RoamingRetirees

Another D+ running off a Diamond from the lounge.

 

 

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Nowhere did he say he WANTED the Diamonds booted. It is just his prediction of what will happen.

Understand but no C&A perks are guaranteed. We all hope they remain in place.

 

Size of lounge or number of them has never been guaranteed as well.

 

 

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He didn't say anything was guaranteed. We all know Royal can change any of the perks offered.

And it was on the Oasis that I first experienced the "three day turnaround". :(

Us too, including the complementary laundry I got when a waiter dumped over three glasses of sparkling wine.

This is something you can usually control. Speak to the stateroom attendant about the wash & fold bag, many times we can get it on any day. Plus, if you turn in the clothes in the morning, you can usually get them back by 5pm the next day.

I guess that depends on the ship. We have seldom gotten them back by the next day. Sometimes it's been the third day.

What am I missing here? 40% off still sounds like a pretty good perk...

Only if you want to buy a package. Many of us only used the free days. Now we will have to pay to get the benefit.

Damn it! I was looking forward to becoming Diamond after my next cruise, but now it is not as appealing to cruise with Royal anymore. They used to offer surf only internet for a reasonable price, but they took that away and only allow you to buy surf and stream packages at higher prices. Now to remove a perk for Diamond and Diamond+ is just ridiculous. I think I will do more Princess cruises with the generous free internet I get from them in the future.

When did they take away surf only packages? We were able to get it in January and February.

Thanks for the link.

 

NRD doesn't work for us as long as there are change penalties. "No refund " is fine. Would have no problem paying deposit and not being allowed a "refund" IF changes were allowed up until final payment.

I understand, but that wouldn't solve their problem of so many people booking cruises as placeholders.

I've thought about this a lot on the last cruise.

If RCCL created a "Credit Score", similar to what lenders use, that could work. You start with a number for all, and as you book cruises and "stick to the schedule" you accumulate points. If you cancel a cruise, you get decremented, say a 100 point penalty. The score is evaluated and appropriate discounts are given for the level you are at.

That would work and everyone would get treated fairly. Abusers would get slammed.

 

If you abuse the system enough, then full deposits. If you are constant, then perhaps the original reduced deposit of $100 a person.

One could even put a multiplier on for the amount paid (or lost due to cancellation) like Celebrity does for their point system.

If you upgrade from a lower category to a higher one (i.e. balcony to GS) you would accumulate more points. If you downgrade - penalties.

 

The same could be done for onboard credit.

That coupled with the C&A discounts could benefit the repeat cruisers who don't renege on their commitments.

That, I believe, would be a resolve for the issue.

Sounds good on paper, but how would Royal's IT ever get it right? :rolleyes:

It's so weird to me that someone would quite going on a cruise just because the cruiselines are fighting price increases by turning free options into paid options. The more they make paid, the more I'll like that cruiseline personally. I hate paying for anything I don't use, and I prefer being able to keep the price down just to board.

Not sure what you mean. This thread concerns the elimination of reduced deposits. Nothing to do with turning free options into paid options.

I thought it was 80% were being serious and the other 80% were joking.

You shouldn't judge others by yourself. :)

BTW....are they going to pay interest on the deposits they are holding for a year or more????????

Do the airlines pay interest on your entire fare when you book a year in advance?

Late to the party, apologies if brought up already. I doubt you will be able to secure the same cabin on a B3B if you don't book early.

There are always trade-offs, aren't there?

Maybe Royal Caribbean should offer refundable deposits to those that have a history of taking the cruises that they booked, and non-refundable deposits to those that have a history of booking more cruises than they take.

 

 

Now, I hope Amazon delivers my new flameproof suit today as promised.

I'd like their IT department to try dealing with that! :eek: :evilsmile:

Most of the cruises we book while onboard are with the intent of actually taking that ship and that sale date. However, we have done placeholder/dummy bookings to get the reduced deposit. I don't even care about the OBC....just like the reduced deposit. For the record, the "placeholders" we always chose category/location that was just "so-so" or "less desirable" to make sure we weren't holding a cabin that someone else might be seeking specifically!

We're the same way. A couple of years ago we were planning to take our children and grandchildren on a cruise. We were on a ship in February--the itineraries we were interested in didn't come out until March. We booked 4 cabins close to the date we wanted and then moved the bookings as soon as the new itineraries came out. We only had to put down a total of $400 deposit and got $400 OBC. Like someone said earlier, we only did that because the Next Cruise Certificates no longer had any value.

Maybe I'm not fully understanding the issues here but speaking from the UK and Australian (and maybe Canadian?) perspective isn't this a good thing for us? No more block booking lots of cruises for US customers whilst onboard at low deposits when those people have no intention of taking most of them but holding on to them because, hey the deposits haven't cost much and we can let them go when we decide which one to take :o. And by the time they release them - and they're often much-coveted locations - the prices have increased.

 

Great news I say - and flame away if you don't like it - or please correct me if I misunderstood the 'problem'

While what you say has some merit, I think the block booking is by travel agents. That won't change with this new policy. If individuals book those much-coveted locations, I think they normally intend to take those cruises.

I anticipate all deposits will be nonrefundable at some point. Eliminating the reduced deposit will make it easier to implement.

The last 2 weeks on the Liberty, the Next Cruise area was always empty and very few appointments in the appointment book. One of the agents told me they had already seen a large reduction in on board bookings and at the time the reduced deposit was still in effect!!

 

Can't believe RCCL just renovated and enlarged the Next Cruise areas on most of their ships and quadrupled the staff!! Probably figured out all the new staff was costing them too much money. The Next Cruise Agents must all be Officers since it is considered a step up from the Loyalty Ambassador position.

 

Carla

We were on Liberty in June, and the NC area was always empty. But summer is family cruising time. They probably aren't the ones who book a lot of cruises on board anyway.

AND a specialty restaurant:halo::halo::halo:

So you can roll out of bed and hit the restaurant!

Probably change it to a specialty restaurant, so maybe less salespeople and more dining staff.:halo::halo:

More likely another cabin. ;p

Not sure what service says this. The French prosecutor says the "cable/fastenings gave way".

We all know how accurate the news services are. :rolleyes:

I must have been lucky the last few times, they've done dresses, pants and button downs for me. I'll remember that for future trips. Thanks for the information.

We have also put some other items in by counting them as shorts and t-shirts. However, they could charge for those items not on the list. I just remembered that PJ's are also included.

I'm not 100% sure - I knew I should have brought the paper home with me. I think it was along the lines of t-shirts, shorts and little items.

 

I needed two pair of pants, a button down shirt and sweater washed for the return flight home. I'd had similar things washed my last cruise so I didn't think anything of it for this trip. The bag was big enough for all of that and probably 3-4 more items so it's a good size - just didn't work for me.

Thanks. As long as I've been D+ it has been restricted to shorts, swim suits, t-shirts, handkerchiefs and socks. When you said it changed, I was hoping we could put other things in.

 

They have also changed the bag / list of what you were able to have cleaned for free.

Do you remember what items you can include in the free bag? Thanks.

m i z...

z o u !!!!

This just started appearing on the guest booking invoice recently.

 

Obviously they are trying to stop people from making any changes to bookings. I think that is also the reason they want to eliminate the balcony discount for bookings under 6 months. Slowly closing up all loopholes. Congress should take a lesson from them. :p