Classynfun1

Nicely done, OP. Nicely done! :p

The menus is the specialties do not change or rotate like the other dining rooms. For Luminae, it is much like Blu - you can get a standard reservation if you'd like, or you can just show up when you are ready. We have done both (on different ships) and never had a problem!

Enjoy!

We book the Embassy suites (17th street?) I am sure someone will correct me if I am wrong. We book the high floor, it has a name (executive? Extra cost but includes snacks from the vending machines) and request a port view (they have never let us down).

 

You are a short distance from the port but the height means you see your ship from a good distance away coming in...It is great when there are several ships coming in and you are using Marine traffic and binoculars to try and identify yours!

 

I am sure there are other hotels with as good or even better viewing points but 'as a package' the Embassy Suites suits us well with the free breakfast and cocktail hour, shops and restaurants near by and even the boat ride trip just around the corner.

 

As I said we get up at silly o'clock but it is worth it!

PERFECT!!! I am a ton of hilton points and was hoping to use them. This is one of the hotels I was considering and you just sealed the deal for me. THANK YOU so much for confirming for me. :D

The most interesting part of this poll so far, to me, is the number of us that do not have children! Maybe that should be X's target market (DINKs and the like). Whether it's affluence or disposable income, I think most of us here seem to fit that demographic.

I am in my 30's, FTR, and have been cruising X since my late 20's. :D

We always book a room with a port view for the night before any cruise. We follow the ship the day before on Marine traffic and set the alarm slightly earlier than the scheduled arrival time to watch her come into port....We have done this in Fort Lauderdale, Hawaii, Sydney....Yes, we are up at silly o'clock but I am too excited to sleep anyway!

 

I am always bouncing the morning of the cruise! We are always early at the port...as someone else said why waste a minute!

Which hotel do you recommend for this in Ft. Lauderdale?! Thanks!

It definitely is. After I paid in full, the price for my RS went down so I overpaid. I am glad others will get great deals though even if I am a bit envious.

I am really disappointed in X with this.

Thanks for making the one thing that I do to get away from all the politics of today, political. Now that I know which way (party wise) X leans politically, they are making me rethink how I am spending my vacation dollars going forward.

Technically, there should be a charge but I have never seen additional charges when we have hosted parties in suite. If you give your butter notice, not only will he have drinks available, but he will also ensure a spread of snacks and such as well. The butlers really make entertaining fun! :D

As far as tipping, we typically tip extra for the cruise based on how demanding we were! :) Our last cruise was our honeymoon and we did have 2 in suite parties. I think we tipped somewhere between $100 per party and another $150 from cover the rest of that week? Plus whatever the standard tip was. There have been some cruises where we have tipped more, but we asked for more/cruises were longer.

Enjoy!

I do not think X will provide a bus in this B2B for one important reason. The OPs second leg is booked on a full ship charter, not on a cruise through X. Even though both cruises are on the same ship, X has little to do with booking or servicing the Jazz cruise. Bummer this coincides with a port change.

Just to add an anecdote, I booked a SS quite a while ago for my honeymoon this weekend as it was the highest category available when I booked. I have since been watching the cruise like a hawk for a CS/RS/PH to come available. Finally, this Tuesday night, an RS came available around 8pm. On Wednesday morning my TA called to upgrade me (Note: I paid full price to upgrade). He was told they would not be releasing any suites for upsell on this cruise, just Aqua and CC, due to the popularity. If ?I wanted the cabin, I had to pay the available go best rate. I went ahead and booked as soon as I could. Right after I booked and my old SS listed as available, so did a CS. Interesting and although this could be from cancellations, I really wonder if they are purposely pulling some of the inventory out for future upselling.

Add me to the list of X cruisers that is looking outside of X for future vacations. This really pains me, though, as we are suite cruisers and we seem to be in X's most recent target demo (I'm mid-30's). We actually got engaged this summer while on a Millie cruise in Alaska and are getting on the Summit tomorrow in San Juan for our honeymoon. For all the same reasons listed above by others, however, X is just not feeling like "home" to me anymore and that is even when sailing in a suite.

For those that mentioned the ships currently sailing full, remember that most of these bookings were made prior to the recent changes. What will be really telling is the Q3/Q4 sailings given all that has been mentioned here.

I hope you love Tulip Time, Lois!

We got engaged on Herbert Glacier this summer! We took a helicopter from Juneau to the Glacier on Coastal Helicopter and I was more than surprised! After we came back home, I found a note on their website about doing short weddings on the glacier too. I would HIGHLY recommend something like that! :-)

We just got off the Summit and had an aft 11 and wouldn't book it again. It was very loud all day and into the night and lots of soot on the balcony. The movies are loud and played 3 nights. Maybe it was just the crowd on this ship but they were out back until 2 or 3 in the morning screaming. We loved our sweet sixteen balcony...just saying

Gail

Are you referring to the outdoor movies that were going to be added later? I know the screen is already up, but are you saying they are already using it?

Thank you!

Has anyone stayed in cabin 6146 on the Summit? We are booked in that cabin in August.

I have this cabin for our cruise this Saturday (12/12). Let me know if there is info you want that you cannot find online! I typically sail in RS cabins (though have gone AQ twice), so this is my first SS. I hear this is one of the best ones. I'll definitely let you know!

Mine changed too. I thought it was because of the issues with my new married name, but maybe not? The new number listed is VERY different from my actual number (540XXX vs 500xxx) and lists me as Preview as well.

One day their site will be perfect, it's just not there...yet. That is me being optimistic.

We are similar, except DH is finishing his PhD. We are both execs and dress up everyday. I have cruised over 400 days in my lifetime and DH about 120 now. All in all, we are bummed about the change. DH loves to wear one of his tuxes (he owns three), his military formal dress, or suit for formal night and I love to wear formal gowns. We travel every chance we get and make it a point to travel with at least one formal item each. This has served us well and we have definitely had opportunities to do more (especially with hotel concierges booking us into once in a life time experiences knowing we had proper attire).

We are finishing this December cruise and then looking at exploring other options so we can continue to enjoy the formal atmosphere we enjoy for a night or two when we cruise. It will cost us more than X suites have, but we are willing to pay for that.

Good luck to all that will stay with X.

Royal just announced their Royal Genie Program over the summer, for now just on the largest ships. Not sure when it goes into effect (I think May of 2016), but they are starting to add these as their version of Butlers - european trained etc...

 

It will get me to start to seriously consider cruses on RCL.

 

https://secure.royalcaribbean.com/royalsuiteclass

Excellent! Thanks for the info. I love the crown loft suites/loft suite cabins and only missed the butler when on Royal. This will definitely having me looking closer at Royal as well. Thanks, Curt!

X does have butler service and Royal does not. The suite products on either line cannot be compared for many reasons. It's just not apples to apples.

So true!

But it looks like it is still going to be a long time before they get that website replaced. So in the meantime, they continue to patch it.

 

Another poster was complaining about a problem caused by a Captain's Club name not matching, but a Captain's Cliub membership is not even necessary.

All they care about when we check in is that the name on the cruise reservation matches the name on the passport.

 

If the Captain's Club membership causes a problem, the agent can just remove the Captain's Club number from the reservation.

 

My concern at check-in is with getting on the ship, not with collecting Captain's Club points,

especially at a time when they are having problems with the check in procedure.

 

As long as I have proof that I took the cruise, I would rather wait and deal with any Captain's Club issues later, or possibly even ask if the Captain's Club hostess on the ship can take care of the matter.

 

We have found them to be very helpful when it comes to resolving any problem involving Captain's Club membership.

 

 

Get this? They cannot remove the Captain's Club number from a reservation AFTER an error has occurred without a ticket to IT to do so. No way do I trust that!

All in all, I hugely regret changing my name on my passport and wish I had waited until after this cruise was over. When I say I have spent about 6 hours dealing with it and my assistant has spent almost as much time, I'm not exaggerating. If any other newlyweds think about this, AT LEAST remove your captain's club number from your reservation first, then have your name updated on your reservation with paperwork. After that is confirmed, do the same with Captain's Club. After you can log into Captain's Club and see your new name, THEN link your CC# to the cruise. Or, just don't change your name until after the honeymoon.

The issue however arises when you have a Captain's Club Number which info does not match the name of the passenger on the reservation.

 

So yes change reservation is simple, but if you then link Captain's club account to it and it has old name still, it won't let you get captains club points or note status on the reservation, so you have to then fax and send paperwork to captains club to get that resolved in order for the verification step in Check-In to allow the number on the reservation.

 

I had issue where TA booked me as Curt, but my Captain;s club was CURTIS, and i wouldn't link. SO my TA changes reservation to CURTIS< and all was good to go. But had I wanted to keep CURT, then I would have has to fax proof of name change to captains club to have them update the record there.

This, exactly. Sorry you have been there too.

This "problem" comes up frequently when women get married and change their name after booking a cruise, but there is no need for it to be a problem at all if you simply use whichever name is on your passport.

 

If they are not the same, just change the name on your cruise reservation so that it matches your passport name exactly.

That is quick and easy to do and it avoids any hassles or aggravation.

 

When you check in for your cruise, nobody cares whether or not you are married, only that the name on your cruise reservation matches the name on the passport you present.

 

Thank you for your insight. I do appreciate it.

Celebrity/my TA both say that my cruise is listed under my new name, which matches my passport. However, in the online computer system, everything is screwed up as the captains club stuff still shows my old last name so I just get error message when I try to review my reservations/cruises, look up shore excursions, check out dates in each both, upgrade beverage packages, etc. It is mostly frustrating because. Have a TA, so when I call X to do any of these things they see errors, then figure it out and refer me back to my TA. Then my TA calls, they ask for confirmation paperwork again, rinse and repeat. For this cruise, I will just deal with adding these things when the cruise starts. I give up going round and around and around.

If any of you want to play a really fun game, get married AFTER booking your cruise and then change your legal name! I can't begin to tell you about all the fun that comes with that (Captain's Club info is different that the reservation info is different than the online log in). It's been so much fun that I have completely given up on it at all.

Your fiance would not have had to go to the Gastropub under the current situation. He need only have told the barman his preference in beer and they would have not only put the beers behind the bar but recognised him as he came in, greeted him by name and had his favourite beer in front of him within a minute of him getting comfortable. It is exactly that level of service that people were loving and rebooking for, but sadly will no longer be possible with so many additional people. With the numbers now proposed (unless its an off peak half empty cruise) it will be impossible to provide waiter service at peak times or even see a guest arrive as people will be three deep at the bar. Even 50% of the potential pax would overwhelm the less than 40 seats (most of which weigh a ton by the way and are really difficult to move) that exist in an S class Michaels.

The proof of the pudding will of course be in the eating and thankfully it will be in operation for a few months before we have to pay our balance so we will be able to judge if Micheals Club still worth anything as a part of the Suites experience and whether it is worth completing our booking.

This is true and 100% our experience except it was scotch. The Michael's Club concierge actually went and pulled all 4 remaining bottles of my DH's favorite scotch and kept 3 in Michael's and sent one to our stateroom. As you can imagine, DH tipped big for that. I had forgotten about the cruise until you reminded me...

It's going to depend on when you want those drinks. Michael's is awesome, as are the staff, but it's not an on demand 24/7 place when it comes to beverages. We always buy a package for both of us along with our Michael's access.

As far as disembarkation goes, on our last cruise, several of us went to Michael's to say good bye and then self debarked during self assist debarkation. The concierge told us we didn't need to do that but we all had plans for the day. I bet you see an increase of that and it not be a problem.