JBC

Having an issue making cruise planner purchases (like lots of other people - I'll spare the details).  Click the link for customer assistance, click the link for send us a message.  Fill out the form, explain my issue, click send........get error message that says cannot submit message, please try again later.  

I don't want to call, I don't have time to sit on hold forever in order to buy a freaking internet package for a cruise.  Beyond frustrating.   

Royal's IT department is terrible.  I just purchased a 4 device internet plan, it went to process, came back with a message "hmm, check your card details or try another card".  My card is fine, and I now have a pending charge on it for this purchase, but it's not in my purchase history and I haven't received an email.  I was going to make additional purchases but now I am not.  I guess I will give it some time and hopefully they will have fed the squirrels by then and their website will work. I'm going to be super annoyed if I have to call them about this. 

I went on Ovation at the end of August this past year.  This was my first Alaskan cruise so I can't speak to what it would be like during other months.  But a few negatives that I am blaming on the time of the year are a lack of wildlife sighting, too warm and a lot of rain.  For wildlife, especially bears and whales, I think they are more active earlier in the season.  Maybe I was just unlucky, but I spent a lot time with my binoculars and I didn't see much other than some eagles.  Some days it was near 80 degrees which made it feel kind of weird.  And when it wasn't too warm it was raining.  Whenever I go again, I would probably shoot for early June.  And I would definitely add in a multi day land based portion as well.  The cruises only touch the most southern parts of Alaska, and the port towns are nothing but touristy stuff.  Next time I would want to get on a bus or a train and get more into the interior of Alaska (Denali, etc.).      

I once did a 9:30 am flight departure out of FLL.  That was only because there were really no other flight options until like 2-3 pm and I didn't want to wait that long.  I was anxiety ridden the whole time and was also very surprised by how many people were doing self-disembarkation.  Anyways, we made it with time time to spare, but I vowed after that I would never do a flight before 10:30 again.  I wouldn't sweat 10:45 at all.     

This thread brought the laughs on a Tuesday morning!  

I've been on 8 or so RC cruises now (a rookie around these parts, I know), and I have never had one incident with another cruiser and drunkenness.  And most nights I am out "enjoying the ship" until after midnight.  

Now I have definitely had a few incidents with sober people on a cruise ship (elevator etiquette, line cutting at the windjammer, pool chair hogs), but those are topics for another thread!  

If you have the body to pull it off, then go for it.  If you don't have the body to pull it off, then for the sake of the rest of us, please don't do it! 

I am close to diamond but I always get a DBP.  I am probably good for 10 drinks a day between time at the pool, dinner and then shows and various bars the remainder of the night.  The DBP always makes sense for me.  Diamond is going to make that math harder, lol.  It will benefit my wife because she doesn't drink as much as me.  I kind of wish instead of the 4 drinks a day benefit that they just would give a significant discount on the DBP, or offer a choice between the two.  Make it like legit half price or something. 

First world problems.  

There is nothing worse than someone cramming on to an already packed elevator, only to then take it for 1 floor.  I'm talking a healthy looking person with no visible mobility issues. 

If you are a truly able bodied person, and you take the elevator up or down 1 or 2 levels, then you deserve the instant karma of being run over by someone in a rogue scooter!  

I consider myself a big drinker, and I would never buy a drink package if it was $138 a day plus gratuity.  I can't imagine many other people would either.  That sounds like just marketing on NCLs part, to make people feel like they are really getting something in their promotions when they offer free unlimited drinks, free specialty dining, free internet, etc.

The pricing of Royal's drink packages seem to keep pace with general market conditions.  5 years ago they could be had during sales for less than $60 a day, then it went to $60-$65.  Now it seems regular pricing is $72.99 with sales dropping it to $67.99.  It will be interesting to see what black friday / cyber monday sales bring.  A year or two from now I can see it being in the neighborhood of $75-$78.  It's all relative. 

I will say in my last few cruises, the prices of individual drinks on board seem to have held steady at $12-$13 for the more expensive blender drinks and top shelf mix blends, $7-$10 for beers, etc.  But the drink packages have crept up.  If the drink packages continue to creep up, I would expect the individual prices on board would have to go up as well.  Otherwise the drink package math changes.

Royal's pricing algorithms are smarter than me though.   

I don't mind the gratuities, I just wished they were inclusive and not separately identified.  I don't consider them gratuities anyways, I consider them cruise fare.  

That said, I have read or heard that the gratuities pool is a gray area.  Like, who gets a cut and who doesn't?  And how is it regulated to insure that the total actually collected gets correctly distributed?  Is it an even split or do some get a bigger share?

Quick math, Ovation has approx. 4100 guests and 725 crew.  I am not sure how many guests have their gratuities removed but I would guess (or hope) that it is a small percentage.  So say 3700 people paying $14.50 a day for a 7 day cruise, that is approx. $375,000 in gratuities for that week.  Say maybe 600 of the crew split that, so $625 per person per week.  Add in their normal wage, doesn't seem terrible, certainly not indentured servant compensation.  At least I hope that is how it works.  Now the waiters, bartenders and room cleaners are the people that get additional tips on top of that too.  I tip bartenders as I go, and I always leave additional cash for my room attendant and both waiters assigned to my table in the MDR. I would guess at least 50% of people do this?

Anyone closer to the industry have any insight into this?  Is my example above way off?  Just curious.          

$67.99 for DBP for my Allure cruise in February.  Previous sales for about the past 6 months have had it fluctuate between $77.99 and $72.99.  

Question is will it go lower than $67.99 on black friday / cyber monday?  I know I can cancel and re-buy.  My gut tells me it won't go lower than $67.99.  

I've done that cruise, and I will say that doing the NASA excursion was great, exceeded my expectations.  I've done Disney separately from a cruise and I can't imagine that would be enjoyable at all when dealing with the time and travel constraints.  

18 hours ago, GatorCruiser said:

Booze package would have to be in the neighborhood of 100 bones per day for me not to break even. Between the coffees and pelegrino with every meal and mucho booze in between, poor royal loses money on me. 

Same here, but I still won't like paying a $73 per day base price for it.  

So fair warning to Royal, don't make me roll up my sleeves and go on a mission all week!  

27 minutes ago, LovetoCruise87 said:

Great information and it really puts the whole thing in perspective. I also believe that this is now endemic. No one is going around suggesting that everyone test if they have the common cold or not. 

Exactly.  You can't get covid if you don't take a test!

Agree on most of what has been said.  MDR is the worst of the bunch, by far.  I always grab a drink on my way in and then order one as soon as the option presents itself because I know it will be a while.  Royal definitely could do better in this department.  

I think it depends on what the prices on board per drink are.  If the drink package prices are up 25%, I would imagine the prices per drink are up as well.  So are the $13 drinks now $16?  If that is the case, I think overall people will just drink less.  The next cruise I have booked that I don't already have a drink package purchased for is next February.  It's currently $77, which makes it $90 with gratuity.  Last week it was $72.  I am confident it will drop below $72 on some sale at some point.  If Black Friday / Cyber Monday comes and goes and it doesn't drop, then I guess I will have to make a hard decision.  I am in the $100 per day group, anything less than that and I will benefit.  My wife will not however, she is more of a $60 per day break even point.  Oh well, first world problems I guess.   

Coco Beach Club is not worth anywhere near $260 per person, that is crazy.  I guess I am glad I have been to Coco Cay a few times now and have done the beach club and water park when they were more reasonably priced.  Cabana's for $3500 is insane too, but I guess I can't blame RC if people are paying it.  People are coming off a long hiatus from vacationing and are making up for lost time with the spending apparently.  After a year or so those prices will settle back down.  I want to read the review of the beach club by the person that paid $260 pp for it!    

My kids have been to the waterpark twice, and after the 2nd time, they basically said they don't care to go anymore.  When two ships are at Coco Cay, the lines in the water park get long really quick.  When you only have a certain amount of time in the park, it's terrible to spend half of it waiting in lines.  

Supply and demand though I guess.  If they keep selling it out at prices in excess of $100, then they will never lower them.  

You don't need your id on the ship.  Your sea pass card is your id.  You can't order a drink on board without your sea pass card.  

Make sure your nose is clean (no nasal mucus). Soak a cotton ball with rubbing alcohol and swap your nose with it just prior to taking the antigen test.  I would never advocate doing that if you knew you were newly covid positive, but in your situation where you know you are well past it and are not at risk of being contagious, I would do it so as to not risk my cruise being ruined.  It will all but guarantee a negative result.  If you are doing the emed proctored test, don't stick the swab very far up your nose or rub very vigorously, they can't tell anyways, they are watching you through a cell phone camera.  Good luck.   

Bionic bar at first seems like a good and fun idea, but do it once and there is really no reason to go back to it.  Between people not knowing how to work the touch screens, to the mess it creates, it's not worth it.  I like the interaction with a human bartender, and a human bartender can make multiple drinks in the same amount of time the bionic bar takes to make one, especially when factoring in how long it takes people to enter their orders.  I am surprised they are still adding them to new ships.  

If they are indeed sold out, the lines will be long.  My kids have complained about the long lines in the water park even when it wasn't sold out.  

If you do manage to get passes for it, my advice is go as soon as it opens, as it will only get busier.  And go on the bigger slides first.  Save the wave pool for the middle of the afternoon when the lines for the slides are longest.  

Two year old vaccines mean nothing as far as ensuring a covid free ship.  The take at home proctored emed tests are pretty worthless as well.  Time to put it all to bed.  Get quadruple vaccinated and wear three masks around if it worries you.  Or do nothing.  Up to the individual.    

$10 to the guys sitting in the golf carts at the end of the pier and they will take you anywhere you want to go, door to door.  

The locals in the market are very aggressive there, more so than other islands.  It makes for a not very enjoyable shopping time.  I still like Labadee though.    

1 hour ago, jeffmw said:

 

I didn't eat there. Food looked pretty good, though. The wings looked tasty. 

The other issue is it's not big enough inside. There are so few tables and very little standing room so everyone ends up standing in the Promenade to watch. It never got too congested there, but it's not just kind of awkward. 

I agree on the size and setup.  I was not impressed with Playmakers on Symphony at all.  Not a lot of room to sit, they have the pool tables and what not but it's a waste of space in my opinion.  There are some tables outside, but it had rained recently and even though the chairs looked dry, when you sat down the cushion oozed water.  Not sure who thought chairs that absorb water would be a good idea in an outdoor setting.  They need to lose the pool tables and what not, add more seating, and turn the volume down on the games a little.  It just didn't seem like a good setup to sit with friends and watch a game.