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Options to change from 2 connecting balconies to one suite?


Patchy

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Hi all, looking for this group’s initial thoughts and expertise before I drag my travel agent into a 4 hour call with Royal.   😁   Figuring that if anyone knows the answers off the top of their head or have been in this situation before, it would be this group!   

 

I have two connecting balconies booked through Next Cruise for my family of four people (two adults, two kids… with one adult and one kid in each cabin), but I am now seeing a very compelling price for a suite that would work for all four of us.   We haven’t yet made final payment.   I have a number of questions about the best way to possibly do this:


- Can I modify one of the two balcony reservations by upgrading to the suite AND adding two passengers?   I fully understand this would trigger a full reprice.
- Would I lose my $100 OBC from Next Cruise, or would that stay with the reservation?

- For the other room, would I just outright cancel the reservation because the two passengers would now be in the suite?  (And I’m assuming that would cause me to forgo the non-refundable deposit and Next Cruise OBC.)  Or could I do the equivalent of “transferring” that reservation to a brand new booking in another cruise to preserve the Next Cruise OBC and reduced deposit?

 

Anything else I should be thinking about?   Thank you!!! 

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You have a couple of options, if you change one booking to the suite and add the other guest you will lose the OBC for one booking and the deposit unless it was refundable. Or you can pay a change fee to move the second booking to another date and itinerary order to keep the OBC. The first option would just be a reprice, but OBC should be protected as you aren't doing anything but changing cabin type. 

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1 hour ago, Patchy said:

Hi all, looking for this group’s initial thoughts and expertise before I drag my travel agent into a 4 hour call with Royal.   😁   Figuring that if anyone knows the answers off the top of their head or have been in this situation before, it would be this group!   

 

I have two connecting balconies booked through Next Cruise for my family of four people (two adults, two kids… with one adult and one kid in each cabin), but I am now seeing a very compelling price for a suite that would work for all four of us.   We haven’t yet made final payment.   I have a number of questions about the best way to possibly do this:


- Can I modify one of the two balcony reservations by upgrading to the suite AND adding two passengers?   I fully understand this would trigger a full reprice.
- Would I lose my $100 OBC from Next Cruise, or would that stay with the reservation?

- For the other room, would I just outright cancel the reservation because the two passengers would now be in the suite?  (And I’m assuming that would cause me to forgo the non-refundable deposit and Next Cruise OBC.)  Or could I do the equivalent of “transferring” that reservation to a brand new booking in another cruise to preserve the Next Cruise OBC and reduced deposit?

 

Anything else I should be thinking about?   Thank you!!! 

Do you have flights booked with Air2Sea? That can complicate things as well.

Did you already pay for drink/dining packages or excursions at better rates than currently offered? They could be wiped out for one of the reservations when doing this switch.

Honestly, a call to your TA is going to be the only guarantee to get an absolutely correct answer.  I would be curious to hear what the result of your findings are because these room change/upgrade situations can go several different ways.

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I tried this a couple of weeks ago.  They basically told me I had to cancel the kids reservation with cruise with confidence.  Then I would receive a FCC for their deposit.  I would then change our room and add the kids.   We were in a Grande Suite connected to the kids in a balcony room.  We were going to put all 4 of us in Star Loft Suite since there was a kids sail free sale.

 

After pricing it all out it was a couple of hundred dollars more.  My wife talked me out of it last minute as she prefers the ability to shut the connecting door for a little extra break from the kids sometimes haha.  So, it can be done as long as you are willing to accept the Future cruise credit.

 

 

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Thanks!   No Air2Sea involved, and I booked after the Cruise with Confidence program ended so I don’t think I’d be eligible to get FCC for a cancelled room.  
 

@AspiringCruisePlanner, I do have Cruise Planner purchases, so that’s a good point that I would want to cancel before changing the reservation to get my money back faster and run the risk of paying more to rebook the items.   
 

@Crazycruiser50, you make a good point about having separate spaces for the kids.  But in my case I’m eyeing up an Oceanview panoramic suite so that’s not an issue.   For your situation, it sounded compelling to only pay a couple of hundred dollars more to get a Genie!    

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2 hours ago, Patchy said:

But in my case I’m eyeing up an Oceanview panoramic suite so that’s not an issue.   For your situation, it sounded compelling to only pay a couple of hundred dollars more to get a Genie!    

Hold your horses.  What ship are you on?  The panoramic oceanview suites are on the Freedom and Voyager classes of ships which don't have Star/Sky/Sea class designations.  Only the Quantum and Oasis class ships have these classifications.

If you are in a suite on any ship that is not Quantum or Oasis class, these would be your suite benefits:

https://www.royalcaribbean.com/faq/questions/what-are-the-benefits-of-the-suites-program

Unless you're talking about the Ultimate Panoramic Suite that only exists on Oasis?

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1 hour ago, Patchy said:

@AspiringCruisePlanner, I’m on Voyager.    My reference to the Star class was just a comment on @Crazycruiser50’s situation where he/she had a chance to move to a Star Loft suite.   

My apologies for not reading your message correctly. Understood now.

It's tough to say whether I'd stick with the connecting balconies versus upgrading to the Panoramic Oceanview if I were in your situation. You'd loose one bathroom, any balcony, one TV, and a door between the sleeping areas. On the flip side, you get a better view, suite privileges, double points, and a desirable location on the ship.

I guess it all comes down to cost which is exactly what you're trying to figure out right now. Happy planning!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi all, wanted to share a quick update on this.   I looked at the cost / benefit and it would have been about $1,300 incremental cost (increased cruise fare for the suite, incremental $2.50 daily per person gratuity, concierge gratuity, change fee for the second room, etc).    For me personally, that wasn’t low enough to be a fair trade for the suite benefits.   
 

So I “YOLO booked it” and put the money towards another cruise in 2024!   All goes to show that in the end it’s about the personal cost / benefit tradeoff and there is no one-size-fits-all solution.    
 

Really appreciate all the input from this group!   😃

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