leaveitallbehind

There is always the option to add the 4th to your existing reservation and have all in the same stateroom. That 4th person charge is likely to be less in total than the first option you described resulting in two staterooms. This of course would depend on whether or not your current stateroom is configured for a 4th person or if there are available staterooms within your category that are. But then you have to juggle 4 people with one bathroom and who sleeps where, etc. Guess it depends on how close knit your family is - LOL. Just pointing out the option.

It sounds like what you are doing is changing a single reservation in a single stateroom with three passengers to two staterooms with two passengers. This would result in two (new) reservations, one with one person dropped but with two original names remaining and one new one with two new names on it, which will require four separate deposits. How this is accomplished depends on your current booking and what type of deposit you used. Is it with a refundable or non-refundable deposit? With Celebrity there will be deposit penalties with making changes to a booking that would require a stateroom change if an NRD was used. Obviously using non-refundable deposits in this instance would be more complicated and likely will result in penalties to the deposit money on the current reservation. If refundable deposits were used in the original booking then you will have no issues or penalties making any of these changes. You will need to confirm this with Celebrity. If you used a travel agent they would need to be the ones to make these changes and they would work with Celebrity on the least disruptive or penalized way to do so.

Here is a link to the Key West Harbor webcam: https://www.keywestharborwebcam.com/

Well you seem to primarily list a number of reasons against doing the cruise, so not knowing you or anything else but what you've said, I would probably suggest booking another cruise. I, on the other hand, would probably stay with the cruise for most of the reasons you expressed concern (return flight not withstanding) - LOL. We enjoy repositioning cruises. But that's just me BTW, a number of cruise lines are rerouting their upcoming cruises in that region for the same reasons. No cruise line is about to place a ship, its crew, or any passenger potentially in harms way.

I would also post this on the Cabin Selection Tips board at this link: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/128-cabin-selection-tips/ With your post you also may want to include detail about what your concerns with that particular stateroom might be. Location? Noise from nearby venues? Etc. Just asking if it is "good" may be a little too general as all staterooms in that category are going to be essentially the same. A quick check indicates that this stateroom is the furthest forward on that deck, which will subject you to feeling the up and down motion of the ship the most as it moves forward through the waves. This could be a concern if you are sensitive to this type of motion. The more central on the ship your stateroom is the less this motion is felt.

Good point. I was referring to the many times we have been to Bermuda via a cruise we have docked at Kings Wharf the whole time we were there. (We have also been there on land vacations a couple of times as well). Less of a chance at having your described issues there, particularly on those larger ships. Unfortunately the ships we have been on for those cruises have been too large to dock at either St. George or Hamilton and we have spent the entire time docked at Kings Wharf. Having spent a fair amount of time in both locations, I would have enjoyed being docked at either (or both) St. George or Hamilton.

Good point and I was referring to Bermuda from a US based closed loop itinerary. Probably should have specified that.

Welcome to Cruise Critic. On Cruise Critic, try the Ports of Call board at this link: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/2-ports-of-call/ Otherwise, for private websites of independent tours, just google tours and operators at the different ports of call in which you are interested.

I agree and was only commenting as you indicated that they don't provide lidded cups to use and I just wanted to be sure you (and others) were aware that they are available. 🙂

Here is that link: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/544-uk-cruisers/

You are correct. And this certainly can vary by port of call and cruise line, but typically unopened snacks in their original factory packaging are generally ok to take off the ship. Fruits and other like foods, however, are typically forbidden in most ports of call.

Yes, depending on cruise line, in the US if the price changes favorably prior to final payment you typically can benefit from that new fare but are also protected from any increases. Again, based on cruise line, you can also benefit from typically restrictive, lower non-refundable deposit fares that include penalties to the deposit for changes or cancelations prior to final payment, or have the option at a typically higher refundable deposit fares that allow for booking changes or cancelations without deposit penalty prior to final payment. The deposit amounts may also differ (favorably) from UK bookings. What I don't know is what, if any, the restrictions may be for UK travelers wanting to use US based travel agencies. Seems like, given just those stated advantages, that many UK travelers would book through one if they could. Hopefully others with more direct experience can answer.

That does seem odd that every stateroom would be a GTY. Wonder why?

Just to clarify, using RCCL in your signature as example, Cafe Promenade has 12 oz. paper cups with separate lids for their coffee service as an option. If you have access to the Crown Lounge (ex-Diamond Club) or Suite lounge, they have the paper cups with lids available as well. The service at the Windjammer (and MDR and the others) use the smaller ceramic cups with no lids which I totally agree are not the best option.

I hear you! There is a huge difference between the standard staterooms and the Haven suite level - and, depending on the suite, a huge price tag along with it! Never apologize for your budget and what you are willing to spend for your time at sea. The cruise lines offer numerous alternatives from small inside staterooms to multi-thousands of square feet suites to accommodate an equally large range of budgets that are legitimately justified at all levels by those who select them. There are a lot of good cruise lines, each with their own target demographics, on board venues, etc., from which to choose and how the "all in" price is arrived at differs amongst them from base fare plus numerous add on charges to truly all inclusive, and several ranges in between. It can be challenging at times to determine the best fit and apples to apples comparisons to arrive at your total budget. And sampling different lines is one way to do that, But loyalty also can have its benefits. Its all a personal choice. Either way I hope your bid outcome is positive for you and that you enjoy your cruise!

Although most cruise lines have similar policies, you are absolutely correct, as also suggested by CruiserBruce. In this case, pretty sure RCCL or Celebrity is the line involved from the OP's signature and later acknowledgement of the information provided, however.

I kind of glossed over that part initially, although my response would still apply. But maybe in that case the offer to upgrade to an "unspecified cabin in a higher class" was for inventory purposes. There may have been limited solo suites in the desired category so they were offering to upgrade to the higher category to preserve the solos for other bookings. Probably asked of other passengers as they booked as well, but I would have to believe it was offered as an option and since there apparently was availability in the desired category, the OP should be able to request that and choose a location.

Certainly would focus the redirect or help shape the answer. I just happened to see the signature in this case.

The only time we have been asked to wait behind ship sponsored tours to disembark was when the ship was tendering, in particular at Grand Cayman, which made an undesirable process even more so.

Good advice as always. But I am guessing from their signature that it is either RCCL or Celebrity, to which my response would apply correctly. And I did say "most" cruise lines to be sure, since we don't know for sure - LOL.

Yes, but not necessarily at the end of the cruise. With most cruise lines, whatever OBC you have on your account is adjusted daily as charges are made. As tips are typically charged daily, the OBC would also be applied daily. You cannot specify how the OBC is applied as it is applied without discretion as charges are made. In other words, your OBC will be applied to any charges made to your on board account. To add, there are also two types of OBC - refundable and non-refundable. Refundable OBC is typically applied by a third party - such as friends, family, or maybe a travel agent, and is the last type to be used for charges on your account. Any amount left over at the end of the cruise is refunded to you. Non-refundable OBC is typically applied by the cruise line and is also used first against charges made to your account. Any non-refundable OBC balance at the end of the cruise is kept by the cruise line.

I realize in my first response I provided a lot of information that maybe you didn't ask for, but I wanted to give as much detail about how these programs work as possible as it looks like this may be your firsts experience with this. Hopefully you also got the answers you were looking for from it - LOL. I do want to add that once you submit any bid(s), they become firm. With some programs during the "Pending" phase you can make $ adjustments and possibly withdraw. But otherwise, typically if a bid is accepted it is final and the amount non-refundable, your credit card is immediately charged the accepted amount, a stateroom assigned, and your original reservation cancelled. If you have multiple staterooms on which you have bid, the cruise line will select the one they accept and the rest are dropped. Also realize that your bid amount typically may be per person, not per stateroom.

This is actually quite common these days with many cruise lines. But, in my experience, it remains your choice to allow the cruise line to select a stateroom location or have you do it. I am not familiar with a cruise line that only accepts bookings where they assign the staterooms. The offers, when they do this, are typically at a reduced fare as an option, such as a guarantee stateroom. They apparently may also do so in reverse - as your example suggests - where if you let them select the stateroom they will give you an upgraded stateroom category at the lower category fare. But if you opt not to do this, you then would select your own stateroom. This can also occur with upsell, or bid, programs as @Woody14 suggests where after you have secured a booking and selected a stateroom, you can bid on upgraded staterooms if you wish, which the cruise line will assign if your bid is selected. But this is a different program option to the "standard" option to either select your own location or let the cruise line do so at the time of the initial booking.

If you are referring only to upgrades resulting from the bid process offered by some cruise lines, the answer is the available staterooms will go to the highest bidder(s) in each category. Not sure which cruise line to which you are referring, but some lines keep those out of inventory knowing that they will sell through the bid process as this may result in a higher fare than the current prevailing rate. Your "Pending" status may remain until close to the sailing date as that is the timeframe when remaining available inventory will be assigned. Doing so too soon may take some staterooms out of inventory prematurely for potential regular sale. It's all in how the cruise lines manage their inventory as sales continue. So the amount of unsold staterooms at the time still a couple of months ahead of your sailing date doesn't really affect your chances. Specific to you, your chances will depend in large part on how much you bid on the staterooms. Typically those at or close to the suggested minimum will have little or no chance as there will always be higher bids. But be careful and check the current prevailing rate on those categories when placing your bid so that you don't bid more in combination with your current category fare than you could purchase them directly. Although in the long run, that's exactly what the cruise lines hope happens. They wouldn't offer this type of program unless they were to realize profitable sales from it. Current cruise bookings are very high and most cruises will sail full. The cruise lines don't have to discount their fares - or worry about selling unsold staterooms through a bid process at lower than published rates. Just the opposite.

In fairness I have never sailed on MSC so I would not have direct experience regarding them as your option. However that by no means would suggest they would not be a good choice as I'm sure they would be. Just look closely at the venues and offerings to see if that would suit your expectations. I would recommend that with any cruise line. I would, however, suggest that you may also want to look at Celebrity in terms of cruising style based on some of your comments. If you were interested in looking at them, be aware that there has been some recent controversy over how some of their solo pricing was determined. My recent searches did not confirm that, but that doesn't mean it didn't exist. But I think the best way to confirm that for you would be to look at an itinerary you are interested in and do mock bookings for a solo cruiser in a standard double occupancy stateroom as well as their dedicated solo staterooms (on Apex class ships) for comparison and make your own determination. Whatever you end up with, enjoy your first cruise!