CalTexCruiser

1 hour ago, Pratique said:

Royal will not lose sleep over this.

 

Allure vs Wonder

OS: 10 - 10

1BR GS: 30 - 28

2BR GS: 6 - 0

CLS: 25 - 8

 

25 fewer Sky Class cabins on Wonder means booting at least 25 bookings per sailing, a meager number overall. Even if those guests yell and scream they will be out of luck because there will be nothing left. They are price protecting on the same sailing but not offering price protection to move to another sailing. And I'm sure the refunds will be slow to post.

I'm no expert on cruise line finances, but are they like the airlines where up to 75% of revenues come from business class travelers even though they make up 12% or so of flyers?

So if analogous then suite passengers would contribute a substantial amount of the revenue even though making up a very small portion of the overall passengers?  And if so, Royal should care about pissing off their higher revenue customers.

1 hour ago, rjmols said:

Do you know the star class comparison please ?

 

53 minutes ago, Pratique said:

By my count:

 

Wonder has 1 Royal Suite and 1 Ultimate Family Suite. All suites except ATS are on Decks 17-18.

 

Wonder has no Royal Loft Suites (vs 2 on Allure), no Star Loft Suite, and no Grand Panoramic Suite. I believe the number of ATS is the same.

For Star Class, the simple answer is:

same number of 2 bdrm ATS suites

same number of Royal Loft Suite (1)

Then things go sideways:

Allure has: A) 2 Star Loft suites, B) Owners Panoramic Suite, C) Grand Panoramic Suite

Wonder has: Ultimate Family Suite

Basically, if Royal is doing one-to-one mapping, then all the 2bdrm ATS suites and the Royal Loft suites will match exactly.

That leaves mapping A, B, C of Allure to the Ultimate Family Suite.  (Flip a 4-sided coin to see who wins)

36 minutes ago, Teeara said:

That's exactly my fear since I also have an OS for the fall TA.

If they give an OS as a consolation price to a Star class suite, that will make two unhappy customers: 1) the pep[;e in the Star class suite, and 2) the people in the OS.  

They should minimize the damage and just cancel the Star class suite outright instead of messing around.

56 minutes ago, CalTexCruiser said:

See everyone onboard.  We are arriving on BA.  Had to: 1) submit Greece PLF, 2) submit UK PLFs (one each for my wife and me), 3) submit VeriFLY for the SFO-LHR segment, and 4) upload COVID test docs to BA website for LHR-ATH segment.

 

All this and I'm still not packed yet.

sorry not sure why my post ended up here...I meant to post in the other thread (and I can't delete my post now).

See everyone onboard.  We are arriving on BA.  Had to: 1) submit Greece PLF, 2) submit UK PLFs (one each for my wife and me), 3) submit VeriFLY for the SFO-LHR segment, and 4) upload COVID test docs to BA website for LHR-ATH segment.

All this and I'm still not packed yet.

See everyone onboard.  We are arriving on BA.  Had to: 1) submit Greece PLF, 2) submit UK PLFs (one each for my wife and me), 3) submit VeriFLY for the SFO-LHR segment, and 4) upload COVID test docs to BA website for LHR-ATH segment.

All this and I'm still not packed yet.

36 minutes ago, pyrateslife4me84 said:

They provide 10% more memories with any downgrades. 

LOL

So let me get this straight, if I want to upgrade from Sky Class to Star Class, I may have to pay at least 50-100% or more, but if they downgrade me from Star Class to Sky Class, they will throw me some scraps.  

Since this is my first time with RC, I'll wait to pass judgment, but that would suck a lot.

For the veteran RC cruisers who have been through this type of ship swap, what happens if RC downgrades a cabin, say from Star Class to Sky Class, or from Sky Class to Jr Suites.

Does RC provide a partial refund, grant an OBC, etc.?

1 hour ago, bjt3 said:

 

That would be nice! Still no word yet and all remains the same as of 9am PST on Monday. We leave for Athens on Wednesday! We should probably start packing... 🙂 

My guess is that you are guaranteed to get one of the high level suites, but they just don't know which one yet as they are shuffling other bidders around, and maybe even waiting for the PH suite cabins to up their bids at the last minute.

We are also leaving Wed for Athens, from SFO (which I assume is your departure airport given your location).

On 9/18/2021 at 5:44 PM, bjt3 said:

Thanks all for the comments.

 

We spoke to Celebrity on Friday and they confirmed that the "Expired" state is just telling us that they didn't accept our offer or they found a better one. Curious if this is due to someone with a higher number of loyalty points providing an offer? Our offers where nearly max on a few of the high end suites, such as the Iconic and none of them were accepted... It was kind of an obscene amount, but it's our 30th wedding anniversary so why not. 🙂 

 

Looks like we are still in the running for one of the rooms we placed an offer on as it is still showing as Pending. Crossing our fingers that we get it!

 

Brian

It may be that they prioritized a bid for the Iconic suite from one of the Penthouse suite folks, over your bid even though your bid sounds like it's on the high end.

Perhaps you'll get the Penthouse Suite vacated by the upgrade of those folks to the Iconic suite.

52 minutes ago, Snakeinmyboots said:

I’ve seen a few make the comment that RCL may attempt to sell suites prior to the transfer of existing paid guests.  If this happens, and I lose my reservation, I will raise holy hell.  This isn’t a force majeure event, RCCL made this decision free and clear.  It’s bad enough to swap into a ship with half the suite availability, but to then go out and actively sell those rooms before you’ve taken care of existing customers?  No.

 

Not only would RCCL permanently lose me as a customer, within 24 hours I would have an email out to every corporate executive at RCCL, every major travel blog, and every major news organization.  Whether any of it works or not, wouldn’t matter to me.

It would be really anti-consumer for them to sell the suites first before transferring the existing customers, especially as I recall most if not all suites above GS on the Allure were fully booked.  

I guess they may try to do this to raise more revenue, since the new bookings may be at higher rates than what we paid on the current bookings.  We'll see.  

This will be my first time on RC and I'll definitely avoid them in the future if I lose my Star Class suite because they decided to sell first and then leave the scraps for the existing bookings.

Mass market cruise ship without the masses, but with all the bells and whistles of the mass market cruise ship, sounds like a dream.

The cruise lines are trying to attract the millennials and GenXers, and apparently their marketing surveys tell them the older style small ships are not attractive to the next generation of cruisers.

New ships are trending more "edgy" (no pun intended), such as the Edge class ships, Virgin Voyages ships, and even the NCL Prima.

1 hour ago, island lady said:

 

Yeah, open for new bookings on the 22nd...but not transferring the current Allure pax to Wonder until complete by 10/13.  

 

New ship...less number of suites. Going to book up quick...even the rep on the phone told me that.  Trying to be sure we (Allure cancelled pax) will get transferred when most (or all?) suite cabins are taken by new bookings first?    Doesn't make sense.  Wish they would block off cabins to be sure we can still get transferred....as promised.    

For my sailing on May 22, all the Star Class suites were taken--if they open those up for new bookings before transferring the existing bookings, then we will be screwed.

I just noticed my 7-day May 2022 Mediterranean reservation is now showing as a 6-day Caribbean cruise.

I hope that's just a glitch--I looked up a map and was able to determine that the Caribbean Sea is over 5,000 miles away from the Mediterranean Sea.  Perhaps the fact that both ends with "ean" confused the IT geniuses at RC.

23 hours ago, Keddy72 said:

For those who have gone through the process, can you help with a query.  When bidding you can cancel or change up to 96 hours before, have already changed once.  But when I click my link now, from the 2 room bids I made, one is showing as expired (and no rooms showing available) the other room is showing as pending pending, but I cannot edit it all, cannot adjust bid or cancel even though I am 11 days out and category of room is still showing as available , has anyone experienced this?

Interesting that they won't let you cancel 11 days out. 

I know you want the upgrade to clear, but what if you really wanted to cancel and can't because the "Cancel" button has been disabled.  Then I guess one would have to email the Moveup department--my experience has been they take 5 days to a week to respond.

23 hours ago, lazydayz said:

 

Thankfully, our story ended well.  We recovered from COVID and are ready to board Mariner of the Seas tomorrow!!

I'm not a doctor but have read enough COVID articles over the last 18 months to feel like I've earned an honorary medical degree in COVID.

With the above disclaimer, I believe the upside of catching COVID after you're already vaccinated is that your antibody level is likely to be quite elevated...so you're unlikely to catch COVID again for a while.

4 hours ago, Snakeinmyboots said:

So I may have a problem.

 

Booked into 2 Bedroom ATS on Allure for Europe, now shifted to Wonder.  Email from TA (Costco) says I’m promised a rebook in “same or similar”.  However, there are three less Star class suites, so something has to give.

 

Option of “full refund” is bunk, as I have a huge FCC from a cancelled early 2021 cruise (that I booked in early 2019), and they will only refund new monies.

 

If downgrade occurs, it will likely be a big one.  Potentially all the way to a JS, which will not work for us (family of 4).  
 

As I’ve had a miserable experience with another RCL cruise (Also suite sailing this fall).  So, if I get a downgrade I would prefer to just be cashed out my FCC and walk, which I’m guessing they wouldn’t do.

 

All flights are booked (including other family on separate reservation).

 

What approach would you take?  What is the minimum you would need?

We are in a similar boat.  Owner's Panoramic Suite on the Allure, which does not exist on the Wonder.

There are 4 Star Class suites on the Allure that are not on the Wonder:  Owner's Panoramic Suite, Grand Panoramic Suite, and 2 Star Loft Suites.

There is one Star Class suite on the Wonder that does not exist on the Allure:  Ultimate Family Suite.

Our Owner's Panoramic Suite is similar in square footage to the Ultimate Family Suite, so that may be what we get, but I don't want that because I have no small children.  If I were to get the Ultimate Family Suite, I'll gladly swap that for a 2 bdrm ATS with a family with small children.

The good news for you is that there are the same number of 2-bdrm ATS suites on the Allure and Wonder, so you have a better chance of matching to the same suite.

But who knows what will happen.

We are in the Owner's Panoramic Suite on the Allure--that suite does not exist on the Wonder.

Our TA called in to Royal and was informed we will be moved to the "same class" cabin--we'll see what that would be.

There are 3 more Star Class cabins on the Allure than on Wonder, I believe.

I wonder (no pun intended) how Royal will decide which 3 gets the royal shaft (pun intended).

We are in the Owner's Panoramic Suite 1 Bdrm--wonder what that suite maps to on the Wonder?

In looking at the Wonder deck plans, don't see an equivalent suite.

This is a 1,000 sqft suite that is larger than the Crown Loft Suites but smaller than the Royal Loft Suite.

Maybe the 2-bdrm Aqua Theater suites would be similar in terms of square footage and amenities

(Star Class)

1 hour ago, fstuff1 said:

12day cruise

 

it was around day 7.

i bought in for $1000 and cashed out for $2500.

went to cash in the chips because i fear losing $500 chips. (i've lost a $100 chip in my pocket before but luckily i found it 5min later.)

 

the cashier mgr remarked that she's running low on $100 bills but she gave me the $2500 in $100s.

2 days later, i exchanged $95 in chips and a $5 bill for a $100 bill. (i didnt want to walk around with so many loose chips in my pocket.)

she remarked that she wished i didnt do that.

 

This a ploy to keep me gambling? (much easier to return to casino to game if i have chips vs cash.)

if not, why would the cashier be running low on 100s? 

dont they replenish their tills the $ from the table games from the previous night?

 

If they are running low on 100s, that may mean many players were on a winning streak like you and cashed out.

Regarding the $ 95 in chips I suppose you could have bought another $5 chip, and exchanged for one black chip, and avoided having to interact with the cage manager.

Glad to hear you enjoyed the Apex and Viator excursions.

We'll be sailing in 11 days on the Apex and also are doing Viator excursions. 

Can't wait.

Celebrity has updated the Apex Healthy-at-seas protocol to permit independent tours in MYKONOS.

Previously, only cruise shorexes permitted.

This only helps those on the 9-18 and 9-25 sailings, and maybe those on the 9-11 sailing if they have not already been to Mykonos.

go to the Celebrity MoveUp Offer Tracker discussion above where people posts there MoveUp experiences.  They include dates accepted so you'll be able to see how far before the sailing the various MoveUp offers were accepted--it varies depending on sailing.

4 minutes ago, spiritkat090909 said:

Answer to my own question.... no to reprice.  Technically, if booked at casino discount, through their department, you can only upgrade after final payment and the best price guarantee does NOT apply.  However, I have heard of many, and was told by a different agent last month, that you could reprice for onboard credit if the price dropped, even after final payment.  This new guy was going to 'go to bat for me', however I just chose to UPGRADE to a higher category (S1) and instead of onboard credit, I got a smaller amount refunded outright.  Works for me.  SO many details and workarounds one has to know about. Sharing.

Thanks for sharing this.  I've always wondered whether I could reprice my BCC-discounted fare if it dropped--now I know and won't bother calling.