teens already during the Black Friday sale and they all will definitely use it). I do love a good Freestyle machine but not sure we drink enough soda to make it worth it. Now I'm scared to cancel it if I don't want it after all - we sail in March and are past final payment. 

We just cancelled 2 of the packages - I just gave my TA a heads up in case they tried to mess with my cruise fare and trusted that she could work it out, and today I saw my refunds on my credit card. I don't know if they've fixed it or if it is because my fare came from a group pool via my TA, but I'm relieved.

4 hours ago, Baked Alaska said:

Hubby and I went on our first empty nest cruise three weeks ago on Oasis. It was bitter-sweet. Time is a thief, parents. Take those kids with you when you can. In a blink, they will be gone.

2 hours ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

I am feeling that in waves right now....from my own kids, to the memories of time gone by with my own family (parents & sisters).

Me too! This topic could be it's own support thread...

Reviving this to ask - if you do the laser tag early in the cruise and then spots open up for later in the cruise, is there a possibility of doing it a second time, or are you blocked out by the system because you already did it once?

If you purchase a specialty restaurant in the planner before your cruise, can you switch the time on board without paying the difference, as long as the time slot is available? I am trying to guess the best night to do a specialty dinner but I don't really know what dinner we want to skip until we're on board...

6 minutes ago, Ryan79 said:

I was able to get one about 2 years ago on Harmony with no issues at all. Not sure if that is normal or not, but it was New Years Eve and the Wonderland staff went out of their way to make sure everyone had a great time.

OK, that is very promising!! Wonderland has so many open spots on my cruise now, I'm hoping it won't be very crowded. It is also an Easter week cruise so maybe they'll be accommodating. I am still considering booking the whole dinner but I'm not sure how much of it my group will eat (1 vegetarian, 3 pescatarians, 2 non-adventurous midwesterners). I was hoping to do something special for my oldest who will have just turned 17 and thought if we don't eat a full meal there, dessert and drinks would be very cool. How did they charge you?

I just may have answered my own question, because I remembered that it is a prix fixe menu, not an individually-priced one. So how could they charge me for just dessert since it doesn't have it's own price..

I know you can go in and just get drinks with no reservation. I'm also wondering if you can order a dessert at the bar like you can on land at bars inside of restaurants? Has anyone tried?

Did they tell you why, originally, they were giving you the discount? Was it because you had such a large group, or they had group space bookings available, or something else? 

I'm really sorry you are dealing with this stress instead of looking forward to your vacation!

I don't think you are overreacting at all. You made a specific request that is absolutely within their capacity, for a safety/health reason - these cups should be replaced when used regardless, but certainly if you ask - and you have no way to know if they were also left from the prior guests. Noro stinks and can be very dangerous when you are on land but when you are on a cruise, it additionally ruins your vacation and wastes your vacation time and money.

I do think that if you put the cups out of the bathroom as @cedricmr said would get them replaced, but the issue now is trust. You don't trust your cabin attendant. If you do decide to complain to someone while still on board, perhaps you can ask for a swap? 

BTW, why did you have a feeling that they wouldn't be replaced? Were there other issues that you picked up on?

This is very cool. Does it also send emails or you have to just keep checking on the site under your account? I had one issue - the button under the description for "sign up" did not work for me, only the one at the top did. Should I submit an email for that?

Huh, we have the same itinerary as you at the end of March, but we have Labadee first, then Aruba, then Curacao, with 2 sea days at the end. I wondered when you said they pushed formal night back, when they would do it, but it makes sense when you had the two sea days in the beginning rather than the end of the sailing.

Congrats on D+, big milestone!!!

19 hours ago, TheMaxRebo said:

Pretty eventful birthday but definitely a reminder of how lucky I am  

Your wife's vibe is fantastic in the pics! I love the platinum on her, and I couldn't imagine a more perfect dress for the supper club (the scallops remind me of the Chrysler building). 

This thread has certainly taken a turn. My app is fine now too!

I did it in November but just discovered this thread, so I'll post about it. We sail on Symphony at the end of March and my parents decided to join us this trip (they have not cruised since the 80s when my Dad's company used to charter cruises). They booked a GTY oceanview because they are retired on a fixed income and it was the lowest price at the time (a few dollars less then an inside guarantee). They were assigned a room really early, it was half of a connecting and in a bad spot, so TA was able to shift them to a better, but still not great, spot on the 3rd floor (only OV rooms left). 

I wasn't happy with their location but when I checked on upgrading them to a GTY neighborhood balcony, it would have been $500 so I decided to wait for Royal Up. 

However, I checked during the BF sales and fares had dropped. I don't know what their 3rd floor OV would have been to just reprice, but my TA offered two options - save $20 to switch to a neighborhood balcony GTY or pay $60 total to upgrade to a OV balcony GTY. No brainer for us - we upgraded them to an ocean view balcony GTY for $60. 

They were again assigned a room very quickly on the 6th floor near the spa. My TA (the awesome Jennifer K. from MEI) reached out and said she saw rooms on the 8th floor near where we were, so we were able to swap them to a room 2 doors down from us. So for $60, they went from a bad OV on the 3rd floor to an oceanview balcony on the 8th floor. 

I paid via PayPal for Roatan Getaway Tours (credit card the year before when we booked with them on Viator for the "mass" tour, not private). 

14 hours ago, GregD said:

there will only be a headliner performer on cruises that are 8 nights or longer.

By headliner, are they talking about the comedian/juggler/musical act in the big theater? Not the cast big-show performances?

The Australia site seems to allow: 

https://www.royalcaribbean.com/aus/en/faq/questions/different-departure-port-city

The US site does not:

https://www.royalcaribbean.com/faq/questions/different-departure-port-city?country=USA

The Australia site does have an email so I guess it doesn't hurt to ask, although my guess would be unlikely.

Happy birthday! Nice pic, and so sorry about your dining table spot - does it feel intimate at least, away from other tables?

I haven't been on a ship yet with Jamie's. Giovanni's on Allure seems to blend in well with Central Park, but is it just me, or does the Jamie's sign seem a bit garish? Bright red neon just seems to clash with everything else in the park...

1 hour ago, FionaMG said:

The couple sitting next to us kindly agreed to take a pic for us. We're both hopeless at selfies. I'm so pleased with the one they took, I'm going to print it a frame it. 

And by night:

On 2/6/2024 at 12:31 PM, bobroo said:

Rookie (which was way more talented than a replica Beatle band could ever be) was the only band to play in Boleros.

They did have Rookie play the second to last night in Music Hall. And they did have the Caribbean pool band play in there on night two or three. That was it for live music in Music Hall.

It looks like Rookie is on Symphony now - sound like they were good? They are doing a few headliners in the main theater. I'm hoping they will still be there at the end of March.

3 hours ago, Yesiamthere6 said:

Back to the chicken conversation. Imagine the horror when I sliced into our Sam’s Club dinner to see this!  It’s a blood clot.  It changed my relationship with whole chickens…..forever!

Paging @She Sails Away & @Ampurp85

2 hours ago, p27159 said:

Question: do you all know when I can expect to get cabin room assignments (how many days before the sailing date?) for a guaranteed cabin?  

This is old, but may give you a sense of how all over the place these assignments can happen:

There is a barcode trick if you have your cruise docs already by scanning, prior to officially getting your assignment. Or put them in your Apple Wallet if you have an iPhone. 

If you get a room you aren't happy with, there is a small chance you can move to a different room in the same EXACT category i.e. 4D, not ocean view balcony, but you'd have to call and there would have to be availability.  

14 hours ago, CanHardlyWait said:

The problem was Royals wonderful system refunded us the charges out of our PAID IN FULL cruise balance and not out of there own money they maid off the individual purchases. 

Putting us in the red just before final balance due in full or you will be canceled and we will resell your cabin at four times the price time. This is for Icon that we booked day one of booking 2 years ago at 1/4th the current price. (Some coincidence huh??)

Anyway, it took 5 days and a total of 6 hours to get someone to straighten it out. I out and out asked for OBC and got $50 for my troubles. Believe me, it wasn't enough for what went through.

Point is....be very careful when canceling and rebooking add ons like drink packages etc for better price, when there is a sale.

Continue to check your balance for paid in full. Both in app and website. We went from paid in full to owing over $600 days before final payment due date. All because Royal Caribbean refunded our paid by credit card add ons, with our own money and not the money the cards paid them.

Check your balances constantly. And think twice about canceling and rebooking something to save a few dollars. It can go so horribly wrong it's ridiculous.

Ugh, I bought the soda package for my husband and I yesterday while on sale to give myself a little time to decide if we really want it (I had purchased for my parents and my teens already during the Black Friday sale and they all will definitely use it). I do love a good Freestyle machine but not sure we drink enough soda to make it worth it. Now I'm scared to cancel it if I don't want it after all - we sail in March and are past final payment.