orville99

1 hour ago, island lady said:

nd BTW...you could be a newbie cruiser doing the quarters or full WC in an inside cabin and get free WIFI, laundry, and unlimited drink package as included perks.  But no shiny pins.  😄

A newbie sailing solo in an interior, OV, or balcony that does the full WC would be D++ (~550 points) by the time they departed the ship. If they were solo in a JS or better, they would be a Pin.😎

1 hour ago, island lady said:

 

Thanks!  Looking forward to it.  My only fear is it being cancelled for some reason.  😮 

It probably will only be scheduled once on their short cruises, but it is well worth adjusting your schedule so you can see it.

On 3/4/2024 at 9:39 AM, island lady said:

Seeing the birds at the Aviary exhibit is how we spend those short days there.

Did not know there was an aviary there. Is it new? And, can you get to it without doing the bridge?

3 hours ago, Carol28 said:

I thought dinner in Chops was an amenity for suite guests on the first night.  Am I wrong?  I just saw my calendar as we just checked in and we do not have a dinner in a specialty on the first night.  I always book a specialty restaurant on the first night if we aren't on one of the larger ships where the Coastal Kitchens are.  Please let me know.

We always call room service and order dinner from the MDR menu on the first night and have a nice relaxing meal on our balcony. One of the nicer perks of being in a suite on smaller ships.

17 hours ago, TheInnocentAge said:

I did a mock booking just now and the total price had gone up over $2500 since we booked, and no longer includes the OBC, so we're happy we booked when we did. Surprised they would jump that quickly.

When itineraries are first released, prices are typically at the lowest cost they will ever be. As soon as any demand hits the booking systems, prices will inevitably rise as prime cabins and categories are booked. If I do a mock booking today on any of our existing bookings (which we always book as soon as the itineraries are released), every one of our 2025 and 2026 booked cruises has more than doubled in price, and half of our remaining 2024 bookings have more than tripled.

I really feel sorry for people who have to wait until late in the cycle to take a cruise, because of work requirements or school schedules, etc. They only see the higher prices, and the perpetual sucker "sales" that make it look like they are getting a deal - when the reality is that they are getting royally sc%$#ed.

13 hours ago, link99 said:

The attendant was also hiding under the bed watching people as they were in the shower.

He would have to be the world's smallest stateroom attendant - I can't even fit our suitcases under the bed with all of the spare bedding that is always stored there😇

8 minutes ago, ILCTCRUISER said:

Agree wholeheartedly.  Just how many times can you go to Cozumel?

Never, if we can avoid it. We try not to book any cruises that go to the western Caribbean unless it is a long voyage down to South America, and Cozumel gets in the way. We rarely leave the ship in that port.

2 hours ago, Candleonwater said:

Nope. I think we all got spoiled by ridiculously low prices in the past.

Probably would have used a different word than spoiled. More likely that people were lulled by 0% interest rates and 1% inflation into the conviction that prices would never change. With overall consumer prices up more than 35% from their pre-covid days, the reality is those prices are never coming back.

49 minutes ago, pcur said:

That savings per day is almost equal to my average cost per day for the cruise.  Actually not surprising why I stay with Royal.

On our 28 day B2B Panama Canal adventure on Serenade in November, the onboard cost savings over the course of the 28 days exceeded 60% of the total cost of the two cruises. 

20 minutes ago, BecciBoo said:

Not to mention the friends we have made over the years and still see from time to time.

9 minutes ago, island lady said:

 

Agree to that!  🥰

IMHO, seasoned cruisers do not leave a particular cruise line because of anything other than the lack by the cruise line to do anything other than sail, rinse, repeat every other week. 

For us, it is the uninspired repetition, not price that is causing us to look (and book) elsewhere. 

If it had not been for RCL salting in some new destinations and longer durations into its itineraries (like Bermuda, the ABC islands, and St. Kitts out of PC, and Colombia, Costa Rica and Panama out of Tampa), we would already be booking more on other lines and a lot less on RCL.

Our cruise calendar (once we run through our existing bookings) has exactly zero RCL cruises penciled in. 😇

17 hours ago, BecciBoo said:

OK just had to...doesn't all the 25 or so years of cruising memories have any value at all?

We had to double the size of the bucket that holds our bucket list😎 Cruising has taken us places we never dreamed we would ever see in our lifetime (and our respective careers have taken us all over the world - or so we thought)😇

1 hour ago, island lady said:

 

I DON'T want to know.  😄  😄  

It is only money. Memories, however, are priceless.😇

47 minutes ago, ILCTCRUISER said:

D, D+, and P perks.  Does anyone really believe that these perks are “free?”

Only if you zero out the ~$200,000 it cost us to get to Pinnacle😇

Just now, smokeybandit said:

Per person?

More than likely. Just did a mock booking on a 7 night out of PC on Wonder, and the per person price for a 2Br Aqua suite was over $14,000 for the lowest priced cruise

16 hours ago, NorthStarStateCruiser said:

We locked in a Crown Loft suite

A CLS is not a Star class suite.

Crown Loft Suite

• Large two-story suite with panoramic views
• Extra guest bathroom on main level
• Sky Class amenities

1 hour ago, Ocean Boy said:

Those "parents" think everyone else finds their darling children to be as cute as they do.🙄

I don't think those "parents" see their children as anything more than an annual tax deduction.🙄

59 minutes ago, Ocean Boy said:

What is wrong with Allure?

Nothing. The only "drawback" is for those people who only want to sail on RCL's amusement parks at sea, and Allure thankfully avoided being "amped" because of the pandemic. 😇

13 minutes ago, Ocean Boy said:

Don't forget wifi. That is becoming a hefty expense.

~$350 for two people on a 7 night cruise. 

3 minutes ago, Cruising89143 said:

There is only one cruise line that we currently have no interest in but we want to try the MSC YC.

We have neighbors that cruise MSC frequently, and in their opinion, the only reason why they cruise that line is because of the YC.

The only saving grace for us is that we always book while onboard as soon as the next tranche of itineraries is released (it is the only way we are able to justify always booking GS). Every one of the 21 RCL cruises we have booked through April 2026 have more than doubled in price (and some have tripled) since we booked. If we were to look at booking those same cruises today, we would seriously consider other cruise lines. We just booked a cruise for January 2025 on X in a Retreat suite that is at a lower cost than the current price of any of the RCL grand suites we have booked, and the suite perks on X are much better than the suite perks on RCL.

Once we run through our current bookings, we are switching our cruise bookings to Silver Sea, Regent, and Oceania.

6 minutes ago, Anton said:

 I have a pinnacle milestone cruise on Icon next year which otherwise would have cost me $6500 for a standard balcony.

Probably the only reason why we would ever even consider sailing on that class of ship. We used our last milestone cruise on Wonder (worth ~$5,800 for a standard balcony), but will use the JS milestone that we receive in September for one of the older, more friendly ships (unless we can use it on a Celebrity cruise - which I doubt).

59 minutes ago, island lady said:

Still a lot of construction going on here in Roatan cruise port.  Will be interesting to see how far that have progressed when we are back again here on Enchantment later this year.  🙂 

 

 

That is a tremendous amount of progress since we were there last year. Last year the only buildings that were. There were the brown roofed building and the blue building on the right. The red roofed building, and everything to the left of the little sheds is new.

1 hour ago, orville99 said:

That poster is Laura😇

1 hour ago, Ocean Boy said:

What do you get when the letters "im" are added to the beginning of poster?🤔

Just perpetuating the myth...😄

38 minutes ago, RFerrington said:

@CSHS1979, how is Laura doing ?

That poster is Laura😇

3 minutes ago, IsItTimeToCruiseYet? said:

could you find out when the Pinnacle lunch is for the next cruise? 

It is usually on the first sea day unless your first full day is at sea, then it typically goes on the next sea day.