Bocker3

Why bother posting a story that requires you to sign up for an account in order to read it??

In fact, it's not either/or, it's both. At least in slots, you can use your card or you can put cash in. I've not played the tables on HAL, so have no idea if they take cash - my guess is that they would, but it's just a guess.

Doing this will bring in the pre-existing medical conditions clause. If you buy within X days (usually between 21 and 30), they are covered. Also - you can insure a trip for $0 and still be covered for medical, evac - even lost baggage - basically anything that isn't marked as a % of your insured amount. At least you can with the insurance I use thru USAA.

I don't understand why you keep complaining about this. HAL's mistake actually left you BETTER OFF. You got paid the 10% free OBC from the Gift Certificate. So, by my calculations you are $160 ahead of the game, due to HAL's error.

$100 Gift Cards cost $90. You still get the 10% discount

I have the AARP OBC on my cruise next month and on BOTH cruises I have booked in 2025, so it is not limited to once a year.

That was my understanding too -- apparently, that is no longer the case. I specifically said that to my PCC. I got my upgrade, the Club Orange Pass is listed on my confirmation and I didn't pay for it yet.

This appears to no longer be true. I booked a cruise, last week, with my PCC and added CO. When she told me the deposit would be $350, I was a bit surprised. I asked if I needed to pay for the CO along with the deposit, she said No. The cruise I am taking next month required the CO be paid with the deposit - booked with the same PCC..

I compared a Refundable fare to a Refundable fare - how could that not be a good comparison. Apples to Apples. I don't recall exactly, but I think I paid $400-$500 more for the refundable. Now the extra cost for Refundable is a little over $4,000. So, they are certainly doing a bit extra to discourage buying a refundable cruise.

I've been noticing the increasing prices at RC, but everything is getting more expensive, so didn't think all that much about it (except for the crazy ICON prices). However, I am now thinking that, perhaps, RC may be going a bit nuts. I booked (in Jan 2023) an 8nt Western Caribbean cruise on Freedom for Mar 1, 2025. I thought I got a pretty good deal - $3248.02 for a JS, with a Refundable deposit. Well, our plans changed and I cancelled this cruise on Tuesday. Just to see how much it now costs, I did a mock booking yesterday - that same cabin is now going for over $12,400 for a Refundable deposit! So, what they would have been paid $3248 for, they will now get almost 4x that amount. That is pushing it a bit too far, IMO. Inflation is not up that much. One could sail Oceania or Silverseas for that price. Mike

We have booked a 14 nt Caribbean cruise on Nieuw Statendam in Feb 2024. It seems to actually be 2 7nt cruises, but we have a single booking # for the 14 nts.. Will we be treated as a single 14 nt cruise, as far as our onboard account goes? Specifically, we have a good deal of OBC and I want to be sure that we don't need to spend it all on the first "leg" of the cruise. I've done B2Bs before and know our account gets closed and a new one opens from sailing to sailing, but with only a single booking number, I'm thinking that won't be the case this time. Can anyone shed light on this for me? I'm assuming we'll need to clear the ship between the 7 day sailings, in FLL. Thank you! Mike

What difference does it make why they want to know this information.

You can’t use the card AT Starbucks- ifCafe Promenade uses Starbucks coffee beans, you can still use the card there. It’s about the location, not the beans. One espresso shot = 1 punch on the card

I have no idea why you continue to choose cruising as a vacation - you clearly aren't enjoying yourself, as you seem to spend all your time policing everyone else's behavior -- or at least noticing and complaining about it. Life is short - if you spend your time worrying about things that are completely out of your control, you're ultimately just wasting precious time (and when you do it on a cruise -- wasting money). You seem to be taking steps to sanitize yourself - so there you go -- you're all set. Get on with enjoying your life and stop worrying about everyone else. It must be so exhausting

I have always been able to have breakfast in the WJ before an excursion purchased through RC. I believe they will tweak the times if an extra early port arrival. It would crazy to send a large percentage of passengers ashore without feeding them??

Oh -- if you are talking about the process for collecting, testing and storing units of blood that are donated -- that might take a bit longer than I mentioned. Not sure that it HAS to take 2 days -- but for ROUTINE testing of donated blood, 1-2 days is reasonable. I was referring to the testing that is done between the donated blood and the recipient's blood - to ensure that it is "compatible". Again though, in an emergency situation, i.e. life and death, one might forgo the extensive screening done for routinely donated blood and just do a quick "mixing of the donor and recipient blood on a microscope slide to see if they are compatible." Anyway -- back to the topic at hand.....

It would NEVER, EVER take 1-2 days to get blood tests back for a blood transfusion - if that were true people would die on operating tables and in ERs in large numbers. I've worked in a hospital blood bank - you can do an emergency crossmatch between a donor and recipient in mere minutes. I would guess that they would do some sort of quick crossmatch test before giving any blood. It would have to be a dire emergency to risk giving blood without at least a basic mixing of the donor's cells with the recipient's plasma -- think battlefield situations.

NO, they don't need you to ask "how are things, bro?", but they need tourists. I'm not making this up on my own, Hawaii officials are asking people to keep their plans and come to Hawaii. If they didn't want tourists in Maui - they would be stopping the cruise ships from docking there and sending out a message to stay away. The aren't doing that, are they?? The fact that you don't want to go there, doesn't negate their need for tourists to go. One can offer respect AND still help keep them employed.

Except - they want you to come to Maui -- tourist dollars are needed to help. You'd only "intrude" if you decided to be a sightseer to the actual disaster area. Spending money in the Maui economy is essential, as tourism is a huge part of the local economy.

Topics that people should not discuss... Religion, Politics, Cruise Ship Tipping......

I have never waited more than a few minutes for MTD, when I have a reservation. There are generally only 1-3 parties ahead of us in the MTD Reservations line (the line for those without reservations, is another story). I think the worst we've waited is 15 mins. Though, we generally eat later - almost never before 7:30, so that might account for some of our good fortune for lines.

This scenario shouldn't impact their Refreshment Packages, as she would have to BUY an alcoholic drink (for herself or for her underaged BF), not use a package to get it. So, the question gets to - what does Royal do if they catch an underaged person drinking. My guess is not too much.

Just because you keep repeating it, doesn't make it true. Credit Card refunds should not, routinely, take 14-30 days to process. Though, I have received the last one from Royal in 8 days - so that's one anecdote of improvement As for the rest of your response -- I'm not talking about price reductions -- I'm talking about refunds, in general. Nor am I "whining", I am simply providing facts.

This is pure hogwash.... It should never take 14-30 days to process a credit card refund. A week max, generally 3-4 days pretty much anywhere else. The problem may be in their IT system or they may simply not be prioritizing refunding money (a little more interest earned as it sits in their account). I could understand it taking longer during the height of the pandemic, with the volume they had, but not any longer. Prior to the pandemic, I rarely waited more than a week for refunds with Royal -- so SOMETHING has changed. No - I don't call it extortion, or bait and switch or theft -- but I do call it unacceptable. BTW - I worked for a credit card company for almost 20 years and I can promise you the hold up is coming from Royal -- not anywhere else in the flow.

Actually, the second call, in this case, in nonsensical. She KNOWS she is sailing on Celebrity, so once she's told that this number is a Royal Caribbean number, there is no reason to call back. None! This had nothing to do with possibly getting the wrong information from the rep. Unless you are saying that a call rep actually could have given the wrong name of the company they are working for?? FWIW - I have worked in call centers (not as a phone rep), so I know how things work and I know what can go wrong, This was nothing but high drama and lashing out(or trying to lash out) at the wrong person.