exm

7 hours ago, moposh said:

I have the BOA Royal Caribbean CC where I earn points towards free cruises.  I have gotten three, well, two, with one upcoming free cruises for two people.  It's great.  I use the cc for basically all my purchases.  

you can do much better with another credit card. Basically you get 2% CB on RC and 1% everywhere else with this CC. If you look at my post above you can get 3% CB on travel including RC and 1.5% on other purchases. Plus you will get a bunch of other perks, too. Take a look.

3 minutes ago, The Scurvy Pirate said:

I wonder which caribbean ports still require testing.  I am going to the ABC's in October and they are no longer requiring a negative test...

Bermuda is technically not the carribean though (not trying to be a smart ass 😉 )

29 minutes ago, dianajo67 said:

I’m hesitant to answer about the airport lounges as my hubby is the EXPERT and he is out of town.  We’ve used the reserve card for lounge access for both of us in the past, but terms and conditions do change over time.  I’m having a very vague memory of my hubby saying that the terms were changing and guests would no longer be allowed in the lounge with the reserve card.  Please don’t hold me to this as we have so many cards with lounge access that I could be mixing up cards.  I’m great educating folks on the macro benefits of playing the points game, but defer to my hobbyist hubby for the latest deals.  I excel at “spending” the points!!

 

On another note…we use our Freedom Unlimited as our everyday card if we don’t have a card with a great incentive.  Use it for groceries, gas etc as the 1.5% is not terrible….and I can move those point to my Reserve card when I redeem them.  Use the Reserve for dining out as it’s always 3 percent!  The annual fee is not a big deal as you get a $300 credit as soon spend $X ($300-500 on travel —can’t remember exactly as we have zero problem doing this within a year…usually first month!). More than make up the rest with the 50% increase in value of points when purchasing hotels.

 

Hubby is very enthusiastic at playing the points game.  I was VERY cautious getting involved and resisted for several YEARS.  The results have convinced me it’s worth it!  Hubby is very generous with his expertise and has helped many of our neighbors and his coworkers get set up with the right cards etc based on their individual circumstances.  We don’t push it on anyone and really only get into it with family/friends who express interest. 

We have a similar setup. I have the following credit cards:

- Sapphire Reserve for travel, including cruises

- Amex Gold for restaurant and grocery stores

- Delta Gold for free checked bags on Delta

- Freedom unlimited for everything else

This gives me the following:

- I can move points between the Chase cards and use the Reserve to book flights (which I most of the time use my points for). Usually I book on Delta, and:

- The Delta Gold gives me free checked bags among other perks.

- The Amex Gold has 4% cash back on above categories, and I can transfer those points to Delta. Sometimes I use them for upgrades, or I book tickets directly.

- The Reserve gives me airport lounge access

- Amex also has GREAT offers, sometimes on RC

How about annual fees?

- Reserve: $550, offset by $300 travel credit, $60 doordash. So $190 "net" for lounge access and 1.5 point conversion (which is huge!) and 3% CB on travel

- Delta (Amex) Gold: $99. I have a family of 5, so one flight a year with bags easily nullifies the fee

- Amex Gold: $250. However, with $120 per year in dining credits and $120 per year in Uber Cash (can be used for Uber and Uber Eats), it's $10 in essence.

I also get Uber Eats Pass, Grubhub+, Lyft Pink memberships with all of this.

On 7/20/2022 at 12:41 PM, firefly333 said:

OP you are obviously in a higher spending bracket than me. I just use my rcl card to pay down balance or obc to spend in planner. I also had a sw card, but dont like flying from love field or I'd have kept it. I used to fly a lot more pre covid and sw card is good., 

 

My issue with using it to completely pay for a cruise, what if the price drops. Hard to get price drops when you used pts. ..or seemed to me.

Please look into other travel cards. The RCL card is terrible.

3 minutes ago, Ourusualbeach said:

What VV and Azamara do is really irrelevant to what Royal, Carnival and NCL do as it's a small and totally different market.  It's the big three that will have to stay stay together or risk losing market share.  Once one of those three announce their plan the other 2 will most likely follow fairly quickly.

I am guessing the following changes:

- Pre-cruise testing optional but recommended for everyone except non-vaccinated (at this point, children under 12)

- Sign a waiver prior to boarding that you don't have any Covid symptoms and/or self-tested

They might not drop the vaccine mandate yet, but if they do, they'll probably required testing for those people (fine by me).

It's amazing how all 3 cruise stocks move hand-in-hand. I guess WS assumes that RCL and NCL follows CCL?

7 minutes ago, cruisingator2 said:

Virgin moves quickly…..Testing for U.S cruises ends July 27th. 
 

https://www.cruiseindustrynews.com/cruise-news/27889-virgin-voyages-eliminates-pre-embarkation-covid-19-testing-for-cruises.html

Looks like testing will go. Maybe they'll leave it in place for unnvaccinated passenger (at this point, that's childeren under 12).

11 hours ago, Anton said:

Seems the CDC quietly issued the new guidance in the past couple hours. https://www.cdc.gov/quarantine/cruise/covid-19-cruise-ship-guidance.html

 

It looks like pretty much the same policies as before but instead of "must" they replaced all text with "should consider".

I'm curious how RC will handle this one.

10 minutes ago, Rusty_lock said:

BREAKING!!: Azamara just dropped testing effective July 25

 

which cruise line is next

 

https://www.azamara.com/booked-guests/before-you-board/explore-well-at-sea

Royal!?!

54 minutes ago, Baron Barracuda said:

Endeavor is a 200 passenger glorified yacht.  Can't expect it to have any impact on RCL's financials.  If CDC news means no more testing that will help however the airline mess makes people less willing to travel.  European airports are an absolute disaster.  Got back from Munich Saturday and still waiting for Lufthansa to locate our four bags.

A glorified yacht with crazy prices. I do believe it will impact Royal's finances. Maybe not enough to move the stock pricing, but still.

I do believe we have found a bottom for the stock around $32, I won't be surprised if we test this bottom again but stay patient is key.

38 minutes ago, notscb said:

You're conveniently moving the goalposts. The data cited is straight from the source.

I am? You (and the CDC) are. The Delta data is irrelevant for Omicron. It's a totally different situation.

Cruise lines need to simply drop all testing and mandates with the caveat that any medical Covid emergencies on-board are at your own expense (isn't that the case already?).

Someone here mentioned an 80 year old: well, the 80 year old has to take responsibility for his actions: is he vaccinated/recovered? Health problems? Should he go on a cruise?

17 minutes ago, notscb said:

The data indicates you're wrong about this.

 

 

That link has April 2021 data in it. That was the Delta strain: can't compare that with the Omicron variants.

On 7/17/2022 at 2:33 PM, johnjen said:

Check-in - GREAT!! We were onboard by 1015am. Suite wasn't ready until 1pm but we snuck through 15 mins early. It was ready and our cabin attendant was a great guy who really took care of us. Always ice in the bucket. Always a clean stateroom. I felt bad for him having to take care of cluttered rooms. We never leave ANYTHING out. This helps the attendants get their work done and ours did everything right. Well deserving of a couple of extra $20's on top of our pre-paid gratuities.

Concierge - We had three. The first one was only via email contact. The next two were outstanding. Very good with communication and any needs were met promptly.

Suite lounge service - Outstanding. Sofyan. We will miss you greatly. Such a good man and dedicated to the service. He headed back home to Indonesia for a break the day we pulled back in.

Dining - Overall, a C. And I am being generous. Like a 9th grade teacher grading on a bell curve.

Giovanni's - With the understanding they were short staffed, we were ready for delays. Not for 2.5 hours of dining though. Food was good. The Vongole was a bit bland; lacked color. It was much better on other ships. Steak was decent. I'd give Giovanni's a C. Again, generous on grading.

Chops - OUTSTANDING. Filets were amazing. Wait staff, same. Gruyere tater tots? WOW! Dessert, I think Jen had the chocolate cake. She loved it. I skipped out on dessert. Chops ended up being the place for dinner. An A is well deserved.

MDR - Some comments on noted dishes..
* The NY Strip steak looked like a lung. Lacked flavor, color. and presentation. Literally, it was GRAY.
* Beef Bourguinon, however, was very tasty!
* Seafood fry, it lacked appeal, appearance, and taste. It looked as if someone found some bits of seafood from the floor and placed them randomly on top of...mashed potatoes.
* Charcuterie board - Mortadella and a piece of random lettuce - an olive....and brown prosciutto, which USED to be healthy pink - told me a sad story about that board. It also told me that food preparation was appalling and done in haste. That's due to lack of staff. And, a lack of CARING.

* Chicken Parm - Bland. Lacked tomato sauce (except for the small dry spot). Chicken was thick. No taste to it.
*Scallops served in an escargot dish - greasy, TINY....I think they were chunks of a single scallop floating in butter and garlic. Not good at all.

The rest of the dishes were okay at most, but they needed more flavor. Blandness throughout, but overall I'd give the MDR a C-. Quantity per serving has definitely been cut back, but I prefer that; some, however, do not....this is the cruise line, again, trying to save money at the cost of the customer.

Table staff were outstanding, hard working and friendly. That Head Waiter we had, she needs work on manners while we were talking. Besides walking up and interrupting the table discussion, what does the HW actually DO? And, why do they even deserve to be part of the gratuity distribution? Royal needs to simply ditch that position.

Izumi's - Took me 25 mins to get the Sapporo I ordered once seated. Dinner arrived nearly an hour later. Sushi had a sauce all through it. Ketchup with mayo stirred in?? I forget the name of the roll, it was a "chef's specialty" one. Had the decorative hair all over it. Wasn't impressed. C- grade.

Windjammer - we literally ate there 2 times for breakfast, I can't say much, except it's a place loaded with very hangry people wanting to cut in line or literally bump into me while trying to find a seat with a bowl of cheerios and milk. The service staff (given the situation) were doing their absolute BEST in trying to serve drinks or wipe off the tables. There were far too many people in it.

Venues - The bars, casino, nicely laid out, good experiences in there playing trivia, getting a drink, etc. Typical RCL venues that may need updating.

Entertainment - Campy. Terrible. This comes from a musician in a rock band. ROYAL - Where are the Rock & Roll bands?? One of the bands called Blaze were very good; the Latin band (I forgot their name) they too, did a fine job, I enjoyed hearing them all over the ship, no matter where they played at. It must be the acoustics! A juggler though? Come on. We passed that up. Get us a decent comedy act instead. Games and contests were pretty cool. Had a great time at one of them. I think I might've been drinking too much, haha.

Cruise Director - Campy announcements, but she was all over the place doing her job. Very involved. 

Condition of the ship - Absolutely terrible. This comes from a 20 year Navy veteran. The appearance of our balcony showed multitudes of rust. The wooden rails were badly needing sanding and coating. All of the exterior windows on Adventure were.....filthy with salt. I should've taken pics of the decay. Adventure badly needs to be drydocked. They were painting over rust instead of treating it properly using needle guns and some good grinding and priming. This is the cost of a cruise line trying to save money and cut corners.

By the 7th day we were ready to get back home!

We have rebooked on Anthem for June 2023 on a Canaries cruise out of Southampton. We turn Diamond. Is it worthwhile that we use it to experience Diamond, or head off to another cruise line? These are the questions on our minds today.

We sailed Adventure out of Nassau in August and it wasn't that bad. Sure, Anthem is newer and Adventure showes its age but I don't agree with your ship condition statement.

1 minute ago, Jt4428 said:

Do you usually upload a page from a statement that shows your name and RCL with 100 shares and redact the other information on the statement?

 

Yes!

I have 2:

- NCL Pride of America Hawaii 6/3/06, which was my honeymoon. Fantastic way to see 4 Hawaiian islands.

- Crown Odyssey Australia 1/3/03, a 21 day cruise from Sydney along the Australian coast to Singapore. Absolutely fantastic cruise.

It's definitely more European, but I don't mind. I'll take that over the Carnival crowd any time. Give it a shot.

I don't think boosters will ever be required. No worries.

19 hours ago, flamingos said:

Some countries require a vaccine within 270 days.

most if not all dropped that requirement

2 minutes ago, nelblu said:

I applied online for 2 cruises, one in  September and the other in December.  Applied on Wednesday and got e-mail on Saturday July 7th telling that the 2 X $100 in OBC have been applied to my account.

 

Impressed with the efficiency.

I assume you had to submit a brokerage statement?

40 minutes ago, DirtyDawg said:

How much do you have tied up in deposits with this company for the 10 cruises? If I'm not mistaken if this thing goes Chapter 11 customer deposits are just another unsecured creditor ranking behind the secured creditors.  Any U.S. consumer law lawyers out their want to chime in. 

You really think chapter 11 is in their future? If so, you think they would go down the route to void customer deposits? That would be an instant kill for the company. 

49 minutes ago, dltaeg said:

Any idea where is the best place to keep an eye out for any announcements?

We are sailing on Odyssey from Rome on the 4th of Aug so I'm really hoping the testing will be dropped before we sail.  

Edit: Hmm never mind. I've just logged in and this popped up so looks like we'll still need to test 😭

I posted above a screenshot for my Rome 8/14 Odyssey sailing that did NOT have this testing. However, I just checked and the testing section is back. I guess someone in IT made a mistake (maybe release the update too early?). Curious if someone can check Wonder Barca sailings.

38 minutes ago, John&LaLa said:

Bought 100 shates on Thursday @ $35 per share. Allready have OBC applied to 10 future cruises. Instant $1000 dividend. 😇

How do you applied this for 10 cruises in the future? I was under the impression you can only apply this a few weeks prior to cruising?

2 minutes ago, yogimax said:

Beware statements like this.

Easily double means a price around $60-$65. You don't think that's a possibility?

11 hours ago, Wilson said:

Ok, I read 90 pages and still don't know if I should buy or not. LoL

Really interesting looking back at some of the old comments.

When Covid hit and all cruise lines were shutdown, RCL was hovering around $22. When everything re-opened and cruising restarted, RCL hit $80. All-time high is around $120 or so. Right now it's trading around $32. They have a ton of debt, but with all ships sailing they should be in a good position to pay off the debt relatively quickly.

In my opinion RCL will stay between the $30-$40 bandwith this year until we know if inflation levels off. Next year I expect RCL to easily double. Anyway, my personal take.