linwey

There is a CruiseCritic article that addresses this that was published Sept. 21, 2017 and this is what it said for Royal Caribbean:

Shipboard Age Policies

Shipboard venues with age restrictions: Passengers must be 18 years old to enter onboard nightclubs. (There is a separate teen dance club for kids ages 12 to 17.) The minimum age to gamble in the casino is 18, except on Alaska cruises when it's 21.

https://www.cruisecritic.com/articles.cfm?ID=1782

If your cousin is 18, he is not a minor. In the United States and in most countries, those under 18 are minors and those over 18 are adults. Although in context of alcohol and gambling laws, those under 21 are often referred to as minors but are actually just underage for the laws governing the activity. In international waters, I am guessing that whatever rules the ship establishes is what you would be expected to follow. It is my understanding that RCCL allows those over 18 to gamble in their casinos, but requires them to be 21 to consume alcohol.

I read on this thread that Comfort Inn Condado San Juan was canceling rooms through Feb. 2018. I checked online and they were showing rooms unavailable through May 2018. Our reservations were for three non-refundable rooms for March 10, 2018. I called the hotel direct and was told that our reservations needed to be canceled and a refund would be issued. She went through the process of canceling all 3 rooms and gave me a cancellation number for each. She made copies for herself to give to the manager to issue a refund for the rooms and said the refunds would be processed asap. She told me that she worked from 2 pm until 10 pm Tuesdays through Fridays. I could tell that the system she was using to make the cancellations was going slow and giving her some problems, but she seemed very competent in what she was doing. I have already booked another hotel that is currently honoring reservations and has received decent reviews, but, while searching, I found that many require a 2 night minimum stay which would not work for us. Hope this information helps someone.

We were scheduled to go to Time N Place near Falmouth in January 2014 and just received a refund via paypal and this email.....

 

We are no longer able to offer transportation service as the cruise ship port policy has now changed. The cruise port is not authorizing any pick up outside the port's gate. We are sincerely sorry for any inconvenience this has caused

 

I'm not sure how RCCL can control pickup outside of the port gate but it appears that they will have a monopoly on tours.

 

What should we do now???? I just wanted a beach day. :confused:

I do not think this affects any private tour that has licensed transportation that has permission to pick-up passengers within the port designated areas.

I emailed Time 'N Place to ask if they would be open on New Year's Day if we took a taxi from the port. Here is the reply I received:

"Thank you for choosing Time N Place. Yes, we are still open for business. Please kindly take a taxi on the port to Time N Place upon your arrival.

We are working on getting our bus on port to resume our pick up service.

See you soon!

Peace and love,"

We were scheduled to go to Time N Place near Falmouth in January 2014 and just received a refund via paypal and this email.....

 

We are no longer able to offer transportation service as the cruise ship port policy has now changed. The cruise port is not authorizing any pick up outside the port's gate. We are sincerely sorry for any inconvenience this has caused

 

I'm not sure how RCCL can control pickup outside of the port gate but it appears that they will have a monopoly on tours.

 

What should we do now???? I just wanted a beach day. :confused:

Our family also received that message, so I emailed asking if they would be open if we took a taxi from the port and received the reply below. I have read that most taxis at the port do not want to take people such a short distance, but we are optimistically planning to spend New Year's Day there.

Lin

Reply to my email:

"Thank you for choosing Time N Place. Yes, we are still open for business. Please kindly take a taxi on the port to Time N Place upon your arrival.

We are working on getting our bus on port to resume our pick up service.

See you soon!"

If you have 6 people in your Nellie's Beach cabana, what would be considered a generous tip for the attendant? Thanks for you thoughts on this.

Lin

It is my understanding that one person in a group books the cabana. Then, 6 people are allowed per cabana. Another words, you are entitled to 6 wristbands for the upgraded lunch since you booked before Oct. 4th. Others have mentioned that they do not police how many actually use the cabana, but the limit on wristbands remains 6.

I booked a cabana before Oct. 4th, too. I have not notified anyone how many people are in my party, but plan to have 6 in my group. If anyone has differing information about establishing before hand how many are in a cabana group, please let me know.

Lin

When trying to reserve a Nellie's Beach cabana, be sure to list just one person reserving it. If you list everyone in your booking, it tells you to check onboard.

Also, for reservations on and after Oct. 4th, the Nellie's Beach cabana amenities no longer include the upgraded lunch at the suite exclusive Barefoot Beach.

Lin

All that we can do is ask, That was the response, I would bring proof of your cabana purchase before 10/4 and a copy of the response.

In the top left hand corner, my printer dated my copy of the Pre-Cruise Planner Summary that I printed out. I did not receive an email confirmation. I assume that I didn't because my cruise was booked through a travel agent, but I am far from certain about that. I have a call in to my travel agent to see if she received a confirmation for me. However, I did check my credit card and payment was made to RCI on the same date of my Summary. I have also emailed, hoping to get an official response letter of my own instead of copying the posts here.

I am sending this response as a follow-up to your recent correspondence to our executive offices and regret I was unable to reach you via telephone earlier as planned.

 

We appreciate your comments regarding the amenities associated with the cabana rentals in Labadee and regret the displeasure conveyed.

 

Please understand the upgraded barbeque buffet, offered on Barefoot Beach, one of Labadee’s beaches exclusively reserved to suite guests, was also made available to cabana guests from other Labadee beaches, and generated unexpected crowding as a result. In order to maintain a premium beach experience, Royal Caribbean will start enforcing the exclusive access of Barefoot Beach to top suite guests only.

 

Please note that guests who have purchased a private cabana on Nellie’s Beach will still have exclusive use of their cabana for the day. Other cabana amenities include a built-in ceiling fan, luxury resort-style lounge chairs, two floating mats, beach towels, a water cooler with six bottles of water and a personal cabana attendant. Guests in these cabanas are invited to join the beach barbeque buffet at Columbus Cove Café, Dragon’s Café and Café Labadee. Guests who have already purchased private cabanas at Nellie’s Beach prior to October 4, 2013 will still be able to access Barefoot Beach’s upgraded beach barbeque buffet.

 

We truly hope our guests will enjoy a memorable day during their call at Labadee, one of Royal Caribbean’s highest-rated Caribbean destinations and private beach paradise located on the northern coast of Haiti. The destination features five beaches, a Haitian artisan market, an extensive array of watersports options, as well as exciting attractions such as the 2,600-foot Dragon’s Breath Flight Line, the world’s longest zip line over water, the 300-foot Dragon’s Splash Waterslide, and the Dragon’s Tail Alpine Coaster.

Will those of you that received the above response please tell me who you contacted and if by phone or email because I would like to personally receive the same response as my proof for my Dec/Jan cruise.

Thanks,

Lin

UPDATE: Got a Response...

 

From a very reliable source, won't go into specifics other than I was put into contact with manager level people at RCI when I was arranging for my visit to the RCI school in Labadee:

 

They have removed the access for Barefoot Beach Lunch buffet from the Nellie's Cabanas guests. Actually, Nellie's cabanas should have never had access in the first place. The upgraded lunch buffet was meant for Suite Guests only, not for cabana guests. I'm so sorry for the inconvenience. The water bottles are still offered.

Looks like we are out of luck, unless we can sway the corporate decision makers.

How can they say the Nellie's cabanas should never have had access when they established a process to identify the Nellie's cabana occupants for having lunch at barefoot(the wrist bands and escorts to the barefoot lunch area). It is not like this was an advertising mistake because the upgraded lunch at Barefoot has been one of the amenities ever since Nellie's cabanas were ready for occupancy, not some recent misprint. They did not recently roll out the Nellie's Cabana policies and are quickly correcting an error.

Telling people they regret having made upgraded lunch one of the benefits of spending your money for a Nellie's cabana does not change the fact that those that paid before the change had contracted for one thing when they paid and now are not being given all they paid for.

I wanted the upgraded lunch not for the food, but for the location. Dragon's Cafe, Cafe Labadee, and Columbus Cove Cafe are not nearby. Location can mean a lot to people with mobility issues or young children.

In case some of you are not following the other thread about the amenities for Nellie's Beach Cabanas (I wish these could be merged):

Someone posted that the description had changed to include a cooler with 6 bottles of water. So, I checked my order history, and it also changed today to include cooler/water, but it stills lists the other 3 cafes as the choices for lunch.

It is not the menu, but the inconvenience that concerns me because the other 3 cafes are not nearby. Nellie's Tavern is close, but that is not one of the 3 listed as serving lunch. Having 2 young children in our group is why we wanted to have the lunch to be nearby.

I am wondering whether the attendants would use a cart to escort us to the far side of Columbus Cove, Adrenaline Beach, or Dragon's Plaza since they did this when it was at Barefoot Beach. Or, if the escort to the Barefoot Beach Lunch was just to insure only eligible people had lunch there.

Lin

My order history also shows the addition of cooler with 6 waters, but still has the other 3 cafes listed for lunch. I checked the excursion web page for Labadee on the RCI website, and its description has also changed to include the cooler with the 6 waters.

My concern with the other venues for lunch is how inconvenient it will be more than the difference in the menu. I looked at the map of Labadee and none of the 3 cafes listed are near Nellie's Beach. Having 2 young children in our group, I booked this thinking it would make getting food much easier. Nellie's Tavern is close by but it is not one of the 3 stated in the description and although it shows a knife and fork indicating food, I do not know if that means snacks or meals.

If the attendants used a cart to escort Nellie Cabana people to Barefoot, will they do the same to get all the way to the far side of Columbus Cove, Adrenaline Beach, or Dragon's Plaza? Or, was this escort just to make sure only eligible people arrived at Barefoot?

Lin

The description for the amenities that come with renting a cabana on Nellie's Beach has changed on the RCI website to the following:

"HIGHLIGHTS: Cabana rental for the full day. Furnished with luxury resort style lounge chairs and ceiling fan. Rental includes 2 floating beach mats, lunch buffet at Columbus Cove Cafe, Dragon's Cafe or Cafe Labadee, and the use of beach towels. Personal cabana attendant service."

Apparently, renting a cabana on Nellie's Beach no longer includes the upgraded lunch at Barefoot Beach or the cooler with ice and water. However, the price remains the same at $250 for the Over the Water ones and $225 for the Beach ones.

Having rented an Over the Water Cabana for our New Year's cruise on Allure when the description included the additional amenities, I am feeling somewhat short-changed over this. I have decided to think about this for a while before making a decision on whether to keep the cabana or cancel it. After I found out about this from another thread, I looked this up on RCI's site. I have not received notification from RCI that what I bought has been changed, not that I am really expecting a notification.

Just thought those that booked a cabana on Nellie's Beach when more was included might want a heads up on the changes.

Linda