binro01

Thanks for the photo! I will report on the ongoing replanting of Central Park when I’m on board.

Thanks!!!

Yep. Earliest time is now 11:00 AM

Kinda free is still better than NOT free. LOL

Sounds like we have been living parallel lives! Thanks for checking out the YouTube Channel. I just posted a summer deal there on Allure OTS for August 2023 that you might be interested in. I fell off my chair when I saw that deal yesterday come pass my way.

Thanks for all the great tips! I usually call Uber or Lyft in general. I always check which one is not on surge pricing 🙂

So I tried to call the hotel with no luck. No answer. Just a message from Verizon. I then called the corporate HQ and they said they cant reach the hotel either. So.. I just cancelled. I cant take the risk. It was such a good price too. Oh well. Still going to be on the Seawall and got a decent deal at the Quality Inn and Suites Beachfront on the Seawall for $188.00 per night for our two nights there. This is what I love about CC. I could have been stuck without a place to stay or had to scramble last minute.

Drive safe! Have a wonderful cruise! Keep the lights on for us next week!

11:00 AM

I would love to know who you prebooked with 🙂

Galveston is an interesting town. I hear that Uber can be difficult, and have the Lyft app ready. We are also the earliest boarding time, so hopefully we might miss the big rush.

The product has changed a lot since 4 years ago.

Holy cow! Gonna call them tomorrow.

Yikes!!! I will need to check into this! Thanks!

So the way I got access was mainly from my Travel Agency build out. Even though we only launched the travel business 2 months ago, I became involved with my host agency about 6 months ago. Through this, I got access to the press center materials.

It's that time again! One week out from fly out day to our next cruise! The Details Fly Out from Chilly Utah on April 28th 2023. Doing our first time flying out of Provo Airport vs Salt Lake City International on Allegiant Air. We couldn't pass up on the price. 4 people round trip direct flights to Houston Hobby for $771.00. This price also including 4 checked in suitcases. Thank you black friday sales! This is the first time ever cruising out of Galveston Texas and the new Royal Caribbean terminal. I'm currently working with my business development manager for Royal Caribbean to get an interview with their person in charge to make a video about the new terminal and the future plans RCI has for this port, so if this actually becomes a thing, that will be some pretty sweet info for all of us here. We are staying 2 nights pre cruise in Galveston right on the beach at the Red Roof Inn Plus+ Galveston Beachfront. We got a great price. Don't judge LOL! But we love the location to the beach and the pier. This will be our Third time on Allure OTS but the first time our twin 19 year olds will be on an Oasis Class ship so it will be fun to experience it through their eyes! No DBP for me this cruise. Pricing for the DBP has gone kinda crazy. Cheapest I saw was 73.00 per day + tips. I would be playing the breakeven game in my head and that's no fun for me.. I will just stick with the drink of the day from time to time and take advantage of my All inclusive excursions in Cozumel and Costa Maya. Specialty dining will be relegated to some sea day lunches at Izumi Hibachi and Giovanni's Table. We will also do a Dinner at Samba Grill. Other than that its the MDR, Buffet, the Dog House, The Park Cafe and the new El Loco Fresh that has taken over the old Wipeout grill location on Allure. We are also staying in Houston near the airport the day we get off the ship. No need to rush to an airport a distance away from the port and stress. This is the typical 7N cruise to the Western Caribbean. Yea.. Roatan, Cozumel and Costa Maya. Been there done that have many tee-shirts... But again, this will be the first time for our twins to do this itinerary, so again, it will be fun to see it through their eyes. I'm also trying to arrange an interview with Allure's Hotel Manager officer and the Cruise Director on this cruise. So again more cool opportunities for you folks to ask your questions to these individuals. A little bit about me and the family Me and my family have been cruising since the year 2000, so going on over 2 decades. My wife and I are in our early/mid fifties and we have 3 boys, ages 33, 19 & 19. The twins have been on quite a few cruises, while poor Chase had to deal with Mom and Dad raising up twins and pinching pennies but he did manage to go on a couple with us. This will be our 5th Royal Caribbean Cruise and we do love the entertainment and the things to do on their ships. We have moved most of our main stream cruising business to Royal Caribbean over Carnival and NCL recently. When we look to do something more upscale we have booked recently with Celebrity and Princess, but Celebrity has been our default recently too. This will be the third time my wife and I will be on Allure OTS, so we know her quite well. We love the fact that there is NO waterslides and there is still the Champagne bar vs the silly Bionic bar with horrible drinks. Overall this will be our 14th cruise. Just last year, by pure dumb luck followed by some persistence and diligence..I started a YouTube Channel. I posted a video on YouTube hyping up our coming cruise following @Sea Dog Google Earth Itinerary concepts to basically get me and the wife excited about our first RC cruise after the pandemic during the cruising restart. Well somehow a bunch of people found that video and decided to subscribe to my channel. NUTS Right? So I said to myself, "Self, if people like this stuff, lets see what happens when I post some other stuff. Like hacks I learned over the years. Explaining how packages work on each line.. Basically creating videos about my answers to questions my friends asked me about cruising..." Fast forward to today, and over the last year, the channel has grown from 0 subscribers to over 8000 and quickly approaching over 1 million views of the videos I created for the channel. From this my wife and I decided to open up a travel agency that she runs and now thinks she is my boss and I'm just the marketing wing of her budding travel empire. So without further delay... or more word salad.. I give to you, an homage to what started off my channel. I created a new Cruise Hype video for this cruise critic Live thread! Enjoy and welcome aboard!

Did a quick pricing check on Celebrity Retreat deals going on right now. There are still some decent deals to be had and are priced in line with MSC Yacht Club. Example is currently you can book a guaranteed Retreat suite on the Celebrity Eclipse for May 21st 2023 for a 7N Alaska RT itinerary out of Vancouver BC for under $4,800.00 with $650.00 OBC. If you or your travel partner is ex-military, you can get onboard for $200.00 less at under $4,600.00 with the OBC. AC guarantee on the same sailing is right at $3,400.00 with $50.00 OBC.. So.. Yea.. Good prices are still there. Just need to find them. This deal is around $340.00 pp/pn for the Retreat. The Celebrity Edge also has some good summer deals going on in the Retreat for Europe too. Example RT Barcelona 08/05/2023 for $6,400 (A little bit above 450.000 pp/pn)

Yes Yes.. Unless you want a fancy martini from the martini bar or a crafted cocktail from the World Bar, you should be pretty well covered. And if you ever do want one of those, you can just pay the difference + tip. Per person Per Day. + 20% tip I believe pre-cruise on the planner you can buy the upgrade voucher for 13.00 per device per day. That will be the best deal vs ship. Also, if you have loyalty match from Royal Caribbean it can become less.

Here is my take as someone who visited Europe. A Western Med cruise is tough. The ports you visit have some of the best things you want to see too far inland, causing very long excursion days with 30% of the time on a bus. If you want to to a cruise in Europe, I would look more Eastern Med, Greece and Adriatic coast of Croatia. The ports there are right on the water and you get much more time in the actual culture vs Western med cruises. My wife and I are planning for 2024 Late September to early October a cruise from Athens for 9 nights to do a Greek Island cruise. We will then fly to Paris for a few nights there and then take the train to London for a few nights there, followed by travel up to Scotland for a few nights there before flying back to the US. so for us, 18 days in Europe, but only 3 countries.

You can be notified about a successful bid immediately up to the day of the cruise. Just the way it works.

It all depends upon the current number of available AC staterooms, the number of current bids and the "quality" of the bid. When I speak of quality it's a combination of the bid amount and the class of cabin you are coming from so that they can chain upgrade for more profit. I always say bid what you feel the value is for the upgrade, if you get it you are happy and the cruise line is happy. If you don't get it, no harm no foul.

We have booked Ascent on January 7th 2024 in an E3 IV Partial View, which really is not to bad of a partial view because we are not the cabin right next to the MC rail, we are the next cabin over and on a floor where the parked MC will never hinder our view. For that 7N cruise with tha All Included package we paid a total of 196.00 pp/pn. I say that's a pretty good win to try out the new ship.

I know this is not a specific service provided by the concierge for concierge class guests, but I do like the sparkling wine upon request. Yea it's nothing special, but I still like the little touch.

Yes.. I agree. I should have made the point by saying the that the Retreat experience is better on Edge class ships on Celebrity vs their older class ship where the special locations for suite guests are placed throughout the ship and might even be missing such as a dedicated suite sun deck and pool. But I still stand by that the whole ship experience is better on Celebrity vs MSC. ie, entertainment, buffets, specialty dining, venues etc, etc.

A TA can negotiate a group rate where a V2 and V1 pricing is the same, or the C2 is the same as a C1, etc, etc etc.. But it is purely dependent on a couple of factors. The relationship the agency has with the cruise line, and the current inventory available when the group is made are the 2 main factors. This price equivalency is 100% based upon the group rate negotiated on creation of the group contract, and has zero relationship with the CC club perk. Also, depending upon the spread of cost for the cabin and the commission earned by the TA, they can make up the difference by forgoing some commission, but this is only done if the spread is not huge. TAs do this often for their most loyal clients as well as offer OBC to them, which they give by forgoing some commission from the cruise line as well.