cruiselover10

We have a time share which gives us free parking for the time we are there.  Thanks for the info.

21 hours ago, capriccio said:

On a related topic - where are you staying during that week?  Just a warning - hotels in large cities/tourist areas often charge for parking (over $40 a night in some beachfront hotels in Miami) and an obligatory 'resort fee' per room added to the quoted hotel charge.  Make sure you know your total nightly charge before reserving a hotel room!

We have a time share which gives us free parking for the time we are there.  Thanks for the info.

Has anyone booked a car either before the cruise or after the cruise.  We will be sailing (hopefully) January 2022 out of Ft. Lauderdale on the Symphony of the Seas.  We will stay a week after the cruise and looking for a recommendation for renting a car for the week we are there.  We do not want to spend $500 and we also don’t want to be hit with all kinds of hidden fees.  Thanks in advance for your help.

For those that stayed at the Hyatt Place San Juan - City Center , how was it?   We are staying there in April after we get off the Freedom.  Did you Uber or taxi to it from the ship.  Is there things in the area to walk to?  

We were on the Freedom in 2006 and we had three balcony cabins and all of the petitions were open, which was great so that we had a much bigger balcony for the six of us to sit out and have drinks and appetizers.  Hoping Freedom will allow the petition to be opened for our April cruise.

We have booked balconies since 2000, we have been on over ten RCCL cruises, two Celebrity, several Princess and a couple of Norwegian and have always had the balconies opened. Out of our 23 cruises this was the first time we were told they couldn’t do it.

We just got off a four day cruise on the Mariner. We travel with friends and asked the room steward to open the petition between the two balconys. He told us that he couldn’t and the Mariner has a new manager who is not allowing this. I asked if it was just the Mariner or all of the fleet, he wasn’t sure. Has anyone asked to have the balcony’s opened recently?

Thank you for your excellent review. We will be on the Mariner on Monday, in about 52 hours but who is counting. We were last on the Mariner ten years ago so we are looking forward to all of the changes.

We have prebooked while on board for our last five cruises. Our cruise broker gets the booking so you usually end up with a double OBC, one from RCCL and one from your cruise broker or TA. For booking while OBC, we have gotten the lowest price offered for our cruises. I think the first two times we booked while on board, we didn’t book a definite date and chose a cruise later, the others we picked a cruise and booked it at that time. The last girl we had was so sweet, she also informed us if we booked a junior suite we would get double loyalty points for our cruise, which no one else has ever told us that so not sure if we would have found that out without sitting with her. Only advice I have if you are going to do it, is do it at the beginning of the cruise, if you wait til the end you won’t get an appointment. On the Allure this past April, if you prebooked in the first three days you got a higher OBC.

For anyone who has recently been on the Mariner after the refurbishment, did they switch from the sign and sail cards or did they upgrade to the bands (like the Disney bands) that are used for door keys and purchases like they have on the Harmony. :cool:

Is there any way to move up a level with RCCL. We are one day short of moving to Diamond. We just got came off the Allure giving us 79 points, you need 80 to be Diamond. We have booked our next cruise but we will not get the one day until after our cruise is complete and they will not move you up after we hit the 80 points while on board. We have also been on Celebrity but they tell us that they do not add those points to our RCCL points.

What is your favorite drink to order on RCCL? We were on the Norwegian Escape and thanks to cruise critic, we were given all kinds of suggestions of drinks we had never heard of. Hoping to compile a list for our upcoming Allure cruise. Thanks in advance.:cool:

How did you only order the drink package for one? Ive called a few times and have been told you cannot do that.

We will be staying at Embassy Suites Miami for our cruise in April. We know there is no where to walk to but wondering if there is a place we can Uber to where we can purchase our wine to bring aboard. Embassy Suites provides a free shuttle to the Dolphin Mall but it doesn’t look like there is anywhere to purchase wine there, unless it is not listed. Thanks in advance for your assistance.:)

We will be going on the Allure for the third time in April. The Allure is my favorite ship. We have been on the Oasis and the Harmony. I have one question about the Allure, do they have the WOW bands. We had them on the Harmony and loved the convenience of not having to carry our sign and sail cards with us all over the ship and to get in to our cabin. I have searched the boards but I have not seen a definite answer. Thanks in advance.

Does anyone know the cost from POM to Fll hotels? We will be 4 adults with 4 pieces of luggage. I am assuming we will need the XL.

We stayed there this past March. Hotel is beautiful and staff is great. It is a perfect location on the Broadwalk. We booked our reservation thru booking.com which had the best price. We would stay here again if we are cruising out the area. I highly recommend it.

We will be on the Harmony of the Seas in March. Do you book the BOGO before you board or once you are on board? We were on Oasis this past March and I don't remember that being offered. Is this something new and what does it cost for this deal? Thank you in advance

We did this in March. We flew into Ft. Lauderdale because the cost of the airfare was almost half than flying into Miami. We used JR Shuttles, $69 each way. There were four adults and 4 pieces of luggage and a couple of carry ons. The driver was waiting for us when we collected our baggage and brought us right to the hotel in Miami. The day we left the ship he again was waiting for us and brought us to our hotel in Ft. Lauderdale. I would definitely use them again. His name was Gilardo, he was very friendly and had lots of info about the areas for us.:)

Thanks for the info. We usually cruise in March but this year the hotel rates seem to be so much higher than in the past and this year we are cruising earlier than usual. We usually run into the high prices closer to spring break.

We will be getting off the Oasis on March 5, 2016 and are looking for a hotel to stay a couple of nights after the cruise. Any suggestions on hotels that will not run us $500 a night. Hate to pay more for two nights in a hotel than the cruise is going to cost us for the week. We are all set for before the cruise. I have tried all the hotel search links. Otel.com had a great facebook discount but when you say to process the reservation, the page goes away and you cannot get back onto the reservation and they do not have a number where you can call them. Does anyone know of the link for the winning bids on Hotwire or Priceline? :)

I should have asked this in my post that I just posted. Does this mean that RCCL is getting rid of the Viking Crown lounge throughout their fleet. That was always their signature lounge.

Thank you for all the info. Does that mean they took away the secret balconies at the end some of the decks? That's too bad if they did that because it was a perfect place to watch the dive show. We had so much fun at Rita's so glad to here they have Sabor. :)

Just wondering if anyone has been on the Oasis since it was refurbished a couple of months ago. What changes did they make to the ship? We have been on the Allure twice but would like to try the Oasis next. Have they added a new dining options? Rita's Cantina is on Allure, what is on Oasis? Any info would be very helpful in our planning for our 2016 cruise. Our next cruise is on the Celebrity Reflection in 7 weeks and looking forward to getting away from this freezing, snowy New England weather, thanks.

Has anyone stayed at Il Lugano in Ft. Lauderdale? It seems like prices for hotels in Ft Lauderdale have skyrocketed. We cannot believe the prices we are seeing for the end of March 2015. If you have stayed there, are there places to walk to? The hotels offers a shuttle up to 3 miles but in case we want to walk we want to have somewhere to walk to. Thanks.