RorySC

OK, time to show just how weird I can be at times when it comes to thinking.
I have pretty much remained Loyal to Royal for several reasons, but here is just a few.   16 cruises, 12 with Royal Royal (Majesty of the Seas) was the first cruise I was ever on I think it was back in 1997. From that point I was deeply hooked on cruising. I have also tried, Celebrity, Holland America, Princess, and regrettably paradise Bahamas. (That's a story for another day) but have always came back to Royal.
I have always been someone looking for the so called Cruise Hacks type of thing while remaining Loyal to Royal.
I am originally from NJ, now living in SC..looking to move to FL.    Interested in moving to FL for several reasons, but some of them are cruise related. I was playing on paper one day to figure out, just what we spend on travel to and from ports, luggage fees, hotels the night before, and sometimes a night the day we arrive back to home port. Alcohol package, and Internet. Sometimes, adding this all up came to 2-3 thousand. Sometimes more/less.    When it comes to the Alcohol package, we tried with and without a package. Without, we found it to be stressful (Always counting, or looking at the bill every evening) we lost $ every time. Our daily routine We found that with a fresh squeezed OJ in the morning, a water or two for excursions, a coffee or two that is not pee pee water, a Gatorade, and then 2 or 3 drinks a day each was way more then the drink package. So the package pays off for us big time. You have to have at least 5 drinks or a combination of about 5 of anything on that list per day to make it work. So then I was thinking if I became Diamond or above, I would get 4-6 free drinks a day depending on what tier you are at, and discounted Voom (about 20%).
A while back I had hoped to be able to push myself up in tier levels with purchasing points. NOPE, Royal does not offer this. So had to come up with a new plan. I started listening to Matt @ RCB, and now shop early and often to lock in rates on everything cruise related. I do 99% of my bookings downstairs in Next Cruise for the added OBC and reduced Deposits of only $100 pp, then have the reservation switched over to my TA. If we have to cancel or make a change, we only lost $100 pp or during the Cruise with confidence no loss at all. This made it even more easy. We also were purposely booking Jr. Suites because they will normally let us board around 11am, and you get double points for each night. Since we normally sail BtB or longer sailings, we have been getting 28 points per sailing. A added plus is when Royal has a special (like during the early time of Covid) they had double points. So our 28 points were 56 points for a sailing. We pompously booked cruises for cheap at times knowing that they would be canceled during Covid so we would get a 150% FCC. With the extra 50% FCC we switched up to a Jr. Suite We hunkered down and booked as much as we can just to take advantage of the double double points and extra FCC's, pushing us up to Dimond Plus real fast. Now we can relax a bit. We can drop down to a regular Balcony room, with the added discounts for Diamond, made a regular balcony even cheaper, and we get 5 drinks a day each. so no more drink package a savings of around $1,000, per sailing and we even get a discount on the Voom.   Also staying Loyal to Royal, keep an eye on RCCL stock. The days leading up to Covid, the stock was about $135 ish. This morning it is around $75. I have seen it up to around just under $100 in recent weeks. It is up & down but I am sure over time, it will go back up and even pass the high of $135. The day the CDC announced a shut down for Covid in 2020, the stock dropped to around $19. If you got in then...Score!!! If you own 100 shares or more, you get OBC for each sailing that range from I think $50 up to $250 per reservation depending on the length of sailing for as long as you own the stock   Now here is what we are really excited about. With Celebrity Honoring our Diamond status in whatever they call their comparable status, we have a whole new list of Itinerary's and ships to try and we still stay within the family. BUT, if you ever feel the need to "Jump Ship" (no punt intended) some other lines are honoring your RC status on their lines as well. Such as MSC if you sail with them. But we are Loyal to Royal...and staying here.
P.S. When we move to Fl, we cut out flights, baggage, hotels so there is a nice savings as well.
Yep.....told ya we are weird and or to much time on our hands to think.

OK, time to show just how weird I can be at times when it comes to thinking.
I have pretty much remained Loyal to Royal for several reasons, but here is just a few.
 
16 cruises, 12 with Royal
Royal (Majesty of the Seas) was the first cruise I was ever on I think it was back in 1997. From that point I was deeply hooked on cruising. I have also tried, Celebrity, Holland America, Princess, and regrettably paradise Bahamas. (That's a story for another day) but have always came back to Royal.
I have always been someone looking for the so called Cruise Hacks type of thing while remaining Loyal to Royal.
I am originally from NJ, now living in SC..looking to move to FL.
 
 Interested in moving to FL for several reasons, but some of them are cruise related. I was playing on paper one day to figure out, just what we spend on travel to and from ports, luggage fees, hotels the night before, and sometimes a night the day we arrive back to home port. Alcohol package, and Internet. Sometimes, adding this all up came to 2-3 thousand. Sometimes more/less.
 
 When it comes to the Alcohol package, we tried with and without a package. Without, we found it to be stressful (Always counting, or looking at the bill every evening) we lost $ every time. Our daily routine, we found that with a fresh squeezed OJ in the morning, a water or two for excursions, a coffee or two that is not pee pee water, a Gatorade, and then 2 or 3 cocktails a day each was way more then the drink package. So the package pays off for us big time. You have to have at least 5 drinks or a combination of about 5 of anything on that list per day to make it work.
So then I was thinking if I became Diamond or above, I would get 4-6 free drinks a day depending on what tier you are at, and discounted Voom (about 20%).
A while back I had hoped to be able to push myself up in tier levels with purchasing points. NOPE, Royal does not offer this. So had to come up with a new plan. I started listening to Matt @ RCB, and now shop early and often to lock in rates on everything cruise related. I do 99% of my bookings downstairs in Next Cruise for the added OBC and reduced Deposits of only $100 pp, then have the reservation switched over to my TA. If we have to cancel or make a change, we only lost $100 pp or during the Cruise with confidence no loss at all. This made it even more easy. We also were purposely booking Jr. Suites because they will normally let us board around 11am, and you get double points for each night. Since we normally sail BtB or longer sailings, we have been getting 28 points per sailing. A added plus is when Royal has a special (like during the early time of Covid) they had double points. So our 28 points were 56 points for a sailing. We pompously booked cruises during covid knowing that they would be canceled so we would get a 150% FCC. With the extra 50% FCC we switched up to a Jr. Suite We hunkered down and booked as much as we can just to take advantage of the double double points and extra FCC's, pushing us up to Dimond Plus real fast. Now we can relax a bit. We can drop down to a regular Balcony room, with the added discounts for Diamond, made a regular balcony even cheaper, and we get 5 drinks a day each. so no more drink package a savings of around $1,000, per sailing and we even get a discount on the Voom.
Also staying Loyal to Royal, keep an eye on RCCL stock. The days leading up to Covid, the stock was about $135 ish. This morning it is around $80. I have seen it up to around just under $100 in recent months. It is up & down but I am sure over time, it will go back up and even pass the high of $135. The day the CDC announced a shut down for Covid in 2020, the stock dropped to around $19. (I scooped up a 100 shares) If you got in soon...Score!!! If you own 100 shares or more, you get OBC for each sailing that range from I think $50 up to $250 per reservation depending on the length of sailing for as long as you own the stock
Now here is what we are really excited about.
With Celebrity Honoring our Diamond status in whatever they call their comparable status, we have a whole new list of Itinerary's and ships to try and we still stay within the family Loyal. BUT, if you ever feel the need to "Jump Ship" (no punt intended) some other lines are honoring your RC status on their lines as well. Such as MSC if you sail with them. But we are Loyal to Royal...and staying here.
P.S. When we move to Fl, we cut out flights, baggage, hotels so there is a nice savings as well.
Yep.....told ya we are weird and or to much time on our hands to think