Starry Eyes

If you were able to select a cabin in a location you like plus get a larger balcony for only $44 more than your balcony gty price, you made good decision. It has nothing to do with being a chicken. An additional benefit to paying for that upgrade: you should get new RoyalUp offers in a few days that may include different options and new minimum bids.

Sometimes what I consider an upgrade/downgrade might not match what you consider an upgrade/downgrade or what PlusGrade has programmed their computer to say is an upgrade/downgrade. Let’s imagine a family of four booked an inside cabin and placed RoyalUp bid for a balcony. Two weeks later an Ultra spacious Oceanview cabin becomes available at a decent price. It does not have a balcony but it has a lot more interior space for their family of four. They may feel that cabin is better for them than a regular balcony; winning a balcony bid would “feel” like a downgrade to that particular family because they value space. PlusGrade lists balconies above all OV cabins, even ultra spacious (and plenty of families would agree…just not my example family because tastes vary). BTW, the change in cabins should cancel the old bids and give the above family a new set of bidding options with new minimums but it takes a couple days. In the meantime I’d still cancel my old bids if I were in their shoes to avoid any inadvertent, unwanted upgrades.

When my gty assignments have been minimal upgrades (booked a gty balcony on Mariner and assigned 4B balcony for example rather than 4D), my bids have been cancelled. Sometimes my assignment caused my bids to be cancelled even I was assigned a standard cabin. Nevertheless if I upgraded myself or if I received a free upgrade to a cabin I liked, I would take the initiative to immediately cancel any unwanted bids myself.

Nearly everyone gets a JS. Do not get your hopes up for a free upgrade to a full suite; those are truly rare now. After all, the company can make money selling those upgrades on RoyalUp

These are not just social media reports. It has been published in both the US and Australian press, including quotes from at least one of the impacted individuals. Royal Caribbean issued a response to the press. https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/cruises/2023/11/30/royal-caribbean-passengers-denied-boarding/71749345007/

For cruises the rescheduling offer may be further out, but that does not mean it cannot be done. Some of us are quite flexible. For example, DH and I are retired and are scheduled to cruise Sunday on Wonder. We drive 90 miles from home to port. If perchance Royal Caribbean texted (or sent an app notification) on Saturday or even Sunday morning that there was an overbooking situation and they would compensate volunteers, we would probably text back that, yes, we would be willing to consider rescheduling for the right compensation…even last minute.

I agree that waving goodbye to fully satisfied volunteers is not a terrible sin. I think they should seek volunteers whether due to overbooking or cabins taken out of commission for some reason. Granted, the earlier the company knows about the problem, the easier it is to seek volunteers in an orderly fashion. Nevertheless with modern communications a text request for potential volunteers could go to appropriate passengers’ cell phones even the morning of the cruise with replies generating a quick working list for negotiations. Some of us wake up in our own beds on boarding day and could easily consider an attractive offer. It is better PR to have a happy flexible retiree or remote worker than an unhappy involuntarily bumped passenger with an inflexible schedule.

What hotels do not overbook? It is so pervasive, how do you find a hotel that does not overbook?

No we don’t excuse it. I clearly said it was wrong for all segments of the hospitality industry. I merely pointed out that cruiselines are not the biggest offenders. The others can destroy trips too. A hotel example: I made a six day reservation at a major brand hotel for a conference well in advance. When I arrived, I was told they were overbooked as was every hotel nearby. They canceled all six nights of my only reservation, arranged one night at their affiliate 15 miles away and were not concerned about that I had no place to stay the other five nights. That was my last stay with that brand.

Personally I think it is wrong for both cruiselines and airlines. The airlines knowingly overbook, much more so than the cruiselines. The do ask for volunteers and they do offer compensation. Sometimes nobody volunteers and someone gets bumped involuntarily. Depending on the airline and the route, there might not be an available flight soon enough for the passenger’s needs. A flight the next day, for example, may well cause them to miss their cruise or a special event. Recently, like the airlines. The current disappointing report aside, Royal has also asked for volunteers and offered compensation…except Royal made the offer in advance, not in the terminal like the airline…that is much better than the airlines.

I agree, but go after the big offenders first. Both airlines and hotels are notorious for substantially overbooking with the expectation that there will be no shows, allowing them to collect double revenue. They ruin trips, too. The number of incidents where cruise lines overbook seems pretty low compared to others in the hospitality industry.

Of course we do not know the whole story; one rarely does. One does suspect that most cruisers and the general public reading about this event on social media would be more understanding if the root cause was a last minute maintenance issue (or some similar unavoidable last minute problem). Note, however, letter posted on Reddit does not indicate such as issue. The OP on that thread stated they had no prior notice and had they were unassigned gty’s (13 couples). You and I know gty’s are ordinarily assigned at least 2-3 days before the cruise. Unassigned gty’s suggests Royal had at least 2-3 days notice…perhaps more.

I don’t understand why Royal Caribbean wasn’t proactive by asking for volunteers in advance of this cruise. Here on CC we saw copies of emails Royal sent for other overbooked cruises this year. That price protection offer might have induced 13 or more people to volunteer to reschedule to another week while others might have volunteered for the refund plus 25% FCC if they’ve had a recent financial setback. Those offers are only so-so for volunteers. I think the offers are really poor for non-volunteers bounced the day of sailing without notice.

Royal Caribbean has noticed when the lounges are most likely to be overcrowded. We know that due to concerns about Crown lounge crowding on some cruises D’s are excluded from the Crown lounge during cocktail hours. The obvious parallel action would be to exclude (non-suite) Pin’s from the suite lounge during cocktail hours. Suite guests would then more easily find seats during their free cocktail hour. The Pin’s in the SL at that time would be suite guests who then would not be scapegoated if it did get crowded.

Unless the adult son is also interested in accumulating points. He would get single points under your booking system vs double under the status quo.

I think you have been given good advice above. Nevertheless I will add that on some sailing on that class ship, the obstructed balconies (or guarantee balcony bookings that may be assigned obstructed balcony categories) can be much less expensive. While not optimal, people in obstructed balconies still have a private space with sea air and a view when standing (the degree of obstruction varies). If perchance budget becomes an issue for you or others reading this thread, with the correct attitude an enjoyable cruise can be had in an obstructed balcony on deck 6. Deck 6 would be a convenient deck.

One need not pay for a cruise or go to a bar if you’re into that. Just read CruiseCritic; somebody will post a moan soon enough🤣

True. Also if the spouses currently have the same number of points, they are both better off in the long run if the double points go to the person who is more likely to take cruises without the spouse (solo or with a friend/relative) in the future. Sometimes that needs to be planned when the booking/upgrade is made.

Though DH and I tend to be early birds, I know late night food matters to other people. If we all kept the same schedules and enjoyed the same things, the ships would feel more crowded. I recall how unhappy fellow cruisers were as midnight buffets became less lavish than disappeared. Even on the same line, some cruises feel different than others. For example, several years ago we did a back to back cruise, so same ship, same departure port, same month. The first cruise was a five night sailing to Bermuda. There were lots of young couples and families with young kids plus some seniors. It was very active with long lines for pizza and a very busy buffet, even at dinner. Boisterous crowd. There were only a few b2b guests. The second cruise was nine night Canada and New England. There were lots of seniors, far fewer young people, very few kids, and far more high loyalty members. More card games, no more long lines for pizza, the MDR was busier at mealtimes. Sedate crowd. We enjoyed both cruises, but the contrast was quite noticeable.

Ah, so none of your other 37 cruises were transatlantic or other ocean crossings. We have done 96 cruises on a variety of cruise lines, including multiple transatlantics. They draw a different crowd and have a different pace. Passengers on a TA behave differently than passengers on a 7 or 10 day cruise. Obviously the TA worked out for us but it does not suit everyone. Try to think about the TA demographic and TA crowd behavior separately from your feeling about Royal Caribbean. That will help you decide if long transoceanic cruises on any line suit you at this point in your life. There are other points that are specific to Royal Caribbean and your cruising style/preferences. For example, free late night food seems important to you (that is not important to me at all, showing personal preferences really matter here). If Royal’s offerings (typically pizza, sandwiches, cookies as I recall) do not appeal, another cruiseline might suit you better for most or all of your cruises. That’s why there are multiple cruise lines. Many of us have taken a cruise that was good yet did not quite fit. We go back to the line(s) that feel right.

Our congratulations email for a winning bid came yesterday. Today with received new cruise docs with the new luggage tag on the last page. So watch your email. Your new docs should come soon. Your new cruise docs should then also be available in your cruise planner.

I’d guess it went through in a wearable pet carrier https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B5KWBB5K/ref=sspa_mw_detail_2?ie=UTF8&psc=1&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9waG9uZV9kZXRhaWw That might be where it was hidden some of the times the cabin was serviced, too.

While there are some reliably “high kid” times, I don’t think there are any reliably “low kid time period” cruises on Oasis class ships. There can be a surprising number if kids of many sailings. Just because kids are in school in your hometown does not mean all kids are in school. Not only are there many pre-school child, there now many home schoolers. There are also plenty of parents who will pull kids out of school for a trip. Then there are schools with alternate calendars, both domestic and abroad. For example, my schools only got one day off for President’s day in February while in other parts of the country, there is a week break. I have also boarded ships to find a large number of families vacationing from Brazil, for example.

I guess that’s another reason I don’t want to sail Icon (at least while she is new). If other people want to pay that much for a rope course, I hope they have a blast…and I hope RCI pays down more debt.

Access to Solarium Bistro those weeks costs only $70 ppd. Royal will be happy to take your money.😉🤣🤣 Joking aside, I do understand your pain. I’ve lost access to multiple venues when I discovered I was on a ship with a partial charter. The cruiselines do not warn other passengers and it can impact their cruises. Allowing a group to have certain venues for all or large portions of a cruise is not just Yeshiva week/Bistro/Royal thing unfortunately