Atlantix2000

OBC from Royal's deals will show up and be usable in cruise planner to purchase Voom and anything else right away (plus/minus Royal's IT department).  Travel Agency OBC won't show up in your on board account until day 2 of the cruise (generally).  $450 is a lot of OBC, any chance some of that is coming from Royal?  If not, that sounds like a nice deal from your agent.

I've never heard of someone transferring a pre-cruise card purchase to OBC onboard.  I'm sure they would let you cancel something (with refund to card) and then repurchase with OBC but I would assume you would then be paying the onboard price for the item which will almost certainly be higher.  I don't think there's a limit to how many people can purchase VOOM, so the only advantage to pre-purchasing is price.  So next question is whether your OBC is refundable if you don't use it all.  If your OBC is use-it-or-lose-it AND you wouldn't spend that much, maybe you don't care about the price so you just wait to purchase onboard.  However, for something like an excursion with limited spots, that's a harder decision.

3 hours ago, JLMoran said:

Are the people in the trip planning division just secretly a bunch of numerologists with a nigh-mystical love of the number 7? 

I think they are just relying on people being comfortable with the idea of traveling on a weekend and taking a whole week off work and/or school.  (Yeah, not everyone actually works M-F but everyone is familiar with that being the "standard").

From a practical point of view though, imagine if a cruise line always did 8 day sailings.  Their schedule would never line up with the calendar.  Their port employees' schedules would be constantly changing, food and fuel deliveries to the port for resupplying the ships would always be changing, negotiations for docks at the islands would be harder especially if most ships have a regular schedule.  I think it's just easy for everybody when things are weekly or biweekly.

I would suggest picking a room number in the category and entering that and the ship name in Google image search and youtube.  You'll usually find something.

Well, they stopped letting people put luggage tags on massive amounts of water and getting it delivered to their room.  This was actually always against the rules but was ignored by most port personnel.  (You weren't allowed to bring any water or soda on board, just 2 bottles of wine per stateroom).  Now they have an actual policy that allows a limited amount of water or soda to be carried on by you and they enforce no water/soda in checked luggage.  So perhaps that is the source of the conflicting information you're seeing.

Royal Up just started a couple weeks ago so there's not much information on how likely you are to win a bid.  At this point most bids are for cruises that haven't happened yet.  However, my personal opinion is that the winning bids will most likely be from people that bid way too high because they didn't check the actual price difference between their current cabin and the one they were bidding on.  If I'm right, Royal will be saying thank you all the way to the bank and everyone hoping for a deal will be disappointed.

Waivers sound like you're signing away all rights due to the risk but they really only cover your own actions and stupidity.  Any accident due to equipment malfunction or incompetence by the zip line staff and the waiver won't save the company from a lawsuit.  (I've talked about this with the staff at my rock climbing gym.  Their insurance is very expensive because they know the waivers are pretty weak.)

I don't see how Royal Caribbean is at any fault though.  You'd have to be pretty dense to believe RCI was running the zip line.  I assume they are only getting sued because they have deeper pockets than the zip line company and the lady thinks there's some chance they'll just pay the $1 million to avoid more bad publicity.

If that were true, shouldn't you have been getting the daily marketing emails to your work email?  Maybe your work has a spam filter that is catching them?

Specialty dining is supposed to be complimentary to star class.  If you book your own reservations in advance, is the cruise planner smart enough to know not to charge you?  The Genie would be able to refund the charges if necessary, but you wouldn't have deal with that if you just let the Genie handle the reservations from the start.

I forget, do you get the double points for suites when using Royal Up (when bidding to upgrade from a normal cabin)?

If not, I think I would only use this if I had already booked a suite and was hoping to catch an upgrade at low cost.

Imagine booking an ocean view, bidding on a Crown Loft, winning, and only getting single points.  I'm guessing the total cost would have been more than enough to get a grand suite originally so I'd be upset not to get the double points!

Royal wants you to think their deals will only last a couple days so you Must Buy Now!

In reality, I get 2-3 emails per week offering the exact same deal and each email has a countdown that expires when the next email comes out.

So I got a Black Friday email on 11/23 in the morning with a countdown to midnight I think.  The deal was 60% off second guest and up to $300 OBC.

Today, I got a Two-Day Cyber Monday Preview email in the morning with a countdown until Sunday night.  Same deal details.

I expect on Monday morning to get a Cyber Monday email with a 24-48 countdown and the exact same deal.

After that there will be a new deal variation for a few emails but it won't really be that different.

With the dining packages you make all your reservations once you are on the ship.  Most report having little to no issue as long as they do it right after boarding but sometimes you have to be flexible on your dining times.  That's the trade off for getting the lower price on specialty dining.  If you absolutely must dine at a certain restaurant at a certain time, you'll have to book at full price once the restaurants are available to book.

The coffee cards are shareable and I'm sure you can buy more than one.  However, there is an ongoing issue where some ships punch the card once per drink (any size) and others punch the card once per shot of espresso (1,2,3 punches for small, medium, large).  The first method makes the coffee card a great deal (and this is the language the website uses).  The second method means the coffee card can end up costing more than buying the individual drinks.

If you buy ahead of time, print a copy of the website language so you can complain to guest services and get a refund if necessary!

On days you are in port, you can probably find some free wifi somewhere.  Some port towns offer municipal free wifi.  A lot of restaurants on the islands also provide it to customers so pop in for a drink and call home.  (Be sure to setup/enable wifi calling before leaving home.)

My parents needed to reach me while I was on a cruise last year so they called Royal's main customer service number, provided our ship and room number, and were put through to Guest Services on board.  We weren't in our room at the time so Guest Services left a message saying my parents had called and to stop by their counter to receive a complimentary call home.

2 hours ago, mworkman said:

Should we start a pool to project when a cruise ship will hit the peer?  0-6 months, 6-12 months, 12-24 months, 24-36 months And which ship does it?

Hit the pier as in first docking?  I'll place a bet on March 2019.

Hit the pier as in first oops?  I'll go with the Oasis in October 2019.

There are a few things to consider:

1) Policies and fees for cancellation, repricing, changing cruise date/ship, etc differ from country to country.

2) Gratuities are not included in US prices and will be an extra daily charge on board (unless you choose to pre-pay them).  Gratuities are typically built into the base cost of the cruise on international sites.

3) I've heard inconsistent information regarding whether you need to have a local address to book using a different countries site.  One way around this is using a local travel agent to handle the booking.

So make sure you understand all the fine print before you proceed.  I know it can be done but it's not quite so easy to compare prices as it might seem.

11 is a reasonable time to expect boarding to begin.  They may start the checkin process earlier but the exact schedule really depends on how long it takes to get everyone off the ship from the previous cruise.

Welcome to the board.  In terms of on board perks, I have to agree that a Junior Suite really just means a bigger room but it does gives you priority boarding (you can use the Suites line for checkin).  However, one important reason to consider a Junior Suite is you do get 2 points per night in your Crown & Anchor Society account just like the "real" suites.  (Non-suites get 1 point per night.)  So Junior Suites are a far more affordable way to quickly move up through the loyalty program.

You should create a C&A account for your wife before her first cruise and then call them to make sure they have noted your relationship so she can enjoy your status right away!  I wouldn't trust them to do it automagically.

No, it's not necessary, the only requirement is paying in full before the final due date.

In my opinion, the only time this financed monthly option makes sense is for people who want to sail soon but can't afford to pay all at once.  This option would allow them to book a cruise that sails a couple months from now, the financing company pays Royal the whole amount, the customer gets to make small, monthly payments not only past final due date but maybe even past the actual cruise.  Royal gets their money, the financing company gets some interest on the deal, and the customer sails when they couldn't before.

Anyone that can pay in full by final due date, should continue to do so, there's no reason to pay interest to anyone unless you have to!

If you look at the fine print of whatever the "sale" of the week is right now, you will probably find language saying certain promotions don't combine with each other.  Your Diamond balcony discount is considered a promotion.  But let's run the numbers...

Without C&A - $1100 per person * 3 = $3300

With C&A - $1025 per person * 3 = $3075

That's your $225 discount right there.

You're probably thinking "But Andrew, what about the OBC?!?"

Well, OBC is tricky.  If you spend all of your OBC, your total cost doesn't change, you've just pre-paid for stuff on the ship.  Here's two examples:

Option A - $3000 cruise, $250 OBC given, $250 spent on board = $3000 total cost

Option B - $2750 cruise, $0 OBC given, $250 spent on board = $3000 total cost

In either case, if you spend more on board than your OBC, the total also goes up the same.

The difference is when you spend LESS on board.  Then what matters is whether the OBC is refundable or not.  Same examples with less spending:

Option A1 - $3000 cruise, $250 refundable OBC given, $150 spent on board = $3000 - $100 refund = $2900 total cost

Option A2 - $3000 cruise, $250 non-refundable OBC given, $150 spent on board = $3000 - $0 refund = $3000 total cost

Option B - $2750 cruise, $0 OBC given, $150 spent on board = $2900 total cost.

The short version - You are getting your balcony discount, it just looks weird.

@Randy It sounds like you're trying to complain directly to Royal Caribbean but do you realize you're posting on a fan created website?  We love discussing Royal Caribbean here but we can't really help you.

1 hour ago, averbeck said:

The biggest surprise to me was that when connected to the Wifi, even without an internet plan, messaging that used data plans worked.  So I could send and receive iMessages and Group Me messages.  I’m not sure if that’s something new or not.

It's a known bug that works to the advantage of Apple users but not everyone else.  Something to do with Apple using the same port numbers for iMessage as Royal's app so they can't block Apple users without breaking their own software.

5 hours ago, bdtrex said:

From Royal Caribbean’s FAQ

“There are 2 options to stay connected while onboard.

1. VOOM Wireless Internet Access (Wi-Fi) All you need is a wireless device with wifi capability.

2. Wired (iCafes) Internet stations are available onboard, the location of which vary depending on the ship.”

Actually, both options are equivalent.  You get an account and a time limit regardless of how you buy.  So after using the wired computer to print my boarding passes, I was able to use the same login/password to connect my phone to VOOM for the rest of my hour.  And after checking my email on my phone, my wife did the same on her phone since the basic VOOM package allows multiple devices (but only one at a time).

I was able to purchase a 1 hour access so I could check in for my flights and print boarding passes from the computer room on the last day (a sea day) of my cruise last October.  It wasn't much cheaper than a full day's VOOM.  (Maybe $12, I don't remember)

When I was there in late May, the public buses between Fira and Oia departed about once an hour.  One way tickets were 2.4 euros and are bought on the bus so have a little cash.  The main Fira bus station is on the south side of town while the cable car comes up on the north (10 minute walk?).  There might have been a smaller bus stop around there but I'm not sure.  I don't know what taxis would cost but my wife and I had no trouble getting anywhere on the island using the buses.