beardedladies

With the packages I've never had the first booking ever exist when on board - so your best bet is to go straight to chops or another speciality restauranbt on boarding and book both visits (you can book any speciality restaurant from one). Being booked out is extremely unlikely as they keep slots free for the trip, but the sooner you get there the more choice you'll have.

Just phoned up to add this for our cruise on Anthem next month - a 12 night trip so was expecting £43 x 12 x 2 = £1032. The very helpful assistant put me on hold to check out another deal she knew about.... and it worked out cheaper. So got the packages for £944, or just over £39 per person per day. Woohoo!

Luckily the other half is not that allergic - it's just eating shellfish that's an issue, not having it around nearby. Which is good because I love the stuff! Thanks for the responses everyone I think we'll give this one a go and see how well they accommodate us.

Did you not get the message a day or so before the cruise saying your bid is currently unsuccessful and will be passed to the ship in case there's a chance for a late upgrade? We had that for our recent Anthem trip last month. That gives you the choice to go and cancel all your bids if a late post-boarding upgrade is not what you want.

Asking this question in case anyone has experience with these fixed menu type lunches and someone in the group having an allergy. We've been to Izumi before for a normal meal and there we just avoid ordering dishes with shellfish (prawns, lobster, crab etc). For our upcoming cruise we've noticed the sushi and sake lunch, which looks like fun - but the sample menu looks to have a fair bit of shellfish in (one course with shrimp, one with lobster). Would they be able to accommodate an allergy and prepare an alternative dish for those courses for one of us? Or is that difficult to do with a fixed menu like this? Thanks for any help!

The double points promo ran last year - so it won't be responsible for your 2019 cruise. If that was double occupancy in a balcony then it should be just the 7 points from what I can tell. This one may be a miscalculation, so you may want to keep quiet and hope no-one notices! For the cruise in August 2022, as long as you booked before end of September 2021 that would qualify for the double points. This promotion has now ended - so your 2023 cruise will NOT qualify. The main reason for the promo was to promote sales as things came back after covid lockdown.... usually such promotions are extremely rare (and I've not seen anything quite as generous before.... "diamonds in december" they had several years ago saw an extra point for december cruises if a diamond member, but that's not happened for a long time). It's probably unlikely to happen again anytime soon.

Paying should work - the key thing is to keep your original booking number.

I have a slightly different problem as I'm from the UK - the next cruise will quote American prices converted to UK pounds. This is not always cheaper! It is often worth checking the price on the UK site and seeing if it's cheaper before a visit to next cruise. I'm on the ship now, but often next cruise just doesn't align with my booking habits.... I find it much easier to book when things come out or I see a good deal. Waiting for a cruise to book often means wither the price is higher or your choice of cabin is reduced.

Something else that’s interesting - I’m sailing tomorrow on anthem and while testing is still required did my pre-cruise health check today - it’s changed to three questions: 1. Are you fully vaccinated ? 2. Are you boosted? 3. Are you over 26 weeks pregnant? No mention of having covid or symptoms at all. Perhaps an indicator that vaccination is going to be the key thing now?

Is it happening for other cabin types too? If so, the ship likely has sold it's quota of extra occupancy spaces - all cabins are assumed to hold 2 with some extra allowed in terms of maximum occupancy on the ship. They can't exceed that - you can only manage so many people with the lifeboats etc.

First off it's only a discount for balcony cabins or better, secondly you've already got a discount as it starts at platinum. It'll get better at diamond but not by enough that I'd leave booking until then. Also lately their deals have been incompatible with the C&A discount. So it's an either/or and the deal usually wins out making the C&A discount useless.

I'm pretty sure the ship IS my second house!

I think if you get to pinnacle but it's not all about the cruising then there must be something seriously wrong with you - I dread to think what I've spent on all these cruises but I suspect I could have a second house by now!

On Anthem 5th October trip for us! So both October pinnies 😃

Mainly thinking of Anthem which we normally sail on. Not had access to that one as D+ for a long time.

I'm looking forward to being pinnacle later this year so I can at last be in the position for the hat trick of being denied access to the concierge lounge (first diamond, now diamond plus and you know it'll catch up to the pinnacles as soon as I get there 😉 )

An Oasis class being based in the UK for an entire season isn't going to happen, our climiate just doesn't suit it. Sure we've had Oasis class ships in Southampton for short periods, but it was usually for promotional purposes (I enjoyed a nice B2B2B on Harmony when she launched). Same deal with Icon next year I suspect - a few trips from Southampton at best then over the Atlantic to never be seen again. Best we can hope for is an upgrade to a Quantum Ultra class (Spectrum/Odyssey) for 2024. There's also a chance we'll get an Icon class 2025/6 as Icon2 & 3 launch but that really depends on the design for all the same reasons why we won't get an Oasis class.

COVID is now endemic - it's going to continue to be with us forever more. You will catch it. As it mutates you will catch it again. And again. The good news is that as viruses mutate they tend towards being more contageous, but less deadly. In time COVID will be just like the other coronaviruses we've lived with all our lives that cause the common cold. We're already observing how it's changing and following this usual path for new diseases. So for me I'm going to live my life and not let COVID rule it for me. If I catch it then that's annoying and unpleasant, but so is catching flu. Life's too short to worry about it anymore - my opinion of course, but with testing requirements mostly gone for everything other than cruising it seems the world is already mostly of this opinion.

At the the current pace I'm going to go for hundreds 😄

I do hope we get something other than Anthem - while I love the ship as we mostly sail from Southampton it would be nice for a little variety. Even a different ship of the same class, at least shows would be different.

The closest thing I think was the “diamonds in December” promotion they used to run, an extra point if you were diamond and cruising in December. A bit useless for us who usually cruise from Southampton! That’s not happened for many years now though.

Was checking my royalup bids for a cruise next month and the first thing I saw was the top bid on the page for a royal loft suite now said submitted when it had been pending. I then got rather excited remembering a change in status was what I’d read here was what indicated a bid was going to be successful. Oooh! Then I noticed ALL bids were now submitted. They can’t all be successful…. Then I doubted my knowledge. Came here to check and finally confirmed my brief moment of excitement was rather premature 😀

I'm not saying that there aren't exceptions to the rule, but the fact it's "more relaxed than sitting at a bar" kind of tells you that the majority have decided the lack of free drinks outweighs the desire to meet others.

Wow, that was well remembered! I'll have to pop a reply in there.... we're about but don't post on here as much as we used to. And yes, it's always about the booze 🙂 🍷

What makes me laugh is that for years we've had so many people on these forums insist that they weren't going to the diamond/concierge/suite lounge for the unlimited drinks, it was all about the interaction with other people in the lounge, honest. But when those unlimited drinks are removed and instead you can drink anywhere, suddenly they all evaporate. Not so bothered about that chat with other people now!