TonRin

Thanks for all the replies, guys. If they have BT, it will be an ok compromise I guess as they are the same distillery. Guess I will find out next Wednesday when we board.

Cheers

Tony

Hi all,

Is there anyone on Quantum of the Seas out of Brisbane at the minute that can find out if they sell Blantons bourbon in the bars? 

Thanks for your help if you can.

Cheers

Tony

 Just booked Odyssey for a 12night Greece, Israel & Turkey Holy land cruise in September 2021. Surely things will be back to some sort of normal by then I hope.. This will be the start of our Europe trip which will go for 6 weeks and cover 17 countries!

Cant wait!

Hi all,

We were on Ovation in Alaska in September in a JS and on the 3rd night we went to the CK and had no problems getting in for dinner at about 7pm. Funny, on the 6th night we were walking to the Windjammer for dinner and the concierge saw us and started asking us if we were coming in again. We said we were not but he insisted and then gave us a free glass of wine each. We didn't have any drink packages. He came and spoke to us 3 or 4 times during dinner. Have to admit I gave him a pretty good tip after that!

Great service.

Cheers

Seems that P&O Australia doesn't have a huge following here on CC. I have made up a roll call for an easy 4 day trip in Feb 2020 and looks like I might have the ship to myself! Woohoo!

This will be our first cruise on anything other than Royal Caribbean and also our first in Australia. We won't be expecting too much, its just a quick break for my wife's birthday actually.

Good luck on you Jan cruise. I hope you can let us know how you go!

Cheers

Tony

We will be arriving on the 15th September. This will be the last time Ovation stops in Juneau this year. Be careful though, if your around my wife will probably try to steal your dog! 😉 She loves dogs.

We will keep an eye out if your there.

Good looking dog btw!

Cheers

Tony

1 minute ago, John&LaLa said:

 

I feel like the moderator of this thread. 😇Thanks for sharing your story

And your doing an amazing job! 😉

17 minutes ago, John&LaLa said:

 

See post #2979

 

 

True,

it was my conversation last week discussing this issue that your talking about.

I originally sent my request to the RCCL office in Australia as thats the area I am in. The response was pretty much 'Computer says NOOOOO!!".

I then sent the question to the Royal Up email address and Mr. Bayley here: 

cruiseadmin.au@rcclapac.com 

mbayley@rccl.com

Thats where I got the response from Mike Bermudez from. I guess Mr. Bayley's emails go to someone to vet before they get to him.

Hope this helps!

Cheers

9 hours ago, slyster said:

ahhh ok.  I could still cancel they Key and just get us a VOOM package.  I would think we could do that.  I put in the minimum I could bid for the GS so I doubt we will get it anyway.  Thanks again!

Guys this was an issue am having..

I am booked in a Junior Suite and bought the Key for the Ovation to Alaska in September as the perks work well together. I have bid on a Grand Suite which if successful, makes the Key perks pretty useless in most ways. When I asked RCCL on 2 seperate occasions if I could cancel the Key if the upgrade was successful, they said I could only cancel the key up to 4 days out from sailing. I said I might not hear about the upgrade until 1 day out which seemed kind of silly which they said sorry thats the policy. I sent an email to corporate and sort of questioned how this is logical and they agreed it was a little silly and they would look into it. I have an email from Mike Bermudez advising me to contact him if the bid is successful and he will organise the refund of the Key for me.. See below.

______________________________________________________________________________________

On 7/18/2019 at 8:36 AM, sandebeach said:

Interesting! I had called a few months ago and asked,  and they told me that if I received a late Royal Up upgrade, I could cancel the Key just by calling Royal Caribbean. Your email makes it sound like maybe you would get a refund but maybe you would not!

Put my question to the Royal Up email and cc'd corporate in aswell just because and got a response last night from Mike Bermudez regarding my issue. I feel better now and it's a reminder to me why I am loyal to Royal..

Just have to win the bid now! 😳

3 minutes ago, sandebeach said:

Good point, there could be a difference between US policies and Australia policies. 

I have emailed the 'Royal Up' email address.... Der I probably should have done that first time... Stupid me!!

2 hours ago, sandebeach said:

Interesting! I had called a few months ago and asked,  and they told me that if I received a late Royal Up upgrade, I could cancel the Key just by calling Royal Caribbean. Your email makes it sound like maybe you would get a refund but maybe you would not!

Seems we cannot convert it to OBC either. This is RCCL Australia I am talking too. I wonder if RCCL US would be different?

Dear Tony:
Thank you for your email.
We are sorry to advise the amount to be refunded could not be converted into onboard credit. 
Our different culinary experiences await on you onboard, reserve now the specialty dining restaurant you would like to enjoy. All of the available for booking can be found through the link below.
https://www.royalcaribbean.com.au/cruiseplanner

Please, let us know if we could be of any further assistance.
Kind regards,

Jonathan Alexander Rodas Montenegro
Cruise Administration

Telephone: AU 1800 754 500  NZ 0800 102 123    •  Fax: 02 4322 0326  •  Email: cruiseadmin.au@rcclapac.com

On 7/16/2019 at 12:55 PM, sandebeach said:

Yes if you win your bid you can call Royal Caribbean to have the Key cancelled or you can ask the Suite Concierge to cancel it once you are onboard.

Update sandebeach, seems it may not be possible. They don't say no, but they do say you may not get a full refund as the Key has to be cancelled 4 days prior to sailing and if the bid approval comes in 1 day before you miss out. I have asked whether it could be turned into OBC and am waiting for the reply. Hopefully that can happen. Guess I really need the bid to be successful for this scenario to even play out. Will be a learning curve for everyone I guess.

See email below from RCCI:

Dear Tony:

Thank you for contacting the Cruise Administration Department.

In regards to your below query, please be advised that we have checked in the terms and conditions 
of The Key purchase and unfortunately this could only be cancelled 4 days prior of the sailing to get full refund.

The refund will be directed to the original form of payment in the next 5 to 7 business days after the cancellation, if 
you decide to cancel this after this time frame, we would not guaranty that you will be receiving full refund. 

Should you have further queries, do not hesitate to contact us.

Kind regards,

Hector Adolfo Rodas Chavez
Cruise Administration

Telephone: AU 1800 754 500  NZ 0800 102 123    •  Fax: 02 4322 0326  •  Email: cruiseadmin.au@rcclapac.com

Cheers 

Tony

3 hours ago, sandebeach said:

Yes if you win your bid you can call Royal Caribbean to have the Key cancelled or you can ask the Suite Concierge to cancel it once you are onboard.

Thanks sandebeach. I have made the bid.. Fingers crossed now!

Cheers

Hi all,

Without trolling back through 118 pages of this thread, I hope my question hasn't been asked already. Sorry if it has!

We are booked in a JS on the Ovation going to Alaska in September. I have also purchased the Key program which just adds a few benefits that the JS perks don't cover. I have now received my Royal Up offer and am interested in making a bid for the GS. My question is, the Key becomes pretty much useless if we get the GS so does anyone know if we can cancel the Key and get it refunded or for OBC if the bid is approved, remembering that the approval may not come until 24 hrs prior to boarding? I don't want to cancel the Key now incase the bid fails. Catch 22 I know..

Anyone have any ideas? 🤔

I just want to say, I really love having this quandary... It's an awesome problem to have I think! 

I look forward to your helpful responses..

Cheers

We booked our Gty JS in January for our September 13th Sailing on Ovation to Alaska. Suite number was allocated about 85 days out. We now have 62 days to go! Woohoo...

Funny thing, we were allocated the exact same suite number we had on Quantum out of China in 2016.. Awesome cabin, right in the middle of the hump, deck 6.  

Good luck with the cabin you get allocated! 👍

Cheers

71 days till Ovation to Alaska!

But this counting right??? 😐

7 minutes ago, John&LaLa said:

 

How do you know you can't cancel the Key🤔

Lunch and breakfast in CK are really good

It seems they close the cruise planner 2 or 3 days out from the cruise for purchases.

Which then contradicts the cancellation policy..

Sorry about the cut and paste sizes! 

I maybe wrong in my assumption but thats the way I am reading it.. 

Maybe I need to waste a few hours and call RCCL.. 🙄

Confused more now!

Hi all,

Got my RoyalUp email today for our September 13th sailing to Alaska on Ovation. Below are the reasons why it's not for us.

We are already in a JS Gty (6640 on the hump was assigned) and I have already bought the Key as well, 2 months ago. 

The upgrade prices offered were ($US):

Grand Suite - $500 p/p

Owners Suite - $700 p/p

Sky Loft Suite - $1,000 p/p

The major dilemma here is, if I was to bid for a Grand Suite, I may not know if it is successful until up to 24hrs prior to sailing. If it is successful, I would want to cancel the Key program within the last 24hrs because it would be no benefit at all, which apparently is not allowed. Thats $350 down the drain.

If it's unsuccessful, we would want the Key program to stay so we couldn't cancel it prior to knowing one way or the other as they are limited numbers apparently (even though it's seems to be still available on our cruise even though its close to sold out).

In the Junior Suite, we already get priority embarkation, dinner at CK & double points.

With the Key we get priority seating at venues, Voom access, priority debarkation at ports, lunch at Chops plus other things..

So most of the perks from the GS are covered with what we have (except lounge and concierge I guess!) 

This RoyalUp program would work much better if they could tell you further out from sailing, maybe 7 days and allow you to cancel anything that coincides with it at no charge for a refund within that 7 days or give it as OBC if wanted.

Thanks for the offer though RCCL (It wasn't offered for our Quantum sailing in 2016).

Just my 2 cents worth!

Have a great day everyone!

Cheers

46 minutes ago, NeedsVitaminSea said:

Ovation is in Seattle, at least earlier in the summer, but Canada Place is Vancouver.  Is Ovation moving to Vancouver in September?

Sorry my bad. My trip finishes in Vancouver. I did quote my Vancouver cruise terminal to airport car. I have booked a Carmel car in Seattle to go from the airport to the hotel (Marqueen) but haven't booked a car from the hotel to the pier yet. I have asked them if they have that service and am still waiting for their response. Its not that far apparently so I will keep looking but may just use a cab on the day.

Cheers

7 hours ago, kelbell said:

Tincoll would you mind telling me what car service you are using?

This will be are first time, trying to decide on Uber(have never done that)

or a car service.  Not to concerned about price, but reliability.

Thank you.

The company is called KJ Limousine Services

http://kjlimousine.com

I read a lot of reviews about them and they are reliable and honest. Not the cheapest but I like to travel in comfort when I am on holidays. If I wanted rough and ready, I would have backpacked to the destination! It is costing about CAD$130 for the trip from cruise terminal to airport. 

Just make sure if you book them you say 'Canada Place Cruise Terminal' and not just 'Canada Place' as they are different places and different costs. The cruise terminal is more expensive as they have to park and wait.

Hope this helps.

Cheers

Tony

6 hours ago, ScottC4746 said:

So you are saying the smaller the ship the better the larger the ship the worst?

I think both ships have their merits! We broke our cruising virginity (so to say) on the Mariner and when we first got onboard we couldn't believe how big and spacious it was. There was never a dull moment on that cruise and we had a great time. When we boarded Quantum (2 years later), that level of excitement went up another notch. Its even bigger but we also knew what to expect with the people as we had just spent 10 days doing a road trip through Beijing and Shanghai. I am sure a Quantum class ship cruise to the Caribbean is very different than a Quantum class ship cruise in China just because of the other passengers. You don't talk to people no where near as much as a Westernised cruise I would say, but it's still fun and exciting. 

Cheers

We are booked on Ovation for the Sept 13th Alaska trip. We have previously done the Quantum out of Shanghai with 5000+ Chinese passengers so we know what expect . We come from a small tropical Island country in the South Pacific where its 35+deg Celcius nearly every day. We will be driving from New York to Chicago via Toronto first to get aclimatised. 

I hope its colder in Alaska!!!

Cheers

Tony

We booked a car to go from the port to the airport in September. We have a 12:30pm flight and I booked the car for 7:30am but the car company has come back to me an said we dont need to leave till about 9am so rebooked us for 8:30 - 9am.. 

Hope this helps! 

Tony

Scott,

I will try to shed some light on Asian cruising for you guys as My wife (Filipino) and I (Australian) have done 4 now.

We did Mariner of the Seas out of Singapore firstly for a 3 night jaunt to Kuala Lumpur and then 7 nights to Thailand & Vietnam in February, 2014. For the 7 night cruise, there were a lot of Westerners on it. We have made some life long friends from it. Mariner being a bit smaller was a great ship for Asia as it wasn't too big. They are right in saying the casino is always full and I can add the buffet to that list aswell. The bars & the pools on the other hand were nearly always empty. Chinese New Year was amazing wherever you went as there was always something happening.

We also have done 2 cruisers back to back on the Quantum of the Seas for 13 nights out of Shanghai to Japan & South Korea. This was a totally different experience as you are really fighting with 5000 Chinese people to do anything on the ship. We were definitely a minority with only about 60+ Westerners on this cruise. There are some pros and cons with this. Pros are the staff will absolutely love you. They will bend over backwards to make sure you are having a good time because not a lot of the Chinese will speak to them unless they are Chinese themselves. Don't get me wrong, we had a blast and met some amazing Chinese families who were lovely, but I will say their respect for anything Western is definitely on the low side! Some Chinese have no regard for anyone else at all which brings us to the cons. You will need to push your way out of the lifts as they will just barge right in before the doors finish opening. They will push in front of you in the buffet without hesitation, even if you have been patiently waiting for someone to finish. The shopping sales on the ship are like a war zone. Best place to watch it is up above the Saloon looking down on the promenade. Getting of the ship in ports are fun. Whilst the crew try their best to make it orderly, some people have a chip on their shoulders and believe they have a right to do whatever the hell they like. 

After saying all this, we had a blast. Being married to an Asian certainly helped me and I had no issues with the way it all went down. Just learn to push back. they won't be offended at all as they are used to it. Like my wife says of her childhood days in the Philippines, if you had a bowl of rice on the table for dinner and 10 people about to dig in, you learn very quickly to be the aggressive one and push in. It's life!

I will say, if your cruise is going to Ho Chi Minh city, I would highly suggest you look up the tour guide called 'Zoom' there. Try and get a bus load of people from your Roll Call and do an excursion with him. Very knowledgable and a good laugh. We had a bus of about 30 people all up and we had an amazing time for the day we were there. 

There were some Westerners on our cruisers who complained no end about everything after they got off the ship because they compared it to every other cruise they have had to the Caribbean. Its not Westernised at all. Thats why you go there!

Don't try to compare it.

Quantum is an amazing ship. Its big! We are going on its sister ship this September, (Ovation of the Seas) to Alaska. Can't wait. I am sure there will be some pushy people on that one too albeit a different race! 

Hope this helps a little. You will have a great time and see some pretty awesome places I can attest to that!.

Drop me a line if you need to know anything else!

Cheers

Tony