rodndonna

As others have said, just cruise on the lines that implement your preferred policy, rather than shortchange the staff in an attempt to change a cruise lines policy.

Thank you all for your replies. I called into HAL this morning and was told this would not be a problem but we would need to fill out a "special deviation" form. I guess if we went to guest services at the start of the cruise (where I guess they would do that form), but we would definitely do it ahead of the cruise as well. Have not made a decision yet or booked our flights yet, but it is good to know the option is there depending on where we end up with flights.

Thanks! Really hoping to avoid it, but nice to know it's an option.

We have a cruise next fall that ends in Athens with an overnight stop in Athens. Our "preferred" flight option leaves very early (7:00) on the day we are scheduled to disembark (showing as 6:00 am disembarkation) but am wondering if we can disembark the evening prior, stay in an airport hotel and catch that flight?

Just returned Monday from a holiday - both in and out were with connections through Pearson - no issues either way. 😄

Just wanted to add that in the future when you look at bookings, you willn(may) not see that 'discount' displayed in the price shown, and have to continue through a booking and into room category to see what your casino discounted rate is (if there is one). That is the case for myself and others have mentioned that being the case also. Also will add, knowing which cruises you have a discount on and what those are, is not easily visible even to your PCC (again, at least in my case). Brut force through the booking seems to be the only method to know what my Casino discount rate is.

Bummer - thought we had a chance when I read your first reponse. On the phone on hold right now - MAYBE her supervisor can give us the extra $50 OBC - better than nothing if we get that. The price you pay planning and booking ahead I guess ... sigh .....

Worth trying. Our April cruise is down by about $800 (Canadian) - I may call and see if we can get something.....

I guess our inflation has not been as bad here, we're a looonnngg way from $7US for a dozen cheap eggs.

You could also just go through your Credit Card as a dispute against the charge. You should be able to do a simple on-line "dispute a charge" against that 6th charge, with an explanation you have 5 tickets and 6 charges. The CC company then will contact AC to validate that charge (they would then have to show 6 tickets purchased).

Similarly, I created a twitter account during Covid as a way to message Transat and Sunwing as we had holidays with each when the Covid hit. It was the easiest (only) way to communicate at that time and with very good response times.

I think you are thinking about a case if they were flew them somewhere, then cancelled their connection and rescheduled to the next day. That is not the case here.

I know exactly what you are going through ... we purchased a slew of gift cards in 2020/21 at different times to pay for cruises which then had cancellations .. rebooked some ... etc..it was ongoing .. I hadn't really kept good accounting of the cards (didn't realize I would need it, I was so optimistic - haha). To make things more complicated, when refunds were issued back to gift card, they didn't always go back to the original card (which I had wrongly assumed it would). Long story short, I had to bite the bullet and spend the better part of a day going through every HAL gift card purchases and then every HAL invoice in my emails to trace every purchase (you can see the final four codes of the Gif card to identify them) and every refund. It took a lot of time, but was then able to verify what final balance I should have had on the gift cards against what I could see in-line as my balance. Thankfully, on a couple of our cruises, we were able to just apply cards with a large balance remaining and any unused balance was refunded back to our credit card rather than a gift card Was surprised but I think it may be because they seem to have changed the company that does the gift cards from when we bought ours. Anyway - you're right - they can be a headache if you have a lot of then (especially when all the bonus cards were small denominations)

Thanks - after readying all the replies here, we booked 7604 (Brilliance of the Seas) which is on the rounded out part of the deck by the atrium which should limit the obstruction below us. Might be a bit noisier, but we are OK with that (we sleep with white noise playing). It was about $100 total to select the room so like you say, not worth the gamble.

Still finding deals to hard to pass up ... 😎 We just booked for our Hawaii cruise in Sept 2024, and thought the price was good for that sailing. We have 5 others booked before that date, all of which we were pretty happy with what we're paying. I don't think the prices have really made much headway in their much needed climb as yet, but would expect it over the next year or 2.

There is a CC forum topic for insurance - lots of info there as well... https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/499-cruisetravel-insurance/

I agree - do you have basic travel insurance through your CC for trip interruption?

I know the changes to 75% are recent, maybe less than a year?

Couldn't edit my post - I was always looking at medical (my biggest concern) and it is 75%. Baggage claims require 100%. Good to know ...

I could have sworn this has come up recently regarding paying in part with gift cards or such, and that the terms were now 75% .

Thanks. I think you are right - there really is not point to booking GTY. I had originally thought we could book it and get upgraded to non-obstructed, but sounds not likely. Have looked at the deck 7 obstructed and they look fine for us! We're not 'sun' people, so probably avoid portside then I guess... starboard mid ship ..?

Thanks Starry, I haven't yet checked out stateroom tour videos and pictures but will do that.

Thanks! It's odd they don't have GTY for Balcony (non-obstructed)- just the whole range of balconies. If they did I would just go GTY for non-obstructed, but looks like I have to select a cabin to avoid obstructed balconies.

We are looking at booking our first RCL cruise and would be booking a Guarantee Balcony. Does anyone know (or suspect) how they are assigned? Does the earlier you book make it more likely you will get a better location? We are looking at Hawaii 10 day Sept 2024 on the Brilliance of the Seas. The available rooms to book are VERY limited which I find odd being so far out. I am guessing they hold blocks for GTY? Could the cruise really be largely booked for a Sept 2024 sailing already?

I'm not that familiar with Celebrity (yet to sail) but as the "All-in" is drink package is Grats and Wifi, I would really think that cost to upgrade to All-in would be very close to Full Cost of Grats + "maybe slightly" discounted drinks package + Wifi thrown in for free. That being the case, assuming you are paying the crew grats, I'd really be surprised if there would be any cost savings to going a-la-carte and buying a drink package.