ravensbad

The second certificate is returned to your online account.

Thanks. This is what I assumed would happen (otherwise it seems like an easy way to circumvent the restriction) but good to have confirmation.

I'll add in my own question here. I was told that I can use 2 CruiseNext certificates on one booking if I book a balcony at least 6 months in advance. This is what I plan to do but I'm curious what happens if later I decide to downgrade to an Interior or OV? Has anyone had to do this? Did they refund one of your certificates or did you get to keep both of them on the booking?

I find it very interesting that your cruise line of choice is NCL and you think the service there is better when I just got off the Pearl and had pretty much the exact opposite reaction. I haven't sailed the Oasis class but I have sailed on the Serenade the last 2 years and received phenomenal service from everyone. People were friendly, smiling, helpful, and all around seemed interested in making our experience a good one. I just got off the NCL Pearl a few days ago, and while I tried to go in with no expectations it was virtually impossible to keep myself from comparing the differences. I thought (and my cruising companions agreed) that the dining service was mediocre at best and the food was subpar. The exception was in the MDR, where we got both better service AND better food than we had in any of the specialty dining venues (but even though service was better the waitstaff still didn't seem friendly/happy). Service was extremely slow (2 hours in Le Bistro and we skipped dessert, which prompted an attitude from our server) in Le Bistro and Cagneys, steak in multiple venues came out overcooked, we sat with empty drinks a LOT, we found a lot of the food bland, and the buffet food was much worse IMO than what I experienced on the Serenade.

Outside of the mediocre food and bad service in certain venues the cruise was enjoyable, but it simply wasn't up to the experience we had the previous 2 years with Royal. I bought some NextCruise certificates and will give NCL another shot, perhaps on a different ship, but I think it's fair to say I was overall unimpressed (maybe even disappointed) this time around.

FWIW I just got off the Pearl in a deck 10 aft and it was extremely quiet back there. The only time we heard any noise was when leaving a port and even then it was just normal talking that you couldn't hear in your cabin.

What is first night done right??

It's a dining special they sell on some sailings, $15 per person for a specialty dining meal on the first night.

BOGO 2 night package went up from $30 to $40 so it wouldn't surprise me if FNDR also went up. This, along with the increase in price due to added gratuities, indicates to me that Royal is having no trouble filling their specialty restaurants.

No worries, I just wanted to clarify so my post wouldn't get removed. I noticed this year that as the months went on (and due to Irma) the costs went down. Maybe next year I'll wait it out to find the best deal.

I just check a lot and when I see a good deal I book it, even if I'm not 100% sure I will be able to go. If it turns out I can go then great, I got a good deal. If not, then I cancel and get my deposit back before final payment. I also check multiple cruiselines, which is why I'm on NCL this December instead of Royal like my last 2 cruises. I'm then on Royal again in the spring because of another great deal. With Royal's new non-refundable deposit policy I will probably do this less and it very well may push me to NCL more often...until they implement something similar.

I wasn't asking for a TA I was asking WHEN to get the best deals....like if I want to cruise in December WHEN will I see sales on certain dates?

Yep, sorry my mistake, I read that as WHERE. Generally I find the best deals are usually for November and December cruises, before Christmas. But if a sailing isn't selling well a deal could pop up at any time. My 9-night December 2017 cruise had a spectacular deal in August of 2016 (over a year out). Some November cruises have been an even better deal in the last several months if you're willing to book the sail away rates.

Talking about TA's, including online TA's, is not permitted on cruise critic so your responses are going to be a little limited. My favorite site to search is an online TA but then I generally book directly with the cruise line. I don't think cruiseplum is a TA (meaning you can't book cruises directly with them) but it's a nice search tool.

Yes, I am guilty of this. But some seem to have interest in available Costa Maya excursions and places to go. I certainly did before I found out about the Maya Chan Beach Club earlier this year.

Those people should check out the ports of call boards, there is a lot of port specific information there

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=169

Yes, you can.

 

We booked ours in February, then bought a certificate on eBay in August and they applied it with no issue.

 

PAID by MASTERCARD on 9-Feb-2017 100.00

PAID by CRUISENEXT Coupon on 16-Aug-2017 250.00

Didn't even realize you could buy these on ebay... Looks like the going rate is $160-$170 per $250 certificate, which isn't as good as the deal onboard but still a nice savings. Does the seller transfer the certificates to your lattitudes account somehow, or they just give you the number to use like a gift card?

Following... We leave in three weeks

Us too! Well technically we leave in 2 weeks because we're spending the week prior in New Orleans :D

We are joining you on the 9 day part of your adventure. I have a question. How is the wifi? Does it work in your cabin?

 

Robert

If you read about 6 or 7 posts up he has already answered a question about the quality of the wifi:

It’s really hit or miss. Periscope hasn’t worked since just outside Miami. FB live is sporadic as well. Haven’t tried Netflix or otherwise. Facebook itself and the forums work ok, just uploading photos takes a bit longer.

You may get more responses by posting on the ports of call boards, though from searching it doesn't look like this port shows up consistently in any one place. I saw a few posts under Span ports and some under Other Mediterranean ports. They seem to be well-liked from what I saw.

Tripadvisor reviews are also pretty positive.

Another vote for Woodwind, they are fantastic. We went with them last December and will be going with them again in April. Be aware, they can book up VERY far out. For popular sailings they could easily be fully booked a year in advance. When we booked with them in December 2016 for April 2018 they were already taking bookings for 2019. All this to say, if you're interested in booking with them do it ASAP. Even if you're on the fence it's better to go ahead and reserve your spot and then cancel later (with no penalty) if you change your mind. Also, if you check the Bonaire port of call boards there are reviews and stuff of other tour companies.

The best deal is usually First Night Done Right ($15pp), as someone else mentioned, or the BOGO 2 night dining package that they sometimes do ($30 pp for 2 meals so still $15pp per meal). You can occasionally get good deals onboard, although probably not better than half off like the aforementioned pre-cruise deals. Also, onboard deals are completely dependent on how popular the restaurants are during your sailing so you can't count them.

Wait, does NCL work differently than Royal Caribbean? I have so far only sailed on Royal but I have a NCL cruise next month. On Royal Caribbean your OBC is just credited to your onboard account and then any charges you have on the ship are charged to your onboard account (including the daily gratuities). So you don't directly pay for the daily gratuities with your OBC but it still counts, like if you deposited some cash at the start of the cruise and had a negative balance on your account until you started charging things. Are you saying that if you have OBC and have absolutely no charges onboard other than the daily gratuities that you would then have to pay at the end of the cruise? That is pretty terrible if true.

edit: reading the other thread it appears this is true (for non-refundable OBC). Wow...

Until this is added you all could just take the search link for one of the other ships and replace the ship name with ovation. Like this:

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/search/royal-caribbean/ovation

I too, used to use photobucket to post pics. Mad that they now charge a lot of $’s to be able to post to third party sites. But, just found out that I can post my photos directly to CC using my iPad. I just use the photo icon at the bottom of my post. Works great!

 

Gwen [emoji3]

Yes, unfortunately CC doesn't allow you to go back and edit old posts so I can't go fix the broken pictures and haven't ever gotten around to reposting my review with new links.

You might check the Martinique ports of call board:

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=115

I wrote a review of the Royal Caribbean excursion we did there (St. Pierre and Rum Distillery):

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2335174

Photobucket pictures don't work anymore but at least it will give you an idea what that excursion is like.

If for some reason you need more information here is a handy list of threads on this topic. As you can tell, this subject comes up frequently.

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2552590

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2509113

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2472650

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2412551

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2352003

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2336967

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1902070

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2542645

Why does this link not work?

Because cruisecritic apparently doesn't like for you to link to "royal caribbean blog dot com" (no spaces and replace dot with .) so they replace the web address with asterisks

The third leg only contains a foreign port since it leaves and returns from the same US port. You need a distant foreign port to make that legal.

 

There is a difference between a foreign port and a distant foreign port.

Oh, I see, it's the fact that they are starting and ending at two different US ports that is causing the problem. If you get on and off at the same port then it's fine. Thanks for clarifying.

OP, I would vote for your third option.

Option 1 would be fine (cruise starts in a foreign country and ends in the US.

 

Option 2 is not. (No distant foreign port)

 

Ignore the fact that according to Royal it's 2,3 or more separate cruises. The only thing that matters is your original embarkation port and your final debarkation port.

Well, the third leg of option 2 has to include a distant foreign port, right? There must be a distant foreign port in there somewhere or else they couldn't do that cruise at all. So if the third leg includes a distant foreign port and Royal or the PVSA or whoever isn't considering the 3 legs as individual / separate cruises, then that combination of 3 legs should be okay.

edit: To clear up any confusion, what I meant for option 2 is:

Leg 1: Northbound fall foliage cruise from Cape Liberty to Quebec

Leg 2: Snowbird cruise Quebec to Ft. Lauderdale

Leg 3: Caribbean cruise from Ft. Lauderdale to Ft. Lauderdale

There is obviously an acceptable port in the third leg or else they couldn't do that cruise in the first place.

Whoever wrote the law decided that Canada isn't a foreign port ... makes no sense ...

Hmm, I wonder if it would be possible to do a B2B2B going Quebec > Cape Liberty > Quebec > Fort Lauderdale

Or I wonder if Cape Liberty > Quebec > Fort Lauderdale > Fort Lauderdale would be okay since the third leg you would stop at some foreign ports.