sugcarol

I rec'd an email from agency and they sent me a cancellation form and a note which says if this is a chartered cruise, there is no penalty. I'm concerned with the word IF. If I fill out the form before agency has confirmed then I think they could penalize me. There are no other dates that will work for us and we only want Koningsdam.

Booked with online agency and they are going to penalize me 100.00 if I cancel. We have no desire to go on a GAY/lesbian cruise, how can they charge a penalty? Anyone have a similar experience? That cruise is no longer bookable even on HAL's site.

Vista Suite 2 people 1599.00 plus tax=3415.00 with EX4

Vista Suite 2 people 1099.00 plus tax-2495.00 without EX4

Almost 1000.00 more for EX4, we don't drink enough to make that worth our while, even factoring in 300.00 OBC

In my gift bags [the size of brown lunch bags] I include the following

Post it notes

Highlighter

pen

night light[even balcony cabins can use one at night]

clothespins

Sewing kit

Tide spot remover pen

2 small magnets [walls and doors are metal]

2 rain ponchos

Tums

Quality chocolates like Dove or the like

Bandaids, antiseptic cream

Aspirin or Tylenol, not the whole bottle, I use a tiny clear medicine pouch

Cotton balls and Q-tips

Everybody loves them!

So many have these neat boxes that say what ship they are sailing and when, I am not a tech savvy senior, so I mentioned my next cruise on Liberty in the title line.

This next cruise, both me and my closest friend will both be Diamond and she has asked me different things about Diamond, and I knew nothing about the lounges on the ships. Thanks everyone for your feedback.

I've been Diamond for several years and I sail most of the time with friends that are not. On Celebrity, cabin mates are allowed to enjoy the Elite benefits, on RCCL they are not, so I never went alone to Diamond lounge on any ship. Just wondered what was available, not sure why you would say you did not want to be rude. Was this a stupid question to ask about beverages offered?? If so, I apologize.

Thank you Clarea.

Can anyone tell me if Diamond Lounge has bottled water and soda in cans available during the day?

This is the best instruction I have ever seen. I followed directions and packed my husband's suit to cruise in Alaska, turned out perfectly.

When we sailed on Princess out of Houston in December, I asked our cabin steward if there were a lot of people still smoking on the balconies and what was being done about it. He said that yes there are still some folks smoking on them but unless the crew actually catches someone, they really can't do anything about it. You could be an innocent guest and wrongly accused because another guest in the vicinity was the one doing it. Inside of cabin is another story. A neighbors complaint is not given much credence.

I wonder about the legality of taking pictures of guests. If I saw someone taking my picture while on my personal balcony, whether there was smoking involved or not, their camera would go overboard.

I plan to bring mine, I'll alternate days with my mechanical bull on the balcony.

What the agency did was wrong about the 2000.00 and I would be livid but it is very hard to transfer a booking from one agency to another.

They are protected by the cruise line. They own your reservation and without written permission to release it they won't. If you have future cruises booked and final has not been reached you can cancel, but the agency might have cancellation fees and if cruise price has gone up you will be forced to book at the higher rate and/or lose a coveted cabin.

A travel agency can be a gem or a nightmare, it's a chance you have to take when booking with an agency.

Folks that got the EX4 free were doing good.

For us, the cost for EX4 was 527.00 per person more. When I did the math, 3 drinks a day for 7 days and Dinner at Pinnacle Grill is less than 250.00 so I would be paying an additional amount of money that I would never have paid in the first place. I imagine this would work for people who drink a lot on a cruise but I don't so why pay for it.

I have to say when pricing my cruise on Koningsdam everyone I talked to was only pushing EX4 even HAL. I had to really hunt for a good price for the cabin alone.

Thanks everyone, it will probably have 1% off a picture or something.

I think HAL is of the mindset that less and less people are smoking and that as time goes on there will be less and less smoking on balconies. Right now people act like every other balcony cabin is a smoker. That is not the case at least in my experience and I cruise a lot.

Has anyone ever booked a cruise and the TA states there will be coupons in the cabin to be used for purchases. I have tried to find out what they can be used for. This is not an OBC.

I had been researching for 3 days for Koningsdam 2/5/17. kept getting a high price and asked what is cost without Explore 4 and the cost was 1000.00pp less.

We were on the 10 night Hawaii in May and they said she would be doing Asia only. We were very disappointed in the ship, it is long past needing a facelift. We were not the only ones that were upset with her condition, service was also poor even the bars. We will never sail an old RCI ship ever again.

On the Navigator the end of February our Diamond drinks generated a bill so we could add a tip. We just returned from 10 night cruise on Legend and we did not get any bill, they just swiped our cards and we gave them tips in cash. Quite a policy difference in just 2 1/2 months, at least between those two ships.

By the way bartenders were freely pouring on the February cruise and they were seriously measuring the amount of alcohol on the May cruise.

Our price for Liberty dropped 35.00 pp but we would lose the Celebrate Save discount of 50.00 pp. RCCL is getting wacko with their pricing, but eventually people are going to see through them and go elsewhere.

Years ago on our cruises, drinks especially drink of the day was really cheap. Bartenders told us that booze bought by cruise line is practically nothing so they could afford to sell to passengers at low cost. RCI is still getting booze at super low prices, but they are certainly not passing those savings onto us now. Frankly I think they have gone way overboard [pun intended] with current prices. Sailing is going to price us out of the market. I love to cruise but don't want to be taken advantage of.

Setsail, if that was meant to be cute or funny, it fell far short. :rolleyes:

If cancellation is during full penalty periodthe TA commission is protected.