PugM0m

19 hours ago, hollon said:

Royal is getting so expensive. What ship are yall taking out of Quebec?

 

We are on the Joy. I agree, Royal is getting very expensive and my husband and I booked a 40th wedding anniversary cruise that was supposed to be a full Panama canal transit, then they took the canal completely out, after we had already bought our flights, and the cruise was then marketed mainly to South American passengers so alot of stuff was done in only Spanish which we don't speak. After several other fubar things, we decided it was time to try a different line.😄

On 6/1/2024 at 6:25 AM, hollon said:

I usually cruise royal caribbean big ships, but we want to try a different cruiseline. We want to do a canada/new england cruise this fall, I'm so overwhelmed, can yall help me pick out a good itineriary?  We are active people in our 50's. anyone been there and can tell me about your trip

So funny, my husband and I and 3 other couples are the same. Have only done Royal Caribbean and decided to try a different company. We are doing the the Quebec to NY 7 day on 9/10/24.😁

37 minutes ago, schmoopie17 said:

This is going to be our plan from LAX to the port, since we arrive a day early, staying at an airport hotel. My question is, how do you know the time and the location for the transfer if we decide to do this? I'm sure we'll end up scheduling the transfer ahead of time, just wondering about the logistics. If it's too much of a hassle, we might look into alternate arrangements.

I would suggest try calling NCL. My husband and I have booked on the Joy in September with the BOGO air thru NCL, but did the 1 day pre-cruise deviation. They removed our transfer and I called and told them I was planning on going back to the airport the next day to take the NCL shuttle. Said they couldn't leave it on our bill, but told me where to go in the airport and what time to be there by. Since we are leaving out of Canada and they may fly us into Montreal instead of Quebec, he was also able to give me the time I would need to be back to the Montreal airport if that was were we ended up. 

Just now, CruisnDeb said:

Yep..sounds like you are the organizer just like me.  Ages ranged from 82 (grandparents) down to 25 (grandkids) and there is no way I'm going to tell everyone, every night, where to be for dinner (especially after a few cocktails 🍹😛

Yep that would be me. In the past we were always in rooms near each other, so I could gather everyone in the hall and herd them where I needed them to be. This cruise, started out just my husband and I so, we went with a guarantee and when the rest decided they would join us, they did as well, so I am sure we will be all  over the ship and they will have find their own way to some extent. Should be interesting.

1 minute ago, CruisnDeb said:

No.  I believe the dining reservations open up at 60 days before....I could be wrong on the number though lol.

 

Also, I want to add, since we were such a large group (18 of us) it was really important to be in the same dining room each night to avoid confusion.  When you first embark, they will have an area setup for dining reservations.  I headed there as soon as I embarked to double-check our reservations.  Glad I did because they had moved us one night to a different dining room.  This was easily changed back to the correct dining room.

I have always double checked on our cruises as well. While my group isn't near as large as yours, they are kind of like herding cats. So much easier on me if I can just tell them " meet here every night at whatever time for dinner". 🤣

Thank you so much for the information. 

1 minute ago, CruisnDeb said:

We had a standing reservation in the same dining room, same time, and same tables.  But the wait staff changed.  The earlier you reserve it, the better chance you have of being in the same dining room with the same table.

Am I correct in that I have to wait until I am on the ship to make that reservation?

8 minutes ago, CruisnDeb said:

Yes they are.

31 minutes ago, zqvol said:

Yes

thank you. Can my group of 8 make a "standing" reservation in one of the dining rooms for the entire cruise and expect the same table and wait staff? This will be our first cruise with Norwegian, all prior cruises were on Royal Caribbean, so just kind of unsure what to expect. thank you

1 hour ago, CruisnDeb said:

We recently cruised with a group of 18.  Dinner time was the only time we were able to all be together and connect each day. We sat at the same time, same dining room, every night.  It was at two tables (2 long rectangular tables end to end, with a space between them.)  We enjoyed this setup and mixed it up as to who sat at each table each night.  

Hello, can you tell me if the menus the same in each of the main dining rooms each night?

20 hours ago, son3cruisers said:

Interesting.

Here is the response I received just now. 
 

 

Okay... weird, I have already paid for that. Could be because I have booked multiple transfers with them.

52 minutes ago, son3cruisers said:

Thanks for your suggestion. 
We’ve contacted 2 companies that offer excursions from Panama for $99 each, but when I request a pick up in COLON its $200 more.

Panama on Wheels and Panama your way. So $400 for a 3 to 4 hour city tour for 2 is out of our budget. We might just do the same and use the Lounge. 

This is the quote I got from Amber Moon, this would be on top of the $100 quoted to transport the two of us from Colon to the airport.

On 1/9/2024 at 1:54 PM, son3cruisers said:

Great. I will check them out.

I know there are other cruisers on the “ enhanced” cruisers who will need to travel from Colon to Panama and wondering what you have planed to do? 

My husband and I actually are just going to go straight to the airport and hang out until time to leave. We discussed doing a city tour but thought by that time we might be wanting to just relax. Looks like the airport has a lounge that you can buy a one day pass, so that is what we plan on doing.

1 hour ago, Biker19 said:

The initial PIN is the month and day of your birthdate- you are then forced to change it. 

Thank you

My husband and I are going to Panama to get on a cruise in February. We have never flown outside of the US, can someone please tell me if we can just put our prescription meds in our pill cases or are we going to need to provide the actual bottles showing all the information?

how do you get a PIN?

Check with Amber Moon Taxi. I have not yet used them, but they have very high ratings on Tripadvisor, they will do a private tour with airport dropoff with pick up at Colon port.

4 hours ago, Engineroom Snipe said:

So sorry you have to deal with this. Over the years, my wife and I stopped doing any type of advanced purchases because we have gone through trials and tribulations similar to your story.

 

We have gone "native" and do an MDR fixed time. If the first meal is not up to snuff, we go to Windjammer and wing it. Our time onboard is so limited and I just work around snafus as needed.

 

We are on hiatus from cruising right now but I do not want to discourage you from enjoying yours.

 

I love cruising but the last three years have been not special and that is the time to take a breath like @SilkySal said and regroup.

 

In a year or two, I hope to be complaining about my next cruise!

In the past we always did the late MDR seating, but this time since it is just my husband and I, we decided to try the MTD. I am sure it will be fine, just frustrating.

2 minutes ago, micruiser2002 said:

I really would not be that concerned about your MTD.  I would be more upset if they cancelled purchased dining that was on sale and is now more.  Unless the $25 covers the new increase in price I would escalate this.  That is total BS.

 

The $25 would have covered the new prices. I went a head and rebooked one of the lunches, and Royal managed to get more money out of me, because now they have the Sip, Brunch, Tour available so took the cancellation as a sign to reserve that instead of what I had. Oddly enough it let me do that, so the whole reservation system is obviously not down. 

41 minutes ago, SilkySal said:

I don't mean to upset you by saying don't let this ruin your "cursed?" cruise. Try a few times to pre-reserve your MTD and, if unable, do, as was suggested, go to the MTD room to confirm your 6:45pm dining time. Breathe, and deal with problems as they happen and try not to worry/stress about the small stuff. System upgrades seem to be occurring more often and glitches do happen but don't let it ruin your cruise.

 

By the way, I pulled up our future cruises (quite a few) and the site said that all of them have been paid off!! Haha! Yes, it's a glitch! I'll be checking my cruises daily to make sure that our upcoming cruises that we did actually pay off, remain paid off! Enjoy your cruise, hope everything works out for you, and cheers!

No I am not upset, I supposed it sounded a little "over dramatic" out of context, to say it was "cursed". We booked this in May 2023, it was a 7 night full transit Panama Canal cruise for our 40th wedding anniversary. In August, Royal sent an email they were "enhancing" our cruise experience by removing the Canal Transit and lowering it from 7 nights to 6 nights and ports changed from Costa Rico to Aruba and Curacao. It took forever before they even opened MTD for reservations. We have never done the MTD, so I was worried until I could finally make those reservation. Then to get the really good deals on lunch reservations on Black Friday, I thought everything was good to go. Then to have them cancel everything and not be able to re-book the MTD. Just really frustrated that 50 days out Royal keeps causing issues. We will enjoy it, just can't help but to feel very disappointed in Royal at this point.

37 minutes ago, c-leg5 said:

Don’t you have your original email confirmations which showed what you booked?

Yes, I have them, and they show on the app, but as cancelled. Don't know if that will make a bit of difference I kind of expected to see someone else from my cruise would have already started a thread on this.

I am hoping someone can answer some questions or give me some advice. My husband and I are booked on the Rhapsody of the Seas on 2/25/2024. The latest snafu on this cursed cruise is Royal just cancelled all dining reservation, stating they are doing an "upgrade" to the reservation system. I had reserved MTD for all 6 nights and purchased lunches for our two sea days during the Black Friday sales. They refunded all we paid and gave us $25 each for the "inconvenience". Of course, now the lunches I purchased on sale are not near the deal they were, but whatever. My worry now, the website will not let me do a MTD reservation, so I called the dining area to try to get my reservations put back on just for the MTD. The Rep told me there was nothing they could do because they were doing the upgrade and said I would need to wait until I get on board, go to the dining room and they are supposed have something that shows we originally had 6:45pm MTD  reservations and they will be honored. I have my doubts. Again any advice or suggestions on what to do, would be greatly appreciated. Thank you

9 hours ago, Deep-Blue-Iris said:

Thank you both, that's really helpful.

 

I'll have to have a think on what I want to do if the packages aren't all that. We're in Barcelona for 2 nights pre-cruise so if I want to go down the champagne/wine route we could always pick this up there. 

 

I know some specialty dining is absolutely on the cards as we're both quite foodie. If anyone has recommendations for Oasis, I'm all ears! 

 

 

I purchased lunch in Chops on Oasis, on a sea day, for my group of 8 cruisers, as a christmas gift. It was absolutely wonderful and everyone loved it. 

On 10/11/2023 at 8:17 PM, GJClay said:

My husband and I were on this cruise March 16th and switched to Odyssey Southern Caribbean after the alleged enhancement. We are also second guessing our decision. Switched out of fear they would cancel  the original cruise altogether but now that it seems to be a go I’m a little sad. I really wanted to go to Cartegena. I guess there is no perfect  scenario. 

Isn't that always the case? When the "enhancement" was announced I looked at other cruises to move to, but since this is for our 40th wedding anniversary, we couldn't find any other cruises that were any better, to us, than what we booked. I figured, ehhh, if I stay on this I don't have to rebook flights, research and find hotels or any of that. And still was able to book a small boat partial transit. But now, after it is too late, I have started 2nd guessing my choice. I too am now worrying they might decide they don't have enough passengers to make it worth their while. I wander if anyone on CC has had Royal cancel an unpopular itinerary, at the last minute? I have been looking online and it seems like there are alot of empty cabins.  

On 10/11/2023 at 9:41 PM, Husky1987 said:

So they took away the one reason you booked the cruise...and you think you made a mistake staying on the cruise?

 

Interesting.

We looked at changing to a different cruise when the "enhancement" was announced but none of the other itineraries available for our 40th wedding anniversary, were any more interesting, than what was being offered, so it was easier to just stay on the original, and not have to pay to change flights and find hotels and all of that. We are still going to at least get a partial transit thru the Panama Canal, as I booked a small boat trip, which I have read, is actually much more interesting than doing it on a huge cruise ship.  Still going to be on a cruise in the warmth instead of in Illinois in February.😆 So I guess it is what it is, just a little frustrated with the situation.

On 10/20/2023 at 8:42 PM, son3cruisers said:

Just took a look at some shore excursion for our March “ enhanced “ sailing and noticed this :

 

 

Saw the same thing on my February 25-March2 cruise. 

17 hours ago, son3cruisers said:

Agreed!
I just hope Royal doesn’t cancel this cruise last minute. Still lots of staterooms available in each category on our sailing. 

I have been thinking the same thing. Can I ask what date you are on? I am on February 25-March 2. Does anyone know of Royal doing a last minute cancelations on a cruise that hasn't sold well?