ampurp85

If you are sailing any time soon-ish you WILL NOT be able to book shows on the cruise planner. It has to be done on the app when on the ship, guest services or at box office. My understanding is that box office is the location of each show.

I think it is an age thing. I was able to get my 80 yo grandmothers fare changed into another FCC on a cruise we cancelled. She will not ever be cruising, not based on health just she wasn't a fan and prefers land based casino vacations. But it was changed to my mother who has the same name with a middle initial.

There are a couple of threads with people who cruised recently with children. Anyone who is unvaxxed has to wear their mask. Even vaxxed have to wear their mask when not eating or drinking and/or not in 100% vaxxed areas. The protocols for Sept/Oct have not been released and without knowing where you are sailing from, I cannot say if it will be 100% vax cruise....but RCG is not operating that way because they are allowing unvaxxed children to sail.

Normally for oasis and quantum class ships you can make reservations for shows beforehand. New temporary protocol is you have to do it on the app when you get on the ship... or guest services. So I would be looking at the offerings now so as soon as you step on you can make your reservations.

@alexgtpNo, book at a price you feel comfortable with. You can always reprice later but prices may not go lower than that.

It will be whatever a la carte credit at each sitting. So if Izumi's has a $35 credit, then you can go multiple times and use up the credit. I believe only dining places are available, not ice cream or desert/pastry places.

With the UDP, if a specialty restaurant is open, then it can be used there.

I am sailing Allure in Oct, drink package on sale was $68 which is $80.24 with grats. We are 5 people staying in a 2br GS; 3 are new to cruising and 1 is new to RCG. Only two out of five are heavy alcohol drinkers. Two don't drink coffee or soda, maybe a milkshake or smoothie every now and again. It would be $2600 for us to all get the UBP and $1760 for us to get two UBPs and 3 refreshment packages. Even the two that drink think that is an expensive burden. They don't believe they will want to drink all seven days. Since we are staying in a suite they will get a few drinks there and then supplement. Even with maybe 3 drinks at $15 w/grats a day, they come out cheaper. Plus no one will feel burdened to drink any and everything to get their monies worth.

I read it as  if already D+ then 88 nights solo in a Js would be pin. At 6pt a night it would be 528 + the 175 you already have from being D+

They will get you a C&A number if you call and ask. That way you can do a cruise before 2022 and become gold at least. Then all cruises will be double points until the offer expires.

Well .... you pay a cheaper per day cruise price if you pre-purchase but they charge you for the entire cruise. Of course you can buy on the ship if you only want to purchase certain days.

The internet plans are unlimited, it is just one is more basic for things like checking a few emails, browsing etc. The other has higher speeds for streaming and uploads.

Refund would only be monies paid, if you keep FCC then you get the extra 25%

I am doing a Disney/Universal/Cruise this year in Oct but with all adults. It will get very expensive, so doing a 3 or 4 night cruise and taking advantage of any discounts and deals is a must. I would say based on logistics and cost, fly to either Orlando or FLL. We are doing 2 days Universal , 3 days Disney and a 7 night cruise on allure in a Suite. Thanks to a lot of prep and budgeting I got it down to $4100 pp with everything included... with adults there is the cost of  alcohol. The tickets for the theme parks amounted to more than half the cost of the cruise!!!

I would suggest 2 interior rooms, as the kids will be out exploring the ship or CocoCay. On a shorter cruise and if you do the parks beforehand, I suggest, then you won't be spending much in the rooms. So real estate should be on the lesser price spectrum.

@MikeMSDMy understanding is that if you are both in the same room, you can check both of you in. You can put the passport info and such in later.

@vswan I agree and disagree, usually in the service industry you are paying someone to do something you could do for yourself. My belief is if you cannot afford to tip then get your food to go. I agree that people should be paid living wages but my aforementioned reasoning is why they get paid so little. If you are an engineer, doctor, accountant etc. you are providing a service that most people cannot do themselves.....thus you are paid a fair wage. A restaurant makes the same per meal regardless of dinning status, but they have more overhead when it comes to dining in. While some people would say they wouldn't mind paying more to avoid tipping, many would not.

I like that many of the cruise lines include a daily gratuity as there are many people, who you don't often see, making the cruise amazing. Baring the reasonable expectations when dinning in, a tip should be only given freely or for exceptional service. It seems like everyone wants a tip with very little service provided......cough*cough* Starbucks cough*cough*

@molly361 Ha, people stop using math after they left school....some even before then. Or they have been taught RCG funny math.

I think it also because they aren't leaving until 7pm right?

I believe every country has unwanted cosmetic currency. $2 bills seem cute but they don't spend well here...imagine trying to do that in a foreign country. Remember they often send this money back home to their families.

Since about June of 2020 I have been managing, also occasionally filling in with service, a restaurant. My deal is if you get provided a service you should tip accordingly. Some of my servers work hard and receive nothing, while still having to pay out the busser, bartenders and host. RCG has a daily gratuity that is added to services. As long as you don't remove this, I still think you are a decent human being....not that my opinion matters🤣

I always tip a little extra because I start at 20% and go up or down based on service. I believe an extra $20 per person to the room steward based on a week or less of occupancy is fair. $10-15 pp to the waitstaff and $1 per drink if you don't have the DBP. I may or may not be tipping more, it really all comes down to service. But when I do tip its in regular USD paper money. No Sacagawea coins or $2 bills....also who is carrying that much change around?

I don't think the perks will decrease because of the double points.The people who are booking cruises just for the points are helping RCG bottom line. If anything happens to C&A it might be a change in how the perks are received. Like keeping the 4-6 drinks loaded on your sea pass.  Like a few other people stated, the double points put people where they might have been had the 15mth shutdown of the cruise industry not happened. I had been sailing on other lines like Carnival, MSC and NCL, with only 1 RCG cruise under my belt. But I know people who cruise for 2-3 months out of the year, some of you on this board live near a port and do exactly that. I lost out on 4 cruises; 2 solo and two 7 days with family.

One of the 7 days was a JS, which would have been 14pt. The 2 solos were 4 night balconies, so 16 points. and the the 7night balcony at 7 points. That would have put me at 41pt or Platinum. So far I only have 3 cruises planned until Jan 2022. My first RCG cruise is in Oct in a GS which will get me 28pt. My S2S in Jan are solo in a JS and nets me 54pt, which gets me to diamond. I get 3 weeks vacation each year in specific months (between mid Oct-Mid Nov and Jan) aka the slow season for us.  I always plan my cruise around the land I plan to visit. Wanted to do Australia but with their delayed boarder opening, it's not looking too good. So I haven't book any extra cruises, although I would have loved to.

I do have a TA so maybe that's where the emails are going. I checked cruise planner and saw the new 7pm departure time. This coupled with a Disney/Universal trip so we were hoping to board pretty early and have dinner at 7pm. Now with the late departure we need to push it back so we can enjoy sail away.

I thought you were asking when she will be in port for revenue cruise since you mentioned her test cruise.

Ah yes I forgot that it was cancelled because of the 5 day grace period, I am not on her until Oct 31st.

It is true that depending on where the wind is blowing you might get an different answer.  I would call the D+ help center first, then check with your TA or RCG rep. There have been at least 3 sailings between Freedom and Adventure so they should have a proper answer.

I believe the Aug 1st sailing is the first paid Allure, so she should be in Port Canaveral around the 30th/31st.

The letter RCG sent out didn't say not applicable to people staying in JS if I remember correctly. However, given the current climate YMMV