vjmatty

Congratulations! I believe specialty restaurants are only included with Royal Suites and above. As for the drinks and WiFi, did you buy them in the cruise planner or with an AI booking? If from the cruise planner you can cancel, but if it’s part of AI then that’s in your cruise fare and you’re stuck with it.

No, but maybe if a family member is dying, or a dog has to be euthanized, you can see them or speak to them one more time. I know that I was glad to say goodbye to my dog when she had to be put down, and waiting for us to return from vacation would have been cruel and painful for her.

Were there no connecting insides available?

Thanks…. I kind of figured that they’d be applied independent of the deposit but wasn’t sure.

It usually involves some type of credit card benefit or not wanting to have a high CC balance after your vacation. Same reason why some prefer to prepay gratuities.

And with my back and knee issues I’d probably have to sit on the toilet to access anything down there.

On our last cruise we were given FCC’s for a faulty jacuzzi, equal to 25% of the cruise fare with a one year deadline. If the FCC’s are used on a new booking with a refundable deposit, will they be lost if I decide later to change the sailing date? In other words, does the refundability include the FCC’s?

I know a lot of people are thinking that these cruises are appealing to those who already spend on high priced Disney cruises and park vacations. However, I’m guessing those customers already have some loyalty status with Disney and kids who worship the mouse, so I’m not sure if RC’s plan isn’t naive from a marketing standpoint. What incentive are they offering these presumed cash cows?

I wasn’t talking about ambient background music. I’m referring Io blaring music that is loud enough to impede conversation. In an unused room, not during a concert or dance class.

I think in order to have quiet locations like that, you’d also have to get the crew to turn off the piped in music that seems to fill every unused common area. I remember getting up early on Enchantment and heading to Lattitudes where the music in the atrium was blaring at 6am.

I did that in a diner once….it was bad enough this dude was being loud on his end but when his food came he put in on speakerphone, and the person on the other end was even louder. So when she started talking about what kind of wine to pick up from the liquor store I recommended a nice Assyrtiko from Santorini. The guy in the diner looked at me like I had just insulted his mother but thankfully turned off the speakerphone. I’ll never know if they took my wine recommendation 🤷🏻‍♀️

Those can be very misleading numbers. At any given time I can have near that much CC “debt” even though it’s only current balances which I pay off every month. Travel card users often put their entire spending on points and miles cards, including gas, groceries utilities, insurance, auto repairs and drug stores. The other 25k can easily be an auto loan these days, or the remaining balance on two cars that are a year or two old. Gen Xer here, though to CC companies I’m a deadbeat because I don’t pay any interest 😂

I was surprised at first to read that, then I remembered that Cruise Critic only represents a few percent of the cruising population, so I guess it makes sense.

This entire website is about first world topics and problems. Cruising is decidedly first world.

Yeah I’m surprised at how many are unaware of or simply ignoring that fact.

They’ll make me book alright, with a different cruisline if nothing is available now on RC ships 🤷🏻‍♀️

Usually it does since that’s what they start and end with.

True, there is a big difference between Turkish people and Turkish government. The people are kind and friendly, not interested in hostility or politics. Even as a Greek I’ve had no negative interactions, and I’ve been to many regions in Turkey on numerous occasions. I was in Cappadocia a few years ago and talking to one of the restaurant owners who was Turkish-American, born in NJ. He told me some of the local government officials were giving him a hard time about the cafe umbrellas having beer logos on them. Also cities like Istanbul, which is so diverse it could be Earth’s capital, have just about every religion represented in different neighborhoods. You’re not going to see the level of monotheism as you’d find in Hamas run countries, regardless of what the president says. Turkey lives on tourism and relies on its international population. It’s trying to get into the EU. The joke is that Turkish Airlines is already a member, and when our recent flight home to NY from Venice on October 16 had its stopover in Istanbul, airport security was at a level I’ve never seen, even since 9/11. Multiple passport checks at the gate, manual carryon searches, and you couldn’t leave the gate area once you’d been processed. There were some Hasidic passengers also waiting to board, and I figured if they felt safe enough to travel through Istanbul, who was I to worry my Greek Orthodox ass 🤷🏻‍♀️

Thanks for all of this information. We’re booked on the 18 day WB transatlantic so I’m not sure if we will get much use of the balconies, although the fact that the aft is separate from the side may keep the aft section more protected from the wind. I followed up with Princess using the chat function. They said it can’t be changed to queen on the booking, but once we get there, if the cabin attendant hasn’t figured it out already I can ask to have it switched. It seems to be an automatic setting based on most cabins having the third bed drop from the ceiling over the main bed and needing to put the ladder between the twins.

I’m sorry it’s an S4, not S2…. the Amalfi Suite L721. The photos all show a queen bed and the sofa bed has plenty of room to open since it’s in a separate area. ETA: When I originally booked it for just the two of us it allowed a queen, but when I added the third passenger it switched to twin and won’t let me change it.

Hubby and I are sailing Island Princess next year in an S2 along with our adult son. The living room has a sofa bed in a separate room from the bedroom, and there is plenty of space in the suite for all of us, yet I can’t get the bed configuration changed to queen. Does anyone know what the issue is with this?

I’m glad I’m not the only one whose mind went there 😉

If they choose evening service they’re not making the bed, just folding it up in the morning. It’s once a day service, not none a day service.

Seriously…. it takes what, 30 seconds to fold up a sofa bed?

Your cruise is over. Not necessarily the whole vacation. Either way, it’s better that not everyone wants to be off first. People like the poster you’re criticizing actually make it easier for you to get off earlier, so be glad they exist 🤷🏻‍♀️