Atlantix2000

Ignore the percentages. What's the $ cost? If the March 40% off sale cost $60 that would imply the on board cost was $100. Today the 10% off sale could also be $60 implying the on board cost is $66.67. Tomorrow a 25% off sale could also be $60 implying the on board cost is $80. They can change the "on board cost" as often as they want until you are actually on board. The sale percentage is just marketing to get you to buy. Even if the current price is higher than your parents paid, it's better to lock in something because you can always cancel and repurchase if you see a lower $ amount.

Considering Royal Up is managed by a third party, I would never modify a reservation once I've placed a Royal Up bid. It's pretty clear that Royal Up is non-refundable if accepted. I'm surprised there isn't language in the Royal Up agreement that says don't do what this person did. Or maybe it is there and Royal decided a refund was better than bad publicity.

@jay1021 Oh I agree it would better if you could see prices and availability of excursions/packages/etc before booking a cruise. But given the current setup, social media and some research is the best advice I can offer. Disney World certainly has its own issues. Frequent visitors can list some general rules on ride closures (water rides like splash mountain get their annual maintenance during the colder months, only one water park is open at a time during winter while the other gets maintenance, etc). I think in general Disney is good about posting those things well in advance if you know to look for them. New or once-a-decade cruisers and Disney guests are going to be at a severe disadvantage if they don't do a lot of research.

I'm not aware of any phone where you can't turn Wi-Fi on after turning on airplane mode. After all, that's how you use the internet while on an actual airplane!

I think this is a situation where you probably shouldn't have used Royal Up. Royal does not care who sleeps where once you are on board. (You could probably get away with everybody sleeping in the CLS if there is room while leaving the other cabin empty.) But only the people officially sleeping in the CLS will have suite privileges. Rearranging the passengers now would probably trigger a reprice of the cruise and defeat the point of Royal Up. You MAY be able to get guest services to do something on board, but I would be prepared for the answer to be no.

It's not that common but it does happen. The closer you are to sailing, the less likely it is to happen. Royal has general rules for chartering (someone probably has a link for the costs and restrictions but I don't). Basically, the more people that have already booked the cruise, the harder it is for someone to charter the ship because of how many people get screwed. This usually means companies charter a ship more than a year out. It's also possible to do a partial charter where some company reserves let's say 40% of the rooms and Royal sells the rest.

No I don't think there is a way to see Cruise Planner availability until after you have booked. However, you could find a roll call group (on this site or elsewhere) or a Facebook group for the specific cruise. Then, ask the people who have already booked the cruise what they see. For @bostonmama's situation, I think this was a risk of booking a cruise that is only weeks away. The first people probably booked it almost 2 years ago at this point. Cruise planner purchases are shut off about 3 days before the cruise in order to transfer everything to the ship's records. Some people may rearrange their plans right before that so I would keep checking multiple times a day to see if availability has changed. Once on board, you can only cancel for a refund up to 24 or 48 hours before an excursion (I forget which) so some people may wait until then to change their minds. It's not hopeless, but I have no idea what your chances are of getting tickets. As others said though, if it's sold out the lines will be long so go ashore right away!

And you can use any number of devices you want, but only 4 can be connected at the same time.

You could all sleep in the suite but you would also have to keep one of the original rooms and leave it empty or else you would be dealing with cancellations and repricing which would defeat the purpose. Only the winners of the royal up would have suite privileges. The other two would on paper still be in their original room and you would need to request extra room keys so they could get into the suite. If you are ok with these restrictions, you could do it.

According to Royal's website: https://www.royalcaribbean.com/faq/questions/what-if-i-am-traveling-with-a-minor-and-i-am-not-their-parent-legal-guardian Q What if I’m traveling with a minor and I’m not their parent or legal guardian? A Adults who are not the parent or legal guardian of a minor traveling with them must present an original, notarized letter signed by the child's parent(s) authorizing the adult to take the child on the specific cruise, supervise the child, and allow emergency medical treatment to be administered, if needed. This is necessary even when the adult traveling is part of the child’s extended family (i.e. aunts, uncles, grandparents, etc). To make it easy for you, we have a sample letter you can use. The letter can be downloaded here. In order to use their sample letter, the notary would need the parent and the adult accompanying the minor to be present together. However, it does NOT say you have to use their sample letter. Just have the parent write their own letter and get it notarized. You are not the first grandparent who doesn't live in the same town as your granddaughter and it would be ridiculous to have the situation you describe. This is pretty clearly a case of a phone agent not understanding the rules. That's unfortunately very common.

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.