CruisinCampbells

I purchased the $50 card for my kids, 1 each. Honestly, no, it's not worth it. The games are short, they only a few give tokens for the most menial junk, and the games are between $2-$4 a pop. My kids were 10 when they went and even THEY thought it was a rip off. They would have preferred to spend that money at Ben and Jerry's. 

17 minutes ago, MericaAR15 said:

 

1.  Can we book drink and food packages later, or do they have to be decided upon during cabin booking?  We probably want an alcoholic drink package, but they kind of hide the pricing info on this stuff.  I have not been presented with this info yet. 

2.  How do we track price changes, and how is this handled?  I believe I read that you can get a refund if it drops. 

3.  Do you have any pro tips or perspectives I haven't considered?  I'm sorry, I know I'm pretty ignorant on cruising.  I really want my wife to have a great time. 

 

 

 

Not worth it for the slightly larger balcony....

1.    Yes, you can book all of the other add on's after the initial cruise is booked. 

2. . I tracked the change of price by running ghost bookings periodically. I actually had saw a big enough drop that I called them up and had them add on the gratuities (another perk for question 1), and it didn't cost me any more than my initial first booking. 

3.   I used to work on ships.... 15 years ago. Things have changed. I also have cruised a few times in the last 6 years. I'm heading out in a couple weeks for my first family cruise. I have learned a lot of what's changed, and different perspectives from the multitude of cruise vlogs on youtube. (but don't pack everything they all recommend, or you'll need a crane to get it all onto the ship! LOL).

2 minutes ago, Biker19 said:

Bookable inventory yes, but there may still be other inventory which is held back. Also, the inventory is just a snap shot in time, anything can open at any time, hence the need to line up folks in Royal Up for possible upgrades, even if it never happens.

So I called.... Interestingly, they see what I see. SOLD OUT. However he did confirm that the only inventory in those categories that would be available are the rooms that are blocked off for the RoyalUp program..... 

My guess was correct, i suppose.... they block off rooms for this purpose.... 

1 minute ago, Biker19 said:

Not at all. The RCI UK site is better, but even that doesn't have the whole inventory picture.

Do you think if I called them directly the RCCL booking agent will see all available inventory?

1 minute ago, Biker19 said:

Not all available cabins are shown on that site.

Are you referring to the RCCL.com site? they don't show all available cabins on their own booking site? that would be..... odd, don't you think? lol

2 minutes ago, parrotfeathers said:

 

I think I read earlier that unless you are already getting the double points (as in a JS now),  you cannot get them for moving up (from a balcony).  Someone will have to verify that for me.

Yep! I'm aware. I was trying to run the numbers on the suite straight through Royal Caribbean to see if it was worth doing it directly and not through RoyalUp.

I suspect this question has been asked somewhere in the 150 pages, but the search isn't too helpful. 

How can the RoyalUp program give the option for upgrades to a Suite if they are "sold out" in the booking page?

I put in a bid on suite.... it's still pending.... Thought I would run the numbers to see if it's worth doing on my own to get the extra points, but they are all showing as sold out.

How does that work? Do they have some blocked out for the RoyalUp program?

Hey "Royal Caribbean Dude"! I look forward to seeing your new posts here. This thread is a cool idea 😄 My husband and I are old crew members from RCCL, and Mariner was one of my contracts (way back in 2004ish). I worked Guest Relations and my husband was stage staff (different ship, we weren't married then). 

I always joked, if the passengers knew HALF the stuff that would go on behind the scenes, they'd be shocked. hahaha. You're keeping it clean..... NICE!

Hi everyone.

Okay, so years ago (like 15 years ago 😳), RCCL used to offer post cruise excursions that would drop participants off at the airport when the tour was completed. I don't see that as an option anymore, but I'm curious if there are any companies/recommendations of vendors that offer this type of service? We're on a Galveston cruise.

Thanks!

15 hours ago, Jasonmom said:

Hello and welcome.  

 

What is TOM, SW, CW, and GW.  

Hi! thanks for the welcome! 

TOM: Time of Month

SW: Starting Weight

CW: Current Weight

GW: Goal Weight 

Hi! This is my first post with this group. I have three months to lose as much as I can (i don't have enough time to achieve my final goal, oh well!). 

Anyway, I've been "losing" for about 6 weeks now. Last week was tricky as I gained due to TOM and lots of summer walking (retained water in sore muscles). But today I've weighed in at my lightest for quite a while!

SW: 255

CW: 234.4

GW: 140?

Hey, I'm using the IF/EF method myself. My daily is OMAD, no real restrictions, but I'm finding the loss is less, so I'm trying to transition to better feasting options (low carb). I've been doing different window lengths since the third week in June and have lost 20 lbs so far. I have three months until my cruise. 

I used to work in what I affectionately called "the complaint department" on a few ships with one cruise line about 15 years ago. I was a Purser. Man oh man, could I tell you stories! There was a Guest Resolutions log each cruise, which made for very entertaining reading each week. 

But I have to say, with my experience, I noticed that complainers are rewarded for bad behaviour and ridiculousness by the cruise lines generally based on how much of a scene they make. I'm Canadian, and was unaccustomed to this tactic (and response) when I started working with them. It wasn't something I could get on board with... so I would go out of my way to help those people with issues who came politely, with respect, and with reasonable expectations. The obnoxious ones I sent up the chain of command LOL.

Here are a few unique (some funny) complaints that I still recall:

1. Their microwave in their room wasn't working... (it was their in room safe). Almost every week this complaint came in LOL

2. They purchased an ocean view room, and were deeply unhappy having to look at the parking lot (because we hadn't set sail yet).

3. One woman demanded rudely, a new room, away from her husband, because they had suddenly decided they were going to get a divorce (1 hour after setting sail). 

4. Sailing from SanJuan, you get a lot of locals, plus a lot of people from New York (discounted flights).... I had no idea, but apparently the two groups generally don't get along well. There were always tons of complaints about each other. 

5. A lady insisted on only speaking with me about a complaint she had..."I want to speak with someone who speaks english".... while giving a glare to my colleague from Trinidad.... Well, that's the only language that my colleague spoke.... we suspected either her accent or skin color had something to do with it....sigh...

Fun times. 

I've never had to go, personally, but I used to work in Guest Relations, where unclaimed luggage would be brought and stored until the end of the cruise, which would then be surrendered to the port agents if it remained unclaimed (like the lost and found). Sometimes items would "lose" their room tags, but that would be after they had passed security. I recall working night shift, and one piece of luggage remained unclaimed the whole cruise (this was back in 2003). No tags, no identifiers. No owner. No one touched it until the poor guest relations manager had to take it off ship at the end of the cruise. The drug dogs were around. Turns out to it was filled with marijuana. (bags of it!). 😲😲 The Guest Relations Manager had to spend the ENTIRE day with the FBI, port authorities, who search all of his stuff on board too. Poor guy. LOL. I just can't quite figure out how security missed that bag, but then go after extension cords LOL. I think policy changed after that.... where they would open the luggage if unclaimed to see if an owner could be found among the stuff inside..... 😳

Personally, I think the lack of bar waiters/servers are directly tied to the drink packages offered. You buy the package for unlimited drinks, but then have to wait quite a while for actual service. Less waiters walking around selling drinks or taking orders means less alcohol served, more of a profit for the cruise line. Before the packages were offered, the pool bar waiters were everywhere! My last cruise on the Allure, there was rarely one in sight, and if someone was seen, they were just collecting empties. The Viking Crown lounge would have 1 maybe 2 servers for a packed room, two bar tenders run ragged, as most people would have to walk up to the bar to actually get a drink.