CruisinNole

5 minutes ago, sandebeach said:

We have booked several last-minute cruises over the past six years, to avoid being on land if a Hurricane Warning gets posted and we have to do a mandatory evacuation. Each time we have cruised, the storm stays away from South Florida, so I have been telling people that we will keep them safe because we will be cruising most of September. But I never expected this to happen in June! 

I sure hope your luck holds. We still haven't gotten our house repaired from damage caused by Hurricane Ian. We need a break!

59 minutes ago, Ashland said:

My one complaint about the GS on the Radiance class is how far the TV is from the bed. Hate that it's in the corner by the couch...not great viewing from there either. We usually sail in OS on this class. And ... yes... we do watch movies at night on our firestick. We're no longer fans of night activities onboard usually.

How do you feel about the OS balcony on the Radiance class? We always book a GS but have thought about upgrading to an OS however, the balconies look so narrow. How does the balcony compare to a GS balcony?

There was a nice veterans ceremony on our Brilliance cruise in March. No photo but since I didn't know anyone in the large crowd and at 5' 3", wasn't really visible amongst the taller men, I wouldn't have purchased a photo anyway. 

1 hour ago, Wineaux007 said:

The old rules did stipulate, which I don't see posted anymore, words to the effect,  having served 2 years active duty or served in a combat zone (if less than 2 years).

It's still there. It's 2 years or 6 months in an active war zone. 

3 minutes ago, Wineaux007 said:

You don't need to be a "career" military to get the military discount.  If you served in a combat zone, you are eligible.

You do not need to have served in combat. Just need your DD214 or another proof of service. I've never been asked for proof of service.

Thanks all! 

Thanks. I'm not real comfortable with Royal's IT skills and was concerned that there might be some glitch just about the time I hit the button to send my payment in.

We booked a cruise in March while on a cruise and decided not to transfer to our regular TA. We've been unhappy with the TA since Covid and have decided to search for another TA. Our final payment is due this month and we were wondering if those of you who book directly with Royal make your final payment online or call Royal. If you call, what number do you use? TIA

53 minutes ago, HicksRA said:

Seems like lately, Pinns eat breakfast in Chops and suites in Giovanni’s. 

We were just on Brilliance. Chops for both suites and Pinnacles.

38 minutes ago, Weluv2cruise2gether said:

Same thing happens on our Wonder cruise with the unlimited dining package 

Also on the UDP on our Serenade cruise. 

We always stop at Margaritaville in Key West for a Margarita and an order of conch fritters. Delicious! The fritters are good too. 😉

On 4/13/2023 at 1:01 PM, CruisinNole said:

We cruised from Tampa last month. We always use the valet service. It's an additional $20 and well worth it. I would prepay. It's so simple now that the construction is finished. If you go on the Port Tampa website https://www.porttb.com/, there's all the info you need. The porter came over and picked up our bags before the valet even got to our car. 

FYI. I just pre-booked valet parking for my August cruise and there's now an additional $5 "convenience fee". Not sure it that fee is also tacked on to self-parking.

3 hours ago, island lady said:

Yes, recently on B2B Serenade out of Tampa.

 

In the past, well before Covid, we always enjoyed MTD.  Now...we would not dream of doing so.  It is traditional early for us.  No waiting in line.  

 

MTD used to be on the top dining floor, now it is on the main floor, with 6:45 being the norm due to the estimate of when the first seating pax finish their meals.  The MTD pax are simply led to a table when those pax leave.  If too many of first seating decide to linger over coffee and dessert...it sets everything back.  

 

When we would leave our table on that main floor, there would be a line of grouchy pax waiting for a table (with or without reservations) out to the photo gallery.  

 

IMHO...MTD is a total fail program now.  

Thanks for the info. We had MTD reservations for our August Serenade cruise but just cancelled them and purchased the UDP which was on sale. We usually purchase the UDP for short cruises but wanted to go to the main dining room for a couple of nights on this cruise. Your post made us change our minds. And 5pm traditional dining is just too early.

I made our MTD reservations about 2 weeks ago for our August Serenade cruise and selected 6:30pm. However, on the calendar it shows 6:30pm followed by (15). Have no idea what that means. I guess we'll show up at 6:30pm and wait to be seated at 6:45.

We cruised from Tampa last month. We always use the valet service. It's an additional $20 and well worth it. I would prepay. It's so simple now that the construction is finished. If you go on the Port Tampa website https://www.porttb.com/, there's all the info you need. The porter came over and picked up our bags before the valet even got to our car. 

12 hours ago, Ashland said:

Reduced deposit doesn't apply if you book a suite.

We booked a suite last month while on a cruise and paid the reduced deposit. Don't know if it was a different promotion or not.

32 minutes ago, GTO-Girl said:

The menus show up in the app about a week before sailing.

 

At least this has been our experience 

Ditto for our 4 night Brilliance cruise at the end of March. As far as I remember, the menus were accurate.

We also live on the west coast of Florida but local weather forecasters say that it should be more of a problem for the east coast. Hope we don't get it since we're already dealing with Red Tide.

We're sailing in a week. Our luggage tags have "suite" on them as well as the our printed set sail passes which were printed out right after we checked in on the app. The set sail passes on the app do not show "suite". I doubt that will change before sail date. 

We booked one on Celebrity a few years ago and liked it. It's very private. Made the cabin seem larger too. We were on a Caribbean cruise and we had 2 heavy thunderstorms. It was nice to be able to sit out during the storms. We didn't notice any door banging like with the traditional balconies.

My set sail pass printed about a month ago shows "suite" category (and purple, D+) however both the app and website set sail passes no longer show "suite".

2 hours ago, BND said:

We had great luck with them.  We had to cancel two cruises (b2b) 3.5 years ago after I was injured. We had AON through RCI.  They were very easy to work with.  My Dr (orthopedic surgeon) provided a letter stating why I could not travel and we filed and were totally refunded in a few weeks.  For this  year, we bought an annual policy through Allianz mainly for medical and evacuation coverage as we're less concerned with an interrupted trip and it is cheaper than buying insurance through RCI for the 3 cruises we have booked.  Also, search this site, there are several threads about insurance.

I also have no complaints with AON. Used them when I had to have an outpatient procedure in Cozumel on a cruise. My claim was settled quickly. I even received trip interruption payment for the two days that I spent either in medical or at the outpatient clinic. 

2 hours ago, shirazcruiser said:

I'm looking at the Jewel on 5-30-24 and the same itinerary is on 6-17-23, but the app only shows sailings up to 4-22-23.  Another CC responder provided a work around: 

https://www.royalcaribbean.com/account/cruise-planner/category/shorex?bookingId=0000000&shipCode=JW&sailDate=20230617

There a thread on Celebrity CC that provides the above info about a work around.

37 minutes ago, CruisingNole said:

Nonsense. Quality at my local restaurants has not changed whatsoever. Royal has made a business decision and it has nothing to do with inflation.

I agree. The nicer restaurants in our area adjusted to the lack of wait staff by requiring reservations and by no longer serving breakfast and/or lunch or by offering brunch on weekends. Some raised prices but not to the point where they lost customers. 

3 minutes ago, mlbcruiser said:

Thanks for the replies. I just decided to do it  the old fashioned way. Just went to Celebrity.com and was able to use the photos I already took. Since everything else I had filled out on the app appeared when I went to the check-in portion of Celebrity’s website, I’m sure the app will pick it up. 

That's how I did it. Photo did show up but don't be surprised if they take your photo again at the pier.