CVW

Thanks. I think the best option will be Vancouver the day before the cruise. Just booked it! Thanks for your help. 

Juneau is already booked with glacier/sled dogs. I need a nice whale watching excursion out of Skagway or Ketchikan. Which is better for whales, and what are some of our options? We’re willing to spend a little extra, but probably not thousands for the private charters I’ve been looking at. Thanks!

Can I bring a 24 pack of Coke Zero on board into my Owner's Suite on SotS? I've done it before a few years ago, but didn't know if anything had changed. Thanks! 

I appreciate that, and the quickness of your reply, but it doesn’t really address my question. I’m asking for anyone’s current experience with this question regarding Royal Caribbean offering only credits to people no longer able to cruise, and RC’s potential legal exposure. Thanks.

Long story short, I was told I could only have an FCC when I canceled my Symphony OTS cruise in March (among the very first cruises canceled). Literally a few hours later, RC began offering refunds instead of credits. I called back a couple of weeks later, they told me they would give me a refund, only to renege on this assurance later on. I’m out roughly $15K.

I’m a physician, and our hospital system has stated that anyone who cruises will be required to isolate for fourteen days after their return, essentially saying that I can’t go on a cruise. My wife has recurrent pneumonitis, a breathing condition, and has been told she’s high risk, and should not cruise. My daughter has asthma, and has likewise been told by her physician that she shouldn’t cruise. All of these restrictions, of course, did not exist in the pre-corona world.

Will I get anywhere by requesting the refund again with this information? (I didn’t discuss this with them previously, when they told me I’d be getting a refund.) Or should I seek legal counsel?

Any information or referral would be appreciated. Thanks.

9 minutes ago, Tulsacoker said:

...not sure about access to CK and SL for the 23 year old. Should not be a problem for the minor children 

So you think I’ll be able to at least get the teenagers into Coastal Kitchen? That’d be great. 
 

I’m mostly concerned about embarking and disembarking, including at ports of call. Would you recommend just taking the five of us to the suite embarkation area, and just asking? I don’t get the sense that they’ll give me a definitive answer before hand. 
 

Any thoughts are appreciated. (We did the Oasis last year, but we had two suites, so there were never any questions.)

My wife and I have an Owner’s Suite on the Symphony this March...last minute booking. We’ll be traveling with our two daughters, 17 and 15, and son, 23. Our suite technically has capacity for all of us, but even Royal Caribbean recommends against it for older guests. So we’ve put them in an inside stateroom nearby. 
 

We didn’t realize that the Key Program had already sold out, and I’m concerned now about being able to travel together. 
 

The RC rep on the phone seemed to reassure me that since they were our kids, they’d let us board and disembark together once we explained the situation. 
 

I’ve told that I’d be willing to pay for the Key for each of them. It seems like it should be a no-brainer to RC since they’d have the capacity if I booked them all into suite that we have. (There’s no other availability for other suites, by the way.)

Does anyone have experience with this?

Also, in a not-completely related question, when making dining reservations as a suite guest, can I make reservations for 5, even though there are only two in my suite?

Thanks. 

We sail Sunday on the Allure in Grand Suites. I received an email from the concierge, saying we could go ahead start making dining reservations (particularly for the Coastal Kitchen), but gave no instructions how to do so. 

I sent him an email early yesterday, but still haven't heard back. My next step is to just type out the dining times that we want and email him again.

Any better thoughts?

Has anyone had experience with bringing canned (or bottled) soda. My daughter and I were each going to bring a different twelve pack of beverage, and I wanted to bring my wife a half gallon (2 liter) of her favorite tea. Will they let us bring that much on board?

Interestingly, I just received a phone call from the RCCL rep I talked to today.

She apologized for giving me misinformation. She stated that Grand Suite guests will be sent an email to begin reservations 7 days prior to boarding, as I had been told before.

Based on my previous experience, that isn't always true. On my last sailing, I was unable to dine in the Coastal Kitchen because I didn't have a reservation. 

I'm getting mixed information from Royal Caribbean. I'm a Grand Suite guest on the Allure departing in a couple of weeks. I booked through RCCL.

All along, they've been telling me that someone from the Concierge service will be contacting me about a week before my cruise to let me start the process of reserving dinners and showtimes, etc.

On today's phone call (for other matters) the agent told me that I would NOT be able to book in advance through the concierge service. That ability is only for the Royal Genie suites. I would have to book everything after I was on board. 

Who is correct?

Are there any private boat charters that someone can recommend on a port day at Costa Maya? I haven't had much luck online. 

We're a family of six. We'd like to spend 3-4 hours on a small boat. Preferably snorkel and snacks available. Is this out there?

Thanks. I was given the number on our cruise three years ago. They answered it as the concierge line. I asked them why they didn't publicize the number and they didn't really have an answer. But that number no longer works.

We're staying in two Grand Suites on the Allure but still haven't received any communication from the concierge. Last time we did this, we had a direct phone number to Concierge Line, but I can't locate it. Could someone pass it along to me? Thanks.

We’re wanting to take our family of six on a Spring Break cruise, but have only now determined that everyone is available. We want to once again get a large family suite for six as we did a few years ago on the Oasis. It seems that all suites on oasis class ships are sold out for our dates (March 16-24-ish.)

We’ve cruised on Oasis and Allure on.the balcony rooms before as well, but really enjoyed the concierge level services of the suites. 

Do these ever open up closer to cruising date? Are there any any tricks to finding unlisted inventory, or can you recommend another ship or cruise line that would be as enjoyable as the Oasis line? We’ve been on Oasis and Allure...and I’m just not seeing anything out there that compares. 

I honestly don't recall. Maybe someone else can chime in. It was all reasonable.

Double post

No, he was not easy to find at the port. That was the only stressful time of the day. The pickup place is not easy to find at Falmouth. There was even a different cab driver asking me my name, claiming he was here to pick me up. I had to randomly find ask several different people until I finally found someone who knew Errol and called him. The problem was that he was not being allowed into the gate.

Royal Caribbean had made it very difficult to even find the pickup location. You should probably discuss this with him ahead of time.

Very impressed by Errol, as were our sometimes skeptical teenagers. He took us to the Blue Hole followed by tubing down the river.

When we were done, he took us to a restaurant, and actually found us a table and SERVED US OUR FOOD! The wait staff was behind; it was very crowded; and he didn't want us to wait. He had a couple of friends at the restaurant, and they let him serve us. Wow.

An amazing day with an amazing guide.

Happy to answer any questions.