goodycruising

We generally tip at least a couple of bucks for room service delivery unless it's done by the butler or OUR steward. In that case we do extra at the end of the cruise.

 

As always tipping is a personal choice. I've never had anybody look at me like they were expecting a tip when delivering room service. I generally have it in my hand and have to chase them to the door to catch them before they are gone.

I agree, we think that a couple of bucks, or 5 if it it something complex like dinner, is fair for coming all that distance with our stuff. We have been caught with getting the money out of the drawer and the attendant was out the door too quickly!

RCCL must be doing something right..you are Diamond Plus and sailed on their ships at least five or six times :confused::confused:

They do plenty right, but answering emails is not something we have had luck with over the years, and even talking to them on the phone can be hit and miss as to what information you get sometimes. Some of the info on the website is outdated also from time to time.

In regards to smoking the website is vague, and I presume the person answering emails didn't know the finer details of the last paragraph: "Please note that above policy is subject to revision in order to comply with current applicable health legislation, where countries have local smoking regulations. This may mean that smoking is prohibited except in designated outdoor areas or when arriving/departing certain ports."

I must say talking to them on the phone regarding bookings has been good, although we do book online mostly. I am loyal to Royal/Celebrity, but I will honestly say where they fall short on something.

Great info, but particularly about the kids. We did back to back cruises on Voyager of the Seas last November and there we so many on the earlier Nov cruise (5th/13 nights approx 400+), and then heaps more on the second leg (18th/10 nights 550+). We were amazed and very disappointed. We make sure to go out of school holidays since once doing a Radiance cruise one January with 770 under 18s. Now I understand you have to expect kids in school holidays, but early November?

We like to have a quiet relaxing time, and we are seriously looking at Princess. We like our loyalty perks on Royal Caribbean, and it is nice to cruise on Solstice, but too many Solstice cruises either start or finish in NZ, and the flights add a lot of price, and I do not enjoy the extra hassle of flying.

Hope the rest of your cruise continues to go well. :)

I am really hoping that D+ will still have access to the Concierge Lounge when we go on in Feb 2018. Would love to be going on her this season, but we have Solstice trips instead :)

Sadly, it does not surprise me that they have given you the wrong info. You would have to wonder if the person answering even checked the country you were asking about. Most of the time I am sure all the minions think everyone is sailing out of the USA.

It does surprise me that you got any answer at all! I am impressed by that even though it was hardly worth getting. :)

It is a nasty charge, and I still don't see a reason for it. Anyhow, we use a combination of Citibank Plus debit card, Aust Post load n go Travel card and Qantas Cash card. The last two because we can also lock currency into wallets if we choose, and Citibank because they also have an awesome foreign currency rate if we purchase something in OS dollars. While that has nothing to do with the purchase in AUD, I like a card to be able to do a couple of useful things. :)

Being new on Solstice ( the Alcoves, not me!) I'm working with this info as a guide also. We are on her 1st sailing after refit on 31st October so will try and find out details.

 

 

Whether they will have specials whilst they are promoting them (or if they need to?) and what standard inclusions, if different to existing offerings on other ships will remain to be seen!

It would be great if you could let us know more after your cruise. We were wondering if there will be much demand in the early days, as it will be a new concept for us aussies. Might find they have some discounting happening to promote them particularly on our NZ cruise (brrr). We are then doing a Sth Pac cruise early next year and I think it could be a nice idea then :)

I liked the glass blowing. Friends of ours are coming with us on their first ever cruise in March and they are looking forward to the glass blowing. Never mind, it will still be a fantastic cruise for them if it is not a feature any more. Things need to change and evolve. That is the way of things....

Thank you to those that helped with info and with the OP for coming back to tell the result. It is now Sept 2016 and the glitch is still there with the promo3t for gratuities. I will wait 2 weeks and see if my invoice shows as correct.

My invoice was correct previously, until I paid my final payment, and then it says my invoice and payments are the same $ amounts, but I still owe the amount for the gratuities promo. I will come back with a result also. Anything is better than sitting on the phone when it looks like it will fix itself. :)

Unfortunately, the Ovation is included form cruises on and after the 23rd of November. as for Formal nights, most cruise lines that have them will dictate when they are but that doesn't stop you from dressing formally on the other nights anyway. We often do it.:D

We got the email and we are cruising Ovation early 2018 hopefully. I totally agree Mic, you can dress up any time you want. I am just looking forward to having a go on Ovation. I sometimes think that the first cruise when we did no research, and we knew nothing, was in a way better. No disappointments. Lots of lovely surprises. :)

Interesting change, we are D+ and like to hang out in whichever is the lounge with the nicer views, we are on Anthem in two weeks and were looking forward to being in the CL with the nice aft views, if it's back to just once lounge (as we won't make pinnacle) then there is not a big difference or any real incentive for Diamonds to progress. Interested to see what the new perks (if any) for D+ will be.

We had booked on Ovation in a cabin right near the CL on Deck 12 aft, as we would be D+ by that cruise, and thought it would be nice for a quick coffee and breaky. We got very nervous that it would end up with us having to walk a long way from next to the CL right down to the DL forward on Deck 4. It would be great for them to make it clear, set a firm date, and then we can book our cabin knowing what we are able to access.

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We have currently cancelled all our RCI bookings, not just because of this change, but it was a bit part of the Ovation cancellation decision. Looks like we made the right decision for us. We were looking forward to visiting the CL on Radiance, as we have done a number of cruises on her, and it was an incentive to push us to get to D+. We are feeling a bit hollow about that exciting feeling of reaching D+ now.

People can sneer but it was something we looked forward to, and a goal that meant something to us...

Well at least they have released the 4 new Ovation itineraries for Jan Feb 2016, although no prices yet. The rest for the following season may be getting closer to release.

The thing that gets up my goat is that they advertised themselves back in about February in a schedule that they would release the 17/18 AUS/NZ/Sth Pac itineraries weeks ago. If I remember it was due mid to late March originally. It is not like someone else told them they had to release them, and they have had to say we can't meet someone else's deadlines. They have bookings at the Sydney OPT and other ports like Tauranga for years ahead, so it is not that they need to confirm the ports either.

What the hell is their problem? If this is a marketing ploy to build anticipation, it is not a very good strategy. Celebrity have had the 17/18 Solstice itinerary out for months, so at this stage Royal are just looking kind of weird in not releasing their 17/18 season for us. Is there maybe a level of booking for the 16/17 season that has not been reached?

The fact that Voyager and Explorer are total South Pacific & Fiji in 16/17 is going to make for some deep specials as the sail dates get closer in my opinion. I am calling that now! We will see :)

I would think that the fares are high because of the exact opposite reason.

 

Royal wants to fill every singe 3rd and 4th berth on the ship and knows that there is a limited supply of these. There is a huge demand for them by families during the spring break/holiday periods and they are simply getting every penny that they can for the room.

You are probably right. It does make for a good case for booking two twin cabins rather than a quad if it suits. It made me look twice for sure.

I talk to customers all day, some of which I would not want to spend any time at dinner with, but I get paid for that, so i put a smile on my dial. So when I am paying for a holiday I am not obliged to put up with people whose company I am not enjoying. They are probably not that keen on me either lets face it. Some people you just don't click with in life, so, unless you are related, move on and enjoy yourself.

Some of the cruises out of Sydney Australia have been showing 3 and 4 at higher than twin for cruising over the new year time. I have seen this a couple of times lately and can only presume that RCI is finally trying to limit the way over the top amount of kids that have been making all school holiday cruising quite unpleasant lately. I don't want to get into a discussion about the good or bad of it, but seriously the numbers have been getting really high on some cruises for under 18s over the last few years. The thing that really caught my eye was the studio interior. Really? it was made for singles wasn't it? 2, 3 and 4? huh? :) This is from an un-named site of course, which in the past has had prices pretty close to RCI advertised prices. I can't say if these are the same though.

Trust me! You don't want them all. I took around 175g of photos. LOL. But will include more then I normally would. Tell me if you want me to slow down on photos.

 

R

That is a lot! I probably should have said all the places rather than all the photos! I knew what I meant to say :) Your photos are so clear. The butterflies looks like a painting, & beautiful aerial photos too.

That is just so sad to hear. They appear to rate these squeeze boxes higher than the rest of the interiors, and they always seem to cost more than cabins much larger. I just had a quick look at a Brilliance one, and on a dummy booking for 1 person the interior was around $1800+, the SI was $2200+, but if I use 2 pax then the price for an interior is around $1900+. That is just crazy.

I know all the points about gty category are probably correct, but in no way are they fair. If the minimum size for the gty is the SI category, then they should state that in the gty wording. Or SI should be in a separate category.

I also know the financial logic about more spending by two people etc, and the solo just has to decide if they want to pay 200%, but this scenario is just wrong. Morally wrong, and the solo traveller is just getting belted unfairly.

I hope something fair and reasonable gets worked out for you, or that you go on the cruise and have a good time. All the best.

Lovely pictures already. Please, if you have the time, all your pics would be great :)

True, there can be negatives. Depending on how the wind blows, there can be soot from the funnel on an aft balcony. Also, in port, there was a heavy petroleum odor on the balcony.

Soot is certainly a problem on some ships in some weather conditions. It can even get inside the cabin in the right conditions. I have seen the black soot on the bedding of a corner aft on Rhapsody.

On the other hand, some wind conditions push the funnel smoke down one side of the ship. We sailed away from one port and were feeling quite ill after about half an hour of the fumes pushing down onto our side balcony. Nothing is perfect all of the time, but those large balconies, they are very attractive.

I don't find it easy to walk that far due to health reasons. :(

Carnival have estimated their total costs of the case at just shy of $1M.

 

An Opt-Out notice is to be prepared giving plaintiffs the opportunity to back out.

 

According to documents files passengers were give $150 OBC and half price on a cruise in Spirit or Legend upto March 2016.

Interesting info. A trip to Tassie for the cost of a Sth Pac, OBC & future cruise credit. *sigh* sounds like a fantastic deal, but I do understand some may have been disappointed not to go there.

I would suggest having a good read of the Australian website terms and conditions. There are sometimes contradictory clauses, and I wish I could advise a phone call to the company, but I feel like the Guatemala call centre people are just flying as they go with all the different rules around the world.

A dummy booking on the date you are looking at will give you a schedule of cancellation dates/penalties. I personally have found them to be very good with refunds if you book online and cancel online before the penalty date, or even if you ring to cancel. (money back on the credit card in about 8 days roughly) I have found them very bad if want to make changes after the penalty times kick in. Even in one case refusing to even look at changing a booking to a higher cost cruise.

Even if you get a verbal answer you could find next time it is a different answer. I wish I could say email them and you would have it in writing, but their reputation of not answering emails is pretty bad. You could be lucky. Do not take what people say on here as fact. Many people will be able to tell you what their experience has been, but that may not make any difference to your situation when you come to do the same thing. I know this from personal cost.

Only if you want to share your info, no offence if you don't. Sometimes 2 cabins, or even 3, with all 6 of you, can be better value. How old are the kids? What date are you looking at, and is this under the kids cruise at $33 rate or something? How much are you looking at for 5 or 6 in the FO cabin? What deck is it on? Is it one of those right up the front? Are the grandparents pretty fit for a long walk if it is? If you want to give more details then a few relevant options might be thrown up by people on here. :)

I thought you were going to ask people to stop asking that question! :) This is better, an example of the company you keep if you really don't understand the concept of a per person package, to be used by one person only.

It is a sad and disturbing story, of ignorance and anger, and you just have to wonder - bad upbringing, drugs, or just today's entitled society? I would love to know what sort of penalty was handed down, and if the offender would actually even think they had to pay that as well.

I am tired of ANYONE looking down on ANYONE ELSE.

 

Period.

 

Sheesh.

Totally agree, way too much of this sentiment happening lately.

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The OP asks a question, how about just give factual answers.

The facts of it are that the lounges are supposed to be accessed by those that have an entitlement either through loyalty rewards or by cruising in a suite. Our experience however, on Voyager and Explorer over the last 6 months out of Australia is that sometimes the people in charge on the ship make a decision to allow those with a suite gold card to have the ability to open the DL door. That is a fact, and while the Diamond Concierges agree that it is not what usually should happen, it is what the host (cruise line) has determined will happen.

Maybe it is just out of Australia due to lower numbers of loyalty members compared to US sailings. Maybe it is because the CL is a dingy cold hole with no windows. We were in a suite on one of the cruises, and were diamond level for all of them, and we asked the question, and were told it was a management decision. By the time we saw flip flops and shorts in the MDR we had given up wondering about rules and expected standards. You go on the cruise and just enjoy yourself and let the cruise line worry about setting the rules and policing them.

If a diamond can not get a seat in the DL, then the 3 drinks on the sea pass is pretty good to have as an alternative. I am not going to sit in the DL from about 3.30-4pm just to hold a table, as we saw people doing when we were there for an afternoon coffee.

OP, if your card opens the DL door, then you have access. If your card doesn't, then you don't. No faux pas here. Just don't get into debates with others about it, and if they feel the need to have a word to you tell them to take it up with management.

I love tassies cruises too. :)

Great info about turning off the signature and also others' in the threads.

I can understand 30 cruises to Mexico. For some , the ship itself is the destination and they just enjoy being on board.

 

 

I don't understand why people must insist that others do something that they want to do. I also have health reasons, not as serious as Mrs Gut, but none the less important to me, for not flying overseas at the moment. I does not mean I don't have a life that I enjoy in my own way.