Wheels Up

Looking forward to reading along. I’ll be on Harmony with Wife and Kid, starting the day you get off the ship. Happy sailing!

Which ship?

Wife and I always book GTY. More accurately, Wife always books GTY because she’s great at planning our vacations and I’m always quite happy to be along for the ride. We’ve never been unhappy with the cabin we were assigned.

I’m thinking about doing the same thing (cancel and rebook at lower price). When they issue the refund, is it OBC, or does it go back to your bank/credit card? If it goes back to my bank account (I used a debit card) I’m concerned it may take a week to post to my bank and the price may be higher than when I first booked by then.

I understand what you’re saying, that even if they give it away for “free” that we will actually all pay for it with increased fares. I’d truly rather book one all-inclusive price. I go to an all inclusive resort in Mexico where alcohol, tips, all meals, and Wi-Fi are included for $5,000 per week for two. Price varies by which week, of course. But it’s one price to consider different dates, book, pay for, and you’re all done. I would be less attracted to the resort if it was $2,500 for the week for two people plus $1,000 for two drink packages, plus $500 for the good restaurants, plus $500 for tips, plus $300 for Wi-Fi, even though that would come out cheaper in the end. Especially if the prices of extras vary wildly (in RCI’s case ship to ship and between itineraries) and I have to keep an eye on the app because dynamic pricing and “sales” means I could end up paying more than $5,000 if I don’t book the extras at the right time or I picked a ship where DBP and Wi-Fi prices are never low. And that’s not a major gripe that would cause me to abandon RCI. I like Royal Caribbean. Free Wi-Fi is just my one thing I would change if I only got one wish. Even if it was built into the fare… for that matter I’d prefer they do that with tips too.

The first time I ever saw a stingray was in 2003 snorkeling at Coco Cay. There were bunches of them then. I used a whole waterproof disposable camera taking pictures of rays and eels. In the 20 years since then, I’ve moved close enough to the gulf coast that day trips to the beach are a common occurrence and we're used to seeing sharks and rays all the time. For those unfamiliar with saltwater predators, there’s a very easy way to tell if there are sharks in the water: 1) Wade out into the water until you’re about knee deep. 2) Bend at the waist and put your hands into the water. 3) Make a cup shape with your hands. 4) Bring the water up to your face and stick your tongue into the water in your hands. If it tastes salty, there are sharks in the water.

WiFi for free for everyone.

Wife and I have cruised out of Miami, Fort Lauderdale, and Port Canaveral. We've flown into Miami and driven at least once to all three. I have no real preference for either. The ship and the itineraries are always more important to us than the place we start and end. We're in South Alabama, so every port in Florida and all the way to Galveston are within a day's drive for us. We went out of New Orleans once and didn't care for it- not because of the port itself, but because we both got seasick on the small ship zooming down the Mississippi River to the Gulf of Mexico. We've never gone out of Tampa, but we've had several friends on multiple cruises out of Tampa who were delayed for more than a day either inside the port at the beginning of their cruises or outside the port at the end of their cruises because of fog. For this reason alone, we avoid anything out of Tampa.

It seemed a reasonable question to me. Some people don't care what ship they're on or where it goes, but don't like the idea of paying $105+18% per day to walk around the ship and get their booze on. It's not my primary concern when booking a cruise, but I don't see a problem with someone else planning their trip that way.

Harmony of the Seas, Jan 7-14, Western Caribbean out of Galveston. It's "on sale" buy one get one half off which comes out to $77.99 USD pp/pd.

Wife and I have been on Majesty and Enchantment (both smaller than Adventure) and we really loved Majesty. I'm not sure why we felt some kind of sentimentality toward that ship... maybe because it was our first cruise together. It's weird how people get attached to certain inanimate objects almost like the ship itself was the destination rather than merely means of conveyance, isn't it? We've also been on Allure and we were apprehensive about so many people in one place. We both agreed that Allure felt the least crowded of any ship we've been on. The only time we really noticed that there were a ton of people was getting off the ship at ports. The Oasis class ships are designed so all the extra passengers are never in the same place at once. It's entirely possible to stay aboard for a whole week and never see a large portion of the vessel. On Majesty and Enchantment, I generally preferred to take the stairs between decks to avoid long waits at elevators. The Oasis class ships have so many elevators and they're laid out so well that long waits are not nearly the irritation that they were on the older, smaller ships. At least, that was our impression. Like you, we only dine in the MDR for dinner. We're not specialty dining people at all. We never felt that the plethora of extra dining options detracted from the experience.

Going on Harmony January 7th with Wife and Kid (9). We're loyal RCI people but haven't been on a cruise since 2019. I don't remember drink packages being so insanely expensive back then, but I suppose I could be remembering things incorrectly. I snagged a Coke package for Kid at $8.99/day. Seems fair enough even though it's not a massive sale. I'd really like to get the Unlimited Drink Package for Wife and myself, but holy cow! They're "on sale" for $77.99pp/pd plus 18% gratuity. Do they ever actually get less expensive than that? If not, I'm likely to pull the trigger on the Refreshments package that's down to $23.99pp/pd right now.