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1 minute ago, JLMoran said:

You don't happen to know / have met a guy named Jim Dalrymple, by any chance? Your beard and his are equally impressive!

That name sounds really familiar.   Our paths may have crossed in one of the facebook beard groups i'm linked to.   Thanks for the compliment. by the way, much appreciated.    Fortunate to have a wife who loves my beard and won't let me cut it and also doesn't mind all the money i spend on beard products lol

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7 minutes ago, JLMoran said:

Your beard and his are equally impressive!

 

3 minutes ago, Todd W said:

That name sounds really familiar.   Our paths may have crossed in one of the facebook beard groups i'm linked to.   Thanks for the compliment. by the way, much appreciated.    Fortunate to have a wife who loves my beard and won't let me cut it and also doesn't mind all the money i spend on beard products lol

My first thought was Brent Burns or Joe Thorton lol

@Todd W, awesome pic!

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4 minutes ago, Todd W said:

That name sounds really familiar.   Our paths may have crossed in one of the facebook beard groups i'm linked to.   Thanks for the compliment. by the way, much appreciated.    Fortunate to have a wife who loves my beard and won't let me cut it and also doesn't mind all the money i spend on beard products lol

Here's a pic, captured from the opening video at this year's WWDC in San Jose. He goes there every year and is a regular commentator / pundit / fan of the Mac and Apple's audio kit.

DalrympleAtWWDC2018.thumb.jpg.0b12c7a2472592b54d18c4ea21d95244.jpg

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On 6/6/2018 at 6:13 AM, Lovetocruise2002 said:

Anyone have any luck today with getting a good re-price?  Nothing for me...all my sailings either went up or stayed the same.

Called in for an October cruise I'd booked on Oasis in an L1 Sky Loft.  Re-priced $672 lower.  Ka-ching!  My other two cruises after that have gone up in price since booking.

Original fare:

Cruise Fare    $8654
BOGO NO REF DEP    -$2127
MEM NO REF DEP    -$150
Taxes, fees, and port expenses    $113
Total Charge    $6490

Re-price:

Cruise Fare    $8654
RES NO REF DEP    -$635
BOGO NO REF DEP    -$2114
DBUP NO REF DEP    -$200
Taxes, fees, and port expenses    $113
Total Charge    $5818

Both $100 OBC.

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57 minutes ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

I know that feeling.  A month ago, I saved over $500 on my Star Loft.  So can't complain that I didn't get anything else this time ?

I'm curious.  Did you find the Star class was worth the premium?  From the stuff I've looked at, the per-person tangible benefits (included dining, drinks, internet, yadda) are worth about $1400 for a 7 day cruise.  The intangibles (genie, service, priority, seating, etc.) I haven't experienced yet.  I've booked a 2BR Aqua Theater Suite next year to give it a try.

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27 minutes ago, mk-ultra said:

I'm curious.  Did you find the Star class was worth the premium?  From the stuff I've looked at, the per-person tangible benefits (included dining, drinks, internet, yadda) are worth about $1400 for a 7 day cruise.  The intangibles (genie, service, priority, seating, etc.) I haven't experienced yet.  I've booked a 2BR Aqua Theater Suite next year to give it a try.

Lol...IIRC, we've had this discussion elsewhere already.  You booked one?  Solo?

I have not sailed yet so I cannot say.  First one is this coming March 2019 and then I have the 2BRD ATS booked for March 2020.  Got both at great rates thanks to advice from @tiny260.  Further KSF deals and TA discount made it even more worth it.  Anyway, the person who can really give insight into this question is @WAAAYTOOO or @CGTLH.  There have been other threads from the past that have touched on this and I will link them here.  I don't think I would be able to justify the cost at certain high points during the year.  And from what I have heard from many, the cost of the Genie is not something you can really put a quantity to.  Also, even with purchasing the ultimate dining package, you still get more with SC as far as dining goes.  I will let @WAAAYTOOO and @CGTLH elaborate more.  They have done this a few times already.  I also am starting to believe more and more that the actual Genie makes a huge difference in the experience.  I will be able to give a better analysis come March.

 

 

 

 

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17 minutes ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

Lol...IIRC, we've had this discussion elsewhere already.  You booked one?  Solo?@tiny260@WAAAYTOOO@CGTLH@WAAAYTOOO@CGTLH

 

 

Whoooo boy.  Yes, I booked (for now) the 2BR Aqua Suite solo... but with the intent of adding one or two friends in the second bedroom.  Just doing a little arm-twisting ?  As someone who almost always has a solo cabin (I snore -- badly), there's no way I can talk myself into paying for Star class with a solo supplement.  This one is a bit of a roll of the dice for me.  If my some of my usual cruising pals can't make it, I'll cancel and eat the deposit.

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6 minutes ago, mk-ultra said:

Whoooo boy.  Yes, I booked (for now) the 2BR Aqua Suite solo... but with the intent of adding one or two friends in the second bedroom.  Just doing a little arm-twisting ?  As someone who almost always has a solo cabin (I snore -- badly), there's no way I can talk myself into paying for Star class with a solo supplement.  This one is a bit of a roll of the dice for me.  If my some of my usual cruising pals can't make it, I'll cancel and eat the deposit.

I can't even imagine what the solo supplement would be on a Star class cabin.  Good luck with it ?

I hear @mpoole3 is always looking for people to take him in...lol

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@mk-ultra Is Star class worth it... My opinion it is what you make of it. I know on Anthem we didn't take the full advantage of it. Part had to do with itinerary, was very port intensive. Plus the last day was a wash due to some intense planning needed in order to get back home.

It was nice having the Genie create your onboard plans (dining and shows) plus any activities. Plus having a central point of contact for anything.

 

LIVEish from Anthem: 

 

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2 hours ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

I can't even imagine what the solo supplement would be on a Star class cabin.  Good luck with it ?

I hear @mpoole3 is always looking for people to take him in...lol

My "suite point" (pun intended) is under $1K/night.  If I really shop around, I can get something like an L1 Loft for ~$800 per night.  Star anything is usually almost double the expense for the same number of days.  For me, the only way I'm ever going to sail in Star class is to add 2-3 people to the cabin.  And they're going to have to be outside of my snoring radius ?

 

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1 hour ago, mk-ultra said:

My "suite point" (pun intended) is under $1K/night.  If I really shop around, I can get something like an L1 Loft for ~$800 per night.  Star anything is usually almost double the expense for the same number of days.  For me, the only way I'm ever going to sail in Star class is to add 2-3 people to the cabin.  And they're going to have to be outside of my snoring radius ?

 

I do not mean to take this off topic, nor do I mean to interfere in your life. MK-ULTRA, if your snoring problem is that bad, it may be a health issue (sleep apnea). If you have never done so, please do yourself, your family and your friends a big favor by getting it checked. People of any age can have it. Again, sorry for butting in, but on the odd chance you never checked, I thought you should be aware. PLUS, think of how much money you can save if you can then get cabin mates!

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As Sabrina said, the value of having the Genie is really difficult to quantify.  There are so many things that the Genie does that just make things easier.  If it's not important that you don't have to arrive at the theater 20 - 30 minutes early to get a seat anywhere in the theater that you want to sit, or you don't feel you need a personal escort on and off the ship, you have no plans to have a party in your suite and you don't want to have an expedited line where you can use certain activities more readily than others (flow rider and zip line on the O class and I suspect, but do not know for sure that I Fly, Northstar and bumper cars will be the same on the Q class), then the Genie might be overkill.

The "extras" that are included in the Star Class benefits are also not exactly directly comparable to the paid packages, either.  I have heard MANY people say...."I will just buy the ultimate dining package, the Premium drinks package and the unlimited internet package and I will have the same amenities as the Star Class folks and save myself a lot of money".  But this isn't exactly the case.  For instance, the Star Class dining benefits allows you to eat anything on the ship (during normal operating hours), in the restaurant or in your suite - unlimited amounts.  ALL of the upcharge items (with the exception of the wine pairing option at Chop's.  Do they still offer that ?  I haven't seen it in some time) are included whereas none of the upcharge items are included in the ultimate dining package.  With the ultimate drinks package you can have unlimited drinks at the Starbuck's location (however the pastries are not included for some reason.  Kind of odd...but...whatever).  While the "rules" say that anything above the normal drinks threshold (probably $13 per drink on the O class ships) will be paid by the passenger, we have been on 4 SC cruises and never ever paid an over charge for a drink that exceeded the $13 threshold.  Now granted, it is RARE indeed that we ever consume such an item (Dan occasionally asks for an upgraded Scotch but this is pretty infrequent) nevertheless, we have never ever paid anything extra for a drink when we were SC.  Probably the biggest advantage for being SC over having the Premium drinks package is the fact that they will keep your suite supplied with water, juice, beer and soda whereas, the PDP  does not include any drinks in the suite except for what you may be entitled to as part of your C&A benefits.  When you go into Johnny Rockets, everything you want, as much as you want, including unlimited milk shakes, is included.  If you go to Izumi hibachi, you can get anything you want, including unlimited sushi and all upcharge hibachi meal options.  None of these "extras" are included with the UDP.  As far as I can determine, there is nothing "extra" that you get with the unlimited internet amenity for SC.  

The Genie will make sure that you have any kind of snack that you may request, brought to your suite.  While we aren't big snackers and we have never done this, I have heard and read of many pax who have a standing order to have some specific snack brought by on a daily basis.  Sometimes it's as simple as fresh cookies at a certain time or it can be as elaborate as sushi from Izumi's or  full meals from Sabor.  If you wanted lobster brought to your suite every night it would be arranged (as long as it was during normal Chops operating hours).  I had heard, in the past, that some pax asked for Starbuck's to be brought to them every morning but lately I read that they have stopped doing this so it may or may not be offered any longer.  We aren't coffee drinkers so we never asked for this service.  I can imagine that it's fairly inconvenient for someone to have to trot coffee all the way to aft to the ATS so I guess I understand why they have stopped this, if, in fact, they have.

There's lots and lots that I haven't mentioned here, mostly in the category of "personal service" kinds of things but the question, as always, is:  Is it worth the price they charge ?  As with all things, this is a matter of personal preference.  I will say that the price of SC has skyrocketed over the past 2 years.  The price for SC has almost tripled since our first SC cruise in Feb. 2016.  I'm sure that Royal is looking for the tipping point price (as high as they can charge where people will still buy) and apparently they have not yet reached it as the SC prices on Symphony are otherworldly.  I have a SC suite on Anthem scheduled for March 2020 but the prices on Anthem seem to be lower than for any of the O class ships.  This will be our first cruise on any Q class so I guess I will find out how they compare.

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4 hours ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

As Sabrina said, the value of having the Genie is really difficult to quantify.  There are so many things that the Genie does that just make things easier.  If it's not important that you don't have to arrive at the theater 20 - 30 minutes early to get a seat anywhere in the theater that you want to sit, or you don't feel you need a personal escort on and off the ship, you have no plans to have a party in your suite and you don't want to have an expedited line where you can use certain activities more readily than others (flow rider and zip line on the O class and I suspect, but do not know for sure that I Fly, Northstar and bumper cars will be the same on the Q class), then the Genie might be overkill.

The "extras" that are included in the Star Class benefits are also not exactly directly comparable to the paid packages, either.  I have heard MANY people say...."I will just buy the ultimate dining package, the Premium drinks package and the unlimited internet package and I will have the same amenities as the Star Class folks and save myself a lot of money".  But this isn't exactly the case.  For instance, the Star Class dining benefits allows you to eat anything on the ship (during normal operating hours), in the restaurant or in your suite - unlimited amounts.  ALL of the upcharge items (with the exception of the wine pairing option at Chop's.  Do they still offer that ?  I haven't seen it in some time) are included whereas none of the upcharge items are included in the ultimate dining package.  With the ultimate drinks package you can have unlimited drinks at the Starbuck's location (however the pastries are not included for some reason.  Kind of odd...but...whatever).  While the "rules" say that anything above the normal drinks threshold (probably $13 per drink on the O class ships) will be paid by the passenger, we have been on 4 SC cruises and never ever paid an over charge for a drink that exceeded the $13 threshold.  Now granted, it is RARE indeed that we ever consume such an item (Dan occasionally asks for an upgraded Scotch but this is pretty infrequent) nevertheless, we have never ever paid anything extra for a drink when we were SC.  Probably the biggest advantage for being SC over having the Premium drinks package is the fact that they will keep your suite supplied with water, juice, beer and soda whereas, the PDP  does not include any drinks in the suite except for what you may be entitled to as part of your C&A benefits.  When you go into Johnny Rockets, everything you want, as much as you want, including unlimited milk shakes, is included.  If you go to Izumi hibachi, you can get anything you want, including unlimited sushi and all upcharge hibachi meal options.  None of these "extras" are included with the UDP.  As far as I can determine, there is nothing "extra" that you get with the unlimited internet amenity for SC.  

The Genie will make sure that you have any kind of snack that you may request, brought to your suite.  While we aren't big snackers and we have never done this, I have heard and read of many pax who have a standing order to have some specific snack brought by on a daily basis.  Sometimes it's as simple as fresh cookies at a certain time or it can be as elaborate as sushi from Izumi's or  full meals from Sabor.  If you wanted lobster brought to your suite every night it would be arranged (as long as it was during normal Chops operating hours).  I had heard, in the past, that some pax asked for Starbuck's to be brought to them every morning but lately I read that they have stopped doing this so it may or may not be offered any longer.  We aren't coffee drinkers so we never asked for this service.  I can imagine that it's fairly inconvenient for someone to have to trot coffee all the way to aft to the ATS so I guess I understand why they have stopped this, if, in fact, they have.

There's lots and lots that I haven't mentioned here, mostly in the category of "personal service" kinds of things but the question, as always, is:  Is it worth the price they charge ?  As with all things, this is a matter of personal preference.  I will say that the price of SC has skyrocketed over the past 2 years.  The price for SC has almost tripled since our first SC cruise in Feb. 2016.  I'm sure that Royal is looking for the tipping point price (as high as they can charge where people will still buy) and apparently they have not yet reached it as the SC prices on Symphony are otherworldly.  I have a SC suite on Anthem scheduled for March 2020 but the prices on Anthem seem to be lower than for any of the O class ships.  This will be our first cruise on any Q class so I guess I will find out how they compare.

Awesome info.  Thank you.

For my upcoming cruise in the 2BR Aqua Suite I'm 99% sure a couple of friends I cruise with regularly are going to join me and take the second bedroom.  For me, the math works out.  I'll be in Star class for about the same price I usually pay for Sky with a solo supplement.  I've sailed with the same friends in a shared cabin... without separate bedrooms... and nobody strangled me.  I think we'll be fine with two bedrooms.   

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20 minutes ago, mk-ultra said:

Awesome info.  Thank you.

For my upcoming cruise in the 2BR Aqua Suite I'm 99% sure a couple of friends I cruise with regularly are going to join me and take the second bedroom.  For me, the math works out.  I'll be in Star class for about the same price I usually pay for Sky with a solo supplement.  I've sailed with the same friends in a shared cabin... without separate bedrooms... and nobody strangled me.  I think we'll be fine with two bedrooms.   

Just curious...what ship did you book on?

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On 6/9/2018 at 3:21 PM, Skid said:

I do not mean to take this off topic, nor do I mean to interfere in your life. MK-ULTRA, if your snoring problem is that bad, it may be a health issue (sleep apnea). If you have never done so, please do yourself, your family and your friends a big favor by getting it checked. People of any age can have it. Again, sorry for butting in, but on the odd chance you never checked, I thought you should be aware. PLUS, think of how much money you can save if you can then get cabin mates!

You're definitely not butting in, and I appreciate you bringing up sleep apnea as a health risk... a lot of folks don't know that "snoring" can be a larger issue.  It's something (sleep apnea) both my dad had, and I've got.  I've been looking at various options from CPAP to surgery for it.  I haven't yet decided what direction I want to take, but I'm leaning towards the surgery rather than relying on something as cumbersome as CPAP.

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On 6/9/2018 at 10:53 AM, mk-ultra said:

Did you find the Star class was worth the premium? 

I'll add my full two cents after July 1 - when I'm suffering the PCD (usurped the Post Cruise Depression phrase from @cruiselife).  So far, though, the genie has been excellent (pre-cruise communications and specialty restaurant reservations).  I was shocked when I got the email from the genie with reservations already booked and just needing to be confirmed... especially when the proposed schedule looked almost like the one I was going to send her!

And, thanks again to @WAAAYTOOO!  I had no idea the upcharges were included!  I'm glad I just read through your post above.  My family has been clamoring for the lobster and I've been telling them to watch the charges... It'll be a great surprise for them.  I'm sure you've mentioned it before but it didn't have any meaning until I had the menus in front of me with the upcharges listed.

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5 minutes ago, mathbees said:

I'll add my full two cents after July 1 - when I'm suffering the PCD (usurped the Post Cruise Depression phrase from @cruiselife).  So far, though, the genie has been excellent (pre-cruise communications and specialty restaurant reservations).  I was shocked when I got the email from the genie with reservations already booked and just needing to be confirmed... especially when the proposed schedule looked almost like the one I was going to send her!

And, thanks again to @WAAAYTOOO!  I had no idea the upcharges were included!  I'm glad I just read through your post above.  My family has been clamoring for the lobster and I've been telling them to watch the charges... It'll be a great surprise for them.  I'm sure you've mentioned it before but it didn't have any meaning until I had the menus in front of me with the upcharges listed.

Who is your Genie? Trying to collect any info I can before March ?

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10 hours ago, mathbees said:

And, thanks again to @WAAAYTOOO!  I had no idea the upcharges were included!  I'm glad I just read through your post above.  My family has been clamoring for the lobster and I've been telling them to watch the charges... It'll be a great surprise for them.  I'm sure you've mentioned it before but it didn't have any meaning until I had the menus in front of me with the upcharges listed.

You're more than welcome.  There's nothing I enjoy chatting about more than the wonderful Star Class program.  There are many nuances to this program and even after doing it 4 times I still find new things to consider.  The popcorn at the theaters is included.  Unfortunately, I have almost ALWAYS JUST finished eating whenever we go to any theater so I've never had the room to enjoy it !   I've heard of people having food delivered to them at the Suites sundeck cabanas (never thought of this one myself.  Not even sure I would want to eat up there it can get SO hot !).  I read that one guy had a private party in Vintages with food delivered from one of the specialty restaurants.  This is something I NEVER would have thought of doing since Vintages is a completely separate venue, but apparently it wasn't that big a deal.  It looked like they had a great time !

Enjoy the upcharge items b/c it's the only time you will ever have them included at no additional cost.  AND you can also have any of the upcharge items delivered to your suite for dining in, too.  On our last Harmony cruise I had the MDR surf and turf delivered on the night that Dan had his lamb shank.  The lamb shank is the only MDR meal that Dan loves so we make sure we don't miss it.  We almost always have it delivered to our suite so that we can ensure that we have at least one evening meal room service.  After much experimenting, I have decided that the BEST meal to have delivered is breakfast.  Since we stay out late (usually shutting down the casino) we sleep in and have a bad habit of missing breakfast.  But with having a standing breakfast delivery order we don't have to worry about oversleeping breakfast.  If you are an egg-eater just be SURE that you mention that you do NOT want MDR eggs or they will bring you the powedered crap that you get in the MDR or WJ. If you are on deck 17 the food always comes from the CK though and they only use real eggs there (or so I was told) so it isn't as big an issue.  The one time I got powdered eggs was when we were in the 2 BR ATS so just be sure and tell them you want REAL eggs.

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15 minutes ago, dimysmith said:

ok--can someone provide  a  phone number to this great travel agency/person.   I want to see if they can beat what I currently have.  I have refundable deposit and that is all I have paid on our next cruise.  

MEI is the TA sponsor for Royal Caribbean Blog.  You can contact any of their agents to get you a quote.  From what I've read in this thread, they are all great.

 

Edit - sorry.  I confused the threads.  Many names on this thread.

 

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