MechE31

Did you receive a targeted offer for this or was the presentation open to anyone?

We were able to get the smaller bottles of Evian included with the refreshment package on our Oasis cruise last month. The only place that regularly had them cold was the Vitality cafe.

On 4/20/2019 at 8:19 AM, molly361 said:

Anyone else have experience with this as PC??

We just went through expedited arrival at PC on Harmony. You go to a special check in line, a separate security line and get to go straight onto the ship when you get though it all. We were dropped off at 11:10 and on the boat at 11:30. It was awesome. 

Also of note, we had 4 in our party and only one had expedited and they escorted all 4 of us through. 

4 hours ago, LynnTH said:

 Thanks.  I went in and entered all our info, like I was going to book and then the non-refundable rate came up.  Only $70-$100 more per cabin depending on what cabin I choose.  So, I'm assuming Chase would be able to bring that up also - just need to go through the booking process first.  

You probably know this, but when booking a cruise through the Chase agency using the Sapphire travel reward multiplier, you can only make the first payment with points. You can choose to pay off the whole cruise up front with points, but all subsequent payments must be through a normal payment method. 

32 minutes ago, sprint180 said:

I live 4 hours from my "local" airport.  I would not drive it on the day of.   Don't want to risk my trip on a fluke.

 

I think the airport is a little different. With the airport, you have kind of have a 2 hour window to arrive, from 3 hours early to 1 hour early. If you're early, there's nothing to do. With a cruise, you have roughly a 4.5 hour window, from 11am - 3:30pm and if you're early, there's plenty to do. 

For us, we live very close to Port Canaveral, but go out of all the Florida ports. Lauderdale is 2.5 hours and Miami is about 3 hours. We realistically have 3 different routes we can take to both (95, US1 or turnpike), including combos of the 3 in case of an accident. We leave day of and shoot for the earliest slot we can, giving us that aforementioned 4.5 hour buffer. 

We have "almost" missed a flight before due to an accident. We live about 45 minutes from Orlando airport. A fatal accident happened shortly before we hit that area on 95 and they closed the road. We ended up getting diverted the wrong way down a closed interstate until there was an emergency vehicle turnaround. It cost us about an hour, but we still comfortably made it for our flight. It was quite nerve racking, but it's why you always build in quite a buffer. 

If you can pre-book, cruise planner will not allow you to book an under 18 guest.

I asked this question to John Heald about 6 months ago and his response was:

I think this would be very popular and I have mentioned this to the beards in the past. I will let you know as soon as I have any news. cheers mate

I've been on all Carnival and Royal. My opinion can best be summed up by our current bookings, one on Carnival, two on Royal (one of which was chosen by the people we're going with, they are loyal to Royal) and one on NCL.

We like both lines for different reasons and won't hesitate to book any based on itinerary (our NCL for Bermuda overnights), ship (Harmony and NCL Encore) and value (Carnival). If we had to rank, it'd be Carnival, Royal then NCL. Our kids (5 and 3) loved the kids program on Carnival and liked NCL. Their first RC is in May. We've been on multiples from each line and been on older smaller boats and larger newer boats on each line. 

Quick pros and cons

Pros

Carnival: comedy, quick service food (Guy's burgers, Taco's, etc), our favorite organized daytime activities, kids club, kids loved waterworks (other lines have great areas, but the had taller minimum height, so kids couldn't go), value

Royal: stage shows (+ice and water shows depending on boat), amazing boats with tons of stuff to do

Cons

Carnival: shorter weekend cruises have a rowdy crowd,  stage shows are lacking compared to other lines, boats lacking amenities

Royal: price (especially on Oasis class), itineraries lacking on bigger boats, less organized activities we liked compared to Carnival

On my Harmony cruise next month, I'm not seeing any options for dining packages. There were packages offered at roughly the 100 day mark. Can they sell out?

We're right there with you. We've got 4 cruises booked going through summer of 2020. They span 3 lines and go out of 4 different ports. 

If you already have a Chase card (you didn't say which), combining the Chase cards may be your best bet. You can transfer points between cards, so get 1.5% cash back on everything (Freedom Unlimited), 5% on a rotating category (Freedom) and 3% back on travel and dining (Sapphire Reserve). All points can be transferred 1 to 1 to several airline and hotel partners for some occasional crazy deals, or redeem for 50% more towards travel, both using the Sapphire Reserve. You can use points towards cruises, but it is through their travel agency.

I redeemed $6000 towards my Alaska trip last year. In part due to the rest of the expenses from Alaska earning at 4.5%, I earned/redeemed another $1800 towards my cruise next year in 9 months.

On 2/16/2019 at 6:04 PM, CA_Cruzing said:

Considering I get around and 11% discount though Costco’s credit card, executive membership and their TA combined, I’d find it hard to get that deal value anywhere else.

How much of that would you earn without the credit card? It looks like only 3% of that is from the CC.

I would recommend connecting rooms, but you will rarely have it come out cheaper. We're also ok going down to interior with connecting rooms, but want OV or higher for 4 in a room. 

On our cruise on the Sunshine in November, they had make it with Michael's activities. Maybe we were a pilot? They were no extra charge. If I remember, they were every sea day. My wife and kids went to all of them. They really enjoyed it. They were mainly Christmas themed on our cruise. The ones I remember were Christmas cards, a popsicle stick picture frame and a snowman.

7 minutes ago, ElCrappyTan said:

I call BS until someone comes back and posts a picture of the felt from a triple 0 game. 

Find someone on the sunshine. I saw it with my own eyes but didn't take pictures.

Just saw this thread. They only had triple 0 wheels on the Carnival Sunshine during our November cruise which was right after they got out of dry dock. They had a double 0 electronic/bubble craps.

Of note though is they had an any green bet that paid 13/1. So this was actually an even money bet.

In today's google news feed:

https://www.foxnews.com/travel/royal-caribbean-refuses-to-issue-full-refund-for-broken-air-conditioning-paralyzed-veteran-claims

When are we going to see them adding 2020 to the KSF? 

On the getaway, we did not pay for kids at teppanyaki. On the jewel with a smaller teppanyaki area, they said kids ordering off the kids menu will be charged. 

This popped up today in my google news feed

https://www.miaminewtimes.com/news/passengers-demand-refunds-after-royal-caribbean-air-conditioning-issues-on-anthem-of-the-seas-ship-11065149

6 minutes ago, CruisenReview91 said:

 

How has your experience been with Shore Excursioneer? Have you used them much?

That was our 3rd time using them. They're fine. The other two reminded me of cruise line excursions, but cheaper. Larger groups (although not cruise line big), all run by 3rd parties, generally the same activities as the cruise line. I try for private tours now as they are better suited for our young kids and are usually available for comparable prices when booking for 4 people. 

The private tour through them was too good of a deal to pass up, it was $220 for 4 adults and 4 kids under 5 for a 4 hour tour. 

In Aruba, we booked a private tour through shore excursioneer. It was run by Cocolishi tours, email is cocolishitour@gmail.com. We were very happy with the tour and the price was fantastic.

We did a family oceanview with 2 adults and 2 kids on the getaway. The room was pretty large and not really cramped and had a dividing curtain between the main bed and the "bunk beds". The 3rd and 4th beds were a single sleeper sofa on the bottom and  a pullman above it, which look like a bunk bed. The curtain provided good visual privacy, but not much in the way of sound. Is it ideal for 2 couples? Nope. Could you make it work if you wanted to take advantage of 3 and 4 in a stateroom free? Absolutely. 

I've been on all 3 lines. My opinion can best be summed up by our current bookings, one on NCL, one on Carnival and two on Royal (one of which was chosen by the people we're going with, they are loyal to Royal). 

We like all 3 for different reasons and won't hesitate to book any based on itinerary (our NCL for Bermuda overnights), ship (Harmony and NCL Encore) and value (Carnival). If we had to rank, it'd be Carnival, Royal then NCL. Our kids (5 and 3) loved the kids program on Carnival and liked NCL. Their first RC is in May. We've been on multiples from each line and been on older smaller boats and larger newer boats on each line. 

Quick pros and cons

Pros

Carnival: comedy, quick service food, our favorite organized daytime activities, kids club, kids loved waterworks (other lines have great areas, but the had taller minimum height, so kids couldn't go), value

Royal: stage shows (+ice and water shows depending on boat), amazing boats with tons of stuff to do

NCL: boats nicer than Carnival but short of Royal, best stage shows we've seen on a boat, O'sheehans, beverage package promo, speciality restaurant variety and dining promo

Cons

Carnival: shorter weekend cruises have a rowdy crowd,  stage shows are lacking compared to other lines, boats lacking amenities

Royal: price (especially on Oasis class), itineraries lacking on bigger boats, less organized activities we liked compared to Carnival

NCL: price is in the middle, while shows are awesome, not enough of them, least to do during day for us

The pricing between lines varies a lot depending on when you are going. When we booked our last cruise, we had a specific week in January 2020 we were looking for. We were open to leaving from any port in Florida, wanted an OV for 4 people that was 7 nights. We're not brand loyal (currently have 4 cruises book on 3 different lines). Carnival was $2200 for an 8 day, NCL was $3000 with kids sail free (balcony same price as OV), RC was $3000 for Adventure, $4200 for Allure or $4800 for Harmony, Disney was $6500.

On the Sunshine in November, you could get all the clues without going to any revenue generating pitches. It was very easy to find the answer as the suspect, weapon and person were linked together and they normally gave out at least 2 of the 3 uniquely per clue. The final draw was at bingo, but it happened before bingo started.