franl24fan

Same folks must have organized Carol's Brilliance TA, they had been doing the Jewel for several years until the Brilliance replaced it. There were several folks who took on the time consuming ( and expensive) set up of private tours etc. I know that I would not have been comfortable doing that complex a cruise as a solo without the support and input from the experienced folks. The cost savings on the private tours and transfers that they organized saved me well over a $1000. Our roll call also had to be split into 2 parts, and we had a website with all kinds of info. I can't imagine ever having a better experience and owe it to cruise critic for providing a forum for newbies to learn from veterans.

I've since met several of those cruisers on other ships and we all can now chuckle about the too small buses sent by the charter bus company and the left over baggage that had to be sent in a last minute cab from London to Harwich :-).

Also take into account the lines for rides/attractions within the park, which can be 45 minutes or longer. And the time to walk from one area to another within the park.

I have done the Rhapsody inside cabin from Hawaii back to vancouver and had no problems. I almost always have booked inside cabins, even before the new ridiculous double pricing for solos, there are lots of public places to sit and watch the ocean go by. IMHO I'd rather go inside cabin than not go at all.

I don't feel guilty, I worked hard at jobs I didn't always like and always lived below my income, so now in retirement I can travel. I'm very frugal and now that I am retired I can spend the time finding great deals and being able to take advantage of deals.

I've learned to just not go into a lot of detail as to my trips, except for the folks I know from cruising, because I have to bite my tongue when the "agains" are snarky. So when the person who stands in front of me drinking a $5 Starbucks, carrying a $300 purse, wearing $500 jewelry, and driving a $50K SUV, wants to say "oh are you taking another trip" , I just smile and say yes I am. They made their choices, I made mine.

I've also had to accept that not everyone wants to travel, some would rather stay at home within their comfort zone, and I have to keep from judging them.

Depends on how the ta breaks it out, but you should only pay double for the base rate, not the gratuities, port fees & taxes. Some solos have had to go back to their ta and make them clearly show the break down since different agency programs call things different. I always do a fake booking for 2 people, then make sure the only doubled item is the per person. If you check on the RCL web site that has been working correctly after the first few weeks of bugs were ironed out.

On the Legend last November (worst cruise I've ever been on for many reasons) it was brought home to me that the position of Loyalty Ambassador is no longer accurate. I signed up in the appointment book, went in to get assistance on an issue where the new double points had not posted for my last cruise. Figured they could make a quick call or email (since it would be very expensive for me to do so from the ship). When I sat down at the desk and started my question, she cut me off and asked if I was booking a next cruise. When I said no, I was asking for some help and by the way I am Diamond, she got up and said they were only doing bookings that day, I could come back another time. I was shocked. I came back another day about 10 minutes before the time they were to close, no one in the room waiting, again started my question, was told they were closing. I put this incident on my comment card and told the C&A also, no response.

It's almost funny, but over on the Carnival cc threads there is a big ruckus about their loyalty program changing, also seems to be because too many people are reaching the higher levels. I agree that RCL wants to weed out its upper level folks, not because we don't spend as much ( I know how much I drop into the casino and spend on the specialty restaurants) but because we have "unrealistic" expectations based on what used to be. The common theme seems to be the cruise lines push their loyalty programs until they are too successful, then drop benefits to push us away and they can start with the next folks. Sure hope the newbies don't get fooled by the loyalty program false advertising. Lesson learned for many of us is if you get loyalty points fine, use them (or play the system as some folks call it ) but don't expect any loyalty from the cruise lines, IMHO.

RCL does seem to be putting out conflicting stories - on the one hand they tell you at C&A events how important you are to them, but as others have stated it seems all of the current policies are geared to new cruisers that won't be complaining about changes they don't know about. When you talk to RCL staff they seem to feel the "old timers" are just not worth the effort to keep as loyal RCL cruisers.

When I spoke to Mr Goldsteins office about the solo pricing change I told them one thing that really "upset" us was how they made a huge deal of announcing the new double points policy, then within a month they quietly implemented the almost always 200% surcharge (even on a last minute 4 day cruise). As if we were too ignorant to notice?? That is what has happened with all of their changes, they just quietly implement something. And let's not even get into the cut backs on crew that result in terrible service in the dining room, poor quality food, reduced service levels, and just overall a less desirable cruise experience. As one poster mentioned, you go on board now with lower expectations, (but I will still have a good time.)

I still have 3 cruises booked with RCL, two of them were booked before the solo pricing change. Those cruises would now cost me almost 3 times more due to per person increases and the double solo charge (Even the Quantum now looks like an incredible value). The other had a low enough per person that even at double it was a good value.

IMHO RCL is not only shifting to new cruisers, but also to a younger demographic. For seniors who have been cruising for a while, we have been there done that in most of the cruise itineraries RCL offers. So many of us solos will not choose to pay 200% to go back to Nassau or to St Thomas for example. Younger folks or new cruisers may be willing to pay double to see these ports. I am not, so I will do something else. Also many younger cruisers do not have high expectations for the dining room experience, if they go down there at all (in shorts & flip flops :-))

It's also interesting that just as RCL is making this shift the options for many other types of travel are actively seeking senior and solo travelers with attractive pricing and deals. This includes land based tours (no solo surcharge) and European river cruises (small or no solo surcharge), that go to different locations than the usual Caribbean & Alaska. So in 2015 instead of my usual 3 or 4 major RCL cruises I will be doing only 1 RCL cruise, 1 European river cruise , 1 land based tour in Europe, and 1 land based tour in the US, each of which will cost me quite a bit less than an RCL cruise. If other cruise lines offer good deals, I may do one with them.

Let's see how their new policies work out. RCl may be correct and will be able to tell us "old timers" in the next year to take a hike, if we want a high level cruise experience switch to one of the deluxe cruise lines. In a year or so being on a Royal ship may be no different in experience than the "Fun Ships", who by the way put robes in every cabin, have pens&paper, chocolates on the pillows, beach towels in the room, and still do towel animals. Just saying.

There are two things that I find troubling reading posts recently. The first, and to me the most bothersome is my perception that the dollar is the ONLY thing that's important to RCI right now, and the passenger experience is just an afterthought. An example would be the Navigator refurbishment. Millions of dollars were spent to refurbish the ship and add revenue generating space, but people are still complaining about horrible mattresses. What's the point of spending all that money if the real lasting memory people are going to have is of being uncomfortable trying to sleep all week? Why bother refurbishing Chops then jack up the price and remove the most ordered (customer favorite) items from the menu? I understand that revenue is extremely important, but some of RCI's moves seem to be penny wise and pound foolish. At some point ignoring customer comments and preferences will come back to bite them in the "aft."

 

My other concern recently is communication, or maybe I should say lack of communication. People don't like it when changes are sprung on them seemingly at the last minute, and although it's a wonderful website, we really shouldn't have to get news that affects our cruises from CC before we hear from the cruiseline. This applies to all of RCCL, not just Royal Caribbean. I learned that my Millennium cruise had been cancelled on Cruise Critic 14 hours before Celebrity saw fit to contact me. Trying to get through to a real, live person can be an exercise in frustration, and the website is...well...hideous!

 

Fortunately for me, I'm not "loyal to Royal." I've enjoyed all my cruises to varying degrees, and although the Carnival of 2014 isn't for us and we probably won't go on HAL again, there are plenty of other ships on the ocean if I feel that we're not getting our money's worth on Royal Caribbean. I have no intention of cancelling a 2015 cruise on Serenade, and I plan to book more RCI cruises, but it's nice to know that I have options too.

I agree that being loyal doesn't mean I cannot express my opinions on changes, as long as I am respectful and not flaming anyone. There is too much of that on cc lately. After the solo pricing changes, I contacted Mr Goldsteins office and subsequently had a long phone call with a rep. The attitude was loud and clear that until they see a drop in revenue they will proceed. It was interesting though that during that conversation there is a definite gap between what the home office thinks is happening and the reality of what shows up on the website and out in the fleet. I suggested they form focus groups with actual cruisers, but I don't see that happening.

So I have walked with my feet, switching over to another line for a short last minute cruise that RCL had doubled in price for a solo. The danger to RCL, IMHO, is that I discovered that the other cruise line was not as bad as I expected, and actually did some things better than RCL, especially considering the drop in the level of service and quality of food on recent RCL cruises. In the past I only looked at RCL cruises, now I will look at this other line and others also. The bottom line for me will be value of a cruise, or the per day rate, not just the fact the rate is doubled. If it's a good value, fine I'll pay the double, if it's not I will not. The changes in the next cruise certificate will most likely keep me from buying another, the only real advantage of tying up your money for a year or so is the reduced deposit (which I can usually get on other lines). And the hassle of trying to transfer a certificate from yourself to an agent, or from one agent to another, is just not worth it.

So IMHO the recent changes are penny wise and pound foolish. I will be waiting to see what they do to try and get us back when they realize revenue has dropped, I am sure the price drops they'll need to offer will be a lot more than just being fair to their most loyal customers.

I was on the Jewel in 2012 and the stop in Iceland was one of my favorites. As mentioned, we had awesome folks on our cc thread that arranged private tours in every port, twice the tour for half the price and the chance to really get to make a lot of new friends. The Golden Circle tour is not to be missed, can't spell the name, but the waterfall was breathtaking, made Niagara Falls seem like nothing. Be sure and check out the Choice Air rates, I used that for my one way to Heathrow, originally booked with flex fare, after price drop changed to another airline, ended up saving 50% over usual airline price for same flight.

They've been doing this for several years, scheduled for week after the Biketoberfest in late October. I had a friend on it last year, hadn't been told about it when they booked (large charters are never disclosed) Despite the stereotypes of bikers, they just felt the biggest issue for them was prevalence of obnoxious & obscene sayings on tshirts and tattoos and inappropriate clothing in the dining room, and yes there was disruption to other cruisers as there would be with any large group of affiliated individuals taking over areas of the ship.

Each cruiser considering booking should know what their tolerance level is and decide accordingly. Personally, I think it should be disclosed on the cruise line web site if there is a special event or charter. I usually check out the cruise critic thread for a sailing date before I book, that may tell you something about the folks on the cruise.

I just ran into this when I jumped ship from RCL over to Carnival for a short 4 day cruise (the price was half of the Enchantment for better cabin, due to the 200% solo surcharge even for last minute cruise). I have another rewards card I don't use as much, so I used it for the Carnival cruise, just felt guilty over using my RCL VISA :-). I won't get points towards my RCL OBC, but I do get points on that card for restaurant gift cards.

There have been many threads on the topic of new solo pricing over the past few months. I recently posted my conversation with Mr Goldstein's rep. In addition to the 200% surcharge, I questioned why there are many cabins available for 2 people, but when you enter 1 person they all disappear and all you see are guarantees or lowest category. The rep said this should not be happening and she would check into it. If you have "proof" that is happening, suggest you email the details to Mr Goldstein's office. I also brought up the military discount disappearing for solos, and again she said this was not their policy & she would look into it. So far I haven't found any specific examples, since I am not really searching for RCL cruises since the price increase, but if I find one I will send it to Mr Goldstein's office. There is obviously a disconnect from what RCL home office thinks is happening, and what is actually happening.

Glad to hear from some one who has been there, the deck plans are really deceptive. With what you have added I might risk it for a cruise I really want to go on. I am looking at the 11 day Scandanavian & Russia for next year on the Serenade, now I may consider the studio cabin option.

By the way, with all of the discussions about the 200% being charged on just about all cruises, my focus is more on value than the double per person charge. For most cruises I will not pay more than $200 a day, so if the doubled fare comes out to that or less I will still book ( I just booked the Explorer for Feb 26 2015) but I will look at the per day and depending on the itinerary and ship make my decision. I know I will book a lot less because the value is just not there for most of the cruises, especially last minute or older ships.

I looked at these on the Serenade as a possibility but it seemed to me the location would be very noisy, right off the centrum lobby, with public areas all around, and above & below. Not sure I'd want to risk not being able to sleep. On Quantum they are on the end of a hallway, next to a family suite.

For solo travelers, these cabins are the standard RCL answer to our concerns about the expanded 200% pricing, yet there are only 4 cabins per ship, wow that really helps out solos. Speaking for myself, I do not find this an acceptable alternative and at this point do not intend to book any major cruises in 2015. I'm glad it works out for some folks, just not for me.

I was on the Legend Panama Canal Cruise last November, had booked very early so price was fine. Good thing because the cruise itself was worst I've ever been on, which had nothing to do with the Member Cruise.

As others stated, there are many more higher tier C&A folks, and yes many of them threw their status around. We did receive some nice gifts in our cabins each night, although having the Crown & Anchor logo made it difficult to regift unwanted items :-). There was also a free shore excursion, but that was kind of messed up. The possible choices for the free excursion were not announced until a month before sailing, so many of us had already booked shore excursions, but RCL did refund what we had paid so that was fine. What was funny was that the intent of C&A was to give the free excursions to the most senior tier folks first and work down until all the free excursions were filled. However, once they started making calls, folks on our cc thread posted the options and those of us at lower level called and were confirmed for the shore excursion we wanted. So then folks at Diamond Plus level were not able to book. When they were on the ship and found out that lowly Diamond level had the free excursion and they didn't, well you could hear the squawking back to Miami. I'm sure C&A learned to not allow lower tier folks to jump the line, although it was completely unintentional on my part.

Be a rebel, cut, fold, print out in black & white, just go for it. Then run into your bedroom and rip that tag off your mattress.:)

Seriously, I use the heavy duty plastic tags and cut the printed out tag to fit, just so it shows on both sides. I also bought a few extra tags so I can put one in 2 places on my suitcase. The ship luggage handlers have told me they like those plastic tags much more than folks who just put lots of packing tape over their printed tags, easier on their hands.

This morning I did receive a call back from a rep in the Executive Offices in response to my email to Mr Goldstein, which I really appreciated. We had a very nice discussion about the solo cruiser policy changes and I think she understands where I was coming from. It's not just the increased prices, that can be justified by RCL in many ways (other cruise lines do it, you can find a cabin mate to avoid the charge, there are studio cabins etc) but I feel as if the solos are getting the impression from the price increase and from RCL staff when we speak to them that solos are no longer considered an important demographic to RCL, as shown by my experience with the last minute cruise. The rep said Mr Goldstein was very concerned that this was the perception of the solo cruisers. I also mentioned how on some cruises if you put in 1 traveler there will be no available cabins, but if you change to 2 travelers there are many cabins. Also the dropping of a military discount if you put in 1 traveler. The rep agreed that was unacceptable and she would look into that and let me know what she finds out. She asked me to personally email her if I find this happening, which I will do.

So the bottom line I got from this conversation is that solos must communicate with the executive office, in a polite and reasonable format, what our concerns are. For me, I look at the value of a cruise, not necessarily the per person rate doubled for a solo amount. This is the same as when I book a hotel room, where I look at the nightly rate and decide if a particular hotel is worth paying extra for. That is what I will do for a cruise, and as I told the rep, for many RCL cruises the value is just not there for me at a 200% surcharge, especially with the recent decline in service & quality of food on RCL (we had another long discussion on that issue).

If you look thru the threads you will see a lot of discussion and upset folks since the policy change last fall to start charging a 200% surcharge on almost all new bookings. Yes, there are a few weekly specials that are at 175%, but they are very rare. I already had my 2014 cruises booked (even the Quantum was only 1.62) but will probably not book any cruises in 2015.

I just had the experience of trying to book a last minute 4 day cruise on the Enchantment, and despite there being 30 or so available inside cabins I was going to be charged the full 200%, making a 4 day cruise cost $611 for an inside cabin (last Sept I paid $295). I tried calling C&A and Guest Relations to see if they would make an exception, their attitude was "oh well". I sent an email to Adam Goldstein, received an email acknowledgement saying I would get a phone call. I understand RCL is not going to back off this change until they see a negative impact in the bottom line, but I asked Mr Goldstein to at least consider dropping the surcharge on last minute cruises. It is rather upsetting that they would rather have cabins go out empty than give a solo a price break. So I am sailing Sunday on the Carnival Sensation, oceanview, midship for $315, no surcharge. Carnival has a listing on their website of cruises with no solo surcharge, or very small, and there are plenty of them to choose from, including some of their biggest and newest ships.

What I will tell Mr Goldstein's office is that all I can do is speak for myself, and I will not be booking my usual 3 or 4 long cruises in 2015, I might do one if there is a low surcharge, otherwise I will be spending my travel dollars elsewhere. With the increased demographic of solo senior cruisers and the large amount of cabins coming up on RCLs big new ships I don't see how this new policy change will work out for RCL, but they seem confident they can get along without the solos. They have also dropped the military discount for solos on some of the cruises I was looking at, it was there for a double booking, gone for a solo.

I received a call for my Sunday cruise to upgrade from an oceanview to a junior suite for $150 more. I was on the computer when the call came, so I checked the deck plans and found out the cabins they were offering were on the Verandah deck, forward, and just below the sports deck, which seems to me would be noisy. Also I booked this cruise because of the low price for a solo and really didn't want to pay anymore for a 4 day cruise on an older ship. The rep seemed surprised I didn't jump on it, but understood what I was saying. I'm sure they'll find others who are not as noise sensitive as I am :-).

I just "jumped ship" from Royal Caribbean over to Carnival, after 10 years of only sailing on RCL as a solo ( I am actually at a high level in the loyalty program). Last fall RCL implemented a full 200% surcharge on almost all ships & sailings, fortunately I already had 2 cruises booked for 2014, with surcharges at about 1.60. This week I wanted a quick 4 day last minute cruise out of Port Canaveral, however RCL would have cost me over $600 for an interior cabin. I called the RCL loyalty program and guest relations, basically was told "oh well, we don't see a need to offer discounts to solos, our ships will fill up anyway". So I booked on the Sensation for half the price for an oceanview, no single surcharge. It may be older and not as fancy, but for a quick getaway it'll be fine. I could have even booked the 7 day cruise on the Dream , with no surcharge, for less than RCL was charging for the 4 day. I have sent an email to the President of RCL, suggesting they consider dropping the 200% surcharge to maybe 150% for cruises sailing within 2 weeks, but I guess they'd rather have the cabin go out empty than give the solos a break. RCL also seems to have dropped the military discount for solos, based on a fake booking I was researching, wait until veterans discover that policy change.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out, maybe not this year, when most of us already have cruises booked pre policy change, but definitely next year, where I for one will not be booking my usual 3 RCL cruises.

where do you find the email address for Mr Goldstein, I looked on the RCL website and couldn't find it. I'd like to contact him concerning the change to pricing for solo cruisers.

we are not allowed to post the name of travel companies, but the one I use is "great round shape travel", try googling the synonyms of that :-). I am going on a 2 week land tour of Glacier/Canadian Rockies in August, no single surcharges on any of their land tours, and I've met many solos who have done them and say they felt very welcome and had a great time. That company, and most of the other large ones, have the low single surcharge for river cruises, and I just got an email listing many fall river cruises that the single surcharge will be waived. So there are many other travel options out there for singles.

there is also a web site that you can set up alerts on for price drops. We are not allowed to mention the name on cc, but if you do a search for "cruise line price drop alerts" it should come up. For the small fee it is a great tool, it notified me of a $500 price drop that only lasted for a few days.

After I posted the last, I was thinking about another factor that will affect how many big line cruise ships solos will book. For many of us, we are the "baby boomer" generation, many have been retired for at least a few years and been traveling & cruising. Speaking for myself, I am tired of the same old ports in the Caribbean, Nassau, even Alaska. So when RCL wants to charge me $200/day to go back to St Thomas, that is just not my preference. River cruises in Europe are booming, IMHO, because many folks in my age group, couples & solos, feel the same way and are ready to "cross the pond" and see new ports and have new experiences. So, not only is the demographics changing, with more senior solos, but also the ports we want to go to is changing. I expect the river cruises will react to this shift, as they have been adding more boats, but for the next few years the market should still be competitive. Just a random thought about how driving solos, especially senior solos, away from RCL will have an impact on their bottom line.

For solos, take a look at some of the european river cruises. Yes you have to consider air fare, but the cruise lines offer the same airfare deals as Choice Air. For example, on one 14 day river cruise thru Germany, the normal per person rate was $3500 (all cabins have windows or balconies), the single surcharge was $750, airfare for 2 one way tickets was about $1000. Everything is included in the cruise except for a few add on tours. Value wise this a great deal, so I am considering it. The deal is even better for last minute (2 months in advance).

And many of the land tour companies have no single surcharges. I am doing a 14 day Glacier/Canadian Rockies land tour in August for about $175/day.

News flash to all of the big cruise lines - we have other options, we are not tied to what you offer.