GCS2000

So Royal Up is open for my Alaska cruise in Sept.

We are in a Jr. Suite already (wife has to have a tub 🙃).

I know the Jr doesn't come with any perks but I am not convinced the perks of upgrading are worth it.  If the cheapest offer is accepted to go Grand Suite that's another $1000 (anything nicer is more Royal is another $3000 and no way I would do that unless I hit the lottery, lol)

Ironically I am the opposite of most, I need a late check in time for our Alaska cruise in Sept.  Ship departs at 8pm and our shuttle service to Seward will have us there around 4pm.

Well our OBC (refund) already hit our account today which is nice since the rep said it wouldn't post for 14 days.  I was able to cancel our drink packages and internet and get refunded for those and repurchased with the OBC.  Prices were the same (bad) as what we had paid already so it didn't matter.  Still have several hundred left to use which is good.

Does anyone know when OBC from redeeming RC Visa card rewards post to your account?  I redeemed our rewards points for OBC about 2 months ago (to this reservation ID of course) and as of today it still hasn't shown up in our cruise planner.

We are definitely interested in this as well.  Is it offered on all ships?  We are on Radiance in Sept

15 minutes ago, FionaMG said:

 

No. This particular type of OBC is non-refundable so you use it or lose it.

Have you pre-paid your tips? If not, that will use some of it up.

There is also a way to get it back at the casino using the slot machines. It's talked about regularly on here, so hopefully someone can chime in and explain how you do it.

Yeah we prepaid tips when we booked so that is done as well.  Everything for our cruise is booked and paid for completely.  I'll look around for the casino deal.  I know we will use some of the OBC for laundry while we are on the ship guess maybe give the wife some spa services too.  I'm sure we will figure it out.

1 hour ago, cruiseguy1016 said:

 

Then you should qualify for the OBC.

Well that went well.  20 mins on hold got an agent and 5 mins later form has been submitted and we will get $654 of onboard credit added to our reservation (price changed between when I posted this topic to when I was able to make the call so we lost out on $18, lol).  Said it will take 14 days to post to our account.

Can this be refunded back to my CC after the cruise if we don't use it?  All of our stuff is all paid for and I have no idea what we will use this for on the ship.

1 minute ago, Another_Critic said:

Did you cancel and rebook or move the sailing (kept same booking#)?  If the former, no adjustment after final payment.  If the latter, you'll get OBC.

I would say moved the booking to another sailing as I have the same reservation ID as I did for the original booking in December 2021. 

3 minutes ago, wallyj said:

If you booked before April 1, this year, you qualify for the best price guarantee, the fare difference will be OBC. RCL and travel agents have a portal to process this and should be able to do while you are talking with them.

 

Bookings after April 1, reprice only before final payment.

Well my original booking was Dec of last year.  In May when the NFL schedule was released we had to change cruises (Alaska cruise and we are taking in a Seahawks game for my wife) so we rebooked then.  This cruise sailing on 9/16 is now cheaper.

I am guessing because of the rebook in May and since we have gone past final payment date that we cannot get any credit back on this cruise?

In the last several weeks I have seen a lot of posts about price adjustments and people getting denied or just a runaround in general.

I checked my cruise price today and it is $672 cheaper than what I paid.  I am past my final payment date (was 6/19) I am 72 days out from sailing and my cruise completely paid for at this point.

What is the exact language I should use to get a price adjustment?  If it was only a small savings I wouldn't bother but it being $672 its worth the time on hold on the phone.

yep got in on the last AMEX deal for $500 (used 2X as it was on my card and my wife's).  This time just Norwegian no Royal.  In addition I just made our final payment yesterday so this would have been a nice little savings but oh well.  Can't win them all.

I'll just keep checking but still get the notice that sailing must be within 30 days.  We are Sept so there is plenty of time anyway. No big deal.

I am confused about those who are getting offers for Aug cruises.  I thought you had to be sailing within 30 days to do Royal Up

Wish ours would drop.  We are in a gty suite and suites are sold out for our cruise so no way to check.

We have a cruise in Sept to Alaska.  Leaves out of Seward.  We are arriving in Anchorage the day before and have a train from there to Seward at 6:45am arrives at 11.  I realize this may be a "gamble" but I think its far less of a gamble than flying in as others have said.  I am not that worried about making it in time.  Theoretically if I want to I could just rent car and drive there in about 2 hours as well.

2 hours ago, Ferry_Watcher said:

Wow, your wife must be a Seahawk super fan for you both to switch up your cruise.

 

Before you posted this change, I was going to suggest flying to Munich to watch them play in Europe in November.

Well its a one time thing.  I doubt we will get out that way ever again (she does not fly so it takes a lot for her to do this).  Moving the cruise was ok I think we may the better itinerary now anyway we are on the "one way" cruise on 9/16 from Seward to Vancouver.  Its costing an extra 1k which sucks but oh well I had a really good price to begin with so its not terrible but it was better before.  The rest of the stuff (plane tickets, hotels, train tickets etc) were a pain in the butt to but all of that was covered miles and points so I was able to cover all but one night at the hotel with what I had already done.

Flying into Anchorage from VA ended up being a lot more $$ (points) than flying into to Seattle which was our initial plan so that kinda messed me up.  That and the Anchorage hotel was a little pricey too.

We opted to change our cruise instead.  It hurt to do so $$ wise but its done. RC and their "discounts" really do not make mathematical sense ya know.

Itinerary is still really good and we actually have an additional port of call so that's cool.  This allows for no rushing around (cruise is 2 days earlier) and we get back 2 days earlier so transitioning back to Seattle is no problem so getting to a game is also no problem.

I have to hope RC puts internet and drink packages back on sale as I did lose out on those discounts I had as well but such is life.

1 hour ago, time4u2go said:

I'm not disagreeing with this necessarily, but why do you think this is the case?  I just tried a mock booking from Vancouver to Seattle on Avis and it let me.

because I checked multiple sites - expedia, priceline, enterprise, alamo and none of them let me do a one way booking from Vancouver to Seattle.  I am happy to be wrong but that is what I saw.  I will happily check Avis and see what they say.  Thx

Seems crazy that Royal won't let you off before 8 with a 7 dock time (yes I know there are procedures etc).

I can move us to a 10am flight which gets us back to Seattle in time for the game for sure (need to drop luggage at the hotel and go of course and we might get in right at kickoff but that's ok) but that means we really need to be off the boat as soon as it docks although I firmly believe that the 2 hour before flight deal is not 100% necessary.  However arriving 45 mins or an hour before yeah that might a big problem

1 hour ago, steveru621 said:

Sorry, no you can't make it.  The airline will want you there at least two hours before your flight.  It will take you at least 10 minutes just to get to the taxi stand and then another 40 minutes to the airport. The Check-in process at YVR is very slow.  You need to bring your own bags to the x-ray device, then, you need to go through security and customs.

 

We just did all this last week.  No one was allowed off the ship until 8AM.

 

The bus may be a better option.

Thanks Steve.  Very good information and what I needed to know.  Time to switch it up and put the funds to a car rental for the 9 days even though for 90% of it the vehicle will be parked.  Wish the parking at the Vancouver port wasn't so much yikes.

20 minutes ago, gumshoe958 said:

Take your own bags off the ship rather than leave them out the night before and collect them in the terminal.

Yes would have to do this or whatever we need to do to be the first ones off basically

10 minutes ago, time4u2go said:

Consider renting a car and driving. It's only about a 2.5 hour drive. 

Can't rent a car from Canada to the US I have looked into it already.  Besides even if I can by the time I get the rental, drive, and arrive in Seattle it will be about the same arrival time as flying.  No I wouldn't have the "tightness" of leaving the ship and airport departure issue but driving doesn't save me much that I can see.

30 minutes ago, time4u2go said:

Do these get you anything in Canada? 

 

Also, I assume you would be doing self assist. 

Not sure what that is

25 minutes ago, Biker19 said:

RCI has discontinued downline disembarkations.

wow so no option to leave early that sucks

13 minutes ago, Biker19 said:

Even that will be tight - the earliest you can probably get off the ship is 7:30-45. Sunday will make the drive to the airport easier, but still at best 8:15AM to reach the airport.

I guess if we can find a 10:30ish flight that would be better and just be late to the game.

Either that or we have to cut the cruise a day short and disembark at out last port (last day of our cruise is just on the water) if we want to go to the game.

1 minute ago, klfrodo said:

If it matters, when you fly from Vancouver (YVR) back to the US, you clear US Customs and Immigrations while at YVR.

 

Having said that, whew, that is tight.

Didn't know that, thanks.

But yes it is tight.  I can push the flight to around 9:30 but the flight time is just around 90 mins give or take dropping us in Seattle at 11ish figure out of the airport if we are lucky no later than 12 and we have to drop bags at the hotel and get to the game which starts at 1:30.

Only reason to consider this other than my wife is a Seahawks fan is that we are travelling across the country from VA so its not likely we will get back to the left coast again (certainly not anytime soon).