jticarruthers

From memory I think it is 11-1, always catches me by surprise that they are packing up about the time I want to eat ;)

I cant confirm until my cruise next week but it sounds like drinks in general have gone up to the $12 level, so if you are on a package no-impact, if you aren't on a package it is going to cost you more (or you will drink less).

Summer cruises can be tricky though because a lot of the inventory heads to Europe. The only short cruises out of Florida this summer are on the Bahamas runs .... nothing headed to Caribbean. I think May is the "bridge" month though so you might be able to find some deals. Personally I would recommend Brilliance is she is still around for May, Radiance class is a little bigger than Enchantment but still has a very similar vibe and it would give you a 4/5 nt Caribbean option instead of the 3/4 nt Bahamas on Enchantment. Indy is also a nice choice for a 4/5 nt Caribbean, much larger vessel but very similar itineraries.

Harmony is one of a couple of ships that might make sense for Thanksgiving '16, I think she is going to be doing the Western Itinerary out of FLL that week (based on Allure doing the Eastern out of FLL that week) which doesn't really excite me, but if the price is right I will give her a go. If not I am hoping one of Brilliance, Independence or Navigator has a reasonable option that week ... already eliminated Adventure, Allure, Freedom, Oasis and Jewel for various reasons ....

European and Transatlantic itineraries are available now. Caribbean itineraries become available for C&A members on the 31st and the general public on the 2nd (unless RCI changes it again before then).

I think their strategy across the board right now is that they believe prices were low (for cruise fare, drinks, specialty dinners, etc.) and they are going to push them all up and see what gives. If they keep the boats full at the higher price point the bottom line jumps, if they don't they scramble with more "specials" to try and at least maintain the original revenue. There are a couple of rumor threads that they are offering BOGO drink packages on board now when the drink packages don't sell well. They have been running the BOGO sale on fares for a year to allow them to play games with those and I have heard several reports of discounted specialty dining to try and get people in there. Its probably working well for them since many cruisers are "new" and don't have experience to compare to, frustrating to see for me though. Oh well, less drinking on Jewel next week, I don't do much Specialty anyway and haven't been able to find a cruise to book for almost a year so its not hurting me just frustrating.

Havent really tried it in a week or so but was having the same problem with it not always registering what I was trying to do and defaulting to Allure.

Two Disneys, 10 or so Royals, 2 Carnivals and our first on NCL coming up in a year or so. Taking money out of the equation my preference would always be Disney. Just felt like the attention to detail and service was spectacular for us on both cruises we did with Disney. Royal is solid and we enjoy them (2 more this year so clearly not anti-Royal) but on all the cruises we have been on it has felt just a notch behind Disney, Carnival distant third and expecting NCL to be comparable to Royal from all accounts. Including price though makes it a really tough decision. Typically Disney seems to run 2 times a comparable RCL which exceeds my cost/benefit point and explains why we do Royal much more frequently than Disney though. Things we do/don't worry about when we cruise that might affect your decision. Not really "foodies", MDR works for us, more about having a good attentive wait team, relaxing and enjoying ourselves that obsessing over whether the food was the greatest thing in the world. Occasionally do a Specialty but not a big deal. Not really gamblers, might do a few dollars on slots or a couple rounds of blackjack but generally avoid the smokepit :) Not heavy drinkers, a couple of beers/drinks a day is good, not paying for high end liquor, etc. Enjoy casual entertainment, relaxing, disconnecting from the "real" world. My feeling, Disney is a notch above but the notch isn't usually big enough to justify the price gap and I think you would be happy on a Royal cruise.

I will be making Diamond this year and struggling to find a cruise to book after making it there :( Springbreak '16 the price/availability basically drove me to the competition (7 night on Escape including Bev Package for slightly less than 5 night on Brilliance before adding the package, so apples to apples much cheaper) , still hoping that Thanksgiving will reveal something that I can justify booking when they release it later this month. I want to be loyal, just cant justify it !

I guess Thanksgiving falls into the Winter season, so nothing for me to look at still :(

Because they can :) Just means I will probably drink and tip a little less on the cruises I don't get the package for and not really notice on the ones I do get the package for. Another thing to take into account as I compare cruises for the future though.

I was hoping for more at PC since I much prefer the port to FLL. Have sailed Grandeur and Vision and didn't mind them for short itineraries but by all accounts Enchantment is the prettiest sister of the group though.

Jan 2010 ? Time travel and cruise combo ... wonder what that costs :) Guessing you meant 2016. Our itinerary for Jewel of the Seas this month was changed to remove Tortola and add St Thomas, I noticed on the website about 2 months before RCI got around to sending me the email to let me know about the change. Dissapointed but not a huge deal. I imagine you will get the email later this year ....

Strange mix of new splashy pages but the "real" stuff seems to revert to the old look and feel for me. Cruise planner still drives me crazy and it looks like everything will end up looking like it does :(

I think they are going to rollforward a year during March so the spring 2017 should become available but fall 2017 probably remains classified for another year.

My philosophy is to drop a deposit as early as possible, then rebook at lower rate/package if a deal does come along, and ultimately cancel and get my deposit back if my plans fall through. I would say I probably put down about two deposits for every cruise I take, lost interest on the deposit is minimal, saved increases on the fare/package add up to a lot of money though. For example, a year ago I do not know the timing of my sons springbreak for 2016 but did know that we would want to do a cruise and had a pretty good idea of which week it would be. I put deposits down on two cruises expecting one of them to be the right week and that I would cancel the other. His springbreak just got announced and they changed their pattern so actually I will be cancelling both cruises. No harm, no foul on my side, both cruises were up about 40% from what I booked them at a year ago as of now so if I had taken one or the other my deposit paid off big time. Instead I booked NCL Escape for SB '16 and am out maybe $2 in interest not earned ;) Also, I cruise every Thanksgiving so as soon as RCL releases the schedule in March I will be dropping a deposit or two on Thx 16. Maybe I will take the cruise I book, maybe I wont, but at least I will have a good price and a good room locked in if I want it.

Might be working for them, it might not. I do know I have now cancelled the Springbreak '16 cruise and booked NCL at a much better rate and am really struggling to find an RCL cruise to go on with the prices being skyhigh ... wonder how much this will impact their "we wont discount after final payment" strategy if people start cancelling the cruises that have been priced up :)

Aqua Duck is a similar concept (as noted already) and it was fun. Think we did it three or four times in a row ... zooming through the funnel with all kinds of LED's flashing was neat.

Skipped CocoCay a couple of years back in late March when we were on Freedom.

Agree and disagree :) I was tracking pricing on several cruises about this time last year trying to get a family group together. Those cruises included Summer of '14, Thanksgiving '14, Springbreak of '15, Thanksgiving of '15 and ultimately Springbreak of '16. (I was posting somewhat frantically asking when the itineraries for late '15 and early '16 would be released right about this time last year because I was going to be on Allure late in March and wanted to book then if possible for the On Board Booking benefit). When the BOGO/KSF deals first came out there were some real reductions in price from what they were at right before the deal. After a very short window, maybe a week or two ? (in which I put deposits on all of the above) the prices "bounced" back to almost exactly what they were before the sales started. Since then they have only ever trended up :) On the one hand you are right in that all cruises trend up over time (at least until final payment) that's the nature of the pricing game, but it's also clear that the BOGO deals basically became a much more exciting way of saying "the price is the same as it has been for months and it isn't going to go down for any reason but this sounds like a great deal doesn't it". If they don't want to discount, fair enough, no problem. The price is either reasonable or it isn't. But the constant game playing gets old. Would much rather see a clean price and then an occasional OBC offer rather than a constant BOGO barrage with all kinds of not-combinables with this or that which make it hard to figure out what the price really is.

I think it is the C&A discount that invalidates the OBC. BOGO is combinable but with either the C&A or the OBC, not both.

My Time Dining allows you to make your own decisions about when and with who you sit. MTD applys to the main dining room only, if you are headed for a specialty restaurant then you make a reservation with that restaurant (or walk up to that restaurant). Disclaimer: I haven't tried it but believe I understand it :) Basically you will have the option of making reservations ahead of time, or on board, or just walking up to the restaurant when you are ready and requesting a table. You can request to be sat along or with a larger group, you can request to have the same table/waitstaff. I don't believe any of the requests are guaranteed to be honored, but by all accounts they usually are. Specialty restaurants are usually better about sitting you at a small table every time.

Nice, B2B is on the wish list, have to wait a while for the kid to be out of the picture though for vacation planning purposes .. only time he gets 2 weeks off is summer and the prices are always too high then ;)

Completely uninspired by the sale :) Sticking with my NCL booking for now for next spring which was BOGO AND UBP not Give up the BOGO if you want the Beverage package. Will continue to evaluate up until final payment but so far NCL Escape is way ahead on price :) Only time will tell on everything else.

Just did my "before" look and the prices on all the cruises I have watching all spiked up in the past week or so ... be curious to see if they magically come back to the same number next week or hold at the higher price. Right now I am glad I booked my two 2015 cruises at the start of BOGO last year and cant see myself booking another cruise on RCL anytime soon if the pricing doesn't come back to earth.