Dan83

41 minutes ago, Merion_Mom said:

 

Oh, come on, Dan!  I was just going to tell you to go for 1864, and now you tell me that you have 1700.

 

Sheesh.

 

Ok, here is Mom's advice:

 

Keep 1700.

 

Book 1864 next cruise.

 

You're welcome.

 

🙂

 

This is for freedom next spring. We had 1700 on liberty last month and it was fantastic. Having that extra space is a game changer with the kids. And a fraction of the price of a suite. I think you’re right, I should hang on to 1700.  I’m still so tempted for 1864 though.  Do you have any idea how these two cabins compare on square footage?  I can’t find that information anywhere, they are both non standard in their categories. 

I think I’m going to make the switch. One thing I didn’t mention was that I have an aft corner balcony(1700). I’ve had this cabin before and it was great. I’m just a little hesitant to give it up. 

43 minutes ago, taglovestocruise said:

To the OP, this may give you second thoughts about enjoying the air conditioned room.....

I noticed that. Maybe they were just using the fan for white noise?

Specifically the wedge shaped room on freedom class ships. It appears that it has a little extra square footage. Currently have a balcony booked. Thinking of switching. I enjoy the balcony but really don’t spend a whole lot of time on it. I’m thinking it would be nice to enjoy the view from an air conditioned room instead of sitting/standing out on the balcony. 1864 has opened up and the extra space looks tempting. $500 cheaper to boot. Will I miss the balcony?

We visited Roatan last week. Ended up going with Blue Planet Divers.  It was the perfect choice for us.  We caught them on a slow day and it was just our group on the boat for the morning dive.  Snorkelers got to come along as well.  Excellent diving operation.  They made lazy divers out of us, took care of everything.  For our next trip to Roatan I won't consider diving anywhere else.  

On the last evening I used a credit card to settle our cash accounts. About an hour later we picked up our 2 year old from the nursery. I had forgot that there would be one more nursery charge and I had messed up by closing the account too early. They swiped the sea pass and made the charge no problem. I had thought that once you settled the account it was closed, done, no more charges. On my credit card account it showed the one large purchase, plus another $24. So it worked out convenient enough for me. But makes me think that once they get a credit card, your account is no longer a cash account. What if we’d had towels checked out? This was the first time we’ve done cash account so I didn’t know what to expect. 

On a side note, the visit to guest services was the most painful I’ve experienced. 40 minutes(not including time in line) to check the lost and found, dispute a $10 chops cover charge for our 2 year old, and to pay off the cash accounts of 2 rooms. The paying off the accounts took the longest. It reminded me of the old school airline ticket counters. Endless pecking away at his computer while I simply wanted to pay our bill and leave. Hopefully this was not the norm. This was Liberty of the Seas last week sailing. 

Is the deadline for canceling a cruise planner purchase the same as for purchasing? Are there any pitfalls I’m unaware of if I wait until the last minute to cancel something? 

I think paying for everything far in advance is a big part of their strategy. They like to give you multiple opportunities to spend money. If you go “all out” and buy dining packages, drink packages, excursions in every port, maybe even some spa treatments a year in advance, then come vacation time you can get the feeling like you’re not spending much. But you have, and that was a year ago, so you think you can afford to splurge a little more now.  All those “deals” in the shop, duty free, hello casino! You get to splurge twice(or more). Once planning in advance, and again on vacation. As far as canceling cruise planner items, it costs them nothing to refund a purchase. But I think the trend may shift toward prices going up closer to sail date. Having buyers remorse on that cabana? But it’s gone up $400 since I booked, I better keep it since I got a bargain! Lol. 

We’re taking our 2 and 5 year olds to Roatan for the third time week after next. We use a private driver. Research the activities in Roatan because you know you’re children best and what they’d have fun doing. Ours are water babies and we must include swimming and beach time. Animals too. My wife and I will each get a 1 tank scuba dive while the other stays on the beach with the kids. We mix in a little sight seeing also. A private driver wouldn’t be absolutely necessary with our plans but we are using the same driver for the third time because she is great with our kids. She stays with us at all times and is very aware of how much time we have remaining. It’s very comforting having someone watching out for us that knows the area and gets around well. Once we had a delicious meal on the cheap at a gas station of all places. 

If you do decide on getting a driver, it wouldn’t hurt to ask the operator if they have a driver that works well with kids. And definitely leave the stroller on the ship. I don’t know of anywhere on the island that it would be useful. 

I'm looking for more diving options for our stop in Roatan next month.  We use a private driver for the day with Bodden Tours.  2 of us would like to dive in the morning while the rest of our party hits the beach and maybe snorkel.  Last time this worked out just ok.  We used Coconut Tree divers and they were great.  The problem was the travel time between the ship, there, and west bay beach.  Too much riding in the van and not enough fun time.  So I started looking at dive shops on or very near west bay beach.  It seems there is a reluctance of many of the dive shops to take cruise ship passengers.  They either won't take us at all or will only take a special group of cruise ship passengers and they need a minimum number to make the trip. So can anyone recommend a dive shop or any ideas for our situation?  I've done ship sponsored dive excursions in the past and don't prefer them at all.  The dive masters always seem nervous as cats when they have a boat full of ship passengers.  Even Coconut tree divers apparently separated out the ship divers from their land based divers.  On previous land vacations to st lucia, jamaica, and cozumel there was a noticeable difference in diving in the absence of this "cruise ship effect"

I have noticed this before on the Royal Caribbean website. If you put in 0 for the ages you get a slightly higher price than if they are 1 year old. I think it likely a website glitch. For pricing purposes just put in ages 1. When making the booking just be sure to put in the correct date of birth at the end. Maybe worth a call to royal or a TA if that doesn’t work. 

The photo package dropped $15 for our September Liberty of the Seas sailing. I’ve never noticed any price fluctuations on the photo package before. It’s not much but worth checking out if you’re getting the photo package anyway.  My wife loves pictures so this is a necessity on every cruise. 

Thanks everyone!

yes that's the issue, I'm seeing signature lines for the first time ever. Had to get out the old MacBook that I rarely use.  I never knew

Just now, broberts said:

Turn on "View Signatures?". Same place as you created your signature.

 

Yes I have done this. Still no signatures. I’m using safari mobile browser. Maybe It needs a desktop browser?

I found where to turn them on. And to create my own signature. But I’ve never been able to see signature lines on others’ post. How to fix this?

I have room 1700 booked next month on liberty and again on freedom next May. I’ve seen all the YouTube videos that I could find. Read several threads here and on another “blog”. Lots of good info out there, So I knew that’s the cabin I wanted to book.  We want extra space and a balcony. This is the best I could find without getting into the suites. 

Just a couple questions I had that I could not find a solid answer. 

1.  Is the windjammer or any other upper deck able to look down to see our balcony? Will we be able to look down on the lower balconies?

Are there any other privacy concerns?

2. It doesn’t appear to be a true corner aft balcony. By that I mean is there 270 degrees of ocean viewing angle?  Best I can tell there is only 180 degrees of viewing angle. Just like all the other balconies down the side of the ship. Except my 180 degrees of viewing are rotated 90 degrees. Making for an aft view.

I think maybe the deck 7 corners aft have that 270 degree viewing angle. Not sure. 

3. Can I let the kids paint the pole?  Watercolors of course. Easy to clean. And I would definitely disinfect it first. I’ve seen those pictures on this site. 

4.  Port or starboard? Any way to find out which side the ship “parks”?  I’d like to check each port to see which way the ship will be parked. 

5. Is it going to be awesome?  If not then don’t tell me. Just lie to me and tell me it’s awesome. 

Also if you have pictures, videos, or any helpful info on these cabins, I and others would love to see. If it’s something you’ve already posted, I’ve probably seen it.  Thanks in advance!

I too would like to find a really good TA.  The one I'm using is ok, very knowledgeable.   But the agency seems kind of tight on perks, compared to what has been reported on this forum.   Basically I get a 3% discount and a tiny bit of OBC.  I typically book refundable deposit direct with RCI, then just email her the invoice and she'll transfer the reservation.  On one reservation she got us two connecting cabins under group rates instead of a 4 person cabin. So access to group rates is a must.  But my main reason for wanting to switch TA is because of a close call we had on an upcoming reservation.   Final payment was due and I noticed they hadn't charged the card.  It's usually done about a week prior to final payment, along with some sort of notification.  I emailed her and was like "final payment is today, whats up?" Her response was" don't worry about it, I'll run the card first thing in the morning when I get back to the office"  Ok, you said not to worry so I'm not going to worry.  Now that particular day, I was on the road all day and I didn't have my personal phone with me.  My wife dropped hers in the river and took mine until the replacement came in.  I had to use my work cell and use a web browser to check email. So all day, I didn't stop long enough to check my personal email until later that evening.  And I almost didn't, but for some reason I stopped and logged into email before I started to make the drive home.  I had several new emails. "I was mistaken!! this has to be paid TODAY! she says. Please call the office ASAP and talk to a supervisor to get this paid.  They had also been blowing up my phone but to no avail.  My wife had it and figured it was just telemarketers.  So I called in and made final payment just about an hour or so before the agency closed.  They should have had the card on file, not sure why they just didn't run it. Had I not checked my email, we would have missed final payment and I'm not sure how they would have handled the situation. 

Thanks for your responses! Oasis does make sense and really we’re doing this for the kids anyway.  And I’m happy with the room we already have booked. I’ll get to see the southern Caribbean on Freedom next spring. Dec 2020 will be our first opportunity to experience an oasis class ship. Hopefully Galveston will have one in the future. Texas is much closer than Florida! 

6 hours ago, bonsai3s said:

Something you may not have even thought about....took us years to discover....how about a b2b on the Oasis? 😎

This may be possible. Looking into this now. Still doesn’t get us down to the southern Caribbean but 14 days is better than 7!

We have Oasis booked Dec 2020. Eastern Caribbean and coco cay. I’m thinking of switching to a 10 day Vision same week right before Christmas.  Booked refundable deposit so switching not a problem and the prices for the rooms being considered are very close. We’ve only been on Liberty thus far, (and some carnival and princess ships also) but do have bookings for enchantment and Freedom between now and then. I like the vision eastern Caribbean itinerary better and 10 days is better than 7 as far as I’m concerned. The wife and kids may be less enthusiastic about a smaller ship and the extra sea days could be a problem if the ship doesn’t meet their expectations. She typically doesn’t like to be involved in vacation planning. “Just plan us a good time and if I don’t like it, I’ll let you know.” Luckily I do enjoy the planning aspect but there may be consequences for not getting it right. After a “boring” princess cruise, we didn’t cruise at all for 5 years. Last year, Liberty of the seas came to the rescue, and for the next couple of years, Royal Caribbean is the preferred get away package. Disney world has been requested for 2021 :(     So with all that being said, I figure the safe bet would be Oasis 7 day since the kids are still very young. But I really want to try something longer than 7 days and see a few new ports. The oasis itinerary would only have only coco cay as a “new to us” port. Another bit of info, the excursions I’ve planned have been some of the high points for our family. So I think having 5 port days could make up for less activities on the ship. I’d love to hear some opinions, even the ones that stink :)

40 minutes ago, blueridgemama said:

 

Why would you question it if you just used it several months ago? It's the same ship. Experiences seem to be different on different ships so as you are going on the same ship the experience should be the same.

Because there have been changes since I last used the key. It would be silly for me to go expecting the exact same experience. 

Does anyone know if the recent changes have been implemented fleet wide? Things like reduced private hours and key lunch in MDR. And especially the escorted debarkation.  I’m curious about Liberty specifically. We used it several months back and it was totally worth it.  From what I’ve been reading, I will most likely cancel the Key for our upcoming September sailing. Would love to hear a recent key experience on Liberty. 

Staying a night after cruise saves us almost $900 airfare.  That more than covers a decent hotel and some sightseeing.  And an extra day on vacation, definitely a no-brainer.  What are some options for things to do? Family of 4 with two young children. We always like the beach, but after a port intensive cruise, we may have already had our fill of beach time.  

I just finished booking our flights this morning. May 2020 Freedom of the seas.  I used google flights to monitor prices since they were available and booked each way separately.  Actually booked the return segment first.  We have to stay one night post-cruise but it saved almost $900 for our family of 4.  That more than covers a hotel and meals and some extra sightseeing.  Flying into SJU on Saturday afternoon pre-cruise. Worked out to $440 round trip(LIT-SJU) per person. I checked Sunday return flights from now until next May and Monday flights are always significantly cheaper. When the prices I was looking for popped up, I booked immediately.  And they immediately went back up after I booked 4 tickets, so it seems like they sell a few tickets, then jack the price up.  And if the flights aren't selling well, then they run a quick sale.  Probably similar to cruise pricing.