SemperMom

Finally under the 100 day mark! We booked this cruise 2 years ago but have had to move it a couple of times so it's been a long time coming. Really looking forward to checking out Wonder. We've done the W. Caribbean itinerary before so this trip is all about the ship. 

Under the 30 day mark! We got our cabin officially assigned today so now I'm just waiting to see if we hear about our Royal Up sooner than later. lol The kid will get their passport in the mail by Friday! It's starting to get exciting now. Man, do I ever need this vacation. I wish for the next 28 days to go by fast and then for time to screech to a slow crawl once we get onboard. A girl can dream, right? 

I just did this. Well, my TA did it for me. We switched from Wonder in Oct to Vision in August and they asked for the $100 pp upfront. Our deposit wasn't affected in any way. 

When I did this last year, they just added the change fee to our total and didn't ask for it up front. Not sure if that was a "last year" thing or if it depends on other factors like the TA or the RCI customer rep you get. 

I always bring a small-ish (10in or so) travel fan onboard (plug in) and haven't had an issue yet either. I need moving air and some noise to sleep too. All of the cabins I've been in so far, Ive been able to plug in at the vanity and it still suffices if I sleep on the side of the bed that is closest. I'll have to think about a USB type if we start getting larger cabins though. Thanks for getting me thinking about that @SpeedNoodles.

I personally find it very helpful. I wish more people would use it and upload to it. Some of the videos and pictures are crap and outdated but a lot of them do help you get an "IRL" idea of what to expect. I find it easier than searching on YouTube. I don't mind paying the $8.99/yr to support the site. 

I am not going to get too excited about this since I've read it's getting harder to actually win now that we are back to full ships but we made our first go at Royal Up. They gave us all of the suite options so I bid on what I could afford. A Jr., a GS 1 br and a GS 2br at just over minimum. We are happy with the room we got but it would be super fun to walk my son to a suite as a surprise. Plus the anticipation is fun too. Who knows, maybe we'll get lucky, just have to wait and see!

1 hour ago, Sweety said:

You are going to love it. Larger balcony.

We may only come out for food and drinks! Though we'll probably jump off in Orlando for a visit to Disney Springs though. It's a tradition now whenever we are in Orlando. 

21 minutes ago, Gilley said:

I’m doing this cruise in February also, but I got a Gty Room and haven’t gotten my room number yet.   

Hopefully you'll get your room number sooner but if you haven't done the bar code trick once you check in, it works!

15 minutes ago, Gilley said:

I’m not too interested in the itinerary either.  I took it because it will help become Diamond for my May 18th Icon cruise. 

We are on the same path, not necessarily to cruise on Icon, but definitely to Diamond. lol Im going to throw a couple solo's in the mix too, since I get way more time off than my hubs. Our plan is to make Diamond in time for our first transatlantic in 2025. I am seriously considering a New England/Canada cruise so my hubs doesn't miss any firsts. Or maybe another run to Mexico since we both will have done that one twice come October. lol 

48 minutes ago, Sweety said:

I love aft cabins.

I love the idea of aft cabins (we haven't stayed in one yet, lol) so we got one! My husband and I will do the SE Coast and Bahamas for his birthday in February and we snagged 7154. We've been wanting to check one out for years so we are really looking forward to it, especially since we aren't super interested in the itinerary. 

Thanks WaaayTooo, I was figuring that might be the case. Some noise is not a deal breaker but I think I might try to see if we can move, it can't hurt to ask, right? I did see that there were plenty of spacious OV balconies left (for now). I know I would need to wait for the cabin to be officially assigned before asking my TA to check into it for me. If they can awesome, if not, we'll live-as long as we are on the ship, we're happy. 

All Checked in and did the bar code trick to find our room. We don't usually do GTY but this was pretty last minute and the price was acceptable. Not a bad location at all but right at the elevators. I know thats not always a big deal depending on the ship. @Sweety have you cruised on Vision near the elevators before? Any thoughts? 

On 3/30/2023 at 5:31 PM, SemperMom said:

Hi! This trip will be the 2nd leg of my 50th Birthday B2B and my first B2B ever, so if anyone has any tips and tricks or good to know info, I would appreciate your wisdom. I will be sailing with my Son and we'll be celebrating his belated sweet sixteen. We are so excited. 199 days feels sooooo far away. 

Bummed I won't be doing the B2B after all. We ended up swapping this leg with an earlier and longer cruise in August so I am not too sad about it. lol We are still doing the first leg though so we will make sure Wonder is taken care of and ready for you!

Have fun everyone!

Hubs and I will be on board for his birthday cruise! This will be our first winter adventure since we usually cruise late summer and fall. 

53 minutes ago, Ampurp85 said:

@SemperMom they actually assign everyone a C&A number after their first cruise with Royal. You just have to get his number and set up an account. They can credit him for every cruise he took. If you set up a relationship account you will then share status, not points, so if either of you sail solo.

1 hour ago, Pattycruise said:

Contact crown and anchor to get his account # -and if he doesn’t have one they will give him one.  Additionally you need to ensure they put you in a relationship in order for him to have the same points as you.

crown and anchor 1 (800) 526-9723

or visit the loyalty ambassador next time you’re both onboard and they can get it done

1 hour ago, CrznTxn said:

If he goes and gets an account then you can call Royal and have them true up the points totals for him looking at his past cruises.

 

On another note, thanks for the clarification. I thought that is how it worked but wanted to make sure.

You all are the BEST! Thanks so much for the info. We'll take care of this ASAP. 

So how does it work if I am the only one with an account?  When we make diamond will my husband also get the perks even though he doesn't have the account? He's been on every cruise I have been on and I have no idea how it works. lol Should we sign him up and then add all our cruises so he is covered? Is that even a thing? 

Hi Sweety, 

My 16 yr old and I will be going too. Super excited for a nice long relaxing cruise. 

My son just turned 16 and for his birthday he asked for a cruise. He doesn't really care for flying unless he has no choice so I told him about a 9 night on Vision out of Baltimore the first week of August. He was game so we looked at videos of the ship and when he saw it he said "oh, look...she's a little old lady"! He cracks me up.

Our very first cruise was on Grandeur from Baltimore in 2014. The port was so pleasant and uneventful I barely remember getting on and off the ship and in my opinion, thats the way to go. My husband and I had such a fabulous time thats when we decided that cruising would be our go to vacation forever. Lived most of my life 30 minutes from the port and August will be only the second time using it. I kick myself all the time for not having tried cruising sooner. We have cruised mostly out of Bayonne or Orlando since,  the kids prefer the "more fun" ships but my 16 year old doesn't really need all the bells and whistles and is more the quiet type. Vision is just right for him. I will try to share the experience once we return. Only 62 days to go! Squeeeee!!!!!

Hi! This trip will be the 2nd leg of my 50th Birthday B2B and my first B2B ever, so if anyone has any tips and tricks or good to know info, I would appreciate your wisdom. I will be sailing with my Son and we'll be celebrating his belated sweet sixteen. We are so excited. 199 days feels sooooo far away. 

This is a great question. I would also be curious to hear to hear what the ship guru's have to say. Our first cruise was on the Grandeur and it was lovely. Now that Enchantment is in Baltimore, we'd like to check her out. 

20 hours ago, TXcruzer said:

no

Turns out they didn't charge me either...for the cabin move anyway. I am embarrassed to admit I forgot a very important detail that @Ampurp85 helped me to remember. Having done this all back in January, I forgot that I had originally booked a different cruise, then switched to the Brilliance. My brain stored that little tidbit in a whole different file, lol. I am very happy she helped me remember before I made an ass out of myself with my TA. You guys might could use the giggle at my expense though. 

Wow! Great deal Teddy, I love to see it! 

30 minutes ago, Ampurp85 said:

So, they should not have charged you a fee to upgrade from balcony to JS, just the upgrade cost. I have never heard of them charging a fee to change rooms unless you moved the dates, then you get charged a fee. 

I have gone up and down on a booking and never paid a fee. I moved from an interior to a virtual balcony on Navigator. I moved from a balcony to a JS on Grandeur and paid no fees. I have repriced several, if not all my cruises. 

What I meant was yes lots of people would try to scam. They would upgrade to a higher category to avoid the fees and call later and move to whatever cabin they originally wanted. Thats why Royal has a flat policy that if you change dates, itineraries or ships they charge a fee. It makes sense: since a person can book at a cheap rate, hold that room that could be sold at a higher revenue and try to cancel later. 

Thanks for clarifying @Ampurp85 ! It all makes more sense now seeing as how your experience has been that you've never been charged the change fee to move up a cabin category. It didn't sound right to me that at over a year out that they would charge us an extra $200 to free up a balcony and pay more for a JS.

Like I said, I totally get the ship/dates/itinerary change charge, you make great points there. But, when we made the move to the new ship, that original 'cabin only' upgrade change fee moved to the new reservation so now I am paying $400 more for this cruise instead of just $200 and the original cruise has been cancelled. Had I waited a week, my cruise would be $400 less! 

I wonder if others have been charged to upgrade their room on the same ship for the same dates/itinerary like I was. I'm gonna go dig around in the rules on the website and see what I can find, maybe something changed? I use a TA and he didn't question it but maybe his info was wrong? 

On 8/5/2022 at 7:53 AM, TXcruzer said:

I have NEVER lost my deposit on an upgrade on same ship same itinerary. 

Did they still charge you the $100pp change fee? 

On 8/4/2022 at 10:43 PM, Ampurp85 said:

From a business perspective, it doesn't matter if the guest may spend more money. What matters is that the guest was counted as part of this ship and now has to be removed and moved to another. There shouldn't be multiple sets of rules when it comes to changes as people might upgrade to a suite to avoid the change fee and downgrade after the fact. 

I see what you're saying but if they were to down grade after the upgrade, they would have to pay a change fee for that too, right? Or maybe I misunderstood, I am really easy to confuse.  

I just don't think of things in the "how can I beat the system" sense so I vent, but in the back of my head figure there must be a reason for it somehow. We were on the Brilliance and we upgraded from balcony to JS and they charged us the fee. Then, just before they cancelled the Brilliance itinerary (like a week before) we switched to Odyssey and were charged another change fee. So, I get charging us for the ship hop, but I didn't think charging us for the Brilliance balcony to JS was very fair. Don't get me wrong, we knew the rules and we'll pay it, but it doesn't mean we have to like it or let it happen again. We have certainly learned our lesson. lol 

I second the other folks. Before I got my passport, I would just bring a copy of our marriage license to show with my birth certificate.