Zendeck

Omg I rebooked our June med to next year a few weeks ago .... same everything except ship... was Allure now will be Harmony.  The price was a substantial increase...I will see if I can get this Lift and Shift to get my orig price!!  Brilliant!! 

5 hours ago, pyrateslife4me84 said:

For us, we decided it was better to delay to summer 2021. By moving now, we were still able to get a stateroom to our liking on Harmony. I suspect as cancellations extend (and they surely will), more will move to a cruise next year, limiting availability. .....To get the dates we need, we moved now from Allure to Harmony. 

We did Exactly the same!  Rebooked our Med June Allure to next year on Harmony and moved our deposit.  It was an easy decision for us given the stats that we are all seeing now.  
 

I did experience the increase in price as well however being from US I hope it will drop.  
 

I would not go on a cruise this year and although my deposit is out there for next year now, if for some reason we don’t have a cure/vaccine by then and it is still a high threat, I’ll be canceling that too with no hesitation. 

We had a Med planned out of Spain on the Allure in June and when the full payment was due a week ago, I simply had my TA move my $1k deposit to the same cruise for next year (Harmony).  We are a family of 4 and staying in a suite and I was not willing to pay balance now for a future credit.  I’ll take my chances and hopefully all is well next year and I’ll pay my balance next March.  
 

Now I’m waiting to see my options for Iberia which is paid in full 😢.   I can get a voucher + 10% I think it said....I’m watching that closely.  Would prefer that as a full refund now but if not, I’ll do the voucher. 

1 hour ago, Ocean Boy said:

And if the price drops before that you can just get the price adjustment. No need to have it applied as OBC

This is what I’m hoping and watching for the next 13 months before final payment is due!!

Moved my deposit from End of June 2020  to Beginning of July  2021... Had to move out a week to the July date because the same cruise in June did not have availability in the same style room.  FYI for those that are booking specific room types.  And as some have said .... my price is much higher for next year vs this years and not due to the change to July. 

Canceled this years Med June cruise on Allure and rebooked next years except it is on Harmony.  It is  4K more!  I’m still getting a great TA credit but lost a bogo discount. I’m hoping over the year I can get a better deal but I just had to rebook because my 2 boys are counting on it!

I just canc. my June cruise and rebooked for next June with no penalty.

Thank you @Ourusualbeach !  My med cruise final pmt is Mon.  I’ve been holding out but time to make the tough decision for the family!  I am rebooking for next year ( price is Much higher 😡) and I hoped that I could just move my deposit to that booking without penalties.  Based on you posting looks like I can.  
 

good luck to all with your rebookings and cancellations... so sad!

I’m very sorry for your loss.  

3 hours ago, snoope said:

Just have fun, like we did!

 

Thank you for the laugh!  My husband and I just both had a great ‘much needed’ belly laugh!  

My DH and 2 boys are scheduled for a med cruise at the end of June.  We’ve waited for years so the boys would be teens and appreciate more vs our annual  tropical cruises.  The timing of this virus is really stressing me out.  Pmt due in March.  Already got our flights thru Iberia.  Boston to Barcelona / France / Italy 😱.  Haven’t booked hotel in Barcelona yet.  I’m really torn!

If it is Rio Secreto I can confirm it was one of the best excursions we have done.  We did it in 2015 on a Disney Cruise excursion.  We have 3 boys (now 12, 16, 19) so they were young then, but it was truly amazing.  I wear the patch and did fine on boat over, I gave my oldest Dramamine and he was fine.  It was 20 minutes I think, I just remember saying to myself I can handle 20 min of motion sickness!  I would not let that deter from such a great adventure.  You wear wetsuits and mining helmets w lights.  You travel through bumpy areas and hip deep water.  There is a Mayan ritual before u enter and a shot of something strong but tasty at the end.  A lunch was served as well.  We’ve got great pictures to memorialize that family adventure!  Have fun!!!

On 4/8/2019 at 6:07 PM, TraditionalSiamese said:

 

When a bunch of the Star Class guests were on a tour together, we chatted a bit about tipping.  The general consensus for the Genie was a minimum of about $500, but averaged around $25-$50 per person per day.  Have a great time!

Thank you for sharing that.  I recently had gotten upgraded to star and had no idea what to tip my genie.  I think I undertipped, I thought I had read 100 per person... I must have ignored the per day 🤪.... I gave 400 for the 4 of us on a 7 day.  Oh well I’ll know better next time!  It was unique because it was such a last minute upgrade, the concierge had actually booked all our dinners for us via our emails....then he emailed us he was no longer our concierge due to genie... it was bittersweet he broke up with us!  So we gave him $50 for our short term relationship.  It was a wonderful and very unexpected experience being in Star class!

Just wanted to repost my experience for folks.  I agree that the Genie's can take care of things so if you get upgraded to STAR, no worries. 

We got upgraded from Sky to STAR (Symphony) in April.  It came through Thurs morning and we were cruising Sat.  I was super worried that I would not get refunded for my 2 adult drink pkg, 2 childrens bev pkg, and BOGO.  I did not want it to be an OBC because I already had a good credit from our TA and all of our excursions were booked privately. I canceled in the planner and received a refund on my credit card.  As folks mentioned, Genie could definitely take care of it for you if you upgrade to STAR but I hadn't known that so processed it myself.  Just another option for those of us with slight 'control' issues.     

2 hours ago, CasinoCruzGirl said:

Omg I’m so excited I can’t contain myself. We got the upgrade from a CL to a 2 bedroom aqua suite. Star baby here we come hooray

I hoped you would get it!  I totally know how you are feeling, I was giddy like a child when I received the same upgrade.  Like others have said, the 2 bedroom ATS is amazing! Enjoy it and do take some time on that deck to appreciate it..... I feel like it just went by to quickly 😭

We r doing our first family med next summer.... more  please!  Lol

Excursion  advice was excellent!  Thank you!

18 hours ago, KStrohm said:

   We received an email on 4/10/19 with the opportunity to upgrade. Put in a "weak"ish bid for each of the upgrade possibilities. On 5/13/19 we received an email that our bid had been accepted and we have been upgraded into a Grand Suite 1 Bedroom. We are cruising to celebrate our 10th Anniversary, and my wife and I are delighted with this news!

 

I am so happy for you and what a wonderful anniversary celebration!!!!

2 hours ago, CasinoCruzGirl said:

Oh yes 100% worth it. We had the option to bid on the ATS 1 bedroom starting at $100 pp or 2 bedroom starting at $400 pp or Star Loft starting at $800 pp.  we did not bid on the 1 bed ATS because there are 4 of us and we would be giving up a bathroom so didn’t make sense and didn’t bid on the Star loft seemed to expensive so just bid on the ATS 2 bedroom. 

My fingers are crossed for you!  Either way you are cruising!!!  Enjoy!

1 hour ago, CasinoCruzGirl said:

Good to know. Can you tell me was your bid at top end or low or middle. Have a great cruise

Sure it was highest at 600 so 1200 for me and hubby.  I justified it by the star class gain... I was able to cancel our 2 adult drink pkgs, 2 kids refreshment pkgs, and our BOGO Dinner.  It pretty much was a break even and sooooooo worth it!

7 hours ago, CasinoCruzGirl said:

Looks like our May 26th cruise is just about full. The suite we are bidding on has completely disappeared from all sites, I.e. RCI, Priceline, Expedia, etc.  I have been tracking it and today all gone poof lol. I’ll be happy with my CLS regardless but was fun dreaming of the 2 bedroom ATS. 

I was in 1 bedroom ATS... I had bid for the 2 bedroom ATS... I watched it disappear as an option on the booking sites a couple weeks before and assumed it was gone and mentally thought oh well no biggie.  Which is why when my bid was accepted Th morning for Sat departure I was in shock!!  You never know......good luck!  

Ps our ship the symphony was also full that week.

Thank you for a great review!  I’m actually in post Symphony depression.....and unlike you, I have a whole year to wait to be on our next.... but fortunately it is on Allure so I truly appreciated your review.  

19 hours ago, perfect match said:

Thanks! I enjoyed your review, and found myself getting caught up in your excitement! We were on Symphony the week of April 27, and I don’t think my post cruise depression has set in yet because I’m still too excited about what a great week we had on that beautiful ship!

Glad you had a wonderful time.  I see you’re a DCL fan.  Will you be cruising on another oasis class?  We definitely are, we loved all of the activities.  If my kids were still small I would go back, but with older kids this will be a good fit for awhile.

On 5/10/2019 at 12:01 PM, Marbel69 said:

You are a great storyteller and I loved your review and pictures.  

Thanks, it was not a typical review.... just sort of blurted out the unique experiences hoping to help others.  I learn so much on these boards so wanted to provide some insight where I could.

Good deal for you!  We did Uber.... $70 each way.  We flew Boston to FLL.... We always stick with JetBlue for Florida and one of us usually can fly on points using last years vaca points..... I was unpleasantly surprised to find out JetBlue does not fly into Miami when I had booked Symphony.  Had no idea!  After the shock, it was no biggie, that was our only negative on the trip!

Enjoy,,,,, I’m on week 4 of being back, sunburn gone and in a state of depression..... Symphony was amazing!  As I’m sure you know, and I actually forgot to do this trip..... don’t forget to sit back and take it all in...... there is so much to do on these mega ships that it literally flew by....😭. Enjoy!!!

2 hours ago, CasinoCruzGirl said:

That’s great. I was wondering about sky suite to star suite. We are in a crown loft and bid on 2 bedroom aqua. Hope we are as lucky as u

Yes I wish you luck!  It was an amazing experience.  Ours was 1bedroom ATS to 2bedroom ATS.  So we were right where we wanted to be but even better!  Have fun!  

Very sorry for your experience and I agree with everyone’s advice to stick w the smaller / mid ships since you had such a wonderful time in the past.  We were scared to try Symphony due to crowds but we ended up loving it.  Did you get to experience Central Park?  I know the boards suggest avoiding certain things if you don’t like crowds but u can’t avoid everything ! 🤪. Sometimes it’s also just a bad karma cruise... years ago we did Disney’s Fantasy (which was their mega ship 🤣).... and we kept running into big parties of people that all seemed to know each other and always got to ‘that seat’ just before us!  It was really weird .... anyway we wrote it off to we didn’t like the larger ship so we went back to their smaller ships.... then a few years later we gave it another try due to limitations w vaca schedule .... surprisingly we had a wonderful experience that year.... not at all like before yet still school vaca time.  Soooo sometimes it’s just bad crowd Karma!  Go back to your fav ships and try oasis class again in the future.. once you’ve had a few more positive cruises.