TheSteveK

Our Empress cruise on March 14 was cancelled by Royal. We requested the refund within a couple hours of getting the email from Royal to request a cash refund. We heard nothing about that nor the Cruise Planner refunds until last week. We got an email apologizing for the delay and that the refunds will be issued and appear in our account the next week. It's now Thursday and there's nothing but cobwebs in my account so far. It could be my bank is just slow about processing the refund. And I'm assuming the phone queues at Royal are still a mess so I'm going to give it more time before checking on the status to see if I need to whine at my bank next.

It looks like they show up a few days after the cruise was supposed to end.

We waited until RCCL cancelled our March 14th sailing on the Empress. I then filled out the form for a cash refund. So far no planner or cruise refund (which is expected since it's 30 days). I do have points from the cruise in my previous sailing section. I have a theory. Because of the mass cancellations, they're probably manually having to cancel and refund/credit each one. So there's a big stack of cancellations that a team of employees have to process. That would explain why refunds went from 30 to 90 or 10,000 days or whatever it's sitting at now. Until the cruise is actually cancelled for the pax the system that keeps track of the points has no clue that the cruise didn't happen, so it just automatically spits them out in the appropriate timeframe. This probably does not apply to people who cancelled with the cruise with confidence plan as an agent actually processed the cancellation when you talked to them more than likely.

I will. I may even do some videos or something, not sure yet.

6 days until the Empress!

I wonder if you could ask for salsa at breakfast. I must investigate this.

I'll just reply in case anyone else wanders across the topic. You can use the RCL app on your phone for free without having an internet package. Also, the obligatory reminder to put your phone in airplane mode on the ship so there's no outrageous surprises on your wireless bill when you get home 🙂

Oh and another, the Hennessey Black Bull I haven't actually had it on the ship, I saw it on the standard cocktail menu and made my own at home, quite nice.

Cucumber Jalapeno margarita at Sabor on the Harmony

Wait, I saw a tag on the hanger. You had that tuxedo shirt dry cleaned? That is formal!

There's a couple of outdoor smoking areas. Not sure which ones would impact cabins, but the smoking areas are all portside. If you stick with Starboard cabins you should be golden.

I've done that for years when I store my suitcases. They even make nesting sets that have two larger suitcases and a roll-on.

another tip to save space if you must have 3 suitcases, get a third suitcase that is smaller than your largest one and can fit in the larger one once it's unpacked, then it takes up no additional space under the bed.

RCCL needs to put Twangster on the payroll

Ah well, for a minute I thought we'd be on with some fellow TN folks (Go Vols!) I haven't been, but from what I have seen, the ship seems to be well maintained. As long as you're not seeking the wall-to-wall excitement of bigger ships, it seems like it'll be a nice little cruise 🙂