Bluemymind

In your 39 years with Royal I'm sure this isn't the first time that a cruise has dropped in price after final payment its just the first time you have caught it. Royal's old policy about 10 years ago was to give OBC for price reductions close to sail date. I once walked off a Alaska cruise with Royal with an I.O.U. from Royal because of a price drop I caught a week before the sailing for $2800. Boy those were the days. Now a days I search for lower prices up until Final Payment and request repricing but AFTER final payment I'll still watch for lower price but its for higher categories. I too have never been given an upgrade in 21 years of sailing with Royal and Celebrity cruises but I have PAID for some amazing upgrades for pennies on the dollar. As for Good Business for Royal to refund, its really not good business for them to refund money to everyone every time the price drops because they are trying to fill every cabin before a sailing at some point they have to say Stop and they have decided that that point is at Final Payment.

You can all get free drinks in the Suite lounge.

You might want to search on "why not to ever use a debit card" for anything ever, never ever. Your money is not protected by using debit cards where as your credit card will protect you from yourself and others.

Yes its the same on Celebrity.

Can you teach them how to make an Old Fashion. Every time I get one I have to tell me "do not stir with ice".

Best you can do is upgrade to a bette cabin. We book a cabin at a certain price point that we can live with and then hope to upgrade when prices drop. Back in the day like 3 plus years ago Celebrity would drop their prices last minute and we could always upgrade to a suite for free. Now they are holding pretty firm on their pricing for suites after final payment. Good luck upgrading.

Thanks for the reviews. We are doing the crossing next summer on the Jewel. Looking forward to seeing more.

Sadly my wife got the offer and I didn't. I could squeeze another cruise into my schedule of 8 in the next 6 months but she can't.

I did the new online renew option on Aug 3rd and received my new passport Aug 12th. I hope this option is available again in 10 years when I need it again.

We have never had to pay in Jamaica, but we do buy food and drinks too.

Thanks for the info. The wife and I both received blocks on the Freedom back in November 2019 on a b2b cruise but we had no idea why.

So how are these "crystal blocks" earned?

What's that saying "nothing is free" so true. It only took me waiting on hold 2 hours yesterday to get my free cruise. So I think I still came out ahead on the deal. Don't give up the fight. Happy holding!!!!

My question is if I get enough points to say get Prime does my wife get Prime statues too.

Welcome to travel hacking. If your good with credit and pay your bill in full every month then Yes your can get a lot of free travel if you play the system. We haven't paid for a cruise with points but it can be done. We use our points for flights and hotels before and after cruises. Our main card that we use is the Chase Sapphire Reserve card, I got a pretty good point bonus when I signed up for it. The next card I use is Chase Hyatt card. I received 70,000 points when I signed up 4 years ago. The annual fee is $95 and you get 1 free night a year. With the Chase Sapphire care you can transfer those points to United airlines, Hyatt, Southwest Airlines and a couple of other company's at a value of 1 to 1. There are a ton of people online offering advice but the one I found the most useful is 10Xtravel.com they have a free online course you can read that is very helpful plus they have a Facebook group too.

How much is the internet discount???

We never heard anything, even when we went into Dazzles to grab a drink. Place was always dead. We did like having our cabin on the 8th floor with Central Park.

I'm going to say sorry first. If the cruise line wanted you there at 10 am they would have told you. They are asking you to be there at noon so they can get everyone onboard in a some what controlled manner. Why is so hard for people to understand this. You are NOT special. Your special time is at noon. Be a good traveler and do right by your fellow travelers. Again I'm sorry but now that that is over some advise on what to do the morning of. We book our hotel downtown so that we can wake up, clean up, then head over to Pike Place and watch as the market is opening up and coming alive for the day. We'll grab some coffee from the Starbucks there and maybe find some breakfast too. I'll even buy my wife some fresh flowers from the market to put in our cabin for the week. You'll have to carry them on board but everyone will be envious and ask where you got them. Around 10:00 - 10:30 we'll make our way back to hotel, grab our bags and head to the pier about 11:30.