Ru5tY

Just posting in case this helps anyone.

In my original post when we finalized our final payment at 30 days before sailing, the only check-in time available was 1pm.

But as Merion_Mom suggested, I kept checking over the next two weeks, and at around 15 days before sail date, for some reason many more earlier timeslots opened up and we managed to get 11:30am.  Pretty happy with that as this now lines up with our car rental return.

So definitely keep checking as the sail date gets closer!

We are sailing on Harmony in mid-May out of Port Canaveral.  We just did the online check-in today after submitting our final payment last week.

Normally we aim to check-in around 10:30am-11am, but the earliest arrival time the app is giving me is 1pm.

If we show up at 10am-11am, would they make us wait until 1pm?  

We need to return the car rental by around 10:30am anyways, which is why ideally we don't want to wait until our 1pm arrival time.

Haven't been on the Breakaway or Harmony, but I can comment on between RCL Oasis vs NCL Escape & NCL Getaway (which are basically sister ships).

RCL has better main dining room (dinner), shows, and flowrider (surfing).  The shows felt way better on RCL, there's 2 musical productions, 1 skating show, 1 aqua show (vegas style), and 1 kids puppet show that was surprisingly better than expected.  Oasis didn't have waterslides when I went on, but I would assume it's now on par with NCL.  Didn't like how all the kids activities you had to pay a surcharge for.  Pool area is slightly bigger for RCL.

NCL has better buffet (wider assortment of food during breakfast & lunch), rope course (zip line and walking the plank), and more free activities for younger kids.  We ate dinner in the main dining room and the food was just "ok" and we were never wow'd.  Freestyle dining was great and you can just show up anytime, but the downside is that you get a different waiter every night and never end up building rapport with them. The shows were average...good enough but no "wow" factor.  Your kids might enjoy the Free Fall waterslide (vertical drop, just like at Great Wolf Lodge). Not having a formal night was great as well, since we tend to pack light and I hate packing a suit/shirt/shoes.

IMO, you're definitely getting a more premium experience with RCL Harmony over the NCL Breakaway. Price has always been an advantage for NCL, and for us the 3rd/4th guest free promo has always resulted in significant savings when compared to RCL.  If we're talking about savings of $4000, I would probably pick NCL as the kids won't know the difference!  They'll have a great time on both ships.  Spend those savings on some memorable shore excursions instead.

Looks like the passport ban is over....

https://www.royalcaribbean.com/cruise-s ... ry-updates

"Novel Coronavirus Travel Alerts

UPDATED ON FEBRUARY 10, 2020

TRAVEL RESTRICTION UPDATE

Royal Caribbean has ended its temporary general restriction on holders of passports from China, Hong Kong and Macau. The general restriction was adopted last week in response to numerous ports and governments around the world restricting travel for Chinese passport holders, often with little advance notice.

Now that these governmental restrictions have been clarified, we are able to clarify our own policies. Our 15-day restriction on all individuals who have traveled from, to or through mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau remains in effect, and so do restrictions on individuals who have been in close contact with persons who have traveled from, through or to China, Hong Kong and Macau in the past 15 days.

We maintain a list of our current boarding policies for all travelers, together with a list of current local travel restrictions at https://presscenter.rclcorporate.com/pr ... rt-holders. We encourage holders of China, Hong Kong and Macau passports to be aware of the potential for a disrupted vacation, and to contact us with any questions."

20 hours ago, Jzx1103 said:

 

I know I'm just salty cause I got banned for just having a Chinese passport, while plenty of people whose had recent contact will probably lie about it. Also because I can't go, my in laws effectively also can't go (they're old and it isn't safe for them to cruise without us) but they can't cancel their room since they have U.S. passports and weren't banned by Royal. I feel like this is Royals own doing and they should allow anyone linked to me to cancel with full refund.

Was your room and your in-laws booked at the same time?  Or separately?  When you log in online on RCL's website, do you see all the reservations linked?

If you get an email response, please share in this thread or message me directly.

I'm in a similar situation as you but our cruise isn't until March 29 (Harmony), so customer service says they won't issue any refunds to us at this point.  Right now they said the Coronavirus policy only applies to February 2020 sailings, despite the fact that the website's latest update on Feb 9 was changed to "until further notice" (previously "Feb 2020 sailings only").

I booked all 3 rooms for our group of 10 through Costco Travel Canada, and on RCL's website I can see all 3 room reservation numbers under my account.  Room 1 = 2 adults and 2 kids, all Canadian.  Room 2 = 2 adults and 2 kids, 3 Canadian and 1 adult has a China passport.  Room 3 = 2 adults, 1 Canadian and 1 has a China passport.  Therefore, for rooms #2 and #3, customer service said those two rooms would get refunded if they get banned from boarding. However, for room #1, they said we would not get refunded since everyone has a Canadian passport.  That makes no sense as how can they break up our family vacation and still expect 1 room to go ahead with the cruise as if nothing happened?

I escalated it to a supervisor and I think I got passed to a "Customer Resolution Department".  After I pointed out that I was the one that made all 3 room bookings at the same time, and also paid all the deposits, then they agreed that they would note it in our file and that we should be able to cancel all 3 rooms if some members of our party are banned from boarding due having China passports.

Our other issue is that we have already paid for all flights and pre-cruise activities (non-refundable, and paid to a 3rd party, not RCL).  These fees were paid for in December, around the same time as our final cruise payment to RCL. RCL wasn't able to confirm whether we would be reimbursed for these expenditures since they do not have a policy in place yet!  I asked them what are they doing for the people who are affected in February 2020 sailings, and all they did was look up the policy for Anthem of the Seas (as of Feb 10) and said they would pay for "flight change fees up to $400USD".  I would assume someone at head office has already done the math and concluded that China/HK/Macau passport holders probably represent less than 5% of each ship, and they would rather take the hit on refunding/reimbursing those guests rather than risk having an entire ship get quarantined (i.e. Diamond Princess).  They absolutely need to communicate a reimbursement policy ASAP for all people that are affected by this passport ban. If they wish to impose a discriminatory corporate policy to ban 5% of the ship to keep the other 95% safe, then they absolutely need to ensure that the 5% is taken care of and not thrown under the bus (or boat). Again, this is a corporate policy and not a US state department policy.  Even if customers had travel insurance for trip cancellation, it probably wouldn't get triggered since there is no travel advisory against flying to Florida!

Sorry for the rant but I just had to put it all out there while it's fresh in my mind.  For background, this is will be my 12th cruise (3rd with RCL).

Hi,

We're planning a cruise with with our parents (mid-60's), whom have never been on a cruise before. Which itinerary do you think would be a better experience for them?

NCL Escape with Eastern Itinerary

vs

NCL Getaway with Western Itinerary

We ourselves have done Eastern with Princess, and Western with Carnival. We've previously been on NCL on a Hawaii cruise, and RCCL on Southern Caribbean.

Personally I like Western more because there are 4 stops and only 2 days at sea, and the stops are more fun IMO. But this will also be the first time we go on a cruise with 2 young kids (age 2 and 4), so I don't think we'll even be able to do the fun things (i.e. dunn river falls), so perhaps the ports don't even matter? I think our parents would get a kick out of swimming with stingrays in grand cayman though.

On the other hand, the idea of going on a brand new ship (Escape) really appeals to me, but I'm not as excited about Nassau, Tortola or St. Thomas.

What do you guys think?