Smokey79

I’m curious on the “western” theme as well as the pricing. Hopefully, it’s not gimmicky. I wouldn’t be surprised if pricing wasn’t around the cost of ESC on Icon. I’m hoping it’s not but I wouldn’t be shocked at all.

Interesting idea. Overall thank you to everyone here. I’ve learned a lot from you all and I truly appreciate it.

What’s the chances of them dropping the new sail dates when the next sale period starts on the website? Or do I need to pay any attention to sales that as a potential time frame?

Thank you. I’m at ease currently with how things are going. He’s been awesome with his communications with us and I’m more than willing to cut him some slack on the time between emails as I know he’s busy with his current guests. Our time is coming soon enough. We have chefs table booked but Izumi only has late night availability left online so if he can’t get us in then we’ll just order to the room or simply forgo it this time. We will be fine either way.

It’s been fun trying to walk my “not that technologically advanced” father through the online and app check in. I can’t wait until his starts glitching on him so I’ve advised them to print copies and also have someone take screen shots for them so that their passes are on their phone’s photo album.

I played around with this sailing and made a couple mock bookings. Right now there is only one OV cabin left that is open. An ultra spacious OV that is running 11k for 4 pax. Cabin 11500. There are multiple balconies available with the cheapest ones being 7700 for 4 pax. Interior cabins I find the most interesting as a guarantee room is 1100 pp but when you pick it’s 2750 pp. I’m leaning heavily towards a guarantee cabin not necessarily meeting the occupancy requirements initially but will be changed upon actual assignment. That’s the only logical guess I can come to to account for the pricing discrepancy. If I were OP and I was dead set on this trip, i would transfer this booking to a TA and see if they could get the rooms assigned next to each other or at least close and try to make it work. Second option would be to push the trip out a year and try again if that’s doable. But they def need an assist on this and using a TA would get someone in their corner.

Good deal is relative but it was a bucket list box checked. I did have my agent re-price it when the sale changed and they had bumped the total fare up 11k more than what I paid. For context, it was about the same cost to move from a 2brAQS to the RLS as it was to book an over water cabana which didn’t make much sense but I jumped on it. I doubt I’ll ever see that pricing again.

Four+ in a cabin knocks me out for a few sailings and a couple were through a TA when it was just me and the Mrs. There have been some that I booked through RC directly that I would have thought would be eligible though. Thanks for the info. I thought they were just mad at me because I caught them with a pricing error and scored the RLS on Utopia for just under 3,000 per person.

There is so much potential to a cabin with this system. Too bad RC is only giving it a half effort.

I never get Royal Up emails…..

Hey I’ll gladly eat my words. Sincere apologies to OP are given. Looking at the screen shots provided, since they are booking a guarantee cabin and not specifically picking a room, is the system holding a 2 person cabin since it would be the lowest level cabin in the class but would move to a four person cabin once assigned? just a guess on my part. I don’t do guarantees just because I like to pick where I’m placed so I have no clue if I’m right or way off in left field.

I agree that it’s most likely just a drive by so I put out a feeler to see. I’ve also noticed that most of these never have actual details on them whereas legit posts often do. Maybe they’ll be back with some details and can get help but I don’t expect it.

Can you give more details as to your booking? Ship, sailing date, and cabin class would be helpful. I know first hand that there can be issues with the website but there are a lot of knowledgeable people on this board that are more than willing to help.

No worries and I share your opinion. It doesn’t matter in this instance as I realized I messed up the schedule and no one wants to do Izumi right after the sushi class. So I’ll take a chance on a random dinner slot if available. If not, there’s always CK.

Going by what I am being told, if you want Izumi or Chef’s table, book it online and pay for it with an expected refund of OBC once on onboard. Nityam said he doesn’t have access to book seats until the day prior to our sailing so they might be gone by then. Considering the only times for Izumi that are available currently are 9pm or later, I’d say that they’ll be gone soon enough. Which in my case the older crowd doesn’t really care for sushi so we may ask for it to be in-room dining if they are agreeable to teppanyaki. I don’t see us taking up a table there. side bar- has anyone been able to order items from a restaurant’s dinner menu for lunch?

I received my initial email 29 days out. I didn’t receive the response to my response until 20 days out. Judging by what he was able to do in the time between my response and his reply and the enormous amount of questions we presented him, I panicked for no reason . It’s our first cruise post Covid, first Paid as Oasis, and first Star class cruise so there was a lot of questions that we had come up with in the 18 months this has been planned . There’s not much left to go over now and honestly we could have easily worked with an initial greeting email with a note saying we will go over the details of our cruise 10-14 days before sail date. However, I do totally understand the panic that comes with the clock ticking down and no contact being made. There’s a lot of expectations and money on the line and that does add a lot of stress to the situation. Also, if you haven’t done so, check your spam folder jic your email decided that it didn’t like the sender address. Nityam’s is pretty generic looking. lol

Is this a sailing date that was just released?

Because the Commodore 64 that hosts RC’s website can only do so much? Honestly, I think that part of their system doesn’t refresh frequently enough for modern standards. However, spending money on IT improvements to quicken customers ability to see something that isn’t time constrained sooner possibly isn’t the best use of funds. I’d argue being able to book more than four on an invoice would be preferable or at least I could argue the potential cost savings. Or in my case, simply being able to show the correct amount due on the invoice.

I like some of the advice in this thread but it also has me reminiscing, and I find myself having mixed emotions. Up until the past few years all my trips were on small boats i.e. Nordic Empress being my first ship. i miss the ambiance of those ships. I know small is relative as it was huge to me then but you felt valued and appreciated. I know the trend is big is better but I think the small boats have their place and purpose in the fleet. Right now they are older and therefore cheaper but they will be replaced with newer fancier small boats and the words small and cheap (sometimes) will not be mutually inclusive anymore. Enjoy those days. Personally, I would like to do a trip on something below freedom class but I don’t think I can get my wife to give up the flash of the larger ships for the ambiance and personal touch of the smaller ships as the ship is the vacation now. Maybe Discovery class will be my saving grace. Plus, I’ve spoiled her with the suite life and that’s not really the same on the older ships. My problem is that I cannot really explain the feeling that the staff actually cares if you are having a good time. It could have been just wanting a bigger tip since it was back in days of no mandatory gratuity, or it could have been genuine. Didn’t really matter in the end. You felt valued. My past few trips I’ve not felt that way.

Personally speaking, I prefer any direction that allows me to view the ocean without seeing other people at the same time. Personal preference.

We’re taking my in-laws on their first RC cruise soon. It’s been kind of an issue getting them to get “excited” about doing things. It just seems like they have low expectations for Royal. They’ve done one cruise and it was on POA. I wonder if they had a bad time but didn’t know it and then just figured it was how things were normally.

That would be awesome. Thank you.

Thanks for the info. Again I’m a noob at this so not expecting a fast turn time on communication from him at all so I’m trying to be as concise as I can when I answered his questions and when I gave mine to him. After all, I figure short sailings means his guests have an added urgency regarding wanting to check as many boxes as possible a few days, and that means he has less time than normal to respond to future guests. We are normally very self sufficient and this has been a real adjustment for us and it’s hard to not feel like we’re imposing on someone when asking for something. My best example is the first suite we booked. We didn’t even see the concierge until debarkation morning much less ask anything of him. I’m a fast learner though.

Thank you both.

Hey all, it’s getting close to time for our first Star Class cruise and we’re all terribly excited. However, I realized today that I never received the survey. We’re 25 days until we leave so there still time I guess but judging by others posts we should have seen it a month ago. On a more positive note, I did receive an email from our Genie (Nityam) a couple days ago and am currently waiting on the answers to the litany of questions I felt like we asked him. I’m not all that concerned overall with not getting the survey since we are in contact with the genie but I’m also curious as to the importance of its contents to having a more successful trip for both us and the genie. I am honestly a bit stressed about the trip overall as it’s our 20th anniversary but it’s the in-law’s 50th anniversary so I’m hoping that issues are at a minimum.