Flatbush Flyer

Not a clue. But, remember that we once got the entire grats “in lieu” when TA paid them. The current $250 is ok. But, we may see that disappear.

Search for my numerous detailed posts on O Life strategies including combining the tours perk with enough added paid ones for the 25% YWYW discount. Done right, particularly on longer cruises, the neg cost May pleasantly surprise you.

Marina is still in great shape. Recently did 47 days on her.

It was $39.95 previously. Ore-paid gratuities are not one of the regular O Life perk options (I.e., SBC, booze or tours). Rather, gratuities are an O Club perk deke ding on your membership level.

Actually, that was what I was trying to say: you usually do the upgrade at each segment - that was always somewhat of a “perk” - that you could choose not to renew the upgrade. But, that was then and this is now. All these price/tips increases are catching folks already on a cruise by surprise. Even though, we get gratuities paid by O Club, I will next week have my TA get a new O invoice showing O Club coverage of any increased gratuities. (And we’ll get the latest prepurchased excursions math PDF too though we’ll just call the O rep from whom we buy them for that (he’s a valuable Miami asset in the event we run into any onboard problems around O cancelled tours). TA will also receive it and be kept “in the loop.”

Get ready for some international hotels that still do this as well.

While the “basic booze package” is one of the optional O Life perk selections for an entire single booking (I.e., one segment or multi-segment extended journey or custom cruise - each with only a single booking number), the upgrade to “prestige” can be done for each segment within the entire itinerary. This is sort of like the specialty reservations where the total allocation for a multi-segment booking is disaggregated to X per segment length. It may be some of these per-segment “rules” are nothing more than default limitations of the software involved - all of which can be overruled by the right manager. Another example is the ship excursions O Life perk which also must be booked as X tours per segment and requires managerial approval when you want to make replacements/refunds across segments for O cancelled tours.

Why would you flip out? Common practice for many itineraries.

From the earlier posts, it looks like OP chose the basic booze as O Life perk. If so, it can’t be changed mid-cruise. I’d use the logic of the spa increase pre-pay argument. I’d also query others passengers similarly affected by the price jump and go as a group to the GM. FWIW: Though we originally did occasionally buy the Prestige Package (even before O Life started), particularly on short cruises, we long ago did the math and realized that, even drinking better spirits, the Package was/is not a value for us on our typical long cruises. The combo of Happy Hours, O Club et al. invited events, “friendly” bartenders AND bringing our own wine was/is FAR less expensive.

Not only do some cruise lines (e.g., Oceania) require all passengers on all cruises to produce a passport, the Purser oversees their collection at embarkation. This is a far better and more convenient practice than leaving them with passengers who A) might carry them ashore when not required B) misplace/lose them C) rise at the “crack of dawn” for a port immigration check.

FWIW: As you may know, the spa prices recently increased by a whopping amount. On our most recent four segment Marina cruise, we received a note that said we could prepay the balance due (after the O Club $150/person coupon) for a service during the segment when the increase was to take place and only be subject to the original price. You’d think the same thing would’ve happened in your case: be allowed to prepay the old $20 pp/day before the $30 went into effect. BTW: what was the answer from Miami about not increasing it for folks who had booked when it was $20?

Depends on the ship. For example, on Oceania, you can bring as much personal wine and spirits as you desire. There’s no charge for in cabin consumption. You can bring unopened wine bottles to meals for a $25 corkage per bottle. But, your spirits must stay in the cabin. Oceania provides bottled water, sodas and mixers at no added cost.

Please don’t tell me that you honestly think you won’t see a similar increase (albeit in a fare increase or surcharge) on Regent. That said, I advise OP to look at what are the new costs of both basic and prestige packages. If they’ve gone up $10 each, the argument could be made that, since s/he selected the booze O Life perk (and it’s now revalued at $50 pp/day?), the difference to prestige is still only $20.

“Broader age demographic?” Pick the right O itinerary and you’ll have everything from elementary school students to college alumni of all ages.

No matter how you slice it or dice it, the $$$ do not take into account the vast difference in quality - particularly when it comes to the well known superior food and service on O. There’s a reason why so many regular Celebrity cruisers try Oceania and then never return to Celebrity.

Unless you drink a LOT of high end spirits (and upgrade the basic O Life booze perk to “Prestige” at $20 pp/day - knowing that you are still stuck with the mediocre wine-by-the-glass list), the only O Life perk with value is the excursions (if you pick the more expensive allowable ones [<$200] which effectively double the initial $100/tour value). And, the O Life tour selections do count toward the YWYW minimum tour buy for your cruise that will get you 25% off on any purchased tour. Particularly on longer cruises, this can mean significant ship tour cost reduction. Of course, you still may be able to find some private tours at a less expensive price (in fact, we usually do a mix of ship and private tours ourselves). But, in the current environment of Covid et al. uncertainty and, seemingly, more current port changes than one usually saw in the past (not to mention the number of tour operators who went belly up in recent years), there is a strong argument for the value of the convenience of ship staff handling changes, refunds, etc. Finally, I urge anyone new to O Life, to search CC for my several detailed posts on how best to assemble/complete O Life and/or YWYW tour purchases by using a vetted/trusted O phone rep (doing it online can be problematic due to various Cart glitches/idiosyncrasies) in order to maximize the value AND secure the “pre-purchased shore excursions” PDF showing all the math (that will come in very handy should you ever have an onboard tour change accounting problem with Destination Services). That said, if you prefer instead to use your TA for the tour buys (it’s an option), make sure that TA fully understands O Life (many do not!).

And please use the tongs for the food items if a staff member is not serving.

They need to be distributed per cruise segment length according to the rule for your cabin level (even if it’s an “extended journey” with a single booking number).

Cheap and not insulated. BYO

Details? Not important until they’re important. Happy New Year.

Interesting. I had heard that Occam lost his position because he kept sacrificing accuracy by prioritizing simplicity. Not a very good way to manage a cruise ship department (or much else for that matter).

Not necessarily. Unlike air travel, the cruise industry is not yet fully regulated for pricing practices (I.e., disaggregating each cost item). Some cruise lines state only the bottom line fare and do not state port taxes/fees as separate line items. However, it may be possible to request a separate accounting if you want to try to recoup taxes from a replaced port stop. (Note however that what you lose in not getting the missed port tax refund often may be a wash with the taxes you will not be charged for the new port).

Possibly. Do your research and find a well-respected, cruise specialist Travel Agency that does a lot of Royal Caribbean bookings and who will add other perks to your deal (e.g., gratuities coverage, commission sharing, etc.). That said, if what you figured is correct, the “kids sail free” deal, saves you about $50. And when you check the fine print, you may find something like “only their fare is ‘free’ but not their port taxes and related fees.” If nothing else, you are getting an introduction to the nickel/diming practices of many mass market cruise lines. And FWIW, do the true math on your required and anticipated costs. When comparing cruise lines, particularly across industry segments (e.g., mass market, premium, luxury, etc), you need to account for ALL of your required and optionally preferred purchases (e.g., gratuities, beverages w/wo booze, internet, specialty restaurants, airfare et al.) Different lines and industry segments include different things in that base fare. And, if you do decide that you’ll continue cruising, computing these expenses and then dividing them by the number of cruise days will give you a “net daily rate” which is a far more accurate picture of what you are truly paying. We used to cruise on mass market lines (in fact, about 25 years ago, we took our young daughter on a Royal Caribbean cruise just because of the kids club reputation (no Disney ships at that time). Over time, once we figured that it was better to use “net daily rate” and consideration of the comparable quality of food, service, cabin amenities in our decision process, we moved on to the “premium” cruise lines which, for our needs/wants provided far better value and enjoyment. Go find a good TA!

But, does that include elimination of the “book onboard perk” allowing one deposit transfer?

Unless one booked onboard- in which case you get one free cruise change.