F1guynz

I don’t think we will ever see an Oasis ship in this region. Too many people for the small Pacific Islands with tendering required everywhere. As Twangster said you would have to reimagine Central Park as even if you could regionalise the plants you still wouldn’t be able to come from Australia to NZ.Our bio security laws are very strict which would also limit the itinaries available. If it ever left Australia to go to Asia for a season you would need to replant everything fresh each time t returned. Even though it is not much longer than a Quantum it is much wider and I think this would cause all sorts of issues in the Sydney harbour with the ferries. Frankly I can’t see that RCI would want all the hassle when we already have a Quantum here. Personally I would be happy if they just sent us a Freedom class in the future.

I have rented a tuxedo on an Ovation cruise. The pricing is for a whole cruise, regardless of length. It stays in your cabin so you can wear it is often as you like. I rented through the website Matt mentioned. When we boarded they delivered the tux to our room and checked it’s sizing. I was a bit off in the shirt sizing (it was hard to convert from metric to imperial) but they sorted that and returned with a couple of new shirts. From memory I think you get one for each formal night. Don’t forget to apply your Crown and Anchor discount as depending on your level you can save quite a bit. I can’t remember now but I think even when we booked through the website they didn’t charge us until we were onboard and applied the discount at that time. 10% for Emerald, 15% for Diamond and 20% for Diamond + if I recall correctly.

The train station is about 400 metres (437 yards) from the passenger terminal. It costs just under $18 AUD and runs on a regular time table. It is on the first floor of the Circular Quay station which you can use lifts to get to. The trip to the airport is direct and takes about 20 minutes. Having luggage is no problem as there is plenty of room. we have a prepurchased Opal card which means we don’t have to buy tickets for the train trip, we can just swipe on and off. To make things easy I would suggest buying an Opal card at the airport when you land We would normally get off the ship at 8:15 and are in the airport lounge not long after 9am.

Normally we get off cruises in Sydney and take the train to the airport for our 11:10 am flight with no issues. I think a 10:15 am flight would be very risky and I would not do it are there is no margin for error.

Are you looking at 2 different cruises to cover Australia/NZ?

Looks like you need cruise on Voyager once she has been amp’d. A trip to the South Pacific will cover that ?

I agree with others here, on small ship this extra cost not worth it, unless you think $1100 for “free” drinks between 4:30pm - 8pm are worth it to you. The extra space in a GS is nice but Junior Suites have plenty of room so I would go with that.

We tip in either Australian or US dollars when we cruise out of Sydney, it just depends what currency we have with us.

Yes, it’s only usable on Royal. they sent me a jpeg and the email address I can use to apply it. it is not available to use on Easter or Christmas sailings either but is good for 2 years. i am just going to apply it to the September cruise that I rebooked.

This is the entire content of the web page you get directed to so you have to draw your own conclusions but I certain it is per cabin and in Australian dollars.

I can’t believe it, for the first time ever I have received a Royal Insider CAS Quarterly News email i have heard such a thing existed but this is the first time I have ever received one. it is mainly just links to salesand promotions but also has some useful information on CAS benefits. One thing I found interesting was the Suite and balcony discounts. The numbers in here don’t match up with the discounts received. The link goes to the AUS website but does not specify whether these are NZ or AU dollars. I am sure they do this to confuse me. Still I just happy they finally found me on their mailing list.

I got my FCC today for $200 which is valid for 2 years. My request for the policy clarification has also been forwarded to the team that looks after the website and repricing. At present the disclaimer is still on the website for bookings made in NZD so hopefully it will still be there when making a future booking. i will make sure I grab a screenshot before finalising any booking.

I asked RCI about this the other day on their Facebook feed and this is the response I got. It makes it hard to know what the right thing to do is because if the cruise goes up in price you end up paying an extra cost ($563 on a cruise I was looking at) because it won’t convert to the original NRD at the time of booking.

I guess those people not in a Suite would just book refundable deposit and pay a higher price.

I have a friend who sails on Princess and you can cancel and rebook for no penalty. Typically the deposit would be 10% of the cruise. The Travel Agents here do not work the same way as the U.S as they will also add on their fee for cancelling. Where RCI want a $400 deposit the Travel Agent will want $500, $400 to pay RCI and $100 for them. They also don’t monitor price drops either. This is originally why I started booking RCI directly as before NRD the TA wanted $200 to cancel and RCI would do it for no charge. Like shares it’s hard to know the best time to book a cruise down here as prices go up and down. For our cruise in 2020 (before NRD was a thing) I cancelled and rebooked 3 times to get the best price and saved $1500. Our cruise in September this year never got cheaper since we booked early last year until the OS popped up cheaper than the GS last week. I have looked at booking our next cruise in 2021 through the US but the pricing is about $300 NZD more expensive than the local price. One anomaly I noticed was the 2 Bedroom Panoramic Suite is only $50USD than a JS. Here is $2500 more expensive so that would be worth booking. I also noticed we get a CAS discount of $400 on the cabin but the US booking did not have any CAS discount available. Hopefully next up we will have 30% off sale with OBC which might be the best deal to get.

You can’t upgrade or downgrade in this region without cancelling your booking. Annoying but I have had this discussion a few times with RCI. I suggested they review their policy but I’m not holding my breath.

Hi, it depends where you are located. We are in the Asia /Pacific region have recently had this problem when there a price drop on our UK Cruise. In this region It is not possible to reprice a cruise without cancelling your existing booking. You lose your deposit so need to make sure the price drop covers this. In this region you are not entitled to a FCC but I managed to obtain one when I found a screen on the website that said we should get one. I am waiting for this to be processed. The policy is different in the USA where you can repri for no penalty if it is before the final payment date. if you are in the USA and you do cancel I think you will lose $200 and get a $400 FCC that must be used within 12 months. Sorry,I just saw you are booking from Australia. This is my thread on this. I also found the NZD is different from the AUD booking which is why I was able to get the FCC.

I do find the length of the cruise alters the dynamic of the ship: 3 Day - More of a party crowd 7 Day - Families with children as this seems to fit the sweet spot for time away. 14+ days - More older people as they have more time for longer holidays. Crossings - This seems to bring out all the Diamond, Diamond+ and Pinnacles. We have also sailed on Ruby Princess in the Mediterranean and also enjoyed that as the itinerary was much better than RCI offered. There was a port stop almost every day so the ship was less of a destination. I have not sailed on Celebrity but I would imagine that experience will be very similar to Princess, more traditional. Sometimes it is nice to have a nice sedate cruise, which I guess is why Radiance class ships are still very popular.

Ironically, I wasn't even cancelling, but rebooking to take advantage of a lower price. I find their whole policy wording a bit loose. E.g. "Subject to cancellation charges" but what are those charges. I think it should state you will lose the entire deposit. I am grateful you can change cabins to take advantage of a price deduction as you can't do that with merchandise in stores or airline tickets for example, but on the other I find it frustrating that the U.S policy seems much fairer when re-pricing an existing booking as it shouldn't be necessary to cancel to modify an existing booking. In the old days on the website there used to be an option to upgrade your cabin but that kind of functionality has been greatly reduced. In New Zealand a Travel Agent would charge $500 to cancel and rebook which is why it is easier to deal with RCI direct, or maybe MEI now that they offer their services to Australia.

Interestingly if you get the quote in Australian dollars the working is different. So either the policy is different between Australia and New Zealand or they missed something.

I emailed the CEO of the Australia and New Zealand region and she has forwarded me email onto a Escalations and Guest Engagement Specialist. Hopefully they will see things the same way I do. I have sent them this screenshot pointing out their website indicates we should get a FCC of $200 for our initial $400 deposit. I think I am reading the disclaimer at the bottom of the screen correctly.

We got an email about 3 months ago saying the Royal Up programme was available in Australia/New Zealand and got an email to bid on a cruise shortly after.

I am writing my response to them now documenting it all with screenshots and time and date. I suspect the problem is they use a website template for the different markets and this anomaly has slipped through the cracks. I am happy to abide by their policy and just receive my $200FCC and trust they will fix the website to reflect the true T&Cs

You have raised an interesting issue. When I perform a mock booking for the cruise we are going on in September it has the same statement you mentioned. However the booking document I received straight after booking states different T&Cs. This is why I was puzzled when we told me there was no FCC available for cancelled bookings. I will raise with RCI as I booked expecting only a $200 penalty and $200FCC and instead they have altered the terms immediately after booking.

Yes, the final payment date is in July. i am just curious as to whether the same policy applies in the US when you have a price drop with a NRD booking. The pricing is a bit random down under so you never know when the best time to book, but usually it is not when they first come out, a couple of months later is more advantageous. It was definitely much easier when you could just cancel and rebook with no penalty