barbeyg

But, but, but…..the little ones won’t be there. Gotta be worth the price, and not having to explain your behavior to them on Cococay when you get home, right? 😉 What happens in Hideaway Beach stays in Hideaway Beach. And pizza has to be worth something, right?! 🍕

I suggest sending an email to Michael Bayley directly. I would be polite and include all the facts (parents names, date of sailing, cabin number, medical emergency, port, who was spoken to at RCI, etc). It is always helpful to include everything so you don’t have to waste time going back and forth. Ourusualbeach (Ken) recommended this in his reply. He is very knowledgeable and reaching out to Michael Bayley has rendered results for others with hard to resolve issues. I wish all of you the best. It must be very stressful for them to be dealing with this on top of the medical emergency.

I’m sorry your parents are going thru this. and I hope your dad has a full recovery. I don’t have any info that would be helpful for RCI. It could take a bit for them to reach the ship and get the answers necessary to deal with this. A couple of suggestions otherwise. If your parents have travel insurance, it’s worth contacting the insurance agency to see if something like this is covered. If they had a travel agent, possibly the agent would have better contact info for RCI. I see Ken has shared Michael Bayley’s email. And a last resort would be posting on their wall at FB and X. Sometimes that gets a response.

It’s nice we have reached the point where a Covid thread is sorta rare. That said, no one knows what this will be like a week from now, much less a month away. These variants usually burn thru pretty quickly though. Do what is best for you. 🤷🏻‍♀️

If they release like last few years, November. 🙂

I agree. Some might throw their money at anything. But, I think many of us would never pay $5k for a balcony cabin. Not when there are so many great choices for travel, by land or sea. 🙂

Sometime in 2025, that one will begin sailing, according to the press release. https://www.royalcaribbeanpresscenter.com/press-release/1634/the-next-iconic-adventure-begins-with-royal-caribbeans-second-icon-class-ship/

We love the CL and have no issue with the luggage. DH carries it up before the steward even gets there. We also prefer Oasis and Allure walk-in showers upstairs, over the tubs put into newer ships.

Excellent idea, Ken. We always have something booked with our cruises from the planner….that is, after they begin selling. Still waiting on pre-Bella, Bella 2.0 and Symphony 2025 to have something to buy. 🙂

As others have stated, unless there is a local curfew, the ship serves as a 'hotel' overnight.

After skimming thru this thread, I have decided that it is a really good thing I'm mostly not too observant of the people around me. Ignorance can be bliss. 😃

There are many threads here about the crazy pricing. We have sailed RCI exclusively for years, because we were happy with the product. But, we have booked another line recently, and are considering others. We will continue to sail RCI, when we find deals, and there are deals to be found. You just have to be flexible. 🙂 But we will also consider other lines too. Hope you find a good price on a cruise. We do love RCI and expect it to stay our line of choice. We just don’t choose to throw all our $$$ at them. 😂

We used to be people who go, go, go on vacation. We have found over the years that we love the sea days. Our first cruise back after Covid, we never even got off the ship. 😂 It was the most relaxing, rejuvenating trip so far. We look forward to our retirement TA in April, and our TP to Hawaii in September. We are never bored on sea days.

While many of the cuts don't specifically affect us, the "chiseling away" of the product, while dramatic increases in prices, has caused us to look elsewhere from Celebrity and RCI. We just booked a Iceland/Norway cruise on NCL (never thought I would say that) because the itinerary was better, the ship was newer, and the pricing was much more reasonable. We are also looking at other 'premium' brands. My loyalty is to my budget, and what I'm willing to pay for a cruise vs a land vacation.

I have the same $200 issue with our cruise next year. We are currently within the final payment for one cruise, and that pricing hasn't changed, but one further out has.

This made me laugh out loud! 🤣 I used to fill my Dad’s cigarette lighter, unscrewing the little screw, then filling up, and loved the smell of the fluid. He stopped me from doing it when he caught me taking a big sniff of the can of fluid. 😂 I was 8 and had no idea it made you high.

I hope you told them where to get off. 😀 Politely, of course.

I thought it was interesting that he would 'admit' (if it's factual data) that 20% of people would consider other cruise lines. We are considering others because of the high pricing. And we didn't do the survey.

I agree with much of what you say. I book our cruises now thru a TA that has group rates lower than the prices on RCI. There will be a tipping point with that, as well, if they keep jacking their prices up. We have a 9 night scheduled on Celebrity (sister line) in a suite that we booked very cheap 2 years ago. The price has gone up almost $10k since we booked. Insane pricing! We won’t book Celebrity again after our cruise next year unless prices come down to a more reasonable price. That’s ok for us, there are lots of land vacations we want to take in retirement. When RCI starts pulling the benefits from C&A (which I expect to happen sometime soon with the $$ people in charge), that will mean the incentive for us to sail with RCI is ending, and we will be much more amenable to searching and sailing other lines, and investing more time at the shore rather than in the ocean. Guess we will see how this all shakes out.

After working in a corporate environment for a couple of decades, I’ve learned that those at the top have no idea of what’s going on in the ‘real world’ down below. They make decrees and expect the rest of us to work out the kinks. Sorta like politicians on both sides of the aisle do. 🙄 I agree with the ‘chill for a minute’ suggestion. 🙂

Um no. I don’t buy cardboard pizza from the grocery store. Why on earth would I buy it from RCI? 😂 C’mon, RCI. Let’s not get ridiculous over mediocre choices. Is RCI in that much financial distress?

Wow! Thanks for sharing.

What I’ve seen on the other social media site, after the initial freak-out there, are people reporting that they have contacted the shoreside concierge, and been told there would be a pool of “retreat hosts” to handle requests. No personal butler, but continued personal attention from a team, instead. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Before I do a comparison, this is my own personal opinion, and I don't expect others to agree with me. 🙂 I will compare Oasis class with Edge class. I've sailed both of those, in suites (and on RCI, balcony cabins). Food: Celebrity definitely a step up. The food, across the board, was better than RCI. Entertainment: RCI has the edge, at least for us. Celebrity has more traditional venues, with some interesting shows, though. I enjoy both. Appearances: The Edge class and the Oasis class are beautiful, each in their own way. I would give the edge to the Edge class for elegance, but RCI does a great job with the design of their ships. We sail Celebrity for a laid back more adult sailing. Absolutely love the vibe of the Martini Bar, which is in the heart of the ship. Celebrity crew are also much friendlier than RCI, even though there are great crew members on RCI, no complaints there. We sail RCI for higher energy, and a larger variety of activities to participate in. I don't think you could go wrong with either.

+1. Have a great cruise!