Anton

It wouldn't surprise me if the word went to out from the head bean counter's office to make DP340 a tedious exercise to add to a booking.

There is a little known website that RCI has for this type of thing, although it’s aimed at larger audiences. https://www.royalcaribbeanincentives.com/discover/event-customization/ They do have a price list for some things. It’s in this: http://viewer.zmags.com/publication/407543a3#/407543a3/1

Do a web search for the time it takes to drive from Port Au Prince to Labadee. While it’s just 120 miles it takes 6 to 7 hours to drive because of the road conditions. It may as well be 500 miles away.

We have Princess Plus for our April cruise on Caribbean Princess. It is a good value. $840 total for two drink packages, two wifi accounts, crew gratuities, oh, and the two "premium" desserts per day whatever that means. They show it as $1637 worth of stuff if bought separately.

I drink Bacardi and Coke Zero. On my last cruise on Symphony in January, for drinks beyond my 6 free ones I was charged $12.97: $10.99 plus 18% tip.

Every time they have a President’s cruise I think about how little money the bar department is making with the thousands of C&A drinks being poured every day. As for Coco Cay, I hope a hurricane never flattens the cash cow. The shrieking coming from the executive floor at Miami headquarters could probably be heard for miles.

I am on Utopia this coming October B2B and I have discount, but my agent did those bookings on the day bookings opened for Utopia. It does also seem that DP340 sometime works using Cruising Power for agents when it doesn't work on the RCI website. Update: I think the current promo of 60% off guest #2 is superceeding the DP340.

A few months ago DP340 wasn't showing for fall Europe 2025 at all. A friend was trying to book October on Voyager for 2025 and finally his agent went to resolutions and they manually entered the code on his bookings. He was told by someone in Bayley's office it was another one of those pesky Royal IT glitches, which while often true is also a convenient excuse to toss around. Then they told him it was fixed, yet when I tried to book the same cruises I wasn't getting the discount. A cynical person might think they are doing it on purpose to see if anyone notices. But I'd never suspect that.😏

The price of a standard mixed drink is the shot price. The mixer is no extra charge. A Bacardi and Coke is $10.99. A shot of Bacardi is $10.99.

All I can say is the benefits list was revised a little over a month ago and it says June 15 to August 15.

My last Carnival cruise was in 2019 and I’ve never spent more than $20 in their casinos. I got on the Club Royale bandwagon two years ago for the free drinks and annual cruise, and as with you my Carnival account started showing casino offers. Funny how that happened.

I actually have another Carnival offer for the “free” casino offer of an inside cabin for $100 pp, but with a $100 OBC, so just pay tax. The 18 night transpacific Carnival Journeys cruise is available, so I can book it for $302 tax. I was amazed. But then I’d have to fly home from Japan.

I'm happy RCI is doing well and the corporate treasury is spilling over with the money of the new-to-cruise and new-to-Royal guests. It seems most think they are getting what they paid for. If they only knew. As others said, RCI is under no obligation to continue doing business in a way that pleases me. It's clear that the message now is that I'm always welcome but at a much higher price, take it or leave...it. Funny how they were overjoyed to see me in the summer of 2021 when I boarded the Adventure in Nassau for the first cruises. It seemed that every guest was a long time C&A member, glad to help the company survive. But that was then and time marches on. They have all that debt to pay off and I understand that. From a purely business perspective they've made some pretty shrewd decisions. They make their financial choices and I make mine. I still have seven RCI bookings on my list for this year and next, and look forward to them. I doubt the list will ever be that large again. By the way, I booked Carnival Celebration yesterday for next year. $3400 for an Ocean Suite with a $500 OBC offer. I'm happy to give Carnival some business again after 5 years of being away. I'm looking forward to some Guy's burgers. Don't tell my doctor.

Remember when they had a full hot breakfast menu in there when it was a concierge lounge? It was great.

Another thing that might be a factor for Royal enthusiasts is the move to more ships doing short cruises. I think it’s nine ships and counting. 3/4 night and 4/5 night rotations make more money. More people buy drink packages and everything else in the cruise planner. Convenient for those in the drive to markets, less so for the fly to market. Doing a B2B to make a week is not as desirable as it seems.

I’m another pinnacle who is starting to look elsewhere. For example I’m going on Princess this April. I’ve typically been doing 8 or more RCI cruises per year and have only done RCI for several years but it’s now going to require more than a name tag, free drinks and WiFi to keep me paying crazy prices. I have a pinnacle milestone cruise on Icon next year which otherwise would have cost me $6500 for a standard balcony. And while I appreciate the gift it’s still a price I never would have paid. After that May 2025 sailing I’m going to look elsewhere for the remainder of 2025. I’ll probably return to Carnival on one of the newest ships. Oceania, Virgin, MSC are looking good too. Not abandoning RCI, but they will just be a possibility in the bucket of cruise lines. That’s what I used to do before I went on the loyal to Royal bandwagon. Time to return to my old ways.

Just to add to the mystery, the RCI website shows no available cruises for the month of March on Navigator right now.

You likely used the Royal IQ app on your Anthem cruise and that is no longer used. It's now just The Royal Caribbean app, or Royal app. There is a chat feature in the app. However it doesn't alert others that they have a message. They have to be looking for new messages.

The Royal app works on every ship.

I’ve been aboard Symphony for the current and previous cruises and we have stayed on Eastern time.

There are no welcome parties or even Crown & Anchor member parties on 4 night cruises anymore.

Take a screenshot of the setsail pass in the app and print that.

Nobody at check-in will care or probably even know it's an accessible CL. It's just a cabin number to them. Enjoy your suite.

Would it have helped if it wasn't a C&A event but instead one that an affinity group paid to reserve exclusively? Because the company will sell the solarium for sailaway, for a price. https://www.royalcaribbeanincentives.com/event-venues/

I don't even see the Safety button in the app for my Symphony cruise on January 27, it's no longer there like it used to be. I think it appears on boarding day or a couple days prior. This is the latest app update.