ILCTCRUISER

1 hour ago, frank808 said:

Cruise with who we want and we enjoy what perks RCL throws our way. But we are not chasing status by cruising with RCL.

 

Loyalty rewards is just a cherry for our cruising.

Sums up how we feel pretty much.

Getting to D+ really wasn’t that much of a stretch for us. We enjoyed cruising.  Took cruises and then in no time at all, or so it seems, we turned D+

Of course travel budgets vary from one person to the next and Yes, cruise fares were a bit easier on the wallet “back then.”

We cruise other lines and really, truly don’t appreciate the “Amusement Park of the Seas” direction RCL has taken over the last, what, ten years or so.

But the D+ perks are really nice.

1 hour ago, Brandis said:

Hopefully it's a one-off, would hate to miss Skagway, it's one of the more scenic ports.

Agreed.  Though it still has its tourist shops, etc (after all, they DO need to make money) Skagway has a more laid back atmosphere.  We also prefer because hiking trails can be found close in to port.

Astoria!   Four words for all on board:  BOWPICKER FISH AND CHIPS!

1 hour ago, island lady said:

 

OMG...awful!   Will the chef's refund my money?!!   😄 😄 

The episode started with Beef Wellington.  Not a fan so I turned it off.  You could ask!!!

On 3/25/2024 at 7:22 AM, island lady said:

 

VRBO

@island lady, watching episode of America’s Test Kitchen today and up pops a commercial for…..American Queen Voyages.

6 minutes ago, mafig said:

 

Perhaps.....

 

Agree.  Only TA can confirm why you got the specialty dining.  I made suggestion merely to offer up a possibility.

Here’s a current specialty dining offer available to TAs:

SPECIALTY DINING EXPERIENCE FOR TWO

Book a Balcony or Suite on any 7-night or longer EUROPE AND ALASKA ONLY, sailings departing March 1 – December 31, 2024 and receive a specialty dining experience for two.

2 minutes ago, mafig said:

 

 

Received my cruise documents today☺️

Within the docs was a coupon for a Specialty Dinner for 2.  Is this new?  It was a welcome surprise for me.

 

It says the reservations have to be made onboard, voucher can't be used for reservations made online prior to the cruise.

If you booked with a TA, he/she may have had that as a special offer.

Agree with @grapau27,  Paris calls for 3 days at the very minimum to enjoy what it has to offer.  Really, one could fill a full week easily.  But, @island lady, do take advantage of the excursion you’ve planned.  I’ll hazard a guess it’ll be a great teaser and you’ll head back in the future to explore further.

17 hours ago, island lady said:

Does not make sense to me at all.  First they are restricting Pinns into the SL/Ck...now they want to let us bring in non Pinnacles...even if those are in an inside cabin.?   No ...does not make sense to me.  

 

Sheezz...🤔

 

And this is supposed to be an excited benefit for Pinnacles?  Excuse me? 

This should prove to be a bone of contention.  As it reads, a P booked in an interior and who has enough points to enter SL when restriction is in place can bring in a non-P cabin mate, while a P booked in a JS can’t enter SL?  Mr Bayley’s assistants have probably started a pool to bet on when the first email comes in.

Adding this:  What prompted this change?  I think that many of us understand that a lot of the decision making at RCL is reactionary.  Wouldn’t you think they would have run out of bandaids a long time ago?

19 minutes ago, island lady said:

 

I have 5 Viking cruises booked.  Pricey...but oh so worth it.   And ditto to no kids.  😉  

Unruly, out of control kids!  What could be worse?  Oh, maybe, the reason why they’re that way.  They have parents who are unruly and out of control or parents who have relinquished all duties and responsibilities of being a parent.

And then there are the 4 Ps of marketing.   Product.  Could we be seeing product differentiation w/i RCG.  There is a difference between RCL and X but was it that much of a difference.   I’m not suggesting that every RCL cruise is a party cruise but promoting Weekend Cruises suggests that it is one market being targeted.  Pricing?   There are no AI inclusive resorts in Florida (well, someone once told me there was one, but…).  I won’t spend my time trying to do an apples-to-apples for this but could it be that RCL’s pricing, which we believe has been on the upswing, may be attractive in the end?

4 hours ago, Ocean Boy said:

I agree. Turning over an O class ship twice a week rather than once a week creates a lot more work for the crew. I thought this would never happen on the big ships but, obviously, I thought wrong.

Didn’t NCL at one time say that it was migrating away from 3-4 night cruises in favor of longer cruises?  I believe part of the reason given was to minimize turnovers.  However I look at the NCL itineraries in place now and I still see quite a few 3 and 4 N cruises?  Anyone else recall this?  A 3-4 N may work if you live somewhat near a port; we’re not flying for one 3 or 4 night cruise.  We’d be doing B2B, but why do that given the time one spends in port of origination?

4 hours ago, orville99 said:

 

IMHO, seasoned cruisers do not leave a particular cruise line because of anything other than the lack by the cruise line to do anything other than sail, rinse, repeat every other week. 

 

For us, it is the uninspired repetition, not price that is causing us to look (and book) elsewhere. 

Agree wholeheartedly.  Just how many times can you go to Cozumel?

However, we do.  We’re up north and we book Caribbean in the winter to get out of the cold.  Half the time we stay on board in port.  Cozumel?  We take orders for vanilla, go off ship, buy vanilla, and get right back on.  Nothing like the few hours when the ship is basically empty.

5 hours ago, island lady said:

 

Kind of like what Viking does.   They love to advertise what they DON'T offer.  😉 

Haven’t cruised Viking but constantly checking out itineraries and fares.  What they don’t offer!  Good one!  Here’s what they do offer:  the opportunity to see countless TV ads on Masterpiece!  May upset a few here but guess what?  You pay for those ads when you pay a fare.  No such thing as a free lunch.

4 minutes ago, OCSC Mike said:

 

Good to hear. You made it sound like you weren't getting anything you valued at D+ since you referred to them as "Two Hershey bars and a Coke." Maybe I just took it wrong.

 

I have no interest in breaking down the dollar value of various perks.

Two Hershey bars and a Coke is just a saying.  You know, we’ve never purchased a drink package (but we did buy the wine packages when they were offered).  Once we became D we had no need to do so.  Going from D to D+ brings one more drink (DW may have 3 drinks a day; I tend to have 4, occasionally 5) and extra day of Wi-Fi and BOGO at specialty restaurant, etc.  They’re all nice to have but it’s not like you’ve just hit the mother lode!  Princess Plus and NCL’s AI are really good deals.  Check out what you get with Princess Plus for $120 a day for two people.

1 hour ago, lovesthebeach2 said:

 

its a WIN WIN for Royal…………for now.

Two scenarios.  A lounge with 60 cruisers having a few drinks and paying for them.  Or. A lounge with 60 cruisers having a few drinks but half of them are members of a loyalty program and are not being charged for the drinks.  If you “owned” the cruise line which would you rather have?  I think that’s why RCL really pushes the 3-4 day cruises.  And then there’s Coco Cay!  Talk about a cash cow in the making!  No wonder RCG also has X stopping there.

3 hours ago, OCSC Mike said:

 

As a couple, I'm looking forward to our 2 additional free drinks per day, 2 BOGO specialty meals, and 2 more days of internet.

 

Not saying you should value the additional perks but I will.

We’ll enjoy them as we always have.  Enjoying them is one thing.  Their value is another.  They’re not free.  @orville99 suggests it was roughly $200K in cruises to reach P.  OK.  I never kept track of our total $$$ spent with RCL.  But we will also pay for them when we make final payment on our upcoming cruises.  The folks at RCL Sales and Marketing look at all costs when putting together their pricing models.  Even the pennies on the dollar that make up the cost of a free drink.  One penny of each dollar is 1 percent of margin, and those people know their jobs (and bonuses) depend upon meeting budgets and margins.

1 hour ago, ReneeFLL said:

You got to enjoy the additional cruises that it took to get to D+.

Very true.  We did enjoy them.  And, then, we could have cruised another line and enjoyed those cruises.  Becoming D+ just happened.  Yes, we knew that we’d become D+ following a certain cruise but we weren’t taking the cruise to move up a level. We’re also elite on Princess.

4 minutes ago, orville99 said:

Only if you zero out the ~$200,000 it cost us to get to Pinnacle😇

We only “pursued” one loyalty level - Diamond.   What was there to pursue given you only need 80 points for Diamond!  Getting to D+ was nice but what did we really get for it?  Two Hershey bars and a Coke?

D, D+, and P perks.  Does anyone really believe that these perks are “free?”  They’re marketed as complimentary, but in the end everyone is paying for them including those who don’t receive them.  I’m not suggesting that those “free” perks account for all of the recently observed price hikes.   There is debt that needs to be serviced.  Inflation’s impact on food costs.  And so on.   A lot of things have led to higher fares, more expensive drink packages, bump up for specialty dining, etc.   Can there be any doubt that the number crunchers know to the dollar the cost (not price) of all of the D and above drinks served on every ship, every cruise, every day?  Add in the increased number of upper tier cruisers and it does add up.  It all comes down to Revenue - Expenses = Profit/Loss and the goal of RCL and any business is to maximize Profit. So someone is paying the piper since I’m quite sure there’s no such thing as a free lunch.

We currently have three RCLs booked and these bookings were made quite time ago.  25Oct24  12N TA on Adventure that was booked Jan2023.  Balcony:  $1517.00 incl tax/fees. It was slightly more but cruise went from 13N to 12N and RCL prorated.  This not a GTY.  Then Jan2025 B2B  on Brilliance out of MSY.  JS on both.  $2500 avg incl taxes and fees. I balked a bit at $2500 and even then thought pricing had gone up. For years I always considered approx $200-225 a night a good fare for a balcony and approx $350 a night a good fare for a JS.

Surprisingly, for 2023, we did not cruise RCL.  Well, DW did a 7N on Symphony with her sister.  We did a Panama Canal in Feb2023 and then B2B Alaska in Sep2023 cruises on NCL.  In June2023, we took a Canada/Bermuda cruise on Regent and then a SA Lima to Buenos Aries this past Dec, also on Regent.

Being D+ with perks didn’t even enter the discussion.

Friends have cruised Atlas and enjoyed it.  Currently looking at a May Atlas Caribbean with mostly new ports to visit. Waiting on feedback for Explora (MSC’s upscale).

5 hours ago, jean87510 said:

 

Will only do Royal again if booking is port intensive and does not include CocoCay or Nassau.  

I’ll go one better by capitalizing DOES NOT and maybe add a few !!!

And, then, also include any ship that’s been AMPED!   Amped?  Why would anyone want to be on something that’s been AMPED.  The word itself is frightening.

Unfortunately, cruising RCL from now on will never be what it once was.  We have 3 more cruises booked on RCL. Have started booking other lines, mostly upscale.

23 hours ago, island lady said:

Still called Rita's Cantina on twin sister Serenade.  But it became just a bar on the side there, no food, and the tables were simply occupied by pax from the WJ.   

 

Recently, just after sail away for the WC...they turned it into a health drink/fruit and veggie smoothie bar.  Actually very good!  But has not been an actual Rita's for some time, though the signage is still up.  Kind of a failed venture.  

 

 

We tried it one time when they rolled it out. Small charge for tacos, quesadillas and the like.  Not that great.  And the area was a walkthrough from indoor WJ seating and outdoor..

4 minutes ago, Ourusualbeach said:

Never seen that happen. If it's available to book then it's available to book. 

That’s what I would think!  But then there’s RCL and its IT and, at times, how it does business its way.  Has anyone gone online, booked it and put down a deposit?  IOW, nothing is real unless you get a confirmation for the booking.  But, then again, RCL could take the deposit and send a confirmation, knowing that in the end they can cancel the cruise if it needs to do so.  

6 minutes ago, Ourusualbeach said:

Because thry still are. No idea why Royal still has them for sale.

Could it be that it’s available online (in this case it may be Cruising Power) but you might not be able to book it if you call it in?  Or if you are able to book online, it bounces back as not confirmed.

30 minutes ago, BirdTravels said:

 

We shop on InsureMyTrip. Since most airlines will give you a travel credit for cancelled flight, insurance doesn’t help much there. Only if you end up rebooking at a higher cost due to some interruption (which has a small cap on most policies). 
 

If you are medivacced by the US Coast Guard there is no cost. But, there are no true trauma centers in Alaska and you would have to be flown to Seattle for a serious condition. 

 

Check out the insurance forum

 

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/499-cruisetravel-insurance/

 

 

 

Exactly.  Lots of factors to consider.  On an Alaskan cruise, you’re stopping at US ports for the most part.  Even when at sea, ship is never really that far from land.  Coast Guard evac.  Your work or personal medical insurance is in force as well as Medicare (except for Canadian port call, but even then plan G offers coverage).  Financial risk profile for an Alaskan cruise is much different than that for a cruise taking you to third worked countries.   For Alaska cruises we usually use TravelGuard Pack-N-Go.  It does have the medivac coverage but we want that since we usually go off on hikes.