smplybcause

6 hours ago, Jezo said:

 

But then I wont get my money's worth!

 

How many drinks a day would you need to have a day to come out ahead if you got the premium drink package?  I dont think I could keep up and be conscious for my whole trip.  I want to try to stick to what is included in the base price of the trip and not have too many up charge drinks.

As some else said, unless you're a strictly beer drinker the break even point is 5-6 alcoholic drinks depending on the price you get. But that changes if you get some non alcoholic stuff too. I get at least 2-3 bottles of water a day which "equal" one alcoholic drink price wise. 2-3 sodas/juices would also "equal" the price. A specialty coffee or smoothie also helps. 

30 minutes ago, lx200gps said:

Super, thanks. From other threads here on CC about the package, it's looking like a minimum of 5 drinks per person per day is required (at the going package price of $66/pp/day) to make it worth buying, and my wife won't come close to that.  IF we can get it substantially cheaper (I've seen people say they got it as low as $50) then it might make sense for us. I'd be happy to drink a little extra to make up for her shortfall ;o)

So if you call they do let you buy one deluxe and one refreshment package. You'll have to do the math if it works out for you. The refreshment package doesn't really save you anything when you buy an alcoholic drink (ie a shot of rum to add to your virgin pina colada is either the same price or maybe $1 cheaper than just ordering a Pina colada) so you'll have to figure out how many drinks your wife might drink. 

So like for my cruise the difference between deluxe and refreshment is 48. So if wife would drink 4 or more alcoholic drinks then doing this doesn't save you money. But if she'd only drink 1 or 2 then you'd save a bit of money. 

14 minutes ago, jimmcg29 said:

What is the normal pre-cruise price per day?

Hard to say. It seems like the normal price has increased significantly in the last few months. I'm not sure I've seen anyone post this year about a current price under $60, but I could have missed it. 

My cruise for the last few months has had the normal sale price of $70 with the good sale hitting $66. I keep hoping it'll go lower but haven't seen it. 

$66 might be the best you'll get. I have a cruise in April and $66 is the best I've seen for mine for months. If you see better you can always cancel and rebook. 

5 hours ago, JupiterTwo said:

I know I'm late to this thread (the article is from June 2021), but I'd like to know why the Alaska Tourism Restoration Act is not unconstitutional.

 

According to Article I Section 9 Clause 6:

• No Preference shall be given by any Regulation of Commerce or Revenue to the Ports of one State over those of another; nor shall Vessels bound to, or from, one State, be obliged to enter, clear, or pay Duties in another.

By singling out Washington and Alaska, the other states are being denied the same exceptions. What about California? Why can't a cruise from Los Angeles or San Francisco stop at Seattle before continuing to Anchorage? Why can't a cruise from Port of Canaveral stop at Key West before continuing to the Bahamas?

 

This bill is giving a preference to Washington and Alaska, which would be unconstitutional.

 

Honestly I think those versed in all aspects wouldn't disagree that the law would fail in multiple ways if challenged. It wasn't challenged due to its temporary nature and covid relief. 

If attempted to do this again considering Canada IS giving ships a way to stop I would guess it would be challenged. But that's just a layman's guess. 

What do you mean by issue with false negative? 

No one has released info on how many test positive at the port. Plus it doesn't really matter how many tested positive before, only your personal risk. If you're that worried the family should just go on lock down for the week or so before the cruise. 

2 hours ago, topnole said:

Central Park is a fabulous space that is enjoyed by many regardless of the pay restaurants. Central Park cafe is complimentary and we eat there frequently.  The rising tide bar is one of a kind which leads to the promenade which is demonstrably bigger on oasis with natural lighting.  Natural lighting makes a big difference.  

 

Aqua theater is no small thing in terms of a difference and there are plenty of events there all week (Day shows, movies, trivia, etc).  Johnny Rockets (free for breakfast) and Sabor are both great places.  The dog house is complimentary.  They do great activities for the kids on the boardwalk during the week.  The carousel is also no small thing when you have young kids.  A zip line runs across the boardwalk all day.  
 

The look, feel, and features of these two ships are incredibly different.  Freedom class is very similar, but Oasis has no comparison.  I’ve never heard anyone suggest these ships are even close to similar.  
 

 

I mean if you list all the things both ships have I don't see how you can say they aren't similar. Exactly the same no, but they have a lot of similarities. 

20 hours ago, topnole said:

Well.  To me oasis class is vastly different than Mariner.  You say Central Park and the Boardwalk walk as if they aren’t much.  Those two areas are massive, one with an outdoor theater, carousel, restaurants, and the other lots of restaurants.  Not to mention the width of Oasis is so massive in comparison to all ships below in size.  
 

 Yes, Mariner has a promenade.  But it is extremely small compared to Oasis.  Haven’t been on Brilliance but they all have some version of an indoor area such as the Centrum.  So Mariner is missing a Centrum, but has the promenade as its gathering area.  
 

Ok central park has chops and Giovanni - Mariner has chops and Jamie's just somewhere else on the ship. 

Besides the one night watching the aquatheater I didn't spend much time on boardwalk. Besides the carousel everything else has a charge and I'm not a kid so the carousel isn't a draw. 

I didn't say they were the same, just that the differences aren't as stark as with the other smaller ships. Decks 6 & 8 are almost entirely extra charge decks. Which those that throw a lot of money around on the ship will miss, but those that don't it's not as much of a loss. 

8 hours ago, topnole said:

85k ton difference between oasis and Mariner.   50k ton difference between Mariner and Brilliance. 

And I'm not talking about tons. I'm talking about amenities on the ship. Brilliance doesn't have slides - Oasis and Mariner do. The other two have a flowrider while brilliance doesn't. They also have a promenade while brilliance doesn't. Both have an ice skating rink while... so you get the pattern?

The big difference between Oasis and Mariner is deck 6 & 8. Plus a crap ton of rooms and a more space in the venues they both have. It's a difference but besides the aquatheater deck 6 & 8 mostly just have space and shopping. 

6 hours ago, time4u2go said:

Slightly smaller?  Oasis is about 225,000 tons.  Mariner is 140,000 tons.

Meh my last royal ship was brilliance... so to me that's a lot smaller. At least comparing the public spaces. 

Mariner is and older ship, but was recently amped. It's pretty much a slightly smaller Oasis class. It's basically only missing boardwalk and central Park. 

7 hours ago, Oceansaway17 said:

Ok so if RCI knows this group likes to charter and they do well, then do not post that cruise for other to book and thereby having to cancel.  I mean insist these large repeats lock in a year in advance or so just like bus tours have to block off hotel rooms.

 

My only beef is surprising charters that pop up after a ship has been on sale for a while and then having to push everyone aside to accommodate the charter.  I understand charters are good for business, they should be handled better in the first place.

BTW whatever demographics we are talking about, everyone deserves to cruise and have the reservation handled properly by the cruise line.

You do realize royal puts out its itinerary more than a year in advance right? Even if they moved the deadline to a year out (they won't) Royal is already selling cruises through April 2024. If the year cut off is April 2023 the cruise will would have been sold for well over a year before the deadline you suggest. It won't stop royal from selling that cruise for the year plus before your year deadline. 

10 hours ago, ChC said:

 

We are talking about a particular demographic group that has no children's tuitions fees, saving for colleges, or even mortgage in most cases. You can't use the same simple universal logic to apply to speciality groups like RSVP or Atlantis. And for many of the charter's customer (possibly around 60-75%), their only cruise for the year is the charter. Repeating customers are the key and many cabins allocations got sold before the current charter cruise complete. It is a big business. The margin for the charter is very high, not to mention they may take a healthy cut for onboard sales during the charter. If you see their financial performance, you will rush into the business if you can identify an opportunity. 

1) I never said it wasn't profitable

2) Why would you assume those on an LGBT cruise wouldn't have children or a mortgage? That's a rather ignorant assumption

Honestly from the cruise I have booked and what I've seen on here anything under $60 is starting to look like what's now considered a deal. My April hasn't been under 60 in well I can't remember and I didn't get it at that price. 

It's often cheaper to get two - the cabins that hold 4 can get expensive on some sailings. Plus - 4 adults and one bathroom? Ugh. No thanks. 

The year in advance doesn't always work well with charter customers if you think about it. Take Atlantis for example. They cruise each year and more or less about the same time. If royal required all the i's dotted at least a year in advance you'd have be convincing your customers to put down a deposit for next year's cruise BEFORE they went on this years. New cruisers won't want to do that. Others might not have the cash available to put down a deposit when they have the expense of a cruise coming up. Others might not be able to reserve vacation time that far in advance and won't want to make a non refundable deposit that far out. Etc etc. Not to mention the ones running the charter would be in crunch time for the current cruise when you'd be expecting them to figure out next year's fully.

Hell the large groups I go on cruises rarely post cruises before the current year one goes out and they're just doing group bookings not charter. 

From the perspective of a charter group - they're not going to want to fully commit more than a year in advance. It's just not realistic as much as it sucks if you happen to book one of those cruises. 

If you're booking through Royals website the balcony guarantee I've seen recently is just a generic, catchall guarantee balcony. 

Ie after you pick balcony it goes directly to you pick/we pick and if you choose we pick it goes directly to fill in your information. 

At least on the cruises I've checked it no longer allows you to pick XN or XB for balcony we pick. I've gone to a big box website and checked the same sailing and they had the two categories. On their website XN was the same price Royal was giving me for gty balc. The XB category was several hundred more. 

It looks like when booking direct Royal no longer gives you the option to choose on balcony gty. Though I did not bother to call to see if they could book something different. 

It's a definite change from before where you'd pick balcony on an Oasis class, pick a category (CP, OV, etc) and then it would ask you pick/we pick.

Laser tag costs, go karts cost, the virtual reality games cost. It can add up fast. There's unlimited options, but those are hundreds each. 

The teen room is free, slides are free, pool of course. But yea the cool things kids likely want to do on the ship cost money. 

Just got off Saturday and it was really only the buffet that they insisted on masks. But most people had a drink when they were inside otherwise. Usually from like 10pm you didn't see much of any guest wearing a mask - pretty much everyone had a drink and employees didn't care.

23 hours ago, 20YearsBetweenCruises said:

 

@smplybcause, Thanks for your reply,  I'm curious about the removing the 10%.  So the 10% discount was still on the existing fare and you were able to upgrade and remove 10% which made it more?  Seems like if they remove the 10% , it would remove it from your existing fare too and therefore would not be an impact.  But if I can say upgrade and remove the 10% from only the new upgrade amount;  I would be paying $35 more and be able to upgrade.  

I'm not entirely sure because it all got confusing. But the only way for me to upgrade without paying a ton was to remove the 10% coupon I had from a canceled cruise. Without it the cheapest in the category were too cheap because they were looking at the price I paid after discounts. So I had to remove it get it. Blah blah blah I stopped asking about math but it was just under 40 to upgrade but I got the site shore excursion credit added an as I had already paid for one I got a 45 refund for that so I actually didn't really pay for it. 

Promos have to be the same and the fare has to be larger. I was only able to upgrade my recent cruise by removing the 10% discount I had and paying $40. But the promos were the same. Without the air promo repricing would include him paying full price for the airfare... though not sure if they do that. 

1 hour ago, eileeshb said:

Also note if you’ve booked a studio cabin you’re not eligible for the upgrading bidding system, no idea why as if you’re a solo in any other grade of stateroom you are eligible. 

Because it's harder to back fill those. Like if they're running out of regular rooms they'll upgrade interior people and then put those cabins on sale. But with studios only one person can book it so a smaller group that could buy them. Sucks ass though. 

Maybe try searching by room # since that shouldn't have changed. 

You could always book on Bliss or Encore as they have smoking rooms in their casinos. So even if they allow smoking, on those ships it's contained to the smoking room.

I wish they would retrofit the other ships in the class with that. 

About to head off on Escape. We had to pre-register with CVS and got an email with a barcode. No idea what happens if you show up without it...might hear what happens when I show up to port...but I followed the instructions on checkin.