sndral

I saw the thread title and assumed some one had accumulated massive data/cell charges by using their Apple device on a cruise:confused:

Many years ago I remember getting in the agricultural produce customs line @ SFO because I had an apple (which I had dutifully declared) upon returning from Europe, OMG - that line took forever - I asked if I could just toss the apple and go to the normal line - nope, had to wait to the end of the ‘special’ line to....toss my little green apple. I entertained myself by listening to all of the truly bizarre things people in the line ahead of me were trying to bring into the U.S.A..

I think it’s marketing. They want you to think that there are only a few cabins left in hopes you will pull the trigger.

 

I always use a online agency that shows all the available cabins and book the one I want.

Well, it had the reverse effect on me - if the cabin in the category I wanted on the deck I wanted didn’t show as available on the U.S. site I assumed those cabins were gone and stopped considering that cruise and looked elsewhere, including other cruise lines. Now I know better from reading here, but I wonder how many are like me and just moved on if their choice was too limited?

Solos get the discount. Think of it as paying a set price for the cabin irrespective if one or two people are staying in it. You don’t need a second person to get the cabin discount. Do a mock booking for 2 people v. for 1 person and the price will be the same except on the 1 person booking the port fees will be less.

There are a few solo cabins and at times solo discounts - lately a lot of the RCI Asian itineraries have reduced solo fares.

Believe it or not, even dads in prison have parental rights regarding their children unless a court has officially limited those rights. If mom has sole physical/legal custody pursuant to a court order, take a copy of that order, just in case. If mom does not, then be aware that not having bio. dad's permission to remove his child from the country may be an issue.

All of this is in place for a good reason - to avoid international child abduction, but it's certainly a frustrating technicality when you are going on a very short cruise which begins and ends in the USA and it sounds like dad has never exercised any parental rights in real life.

The difference is about $2 per day at the moment thus not a big deal, but the Voom on my Vision OTS cruise was painfully slow at uploading pix for posting on FB & I'm wondering if it'll be better on my Jewel OTS cruise coming up.

Are there differences in quality/speed on different classes of ships and are there differences in quality/speed for basic things like surfing the net, or posting pix between basic Voom and Voom + stream. I'm not one to stream/watch movies or play video games or any of the other streaming uses. Also, as you can tell, I'm not very tech savvy :rolleyes:

Thx.

You may know this but for others who may not.... the airport is nowhere near the actual city of Rome, so you cant just walk out of your room at the airport Hilton and start sightseeing. But, from the airport there is a train that goes directly to Rome Termini station in the city; its called the Leonardo Express. Its about 25-30 min and only 12euro or so. Its an easy way to get into Rome for the day you'll have pre-cruise to sight see there.

Thank you - I’m actually getting in early on my first day &, depending on how tired I am, may have 2 days to explore Rome. I’ve read the airport Hilton has a shuttle into Rome as well.

Yes you can book any cabin you see on the UK site. For some reason the US site only shows a handful of cabins, not very user friendly

Thank you, the difference in choices between the two sites makes no sense to me, before I realized there might be cabins available that were not offered on the U.S. site I was ruling out potential cruises because of the lack of cabin options.

Not too much risk on the TA pricing, but the subsequent sailing might go up. The thing is, there's very little benefit of booking on board.

Thanks that confirms what I suspected from searching here on cruise critic re: booking onboard.

I'm seriously considering booking a b2b T/A+Europe for spring 2019, on the Serenade OTS. Although the U.S. site does not list any mutual cabins I'm interested in reserving, the UK site lists dozens for both the T/A and the following cruise. Specifically for the 2nd cruise there are no deck 4 OV cabins listed @ all on the U.S. site for Cat 2N and of the Cat 8N cabins there are no matching cabins for the 2 cruises on deck 4.

Can I call RCI and reserve cabins not on the U.S. website?

More generally, why do they offer different inventory on the 2 sites? As a consumer I love searching for that 'perfect' cabin and I just can't do that & then book it online on the U.S. site.

One other question, I'm next on a cruise in late Oct. this year - is there any advantage to waiting to book when I'm on that cruise w/ NC? I'm thinking I'd risk rising prices + depleted inventory if I wait that long.

I gave up and just booked the RCI transfer from the airport. I'm getting in 2 nights early and opted to stay at the airport Hilton and figured I can walk over to the RCI meeting point in the airport from there. Maybe next time I'm in Rome I'll feel comfortable enough navigating the city to stay in Rome, but as a first timer to Rome and as a solo older person I figured simple was best.

Hah! I’ve been able to get on the new site (though not do anything with it), but yesterday MY account showed my husband’s first name and my mother’s middle name, and with my birth date. I managed to fix that.

 

Today? I’ve apparently gained 54 C&A points. Our pending B2B will “only” give me 50 points, so it isn’t even that they’ve granted those in advance.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Mmm - maybe when they migrated the data from the old system to the new system it merged you, your husband, and your mother into one person and gave you everyone's C&A points?

Seriously, not being a tech genius and having suffered through web 'updates/transitions' with other companies (cough, Disney, cough) I've read that when they move the data from the old system to the new system some of it gets 'corrupted'.

I initially couldn't log on (it froze at the blue screen loading) then yesterday I could log in but had to update, my email was my user ID and I had an acceptable password so didn't need to change any of that, but when I hit the cruise planner button I got an error message. I did manage to find the cruise planner by hitting the 'buy excursions' on the main pre log in page and then entering my reservation number - sort of clunky so far, but Royal's site has always seemed really clunky to me & very hard to search for what I'm looking for - I like Norwegians site better.

A good website can be a great marketing advantage, if the consumer can search for and find what they want easily and then compare options (like - oh, a balcony is only $X more - that's worth it) you make it easier for them to buy. The way they have it now (well before, now is non functional) it's so cumbersome that it drives people away, it's just too much work to find what you want.

So many retarded answers here...

:eek: Oh my, quite an interesting collection of words to start out a first post ever in a forum.

I’ve labeled this as the never ending thread. I cruise solo so have no dog in this fight, but I can’t stop myself from peeking at the responses anyway.

If IT thinks the problem will be fixed in a day or two doesn’t that suggest a tech issue (not that Royal ever has tech issues, right?) rather than an itinerary change?

I inadvertently ended up w/ one when I booked my first RCI cruise & she had chocolate dipped strawberries and sparkling wine waiting in my cabin.

For my 2nd RCI cruise this coming Oct. we emailed back and forth and then spoke on the phone for the actual booking & air2sea ticket. I booked shore excursions on line for last cruise and made payments on line for both cruises as well. Last cruise I changed my air2sea outbound international flight on my own too.

So far it doesn't seem like when you have a TA who 'owns' the reservation and you have to go through them.

Flying out of SFO using air2sea last cruise I was able to pick my United seats going to Venice, but not on the codeshared Lufthansa return flights, for that I had to log in 24 hr.s before (sort of ala SW.) It worked out (I picked my night before flying Venice hotel in part based on reviews of the WIFI.) This year air2sea SFO to FCO (Rome) was again a United going/Lufthansa back, I again had a United seat assigned but no Lufthansa, but I was pleased to see that I was able to log on to the Lufthansa site and pay $35 to pick a seat for the long flight from Europe to SFO unlike last time. The thought of being in one of those very middle seats on one of those monster planes for so many hours was daunting!

I just look on the RCI UK site as they seem to offer more cabin choices when I’m searching.

Hi, I agree with you wholeheartedly:)......love cruising solo, unpack once and that is it. As for arranging pre and post cruise, I don't look at that as hard really. I just add that to the fun of the planning:D

Oh, I am sailing out of Venice this July and am looking at hotels pre-cruise right now! It is my first time visiting there.

Try to find a hotel near one of the Alilaguna water boat stops, very easy and comparatively reasonably priced water transportation from the airport to your hotel and then from your hotel to the ship. You can also stay near P. Roma which is where the buses from the airport drop you and where the people mover to the pier is located - but IMO taking the Alilaguna boat is nicer, although it takes a bit longer.

... One lady did tell me she thought I was brave traveling alone at such a "young" age - which made me laugh because I often travel alone, and I am older than she is!

...

When I was solo out of Venice fall before last I had a couple of people tell me I was 'brave' for traveling alone at my age - since I'm about ready to retire, I assume they meant I was brave to travel alone at such an old age :p

IMO, cruising is actually one of the easiest solo adventures, you sleep in the same bed every night, know where to find food, don't need to schlepp your luggage from place to place, etc.. The hard parts are the pre and post cruise arrangements of airport to ship and back & rooms for pre or post cruise stays.

DV? Perhaps, but my first suspicion was some type of mental health issue due to the somewhat nonsensical response by the suspect about being laughed at, sounds like the type of paranoid statement you hear from defendants with severe psychosis after they commit a homicide IME.

The news hasn't dug up any prior reports about DV, although it is a very under reported crime & there are lots of DV murders w/ no reported prior incidents. In the subsequent investigation it often becomes evident that people suspected DV, but didn't act on those suspicions.

In my mind this could be a mental situation or a more classic DV homicide - too soon to tell.

I wonder if the "missing" $1400 was applied to the booking for OP's friends

"...Recently booked my family and some friends - ..."

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2272701&page=3

Rhodes has Kamiros and Lindos, I liked Kamiros, but I'm an archeology geek. Kamiros is not as impressive (or famous) as Ephesus but still a nice, albeit smaller site. Kamiros is missing the quantities of marble, mosaics, murals, terrace houses & biblical connection that Ephesus has, but does offer insight into a different era.

Wonder what triggered RCI to remove Turkey stops @ this point, rather than last year when other lines were doing so.

As of last November, arriving & leaving via cruise ship - U.S. citizens did not need to get a visa.

Bravo is the fire code.

 

Alpha is medical.

 

Oscar is man overboard.

Thanks! And I heard them all on one 7 night cruise!

Although the Oscar wasn't overboard from our ship.

The Bravo Bravo Bravo caught my attention because it included directions to report to a specific locale for a specific crew group.

Do they need a search warrant? I assumed lurking somewhere in the cruise documents' wall of text that I signed there was a waiver.

I don't know the codes, being an inexperienced cruiser, but last Nov. we had one where we retrieved an empty life jacket - quite the entertainment on that sea day to watch the little boat zipping around.

Then there was the one for the fire - I recognized that one as a fire when the code was announced, something about fire crew X report to XYZ clued me in on that.

Is your IPad you're only device you own?

No, but it's the device I travel with & prefer to use as it weighs less than either lap top, is more mobile than the desk top @ work & the screen is bigger than the IPad mini, the IPhone or the work Samsung :) interestingly the blue band shows up on the mini but not the IPhone.

...

I never have issues with RCI website on my laptop (using windows 10, IE or ME).

It's horrible on an IPad - there's a big blue band that covers the left half of the screen when I try to search for a cruise so I can't see half the screen with the list of cruises under the blue band, even when I hit the X to get rid of the blue band, it won't go away.

So frustrating - it's been that way for at least a month or more as I've been trying to search for which cruise to book for next fall. It wasn't like this last summer when I was searching & booked.

I keep hoping they'll fix it. Meanwhile I've been searching for cruises w/ other companies as at least their sites are functional on my IPad.