The Scurvy Pirate

My only suggestion would be to purchase the at the lower price and then cancel the old one. I have seen people who cancelled the old one (at a decent price) and then went to buy at the lower price and then got the dreaded "no longer available" and it was now even higher than the original purchase. Not surprisingly, when they called RCI there was nothing RCI could do because the system was only showing the newest "higher" price. Of course, with the constant sales (hoping the diamond/diamond+ 35% off deluxe comes back) you could probably just wait a couple of days and the sale will be back.

I was denied when I had a "free" club royale cruise that you sometimes get from time to time ...

I've gotten them 60, 45 and 30 days out. If you go to the royal-up page and type in the name and reservation number it will either show it as open for bidding, or to come back 30 days prior to your cruise date.

Has anyone ever called to get the deluxe and refreshment package and then tried to cancel the refreshment through the planner once it appeared in your order history?

We ate there on our early February 2024 cruise on Radiance. We walked in for our 7:45 reservation and were one of only 3 couples in the restaurant. We were the last to leave around 9:00. Food was really good, but too much. Only ate about half of what was served. Would do it again.

I put this magnet on our door so we know which room is ours. The room attendant is always leery on that first visit...

Just remember, at the beach club, if you are sitting on the beach in a lounger, there is attached to the lounger a little green flag you can put up and someone will quickly come check on you and take a drink order, which is great if you have the deluxe beverage package. I have a cruise coming up in April where two months ago the MSRP for CCBC was $249. A couple of weeks ago it dropped to $139 with a sale price of $110.99. We hadn't been to Hideaway yet so are going to try that this trip (on sale for $30.99).

Having watched enough shoot 'em up movies and read reports of kidnapping in many areas of the caribbean, I could understand why the jet skis might be cancelled, as people are out in the middle of the open water (not behind a fenced in area) and a some gang members in a faster boat try to corral the jet ski riders as hostages. Of course, that could happen any day, but with the heightened activities in Haiti, I could see not taking the chance.

Load the sea pass card in your apple wallet. It will show the cabin number as the last set of numbers under the bar code. I did ask about possibly paying for the upgrade and they said I could but that I would lose the GTY credits. Since it is such a short cruise (4 nights) I thought the credits made more sense to me than paying for a JS upgrade. Basically, they are paying me to go on the cruise.....

First time I had it offered as well. The flyer offered an ocean view balcony where I could pick my room. When I called about four months ago to book they said they would give me several hundreds of dollars as casino credit if I booked a guaranty. Seemed like a no brainer. Hopefully, there won't be that much noise from the hot tub as it seems to be semi-enclosed with windows...

With Club Royale I received a “free” cruise on the Allure. As part of the offer, they gave me additional casino credits if I booked a guaranteed ocean view balcony. The cruise is about 30 days out and the room has not been formally assigned. I can see the room number with the apple wallet trick. I have a connecting room on deck 14 right under the hot tub on deck 15. I am not sure I want to be under the hot tub with possible related noise while sitting on the balcony. Will they let me switch rooms before it is formally assigned? If I switch rooms (and move to an non-connected ocean view balcony), will they remove the casino credit?

So, in summary, it appears that the safer course is if you have prepaid them you need to cancel before you get on the ship. It is unclear whether it is refunded as an OBC or to the original payment type (i.e. credit card) (possibly dependent on how far out you cancel them?). If you have not prepaid them, and they are charged daily to your on-board account, then you can go to guest services to have the gratuity removed/cancelled. To the extent they were already paid, they would be refunded as an OBC.

impatiently waiting.... thank you!

Any word on the 2025 long caribbean deployment? The brochure seemed to indicate it should have been posted last week, but I am still not seeing anything. Was thinking Freedom may be a part of that, but RCI is still showing no sailings after April 2025 for Freedom.

What's funny/scary is someone took the time to read the comment, and then double check a cruise date through a cruise search to then come back and post to try to prove another person wrong about their own booking that had already been booked...🙄