mistertomatohead

On 10/5/2022 at 1:32 PM, Skippy67 said:

We were on Navigator late August with the UDP and had Maine lobster at Hooked without a surcharge.

Based on the pricing I'm leaning towards it's not Maine lobster but as others have said warm water lobster. I'm going in a few weeks on the Navigator to find out myself armed with the UDP. LOL.

EDIT: This is what the sample menu says...

Quote

Whole Maine Lobster 2 lb. stuffed with crab, topped with creamy béchamel sauce and grated Gruyere, then baked until golden brown

13 hours ago, Ampurp85 said:

You can book a GTY online as a solo. I have done it.

I've been pricing some solo cruises and it doesn't give me the option for GTY. From what someone else posted I guess I can use a travel agent or call and do it over the phone with RC directly if I don't see it available online.

44 minutes ago, Va4fam said:

The only offer I see through my personal AMEX is free specialty dining for a 6 night or longer cruise.

 

Check out the blog post

https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2022/10/24/get-25000-rewards-points-american-express-new-offer

It's part of a specific card benefit called Amex Offers.

Check your Amex often! I keep getting Royal, Celebrity, NCL, Holland America  and Carnival offers. I’ve double and triple dipped with my friends’ cards. They don’t seem to care I’ve used previous offers. I don’t even spend that much on my cards. I have two of the cards that don’t require annual fees. My friends have Platinum.

Just make sure you’re seeing everything by keeping the offers available below 100 and using the website instead of app. I didn’t see this mentioned in the blog article.

There are also airline (Jetblue, Delta, Alaska, etc.) and hotel offers out there. It’s kind of ridiculous (in a good way).

On my recent Navigator sailing they just wanted the knees covered. One kid wore his brother’s shorts which were long enough to cover his knees but not much beyond that. They even said pajamas were okay.

It's one thing to target JUST new customers but they might be now devaluing loyal players. Casinos have typically given much better offers to NEW players given the same coin-in, even ones that haven't put in any coin or just matched. It's clear by them matching new players and apparently making it harder to those that just played a little. In the industry these are called teaser offers. Take advantage of them while you can. Carnival has their Funmatch, now it seems Royal is doing something similar. The general rule is when they match and/or you are new to them, it's better to hit that sweet spot and don't over spend to get their teaser offers. The problem is finding the sweet spot. It's a lot easier when they have a match program. As a brand new player they know nothing about you other than the match and your potential losses, you can take advantage of that honeymoon period without ever committing.

Are the offers all free cruises or at the 200 pts level they are just discounts? Hopefully discounted more than on the website.  If I could get 200 points for a free cruise with just being down $100 that's very lucky to me. You also need the discipline to walk away when you're down or made the 200 point level. That doesn't apply to me. 

Meanwhile NCL has always maintained they never lowered their prices. If anything they've raised prices due to inflation recently.

I only started cruising this year and took advantage of the low prices. It's starting to look too expensive to continue. Unless I can find some really good deals, I'm done by March eight cruises later with Royal, Carnival, X, and NCL. I'm glad I got them in while it was still affordable. 

7 hours ago, Jack805 said:

Random question relating to the shareholder OBC benefit:

Does anyone know if the RCL shares have to be part of a "regular" individual portfolio (traditional brokerage account), or can they be part of a tax-advantaged one like a retirement/HSA portfolio? I definitely can add some RCL stock to my tax-advantaged portfolio easily (looked it up and see an option to purchase from my account), but if it needs to be a "regular" individual one for Royal to apply the OBC I'll have to wait longer to do that. My name is included on the statements but lists the account custodian as the first line and mine as an "FBO" second line. But if it doesn't matter what account type it is I'll probably try to add some to hopefully use for an upcoming sailing in a couple months! Any extra OBC I can get my hands on is great (already have NextCruise and MyVEGAS OBC applied!).

My IRA statement which had my name worked fine for my upcoming December sailing.

Itinerary changes are one thing but what’s the actual experience like? Are the seas rough? Things closed/cancelled due to rain or wind either onboard or in port? How are flights impacted?

On the upside, are there noticeably less people onboard? Anyone get great last minute deals or free upgrades due to others cancelling?
 

I don’t think you should worry. What’s done is done. If they have evidence of it, there’s not much you can do about it. Who’s to say they didn’t save it for some other unrelated reason and happened to just have it.

This is also true with myVEGAS casino comps. I’ve done two of them solo this year.

The real question to me is how does it impact your future offers? Do they attach a dollar value to your comps like land based casinos and therefore value it like double occupancy?

https://abc13.com/houston-woman-stuck-in-montego-bay-jamaica-carnival-vista-cruise/12217285/

Recent story of someone who is stuck in Jamaica. It was going to cost $40k to evacuate from Jamaica to presumably Houston. 50k coverage sounds like it’s cutting it close.

It was probably a timing issue. The crew seems very careful because it’s their lively hood. I guess it was probably spread before they knew. But of course you never really know. Once they know they will do whatever they can to prevent further spread. To not do so hurts their bottom-line. Let’s face it, it’s a corporation trying to make money.

It sucks but it’s reality. I got COVID on an Alaska cruise before they dropped most of the protocols. I had to cancel my next cruise. There’s still a possibility of cruising getting disrupted by COVID but it’s not stopping me.

On 9/9/2022 at 11:05 PM, mistertomatohead said:

I tried the offer match with my Wynn Platinum status. It says you have to have not sailed since 2018 (and no existing booking) but I'll see how it goes. My only bookings have been twice this year with myVEGAS comps and an upcoming Celebrity one. I haven't gotten even close to 200 points so we'll see.

They got back pretty quick and said I was already eligible since I’ve been on their cruises. Eligible doesn’t mean I get anything since I only messed around and got 133 points.  Now I wonder if I should even try to get offers or just throw my money away at some other casino.

I tried the offer match with my Wynn Platinum status. It says you have to have not sailed since 2018 (and no existing booking) but I'll see how it goes. My only bookings have been twice this year with myVEGAS comps and an upcoming Celebrity one. I haven't gotten even close to 200 points so we'll see.

If you see a reward sold out, there is a daily refresh schedule. Just check around that time. I’ve seen the cruises become available after being sold out.

https://www.vegasmessageboard.com/forums/index.php?threads/daily-myvegas-refresh-times.193384/

New rewards can come at anytime but existing rewards will refresh with the schedule. I’ve been on two free cruises this year. The last one was a 5 day Cabo one that cost 2.5 million points!

Obviously Cabo is much much much better than Ensenada. I take it no Catalina. Is Ensenada an overnight now? Sounds dangerous. I hope people don’t stay out. 

Any compensation? Port fee and tax difference?

The $900 OBC credit I bought by calling was refunded as cash while I was onboard the Navigator of the Seas. No issues at all. I even did it the second day instead of waiting till the end. With some other charges to get over $1000 total, I was able to get $250 statement credit. My offer was kind of lame (25% off vs. 40% some people had) but with refunded OBC it's essentially free money. The OBC showed up while I was onboard and showed as refundable in case anyone was wondering. 

21 hours ago, JohnK6404 said:

I’m pretty sure they only operate the casino in international waters due to potential local tax consequences , etc.

I believe the rule is different for Alaska. Something about being a certain distance from ports.

On the ship now. The ship isn't leaving so the casino will be closed and they will tender throughout the night until the next day at 11:30am.

On 7/29/2022 at 7:07 AM, smokeybandit said:

It was working fine when I was on it a couple weeks ago.

On the ship now. Still broken and still showing movies. So lame. This is the pool deck screen not the theater which is fine. At this point it might be more than a year to fix it since it'll have to wait for drydock.

Thanks. I get it now. You end up eating the cost of the fare for the no show person. It can be cheaper than paying double but only under certain circumstances. I won’t be feeling dirty then.

There was a specific question about whether or not it’s sufficient. $50k sounds low for evacuation. The CDC says they typically cost 50k to 100k. I really have no idea. Hopefully someone has some data in this pandemic/inflation world we live in that’ll be helpful.

I like outside insurance because I can just get the medical and increase coverage. Apparently medical offered by cruise lines aren’t enough for most emergencies. It comes out cheaper because I don’t get trip insurance.