MightyMike

Cruise lines seem to have plenty of money to dump tons of paper advertising and fliers on the cabin desk every evening. The last cruise I was on I probably had half an inch of paper advertisements and coupons by the last day. But when it comes to something useful to us cruisers--like Cruise Compass--they suddenly become environmental crusaders with no money available for printing.

I have to say things like this present quite the disappointing picture of Royal Caribbean. When they downgrade your cabin, you are expected to suck it up and are given no compensation. But when it requires an upgrade, they charge you an extra $2000. Pure greed. Shame on you, Royal Caribbean!

I long for the day when tests are no longer required for vaccinated passengers and all they have to do is point a thermometer at our foreheads.

Our return flights got moved to 8pm. We will need to fill some time from disembarkation until evening. Are there any Miami hotels with a good pool that would allow us to camp out there for the day? We would need them to store our luggage. Ideally, it would be near the Metromover so we can venture out a little too. If so, how much does something like this cost?

21 hours ago, homedepot124 said:

No purple monster at the back of the ship. 

This.

The furthest aft boardwalk balcony cabins used to be the best secret of the Oasis-class ships. 

Go ahead and finish the booking with Royal Caribbean and transfer it later. Anyone can transfer a Royal Caribbean cruise reservation to a travel agent as long as you are within 60 days of the initial booking. 

If she is introverted and an avid reader, then what's wrong with reading a book onboard? Why set so many social expectations of fun when her bliss lies elsewhere? The last time my family went on a cruise, we spent much of the last afternoon in our cabin watching some HGTV shows. Yes, that's something we could just as easily do at home, but it felt great to just waste the day away on a cruise ship. Some people spend so much time and attention trying to get their "money's worth" by participating in as many activities as possible that they forget how to relax and enjoy the experience of simply *being* on an amazing ship and *being* in distant locations. For introverts like us, sometimes the greatest pleasure is just to be.

I can no longer search cruises and apply filters using Chrome.

Looks like it is docked in Coco Cay already this morning so they were able to evacuate with little to no change in itinerary.

They have the right to move you and there is nothing you can do about it. It would be fair to ask them to move all of you so that you can stay relatively close together as a family. It would be fair to ask for some compensation since you paid a fare that allowed you to choose specific rooms, but ended up receiving what amounts to a "guarantee" rate. 

It seems to me it would be in the travel agent's best interest to match the final payment date to what Royal Caribbean has. The reason Royal Caribbean is doing this is to prevent mass cancellations of April and May bookings. Cruisers are getting nervous. Any travel agent that doesn't do the same is just asking for cancellations. 

6 hours ago, Ptroxx said:

 is my math wrong ?     

Looks like a question to me!

One person on our April cruise reported that she was able to get her final payment credited back to her after Royal Caribbean changed from 90-day final payment to 30-day final payment. She wouldn't had paid so early had she known she didn't have to. Royal Caribbean issued a credit, and she will re-pay it in a month or so if she wants to board.

It was fun while it lasted!

I would go a step further and say that Cruise Planners are nearly identical for both cruise lines--same user interface, same policies, and often, the same excursions. In general, I think you will find that everything Royal Caribbean does, Celebrity does a little bit better. Food is a little better. Service is a little better. The only thing you will lose is activities and entertainment. Don't expect the same big production shows on Celebrity. 

Looks like it is no longer our little secret here on Cruise Critic. 

I was looking at the Millennium deck plan and noticed Celebrity will start charging more for the Sweet 16 cabins--the 16 most forward balconies on deck 6. View the deck plan on the Celebrity web site and choose "Beginning April 14, 2023" from the drop down. The latest deck plan shows the extended balcony. These cabins (along with 6048 and 6053) will be classified as a new "Deluxe Veranda" category. 

I have been on three Celebrity cruises and all of them were in Sweet 16 cabins. Twice we were able to get the cabin steward to exchange the balcony chairs for loungers. It was fun to know we had such a large balcony for the same price as other category 2C cabins. Looks like those days will end soon.

Please delete. I intended to post this in the Celebrity forum.

Posted in wrong forum.

8 hours ago, Merion_Mom said:

If you booked through a travel agent, you must check with him/her, yes.  If you booked directly with RC, you can see it online.

And it sounds like they have not notified travel agents yet. My travel agent still hasn't received the notification, but I suspect it is coming any time now. The Cruise Critic rumor mill is pretty efficient!

6 hours ago, rockmom said:

Hmmm, I'm on the March 5th sailing on Symphony which is the same eastern itinerary as Feb 5th and April 2nd.  It still shows the same Labadee, San Juan, St. Thomas and Coco Cay in both my planner and the app.  Those are also the ports that come up when I do a mock booking.  I full expect Labadee to be canceled, but so far I'm not seeing anything.  

The only way that people on our cruise knew about the April 2 itinerary changes is by looking at the final payment page on the Royal Caribbean web site. That is the only page showing the itinerary changes. Mock bookings and Cruise Planner still show the old itinerary. My assumption is that it takes time to update the various systems.

I am guessing that cancelling Labadee is more complicated than we might think. Perhaps simply changing it to a sea day causes other problems. Perhaps they are having problems with San Juan too. In any case, it looks like they are switching us to the standard itinerary that they are already using for the April 16 and April 30 sailings--St. Maarten, St. Thomas and Coco Cay. 

Looks like the 30-day final payment window is being extended into April. People on the April 2 Symphony of the Seas sailing are reporting that the final payment date on the Royal Caribbean web site has been extended. Final payment was originally due the end of this month but now it is the end of February. They have also replaced Labadee and San Juan with St. Maarten and another sea day.

Lock it in by buying something on Cruise Planner before they take it away!

I always book refundable because I book so early that I'm never sure--usually two years out. I want to at least reserve a spot and get a specific room. I don't consider myself sure I want the cruise until I purchase (non-refundable) airline tickets.

I've found that prices generally increase during the wait. By the time I am sure and purchase airline tickets, the non-refundable cruise price usually has increased above what I paid for refundable.

Delta seems to be flying high (pardon the pun) right now, but part of that might be due to some of its hubs (Atlanta, Minneapolis, Detroit) haven't been hit by unusual delays. If the right storm hit one of those cities, I would suspect Delta would get backed up pretty bad.

I used to hold Southwest in high regard, but they have proven that they have the exact same problem--perhaps even worse. Discount airlines frequently fly into smaller airports with fewer alternatives, and they won't re-book you on a competitor if there is a problem. Often your only option is to hunker down in a hotel for a few days until their logistics bottleneck clears up.

For my next cruise, I'm flying American Airlines and passing through airports that serve multiple carriers.

20 minutes ago, BigRoger said:

Either Royal is buying Norwegian Cruise Line…..

Royal then owns both Coco Cay and its neighbor, Great Stirrup Cay. Royal then announces the "iSling"--a large slingshot ride to shuttle guests between the two islands. Guests on Coco Cay are launched to a large trampoline on Great Stirrup Cay.