Engineroom Snipe

No, the pants were not getting tighter, the dry cleaners were using the wrong cleaning chemicals and the fibers tightened a bit. That is your story and stick to it.

So I was premature about selling tickets to the fencing match?

🤺

I should have put in the legal disclaimer about not using the bags for any type of perishable food since most mini-bar coolers are just that, a cooler. Cookies, pastries, and other normal room temperature items, have at it! 🫢

With discounts to no discounts it can run between $60 to $105 per night, per person PLUS 18% gratuity added upon check-out. This depends upon the ship, sailing, and discounts. At some point before your cruise, if you keep checking your app, they will offer the "Buy one get one at 50% off deal" or BOGO special which comes out to 25% per person per day. Then there might be 30% off per person per day on special sales (Black Friday, holidays). I have only seen 35% off per person per day offered occasionally when both cruisers in the same cabin are over 65. This is in most cases, maybe offered when RCI is falling behind on the future unlimited beverage quotas on a specific ship and sailing. I think @cruiseguy1016 's suggestion of $82 per person per day plus 18% gratuities with some type of discount (say the BOGO) would get you within 10% of your bill for reasonable estimate.

This sounds like my Enchantment cruise in April of 2022.

Ziplock bags are not just for sandwiches when cruising. The universal food pantry that goes with you! 😁

Beef tenderloin and New York strip steaks were good. We had salmon on two different nights, both good. We tend to stay away from pasta dishes (and bread) to keep from gaining too much weight even though we walk 5 miles every day onboard. We were not into the desserts but I just do not have a sweet tooth anymore so they might have been good but I did not try them. Breakfast was the best in Windjammer. We are the first ones in at 7am so I cannot tell you if the atmosphere changes during rush hour. Beautiful outside aft dining/sitting area for fantastic wake view. I believe Drago was in charge of the Windjammer and he was around constantly. He runs a tight Windjammer. Morning salmon station was really impressive.

I was on in November for 9 nights. I ate at the MDR all 9 nights. The food was consistently better than my six previous cruises post pandemic. The Windjammer breakfast was very good. I only snacked for lunch at Windjammer (not hungry, so I will not give opinion). I did not go to the Windjammer at dinner.

I think since the classic MDR meal items were prepared at every single sitting on every ship in the fleet, they did have a higher level of consistency week to week on the same ship and fleet wide in general. When these staples were pulled from the daily menu, it made other dishes more noticeable resulting in perceived inconsistencies (good and bad). Chefs seem to be trying to put their own spin on the spices and not following a mandated recipe.

That tux is associated with many great memories. Each time you wear it, it is special to you. Make another special memory, look sharp and do not care about others. Many people still wear tuxes and formal wear onboard. I was in formal wear sitting next to a person in shorts. I made my decision and they made theirs. We both had a great time. Clothes do not make the person but a person has the choice of what they would like to wear. Please take this in a positive way: we never know how many chances we will have in life to do what we want, wear your tux proudly and enjoy.

Maybe RCI knows from past history that it will be leaked on this board and then troll to take the temperature of the cruisers? 🤔

You are spot on about how many cruisers were only paying $400-$500 more for refundable fares, especially for suites. Many cruisers would deposit on multiple suites knowing that they were only going to pick one or worse yet, "see how they feel" at the time and pull multiple or all cruises before the final date and get a full refund. I am not saying anyone did anything wrong. A refundable deposit is just that. They did what they were allowed to do. RCI might have been having a hard time filling in those empty suites 91 days before the ship leaved the dock. One must read the contract carefully regarding suites today because the terms and conditions have changed concerning deposits which are much different than when you used them.

You are correct with your information and I would expect cruise fares to use the business models of supply and demand. I have noticed that off-peak airfares are starting to show weakness compared to last year. Maybe the shoulder seasons might come back on cruise lines and I am standing by for a bit. I understand raising prices but if you looked at the CPI compounded since the January before the pandemic (2020), a 2020 $2000 cruise would cost about $2400, not almost double. Business is business and prices do not come down until the customer stops buying. I got it. My choice, pay the price or not cruise. I do like to cruise, just at the right price point.

There were three cruises I booked in the 4th quarter of 2022 for 2023. Everyone of them were a minimum of 300% more at 120 days before the actual cruises (and going up during the last three months which is expected during a high-demand revenge travel year.)

We had booked direct with RCI and in many cases did our reservations using NEXT CRUISE onboard. That stopped about four years ago. We did not have the stress of the billing problems I have seen recently posted but I could easily imagine being one of them. My travel agent works for a company that directly gets blocks of discounted rooms and resells them. RCI will allow me to reserve an interior cabin GTY for $200 and not pay the difference until 90 days before for a 7 day cruise with a $50 OBC using NEXT CRUISE (I am aware that I can transfer this offer to retain the $50 OBC but my time on board is short and in my opinion, not worth it considering my travel agent gets me a similar deal with a much better cabin offer). My travel agent in most cases, if I am more than 6 months from traveling, can get me the same deal but allow me to pick a room from their block of cabins which is a big deal for me. RCI wants a significant amount of additional money to select a cabin. The only difference is that I need to deposit $500 for two people and pay the final amount 120 days before the cruise date. How does this benefit me: 1. In most cases, I have a choice of cabins instead of a guaranteed cabin for the same price. 2. Very little time filling out forms, my agent keeps all of our necessary information on file and only has to confirm that nothing has changed. 3. Should I think I deserve a reduced booking price, he will get it for me or he will explain how pursuing the "special offer" might affect my fully refundable deposit, current OBC, etc. 4. Fully refundable until final payment unless otherwise stipulated and made very clear to me. 5. A phone call on the final payment day to confirm that l am satisfied the price is the lowest available at that time for the conditions that I booked. 6. On that phone call, confirmation of what credit card I want to use (on file or another one). 7. Provides a separate email confirmation of my decisions and an updated cruise contract within one business (in most cases, hours). I also like that I am provided a better travel insurance carrier than the cruise line offerings. The travel insurance company is the one I would chose if I had to buy direct and the rates are the same. They provide cash instead of cruise fare credit should I need to cancel. The whole idea is that as long as my contract is good with his company, I feel relaxed. His company will have much more sway with RCI than I will ever have as an individual if there are issues. Since our decision, I have never wasted my vacation time trying to convince an RCI NEXT CRUISE employee that they are not quoting me the right price or pushing an RCI Credit Card down my throat so they can get a commission. I talked to a fellow dinner ( of MANY cruises) this past November about NEXT CRUISE and he was so disappointed. The representative used their body language and words to let them know that they needed to "come back later" when they were not sure exactly what cruise they wanted to book and they were not interested in getting an RCI credit card so they can get "onboard credits and discounts." So far, including any OBC credit, room upgrades, and "special deals", has RCI's pricing ever been lower than what I have contracted. In many cases in the past two years, RCI's prices have been almost double about 120 days from cruising. I will use him to compare my cruise pricing to other travel experiences now since I trust him.

I know many of the prices are ship dependent but that is a pretty good deal compared to full price. I must have missed that one and I check just about everyday for trends.

I have not seen any sales or discounts on the $3,499 over water cabanas at all on any of my cruises since August of last year.

I resemble that remark! 😜

A little bit of humor: Someone at RCI made a mistake and checked the "Casita Block" on the shipboard activities list off of the Oasis Class template. Lo and behold, they get cruisers trying to reserve them even though they do not exist. RCI headquarters conversation: "Harry, Harry, look at this spreadsheet, we have customers ready to pay $450 for Casitas on the Harmony on a sea day." "Joe, the Harmony does not have any Casitas." "Look at the numbers Harry, we got to find a way to capture this demand " "Harry, I got an idea, check the inventory at the closest "Sam's Club" near the home port for E-Z Up Tents and supersized Igloo coolers. We can lash the E-Z Up Tents to the railings, put two of our normal chase loungers under it with the Igloo full of ice and water bottles in between the loungers. The top of the Igloo has cup holders and enough room for two plates. We will offer a "Feel at Home Special" highlighting a reduced price to make cruising more affordable. Price it at 20% less than the normal Casitas." "Brilliant Joe, but you might want to save the 20% for a Black Friday Special. Let's go with 10% and I will get on it right away. We are going to get a bonus this year for one of the best ideas yet." 😁🤣

This could be a viable hypothesis. Imagine that someone has their cruise cancelled due to lack of payment for whatever reason. The reservation system will open the room for availability and a second person books the cabin. With ships sailing very full right now, that would create chaos as you have two customers screaming at you over one cabin and one of them is not going to be happy.

The MDR can be very good or so-so and anything in between. Check the menu on the cruise before yours during the week before you sail through the Royal App on your phone. The menus should correspond closely to what you will have on your cruise. Figure the three meals you might not be interested in and substitute your three specialty meals for those nights. As soon as you get onboard, head to the nearest open specialty restaurant and make your reservations. It does not have to be the specialty restaurant that you are reserving. In most cases, all three can be done in one visit. This is a high priority because it is a first come first served reservation system and prime times can fill up quickly. My breakfasts in general in the Windjammers have been very good. The lunches and dinners are slowly getting better but unpredictable for the last few years. Sometimes the meals are very good and sometimes they are 'meh' as some cruisers have mentioned. Only in a few rare cases have some of my MDR entrees been so bad that I put the napkin on the plate and called it a meal. There is always food available.

As soon as I saw the title of this thread, I knew it was going become "heated" (pun intended). Other variations: Smoking on the Balcony Vaping on the Balcony Vaping in the Stateroom Passive smoke from the designated smoking areas I am giving this topic a wide berth but I still read all the comments. 🤐

That is a good start. Give it a few business days to correct itself. There have been many choice comments made in hundreds if not thousands of posts about the reliability and accuracy of RCI's website and computer systems. I will leave it at that.

I am not sure anyone will take notice of any poor MDR surveys until they are followed by empty cabins which I will admit are not happening yet. Maybe next year when cruisers like myself are trying other options. Good analysis and opinion.