smashedpumpkins

14 hours ago, S.A.M.J.R. said:

Some of the promotions are for "new bookings only". Don't know if that's what the case is with you, but possible.

I suppose so but the onboard credit was already in my account. What if I had already spent it? It was there for at least a week. To retroactively remove a credit that was being advertised, that I was being told I would receive, and that I did receive, is just bad practice.

11 hours ago, moesyk4 said:

I had the most awful time trying to get the 100 OBC I had earned on a cruise years ago. In the end it hadn’t been worth my time but I pursued it more out of principle bc they outright refused to give it. I finally got a flyer off of here from someone that showed the promo and I got it. Ironically we cancelled that cruise in the end.

This is the downside of using my credit card company as a TA. They won't let me conference in with the RCL rep so I must rely on them to be pushy. I suppose I could call again but of course these calls somehow always take hours.

I can't edit my last post but I just wrapped up the call after pushing further. After my TA talked to a new representative and supervisor we were finally told that the new booking didn't qualify for some reason and the system retroactively removed the onboard credit. What a switcharoo... 

Also I tried to "upgrade" to the regular balcony room and despite it being $600 cheaper online right now (was $800 cheaper yesterday), they wanted to charge me $300+.

Really lame all around.

On 1/3/2024 at 9:53 AM, firefly333 said:

Yes you can upgrade to the next open category and if its lower no cost, or pay the difference. Sorry you missed the price drop. 

 

Yes you will have to get hold of your booking agent to find out where the promotional $150 obc went.

After spending hours on the phone, Royal Caribbean is blowing me off.

The longer story is that I originally booked the cruise with no onboard credit. I rebooked it 2 weeks ago at a lower price with $225 onboard credit promotion. (My original post said $150 but it was a $225 credit) The credit showed up after my rebooking and later disappeared but they keep insisting it was the rebooking that made me lose the credit. The credit that never existed on the 1st booking.

Really bad first experience with RCL.

I have a cruise departing in 88 days. (First RCL Cruise) 2 weeks ago I had $250 of onboard credit listed in the top right corner of the RoyalCaribbean.com website. ($150 was their promotion and $100 is a stockholder credit) Anyway, I logged in today and the $150 is gone. I haven't changed my reservation and I have nothing in my order history. I'm going to assume my only option is to give my TA a call? It's through my credit card and takes hours...

Another question, I booked an "Ocean View Balcony Guarantee" room. We're now past the final payment deadline and of course the price dropped. It's $800 less to book an "Ocean View Balcony" where I can select the room and not risk obstructed. I know it's unlikely that I'll get anything for the $800 price drop but can I "upgrade" to the non guarantee room at no cost?

NCL is usually pretty strict on these height requirements correct? I have a child that is just barely too short when barefooted but tall enough with shoes on. Can he where water shoes by any chance?

Yeah, it's not showing taxes and fees for me either without entering passenger information. Also, when I scroll the list of cruises the screen constantly fades to "chat with an agent". Both have been extremely annoying and I stop searching rather quickly.

On 5/3/2023 at 3:48 PM, Momto3girlsintheCarolinas said:

We sail on May 20 on the Getaway.  I won a bid this morning from an Ocean view on deck 5 to a balcony on deck 10. It was not, IMO, a "high" bid, and I was shocked we got it.  But "high" is subjective.  I  think I just got lucky.

 

But, the scuttlebutt has always been that one is most likely to win a bid from an ocean view to something else......so here is my anecdotal "evidence."

May I ask what you bid? I'm on the May 11th Getaway cruise. I bid $190 for the balcony from an inside with no luck being accepted. It was considered a "fair" bid but I think my cruise is sold out anyhow. 

1 hour ago, cementhands said:

I spent best part of my morning and finally got help from a nice young man and cc for my shares came through. Sad because I never had an issue before and sent same information as always. Email said it was not adequate. Thanks for my great luck of getting a good employee on phone. Sailing soon tooooo!

Was this by calling a special phone number or just the main number? I'm only a few days out from my cruise at this point with no credit yet.

I sent my request on Jan 4th and still no credit for my Jan 22nd cruise. I may have cut this one too close.

3 hours ago, *Miss G* said:

Interesting.  I was thinking of taking the Walgreen’s NAAT but wasn’t sure what would happen with the billing as their website says the rules have changed for travel.  Can anyone offer any insight?

If you tell Walgreens the test is for travel they will charge $129 and will not take your insurance regardless of what you say. I think they're concerned that most insurances will not pay for a travel test and they may have a hard time collecting from you later. If your insurance allows it you can submit the receipt for reimbursement. My insurance does not allow me to submit a receipt but it does cover covid tests regardless of it being travel or for exposure so I told them I had exposure. 

3 hours ago, cwd79 said:

Had the same issue with a Walgreens NAAT about a month ago and resubmitted it four times and it finally got approved on the fourth try. No idea what the issue was but I lost hair from it lol. 

I've tried a dozen times now. I guess I'll just check-in the slow way when I get there.

3 hours ago, DaveOKC said:

I had a problem with Verifly two weeks ago and their help desk told me to delete the app, reinstall it and re-enter the information again.  I did this and it worked great!  It seemed silly at the time to do this, but at the pier when we were wisked onboard in 30 seconds only I was sure glad I redid it!

 

It's not really an error though. A human actually reads the PDF of my test results and marks it as incorrect.

I uploaded my test results through the Verifly app but they keep rejecting my test type. The only selection options are PCR and ANTIGEN. PCR is a type of NAAT test. I took the Rapid NAAT at Walgreens and it does not say PCR it says "Rapid NAAT". Holland America specifically says they accept NAAT but I don't see Rapid NAAT.

I can't imagine this would be an uncommon problem. Should I just forget the Verifly app? Or am I missing something and I need to take a different test?

I actually submitted four of our test results and my wife's same test type was approved. I've tried resubmitting multiple times but it has been rejected continuously.

The following travel Canada page, under section "Entering Canada by land or air before embarking on a cruise" mentions needing to complete ArriveCAN for my flight to Canada and again before embarking on my cruise. Other posts on cruisecritic have discussed this as well mentioning you need to delete your original ArriveCAN entry and create a new one for the cruise.

https://travel.gc.ca/travel-covid/travel-restrictions/cruise

However, my cruise departs from Montreal, CA and ends in Boston, US. If I scroll down to "Cruises that are staying in Canadian waters or not returning to Canada" it no longer lists the requirement of a second ArriveCAN entry. Only "Starting an international cruise in Canada or arriving by cruise from another country" lists the requirement.

But it's not completely clear because it mentions the requirement at the start of the page. Can anyone else that has done the same Canada and New England cruise beginning in Canada chime in?

Great to hear you made it. My family and I will be boarding next week when you get off for the trip back to Boston!

Have you considered Walgreens drive through testing? There are 5 locations in Anchorage. You don't leave your car and it's done in 5 minutes. We've used them multiple times with results just a few hours later by email. None of the rapid tests have been submitted to our insurance. Only when we did PCR lab testing did it go through insurance and despite having a $12k deductible it was fully covered. (YMMV)

https://www.walgreens.com/findcare/covid19/testing 

2 hours ago, crystalspin said:

If you rec'd a Booking Confirmation from HAL, way at the end (third page?) It should look like pic I'm attaching. You may not have rec'd this -- your TA would have, and should have given you a document that shows the same information.

 

You are correct: I cannot find the info on the dashboard, AND it is still possible to buy beverage packages and the Premium Internet, redundantly, ahead of time!

Thank you for the reply. I did not receive the attachment you sent but it's good to hear your dashboard shows similar information and options. I called HAL earlier and they confirmed I have the "Have it all!" package on my reservation.

I booked a cruise this morning and I also see the gratuities being included. Only the 1st and 2nd guest have the gratuities included. My 3rd and 4th guest still must pay them.

Side question, does it say anywhere in your account that the beverage package and wifi are included in your reservation? I booked through a travel agent who ended up booking everything over the phone with HAL. I can see the 1 night of dinning and $100 of shore credit but I cannot see the beverage package or wifi. And they're still advertising the "Have it all!" package to me even though it should have already been purchased.

I just got off the Jewel and the arcade credit was a total pain. I have twins so we received 2 $100 arcade credits.

• 1st problem: Your phone onboard account does not differentiate which card user spent at the arcade. You have to go to guest services for a print out to know how much each child used at the arcade. To be fair, because of problems 2 and 3, I can't verify if this mattered or if 1 child could use all $200 credits. But the $100 initial credit does list the child's name.
• 2nd problem: Any other non-refundable onboard credit is used first. We had $25 from the initial booking and another $50 for being shareholders. The arcade took from these credits before touching the arcade credit. 
• 3rd problem: We bought 2 cruisenext vouchers. (So we were charged $500 and credited $250 of onboard credit) Our intial $75 of credit was supposed to help offset the $250 charge but now it was used up. (We rarely spend much else)

I had to spend 2 hours going back and forth with the financing guy by guest services fighting for the arcade credit. On day 1 our onboard account showed 2 $100 credits for the arcade and on disembarkation day it showed 2 unused negative $100 onboard credits. Then they charged my Visa for all the arcade activity. My total spend far exceeded the total onboard credits because of the cruisenext vouchers.

Clearly their system was not functioning as it should have been but he continuously fought me. NCL needs to default to preferential use of the arcade credit for arcade transactions. I also don't know if he was completely full of crap and the credit was just not working at all and it had nothing to do with "preferential use". But that's what he kept saying and that there was nothing he could do. Eventually he gave in but what a head ache.

I received an upgrade on the Norwegian Jewel 4/17 sailing for $10 over minimum from an oceanview obstructed to a balcony. I bid a bit more, but still poor, for the club balcony, but oh well happy with the upgrade.

About 2 weeks ago I sent 2 emails for separate cruises. Both emails contained the proper form and brokerage statement per the instructions. For any recent cruisers, are they currently behind? How long did it take for you? I assume it will show up in my NCL.com itinerary as an onboard credit? Thanks.

23 hours ago, angere1 said:

Got upgraded from inside to club balcony today for the March 20th Gem cruise. Minimum bid. 

Did you also bid for oceanview and normal balcony rooms? I'm debating removing my oceanview bid as I don't want that to harm my chances of getting a balcony.

I transferred one to someone during their booking all at once. 

Thank you for the replies. I did some googling and found the list of items included. They will both be under 2 and food like nuggets, mac n cheese, and hot dogs are perfect for them. This really is wonderful news. I thought we wouldn't be able to eat these meals together.

My wife and I have 3 specialty meals and 2 platinum dinners for an upcoming cruise on the Escape. I noticed while creating a reservation for Los Lobos the question mark next to the "Per Person Price:" says "Pricing will be adjusted onboard for children ordering from the complimentary kids menu." We have 2 children under 2. On a previous cruise the matre d allowed our kids to join us without any cost but it was made clear that this was an "exception" and we missed the rest of our specialty dinners because of it.

Is this complimentary kids menu new or is it a relic that they likely won't know about? This would be wonderful if true.

My wife and I will be platinum for the first time on our next cruise. On an upcoming cruise my wife and I will each have 3 premium meals + 2 "dinner for two" certificates.

Our 2 young children travel with us. Everything I read about these certificates say "dinner for two" with no mention of who the guests are. 

If possible, I would love to use the "dinner for two" certificates for our children while my wife and I each use 1 of our dinning package meals.

21 hours ago, Itchy&Scratchy said:

are you driving your own cars to the airport and parking there?

We'll be dropped off by family with the car seats. The car seats can either remain in the car or come with us.

20 hours ago, casofilia said:

There are now more and more tourist type buses that have seat belts especially in some countries, Australia for instance, where the driver/guide tells you it is mandatory to wear them.

However young children require a special type of harness in that case as adult seat belts are worse than useless.  Also NCL tends to fill a bus so you may well find that, because they are free, they will not have seats for your children.

I'm going to call NCL on Monday to get their opinion. On a previous call they stated the kids will sit on our lap for excursions though it was a rather off hand comment so I'll verify.

17 hours ago, thatjoeguy said:

Skip the car seats. They’ll just end up taking up space in the room. 

 

Just curious - what at are you doing for sleeping arrangements? We were in a mini suite with one crib, and there was barely any room. I can’t imagine trying to fit two...

We have a family mini-suite and the cruise line said they'll provide 2 pack 'n plays. I do worry about the lack of space but we'll make do somehow.

16 hours ago, don't-use-real-name said:

On a secondary note: Have you cleared your travel and seating assignments with the airline you are flying on ?

Number of seats versus oxygen masks in a given row - bulk head seats OK - emergency row NO - have you considered

about your carry-on luggage and support luggage for the twins. Are you thinking of using forward facing infant back

pack carriers freeing your hands for other carry-on tasks - early boarding is recommended if you get to the gate timely.

A whole multitude of problems to be worked out which no doubt you have considered - is the NCL ships nursery going

to be able to give the both of you some time together to enjoy the cruise - you are going to need it !

Previous poster had a question about sleeping (crib) accommodations - interesting.

 

RE: those car seats would certainly be more of a hindrance than of useful need - but then ? ? ?

• Great response, thank you! We have thought about much of this and so much more.
• I've actually considered the oxygen masks as well. We're flying Southwest and are planning as if we will be required to both sit in aisle seats across from each other. They already have their lap tickets from Southwest.
• Luggage will be tough but we'll limit it as much as possible. We're not bringing a bulky stroller and if we don't bring car seats that helps too. (We have 2 cheap umbrella strollers for the ship) It'll take a couple trips to move it all regardless.
• Our carriers are 360 degrees and can be front or back. We usually set them up on the front side. They're the Ergobaby 360 carrier which are very comfortable. We use them on hikes often.
• This is the first time flying with kids but they usually call for families to board early. That should help. I think I ready families board after the "A" group with Southwest. And Southwest gives you 2 free checked bags so we'll check most of the luggage. For the ship, we're only Gold status, so no priority boarding there but our luggage will have already been checked so it'll be easy enough.
• I haven't heard of any NCL nursery options. We do have a 3rd person with us who may occasionally take the kids for an hour while we go to the dinning room. But for the most part we'll bring them with us everywhere. We'll make it the best we can.

8 hours ago, newmexicoNita said:

you are about on: in fact when I was still a tA I had a few clients come back for Caribbean trips, both cruise and land only, complaining about the lack of seat belts in the cabs and no way to use car seats. OP, I am not sure where or when you would use one on a cruise ship. 

6 hours ago, PTC DAWG said:

Leave the car seats with the sitter.  That would be my choice.. 🙂

6 hours ago, PTC DAWG said:

Leave the car seats with the sitter.  That would be my choice.. 🙂

I believe we may go this route. It leaves me feeling uneasy but it is likely unnecessary to have them with us.