cruise_co

Thank you for your wonderful review. I enjoyed following along. We will be on Allure this fall for a B2B which seems such a long time away.

On 5/15/2024 at 12:37 AM, ONECRUISER said:

That's too bad I just saved over $1000 USD on 3 Booked Cruises sailing in 2025. 

I have 3 cabins on Star, fall 2025. The past couple of weeks I have saved a bit over $1,500. 

We keep getting emails from the Private Journeys team urging us to purchase a cabana. Now, this person is not very smart, as he is including how many cabanas are still available. If you look, there are still 20 overwater cabanas available. Since there are only 20 cabanas and not a single one has sold yet, why in the world would I pay them the going price when it seems there will be a fire sale eventually.

Beach cabana is $1,999.  There are 10 left of those.

6 hours ago, MJonTravel said:

According to his X/Twitter, Captain Johnny picked up his Harley in Galveston and drove it to Florida last month. I don't have any way to know, but I expect we'll see him appear on one of the Florida based ships at some point if he's going to return, and I can't help but think that he will.

We were on a star bridge tour on Harmony in December and someone asked. The officer doing the tour said he was going to Utopia. Take it for what it is worth.

We are staying for the second time at the Intercontinental. It is a short walk to the Bayside market place with quite a few restaurants, including some of the larger chains like Bubba Gumps and Margaritaville.

The metro mover station is also right out the door if you want to go into Brickell. You can't beat the proximity to the port.

52 minutes ago, GeezerCouple said:

 

I'm not sure just what point you are making, or referring to from posts above.

 

Is it about your pre-existing conditions and thus a need to buy "a cheap, bare bones cruise policy ... with a low medical"?  If so, if you start the insurance coverage within 10-20 days of your *first* payment (e.g., the initial deposit, and the timing depends upon your state of residence), then there are many policies available that will waive any "pre-existing condition exclusions" so you don't need to worry about that at all.  You do need to be "fit to travel" on the day you start the coverage.  [What we do is to make a deposit when all is well, and then the next call we make is to start the travel insurance, before there's any chance to have some medical issue interfere, etc.]

 

Also, about the Medicare Advantage plan and out of country coverage, I obviously can't speak about your specific policy, but my understanding is that these MA plans usually have a $50k *lifetime* cap on the out of country medical coverage.

So if you have other coverage, try to make sure it is *primary*, so the MA coverage is not involved while you do have other coverage.  If the other coverage is "secondary", then they'll only pay after the "other" coverage has paid... thus using up some - or all? - of that limited MA coverage.

 

We also have had the MedJetAssist annual plan.  We've never needed it, but there was one time when I was in hospital overseas, and we actually started considering... should we call MJA??  That was just about when I started to improve, thank goodness.  But it was VERY comforting to know that possibility was "there" if we had decided to use it.

GC

I mentioned GeoBlue because the policies we have purchased do not have pre-existing condition limitations.  It takes the place of the medical part of cruise insurance.  And it is quite affordable.

My advantage plan does not have a lifetime cap.

I have some pre-existing conditions so we buy a cheap, bare bones cruise policy from insuremytrip.com with a low medical and then supplement with a policy from GeoBlue and we have a yearly medjet subscription.  My medicare advantage plan also covers out of country emergency medical, so we are probably over covered.

We sail Utopia in January 2025. I just booked the Holiday Inn Vacation Club.  It is so close, directly across the street from the Carnival terminal, the pool is fantastic and we love that it is on the beach. Last cruise from PC we watched our ship come in and turn the corner into the channel while sipping coffee on our deck. It added to the excitement of knowing we will soon be boarding.

8 hours ago, little britain said:

@cruise_co Utopia isn’t built for kids is it? Thought it was a regular Oasis class? 
Icon/Star is the kiddy ship. 

I think people were arguing that one of the older ships with less appeal for kids would be more believable.  

23 minutes ago, madiaka said:

That’s news.  We’re on Icon to the Western Caribbean in August 2024 and one of the ports is Cozumel.

Even more proof the guy was BSing us.  Unless they think they can resolve this before Icon sails.  

Just got off Harmony today.  It was a great cruise with some barely believable rumors.

We did Chef's table during the week and our host was very into talking about the future of the Galveston port between courses.

Now let me emphasize, I personally think he was BSing us. 

1) this is probably already common knowledge but supposedly the next Oasis Class going to Galveston is Utopia. He said she will finish her 5 months in the Caribbean and head over.

2) Right now Galveston cannot host an Icon class because Cozumel has said no to an Icon class. However, they are in talks.

3) Most interestingly, and adamantly, he said Royal will have an adults only ship in Galveston to compete with Virgin. And he said the ship would be.....Utopia 😂. When questioned by disbelieving diners and arguing that the ship is built for kids, he didn't waiver. She would finish her 5 months in the Caribbean and then head over to Galveston to become an adults only ship. (Yeah right)

Anyway, just for your amusement and apparently the RC crew thinks we are pretty gullible. That said, when I questioned other staff, they would not confirm nor deny the info.

For our next cruise next year, the beach club beach cabana and the Hideout cabana are only $100 apart with the beach club at $1,999 and the Hideout cabana at $1,899.  Beach club for the win on that one. If we get a cabana, we do it for the tranquility and semi-privacy. I would not be willing to pay almost the same amount for someone to be swimming directly in front of our cabana in the pool.  

The general entry fees however are much different with Beach club being substantially higher at $239 vs 43.99. We did purchase Hideaway beach just to check it out. If we hate it, we can grab a slice of pizza and leave and not be out a big chunk of money.  

24 minutes ago, PATRLR said:

It's a good question, but I don't see any practical way they could be calling back passengers. 

I'd expect that they would have been watching the forecasts and if they were going to need to leave early, notified the passengers of a shorter port stop (It's already stupid short), or possibly skipped it entirely.  Do we know that they are there right now?

 

Yup, she is on the webcam

Forgive my ignorance, but if vessels are supposed to arrange departure immediately at code Yankee, what does that mean for Oasis sitting there? Are they calling back all the passengers that might have ventured out to Orlando?

2 hours ago, Tlbecker1 said:

They didn’t turn me away with shorts and sandals.  😊

Was this the full All Access tour? We had checked with Guest Services the day before and they told us shorts were fine. When we got to the meeting space, the tour guide sent our son back to change when he was in shorts. 

They told us it was a hygiene and safety thing and was mandatory, no exceptions.

We have been on 2 All Access Tours, one on Oasis pre-covid and just recently (May) on Harmony. Both were much, much stricter about the closed toe shoes and long pants than the MDR is.

4 hours ago, toxicfairy said:

I would be more worried about the people on board. It's a ship but it's like a small city. You don't know who's on board. People are drinking and having fun but not everyone is nice. Bad guys don't wear signs advertising. 

6 hours ago, Jerseygirl1416 said:

I’d treat the ship like you would any town or neighborhood. With the amount of people on the ships there’s bound to be bad apples among them. Crimes do occur on cruise ships and I’m sure they aren’t all made public.

I agree, you never know who is on board with you.  I never really thought about it until I watched the pervert being arrested this past May as we were waiting on the dock to get back on the ship. They had found his installed cameras in the public bathroom in back by the flowrider where it was a popular changing room. Over 150 people with over 40 children in various states of undress, including naked, were captured.  While that is violating enough, you could say it was lucky he was only after pictures and not taking little kids back to his cabin.  I am glad my children are adults now. 

5 hours ago, schooner_Drinker said:

$8k - $9k for Sky class is around the benchmark these days for Oasis class ships.

(FOR SKY CLASS)

Work on $380 - $400 per person per night 

 

You can get some lower prices on the Older ladies 

 

Book 2 years out and you might get into the $7.5k range

 

But anyone who pays North of $20k for Sky Class is getting shafted 😎

 

You will get replies of people that just paid port fees and taxes and others who only paid X Y and Z

 

Generally prices are going up across the board so waiting is no longer a good option

Best advice out there is to BOOK EARLY

and then see if prices drop 

 

Time of year will also factor in

stay away from Peak holiday times

 

Happy Days!

YMMV

 

We always try to book on release date as it seems to have the best prices.  For instance, we are sailing Star Class on Harmony this winter and we have both spacious Aqua Theater Suites with 2 people in each.  They were $7744 each, so $3872 per person. The Crown Loft is the cheapest sky class available right now and that is currently $4,655 per person ($9,577 total) and that doesn't include the gratuities, DBP, and UDP that is included in Star class.

I honestly think there was a glitch in the first hours of release because the A1 was priced less than the A2s and the priced the same same as the Crown Lofts. I sat there a second and stared at it in disbelief thinking it couldn't be true. Then quickly booked it.

Just got our emails. This is for Allure next fall, 3 people, B2B 3/4. Only went up $30.00 each leg.. .Not too bad.

6 minutes ago, Ourusualbeach said:

You cannot pay for 3 cabins at once.  They each get paid separately.

Thanks! 

That is what I figured. I was confused that the OP is past final payment and is just now seeing their 2nd cabin was not paid for. Didn't they have to pay for it at final payment?

I have each individual payment blocked out on my budget tracking software so I can reconcile each individual payment for each cabin. I was concerned I might be doing something wrong. 

As a person who has 3 cabins booked on an upcoming cruise, I want to make sure this doesn't happen to us, so please excuse the questions. 

I was under the impression that when I go in to pay the final payment in a couple of months, I will have to input each reservation number separately to pay online. Or if I call, I will have to provide each reservation number.  Were you able to pay for the 2nd cabin at final payment and now it is not showing?  Did final payment reflect the amount of the 2 cabins?  I know how much each cabin is so I want to make sure that if my total paid equals all 3 cabins that somehow it is not cancelled.

23 hours ago, Lady Hudson said:

Someone posted a bit ago that there is a way to input name on luggage tags before printing. Think I can remember where I saw that?  No.  Anyone here who can help me out — either pointing me to the right post or give directions for printing name?  Thank you.

I do a ton of stuff for my daughter's sports team so the easiest software I have to add a name is Silhouette Studio Business edition.

17 hours ago, Miloomar said:

pretty sure that when the ships are gone the employees who live there can use any beach they want

I had read that the employees were limited to their compound when the ships were gone. That sounded outrageous so I asked our OW Cabana attendant directly this past May.  He said that was not true. After clean up and all job tasks were finished they were free to hang on the beaches and use the amenities.  Interestingly enough, the following day was a rare day of no ships there.  He said everyone had the day off to enjoy the island.  He said he was going to be bored and was wondering what he would do for a whole day.

I just happened to have our final guest statement out (cleaning desk) from Harmony on April 29th so I looked.  I didn't pay attention when we ate there.  As said above, I didn't really care about the $2.70.

For 3 people, we were charged $53.10 in addition to the UDP, so that would be the $17.70. We added a tip on top of that since the staff was outstanding.

1 hour ago, S.A.M.J.R. said:

IMO, smart people fly in the day before.  Assuming Noon arrival, say off the plane and get luggage by 1230, get to shuttle and transport to the pier, 130 at the earliest.  All aboard is 330?  So, as long as you don't have flight delays, don't have luggage delays, don't have transportation delays, or any combination, you're fine!

Last 2 times we flew into Orlando (a cruise and a cheer competition) flights were fine andgot there in plenty of time, but then had to wait over 2 hours for luggage as there were lightning delays and it was holding up getting the luggage from the plane to the terminal.  We were very glad we were 2 days early for our cruise!

19 minutes ago, loman said:

The smaller ones are crown loft suites 

Nope, those are all Grand Suites. The crown lofts are up on 18 on Wonder and Utopia.

I originally had 17600 booked because I was intrigued to see if it was actually larger.  But buyer's remorse for that 2nd bathroom won over and I moved upstairs to a CL. That and watching a video on the end GS on Wonder and not liking the layout of the balcony.

But I can't wait to see the first pictures and videos of those 2 to see if they really are larger or same size but a different layout. It could be there really is a straight wall between the curved front and the side of the suite, making it exactly the same as other suites.  I doubt it but it will be interesting to see.