goodycruising

Thanks for the heads up. We now have a Qantas Premier card as well, and as I had already insured for the next cruise with Aust Post it is not something I had researched so far. I see that we have to spend minimum $500 and it needs to be a return trip as well, and both of these points are mentioned in the start of the document, which is good.

The return trip point was not something I had ever thought of....it is very easy to skim over the document looking for just the info on one topic, eg car hire insurance, or medical etc.

Sorry to hear you are struggling Mr Gut. All the best to you and Mrs Gut. xx

We took the guarantee gamble I spoke about on the last page and our cabin allocation is pretty good.

Glad you are happy with the cabin allocation, and that it came through quickly. We did book one of the balcony guarantee cabins on the free upgrade sale, but when I logged in and saw oceanview gty on the booking I wasn't prepared to take the risk, so I cancelled it. When I did the booking the wording on my invoice was x gty which always is for a balcony gty.

I know other people on here and other sites were saying it would be allocated as a balcony, but, while I am a big Royal/Celebrity fan, I do get sick of these sorts of glitches and I was not in the mood to risk it. I booked a cabin of my choice a few days later. Little bit more to pay, but also we have health reasons why we don't like to be walking too far, so the gty was booked with a bit of hesitation in the first place.

I am pleased you have gotten lots of advice and booked something nice :)

We heard, but as has been said you never can be sure, that the reason a security guard was stationed outside a cabin a few doors up from us on Radiance was that a passenger refused to stop smoking in their cabin. Apparently the staff asked them to stop, and they refused and said "what are you going to do about it?" Pack your bags and get off was the reply. Can't be sure it was true.

Have also heard like some others have said about people shoplifting and fighting. Some people are so used to our soft justice system at home that they don't stop to wonder if getting put off at the next stop will be worth it.

Have you just booked the cruises or have you come back from doing them already? We like our Royal cruises for different reasons to the Celebrity ones, but they all have their pros and cons. A change doesn't hurt to try. Never tried HAL because I haven't seen the value in the smaller older ships we get here in Australia from HAL that are more expensive anyhow, and I do like my loyalty perks with RCI and Celebrity!

The site seems very glitchy. The balcony upgrade offer does not seem to be available once you click on the booking and go through. On some cruises there are no balconies at all available. Another cruise wanted to add gratuities for $250+. Very glitchy, which is not unusual for RCI. Not finding much to entice me to book, but I was kinda looking forward to booking something ....

I feel like RCCI is doing a dodgy on the pricing.

 

This morning an ocean view was $2,100 AUD, and a Balcony was $2,600.

 

Then I get an email with the deal "buy one get 50% off second person plus free balcony upgrade"

 

And now the prices are $2,700 for ocean view and $2,700 for balcony.

 

This is on Explorer Transpacific.

 

Looked at Radiance, and I did it last year and balcony only cost 3k for the cabin (1,500 each) so no way I'm paying the near 5k they want now.

 

 

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Thanks for the heads up. Not that I can get the guarantee balcony pricing to come up when I look at a booking on Explorer or Radiance for the new season. It seems like the quantities are very limited for that upgrade offer on the cruises I have been checking. Prices are not enticing me to book at this stage.

We had a delicious seafood chowder at a cafe just up the hill from the newsagency at Port Chalmers. I think the name was The Gallery or similar. Been there twice on different cruises and the food was good value each time. We overnighted at Port Chalmers due to bad weather and it was great to have extra time there. We had also stayed overnight at Tauranga as part of the original schedule. Would love to see them do this more. The crew loved it!

SHIP: Solstice

CABIN #: 1554

DECK #: 11

CLASS: Aqua

AREA: Near front lifts

BED NEAR: Bathroom

QUIET?: Yes - did not hear noise from Solarium above. There is a air vent above which creates a buffer. You do hear the continual noise when out on the balcony.

BALCONY VIEW: Obstructed by window wash equipment and a large overhang from the above deck.

BALCONY SIZE: Oversized. One and a half times a normal balcony approx

WIND A PROBLEM?: No very protected as you are aft of the hump near the lifts

SOOT A PROBLEM?: No

PROBLEMS/COMMENTS: We had the window washing equip in front of us, and we knew before we went. You should not have to do a heap of research. It should be put on their own website more clearly. We did like the larger balcony, and we still got fresh air and plenty of good photo shots. The huge overhang that is created by the deck above keeps the sun out of many Aqua cabins, and it is worth knowing, as we never got sun on our balcony on a 14 night cruise. Also, there is a big air intake vent above the balcony on several cabins in this area. It never stops, so you don't hear the sea like on lower decks. We found it a long walk to get to the food areas which are mostly towards the aft/rear of the ship. The cabin is close to the forward elevators, so easy to get to solarium, sky lounge and the theatre. We had a fantastic cruise and loved our trip, not complaining, just that there are the facts if someone wants to know.

Thanks David. I have a very special aunty & uncle on Emerald and it is great to see it looks like a nice day. First ever cruise for an 80th birthday.

If anyone has a Royal Caribbean cruise booked and they were debating about pre purchase of drinks, internet, dining etc, there is a sale on. Got an email this morning. Unfortunately the sale is not relevant to Celebrity (owned by RCI) which is a pity, as we have Solstice booked next.

To find out what is on offer, log in to your Royal Caribbean account, and go to "My cruises", and then click on your booking, then what you are interested in, eg: internet. I know that someone was saying about internet being $15.95 AUD per day pre cruise a few days ago, and now it is about $12 AUD on special. I don't know what the prices are onboard, but you will pay in US dollars onboard. Generally people have been saying around the chats that it is cheaper to pay before you go, but you need to do the research and know for yourself. I am not an agent, and I don't know prices.

Thanks Ken, it is on our planner. :)

Thank you Ken.

I was wondering if anyone knows how to put in the room number you are after? We used to be able to put a room number in when booking direct online with RCI on the Australian website.

Since the changes to the website a while back, I have been lucky so far, that when I scan on another online site to see the cabins that are available I have also seen the cabin on the available list on the RCI booking site.

I am currently looking to book a cabin and can see elsewhere that there are about 50 cabins available, but on RCI there is only about 12.

Does anyone know if it is possible to put in the cabin number in when booking like the old days? Am I missing something? (I can't book that cabin through that other site as it is not Australian.)

We are sailing on Sunday - in preparation I have been looking at the current "sale" and found a cruise we like at a good price.

 

I'll check again on Sunday and then if the deal is still there, I would hope that Next Cruise will equal the current deal, with the reduced deposit and the instant OBC.

 

Can I expect this to be the case? - Australian booking if that makes a difference.

Please know your prices, and that the booking on board will be under USA rules. When you get off the ship and try to ring with any changes they will tell you that Aussie rules are very different.

You can check the price online on the computers on board. The RCI site is free to access even if you don't have the internet package.

We checked the price, then went to the future cruise person, and when we asked why the online price was so much cheaper (it was hundreds of dollars) we were abruptly told that we should book online then. I genuinely wanted to know, but as we found out later, they are getting the USA feed for pricing. Or they were back then.

We have been disappointed with the on board booking people a few times and would be very reluctant to try that again. They have a line up waiting most of the time, so no time to go through questions, and on one occasion we were given the book and told to go and read it. Once I saw the cruise we were on in the book had a different itinerary to what we were actually doing I gave up!

Another time the terms and conditions had been printed so badly that you could not read them at all. When I pointed this out, they gave me a clearer copy, but never fixed the other pamphlets. They hate being questioned.

Your experience may be much better, and many people here are more than happy with their deals, but do not read responses from USA based people and think that will apply to us.

All the aft balconies on the Voyager and Freedom class ships are designated as "obstructed" on the deck plans due to the superstructure, but they are priced according to their cabin category and folks can't book them fast enough.

True. They look great, but a bit too far to walk for me :)

I have been googling more pictures and it looks like it might just be the lifeboat arms sitting up a bit higher on Ovation. I have booked another cabin a bit further back. Thanks for everyone's help!

Where do you find out about the "first night done right" promo? We were looking to do similar with our D+ thing on the first or second night.

As both Carol (Marion Mom) and I have said a D3 isn't a designation for an obstructed balcony cabin and the deck plan shot in your above post shows that. :confused:

Carol: Thanks for that extra info. I appreciate it very much.

Under the cabin number though it does say "Obstructed View", which would lead me to think that RCI has marked it as obstructed for a reason, but the price should be reduced.

We recently went on Celebrity Solstice and an Aqua Class cabin was marked obstructed as well, which it was, but it does not come up on the deck plan. No price reduction though. We knew what we were getting from other online photos luckily. It is not always the obstructed category that has obstructions. This was our Aqua view. We were ok with it, but would be wary of paying full price to get something similar.

According to the deck plan for Ovation that cabin isn't a DO, obstructed view balcony but a D3. You may be confusing the triangle symbol, which indicates it has a sofa bed with the square for an obstructed view balcony. Below is a shot of that balcony on Anthem, indicated by downward arrow.

 

Thanks for that photo, nothing to see by the look of it.

D3 is a category of regular balcony cabin. DO is obstructed designation.

I have seen that come up on another category of balcony besides DO as well. It seems to be a bit of a mystery. It is more expensive being a D3, and I am guessing that because it comes up as obstructed it has not been booked, as it is quite a nice location. Thanks for your reply. We have booked another cabin nearby, and if we do end up going later this year I will see if I can find out if there is anything. :)

I can't see what it would be but it is coming up on the booking direct with RCI

Hi, would anyone be able to tell me what the obstruction is on Deck 7 for cabin 7626? I have tried to do searches but I can't find an answer.

It is useful if the OP's comments are correlated with other posters who report the same thing. Several posters in different threads have mentioned loud music on RCI cruises. This is starting to worry me. Loud music is annoying and I will look for it on our first RCI cruise in July.

 

Furthermore, many of the people who post in each forum are so positive about their preferred cruise line that one has to question their objectivity. Some of the posts on CC read like shills for the cruise industry. These posts are essentially no better than the negative rants you despise (except positive ones). It healthy to reads all points of view reading cruising.

Sometimes loud music may happen in an area, but you can take your coffee and cake to another location surely. There are so many bars, nooks and other areas on every ship. To be honest this is why we book a balcony. If the Windjammer is full we take our plate to our balcony, or we come back an hour later, because really, we don't all need to eat immediately. They bring more food out all the time at every meal time.

I agree sometimes people are overly protective of RCI at times, but I think this comment needs to be put into perspective. Some of us like a bit of entertainment. Sometimes some nice music is know as entertainment. Live music can sometimes be a little loud. Really, plenty of places where you can find a quite reading area, and my feedback is that we love a quite read with a coffee and we have always been able to find a place somewhere.

Great review Matt. It is interesting to see a few differences from the sister ship Solstice which we have based in Australia a few months each year.

For those comparing the Diamond lounge with the Elite cocktail event, we have had very different experiences on Solstice. 2 years ago the event was buzzing, with heaps of elites and plenty of staff coming around with drinks and nibbles. While we missed the 24 hour availability of the diamond lounge (and the coffee machine), we still had fun.

This time (Dec 2016) we went to two nights in a row. First evening after having to go to the bar to ask for a drink, and having the nibbles come around once, which was a bit of corn wrapped in ham, we were not impressed. Second night they decided we should all be seated next to the dance floor, nowhere near the windows, and we had to put our hand up and ask the hostess where the drinks and nibbles were. We gave up and never went to any other elite event at all. It was the same hostess as the first time, but something has changed dramatically.

I did put that info in my survey, but I think the prevalence of the pick a perk drink package has watered the event down. We had the drink package and we were delighted to find our favourite barman from the previous elite event working at the Passport Bar on deck 3. Not really the same view as on Deck 14 Sky lounge though.

We are going on Solstice again in March and we know the hostess is going on leave, so we will be very interested to see if the elite event picks up. We like having a social drink with other keen cruisers. We have met some lovely people at the diamond lounge as well as previous elite events, and we really love the ambience overall on Solstice.

The food in general is great, and the food places, like the Oceanview Cafe (I always call it the jammer!) are open for longer hours. It feels like there is more seating, but maybe people are just spread over a longer time frame. That is the Celebrity feeling, relaxing and unhurried. The Windjammer on Voyager class ships seemed to have a lot of announcements last time about moving on so others could get a seat.

I think every ship has its own special good points. It is a bit like comparing apples and oranges. I like both apples and oranges!

Sometimes you want something more and are prepared to compromise. We think that having the diamond lounge is big plus, so we will be looking to see if our next cruise on Solstice will make up our mind to stay more with Royal. We already had March 2017 booked before we chose the last Dec cruise.

For those wondering about trying Celebrity, if you add up the pick your perk benefits, and you normally book a balcony, you may find the pricing adds up to be quite similar. We also find that the prices don't vary much over all of the months prior to the cruises on Solstice, so you can happily book without that feeling that the people in the cabin next door may have paid half the price that you did.

Sometimes they do have guarantee cabin specials if you are looking for a bargain, but we like to choose our cabin these days, and in Australia we are not allowed on Royal or Celebrity to change our allocation on a guarantee.

Sorry to hijack your post Matt!

The cards we have used recently for booking RCI/Celebrity cruises have been:

Citibank Plus Visa debit card - as Mic said they are changing to Mastercard in a few months so will have to check if that changes the fee structure. Easy to load money on with no fees at any Post office, and also to withdraw cash there with no fees. Also can load with bank transfer I would guess. No monthly fees

Qantas Cash prepaid Mastercard. Works through your Qantas frequent flier card. We joined when there was a special "no joining fee" for frequent flier program a couple of years back. Easily loaded from bank transfer (usually goes on the same day if you load it earlier in the day). For no fees we get to earn frequent flier points on any spending.

Australia Post International Load and Go Travel card. Purchases have a charge of 9 cents per transaction, maximum 99c per month. No initial or ongoing fees, load money on at any PO (minimum $100 startup and $100 load).

We find we prefer the Qantas if we have time to wait for the load to process, or the Citibank if we need to do a quick deposit on a bargain as we nick into the PO and deposit cash (or do a withdrawal from one of our aussie bank accounts to get the cash), go home and pay straight away. All three cards have been used over time to pay the booking deposit, and if we need to cancel the booking before the penalty date we get the credit back on our cards with no hassle.

If you intend to do any overseas travel these days it is worth organising one of the cards that does not charge fees for overseas companies as they are also good for getting cash out from overseas ATMs. We used a CBA card a while back in NZ, and besides the overseas transaction fee they charged us $5 on top! Talk about feeling ripped into! Citibank has very good rates for currency exchange when using the overseas ATMs. All you need to pay usually is the actual ATM fee charged by the provider.

Do the research for yourself. It is just not worth leaving it to the last minute as some of these cards do need to have proper ID verification done when opening the accounts. Paying local banks these ridiculous fees is just annoying.