Pratique

I was paying $500 deposits on 7 night suites up through 2018. Then it went to $900.

Weather is also a factor. When sailing through the rain, forget about it.

Shore excursions always seem to turn into an anxious rush to get back to the ship on time. Once we took an "on your own" excursion from St. Thomas to St. John and although we had an awesome day at the beach, getting to and from was exhausting and DW said "never again I'm staying on the ship next time." The private islands are convenient, safe, and relaxing, which is exactly what I want on a cruise vacation.

duplicate

Oh to have been a fly on the wall during the original and subsequent planning meetings. I suspect initially they were looking at other lines selling out long-duration cruises post-Covid and thought they could get a piece of that action and make up for lost time. The first week of bookings was restricted to Diamonds and above so they must have been thinking (or projecting the image of) high demand especially for the limited number of balcony staterooms. So the lesson learned for us is never to book another long-duration cruise early with Royal unless you are willing to part with all that extra money. Actually, never book early at all and let Royal sit on that deposit. With few exceptions, such as transatlantic, I can often get the cabin I want within final payment of any given sailing.

That's the beauty of an open forum. There are closed groups to keep the interlopers out too.

You changed your post I see. I think in the past you and I have had a pleasant exchange of ideas but not sure why now you are pushing back on this one. I am glad it will be fun for you. But I didn't ask for your travel plans for the next two years either.

Please reread my post, not directed at all on the WC, only those doing the full circuit and feeling a bit disappointed in these changes to the bookings. Obviously not you. In any event, I do not understand your response. I am (sincerely!) pleased to hear that you have a lot of nice plans on your travel docket. I hope to hear about your experiences on the WC because I won't be there for the reasons stated.

Yeah that's an important distinction that hadn't occurred to me. In any event, other than for fitness tracking I have found the watch pretty useless without the phone being tethered.

I presume other cruise lines with premium sailings also have onerous booking conditions for the early takers and then relax the prices to fill any leftover inventory. Resort hotels have been known to do this for grand openings. Its the risk you take by jumping into the pool first, and the risk of missing out if nothing opens up later. The 17 segment thing seems unsurprising to me at this point, but I wasn't actively thinking that it would happen either. I just assumed they would sell out after they opened the four segments and that would be the end of it except for scraps caused by late cancelations.

My first post wasn't directed to you, not sure why you think it was.

You are free to reject my sympathy, not sure why it matters though. Enjoy your travels!

I haven't tried it, but my understanding is that if the watch is already connected to a public WiFi via your phone, then it will remain connected when you are out of Bluetooth range. So if you can connect to the ship's WiFi via your phone while on the ship, then leave your phone behind when you leave the ship, it seems that it should work since the SSID of the WiFi on the island is the same. But I'm not sure since I have not tried it.

Just received a marketing email for the "world cruise" as 17 sailings broken down by region and touting "new destinations." Quite frankly this makes a lot more sense to me than trying to sell it as a single or four segment world cruise. I feel for the folks who are doing most or all of it thinking it would be unique to bond with the same groups of guests over many months and now getting shafted on the price, but even if I had the time and money (I don't) I still don't see the appeal of spending nine months on any one ship, much less Serenade, when I could instead be sailing a variety of ships to a variety of locations or just breaking things up a bit. I look forward to hearing about the adventures of the full circle trippers though.

If you can get it to work on the ship then it should also work on the island. But I always carry my phone because the watch is really limited in what it can do on its own.

I seem to remember the raffle was only offered for the first couple of days of the cruise.

The last time I booked onboard (in 2019) I was entered into a raffle and won a few hundred dollars OBC. Do they still do that?

Ah, nothing like consistency of messaging... lol

I ran a comparison and its mostly what they say in the email regarding residency and forum selection. The Covid stuff refers to the cruise line's policy on the website. I can't find a policy for after the end of April, maybe I'm looking in the wrong place though.

The contract refers to the cancelation policy, which is "100% cruise fare refund for you and your Travelling Party, if any of you test positive for COVID-19 within 10 days prior to the cruise or at the terminal" and "Coverage of all costs of COVID-19 related medical treatment onboard, if you test positive for COVID-19 during the cruise." https://www.royalcaribbean.com/faq/questions/if-i-test-positive-for-sars-cov-2-what-is-your-refund-policy-and-costs-covered This ends April 30.

Those bids are not any better than the going rate for those cabins, and they rarely seem to be if you are starting from a Sky Class cabin. It's really just a way for them to shift any excess inventory down to the inside cabins while maximizing revenue.

I recently received a Royal Up email (actually they have since sent a second one) at about 75 days out. We are already in a CLS. The minimum bids are absurd.

A dealership in Central Florida once let me pay the $16,000 balance on a new vehicle after trade in using a CC. Initially they said that they don't like to do it but it was a Saturday and the finance guy didn't want to wait for me to go to the bank on Monday, so they let me do it. It's up to the dealer I suppose.

You can't spend it when you're six feet under.

Out of curiosity I spent a few hours researching Celebration. Although the Excel ships have added many suites, they are all modest in size. The forward and aft suites have incredible balconies but all of the cabins are somewhat ordinary for a such a large ship. As far as I can tell, there is no dedicated suite lounge other than Loft 19 which is open air (?), and not much more in perks other than concierge services, free soda, and free room/laundry service. Overall it would be a step down from Royal's offerings.