jticarruthers

RCI likes to employ an element of randomness in their policies but I would expect it to be applied on a per cabin basis regardless of whether you charged everything to your credit card before the cruise. The onboard crew that applies the OBC would presumably be looking for "3 specialty dinners in the same cabin", if yes apply credit.

I had problems springbreak last year ... kept getting called down to Guest Services (voicemails left on the cabin phone the last few days of the cruise) and every time I went down I would stand in line for 20 minutes then explain to the person behind the desk that I had no idea why I was there, they had called me and told me to come to Guest Services. They would spend 20 minutes looking at the account and tell me everything was fine and send me on my way. Finally disembarkation day the phone rang at 3am, I took it off the hook. Then the voicemail light lit up again .... Ended up going at Guest Services bright and early in a fairly foul mood to be told once again that there was nothing wrong. Had breakfast, packed everything up, went to walk off the ship and security would not let me off because there was a problem and I had to go to Guest Services .... I lost it pretty good with the security guy and debated strongly whether to just blow by him or not, ultimately decided it wasn't worth it and headed off to Guest Services for the 5th or 6th time .... the person I had spoken with a couple of hours earlier was still there and recognized me so she called me out of line to ask what was going on. I ran her through the story, 30 minutes later they finally were able to figure out that my credit card was declining the charge for some reason ... the best part was that it was my Royal Caribbean Visa card declining the charges because they were concerned that the cruise activity might be fraudulent.

Seems odd but RCI is nothing but inconsistent when it comes to pretty much everything. I would try calling back and speaking to a different rep you will almost certainly get a different answer. I know they don't do OBC only upgrades if the price of the category above falls below your price paid and could see them saying you forfeit your perks since you are essentially rebooking but then in that case I would expect to get whatever the perk of today is added back on.

The meals are not actually served in the kids club (at least on the times my son did it), instead they "rope off" a corner of the windjammer and take the kids there. As noted not all meals are available, I thought it was lunch only on port days and you have to pick up the kids at lunch time on sea days but I cant swear to it so Doc may be right on that one. As noted the meals are a very limited menu basically pizzas, I think they had hot dogs/burgers as an option, fries with everything. Our son really enjoys the MDR so he rarely partakes but when younger he would usually do it once or twice per cruise especially if he had made friends with other kids that were doing it.

Some cruises I get calls/emails/texts nonstop, others nothing. The best is when you get messages related to a cruise you aren't even booked on :)

Hoping I make Diamond (scheduled for Thanksgiving) before they change the tiers so at least I can try and whine and cry to keep my benefits when they move the goal posts :)

The balcony/Jr Suite are both nice, having done Jr Suite once I wouldn't pay a significant amount more for it. We usually do the balcony but mostly because between booking early and C&A balcony discount it is not significantly more than an oceanview.

I had assumed the headshot request was a digital picture that they would use in place of the digital picture that they usually take of you? The idea being to skip that step of the checkin process ?

This sounds like what they described back when the Quantum was "coming soon" not sure if they just never implemented it and are trying now.

Under the existing suite rules a Jr Suite does not get any of the real "perks" except for extra cabin space and double cruise points. Off the top of my head, I think there is usually a walk in/bigger closet and a bath tub in the room as well. Not sure under the new program whether there are any benefits or not, haven't really read the details since I don't see it applying to me ;)

As long as I stay Diamond and get the free drinks, it makes no difference to me. I doubt I will ever make it to D+ and the only really valuable benefits are balcony discount and the drinks for me anyway, so as long as those don't get taken away I am good :)

Havent seen that email but it would be nice (Sort of) since I already put down $450 for my wifes drinks package ... (sort of because we will already get to the magic 80 on the next cruise .... 83 doesn't get me a long way towards D+)

I wouldn't say I am chasing points. I have yet to take a cruise that I wasn't planning to take or pay to upgrade to a suite for extra points. However, the points did mean that unless I saw something that I really wanted to try my default go to was RCI when I would consider booking a vacation/cruise. Oddly now that I am close to Diamond I no longer feel as strongly about RCI as either my default cruiseline or my default vacation, I don't regret getting to Diamond since all my vacations were good ones that I would have taken anyway, but it isn't giving me any thrills of anticipation outside of the three free drinks since the rest of the perks don't seem all that great.

Looking forward to making Diamond myself this Thanksgiving. Not sure that there is anything about it that would make me pay extra to take a cruise I didn't want to take just to get to Diamond, but the perks are nice. Three free drinks a night for the wife and I should basically eliminate our bar bill from future cruises to start with :)

Alright looks like I finally won a round of nickel and dime poker :) Booked the Ultimate for my wife a couple of months ago (as part of the summer buy an Ultimate get a Replenish/Refresh debacle) and the price went up slightly on that one and elected to hold off on buying my Premium package until I get onboard and the price went down slightly on that one. Between the two I saved $20 ... at current prices that means I can afford to buy about one drink for a family member in celebration ;)

Become? I was under the impression the short cruises already were booze cruises ;) Honestly, free wifi is not of interest to me ... I go on vacation not to be connected to everything going on back home. One of the original things that drew me to cruising was the fact that my cellphone had to be turned off for the cruise and nobody could reach me.

Canaveral is my favorite port out of the Florida ones so far. We live in Tampa so we have tried all but Miami. Tampa is obviously the most convenient and is pretty easy in and out, but limited to the smaller ships :( Canaveral is very easy to get in and out of, not a lot of other things there except hotels and restaurants on the beach front and then Kennedy Space Center nearby. Lauderdale is also pretty good, longer drive for us (not relevant to you) and it is in a much busier "area". More traffic but generally still an easy in and out. Have had to do shuttle buses between terminal and parking on occasion as well. Miami from all I have heard is the "worst" port in Florida, will be trying it out at Springbreak.

I think the perks are definitely real, but for me I would rather take 2-3 cruises for the same money that pay for the suite upgrades. Of course that's my personal preference and I am sure there are many people who view the value the other way around for their circumstances.

It all depends, I believe the ship will sail unless it is unsafe to get in/out of your embarkation port at that time. Then the captain will do his best to sail safely around the weather. We had friends on a cruise a few years ago that were meant to go to Cozumel. There was a hurricane parked on top of Cozumel for the duration of the cruise so I think they ended up at Jamaica for a day instead.

I had my sons card inactive for a while, however, I was informed that in order to take advantage of the C&A offers (free arcade time, etc.) that are made to the kids his card has to be active since those offers are loaded on his card just like the BOGO drinks etc. are loaded on the adult cards. Threatened him with all kinds of nasty consequences if he buys anything at all without checking with me and so far we are ok but I keep expecting to see the $1000 arcade tab hit my bill sometime ;)

Put some movies on an ipad or similar device. Invest in a modestly priced pair of noise cancelling headphones. Over the years I have traveled to/from Europe (and Asia) pretty extensively. I would first recommend looking at your overall trip to determine whether you want to be trying to sleep or trying to stay awake. Europe is usually a night flight, but personally I find that if I can get to Europe tired and cranky it helps me get to sleep the first night which reboots my system for the rest of the trip. If you load a handful of movies onto an ipad/tablet/laptop you can plug in your headphones which will block most of the noise and zone out for the flight. I think I got a pair of Sony noise cancelling headphones off of ebay about 5-6 years ago for under $100, still use them today :)

I know you can turn them off and on. I would imagine there are some caps on what can be spent as well but not sure about that part.

The big difference between Premium and Ultimate is the non-alcoholic side, they are identical on the alcoholic side. My wife is a big coffee drinker so the difference between the two is about one specialty coffee a day, which is probably on the low side of what she would drink ... makes it worth the upgrade.

Typically they will not give you two shots at once, it is one drink at a time. Not to say you might not find bartender that would do it anyway but that's "the rule". In regards to sharing the shots with your wife, "the rule" is very strongly no sharing of drinks on the package. With that said it is up to you whether you choose to bend the rule or not.

I haven't worn a suit for formal night for the last 6-8 cruises including RCI and Disney. Pair of slacks and a decent button down shirt has been more than acceptable (or at least no one seemed to have any issues). If my wife wants to do a dress up night I will but if she is ok with "casual formal" I don't have a problem :)