mistertomatohead

5 hours ago, JP0524 said:

I know all the tricks of booking double and then saying your guest “doesn’t show up”, but that doesn’t work if you want to pre-book drink packages etc.

How does the no show trick work? Don’t they treat it as a cancellation where there’s no refund or best case future cruise credit? Also, don’t some promotions like on board credit say you need double occupancy? Isn’t it what travel insurance is for?  The cruise line keeps the money and you take it up with the insurance company. Seems risky but I’d love to try it even if I’d feel a little dirty.

I wonder if there are any travel professionals that would advise against doing it. Although I was talking to one and he was so proud of getting extra discounts/onboard credit by making up some issue from a past cruise.  If he’s willing to lie to the cruise line I assume he’d lie to me too.

Is it the same lobster tail they serve in the MDR? Seems like they are the smaller, cheaper quality. 

3 hours ago, Bonnen said:

I'm going solo and bought my deluxe drink package online just got to wait until it shows up with just one price. 

Are you doing the no show trick or are you booking without a solo supplement? Does Royal even advertise those cruises? I heard about the Celebrity no solo supplement sale and there’s a list of sailings on their public site for travel agents which anyone can download.  It’s so convenient to just have the list and book myself on the website.

I can only choose 4 guests max and it says triple or quad occupancy so how do you get 3 kids free?

Ignoring everything else and just looking at price for adults who get the alcoholic beverage package, isn’t Celebrity cheaper with “Always Included?” You’d have to account for the included gratuities. Even throwing Internet in for free, it seems Celebrity is cheaper. I’m sure with kids sail free Royal comes out ahead but not everyone sails with kids. Maybe it’s just me since I can only get the rates on the public website.

What is the best sale percentage wise you’ve seen? BOGO 50% off isn’t. I’ve seen 30% off. What does the Black Friday one say?

I am assuming they don’t change the regular price once it is set for the sailing.

I’m going on the same cruise and the app doesn’t mention testing for me as I am vaccinated. It depends on your age and vaccination status.

They really should just have a pre-booking questionnaire so you know exactly what’s required. (Sail date, age, vaccine, doses, Canada, Bermuda, etc.)

They should also state when testing is not required instead of just saying when it’s required. Don’t leave anything to interpretation.

It doesn’t really matter because each sailing is priced different. You might already have the best price for your particular sailing.

I currently have $70.99 (30% off $102) for my Sept 2nd Cabo 5 day on Navigator. I’m going solo.

Looks like a guaranteed cabin isn’t an option with more than two people.

I was confused by the promo banner too. They should just filter on the promo instead of letting you search for any cruise. Under “Exclusions apply” (I think they meant to say between 9/2/22 - 5/25/23)

Quote

Kids Sail Free applies to new bookings made between August 1 – 31, 2022 (“Offer Period”) on sailings departing on or after September 2, 2022 – May 25, 202 (“Offer Cruise”), providing free cruise fare for third guests and higher who are 12 years old and younger as of Offer Cruise departure date on sailings 3 nights or longer booked in the same stateroom as the first two qualifying guests in a triple or quad- occupancy stateroom. Kids Sail Free excludes Thanksgiving sailings departing November 18, 2022 – November 25, 2022, Holiday sailings departing December 18, 2022 – January 6, 2023, Spring break sailings departing March 10, 2023 – March 24, 2023, Holy Week/Easter sailings departing April 1, 2023 – April 11, 2023 and Rhapsody of the Seas sailings departing from Haifa, Israel between August 5 – October 28, 2022. Taxes, fees, and port expenses are additional and apply to all guests.

You’ll see it mentioned after selecting the date:

10 hours ago, sk8erguy1978 said:

In my small dataset over the years, I've noticed the BOGO 1/2 Off never lined up with the 'base' price. The 20% and 30% always did. I gave up lol. 

My current 30% off doesn’t. I chalk it up to some marketing/sales person requiring the sale price to be .99, regular price .00 and percent off to be in some nice percentage of 5s or 10s. Meanwhile the programmers are going mad and customer service people have to deal with it. 

Edit: Seems like they’re just rounding down to the nearest .99 because that one cent difference means more sales I guess.

1 hour ago, Bonnen said:

what's the chances of being in a hurricane or a tropical storm going to the western Caribbean end of sept?

What's your concern? Cancellation? Itinerary changes (skipped or changed ports, reduced time at port, etc.)? Rough seas? Rain ruining excursions or that beach day? Delayed/cancelled flights? No compensation when things change?

A lot can happen. It is the peak of the season. I guess you can expect rain. I don't know about rough seas when the ship is going around storms. I don't know what the cruises have done in the past as far as compensation. It seems they don't provide any if they skip a port. Maybe I'm wrong. I'm guessing cruises should be really cheap during this time so you get what you pay for.

On 8/17/2022 at 12:24 PM, Leroyr55 said:

So I already purchased a deluxe beverage package so I can’t price this one. Buy one second half price? Is this the usual smoke and mirror sale ? It’s listed at 72 so is the second one really 36?

So is $72.99 per person cheaper than what you purchased? What was your purchase price per person?

Am I missing something? I thought I heard somewhere that drink package prices for Royal is different for different sailings. Maybe that's only for the Deluxe package. Meaning a "good" price is hard to compare unless it's for that particular sailing. Same ship and sailing date only. Fuzzy pricing. (Sorry, couldn't resist.)

RC/Celebrity actually has a partnership with MGM already so BetMGM would be logical. They might as well jump on board (pun intended) because a lot of states have already allowed online betting. California is voting on it soon.

Cabo in two weeks on Navigator and Puerto Vallarta, Cabo, and Acapulco on the NCL Bliss Panama Canal cruise in December. NCL doesn't seem concerned with Acapulco even before all this unrest when the State Department has warned against visiting. I'll see what happens in Cabo and the other stops in Mexico.  I don't see this situation improving anytime soon.

Just to clarify, the proctoring is not free. You paid for it with the test unless you got a free test or some other arrangement somehow? I bought all my tests from the Optum site and they included eMed proctoring.

Is there something about that ship? Maybe it gets low on electricity. LOL.

Can you ask for extra outlets? Don't they have something onboard they give out?

Yes, please provide details so others can report if they got sick. These things are very unreported. I can remember the good old days of norovirus outbreaks. I was on a cruise (not Royal) earlier in the year and got a bad stomach ache. It was not “fun.” Thankfully it only lasted the night. I’m pretty sure it was some sketchy fish I ate in the main dining room since I only ate cruise food. Nothing in Mexico.

Isn't there always a sale? Most of the time it seems like they play games with the numbers and perks but it comes out pretty much the same.

My question would be with final payment. Should you hold off making final payment until due date? Is it easier to reprice when you haven't made full payment? Are there restrictions with RC? With NCL, I did a reprice before final payment recently and they told me I can only do it once. Anything else to be on the lookout for?

Can't you order food or set up excursions through the app? Or sign up for the chat and Internet?

That makes it simple. I don't see Bermuda and it's not Florida. You're considered fully vaccinated. It is not required but only "strongly recommended" to get the booster. You're fine as long as you've had your second shot at least 14 days from sailing. However, all this could change when you get close to your sailing.

Nothing showing as scheduled here: https://creative.rccl.com/Sales/Royal/General_Info/2022-2023_Fleet_Guide.pdf

On 8/1/2022 at 10:33 AM, llatiolais said:

If I have had both vaccination injections, do I also have to have had the booster to be considered completely vaccinated?

The only two terms used are “full/fully” and “up to date.” Royal considers the base course (i.e. without booster) of a vaccine to be “full” vaccination. “Up to date” is a changing definition. As of right now, they consider it with one booster but in the future it could mean two boosters or the upcoming Omicron booster or a booster within a certain period of time or even a base vaccine close enough to the sailing.

As of right now, for a vaccinated person, you are required (vs. recommended) to be fully vaccinated (no booster) but it gets complicated depending on which vaccine and where you are sailing from/to.

Just to be clear, do you mean fully vaccinated when you say completely vaccinated? Where are you sailing from/to? Which vaccine(s) are you referring to? Without that info people are going to give you all kinds of answers that might be correct but incomplete.

I can see where that 8 PM comes in.  Maybe the ship really does sail away that first day and come back. What's the earliest you can get back on the ship the second day?

I just received the Vacation Documents email: