DCPIV

By the way, when I say you "can" do better, I should say "might." 

You can do better, but you may as well get it now. If the price goes down, you can cancel for a refund and repurchase it. 

By the way, you'll only be able to purchase via the cruise planner up to 48 hours (I believe) prior to sailing. 

9 minutes ago, Rosy Season said:

Here's my next concern: I booked this during the double points promotion. If I change the room type or anything about the booking will I lose the double points from the promotion?

I believe so, but you'll actually just get the same number of points either way. 

I don't think you can go wrong. If you like interior, you'll be fine. If you spend the money to upgrade, you'll probably find the value over the week. As mentioned, JS is an upgraded room, but that's all it really is. 

Go with your gut on this one. Again, unless that $1000 is a stretch for you, it'll be hard to go wrong. 

On 10/30/2021 at 4:06 PM, COCKYMARK said:

What all will concierge do for you?

The concierge is pretty much Guest Services (other than getting a new card or making change), Shore Excursions, and Maitre d' wrapped up into one and can save you a tremendous amount of time with that sort of thing.  The couple of times we've had major problems on a cruise, it also was excellent to have a Concierge to deal with.  Even if you have an issue that requires actually getting down to the Guest Services desk or that the Concierge otherwise cannot handle, chances are good that the Concierge will be able to facilitate resolution by making an introduction or appointment or something like that so that you aren't just stuck in what could be a long, slow line.

Yes, you may find some folks seeming to monopolize the Concierge's time with one thing or another during hours in the Suite Lounge.  The solution to that is to bring up your issue to the Concierge earlier via phone call (either speak directly or leave a message).  

4 minutes ago, sharon&family said:

So does this mean that my child can go on any tour through Royal Caribbean?  Or do they have bubble tours like Carnival where there is only one offered at each location?  Do they have child care for a 1 year old where I can pay for babysitting?

We only have one sailing booked on RC at the moment, but it's coming up fairly soon (January).  I haven't seen anything designated as a "bubble tour" or anything otherwise distinguishing one tour from another.  There may be age restrictions, though that's always been the case.

I know that there has been some sort of child care for children under 3 in the past (3 and over and potty trained always had Adventure Ocean, at least pre-covid).  I have no idea what's available right now, though.  There's a little blurb about it HERE, but not a lot of details (other than ships that don't have it).

1 minute ago, brillohead said:

Between norovirus and COVID and food waste issues, I bet we never see self-serve at the buffet again.

That wouldn't bother me one little bit.

2 minutes ago, binro01 said:

Can a TA do this for you as well? RC will not talk to me about a booking not controlled by them.

Yes, they can.  Just ask.

2 hours ago, rockmom said:

Hard to say if there will be a better deal, however--and I cannot stress this enough. Don't go by percentage off because they tend to use varying 'base prices'.  Always look at the price itself, after you put it into the cart.

Absolutely 100% true.  

1 hour ago, hotsauce126 said:

Had a scuba excursion in Curacao canceled by Royal citing "operational issues"

Typically, that means that the tour operator cancelled on them.  Either that, or they cancelled the tour operator due to bad reports.

3 hours ago, LouTheGlue said:

We enjoyed it so much we've since done Trikes of St. Maarten and hopefully in Jan. 2022 we can try Trikes of Cozumel.

Thanks for the heads-up about that!  I don't know why I never looked to see if they did it in other locations!

It sounds like there's a good deal of variation around the line. 

I've been sailing on RC for about 27 years and, even though I was very impressed with their food for a long time.  In fact, I was one of those folks who would say something like "why in the world would I want to pay extra for Chops when the dining room is as good as it is?"  Shortly after the expansion of specialty restaurants, though, we noticed the quality begin to gradually drop.  We started going to the occasional specialty restaurant evening around then. 

The gradual drop ended with a rather appalling couple of dinners on Liberty about 5 years ago.  The food somewhere around "hospital grade" (a bit tongue-in-cheek, but only a bit).  The service also was horrible, but that's wasn't the servers' fault.  They were just spread so thinly that they couldn't keep up.  This was at a designated seating, as well--not MTD.  After two nights of that, we had no desire to dine in the MDR again.  These days, when I'm pricing a cruise on RC, I just add on the price of the UDP when deciding if we like the value.

Fortunately, we had a much better experience on Empress (RIP) in 2017.  Since there only was Chops on board, we decided we would give the MDR a whirl.  The quality of both the food and service in the MDR was fantastic!  We did dine at Chops a few times over our 9-day B2B, but it was more for variety than anything (and because they would offer us terrific deals for it).  We never felt like we needed to get away from the MDR or improve upon it.  We were heartbroken when our 2018 Empress cruise was cancelled (no more Cuba) and even more so when she was sold off.

I'm very glad to hear that things may have improved over our bad experiences, at least in some cases.

22 minutes ago, bstel said:

Now Carnival is a different matter.

DW said the same thing after she was on Carnival about a month ago.  She is not a picky eater by any measure, and she's been on Carnival enough to know to set the bar fairly low in the first place.  However, she said that the MDR didn't clear that bar a couple of times and barely cleared it the rest of the time.  It was only a 4-nighter, so she was fine with it (and was having fun with her girls group, regardless).  Worth noting, though.

Just now, not-enough-cruising said:

How do you reprice when their is no “new lower” price to compare to??

You call them and you ask.  I don't know how they do it, but I called and asked when there was a sale going on and my category was sold out.  The lady I spoke with said there had been a reduction, and I received an adjustment.  I can only surmise that they maintain some note of a price even when it's sold out and we don't see it.

You'll have to give them a call.

1 minute ago, not-enough-cruising said:

Once your category is sold out, there is no need to continue checking prices.

There is if you are interested in repricing, and you can reprice even after your category is sold out.  I've done it and saved a very pretty penny doing so.

I'm also about to be on Millennium.  If it's there, I might also give it a try if I can remember to do so.  I'll see if I also can remember to ask how it's made.

@rM3panno @cazo90 @viperfoth  Go to "Manage Your Reservation" and then "Before you Board" and look down near the bottom.  There should be a button to have your tags mailed.  That works.  The link that's only from the "already booked" page does not.

I just got my tags in today for my sailing next week.

12 minutes ago, PTC DAWG said:

I don't know anyone who uses a tub regularly...I agree, not the smartest decision to go all tubs.  

These are tubs with a shower head, correct?  Otherwise, I don't know what in the world someone was thinking.  While I actually do know folks who use a tub regularly (even exclusively when given the choice), they are few and far between.

1 minute ago, basenji56 said:

Also, the Diamond lounge on Royal is very nice.

That depends a great deal on the ship, especially when crowded during what used to be the happy hour.

1 minute ago, wrk2cruise said:

This was discussed recently but prior to covid the premium bev package and unlimited stream internet 1 device (not tips and OBC) were considered stateroom amenities for RS and above and would be included with no-perks fares and MoveUp upgrades.  

 

Apparently this has changed as documented in this spreadsheet and reported confirmed by Celebrity.

To be precise (I believe), those were the amenities prior to instituting The Retreat.  That said, it's a difference with little or no distinction, as Covid came around only a few months after The Retreat did.

Nowadays, the higher suites enjoy other amenities, such as unlimited specialty dining, two bottles of liquor or wine in the room, complimentary soft drinks and premium bottled water in the room.

Something X could do is what its sister line, Royal Caribbean, has done with regard to drinks.  At least for the time being (although it's been strongly hinted it's here to stay for a while), you get free drink vouchers just added to your account every day.  They are good for that day only, but they are good at almost every location and for just about anything within what one would expect from a drink package.  It's hardly a perfect solution for anyone, but it's proven to be very popular with the crowds who no longer have to look at their watches or deal with climbing over one another to get that last one in.

Personally, I'm almost always happy to buy a drink package whether on X (where we are Elite, at least for a little while longer) or RC (where we are D+ and likely will be there forever).  For better or for worse and for the time being, we drink enough to where the cost is no worse than a virtual wash.  One benefit we enjoy is that we don't have to deal with a bunch of individual transactions both in the moment and on our account statement.  We also enjoy eliminating any hesitation in trying something new or just moving on to something else if we find we happened not to be in the mood for what we just ordered.  Frankly, we've also enjoyed the sense of freedom the packages seem to have instilled in bartenders to offer something new and different.  

I don't know about Captain's Club, but this horse has been dead for a while.  Yet we continue to flog the poor beast.

It's been pretty well established that the ideal solution for the monetary benefits would be to allow the choice between AI and not.  There are some of us Elite and above members that will would find value in the AI bundle and would gladly choose it.  Others may want to buy the packages a la carte or not at all.  

As pointed out by others, there are number of non-monetary benefits to being Elite and above, as well.

34 minutes ago, NanaChar said:

They should have access to Luminae and the Retreat.  Can we vote on it?  

Frankly, if it were to happen at all, that's something that ought to be assessed from cruise to cruise and depend upon the number of suite passengers and non-suite Zenith passengers on board.  It's much more an issue with Luminae because Luminae is fairly limited in space as it is. I don't know about you, but I'd be pretty ticked off if I paid the very dear price for a suite and was crowded out by Zenith guests.  Even just one table's worth could be a big deal.  Add more than that, and you're asking for a real problem.  

MC/Retreat Lounge is less of an issue.  I also recall seeing somewhere that X already intends to restore that benefit in the future.

I'm also a fan of Zenith folks, and I agree that what they've accomplished is something special.  However, there are many ways to provide perks and benefits without so adversely affecting other cruisers' experience, especially those that have paid rather dearly for that experience. If the Zenith benefits no longer are enough for folks, then lobby for OBC or paid gratuities or something like that.  The rest of the Indulge/Retreat perks already are there.

36 minutes ago, canderson said:

So is there some consensus that this spreadsheet appears to be 'current'?

I didn't look at the whole thing, and I don't know what it would take for a real "consensus," but I'll attest that the portion I discussed is correct.

10 minutes ago, mfs2k said:

Yes, I found Order History.  but still "no" for me.  None of my AI benefits are reflected

When did you book.  It can take a couple of days or even a week for AI benefits to show up online.

Edit:  Nevermind!  @canderson has showed us all the way!