Engineroom Snipe

You are correct and I did not word my question well. I was asking about changing my Next Cruise original booking designating TA "1" to TA "2". Someone answered the question but thank you for a correct answer to my first poorly worded question.

This was an excellent birds-eye review. Thank you.

I never tried to transfer my initial booking. Can it be done?

Your post is what I have to contemplate. There are so many vacation possibilities. The ideal vacation comes down to $xxxx amount per day per person. I have been cruising since 1988 with RCI on Nordic Prince for a 10 day honeymoon made in heaven. Some people have given their honest opinions that RCI is heading into the future which will leave us behind. I can understand that, every generation clings to their past and memories. So many songs have been written in so many ways, "Dance with the one who brought you to the dance." (Shania Twain, 1993). I think RCI needs to listen to this song before I cruise three cruises this year. RCI has three dances this year before I need to make a decision. Maybe it is time to move on. 😐

I will argue that the cruise prices in 82 days are MUCH higher than what you paid a year ago. I wish people would stop posting these prices. They are not relevant now..

The only major perk is putting $200 deposit instead of $500 deposit. Yes, you can get a OBC from $25 to much more but that requires a balcony or suite reservation of seven days or more. One way it can work in your favor. You are very interested in a specific cruise in a specific cabin for a special occasion. Put $200 down for two and roll the dice. You have up to 90 days before the cruise to make the final decision. Should things change, you are only out $200 which would have been the penalty for changing your reservation for two persons! You gambled $200 for a potential $2600 cruise which did not happen. I would call that very cheap insurance.

January out of where? Anthem sails only from Bayonne to the best of my knowledge and bookings. When did you lock down the prices? What is the current cost of your cruise to someone who is looking for it right now? What is total cost? The basic cabin fare and taxes? Does that include gratuities? Does that include taxes? Does that include parking? Does that include airfare? I love these numbers, please clue me in. The first and second day of your trip, what will be the outside temperatures of your balcony? The second to last day of your trip, what will be the outside temperatures of your balcony? Will it be usable in a balcony sort or way on those days? You paid $2800 for eight usable days but how many days are sitting over at a port like Bermuda and not moving? Let's look at paying at least $25 per day for parking. This is a best case scenario assuming your are within driving distance and do not need any sort of airfare. Please frame such a quote with all of the associated discounts, caveats, and factual information. I am VERY interested and want to imitate your extremely frugal cruise. I want to learn from an expert on this board. Show me the cruise, date, port, and how I can get such a great deal. Please, I need your help. Otherwise, stop posting nonsense.

I had one in April on Anthem and it was a quality cruise in all ways. My Oasis in September was found wanting. I will appreciate your report. 🙂

Yes, yes, and yes. Need I say more?

Even in the fog of the premium beverage package, let us receive a limited view of your perception of dining. Since you have a specialty dining package, it is even more pertinent to get your viewpoint. I always value first person reviews, "The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly". (1966. Sergio Leone director, Eastwood, Van Cleef, and Wallach).

No argument about your post from myself. These snippets are statements you will read over and over to justify higher prices on CC with once-a-day room service and reduced MDR food availability (compared to cruises of less than five years ago). I have three cruises booked for this year at very reasonable prices. All of them are now being sold for 100% to 110% more than I booked them. I have to wait and see how they go. I would not expect to pay 100% more than pre-pandemic prices and see service and meal quality deteriorate.

This was my evaluation too. Short and to the point. I have watched the prices rise by exactly your quoted numbers in the past year. Everyone keeps saying, inflation, post-pandemic financing of debts, staff hard to find, "RCI is entitled to make a profit", the law of supply and demand, etc., etc. I do not have problems with those arguments. I expect the increased prices to overcome any of these difficulties and at least get us back to pre-pandemic service and food. Surely, 35% to 100% increases in cruise prices should be able to do this.

Oh, I hope this is not the case on my cruises. If nothing else, I could always make a meal from the salad bar. 😭

If they cannot accommodate such a humble request, we are all doomed. 😉

I started to laugh when I saw "krab" as in Crusty the Crab's Krabby (sic) Patties! (Spongebob Squarepants) 😁 Except their Crabbie Patties were supposed to be delicious to the point of addiction. 🤯

After reading factual feedback from recent cruisers like yourself in this thread, RCI's main reason for limiting items to the menu was to decrease the time of the total meal experience. In doing so, the assumption was the meals would be delivered faster (and hot). So far, it appears that it is starting to be a change without rewards for the customers. 🤨

There are multiple postings about how a three-night package makes sense on smaller ships that only have one or two special dining options. Eating in the same restaurant every night tends to defeat the purpose of trying different meals (almost like MDR for extra money). I would most likely use this option on one cruise before expanding it to an unlimited package.

My April 2022 cruise on the Anthem and September 2022 cruise on the Oasis, reflect your experiences. The Anthem was an 8.5 and the Oasis was a 5.0 on a one to ten scale. This was before any menu changes. 🤔

My wife makes the best mashed potatoes, an artform she learned from her mother. I can see you now in front of the serving dish marked, "Mashed Potatoes", taking one look 🤔, are those mashed potatoes or baked potatoes? "What, no gravy?" 😖 It will be a long walk to the dining table after that. 😭

I have an inside guaranteed cabin fully paid for (most people do by about 90 days before their cruise.). My invitation to bid came via my TA yesterday, 74 days before the cruise. I put in minimum bids but the likelihood of cabins being free is very low. Almost any current offering is for "inside, connecting inside, outside, and connecting outside. Even those seem to be "grayed out" (unavailable) every other day when I do mock bookings. Two of the offerings only have one cabin each onboard. Ultra-Spacious Ocean view and Spacious interior (about 233 square feet as opposed to 147 square feet). I just need a place to sleep, shower, and change on this trip. Oceanview balconies were an option, but the starting bid was $700 for two people. On this particular cruise, I was looking for a different itinerary and low price. I would have paid upfront for a balcony knowing they are in short supply on smaller and older vessels, but it was not important enough to justify the price in my evaluation. Your chances of getting a neighborhood balcony GTY on an Oasis class is much better than mine. 😜 i would not get my hopes too high since the occupancy levels have been at 100%+ this year.

Even better, just stare at them from 1000 yards away. 😁

As far as the clogs go, forensic plumbers will be brought in and use DNA analysis (yes, small intestine villi constantly slough off with the you know what during the digestive process). The truth always comes out in the end 😁. If necessary, RCI will spend more than the fine just to embarrass you from doing it again. Messing with RCI's plumbing will put you in arrears 😯with them. Enough said on that subject. The current lifeboat seating design which piles them three high was created by a penny-pinching bean counter who said, "What choice will they have anyway? They either cram themselves aboard, like sardines in a floating can, or they can go down to Guest Services to complain and get an OBC (knowing that the OBC is only good for the current cruise)."😬 And NO, @Biker19, they will not have enough time to transfer the OBC to the casino and cash out. 🤣

"I refuse to get into the lifeboat unless I can vape freely." 😤 The remarks and retorts from that captive crowd will probably make anything said here look truly diplomatic and tame. 🤣🤪

Your husband could easily change careers and be a professional negotiator or marriage counselor. Sounds like a win-win situation. Smart Man. 🤓

There are design limitations of what angle (list) the lifeboats can be deployed. In the case of the Concordia, the decision to launch the lifeboats should have been made far ahead of this angle of limitation. While I am a mechanical engineer, hydrodynamics and static release angles are best answered by a marine architect. All of the lifeboats I have observed during my walks are designed to be launched absent of ship's power. If you notice on your next cruise, they rest upon angled slides so that gravity will move them away from the ship at the appropriate moment. This is where the list of the ship is important. If the ship's list is greater than the designed angle, the lifeboat would have to be "pushed off". A fully loaded lifeboat on the Oasis class is 45 tonnes (just over 100,000 lbs!). It weighs more than a fully loaded 16-wheel tractor trailer. They are not designed to be "pushed off". There are also life raft canisters that look like big plastic barrels. The ship has these for the crew and extra ones in case of emergencies such as a lifeboat failing to deploy. Even if the ship sinks, these canisters have special automatic releases that sense water pressure and will float to the surface and deploy. You will also notice that there is a wire from the special release mechanism. This wire can serve two purposes, one is to monitor the release mechanism and notify the bridge that a canister was deployed. Some canisters have a small mechanical charge which can be remotely activated by the bridge BEFORE the ship goes under water to release them at will. There are a few on this site who might be better equipped to answer this question.