Atlantix2000

Hmm, I'm suspicious that the travel agent screwed up and has since mostly fixed things without admitting that there was ever anything wrong.

The problem is her son is already 18 so the under 18 rules won't help. I think it comes down to whether an expired passport qualifies as an acceptable photo ID. Of course, the best option is finding the missing ID!

If it is still in your cart, you did NOT purchase the package. You just added it to the list of things you are thinking of buying. Same thing as a shopping cart in a real store. Until you pay for it, it doesn't belong to you. In a real store, the items in your cart are basically reserved for you (because it would be incredibly rude for someone to take something out of your cart). But in the online world, items in your cart are not reserved, someone else COULD buy the last item and it would disappear from your cart.

I'd say both situations could be true (shortage and price disagreement). If there's a shortage, Crown Royal may be telling Royal, "we can supply your ships but only if you pay more than normal" and Royal is saying "No".

If you want to stay side by side, no, you can't apply for upgrades. But if you don't care, Royal Up is run by a third party and treats every room independently. If you get an upgrade from them, it's not clear that they would actually check whether moving you would break the normal booking rules. Even less clear is whether Royal would notice when you check in to board the ship. Once on board, they definitely don't care who sleeps where.

Hmm, did people vote Utopia because it was their favorite or because it was the first option and they didn't care? Did Royal list it first because they wanted people to vote for it? So many conspiracies to spin...

Walkie-Talkies are universally hated by everyone around the person using them. Don't do that to your kids. Ever been annoyed by that one guy that puts his phone on speaker mode while walking through a crowd? Now imagine there's also squawking and squeaking hurting your ears. Walkies Talkies don't work well around metal and even worse in a metal box. Guess what a ship is....lots of metal boxes. The only thing they are good at on a ship is making people mad at you.

Royal sells Rome excursions that include transportation to Rome. There are plenty of independent vendors selling excursions also. You can also use whatever public/private transportation options you like. Just be aware that Rome is a good distance away. If you are on a Royal excursion that gets delayed, the ship will wait for you or Royal will get you to the next port at their expense. If you are not on a Royal excursion, the ship will leave without you if you are delayed. That goes for all ports not just Rome.

Royal shows a generic itinerary on the main page with "Port order varies by date" in the fine print. So all 6 night cruises that stop in Cococay, St Martin, and Nassau fall under the same search regardless of the order of those stops. They do this so you aren't overwhelmed with options. The third party websites then use those generic itineraries to generate their port information which is how they end up showing 3 ships at Cococay on the same day. You have to actually start through the process of booking the cruise to find the actual dates and order of ports. You can get more reliable information for major ports because those schedules are published by the ports themselves. For example, you can visit the Port of Miami homepage to see who will be there but you can't do that for Cococay because Royal doesn't publish that info for their private island.

Absolutely. But you also have to consider whether you would use the non-alcohol options. If you regularly drink smoothies, specialty coffees, sodas, and/or bottled water, you might only need 2 alcoholic drinks a day to "break even" on the UDP. If you like wine with your dinner, you also might never have to visit a bar. There's also people that prefer having no bills after a trip and therefore prepaying a package is better even if they don't quite break even.

ALL reservations for the UDP are handled after you get on the ship. That was the trade-off to get the UDP discount. If you book the restaurants individually, you can choose the date and times now, but at full price.

You'll be on board for less than 4 days, so the 4 daily charges cover your whole trip. If you put the drink package in your cart, you'll see the daily charge times 4 (plus tax and gratuity) before you check out. They won't add another day later. While the package with alcohol includes disembarkation morning (Friday for your trip), you should realize that won't actually include many alcohol options. The bars will stay open as late as normal Thursday night/early Friday morning which could be midnight, 1AM, 2AM, or ??? depending on the ship, the location, and whether there are actually any customers. But the bars won't reopen during disembarkation. Again, depending on the ship, you could get mimosas, bloody marys, and some other options in the windjammer or main dining room with breakfast. Of course, the non-alcoholic options like speciality coffees and bottled water will be available with either version of the package.

I don't understand your hotel comment. Most (if not all) hotels I've ever stayed at charge the same price for 1 or 2 adults in a room. That means you are paying double occupancy as a single hotel guest.

I think the more important question is will they even let you board the ship in the US without a valid visa for the Bahamas? Royal may be required to ensure that all passengers have valid visas for all ports of call that require them before you can even start your cruise. Even if you don't actually step foot on Cococay, you will be in the Bahamas. Pretty sure I just saw a story about international passport cruisers denied boarding in Seattle for an Alaskan cruise because the ship stops in Canada and they didn't have visas. The next question is whether you have time to get that visa by May.

Just so you know, there's no requirement to dress any differently for formal nights. Plenty of people opt out without changing their dining plans.

Literally any time from the day you book to the day you board but it's generally a few weeks before the trip. Guaranty rooms (their term for they pick your room) can be anywhere in the category you booked. Even the most obstructed balcony room still has a view. There are plenty of pictures online to give you an idea. Just search for your ship name and some specific room numbers that are considered obstructed to get an idea what is out there. Many people are happy to save some money by accepting a random room. You can always change by cancelling and rebooking but that may also come with a cost depending on how/where/when you booked originally.

As others have said, fill out the special needs request. I have no idea if they'll accept a heating pad that way. In general, things that generate heat are banned due to fire hazards. They do allow certain types of hair dryers/straighteners because half their customers would start a fight if they didn't but believe me the ships would ban them if they could. Some CPAPs are able to mildly warm up the water tank but they are much more like normal allowed electronic devices.

If the waterpark was the most important part of your day at Coco Cay, I can't understand why you would wait to purchase the tickets. Think about it this way. If you wanted to see a movie at a theater on a certain day and time, would you buy tickets in advance or wait until you get there? If you called the theater and asked if you could wait until you arrived, what would they answer? They would say yes you can wait. They should also say that it's possible the tickets will be sold out when you get there but they aren't lying if they say you can wait. It should be understood that selling out is a risk of waiting to purchase something that has a limited number of items available. Waterparks, excursions, and drink/dining packages are no different. They can and do sell out. There may be inventory held back for sales during the cruise but that's a risk and the pre-cruise prices are almost always better. Hope everything works out for you!

The judge may or may not want to go after airlines for similar reasons. But in order to do so, a case involving the airlines would have to come through her court. Whoever filed the current lawsuit may be attempting to set a precedent by suing the cruise lines first because they believe it is an easier case to win. That kind of thing happens all the time.

The 15 minute wait is (or at least was) a Carnival rule. Many people ask because they assume all cruise lines have similar rules. Royal has never (to my knowledge) had a time limit but the bartenders will cut you off if they deem it necessary.

Geography is part of the answer. Another part is the number of ships already docking at Cococay (1-2 every day I believe). Another part would be sales numbers. We obviously don't see those numbers but you can bet Royal analyzes them. If the rare Galveston to Cococay cruise sells faster than other Galveston cruises, that would indicate the demand is higher than expected and they should sail it more. But if those cruises sell slower than other Galveston cruises (or worse they need to offer better sales to fill the ship), than they are meeting the demand shown by their customers.

It's simple. The kids don't really sail free. Their cost is built into the prices for passengers 1 and 2. It's marketing. If you want to sell a cabin of 4 people and you want to charge $500 per person, you could charge: 1) $500 per person...total cost = $2000 2) $1000 each for passengers 1 & 2, kids sail free...total cost = $2000 for 2 parents, 2 kids 3) $750 per person with a sale of $500 off each for passengers 3 & 4...total cost = $2000 4) $1000 for passenger 1, BOGO 50% off for passenger 2, $250 each for additional passengers...total cost = $2000 I could keep going, but depending on the details of the "sale", some versions work out better for 4 adults, some versions work out better for parents with kids, but Royal gets the amount they want for the cabin.

Well, honestly, the debit card MAY be the source of the issue. There have been many long posts written (here and across the internet) why they aren't a good choice for online purchases. I'll just sum those up by saying it's always better to spend someone else's money (the credit card company's) than your own money (your checking account). Even if your transactions had worked the way we think they should, your checking account would still be charged twice while you waited for the refund to arrive. What if you needed that cash for rent/utilities/etc? With a credit card, you'd have a month for the pending charges and refunds to sort themselves out without costing you anything. For purchases made only with OBC, this process should be both easy and instantaneous to get the lower price without costing you anything. However, there's always a small risk that you cancel something and before you get it rebooked, other people have purchased all the remaining items leaving you with nothing. Excursions, restaurants, and dining/beverage packages can and do sell out.

While you've given a lot of numbers, there's a lot of important information missing. Normally, cruise planner purchases are refunded to the original method of payment. So if you used OBC, it refunds as OBC and can be immediately reused. If you paid by credit card, it gets refunded to the credit card but this does take time. You said the refund would go to your checking account, but I didn't think it was possible to pay that way so that is confusing. Is there a Travel Agent involved? So here's some questions. When is your cruise? Are you past final payment? If you're very close to the cruise, they might prefer to give OBC because you wouldn't get the refund before the cruise (though it seems unusually to make it non-refundable). Are you booked under US rules? Most answers you get here will be from US cruisers. International rules are often different because of different consumer protection laws. $450 in OBC is an unusually high amount. Did it come from Royal, a Travel Agent, casino related? And who did you speak with? They gave the normal US answer (cancel, rebook, refund to original form of payment) but if you spoke with the US call center about an international booking you might not get the right answers.

I think for hibachi, I would book the right number of people. During checkout, if there's no way to indicate adult vs child, you would just have to pay the adult price for all. However, once on the ship, they can refund the difference as on board credit. I've heard of people doing that for all specialty restaurants, not just hibachi.