Lovetocruise2002

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....

rjac, that might be the difference. I just checked another booking I have that I booked with an agent and I cannot pull up the cost breakdown. This is one of the reasons that I prefer to deal directly with them sometimes.

No problem...I am assuming if you are on the Countdown to Cruise page then on the left there should be spot where it says Welcome name! If you look just below that, your name along with other guests sailing with you should also be there along with one or two blue icons that say "View". Click on that. One will give you your personal info and the other will give you the cost breakdown.

Oh, never mind, just read WAAAYTOOO's post...I have shades of purple in my hair too lol.

I need that black one (Star Class) to match my hair! LOL! or is it navy? I don't even remember now....

Two days ago, I took advantage of the KSF offer and booked a cruise on Anthem of the Seas for March 2018. Upon booking, I asked the agent how the free gratuities offer would be applied. He told me this is applied within a week after booking by their revenue dept. and there is nothing they (agents) do from their end. Today, I logged into my cruises account and noticed that they had added on the gratuities but did not credit it back, so basically now my balance owing is higher than what I booked two days ago. Hmmm...so I got on the phone once again to RC. Spoke to an agent who was also puzzled by this, then she asked her supervisor and was told that Free Gratuities cannot be combined with KSF. I calmly told her that cannot be correct because when I booked it allowed me to select KSF and then on the next screen it said Free gratuities and then the screen after that says Fare includes: Free gratuities. So her supervisor went to ask another supervisor who also came back with the same answer, that those two offers cannot be combined. So while I was on hold I actually took a look at the Free Gratuities fine print and it does not say anywhere that those two offers cannot be combined. Even the supervisor I spoke to agreed that it is not clear in the language. I then expressed to whichever supervisor that I was speaking to that from the customer's POV this seems like false advertising to me and that RC should honour this regardless of what they are saying now. The response I got back was that they need to look into this further and they would call me back. What if they don't budge? Where am I suppose to go with this? Attaching screen shots that I took: I had to select a sail date one month prior to mine because the sailing that I am on is maxed out for 4 in a room. My sail date is not a black out date for FSF either. But even the agent said this should not make a difference in the case. Last photo is the fine print for free gratuities.

You could just purchase it now and then keep watching prices and if it goes down then get it re-priced before your cruise planner closes. I've done that before. That way you won't regret it if the price goes up.

They do. When we were there last month I overheard one of the waiters ask another family if they needed one. But we were sailing without our kids at the time so I did not pay much attention. Next cruise we have the kiddies with us so now I am curious. I should have asked to see it then.

Does anyone happen to have a copy of the Coastal Kitchen kids menu that could be posted?

I agree...if anything I will likely get the bungalow and not cabana simply because it is closer to the water. Thanks for all the tips about the confusion around booking it. The only thing holding me back at this point is what if it rains? Then it seems like a waste of money....

Awesome news! So happy it worked out for you!

Happy to report that early this morning I checked online again and notice that limit had been lifted. So I called RC right away to ask for the upgrade. In the end we are good, now in a suite with 1 1/2 bath and an extra pullman bed so the kids don't have to share a bed plus free gratuities for all Told the kiddies they would get their own room maybe next time lol. And yes, Matt, I booked with the NRD so it was my understanding all along that I would have to pay a penalty of $100pp for one of the cancelled rooms (not both rooms) which is what ended up happening. The remainder of my deposit goes to a FCC which can be applied to this cruise in a few weeks. Something interesting though, after reading bcarney's posts about his FCC, I did ask them what happens after I apply this FCC and sometime before sailing in March I decide I want to upgrade again, would my FCC be lost since already applied? They (agent and supervisor) assured me no it would not be, it would simply be reapplied by a supervisor since it is not expired and I am not changing the sail date or ship. They said this is done all the time. So what I have learned from all this is that the front end agents often do not know the rules and sometimes even the supervisor does not because with my case they had to go to a manager. With all this I was on hold for probably over and hour but worth it because it was good learning experience to not take the first agent's word for it all the time. And I may be in the minority here but I prefer to book and deal directly with RC because I can argue my own case and have control over my own booking. I blame it on my Type A personality lol.

Congrats Kayla! Next cruise goals...celebrate every anniversary with a cruise!

bcarney...you need to call back. I just got off the phone with RC about a similar (but not identical issue) and I took the opportunity to ask ask about the FCC. They told me that if you are not changing the ship or sail date and if the FCC has not expired then they reapply all the time for customers who are upgrading. It would require a supervisor to do so but it is done frequently.

Here's my vent for today....So we are booked on Anthem in March 2018 in two connecting balconies at the moment (1 adult, 1 child in each room). Well this morning I happen to notice that there is a new Kids Sail Free promo which means this is now my way to convince hubby to get back into a suite. So I called RC right away with the understanding on my part already that by going from two cabins to one I will be paying a $100 service charge for the two people in the cabin that I will be cancelling and adding them to the other existing reservation. I was ok with that. Also, I have to mention that over the last two weeks, I have called RC on three other occasions inquiring about the switch to a suite and all three agents assured me that my penalty would be $200 (cause we have 2 in a room right now) and the remainder of the deposit in the form of a FCC. Ok, so I call this morning telling them that I want to upgrade (give them more money) and take advantage of Kids Sail Free and the agent tells me that I have to cancel both my reservations (and pick up a $400 penalty) to take advantage of the KSF offer. What??! I then continued to question him on how this would be different from me just getting a price adjustment (because I would not be incurring a penalty for that) and I also read the fine print on the KSF promo this morning and it said nothing about how it was for new bookings only which is what he kept telling me. I also let him know (nicely still at this point) that other agents had previously assured me that to go from two cabins to a suite I would only be cancelling the one reservation and he tried to tell me that they all gave me wrong information and that he had been doing this for years and he knows his stuff. So still not satisfied at this point, I requested to speak to a supervisor. He then put me on hold for about 10 minutes so that he could speak to a supervisor. Well as it turns out, he was wrong and I could take advantage of KSF and get a suite and just pay the penalty for 2 guests instead of 4. But....and this is where I got angry....as bad luck would have it, in the time that it took him to work all that out, their 3/4 capacity for this particular sailing had been maxed out! So now I can no longer put 4 in a room because of coast guard regulations and because he took so long to figure it out. Back to square one...I am not normally one to complain but I had to post this. Because just the other day I responded to another post about how most of the agents still don't know the rules around the new policies. Fingers crossed that some people cancel and I can call back....

Was thinking about renting a bungalow for our visit to Cococay. When I logged into my cruise planner it shows the cost is per person. I had always assumed by the many posts and blogs that it was per bungalow?? Am I not looking at this right? This is what happens when I select 4 guests, 2 adults and 2 children... Now mind you the price is in Canadian but that it crazy right?? And do you get a lunch and water with these bungalows? Or do you still walk yourself over to the lunch buffet?

Last year on the Allure the headliner was an acapella band called The Edge Effect. I did not want to go but my husband dragged me in. Turned out to be one of the best headliner shows I have seen so far. Make sure you go check out Mo5aic. I wish they had that on Harmony last month instead of a ventriloquist.

Hmm...that is interesting info...thank you for sharing. Might be worth another call back. I have noticed over the last few weeks prior to booking my next cruise that a lot of these agents on the phone still are unfamiliar with the policies. They had to put me on hold and "find out" quite a few times.

There are positives and negatives in every situation in life. We just have to make the best of it. We were at Disney a few weeks ago for Hurricane Irma. Was our vacation impacted? Yes. Did we know it was hurricane season? Yes. Were we a bit stressed? Yes. Did we have to abandon some of our set plans? Yes. Did we still have a good time? Yes. It must be stressful but look for the good. Life is easier that way. Good luck.

Unofficial...check Fan site....check