buddylover

We are also Oceanic, aka The Big Red Boat, veterans.  It was our first cruise, sons were 2 and 5. We cruised first the WDW for 4 days.  We went to the island where they shot "Gilligan's Island" (the TV show).  My 2 year old was petrified of the Disney characters that promenaded thru the DR each night, so my husband never had a meal in the DR with us.  They seated us at a table with 2 retired couples who did not appreciate young children.....but 40+ cruises later....I can say that introduction to cruising did not stop us!!

15 hours ago, fac429 said:

I've also had it for 7 years or so and it's awesome.  At the airport I most frequently use I know that I can show up at the airport about 15 minutes before my boarding time and it's highly unlikely that I won't make it to my gate on time.  I've been to airports where the regular line isn't super-long and others where the regular line is an absolute nightmare, but since I've had pre-check I've never been to an airport where the TSA line took more than about 5 minutes.  Best $85 you'll ever spend if you fly once a year or more on average.

Ever fly out of Chicago O'Hare or LAS (Las Vegas)......been in TSA precheck lines for over an hour at each on multiple occasions.  There have been times when the regular line is shorter and we have left TSA PreCheck to go into those lines.  It really depends on time of day/date (holiday?, school break time?).  To say you have NEVER waited more than 5 minutes is really overstating TSA PreCheck....as we have NEVER gotten thru in 5 minutes when we fly.  OP, it is helpful in not having to take off shoes, belts, unloading bags etc....but you can wait in a LONG TSA PreCheck line at times too (we have!).

Look up Seattle Express Shuttles, cheapest around!

If you don't get it returned shortly, it is worth a call to RCI, it could also be an error!!

3 hours ago, Radiioman46 said:

I agree with you, but one comment: Getting new crew members back on board ship will be faster, because they should be able to fly them in by then. If the crew won't be able to fly to board their ships, then I would think that passengers won't either. LOL!

Not necessarily.....passengers flying within US is different than crew flying in from all around the world, some countries which are banned from coming into US??  Very different circumstances for pax vs. crew and getting into US during pandemic.

9 hours ago, mugtech said:

You can afford a cruise, you can afford a funeral.

Kind of harsh......have you paid for a funeral recently????  WAYYYY more than the cost of a cruise!

16 hours ago, Midway7934 said:

Now as has been stated already, no one with the Chinese passports are being allowed to board. Extra, extra precaution on Royal's part. Tell Mom to set sail. Take the usual precautions of being in a crowded area. The chances of her ever being quarantined is miniscule. The news loves to scare the carp out of people. Enjoy your cruise. 

 

Not actually true.....we sail on Saturday out of FLL, have been getting lots of RCI emails......the latest emails DO allow for China, Hong Kong and Macau passports to board now, BUT the disclaimer now is that they cannot have travelled to or from China, Hong Kong or Macau or been in the presence of anyone who has been to any of the above within the last 15 days.  If they have, they will be denied boarding.  But Chinese passports, according to our last email last week, was that they will be allowed to board now, due to a change in opinion at the CDC.

20 hours ago, Ocean Boy said:

There is no alternating on Voyager class ships. Ocean view balcony cabins have the bed by the balcony.

How about Freedom  class balcony cabins?  Bed by balcony (I am hoping)???

7 minutes ago, villager70 said:

 Just thought I would post this  to show that the ship's staff remembers. We were on the Harmony  in Sept & Oct 2019 and had my time dinning. We had such a great wait staff in Sept when we boarded  in Oct (which turned out to be 11 days from hurricane) we got the same staff again. We parted ways after the cruise and have had no contact and have sailed three times since then on other vessels. This morning we received and e mail from India ,from our waiter, who is on his vacation home, saying hello and   hoping  that our 50th anniversary on Adventure  in  Jan went well.  This  really enforces that often how you treat the staff aboard  later comes back to you.  We will be on Harmony again in  Nov. and hopefully we will look him up if we cannot connect for service.       Bob & Nancy     The Villages, Florida

How sweet!!  Do you know if he will be on Harmony on his next contract??  If he is, how wonderful would that be!

On 1/31/2020 at 3:27 PM, klfhngr said:

99% of the time we purchase a balcony or suite. Price not a huge factor. But we 'downgraded' to a Cove, not because of price, but because of the view. When we first purchased, we were on deck 6. The cove was a few hundred cheaper. Guess what? We 'downgraded' and had to pay more, lol! 

Wow, then I wouldn't have "downgraded" for sure.....but it does make a difference when you originally booked and the price at that time vs. changing cabins (upgrading or downgrading) and the timeline of that move (is the ship filling up? driving prices up? closer to the date of the cruise?)....all of these variables of course, affect the pricing.

4 minutes ago, Dewaldcruiser said:

Tough question to answer with any precision since you are dealing with both RCI and your credit card bank.  Some banks process refunds quicker than others.  I normally see RCI refunds within a week.

This is exactly how it worked for us as well....refund was issued in 6 days back to our credit card.

23 hours ago, Tulsacoker said:

On Celebrity it looks like they gave people the option to pre-pay at the old rate if they do it before they sailed. 

On all the main cruise lines we have sailed and gratuities were raised before we sailed (which has happened to us on many sailings - almost yearly lately), we have always received an email offering to 'pre-pay' gratuities to hold the old prices......RCI, CCL, NCL, Princess etc.  It is a "normal" practice.

OP,  I empathize with you.....our last cruise, in the Med on the Jade, what you describe as your symptoms circulated the  ENTIRE ship.  It was the "sickest" ship I have ever been on and all 3 of us caught the dreaded "plague".  It spread like wildfire because it was accompanied by a cough, the easiest way to spread germs.  When I realized I had a pretty bad sinus infection, we were in Greece, where we luckily found out they dispense antibiotics over the counter at their pharmacies.  After touring Athens, feeling so awful, we spotted a pharmacy right across the street from the port.  My saving grace - they dispensed Amoxicillin over the counter thankfully.  It saved the rest of the trip for me - major relief in a day or two!  So I feel for you OP....but on our cruise, it seemed that most everyone on the cruise became a 'vicitm' - it passed like wildfire.

12 minutes ago, jimbo5544 said:

Probably the 2nd most famous animal in the Caribbean.  He will be missed.

Who is the 1st most famous???  Topher we will all miss you.....our condolences.

4 hours ago, RWolver672 said:

Has the thought entered anyone's mind other than mine of how on Earth are they going to keep that huge glass window in the Atrium clean.  We always book a balcony cabin on the Panorama deck and there's always salt water on the railing.  I'm guessing that it would be covered with salt water spray all of the time.  We'll find out  Feb, 2021.

Can't tell you how they do it.....but Royal Carib Jewel class ships have incredible multiple deck windows on the outside side of the ship that glass elevators traverse.....and those windows were beautiful and clean most all the time!  It is a gorgeous sight and feature of those ships but the windows were always clean (don't know how they did it tho). So I guess CCL will do the same??

14 hours ago, coevan said:

 

 

So much to swallow here, there were no Steakhouses in the 80' or 90's that I am aware of. The steam, sauna and great showers are still free. All inclusive to me means one thing, free liquor, like Sandals and other A.I. resorts. Cruise ships are not A.I., unless you go way upscale. Also A.I. resorts have free scuba, snorkeling, hobie cats, kayaks.... you get the picture. 

coevan, let's compare "apples to apples" which is what the OP was doing, and this thread was meant to be doing.  The OP was not comparing a cruise ship to AI on land vacations.  I believe what the OP was saying was that cruising has changed, per my comment above...correct, as I said there were NO steakhouses in the 80's and 90's, but there are now and there is an upcharge (NOT FREE) to go there.....that is a change from everything being FREE to being nickel and dimed to death these days.  Let's stay on the 'same page' and compare cruising in the 80's and 90's to cruising today on the main lines (such as no longer free room service 24/7, MDR menu additions for additional $$ which used to be 'included' on and on).  Let's not even get into cruise lines like Crystal or Regent in which tours are even included etc.....not a fair comparison nor one the OP was making.  That was my sole point.

On 8/26/2019 at 11:20 AM, coevan said:

 

 

We have been cruising since the 80's it's never been all inclusive

I don't understand your comment coevan!  Cruising did used to be all inclusive.....there weren't even any upcharge steak houses, there was bountiful food  around the clock, room service was FREE, MDR was totally FREE not with upsell items like lobster (which also was included for FREE) like now. They have added spa cabins with charges to use the spa with passes now.  We used to use the steam rooms and saunas, the great showers up there for free all the time....now you need to buy a pass....that used to be included too.   If you have been cruising since the 80's, certainly you would know how there was very little back then that was an "upcharge" over your cruise fare.  Now, everything is either being cut or an "upcharge fee" is tacked on to what used to be "included".  That is what the OP is talking about.

15 hours ago, Nic6318 said:

 

Hi

 

The email fairy is definitely the thing now. Very often there is no actual benefit to their offer. It seems more like an suggestion to consider paying more to get a better cabin. If someone doesn't know better to check what the actual cost of the upgrade would be, they might be inclined to think that the offer is indeed a discount and may be pleased. It's just another one of those cases where it's what you don't know that may hurt you.

Yes, it is definitely the case of "buyer be AWARE".  Years back we actually were upgraded (no charge) for a balcony from an OV and did not find out until we got to the port.  It was kind of funny actually, we went to the OV cabin we had selected and the key card would not work in the door.  A steward watched us repeatedly attempt to open the door and came over to help us.  He told us we were at the 'wrong' cabin and we argued with him as no one had said one word to us.....LOL!  It ended up, we had been upgraded for free to a balcony - a smart move on behalf of CCL as we have booked balconies ever since....they 'got us'!!  But now a days, I don't think this ever happens....they fill their ships full fare with their 'offers' which are rarely to NEVER a better price than you could have booked originally.  Discounts and deals are a thing of the past unfortunately, for the most part!

1 hour ago, jordanaire said:

We're booked on the October 3, 2020 Horizon sailing in an inside cabin, which we prefer. Today I got an email from Carnival offering me an upgrade to an ocean view cabin for $408 more. Ah...don't think so. I can use that money elsewhere during our cruise. Now if that was for a balcony cabin, then I might think about it.

Your title confused me......used to be that some would get actual phone "call" from so called Upgrade Fairy.....but you got an email not a "call"!!  Emails are the way they do it today.......haven't heard of many phone calls anymore??

50 minutes ago, eastoftheboston said:

Hi All, 

 

I'm trying to decide whether to use a TA to book our upcoming cruise. The last cruise I booked on Carnival was almost 11 years ago so I'm not familiar with current practices. I understand if you want to make changes to your booking and you booked through a TA that you would need to make those changes through the TA, but I'm wondering if that's also the case when it comes to purchasing internet, bon voyage packages etc. as well. I'd like to book through a TA, but if it means I can't go in and order stuff through the online funshops myself, I may just book direct.

Thanks in advance for any feedback!

Yes, while you can book 'add ons' yourself and not need to go thru the TA, there is one other important difference between TA vs. booking thru CCL.  For any price drops (do keep watching for them although they are fewer and further between these days than they were 11 years ago), and any changes to the booking, you have to go thru the TA - CCL will not talk to you.  We have booked both ways and have lost price drops because the TA was not 'speedy' enough to either get back to us or by submitting ppwk. to CCL and we lost the price drop (price drops sometimes only show for a small window of time and then prices go up).  Don't know if this means much to you, but to us it has curbed the use of a TA.  However, on the TA side, you sometimes can snag some great perks (like OBC, or paying of gratuities) that CCL does not offer.  So its your choice.

Just now, Sparky2 said:

 

It was listed in all of the emails I received before the program ended that points would not transfer under the new program.

 

 

Thanks for that info.....but I did not get an email unfortunately.....used to get their newsletters but they disappeared too....hmmm!  But thanks for the info!

39 minutes ago, cloudninecat said:

The old points didn't transfer. I wish they did. I had a lot more then I do now. I think the reason some of us got so many points to start with is because we are AARP members. 

Thanks for the info.....but as I just posted....I, too have been a member for more years than I want to admit to.....so I still don't understand the discrepancy in points...and I had A LOT of points before this new program....uggghh!  🙄

30 minutes ago, Sparky2 said:

 

They previously said that points would not transfer.

Thanks for that info.....where did you read or see that?  I haven't received any info on this new program and I have been a member for more years than I want to admit to....LOL!

16 minutes ago, tkportersat said:

Yeah, that isn't happening which is why I asked.  Wonder if the new system is a tad glitchy 🙂

That new site is awful.....I had a really hard time even finding my account....I had no points left in it and I think my old account should have transferred points?? But I signed up again....only got 1500 points, unlike so many others here who got so many more??  Took some quizzes and my points did show up immediately??  Very strange....they do have a number for "Rewards" to call....866-451-6305 - I plan to call, you may want to do the same?  Kind of frustrating to say the least.

16 minutes ago, tkportersat said:

When do you get points for the quizzes?

Immediately after taking the quizzes.