Iamcruzin

The repositions from Florida or San Juan to the Northeast have been bargains for me in the past. I missed out on a Repo this yr on Princess. Ft Lauderdale to NYC stopping at ABC, St Kitts and San Juan 12 days for under 2,000 in a balcony with the plus package. My wife couldn't get away from work that week Once you add in the flight for those European destinations it's no longer a bargain plus there are a lot of sea days and the itineraries aren't all that great.

7000 passengers is a tall order for that time of the year.

I have found that shoulder season which is the period just after a peak period like spring break and just before the next peak period summer vacation is where they run deals to fill the ship. Likewise September, October and early November before Thanksgiving (hurricane season). After Thanksgiving up to Mid December are also fire sales. Reposition cruises also offer good value.

That's a big gamble.

From what I have read it's not a deal. It's like the game show. One person participates and the rest just watch. The casino is a better investment.

I was referring to the roll calls that I have been in and currently engaged in. They are nothing like they were when I first joined. New social media is more active.

I agree. Now they are dead. Nobody interacts or answers a question. I don't even know why they even joined the roll call in the first place.

Yep as is Saint Martin and Sint Maarten depending if you are on the French side or Dutch side.

On a positive note, If we are at the point where the navigation map is what we are complaining about now, then we must have accepted all of the legitimate complaints about service, food quality and verandas that are just a roll down car window.

Maybe Google Earth.

16 years and 12k posts on Cruise critic with sailings on Princess, Royal Caribbean and Celebrity, let me tell you that Royal Caribbean has a cult following in terms of their loyal passengers. They have more rude and entitled cheerleaders than any of the other two lines and they act as if they won the Nobel Prize instead of buying a loyalty status. I don't have a dog in this race as I would have to sail in suites and limit myself to one cruise line for the rest of my cruising days in order to obtain this level. At that point it wouldn't matter as I would be receiving the benefits just from my booking category. I will tell you that the most complaints from all three cruise lines comes from those who have reached the high levels. For years members on Cruise Critic were begging for the cruise lines to create additional levels and all that did was generate more complaints.

I guess it's not easy being a Zenith or Pinnacle.

In 1989 Princess was owned by P&O before loyalty perks were even a thought.

In 2006 I got a credit for a cruise we took in 1991 when P&O still owned Princess. All I did was fax over a photo that we took with the ship photographer.

Right now my 4 night cruise on Reflection is showing $75.99 for the Classic which has been as low as $57.99 during a sale $21.99 for basic WiFi per guest per day. I don't recall the sale price. When I subtracted the basic price from the AI price and divided by 4 it came to $51 per person per day for both the Classic drink package and the wifi. I booked the AI and later upgraded to the premium drink package for $8.99 a per person per day with the OBC I have.

Not worth the extra thousand. On M class I believe the balconies are larger than the regular veranda staterooms. We are booked on Reflection in Premium Concierge only because it was only $30 more than the premium veranda that I was going to book. The Concierge room is in a better location on a higher deck which was the reason I booked it. We will get extra loyalty points but that doesn't mean anything to me since we book AI anyway. Most of the extra perks are just fluff. The embarkation day lunch in the MDR is a nice perk but none of it is worth $1000. I think Aqua offers more benefits and would be worth paying more.

most likely that will happen. It's a 4 night cruise sailing 50 miles off the coast of Florida with one of the stops Key West. There is nothing on board that I can't get at home.

it's refundable

Stupid move. An empty room doesn't generate any revenue. I have 300 refundable OBC on my next cruise with my wife. I booked AI and upgraded to the premium drink package with the OBC. I don't know if I'll even spend the rest. We don't gamble, there is nothing in the shops we want and we don't book excursions. A single person still pays gratuity. There are also experienced cruisers here who are at the top levels of the loyalty program who just take advantage of the free drinks and other perks they earned and don't open their wallet.

I agree. I never received a letter and I booked 30 days before final payment. I was able to bid immediately through the cruise planner. I am 47 days out now and they are offering a 50% discount on the bids. I have never seen anyone report this before and I have never experienced it myself. In the past it always would cost me more to up bid than if I would have just booked the category in the first place.

There are a lot of TA's on these boards who make their own adjustments as they come up. If you are in a group booking you probably got extras that the average person in a single booking doesn't get.

If it was part of a promotion you could lose your OBC because now you are rebooking on different terms. This happened to me but my OBC was more than the reduction so I left it alone. In all my yrs of cruising I have never seen a larger price drop of $500 but I don't book suites. Also what travel agent in their right mind would take a cut in commission to save a client $500 unless they are their own TA. It's just bad business. Can you imagine how time consuming it would be to track every client and monitor price drops. It's time consuming just doing it for myself. Every time I do a mock booking a get an email saying your ship has come in but you're not on it. Complete your booking.

I'm wondering about parking myself. We are in Concierge class and have to board in time for the lunch in the MDR as it is one of the perks.

My cruise has gone up and I'm 45 days out. It's a 4 night cruise out of Florida which is a hard sell during hurricane season. When I booked it they offered residents rates. There must still me plenty of rooms because they are offering a move up bid for 50% off. The lowest bid is half the priced that it was at 60 days out.

Included grats comes off their bottom line. Internet doesn't cost them anything and they can make money if passengers want to upgrade. I'm waiting for Princess to drop the gratuities. They were late to the party offering an all inclusive experience. They were probably forced to step up when loyal passengers like myself jumped over to Celebrity when they were offering Pick your Perk and 123 Go. As it turned out we liked Celebrity better. Had we fallen into the loyalty program trap we might have still been sailing on Princess.