Marc Posted August 28, 2015 Report Share Posted August 28, 2015 For our upcoming 5-night cruise in October on Liberty of the Seas, we started off with it being a comped cruise in a balcony cabin. We were given a category E2 balcony right in the middle of the hump on deck 8... prime real estate! I then noticed some Junior Suites were available, and in particular, a beautiful one on deck 7 right at the aft, which would mean an oversized balcony with a view of the wake. So, I called to ask the upgrade price. It was $390 for the two of us. Given the larger cabin, beautiful view, and double points, we decided to splurge and go for it. Well, today, I saw that some Grand Suites were available. The cost to upgrade: just $20! That was an easy decision to make. (I later realized that the cost is actually $50 when you factor in the higher gratuities, but still worth it.) So, this will be our first time in a full suite. Besides a lot of extra room compared to our typical balcony cabins, what other things can we expect? I've read the "Enhanced Program for Suite Guests" PDF, but that lists so much, I'm curious what kinds of things people personally enjoyed about sailing in suites. I know we'll have access to the Concierge Lounge access. We're kind of used to that from sailing in the Ben & Jerry's "Sweet" a couple of times, but still, that'll be nice. Of course, we're Diamond, so we also have access to that lounge as well. One thing I'm quite excited about, as simple as it is, is the ability to order luggage tags again! I love getting the mail in the weeks leading up to the cruise and being pleasantly surprised by the arrival of luggage tags. It's an exciting moment for me. DocLC 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FloatMe Posted August 28, 2015 Report Share Posted August 28, 2015 Enjoy! We had our first GS on Adventure in April and youll love it. The extra space will definitely spoil you. We really enjoyed the reserved pool (not sure on freedom classs) and theater seating. It was nice not to be in a hurry to get prime seats in the theater. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WAAAYTOOO Posted August 28, 2015 Report Share Posted August 28, 2015 Congratulations, Marc !! You got a real bargain. All of this may change when the new suites program kicks in but for now.... 1. You will have a gold card. WAHOO !! 2. Luggage tags - YAH !!! 3. You will be contacted directly (email) by a Concierge (maybe 5 days prior to sailing ?) who will introduce him/herself to you and tell you that they are there to assist you with whatever you need (dinner reservations, etc.). If you are visiting either CocoCay or Labadee, he will offer to reserve your Cabana and give you the choice of which one you want. If you choose to rent a Cabana, the cost associated with this will be added to your SEAPASS account...you will NOT be required to prepay like you do for all of the other reservations made before embarkation. That may also be true for specialty dining, beverage packages or anything else that you pre-purchase at that time, but I do not know that for sure. I do know that the Cabana was added to my Seapass account. 4. You will be able to go into the Concierge Club any time of day or night. That doesn't have a lot of value for most of the time, but there will be continental breakfast in the morning (not really a breakfast at all...far better eating somewhere else) and in the evenings there are pupus and cocktails. Far better experience in the evenings than in the mornings. 5. If you go to any tender ports, you will be able to go up to the concierge lounge and have the Concierge personally escort you down to the tender. The Concierge has a card that bypasses all floors (the elevator goes nonstop from the Concierge deck to the embark deck). You will "cut" in line and immediately board a tender. Note that this escorted process only works on outgoing. You will have to fight for a ride back to the boat along with everyone else ! 6. On the Oasis, on port days we were able to eat breakfast in Chops from a full service menu. Since Chops was open for lunch on sea days, they did not provide this service on sea days. 7. You will be able to order room service from the full dining room menu (not just the limited room service menu). This is a huge perk. You can have your lobster dinner delivered to your room and eat on your balcony while sailing away from your port of call. VERY nice 8. You will have a reserved section in the main theater, ice show and pool deck. If you are D+ you already enjoy this perk. 9. The Concierge lounge will have a library of DVDs that they will let you check out. There will be a DVD player in your suite. 10. They will press your formal wear on the first formal night. 11. There are a number of invitations you will receive such as an event with the senior officers and a couple of tours that you can take - tour of the bridge, tour of the entertainment venues and tour of the galley. Obviously, these perks probably vary from ship to ship but I think they are pretty standard. Jerel and Matt 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marc Posted August 28, 2015 Author Report Share Posted August 28, 2015 Thank you very much! Alas, I wish we were going to Labadee, but this is a short cruise to Bermuda, so no cabanas for us there. :) I'm intrigued by having dinner in on our balcony from the restaurant. I think I read somewhere that includes specialty restaurants, too. Since I'm thinking about getting the dining package, it could be a lot of fun to have Chops on the balcony. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WAAAYTOOO Posted August 28, 2015 Report Share Posted August 28, 2015 I don't know if it includes specialty dining or not...but that would be awesome ! I think the new suites packages will include specialties but not sure if it currently does. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dh1ch1 Posted September 3, 2015 Report Share Posted September 3, 2015 I booked a Jr. suite of Freedom later this year. I like the little extras the room offers. It seems when it come to other more expensive suites it falls well short of their perks, Its still a "suite" right? If someone could direct me to a link where I can see what a jr. suite has over a standard room that would be great. If you want to list them here that would be fine too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jticarruthers Posted September 3, 2015 Report Share Posted September 3, 2015 Under the existing suite rules a Jr Suite does not get any of the real "perks" except for extra cabin space and double cruise points. Off the top of my head, I think there is usually a walk in/bigger closet and a bath tub in the room as well. Not sure under the new program whether there are any benefits or not, haven't really read the details since I don't see it applying to me ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
monctonguy Posted September 3, 2015 Report Share Posted September 3, 2015 I watch everyday for the chance I have to upgrade to a balcony or suite for a nominal price......9 cruises so far and holding with never been offered to upgrade for free or a price....and never seen anything that isn't over double what I paid for my original booking so... But if/when that day happens...I can't wait to experience it all.....that being said, would prob be hard to go back to a "regular" cabin after that experience! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jticarruthers Posted September 3, 2015 Report Share Posted September 3, 2015 The balcony/Jr Suite are both nice, having done Jr Suite once I wouldn't pay a significant amount more for it. We usually do the balcony but mostly because between booking early and C&A balcony discount it is not significantly more than an oceanview. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WAAAYTOOO Posted September 3, 2015 Report Share Posted September 3, 2015 Montoc, I would not hold my breath for an "upgrade". I have heard of a handful of people who have gotten upgrades - mostly D+ and Pinnacles - but they are very elusive and almost never (none that I am aware of) on any kind of routine basis. In my opinion, it's laughable that they even advertise upgrades. It has happened for me exactly once. We were on the Oasis in Jan of this year and had booked a Boardwalk balcony. A couple of days before the cruise RCI called and said they had a D1 oceanview balcony and asked if we wanted to upgrade. Since it was our first cruise as D+ we figured we were now "in" and would be offered these kinds of upgrades routinely. Nah....hasn't happened. In fairness, I think that the RCI ships are going out close to full most of the time and upgrades are just not there. On the other hand, I have been on a few ships, from time-to-time (primarily TA or repositioning ones) where there are many rooms unbooked. You rarely find out about this situation...but on the Explorer repositioning cruise out of Bayonne in May we had an unfortunate encounter with a Nor'easter which resulted in a broken glass window, flooded decks, flooded elevators on the port side (midships) and 2 disabled lifeboats as a result. The ONLY reason we weren't made to return to port and disembark was b/c there were enough empty rooms that those 2 lifeboats were not needed to meet capacity. Otherwise, we would never have known that there were that many empty rooms on that sailing. In that particular case we were already in the #2 suite on the boat (Presidential Family Suite) so there wasn't much to upgrade for us....but I honestly did not hear of anyone else getting a complimentary upgrade on that sailing....but it certainly could have happened. I just think they are extremely rare. The same thing is true for the military discount. I don't know why RCI is the only major cruise line that basically does NOT routinely offer military discounts. They offer them very rarely and do not advertise it well at all...you have to just stumble up on them. I think I booked 1 time and was offered a military discount...in the end my Club Royale discount was far better than the military or C&A discount so we didn't use it but you almost never see them. It's a shame, really. Why advertise that you offer military/police/first responder discounts and them make them nearly impossible to use ? BAD PR as far as I am concerned. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marc Posted September 3, 2015 Author Report Share Posted September 3, 2015 In that particular case we were already in the #2 suite on the boat (Presidential Family Suite) so there wasn't much to upgrade for us. #2? I thought that was the most premium suite onboard. Which one is #1? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WAAAYTOOO Posted September 3, 2015 Report Share Posted September 3, 2015 The Royal Suite is #1 Presidential can be bigger but not better Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jerel Posted September 3, 2015 Report Share Posted September 3, 2015 All this suite talk sure makes me want to try one someday. Maybe get something huge to celebrate or run into some money, or maybe just go for it and worry about the rest later. Thanks for laying out the list of perks WAAAYTOOO, it really makes it tempting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marc Posted September 3, 2015 Author Report Share Posted September 3, 2015 The Royal Suite is #1 Presidential can be bigger but not better Ah, that was my confusion. I knew that the Presidential Family Suite held more people than the Royal Family Suite, so I just presumed it was the better of the two. BTW, when I first started investigating upgrade opportunities for this cruise, I had seen that the Royal Suite had popped up as available. Alas, the upgrade to that suite from our balcony would have been over $3,000 (which was a bargain off the listed price which would have been closer to $8,000!). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WAAAYTOOO Posted September 4, 2015 Report Share Posted September 4, 2015 I will admit...it's hard to go back to a "regular" cabin once you've experienced the suite life. In fact, I have NOT gone back to a regular room since. I have 6 cruises booked (not sure I can actually take them all) at the moment and all are Grand Suites or above. I was even lucky enough to snag an A1 (deck 8) Aqua Theater suite on the Harmony in May. You normally have to have at least 4 people to book that suite but for some reason it was available online so I snatched it up. That should be VERY suite ! I fully recognize that I have fallen directly into corporate RCIs branding trap. I concede. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
monctonguy Posted September 4, 2015 Report Share Posted September 4, 2015 Well I will be platinum after my Nov cruise, and at least entitled to the C&A discount for balconies and suites...so at that point I will prob start looking more closely at the price difference once the discount is factored in. For me its more about quantity than quality...I would rather do 3-4 inside or oceanview's than 1 balcony or JS suite a year. But its on my list of things I want to experience with RCI...from balcony to the suites! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DocLC Posted September 4, 2015 Report Share Posted September 4, 2015 Well I will be platinum after my Nov cruise, and at least entitled to the C&A discount for balconies and suites...so at that point I will prob start looking more closely at the price difference once the discount is factored in. For me its more about quantity than quality...I would rather do 3-4 inside or oceanview's than 1 balcony or JS suite a year. But its on my list of things I want to experience with RCI...from balcony to the suites! I have sailed in suites and loved them, but I'm with you in regards to quantity. By downgrading our room on the Brilliance last month from a balcony to an ocean view, we were able to pay for our entire Liberty cruise in full for January with the price difference. We also find that we're not in the cabin all that much now that our son is older. The balcony and added space did make a difference, though, when he would nap in the middle of the day. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
monctonguy Posted September 4, 2015 Report Share Posted September 4, 2015 Yes, I spend very little time at all in the room..sleep and shower that's about it. Now maybe on certain more senic cruises a balcony would be nice but I cant pay an extra $1000 for a balcony, just not justified for me. But with some cruise deals plus my discount, I would like to experience it at least once to compare for sure! As for suites, I"ll have to win the lottery before I can afford to book one of those!...but again, something I would like to experience at least once. DocLC 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.