Dan83

I’ve read enough about them on this forum to know that they are a hassle. I’d never buy one but my wife received a gift certificate from her coworkers. I submitted the online form to be redeemed as onboard credit on an upcoming cruise. There’s no email confirmation sent and after a week it doesn’t show up in the cruise planner. I’m thinking that it may show up onboard like a travel agents OBC would show up on the second day. I resubmitted the form after a week and it says already redeemed. So I know they’ve processed it. Anyone with recent experience on this? 

Side note: I submitted shareholders benefits form at the same time and OBC showed up in cruise planner about 3 days later. 

If the cabin number is only visible with the barcode trick, can it be changed to another same category cabin? 

3 minutes ago, Choozin Croozin said:

We were hoping to get off for an 8:15 tour. Now I'm beginning to think that isn't going to happen. I guess we'll have to wait and see.

We’re going to chance it. I booked a 9 am tour from Nice. That means a 15 minute taxi or Uber ride to be factored in as well. And I don’t know the availability of those from the port area. 

Has anyone recently experienced the tendering process from Odyssey or in Villefrance from any Royal Caribbean ship? Without priority access such as suite or key benefits, is it reasonable to expect to get ashore 2 hours after arriving in port? How about 1.5 hours after arrival? That is probably pushing it a little. 

Villefrance is no longer our “do nothing “ port. There are a couple of activities we are interested in. Does anyone have experience with the tendering process in Villefrance or from the Odyssey? With a 7 am arrival is it reasonable to expect to get ashore by 9 am? We won’t have any priority access to the tenders such as suite or key benefits. 

I’m in the same boat. Would like to hear a way to do this. I got the hibachi for regular Izumi price mistake several months ago. Then the itinerary changed and my reservation is now on a port day. 

Not the responses that I was expecting. You guys have talked me into it. 

First time on this class of ship. I was briefly considering buying iFly in the cruise planner for the kids. But the “extended experience “ is 2 minutes. No thanks. Is there an included experience?  North Star doesn’t say how long the extended experience is. 

Same here. Planning for the Odyssey TA next month. I haven’t been to a tender port with royal Caribbean since before Covid. It used to be that shore excursion ticket holders got priority along with suite guests. And there was a lineup for tickets either early morning or the day before. Makes it really difficult to plan your own day in port not knowing what time you can get to shore. Because of this, Villefranche is going to be our “No plans” port. After the lineups are gone we will hop on a tender and go ashore just to walk around and maybe grab some lunch. And then head back to the ship early. There’s probably a way better way to do villefrance on our own but I’m focusing on the other ports for now. 

23 hours ago, roger b said:

Hi

Try :http://www.portbikemallorca.com/en/

They are right in the port and have bikes for children,there is a cycle lane all along the shore line for about 10 miles or you can explore the town .

Roger b

 

Excellent thank you! I emailed them and got our bikes reserved. I think we will take the coastal route. Looks beautiful. 

My family will be visiting Palma on October 30. Odyssey of the Seas in port from 12-8 pm. We are thinking about renting bikes. My group will include kids and grandpa too but we all love to ride bicycles. Can you recommend a rental shop? I found at least one shop online that rents bikes for kids. We want an easy leisurely ride and no mountains. 

I did this very thing myself last October. We were 8 points away from Diamond, so I took a 4 day cruise solo. My wife and kids are linked so that made all four of us Diamond on 2 cruises sooner than we would have. I got a crazy cheap deal, and the math worked out in our favor. Plus I enjoyed the 4 day cruise in peace and quiet. 
 

Since pricing has gotten out of hand lately, I think it will be difficult to find a cruise cheap enough to make the math work out. Probably impossible if airfare is involved. The reason that solo booking is sometimes higher is because guarantee cabins are often not available to solo travelers. A very good travel agent may have some work arounds for that though. That being said, there are some elusive deals out there. Just this last week, I needed to add a family member to our transatlantic cruise next month. Just by dumb luck there was a deal on a solo balcony guarantee. I didn’t even think those existed. My excellent TA snatched it for me quickly. It was actually cheaper than inside guarantee for 2. 
 

Keep deal hunting, you will need a solo 5 day for yourself, or a solo 7 day for DH. 

6 minutes ago, taglovestocruise said:

Was it still being held in the upstairs area of the Diamond Lounge. 

Yes. Very nice location 

This is kind of dated but since you didn’t get many responses I’ll say this. We had chefs table on Allure thanksgiving cruise last year. It was our first chefs table. We really enjoyed it. Excellent food. Cheap wines but they were good. Yes it was slow but that’s kind of the design for chefs table. They did a good job with the timing of the courses and the wine. It was over 3 hours but when it was over it seemed like it went fast. We were lucky and had great table mates. That seems to be the make or break. I understand the menu is the same fleet wide and long overdue for an update. We want to do another for our transatlantic this fall. I look forward to trying chefs table again but if the menu stays the same then twice is enough. 

My family also taking a TA October 27. My kids passports expire in February, leaving 95 days of validity after scheduled departure from schengen country. State department website says we need 90 days validity for Schengen travel. It seems most people are recommending 6 months validity. We are traveling now and can’t send off for renewal until we get back to the United States second week of August. That leaves maybe 9 weeks to renew before the TA. Which is the bigger risk? Trying to renew in a 9 week window, or traveling to a Schengen country with 95 days validity on my kids passport.

Galveston 3/19/23 Allure sailing. I didn’t see any signage about the new wine policy. The old 2 bottle per cabin policy was still being allowed. This of course may change with next week’s sailing. 

And frequent cruisers are very predictable. We all checked every booked cruise and bought every package available. Actually we bought 2 of every available package as a just in case. And who here will be the first to admit to booking an extra cruise just to get the package? 

When the Key was first introduced, it was approximately the same price as internet alone. Lots of people jumped on it. It made some noise and kickstarted the Key package. Prices soon went much higher. I can see this being somewhat the same thing.  This new package has more tangible benefits. I can see them honoring the prices. And of course they will analyze the date and watch social media closely to see what the eventual pricing will be. It’s almost definitely the 375ml bottle of bubbly.   The internet, tour, lunch, and other perks really won’t cost them a whole lot. They can afford to sell a lot of these packages now for cheap and then raise the prices very soon.  They get some social media attention which is a win. I think the blog’s write up wouldn’t have been posted and prices mentioned without some sort of back channel official confirmation from Royal. I say we all get to keep our packages but you better book now because the prices will be more realistic very soon. 

Post live when it’s convenient, then the usual post cruise detailed review. 

The convenience of Uber/Lyft is sometimes worth the extra expense. To me the hassle of picking up and returning rental cars is not worth considering for a stay of less than 24 hours. Not to mention driving and parking in an unfamiliar city. Also the hotel you are staying at, is it one of the port hotels that offer a shuttle to the ship? 

I have been emailing about table location and size approximately 10-12 days in advance. Very good results with 6 cruises last year. Last 2 cruises this year, emails have gone unanswered and requests not accommodated.

edit to add: this may be ship specific. Last two requests were on Adventure out of Galveston 

I haven’t been to barefoot beach since last spring. But we did get a cabana and it was nice. The buffet was just ok in my opinion. Back at Labadee last fall and didn’t really miss barefoot beach that much. The other beaches are very nice too. If the money is burning a hole in your pocket, then sure, a cabana on barefoot beach is a nice upgrade. But you certainly aren’t missing anything if you decide against it. Labadee on a small ship day sounds pretty good to me. 

48 minutes ago, Merion_Mom said:

Are there any onboard benefits that a D+ minor does NOT receive?  I know that they get the drink coupons - nonalcoholic, of course.  But do they get:

 

the free photo?

 

the days of internet?

 

Thank you.

We haven’t been successful in getting the diamond photo for the kids, only the adults get the photo. Not that my wife won’t keep trying. 
 

Yes the kids do get the free Internet day. We buy internet one device for my wife. I use mine and the kids free 24 hours on sea days. Also, I haven’t figured out a way to use the free 24 hours for my wife, since she has the internet package, her 24 hours isn’t available. 

6 hours ago, Ozark_Kid said:

@brillohead Thanks for getting it going.  We are flying SW and have made it half way so far, Dallas, with no problem.  We are scheduled to fly from here at 11:00 am to Houston. 

When we arrived at the LR Airport we noticed long lines and the first thing that came to mind was canceled flights when we got stranded in Miami. 

Found out it was people that didn't check in  online.  My asst TA, Sharon, had us covered and we had a quick check in.  After we moved on it was weird the TA line seemed longer than the regular line. 

 

Once we land in Houston we will Lyft to League City where we will spend the night.  I hear there's a Buckkees there.  😲 Not sure if we will get to go. 

Glad to see my home airport LIT get some representation! Southwest gave me a ride to ATL this afternoon.
I do have to mention that the drive to Galveston is not bad at all. If I’m going to mess around with air travel for a cruise, I’ll choose a Florida port. 

Another scenario this would be helpful, travel companion can’t commit to a sailing when a deal comes up. Go ahead and book both. If one can’t go and the other can, it would still be nice to get the double points for the one that actually gets to sail.