orville99

Thanks for the pix and the description. Showed them to DW and she told me to book a midship balcony on deck 11. At 5ft she didn’t think she would be able to enjoy the view in a sheltered balcony.

This is our first time on Cunard, and I can’t make heads or tails out of their booking engine. Lots of questions, but no answers anywhere: What is a “sheltered” balcony? What is it sheltered from? Does Cunard offer travel insurance or do I have to purchase it separately? Is final payment really due a week after the deposit? Can I book my flights and pre cruise hotel through Cunard (won’t fly in day of for any cruise, especially one out of NYC)? where do I find drink and internet packages/rates? I probably have more questions, but now I have a headache just getting this far.😇

We always sail in GS, and DW has a gluten intolerance. MDR room service has yet to get her orders correct, spanning several cruises. We only risk the MDR room service perk when we know what she orders is always gluten free (Indian).

Not sure this will help since the OP is currently on board, but we bought an inexpensive GE universal remote from Amazon that works with the on board tvs. Have used it on dozens of cruises with no hiccups to override the tvs default settings and access the hdmi ports.

I have Equinox booked for next January to celebrate our 30th anniversary, and have not sailed on X in ages. DW wants to know how fancy she should pack. I’m easy, have tux will travel, but she wants to really splash it up. Any suggestions?

Happy that you found it worth $20. What ships were in port? Agree that the food choices were seriously lacking for a paid venue. Had we been able to find seating by the pool we might have stayed, but the chair hogs beat us to them all. If they took out half of the beach chairs and umbrellas so you could actually enjoy a view, we might have stayed. Unfortunately they don’t seem to think that way. For them it’s all about the Benjamin’s $$, not about their paying guests.

Just a quick follow up. we were at hideaway bay yesterday. Got there at 9 AM and stayed all of an hour before we gave up and went to the main pool. No loungers anywhere around the pool, but the number of loungers with towels on them more than twice the total number of people in or around the pool. Then went over to the beach area by the food outlet. So many chairs and umbrellas that you couldn’t even see the lagoon. Complete waste of time, but only wasted $26. Cancelled all our other reservations as soon as we got back on board. YMMV.

Meanwhile, back to the WC, it’s good that John is getting back on board soon.

We have a Sky Suite booked on Equinox for next January. Looking forward to trying that cat.

Depends on which class of ship you are on. On Oasis and Quantum class ships, you can pick up bottled water any time the CK Bar is open. On smaller classes of ship, you will receive a bottle of Evian on boarding day, but can also get bottled water in the evening during happy hour.

I believe it comes down to a toss up between the quality of the cruise vs the incremental value of the perks. If you desire sailing on ships with a more upscale vibe, and have no desire to sail on an amusement park, the price differential may very well outweigh the perk differential. We have a 7-night Retreat Suite booked for January 2025 (AI) for ~$7500, and a February 8-night booked on Adventure in a GS for~$6800. Even with all of our Pinnacle perks thrown in to the mix, there is only about a $700 differential between the two cruises.

We have received several surveys from X recently that intimated they are looking at whether more RCL loyalists would switch to X if they did a true status match.😇

With zero points😇

We went the other way - RCL to X - and all it took was a quick call to X to set up our account and give them our RCL C&A numbers. Should work in the reverse as well. You may even be able to do it on line by now.

We prefer the OS. We found the Aqua Theatre suite balconies to be too noisy with everything going on on the Boardwalk. We also loved the side facing CLS on that class of ship, but would never book one of the aft facing CLS.

We only do B2B or longer cruises, and always book on board as soon as the itineraries are released (we currently have cruises booked through April 2026). There are three positives to this approach (one of which has already been mentioned): 1) We can always get the same cabin regardless of how many legs we book (it helps if you do a search of available cabins on all the legs and have that list in hand when you decide to book); 2) Prices are generally at their lowest point when cruises are first released; 3) We get OBC by booking on board.

The windows can be opened, but you need to make the request to an officer who is in charge of the solarium. Also, there are tower structures between the left side and right side hot tubs and the windows of the solarium hot tubs that are the AC distribution points. If you can grab loungers on either side between the towers and the windows, you will feel the AC.

We have never seen this either. Also, we occasionally have seen a good price differential between what we had originally booked and a grand suite, and when we upgraded we also received an increase in the original OBC from $100 to $300.😇

Approximately two hours after the ship leaves the dock.

MTD hasn't started at 5:30 since the restart. The set up now on every ship we have been on since the restart (40+ with at least two cruises on every class except Quantum) is that one of the dining rooms does early traditional seating, and then morphs into MTD as the early seating empties out. MTD now typically opens for reservations at 6:30-7:00 PM.

On Oasis, Allure, Harmony, and Wonder, we have never been asked for vouchers on the Suite Sun Deck. Consistent inconsistency is the hallmark of RCL's business model.🤪

I hope he is ok.

Doubtful that anyone knows the answer to that. There are so many variables (economic, geopolitical, social, etc.) in play on a daily basis that the ability to predict the future value of a reserve currency 3-6 months in advance is impossible.

Not as rare as the LEO discount. We were batting zero on those.

Much more likely that the cabin we were vacating was oversold or in high demand and they were getting more $$ for filling our vacated cabin than the incremental $$ my bid would bring in. At the end of the day, i really don’t care how their algorithm works. We only bid the minimum, and we win more than we don’t.