loman

Depending on the time of the year when you sail , it could be dark outside which may take away the appeal of a window seat.

I , for one do not participate in this program for the simple reason as i dont want a cabin under the pool deck . This would seriously impact my happiness, as the deck chairs get dragged around in the early hours of the morning.

I select my cabin and stick with it . 

Others dont mind getting less than desirable cabin locations though.

And i suspect they will most likely be the ones left over for the royal up program.

Although some may get lucky and snag a good location.

Good luck to you . 

Waste of time in my opinion.

I like the bed by the balcony as you dont walk into the bed as you enter .

I just logged into to Celebrity for the first time with my RC login .

Im Elite status ( match with my Diamond status on RC )

Had an issue several years ago on Oasis . Guy decided to jump off the ship on the last night.

Looked a little fishy as his partner had his phone set up to record the whole thing.

He jumped off the balcony and landed on top of the life rafts, but it was raining and made the top

of the rafts slippery. He ended up dangling on the arm that holds the raft in place before he let

go and down he went. Dont think they ever found him.

Anyway , we ended up getting into port a few hours late. There were many people

on the royal promenade trying to get off . It was a bit of a cluster**** with lots of nervous pax.

I had a12 oclock flight so no issue for me. 

Although this does not happen very often , have a solid plan B if you have an early flight.🙂

You are correct . They want a voucher for a Baileys if you arent within the 5 - 8 pm time frame.

The truth is , if you find ocean view balconies are close in price to the inward facing balconies 

and you can swing the difference , get the ocean view.

No noise  and you can keep your curtains open.

I tried a boardwalk cabin when Oasis was a new ship for the novelty , but it was one and done.

Went back to ocean view after that.

We have sailed the various classes of RC ships and settled on Oasis class for the same reasons posted by other cruisers.

We dont even look at other class of ships anymore. ( will try Icon class in the future )

Symphony would be our choice.

I typically pay one week in advance , just in case something goes wrong so i have time to

correct it. ( nothing ever went wrong 🙂 )

23 minutes ago, Biker19 said:

You are two years late for that - RCI had a promo during the COVID restart when booking solo got you 4 points per night.

Ah yes , i recall getting 4 points per night when i booked a crown loft on Allure during that 

promo for the two of us. The suite was also heavily discounted at the time.

1 hour ago, Ourusualbeach said:

On the website there is rarely the option.  Most time is just says balcony guarantee and the invoice does not show XN or XB.  It is really only those booking through a TA that get that option and only the TA invoices that show the actual categories

If i may , i would like to hijack this thread to ask you a question, as i know you are an expert in all things RC .🙂

If i were to book two balcony cabins ( the connecting kind ) , one for me and one for my wife,

and we go as solo , one person in each of the cabins , i know we get double points for booking solo , but might we get quadruple points ? ( we are both Diamond if that matters )

And one other question, is there group rates for connecting ocean view  balcony rooms ?

Looking at Symphony .

Many thanks in advance .

Or , parents can down grade to a JS and buy the UDP for everybody

so that they could dine together at a specialty restaurant every night .

Throw in a drink package for everybody too,  and have a ball.

I wouldnt  find it too much of an inconvenience if i werent allowed into the Crown lounge 

during happy hour . 

I only want a couple of expressos during the day and happy hour isnt the time of day that i want one , so no problem for me.

I use my diamond drink vouchers at other locations. 

Unless you use it as a meeting place with others , I dont see the appeal of the lounge now that you have to use your vouchers if you want a drink.

We had 645 MTD on Harmony . 

We would show up at 6 pm and the concierge would find us a two top table on any of the 3 dining rooms and we we would be seated in minutes , as there were no shows from early fixed dining.

There were no lines and as long as you dont mind a different table and waiters it worked well for us . 

4 minutes ago, Sunshine3601 said:

They do offer a shuttle bus to EWR, not sure about other airports.   They only offer the shuttle if your flight is after 12 pm

How much is the charge per person and what are the departure times please ?

i was assuming you used it , if not , no worries

I needed tums once. Got them in Cozumel . Paid about 2 bucks more than typical price.

1 hour ago, BecciBoo said:

 It's really nice to be totally unpacked at 2pm

 

We choose to check ours, I hate to schlep bags around, we always get the earliest arrival appt. times so I know our bags are first on the ship, hence almost always waiting for us when we enter the room...and we are always unpacked  by 2.  My BFF says they live out of their opened luggage on the couch and never pack or unpack, but with my OCD I must have a place for everything and everything in its place hidden away.  Our cabin is always neat as a pin.  I'm a bit strange like that....🙄

Yep . our cabin is very neat also . We even go as far as pull up the bed covers so it looks partially made. No clothes lying around , and everything put away .

You walk by some open doors and it looks like a crime scene .

Feel sorry for the stewards having to work around that mess.

I dont bring any extra crap. I like to travel light .

Cash and a credit card on hand if anything comes up .

Check with some travel agents , as they may have group rates and they could be lower than published rates by the cruise lines .

I booked a cruise close to the sail date once. 

The RC rep taking the reservation offered a handicap cabin to me and told me that someone who would actually need that type of cabin typically books well in advance and are not last minute planners.

7 hours ago, cruiseguy1016 said:

 

You each get one 24 hr. period of free internet. Those 2 sessions can be used back to back or a few days apart. What a lot of us do is; one of you log in at 2:00 or 3:00 in the afternoon. Now you have 24 hrs. from that point on so you will have access to the internet for a good part of 2 days. Then your spouse logs in on another day using the same scenario. That way you'll have internet access for a good portion  of 4 days

This is what we do closer to the end of the cruise so we can do our boarding passes.

I cruise in the fall also . We went western caribbean  instead of eastern once .

Nicely done ! 

Thanks for sharing .

The porter that takes your bags can tag your bags with your room number .

They would most likely be expecting a tip . 

I tip 5 bucks for two bags as i print mine at home and have them staple them to my bags.