SarahD112

I’m a diamond on Royal Caribbean but my sister and I are sailing on Carnival Mardi Gras this summer. What are some of the differences, good and bad? It looks like Carnival only has two drink packages - soda and alcoholic, is that right? They seem to have more restaurants, and more that are included in cruise fare. What are the late night options? Is it true that shows aren’t twice a night, one for late diners, and one for early diners? Is the poolside chair hog situation the same? Are there drink cards that can be purchased? I can’t drink enough to make alcohol package a good deal. How much does Bolt cost? Do we need to book shows ahead of time - and if so, do you do it prior to embarkation or once onboard? Is there a Carnival 101 post somewhere??? 😂

I came to boards looking for updated cruise compass or show schedule. We sail March 12th. We’re a group of 13 and I appear to be the leader of this bunch so I’d like to be able to step onboard, make all the reservations and then not think about it again as quickly as possible. I’ve got everyone linked. If anyone has a recent compass - or even just the show schedule - I’d love to see it!

On 2/28/2022 at 5:39 PM, bonsai3s said:

Still getting it nightly on the Symphony.

You didn’t happen to upload the whole thing anywhere did you? I’m looking for an updated cruise compass for symphony. As I understand it, they’re not showing hairspray so I’m thinking that really changes up the nightly entertainment and venues from the others I could find from November of last year. We’re sailing in a group of 13 and I’d like to be armed ahead of time so I can quickly select everything I need reservations for and then relax!

2 hours ago, SarahD112 said:

Hello! My husband and I will be in London for five days with our 19 & 22 year old before we cruise in July (reboot from summer 2020). Looking for hotel recommendations…convenient, good area, under $1000 for four nights. Considering Airbnbs as well. Not a fan of double beds. Have found some potential options but looking for input or additional suggestions. So far Sheriff, Shakespeare, Falcon, Dolphin and BW Chiswick Palace & Suite seem to fit the bill. Input appreciated! Well, probably. Some of you can be brutal. 😂 We’re flying into Heathrow, not sure where we’re flying out of yet (to Barcelona for ship) so on tube line please!

Ok, I’ve read up on hotels I mentioned above. I’m looking for a step above. And at least one too far, so now I’m thinking it’ll either be two rooms or an Airbnb. 

Hello! My husband and I will be in London for five days with our 19 & 22 year old before we cruise in July (reboot from summer 2020). Looking for hotel recommendations…convenient, good area, under $1000 for four nights. Considering Airbnbs as well. Not a fan of double beds. Have found some potential options but looking for input or additional suggestions. So far Sheriff, Shakespeare, Falcon, Dolphin and BW Chiswick Palace & Suite seem to fit the bill. Input appreciated! Well, probably. Some of you can be brutal. 😂 We’re flying into Heathrow, not sure where we’re flying out of yet (to Barcelona for ship) so on tube line please!

I just tried to rent a car at JAX to return at Cape Canaveral location through Enterprise/National and it won’t take the reservation - the location says temporarily closed on maps. I did an online chat and the person on the other end said they have no date for reopening that location. Ships are supposed to sail out of there by the end of August, I was trying to make a drop off reservation for mid November. And I have free rental days, of course. Does anyone have any information about reopening for car companies at the Port Canaveral area? I suppose companies that run shuttles from MCO will be my back up plan. 

I came to the boards to ask same question. I’m usually a Royal Caribbean customer, but looking at a western Mediterranean for summer of 2022. As I read it, in the US, there is no cancellation policy up to 120 days out. Is that correct for a 7 day sailing, balcony stateroom (looks like might be different for suites and shorter sailings). Does this also mean the deposit is refunded? As a RCCL customer, I’ve learned not to assume. 😂

6 hours ago, Ourusualbeach said:

Look at prices for Dec 2020.  If lower than 2021 move your deposit to 2020 then shift to 2021 

Haha - it wasn’t. But I did get it moved, so thanks for the help. I completely missed that they were waiving change fees and I would’ve missed the deadline if not for you! I got everything moved over today with hardly any wait. My kids chose one of the new staterooms they put on deck 12 where part of adventure ocean was. I think they’ll love the location. 

16 hours ago, Ourusualbeach said:

Sorry, you can only move deposits to a new booking.  If it’s to an existing booking it has to be by FCC

 

BTW, I’ll see you on board Symphony in 2022

I haven’t booked December yet, so it would be new booking. Great news - thanks!

See you on Symphony! I’m excited for a new-to-me ship. Even more excited that I didn’t have to pay 2022 rates. 😂

5 minutes ago, Ourusualbeach said:

You can absolutely apply a FCC to a cruise that’s been shifted.  You won’t be able to stack any of your FCC’s.  No issues in applying to an existing booking.  
 

if you move bookings before Sept 30th the change fees are waived. 

the second sailing should have an apply by date of Dec 31 but a sail by date of Soril 2022

 

Not going to lie...you are the one I hoped would respond. 😂 Are you saying I can move my May 3rd booking to a December 12th booking without change fees? And it won’t show up as a FCC? Because I have to use my anthem FCC for that one. 

What do you mean the second sailing should have an apply by date of Dec 31 but sail by April 2022? Not sure which part of my mess you’re referring to? 

Here’s my situation...I have $1000 FCC from Anthem cruise I cancelled this summer that expires 12/31/21.

I lifted and shifted March 14 2021 Oasis to March 12 2022 Symphony when my son’s college cancelled spring break for 2021. (48 hours after I booked airfare)

This is where I should have stopped. But didn’t. Wanting a vacation and needing to work around college semesters (son just switched to pre-vet so will need to take a couple courses over the 2021 summer), I booked Allure on May 3rd for five of us, $1250 deposit. Three days later, college realizes they made semester one week too short on revised schedule and moves finals to...week of May 3rd. 
 

So...only other options for cruising in 2021 (and using the $1000 FCC) are two weeks in August between summer and fall semesters, or mid December, between finals and Christmas. Here’s what I would like to do and I need someone to make sure I’m not missing something...

I’d like to book Freedom on December 12, 2021. I can use $1000 FCC from cancelled Anthem that expires at the end of 2021. My options for May 3rd...as I read it, it can be applied to my Symphony sailing in March of 2022 IF I wait until one year prior to Symphony sailing to cancel May 3rd Allure. Cruise with Confidence says FCC good for sailing on or before 12/31/21 OR one year from cancellation, whichever is later. So if I wait until April 1 2021, to be safe, to cancel Allure May 3rd sailing, it would be good until April 1, 2022. So that’s fine. The downside is, I’d have to pay the May 3rd cruise in full in February. Payment due then, but if I cancel before then, the FCC would expire before my March 2022 cruise. And I can’t apply it to December 2021 Freedom because it says one FCC per person. Sounds like some people have had luck in getting them stacked, that is not how my 2020 is shaking out when it comes to vacation planning. Here’s where it gets sticky...the travel agent FAQ says “FCC should be used on new bookings, however we understand that your client may have an existing booking with the deposit paid in anticipation for the certificate amount. Your clients can opt to apply the FCC amount to cover any amount due towards the cruise fare on the booking.” And no I’m not a travel agent but their FAQs have more info. So as I read it, if I pay in full for May 3rd and wait until April 1 to cancel, I can apply the amount towards March 2022. Has anyone had any trouble applying FCC to a lift & shift? I can’t find anything that addresses that scenario. Will RCCL give me trouble in applying the FCC to an existing booking, even though it says it’s ok to do that? Am I better off paying the $100 per person change fee and just moving the May 3rd booking to December 12 and applying my FCC? Seems much simpler, less risky...but costs me $500. Are there other issues I’m missing altogether? I know this is long, thanks to any who have made it this far! 

22 minutes ago, Kokomo91165 said:

I have tried and tried and tried to shift a western to an eastern. No luck. Policy is Caribbean is divided into three regions - Eastern, Western, and Southern.  You cannot move between these regions, because it violates the same itinerary clause. 

That’s interesting because somewhere before the post I left off on, someone said they had luck shifting from western to eastern. If you scan through, they said “made me 😊”, so look for the smiley face. Someone at Royal must’ve put it through when they shouldn’t have. And it think someone else was able to also. Same thread. 🤔 Thanks for the answer. 

Someone save me...I left off at page 15 a few days ago and have a question for a friend...has anyone had any luck getting lift & shift to work for southern Caribbean, when there aren’t any summer choices? Has anyone been able to shift a southern to an eastern or western?

45 minutes ago, Biker19 said:

They need to give the new CWC policy time to kick in and have a bunch of folks lift&shift before they announce the next round of cancellations.

That’s what I’m thinking. I was hoping to save my TA a headache. We cancelled Anthem May 29 out of Southampton back on March 18, and optimistically booked Oasis July 11, figuring it would just roll over to March 2021 Oasis cruise if it didn’t go anyway. They still have not applied the FCC and have given us until (through?) tomorrow to either have it appear or make full payment. I have no intention of making another payment. My sister and family have also booked (and are doing Carnival next year, so would opt for refund) and I hate to leave her hanging by just letting my booking expire. So...was hoping for the cancellation announcement that was hinted at on FB yesterday to clear up the whole mess. 

Anything else on the call...especially anything to corroborate that FB post about not sailing until end of July/early August?

37 minutes ago, Ourusualbeach said:

Didn’t see any webinars on Tuesday.  The regular weekly Wednesday one is today at noon.  Are you sure that this wasn’t actually a recap of last weeks webinar. 

Yes, several mentioned a regular Wednesday webinar,  but this was definitely today. Not many people seemed to know about it. I’m guessing if the info is out there, it will be covered tomorrow for TAs. Will you let us know what’s released?

I’m looking for corroboration for a post on a RCCL group Facebook page - frequent cruisers, not official RCCL people. Here’s what someone posted:

1 hour ago, TravelerThom said:

I think that headline (copied from News Wire) LEAPS to an unproven conclusion. Announcing that you are cancelling sailings until 1 August is NOT by a long shot the same thing as announcing that you will resume sailing August 1. 

I’m with you...hats off to Carnival’s media department because they’ve manager to make the latest round of cancellations look like a positive thing. And I would be among the first to be excited if I thought there wouldn’t be months more of cancellations to come. The most positive thing I’ve heard today is the president say he thinks there will be a vaccine by the end of the year. That’s what’s going to make a difference for the cruise industry. 

7 minutes ago, Ourusualbeach said:

I think the next round might actually bring about a ship specific cancellation similar to what Carnival has done.  Half a dozen ships on the  same 30 day cancellation schedule and others moved to a 60 day or longer cancellation based on their itinerary.   I’m not sure if Carnival has actually officially cancelled those Voyages or just stopped selling them.  I wonder if they had a lot of bookings just for people to get the $600 OBC they were offering in addition to their FCC. 

Looks like Carnival has cancelled everything until at least August 1. RCCL should be out soon. 😔

4 minutes ago, Ourusualbeach said:

Why aren’t you just changing it to something that will go instead of putting yourself through this whole refund of taxes, FCC reissuing again?

I was more hopeful when I booked it. It’s the only time we can go. We do have spring break booked next year, that will be our next opportunity. 

29 minutes ago, stevea36 said:

The problem is that you were past final payment.   This policy specifically says that final payment deadlines remain unchanged (See the bullet labelled "Extension Criteria").

 

 

 

 

Ah...I think we just hit 75 days. That must be it. Well here’s hoping one more week will allow them to process the credit from the cruise I cancelled 42 days ago because I am not handing over more money for a cruise that surely isn’t going! 😂

Not sure if the specifics, but after being on hold with resolutions, they agree they had told her it would be on hold until May 31. They’ve reinstated the bookings and the price, and will hold until May 7th by which time they swear the FCC will have processed. 

When I cancelled a cruise under RCCL’s cruise with confidence program, I asked that it be applied to a July booking. It was about March 21, because that’s when they came out with a policy that said you didn’t have to make a payment if you were waiting on FCC. I’ll put a screenshot of that policy below. So I check the booking every so often to see if there’s a sale on the cruise planner items. I checked a few days ago when people reported on CC that they were getting great prices on beverage package. Couldn’t pull up the booking. I waited because the website is awful but after two days asked TA to look into. Apparently they changed the policy and cancelled my reservation with no notice whatsoever. And yes, I realize the odds of this cruise sailing is minuscule, you can skip leaving that comment 😂. I’m posting this to give a heads up to anyone who is holding a booking without payment, while waiting on FCC, to keep a close eye on your booking. I think it’s only available to US customers anyway.

This is fascinating! I’ve seen nothing in the media until now...

https://thepointsguy.com/news/artania-last-cruise-ship-passengers-at-sea/?utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook&utm_content=055C7F66-850B-11EA-AAED-4CFF39982C1E&utm_term=Editorial&utm_campaign=facebook

Can you imagine what the cost of a Disney park ticket would be if they have to drop their attendance numbers by 50%? If only half the normal number of people can enter a park each day? The demand will be so high that they could put any price they want on it. For less crowds, people will be willing to pay it. But if rides operate at 50% capacity - every other row blocked off for instance - then lines won’t be any shorter. So you’d pay more and the same long waits? Hmmm...