Starry Eyes

If you paid at entry, you likely parked at Terminal 1 in 2019. The OP is sailing on Mariner which sails from Terminal 5 this season. Cars pay at exit. The garages at the terminals are more convenient than off site lots, though they do cost a bit more. Like the rest of us, the OP will need to weigh the cost vs convenience. Lately we have chosen convenience.

It was price protection plus the OBC. We see threads like this on the boards for various lines regularly. All the major cruise lines charter their ships. Those who get bumped by these charters are unhappy. I feel for the OP, but it sounds pretty standard.

If you can be satisfied with any OV cabin on the ship for that price, book the gty.

Lots of people lurk on silly websites

The two of you plus eight other couples…so would be a round table for 18? That would be an enormous table. And somehow your Diamond drinks bought shots for everyone each night. Hmm, any chance that it was eight other people (4 other couples) at the table?

I understand. We flew to ports when we lived in the upper Midwest. Still we regularly meet people who elect to drive substantial distances to port rather than fly. I suspect they will get enough volunteers taking the downgrade with compensation. Though DH generally resists inside cabins, he would have accepted a downgrade to an inside cabin (with compensation) rather than canceling planned vacation with time off work, air travel and hotel reservations. While he might not volunteer for a downgrade, he’d accept one if push came to shove.

Still coming up for me. Now options to select a room for more $ as well. It is not bargain pricing, but it suggests the cruise as a whole is not oversold…rather certain categories are oversold.

Inside gty cabin are being sold for Dec 11 Wonder cruise on Royal’s website. That suggests there are more than enough inside cabins to accommodate volunteers accepting downgrades.

When deciding whether or not to book gty, I encourage people to imagine being assigned the worst room for them (people’s idea of the worst room many vary) and decide if they’d still be satisfied. A person with a bum knee and prone to seasickness might hate to be assigned a cabin high and forward while another person would be disappointed to get a cabin on a very low deck; both might be happier if those two people could swap. I agree that the cruiseline has the right to change the location of a gty cabin. Still in practice, once assigned they simply are not moving them regularly, as you implied.

Once assigned, rarely does Royal change a gty assignment. If they assign an inside cabin on deck 10 to a gty booking, as in your example, that cabin is no longer marketed to someone shopping for a cruise.

When they are offering a downgrade to an inside cabin on the same cruise, it really does not matter where one lives. People need to take the same flights or the same drive whether they sail in a balcony or an inside cabin. Floridians are good targets for move over offers, but I meet lots of people who drive (rather than fly) to cruises from other states. Furthermore, there are plenty of snowbirds with permanent addresses in other states who are in Florida for months. As it is just an email offer, the cruiselines can cast a wider net than just Floridians. I suspect they will get sufficient volunteers to switch to inside cabin in exchange for refund of cruise fare. The last time Wonder was oversold, they made offers to move people off the ship. Then days before sailing, there were enough cancellations they had a few cabins to sell on that cruise.

Yeah, we have carried OTC meds for years. Several years ago, we were a couple miles into the drive toward port when we realized neither of us packed the OTC meds; though we both felt well, we doubled back for the meds, just in case. We will add an Ace wrap to our kit as DH needed one on last cruise.

Personally I tend to ignore the suggested bids, but I do pay attention to the minimum bids. If you want to gamble, you could cancel the all the bids on your cabin then see what offers are available. Maybe they will also be better. Of course, there’s a small chance your offers will get worse; you never know what RoyalUp might do.

Oh, I know it is possible so I want the bids in place. There is always a chance somebody will have to cancel.

There’s no cruise credit on our booking. The appearance of the problem seemed to correlate with the assignment of the gty cabin (though it had not happened to us previously on gty bookings). I have heard of it happening to others, though not repeatedly. Our bids are still in place, though few cabins are left, so odds if upgrade are low. I hope your bids stick, too. We are looking forward to NYE cruise, upgrade or no.

You do you. I certainly did not mean to imply the service change would influence everyone’s habits or yours specifically. I only meant that it may change some people’s patterns. I occasionally hang personal items to dry in that “small, closed space” and have been surprised how quickly they dry. That leads me to believe the bathrooms generally have a high ventilation rate, so, depending on number and hanging pattern, the towels may be dry not damp in the morning.

It might reduce towel usage a bit. Right now some guests might immediately toss every used towel onto the floor. With the new system, if a guest with morning service uses a towel in the afternoon, they might hang up the towel (allowing it to be re-used if needed before the next service and also keeping the bath neater). Every time a guest doesn’t toss that once used, air dried towel to the floor in the morning before service, the ship will wash one less towel.

Yeah, I would think the triple/quad cabins would need service twice a day so the extra beds could be set up/taken down. Still one visit could be quicker than current service, I suppose. DH and I would adjust well, I suspect.

I feel your pain. I’m sailing Dec 31 in an OV gty and submitted RoyalUp bid weeks ago. Last week my cabin was assigned, an OV as expected. The next day I received an email like your indicating my bids had been canceled. That had not happened with my previous gty bookings. Though inconvenient as I was cruise on Wonder OTS, I resubmitted. The next day I got another email noting my new bids had also been canceled. My assignment had not changed. I resubmitted my bids. So far the third set have stuck. I hope RoyalUp fixes that bug.

Elite and higher crosses over to Diamond. Diamond and higher crosses over to Elite. One can only reach the top tiers on each line by actually sailing that line, so your fellow Elite Pluses are Celebrity cruisers, not just cross overs. Depending upon the “sales” at the time if booking, you and your wife may each qualify for Diamond discount on balcony cabins. For that reason, some couples chose to split their names between the cabins to maximize the discount, the rearrange themselves on board. Though you say this cruise is for the little ones, perhaps you find you enjoy the new venues.

I realize the port employees did not allow Wonder passengers into the garage, but I am saying it absolutely was not because the garage was full. Obviously people were willing to pay the appropriate charge to park for Wonder’s 6 night cruise, but the machines were all set for Indy’s 4 night cruise. The port mishandled the situation. Also, at least from the southern approach on A1A, the ship name was not displayed on the informational port sign, so some passengers may have gone to the wrong terminal. The port had plenty of notice yet handled it poorly.

Full? LOL. I assure you, the terminal one garage was not full for boarding on 11/28. I was also on the shortened cruise, and I walked up the parking garage stairs for a quick look at level 2. It was almost empty. I could see a substantial part of the garage from my balcony…mostly empty. Remember, disembarkation of Wonder started at 4:30am, so the garage at terminal 1 started clearing then. Indy passengers cleared out later, but clear out they did. The port did not reset the parking charge meter for the length of the Wonder cruise, so they would not let Wonder passengers use it. It was set for the length of the Indy cruise, so if an Indy passenger wanted to wade through that horrid terminal one traffic that day, they were allowed in garage 1…of course they then had to find a way to terminal 5. The port authority made a mess of things, even though they had plenty of notice of Wonder’s delay.

Best for really short people?

Thanksgiving week they used the separate room with three check in agents; also very quick. Consistently inconvenient.

Yes, it is nice when the OV balcony gty option appears there. Sometimes, even though that option is not listed on the website under “you pick your room”, an OV balcony gty can be booked by calling Royal Caribbean or a TA. So, if the option is not there on the website for your next cruise, you could investigate further.