mistertomatohead

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

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:

Would this have worked if it wasn't a casino offer? For example, let's say after final payment there was a new offer that added OBC everything else being the same. Or something even better like kids sail free. One time I called a casino at sea number (not Royal) and didn't like what I was told about a discount I was trying to apply to an existing booking. I called again the next day and ended up with the same person. It was so awkward I gave up after that.

I'm going to be on Navigator of the Seas for the overnight Cabo cruise in September. I'd like to know this as well. It's a tender so I have a feeling you either get back on the ship by a certain time or you are staying out until morning. My booking confirmation says arrival 12:30 PM and departure 8 PM for the first day. The second day just says departure at 12:30 PM. Arrival is blank. I feel like we're getting shorted the second day. Also not clear if you can stay out the first day and when you can get back on the ship the second day? Some have said the ship sails away and comes back. More shopping and gambling for people onboard? By the way, when you book the website says: Confusing? Misleading?

Thanks for this. I noticed one day the elevate and indulge packages disappeared. References to them were erased. Links from searches went to pages that don't exist anymore. Someone else said they were phasing out Always Included? Anyone know if this is the long term plan?

You can just purchase OBC but you have to call since they aren't available online. https://www.royalcaribbean.com/faq/questions/royal-gift-order-options

You have to call the gifts number and talk to a rep to buy the OBC. I did a few weeks ago for an Amex offer and got the statement credit. I gave them the reservation number, etc. You can buy gift certificates online but I don't think it works for credit card offers because it shows up as a different business name. I think the terms also say no gift certificates. By the way, don't be surprise if it doesn't work. Terms and conditions are subject to change or be enforced whenever or to any extent at any time. Maybe if you bought too much OBC they might flag it and deny you for gaming or abusing the offer. https://www.royalcaribbean.com/faq/questions/royal-gift-order-options FYI, for Celebrity I bought it online and got the Amex statement credit.

Can't you just tell them you have an early flight and they let you off early? Isn't there a shuttle to LAX where they give you priority disembarking? It might be worth the cost. General advice is to give yourself time and fly out a day later or a late flight but some people have work and other obligations they have to get to. My Nav cruise is September.. have they fixed the big screen on the pool deck yet? It looked like permanent 3D when I was there earlier in the year. I liked the ship except for that one thing. They were showing movies and the screen was broken. I saw YouTube videos later that showed it was still broken.

How do they decide who gets their special travel agent rates? I figure there aren’t too many cabins available so are they giving them to their biggest spenders? There’s probably no point in getting one for me since I’m a solo, budget, no extras cruiser. I kind of expect them to not give me the best deals. Their value is in handling complex bookings which I don’t need at the moment.

Take the COVID part out of it and it sounds like a "normal" (i.e. before pandemic) cruising experience. I started cruising this year. By Feb. of next year I would have been on 8 cruises if all goes well. I got COVID on an Alaska cruise and thankfully only had symptoms after I got home but had to cancel my next cruise because of it. The irony is I've enjoyed cruising because of the pandemic causing the ships to not be at full capacity. It's a completely different story when the ships are at full or near full capacity. I think I'd stay away so I'm trying to get as many cruises in until then. (Hopefully my next few cruises aren't going to be "normal" cruises but I know ships are starting to get close to full capacity if they aren't already.) It also helps that I've tried to be as cheap as possible so it meets my (lowered) expectation. Picking the cheaper fares also probably means cruises that aren't full.

Does it depend on what you paid? What happens to the cabin fare if you get a partial no show? Do you lose out on a promo that required two people?

I did get the offer but I didn’t pay the cruise off completely. I then bought some OBC to meet the $500 on the remaining amount so my friend can get the bonus too, hence “doubling” the offer. I did the same on the Norwegian offer. I might even triple that offer if I can find someone with the $500 offer since I have over $500 left to pay for that cruise. I’m out of people close to me with AMEX cards though.

By the way, with Celebrity you can buy OBC as gifts (to yourself) online and they did work for the Celebrity AMEX offer. The business name on the statement was the same as the reservation. I even used a friend’s card to double the offer. (They got to keep the statement credit since I’m such a good friend.)

I called for my RC myVEGAS comp cruise and they said the OBC benefit couldn’t be applied because it was a myVEGAS cruise. At least I got it for my Celebrity cruise.

I called the gifts number 1-800-722-5443 and purchased OBC of $900 to go over $1000 for my cruise. I got the American Express email almost immediately after the card was charged saying I met the requirements. The gift certificate I bought earlier came under some other business name so I don’t think that works but the OBC purchase is the same name as the reservation. I’ll have to see if it holds and I get the $250 Amex credit. I’ll also need to see if I can get a cash refund once onboard otherwise I’ll have to spend it …probably mostly at the casino. I consider this risky so do it at your own peril.

I just called the number listed for my MGM Gold and they added the OBC to my Celebrity booking. This was a regular (non-casino offer) booking. I have a Royal myVEGAS comp sailing that I will try to get the OBC added to. It might get denied because it's a comp/casino offer or I can only use the OBC benefit once. The numbers can be found here: https://www.mgmresorts.com/en/mgm-rewards/preferred-partners/royal-caribbean-and-celebrity-cruises.html

I cruise solo so I saw this and booked my first Celebrity Cruise ever! https://creative.rccl.com/Sales/Celebrity/General_Info/Special_Offers/6_17_22_FLY_Single_Supplement.pdf Click the Applicable Sailings button for the zipped XLS with the list.

I snagged a myVEGAS comp cruise for September... now how do I make this work? Anyone know what a gift certificate purchase looks like to AMEX? It's from a different site so the purchase could be coded differently. Or is it just like a reservation? I know the terms say gift certificates are excluded but I might experiment. By the way, the general AMEX Offers terms also warn against abusing or gaming the system... EDIT: Answering my own question. It shows up as "ROYAL CARIBBEAN CERT" so it shouldn't work.

For those that don’t have these offers even after going below 100 offers to add so you see ALL offers, do they pop up later before expiration? It might be hard to tell with them not displaying everything over 100.