The Fun Researcher

Signed out and back in, cleared my browser history, cookies, etc... and I'm still getting this annoying popup every time I click into and out of a thread!  Anyone else seeing this:?

Seems worth the $100 to me especially if it includes the beer and 2 apps. 

When Navigator was first Amped spring of 2019 we used that space a lot but it was after Football season.  It was first come first serve and free.  Had a huge Jenga set on the table.  Only downside is that the Jenga set scared the crap out of everyone every time it toppled because it was so loud.  🤣  Loved the wings, games, and TV's in that section of Playmakers!!

Regarding Rogers... IMO you are better off without him.  We was a cancer to the organization, with an ego that has become unbearable.  Just my opinion of course.

24 minutes ago, HappyTexan44 said:

I think it goes beyond expected versus real cancellations.   If it were just that, they could have been informed before they got to the port.  It sounds like they miscalculated the number of no-show cabins.  Apparently there were 2 and they were hoping for 13.  I can understand them not wanting to sail with empty rooms.  But, they could have informed the people before they left their home.  Said something like Looks like we might not have a cabin for you.   If you'd like to go to the port and maybe get a cabin based on no-shows, then you can sale for ports/taxes.etc, and we'll refund the rest.  Or you can change ...    

Some people have a flexible vacation schedule (like me) and our departure port is a reasonable drive away.  Other people would basically be out a vacation.   

I don't know how much travel insurance would help in this case.   Royal will refund the cruise.  

 

For sure.

Royal put those 11 cabins worth of people through a lot of undue stress, frustration, and loss of this vacation.  It far outweighs Royals revenue of filling a few rooms IMO.  Royal dropped the ball. Like you said, they could have handled this much earlier.  Unacceptable really. 

Pathetic!  .

We've never sailed with a GTY cabin and this makes it even more unlikely we'll ever do so.

1 hour ago, cruisin from florida said:

For 24-25, we have a Panama Canal, 3 Transatlantics, one Honolulu to Vancouver, a Med and Japan on X, and a couple of Caribbean with friends or family. That's pretty much the only reason we do the Caribbean anymore. 

Two TAs are back and forth on Adventure next fall, with the Celebrity Med cruise in between. The other TA is the recently released Brilliance that hits Iceland and Greenland on the way from South Hampton to Boston.

Last year we did Alaska, New Zealand, and a Transatlantic. The second half of getting to Pinnacle will definitely cost a LOT more than the first half did.

1 hour ago, island lady said:

 

I have Australia/NZ booked (Viking).  The Canadian/Greenland NW passage, including prior cruise on the Great lakes and the SL seaway booked (Viking).  Have to fly to Barcelona to rejoin WC for 4th quarter.  Doing river cruise in Oregon, flying to Portland (American Queen).  Just added B2B Alaska again.  

 

Waiting to book an eastbound TA with French river cruise added on (Viking).  And still want to do the TA from Hong Kong to Vancouver (Viking).  

 

You both have me jealous.  I look forward to unique cruises like those.  Gives me something to dream about in retirement, God willing.

13 minutes ago, island lady said:

 

I live in Florida...but most of my cruises involve flights out of Florida.  There are only so many Caribbean cruises we can stand to repeat over...and over again.  😉 

I would wager you are more of the exception than the rule, but who knows.  Out of curiosity, what itineraries are now peaking your interest? 

I can see the Caribbean becoming repetitive. (nice first world problem to have though 🙂 )

9 minutes ago, cruisegirl1 said:

You need new friends  😀  🚢  😀 

M

Good stuff.  My best friend is getting addicted to cruising so there is hope!

$89?  Hard Pass.

Sad, because it's something I know our family would like.  

33 minutes ago, not-enough-cruising said:

Why exclude MTD from opting out?

My guess...  They might be thinking of the old way of MTD, where you were required to pre-pay gratuities if you chose MTD.  However that requirement has been gone now for quite some time.

I’m still amazed at how many Pinnacle members there are on Royal Caribbean. Does anyone know roughly the total number of pinnacles? I mean, it took us over 10 years to get the 80 points required for Diamond and we are the people that cruise the most out of anyone we know.

10 minutes ago, SoloAlaska said:

So the example of other could be compared to the restaurant. You won’t see the dishwasher when tipping your waiter who may or may not tip out to that position depending on the restaurant. You won’t ever have contact with the person washing and folding your towels which would probably fall under other hotel services. 
 

Personally I consider the gratuity just part of the fare and still tip some above and beyond depending on the service. I don’t want the people behind the scenes to get forgotten but that’s just me. More transparency would be nice for people to feel comfortable with the auto gratuities on all lines.

I have never heard of those jobs being tipped positions in any industry. (dishwasher, folding laundry)  If Royal is in fact doing that, it's on them.

I agree, and also don't want to stiff anyone on the ship, but I also feel that it's Royal's fault if they are making these tipped positions when they really shouldn't be.

I would rather get rid of the auto gratuities altogether and just roll that into the cruise fare...  but that's been discussed ad nauseam already too.

16 hours ago, SoloAlaska said:

Why does the chef get part of the tip at a restaurant or the dishwasher etc.  

Yes, but at a restaurant those tips first go to the waiter/waitress.  It then gets divvied up according the protocol of that restaurant.

In the same way, I would expect the "Dining Room" category would take care of dining staff, those that bus tables, etc... if that's what Royal chooses to do.

Having some "other" category doesn't sit well with me.  I personally would like the tips to go to those that I directly interact with, but that's just me.

I am reconsidering the whole auto gratuity thing.

What bothers me is the "Other Hotel Services" category.  Why am I tipping someone that doesn't directly interact with me?

10 hours ago, firefly333 said:

Just my opinion but imo no. Celebrity is their inclusive line and rcl isnt. This is working so no reason to include more with the price. .. the prices are just high. I'm sticker shocked too.

8 hours ago, PhillyFan33579 said:

Celebrity’s all-inclusive pricing did not last very long (it is an option now on most fares), so I don’t see it happening with RCI either like you stated. 

Agreed, Celebrity isn't all inclusive.  You are not forced into all inclusive, it's just an option.  You can choose just the base cruise like Royal.  The "all inclusive" version from Celebrity can be very expensive.  It's not necessarily a bargain.  Don't get me wrong, we love Celebrity and have a cruise the week before this Christmas.  We did purchase the all inclusive version for our cabin since it was a great price when we booked a year ago.  We did no for the kids.  Didn't make sense.

I think going forward the all inclusive with Celebrity isn't even going to include gratuities, just drinks and Wi-Fi.

3 hours ago, PhillyFan33579 said:

For what it’s worth, when I was on Freedom a few weeks ago, several cabin stewards told passengers they were no longer providing hard copies of the Cruise Compass. I don’t know if this was an isolated occurrence or a new policy. 

2 hours ago, Biker19 said:

That (steward saying no Compass) has been reported on most ships for the past year.

Yes, it was that way on both of the last ships that we sailed in March and July.  No paper compass in the room. However, if you ask the steward specifically to still get it, they may still bring it to you. Ours have on the last two cruises.

41 minutes ago, Scottdalfonso said:

For future cruises- you can scan the QR code on the tv or around the ship to download an actual cruise compass PDF each day, which is easier to save, and share if you wanted to. It's a PDF of the actual, printed Cruise compass. 

28 minutes ago, RedJessi said:

 

I will try to keep that in mind for future cruises! Thanks 🙂

I request a paper copy from the room steward at the beginning of our cruise. I like the paper copies and they have been happy to oblige throughout the cruise.

1 hour ago, Beachin2 said:

Free enterprise - supply and demand.

Obviously.  Such insight.  🤪 It doesn't mean we can't come here and complain about the prices.  

OP, hope you find something that suits your needs.  It's been harder and harder to find those gems (re. pricing) like we used to.  Seems now you have to look WAAAAY out to find them, cruise off season, or just get pretty lucky.

We are relegated to cruising during holidays or in the summer now (wife is a teacher and kids are in high school and college), so we've had to suck up those high prices if we want to play.  Hopefully this calms down eventually.  More and more mega ships are entering the market, and they will need to fill those cabins.  Hoping that starts to ease things...

Deck 8 is our preferred.  Same level as Central Park, not too far up from the deck 5 promenade.  Quiet

1 hour ago, SilkySal said:

OK, first off, I didn't respond to you but to someone else. Secondly, if you re-read my post, you will see that I attempted to apologize for any misconceptions. So, again, I am sorry. Hope that's good enough, or maybe you want more.

I understood the intention of your original post. Don’t worry. Not everyone is a cynic.

Yeah, if you like Western Caribbean cruises, Galveston is great.  Even then, it's repeat, repeat, repeat...

It's unfortunate, but comes with being so far into the gulf.  Florida owns the Eastern and Southern itineraries.

4 hours ago, vacationlover_mn said:

I know OP was talking about the Odyssey, but on a related note…

While my DH and I LOVE the big ships, I am a little worried, my mom (78) will get worn out on the oasis.  It’s not really her age, but she is a bit out of shape and has asthma.  I made sure we got a somewhat central room by the elevators and stairs, so hopefully that helps 🙂.  But, I’m 100% sure she will be blown away by how awesome everything is 🙂

I had this same concern with my parents last summer on the Allure.  The massive size of the ship had me really concerned that it would just be overwhelming for them.  They were 76 and 75 at the time.  They are relatively healthy.

My worries were completely unfounded.  They easily found their way around the ship on their own, finding their favorite spots for morning coffee, breakfast, etc...  I was happily surprised just how easily they adjusted to the massive Allure.  After a couple of days (8 night cruise) they were pro's.  Their only other cruise prior was almost 20 years before on a MUCH smaller Celebrity ship (Summit) to Alaska.

Hopefully things go just as well for your mom.  Happy sailing

I can see the draw of a 2 bed grand suite.

I have to imagine the odds of getting it for $350 is incredibly low.

Only you and one child get the suite benefits onboard

You get no extra loyalty points.

I suggest that you try because  1)  It's not my money 🤣  and 2)  would love for it to work and you report back with your experience, good or bad.

Please don't take this the wrong way but if you lose 10 pounds on a cruise, I would say it's more so an indicator of just how much you are consuming on land.  Personally two meals a day is my norm 365 days a year.  

Not sure how you got to Diamond Plus and didn't realize the size of Royal's ships.  🤣🤣  I agree with you that staying with HAL is probably best at this point, or older smaller Royal ships.

Your opinions are valid to you, but most of the things you complained about re. the ship are things that many of us like. 

Food is subjective, but I do have to agree that there has been a step down since the pandemic.  ...But it's nothing that would have me skipping a meal.  Not even close.  Royal has to be getting a ton of feedback on this so hopefully they right the ship (pun intended) in this regard.  Celebrity is starting to address it by bringing back the classics to their MDR.  Hopefully Royal follows...  and more.

Happy cruising...

11 minutes ago, taglovestocruise said:

Looks cozy and the virtual fresh air is a bonus.

Our kids had this same setup in a balcony room on the Quantum in July.  Versus the virtual balcony cabin, there was a little more room for us past the bed before the doors to the balcony.  Overall it wasn't bad, but the bed totally gets in the way if the stateroom attendant doesn't close it each day.  We still far prefer the pullman beds that drop from the ceiling, but it wasn't a deal breaker how things worked on the Quantum.

We don't spend much time in our rooms or on the balcony so there are many other things we value in a cruise versus how the beds are situated.

You'll see it within the first 5 seconds.