smplybcause

47 minutes ago, cruisetorelax44 said:

and i don't eat in the main dining room. if i did, i wouldn't blink at the auto tips. but because i only do specialty, i tip in cash...

 

The auto grats is for any food service staff not in specialty dining. So unless you never eat breakfast, don't eat anything on board except specialty food on port and sea days including any late night snack, you're being served by people getting the auto grats.

I don't see any way it's not a set return time. Disney is an hour away from the port. It just doesn't make any sense to continuously run that route. 

You can use cash or your sea pass card in the casino. 

I always use a credit card, but I do know at some point of spending they'll shut off your card until you add more cash to your account. 

3 minutes ago, Another_Critic said:

Booked an XB solo mid August 2021 ... for a holiday sailings (NYE).  And ... no solo supplement.  🙂

Yea and that no solo supplement was a very rare thing. Rarer than the solo gty.

5 hours ago, CruiserEK said:

Are GTY cabins normally offered to solo cruisers or double occupancy only? I was able to book a GTY Neighborhood Balcony cabin as a solo passenger last month through the cruise line. I recently checked again just to see if the price dropped and found the GTY option is not available for solo guests only double occupancy.

In my experience it is rare to find a gty option for a solo person. 

Brilliance 5 night had no lobster. 

You need to compare the price of 3 adults in a room to 2 adults and 1 kid. NOT to a room with just 2 adults. 

Most rooms that fit 3 people are in a different category than rooms that fit 2 so you need to a like for like comparison. 

I looked at your sailing. It's 4273 vs 3585. So you're saving about $700 with the ksf promo. 

BTW the per person rate they show you is final price divided by number of people. So even with ksf when you put in 3 it's showing you the average per person. 

4 hours ago, DandDM said:

Hope it's OK to jump in here for a clarification: on a recent cruise due to a minor mishap, we were offered a percentage of that cruise fare as an FCC.  Been trying to find evidence of that on the website without luck.  Sounds like the only way to figure this out is call my TA?

 

Thanks

I booked with a TA for NYE and had an issue. After 30 days neither of us heard anything. I called the number on the letter I was given and at the end I got an email with the fcc certificate - the rep waited until I got the email to hang up. Not including the initial hold time it was about an hour (was a fair bit of waiting once I got someone). My friend in the cabin next to me took a bit longer to get his. 

I also applied it to a non TA sailing. I won't say no problem, but it was eventually done and just took one kinda long call. The cert had a couple different #s on it so not knowing which one complicated matters. 

Echoing everyone else. I got accidentally shoved to the ground during quest and sprained my ankle bad (it was twice the normal size by the time I got back to my seat). No charges, but if they're going to charge you it'll be before you get off the ship. 

They have an officer that speaks to you, but it seems like as long as you weren't purposefully doing something that would injure you they don't charge you. 

4 hours ago, Ocean Boy said:

If you check in with the app you gave the option to upload a picture of your passport. No need to enter the info manually. 

Ah. Though you still don't have to do that for facial recognition to work - which is what the person originally said. I've only entered it manually and facial recognition upon return has always worked for me. 

2 hours ago, flamingos said:

 

The ship connects your passport with the photo you have taken to board the ship. When you debark, they simply take your photo again and it matches to the manifest from the ship and they send you on your way. There are plenty of CBP agents there in case they either alert to you for some reason, or see something as you are walking out that they would like to inspect, but I haven't heard of that happening to anyone.  I suppose it happens.

But you don't do anything to download it. The post I was responding to said when "you've downloaded your passport". Which I have never done in any cruise even those that had facial recognition at debark. I presented my passport at embark which employees scanned but I've never downloaded my passport (whatever that means).

8 hours ago, poocher said:

Facial recognition only works when you’ve downloaded your PASSPORT which this person has not done.

Download it where? To do? Cruises have only ever asked for my passport number and expiration date. 

10 minutes ago, alyssamma said:

This was my thinking too. LOL, really I just wanted to know if anyone has used Binax with Surf (not Stream) internet and the cost to upgrade from Surf to Stream (that was answered by @Biker19)

Welcome to cruise critic! As far as I know you need stream to do videos. No video no proctored test. But I can't confirm as I'm too cheap to buy internet on cruise ships. I know when I've gotten it free on other lines the basic could not handle videos let alone a video chat. 

From everything I've seen cruise lines only give you a free test now if you 1) are on a b2b or 2) on a s2s on the same line or 3) s2s on a sister brand. I've never seen someone able to get a free test when they're going on another cruise line. But maybe I missed that? 

The only time I've heard of good deals is when you're talking bottles that are $100+. Those are the only ones I've heard of that are significantly less, but those aren't interesting to me so I can't say for sure. My last cruise I was in st thomas walking around with a friend and she thought this bottle was a really good price at $125. Forget what it was on account of not caring lol. 

19 minutes ago, leaveitallbehind said:

That is correct.  The only added wrinkle is that I believe they have already made final payment as they say they are sailing in a few weeks.  That certainly complicated things as they would essentially need to cancel and rebook (at the prevailing rates for their desired category) and incur post final payment cancelation penalties.

I've switched cabins to different categories after final payment with royal. They don't always let you (especially if the one you want to move to is less than you paid) and pre covid they had a lot of sales that were new bookings only that complicated stuff. 

I don't think they'd have to cancel and take penalties. They'd just have to pony up the money for whatever the current pricing is for whatever category they want to go to. 

I think the problem is (picking random numbers) the OP bought a connecting stateroom at 500. Today connecting staterooms are going for 1000 and non connecting are 950. But since moving from a connecting stateroom to a non connecting one is a category change they can only do it if they pay the difference to today's rate - or an additional 450. But OP takes umbrage that the "downgrade" would cost them money when it's just royal policy that if you change categories you have to pay current pricing. 

2 minutes ago, not-enough-cruising said:

That will do him no good without a photo ID currently 

Plus the passport agency is only open M-F.

Only option you have is to call around to everywhere he's been to see if someone turned in the wallet.

If it was a weekday he could have maybe seen about getting an emergency passport, though I'm not sure if having no photo id would keep that from happening. 

He's out of luck unless he finds it. 

I've gotten the drink package on Royal at least half a dozen times and only every been charged for the number of nights the cruise is. That's over the last 6 years or so. 

They might let you on before your check in time. But they might not. It's a toss up. The question is whether you're ok with waiting outside until noon if they won't let you in. Where you wait is shaded, but Florida is already seeing summer weather. It's not consistent but we've been close to 90 a few times lately. 

19 minutes ago, rudeney said:

One thing to keep in mind is that you pay "per day" for the drink package, not "per night".  Your last day on the ship will be "hurry up and get out" so unless you grab some water or juice, you likely won't even use it.  This changes the break-even point just a bit.  For a $78/day package on a 7-night cruise, you'll pay around $645.  That's $92/night, so it takes 7 drinks (#13 + 18% gratuity) to get more out of the package than paying out of pocket.  

 

For our October 7-night NE/CA cruise on Voyager, it's $958 for the two of us.  That means for each of 7 nights, we'd need to have 9 cocktails between the two of us.  I know we won't drink that much every day.  Factor in that we have access to the CL and 2 bottles of wine carried on, it's just not a good value for us.  YMMV.

That's not how it works. A 7 night cruise = drink package per day price x 7. It's not times 8. It doesn't count the day you get off the ship in the pricing. 

You'll probably need to state what you like so much about HAL cruises to get any good answers. 

As a ship anthem is far and above any HAL ship, but maybe that doesn't mean anything to you. 

At that price 5 drinks at $13 would be breakeven. Though if you get non alcoholic drinks as well that lowers what you need. Depending on what non alcoholic drinks you get 2-3 replace an alcoholic drink on the breakeven calculation. 

If irregularities drive you insane you either don't cruise with royal much or you're this close to a padded room.