jticarruthers

wsyrob, When the last update to the program was done there were two options: 1. Put down a minimal deposit (say $100) towards the future cruise and receive $100 OBC to be used on your current cruise. Since the OBC was now spent the deposit was now non-refundable. You could still move it to another cruise but you could not get the $100 back and since the OBC was already applied to the cruise you took there is no OBC on the future cruise to impact by changing. 2. Put down a minimal deposit (same $100) towards the future cruise and receive $100 OBC to be used on that future cruise. Since the OBC is in the future the deposit was still refundable. You can move the cruise to a different date and still keep the OBC.Caveat I believe there is "officially" one change with no penalty but that after that RCI has the right to reduce the OBC amount to be the lesser amount that you would have earned by making an "open" booking to be applied later rather than a specific booking on a future ship. When I looked at it last time I was onboard (Thanksgiving 15) the NextCruise staff was absolutely insistent that option 2 did not exist and that only option 1 was available now. I believe Matt indicated he had a different experience after then so I am thinking I just had misinformed staff but with RCI you never know. Hope that clarifies ?

Yep, under US rules the deposit is full refundable up until final payment so they really cant stop you from "cancelling" your old cruise and getting a refund and then "rebooking" the new cruise at the new price and putting the same deposit down again. Sometimes they get prickly on it but usually they just fold and reprice it rather than making you go through the extra steps. Doing the book on board makes it a little more complicated but still doable. The last time I tried it, I was told the only option was to take an on board credit on my current cruise equal to the amount of my deposit. Therefore the deposit was no longer refundable since I had already "spent it". Matt (and others) have reported that the old second option of getting the OBC on the future cruise should still be available in which case it is refundable since you haven't used the OBC yet. In your situation you should be ok since you are planning to book now and put down a refundable deposit, then book again onboard if the onboard "package" is better than your existing booking and then cancel your original booking and get your original deposit back. I have not had the experience of trying to do a reprice on an onboard booking since they changed it all up so I am not sure how that would then work if you wanted to reprice again in the future ... since you would have a reduced deposit deal in place you might have to pay the balance of the deposit in the future ... Oddly what started as a simple post seems very complicated now ... Sorry :(

On board booking benefits are not all that significant (except for reduced deposit). Are you booking under US rules or another countries? If US why not book now and then cancel and book onboard if the onboard deal is better when the time comes ? Cruises typically increase in price over time ... for example my Nov 2016 cruise was booked in Mar 2015, as of today it is 50% higher than when I booked it ... no sale they can offer gets anywhere close to that price .... maybe after final payment if they do a discount deal (Which they say they don't do anymore) it will get back down to being close but I haven't seen it on my last couple. My Nov 2017 cruise is only up $150 so far from when I booked it in Apr 2016, but that's already more than any booking bonus OBC offer .... although I am hopeful a sale might give me a savings on this between now and taking it, I doubt it.

CC with no transaction fees and a bunch of smaller bills for tipping/taxi type situations works for me in the Caribbean at least. Doing Europe this summer and will probably go a little heavier on cash just in case but nothing crazy.

After the bad press they got on the Quantum launch in particular ( IIRC Anthem they did better but maybe not) you would think they would have learned to launch ready instead of taking the PR beating each time ....

Your explanation makes sense ... no explanation that makes sense for the facts themselves though ... except .... RCI + IT = Anything can happen .....

I think the rest of 2018 will be in the spring 2017 schedule release ?

The first couple of cruises we did were last minute bookings and the prices were great. Since then though (and especially with Royals new "no discounts after final pymt", I have been booking on schedule release date and very rarely seeing price drops.

It is pretty consistent on RCI sales that you can either get any OBC offered in the sale OR you can get the C&A Discount but not both .... one of the grumbling points for RCI vets is that new cruisers essentially get the same benefit as we do ;)

Also, although there are certain aspects of the teen club that are "teen only" (their lounge for example), a lot of the teen club activities take place out and about around the ship and additionally the teens can come and go from the club as they wish .... so there will still be opportunities for her to hang out with her sibling and cousins.

Couple of TSA stories ... Both from way back when the whole ordeal began ... Wife and I are on a trip, think it was our 1 year anniversary. We get through the regular security and are at the gate waiting to board. This was back when they were still coming up with "the plan" and back then they had random second screenings at the boarding ramp as you went to get on the plane. We walk up to board and one of the security guys gives me the gesture to step aside and be searched again ... without thinking I hand my wife our carryon bag and tell he to board without me and I will catch up .... nobody says a thing, searching me takes about 5 seconds since I no longer have any bags to search .... only later do I realize how stupid that whole episode was. Separate time, travelling by myself on business, in the TSA line waiting and the lady in front of me is apparently a Mary-Kay sales rep who didn't get the memo on the new rules. From her bag she pulls a massive plastic bag filled with about 200+ individual lipsticks .... each of which is technically a liquid and has to be hand checked by the TSA rep ..... line came to a dead stop for about 20 minutes as the lone TSA rep took the top off each lipstick, checked that it looked like lipstick, put the top back on, checked the next one, etc. ..... Lady was lucky she wasn't found dead under the xray machine !

Canaveral to Tampa is about a 2 - 2 1/2 hour drive, interstate door to door (I live in Tampa area and Canaveral is my preferred port so I have made the drive several times). Definitely doable to be off the ship at 10, and be at Tampa checking in by early afternoon. Not sure what the best cost options would be in terms of renting a car, hiring a service, etc. but they could get you there in time. I have not done the drive from Canaveral to Lauderdale directly but again, interstate door to door and I would guess about 1 - 1 1/2 hours ?? Better to have a buffer for "unexpected" things that might occur but if you have your heart set on doing it I think it can work. Depending on time of year Port of Tampa does get affected by fog, which delays the debarkation process. So if your plan did include Tampa I would suggest making Tampa the 2nd leg of your adventure. Very rare to have anything impact the East coast ships in terms of getting back in significantly late.

Kids are required to be interviewed as well in a separate interview from their parents interview but with their parents at the interview .... I have been kicking it around in my brain this week trying to decide if I want to sign up the family. We have a Europe cruise in July, not sure if we will have it approved by then and then the Thanksgiving on Adventure (your still on that one right bc?) so probably going to get the us out of it.

TSA Precheck sounds like a standard government program. Went to check it out again this week and found the following few statements: 1, It is no longer being honored consistently because the lines are too long at the regular lines to keep the separate pre-check line staffed. 2. The number of people enrolled in precheck is far lower than expected which is why the lines are so long at the regular lines 3. People who have not signed up for precheck can be sent through precheck by TSA staff either on purpose or randomly (As someone above indicated they were assigned precheck without signing up for it). So ... summing all that up .... you want me to pay money for a service that you may not honor and may give to me for free if I don't pay for it. Yet you are surprised that not enough people are giving you their money ... and cant figure out how to push people into the "empty" express lane just to keep it moving. Definitely a government program.

Food was fine, crowds were crazy about half the time.

After our first couple of cruises I used to always come home with an onboard booking, with the bonus shrinking and an increase in my willingness to try other options it isn't worth it for me anymore to tie up a deposit for the benefit.

Tried them our first couple of cruises, surprisingly we generally were able to get "signals", however, we quickly learned that a lot of other people had the same idea and the channels can get crowded. I spent about an hour one morning listening to some crazy lady bitching out her husband for not answering her (in between lots of other side conversations) ... turned out the crazy lady was my wife ..... walkie talkies no longer travel with us.

I have considered an alternate spouse but I believe that might not be cost effective ;)

Based on our experience a couple of years ago on Allure, what they meant by "not on board" and then "appearing" on day two was this ... We loaded a crapload of stuff on the ship in port while you were boarding and haven't unpacked it all yet. By day two they "found" that pallet and had it into inventory so it was available. As we have cruised more we find odd things to pay attention to, sit sometime and watch how much food and drink is getting loaded at each port stop ... its incredible to watch :)

Interested in joining a group cruise at some point but they never work with the kids school schedule so it might have to wait a few years. I was interested in Harmony as well but totally turned off by the pricing when I looked at it for Thanksgiving 2017, will probably consider it again next year when they roll the schedule to open up my next booking window ... Thanksgiving 2018. My wife has informed me that I will not be booking a cruise for Springbreak 2018 ... she requires an alternative vacation for a change :(

Pretty sure to get the OBC you have to put more money down as a deposit. You could probably cancel, rebook and then transfer back to your TA but that seems like a lot of work for a small OBC.

I have not seen the first night as open time and seating if you are assigned to early dining ? I would describe it as chaotic with people trying to rearrange and would absolutely agree with Todd that if you are assigned to a big table, talk to the head of the dining room and they will probably take care of you. The dining room is actually one of our first "stops" on embarkation day to check out our table(s) and take care of any seating issues. A couple of cruises back they had my wife and I and my parents assigned to one table with our son (at the time aged 10) assigned to a different table on the other side of the dining room .... that would probably not have worked well. The management team took care of the problem and we were all set (except for a different issue) when dinner rolled around.

Really the deal is that you get to place a teeny tiny deposit instead of a normal size deposit. I have a 7 nt in a balcony cruise booked for 3 people for either $100 or $200 in total deposit (I think $100 but could be wrong). Normally that would be $750 .... so much less money in play. I did get a $100 OBC on the cruise I was on in return for the $100 deposit but the real benefit is the reduced deposit, the OBC's used to be more substantial. The price for the cruise itself is no different than you would get on the website back home so no benefit from that standpoint to booking onboard.

Time out, I notice the question is coming in regards to an Asia/Australia market cruise. I know under US booking rules that the deposit is fully refundable and that repricing up to cancellation date is no big deal, also know that in other markets that is not always true. I do not know off the top of my head what the terms and conditions would be for this cruise, but worth checking on cancellation/rebooking policy before committing.

Usually a few days but I understand if you are on a B2B you can talk to the C&A rep on board and they can "post" your points for you if it makes a difference.