Daniel A

That's what I love about the cruise industry: Consistency!!

I don't understand why they did away with the barrel chairs but that topic was discussed to death in prior years.

When I wrote: "The excuse that these deluxe cabins can accommodate 3 or 4 passengers doesn't wash when one considers that minisuites can also handle the same numbers." I wanted to make the point that one can still see available minisuites for only 2 passengers, but not for the smaller deluxe balconies. It really doesn't make sense other than they're steering people to the more costly minis.

I could understand if they were only doing this for sailings when schools are usually out for vacations, but the cruise I was looking at was not when any schools would be out. I don't book any cruises during those weeks. I can't help but believe that when they have this category closed to specific bookings and are only accepting guarantees that they are discouraging customers from considering making a booking. On the other hand, they did end up funneling me into a more expensive minisuite instead. Maybe that's the goal in the first place. The excuse that these deluxe cabins can accommodate 3 or 4 passengers doesn't wash when one considers that minisuites can also handle the same numbers.

When I tried a mock booking for three this past weekend where the sailing had 3rd and 4th guest free, they were showing the fare for three passengers which would have been more costly by about $200. Maybe they were including the port fees for #3 as @bjkTX wrote, but I didn't dig that far into the booking. I hope Princess isn't starting to discriminate against couples now. Oh well, the Haven on NCL is nice too.

Thank you for the reply. I just decided to book a minisuite in a location I could pick. I didn't want to chance a guarantee for that kind of time and money.

If you do the 3-person workaround, who do you put in as the third person? We have two Future Cruise Deposits we want to use so we weren't planning on posting a deposit for the third person, and then they only refund one of the FCDs? We want an aft facing Premium Deluxe and I won't sail on a starboard or port cabin especially if it's under the Lido Deck. I'm not going to risk $6K for the option of taking a chance until after final payment date. I did look up the Premium Deluxe cabins using 3 people and they are showing which ones are available.

Does Insignia have self-serve laundry? If yes, how many are there?

@Sthrngary Since that info is already out there, can you rebook the same sailing, so you get a different booking number? Just a thought.

The one constant across all cruise lines is inconsistency. It always depends on who you get on the other end of the phone. This lack of uniformity is always the result of lax or non-existent supervision. We've all heard the “This call may be monitored or recorded for quality assurance and training purposes.” This is merely gobbledygook from the legal team. The purpose of the recording is for them to go back to in case of a dispute from the customer. When you can, get it in writing, organizations usually require supervisory review before something is put in writing.

Every time we sail from Port Everglades, we drive to that Rodeway Inn. For us, they have a Park 'n Sail package that works well for us. We drive to Fort Lauderdale the day before our cruise and park our car at the Rodeway Inn, have lunch/dinner in their restaurant (decent sports bar fare) hang out at the pool having a few beers, walk to our room, get up in the morning and take their shuttle to Port Everglades. At disembarkation, you call, and they come to get you and you get in your car and go. For people flying into FLL the night before sailing, they'll pick you up at the airport and take you to the Rodeway and to your ship in the morning. If you're flying into Miami, there's an additional charge for the shuttle. If you have a late-night flight out of Florida, they have a special where they'll pick you up at the port and you get a room and can hang out at the pool and take the shuttle to the airport later. Main drawback is it is on a busy state highway and there's nothing else in the area. It is a 1960's era motel, but it works for us for one night and the ride to the cruiseport. If you want fancy, you should look elsewhere. We've stayed there at least a dozen times and will continue to stay there. Our last stay was the last week of February this year. All was fine. If you're not staying there on disembarkation day, you might want to consider the cruise line transfer to the airport.

That can be a bit complicated in Manhattan with all of our luggage. Plus, we were looking forward to our first 'gourmet' dining experience from O. If push comes to shove, we'll book the car service for an early arrival and just cool our heels in the terminal. At least with the earlier arrival, we will have some breathing room if we hit serious traffic.

Before you cancel and rebook, look before you leap. I booked my next (and first O sailing) last August. I just got to final payment and before making the final payment, I checked the current prices for the same booking. It was more expensive and the benefits of "Simply More" turned out to be simply less. Now, there's no prepaid gratuities and the shore excursion OBC was reduced by $200 for the cabin.

O will only open up online check in 3 weeks before the sailing. I believe that's when I am able to select a boarding time. If we are sailing from the Manhattan Cruise Terminal, how strict are they about boarding at the assigned time? I am looking to book my car service now, but I won't know my boarding time until 3 weeks before. Has anyone had experience with this?

O will only open up online check in 3 weeks before the sailing. I believe that's when I am able to select a boarding time. If we are sailing from the Manhattan Cruise Terminal, how strict are they about boarding at the assigned time? I am looking to book my car service now, but I won't know my boarding time until 3 weeks before. Has anyone had experience with this?

I just checked on my booking and I see the PH3 category is now showing as available. We're getting close to last payment date so I suspect a number of people have changed their minds.

My first experience with an upsell was on a NCL cruise. We were waiting for our car service to take us to Kennedy Airport for our cruise when our phone rang. It was NCL offering an incredible upsell. We were already booked in a standard balcony stateroom and for $600 we were being offered a two-bedroom suite in the Haven. We jumped on it. This was our first NCL cruise and now, we are hooked on the Haven. It was explained to me that they had a number of guarantees for the standard balcony, so they made more money for NCL by upselling us, making the guarantee available to someone for the cost of the balcony cabin rather than putting the balcony guarantee in the Haven suite. I guess each line does the process differently. I see now that more and more lines are now using a bidding system to open up cabins for the guarantees.

Thanks to all who have been responding to this "O newbie." I'm sure I'm not the only person who transfers their knowledge and experiences to first time sailings on a new cruise line. This really helps. 💁‍♂️

Thanks, it's funny how the cruise lines handle the same things so differently. I'd never heard of a 'waitlist' before, so I was presuming that waitlist was the same thing as a guarantee on another line. I'm perfectly happy with my assigned PH3 and wouldn't be disappointed at all if I didn't get an upgrade. I'm aware that other lines will sell a guarantee and then offer a paid or comp'd upgrade to free up an already booked cabin in that category. I really don't have an urge to pay extra just to move into the same cabin four doors down the passageway. Not that it really matters, just so I understand, one can make a booking for a particular waitlisted cabin category and if none open up, then the booking would void, or do you have to book another cabin category in order to get on a waitlist for the category you would want? I'm now just interested in learning how it works. Thanks again.

Thank you, I am content with the PH3 I have booked. I was wondering if O would prioritize early bookings for upgrades before wait listed bookings. I am happy with my booked PH3, but I would welcome an upgrade.

We have a PH3 booked. I see that the PH3s are now waitlisted but the PH1s & 2s are still available. Has anybody had experience with upgrades to make room for the waitlisted bookings?

I wonder if when they had the skeet equipment there were fewer chair hogs??? 😄

On my first cruise, I was disappointed that they no longer had skeet shooting from the stern. It was replaced with an arcade video game of skeet.

DW & I used to go to a resort in south Florida. It was a fairly large place with several buildings. Our main entertainment was having our morning coffee on our balcony which overlooked the main pool at the resort. That pool remained locked until security opened the gate at 8AM each day. There would be a line of people waiting at the gate starting at about 7:30 or so. The people in line were loaded down with cheap beach towels purchased at local souvenir shops. When the gate opened it was like the start of the Kentucky Derby! We saw many people grabbing poolside tables, placing a couple of towels on some chairs at the table and then dragging over four loungers to the table and placing the remaining towels on the four loungers. Then they would leave the pool and return to their condos for breakfast or whatever. The pool area was once again empty in ten minutes. Those tables and loungers would remain empty until about 11 AM and then they'd be empty from about 12:30 to 1:30 for lunch. On checkout day, they wouldn't even take the towels home with them. I suppose they wouldn't fit in the luggage for the flight home. Year after year we saw this happen until we finally stopped going there and switched to watching chair hogs on cruise ships. 😄

That's probably why I never saw any numbers. DW & I tend to shy away from special receptions and M&G with the Captain.