RFerrington

I always take pill organizers and have never had any issues. My meds are pretty "meh" so I'm not particularly concerned. I have LOTS of supplements though. I think taking photos of the pill bottles makes a lot of sense. I am going to start doing that.

Thanks ! We never bother with Izumi teppanyaki anyway so it will just affect Hooked. Seems like an odd exemption to me. I guess we will just use Hooked as one of our 3 for the 3 night plan and do one of the others as our BOGO. That helps in the dinner lineup planning !!

Sorry, but my head is spinning. So I cannot use my BOGO at Hooked even if I pay full price for the meal ? What other restaurants are exempt from using full price BOGO ? Obviously, Chef's Table but I don't consider that a "specialty restaurant". Any of the other normal specialties that I can't use BOGO ?

We have booked the 3-16-24 Odyssey as a replacement for the Rhapsody cruises. It’s an 8 night where we had 14 nights booked on RH but we have never sailed on OY so we’re looking forward to a new ship (for us). We’re going to the same southern Caribbean ports (Aruba and Curaçao) that the “enhanced” Rhapsody replacement cruise is going but I don’t have to fly to get there !

So, we were able to get complete refunds of our air miles, upgrade charges and taxes from American Airlines (thank you !!) so we decided to completely cancel both of the Rhapsody cruises. I cancelled our pre-cruise reservation at the Waldorf Astoria and directed our TA to fully cancel both cruises. It's really a shame but this really is the best option. I can drive to any cruise port in FL if I want to cruise to Aruba and Curacao so flying to Panama for that makes -0- sense. IMO very few people will take the "enhanced" itinerary option. I think the chances are very good that we will be seeing some casino comp. options out of Panama City VERY soon. LOL

Really ? I never realized that. No interest in doing that but it's an interesting option.

I don't know that I have ever asked what their preference is. However, we always tell them, "we don't care. Come when it's most convenient for you" and so far, the attendant has always chosen evenings.

Thank you ! It sure would make a crappy situation a lot better if they just refund everything.

I haven't done anything yet, either. I am going to call AA today to see if I can get my reward miles back. If they say "yes" then I will just cancel everything. If they say "no" then I have some thinkin' to do. As much fun as Curacao and Aruba are, it doesn't make any sense to me to fly to Panama to go there. If I could turn this into a combo land/sea vacay (since we are booked for B2B on Rhapsody) then I would consider that...but I cannot rent a car in Panama and take it to Costa Rica and I have no interest in spending a week in Panama....at least I don't think I do. Maybe there's more in Panama than I am giving credit for...

AA

I agree with you. I think they’re gonna have a hard time filling these “enhanced “ replacement cruises without some kind of incentive to remain ($$). Maybe I will cancel the 2 Panama Canal cruises, keep my airline reservations and wait to rebook the enhanced replacement cruises once the prices crater !

Thanks, Jane. I’m a little less perturbed now. I hope they won’t take our mikes for having to cancel. I agree with you about offering some kind of incentive to remain on these less-than-ideal “enhanced” replacement cruises ! It seems like they’re cutting off their nose to spite their face ! Oh well….I’m doing nothing right now. Just gonna wait and see. Maybe I will just cancel these 2 cruises, keep my air reservations and wait to rebook once the prices crater on these replacement cruises ! LOL

It looks like everything from 2-17 through 4-6 has been cancelled. The first one still showing as available is 4-13-24.

We are on both the 3-9 and 3-16 Rhapsody sailings. What a bummer...and then for them to tell me that they're "enhancing my experience" is just a big slap across the face. I hate that ! The 3-9-24 Rhapsody replacement sailing has an overnight in Aruba which is kinda appealing...but not really appealing enough to get me to fly to Panama to do it ! We briefly thought about keeping 1 of the sailings and using the other week to hop around Central America a bit but the logistics of that are just going to be too difficult. You cannot drive a rental car out of the country (from Panama) and besides...do I really want to be tooling around in Central America ? Probably not. Depending upon where you're going, it can be a 12-14 hour drive. Probably neither wise nor safe. I agree with @HappyTexan44. It seems like they would have a bit of trouble filling these "new" sailings from Panama. It seems it would be prudent for Royal to offer SOME kind of incentive to remain on these sailings but they aren't offering ANYthing. Bupkis. We have airline miles tickets. I've never had to cancel a trip where miles were used. I'm not sure what will happen with that. This just stinks. Major bummer.

I don't believe that this is the case. I believe the "once a day" rule is per venue...so unless I'm mistaken, you can go to each of the ala carte venues once per day.

Yes

I wonder how many Pinns are really going to be going on the shorty Utopia cruises though. Probably at the start some will try it just to sail on a new ship but unless prices come down I just don't see Utopia as a Pinn-magnet.

This is the best explanation I have yet read re: this issue. Thanks for making it super clear. I hate that they have cut the "large plate" rolls down from 8 to 4 but honestly, it is enough for me. Honestly, I have forgotten...have they also cut the number of pieces of sashimi (like they did with the nigiri/rolls) ? Dan is a sashimi-eater and I prefer nigiri so I can't recall how much of the sashimi he got last time.

We also play ultimate and I hadn’t noticed these changes. Thanks for the intel.

Remember that once you are assigned your room via GTY you can always try and have your room switched if you aren't happy with the location. No guarantee that there will be a room to move to, but you can always try !

There are only a couple of JS that would be problematic and even then, most would not consider it a problem. There are a couple of aft (fantail) JS on Freedom class and those rooms have the ship infrastructure that can be an eyesore to some. Personally, I don't think it's a problem but some do not like the fantail rooms on Voyager and Freedom class. The rest of the JS should not have any obstructions. I am not a fan of the far forward or far aft rooms (of any kind) so I wouldn't want one of those cabins but with a GTY you could be put anywhere there is a room available. There is a very very slim chance that you could actually end up with a category greater than JS but that is 1 in a million these days.

Your story is a great reminder that just b/c a cruise is listed among the eligible cruises doesn't mean that there are still comp cabins available for casino bookings. The "closer in" the sail date, the most likely it will be that the comp rooms are all gone. We learned an important lesson a few sailings ago. Dan was near a "cutoff" point for the next tier level (instant comp cruise tier level, not Club Royale tier level) and finally decided to go for it. He reached the level only to find that the cruises listed on that level didn't even have a single cruise leaving out of Florida ! Lesson learned - BE SURE YOU KNOW WHAT YOU ARE PLAYING FOR !! Ask the casino host for a list of the sailings that you will be eligible for BEFORE you bother to level up. ...and even then, there's no guarantee that there will actually be cabins available to book on any cruise on that list.

I agree with those who say to keep the aft balcony. The only deck where the infrastructure matters (IMO) is deck 6 where the fantail is immediately on the other side of your railing. I think you will enjoy the aft balcony space and if you don't, at least you will have tried it and it's only 3 nights so how bad could it be ? Many people fight for those aft balconies - even on the Voyager and Freedom class ships with the aft infrastructure. Think of it as having a prized location and enjoy it !

None of it makes any sense but I have read that if you have a lot of casino offers already booked, they are not sending more…so that kinda makes sense in your case, Marc…you were a big spender in the past and have slacked off…so they’re trying to get you back !

Is this $25 specialty dining voucher only offered when the Pinns are excluded from the CK ? …or do you get it on all O class sailings ?