JustUs275

I love that you get to take your mom on her first cruise! I would go with Independence. There's so much to love about this class, without being too overwhelming. I enjoy both Labadee and Coco Cay, no preference there. I hope she loves cruising, whichever ship you decide on!

Thank you, Sea Dog, for your live review! I've enjoyed reading your story-telling writing style, and thanks to your review and photos I am now thinking we will try the MDR again for dinners. We began having dinners in WJ a few cruises back because of the quick in and out, but those photos are enticing! Thanks again - only 22 days! 😁

On 10/21/2022 at 2:20 PM, Sea Dog said:

Big line for the start of Bingo. Someday I’ll play.

Who all plays Bingo? Let me know.

 

We have a Bingo Blitz VIP group on our upcoming Liberty cruise...we have been forewarned that they are "wild and crazy"! Sounds interesting!

We haven't been to CoCo Cay since all of the additions, so we watched a video on youtube yesterday that helped us a lot! It was a Royal Caribbean blog video. He takes you around to all of the different areas, beginning with Chill Island. He showed the towel exchange location. Maybe you will find it helpful for some of your questions too.

I am enjoying your live review! We will be boarding Liberty in FLL in a few weeks, so it's exciting to see your pictures and read your comments. Keep the posts coming and enjoy your cruise!

Terri

We are booked on Liberty for the first time in November; we have a deck 7 cabin. We've had Freedom deck 9 balcony cabins twice and were happy with them, although the aft cabin was our most favorite! Love to sit and watch the wake 🙂

March 2019, Independence of the Seas. 

I booked our cruise by calling RCI, no travel agent. I got the FOS cancellation email as well for our 11/7/21 cruise, stating I would receive my non-refundable deposit if I cancelled by 10/30. I followed the link in the email and cancelled the cruise on 10/21, and screen-printed the acknowledgement of submitting my request. The acknowledgement said I could expect to receive my deposit within 45 days of cancellation. I *assumed* it had been cancelled. So after I read OP's post this evening, I logged into my RCI account and my reservation is still showing as active. I'm currently on hold with a rep for 15 minutes now...he's talking with Resolutions. 

I believe the credit has to be used for a flight that occurs within 12 months of the original booking date. So, we booked our SW lowest fare price flights in mid-March 2020 for our October 2020 cruise which we have moved to November 2021. We will have to use the credit for flights that will occur by mid-March 2021, or we will lose the credits. So we will be taking flights to *somewhere* before then!

11 hours ago, redsox1584 said:

I am booked on Freedom out of San Juan in September. It is a southern Caribbean itinerary. I have looked at the cruises for 2021 within 4 weeks of my departure date and there are no 7 day Southern Caribbean cruises. There are plenty of Eastern & Western. Do you think they would honor the Lift & Shift because there are no Southern itineraries?

Similar situation as yours, we were booked for October 25, 2020 on Freedom out of San Juan. I called two different times and was unable to shift to an October Eastern or Western itinerary. We really needed an October sailing due to work schedule restrictions. I ended up shifting to November 7, 2021 on Freedom and out of San Juan, and was able to get the exact same aft balcony cabin :-)  We are hoping DH's employer will allow the November 2021 vacation days, given current circumstances. Maybe we will need to plan a meetup for all of us "Lifters and Shifters" and reminisce about all this crazy stuff! lol

35 minutes ago, Sea Dog said:

Well we pulled the plug on our October 11th Freedom out of San Juan and did a "Lift and Shift" to November 7th 2021. We were able to get the same junior suite, same itinerary and our reservation number stayed the same. Bad news now we wait a year and half before we go on this sailing and the deluxe drink package we got $41 is now $72. What we might do since it is a year and half away is test the waters once Royal starts up with a short 3-4 day cruise from somewhere where we can drive say Galveston or New Orleans that way it will be easy and cheap.

We ended up shifting our October 25th Freedom cruise to November 7th 2021, and we were able to get the same cabin and everything too. Yeah, we booked this cruise in January 2019...November 2021 is a long way off! 

6 hours ago, jp2746 said:

I just tried.  They told me that there were no options for me since they are not cruising out of San Juan until October and our cruise in August.  So, we are just out of luck.  I asked if we could change ships or ports and I was told no, you can not unless it is another ship going out of the same port to the exact same places. UUUGGGG!!!

 

I am really frustrated because I want to cruise this summer before school starts.  However, I am pretty convinced now that only Carnival will be sailing at this time.  So, I would like to transfer this cruise to next year and book something on Carnival.  I can't have two sailings booked and hope one gets canceled, but if our August gets canceled, it may be too late to book anything else.  

Similar to your experience, except ours was in October 2020 and currently there aren't any October 2021 cruises scheduled out of San Juan. We originally chose October due to our work schedule restrictions. The rep actually told me to just keep looking on the website and maybe later something would show up for October 2021 *ugh*.

After 2 lengthy phone calls today, I lifted and shifted :-) our 10/25/20 Southern Caribbean sailing on Freedom to 11/7/21. We pay a few more dollars for taxes, fees, and port expenses but otherwise they did price match it. I was able to get the very same aft balcony cabin too, which makes us happy. 

3 hours ago, IcanSeaclearlynow said:

Thank you & yeah that makes absolutely no sense to me.  Southern is in the Carib just like west & East.  Did you try calling back?  May get a different supervisor to authorize it.  

I am currently on my second call - at least the initial wait time was only a couple of minutes this time. However, she stated the same thing - it has to be a Southern Carib itinerary, and she also verified it with someone else. I ended up Shifting it to Nov 7, 2021, on Freedom (same ship), Southern itinerary, but she did have to check first because the ports are not exactly identical. The problem we had is there are currently no Southern Caribbean sailings in October 2021, but DH's work policy is generally no week-long vacations in November-winter months. Hopefully they'll be ok with it though, since at this time he'd have to self-quarantine after returning, which would push his return to work into mid-November anyway. *craziness* We love Freedom and have been looking forward to sailing out of San Juan and the southern itinerary. 

1 hour ago, JustUs275 said:

I've been on the phone for 45 minutes...the rep is firm that I cannot go from a Southern to an Eastern Caribbean itinerary. There are no October Southern sailings (DH cannot take November-winter vacation weeks). He put me on hold a few minutes ago. I'm hoping he comes back with a yes 🙂

1 hour ago, Ourusualbeach said:

I would argue that until the end of time.

 

One of the examples that they gave in the FAQ's was moving a 7 day Explorer August 2020 to a 7 day Harmony in Sept 2021.  Explorer does Rome to Rome while harmony does BCN to BCN, totally different itineraries.

 

 

If my client is currently confirmed on Explorer of the Seas in Europe this August 2020. Is my client able to book on Harmony of the Seas in September 2021?

 

Absolutely! As long as your client is sailing next year on a departure that falls within a 4-week span of their original sail date, he/she is able to enjoy a cruise onboard the Harmony of the Seas in Europe within the same stateroom and on a sailing of the same length.

After 90 minutes on the phone (with very poor call quality as someone else mentioned due to their web based phone system), the rep came back and said the Escalation Dept. said my reservation is not eligible for the L&S because there is no Southern Itinerary in October 2021. I argued but to no avail. He said to keep watching and maybe October 2022 itineraries will come out before August 1st. 😞 I may try to call again tomorrow.

18 minutes ago, Ourusualbeach said:

Yes

I've been on the phone for 45 minutes...the rep is firm that I cannot go from a Southern to an Eastern Caribbean itinerary. There are no October Southern sailings (DH cannot take November-winter vacation weeks). He put me on hold a few minutes ago. I'm hoping he comes back with a yes 🙂

Our October sailing now includes St. Maarten, which is a port we both enjoy! The only "downside" for us is that we were so looking forward to a sea day spent lounging on our aft balcony watching the wake...😊

Terri

I'm happy to see you plan to do a live-ish review! My daughter and son-in-law (around your ages) are on this sailing, along with another couple. Our granddaughters (around your kids' ages, 12 & 7) are staying with us and their other grandparents. I'll be sure to follow along and they'll be surprised when I tell them I did "sort of" get to go along as well! LOL Glad to read that sailaway weather looks good.  Have a great cruise!

Terri

6 hours ago, mayinindy said:

What are food options around this hotel?  I have seen mixed reviews on the hotel restaurants.

Hello, fellow Hoosier! :-)

I've been looking for the same info as we are planning to stay at the Caribe in October either pre or post-cruise. I've read about El Mercado very near by...it's a "high end food court". Chinese, Thai, Italian, Mediterranean, Mexican, ice cream, etc. Sounds interesting to me. 

Terri

nicoleslp - how was your trip to Sol Y Mar? I'm helping my daughter and SIL plan their excursions for their February cruise. :-)

Hello, would you please email the walking map to us? We plan to spend two days exploring SJ prior to our sailing.

Thank you!

Terri       terri_haake@hotmail.com

We were on Oasis over Thanksgiving 2 years ago, and they began putting Christmas decorations up Thanksgiving night. It was fun watching them go up!

Terri

We sailed on Independence this past Spring Break, which is obviously a very busy week! We had no problems getting into any of the shows, ice skating sessions, etc. We really enjoyed the ship and the recent upgrades! Food in Windjammer and MDR was good and we were happy with all of the staff members. It was a full ship with lots of kids (our 2 granddaughters being among them!), but overall the ship handled the crowds well. I'm like you in that I get soooo excited when booking a cruise! Only 410 days until we sail 😄

Looking forward to reading the rest of your review! We are on this itinerary/ship in October 2020. :-)

Terri

Such a helpful review. We are looking forward to visiting San Juan, we love exploring historical areas - I think we will skip Denny's tho! The catamaran sailing looks like so much fun! We don't snorkel (we've tried...let's just leave it at that! lol), so can you just do beach time instead of snorkeling? Looking forward to your St Kitts review, that's a new port for us :-)