jce2

Alas, July 4th sale does not seem to apply to the January Liberty sailings.

Prices are trending upward right now. My outbound flight from Denver to Houston was $122 now $195. My return was bought at $133 now at $175

I would probably not bring and trye "board" games as I wouldn't want to transport them. I think my whole family likes "Flux" so I would probably bring it. Since a large emphasis on this trip is relaxing with my wife on our bacony I might bring along cribbage and Backgammon. JLMoran, I have never played Settlers of Catan but suspect I should try it sometime

One note: I do a LOT of research on my trips and can tell you that round trip vs two separate one-ways on Southwest generates the exact same price (ie. you can book one trip now and return trip later and it wont cost any extra. There is no price break for round-trip (at least not on Southwest))

Just a heads up that as of this morning Southwest has opened flights thru March 7th! Got my 6 return tickets from Houston for about $100 less than expected (per ticket!). Was also able to book 6 seats round trip from Houston to Galveston using Galveston Limos for $240 total which form my research seems to be the cheapest way to go. Now that all my transport is arranged I can sit back, relax, and wait for those drink package sales! ;)

Others are reporting that the OBC from their Credit Card showed up in planner almost immediately. Apparently it dep[ends on what cruise you are on, time of day, and what phase the moon is in.

AAARGH! I am now reading over on the "Crown & Anchor" facebook that if you convert your RCL Credit card points to OBC, that OBC will not actually show up on your account until shortly before the cruise or actually on the cruise, meaning you wont have access to that OBC thru the planner ahead of the cruise. So that means I either wait o get on the cruise and then buy the non-discounted drink package, or buy it while on sale and be stuck with several hundred dollars in OBC that I have no use for!

ScatmanJack thank you so much for taking the time to write all this. I am taking the same cruise in January so I really enjoy the insights. One question, you mention signing up for such thigs as the mixology class. Am I correct that you hav e to wait until you are on-board to sign up for these (ie. they don't show up in Cruise Planner)?

You have described my interpretation perfectly. It also appears to be a two step process. First, from the Bank of America site redeem your points for OBC "vouchers". Next, call RC and have those vouchers applied to your specific cruise. I am going to wait until mid-July and try it. I will certainly document my experience including whether these OBCs do indeed show up in planner for pre-cruise purchases.

I was looking at my points and I noticed under conditions it states "1. Reward Redemptions expire one hundred and eighty (180) days from date of transaction". If I read this correctly it basically means if you were to redeem your points for OBC, that 180 days later those OBC dollars would vanish. Is that correct? What if I redeem the points for OBC and then immediately burn the OBC on drink packages? I would assume the packages would be safe snce I did indeed use the redemption within 180 days. As it is my cruise is in January which puts 180 days as mid-July. My current plan is to redeem them then simply to conform that they they do indeed show up in my planner as available OBC then wait until Black Friday/Cyber Monday in hopes of a drink/excursion sale.

As it is when i click on planer tonight the site is crashing

Wait!! Excursions go on sale? I figured RC stuff might but since excursions are contracted with outside agencies I assumed they were exempt

Well, this mornings announcement is muddy as hell but seems to leave cruise lines unaffected as well as the ability to bring back Cuban rum/cigars

Update: So it appears if I want to use my OBC to purchase drink packages for my other linked reservations I will have to call. When I go through the website it only lists the people on the particular reservation I click on and only shows their OBC. Unlike MTD which allows me to search for names on other reservations

I will be watching from my In-Laws house in Nebraska. They sit directly below the center line so should be awesome. Already have sun filters built for my telescope. A true once-in-a-life-time experience

Aaah ok! We are on Liberty. Guess I mis-understood, but either way it looks like we are covered.

Newbie question: As I understand it, your "sea pass" is basically your ticket to everything on board. But you don't actually get your sea pass until you get to your room. Soooo....how do you get a drink before that?

Looking forward to the rest of your report. I am getting ready to go on my first cruise in January and for reasons that defy explanation I find myself going out to the Galveston webcams every Sunday to see Liberty. I saw the crane and delay last week.

True, but I am actually buying these packages for young adults who tend to drink water, and the occasional soda. I don't think a virgin cocktail holds much interest. Those that do drink alcohol are light drinkers and I will just pay for their drinks on the fly. On the other hand,I WILL be buying the deluxe package for myself as I really want to try all the beer based cocktails at Hoof & Claw

Of course now that I said that, the website is now displaying drink packages for my cruise. Deluxe is $55 a day ($454.30 total) so needless to say will wait for a sale. I got the impression there should at least be a black Friday sale before my cruise. So here is a kind of weird question: After comparing the soda package ($70.21) vs. the next package up ($214.76) there is no way to justify the extra cost for me. My question is two part: Can I just hand a bartender my coke cup and have them fill it with ice & water? How much does bottle of water cost? (already plan to buy a case for each room but know there may be times while on deck that I want a water)

Alas, I am 204 days out of my January cruise and still no drink packages. In fact half the time I click on it, the website crashes with some cryptic programming error. As a software developer myself, it amazes me how bad their website is

Sounds like I am good to go then! All three reservation IDs are linked. I do intend to book the dink packs before the cruise, just waiting to make the final payment using my RCL Card for additional points to convert to OBC. (Drink packages are not actually available for purchase yet anyway)

Greetings! I have three rooms booked for a January Liberty trip. Each room was given a different reservation number despite all being booked at the same time with the same credit card. By the time I make my final payment, tweo of the rooms will have $50 OBC while my own room will have somewhere around $500.. Can I use part of my OBC toward drink packages in the other rooms? Pay for "First Night Done right" for all 6 of us?

Actually that is precisely the package I was alluding too. My plan right now is to get that as it will only cost me for the three days I need it. Then will also get a single voom package. This way we should be covered no matter where the various phones are located. Probably overkill but piece of mind has no price for my wife.

Thank you for your patience but allow me one more question......ignore my phone in this equation. Scenario: An ATT user in ON SHORE with no wi-fi cafe near by. they want to place a call to someone Now how do they do it?