Doug_Texas

We ALWAYS pick our own cabin. If you book when the deployments first come out; a) overall pricing is better and, b) spread on GTY often pretty small. Obviously ridiculous pricing on new ships like Star OTS introduced new pricing dynamics.

Same with Jan Icon 20 days out. Just log on to cruise planner all the time.

Yes

My Icon sailing date is 1/27 (22 days to go) and no entertainment booking yet. I think Royal wants to remain unpredictable so you keep checking Cruise Planner and buy other things while on the site.

Nicely said. Enjoy your wine you bring aboard in your cabin and walking around the ship. If you want a bottle in any restaurant I would purchase it from Royal.

I think NCL food & beverage is better but the sailings cost more.

True, TA has no role in shore excursions, drinks package, internet, etc. That is Cruise Planner.

Celebration table just went up for sale in the Aquadome on Icon. Description is, "Special occasions get the VIP treatment at Celebration Table — an all-new exclusive dining experience for you and 13 of your closest crew in AquaDome. With sweeping ocean views, every seat is a window seat. Choose one cuisine for your table ahead of time — American, Italian, Asian, or seafood. Each pre-fixe menu offers a pleasing choice of entrees and sharable appetizers — all served family-style along with a signature cocktail." On main screen of cruise planner it says $999.99 per package and seems to indicate it's for booking 14 people. When you click through it says $999.99 per guest and says you can reserve up to 8 people. $1,000 divided by 14 is $71.42 pp and seems to make more sense but who knows. Not sure of the reality but we aren traveling alone so not interested.

We always buy Blue Cross Blue Shield GeoBlue travel health policies but rarely get trip insurance for cruise fare / flights. Their policies act as “primary”, are very low cost, and pay medical providers directly. It’s common for a policy to be around $50 and cover $1M. I get annual policies because I’m on Medicare which is minimal coverage internationally.

Yikes! RCL web says, “ A passport is the best ID document for travel. Make sure yours doesn't expire for 6 months after your cruise ends.”. The 6 month requirement is pretty universal now for any international travel. The “closed loop” and birth certificate suggestion is a good one.

Wow, so you pay zero on the airfare until the cruise payment date, even booking different air fare classes. If something happens you are only whacked your cruise deposit or the $100 pp for sailing change (we never book refundable deposits)? That is a big deal.

I see Air2Sea questions and comments often. I have never used this and am wondering if there are benefits I should consider. My current process is to book the cruise when the deployments first are released - about 1.5 to 2 years pre-cruise and book with MEI. Then about 11 months before cruise book my air on AA when flights first available with standard coach which provides flight credit in case of SNAFU and book my premium seat assignments available due to status. Disregarding the topic of travel insurance because I have a separate process for that, what would be benefits of using the Air2Sea program? I am completely ignorant of the puts and takes to that program. How to you access your Exec Platinum benefits using Air2Sea? Book then log in to aa.com to access premium seats + Aadvantage # for free bags?

This is great! I would purchase to augment D+ coupons in a heartbeat. Drop from $14 to $9 per cocktail plus gratuity is significant. Is it easy to direct wait staff / bartenders to use coupons first and dink card second?

On the road again......

When it comes to IT the goal is to enhance the customer experience while reducing cost. For example, providing easy MDR linking and table preferences (not linking for Cruise Planner purchases) would enhance the customer experience while eliminating hundreds of phone calls with customers on hold. Multiple efforts can reduce staffing requirements. I think RCL IT is much better than NCL but improvements can still be made.

I am stunned that cruisers on RCL think zeroing out your C&A account after an inactive period makes any sense at all. Carnival VIFP points never expire, NCL Latitudes points never expire. My daughter cruised a lot until she got married, she hasn’t cruised in 7 years as she has had 4 children. She is looking forward to cruising again. Zero out her points and chase her off to Carnval?

As we’ve aged our C&A status is one the main reasons we sail on Royal as much as we do. RCL has the best loyalty program at sea. Back in the day RCL used to give you 1 cruise point per sailing. They shifted to 1 (or 2) per day at sea to differentiate types of cruises. Tweaks might happen but there should never be any thought of following mis-managed Disney into any area of change. I wonder in RCL ever thinks about mirroring the matching benefits on Celebrity (yes, I’m aware of the current match program - not good enough). I’m a D+ who will never make Pinnacle. If I got my 5 drink coupons per day I might make a permanant shift to Celebrity freeing up cabins on RCL for families with kids.

We last sailed to Alaska in 2017 from Vancouver to Seward. It was one of our favorite cruises. We just booked June, 2025 on Radiance B2B which will allow round-trip air to Vancouver and a full day exploring Seward. One of the things that excites us the most is being able to see Hubbard Glacier twice. We have been on two Quantum class sailings and love those ships but wouldn't want to sacrifice the full Alaska experience possible on smaller ships.

I have experienced over 8 days. I’ve also experienced no notification even though they processed it. I would just check with cruise planner for a while and see if the OBC pops in.

It’s not one-time like MSC. It’s every Celebrity sailing.

We always go to Mr. Sanchos in Cozumel. A day pass is only $68 pp and includes all food, beverages including alcohol, and beach chairs as well as tables right on the beach to eat. Coconut shrimp is very good. https://www.mrsanchos.com/

I think the question was whether eastbound (~April) or westbound (~Oct/Nov) had calmer seas. I have not seen any specific reference other than Oct/Nov is the tail end of hurricane season but the sailing isn't in the riskiest part of the Atlantic - still a thought though.

All of the departures in Asia on Spectrum next January are showing between 4PM and 5PM. Perhaps something is displaying a time zone adjustment.

We did Rhapsody OTS east (Barcelona) to west (Barbados) and loved that we got an extra hour every day and also liked that every day was a bit warmer making the pool a bit more inviting each day. The one thing we learned about our preferences was the "sea day after sea day" on the Vision class with only a Centrum for the evening was more boring than we would like. We just booked another east to west transatlantic on Independence OTS under the belief that the Royal Promenade will be helpful with all those consecutive sea days.

GTY frequently doesn't even assigned a cabin 9 months ahead of sailing. They are keeping you in OV so it seems like they are properly honoring GTY terms.