Ambiverol

 

To the OP's question, the revenue and C & A non-revenue upgrades are separate and offered by separate departments: revenue upgrades are through the standard booking / revenue department, and non-revenue upgrades are offered through Crown & Anchor. As such they are not coordinated or tied to each other when offered. Revenue upgrades are tied more to available inventory that is desired to be sold prior to a given cruise. C & A upgrades are more as "rewards" to the higher tier C & A members.

 

The other things mentioned are in line with my experience as well. However, our GS to Crown Loft upgrade (appx. 2 years ago) came directly from C & A and there was definitely a cost with that one, albeit small. So, there are some C&A upgrades that are fee based, in our experience.

You are right about all of the different individuals/departments that come into play. Travel agents (good ones anyway) are keeping up with the prices and trying to get their customers free/low cost upgrades. Passengers are doing the same. Royal Revenue is trying to make some $. Crown and Anchor is trying to take care of their loyal customers (and, in my opinion, trying to hook some new ones). The casino is trying to upgrade their high stakes players.

At the end of the day, you will either see a price you like and upgrade, or "they" will contact you and offer a free or paid upgrade. If Royal contacts you directly and offers a fee based upgrade, it is likely less than what you see online (otherwise, why would they call you?).

All of this happens very close to the sailing date, and there is a big trickle down effect. If the OP can upgrade to an OS from a GS, that could open up 6 or 7 upgrades below him.

OP, also keep in mind that if you have an online Crown/anchor account, there is a box you can check for auto upgrades. Some people don't like doing this as they may get moved to what they consider a less desirable location/cabin, but it shouldn't hurt in your case.

And, finally, if you happen to find yourself in an OS on deck 11, please keep it nice for me. I'll be hopping aboard on the 11th, when you guys return.

I understand what you are getting at.

We were booked in a GS on Allure two years ago. I believe we were platinum C&A at the time. C&A called us (I didn't even realize they had our number, I usually give a fake one. My wife probably gave her cell at some point). They offered to upgrade us to a Crown Loft for $250 per person ($500 total). I observed 5 or 6 CLS's available, and they started going quick. We called back right away, got the CLS, and it was awesome!

To answer your question: the gap viewed online was greater than what we paid. I don't know the exact numbers, but we paid noticeably less than if we had decided to pursue this upgrade on our own.

This phone call came 1-2 weeks prior to the cruise, and has not happened since. We have been upgraded by the casino since then based on previous play, but that's a whole different thing.

Good Luck.

We just upgraded to a GS , never did suite on RCCL , what are the perks and what is your favorite perk?? ( we do get some nice perks since we are diamond), we are on NOS this Sunday

My favorite part is simply the extra space. The balcony is huge. The bathroom is big with nicer soap/shampoo. The concierge lounge is important to some people, but we don't go because I don't like to wear pants in the Caribbean (shorts only, not naked!). You get the diamond happy hour anyway, so it's not a huge deal for you. We don't have any wacky requests, so we don't utilize the concierge for anything.

Ordering room service from the MDR menu is a nice touch (and you don't have to wear pants...or shorts!).

You get a gold sea pass card and access to a special sun deck (bigger ships anyway, not sure about older ones). I think there is reserved seating at shows too.

Double cruise points.

Door bell.

Large bar area.

Your version is classier. I was thinking some kind of nipple tassles that doubled as a card holder. Maybe one could be a card holder, and the other could be a music player.

Ha! Or a rum runner!

Why would you want to go by yourself ? Or better yet without her?

I can think of lots of reasons!

We just got our first 'little guy' a passport for his upcoming Allure cruise. He's just squeaking by the early mark for a RCI cruise (6 mos.).

We chose to get the passport. He doesn't "need" it, but it is great peace of mind for any unsuspecting problems that may arise.

Getting medevac'ed off of the ship is extreme. It is more likely that we will be in the position to fly home early from a port if he becomes seriously ill. I'd hate to have an unexpected delay in that situation. It is cheap insurance.

The passport is good for five years. We could not get a good pic at home, and took him to the local drug store (2 months old) to get a proper pic. It worked out great, and we are happy to have got the passport. The pic looked like a baby mugshot!

You can legally do the birth cert. method or passport, but it was a "no brainer" for us.

Best Wishes!

Not to dampen anyone's parade or anything but remember that casino winnings are fully taxable as earned income for federal tax purposes and most state tax purposes as well. Whether any individual chooses to disclose winnings on his return is 100% up to that individual though of course.

Thanks for the unsolicited tangent, Buzz Killington.

The last two times that I was in Labadee, they used a helicopter from the Dominican Republic.

Cool pic. That is a great helicopter, but not the best for medevac. Look at the stretcher. The patients toes are next to the pilot! But...it is light enough to land on a ship.

My cruising pet peeves pretty much revolve around inconsiderate people, oblivious people, and self-centered people.

The one I will never forget:

My wife and I were in the windjammer for lunch on the Allure appx. 2 years ago. Moderately busy. We were one row away from the windows, and about 1/2 way through our meal. There were plenty of empty tables, and one just opened up next to the window as a couple (60ish) was walking by. They both looked like PITA's.

They decided to grab this table, I suppose for the view. It had not been cleaned yet, as the other people just left. I see them stack up all of the dirty dishes, utensils, napkins....and then bring them to the table where my wife and I are eating! They placed the dirty dishes on our table and said, "You don't mind, do you?". I was speechless and just looked at them (probably with my mouth open).

So now the wife and I are just shocked, and trying to give them the benefit of the doubt. They were at a 4-person table, and so were we. We figured they had two more people coming (still not appropriate), but nobody else showed up! Steam was probably coming out of my ears at this point.

When we left, I took every single dirty thing off of our table and brought it to theirs (while they were about 1/2 way through their meal). It took me two trips. I said, "You don't mind, do you?", and left. I still can't believe this happened.

I did exactly that, last year on the Independence OTS, and it was fine. We were the final US sailing, it crossed the pond, then dry dock.

Some notes:

--Overall very nice, no real issues

--Normal cruise director off early, had a sub they pulled out of retirement, many did not like

--Decent amount of europeans, who were staying on for the transatlantic

--Doing some prep work. A company was on board laying wires for the new wifi system. They were not too intrusive, but noticeable here and there.

--Some other minor prep work

--As someone else mentioned, while leaving, I noticed carpets being ripped up (assuming unsold staterooms!), mattresses discarded, etc.

If one didn't know better, all of this could have passed as normal operations.

I read your other forum often! Toyota just bought back my taco (2000, frame rot), and they did right by me--I made some good money off of that truck.

Now, with a kid, I'm thinking of upgrading to the 2014 Tundra, or.......waiting for the 2015 F-150 (I know!!!).

I agree with all of the other advice. You from FL?

A lot of the reviews I've read say that the shops aren't the same as on other ships. There is no logo shop, and a lot of random British things that no one from the US wants to buy.

Exactly. It's all Paddington Bear, "England Bird Watching Guide", black taxi models, etc. It caters to the British crowd, and does not have much ship-related merchandise.

You missed the point also. I'm not concerned about us as we take enough medicines/antibiotic to tidy us over. My wife is a walking pharmacy. With regards to the Captain's party as mentioned we we don't go to it gets old for us and rather spend the time in the Casino.

 

My concern is that for the sake of monetizing the Captain's title the shaking hands with a ton of Paxs for picture taking by the ship's photographer, is unhealthy in today's environment. Paxs with the Noro could infect the Captain, who in turn could infect other Paxs. Heck, I shudder when I have to shake hands with fellow parishioners at Sunday's mass.

Haha. I have to point this out. The casino is probably the nastiest part of the ship. Everyone touching the machines, chips back and forth, filthy money, smokers with hands near mouth/coughing, high fives, sweaty drunk people trickling in from outside, spilled beer onto felt-never really dries, old ships with coin slot machines-black hands, people probably springing leaks because they won't leave that "hot machine".

I've shaked Johnny's hand (in the casino!) and lived to tell the tale.

Thank you. What about going back through customs? Can you request your money in a check or have it wired to your account, or put back on a cc?

No, Royal will not issue a check, I've tried. It would be nice if they did.

Also:

If you took $ out on the room account, you can pay it back at guest services, and keep doing this over and over. Your roommate will be able to see all of these charges (on the tv), as well as your stateroom attendant on the last night (bill under door), etc. I think they max out casino sea pass charges at appx. 2k/day, but can raise it a little. If you want more, you can take the same card you used for your ship account (or any card) over to the cashier and get as much as you'd like! Funny rule. So, if you took out 10k over the course of the cruise on your seapass, and paid 10k back to guest services, there would be no charge. You can not give them more than your total sea pass bill (gambling+regular stuff).

If you took money from the casino cashier on your CC directly, you can not just pay that off onboard.

If you are a member of club royale, there is no fee for withdrawing cash in the casino. (Just upped to 5% from 3%).

If you win 1200+ on a slot, they do not take taxes or issue a W2-G (some other lines do, not Royal)

If you win a ton of $ on the first or second night and try to cash in, I've seen the cage run out of $. They may have more somewhere, but they'll cash out what they have on hand and ask you to get the rest in a day or 2. If you pushed the issue, they'd probably figure something out. If you find yourself in this predicament, I guarantee you will not be concerned about this.

If you enter the US with over 10K, it's on you to declare or not. It's an IRS form that gets filled out through customs, and maybe adds 15 minutes. Only once have I been asked any questions (MIA) after declaring the money. They were sticklers and were routinely pulling people out of line if they felt their watches/jewelry/etc looked too new. It was no big deal though.

Like other charges, these will not appear on your CC account until a few days after your cruise completion. Also, any $ taken in the casino is treated (on both ends) as a purchase, not a cash advance.

I have no idea about wiring, checks, or casino credit lines at sea.

Someone mentioned international waters being the reason a W2-G is not issued (I believe they said 1099). Anyway, that's not the reason (although it seems like it would be). Some lines (NCL) operate like land based casinos and comply with US tax rules, some (RCI) don't, regardless of the ships position.

Anything in excess of the above situations will be given to you as cash only. Even if it's a ton.

Hope this helps.

Thanks for the info. We were hoping there was a way for our kids to let us know everything is ok at home and since they can text us with no cost, we'll have them send us a text a day to say everything is fine. If not ok, we won't care how much it costs to call them back.

Exactly.

Just a heads up for iphone people who plan on receiving and possibly sending texts (not sure how other phones work). Disable data to ensure texts send/receive as SMS (green) and not imessages (blue). Otherwise, it counts as data, and you will be charged accordingly.

That's cool

So here is my question. A complimentary upgrade from Balcony to GS = only one credit point per night. But then you did an upsell from GS to CLS = ???

 

Typically if you pay anything to upsell to a suite, you are entitled to the double points per night. So did you get the double points? I assume that was worth the extra 500. Well done!!!!! I bet you are loyal to royal now. See it works.

Haha. It was totally worth the $500. I just hope they offer it again! We did receive 2X points, and have since earned diamond. So, you are right, it does encourage loyalty.

The upgrade from the Balcony to the GS was through the casino. I had some decent action on a previous cruise, and they contacted me to see "if it would be okay to switch us to a GS". Hmmm...

The uspsell call was a few weeks later and actually went to my fiance, through her C&A information, and had nothing to do with my thing.

To answer the other poster, for stat purposes, I booked directly through RCI.

We got the call from C&A about 1.5 years ago for a sailing on the Allure. We had booked a Balcony and were upgraded to a GS a few weeks out (upgrade). Within a week of the cruise, we were contacted by C&A, they left a voicemail (upsell).

The offer was to upgrade from the GS to an OV CLS for $500 ($250pp). We actually thought about it for a day. We had stayed in a GS on Allure prior, and were looking forward to the wide balcony. We feared the CLS looked very narrow. I noticed CLS's were going quick at this point, and we booked it. I was crazy for not doing it immediately, the cabin was awesome.

At the time, we had 5 or 6 Royal cruises under our belt.

Thanks for the link. This is interesting to watch. The radio chatter is funny too!

I always wear 6" heels on the ship, but have yet to wear them outside of the stateroom. My wife won't let me!

Don't forget to tip your waitresses!!!

Is that like Mike hard lemonade:confused:

Hard cider is from fermented fruit (apples in this case).

"Hard Lemonade" is malt liquor with fruit juice/flavor added.

Congrats on the nice hits. I hope you had a decent bet up at the time!

X2 with the other poster. Your membership will remain, but any rebate will expire after 1 year. You can call them in a few weeks to find out your rebate. They used to send a letter, but I haven't got one in awhile.

I would not feel like they were "insulting my intelligence". Rewards are mostly computer generated, and based on a formula. So, unless the computer was looking to settle a score...

Comps from a past cruise are also independent of the price you paid for your Quantum cruise. I realize you were just trying to show the contrast, but it is not really relevant. Also, not drinking in the casino is not really saving them any money. They are supplying drinks at cost to them (very little) and gamblers inevitably lose more when liquored up.

If you are a player with a 5K bankroll on a cruise, you probably already know this:

Slot machine play is rated by "coin in". It doesn't matter if you win or lose, it's just how much you put through the machine. You get more comps with more coin in.

For example: Start with $100, $5 max bet "penny machine", manage to get 150 spins out of it (example only, lots of cherries!), cash out 100 (even). You will have put $750 through the machine (5X150), and you have neither won nor lost. Now take $500 to a $100 machine, spin 5X, lose all $500. You are now down $500 real dollars and have credit for $500 coin in. As far as comps go, the first example will be better for you.

Table game comps are based on a formula: average bet x amount of time spent playing x average hands per hour x house edge. The casino will then return a % of that number. Hands per hour and house edge are not really controllable by you. The other two are. I find that the time element is where I'll notice a big jump in comps. I have friends who bet decent money, but are always jumping from table to table. This has an adverse effect on their comp $, but this is how they like to play and they are more worried about their real $ and view comps as a nice bonus.

On a side note, I hear NCL is the best line for gamblers. I've received offers from them (through Harrahs/Caesars), but, like you, have never taken them up on it. I also agree that RCCL is a little quirky with their program, but it has come a long way in a short time. And, they have always been very good to me, so they keep roping me in.

The rebate is a separate thing from the free cruise offers. Just like Carnival sent you an offer to cruise for free, Royal does the same (and NCL, etc.). This is independent of your rebate. If any of these companies feels your action is high enough to justify a free cruise, they will offer it to you. In the case of RCCL, you will then get your rebate on top of that.

I recently walked off a RCCL ship with a good chunk of money and had the host pull me aside the final night. She flatly said, "Come back, on us, anytime. We want our money back." Her tone was dead serious. I've received several emails directly from that ship trying to lure me back. Please don't think I'm bragging, because I've lost much more than I've won on these stupid ships! I'm just showing that there are other, less common, ways to gain comps.

As another poster alluded to, you can also consider going through a junket company. Friends have had luck with them in the past, but I'm pretty sure you don't get a rebate for that cruise. I think it gets diverted to the junket company.

One last thing, the casino host does have some discretion regarding comps. Let's say you sit down at roulette and bet $50,000 on black (they raised the limit just for you!), you lose, leave, and never return. Based on the above formula for table games, you will have a low number (similar to a medium slot player). The host can take such factors into consideration and adjust your comps accordingly. This is uncommon, but it's worth mentioning.

I have been totally annoyed and baffled by comps in the past. Sometimes I'm surprised in a good way, but usually it's a disappointment. Pit bosses get lazy, people make errors, the system is far from perfect. So, please don't feel like I'm judging you negatively. Based on the info you provided, it seems like your rebate is lower than you expected based on length of play. If you hit a brutal losing streak, there's not much you can do about that. They do, however, get it wrong sometimes. And, there are "other" ways to get comps, but it is mostly based on their mathematical formulas.

Please provide a casino review after your Carnival cruise. I'd like to jump ship in the future and see what other lines have to offer.

Enjoy your upcoming vacations, and good luck!

Were you on the Western or Eastern? This is something that never crossed my mind ,hmmmm? Not sure I want to cruise if the sun sets at 5:15.

We've cruised at the end of October on Allure the past few years. We prefer to cruise in the colder months (love being hot when everyone at home is snowed in!), but the October sailings have worked better for us recently. The weather is hot, the fares are less, and the kids are minimal.

Regarding daylight, the eastern vs. western will be roughly the same. Length of day is a function of date/latitude. The east/west sailings are similar latitudes. You can go online and find the sunrise/sunset times for areas you'll be sailing on certain dates. Also, remember the cruise stays on "ship time", which means you do not adjust your clocks while changing time zones. So, while the length of day remains unchanged, the sunrise/sunset time on the ship may differ from local time in the ports.

Two buck chuck.