Itchy&Scratchy

last year the next year's rate didn't pop up until very late. I think December. That's when I made my reservations for June.

I only get ones related to my 2 cruises next year.

that's not cutting it close. We had a 1:30 pm flight out of MIA and we had a leisurely breakfast, walked off after 9:30, and then ubered from Port Everglades to MIA airport and sat there for 2+ hours.

a couple of months ago, the site was glitching for a very long time, promoting this particular deal, but not displaying it for any of the cruises once you got to the selection. I had to wait till it finally worked properly for the cruise I wanted.

not on March 29th.

can't confirm, but when we were there on March 29, they told us the refurbishment was supposed to start in April.

https://www.hyatt.com/en-US/reservation/find

we just stayed at the Hyatt Place (through Valuetrips*) 2 weeks ago and at ES in April. Both are literally next door to Outback which we used both times for dinner. ES wasn't as awful as I feared. Maybe, our room wasn't as bad as others. Definitely not worth more than $160 per night... If I paid more than that, I'd be very upset. Breakfast was great. Didn't see anyone pushing timeshares. The line was only to the made to order eggs station, and it was not long. https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/3002524-a-great-first-cruise-on-celebrity-reflection-review-dailies-menus-food-and-cabin-pics-march-2024/#comment-67222827 Hyatt was definitely newer and cleaner (and cheaper through Valuetrips), with small issues: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/3013301-enchanted-princess-review-june-1-2024-western-caribbean-with-food-pics-dailies-and-more/#comment-67507044 *we saved a lot of money, especially since we needed 2 rooms.

we've just stayed at the Hyatt through Valuetrips reservations (2 rooms). I checked the Hyatt website several times up to the day of arrival to make sure our reservations were intact.

there are many SF Monster flavors, some we love, some we don't. Seascape had only Red Bull last November. Some bars had regular, some - only SF version. No consistency.

they made me the Account Owner (all the way at the top of the folio), and the rest of the people were authorized users. But yes - to transfer the OBC from cabin #2 to my cabin/account, I had to make a trip to GS to request it. I prefer to do everything in person, because I hate typing on the phone. I did this on the last night because I wanted to spend the entire leftover $123 on one purchase instead trying to match the leftover amounts to 2 smaller purchases. The shops could not split the payment for one item between two cabins, and that's why I had to combine OBC into one lump sum. Once it was combined, I went and spent the entire leftover amount in one store. My son's specialty dining was charged to our cabin's folio sometime later that night as well (I figured it into the total before making the store purchase). Before the last night we simply told waiters to charge specialty dining or extras in MDR to X or Y's account. Then GS combined the leftover OBC into one account and put my parents on my folio, which is the resulting folio you see above. At that point it wouldn't have mattered who in our group of 5 made the purchase - it would be applied to a combined OBC.

no, it will be taken out of OBC automatically. Look at the statement I posted above.

yes, use the same credit card, especially if you are in the same cabin. I was in the same cabin with DH and DS, using the same CC, so all of our OBC was pooled. I also needed to transfer my parents' OBC to myself, but GS couldn't do it until I used the same credit card for all 5 of us. Then it only took a minute for GS to then transfer my parents' OBC from a different cabin to mine. I spent all of it because we don't use the casino and I can't convert it. We had a combined $250 OBC (I know it's peanuts compared to some people), plus $25 Princess prizes, plus $12 pp tax refund OBC, and we spent it to cover DS's specialty dining and gratuities, dad's excursion, and my onboard shopping with leftovers ($123).

do these kids not produce any trash? consume any foods? sleep on beds with bedding that needs to be washed? Do they not use the cabin at all? Does the 9 month old not go through a number of diapers a day? Do they not use the bathroom in the cabin? what do you mean? If you get your kid a meal at a restaurant, its price is included in the total, and one usually bases the size of gratuities on the total dinner price and the level of service provided. When we dine with our kid in tow at a land based restaurant, he is getting the same service as we are, so we pay grats for his meal as well as ours. And there is a lot more cleanup involved when little kids are littering all around them. Do you exclude your kid's meal's price from the total before you calculate the grats? If you are in the US, of course. It's not customary to pay grats in many other countries.

but sadly not zero cases of SA.

stupid tile can't even find my DH's wallet in our own house.

never had a problem with getting a taxi to Sorobon beach.... Taxis always get as many people as possible into them, so it was 10+ of us in a taxi each way in April.

didn't see any umbrellas there this April. Or last year. Or the year before. WOuldn't call this wooden things umbrellas because they don't provide any shade, and there are abysmally few of them, and that tiny beach is so tiny there isn't enough space for everyone. We burn to a crisp every time. The only place in the shade is these 5 loungers under the wooden roof. Everybody is frying themselves up like this:

yeap, for $20 pppd for the soda package. Don't need the $60 pppd package for that. Even when you add $16 pppd grats, it's still under $60. why even bother cruising if you are spending the entire day on the internet? I already do that at home for $70 a month unlimited wifi for all 3 of us. We use the cruise time to get us and the child off of the internet.

the replacement medallion they gave me for my kid has his name and voyage info. Whether she printed a new one or replaced a battery is unknown.

my kid's medallion stopped opening the cabin door 2 days into the cruise, and it took GS about a minute to make a new one for him (not counting the time in line, which at the time was less than 5 minutes).

A child doesn't really need their separate wifi at 10 yo, so if you were to get them a soda package ($20 pppd) and grats ($16) - the sum would be significantly less than $60 pppd. Of course, one couldn't just buy Plus package for one person in the cabin in advance, but one could try to get Plus for just one person when they are onboard. YMMV.

Wow, I thought at first that this was a comedic post....

where does it say that they are covered for guests 3 and/or 4 who don't have Plus/Premier? exactly. That's because YOUR Plus package doesn't cover grats for the passengers in your cabin who don't have Plus. And since you can remove the gratuities which are not tied to Plus/Premier package, that's exactly what you did for passengers 3 and 4.

does UK have an inflatable version of a booster like Bubblebum in the US? It's ideal for traveling light.