orville99

Meanwhile, back to the WC, it’s good that John is getting back on board soon.

On 4/17/2024 at 3:39 PM, lovesthebeach2 said:

Of the 4 Celebrity cruises we have booked, 3 are in sky suites that include the Retreat, and 1 is in a prime concierge that’s going to Norway and I don’t really care where we are on the ship, just want to do Norway while they are still offering it

We have a Sky Suite booked on Equinox for next January. Looking forward to trying that cat.

7 hours ago, Carol28 said:

Is bottled water and an amenity? Can our room steward bring us bottles as we ask for them?

Depends on which class of ship you are on. On Oasis and Quantum class ships, you can pick up bottled water any time the CK Bar is open. On smaller classes of ship, you will receive a bottle of Evian on boarding day, but can also get bottled water in the evening during happy hour.

2 hours ago, leaveitallbehind said:

Given the tier level benefits by comparison IMO it would be far more advantageous for Celebrity loyalists to switch to RCCL.  C&A benefits are measurably better than CC.

I believe it comes down to a toss up between the quality of the cruise vs the incremental value of the perks. If you desire sailing on ships with a more upscale vibe, and have no desire to sail on an amusement park, the price differential may very well outweigh the perk differential.

We have a 7-night Retreat Suite booked for January 2025 (AI) for ~$7500, and a February 8-night booked on Adventure in a GS for~$6800. Even with all of our Pinnacle perks thrown in to the mix, there is only about a $700 differential between the two cruises.

31 minutes ago, Cruising89143 said:

There is but they only match up to Diamond/Elite between both lines. In order to move up to Elite Plus, you have to earn points for each cruise taken. 

We have received several surveys from X recently that intimated they are looking at whether more RCL loyalists would switch to X if they did a true status match.😇

1 minute ago, Cruising89143 said:

You will be Diamond on RCI.

With zero points😇

1 minute ago, adequall said:

Quick Question 

 

Looking to book my first cruise as an adult on Royal Caribbean, I'm an Elite Member on Celebrity, and I know that Royal Caribbean honors that on their ships. 

 

I don't mean for this to be drawn out, but when I did a mock booking on celebrity, I got a couple hundred bucks off my cruise because of my Elite membership, how do I link my Captains Club and my Crown and Anchor accounts? Only real reason I want to do it now is so I can save a couple hundred bucks when I go to book. 

 

Thanks for the help!

We went the other way - RCL to X - and all it took was a quick call to X to set up our account and give them our RCL C&A numbers. Should work in the reverse as well. You may even be able to do it on line by now.

We prefer the OS. We found the Aqua Theatre suite balconies to be too noisy with everything going on on the Boardwalk. We also loved the side facing CLS on that class of ship, but would never book one of the aft facing CLS.

2 hours ago, Raddo said:

I have done 19 cruises so far but never done a back to back.  Would I have to book the two cruises separately or would I get a discounted price overall if I ring RC to make it a single booking but both cruises?  Any advice on this by those who have done them would be much appreciated!! It just that I got my eye on 2 different cruises from same port but together makes a back to back.

We only do B2B or longer cruises, and always book on board as soon as the itineraries are released (we currently have cruises booked through April 2026). There are three positives to this approach (one of which has already been mentioned):

1) We can always get the same cabin regardless of how many legs we book (it helps if you do a search of available cabins on all the legs and have that list in hand when you decide to book);

2) Prices are generally at their lowest point when cruises are first released;

3) We get OBC by booking on board.

19 hours ago, colesc15 said:

I know two weeks ago it was stifling the entire week and we just had to spend most of the time in the pool inside. 

The windows can be opened, but you need to make the request to an officer who is in charge of the solarium. Also, there are tower structures between the left side and right side hot tubs and the windows of the solarium hot tubs that are the AC distribution points. If you can grab loungers on either side between the towers and the windows, you will feel the AC.

8 minutes ago, Ourusualbeach said:

I've never seen that enforced for North American bookings before final payment

We have never seen this either. Also, we occasionally have seen a good price differential between what we had originally booked and a grand suite, and when we upgraded we also received an increase in the original OBC from $100 to $300.😇

13 hours ago, RCCL Fan said:

Sailing out of Tampa for the first time... and booking dinner for the first night.    I don't want to miss us sailing under the bridge.   What time does the ship usually arrive at the bridge.

Approximately two hours after the ship leaves the dock.

17 hours ago, StrikeEagle said:

Has anyone noticed recently that when you reserve My Time Dining, it blocks out 5 hours 30 minutes from your cruise calendar and you cannot book anything in between that. For example, if you book MTD at 7:15 pm, it blocks 5 hours 30 minutes from your calendar and you cannot book a show starts at 10:15pm.  And vice versa, when I book a show at 10:15pm I cannot book MTD for that whole evening at all because of the 5 hours 30 minutes it has to reserve for MTD.  This is ridiculous. 

MTD hasn't started at 5:30 since the restart. The set up now on every ship we have been on since the restart (40+ with at least two cruises on every class except Quantum) is that one of the dining rooms does early traditional seating, and then morphs into MTD as the early seating empties out. MTD now typically opens for reservations at 6:30-7:00 PM.

7 hours ago, TeeRick said:

By the way, we were asked for coupons at the bar for mixed drinks on the suite sun deck

On Oasis, Allure, Harmony, and Wonder, we have never been asked for vouchers on the Suite Sun Deck. Consistent inconsistency is the hallmark of RCL's business model.🤪

15 hours ago, CSHS1979 said:

John was an emergency request, and they made it happen

I hope he is ok.

23 minutes ago, PKB said:

Headed to the Mediterranean in September.  Euro exchange rate is favorable right now.  Just wondering of the Olympics will cause the value of the euro to rise....costing more if I wait until we arrive....

Doubtful that anyone knows the answer to that. There are so many variables (economic, geopolitical, social, etc.) in play on a daily basis that the ability to predict the future value of a reserve currency 3-6 months in advance is impossible.

18 hours ago, RFerrington said:

They're still around, but just as rare as they've always been.

Not as rare as the LEO discount. We were batting zero on those.

2 hours ago, leaveitallbehind said:

...and maybe at the end of the day your minimum bid was the highest (and maybe first in with a tie).  Who knows with their algorithms.  But I was always told it was highest bid, but likely only the man behind the curtain knows for sure....

 Much more likely that the cabin we were vacating was oversold or in high demand and they were getting more $$ for filling our vacated cabin than the incremental $$ my bid would bring in. At the end of the day, i really don’t care how their algorithm works. We only bid the minimum, and we win more than we don’t. 

23 hours ago, leaveitallbehind said:

Typically as @smokeybandit suggests the award notifications are closer to the sailing date as that would be when the final adjusted bids would be completed for the available stateroom categories and the highest bids would be available for selection.  Awarding the upgrades too early may eliminate the opportunity for the highest bids to be submitted.

And yet, we have won a half dozen RU bids with the minimum bid available, and some of those within 6-7 days from the sailing, and others 30-45 days out. 

13 minutes ago, CSHS1979 said:

While sailing round Hong Kong Island, the ship had to alter course when an unlit ferry crossed her path. The action caused a huge wave in both pools that flooded the pool deck and into forward elevators. Glassware in Schooner came crashing down as well. Not sure about any other damage. Happened sometime between 9 and 930

Ouch…that will leave a mark😱

4 minutes ago, smokeybandit said:

Stabilizers can't do anything about the pitch and can't fix all the roll.

 

I believe that their impact on roll is speed dependent (IIRC, they work better at higher speeds)

4 hours ago, bajathree said:

Pricing for Hideaway seems to be all over the place. On my upcoming Wonder sailing I got it for $19/pp. 

Wildly inconsistent:

We have Hideaway booked three times this year (all on Adventure of the Seas):

4/20 sailing - $22/pp (Allure is also there with us)

7/5 sailing - $55/pp (Icon is there with us)

9/27 sailing - $35/pp (Icon is there with us)

We will decide whether the last two cruise reservations will get cancelled or kept based on what we experience next month.😇

12 minutes ago, BillOh said:

Where we were on Mariner in 2022 they had a GRAB N GO section between the Windjammer and the pool deck that had burgers, hot dogs, salads, utensils and condiments  that you could get quickly and avoid the WJ crowd.  Has that expanded anywhere else?

On Mariner, that venue is now called the Dog House, and that venue is on several other ships as well.

16 hours ago, grapau27 said:

This is a nice 5% French beer.

Considering it comes from the Alsace-Lorraine city of Strasburg (a city that sits directly on the modern German/French border), in a region that was seized by France (Louis XIII) in the 17th century and it's occupation of a largely German speaking population was one of the causes of WW1, Kronenbourg is as much (if not more) a German beer. 

Labadee cancelled into May: