Starry Eyes

Another happy iPhone owner🤣

You were fortunate to get your assignment early; I am happy for you. Your experience does not generalize to everyone; it is one isolated experience. Paying off our cruise balances has not resulted in an assignment multiple times. Despite being long since paid, of our assignments in the last six months have come as late as 5 days before the cruise. An assignment on the first leg of a b2b on odyssey came at 30 days; there were no remaining cabins in our category or any other…sold out. The second leg is now also sold out; it is 33 days away and we do not have our assignment officially (we have seen the bar code). Pay early, no switches, cabins will be just fine anyway.

I’m glad you found the apple wallet bar code trick helpful. It is regularly discussed here on CruiseCritic. It has also helped me finalize my RoyalUp bids, too. I don’t know why Royal does it that way. I suppose it leaves them a bit more flexibility. If hypothetically there were some unusual, unanticipated situation requiring cabins to be shuffled (a surprise plumbing problem or whatever), it is easier to move an unassigned gty than an assigned gty. That’s just a guess; I have not heard of it happening. So far my bar code has predicted my cabin each time, but I always assume they have a right to move me if I book gty.

Did you receive an email invitation to bid for RoyalUp? If so, try using that email to go bid on the other categories of interest. If that fails or if you never got an email invite, I’d suggest you cancel your GS bid. Once you have no active bid, you should be able to see all your bidding options again. This time enter bids on each of categories that interest you (including that GS again) before you enter your CC number. I hope one of those methods works.

Most of the RoyalUp upgrades happen a few days before the cruise, though they may happen sooner. If, for example, a nice suite does not sell at full price, it could go to RoyalUp, setting off a cascade of upgrades. A cancellation of anything better than basic inside cabin might generate a vacancy that could result in RoyalUp upgrades.

Then you don’t want to bid. The odds of receiving an accessible JS are as a RoyalUp are low but are not zero. As a hypothetical example, the person who booked the accessible JS could have to cancel their cruise a week out😕, that accessible JS might go to RoyalUp and you could be the winning bid. There probably would not be any available JS to trade. I suppose you could post on the cruise’s roll call to see if there was anybody on the roll call in a JS who wanted to switch (maybe someone in a scooter or somebody with increasing health issues who was worried about getting in and out of their tub), but that would be a long shot.

I’m sorry for the medical struggles. My husband and I have cruise multiple times a year for many years. We buy annual travel medical insurance but do not buy cancellation insurance. We consider ourselves self-insured for cancellation. If something such as a serious diagnosis causes us to cancel a cruise, we will have to eat that cost. We probably won’t enjoy it but we made our choice many policy premiums ago. If you did not buy travel insurance, you also put yourself in the “self-insured” category. I’m glad that gamble only cost you $634. Such gambles have cost others thousands of dollars.

I think perhaps we are both playing devil’s advocate😀 I don’t necessarily like Royal Caribbean’s pricing patterns, though I love their ships. I do believe people have plenty of other vacation choices if RCI pricing or food or gratuities or service changes or whatever is the last straw. Sometimes people need to move on. Some will come back, others never will.

The consultant says he adds sessions as goes and prices them accordingly. That’s how he works; take it or leave it. You can chose someone else if you wish, but then you won’t have any chance to see his sessions (note parallel to coco cay). There is competition initially; you can select another consultant if you don’t like his terms. Similarly, there is plenty of competition in the cruises. You can choose another cruiseline. I would also point out that if people book a refundable fare before final payment they would gain access to the CP. If they decide the CoCo Cay prices are too high, they could cancel the cruise. I wouldn’t, but I don’t cruise for the coco cay water park.

OK, let’s look at that. Sure, there would be competition when you decide which consultant to hire, just as there is when you decide which cruise to book. Let’s say you decide hire a consultant offers his own line of on going interactive educational sessions with his clients. After you sign with the consultant, you have the option to pay and participate in some or none of those educational sessions; if you opt out, you still get the consultant’s services per the contract.

I’m not logged into my CP every day; in fact, I only log in occasionally. I only leaned about the package on this thread. I did think it might be a pricing error. If so, Royal would either (a) let it stand like the $18 drink package or (b) refund it. Either way, I booked it for all four cruises. If they had let it stand, I might as well be the one benefiting. If they refund, I’ll be laid back while it processes.

LOL, a software consultant reads old social media posts. He then acts surprised that water park prices have risen during a period of general inflation and as cruise ships have become more crowded causing increased demand for tickets. I bet that consultant had no problem charging more for his services when he was in demand.

Different people evaluate cabins differently. Some people don’t like deck 14, fearing noise transfer from the pool deck; others want to be near the pool deck. Some people don’t want connecting cabins; others don’t care. Some people like angled balconies and others don’t. That’s why I suggest Wiggin look at the deck plan themselves. It is easier to give up your current prime location if you like all the location of all the JS’s.

Yes, you would be putting your hand picked location at risk. Take a look at a deck map and look at a couple of your least favorite JS locations. Imagine you won and were assigned one of those, would you be excited about your upgrade or sorry you had bid? If you would not be happy to win any JS on the ship, you probably should not bid.

Just two of you? Or more? The more people, the more you are likely to appreciate the extra space in a junior suite. The junior suites have bigger bathrooms with tubs instead of showers. Does that sound wonderful to you? Or not do much? It would not be worth it an extra $400 to DH and me, but it might be worth it to others.

Yes, bid on as many categories as you wish. Be aware though that you will only win once (if you win at all). So, for example, let’s say you bid for large balcony, junior suite and grand suite. If your bid for that bigger balcony wins, you no longer have a shot at either the junior suite or the grand suite. If your junior suite bid wins, you no longer have a shot at the grand suite. Think ahead; make bids you’ll be happy to win. The above example was an illustration. If I already have a balcony, I generally don’t bid on better balcony categories unless I am unhappy with my current balcony (or think I am likely to be unhappy with my gty balcony assignment)

You said they might make a good will gesture. To me, a good will gesture is a small token, thus my suggestion. You are suggesting they give people a refund and also give them (for free!) the one item that you believe motivated 85% of them to buy the package. Now maybe letting impacted people buy the internet package for $88.90 might be a good will gesture. I don’t expect it to happen though.

IDK, wifi sells well, so it is lost revenue. If they wanted a good will gesture, they could offer a lunch (limited, MDR level selections) with officers and wine paired to those selections by a sommelier. Many would be too busy to attend. Cost is some small glasses of relatively inexpensive wine and junior officers’ time.

OK, if we are offering theories beyond incompetence, here’s the mean one for you… Post a great package that includes internet for an irresistible price. People buy the great new deal and cancel their old internet deals. Then the company makes a lame excuse and refunds all those new packages. People now have to buy internet all over again at the new higher price.

Sometimes they do. Sometimes they don’t. I purchased the package for four cruises. For the first two, the package is marked “reserved” in my CP, but not in DH’s CP. In the second two cruises, the package is marked “reserved” in both CP’s. Consistently inconsistent 😀

Another poster mentioned threads about Celebrity canceling Premiere Pass in 2021. I’m surprised they sold packages that included insider tours during the covid. Here’s what I found:

How do you feel about being pretty far forward? There are some obstructed balconies on deck 7 and 8 forward that have porthole shaped cutouts, similar to the one shown in the YouTube video below. We’ve been assigned one for our Odyssey cruise next month. DH likes a shady balcony, so I think he will like it. Hope so😀 There may be some other cabins further aft on deck 7 that are listed as obstructed, but really have only a little obstruction near floor level. Grab one of those if available.

Interesting. Maybe RCI has adjusted the billing a bit. Earlier today when I clicked two names, a double charge appeared. When I only clicked one name a single charge appeared.

Did you click both names? That generates two charges. The phrasing on the website suggests you would be buying two packages for two. That would allow you to take two additional guests. Or did you click one name (trusting the other would be a plus one as discussed in this thread)? That’s what I did.

Yes, I bought the package in my name and my set sail pass has a key. My plus one, DH, does not have a key on his set sail pass.