Lovetocruise2002

Does anyone know from experience if the GS on Anthem can accomodate a rollaway bed? I tried to call RC but the agent seemed unsure and then said no (but I don't take anything the agents say for face value anymore). I have read many posts on CC about other RC ships where people have put a rollaway into a GS. I cannot find anything on Anthem though. I know the GS on Anthem is laid out slightly differently so that is why I am wondering. And if it is possible, where do they usually put the rollaway? Along the balcony door?

I see...You are one of those husbands! Love it! My poor husband doesn't even know where we are sailing half the time, no clue on ship or stateroom. I'm lucky if books off the correct vacations days off work. Probably no chance ever that I'm getting that surprise CLS or genie....

What about on your Anthem cruise? You have the JS for that right?

@JLMoran what are you doing with your kids on your upcoming cruise? Sofa bed? Curious cause mine hate to share the bed too. Right now I have the Family Junior suite so it's not a problem but if I upgrade again then they would have to share...

I can't say for certain because we have never brought our kids with us on RC, but we have done several Disney cruises with them while using the pullman and sofa beds. The pullman bed comes from ceiling (as others have described) and the sofa bed can be a single or double depending on the room (make sure you check specific deck plans). However, I am surprised by @Bella's post about her husband because on all our Disney cruises there was a weight limit to the pullman bed. I don't remember exactly what it was but the bed was not big and I definitely would not put any child over 10 on it. Even that might be pushing it. Perhaps RC pullman beds are bigger/stronger? On our upcoming Disney cruise in December I have already told my daughter who is now 11 that her pullman bed days are done. I would think that for one teenager the sofa bed would be fine though....if you are really curious, there is a vlog by JEM Sessionz on YouTube from their Harmony cruise and it's parents and a teenage daughter and they had a balcony room with sofa set up. They show it several times and you can see the layout.

Did you try to clear your cookies/browsing history/cache? I find that helps sometimes.

@JLMoranand @rjac did you see my post from yesterday about getting one for myself but not my husband? Noticed yesterday mine was down to $43/day and jumped on it right away. Agent gave me a hard time and insisted I had to purchase the replenish package for my husband. I had to ask to escalate and speak to a supervisor and quote @twangster's email (about the exemptions) from the blog a few days ago.

If I were in a suite on an Oasis class ship and I had a $400obc I would probably think twice too. You can get complimentary cocktails and beverages from the suite lounge. But I find with the package it's just more convenient and it gives me an excuse to try things I wouldn't usually. I find that a lot of my usage goes to water bottles, smoothies, and specialty coffee and it makes it worthwhile. On my next Harmony cruise in July 2018 it is still $55 so no way to predict it. I always go with the thinking to just buy it now (if you have already decided you want it) and re book later if the price drops.

Don't really know for that one but someone else might have a better idea. All I can tell you is that for our last cruise on Harmony it was $55 then for Black Friday it went 30%off and then it went to $46 and stayed like that until sailing. Perhaps it depends how well the packages are selling on a particular sailing? But I am big on FOMO so once it see it I don't think about it for long lol.

I knew it was you @twangster! Just did not want to reveal it if you weren't going to ;) the sail date was the giveaway... But yes, I agree, just like when the NRD policy rolled out, I think not all agents are up to speed. Even now I find many of them are not clear on the policies.

FYI...Thanks to the daily checking of my cruise planner , I noticed that the drink package for our sailing (Anthem-March 9, 2018) is down to $43/day. It was at $55/day yesterday still. I decided to jump on it and not wait for the Black Friday sale that may or may not come. Anyway, I called RC because like some of you have mentioned, I needed an exemption because my husband does not drink due to medical reason. Thought this was going to be easy from the comments I read over the last few days... The agent I spoke to refused to exempt my husband. He said the only way it would work is if I purchased the deluxe but he would at least have to purchase the refreshment package. Thank goodness for the blog @Matt did a few days ago along with whoever provided a copy of that email because again I had to speak to a supervisor and quote the email directly. In the end it all worked out but it was not as smooth sailing for me as it was for others.

@melski94 I will keep you posted. I normally travel at prime dates too because of my job I cannot travel during low seasons. Normally, I book right when the fares are released because I book the cruises well over a year in advance. The one over March break is the exception because we decided this one just recently and I already missed the "just release fare" so I'm going to test the 3 month theory. I am picky with flying though especially with my kids. Both have motion sickness issues so non-stop flights are a must and no one is a happy camper at 5am so we normally choose "good" hours to fly. Also, they are a bit too young still to sit wherever so I don't ever choose basic economy fares etc. So I am really limiting myself to the deals out there...

Always :) every time I get on and before I get off

I have found from watching fares daily that there seems to be a trend...for example for our Disney cruise this December (from Port Canaveral so flying to MCO) we booked this cruise in June 2016. Airfare was release in March 2017 and I noted the price and it was reasonable. Because we are travelling with parents and siblings and all their kids this time we decided to wait on it as a group. And my dad said exactly what @twangster said that at 3 months it would be best. So we watched daily and it went sky high and then back down a bit but never back down to the original price I saw it at. Finally, the very last day of August (we are flying out on Dec 1st) it went back down to $6 above the original price I saw it at. We grabbed it at that point. Since then I have still been checking and it has gone up again. So it's a gamble I think... I have yet to book airfare for our cruise on Anthem in March. Going to test the 3 month theory again. Will have to check out Kayak.com and airfarewatchdog.com later.

Haha! I'm the same. It's part of my morning, afternoon, and nightly routine. That along with checking drops in cruise fares and this blog....?

That happened to me too but with one of the shows. It overlapped and I chose to continued anyway and it let me.

Something interesting...when I booked times for my family for MTD on Anthem I was able to pick specific times. However, after I confirmed everything and went back to my calendar, it shows up as "at your leisure" instead of the actual time that booked. I thought I made a mistake so I went back and did it all over again and same thing. I have never been on Anthem before but when we did this on the Oasis class ships the calendar shows the time you reserved. So it makes me wonder if it even matters if a time is selected or not? Or if everyone just gets treated as a walk in?

Oh and Skyscanner is a pretty decent site to comapre airfare.

We've been cruising since 2002 and have always chosen superior ocean view balcony staterooms and we were always happy with that. As you mentioned, after reading so much on here about suites and sky class I got curious. For our last cruise on Harmony last month we started off with our balcony cabin once again. Then I watched prices and checked almost daily (type a personality). Few months later we upgraded to a JS and then a month before the cruise the price dropped a lot on a GS and we grabbed it. We ended up getting it for under $5000 for 2 people. Not sure if that was a good deal or not in the grand scheme of things but after watching prices for over a year on that sailing it was the lowest I saw it go. Because I am a teacher I am limited as to when I can cruise so we usually stick to summer cruising. I wish I could take advantage of the lower prices from September-early December. Fair warning though. Once you go up it is hard to come back down. And I agree we are all fortunate to be able to cruise but sky class did not disappoint. Now we are booked on Anthem for March and I am watching prices once again. What I am curious about is if there are good tips out there for getting a deal in star class? See what I mean, once you go up hard to come down lol. No tips on airfare. I live in Ontario, Canada and always fly out of Detroit, MI. I just accept the fact the it will cost us about $1500 (for 4) to fly anywhere in Florida. I have decided that we will stay as loyal as we can to Delta to collect our sky miles and hopefully save a bit that way on airfare down the road. As for the TA question I know many here will disagree with me but after many cruises with RC I feel better dealing with them directly. I tried the TA route several times and found that I did not like having to go through them every time I wanted to change something and they could not save me enough money to make me want to give up control over my reservation. And yes I am a control freak. So I am back to just booking directly with RC.

Did they say if you are going to be required to provide documentation to support your reasons?

Happy to report that after complaining and escalating to supervisors and their supervisors and being on hold forever they finally took off the gratuities. It's very sneaky and shady though because if I was not so Type A and check my account info regularly I could have totally missed it. They basically just tacked it onto your account and if you are not paying attention to your final balance owing it would be easily overlooked. Makes me wonder how many other people out there had it added on (without credit back) and if they don't call and complain would it just be left like that?....

Lol. In teaching we tell the students that one has to have a growth mindset not a fixed mindset. Dream big and it might happen. At least that is what I tell myself for trying out Star class one day. That or I need to know WAAAYTOOO's secret ?

Just checked Anthem in March 2018. It says the same thing ? I have seen on other msg boards that people have gotten out of it from the reasons listed above in rjweber3's post.

Keep checking maybe something will open up? Or there's always GS ?

Stay tuned Joe, I'm not done with them yet. I still think it needs to be honoured....