jce2

Why board early? Because once I start up that gang-way I know all the paper-shuffling and bureaucracy is behind me and i can truly start to unwind

Take care of her, we will be sailing on the return trip!

I managed to snag the corner aft balcony on Radiance (deck 8 ) for our alaska cruise in 2020 and couldn't be more excited. A bit pricey but this is my 31 bucket list trip so I want to maximize it. Funny thin is my son and his wife are traveling with us and are literally staying on the opposite end of the ship as they have the most forward portal room on the same deck! Figure we can burn off dinner simply walking between the two cabins

Awesome! I really hate dealing with phone calls. But actually I checked my spreadsheet when I got home and it turns out this sale of Deluxe/voom at $56 is actually a dollar more than when I bought it on Black Friday

Its being offered on my cruise but i cant select my wife & I, supposedly because we already bought earlier. I cant find anyway to cancel the original order. is the only way by phone? (this will save us $74)

Pretty cool so far but it seems you can only redeem OBC for new bookings...not sure how you time it to work that way

I have only done one cruise so far (have two more booked) but am already amazed at how all the rules seems to favor the cruise line and not the customer. I dont know of any other "entertainment/travel" industry that is this lopsided! Fortunately my first trip went without a hitch (except for the underwater earthquake scrapping some Cayman expeditions.....) so I am not personally tainted at this point. I dont have a problem with last minute changes due to weather, but find it absurd you can be rerouted because the line is too incompetent (yes, it IS incompetency!) to forecast dry dock schedules, or can simply wipe out reservations to allow a charter of the ship. I do realize these issues are industry problems and not just RC.

No idea how this is supposed to work...downloaded it....played some game called King Kong (on auto-spin) until I eventually ran out of chips and have like 300 credits. So just come back daily and play again?

Yea, i am really not expecting one and that is fine, if I wasn't willing to pay the price i wouldn't have booked the cruise. But I got Danette over at MEI tracking it for me just in case. Only real disappointment/surprise was that the initial sale included NO OBC. Still, I got exactly the room I wanted for the vacation of a lifetime so all is well. As a point of reference. I booked this April's Caribbean cruise last January and the price has steadily climbed ever since with no hope of sales......but that means I bought it for $1000 less than now so I kind of got a sale! ?

I literally booked by 2020 Alaska cruise 45 minutes BEFORE they were posted on-line. will be interesting to see if anytime between now and March 2020 (when final payment is due) there is any sale that benefits me.

I would have transferred to Annette but apparently some guy named "Matt" is keeping her busy...... ?

Well you convinced me! Transferred my Alaska 2020 cruise to Danette over at MEI last night. I normally like to do the leg work myself but with this cruise being so far out thought it might be easier to let a pro monitor the sales etc.

After reading about aft balconies and seeing pics i was super eager to get one. I stalked the RC site the morning that Alaska 2020 was supposed to go on sale and after a few hours of it not showing up I decided to be "naive" and call RC directly. At first even their rep didint think they were on sale yet but he checked and they were!! I was able to grab the corner aft on 8th deck of Radiance. so excited to hang out there on cruise days and just enjoy the Alaskan coast sailing by. Plan on a tri-pod out their for my camera and a good set of binoculars. Would be awesome if i can hear the Naturist talks form there but doubt it

Twangster, if my son gets that e-mail and i can bid $400 to move him from a OV to a balcony I will write the check myself!! Boy, would that cap off our Alaska trip!!

And it's all disclosed up front and OPTIONAL. Dont want it, dont bid! No extra cost to you (or those who bid if they lose). sorry, just seems like negativism for the sake of being negative to me. I doubt I will ever take advantage of it but dont see any harm. My kids on the other hand are hoping it comes thru for them. They currently have an "oceanview" for our Alaska cruise (I have an aft balcony) and while they are aware of their lack of control, they have the attitude...any balcony anywhere on-board will beat their portal window. They cant afford to just pay the thousands (literally) more that I paid so this might (though a long shot) work for them. If not? No foul! they still have what they got

It's hardly a scam if you get what you wanted for the price you wanted! Sure, the cruise line is doing this for their own benefit but that hardly makes it a scam

Yea, on any ship where ever you see a golf ball you can pretty much assume there is some form of satellite dish inside. The actual golf ball simply serves as a weather protection. You will see these things on a lot of military bases and elsewhere (there are two right behind my office)

Interesting term...so then you are doing a closed-loop in 2020 (Probably out of Seattle)

Close-Jaw???

With 591 days until the trip, my wife and I spent the entire evening last night looking at details of Anchorage....so yeah, we are kind of excited. Already figured out where we want to stay and where we want dinner! Already have a rough idea what we want for excursions and knowing that they can fill fast I have bookmarked several tour companies and will monitor for when 2020 dates become available. Only thing I havent decided is if we ever want to try 2 excursions in one day....

Site now shows 2020 but is doing odd things. For example for my cruise it only shows the aft cabins and wont let you select any other balconies! It is also not giving the choice of refundable vs nonrefundable deposits

RC site doesn't show it yet but i was able to call and book it this morning. I called and got a very helpful RC rep. He said he wouldn't expect 2020 to be out until Dec-Mar. I told him I had heard RC had announced "week of November 5". He checked and Yes! He was almost as excited as i to announce he could book it. I don't know the full rotation but i can tell you June 19-26, 2020 is the standard south-bound route. I did wind up paying a bit more than 2019 rates (to be expected) but got exactly what i wanted including the aft corner on deck 8. Alaska here i come!!

2020 is up!! Doesn't show on the web site but I called and got everything I wanted!!! June 19 is southbound

The current "sale" ends tonight. I am betting they won't release the new dates until after the sale

Hey, I've only checked 8 times so far (today.....) It's not like I am impatient!