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We are looking to sail with our baby for the first time but pre-parent life never paid attention to baby/tot programs onboard. Is there a list of what ships have these?

1 hour ago, mackfam said:

Have visited The Godfather villages and Taormina on a previous cruise. Any suggestions for what to do this time?

I'm going to be of no help to you, but hoping you can be of some help to ME. How was Taormina? Would you suggest for someone who has never been to Sicily? Did you go to Castelmola?

I've been to Rome previously, but my husband has not. Therefore, needing to "check off" as many of the must-see items in a relatively short amount of time and I think this is the one port we are willing to splurge on a private tour. 

For those who have, is it worth finding a tour who will pick you up from Civ or is it better to catch the train into Rome and then pick up with a guide there? 

Of course, if anyone has recommendations for an incredible guide, we are all ears!

On Serenade Panama Canal that is leaving on Friday, there were some excursions listed but many with no prices. Therefore you couldn't book most excursions. Finally about 1-2 weeks prior to sailing Royal figured it out and added prices. 

This cruise was also moved to Serenade about 6-8 weeks out. 

Wondering the latest that Royal will tell you when you won your bid (or not). What is the latest that you ever heard about a bid?

Somewhere I read they will tell you at least 2 days before you sail but then when I look at my pending bids, it says (provided your bid hasn't already been accepted) you can modify your bid up to 3 hours before departure! Our boarding time is like 6 hours before departure! 

We sail this Friday but only got the Royal Up email on Monday and now we are (un)patiently waiting to hear if we won a bid or not. 

If you win an Owner Suite are there any additional perks (I know you dont get C&A points) but this would be on a Radiance class ship, if that matters. 

Thank you SO much everyone who took time to respond! Much appreciated!

33 minutes ago, mac_tlc said:

Here is our routine:

 

Go to a slot machine, tap your Seapass card, on the little screen follow the prompts to do a “room charge” to download $$ to machine. 
 

Then “cash out” and take ticket to cashier for $$ . Charge will appear on your onboard account just like any other charge. The OBC is also there to cover the charge, and you have the $$.

 

mac_tlc
 

 

AWESOME! Thank you! Are you charged the 5% if you arent prime?

14 minutes ago, bajathree said:

If it's OBC that is on your reservation you can go into your cruise planner and buy casino credit.

Not in our cruise planner 😕

11 minutes ago, Biker19 said:

You can still cash it out via the slot machine in the casino.

Is there a specific procedure for this? I know this sounds ridiculous but exactly how?

10 minutes ago, neverbeenhere said:

I believe you can hand the dealer/croupier your card and say: Hit me with some Cash-O-La. For which, they will give you "special" chips, that are good for betting, but not for immediate cashing in.

 

You must say the words... "Hit me with some Cash-O-La"

I'm assuming there has to be some sort of dance that goes right along with "Hit me with some Cash-O-La", can you share a video of you doing said dance so I can perfect it prior to my cruise?! haha

32 minutes ago, orville99 said:

If it is refundable OBC, just go to guest services and cash it out.

Unfortunately, its non-refundable, came from our cruise fare dropping after final payment. 

We have a pretty good chunk of OBC for our upcoming cruise. We have booked all our excursions and a massage. But now we are trying to decide of its worth drinks or dining packages (5night vs unlimited etc). However, we also like to enjoy time in the casino. I have seen some split experiences about being able to use OBC in the casino (specifically table games). What was your experience? Were you able to find a loophole?

$47 on Serenade of the Seas Panama Canal but its a 13 night cruise.

On 9/20/2021 at 12:53 PM, PigsCanFly said:

We get upgraded each time we accept an offer since the offers are for two and we travel with 3.  Often it is the same type of room, just a different code for the third person.  We have also had them combine offers received by 2 of us to change category.  The difference is usually a small upgrade cost  (<$100) for DW & I and a 3rd person charge for DS ($100-$300) depending on the cruise.

Is this accurate?!? Wow! My husband and I always get offers, I never thought we would be able to combine them!!

We embark in less than 30 days and many of the "available" shore excursions have no prices listed and therefore we can't add them to our carts or check out. Has anyone else seen this happen? 

Should we wait to see if they list prices or give up and book something else?

9 minutes ago, livingonthebeach said:

Try this link putting in your info

https://www.royalcaribbean.com/booked/cruise-room-upgrade

I tried. It comes back with "Please ensure your sailing is within the next 30 days
Please ensure there are no errors in the information you entered"

I know how to spell my last name (haha) and we are 28 days from sailing. 😕

Hi Everyone, 

We are leaving in less than 30 days and have not received into about RoyalUp for our sailing. We are opted in for RCI marketing emails and can't find anything within the Cruise Planner. I have also entered my last name and reservation number into the RoyalUp website and it says to make sure there are no errors and my sailing is less than 30 days out (both are correct). 

I tried calling customer service but they seem to be clueless and keep telling me its "invite only for those on the marketing emails" but then immediately confirm my correct email address IS opted in. 

Any ideas? I definitely don't want to miss out. 

Thanks!

Fun fact, if you book with FCC and get a lower rate after final payment, you get it back as OBC per normal policy (rather than what I assumed they would do...give back more FCC)

We booked and since FCC couldnt be applied to taxes/fees, we ended up getting about $400 back, which unfortunately we know we will have to forefit. However, about 2 weeks later we found that our rate had dropped by $1400 and that was given to us as OBC which is so much more valuable to us than an unusable (to my family) FCC. It felt like a little loophole to use up most of our original FCC!

40 minutes ago, suzyluvs2cruise said:

 

I'm curious if there will be a Panama Canal cruise with passengers?? CDC Conditional Sail order is still in effect. Are they now allowing cruises longer than 7 nights? 

The 7 day limit lifted in May. 

RCCL has definitely run itineraries longer than 7 days within the last month. 

6 minutes ago, elephant98 said:

In deciding whether to suspend operations for any length of time, Royal will definitely take into account whether it will have to issue refunds to the passengers of the cancelled sailings.  The last thing Royal wants to do at this point is issue refunds.  After all, Royal quickly changed its new "cruise with confidence" cancellation policy to eliminate the issuance of any applicable refunds (i.e., deposit, 75%, 50%, 25%) associated with its standard cancellation policy in favor of giving a 100% future cruise credit only.  And, Royal just took out an additional $550 million line of credit to bolster its liquidity.

 

Paragraph 6 of Royal's cruise contract governing “CANCELLATION, DEVIATION or SUBSTITUTION BY CARRIER” provides: “Carrier shall have the right to comply with any orders, recommendations, or directions whatsoever given by any governmental entity or by persons purporting to act with such authority and such compliance shall not be deemed a breach of this Agreement entitling the Passenger to assert any claim for liability, compensation or refund.” (Emphasis added).

 

If Royal suspends operation for 30 to 60 days and can claim, justifiably, that it did so based on a "recommendation" by the U.S. federal government, then Royal won't be in breach of the cruise contract.  So, no refunds.   That being said, from Royal's viewpoint, the easier way out would probably be for the federal government to "order" Royal to cease operations temporarily.

If Royal fails to offer something, whether refund or FCC, their brand will end up being worse hit than Princess. Regardless of what their lawyers typed up, they will make it right. We were cancelled from a Cuba cruise due to governmental regulations and were offered a refund or transfer to the new itinerary. We were given a time limit in which to make our decision, but same thing.

My question is about all the repositioning cruises. We are set to sail on a Transpacific on the Ovation from Sydney in 5 weeks and I know it ends up in Alaska for their summer cruises. You think they are going to let the ships sail empty?

My work has already told me if I chose to go, I will have to self-quarantine for 14 days after my return. I'm lucky enough that my husband and I both have the ability to work from home, so we are fine with keeping our plans and dealing with a self-quarantine after.

51 minutes ago, djyellowsub said:

We heard the message about not sailing within 2 weeks and thought, "No telling how long they will be putting out that message" so we just waited on the phone over an hour until we got someone.  It took all of 5 minutes to get the discount on our cruise because we weren't changing rooms.  Some people have waited over an hour and others have gotten through in 2 minutes.  I don't know why there is such a variety of time when trying to get through.  There is a special number for calls related to coronavirus posted on the RCI website.

Are you far enough out that you haven't paid your final payment? I'm still wondering if they will hold tight on not giving money back if we have paid our final payment already. I know they will give an upgrade, but we are in a balcony guarantee and the next step up is $700 more to for sure be stuck in an obstructed view. Right now, if they cant give $$ back, I'd rather chance the guarantee and end up in a better room.

9 hours ago, ONECRUISER said:

Saved over $2500 last 3 weeks with existing bookings. Agree not there yet with the post 9/11-Anthrax scares. Back then got one 5n cruise for $9(plus $50 tax) and a 7n Cat B for $799, both Solo with no single supplement and still sailed with 15% cabins empty on newest/largest Royal ships

Were you able to get the cost back immediately or did you pay upfront and will use the FCC in 4-6 weeks (when given) on another cruise? 

We dont want to cancel, but the cost for our cruise has significantly dropped.

14 hours ago, soloadventurer said:

Cancelled 1 of my cruises yesterday for April and immediately rebooked it at a better rate and cabin and saved money 

This is exactly what we were wondering!! Thank you so much for posting.

 Did they give you any grief trying to better your rate? Did you cancel and rebook on the same call or did you call back? What are you going to do with the overage, can this apply as an onboard credit?