Spurschick

What are peak dates besides Christmas and New Years?

 

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Spring break, Summer and Thanksgiving.

I like this way better. It's incentive for doing non refundable. You get price drops up until 48 hours to sailing. The only incentive for booking early with royal is the $100 obc which can be obtained from any of the random sales as well as a cheaper price up front. But you aren't guaranteed the best price up until sail date. I would consider the non refundable if this was the case. I won't even think about booking it just for the OBC and small reduction in price.

 

 

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Would be interesting but I don't see it happening.

I was looking at a peak date cruise that is close to final payment date. I counted 15 GS and 7 OS still available for that sail date, yet only 1 JS available. Normally for peak sailings this close in I normally only see a few, if any, higher suites left. I would not be surprised to see them fall in price after final payment date. If they allowed price drops up to 48 hours out the supply might effect pricing too much for them to want to price match.

I am watching peak dates with interest to see how the new policies effect pricing and availability.

I just had an interesting chat with Club Royale while trying to ask about pricing for an August 2018 Alaskan cruise. Apparently, I can't get any sort of casino rate for that cruise because they only offer such rates for a period of 12 months since my last Royal Caribbean cruise. Since I last sailed in March, I can only get promotional pricing on cruises through early March 2018.

 

For those of us who like to book our cruises early, this significantly penalizes us and reduces the value of any certificates we may earn as using them on a cruise we've already booked requires them to reprice that cruise at then-current rates, which are most likely higher.

Agree. It also poses issues with booking non refundable rate suites. I was told we can book further out with a nominal casino discount (which was a low fixed percent off value) and reprice after a sailing closer to the sail date. That said why would I want to book a non refundable cabin and wait to see what casino rate they offer at the price at that time!

But what also surprises me, is I that have an upcoming cruise that they repriced to a non refundable rate. Yet when I called back about pricing on a different cruise to see if the new non-refundable rate would be cheaper, I was told they don't have non-refundable casino rates loaded in their system:confused:

I called in just now to make an enquiry on a booking and was advised they are expecting the system to be up by 12pm CST

Our Host is correct...

 

Cruises out of San Juan are the best. Plus who doesn't want to spend a few days in Puerto Rico before getting on the ship.

 

We've also found airline fares to be about the same....

 

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We used to find airline fares to San Juan comparable to flying to Florida, but every date we have looked at for next year is over $900 from DFW. :eek: The last time we flew to San Juan about 3 years ago it was closer to $400.

Full Suites can also order from the MDR menu for breakfast, lunch and dinner. When we sailed on Freedom this year, we were contacted about 5 days out.

Ditto on Intercontinental...it's Holiday Inn property, so points convey...very nice place!

Actually Holiday Inn is subsidiary of Intercontinental, not the other way round. They are both part of IHG rewards which stands for Intercontinental Hotel Groups. Holiday Inn is not even close in comparison to Intercontinental.

We have tried a few hotels in Miami. The Hiton was fine. We normally stay at the Intercontinental for location. It is close to the port and walkable to Bayside Marketplace for shopping and restaurants.

Only suite we have had binoculars in was RS in Alaska.

Only ever had an umbrella on Celebrity. Never seen an RC umbrella.

I have seen 2 bed ATS and some other suites which have binoculars on balconies.

We are sailing from Southampton in a couple of weeks and using ABP parking.

The only time we have parked at Southampton is when we sailed with Cunard. Then, we drove up to the terminal and our cases were taken from the boot and the car taken and parked for us. When we returned it was a short walk to our car.

Is this what happens with ABP or do you park it yourself and then walk to the terminal?

Thank you.

The last time I used that car park we dropped the cases and parked ourselves and walked to the terminal through the gate

I find it hard to believe it is because of safety as Royal Caribbean goes to Jamaica and that has to be one of the most unsafe islands in the Caribbean.

 

 

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I have been to Jamaica multiple times. I have never felt anywhere near as unsafe and intimidated in Jamaica as I did in Trinidad. Unless you have personally experienced it you really cannot compare the two.

FYI several ships are being pulled from Falmouth over issues there as well I understand. There was a recent thread on that.

Well, if they are C&A members, they are supposed to get a gift. If it doesn't show up, check with your stateroom attendant or the Loyalty Ambassador. I can't remember a cruise where they didn't receive the gift.

 

 

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Agree. I only recall one cruise where DD didn't receive something, we enquired and the gift was soon delivered to our cabin.

I went to Trinidad quite a few years ago. (Over 10) there was issues with security. They had armed police in the main streets to protect the tourists and an elderly gentleman from our ship was attacked and robbed.

It was not the safest of places. Maybe they had too many complaints about the safety of the area where they docked.

Planning a cruise to the Baltic next year and have a few questions for those who have sailed this itinerary. The route is Amsterdam, Skagen, Denmark, Tallinn, St. Petersburg, Finland, Stockholm, Copenhagen, Amsterdam.

 

Is there a bad time to go? The date I am planning is second week in June, but wondering why the price is a bit cheaper than other dates.

 

Does it matter which side of the ship? Currently booked port, but right now there are plenty of cabins.

 

If you had a balcony for this itinerary, did you use it a lot? We book ocean view or balcony depending on itinerary, price, etc. Thinking balcony since it is a longer cruise, but it is port intensive and expect we will be off the ship for long days.

 

Relative to ports, what would be your "not to miss" sights? And on the other hand, are there any sights that you wondered what was all the fuss was about?

 

This is at the top of my bucket list and I am interested in any suggestions from those who have been there!

June tends to run a bit cheaper in Europe as schools tend to break up later for the summer. (End June/July)

I have checked a couple of pages of posts and couldn't see a post relating to this problem.

Friday we were supposed to get the RCI express train to Rome, no stops. Many cruise lines use this train. Up at 6, a quick bite to eat. Meet in the theatre. On the platform for 8.20. Waited for 20 mins for the train, no shade. Got on the train and our carriage had no aircon. Finally the train set off. It then stopped at the next station. After a while we found out that one of the ships' coaches were running late so we would wait for them.

After about an hour a lot of passengers got On, but we didn't set off for Rome! We spent about an hour and a half rolling about a foot an stopping. Finally we got told the train was broken and we would have to go back to Civitavecchia. We got back about 20 past 11.

Everything so far has been unfortunate. What annoyed me was that we then stood around in the Sun waiting for coaches that didn't turn up. No one from RCI there. No water or anything. The tour guide knew nothing so we walked to the main station to get a taxi at 12:10. No taxi so ended up walking through the town back to the shuttle bus. Got back to Indy and went to complain at customer services who said there was a replacement coach tour going at 1.30, it was now ~2.00, nothing else they could do. We didn't want to go to Rome at this point, we were dehydrated, tired and upset, so no great shakes that we'd missed the coach.

The advice I want. We got a full refund of the excursion cost 6 chocolates and a bottle of wine we don't want. I have now been told that if I want to take this further then I need to persue this when I get back home as they won't do anything on board.

Do I wait until I get home to seek some restitution for losing the main trip we wanted and losing a day of our holiday?

Thanks in advance for all the positive comments

Sorry things didn't go to plan. I would be interested to know what happened to the other passengers on your excursion. Did they walk back with you?

How you get treated in terms of compensation may well be affected to by what choices you made voluntarily. If you were the only ones that chose to walk back whilst the others on the excursion waited and managed to get on the coach for a shortened excursion, it may influence what they offer you. I know even a shortened excursion is not ideal. I have been there in St Petersburg our coach was in a crash and we had stops on our excursion, that we really wanted to see, cancelled due to it. As in everyday life things happen, and there are things that are beyond anyone's control. RC and the excursion company do not own the trains. You live in London, can you honestly say you've never had issues with tube/train services being delayed or cancelled? It happens worldwide. Disappointing yes, controllable no.

Whilst I appreciate it is not ideal, if you really want to see Rome just go for a long weekend. A one day excursion from a cruise is not long enough IMO. From London it's a much easier flight than if you were living in USA or Australia and for those long distance passengers it was your only opportunity to get to Europe. I'm just saying put things into perspective. Life gives you lemons, make lemonade. The tour isn't happening so it's about moving forward. When I missed where I wanted to go in St Petersburg I was very disappointed as I know it could be years before I get to go back there. But one day I'm determined I will, and I'm not giving up hope yet!

 

Also, what do the associates who are standing at the entrance to the guest services line actually do? I learned early that in order to not have to bother talking to them that I could just say I was adding money to my cash account and enter the line regardless of what my actual purpose for being at GS was, so for those of you who stop and talk to those associates, what are yall doing?

We are resolving issues that can be handled without actually needing to stand at a desk. If you are wanting to do currency exchanges, deposit money or have an issue with an account yes, generally, you need to go to the desk. But there are a lot of things that can be resolved by these associates.

IMHO feeling like you have to lie to/deliberately bypass them then it is very unfair on them. Especially if you get to the desk and the GS person feels like it is something the Associate in line could have resolved as it makes them look like they can't do their job to their associates.

Twice I have been cruise where the casino was hosting some kind of event (slot tournament, etc.) but had not booked as part of the tournament promo...and both times they permitted both me and my husband (both of us are legacy VIP members) to participate in the tournament without any additional fees. Now, if it were a golf tournament or something held off the ship I doubt we would have been allowed to participate for free but for those events held in the casino, so far they have included us.

Thanks for the info. I will keep that in mind the next time (if there is a next time). We have a few more RC cruises but have started booking other lines and will see how they treat us. Given Celebrity rolled their program out quickly and efficiently with very clear guidelines, I am underwhelmed that the old CR program was discontinued and a new program started so long ago and yet the fact is that they still haven't sorted out what the new program actually is!

Have others received the recent "We're Sending You Packing" offer? They're offering me $250 off a stateroom (insert unenthused "wow" here) plus a "Premium Tumi™ Suitcase" that they claim has a $1,075 value. This is for Allure of the Seas on September 24, 2017.

 

I appreciate them trying to get creative, but getting a new suitcase just doesn't entice me. Maybe Tumi is a fantastic brand; I've not heard of them before.

Not received this offer but have noticed more coming through over the last few months. There was one a while back that I was interested in as already had that sailing booked. Called in and was told if if I wanted the promotion they were offering, even with the "extra" cabin discount that was being offered, the cruise would cost almost an extra $1000. The person I spoke to said it was cheaper to keep what I have and pay $150 pp onboard at the casino desk to participate in the special events. Even though we were already booked they couldn't just tag on the events to our existing booking.

Needless to say we did not pay and we are with you in the less than enthusiatic and certainly not very impressed club!

When we started adding cruising to our vacations way back in 2012....Chops was fantastic!

 

Last few times.....very disappointing. We've also written off Chops.

 

Steak at Giovanni's is much better. Not sure why??

 

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Even way back when, before they changed the menus and Giovanni's was Portofinos, we always found the steak better at Portofinos.

We have found that not only does the quality vary from ship to ship but even within the same cruise. We went to Chops on a recent cruise and were so surprised how much it had improved from previous cruises we booked a second night. Needless to say it was a bait and switch as when we went back a few nights later and even ordered some of the same items we had ordered the first visit, the standard in quality was night and day.

It was unbelievable how it could go from so right to so wrong in the space of a few days:(

Hi

I'm a first time cruiser sailing on the NoS on September 15th I've noticed we arrive back in Southampton at 5am what time will they expect us to leave the ship

Mel

Normally Southampton sailings we try to take our time off, but with no customs /immigration per say it's very quick getting off. We are normally off by 9 at the latest.

I would suspect they would have the ship cleared by around 10

Awesome thank you so much!! I totally should've bought it ;(

 

 

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You are most welcome

DD bought last year. She loves even though they are slightly more expensive. They sell them on shore through time to spa dot com

I agree. We sailed Rccl since the late 80s and my husband practically lives in the casino on sea days and evenings and never have we been comped a suite or any other room. They have a great casino Royal program that offers certificates at the end of the cruise based on the play, drinks, and casino rates. They do offer free cruises for certain dates thruout the year but it's always an outside cabin. So I am not sure how a first time cruiser gets comped a free suite based on his gambling. We never ever got upgraded for free either on Rcl.

Incorrect. It is not always an outside cabin. 2400 points gets free inside, 3600 free outside, 4800 points free balcony. I have not seen advertised the rate for free suite.

I am not sure if you have sailed since your last listed 2015 cruise but Club Royale has changed a lot since then.

Which port?