Steve L

I use EBATES (Travelocity) and book cruises when cash back is 10-14%. I usually save about $150 per cruise that way.

Sounds like you have the cc strategy that works well for you. I applaud your maximizing and optimizing goals. I try to do that exact thing in my household!

My Sapphire card has the travel insurance and many of the same benefits as the Reserve other than use of non-Skyclubs and the higher awarded points, plus maybe a companion ticket. Since the clubs are either not easily assessable or not ideal in terms of quality in our most frequently visited airports, it leaves mostly about an extra  point on purchase for that extra yearly membership amount and that is much less enticing!  Which is why the Am Ex Reserve starts to looks much better at this point.
For us the Delta Am Ex and the Chase Sapphire Cards offer very useful benefits, such as the built-in insurance (and we always book our pre-cruise hotel stays through Chase with points). I told my husband last year that my word of the year was “maximize” and this year my word of the year is “optimize.” I don’t know what 2020’s word with be ?
 

Here are the numbers for full transparency:
Ebates cashback of 14%  $357.28
Using Chase Sapphire Reserve card to book this cruise: 3x pts. = 9,141 pts. which equals $137 in travel thru Chase
$200 on board credit for balcony from Royal
$75 on board credit from Orbitz

Here are the numbers for full transparency:
Ebates cashback of 14%  $357.28
Using Chase Sapphire Reserve card to book this cruise: 3x pts. = 9,141 pts. which equals $137 in travel thru Chase
$200 on board credit for balcony from Royal
$75 on board credit from Orbitz

That is great! I have used Ebates now for over 10 years and I’ve gotten quite a lot of money back (probably not as much in one check as you just received). You are right, there could be a month or so to wait since the checks arrive quarterly.  A lot of times around Christmas they offe bonus percentages so that would be an extra good time to pull this off . I thought I had figured out almost every way to maximize our savings, but I just never really thought about this method (and using a rewards card would add to the benefit). Good job. ????

Early February last year I wrote here that I was going to try booking a cruise using online travel site Orbitz and going through Ebates for the 14% cashback that was offered on Cyber Monday. In the past I would use cruisecompete which allows travel agents to bid for your booking but I saw the 14% cashback offer and decided to give it a try. Well today I finally got the cashback. Booked Nov. of 2017 , took the cruise Oct. 2018 and paid March of 2019. Requires lots of patience! When I did need to speak with an agent the Orbitz rep. was no different than other agents I have used in the past. If you are looking for killer cashback %, this is hard to beat....you just need to wait a bit for the money to show up. 

My reaction is why let it bother you? Vacation how you want to enjoy it and don't let the little things get to you with how RC prices itself.

We rented jet ski's for 1/2 hour. They were fun to ride. Then we just hung out at the beach and had nachos and drinks at the Krazy Lobster

Did not know that about the Chase credit cards.....just did it online....thanks for the tip!

Also LadyB you might want to look into the luggage tag holders they sell on Amazon.  We bought some years ago and they work really well.  The luggage tags you print off  will fold nicely into the the holders which come with a small cable that attaches to you luggage.  When ordering make sure you order the ones for Royal Caribbean   If you are flying in just wait till after the flight to attach the cruise tags 

I've found the Chase Sapphire Reserve a very useful travel credit card but yes, there is a serious sticker shock at the $450 annual fee.  My wife certainly thought I was crazy until I explained the benefits.  I think she remained skeptical until I used the points (including the sign up bonus) to completely cover the airfare portion of our honeymoon (~$1200 value).
Here's the highlights for those that aren't familiar:
3 points per dollar spent in travel and restaurant categories (my 2 biggest expenses anyway).  1 point per dollar on everything else.  Points are nominally $0.01 each but if you use the Chase website to redeem them for travel (you book your flights/hotels/etc from chase.com) you get a 50% bonus so they are worth $0.015 each.  So your travel and restaurant spending ends up giving you the equivalent of 4.5% cash back.
$300 per year travel rebate.  (The first $300 in travel expenses are credited back to you on the same statement as the charge.  This alone means the annual fee drops from $450 to $150 as long as you use the card for travel costs which is the whole point.)
$100 credit towards Global Entry or TSA PreCheck signup fees.  (I'm not clear on whether this is per year since those items are good for 5 years and I don't need to renew yet.)
All Chase credit cards actually earn the same type of points (called Ultimate Rewards) so you can get additional benefits by pairing the Chase Sapphire with a Chase Freedom card.  The Freedom has no annual fee and each quarter it earns 5 points per dollar on a single category (like gas, grocery, restaurant, Amazon, etc) and 1 point per dollar on everything else.  So if you keep track of which card to use when, you can earn 5%, transfer the points to the Sapphire's point balance and redeem with the 50% bonus to get an effective 7.5% cash back!
Long story short, as long as you use these cards correctly, they give benefits far greater than the annual fees.  Of course, carrying a balance and paying interest negates those benefits very quickly!

Just wanted to give a shout out to this site!!!  I read for days and got a lot of great advice on our cruise.  It's the first one for me in many moons, and the first for my wife and one of our daughters.  We went for my oldest DD grad cruise, another family of 4 and a set of grand parents for a total of 10 in our party.  After the cruise was booked, I had to call RC in person for show resizes and dinner resizes because the website wasn't right. So, we drove down from NC, split the drive around Daytona Beach, which was about 3 hrs from the port.  Our board times were 1PM, but we went for an earlier show time, due to the knowledge read on here.  Word of advice when driving to the port....stay alert!!  Once you get to where the PORT roadsigns are in Ft Lauderdale, there are a lot of bridges, ramps and lane changes...so just stay alert.  Also, have Sail papers and passports ready as you enter the port...guards check them.  Once we found the pier, baggage drop off was easy...congested but just pay attention to the staff directing traffic and they can have you in/out in a jiffy.  We dropped off and parked in the adjacent lot, about 100 or so yards from the entrance building.  We got in line, followed lots of signs, followed the directions, and made our way through it all...Those guys go a great job of pushing LOTS of people through what looks like an eye of a needle in a short amount of time.  FYI, no one looked at our boarding time to tell us we were about 2 1/2 hrs early!!!!!  From the time we got in line outside the port building, to the time we made it through 3 ID checks, and started our way on the gangway, was about 40 min!!!!  We were impressed!!!  And we all had a small carryon bag...  
We got on board, and were instantly amazed at the size and scope of the ship!!!  Great atmosphere and everyone was so helpful.   Our keys were on our doors in about 3 min, and we could use the paper sail card for drinks until we got our plastic sail cards...Luggage was delivered within a few hours to "Zones" on the isle...so we found out luggage and took it to our room to unpack.  Easy peasy.....Then the fun began....after a good lunch at the Wingjammer Cafe, it was deck 15 for sail away party, which was beautiful out of the port...We didn't do dinner reservations first night b/c we would be busy with sail away activities....
All our dinners were in the American Icon main dining room at 5:30...we had a wonderful wait staff!!!!  The food was great and plentiful.  A good wine list for those on the drink package too...most wines were under the $13 price.  The 5:30 time worked great for us, and overnight, they asked if we had a show and what time it was..Most shows were at 9:30, so they let us take our time and most suppers were 2-2 1/2 hrs...very relaxed and fun.  
We saw the Aqua show, Blue Planet, the juggler show, Ice game, and the newly wed game...all were good with the Aqua and jugglers being the best for me.  Everyone I needed something from was just as helpful as could be.  
We never could figure out how to IM each other without the ship internet package though...I asked several tech people and no such luck.  But we made it through...
As far as excursions go, the best day was Labadee!!!!!!  Some snorkeled, some zip lined, and I just floated on the water mat!!  That's was the best part and worth every penny.  We ended up at Adventure Beach I believe...over by the floating bar...at the last trolly strop on the route...We just sunned, drank and relaxed....I could have spent about 2 days there and forgone San Juan to tell the truth!!
Disembarking today was as easy as day one...you get bag tags w/ numbers on them, directions on where and what time to meet on the ship the morning of, and  they call your number to leave the ship.  You go down the plank to a big warehouse to find your luggage (look for the number placards that are on your baggage tags...grab your luggage, zip through customs (looked at passports, asked us if we had fun, but didn't look custom info on the APP), and down we went to the parking lot...All of 45 min max from the time we showed up to the time we were in our cars!!!!  Paid the parking fee and off we were back to the real world...
Some things I would like to se RC do better is: update to where you can IM on the ship without the internet package.  Incorporate some port info on the APP...like it would have been great to have a map of Labadee before we got off the island..my daughter was on crutches (due to an injury the week prior to sailing) and we didn't know how far it was and all to get her to the snorkeling excursion, and then back to our area on the beach..They have maps once you get off the pier, but that's about 200 or so yards away...Info like that ahead of time would have been helpful..Locations of bars, restrooms and such on the app would have been helpful. But thats a minor thing to a great vacation..
Sorry this is long, but once I started writing it's hard to stop sharing what a great trip we had.  And like I said, this site...and Youtube, had a lot of helpful info and I want to contribute something..
If anyone has any specific questions, feel free to ask and I'll try to give as much detail as possible....  
 
Kevin

I have not gotten e mails for 2 years and have given up on calling and or submitting e mails.  Customer "NO SERVICE" and then some.   You can call them 5 times and get 4 different answers.  I know as they say  been there done that numerous times over the years.  Thank goodness for this blog site.     

With all due respect, I truly do not understand the logic you present.  I totally get you're disappointed that RC is adding things to CocoCay that cost extra.  I might point out that any island you visit has excursions that cost extra, and that the core "sit on a beach for free" option will still exist with Perfect Day. It's not like these options existed before and were complimentary and now they're charging for it.
I guess what I'm saying is why is it a problem for CocoCay to have additional options that costs extra when any other Caribbean port has free and not free excursions?

Uhhh, can't they read a book? You do have bookstores and libraries in your neck of the woods don't you?

God, I just wished they would stop with all the "New" sales they offer!  The only thing changing is the wording which equates to NOTHING.  And then I love when they say "only four hours left"  or "Sales has been Extended"   
Please Please Please Marketing and Sales for RCCL, lets start having some real sales!!!!  I would say one every quarter, hell, I would be happy with once a month!
Anyway, Hope everyone has a great weekend!!!!  We leave on the Allure Sunday!!!!!  Sorry about the rant!!!

Yeah so I'm glad it's not just me and  my computer...the old Crown and Anchor page was not flashy by any means but I could find all the info I needed and knew where to look. Now this page is an embarrassment and should never have been released until it was deemed "better" than the original which it is clearly not.

It's not just you. Royal "upgraded" their web site two weeks ago, maybe three now, and there's been nothing but universal hatred of it since then. Half the functionality we used to have isn't working, and the other half doesn't work the same as it used to.

I've gone on/off with a TA that I initially found from a cruise bidding site.  I check for price drops and call him.  I've had no problems getting prices readjusted ever.  Just a word of caution for people who want to go that route is that you have to know what you are getting into.  The trade off with the steep discounts and extra perks is the sacrifice of service.  I don't mind because I am comfortable managing my own bookings but for others, that might not be the wisest route.
I love Ebates but I have never done travel through them.  It always says things like, "up to 14% off" and then I don't know what the discount is exactly so I give up and look elsewhere.  I would be interested to see how it works out for you.

I messaged Ebates and customer service gave me this reply for my transaction.... Thank you for your email.  Upon review of your account, I do see that there was a shopping trip created and I can confirm that Orbitz was offering 14% Cash Back on cruises on 11/27/2017.
Just have to wait about 3 months after the trip is completed to get the cashback. I will certainly report to this site what the end result is.....
 

My wife and I meet a couple on our lats cruise in October that was the same way, we had multiple conversations with them throughout the week about what was and was not included in the cruise fare, told them about his blog, Crown and Anchor, Next Cruise, dinning etc..
But they struck me as a couple that didn't mind sitting down and having a conversation about stuff, but they probably wouldn't have gone to a seminar to discuss what is and isn't included in their fare, just my opinion. It's like if you put it in front of their face and force them to read it, they will, but otherwise they won't seek the knowledge out.

Oh I WHY they do it....I just don't like it..period.
 
I have bitten the bullet so far, however all bets are off for future cruises. I would like to see how I feel actually tipping the people that help/serve me when they deserve it. Like how we all do in real life when not on a boat.

I looked at RSW as an option from EWR, but there were no non-stop options and my older daughter has a large enough fear of flying that I didn't want to subject her to a multi-leg flight.
I agree the prices are bananas, but the weekend of March 30 is both Easter weekend and the start of Spring Break week for many schools and colleges, so the airlines are taking advantage of the massively higher demand to jack up the prices. I count myself lucky that we were able to book our flight for the price we got at the time. It's the curse of being tied to school schedules. 

Ya Travelocity was a better deal than Royal direct as Royal wasn't giving obc but they were so right there was better. Add the cash back from ebates, it ends up being a no-brainer. I use them for everything anyways and their customer service is the best. I have had to deal with RCL by phone and they are terrible where are Travelocity will even call on your behalf and is a much better experience in my opinion. So I rather use one of the major online agents then go direct. I have never received a better price direct (with the exceptions of companies that don't appear in these searches like southwest or a members-only discount). Places like these find incentives for you to book through them and in many cases have extras like OBC or better deposit rates or other benefits like working with ebates to get you money back.