The Scurvy Pirate

I will be in 13640 next fall. Hopefully I won't be getting a similar e-mail as they appear to be the same rooms/categories/location (except I am a few more decks higher). It will be interesting to see what category the room will be if they are changing it.

Is there an easy way to tell if it has a surge protector? The one I got was an E-Polar pure sine wave converter. It talks about "built-in multi-protection system provides overvoltage, under-voltage, over-current, short-circuit, overload, over-heating protection, and fire-proof UL94 V-0 material, which provides all-around protection for you and your devices" but doesn't say "surge protection". If it had surge protection, it seems it would have been easier to say surge protection rather than the above (but maybe that is just marketing to use more words). Anectdotally, there was one review that specifically said it doesn't have a surge protector as some of his electronics got fried...

A small desk fan will burn out if you use an adapter only. You need to get one that actually converts the 220 to 110. Found this out the hard way... Bought something similar to Post #10 above and have had no issues with the fan since. The one I got was a small converter (200 watt), not big enough to run a hair dryer (which would probably require a 2000 watt capacity).

It can. On-line you and your spouse both have to buy a deluxe. I believe that if you call in to pre-purchase one deluxe then your spouse has to purchase a refreshment package (although I thought there was a post someplace that said they only had to buy the soda package or maybe even a coffee card). If neither of you pre-purchase, then you can buy one deluxe on board and your spouse doesn't have to buy a drink package. At that point, you can give your spouse your five free drinks plus their own five free drinks, while you get unlimited through the deluxe. Saves about $200+ by not having to buy a refresment package. This obviously assumes you will each drink more than 8 beverages (soda, OJ, coffee, water, beer, wine, liquor) a day, as the "break even point" is about 6 drinks a day for a single deluxe.

I would ask for another room if the TV started calling our for "Carol Anne"...

On the App you could skip this information and go directly to the check in time. I believe on the web page you had to complete everything before selecting your check-in time. As to entering the passport information, it lets you use your camera to scan the passport bar code and it auto fills all of the information. Took all of about 5 seconds to do the passport. You don't have to take a picture and can skip that (as they take one at the port when you check in). As to the credit card, I had one on file and so it auto populated that as well. Literally took me less than a minute to complete everything through the app.

A little odd. On my 8/19/24 cruise, it still shows Juneau excursions available (although you are unable to "reserve" them) and that port as being a stop when you do a general cruise search. But, on the upcoming cruises page (where you can pick your particular reservations), on that one cruise it is not showing up as a port stop. All my other reservations accurately show all of the other ports for those itineraries.

This was my experience as well. I tried at midnight and 12:01 (per my iphone's time). Finally "opened" at 12:05 a.m.

It seems to be one free (other than port fees/taxes) and the other pays a "discounted" rate, plus fees/taxes. The question becomes what is the actual discount that is being given for the "paid" rate. I believe some have seem a small discount from the web page rate. Others, not so much. I guess is depends on the cruise and which represenatative you speak with.

I had to find it myself. Near the top of this page you see Home > Categories > Cruise Lines "P-Z" > etc... and select Categories, its about 2/3 of the way down that page. Go figure....

I am not sure how each port charges RCI for the fees/taxes. If the port's has a policy that the taxes and fees are "non-refundable" (we charge you whether you dock or not) then that may be why RCI doesn't refund them. I doubt RCI would willingly give up $200K to refund port charges if they are not being reimbursed by the port.

"If you have to ask, you'll never know. If you know, you need only ask..."

Was looking at the Harmony deck plans and cruise planner and just noticed it is now showing a dedicated non-smoking "mini" casino where Jazz of 4 used to be located. I also never noticed before, but it says slot machines are open 24/7 except in restricted ports while the hours of operation are for the tables. Wonder if the mini-casino will have its own bar or whether your will have to walk back to the main casino for a prime drink.

The only kind of real sale is black friday/cyber monday. Otherwise, they tend to just bounce between the two prices of 20% or 10% off. Of course, this assumes they don't raise the base price, like they did a little while ago... like above, you can buy now and if you see cheaper, you can cancel and repuchase...

The funny thing is in the app, right after "The big welcome balloon drop (5 minutes)" is an event called "the big recycle balloon pickup (10 minutes)" ....

Can you have it mailed to a family member or friend that has an actual street address and then have them forward it to you?

That ssumes RCI will ever not run a sale where the balcony discount will actually apply... Although I was looking a little into this and found in the paragraph above the one cited above: A Crown & Anchor Society member can be added into a relationship with other family members in the same household and receive equivalent tier status; however Cruise Points will remain according to actual cruises taken and calculated using the Program level accrual system described above. I wonder if the adult child used an address different than the parents and that is why it kicked her down to her actual tier. The above language does not seem to limit the age of the child, just that they remain in the same household/address.

So, as I read it, if I select a book later option, I have one year to make the reservation, which could be for a cruise an additional year or more away? I believe the person at next cruise told me I had to select and take the cruise within the year (I hadn't seen/paid attention to the brochure before).

I just double checked (I called) and the last two are "855". If you use "866", one is the Oak Ridge National Lab and the other number is not in use.... Sadly, I would not have been too terribly surprised if the RCI brochure had the wrong numbers...

I think it could be as simple as using the same address on the reservation. My wife has a different last name and I don't ever recall having to provide any kind of "proof" of address or marriage for that matter.

This happened to me when I added a contact phone number after the fact. Didn't think anything about it until I got a "new" invoice. Like you, they basically had to manually input the net price without showing the discounts, etc. Luckily (I guess) there was never a price drop as I don't know how they would have handled that.

Prime 866-213-3166 Signature 855-221-0527 Masters 855-221-5614 These numbers came from the Player's Edge brochure that was in my room on the first day a couple of weeks ago.

Actually not "dry" docked but simply docked. I was on Liberty about 2 weeks ago. There were several white tarps blocking off portions of the sun deck and the outdoor tv screen was covered. Someone the following week said the outdoor screen was working again. My guess is that they have some additional repairs and rather than spreading it out over several weeks or longer (as the repair people have limited hours they can work, especially if they can only take place while docked) RCI just decided to bite the bullet and just get as many done at one time before heading north....

I thought I saw this past fall "new" menu's for chops that specified "your choice of one" for apetizers and entree's, but when I looked at the menu's for my upcoming cruises, no limitation was noted.

I was on a 3 night about 2 weeks ago and they had the new menu's in my time dining. The pictures above are consistent with what was served. We found the food to be comparable to previous cruises, which we found to be really good (again taste is subjective). We did not have issues with multiple orders being delivered at the same time. For example, we each ordered two apetizers each night. They asked if we wanted them delivered at the same time or separately. My wife got the soup before the salad. I got my apetizers delivered at the same time. The escargot were back to more "normal" size (they were really small the last couple of years) and were actually served hot. In the past I frequently had to send it back to get them hot. When we ordered two different dinners they did ask which one to bring out first (because of table space issues). When I asked for a 2 tiger shrimp dinners, he asked if I wanted two dinners or could they just add the additional shrimp to the plate. Overall, we were pleased with the new menu and the food was delivered timely and hot. The my time dining at 8:00 was crazy busy and always a huge line to get seated.