pcur

19 hours ago, not-enough-cruising said:

i assume she was referring to the Pacific side

I am.  Sorry for the misunderstanding.

In the past RCCL has been very hesitant to go back to countries with this kind of criminal and dangerous activity happening.  It took them over a decade to go back to Mexico.

On the Jewel, go early for lunch.  It's very popular.  I debarked on 4/20/24.

No matter if I have booked a time in advance, I always go to the MTD podium on embarkation day, and talk about my reservations.  What I am most interested in is getting a table assignment so I do NOT have to check in when arriving for dinner.  MTD can be an absolute ZOO the first few nights of a cruise.

It's been this way on every cruise I've been on since MTD started. 

After eating on the first night, and if we have (as usual) fallen in grateful love with our waiters, I stop at the podium on the way out and tell them we want the table every night at that time.  Then, every night we quietly walk through the line and go to our table.  

On my last cruise, the Jewel Transatlantic in April, we arrived the first night with HUNDREDS of people in line, and I parked my "never been on a cruise before" friends in the lobby. I went up to the podium to inform the manager (who I had talked to several hours before about just this problem) that we would not be eating there tonight because the line would take us 30 minutes at least to get up to the podium. He said just go in, I will check you in.  Got to the table, said hello to the waiter, and went back and got my friends.

I have NO patience anymore for MTD chaos.  By the way, we couldn't get early fixed seating, which is what we wanted.  Excellent dining experience after all the kerfuffle was done.

See, the reason MTD and specialty restaurants take your room number is they are then assigned your daily dining tips.  They do not want to lose those tips for multiple people, ever.  So, politely informing them of your limits (when appropriate) helps.

6 minutes ago, js said:

Thank you very much. I appreciate this.

This is so very helpful! Thank you very much! This is what I usually do on NCL in Haven but will do once I board Odyssey. I will write down each night (and lunch) and hand them a tip with the paperwork. This is absolutely perfect! Do I just do this at whatever restaurant I am having lunch in on embarkation (whoever is checking us in)?

 

Thank you so much again! I appreciate all your help.

 

The info should be in the Cruise Planner 3 months before your cruise.

1 hour ago, js said:

Thank you. It's so silly to pay another upcharge with the dining package but it is what it is.

Thank you very much.

 

Thank you. So Izumi is open for lunch on sea days. So is Players Club (or whatever the sports bar is called, is that correct). Are these the only two places to use the UDP for lunch on sea days?

 

Do you also make ressies for lunch on sea days? When do I make ressies for dinners? When I get on the ship (which is also silly in this day/age that you cannot prebook).

 

Thank you.

If you go to the Cruise Planner, select Specialty Restaurant Lunch in the dining options, you will see the restaurants available for lunch on your cruise.  I do "fake" bookings for each restaurant just to get to the page that gives you the days and times available.  I make a note of each, and then plan my reservations accordingly.  I go into the restaurant that is open on embarkation day, tell them I have a UDP package, and hand them my list of reservations for lunch and dinner that I would like to make.  They will make the reservations for you while you are eating. I like to give them a tip for doing this, because for my upcoming cruise on the Freedom in Sept, it's 11 reservations between lunch and dinner.

Izumi (regular sushi menu, not Teppanyaki) can be ordered a la carte at lunch or dinner with the UDP.  My sister and I usually get the UDP and go to Izumi for both lunch and dinner.

3 hours ago, GTO-Girl said:

“IF” you do manage to get them onboard be prepared to carry your chairs around with you until the rooms are ready about 1pm.  No way are porters going to accept beach chairs!!

When I was dropping off luggage in March, the porter just tagged two beach chairs still in the factory plastic wrap for the passengers in front of me, and put them in with the rest of the luggage.

On 5/26/2024 at 10:12 AM, swoopy2110 said:

 I've seen that. But as a UK citizen I can get a free visa for Australia - the 651 rather than the 601 (not on the app) I want to check that there'll be no issue boarding with this.

The Australian ETA App works with British passports, so it might issue the 651.

First, many agents don't know about the DP340 promo code, even the RCCL staff.  Just tell them to go look it up, as it's in the list of Diamond Plus benefits for the solo supplement.

Secondly, if my agent isn't able to meet the online price (which hasn't happened, because my agent's pricing is ALWAYS lower), then I used to book the cruise online myself, and transfer it to my agent.

https://rccl.my.salesforce-sites.com/directtransfers/DTTRoyal

When my two sons took our family cruise after both of them were over 18, RCCL tried to bumped them back to Gold level.  They came in at Diamond when enrolled, as that was the level my husband and I were at the time the C&A program started.

Luckily, I keep stuff like that, and still had the original congratulations letter on RCCL's letterhead, listing all four of us with our C&A numbers. 

I had an EPIC conversation with the C&A supervisor over the phone.  I told her if you're going to do it officially on company letterhead, then where's your "official" written policy about taking them down to Gold?  I don't think I started the whole "you keep the level but have to earn back up to progress to the next level", but I was in that scrum with them, for sure. 

There is an Australian ETA app you can use to purchase the visa from your mobile phone.

I agree.  I avoid Miami hotels if I can. 

From an Fort Lauderdale hotel, and with six people, I recommend you use SAS Transportation, since they can take all of you for $13 each to the Port of Miami.  They do NOT service Miami hotels, though.

I have also used them to go from the Port of Miami to FLL airport.

In this case, I believe the refundable deposit would refunded as another FCC.  This is a situation where it's easier to not cancel, but move the money to another cruise.

I have booked cruises where I've used a regular deposit from one cruise, moved it to another cruise, and used an FCC to pay down the balance, all at one time.  I may or may not pay the $100 change fee, depending on how the original deposit was funded.

I find it odd that people bring folding scooters in their luggage, use them onboard, take them off the ship with them, but you cannot bring a folding bicycle.

I have no interest in doing this, but if I did, I'd put it in this, and take it off the ship with me.  I have one of these, and when it's collapsed, it could easily be bungeed to the back of the bike. Full size, the folding bike I saw on Amazon would fit in it.

I use this instead of a second suitcase, because it's adjustable for the extra stuff:

I've used my drink vouchers many times at Cafe270.  As a matter of fact I HIGHLY recommend getting your coffee there.  The coffee / pastry shop in the promenade usually has a huge line, while Cafe270 doesn't.  (If you like chai tea lattes, there's is excellent, BTW).

I try not to cancel a cruise, but move the booking id and deposit over to the new cruise.  Sometimes they charge me the $100 change fee, but sometimes not.  

Cancellation (before final payment date), involves a lot more steps, while moving the booking over to a new ship and date is pretty quick.

I have cloth luggage tags a cruise friend made me that I love, and put them in protective plastic sleeves.  Then, I slip the folded paper boarding RCCL luggage tag inside the sleeve so it's visible from both sides.  Slip it out again and toss once I unpack in my cabin.

I formerly downloaded my SeaPass to my iphone's digital wallet, BUT I've noticed that my C&A status is not on the downloaded one. So, instead, I take a screenshot picture of it with my phone, crop it so only the boarding pass shows, and save it to my photos on my phone.  All the information is correct with the screenshot version.

I agree that boarding is a rush-rush thing, and having to juggle passport and any paper documents is a pain.  So, I trimmed it down to passport and the SeaPass photo.

It's a pain going from the San Pedro dock to LAX, especially in the am on a weekday.  Have you considered flying in and out of Long Beach?  It's my preferred airport, since it's only 20 minutes to the dock in San Pedro, and you won't have all the traffic.

I use Uber to get to/from Long Beach. 

I travel with a Surface Pro X that is 11.5" wide and 8.5" high.  I CANNOT fit it in the safes on any ships, and I've been on the Anthem, Odyssey, Freedom, Liberty, Enchantment, Grandeur, Vision, and Jewel over the last 2 years.

2 hours ago, bouhunter said:

That said, we've never had any issues with the normal RCCL phone line and staff, once they pick up.....

 

 

The whole reason I started this thread is the access to speaking to Crown and Anchor, or just about any live person, at RCCL was "blockaded" by an automated phone tree: the recorded prompts to supposedly get you to a live agent.  This happened sometime in early April while I was on a cruise for 15 days.  It's also been all over various Facebook groups.

No one seemed to be able to get through.  One person here on CC said to ask for technical help, and then ask to be transferred.  I tried a few days ago with a "Crown and Anchor" reply, and said it was about my Crown and Anchor membership number (just to keep the auto prompts moving through to the next prompt).  That got me transferred to the C&A Agent.

So, as mentioned before, if you haven't tried to call since the first week of this month, you would not have experienced the extreme frustration of no one to talk to.  Hopefully, now we can reach them.

Oh, and they DO know they have a problem.

I used to work for Southwestern Bell's Voicemail software development subsidiary here in CA.  It's all pre-recorded prompts, BUT you have to program the "tree" of further actions properly, and test it thoroughly.  This was obviously NOT done by RCCL when they turned their phone system over to automation.  So, we as customers, have had to developed our own "work-arounds" and share them.

3 hours ago, HicksRA said:

Originally, they had one deck exclusive to my time dining so my timers could actually start at 5:00. Fixed dining was exclusive to the other floors. 
Some brainiac at Royal decided they’d put fixed dining on all three floors and the my time diners would just have to squeeze in between them - thus my time doesn’t start now until after early fixed dining is cleared out. 

Correct.

MTD was a nightmare for the first 3-4 nights on the Jewel Transatlantic last month 4/5 - 4/20.  HUNDREDS of people showing up 6:45 - 7:15 with no tables available.  

I went in the early afternoon on embarkation day to confirm our dining location.  First night I saw the mob, and went up to the dining manager I had talked to that afternoon, and told him quietly that we would be eating elsewhere that night because of the crowded conditions.  He made me wait a few minutes and had me seated, since we had an assigned table.  Then, I went back and got my friends.

On our way out I told him we wanted that table and waiters every night.  The next night it was the same, and we walked through to crowd and to our table. 

Our waiter showed us the "back way" to get into the dining room.  On the Jewel there are cabins next to Guest Services, 4580 - 4590, and an open entry to the dining room.  It's great for getting to your assigned table without having run the gauntlet of people at the main entrance.

I had to still go through the error-riddled phone prompts to get to the D+/Pinnacle phone agent, but I made it through the phone prompt gauntlet!

Same 1-800-526-9723 number without the 9 key pressed at the end. 

When asked "what can I help you with?", say "Speak to Loyalty Department". 

You will be asked, "You want to know your Crown and Anchor number, right?" Not right, but say yes.

I had to go through giving my birthdate and telephone number that the system could not find associated with my account, but the agent DID confirm they were both in my record.

When the error-riddled phone prompts can't find you, you are then transferred to the Loyalty Department. Yes!  A real, live polite human being!!!

There will be a banner saying "Gratuities Included".  For my next cruise I am seeing the Unlimited Dining Package without the banner, and individual specialty restaurant packages with the banner.

9 minutes ago, Tree_skier said:

Not that it makes a difference to me since I am 550 miles away from Pinnacle but I am just curious... When you access the SL during HH do you have to use your vouchers?  And what about the wine and beer that is on offer from 11 to 11 on Oasis class ships.  Does that require a voucher as well or are treated like suite passengers and get the free drinks on top of your 6 vouchers?  

 

 

Yes, you use your vouchers in the SL during HH.