Marc

That is against the rules, and it's been reported that if you are caught sharing the package, they cancel your package and may also charge you for drinks that were obtained via the package.

That's partially correct. Kids always have their own, individual number of points based on what sailings they've done, but they inherit the status of their parents. Once they turn 18, that status sort of "locks in" and they retain that status, despite their lower number of points. For example, my younger son has gone on four Royal Caribbean cruises with us. He has 29 points. However, since I turned Diamond before he turned 18, he was considered Diamond, and he still is now that he's 18. Of course, to get to Diamond Plus, he'll need to earn another 146 points on his own, but that's up to him to figure out how to do that. :)

Our typical plan is to book a flight late in the day and we rent a car one-way from the port (with a free shuttle from the port to the nearby car rental location) to the airport. Then, we can spend the day leisurely exploring the area, having lunch, and doing whatever we want in a slow, relaxing way, rather than rushing off the ship and getting right onto the cramped airplane. Doing this has made disembarkation so much better for us.

Park Café? I think you've strayed away from Freedom of the Seas! :) As I recall, on Freedom of the Seas they were indeed up in the Windjammer, by Sorrento's, and I think there might have been one in the arcade, but I may be confusing it with Allure of the Seas.

I don't understand. Everyone sailing onboard gets Crown & Anchor points, not just the first two guests. Also, assuming he's still under 18, your son's Crown & Anchor account should be linked to yours so he'd be at the same level that you are (regardless of how many points he has).

I'm hoping to find a deal on Harmony of the Seas, too. I'll disagree with you ever so slightly here. When the original BOGOHO deal started in May 2014, the pricing was the same as the regular pricing the month before, but now they had the 50% off the second guest discount. I booked or adjusted the pricing on three cruises then and got fantastic deals. For my cruise coming up next month, we got a rate of $504.50/person back then for a 7-night cruise in a Promenade cabin on Freedom of the Seas. A few weeks later, though, the second BOGOHO started, that's when the pricing was adjusted so that 100% + 50% of the new rates ended up being the same as 100% + 100% as the original rates. Nonetheless, in my opinion, the everlasting BOGOHO with occasional dalliances into 30%-off specials is growing tiresome. Of course, all cruise lines play games. NCL has higher pricing, but they're "giving away" free beverage packages and specialty dining. The only thing one can do to remain sane when shopping for a cruise is to ignore the deals and perks and compare bottom lines.

I'm surprised that Royal Caribbean is going to have their 30%-off promotion when they release the new schedules. I'm hoping that the 30%-off pricing will be attractive on the March 2018 sailings I'm interested in.

I got my first (and probably last for quite a while) gold SeaPass card on my last cruise. In the growing pile of blue SeaPass cards, it stands out quite nicely.

What I found interesting on one of my last cruises was that they were replacing the bar menus that had the $10 price listed with ones that had no prices listed. Also, some bars featured drinks that were $10 while other bars had a different menu with drinks that they charged $12 for. I really, really miss the old bar menus. They had much more variety, both in terms of the drinks themselves and their cost.

I think that a single shot of well liquor is $6. It's possible that a simple cocktail (screwdriver, rum and Coke, etc.) might be $7-8. I've never seen a mixed drink below these prices.

Just to follow up on this for completeness' sake, I was able to use the Cruise Planner to put a Nellie's Beach cabana into my shopping cart. (I didn't check out because I think $495 is too much.)

Are they already sold out in the Cruise Planner? Although they say "Onboard Only", I think the Cruise Planner is now letting people (who are willing to pay $495!) book over-the-water cabanas at Nellie's Beach. (I did just try to check to see if it would let me book one for my upcoming cruise, but the Cruise Planner isn't working right now.)

I'm a slots player. Like I said, I was doing very well, so I was doing some wild stuff including raising the credit value on the machine to 5¢ and betting something like $15/spin. As far as the comp went, the host had mentioned that he was willing to comp my companion and me dinner at a specialty restaurant. I told him that I was already booked to go with a group of friends. He asked how many of us there were and after I told him that there were elevent of us, he then suggested that I should check with him the day before we were scheduled for that dinner and he'd see what he could do. That day, he told me that he'd be able to comp the whole group. The $200 wine comp was a surprise to us, though. When they asked us about having wine with dinner, we all declined, but the server said, "The casino host has included a $200 comp for wine." I was shocked! We ended up ordering five or six bottles out of that! It was a fantastic meal!

Yes, the TVs have an interactive system that includes an "Account Review" feature.

I think that BOGO fares don't disqualify you from getting the shareholder benefit. (Reduced rates would be below the normal pricing available to everyone such as discounts to travel agents and such.) I will note that it doesn't matter who paid what amount — they'll look at the total price paid and any offers that anyone on that booking is receiving from Royal Caribbean. The key things that usually come up that will disqualify you are additional discounts (Crown & Anchor discounts being the prime suspect) or any onboard credit offers you're receiving from Royal Caribbean. The best thing is simply to apply for the benefit by sending in the appropriate email request and see what they say.

On one cruise several years ago, I was doing very well and ended up earning about 7,500 points by the end of the week. The host comped dinner at Portofino for eleven of us with a $200 credit for wine. That was truly exceptional. I earned about $1,300 in a rebate for my next cruise. Most cruises since then, I earn about 3,000 points, only get free drinks in the casino, and a ~$500-700 rebate on my next cruise.

Thank you for the feedback. That's quite encouraging.

The problem with the current Club Royale program has been that almost all of their onboard perks have been at the discretion of the casino host. There are no set standards to let you know what benefits you may be entitled to due to your established level of play. As far as drinks in the casino, generally, all Club Royale members should get free drinks. However, on one of my cruises, the casino person (there was no host onboard) told me that I wasn't a "VIP" and I wasn't entitled to free alcoholic drinks, but I could get free sodas if I wanted. :rolleyes: I'm betting that the new system they keep promising/threatening to roll out will have discrete tiers that offer specified perks at each tier.

I know... it's not my idea! It'll be the first time that I'm flying from somewhere cold to somewhere that's colder! I hope to see you again, too!

There may be another option with Verizon Wireless. They now offer TravelPass. With TravelPass, you can pay just $2 (Canada or Mexico) or $10 (many other countries) per day and get access to your voice, text, and data plans as if you were in the US. I'm traveling to Canada next week, so it's nice to know that I'll have unlimited talk and text and a lot of data available for just $6 for the three days I'll be there.

I think there's an ordering problem here. I see that you booked your cabins via the web site (if I'm understanding you correctly), then moved the bookings to the TA. In this case, they are not group bookings. Groups must be set up in advance of the bookings, and the bookings are then made into the group. Your TA would need to contact Royal Caribbean's Group Department to see about creating a group and moving the reservations into the group. Note that this is from a US perspective. It's possible that Royal Caribbean Australia doesn't provide the same benefits to groups.

THREAD BUMP I'm looking at organizing private shuttle service for my group of 16-18 people sailing on Liberty of the Seas in October. I figure that getting a private shuttle would give us better scheduling and the opportunity to have a nice group experience during the hour-long ride between the Houston Hobby area hotel and the port and then back to Houston Hobby post-cruise. I've looked at a couple Galveston shuttle services. Galveston Express doesn't seem to have vehicles that could hold our group and if we hired two, the cost would be a bit too prohibitive. Galveston Limo can offer us an 18-person minibus round-trip for $876. That seems like a lot, but divided among 16 people, that's $55/person, which isn't so bad for a scheduled (as opposed to waiting until the bus gets full), group ride. Are there other companies we should investigate?

Actually, if you book 8 cabins, you get one "berth" (passenger) free. Assuming you have a mix of cabin types (inside, outside, balcony, suite) booked, the free berth will be based on the cabin type with the most cabins booked.

On my last cruise, they had all their Citizen and similar watches out on the Royal Promenade. I was browsing them, curious to see whether they were still selling the model of watch I bought onboard several years ago, and a woman next to me pointed out to the employee that one of the display boxes was missing its watch. It would seem that someone, indeed, did abscond with it. The employee did seem a bit perplexed, but I would have to imagine that it happens with enough regularity that they probably have these displays set up in good views of several cameras so they can review footage later on.

There is a small caveat, though: the price difference when you re-book your flights is only available as a credit that only the ticket holder can use and it must be used within one year of the original ticket's purchase date. Although I still greatly prefer Southwest due to their liberal policy regarding credits, I have lost some price-adjustment credits because I wasn't able to use them in time.