JohnUK

We are due to board Vision next Tuesday and have just discovered (via Concierge) that the BOGO benefit for speciality dining is no longer being offered. We usually ask the Concierge to make a reservation for us before we board which is how we found out. I am rather disappointed that a worthwhile perk for D+ has been withdrawn. This is very recent as we certainly had the perk available on our last cruise on Explorer in June this year.

Thank you for the information. That is very useful - sounds like you had a great cruise.

Yes, these are great books. My personal favourite is Lord of the Rings (not the films so much - too many illogical changes). In the Narnian chronicles, I particularly enjoyed The Magician's Nephew and The Last Battle, which tend to be overlooked. I wonder if we will ever get a Dawn Treader of the Seas? Unlikely - although it could be powered by an infinite improbability drive (Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy - a more humorous series of books - again, forget the film). Back on topic, I have never seen Cats so do not have an opinion.

We will be sailing on Summit towards the end of next year (through the Panama Canal). It will be our first Celebrity cruise, so we would be grateful for any feedback you might care to give, when you return, about Summit and the general Celebrity experience.

We love sailing from San Juan - the guest complement is more diverse, which is great. The ABC islands are amongst our favourites and we don't mind the lower number of sea days. Air fare is not a big issue for us as we are flying from the UK so the price difference between flying to Miami or San Juan is not significant. We always fly to San Juan at least one day early so we can see a little more of the area; hotel prices are not cheap but we have never been disappointed (even in the season following the hurricane). The only aspects that have been less than ideal both concern the airport on the return journey. There is a bit of an anomaly concerning pre-screening of all luggage when entering the airport. The signs do not make it clear that all luggage has to be screened and then re-collected before checking in. It is easy to bypass this screening but then you will be sent back when checking in. But this was minor. More serious was when our son flew back from San Juan on United. The queue (line) wound through the whole terminal and out of the door. It took him over 4 hours to check in! He would have missed his flight had it not been seriously delayed.

Hi, We will be flying from London Heathrow to San Juan via either JFK New York, Philadelphia or Miami or Toronto. We have done all of these in the past and prefer Miami (if we are not leaving the airport) as the flights tend to suit us better (a long international and a short local along with lower risk of impact from adverse weather in the winter season). In the past we have used Air Canada, Delta/Virgin, and BA/American. Our son used United but never again after his experience with them in San Juan. I hope that answers your question. I cannot be more precise until we decide once airline schedules are available for 2021.

I agree with Twangster with regard to the "Meal with an Officer" as we have always had good food and good conversations, although, on a couple of occasions, we had an officer who obviously considered he/she had drawn the short straw. Mostly we have found that just listening to the officer describe their duties and responsibilities was very instructive. Sometimes they also managed to enlighten us with useful insights into RCCL's plans and intentions (but not often). In all cases we were asked to tick boxes on a card left in our stateroom as to which perks we wished to take advantage of - bridge tour, galley tour, entertainment tour, meal with an officer - and return the card to the loyalty ambassador by a certain day and time. This is a great benefit and one I would miss if it were to be withdrawn in the future. As others have said, I have seen no material impact on my C&A benefits since the introduction of The Key. Perhaps I have been fortunate so far. I will take particular note when we board Explorer next week of any meaningful delays to embarkation.

We were booked on the same cruise to Norway next year and very disappointed that it has been cancelled, particularly as we had planned to take our 4 year old granddaughter with us. To make the situation worse the Norwegian fjords itinerary from Southampton will not exist at all next year. And, as others have said, prices for Anthem are much higher. My wife has received her FCC (sent to my email) and I don't expect to receive mine as, for some reason, Royal refuse to send to me at my email address. The FCC states that expiry is the 31st May 2021 so you should be ok. If under performance of the UK market was a contributory factor to the change, it might have been better for RCCL to reduce capacity by sailing 2 smaller ships from Southampton, say one Voyager class and one Vision class, rather than Anthem by itself. By the way, we are sailing on Explorer to the Norwegian fjords at the end of this month - and that sailing seems to be full, which means it can't be that unpopular.

Yes, I had to book very early for this cruise - Panama Canal crossing seems to be popular - so the current promotion wasn't available. Thank you.

Thank you for the information - that is very helpful. We will be in a Sky Suite (so bottom rung) which means, if I have got this right, that we will have access to the Retreat lounge but the premium drinks package is only included from the next level up. I hope reason prevails and the workload for butlers is reduced. I have seen on RCCL that more work is being covered by fewer staff now compared to a few years ago. As a result, a lot of staff end up very tired. Despite this, they are always pleasant, helpful, and efficient, with only a very few exceptions that we have encountered.

Thanks for the update - I suppose a small area is better than nothing. I hope Royal doesn't go the same way. By the way, we were on Grandeur in February and had a great cruise. The ship may not be the biggest or best but all of the crew are first rate; it seem to be a genuinely happy ship. I wish you a fantastic vacation.

I have made several attempts to get onto the email list but without any success to date. I will try the link when I am 30 days away from sailing and see if that works.

Thank you. I would appreciate any feedback you can share when you get back in October. It is sad to hear that the Captain's Club lounge is no more - I thought the Retreat lounge was just an update to Michael's Club. It seems a shame that loyalty isn't worth so much these days.

We will be sailing on Celebrity for the first time next year (Celebrity Summit on a Panama Canal crossing), so we do not know what to expect. In particular, it would be useful to know what drinks and facilities are available in the Retreat lounge and the Captain's Club lounge. Do they provide a comparable experience to the Suite, Concierge and Diamond lounges on RCCL? We do not usually purchase a drinks package as the "happy hour" on RCCL is quite sufficient for us. If the Celebrity lounges provide the same then we can adopt the same practice - and save some money. Any other advice on similarities and differences between the RCCL and Celebrity facilities and experiences would be most welcome.

Good to know - there is hope for the UK yet (politics aside)!!!

I would like to have the opportunity to try Royal Up but I have never received an email for it. Does anyone know if the program is restricted to US and Canada only?

We have 10 lined up at the moment, but that includes one on Viking (ocean cruise on the sister ship of the one that got into difficulties recently) and one on Celebrity. As others have said, it is so comforting to come back from a cruise and still have something to look forward to. It takes the sting out of the end of a vacation.

In general, I think your observation is correct. But there are exceptions...… for example, the total price I paid for a cruise next year on Independence went up by around £200 (for 7 days) when they changed the offer to include the drinks package. Usually, the new price rises to, would you believe it, an amount approximating to the old price plus the price of the drinks package (or more). I am sure that is purely coincidental!! It is always worth checking as some of the exceptions have saved me an awful lot of money over the years.

Further to my last post (above), I continued to work with Stephanie of MEI to finalise a booking for 2021. In the event, I decided not to book the cruises on Anthem (the itineraries and dates were not quite what I wanted). Instead, Stephanie has booked B2B cruises on Freedom for me, sailing from San Juan in April of 2021. For information, I have given the details of these bookings along with a US to UK price comparison. As before, I have used a conversion rate of £1 to $1.30 and the comparison is direct for a J4 Junior Suite, with no extras (such as WiFi or drinks packages) included in either case. Freedom of the Seas 2021 US Price UK Price Difference 04/11/2021 £2,665.38 £4,070.78 -£1,405.40 04/18/2021 £2,505.36 £3,850.78 -£1,345.42 Total £5,170.74 £7,921.56 -£2,750.82 MEI have now booked this for me, so it is definite. There are three observations to make, however. The deposit required is higher than would have been the case in the UK; $250 per person for each cruise (total $1,000 approx. £770) as opposed to £150 per person with the 2 cruises together treated as a single booking (total £300). Obviously, these bookings are not covered by ABTA (ABTA is the leading association of travel agents and tour operators in the UK, providing expert travel advice, guidance, protection and help in resolving travel complaints.) Stephanie was able to place the Anthem and Freedom cruises on hold for 2 weeks whilst we tried to decide between the options. Our travel agent in the UK has not been able to guarantee placing reservations on hold for more than 24 hours in recent months. Again, thanks to Stephanie at MEI for facilitating these bookings. I will track the impact of US and UK offers, price changes and currency fluctuations as time goes on, and report back.

Just to add to this research, I have placed on hold 2 B2B cruises with MEI. The price comparison is: Anthem 11 night Caribbean cruise from Port Bayonne 26th January 2021, Spa Junior Suite Current UK price: £6,494 MEI / US price: £4,106 (using conversion of £1 = $1.30) Anthem 8 night Bahama cruise from Port Bayonne 6th February 2021, Spa Junior Suite Current UK price: £3,292 MEI / US price: £2,108 This is a direct comparison as the UK price for 2021 does not include any additional offer - not even wifi. I noted, though, that 2021 pricing, is much higher than the same cruise on the same ship in 2020. So, there may be lower prices or drinks packages offered in the future. I will track this and report back. Total saving at current prices and exchange rate is: £3,572. That's a bit of a no-brainer! Thanks to Stephanie at MEI for a very quick response.

Thanks for undertaking this comparison. I will follow this thread with great interest. I have only just realised that MEI will now accept bookings from the UK. Regardless of pricing, the level of service they provide, particularly when it is proactive, is superior to anything I have seen in the UK. As an aside, I often use Next Cruise on board ship for future bookings simply because they will give the choice of booking using the current UK offer or the US offer. I think the US offer has, in every instance, given me the lower price, even taking into account drink packages etc. If it looks as if I can gain the same advantage by booking directly with MEI, then that would be the way to go.

It depends on the ship; some have moved to digital viewing of photos, which means only images that have been purchased will be printed, whereas others are still using the traditional method. We were on Grandeur in February and had the same experience as yourself i.e. the traditional method of print all pictures and display on the walls for selection. But Navigator, last September, used digital terminals.

Whenever we have used the photo viewing and ordering terminals, once the print(s) is selected and ordered, the system allows you to add your D "voucher". The value is then subtracted from the order and you collect from the desk once the selected image has been printed. I think it even gives you a pick up time.

We have done both but prefer to use the taxi - it is better value for money and more convenient. The taxi queue (or line) tends to be quite long and can look a little daunting. However, the flow of taxis is very well organised and the queue moves surprisingly quickly. As I recall, it only takes 20 to 30 minutes to get to the airport. If this is your first visit to Barcelona, it is worth spending a couple of days there, before or after the cruise, to have a look around.

We have used Barcelona several times and always found it to be very easy to get through. It is also quite close to the airport, compared to other locations, which makes for a very simple taxi ride before and after the cruise. Taxi fares are fixed price for these journeys so there are no surprises.