vacationers

I am very disapointed with RCCL. I am a Diamond PLus member and yesterday I was trying to book on the Enchantment for May 27th. I picked the cabin and enter my husband's name and when I hit next for payment, guess what!! the price changed. I called the Diamond plus desk righ away and they were not the friendliest people. Nothing can be done. Then I spoke to a resolution rep, Witt and he was not even concern or helpful at all. I kept trying to explain that I back arrow and I had it on the screen. I asked for a Supervisor or Manager and he said they had none. Well, everyone has a Supervisor and a Manager. He said there was nothing they could do. I could not understand how price could change while booking. I know it was a glich, but it should not happen and RCCL should have made it good. But instead they acted as if I was not important.

I guess they are not really interested on past cruisers. It is sad because RCCL use to have the best customer service ever and now I guess is all about money. Don't they realize eventually it catches up to them.

Was trying to book but you cannot even pick your category now. It assigns it to you and then you have to figure your way arouns to find e2 or e1 etc.. Bottom line was not able to look at anything.

This was the same for several cruises. Boy RCCL now really is going to lose some money. It is almost ompossible to search now. :mad:

I say, if you never done it, then do t and get it out of your system. We missed t when they first offered a shore excursion to St Barths. Now that is back and RCCL is offering it again I am going to try to do it. Just to experience it. ;)

My husband left his wedding band in the cabin and the cabin attendant turned it in. When we call dccl this said they had. Just had to pay for shipping and we got it back :D

Wow. You replied nearly faster than I can type :-). Thank you. Hope Royal will give me a descent quote tomorrow and I can snatch 7616 or 7622. Somehow they quote me more than the price on my TA's website.... Very weird price drops if you ask me. Keeping my toes and fingers crossed.

Cindy

 

I would book it right away. You can always get your price adjusted. Prices increase very quickly. The price on your TA site might not be updated normally the price is the same. You can also sign in and place a 24 hold on the cabin without any money.

It's still 60 days from date of booking to transfer to a TA. Nothing has changed.

not sure if you are transferring to a TA or from a TA

I have done a lot of research, and I am still confused! Can I redeem RCCL visa points (have 50,000+) for free 3-4 day cruise on Harmony Nov 5, 2016? I would like to book a balcony and pay difference. Can you use Diamond balcony discount? :confused:

Advise welcome

Thanks

You can redeem points for discount money. In other words you have around 500.00 now you can apply and still get your on board *****. One thing does not have to do with the other. We just did it and worked out fine just call the crown and anchor desk they do everything for you,:)

You can also apply your balcony discount as well or promo. In January they have changed this and there was a lot of complains because t was a credit card not RCCL then they corrected this. I have had no problem But when you call the crown and anchor desk do not press anything. simply stay on the line when it says for all other issues just stay on the line. Then you will get the real desk and not a vacation planner. They can do everything and they are very nice about it.

Other opinion please

I've been looking at this also. I've read on the shore excursion forum that some have had bad experiences due to the fact that St. Barths "supposedly" does not care for middle class cruise ship passengers and have closed the shops down in town.

I read the same thing. Maybe is not worth spending the extra money.

We did a taxi island tour and while we paid a high price, we felt it well worth it. We had a delightful driver/guide, a very comfortable, clean vehicle and he took us all over for about 1 1/2 hours which is exactly what we asked of him. We connected with him near the tender dock. When we got off the tender we walked off on our own for a while and then returned to that area to hire a car and driver. Like always, settle the price in advance of getting in the vehicle.

 

can you tell me what stops did he make and how much was it? Thanks

thanks for the info. The problem is that it is not from Florida port. :D

I was wondering if someone has done the St Barth's excursion in St Maarten and what you think about it.

Haven't been on her, but it is my understanding that formal night is the second night (Nassau) for the 3 day sailing.

I read on the board that formal nights were going away and some ships did not have them. Specially short cruises. Thanks for the update.

Thank you so much for your review. It is amazing. We are sailing on her in two days.

I noticed you did not mentioned formal night. Did that go away? ;)

Bernard's Tours sounds nice. What are the price ranges PP. Do you need to book ahead of time? Thanks

I think 45.oo but includes beer, water, soda and rum punch. you still have time when you come back to go to the town. is tour is around 4 to 5 hour. He is never in a hurry. It is the best! We have done it 4 times.

I suppose they can say what they want and do what they want, and if the company feel that keeping prices up in an attempt to gain/retain exclusivity is a good idea, then that's up to them.... The final decider will be whether enough people continue with RCI or will they take their vacation dollars to a different supplier? It might be viable to have a half filled ship leave port, but for how long?

Correct!!!! The fact is that a good CEO with good marketing skills does not insult the population and cruisers that allowed him to have this job. He can have his opinion but not insult the middle class working people who clearly the only way they can do vacation is on a budget. There is nothing wrong with that.

Like someone mentioned "He determined that the two classes were "discount seekers" and "cheap cruisers" and clearly stated that he was ok with raising prices so as to keep those two classes of cruisers from being able to afford the cost. He may think this but should not make a public statement where clearly can be taken as discrimination. It is like saying, if you can spend enough, we do not want you on my ship

We do have choices and even if other cruise lines might have comparable prices we can always jump companies.

And they are going to do that by charging them a premium and this makes me so happy! Richard Fain has repeatedly said prices are artificially low and now they are approaching the levels they need to be. Yay for new cruisers at higher prices!

I think CoachT is Richard Fains right hand!! LOL

The economic reality is FACT. When the prices dropped and the discount seekers and cheap cruisers came, onboard revenue dropped. It makes more sense to keep prices higher where people will and do spend money on board.

 

Those who bought at a discount, were not prepared and did not spend as before. This is a verifiable fact. It is not elitist to state reality. Richard Fain has been stating for years that cruise prices across the lines were artificially far too low for the value offered. As a shareholder, this is a brilliant strategy to end this discounting nonsense.

CoachT you must be a company executive making a lot of money. :eek:

No consideration for the other middle class who we do count our dollars.

Can anyone share the shows on the sky and are they all free?

Never been to Grand Bahamas Island and I see NCL goes there. Can anyone tell me about it?:D

We became Diamond + a while back but have not cruised again on RCCL. The service has gone down and that special attention is mostly gone. Sometimes we never see our cabin attendant. They reduced the amount of cabin attendants giving them to many cabins to handle. Yet, they give then business cards!! Wow, what an expense! The specialty restaurants have gone up and now I guess it is too much trouble for announcements. lol… We are not very big drinkers, but the prices are very high.

We have placed holds on several cruises but after really analyzing the cost, we always cancel. Now we look at other cruise lines and talk to other people that have cruises other lines. I also read other boards to get a sense of what goes on. Everything is mostly similar. It was the service perks and prices that kept me going back. Now it is going away little by little. Even VISA ints, you get the thing of…you cannot combined them with specials. other say yes you can. Well credit card is credit card and I have not seen any disclousures to the fact.

But like someone mentioned before, some islands have great prices on their resorts. you can check cheap caribbeans.com

The BOGO sale is a joke. When I check now the prices on cruises that I had considered before, there is a big increase. I feel like their insulting my intelligence. I know some people pay the price but like most of us, I am on a constant budget and trying to do the best deal on my vacation..So bottom one is, if I want to cruise, I feel I now have choices. NC, Carnival are great as eel!.

No offense to anyone, but I don't mind paying a little more if the service is good.

It's the southern caribbean cruise. San Juan, St. Thomas, St. Kitts, Aruba, Curacao.

 

I've not been to Aruba or Cuacao so would be open to suggestions in the lines of Shopping/Sight Seeing.

 

St. Thomas I've been on a cruise to just not RCI so I know the Cable Car is a good choice and I know there is shopping at the Havenport dock but RCI can't tell me what dock we are going to I've asked them a few times now they are not sure and have been unable to get the information. If I knew that I could atleast know what's around the dock and how far it is. Like the Havenport dock I know is a 5-10 min ride by taxi to downtown shopping.

 

St. Kitt's I know has a Senic Rail tour which I would like to do again but RCI again can't tell me anything even though it's on their own website http://www.royalcaribbean.com/shoreExcursions/product/detail/view.do?sourcePage=shorexByPort&ProductCode=KT39&DestinationCode=

 

No point in using their website since only works about 10% of the time. Either I can't login because "Your reservation is being modified" or when I am able to nothing seems to work. Again asking them for help get's me know where, all I get is "What excursion do you want to book" and I ask about them and in return get "Sorry I don't know anything about them".

 

It all just makes me want to scream.

I know how frustrated it can be. Here is some tips. Make sure you have your hotel in San Juan. Sheraton Convention Center is at the port. Embassy suites is also a good one. If you are going to spend time in old San Juan, this is something you can do by yourself by just walking around. The Convent, Cathedral, the Fort is all near each other. In St Kitts. http://www.thenfordgreytours.com s a good choice for tour of the island. You will love it. The train is expensive and not worth it, very boring.

I would try to take the RCCL tour of the islands for Aruba and Curacao. Also RCCL has a port and shopping talk on board, I think the same day or you can check the compass and they have very good information. Every time I went to a new island, I always did the port talk and the island excursion. When I went back, I knew a little bit more of what else I wanted to do. There is also a PORT section on cruise critic where you can read about the islands.

I hope this helps.

does anyone know who is covering for Marc Walker on the Enchantment while he is on vacation in May?

who is covering Marc while on the Enchantment of the Seas while he is on vacation

cruise ship offers laundry service. I do not know how much it is but it was not that bad.

Idea… do to carry to many t-shirts since you might want to purchase some on different island.