djs68

Hi everyone, Just wanted to share a quick recommendation—especially for any fellow UK cruisers who usually book direct with Royal (like I always have!). For our Caribbean cruise next year, I decided to try using a US-based travel agent for the first time and booked through MEI Travel. I was connected with Becky, and she’s been absolutely brilliant. Not only has she answered all my many questions quickly and clearly, she’s also worked with Royal on our behalf—securing the best location, applying discount codes, and handling our future cruise credits. She really knows her stuff. One big benefit I didn’t realise before: booking through a US travel agent gives you access to refundable deposits, which we can’t get here in the UK. Plus, they monitor your cruise price and will automatically reprice if it drops—again, not something available to us normally when booking direct from the UK. Another example: we wanted 7:30pm dining, which I thought would mean going with My Time Dining, but Becky let us know Royal has recently added a third traditional dining time—and she got us booked into that with a table request already in. All in all, I’m really impressed and wouldn’t hesitate to recommend MEI Travel. It’s been a far smoother, more personalised experience than I’ve had before, and I’m confident we’ve got the best deal too. Happy sailing! Darren

I can confirm that this is still be offered today in Live Chat. As I had already booked it a higher price, they refunded my money and just added it to the booking. They also changed us to MTD too. Very helpful and saved waiting on the phone for ages.

Yes this was a bit of surprise when we booked our first cruise recently, though ours is only 5 nights. Would have been nice to have known this at time of booking. I'd wait until they do a sale when the price comes to around £50pppd (or less if they offer that!). You will still pay around £1,400 for the trip though, so depends how much drinking you're planning on doing! You might find that by the end of week 1 you're not at the same pace that you were earlier in the cruise...

Ah ok thanks. I thought it could be something like new posts wouldn’t be pre-moderated at a certain rank for example. (Not that that’s the root of my question. I accept moderation is required!) Anyway, my curiosity is satisfied! All the best

Ok many thanks, makes sense. They’d have to reflect that in the relevant menus of course.

Hi, is there a page that details RCB rank and reputation system. I realise the more you engage the higher these go but I’m keen to understand the mechanics and implications of reaching higher ranks. Apologies if it’s somewhere obvious! Thanks.

I see that the Chops Grille menu features USDA steak and Maine lobster. Do they offer those on ships in the Med cruises? Just curious given the logistics involved. I assume the ships resupply with local fresh produce before each sailing rather than sourcing from the States?

Thanks @CruisingNewb glad it’s not just me!

Thanks all for coming back to me. I completely agree with Spang - Matt you and your team do an amazing job and am so sorry that this did not come across in full. I love the channel and just thought a recent experience would make an interesting content suggestion. I honestly and sincerely apologise if I have caused any offence. All the best

Hi Matt - thanks so much for personally responding! OK - to get into the details, I emailed a really helpful contact at MEI and they said they could only take over my booking if I had booked it in USD. As my booking was in GBP (as I'm in the UK) then this wouldn't be possible, so I wasn't able to take it any further with them. I then contacted a UK agent who pointed me to RCCL who told me I couldn't transfer it anyway due to UK rules. So yes, possibly MEI could have done it if I'd booked it in USD (but I'm not sure how many UK direct bookings are made in USD or even if it's possible - but good to know for the future!) NB I had only paid the deposit and it doesn't go fully paid until mid/late July as the cruise is in October. So it's a bit complicated with various nuances - you are always very good to remind everyone that your recommendations/views etc may not always be applicable in all countries - so I thought it might make a useful topic for future content. All the best and thanks again for taking the time to respond!

Ah thanks! That's saved me from some odd looks when onboard.

Hi This is something for Matt & Co really. As a first time cruiser I am finding your videos and blogs to be incredibly useful and entertaining, so thank you very much for putting such quantities of quality, relevant content out there for us. One thing that I have found is that sometimes the rules differ between what is allowed in the US and other countries. For example, I wanted to transfer my directly-booked trip to MEI (as you advise) but while I spoke to a US-based call centre rep, the UK rules meant I couldn't do it all (no matter how close to the original booking or distance from date of travel). I think it might be useful therefore to your audience to understand where these differences lie, hence my suggestion! Thanks

Apologies for the potentially trivial question but I'm curious about this. I'm new to cruising and have heard Windjammer pronounced how it's written but also with a French inflection ("Windjamm-ere"). What is the correct way of saying it? Thanks!

Many thanks both

According to the RCCL website, Vision has a Sorrento’s… https://www.royalcaribbean.com/cruise-ships/vision-of-the-seas/things-to-do/sorrentos-pizza Does anyone know if that is correct or a website glitch? Thanks