leaveitallbehind

Correct - my typo. Thanks for catching that! A welcomed change IMO.

...along with Quantum class. Whichever RCCL ship class you choose, the Solarium is adults (16+) only. Quantum class IMO has one of the nicer Solariums.

From my experience don't believe this form is necessary but to be sure, as suggested before, confirm through your travel agent or the cruise line directly.

Maybe I misunderstood.

.....it was just a tongue in cheek comment.

You are not providing any information regarding your country of nationality, cruise line, or departure port, so it is hard to say with certainty. But I agree with Essiesmom, as in our previous ports of call there this form was not required of cruise ship passengers arriving there on a North American based closed loop itinerary as long as you were able to board at the departure port with proper documentation for that itinerary. So unless your itinerary criteria is different, this is something new to me and I would double check with your cruise line as to any necessity for it.

Been following your conversations and agree that comparisons are difficult to make as the factors are not always apples to apples. Are comparisons being made with standard to standard staterooms, or suites to suites (or standard to suites)? Are the fares compared as base fares or all inclusive? Do the compared lines charge separate for specialty dining or include it as part of the price? The variables are many. (And as most lines allow wine to be brought on board in some manner, that is really not a differential perk IMO LOL). The point being, we all have our preferences and cruising stye, and a budget that we can live with to allow those criteria to be met. And yours may be different than mine and so on, but that doesn't make mine or yours any better than the other. It just - as you say - is a matter of one's "perfect fit".

Most cruise lines will offer to "recommend" a TA from their website. There is no advantage to them for a customer to use their internal representatives v an independent TA - fares are the same and having an outside TA do the work is advantageous to them and allows their internal reps to focus on other customer support issues. As 75% of all cruises are booked via TA's the cruise lines are happy to direct a customer to one they can use - they basically are their independent outside sales staff.

To be clear, the point I am trying to make is that cruise fares are not like buying a car - the agencies don't have pricing that is negotiable from the cruise lines. There are several ways agencies can make their base fares appear more competitive to you (" discounting" the up front fare but backloading it in the fees / taxes / port fees portion, etc.) But the cruise line's published pricing is what - in the end - needs to be charged by the agency. So perks and additional booking benefits not advertised directly from the cruise lines will come from their commissions. Many are willing to offer some level of perks to secure a booking but it will come from their earnings. As a side note IMO it is always recommended to see a total net invoice from the TA with a booking quote, and with the booking, the cruise line confirmation to confirm pricing. But TA's are a valuable resource with strong partnerships with the cruise lines. We have used them many times over the years and appreciate the service they can offer.

Most mass market cruise lines - NCL included - do not negotiate their stateroom fares. They are the same to you as published directly from them or through a travel agent. Any deviation in price from a TA would typically be based on a group rate for which he or his agency has blocked staterooms, but this would already be reflected in his quote to you. Other perks or benefits from the TA would come out of their (agency / agents) commission, not from the cruise line, and would typically be offered at the time of the booking. To "hold out" for any extras would be better managed as a discussion with the TA to see there are additional perks he is willing to offer. But, again, that would be from their commissions. So in essence they would be willing to earn less income to provide you an additional perk.

I guess what I wasn't considering is that even with only one ship per day, back to back ship days would fill both sides of the lot. A successive third ship day prior would be difficult with parking. Thanks for helping me realize that - guess I needed a second cup of coffee LOL.

Other than emails regarding an active booking RCCL won't email you without your permission by opting into emails. They only know your email address if you provide it to them and allow them to email you with marketing updates. Most mass market cruise lines use dynamic pricing, or some version of that, as that is nothing more than reacting to, and adjusting pricing based on market demand. In our 30 years plus experience the changes are not typically that frequent that daily price watches are warranted. (And there are websites that will track fare changes for you - as will good TA's). But the benefit is that up until final payment you can adjust your fare downward when changes occur, but are protected against price increases from your original booked fare. And a rebooking is not necessary to do that - they just adjust your fare accordingly with your request.

Royal includes WIFI with their suites (which, if they are, may be what they are calling "free"). But it is charged separately for standard staterooms and purchased once a booking is made through their cruise planner or once on board. Prices are published on their website.

I wouldn't say you are naive - just probably not familiar with it. It's not unlike most businesses "come on's" with advertising. Nothing is free and you will most certainly pay for everything in one manner or another. It's all in how the fares are constructed - and the cruse lines are pros at convoluting fares to make one thing or another seem attractive LOL.

There are cruise lines, such as Celebrity, that offer all inclussive pricing that includes WIFI, but also offer "standard" pricing that does not. (Their AI also includes their standard beverage package as well). If you go with their standard pricing, you can purchase WIFI separately and they publish that rate on your cruise planner. So it is transparent. Often bundling the WIFI and beverages through their AI pricing is discounted with both somewhat, but you can easily see the difference between the two to determine if AI is advantageous or not. If you are new to cruising, working with a travel agent can be beneficial as they will know how the different cruise lines address this pricing and how much they typically charge for it.

There are some cruise lines that do not charge separately for WIFI but it is included as part of the base stateroom fare. It may be part of an all inclusive fare that includes WIFI and beverages, for example, or part of a stateroom category such as suites. But those who include WIFI as part of their pricing in these manners are not lying about it as you are not receiving a separate charge for it as with most other cruise lines and their fare structure. Also, part of the expense is based on the fact that since the ship is at sea, their WIFI connection is via satellite, which is not cheap.

It varies by cruise line, but most schedules are published about 18 months or so out. Just check the cruise lines' websites you are interested in to see their most current schedules.

Just thought I'd add this link as a reference to the Baltimore cruise terminal and parking: https://www.cruzely.com/baltimore-cruise-parking/#:~:text=Where to Park for a,and is just steps away.

You are correct that there is an overflow lot near the terminal that utilizes shuttles, but in our experience the on site parking handled everyone. But we have never seen two ships at a time there and don't think the terminal is set up to handle more than that, which would mean the parking would be dedicated to the ship in port at the time. But you can't always trust the information on CC....LOL.

Not challenging you directly but would have to question the accuracy of that information as in our experience sailing out of Baltimore, only one cruise ship has been using the terminal at a time with the lines servicing that port on a rotating schedule. I'm pretty sure only one ship can be handled on a daily basis there. The onsite parking would be utilized by each cruise line in rotation in this manner. Attached is a link to the current ship schedule for Baltimore which confirms this rotating schedule with only one ship in port at a time. https://www.cruisemapper.com/ports/baltimore-port-33?month=2023-10#schedule To maintain objectivity in this, I would be interested in seeing published information contradicting this to confirm if my information is correct or not.

That would surprise me as well as there is only one cruise terminal that serves Baltimore which, to my knowledge, serves both RCCL and Carnival, and now NCL with their itineraries from there. There are two parking lots - one on each side of the terminal - that serve that port. I can't imagine that NCL would not be served by them as well.

Can't challenge your opinions on these short cruises, but I will say that using RCCL as example, while the ships they use on these itineraries are not their newest launches, none of them are "crappy" ships, all of which have been very much upgraded and modernized over the years. We've been on all of them - most several times - and although they may be midway (and with a couple maybe more) in their service life they have all been nice ships. As I mentioned before, we have never been on a short cruise, but if we lived in FL we would likely be tempted just as a long weekend getaway from time to time. If so, I think we would do so eyes wide open knowing exactly what to expect.

Not sure how long you've been sailing with RCCL but back in the day when they recalibrated their Crown & Anchor program from numbers of cruises to points per days at sea, the "leveling up" as you refer took a lot of mid-level cruisers to Diamond Plus and Pinnacle as the short cruises were converted as longer ones (i.e.: rounded up) to assure errors on the side of the customer and no concerns for short selling those loyal cruisers. Many people with a number of 3 and 4 night cruises benefited nicely based on this generous conversion. I know two people personally who jumped from Diamond to Pinnacle as a result. Having never done a short cruise I, unfortunately, was not one of them - I earned my D+ the old fashioned way LOL.

As others have mentioned, if you live within a reasonable driving distance from the departure port and just want a quick long weekend getaway, they would be fine. But they do tend to be more of a party cruise by that nature and would IMO certainly not justify air or hotel as part of the mix to do one. Buy they certainly are popular as most cruise lines with FL departure ports have ships scheduled with alternating 3 - 4 night itineraries each week due in large part to their proximity to the Bahamas and Key West. These lines also have their private island destinations in the Bahamas which is a big draw with these itineraries.

Agree. Especially as with QN and AN they are in all insides (except studio). But in those cases there would not be a determinable premium as the increased rate would apply to all LOL.