colesc15

Interesting. When I asked if I could change the deposit, I was told I couldn't. At least I was told I couldn't use it towards a casino booking.

I can't decide what I want to do. Looking for opinions. Right now, we have an aft balcony on Icon booked for February, roughly the 4th sailing. I booked it when it first came out, so got an "okay" price of about $3,400 for the two of us total. So far, I only paid the non refundable deposit of $500. For the same week, I can cruise on Oasis for only port fees and taxes, so roughly $300. The iterinary is less than desirable, Coco cay, Nassau, Labadee and Falmouth. It'd just be an interior room, which is fine. What would you do? As much of a "downgrade" it'd be to go on oasis, even after losing the $500 nrd, I'd still come out ahead about $3,000. Opinions? I'm like 50/50.

Sure wish I had an ugly, hodgepodge quilt. Some people have all the luck.

I feel like I've called before to have it added to cruises and they wouldn't, but I can't n remember why. I thought maybe it was couldn't be added to existing bookings?

Sorry! You're correct. My numbers in my head didn't come out the way I wanted them to early this morning lol. On land, 90ish percent, on ships, less. Thank you for the correction!

That's a lot of slide riding to cover millions of them 🙂

Casinos will always win. On land, holds are usually around 89%, on ships likely 93% or so. I've had good winning cruises and losing. But, offers don't care what you win or lose. They care about the money you're willing to circulate through the machines because they know in the end, the casino will win. I win/lose the same in the casino now as I did before the casino reward program so the way I see it, I would have played in the casino regardless, but as a reward, I'm not having to pay for gambling plus a cruise fare. Losing $5k-10k on a comped cruise is better than losing $5k-10k plus paying for the cruise.

That's how casinos work, thanks for the tip.

Has nothing to do with losses. I've gotten comped cruises many times from the casino after a winning trip. All related to the money cycled through machines and time spent in the casino.

It wouldn't shock me in the slightest if Royal marked my reservation as not paid in pull and canceled it over 8 cents 😂

This is an upcoming casino comped cruise on Wonder. Being a casino comp cruise, it's been paid in full already. Is it going to open up and become available to pay the 8 cents (or 16 cents)? Lol

Thanks! I'm the one who books a 10am flight out of FLL after a caribbean cruise. Playing it safe this time lol.

Excellent. Wanted to make sure I wasn't missing anything with our noon flight. We always self carry and will likely try to be some of the first off anyway.

Is the timing of getting off the ship any different with a transatlantic vs your every day caribbean cruise ending in Fort Lauderdale? With the facial recognition, we've never spent much time getting to the airport the last few years but wondering if the process is slower since you're getting off a transatlantic?

With us being in Port for about 12 hours that day, I'm thinking our best "bang for our buck" is doing the train on our own to Cinque Terre. I've heard great things about Porto venere but idk if we'd be able to pull off getting there as well.

Right now we're leaning towards taking the train on our own to Cinque Terre. Seems fairly easy to do and looks gorgeous. Originally had planned to go to Florence but don't want to spend 4+ hours transporting there and back.

For those who have been here as a stop on their cruise, what are some options of things to do? None of the Royal excursions stick out. Not sure if we should somehow get to Florence, go to Cinque Terre somehow, or what? Either excursion or something do it yourself. Help please!

Has anyone done this excursion in Florence? Posting here since it's royal specific and not much activity on the Italy port board. The description doesn't say much so curious if it's worth it..

Ended up booking today. Went with the one that stopped in Coco cay. I couldn't justify paying about $1,000 more to swap out Coco cay with Curaçao or grand cayman as the TA had an even lower rate with refundable deposit.

I did! We're actually going out of Puerto Rico in January 2024 for the itinerary but 2025 ones out of Puerto Rico aren't anything special.

Gratuity gets added to the $15

I think my wife and I have narrowed it down to one of the 3 11 nighters. Now we just have to decide if we want to save the $650ish and do the one with Coco cay or pick the one that stops in grand cayman or Curaçao. Both which we've been to a handful of times

Not sure I can justify the extra cost to go to Grand Cayman over Coco cay unfortunately

Bonaire is by far our favorite snorkel we've ever done. Clearest water we've ever seen. I wish the 11 nighter stopped in Bonaire.