Savmom9801

On 9/17/2023 at 11:54 AM, RFerrington said:

We made lunch reservations right at the kiosk at the Club and had no problem whatsoever getting a noon-ish reservation.

Same experience in August.  We didn’t know we needed a reservation. When we checked in, they asked if we had made lunch reservations and made them for us. The restaurant wasn’t crowded and our lunch was amazing. 

You said never book early - I have been waiting for a price drop for our May 2024 Mediterranean cruise and it is currently $5K more than we booked last summer. You can always get a price adjustment up until the day before final payment. I think the best rates are by booking early. 
 

13 hours ago, Ourusualbeach said:

We had the same servers for all but one of the nights we had MTD on our recent 9 night sailing

Same! We made reservations for around the same time every night and had the same servers every night. We LOVED our servers and love MTD. Making reservations in advance insures that you are seated quickly as well. 

On 5/4/2023 at 9:54 AM, Rothko1 said:

I'm pretty sure most places are considering Covid a thing of the past.

Agree! They just haven’t updated their websites. I ran into something similar and called the travel company to confirm. 

Our check in was today and I was able to open the check in after midnight last night. 

Thanks so much for the tip to email the administrative team. They were able to resolve this issue rather quickly and I now have my FCC’s in writing. 😉

On 9/22/2022 at 4:58 PM, njkruzer said:

Who have you emailed?  I have luck with the mbayley@rccl.com email.  The staff there usually can resolve problems. 

Thank you! I’ve emailed web_reservations@rccl.com

I’ll try the email address that you provided. 

My FCC’s are so messed up. I spent 6 hours on the phone with Royal Caribbean in March and received an email confirmation that everything was resolved with a list of the FCC’s that were active. However when I called to apply the FCC’s to an upcoming sailing last week, I spent another 6 hours on the phone with them trying to locate our FCC’s (it’s complicated and there were several cruise cancellations).  I was told I’d receive a phone call within 3-5 business days with a resolution. I did not receive the phone call. I’ve emailed them as well with very detailed notes and the history of this issue as well as a copy of the email I received in March showing my FCC’s. Still no response. 
 

Has anyone had any help from RCCL with this type of thing? Is there another customer service line other than the main RCCL 800 number? I wish I would have just taken the refund instead of the 125% FCC. I’ve considered contacting my credit card company to see if I could just get a charge back but since the original charges were made in 2019- 2020, I don’t know if that is even a possibility. 

I saved $370 for my May 2024 booking. Not a lot but still every little bit counts. I just hope my sailing goes down as we get closer. 

Me too! Hoping we can sail soon but I’m so glad to know I don’t have to cash out my FCC. I don’t want to lose that value. 

On 7/19/2021 at 5:50 PM, Jkaczanowski said:

I homeschool, so one of the reasons I enjoy cruising is to get a break from my kids.  Nothing was better than the kids spending the day in Disney’s Oceaneer club while I had a much needed break.  Now that they are teens, they would like nothing better than to stay on the ship while we spend an hour or so walking in port. 

We homeschooled from kindergarten through 8th grade and always enjoyed spending family vacation time together. I always assumed it was because we were used to spending time together that we enjoyed family vacations together. That's not to say my husband and I didn't have yearly adults only vacations and weekly date nights. So I definitely understand needing a break. It's interesting how people - no matter how they school - enjoy different vacation "styles". 

Thank you so much for this detailed review! I loved following along on your journey and your family is beautiful!

2 hours ago, Ourusualbeach said:

The website is outdated. FCC's ate now reissued as soon as they are applied(in theory) but they do not wait until the ship has sailed 

Great thanks so much!

I have used all but about $800 of our FCC for a March 2022 sailing. I plan to book a short 3 day Bahama cruise for Dec 2021 to use the balance of our FCC. However, I am seeing on the website that the new FCC with the balance won't be issued until after we sail with the used portion of the FCC. The operator who booked our March 2022 sailing said that we will receive a new FCC with the balance in a few weeks. Does anyone know which of these scenarios is accurate from a similar situation? Since we have to book by April 2022 and sail by September 2022, if we don't receive the balance FCC until after our March sailing, we won't be able to use it. We have to sail during Christmas or Spring Break due to our college kids' schedules. Thanks!

This my be a stupid question...do you have to be a good swimmer for this adventure? My husband is great...me, not so much. I am also slightly terrified of heights, but I know my husband would really enjoy the 27 falls experience. It looks like a lot of fun.

Thanks!

Not at all! Everyone wears a life jacket and you are basically floating along - or walking through the river bed - depending on the water depth.

Can you tell me if the 45 minute hike for the 27 falls was strenuous?

I think it depends on your fitness level. I am 49 and carrying extra weight and I never exercise. I was able to do the hike, but was grateful for the breaks they gave us after each incline. I was a little winded but never felt like I couldn’t do it. Also, it is shaded most of the time so that helps. My teenagers and college-aged kids who are athletes had no problems at all with the hike. They really do give you lots of breaks.

Be careful when they tell you to be careful! I did slip on some rocks going downhill and bruised my knee pretty badly.

We had a wonderful time. The falls are beautiful and I’m so glad we did all 27. We were the only group there until we reached fall #7 and it got really crowded. I am glad we got to experience the upper falls before joining the masses!

You answered my question the first time when you said you cancelled. Carnival's price matching requires you to book their excursion, which is why I asked how you were able to price match yet use another vendor after all. You said you eventually cancelled with Carnival and went private. I'm assuming when they refunded you your money, they also took back that price match, but it's really not that important so I didn't bother to go any further with it.

Gotcha! Yes that is correct. When I cancelled the excursion, I received a refund for what I paid and Carniaval removed the OBC for the price match difference that had been given.

Yes I know you can cancel an excursion. I was just curious thinking maybe the process changed.

 

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I'm not sure I am following you. I booked a Carnival excursion. I found a comparable excursion through Shore Excursioneer that was significantly less expensive. I filed a price match guarantee with Carnival and it was granted. I then changed my mind and cancelled the Carnival excursion and booked with another independent tour operator - not Shore Excursioneer. Hope that answers your questions.

How were you able to go with an outside excursion if Carnival price matched?

 

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I cancelled the Carnival excursion after finding a smaller local tour operator with great reviews and booked that instead. You can cancel a booked Carnival excursion prior to sailing.

We've used them numerous times - always had a great experience so no experience with refunds, etc. since it has never happened. I did do a price match for the Amber Cove Waterfalls excursion and Carnival honored it. However, I chose to go with a local vendor anyway in order to have a smaller group size. I'm not a big fan of booking through the cruise line - except when they are the only choice for an excursion - like Maya Key in Roatan. That was an amazing excursion and is only offered through the cruise lines. We did that one on Norwegian.

Did you forget about us? I want to know more please!:D

I know! Me too! Doing this cruise in 9 days and really want to hear about the waterfalls in Amber Cove! Please come back!

Sorry to hijack, but what if you check in after 1:30, will it already be waiting for you or will you have to wait for your S&S card to be delivered to your mailbox before being able to access your room?

We have a large party of 10 so we picked set dining so we can all sit together more easily. Also for reason already discussed, we picked late dining. I like to have a glass of wine and relax on the balcony, take my time getting dressed, maybe have some cheese and crackers with my wine. If our party wasn't so big, I would prefer Anytime Dining, because 7:00 is really my ideal time for dinner. We have booked specialty dining earlier.

In all honesty, has anybody ever seen anyone throw a straw overboard? They can call it saving the sea turtles but I think it's saving Carnival money.

Actually, I have seen several blow overboard on the pool deck. It's not on purpose but they do blow out of empty glasses, etc.

If you've never seen this video, it shows why straws are such a problem - especially at sea.

I LOVE straws and use them in everything I drink, but this made me purchase glass straws from Amazon. I'm hoping the cruise industry will start moving toward paper straws for those that request a straw. That will actually be more expensive for the cruise line. So no, I do not think this is about saving money, but about protecting our seas.

We used off site parking twice at Port of Miami. Getting to the port was fine, but catching the shuttle to get back to our car at the end of the cruise was so stressful - both times. We were the first at the waiting area but after waiting a long time for the shuttle, there were tons of people, luggage, strollers, etc. waiting. There were no lines - it was a disorganized hot mess. Getting on the shuttle was every man for himself to catch the shuttle back to the parking lot. I don't like that type of environment. We had my husband catch the shuttle and go get the car while I waited on the sidewalk with the luggage. Our friends parked at Port of Miami and walked right to their car. I won't ever do off-site parking again. It's worth the extra money to me not to have that type of stress at the end of my vacation.