WeighAnchor

Thanks for the input everyone. I'll contact guest relations department and see what they say.

I have a family member who lives in Spain near one of the ports we are visiting, and I am contemplating staying overnight with them and meeting up with the ship at the next port call (also in Spain) the next day. Who at RC did you call for permission to do this, or did you ask once onboard the ship? Thanks!

I just thought I'd mention that RC's website is not accepting C&A numbers for suite, balcony and the DP340 single supplement discounts. I have tried multiple browsers and used both my C&A number and my wife's. Neither C&A number stays so it won't calculate the discounts. Hopefully their skilled IT department will get this fixed soon. 😄😄😄

What happened was unfortunate, but people do make mistakes. RC should own up to it by offering an apology and $50-$100 of OBC to the OP for the error and the temporary loss of access to the funds on their credit card.

You can book a "Next Cruise" on Celebrity Cruises while onboard a Royal ship (I have done this), but once booked and the money has been paid, it can only be changed if you purchased a refundable deposit and by canceling it before the final payment date and then rebooking. Although they do have the same parent company, they are still separate corporations. Once the money is on the books of one company, it would be an an accounting nightmare to switch it to the other.

5 hours ago, Coralc said:

Well, that stinks. I doubt if they will actually write to corporate. It sounds like they are just being pissy. Another CC member mentioned that it was sort of an unhappy ship on their recent sailing. 

I might add that it would be worth mentioning their attitude on your Guest Survey if this happens to someone else. DW and I got off the Barcelona-Port Canaveral TA on Harmony last month and I just told the SA when I was ready and he gave me a bag; no questions asked. I sent it and no charges appeared on our SeaPass account (we’re D+). Seems like Anthem might be the problem and not the rest of the fleet. 

As others have said, it’s not necessary, but it is very useful. You can check your charges to your SeaPass account from anywhere on the ship, make/cancel reservations for all the venues, and my favorite, check out the menu for every day of the cruise before you even leave home!

I am also a D+ and went on this same cruise with you. Royal Caribbean also still owes me for that lost night as well. Instead of being disappointed, I am thankful for being able to cruise again and on the only revenue transatlantic cruise that Royal offered this year. Even if I never see the $100 refund, it was well worth it to enjoy those 13 nights and get those double points. Not to mention that we did also get an extra $100 in onboard credit for the inconvenience. 

25 minutes ago, FionaMG said:

I hope you have more luck in that respect.

Thanks, me too! 🤞

Point of clarification: I am referring to buying a prepaid Internet package from the Cruise Planner (because of the Thanksgiving Sale going on right now). I already know that you can use the C&A credit as a discount to purchase Internet for the duration of the voyage after you’re aboard. The Cruise Planner currently has a cheaper price than doing this. 
 

@FionaMG looks like she has done what I am asking. I am going on the Liberty for a B2B in January and was looking to save some money, if it could be done. I will buy it and check in with the Voom desk and see what happens. 

I read that RCI no longer gives out login codes on prepaid Internet, but it shows up when signing in for the first time. My wife and I are both D+ and I was hoping to get one prepaid package for my wife and use both the D+ discounts on my account. Has anyone tried asking the Diamond Concierge or Guest Services to transfer the D/D+ credit from one account to the other account so it doesn’t get lost under these circumstances? If so, what happened?
 

Thanks!

4 hours ago, twangster said:

During the simulation cruises the lounges were closed but they needed to have the lounge crew experience the process so they did some invitation only events.  The purpose was so that lounge crew could practice a happy hour event.

 

The invitation only one per simulation cruise event was not an indication of what's to come, it was just done to offer a controlled test so that lounge crew could practice what they've been training for.  

The lounge was open everyday during our simulation cruise on the Oasis (6 nights). You could go in and get a coffee (served by a crewmember) and talk to the Diamond Concierge during his hours, if needed. They would also put out the happy hour buffet (also served by the crew) and served drinks each evening of the cruise for which you had to pay. The only night the drinks were free was the evening of the simulated happy hour.

DW and I returned last Saturday from the Oasis 6 Night Simulation Cruise. While onboard, D+ and Pinnacle received an invitation to a “simulated happy hour”. From 5PM to 8PM they had the traditional happy hour for that one evening in the Diamond Lounge.  An email was sent out this week from Michael Bayley (and was posted to the web somewhere) that there would be a “D+/Pinnacle Top Tier Event” as part of the Comeback plans. Based on these two things, I am hoping that we will get at least one night to party like the good ol’ days. Here’s hoping!

I entered us both and DW got the invitation; we are Diamond Plus members. Looks like there’s a nice mix of C&A tiers. 
 

DW got both a text and an email. 

Wonderful! I booked a consecutive cruise on the Allure out of Galveston November/December of 2022. Good to know I will be getting 28 points instead of 14. 

At this rate, there will be a "boatload" of new Pinnacle Club members by the end of 2022. 

51 minutes ago, HicksRA said:

Did you book through a RCI Personal Vacation Planner?  
Just wondering what type of contact you had with Royal. 

We originally booked this onboard a previous sailing. We don’t use travel agencies. I have moved our sailings because of COVID and done that through the L&S form and I have also had dealings with C&A Desk as well as cruise planners. 

DW and I went on the Quantum of the Seas in 2015 when it crossed from New Jersey to Asia where it stayed for many years. We were on the 16 day leg from Barcelona to Dubai. We loved it! It had all the action of the Oasis class, but not so big. Our favorite complimentary snack venue was the 270 restaurant. We loved sitting in 270 lounge and just relaxing too. During the day it has beautiful views of the sea and at night it turns into a huge, fun screensaver. 

We would definitely do a Quantum class again, but the sailings are not very convenient for us.

I received the following in snail mail today. I called Royal Caribbean and verified that the letter was indeed from them:

Dear <ourname>,

We are writing to let you know about an incident in which a third party may have gained unauthorized access to your personal information. Below is a summary of what happened, what personal data was involved, what we are doing, what you can do, and where you can obtain more information.

At some time between February 6, 2021 and February 18, 2021, your personal data may have been accessed by a third party who gained unauthorized access to a limited number of our employees’ email accounts. Upon discovery, we immediately secured the email accounts, began an investigation, and arranged resources to start identifying, informing, and assisting persons whose personal information may have been involved. During our review, we identified your information as having potentially been accessed, although we are not aware of any attempt to exploit this incident in a malicious way

In addition to your name, certain internal identifiers that we use, and information about your vacations with a Royal Caribbean brand, the personal data that may have been accessed includes some or all of the following: your contact information, date of birth; gender; nationality; passport number; state driver’s license or other government identification number; and/or tokenized or partial payment card information (that is, payment card numbers that have been redacted or replaced with a placeholder to prevent misuse). To our knowledge, your information did not include your full, unencrypted payment card information, or social security number or equivalent taxpayer identifier. Therefore, we believe the risk of someone misusing your data is low.

We are taking this incident very seriously and have taken steps to strengthen our protection of personal information, including updating email access controls. We have not identified any further unauthorized activity since the breach was identified and contained in mid-February. We will continue to closely monitor and take further steps as appropriate to safeguard your personal data.

We are taking this incident very seriously and have taken steps to strengthen our protection of personal information, including updating email access controls. We have not identified any further unauthorized activity since the breach was identified and contained in mid-February. We will continue to closely monitor and take further steps as appropriate to safeguard your personal data.

We are sorry that this occurred. You can find more information about steps that you can take in the appendix to this letter. If you have any questions, please call +1 855-535-1847 between 9:00 a.m. and 9:00 p.m. Eastern Time, Monday through Friday.

What is going to be the first two venues you plan to visit (not counting your stateroom)?

For DW and I, it will probably be the Windjammer followed by the Diamond Lounge (if it is open).

I came across this article on the Royal Caribbean Blog that tells you how and where to signup for one of the test cruises. It is an old article, but with the test cruises getting the go ahead, now would be a good time to sign up if you haven't already.

https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2020/11/12/heres-how-sign-be-volunteer-royal-caribbean-test-cruise

Check your Booking Receipt carefully. We used the form. We had a balcony on the original reservation and they L&S’d us to an interior. I had to call and spend quite a while on the phone to get it fixed. Ours took 3.5 days to complete from when we submitted it to when we got back the booking invoice with the incorrect stateroom category; but the longer time might be because it was a transatlantic cruise too. 

4 hours ago, stevea36 said:

Nov 7 is a 1 night, non -revenue (no passenger) sailing from Port Canaveral to Port Everglades.   Starting on November 8th, Allure will be doing a 5 night sailing.    

Does that mean I am booked on a cruise with no passengers? Weee... that would be fun, if it ever happened. 🤣🤣🤣

When I saw this in the RC app, it made me think that someone at Royal was a fan of the Grateful Dead. 😆 

This is what they renamed the canceled 4 night Galveston cruise that was supposed to occur next year on the Allure. 

56 minutes ago, rockmom said:

40 business days is 8 weeks.  30 business days is 6 weeks.  How are you coming up with 150 to 200 calendar days?  There are 5 business days in a week.  

Sorry about that... I meant to divide 30 & 40 by 5, not multiply 30 & 40 by 5. That would be 6-8 weeks. Me thinks I am getting oldtimer's disease! 🤣

As someone who has filed a claim with their carrier, I found the experience fairly easy. You fill in an online form and upload the documents and the payment took about 10 days. Keep in mind this insurance is secondary coverage; meaning you have to file a claim with your healthcare provider first and they pay any difference. In my case, I hadn't met the deductible on my personal healthcare insurance so they paid 100% of the claim.