deButler

5 hours ago, twangster said:

I'm not sure "trouble" accurately describes it.  

In my case my transition from Emerald to Diamond occurred during a B2B on Anthem.  After cruise #1 I would have enough points to earn Diamond.  .  I was boarding Indy 7 days after Anthem cruise #2.  My Anthem points had not yet posted on boarding day for Indy and the system still officially had me as Emerald at that point.

None of it was trouble, it's just how it is handled in a situation where additional cruises begin before the points from previous cruises have posted on their own.

@twangster VERY glad to hear this process is not as complicated as I’ve heard people discuss. My Wife and I will both hit Diamond within 3 nights after completing an Alaska trip on Quantum next week. Since we have a trip on Wonder scheduled for mid October we wanted to get our status up prior to that sailing.
 

Our fortunes aligned we she received a comp offer for a 4 nighter on Navigator but it put us off on 10/13 to board Wonder on 10/15. Speculation that we STILL might miss out on Diamond Status due to the timing lag of points credits we decided to add another 3NT comp to the front of our Navigator sailing and do a B2B where we earn Diamond during the first sailing and then enjoy it during our second sailing. I planned to discuss it all with the LA during the first sailing to make the transition smoother. Sounds like we might still have a bump in the road to get over when boarding Wonder but easily manageable. 
 

THANKS to all here for sharing your wisdom, insights, and experiences to help us navigate this system a little easier!!

Yep. Last week my wife got 1 on each at the same time. Booked the “Online” offer that night and called in the regular offer the next morning for a S2S out of Miami. You “should” also get a mailed flyer later in USPS and an email notifying you of the Online offer but sometimes not. 

A new wrinkle is that some “Online Only” offers only appear on the Advanced Search page of Royal Caribbean dot com under the “My Offers” tab. These don’t always appear on the Club Royale Offers page. 

2 weeks!! Can’t wait to get out of this TX fire pit. Was 116 w/ feels like of 123 yesterday. Today is a cold front down to 97.  Highs in the 50s is SURE going to feel nice.

Wife and I booked this from my Prime Tier Certificate back in April. Can’t believe this trip is finally almost here. Looking forward to doing another Oasis class ship. Best part is that we will make Diamond on a B2B we booked on Navigator right before this one. Can’t wait to enjoy our 4 drinks per day. 

Love the tips on TIPS that we get on these boards! We’re about to start the first of 4 upcoming B2/B3B trips that we’ve booked and had not thought through several of these scenarios. Thanks to all for the insights!!

25 minutes ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

We had Mason Jar brunch today.  So.Much.Food.  Good but perhaps a bit disappointing after all the hype.  That’s usually the case with a new venue that is highly hyped.  Good enough to go back ?  Yes.

Good to hear!!
 

We booked brunch at Mason Jar for embarkation on Wonder in Oct. We have a couple Southern style brunch places near us in the Woodlands that we love to do so we’re excited to see this option on the newer ships. It works out perfect for us as my wife greatly prefers lunch 30 mins after awakening while I’m still working on a 2nd cup of coffee and breakfast to go with it. 

We spent a month touring Italy last year and spent one night in Lucca and wish we had done another. My daughter and I rented bikes from a shop right beside the wall and rode around the entire town in a very short time. It was soo pleasant and not very crowded. The Cafes in the “town square” (which is round) are very neat with apartments wrapped completely around them looking down. We had amazing Tuscan BiStecca at the restaurant of our apartment owner. 

We took the train from Florence to Lucca which has to change in Pisa. Since we were stopping any way we dropped our luggage near the train station and caught a city bus to the other side of town to see the tower. It was interesting to see since it is basically the “Eiffel Tower of Italy” but the city itself was very disappointing. And last year there was NO ONE there!! This year we did a Trans-Atlantic to Rome and then 2 weeks taking my Mom back to many of our favorite places and the tower in Pisa was SOO crowded you couldn’t get in or get a decent photograph. One thing I discovered this year is to book your stops through the Pisa S. Rossore train station and you can walk <1 km to the tower from that station. 

To Lucca from Pisa Centrale is only about 30 mins on the train. It’s a very quick and easy trip. By far the easiest way to travel around Italy.

One important clarification is that the OBC is only available for purchased cruises and NOT for any reservations made using any “Comp’d” credit such as Casino Offers. I applied for several booked trips last month which was quickly credited to the one full fare reservation but denied for our Casino bookings. This is clearly stated in the investor FAQs however I figured I would at least list them in case they snuck through.

I booked several tours in Italy and Spain during out last 2 TAs with Get Your Guide. 

@Gerre  Our hotel had a shuttle to the pier. 

On 7/31/2023 at 6:41 PM, TroyDuncan said:

Hey guys! Mine and my wife’s first cruise will be in January it’ll be for our honeymoon, we get married in November, we just want to know what’s the best, most affordable Shore excursions there are for Puerto Vallarta, Cabo San Lucas and Mazatlán. 

@TroyDuncan  Which sailing are you on? My wife and I are doing the Jan 19 for our first trip over to Cabo, PV, & Maz. Looking forward to this one. 
 

@DDaley @Luly @Va4fam @HeWhoWaits Thanks for the Info on the opportunities at these ports. Some very cool details.
 

Have to wonder if we could actually see the SAME whale(s) on Quantum in a few weeks in AK and then on Navigator in Jan in PV??  Might have to go check them out down South in the Pacific. 

We had a Trans-Atlantic out of Miami in March and flew into FLL. Others flew into MIA so we just hopped on the BrightRail straight to MIA and then caught the hotel shuttle at MIA. Cost us about $10 each from FLL to MIA. I think it only took about an hour. Easy transfer. Saved about $400 for 2 of us on flight and transfers. 

Congratulations CHRIS!!! So awesome to hear your news. After enjoying spending the nearly 2 weeks of our record setting TA crossing with you and the Casino team on Symphony we will now have to relook at available trips on Icon. Best wishes on the exciting times opening up this fantastic new ship.
 

Anyone else from Symphony host team  joining you on ICON???

9 minutes ago, OCSC Mike said:

Unless you're on a ship like Wonder that has a WAP in every cabin.

Get to test it out in October. That would be awesome. 

BOGOHP is only based on the “on-board” pricing. It’s Still $68/day x 2 people. It’s not $68/day first +$34/day for second. They will also require you to buy her the refreshment package as the “substitute “ for her Deluxe Beverage Package. Pricing for us when we did it for my brother and my mom on their room was the $68/day for DBP and $27/day for Refreshment Package. We also had the BOGOHP special at that time. I had to call to understand why it was so much more than 1+1/2 total price each day.  (GEAUX Tigers)

I Worked off and on during 2 Trans-Atlantic crossings (Symphony & Explorer) this year and had very satisfactory service to use all of my applications needed. Mostly I chose to work out of the Connisoure Cub or library, etc. but  overall was satisfied. If I was having slowness at any point I just moved to another location. Like others have mentioned depending on location of your room it can get spotty in there. My results from some of my tests on second trip on Explorer.

Thanks much. I carry my cards from ship to ship with no issues so far. You should be good for it on your next trip. 

We are booked for the final 22 Night segment from Amsterdam to Miami through Iceland & Greenland. VERY excited to be part of this amazing trip and hope we have some amazing celebrations at the end of this segment. After doing 2 Eastbound Trans-Atlantics this Spring we’re also looking forward to doing a Westbound TA.

Amalfi coast can also be a steep proposition, especially Positano. We were there 2 weeks ago and it was approx. 450 steps up to where we had lunch midway up the town.  Beautiful place though and was well worth the effort. 

We are 10 of us onboard from New Orleans & Houston. All first time Alaska cruisers so very much looking forward to this trip. Wife and I have been to Alaska on land/sky travel in 1999 so familiar with the Area but looking forward to getting to cruise through and hopefully see lots of wildlife. 
 

SUPER bummed that we lost Skagway as we had booked the Bear watching excursion and now have to rebook a new excursion in ISP. Have heard there are good populations of Brown Bear in that area also so hopefully can find something to replace our previously planned excursion. 

On 5/4/2023 at 1:09 AM, DDaley said:

We're on that sailing too! I am so sad to miss the White Pass train. Ughhhhhhh this does not make me happy. And why would this have effected our arrival into Sitka as well??? I am contemplating postponing a year. 

Not sure yet what we’re going to do. We have a group of 10 of us going on this sailing so I’m sure we’ll have to start looking at new excursions in ISP.  It’s a shame that we’ve also LOST time in other ports rather than the “ADDED” time RCCL claims in their emails.  I look forward to hopefully meeting up once we get onboard if you decide to still go. 

8 hours ago, Pattycruise said:

I agree with the MDR but we stuck it out-table of 10 solos so it was our time to catch up on the day and upcoming evening plans.  We had a head waiter practically babysitting us by the end of the week with all of our complaints.   We should have had him pull up a chair and eat with us so he could have a better understanding of the complaints.  It amazed me that the food quality and temperature didn’t improve with our babysitter. 

23 hours ago, ManhattanWilliam said:

I was on the March cruise from Miami to Barcelona (my 4th transatlantic with RC) in a balcony stateroom and thought the food in the main dining room was horrible. ….      
    Overall it was a GOOD experience but most assuredly NOT a great one. 

We also crossed on this trip and agree 100% with the MDR reviews. This has been BY FAR the biggest disappointment since we restarted our cruising this year post COVID. Overall we really enjoyed the trip, meeting so many fabulous new friends and getting started again in the traveling that my wife so dearly LOVES. She is now totally hooked on Trans-Atlantics and we are currently onboard Explorer doing our 2nd crossing in 2 months. I will say that the food experience here on Explorer has been MUCH Better than what we had on Symphony last month. Maybe being familiar with the new menu, knowing which dishes to order, and which NOT to get has helped. 

We got Icy Strait Point in place of Skagway for Sept. 11 sailing. 
 

2 hours ago, F1guynz said:

I have generally found that Royal Caribbean will contact you via email if there are any changes to itineraries or time in port, so until you receive an email from them, I would assume you are still going.

Looks like it’s official. Just got this email for our Sept 11 Quantum sailing.