frisbeewife

I’m pretty sure his college id has his photo, and they were willing to accept it for the Covid test. I’m just not sure if that counts as government issued. 
 

might have to break down and call Royal

My 22 yo grandson just discovered he’s lost his drivers license. We’re supposed to leave the day after tomorrow on Independence. He has his birth certificate but what other form of Id can he use?  They let him use his college id for the Covid test. Would that work for boarding also?

On 7/22/2022 at 6:26 PM, Acruzaholic said:

Is it worth it for a aft balcony cabin.

I’d like to know also!  Got one booked for January. I love them in the Caribbean. 

Does anybody know if the parking garage at terminal 1 at Port Canaveral could handle a Honda Pilot with a standard cartop carrier on it?  I can’t seem to find any info on the clearance. 

On 7/20/2022 at 3:20 PM, Sea Dog said:

 

 

Welcome to the club. I had my knee replaced this past February. So I'm at 5 months and I'm doing good but wish my healing would progress a little faster. Still numb and swollen on one side. Still have some pain at times but not bad. I am exercising the heck out of it so that could be some of it. Stick to your rehab religiously.

 

We just retired last November too. We love it. We pretty much try to live on our social security and pensions and use our 401K's for emergencies and our cruise habit. We have 4 scheduled in the next year but will probably average about two a year.

 

We use a Southwest/Chase card for all our travel and hotel. We got points right out of the gate and we have traveled so much that all of our airline tickets are paid for this next cruise in September. We also have signed up at various hotel loyalty programs too. Mainly Hilton and Embassy Suites but the points are not that much. The Southwest Card makes a huge difference for us.

 

Welcome to retirement. I've never looked back.

Regarding knee replacement, I had both of mine done 8 months apart, almost 6 years ago now.  The first one took a year and a half to feel normal and the second one took about a year.  Once you get past the initial seemingly-fast improvements, it starts to feel like it's going to hurt FOREVER and just isn't getting any better.  Trust me - it's improving a little bit at a time and you just have to be patient.  Keep moving as much as you can without doing too much.  Walking is the best thing.  I found recumbant bikes were better than the regular upright bikes.  If you can, maybe join a gym that has those and stair-steppers.  Here in Florida stairs are few and far between and I could tell I needed to do them to exercise my knees and the stair-steppers helped. 

As for points, when I worked I was on the road a lot and played the game to the hilt.  That was when you could get status on Delta by flying segments so I'd come up with some creative routes to get where I was going.  At that time Delta was the only airline flying out of our local airport and since I wasn't paying the fare I didn't care that it cost so much more than driving an hour to the big hub airport.  Now that I'm retired I'm actually finding that I'd rather just use a cash-back card.  It gives me more flexibility to choose the airline, hotel, and whatever else I want.  Plus the last few years I've had to cancel several trips for various reasons (not just Covid) and it's a lot easier to do if you didn't pay with points.  I don't like having to book through some credit card's portal that doesn't offer all of the airlines, or have to stay at some particular chain hotel when others might be a better choice (and I like to go to out of the way places that don't even have chain hotels).  YMMV but for me the simplicity has become more appealing than playing the game.

Having said all that, I DO watch for sign-up bonuses and will collect and use the points from those and then cancel the cards.  I have a hard time justifying paying an annual fee when I don't travel all that much.

Thanks!  That's what I needed to know.

Just wondering if the Freestyle machines (specifically on Independence of the Seas) have an option for water?  I'm considering the soda package but sometimes I just want water.

Thanks.

It’s been a few years since I’ve cruised and I was wondering what the price is for buying a soft drink onboard and at Coco Cay. Trying to decide if a package is worth it. 
 

If I’m reading this right, they’ve extended it so you get 100% refund if you test positive within 10 days of sailing, thru March 31, 2023. But if you test positive during the cruise, Royal only covers medical costs for cruises through April 30, 2022. 
 

My very first cruise was in 2000 on what was then the Nieuw Amsterdam (I know, not RCCL but it fits in this thread about being old). It was sailing from Vancouver to Alaska and we were told it was being sold off at the end of the summer to a company that was going to sail it around the Hawaiian Islands. 
 

Anyway, the point is that ship was so different from everything I’ve sailed on since. Lots of teak and brass instead of chrome and plastic. It smelled like wood and polish. It was also the only cruise I’ve been on where they served baked Alaska one night and the waiters all paraded into the dining room carrying the desserts while they were on fire. The desserts were on fire, not the waiters. Just to be clear. 😉

Such a classy cruise. Felt like how cruise ships must’ve been Back In The Day. 

So I notice the website says CWC applies to cruises booked through March 31, 2022. Which was yesterday. So do cruises booked now go back to the pre-pandemic policy of no refunds?

Thanks!  This’ll be our first and last trip to HA and I’m going to spring for the aft balcony. 
 

Now I have to decide what to do with a few extra days before/after the cruise. I have a niece in Honolulu so she can help with that. And of course CC is full of great ideas. 😉

I’ve heard the port side of POA is best for views of the Na Pali coast. Would an aft balcony be good too?  I was thinking an aft would give good views for the entire trip, not just Na Pali. 
 

Any thoughts?

That’s great!  One last question - would the refund be credited back to my cc or would it be some type of future cruise credit?

I’ve never sailed with NCL so I’m not entirely sure what the policies are b

My husband and I are considering doing the POA cruise in January or February 2023. I’d like to go ahead and make a reservation to lock in the rate and room we want but I’m a little confused about the cancellation policy. Am I correct in thinking if we book an Aft Balcony we can cancel for any reason up to 120 days before departure and get 100% of our deposit back?

The table on the website doesn’t actually say that so that’s why I’m asking. 
 

On 2/11/2022 at 8:15 PM, njkruzer said:

Email executive office at mbayley@rcci.com.  I find that within 48 hrs I hear from someone.   They might be able to help. 

I just wanted to report that my email to mbayley did work.  I got a reply today apologizing for the problem and saying they had cancelled the Singapore reservation, returned my FCC to me, and the deposit would show up on my cc in a few days.    So I guess that's the trick to getting a resolution.  Thanks to njkruzer for the info!

It might depend on the device you’re using. On my desktop I finally noticed a tiny Singapore flag in the upper right corner, and the url had Singapore in it. But the SGD is the only almost-obvious clue you’ll get. And if you’re tired like I was you might just assume it’s an abbreviation for something. FCC, OBC, MTD, USD, SGD - see, it all starts to blur together in my elderly brain. 😉

3 hours ago, Ashland said:

OP a bit confused...how did you not notice the pricing was in SGD instead of USD ?

Yes I did see SGD next to the price but I thought it was some kind of abbreviation. I freely admit I should’ve realized something was wrong and I’m an idiot. BUT in my defense there was no reason to think I was suddenly on another country’s website.  This was something that had never happened before. And I can’t see any reason for it to be so difficult to get somebody to even talk to me about it and let me know what my options are (if any). 
 

I’ll try sending an email and see if that gets me anywhere. But after years and years of putting up with RCCL’s subpar IT department I might be ready to dump them. There’s just no excuse for it anymore. 

I was looking at booking a cruise this October from Ft. Lauderdale and finally decided to pull the trigger and book it.  I failed to notice that at some point I was switched from RCCL's US website to the Singapore website.  I booked the cruise - and take full blame for failing to notice the prices looked a bit different.  Now that I compare prices, it's about $700 more to book it on the Singapore website. 

So I tried to cancel the reservation online.  There is no cancellation option on the Singapore website and every time I look it up on the US website it takes me back to the Singapore website.  I called the C&A number and after a half hour on hold I was told they can't cancel or modify a reservation made with RCCL International and gave me a phone number (a Miami area code) to call.  I called that number and got a recording telling me to push a certain number depending what region of the world I'm from, but there is no option for North America.

So I called the general RCCL customer service number and (again, after a long hold) was told they also can't cancel or modify a reservation made with RCCL International and she offered to transfer me to the proper department.  After a long wait she came back and said their phone lines are not open now (1:00 p.m.) and she could give me their number to call, and that I could call between 8:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m.  I asked why their lines wasn't open now and after some confusion she said that 8 to 5 must be referring to Singapore time.  She then proceeded to give me an international phone number that is presumably in Singapore.  I have no clue what it would cost to call Singapore.

Does anybody have any suggestions?  I have absolutely no idea how I ended up on the Singapore website - I'm definitely not computer illiterate.  What I AM guilty of is failing to notice the prices were a bit different and following up on that before booking.   I don't feel I should have to call Singapore to fix this, when Royal is the one that switched me to another website.  I've sailed on a lot of cruises with Royal but this is really pushing me to another cruise line.

And don't get me started on my missing FCC.  That's a rant for another time.  I just want to get the October cruise booked on the US site without losing my deposit.

We’re going to be at CocoCay in December with another couple. Both husbands have had issues with skin cancer and will want to be in as much shade as possible. Does the Coco Beach Club have plenty of umbrellas and/or trees for shade, or should we get a cabana?  I hate to spend the money for a cabana but if the guys would get more shade there then it would be worth it. 
 

thanks. 

Thanks for posting this!  I also cancelled a cruise on March 15 (before final payment due date) and was told the refund would take 7-10 business days.  I didn't really believe it but wasn't sure how long to wait.  Now I have a better idea and will use April 19 as a good time to start expecting to see it.

Good luck to everybody!

On 3/16/2020 at 6:29 PM, Ourusualbeach said:

If it’s before final payment then any money beyond the NRD is returned to your credit card. 

This is correct. I canceled before final payment and I got the non refundable deposit back as FCC, and the rest of what I had paid on the cruise was credited back to my credit card.  
 

I normally don’t pay anything until final payment is due , but this was a cruise I had to postpone from last year at the last minute. All of this makes me even less likely to prepay in the future. 

I just cancelled a long-planned Baltics cruise in July that I had already postponed from last summer due to family illness.  I'm also going to have to cancel another long-planned cruise in July with my grandsons to celebrate their high school graduation.  Plus my niece's wedding is in April and I'm thinking it's going to get cancelled too.  I've still got a December cruise planned, but I'm a little bummed right now on cancelling (again) things that were special to me.

My FCC will be applied to the December cruise but I think I'll wait a while before I cruise again after that.  I know it's not the cruise line's fault and my plans would be messed up even if we were planning to fly somewhere, but I'm just not in the mood for planning vacations right now.

DH and I were booked on Brilliance of the Seas out of Amsterdam on July 4, and since we're both older, high-risk, passengers we definitely didn't want to go.  Since Final Payment is coming up soon I went and ahead and called RCCL today and cancelled.  First of all, they answered the phone right away!!!!!  Don't know if it was because I called the C&A number but I was happy to not have to wait for hours.

Since it's before Final Payment date, they are giving me the $900 deposit in the form of FCC and the rest of what I've paid toward the cruise is being refunded back to my credit card.  The FCC should show up in 3 to 5 days and the credit card credit should show up in 7 to 10 days.  The refund for the dining package has already shown up on my card.  I had not prepaid the gratuities or for RC travel protection so I can't say for sure what they'll do about that.  I'm pretty sure they'll refund the gratuities but don't know about the travel protection.

Anyway, if you cancel after the Final Payment date then a larger portion of your refund will be FCC instead of $$, depending on how close the sailing is.  The recording will tell  you to wait until closer to your sailing date to cancel your cruise, but if you've paid more than the deposit and you want $$ instead of FCC, then I wouldn't wait.

Now I'll have to deal with Delta and Chase Sapphire (who I booked the hotel through), but I have time for that.

BTW, I agree that it is a hard decision.  I've planned this trip for years, and originally had it scheduled for last summer.  I had to postpone it when my mother had to move into hospice 2 days before we were to leave.  Now I'm postponing it again.  Oh well.  Europe will probably still be there next year.

Good luck!

Thanks, awestover89, but all I've paid so far is $800 in deposits for the rooms.  That's not broken down by passenger on the invoice.