The Scurvy Pirate

Just happened to me this morning. Paid the balance due on the cruise. Did a screen shot and print out of the screen that said it was paid in full. I believe I made a mistake in that after payment I went to check the guest information. I noticed that the phone number was wrong (it was saying I was from vietnam) so I corrected the phone number. I then went to my e-mail to look for the paid in full receipt and shockingly got one that said I still had a balance due of over double the amount. In looking at the new receipt all of the various "discounts" had been removed. I got through to RCI pretty quickly and it has been escalated to resolutions to fix it. Luckily, I paid in full two weeks out so hopefully it will be resolved before the payment deadline. Quick update. Within two minutes of posting this, RCI had emailed me the paid in full receipt, so all is good. They simply changed the cruise fare to make the numbers work, without re-inputting the various discounts. Still very strange.

+1

I have a cruise on Harmony 10/15/23. Some of the planner items started showing up 5/6/22. Still no excursions or multi voom packages yet.

I have always just folded and stapled them (I do double staple) and never had any issues. I have read that some people, if they don't otherwise have another name/bag tag on their luggage, will put a duplicate copy of the printout in the luggage itself so if it get's opened by RCI they can easily identify where it needs to go.

One time we had ordered a special "drink of the day". Wife and I each took one sip and it was awful, so we gave them back. The bartender said the system would not allow him to ring up another replacement drink for five minutes.

Harmony. Everything but excursions and more than single voom is open. Already picked my time dining times.

I've only seen the soda package go down for Black Friday/Cyber Monday sales. One went from $8.99 to $6.49 and another from $8.99 to $7.99.

The short answer, at least based on my experience, is no. I have always kept track of all the planner prices, usually starting more than a year out, for upcoming cruises. For my 10/22 cruise, the 3 night dining package never went down, but did go up $30 this past April 2022. In looking at my past 10/21 cruise, going back to over a year on that one and again the price never went down, but similarly did go up $20 in April 2021. I already purchased the 3 night package for my upcoming 10/23 cruise anticipating that it will only go up. Again, if by some remote chance it goes down, I can always cancel and repurchase, but highly doubt that will actually happen.

You can always try this drink calculator to see the where the "break even" point is. https://cruisespotlight.com/drink-package-calculator

I can't tell you how many times I have been with a group at a restaurant and have caught people that didn't notice/look that there was an automatic gratuity and were going to pay a double gratuity...

Wireless Fidelity 🙂

I have seen this for one or two restaurants when they have "sold out" for available on-line reservations, but never "all" restaurants. It could also be an IT glitch and you just need to check back every couple of days. I have seen some "re-appear" several days later after having not being shown on the web page.

This topic now has me paranoid. In the past, I have flown in "day of" without ever thinking about it. Now, I am checking the flight status of similar flights each day to see if they are on time, etc. My initial flight is 99% on time getting to ATL at 6:30a.m. The flight to MIA is about 90% on time, getting to MIA at 9:00 a.m. (not so much worried about this arrival time as you can't board until 11:00 or so). Although I hadn't planned it initially, now I am looking and if my initial flight into ATL is late, there are still two other morning flights from ATL to MIA that could get me there before 1:00 p.m. So, hopefully that will be an unneeded back-up plan. 🤞

No Diamond discount, but D+ gets 30% off. Soon, I will be D+ and anticipate simply buying once on board, as most sales I have seen for my upcoming cruises were 20%-25% off. Of course, this makes the huge assumption that RCI doesn't do another price increase on the DBP when I could have bought it earlier ... I am ready for the pricing carousel to stabilize.

Having monitored (almost daily) these "sales" for several years, you can expect at least 1 "sale" and month (frequently 2 a month). The "sales" don't seem to really start until you are within a year of your cruise. As others have said, if you like the price, get it. If it goes down, you can always cancel and repuchase. I keep kicking myself for not buying the DBP when it went to $58 on 10/13/21 for my upcoming 10/1/22 cruise. I was thinking that the 4/19/22 "sale" it would drop back down to $66, like it had during the previous "sale" and was going to buy it then. Dang if that's when RCI upped all the prices. So, now the "sale" price is $73, so I bought it today. The only consistent "real" sale is Black Friday and Cyber Monday. For my cruise the DBP was $61 last year for these sales (yes, I should have purchased then, but stupid me said 'but it was just $58, maybe it will go back to that' and see how that worked out for me.

I paid $88.99/pp during a black friday sale. At that price point it was probably "worth" it. It was nice and quiet when we were there and away from the crowds. The lobster sandwich (and lunch menu in general) was really good. But, to me, I wouldn't pay more than that, unless it was a one time, we'll never be here again kind of thing.