Nutto

Maybe one way to get the chair hogs is to take their towel and hand it back to the towel station and say it was found abandoned. Remember - Anyone that has a towel checked out on their sea pass that is not returned at the end of the cruise can be charged $25! :D

Just to clarify, you can't get a 4 day pass as such. Example: If I go on a 7 day cruise and start off with no drink package, but after the first day I decided to get a package on board, then the package would go for 6 days, as all packages start from whatever day you buy then and finish at the end of the cruise. Where the 4 days comes into it is that you can buy a package on board an anytime up to 4 days before the cruise finishes. This means that if you want a package for the minimum time of 4 days, it must be the last 4 days of your cruise.

Re 18% grats, any price you see listed on the bar menu is inclusive of 18

% grats when cruising from Aus. Outside Aus (i.e USA) the prices shown are exclusive of grats, so we have it OK out of OZ.

Re the package price, the current price of $66Au/day all inclusive if you buy before the cruise will be less than the daily price if bought on board, so it makes it harder to decide. For me it's a no brainer. It takes about 5-6 drinks per day (including coffee, bottles water, fresh juice) to break even. You don't need to drink like a crazy man to do that !

Hey BekkaW

 

 

The drink package still annoys me, i roughly calculate i would drink $40 on any given night, however paying an additional 18% tip on that makes it frustrating so for me personally not worth it at all

 

I wish they offered a better family package for drinks although I love my coffee but the above $40 is including a couple of beers + a few coffee's a day arrrgghhhh....

 

I have a few more months to decide :p

 

PEACE

Kosti

Point to note for RCI cruises out of Australia is that all prices are inclusive of 18% gratuities. That is, the drinks package price shown on the Australian website includes gratuity and when you buy a drink on board, 18% is not added to the price (confirmed when you check your onboard account during the cruise out of Australia). It's due to Australian law about the advertised price being the price you pay and no more. As this is predominantly a USA based forum, this is rarely (if ever) mentioned.

Also, you don't need to get a package for the whole cruise, but when you do buy it, it has to continue until the end of the cruise. 4 days is the minimum you can do in this regard.

Cheers!

"Is it even possible?"

Yeah, sure, tell your 'mate' to go for it. Do let us know how he goes.

Re sharing a package, tell him to go for that too, but if they catch 'him' they will stick him in a lifeboat and cast him adrift! true story! No B.S.

There is a wall behind guest services and a door on either side of guest services to enter that part of the ship

OK, thanks:)

Would anyone (probably Clarea!) happen to know if one can access the centre interior cabins on deck 6 (i.e from cabin 6435 back) directly from the business services area or are these cabins only accessible from the other end?

Re losing nothing, I actually think the new deluxe is not quite the same as the ultimate, as the fine print at the bottom of the flyer states that max drink value is $12 and top end beers are not included. It may vary depending on Country. The new Deluxe appears to sit between the PP & UP packages as it offers the premium teas/coffee/juice over the PP but has a value cap and no top end beers that the UP has.

This is from the Australian perspective when I go through my cruise planner here. The deluxe price is identical to the PP price.

I'll chime in from the Aussie perspective on the old v new and how it appears to have been applied to my Dec 2016 cruise, based on what I can book in the cruise planner.

I currently have the old premium package (PP). The new deluxe package is priced exactly the same as the old PP package, not the old ultimate package (UP). Barring any major fluctuation in exchange rates, I don't need to do anything as my PP will be recognized as a deluxe package. If, however, I had purchased the old UP, I would have to cancel this and re-purchase as the old ultimate was $10/day more than the new deluxe package price.

In summary, and on reading the fine print, the deluxe package is better than the PP was, but not quite the UP. The new deluxe fine print on the flyer reads "....does not include specialty beers as listed on

bar menus, or super premium category beverages above $12."

So there you go, it's between the old packages IMHO for the Aussie summer season coming up .

Hi all, We are on board again with RCI after last year on Legend out of Bris.

Family of 4 - 2 boys 14 & 16 - they get their own inside cabin again - couldn't imagine having 4 of us quad sharing....! , travelling with 2 other families. Will be interesting to compare the bigger tub with the smaller one last year. We had a ball on Legend!

Regarding drinks package, currently "20%" off, although not sure how they arrive at that figure. Either way, there's a discount on at present and can be pre-purchased via cruise planner.

I purchased the Premium package at AU$771 (or $70au/day)./ This is converted from $52US/day and is paid in AU dollars, not US dollars, via cruise planner (>no foreign conversion fee). The normal price (based on last December) was $58US. When you consider that this includes the 18% grat that is added to over-the-bar prices, if one was to buy a cocktail ($12US + 18% = $14.16), 4 cocktails later and it's paid for! + grab all the bottled water you need for shore days etc.

So....Couple Pina coladas by the pool, a beer later on, wine or 2 with dinner, some water bottles - that's not over the top at all, yet would ring up $84US + 18% grat (not part of pre paid grats) = $99US x 1.35 =$134AU on it's own without a package.!

The other good thing is that if the currency fluctuates and say the US dollar falls in a heap and works in the AU$ favour, you can simply cancel the package, get a refund and re-purchase at the revised rate - I called them to check this. they regularly adjust the currency rates. I had the package sitting in my shopping cart for a week and in that time, the price was adjusted down.

Happy for anyone to find any holes in my logic here but it seems to be sound?

Chat later

The message posted on RCI facebook page

"Dear Guests and Friends,

We would like to inform you Royal Caribbean has entered into an agreement to sell Legend of the Seas in 2017.

Regrettably, the sale of Legend of the Seas will result in the cancellation of five of her Brisbane departures, while redeploying a sixth cruise to bring forward her repositioning from Brisbane to Asia. The 20 February 2017 departure will now see the ship reposition to Singapore over 11 nights, with overnights in Cairns and Darwin. This will mark Legend of the Seas’ final Australian sailing as she repositions to Europe for delivery to her new owner.

Rhapsody of the Seas, will transition from New Jersey to Europe in order to undertake a range of like European itineraries. Vision of the Seas will then transition to Cape Liberty, New Jersey, where she will undertake four like itineraries to those planned for Rhapsody of the Seas.

Royal Caribbean will assist affected guests in securing an alternative Royal Caribbean cruise or for those who would rather cancel; we will provide a full refund of any deposits paid.

For those who choose to re-book on to an alternate Royal Caribbean cruise, we will provide additional bonus onboard credits and we will be discussing hotel and flight arrangements with affected guests.

Guests who booked on cancelled Brisbane sailings, who choose to rebook on selected Sydney sailings are also eligible for a $300 pp credit towards flights.

If you are affected and have booked through a Travel Agent, unfortunately we do not have your contact details. Please contact your Travel Agent as they have important information around alternative options. If you have booked directly with us, we have emailed you with important information about your cruise.

As Legend of the Seas sale has just been announced we wanted to make everyone aware of these immediate changes.

We are truly sorry to disrupt our guests' holidays and apologise for the inconvenience caused."

Yes you can punch a hole in the sea pass card and clip straight onto a lanyard. We did that after a day as it makes it more user friendly. It is physically attached to a lanyard rather than the pouch being attached.

It won't be noisy - it was rarely used at all when we cruised a few months ago. It has some sun loungers and that's it.

Says there is no corkage fees:

 

http://www.royalcaribbean.com/customersupport/faq/details.do?pagename=frequently_asked_questions&pnav=5&snav=2&faqId=5442&faqSubjectId=336&faqSubjectName=Food+%26+Beverage&faqType=faq

In this link when you click on the 'back to food & drink', this corkage FAQ does not appear on the list of FAQ's again? Maybe it's just me?

Have asked my TA as my docs state a corkage fee applies.

Interesting.

http://www.royalcaribbean.com.au/contentPage.do?pagename=terms_and_conditions_australia

I tend to agree re not updating all sections of the website.

Our hardcopy cruise docs just received via mail also indicate a corkage fee.

I'll email our TA with the conflicting links and see what they say......

Just reviving this corkage thread....

It appears RCI still state on their website FAQ's a $25 corkage fee applicable to wine brought on board for consumption in MDR etc. We have just received cruise docs for December also stating this, yet there are consistent "unofficial" reports here that no corkage applies? What is the latest on this?:confused:

Thanks for the replies to my query guys. I have read into these and found the answer.

It was a bit of a loaded question so not surprised at some responses taking the higher moral ground, to which I am obviously aware of.. interesting when seeing all the posts about people successfully smuggling alcohol on board via rumrunner bottles and the like. It certainly appears that this is a more rampant problem than the query I posed and one that I have no interest in, given the effort involved.

Hi all

First post (first cruise booked Dec '15 from Brisbane down under on Legend).

Further to this drinks package query, I have this one of my own:

If only one person (me) in our twin stateroom has purchased a drink package, then I can get one drink at a time - fair & understood.:)

Now, is there anything to then stop me to go back to the bar and get another drink then go back to where ever I may be at the time and give this to the other person from my stateroom who has not purchased a drink package, thereby effecting a '2 for 1' situation?:cool: