twangster

It used to work that way. Not anymore. That's the whole point of this thread.

I don't ever recall being offered a breakfast in specialty as a D+. How long ago was that?

How is that confusing? The first sentence is pretty explanatory. A booking must be created and sail as a single occupancy, with a paid single guest supplement to cruise fare, to receive the extra single sailor points.

In the case of my ex I'd have gladly checked in separately. In fact a different ship would have been even more ideal.

The bottom line is that before the policy was ambiguous. It never clearly stated a solo in a no show scenario was guaranteed double points. Through feedback and reported guest experiences it appeared to be commonplace. I used it to vault myself from gold to platinum. Woohoo! (my one time) Just like the hack to have iMessage work for free on RoyalIQ ships was never a promised feature. Yet it worked for years. Now they have stated a firm position on the scenario. At least now we know.

So it's YOUR fault the DL is overcrowded! JK...

Next Thanksgiving I'm on a newer MSC ship. $700 all in with drink package and wifi. Royal same week? $2,400 for same cabin type on a 20 year old ship. Royal has no problem throwing me under the bus when a full ship charter comes knocking on their door. I have no problem sailing another line when it is the obvious thing to do.

People complain the WJ breakfast has no variety. It does for me but to each their own. For me the Chops breakfast is a relaxed, civil way to start each day without having to "scrounge for my food" in the WJ. The venue and service is worth it to me and I have 4 or 5 go to choices I cycle through. I could probably carmelize bananas at home but there is no way I'm going to do that for breakfast when I'm half awake. Sitting in Chops sipping on my latte? Sure! What a great way to ponder what to do for the rest of the day.

A lot depends on the ship and the venues available. I don't eat sushi so Izumi is generally off the table for me. Some Izumi offer hot rocks but if I wanted to cook my own food I'd stay home. For a Q class ship that immediately reduces the value proposition for the UDP. Generally speaking UDP is a lot of food. Most specialty lunches are very similar to dinner menus minus a few items. So the same big meal experience. When I have the UDP I'm often not hungry at dinner at all, even at 8pm, coming off the lunch time food coma. Chops has three entrees I usually enjoy but it's a lot of red meat. That's okay on a shorter cruise but on a longer cruise? I can't stand the chicken at Chops. I tried it one UDP cruise so I know better. 14 nights of specialty dining makes it not so special. It becomes the norm and the menu never changes. Groundhog day.

Sometimes a solo GTY is offered. Sometimes it isn't offered but a phone call will make it happen. Sometimes a solo cannot book a GTY period.

It has a lot more variety compared to my freezer at home every day I'm not cruising. 🙂

Or I can book with MSC since their pricing isn't outrageous. Seriously $346 for a 3 night cruise with drink package and 2 device wifi. Sure I get 6 drinks on Royal and free wifi but the sme interior cabin is $800. Duh! Plus the casino on MSC is smoke free. So MSC gets my business. If Royal can get people to $800 for a 3 night cruise good for them. If MSC follows Royal and jacks up their rates then I will stay home.

My ESPN+ subscription is going up 34% I'm not renewing. If people are willing to pay the new rates companies will be willing to accept their money. If people don't buy at the new prices they'll either come down or the company will close their doors.

There is no single best time to drop a passenger for all cruises. It depends what is available the day you call to cancel your 2nd. If there is a reduced single supplement fare available you might get something back but most of the time it's 200% for solo so you'd get nothing back for canceling a 2nd guest. It depends. On my way to 340 and the magic reduced single supplement I paid 200% single supplement for the majority of my solo cruises. Their ship, their rules. Yes it sucks but that's the way it is. I only once used a ghost to get an interior GTY fare that wasn't available to solo guests. When Cuba was made off limits there were two ships suddenly with no destination so when they redeployed those ships they was no single supplement. I scored big with that and did a dozen or so on them. It was great but definitely not the norm.

The chart remains unchainged but since the restart some (not all) solo from no-show cabin mate have only reveiced single points much to the dismay of those who counted on booking a ghost as their cabin mate.

In November Chops was open noon - 1:30 pm on day one. On a sea day all 3 were open noon - 1:30 pm.

Apparently this Pinnacle didn't take that approach but it is possible for a child to sail solo (in the eyes of the loyalty program). Children can be booked into a cabin next to their parents cabin. No reason why a single child couldn't also be booked into a cabin next door to their parents making them a solo cruiser - in the eyes of the CAS.

D+ gets 30% off. Cruise Planner "standard" discount is 25% inc. the BOGO50 deal. Depending on sales they could go to 30% in the cruise planner and there is always the possibility it could go higher than 30% in the cruise planner. Historically the D+ discount was a safe choice. Now you can sometimes do better on select ships and sails dates, especially older ships and longer cruises.

royalcarribean blog . com / cruise-compass

Email them. For Oasis it's oa_concierge01@rccl.com oa_concierge02@rccl.com Change "oa" to your ship two letter code. al - allure an - anthem hm - harmony oy - odyssey ov - ovation qn - quantum sy - symphony wn - wonder etc.

I feel like this is one of those YMMV scenarios. Ask 50 people who gone through this and you'll likely get 51 different answers.

Congratulations and welcome to the club!

If you are booking full suites there is typically no refundable option except for a few exceptions such as the VP category sometimes. For non-suite cabins as noted above you have to go all the way through the booking process to the second last step to find it. Even then there are times when they don't make it available on the website but a travel agent can quote it.

I've sailed MSC from Florida and have a handful booked on them. I've never sailed them outside of the Caribbean. Right now they offer some very attractive pricing from Florida. I can sail on MSC with their Easy Plus drink package and basic WiFi 2 devices for between one half and one third of what Royal is charging. The overnight stop at their private island without going to Nassau is a pretty great itinerary too. Seashore is a bargain over Thanksgiving relative to Royal so that's one of my bookings with them. I'm also eyeing their World Europa for a Med cruise just to try their mega ship. Some time ago I did a status match in their loyalty program that gives me a 5% discount on new cruises. So while I would prefer to sail Royal and Royal ships will always "feel like home" I have no problem sailing MSC when Royal's pricing is out of this world or the situation such as itinerary or ship makes MSC a better fit.