SMN73

I'm not a frequent flyer so I'm asking for a little help please fellow CCers.

Starting to look at flights for our May cruise out of San Juan on Adventure. One leg of the trip (either going or coming) needs to be southwest, as I have a pretty large credit to use up before June. But for the opposite direction, I'm open to suggestions.

What airline typically offers the best rates to/from San Juan? How far in advance is it best to book flights? Is this too early and prices will go down?

Any insight will be appreciated. We would be flying out of Nashville.

159 longgg days until Adventure out of San Juan. I keep telling myself I need that much time to get everything together. :)

We just booked Kurt for May. I loved being able to include the mud bath and waterfall in the tour. Plus for the price it will be just me and my daughter. Excited about the personal experience.

Thank you all! I looked right over the pinned thread. LOL I will definitely have to know areas. My 20 year old daughter has told me she does not want to stay on the beach, but right in the middle of Old San Juan. Any recommendations?

I didn't know priceline didn't break the areas up. This is our first trip there so I need to see the different areas. I will use the tool listed and then try Hotwire. Thank you all!! Hoping to find a great hotel on the beach.

If looking at hotels on Priceline, what star category should I look for? Also, have any of you won bids recently? If so, care to share star rating, hotel you ended up with and winning bid amount? Thanks so much!

So if I understand, you got the BOGOHO fare, OBC that comes with the current BOGOHO promo, and you also kept your OBC from booking on board?

Yes, that is exactly what she did. I have the invoice. It reads the lower fare with BOGOHO and two lines of OBC. $100 on one line for the booking on board. And a second line that reads $200 for the current sale.

Not sure if that is how she was "supposed" to do it. But it can be done and she did it with no problems.

Was on hold less than 5 minutes. Cruise fare went down $315. Had a on board booking OBC of $100. She kept that on and added the additional $100 per person. So that phone call saved me a net of $515. Happy Monday!! :D

Yes, you can use your OBC for Beverage packages & shore excursions, as long as you wait till you are onboard...they can also be used to cover the $12 per day, per person gratuity....also pictures, spa services, shops...or even withdrawn from the casino at a 5% charge...

How do you use it for the gratuities if you select MTD? Those have to be prepaid up front, don't they? Is there a way to get around that?

I learned this trick here on CC. Sign up for Mlife. It's the Vegas rewards program. The only number I could find was 866-761-7111. They will give you an mlife number. Then call crown and anchor, give them your mlife number, and you will automatically be gold in Royals Crown and Anchor program. Then all the gold discounts will be loaded on your seas pass account when you board.

We did this on our first cruise. Took 5 minutes and was completely free. We had no issues.

Edit... There have been conflicting reports on here about when you are assigned your crown and anchor number. In our case, my number was assigned immediately over the phone. Also, you can do this for every member of your party over 21. Then the discounts will show up for all of you that sign up.

Just seeing if anyone has actually opened one!

 

I was told opp by a staff member via email from RCI

I used a cash account on our cruise. I went to the guest relations desk. They asked if I wanted to put any amount down up front, but said it wasn't necessary. I put $100 on there just for a small safety net, as we also had on board credit. We spent just a little over the $100 between the three of us. On the last evening I went down and paid the account to $0 with more cash. Easy Breezy.

I liken this "sale" as a sort of loan to Royal by the consumers. Royal is collecting a bigger fee up front and then "paying it back" later in the form of OBC. My guess, is in the hopes that many will not use all their on-board credit.

Hopefully they keep coming down in price.

Did a mock booking today for our Adventure cruise in May 2015. Yesterday the price for an E1 balcony was over $3100 with $600 total on-board credit for 2 people. Today the same category is $2776 with the same $600 on board credit.

We have the cabin currently booked for $2400 with $100 on board credit. Trying to decide if I want to try to call for the net savings of $124.

Just thought I'd share the info. Hope it helps some of you.

I think the sad part here is that people are saying "Thank you" to someone for doing what they should do -- be honest. Having said that, it just shows that too many people are 'not honest' and many would have answered otherwise.

True. Many would have just went on the cruise. 5 years ago I almost lost my father to the flu ( he saw the white light, etc... They revived him). In that same week my parents next door neighbor died of the flu. As healthy adults it's hard to realize what the flu can do to the many elderly passengers on board. I appreciate the OP doing the right thing that many wouldn't have. I hope Royal rewards him for his honesty.

Hi all,

We have narrowed down our turtle experience down to Calabaza or Cliff Sharker. Very different experiences, I understand that.

One thing I am very interested in is that Cliff Sharker promises to be the first boat out to the turtles, giving you a more personal, one on one experience.

For those of you that have done Calabaza...how many other boats/people did you share the turtle swim with?

Thanks for any information.

There is a very brief Enchantment review in my signature. If you want fantastic, detailed reviews, search for familygoboston and mpoole3. Both members have written very helpful reviews of enchantment. mpoole3 has sailed multiple times and done several reviews. It was our first cruise and we fell in love. Good luck!

Don't cruise on Carnival because of the suite perks since there are almost none. Cruise on Carnival because you want to save money. With that said, the Liberty is our favorite Carnival ship. Been on her twice and loved her both times. :)

 

 

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Very true. I am trying to decide between a suite, an aft balcony or the premium balcony 8449.

Any opinions anyone?

I didn't see what Royal ship your cruising on in your post? The liberty is awesome to cruise on!

 

Azmike480

Sorry. Currently we are booked on Adventure of the Seas out of Puerto Rico in May 2015

I was VERY surprised at the price difference. We can book an Ocean Suite on Liberty for the price we are currently booked at for an oceanview stateroom. No balcony. No tub. And almost 60% less square footage. Whoa.

From videos I've seen, the rooms look great. I understand the Liberty isn't as big as the Adventure of the Seas, but we did Enchantment first, so Liberty would still be larger than what we are used to!

What are the suite perks on Carnival?

Hi All!

We are currently booked on a Royal Caribbean ship out of San Juan next May. Found that we can take the Liberty on Carnival, same time frame, with basically the same itinerary, for about half the price, so REALLY considering cancelling and booking on Carnival.

I have only been on one other cruise, and that was on Royal. There were lots of things we could do or places we could eat for an extra charge. On the Liberty, what are the restaurants and other things (besides alcohol) that are NOT included in the cruise fare (example...guys burgers, a think there is a sweet shop, anything else??)?

Thanks!

Thank you. Tried that site with no luck. I'm beginning to think these are phantom rooms. I can't find photos at all. :-)

Can anyone give me some information and/or pictures of either of these two rooms? They are the weird "pie shaped" rooms and there seems to be very little information on them anywhere.

Thank you for whatever help you can give me!

I know these questions are asked to death but as a new cruiser I don't really know what is "worth" a change.

We are currently booked in room 6331 Promenade Room on Indy for May 2015. for $300 pp (there are two of us) we can switch to a hump balcony 6638/6640. Is it worth the extra money to switch?

We had an aft JS on Enchantment on our only other cruise. Loved it. But what I loved was laying in the lounger at night with a drink. Doesn't look like I will be able to do that on these balconies.

Any insight would be greatly appreciated!

That's it for now. Tomorrow is my first day of high school (a 'freshie or 'fresh meat' according to some juniors I met in the elevators near the teen club and Adventure Ocean), so I am preparing. I'm a little nervous TBH. I get back from school around 2 P.M. maybe for then.

 

As always, if you have any questions ask!

Enjoy your first day!! Everyone was new once and you aren't alone.. Everyone in your grade will be nervous tomorrow. You'll get the hang of it quickly. Have fun!!

Hi all,

Couple of quick questions. I apologize if they have been discussed before.

Do the Ft. Lauderdale hotel shuttles that go to the ports run into the afternoon, say 1:00 or so, or do they stop at a certain time? My sister has mobility issues and it would be hard for her to be on the ship for very long with her carry on so I thought we might get to the port about the time the rooms were ready.

She will be renting a scooter and has booked an accessible balcony room on Independence. I have read they deliver to the ship, but can anyone tell me specifically where they deliver? To a place outside of the ship/in the port or will it be waiting on her in the room?

Thanks for any info!!