livylotte

We have hired a car. 

Not working for me either.

WOW!

Thank you so much for this.  I've literally just got off the phone.  The rep added this package to my invoice so nothing to pay today 🙂

I had no problem getting this deal, I just said I was calling from the UK and she tapped into it straight away.

Amazing - thank you again.

Just adding my experiences to the thread and to vent.

RC doesn't make price drops easy does it?  I'm on my 3rd agent today and she's just put me on hold for the 2nd time.   I specifically asked for a price drop and she keeps quoting CWC T&C at me.

Well, yes - I do know I booked after March 31 - that's why I didn't ask about CWC 🙄 

And to rub salt into the wound, she's just confirmed how much I could have saved if only I'd booked earlier. 

I may have to give up for today and try someone else tomorrow. 

I really despair sometimes.

Mykonos can be very windy and the seas surrounding it can be unpredictable. We’ve been on 2 cruises that stopped at Mykonos and both were disrupted.
The first was cancelled due to high winds and we had to sail onto our next port Ephesus early for an overnight stop.

The second time should have been an early morning tender but the weather had other ideas. After a rocky morning at sea, the winds had dropped enough for us to be able to port. Lucky for us we departed later than originally planned so we were able to enjoy the beautiful sunset as we sailed away. 

So just a heads up really to have a plan B just in case.  Have a lovely cruise - Mykonos is one of my favourite Greek isles.

Christmas Day onboard ship. What can we expect?

We will be in Saint Lucia on Christmas Day.  Planning on getting off the ship and taking an excursion but what will be happening onboard?

Would love to hear your Christmas Day stories. Does Santa come? Is there a special Dinner?

18 hours ago, missaud said:

Are you using Royals flights or are you flying in on your own?  We are going next year and when I booked the cruise on board our last cruise I was told Royal was going to have flights and hotels 

Re flights - I have been trying to get through to someone at RC for the best part of a week to sort out a problem regarding cruise credits and I’ve just about lost the will to live - I don’t think I could cope with any more phone calls.

Fortunately, one of my DCs is able to get a discount with an airline so I we went with that.

For the hotel, I’ve booked with one of those online booking sites and can cancel anytime until the day before.

I did have a quick look online at RC flights and they looked roughly about the same price as booking direct with the airlines but they only showed flights arriving same day of the cruise.

Thanks all. Now I can plan our beach day 😎

We are sailing on Rhapsody from Barbados in December and departure is 10pm.

What time should we be boarding? Would we have to board at the usual mid day time? What time would muster be on a late sailing?

Normally we are first in line to get onboard but we have never been to Barbados so we’d quite like to spend the day on a nice beach somewhere before boarding.  Is this doable? Flying in the day before so won’t have much time in Barbados.

On 7/29/2021 at 1:55 PM, 2chiefs said:

Year after year, it's the same party on every cruise. It's getting a little stale for me,

Anyone else like to see it go away?

No never

Brilliance.

For the lovely outside windjammer.

For all the glass and sea views everywhere.

But most of all for the aft balconies.

Dealbreaker is price.  A cruise at any cost is not for me.

Brilliance Deck 9 aft.  First cruise on RC.

Snap.

Apart from the cabin - we were in 9660 😁

Ours was way back in 2008, we've sailed on many more RC ships since then but nothing beats that first time with that amazing view on the best ship we have ever sailed on.  

Re reserving shows - they didn't do it way back then but in Covid times it could be different.

In normal times a cruise round the British Isles would definitely not be on my bucket list.

But oh my goodness 🙃 MSC Virtuosa embarkation from Liverpool.  I am seriously tempted.  

Come on RC please announce Harmony from Liverpool too.

It took just days for them to refund in full my deposits for 3 cabins for our August cruise on Odyssey from Rome. So its not always about the sailing date. 

7 minutes ago, Sunshine3601 said:

We are still undecided.  I want the aug 10th sailing to meet everyone on here, but Eric likes the itinerary for the july 31st.   I told we have to decide this weekend and I know he will eventually tell me, just pick the one i want.

Hi Sunshine please could you tell me where the itineraries and prices are listed? 

We are very interested in booking this.

A good news story to balance out all the bad.  Our Odyssey cruise out of Rome in August this summer was cancelled on the 1st March.  I requested a refund of my deposit for 3 cabins (£900) which I did online and received an email confirming my refund was being processed and would take 45 days.  Today, 18th March I received my credit card statement and the refund was there.  It was processed on the 9th March.  So it took just 9 days.  Amazing, I really didn't expect that.  

In terms of port and ease of getting from airport to ship then Barcelona is the easiest and nicest port.

There is much excitement in the Lotte household. FIL 82 had his first dose of the Phizer vaccine yesterday. He got the call last week but was unable to get to the vaccination centre for that one so had to reschedule.  2nd jab is on 7th Jab. 

So that's one of us going cruising next year 😁

The 4/5 nights on Adventure in the Med could be interesting for a b2b if they mix up the ports. But not so interesting if the 5 nighter is just an extra sea day. 

I could quite happily stay onboard and not get off as long as I could benefit from a few days sunshine.   But as I would be sailing from the UK I would want to be heading south,  somehow  I don't think a 7 day cruise would be long enough.

If sunshine is not top of your list then a Fjords cruise would be nice.  There are plenty of fjords I would be happy to sail in and out of without stepping foot on dry land.

And of course heading further north there are always the northern lights which don't require anyone getting off.

On 8/19/2020 at 9:22 PM, bigeck said:

I've been trying to find what Adventure is doing in October '21.

No transatlantic or repo has been released,

Any ideas??

On UK site

October 14th 2021

12 night Southampton to Miami

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8703133/First-major-post-coronavirus-cruise-departs-Italy-new-strict-safety-restrictions.html

Here is another report.

Thank you for replying.  RC are so frustrating to deal with when there is a problem!  And I used to love that bouncy happy music they play when you call them - now it drives me insane!

Grr! August 2021 is a long time to wait for a confirmation invoice for a booking that was made in June 2020.  

All I want is to have the price I am going to be paying confirmed somewhere in writing because without a confirmation  invoice I have nothing. 

If they are able to adjust the price at final payment - why can they not do it now?  They are still going to run into the problem of no solo guarantees next year.  I really don't want to be sorting this at final payment.

Re base fare - I  know it's usually the same price solo as it is for 2  but  I got a good deal on my original cruise and the base fare for 1 person was lower.  It was cheaper to have one single passenger in the cabin than 2. That is why I booked for just one person.

I do have an invoice but it is the very first one that was generated when they first  did the L&S and it shows the current Odyssey price at the time which is much higher.  As it stands I have an invoice for nearly 2.9k for a cabin that should be costing  1.2k

Rant over 😉

I am going to call the C&A free phone number and give it one last try but if not my complaint is still in progress.

7 hours ago, Biker19 said:

Keep calling if you want an invoice, but it may not be resolved until you are at final payment time. It is very unlikely you'll see a GTY for solo - RCI doesn't usually offer it. No one will be removed at cabin assignment time - you'll need to pay the taxes for the second person which you'll get back after check in.

I don't understand?

L&S T&C is that the original price/deal is protected.

Why do I have to pay more for a guest that I didn't book for? 

My original booking was for one person. The second person has been added by RC in the L&S process.