cinesage

Even though DW and I had to cancel our June 3 cruise on Adventure to the same ports, I've enjoyed reading your detailed review. Thank you!

We received our checks today, but no explanation as to the shortage.

However, I surmised that the remaining $500 is actually due to a cruise cancellation that I made during the same time-frame; I had booked, cancelled and re-booked an October, 2018 cruise to take advantage of a sale. Therefore, my credit card bill is littered with Royal Caribbean reimbursements and the agent (or the cruise line) must have lumped in the $339.44+160.56 (=$500) refund with the reimbursements from the cruise cancellation.

I have email my suspicion to AON (along with a screenshot of my credit card charges and refunds) in hopes to clear it up ... and receive back the $500, and will post the result in case anyone else will benefit from reading through my claims process;-)

An update: we submitted our 9 page claim via email on May 16, and received the following email response from Aon Affinity on May 18:

"Please be advised that we have received your Trip Cancellation claim form. We will be in contact with you should any additional information be required as we review your claim."

I sent a follow-up email inquiry as to the status on June 4, and received the following email response on June 6:

"We received your claim form and have completed our initial review of your claim. At this time we are currently working with Royal Caribbean to obtain additional information needed to finalize your claim.

Once we receive this documentation your claim will go into final review. On average the claim process may take up to 3 weeks after we review all of the required documentation for the claim. If any other documentation is needed we will notify you."

Late last night (June 15), I received two separate email responses (one with my name, the other with my spouse's name):

"Please note that we have completed our review of the Trip Cancellation claim for xxxxxx yyyyyyyy.

Within the next 2 business days a check in the amount of $z,zzzz.zz will be mailed, along with any applicable explanation of payment, to the following address: (deleted from the copied text). Once you've had the opportunity to review the explanation of payment, we invite you to contact our office with any questions you may have regarding your payment."

FWIW, the amount I claimed was equal to the Amount Paid on our (Final Payment) "Royal Caribbean Booking Confirmation - Guest Copy" minus the amount we were refunded by Royal Caribbean (50% Per Guest) per the Cancellation Schedule.

The amount per the emails received last night is exactly $738 less than the amount claimed. I suspect that $238 of this is the amount for the trip insurance which leaves $500.

I wondered in my original post whether we would receive our Air2Sea fees and penalties for non-refundable fares (which totaled $430 for the two of us); this would be most of the remaining $500.

I will update again after receiving the "applicable explanation of payment", supposedly within the next 2 business days.

Thank you so much for your thorough response, I greatly appreciate the time you took to respond to my inquiry. Will let you know how things come out. Thanks again!

Yes, it is the rebooking aka change fee. $200 per ticket on Delta with a $15 per ticket add from Air2sea. This is the amount in question as to whether the insurance will cover it.

The contract is specific that it will not cover this if the cancellation isn't for a covered reason but doesn't say whether it is (or not) if cancellation is for a covered reason (which ours is ).

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Thanks, I know that it's hard to comment without seeing the policy, which is why I mentioned that it's Royal Caribbean's policy through AON ... in case anyone had specific experience with their policies.

In general, though, has anyone had a nonrefundable airfare refunded without penalty under trip insurance?

Just had to cancel our cruise (boohoo!) for June for a valid reason per Royal Caribbean's Travel Protection. We'd purchased our flights through Air2Sea as well. Since our airfare was nonrefundable, there is a penalty of $215 per person.

Question - is this penalty something that can be claimed through the policy (which is administered by AON)?

The policy states that if we cancelled for ANY REASON, we'd receive 75% of our cruise amount - minus Air2Sea - towards a future cruise, but makes no mention of Air2Sea in the Cancellation Penalty Waiver Program, e.g. for a valid reason.

So, I'm wondering if anyone has been able to get back the nonrefundable airfare penalty.

I ordered the Bon Voyage package for our Bahamas cruise a couple of years ago and it wasn't setup in the room before we got to it. The steward was apologetic and by the time we returned from dinner it was done and we received some other goodies as well.

DW and I took the door magnet with us to Alaska last June and put it on our cabin door for that cruise as well, will probably keep bringing it until it disappears.

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act now for the 100 hour sale! few days ago i got 1894 for my trip. today is 2162 plus 200 credit!

 

as an aside, i guess the half price deposit sale isnt often. i havent seen it since i booked in FEB

I called re: my existing 2018 reservation on Jewel and - although the base price went up $100 - I was able to get a $75 pp OBC credit which lowered the overall price by $50 (better than nothing;-)

I couldn't agree more. My interactions with the RCCL phone staff have always been very pleasant, informative, helpful, and frequently save me $$ too.

Just had my first interaction with RCCL phone staff due to today's sale. After waiting for about 8 minutes in the phone queue, the representative was able to apply the new rate to my existing reservation in about 2 minutes time, no need to cancel/re-book, kept existing cabin and saved almost $200!

Kudos indeed:D

What itinerary?

Antigua, Barbados and the 3 St.'s

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And I reserved an aft balcony - so I'm very excited!

First time ever travelling to Europe. First time on Jewel.

We are going September 9, 2018 on the Italy/Greek Islands 9 night. Any advice? Recommendations?

I just booked the 9-day Greek Isle cruise on Jewel for October 15, 2018, so I will continue to read here too!

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Sorry, no idea how often they change, but I would expect them to change when there is a new Cruise Director or Activity Manager.

Ok, thanks Bob! You're so helpful [emoji2]

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The order changes by itinerary.

So is there any way to find out what the order will be on Adventure this June?

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Adventure is still using these menus:

 

http://www.royalcaribbeanpresscenter.com/download-press-kit/7/

Wow, just found this, so great! Thanks for sharing!!!

Do you know if these are in order, first menu first night etc., or if they mix them up?

These are not published by the cruise line, but are provided by the generosity and hard work of fellow cruisers who share this info with us. Do a search in this forum for Adventure and look for other compass scans.

Thanks Bob. I was aware of that ... just didn't know if you'd seen one posted recently.

After a search, I did find this - https://www.dropbox.com/sh/gr4clbspkzlikt8/AADbfWO-lwUaoBCSORISTCeYa?dl=0 - from December, 2016.

From your experience, do you know how often the Cruise Compasses change?

Hello All! It's been a while since I have been on cruise critic - I love it here! I am lucky enough to be able to cruise again this June - from Seattle to Alaska :) -- Can someone give me some tips on the best hotels to stay at in downtown Seattle - ones that have transportation from the airport to downtown hotel, and/or free transportation from downtown hotel to Princess Pier (91?). Thank you for any direction here, I really appreciate it! Have a great day :) - Jess

Several posts here - http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2377598 - including information about how to take a train - the Sound Transit - from the airport to downtown hotels for $3.25 pp

Most recent I've seen is last August:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?p=50932439#post50932439

Where can I find the most recent Cruise Critic for the other AOS route (Antigua, Barbados and the three St.'s)?

Just did both Jewel transatlantic last year in JS and owner suites and no noise and loved it so much, we will board again for the transatlantic in April

Thanks so much for responding gagirl, we hail from Marietta.

Can you share more about why you loved it so much, the Eastbound leg in particular: the ports, extra on-board activities, etc.?

TA westbound on the Brilliance last year was lovely - but we don't need a lot of activities. On that crossing there was a bridge instructor so we played each afternoon during sea days. We wanted to relax and enjoy the sea which we did - plenty of time to read, play putt putt, trivia and take dance classes.

Thanks so much for your response! We're just past our mid-50's, did you find the TA cruise to be an older crowd in general?

I think we were in 1048 which is the left side of the ship and if I remember correctly it was fairly shaded and we would have preferred it a bit more sunny. I don't recall which side was better for views as we were going into or out of port though - if that's what you mean.

 

If you'd like any more info on any of the ports you're looking into, just ask - though we didn't get off in Mykonos because I had a back problem that day and didn't fancy getting into and out of a water taxi and making it worse.

Thanks! I will follow-up with questions about the ports once we make our decision.

Oh, by the way, for the 7-night cruise you took, would you recommend one side of the ship over the other?

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Yes, absolutely, thanks!

Good to know about Deck 10 noise, or lack thereof;-) it obviously depends where the suite is located ... on Enchantment, we were right under the Solarium, lots of chair and table movement overhead at all hours (presumably by crew straightening in the wee hours).

And good to know aboutthe port(s) too. Thanks again!

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DW and I will be on Adventure this June and will likely book our next cruise while on-board (it's become a habit). We've never sailed Jewel and usually choose a Junior Suite (which are unfortunately below the pool deck on this ship, an experience that was less than optimal when we cruised Enchantment in 2015).

She's interested in the Greek Isles and it looks like the 7-night and 9-night cruises cost nearly the same, so I think we'd do the 9 if our schedules and the flights work out okay.

However, then I noticed there's an interesting 7-night Western Mediterranean option and, even though we did some of those ports on Splendour in 1999, it's something we're also considering.

What's really intriguing (especially price-wise) are the two Transatlantic options, with 14-night Eastbound looking more interesting than 12-night Westbound because of the number of ports ... though all the cruising days look ominous on a smaller RCI ship with fewer activities.

I'm sure we would love any of these choices, so we're looking for input from anyone whose done any of these options, especially if you've experienced more than 1 of them.

Just back from our honeymoon on the lovely Jewel of the Seas, eastern mediterranean itinerary. I have scanned all cruise compasses into seven pdf files. The quality is not the best, but it is readable. I have also uploaded a pdf with the room service meny (not suites).

Congratulations on your honeymoon ... and now 6+ month anniversary! Don't know if you're still monitoring Cruise Critic or not, but thought I'd post a question to you (or anyone else who could answer):

Does it matter what side of the ship you're on during this cruise (e.g. would you see more/better sites from one side or the other)?