JillK

Have been on the Escape twice in cabins 10842 (regular balcony) and 11856 (angled balcony). Both well located and comfortable with no noise. 

I just went through the process of price comparison the other day for NCL and ended up booking in USD as I had CruiseNexts in that currency to use up.

In looking at the NCL site which only displays Canadian dollars (really should be able to choose like you can on Royal's site) I can't say for certain but based on my calculations (completely unscientific) it appears to be in the neighbourhood of 1.25. 

In USD their airfare is coming in at $149 and in Canadian it is $186.24. Likewise, their airport transfers are $75 USD but is $93.76 Cdn. 

Best bet would be to give them a call or start a chat on their website to verify. 

My family of six were supposed to cruise over March Break last year. We cancelled three days before the ship was due to sail not knowing the cruise lines would cease operations two days later.

As such we have a credit to use up and have decided to do a cruise to the Med next August with our teenaged daughters and one to Alaska in 2023 with our sons. 

I am in the process of booking one for all six of us next March break out of NYC which we hope will be a go but we are prepared to cancel should things not look good through the fall. Also this is with NCL and their current policy is all guests must be fully vaccinated. Our sons are under 12 and if they don't change the policy as things progress, we will have to cancel as they will not be able to sail (unless of course the vaccines become approved for the kids in the interim).

You've gotten a lot of good advice here already but I will add my opinion as well.

We aren't foodies and don't care for fancy food. I just expect my food to be served the correct temperature and seasoned well. I don't cruise Royal as frequently as most people who post on this board but in my experience the food in the MDR is very good. In fact, we were more impressed with our meals in the MDR on the Oasis than we were in our experience in the Italian place which we found was disappointing.

For the past ten years we typically book the steakhouse for the first night of the cruise regardless of the cruise line and enjoy them all (Royal, NCL, Carnival). 

On our cruise aboard the Brilliance the wait staff from the speciality restaurants were coming around the buffet area during lunch and offering discounted specialty experiences. I don't know if this is typical or perhaps their bookings were down for that cruise in particular (British Isles) but certainly there is a chance that you can book on board at a discount. 

Like others have suggested, your best bet may be to only book on board after a few nights once you've had a chance to experience the MDR food. You might find you are completely satisfied and have no desire to do a specialty or conversely, your curiosity might be piqued. 

Either way - believe me when I tell you that you will not go hungry and will no doubt find plenty of offerings that you will enjoy.

Happy cruising! 

57 minutes ago, RobInMN said:

 Hmm. Apparently CruiseCritic doesn't allow direct messages.😡

Pre-pandy, I sent an email to a friend of a friend with our recommendations, thoughts and reviews. I have made a few adjustments to make it more general and just attached that to this message. And this way I am not posting direct links to specific companies & listings (links are in the attached file). Looks like Ourusualbeach stayed in the same neighborhood and loved the place they found also. 

Rome Recommendations.txt 6.73 kB · 6 downloads

Thanks so much! We have lots of research to do in advance but I love that part of the planning. I feel more comfortable with recommendations from people who have personally experienced it so I appreciate your help.

We know that we won't have time to see everything Rome has to offer but wanted to devote enough days to get in plenty. Will just have to plan another trip down the line without the kiddos in the future. 

16 hours ago, RobInMN said:

We had an Airb2b about 3 blocks from the Vatican. It was a little cheaper than most hotels I looked at that seemed "decent" by American standards, plus it had a washer & dryer (and A/C) since we were there a week. It was also about 2 blocks from 2 Metro stations. We felt like we could get anywhere in about 20-30 minutes using the Metro. It also seemed like we were in "normal" Rome, outside of the real touristy spots. A bit slower, and more quiet. I would totally stay there again, and I've recommended it to a friend of a friend who was going there. So while there could be safety or nightlife or other things to take into consideration, if you are just looking for a decent place to sleep after a day of sight seeing, convenient to metro would be one of my main considerations. The Airb2b company even arranged private transfer from the airport and to port for us. Super convenient. I don't know what the rules are about posting businesses, but I'd be happy share in a private msg. Same for tour companies, I would totally recommend the one that we booked for our Rome tours. 

 

For Barcelona, as I've previously mentioned, not nearly the fan others are, but for a single day highlight tour, we were good with the Gaudi one that RC does. At the very least, I'd say it's a good default or starter. 

Following this thread as my husband, myself and two teenaged daughters are going on the Allure next July from Civi but are planning 6 days/5 nights in Rome. Would love to get your recommendations for the airbnb you used and any tours you felt would recommend. 

Many thanks! 

K

I have stayed in a connecting cabin without being "connected" to the folks next door twice. In both cases, I had booked a guarantee cabin category. 

The first time it was in an oceanview cabin on the Carnival Victory and we had very minimal issue with noise. Only heard them once or twice the entire week. 

The second time was in a boardwalk neighbourhood balcony cabin on the Oasis and sound was an issue. We could hear every time they opened/closed their bathroom door and also the toilet flush. If they were having a conversation at the hallway in front of their bathroom we could hear the entirety of their conversation or if one person was there speaking to the other further in the cabin, we could hear half the conversation. We could often tell when they were coming and going as we could heard their outside door closing. They were not being overly loud, per se (no yelling or slamming) - it's just that we could hear a lot including when they were getting offers on their home that they were in the process of selling! 

We have to assume that they could likewise hear the same amount of noise from us. 

As we were on vacation without our children, we were enjoying later nights than we would at home and were hoping to sleep in. Unfortunately, their morning began at 6:00 am sharp with bathroom routine and conversation and we came ended up coming home utterly exhausted. Because of that experience, we will not book connecting cabins unless we are travelling with the people in the connected cabin.

Ironically, most times when I am trying to book connecting cabins for our family of 6, I can't get them and I usually book 18 - 24 months in advance! 

I also noticed the same notification when I logged into myncl yesterday and am still seeing the message this morning.

My cruise is a run-of-the-mill Caribbean 7 nights on the Joy for early December 2021.

As we are a family of six, we have two cabins booked under two different latitudes profiles and they are both showing the same message.

Wondering if payment method made a difference to seeing this message or not?

In our case, both cabins were booked with CruiseNext certificates. 

1 hour ago, Ourusualbeach said:

You’re existing FCC’s will be reissued with an apply by date of April 30, 2022 and a sail by date of Sept 30, 2022

Ok that's what I was hoping to hear in response to my query of my agent, not an outright cancellation which I neither requested or authorized. 

Not sure how I am going to handle this moving forward but thank you for the insight! 

1 hour ago, smokeybandit said:

Time for a new TA if they misread your email and outright canceled it without confirming first.

Yes absolutely. I have zero intention of re-booking through them in the future. 

I was very taken aback when I received the cancellation notification instead of an answer to my question. At no point did I direct them to cancel, I simply asked what "cruise by" date would be applicable in my case should we elect to. Yikes! 

Feeling frustrated right now.... I had booked a cruise for early December when the "cruise by" date for FCC's was December 31, 2021 (we cancelled two days before Royal did in March last year so no option of refund).

I read this morning that the "cruise by" date has now been moved to September 2022 so I sent my travel agent a note asking if we were to cancel the current booking (deposited using our FCC's) what would the sail by date for the FCC's be (wanted to know what my window for travel would be).

Rather than reply, I have received notification that my cruise has been cancelled and that if I qualify for credits, they will be issued within 30 days.

Before I even bother to go back to them , does anyone have any idea what I can expect if I don't have them reverse the cancellation that I never requested or authorized (ie- new FCCs issued with a sail by date of .....)? 

Thanks in advance for any insights! 

Can anyone confirm for me that I can use my FCC either directly with Royal or with a travel agent that is different from the one with whom I had the cancelled cruise booked originally? 

I have booked a cruise (refundable deposit) using my FCCs but we are now looking at something different. I am getting fed up with existing agent (long story) and would like to deal with someone else for the new booking if possible. 

Wanted to be sure I can port these to anyone before I pull the plug and have them re-issued.

Thanks! 

My mom was dealing with Celebrity to book a cruise using an FCC for a non-refundable deposit she had been issued for a cancelled cruise (she cancelled). As her and my father are in their 70's, she booked a refundable fare for her new booking in case they are not able to travel (spring 2022). The agent she was dealing with suggested that they would be better off booking the non-refundable fare as it was almost $500 cheaper. The agent told her that because the new booking would be covered by Celebrity's version of "Cruise With Confidence," should they need to cancel, only the deposit would be issued in FCC with the standard expiration (so in effect, extending their current expiration) and the rest of the cruise fare would be refunded to original payment method.

Does anyone know if the same would hold true for a booking with Royal? I am pricing to use up my FCC and can't help but notice there is a large discrepancy between the non-refundable and refundable fares but generally don't book non-refundable as we travel with our four kids and sometimes, things happen (global pandemics aside of course).

Thanks! 

Just to add a comment here... hubby and I cruised on the Gem out of NYC last December. We booked the cruise with the free air promo that was running last spring.

The total price for the cruise whether I elected to take the flights or not was the exact same.

While they are running that particular promo, I figure they are taking a little bit from everyone in the cruise fare to cover the flights that do get booked, so I consider the flights we received as free since they were at no additional cost.

Once I received our flight assignment, I priced them and it would have cost us just shy of $1000 CDN to buy them (with little competition in Canada, our flights are expensive). 

19 hours ago, New Mexico 8 said:

Has anyone ever received a perk when  booking a  RC cruise???     We have been cruising around 15 years and have  booked three RCI cruses and have not been offered any perks. I don't  remember ever seeing them offer perks when booking. Someone posted they booked with a reduced deposit but I have not seen that. 

Just wondering ..

     

The only perk I get with either Royal or Carnival is a nominal on board credit when booking, usually at the $50 mark. I tend to get perks above and beyond a basic OBC with NCL and Celebrity. I did receive a bottle of champagne and a free specialty meal when I cruised on the Oasis but those were from of our travel agent, not the cruise line.

The cruise we were due to take in March with Royal had no incentives. All the cruises I am looking at using my FCC on are also being offered with no incentives. I do not count their sales promotion claims to be a perk.

1 minute ago, Ourusualbeach said:

Yes you can shift with an FCC applied BUT you cant shift to Dec 2022 as those itineraries aren't released. 

Ah, I see - so I would have to hope that the Lift & Shift policy is still in place once those itineraries are released in order for me to "extend" the FCC an extra year. 

Thanks so much! 

On 8/5/2020 at 5:50 PM, Ourusualbeach said:

If you cancelled under the CWC then it is still 12/21

 

if the cruise line cancelled then it is 04/22 but must be applied by 12/21

As I mentioned, I have used my FCC to book a cruise sailing 12/21 just weeks before their expiration. Am I able to use lift and shift to move it to 12/22 or does L&S apply only to those who have the 125% FCC (Royal cancelled, not them)? Super confused about this policy. Thanks as always for your insights! 

50 minutes ago, Ourusualbeach said:

If the kids are 12 and under you can call guest relations 800.256.6649 and they should be able to put a note on the FCC’s that will allow them to be used by another person.  Not sure if they will allow them to be stacked or not .  Over 12 and they must be used by the individual.

Thanks! 

Two are under 12 (and will still be at the expiration of the FCC) so maybe it's possible to look at cruise where they would be "free" if I can get Royal to move their funds to the rest of us. 

1 hour ago, Ourusualbeach said:

Unfortunately with FCC’s if they were issued because you cancelled they must be used by the guests named and amounts can’t be transferred.  If Royal had cancelled Royal will move money around to use them up.

Yeah that's what I figured. Really silly policy when it comes to guests under 18. They certainly didn't pay their fare themselves and can't cruise on their own! 

It's a frustrating situation all round.  I continue to wish we hadn't been tempted by the CWC offer and just hung in there. We'd now have a refund and wouldn't have to wonder what will happen down the road.

I agree with most here that it's a difficult situation for the cruise lines and do wonder how long they can remain viable with no ships sailing. 

On the other hand, although we cancelled our cruise a few days before sailing because (as Canadians) we were concerned about crossing the border, Royal did ultimately cancel the cruise themselves. At the time they thought the pause would only be a month. Now our time frame to use our FCC is reduced from a 20 month window to 14 month window and that doesn't even address the added wrinkle of the border not being open to non-essential travel (who knows when that will be lifted?)

We have tentatively booked something for December 2021 but would prefer if we could cruise in 2022 (which would have been our natural next cruise had the one this past March gone on successfully).

I feel that we are being forced to vacation when we don't want to in order not to loose the value of the FCCs. I'm also avoiding cruises that offer KSF as I don't know if I can shift my kids credit fully to myself (they sure didn't pay for their fare so I wonder if I could make a case?) 

That being said, in the grand scheme of things these are very small quibbles given the state of the world right now and I'm trying to remain hopeful that by a year's time things will be more settled and life will be closer to normal. My immediate concern is sending my four kids back to school in September!! 

2 hours ago, orville99 said:

I just did a Lift & Shift on a January 2021 cruise that had an FCC on it to a February 2022 cruise, and they re-applied the original FCCs to that cruise. There's been a long-standing debate on CC whether the expiry date on FCCs is "sail by" or "book by". Since you can now use FCCs to book new cruises, I'd call them and see if they will allow you to use the ones you have for the cruise you want.

Here is the wording in the email I received with my FCC amounts... It's definitely sail by. I would just want to be sure that I can roll over to another cruise as molly361 suggests without risk of losing the value. 

- Any booking made using the Cruise with Confidence FCC must be used for a sailing that commences on or before December 31, 2021.

- If the Cruise With Confidence FCC is not redeemed and sailed on or before December 31, 2021, the certificate will automatically expire and have no value.

Just read on twitter that Royal is extending L&S to September 30th so the pressure is off to make a move over the next week. 

Does anyone think there's a possibility that Royal could extend their sail by/expiration date for those of us who are holding FCC's with a "sail by" date of December 31, 2021?

In order to qualify for reimbursement for our cruise in March, we had to cancel 72 hours prior to sail day. We did so as we were concerned about the border closing and having to quarantine, cancelling on Wednesday (03/11) a cruise that Royal cancelled on Friday (03/13) when they suspended operations. If we only had a crystal ball, we wouldn't have cancelled so that we would have been able to get a full refund. As it stands, we are left holding FCC that expire end of next year.

At the time we were issued our FCC, Royal was anticipating a return to service on April 11th. We all know that date has now been pushed to the fall, and possibly to the end of the year.  Meanwhile, the US/Canada border has been closed with that closure extended several times (currently late Aug but there are media reports that it too will be pushed further, possibly to the end of the year). 

The opportunity to use my FCC has shrunk from a 20 month window to (as of today) a 14 month window and possibly smaller depending on how things develop in the fall with the cruise industry and the border situation. 

I would like to use the FCC to book a similar cruise as the one we missed this year for March 2022 - school break cruise with our four kids (last chance as that year is our eldest's last year in high school). Would not entertain March 2021 at this point, too much uncertainty. 

Any thoughts? 

16 hours ago, JoJo1008 said:

I got through in under 10 minutes but the customer service rep had to contact the Future Cruise Desk. That took 90 minutes on hold only to be told that when we cancelled in March for our July 15 cruise the Future Cruise Credit was only good for 12 months from issue (ours says May 28). I will let our TA sort this out but if they stick to the May 28 expiration date I will eat the $500 deposit and cruise with someone else in July 2021. 

That makes no sense.

We cancelled on March 10th for a cruise that was due to depart on March 15th (had we known they would suspend operations on March 13th we would have hung in for a full refund). 

We were issued our FCC's on March 26th. Here is the "small print" on that email: 

Just a heads up on some important information regarding FCCs:

• Please know, your credit is based on the penalty amount held on your cancelled reservation. If you see a lower value, you may have had a rate that lowered your cruise fare like our Kids Sail Free promotion or other BOGO offers.
• Valid on bookings created on or after March 6, 2020 and existing bookings not yet paid to full.
• Any booking made using the Cruise with Confidence FCC must be used for a sailing that commences on or before December 31, 2021.
• If the Cruise With Confidence FCC is not redeemed and sailed on or before December 31, 2021, the certificate will automatically expire and have no value.
• Future Cruise Credits are per person, per booking and valid only for the person noted above. FCCs are redeemable towards cruise fare only and are not valid on Complimentary cruises, Incentive bookings, and Charter sailings.
• All guests are responsible for taxes and fees, where applicable.
• Royal Caribbean International reserves the right to void the FCC Savings amount if the guest named above receives another form of compensation, including claiming through our travel protection. 
• If there is a remaining balance once you redeem your FCC, you'll receive the balance in a new FCC after you complete the sailing it is used to sail on.
• FCCs are only valid for the cruises on Royal Caribbean International ships, are not transferable, and may not be redeemed for cash.
• The Cruise with Confidence FCC cannot be redeemed to repurchase the same sailing where the original booking cancelled.
• Additional terms and conditions apply.

12 hours ago, Ourusualbeach said:

If you are over 70 or under 12 then you can transfer it to someone else. 

Well two of my kids were 13 and 15 at time of cancelled sailing and will be 15 and 17 for the one we are looking at booking. Even though they are over 12, I'm hopeful that Royal will allow some further flexibility as they are still minors and they cannot cross the border or cruise alone prior to the FCCs expiring. Will post back once I've had a determination to advise.