jticarruthers

Think the soot issue is more hit and miss related to wind directions, engine usage, etc. than to a specific cabin. I have had aft cabins on Indy, Freedom, Adventure, Navigator, Liberty and never really had soot issues on any of them ... not saying there aren't ever soot issues just saying I don't think you can pick one aft cabin to avoid the issue.

Interesting question .... haven't purchased one so I cant answer but that would definitely add value if you could buy one on day 3 or so and use them for the next 10 days.

Be interesting to see how it develops, pretty sure I investigated on one of the other cruise lines and there were some "exceptions" that could be made to the both must buy rule. Doctor's notes, or the like were involved IIRC basically indicating that passenger A would/could not be drinking alcohol in which case only Passenger B had to buy the package. I would imagine something like that coming into the picture.

My sarcasm doesn't always convey well on the internet ;) I agree it is unacceptable but for RCI communication issues through the company are always standard.

In their defense they really aren't lying to you, corporate just has no idea what either the left hand or the right hand are actually doing onboard ship. So many of their policies are completely inconsistent across different ships and sailings.

Havent been following the information too closely recently but last I heard it was pretty conclusive that C&A members (at least higher level ones) were eligible for a discount onboard but that nobody onboard ever knows about it. Seemed like you had to get your list of discounts printed out at a bar and the x% discount would "magically appear" and you could then purchase the drink package with the discount. Like you I have no interest in the internet package (actually I would probably pay extra to not have the internet package) so if the "deal" is really not a deal for you then I would wait until you are onboard and see if you can get the deal there.

Yes as long as you leave at least one of the original names in the same cabin. (one name has to stay constant from beginning to end). Looks like you could swap your wife and daughter around and then book the package for your cabin only.

I'm guessing the issue would be using someone elses room key to charge items to if you just swapped cards .... pretty sure they tag your picture to your card and hypothetically check that picture matches face when making purchases.

Funny .. could of sworn the last couple of earnings calls were all about how onboard earnings (presumably heavily driven by alcohol ?) were up and driving the record profits .... seems like they haven't been hurting from any sharing going on ... Generally don't do the package anyway, having to buy for both probably cements not buying it.

Personally I would be embarrassed to admit that was my title ...

Just did it on Majesty, my wife and granddaughter were in one cabin, son and I in the other. We asked for duplicate keys so the wife and I could access both cabins, took 60 seconds at guest services, no big deal.

I would say the majority of the "perks" we have received have been earned due to C&A status (robes or Balcony discount for example) or as part of the booking (OBC for the sale of the day). So I don't really consider those in my response. Outside of those types of perks the only thing we have received as a surprise/unearned item was the 25% Future Cruise Credit for last year's Adventure of the Seas sailing with the post dry-dock issues. Personally, I took that as more of a kick in the nuts than an apology and it has significantly affected my opinion of RCI as a brand. I did use the FCC for a discounted cruise on Majesty and enjoyed that cruise but I no longer consider myself an RCI "Loyal to Royal" and have branched out to several other cruise lines largely because of that experience. Looking for a "best" experience to offset that story, I would actually go back to the Adventure of the Seas though and our first experience as Diamond Members ordering our "diamond drinks". The bartender offered me the menu to choose from and I selected a beer (don't recall which type but they were all bottled options) ... he gave me a look, started to say something and then nodded and walked away and disappeared ... about 15 minutes went by and I was starting to get irritated ... he reappears from a secret door clutching a six pack of the beer I had ordered and explains that he is not supposed to stock that beer at his bar but he went and "found" it for me. He definitely went above and beyond, I didn't have the heart to tell him any of the other beers on the menu would have been just fine.

If restaurants/pools/night life are your drivers you are probably going to want the Oasis class over the slightly older and smaller Freedom Class (Freedom) and Voyager Class (Liberty). IIRC Oasis class have comedy clubs, bigger shows, more restaurants than their older siblings. Within the Oasis class, the itineraries are generally pretty similar so you are going to see the same ports, Harmony has "more" onboard than her older siblings Oasis and Allure ... off the top of my head, water slides, escape room and I think more/different restaurant options. Offset is she also costs more than her sisters. Between Oasis and Allure I think the only real difference is the broadway show ... apart from that I think they are basically identical sisters.

You can also look at magnetic whiteboards (We have a couple that are about the size of a standard sheet of paper) they stick to doors/walls (only on ships, not so much in the real world) and depending on where your cabins are located you can designate a central one as the "notice board". We use them when travelling with a group and will just leave notes on it like "headed to breakfast at Windjammer 9am" for example to give others an idea of where to look for us. I think my wife got them at the dollar store, so dirt cheap. Be aware you will probably receive creative messages from wandering drunks overnight ... so you probably want to wipe it off each morning or bring it in to the room when you are calling it a night.

We have some travel agents on the boards so one of them who knows for sure may be able to answer with facts, but here is my opinion from talking with my TA for several years now. Basically they have an amount of $ that they get back as their commission from the cruise line for making the reservation, they can then use some of that amount to offer "amenities" to the customer to sweeten the deal by keeping less profit for themselves. Sometimes it is made to sound more special by labelling it as free drinks packages, free dinner, etc. and sometimes they just call it OBC. I am sure there is more to it than that but my TA and I talked about it a bit a few years ago and now I just get OBC instead of the other stuff which is why I think its more of a $ amount to spend and they can customize from a menu of equivalents.

We did Southwest to Puerto Rico and JetBlue back when we did AOTS last year. Pricing was similar and both directs but the times worked better the way we did it.

Nope definitely happier being on a cruise, just don't see anything special about cuba.

No particular interest in cruising Cuba on my part but my boss is excited about the idea and since shes paying, we are off to Cuba (Trump willing). Trying to decide whether I want to pay $75 on top of the overpriced shore excursion cost to go ashore or just stay on board and chill ... I probably have to pay the $75 either way with my luck ;)

Sorry jce2 must have missed that part of your question but yes, only OBC given directly by Royal Caribbean can be spent pre-cruise. 3rd party OBC such as credit card or travel agent granted is still required to be used on board.

My primary card is the Barclaycard arrival, 2% on everything all the time. Depending on categories on other cards, I flirt with them to pick up higher %'s. One of my Chase cards is doing 4% on utilities right now for example. Barclaycard is about as simple as it gets on redemption, select how much to redeem and you see that amount as a credit on your statement the next day.

I don't use the RCI card for any purchases anymore, Doc as you noted the best you can do with is 2% ... you can earn at least that on other cards. I do shamelessly abuse my good FICO score by cancelling and signing up for the card again every couple of years ... $100 each for the wife and I in sign-on bonus for spending $1 on each card every couple of years is a great ROI %.

Generally if you ask they will make .. they keep going through phases of hiding the menus so that they don't have to put prices on, etc. but all the bartenders we have asked will make anything they have the ingredients for :)

We just did Majesty for the first time on memorial day. We were pleasantly surprised ... certainly you don't have the bells and whistles of the big boats but for a quick getaway to the Bahamas it was affordable and pleasant. Looking at doing Majesty again but probably the 3 day since the only real complaint we did have was the lack of activities on the sea day. Rather skip that and not take as much time off work. Didn't find Windjammer to be more impressive than any other but certainly not less. Temperatures were generally ok, we always bring a fan for the room that helps as well though.

Great .. like it wasn't bad enough to have the same never ending sale running for years with the name changing every few weeks ... now they are going to do that with other things too ?

If you can pack it in your luggage you can, my mother has done it the last two cruises she went on.