F1guynz

From memory when we sailed on Ovation as there is no MDR two of the dining rooms are reserved for MTD and two are reserved for traditional. If you book MTD you will not be able to use the traditional or vice versa. There are also other included restaurants around the ship you can eat at. not sure about the balconies but our suite had a fridge. book the iFly and Pixels in advance if you can as then you will be secure in the knowledge you have a booking. The bumper cars get busy and the queues can get quite long. From experience everyone goes at the beginning of the session but by about half way through a lot of people have a go and leave. I would observe the first session to see if this happens for you. On embarkation day they were running the bumper cars and there was no queue. I would suggest checking this out if you get on early. When in Sydney we normally get on board about 10:45 - 11am. if you want to go for a swim before everyone has boarded and the pools get busy pack your swimwear in your hand luggage. We have taken 12 cans of coke on board without issue as RCI allow it. You will have no trouble with this. Have a great cruise when it is time, Ovation is a fun ship.

We are currently on Independence and I would say the mattress is firm but comfortable. I do find the pillows rather large for my liking? I take sleeping pills while we are away as I am a light sleeper and noises and changes in environment tend to keep me awake otherwise.

If the cabin is not a solo cabin could PhantomWolf just add is Mum as a second passenger and become a no show for the actual cruise?

We have cruised out of “Rome” (cruise lines call it Rome but is about an hour away) and had no issues with communication. We travelled down from the Cinque Terre by train to catch the ship. Italian trains are disorganised but they will get you there. We had an allocated carriage for our trip but the carriage was not attached to the train when it arrived. They just put us on another carriage where we had to stand most of the way.

I don't think I would be in favour of this. While on the surface it sounds like a good idea it would ultimately devalue the loyalty program as there would be many more people at higher levels in the scheme. The cruise line would then need to make it harder to obtain different levels as it would be to easy go get points. You saw the same thing with airline loyalty schemes where they made it easier to earn points from credit cards and other sources. As a consequence they had to increase the number of points you needed to get a free flight.

Hi, I believe It is only available on certain ships and only for cruises 7 nights or longer.

If it turns out you can live more than once can you transfer your crown and Anchor points to your next life also?

I wonder if it will have an iFly or fuselage zip lining. ?

I have yet to get any of the emails as much as I have tried!  About a year ago i randomly got a Crown and Anchor newsletter but I have never received another since. ? Once I have booked a cruise I normally get the cruise planner emails but that is about it. even their Facebook updates that I get are infrequent, I certainly don’t see all their posts. Luckily this site keeps us abreast of most major events / sales that are happening.

As @twangster has previously said the glass goes all the way to deck level so there was absolutely no need to lift her up onto the railings. She could have happily looked out the glass and banged on it at deck level with no consequence. I will say I don't believe the grandfather was "dangling" her through the open window as I just don't believe any grandparent would ever do that. Clearly he is very distraught over what has happened as anyone would be. Apart from the tragedy he is facing, having the world talking about you like this must be unbearable. I have a lot of sympathy for him, as we all at one time or another make really bad decisions that we regret later, its just for most of us they aren't fatal. I am sure there is not a second that goes by that he doesn't wish that he didn't make a different course of action. Do I think RCI is negligent, no, but I can understand how the family and grandfather are trying to make sense of such a tragedy on what should have been a joyous family holiday. In this age of living in a social media world where people are quick to condemn,, it is easy to forget that is actually real people with a grandfather and family going through a terrible loss. In hindsight it was a terrible choice that was made, I am sure the grandfather would give anything to turn back time, but unfortunately life doesn't work that way and he will have to live with this for the rest of his life. That is a terrible burden to bear

We have used the $25 bag a few times. It’s amazing how much you can fit in one of those bags if you really try. ? i go to the gym on the ship so it is really good for this along with socks, underwear and t-shirts.

Our sick leave is separate from annual leave. I get 20 days sick leave but thankfully I haven’t needed any the last few years. it takes about 24 hours to fly from NZ to the UK and there are various ways you can do it. One option is a 17 hour flight to Dubai followed by an 8 hour flight to the U.K. Normally we take a month off when doing this trip as travel time and jet lag means it makes more sense to stay longer. The longest set of flights I have undertaken including stop overs was 42 hours from Orlando —> NYC —> LA —> Brisbane —> Auckland. Luckily my company doesn’t shut down over Christmas so we can take our holidays when it suits.

I am surprised by the number of days most people get. I had always heard people in the U.S didn't get much time off which is why a lot of the cruises are seven days or less. Now I wonder why they don't offer the odd 14 day itinerary on an Oasis ship as I am sure you could fit in more port visits if you only had to return to a home port once.

At the end of the day until the investigation is complete and the full facts are known it is easy to speculate and jump to incorrect conclusions. In New Zealand I think it would be very hard to find the cruise line negligent in this case as there is no obvious risk. Where does negligence begin? If somebody spills a drink on the deck and I come along and slip on it and break my leg 10 minutes later, is the cruise line negligent for not cleaning it up in a timely manner even if they don't know its there. Although people have fallen off ships in the past, this this the first I have heard to a circumstance like this so I struggle to see how a cruise line could reasonably be expected to predict this outcome. If you had to take into account every risk factor you wouldn't have stairs people could fall down, open balconies or open areas anywhere on a ship. While tragic, I think the chance of it happening again in our lifetime is extremely remote.

Hi, I was just curious to know how many weeks annual leave people receive for their holidays each year. In New Zealand we get 4 weeks (20 days) per year with another 2 weeks (11 days) for public holidays such as Christmas and Easter. I also get long service leave which entitles me to another 5 weeks which I can use anytime over the next 10 years. We normally do one cruise a year of between 7-14 days and then do a land based holiday for the other weeks left over.

From the CNN report the lawyer actually said "Why in the world would you leave a window open in an entire glass wall full of windows in a kids area?". As other reports seem to suggest it is the Windjammer I think he means why would you leave a window open in an area where kids are present. I don't recall spaces where you can open windows but honestly I haven't paid that much attention in the past. I would think it just as likely another passenger opened the window than anyone from RCI so I dont know that you can blame a cruise line. To me this just sounds like a tragic accident in which a whole set of unfortunate circumstances aligned to create a horrible outcome.

The main thing I am aware of is when cancelling or rebooking a NRD they keep the whole deposit (generally $400AUD) . They won't reprice at a cheaper rate without cancelling so you lose the deposit if it gets cheaper. I am not sure whether it is possible for U.S citizens to book via the Australian website but it certainly looks like there are savings to be had if you can.

Happy you were able to rebook and get the OBC. we didn’t get that because we used our Crown and Anchor discount which was $310 NZD. This was better than the $100 USD OBC once the exchange rate is factored in. it was good to see you were unable to modify your NRP as they don’t normally allow that, maybe they have changed their policy.

Hi, yes we normally fly in on the morning of cruise and catch the train to Circular Quay. When we disembark straight on the train and back to the airport for the flight home. The rail system from the airport is ideal for us as we normally land at 8:30am and are at the the port by 10am. It works well going home to as our flight leaves at 11am and we get off the ship at 8am and in the airport lounge by 9am. Australia and New Zealand are pretty much alike and we don’t have tipping here in NZ either which is why RCI includes tipping in the fare price. Much better system for us though we do tip when we are in the States.

Serenade of the Seas, 31/03/2021 From Sydney to the South Pacfic for 8 days.

Too good to be true. Quite a jump in OBC from Ocean View to a Suite. No balcony love though. Nice typo but when you try and book it defaults back to $200 USD OBC rather than $1040 stated. What a pity as that would be nearly $1550 NZD on board spending money.

The price of our cruise has gone up $800 today but now includes up to $200 USD OBC. Glad we purchased yesterday.

Did you book it is non refundable? If not just ring RCI to cancel and rebook to take advantage of the better pricing. It is always hard to know the best time to book. Often the rack rate is best when a cruise first comes out but the discount isn't as deep. The the cruise we just booked the rack rate has gone up $500 but the discount is deeper so it actually works out cheaper than booking early. We can also take advantage of our loyalty discount which trims another $310 off the price. I frequently make mock bookings for cruises we want to take and take screenshots of the pricing so I can see what has changed, and what the RCI maths equation is. As RCI uses the magic word up to before any discount promotion I quite often find the price does not vary even when the switch between up to 50% off each guest and up to 30% off each guest. Sometimes OBC can make a difference to the equation but generally only when you are in a GS or above. My advice is to book another cruise now, You'll love it.

Thats why I have been waiting for a proper sale. If you book in NZD you can get $200 back as an FCC but it took quite a bit of effort last time. With our Diamond discount taking another $310 off the price I don’t think it will get cheaper than it is now so I pulled the trigger on booking. Booking a cruise is like buying shares, you never know when you have reached the bottom of the price cycle. It used to be so much easier when you could just cancel and rebook online without penalty if your cruise got cheaper. I miss those days.

The latest RCI for the Pacific region has started today and has some good deals on at the moment The price of the cruise we were looking at for 2021 on Serenade came down $1000 from yesterday so we have booked. I am not sure if U.S citizens can book through the Australian website but the pricing is far cheaper than the U.S website for the same sailing, especially when you consider Australia/NZ cruises include gratuities in the cruise fare. Example for our cruise: US website price for Junior Suite: $4605USD + $232USD gratuities Price for the same cabin on the Australian/NZ website: $5304NZD converted to USD = $3557. Deposits are lower as well. The only gotcha is you lose your deposit on a NRDB as FCC is not offered on suite bookings (unless you book in NZD but that is a whole other story)