What would you do? Opinion time

[colesc15]

Hi all. My wife and I are scheduled to get on Mariner April 6th for 4 nights. With them canceling the April 1st sailing, and being the planner, having back up plans in mind in the event they cancel our sailing as well. Due to pto constraints, we need it to be around the weekend. We're already booked on a 3 dayer next month on Indy. 

 

Currently, we're in a junior suite on a mostly comped casino cruise. We paid to upgrade to the junior suite, so a few hundred bucks. If they cancel, our options are really limited with it being so close and many cruises sold out.. Here's the different options as of right now.. 

 

3 nighter on Indy, even though we're doing it the next month. The only room left is interior, and assuming Royal offers what they did for the April 1 sailing, we'd have to pay the difference, so since our cruise is "free", the 3 night interior would cost us an extra roughly $1900 for two people. 

 

Next option is Adventure 5 nighter out of Galveston. Flights can be changed and cost is about the same. Only room left on it is an oceanview and we'd have to pay an extra roughly $1800. 

 

Option 3 is fly to FLL, stay at the hard rock for two days (comped) and enjoy their pool area and then drive up to Orlando and do Disney for a day or two before flying home. This option, factoring out any gambling, I estimate out of pocket being $1500-2k. 

 

Virgin cruises has a 4 nighter that we can get a balcony for about $2500 total. 

 

Celebrity has summit doing a 5 nighter in a balcony for roughly $2,000.

 

Not super crazy about any option since we're currently in a junior suite for essentially pennies with free diamond drinks for the whole cruise and free prime drinks. With the 8 points we'd get for the cruise, we'd be hitting Diamond plus by end of year. Without it, won't hit it until a cruise in January. 

 

Thoughts? Obviously prefer it not be canceled but I want to have a backup. 

[molly361]

I'm also on the April 6th cruise .  Not comped but really cheap.  All alternative cruises are twice to three times what I am paying for a balcony and those prices like yours are for an interior.  I'm local so if I don't go it's really no biggie

 

All that said I would do Option 3  Hard Rock and Disney  Second choice option2 out of Galveston

 

 

Edited March 19, 2023 by molly361

[colesc15]

10 minutes ago, molly361 said:

I'm also on the April 6th cruise .  Not comped but really cheap.  All alternative cruises are twice to three times what I am paying for a balcony and those prices like yours are for an interior.  I'm local so if I don't go it's really no biggie

 

All that said I would do Option 3  Hard Rock and Disney  Second choice option2 out of Galveston

 

 

Agree. Every time I think of having to pay over $1500 for an interior room when we're in a free junior suite right now, it makes it a tough pill to swallow. 

[molly361]

2 minutes ago, colesc15 said:

Agree. Every time I think of having to pay over $1500 for an interior room when we're in a free junior suite right now, it makes it a tough pill to swallow. 

I hope I'm wrong but I don't have a good feeling about this one going.  I have a cruise on the Indy for the end of June.

Edited March 19, 2023 by molly361

[ZoeyVictoria]

You are right, the options aren’t great. The amount required for the Indy is way too high IMO, especially if you are doing that same cruise next month.  I would go with the Celebrity Summit because it is five nights in a balcony, and because I would enjoy the differences in the ship, food, entertainment. You also might catch the eye of their casino program, if you haven’t already.  My second choice would be the Hard Rock, but followed by something other than Disney. 

[colesc15]

31 minutes ago, ZoeyVictoria said:

You are right, the options aren’t great. The amount required for the Indy is way too high IMO, especially if you are doing that same cruise next month.  I would go with the Celebrity Summit because it is five nights in a balcony, and because I would enjoy the differences in the ship, food, entertainment. You also might catch the eye of their casino program, if you haven’t already.  My second choice would be the Hard Rock, but followed by something other than Disney. 

Never done celebrity so it'd be a first for us. I have my fingers crossed our free cruise happens as that's by far the best option and cheapest. 

[Merion_Mom]

I am going to cross my fingers, too, because I don't like ANY of the options.

 

In your shoes, if your Mariner cruise does get cancelled, I would just call it a (small) loss of what you paid to upgrade and have a nice staycation, and look forward to my cruise on Independence.

[colesc15]

28 minutes ago, Merion_Mom said:

I am going to cross my fingers, too, because I don't like ANY of the options.

 

In your shoes, if your Mariner cruise does get cancelled, I would just call it a (small) loss of what you paid to upgrade and have a nice staycation, and look forward to my cruise on Independence.

Agreed. Going from a "free" Suite to paying for an interior or oceanview, not a fan. We specifically picked this 4 day because it's Royals like only 4 day cruise that doesn't leave on a Monday, and good Friday saved a day a pto. Sigh. 

[ARandomTraveler]

I dislike all the alternative options, but if you're going to pick one from the list I'd do the Hard Rock option. I wouldn't give the cruiseline thousands of extra dollars in order to salvage something they screwed up for you.
 

Plus that seems like a lot of money for a 4 day cruise. I'd personally just stay home and enjoy the days off. 

[colesc15]

3 hours ago, ARandomTraveler said:

I dislike all the alternative options, but if you're going to pick one from the list I'd do the Hard Rock option. I wouldn't give the cruiseline thousands of extra dollars in order to salvage something they screwed up for you.
 

Plus that seems like a lot of money for a 4 day cruise. I'd personally just stay home and enjoy the days off. 

Kind of what I'm leaning towards. 

[parrotfeathers]

That's a lot to pay to get to D+.  I'd stay home too.

[PhillyFan33579]

If cost didn’t matter, which isn't realistic, I would go on Celebrity. I still cruise more on RCI, but Celebrity is definitely a step above RCI in my opinion.