aaarrggghhh how frustrating !

[purescottish]

Looking to book Adventure, 7 night Southern Caribbean in August, just spoke to TA who has been on to RCL for 3 hours lol, the agent she spoke to is adamant that you do not get a balcony discount for being diamond (our first time)

can anyone give me a rough idea of the amount please ?

 

and 2nd question..... our daughter is a terrible, and I mean Terrible flyer so we always try and get a shortish flight (6 hours) then an overnight stay then carry on with a connecting flight the next day,

same RCL agent is also adamant that we have to fly Edinburgh, Scotland to Heathrow, London then on to Miami then onto Puerto Rico for our pre night stay

she asked if we could fly Edin to NY then on to Puerto Rico and he says NO, you must fly in from Miami ????

 

I'm getting stressed already lol, as the flights will be the deal breaker.... surely there is somewhere we could fly to, other than Miami, stay overnight then fly to Puerto Rico ?

 

all suggestions welcome

Thank you xx

[Clarea]

Patti's list is still the gold standard for discounts in USD:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2015457

 

If we're lucky, Patti will be online and can give the amounts in GBP.

Edited January 5, 2015 by clarea

[critterchick]

I see that you are in the UK, so my answers may not be exactly on point. But here's what I know from a US perspective.

 

I don't know the amount of the Diamond discount, but RCI is running a "special" called Vow to Wow, which is not combinable with the C&A discount (I don't know if it's being offered to UK customers, though). Your TA should ask the agent to price the booking with and without the Vow to Wow and see which one works better.

 

As for the air, book it yourself if RCI won't give you the routing you want. If you buy trip insurance, buy it from an independent company that will cover the air, as RCI's policy no longer covers independent air.nnhooefully y aren't restricted to buying your air from the cruiseline.

 

And your TA should have hung up and called back a long time ago to see if she could get a more knowledgable rep.

 

Good luck!

[alfaeric]

On our Christmas cruise, a couple from England was part of the M&M, and I think they flew through New York. There should be a ton of direct flights from New York to San Juan.

 

Are you booking the flights through Choice Air? Or can you try to book them yourself?

 

Boston would be another choice- both would be a good day layover with the attractions. I'm pretty sure there are direct flights from Boston to San Juan.

 

One other possible- Atlanta, Georgia. Not as touristy as the above two, but the flight to San Juan is only 4 hours from there.

 

There are probably more options if you can change airlines from what you start from in England. And if the idea is a day layover, that should be a decent option.

[BeagleOne]

Is your daughter a terrible flyer because she is terrified, or because she gets airsick? If the former, have you looked into one of those fearful flyer courses to help her alleviate her fear?

[purescottish]

Thanks for the replies everyone

TA has gave up on the agent and will call someone else tomorrow, I will mention the vow to wow, she was seeing a buy one get one half price, so I don't know what we have so far

she is also going to call the airlines direct tomorrow as well

 

my daughter has terrible panic attacks with flying and makes herself so, so sick she ends up throwing up the whole flight, we did the repo cruise last Nov and flew to New York and had to mildly sedate her which I don't like doing, we have also looked into hypnosis but it's hundreds of pounds for the sessions and there is no guarantee they will work !

 

alfaeric, we were looking to go via NY as we can fly direct there then stay overnight, then hopefully fly to San Juan next day, looks like we may try and compare cruise only and try and arrange our own flights and layover, just annoyed the agent was not budging in his answers and was not helpful at all..... that's why I was leaving it to the TA lol

[jticarruthers]

Tampa has a direct flight to Puerto Rico on JetBlue (booked on it for my springbreak cruise, assume it is available in August as well).

 

Believe there is a London to Tampa on British Airways, not sure if it is every day or only certain days.

[nelblu]

When I booked thru Choice Air a couple of years ago for our Medit. cruise, I explored flight via a booking site, eg. Travelocity, Expedia, etc., and when I found the flight(s) that suited us, I called Choice Air and gave them the specifics and booked accordingly. The only thing that C A could not do was assign seats and referred me to the airline (Lufthansa.) No problem whatsoever.

 

As a matter of act, to save air fare, I selected Lufthansa with as stopover (Frankfurt) before arriving at Barcelona and a direct flight (United) to Newark, NJ.

[juliemc]

Thanks for the replies everyone

 

TA has gave up on the agent and will call someone else tomorrow, I will mention the vow to wow, she was seeing a buy one get one half price, so I don't know what we have so far

 

she is also going to call the airlines direct tomorrow as well

 

 

 

my daughter has terrible panic attacks with flying and makes herself so, so sick she ends up throwing up the whole flight, we did the repo cruise last Nov and flew to New York and had to mildly sedate her which I don't like doing, we have also looked into hypnosis but it's hundreds of pounds for the sessions and there is no guarantee they will work !

 

 

 

alfaeric, we were looking to go via NY as we can fly direct there then stay overnight, then hopefully fly to San Juan next day, looks like we may try and compare cruise only and try and arrange our own flights and layover, just annoyed the agent was not budging in his answers and was not helpful at all..... that's why I was leaving it to the TA lol

 

 

We've also recently booked a Cruise using the buy on get on half price offer from the uk site. In the terms and conditions it does state "not combinable with crown and anchor balcony discount" - which may be why the agent is telling you that although when we put our c & a number into the website to book it did let us combine (although it did claim it was a platinum discount despite us being diamond). It also allows you to view a lot more flight options online although I don't think it gave you the option for stopovers.