FloatMe

I sure it has changed, but both times we were on Adventure, we shoved off while we were at the dinner table in the MDR / 6pm seating.

Zip lock bags of various sizes

Power strip

Flip flops

Royal has to tell any guest if they have a balance due or not. They do not need to detail the breakdown or the travel agents deal but they need to tell you if the cruise is paid or not. If a agent on the phone told you anything else then they do not know what they are talking about. Which seems to be common these days at Royal. I would talk to a different agent or a dispute resolutions agent. I would never accept the answer we cannot give you any information. If the agents would not talk to me Corporate legal would give me the answer.

thanks, good to know. I only owe $100 (no idea why i wait for final payment day to pay that) for an October 30 sailing. maybe in will go ahead and pay it and call C&A back.

We stayed in GS 1556 on Adventure (Voyager's sister) which is pretty far forward. Only one time did we any noise from the pool deck above us and that was at 3:30 in the afternoon. I think some type of game being played. Sounded like horse hooves for about 3 minutes. That was it the entire week. My wife and I are not particularly prone to motion sickness but we both take over the counter meclizine as a precaution.

While it is a bit unusual, there are some reasons this can happen.  It ranges from group rates, to how an agent distributes commission back to guests, and other logistics I'm sure I can't think of.  So it never hurts to check w/ RCL, but I wouldn't panic either.

Not panicking. I did however call crown & anchor and due to contractual agreements with the travel agency, Royal cannot say if the cruise is paid in full or give me any information regarding my payments. I have to communicate with the agency for all financial information. My guess, as you mentioned, is the agency gets a better group rate above their regular commissions. If the math works out the way I believe it to be the TA will collect exactly 20% of the total cruise fare plus the cost of the insurance. Which all seems completely reasonable. Having never personally worked with a TA, I kind of ASSumed RC would collect all of the funds and then pay out commission.

I have Oasis (which we decided to cancel) booked for November 2017 and we were able to get first seating for traditional MDR. If it weren't available, i would probably call C&A

I thought about this only because I did not want to carry cash for the casino with me, however fees for travelers checks rival that of getting cash on board or from a credit card. Ended on the plus side on the last cruise and oddly I wasn't nearly as concerned carrying the winnings home w/me.. :)

Why would you have any issues here. In the worst case (and I do not believe this to be true) the travel agent stole money from you. You paid on a credit card so it would be refunded by the credit card company and the agent would be banned by Royal for life. You have zero risk here now. And again I do not believe this to have happen. I believe Royal Royal is paid in full and the agent is paid in full. But if you want to check call Royal and give them the reservation number and asked them if any payment is outstanding.

 

Lots of things to worry about this is not one of them. Have a great trip.

thanks! as I said, I am not terribly concerned. as much as anything, I am a curious why they do what they do? I had just assumed that all monies,minus the cost of the insurance would have been paid to Royal Caribbean.

Brief; we have been on 4 cruises, two of which were booked directly with the cruise line and the other two my parents booked and we simply paid them. So we have no real experience dealing with a travel agency.

 

Present day; we booked our next cruise with a travel agent who we had never used. He has been really helpful and offered a nice incentive. My only concern is that after having made several payments on my credit card which were charged by RCCL, the last payment and a portion of another where charged to his agency instead of RCCL? Is this normal practice?

 

The amounts seem to correlate with commissionable fare and non-comm taxes and fees. But outside of the cost of the insurance, which we did purchase from him, why would the agency collect the taxes and fees?

 

I am not terribly concerned but I've heard horror stories. Any thoughts and experience would be appreciated.

Agreed.... we booked November 2016 and April 2017 while on board adventure in April 2015. And we just booked November 2017 and April 2018 last month.

I went to pawn stars in las vegas a month ago. I still can't afford the $8000 sub mariner they had :)

I break out in cold sweat just reading about others haggling for expensive merchandise on foreign soil.

 

Not for me

Thanks Float!  However you are not correct...  I just got off the phone with my TA and the RCCL Group Devision.  There IS a Group point of contact on board who can coriddinate dinners, activities and shore excursions.  As it gets closer to sailing they will forward that peosons contact information to me.

Good to know! Is there a cost involved?

Your mums a genius... and I imagine a great motivator... i bet it motivated you to check in that is for sure  :)

I'm 46 years old and still terrified of being late :)

My mom put a watch on my wrist and said if you want to see the outside of the cabin for the rest of the cruise you will check in on very specific intervals. It worked very well!

I can't speak to Royal Caribbean on this one, but I did sail on princess new year 2014. although it was a great cruise, I will not choose to pay the holiday premium price to hear Christmas music for 7 straight days. they had a very nice party up on the pool deck with fireworks and of course the ship's horn

Thanks everyone

Be prepared to lose it, but I have had success affixing an extra luggage tag to a 12 pack of soda and showed up at the cabin with the rest of the luggage.

I'm on the fence! We have oasis booked for November and I would have no problem forgoing that one for the group cruise if it weren't considerably more expensive. I know it's to be expected on the new ship, maybe I'll flip a coin on Tuesday when the new promotion flips around the way they take the same amount of money.

From my understanding, you will have a letter in your cabin with your password. I suppose you brave guest services before you are able to access your cabin?

I'm also TSA precheck and that helps a lot.  While I haven't experienced the delays mentioned above, I have seen serious security crowds at Miami after cruises and the worst in Seattle, where it took us nearly two hours just to check into our flight on a Saturday morning and another hour to get through security.  Fortunately, we had a late afternoon flight, so we didn't have any time pressures.

 

Keep in mind that most of these issues have been related to system glitches, so this isn't the norm.  In addition, you can go to the TSA's website and see estimated wait times so that you can plan ahead.  Some airports also post real time wait times.

I am a little nervous about our flight out of FLL in November. 11:00am, we will self disembark as soon as we are permitted but I hadn't accounted for the staffing issues the TSA has come out and admitted they are going to have

Would it be wise to make lunch reservations for sabor on Allure durind a sea day? Matt's review indicated there was a a lot of seating, I just don't know how busy they get for lunch?

I have a TA who booked my group (25 cabins, 70 people). Does anyone know if RCCL can help with group excursions and group gathering (i.e., cocktail hour in a separate gathering area)? Also would we be able to have the RCCL photographer take a group picture? Thanks!

I believe you need to have 40 people committed to doing the excursion. Here is the email address;  groupshorex@rccl.com

We paid the $85 for TSA pre-check. It's good for 5 years which works out to be less than $4 per flight if we travel as anticipated. Well worth in my opinion.

We were gold C&A last year in April, in a GS, on Adventure and we were given a free bridge tour as suite guests.