JasonTehGreat

Did I read correctly.....are 12-14 year olds invited to "The Quest"?

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You know I must say; Tarik is very lucky to have come to such a wonderful family, I just wish his earlier life had not been so difficult. I also hope he knows he has an international fan base!

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Gimme his number, let me call him. Maybe I can shame him into it, lol.

 

You and I (and my cousin) are on the same cruise, aren't we? 02/08 out of NOLA? I'm so excited!

Jason

Hi JasonTehGreat,

 

Thank you so much!

 

Maybe you can convince your partner for a future cruise if he sees how much fun you and your cousin had onboard? But besides that -- how cool to cruise with your cousin. I haven't seen one of my five cousins in years! That would be such a fun way to catch up on family matters!

 

But I think I'd miss Tanja like crazy -- I can picture Tarik to be in some sort of teen summer camp. That would be okay, but I can't see myself on a cruise without Tanja. All the romantic sunsets, the walks around the deck at night time.... no -- it's impossible!

 

There just has to be a way to convince your partner!

 

Stef

Hi Stef,

My partner has a dislike of boats. He had a bad experience once. There is still a possibility that he will join us on this cruise, but not very likely. He did promise to go with me on one in 2015 lol.

It would be nice if he went on this one because this will be the first balcony cabin I have ever had!

My cousin and I travel a lot together. We have been on 2 previous cruises and also took a trip to Las Vegas to see Cher in concert! For a straight man he puts up with a lot for me. :) We always have a good time and enjoy each other's company.

Jason

I love your review so far!! I also think you have a very lovely family!

I will be on the Serenade in February and will look out for the FOD meeting. I have been unable to convince my boyfriend/partner to go on a cruise, but my cousin will be going with me.

I look forward to reading the rest of the review.

Thanks for your suggestions and advice! It has helped to ease my mind about transferring our reservation.

 

I have now talked directly with the agent, and I'm satisfied with his answers to my questions. It sounds like things stay the same as usual with the exception of receiving an ONBOARD CREDIT. :D

 

He did, however, say that our reservation MAY be part of a group. He said it would not change anything about the reservation, and that I wouldn't even know it was a group. Anything to worry about with this?

I dont think it will make any difference.

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Travel agencies are usually members of IATA (International Association of Travel Agents {I think}) and cruise agencies are also members of CLIA which relates specifically to the cruise industry. You could call or email and ask if they are IATA or CLIA members.

Like I said in my previous posts.....I booked a cruise directly with Royal Caribbean then transferred it to my travel agent with absolutely NO problems. None at all, zero!

It's not very difficult to understand is quite common knowledge. Royal Caribbean is a travel company. People that travel use travel agencies and those agencies get a commission. How do you think the online search and compare sites for air travel work? You buy the ticket through them and they get a commission, but you pay the same low fare.

Let's say a big online cruise Travel Agency gives you $600 on board credit. That is 10% of you total cruise fare. Their commission may be 15 or 20%, meaning they are STILL making $300 to $600 in commission for doing absolutely no work at all.

 

If there isn't a chance for a price drop and you'd get that much... I'd consider xfering it and giving up control of the booking.

 

Judy

Even if you transfer it to TA and there is a price drop later, the TA can have the price lowered. Mine did. I booked my upcoming cruise directly with RCI, then transferred my booking to a TA and about 2 months later there was a price drop and I emailed my TA. She emailed me back the new invoice reflecting the price drop a few minutes later.

If you leave a pair of sunglasses out in your cabin, such as on the night stand, they will put them on the animals. So cool!!

Also I think the booking has to be less than 60 days old.

It is very easy to transfer a reservation to a TA.

Just fill out this form from the Royal Caribbean website and send it to the number/address listed and they will update the reservation!

Make sure you call the TA and let them know as well. The Travel agent will be listed on your reservation when you log-in on the RCI website.

(I have done it before and it transferred with no problems!)

http://www.royalcaribbean.com/content/pdf/TA_TransferForm.pdf

You will keep the same cabin and booking number, it will now just have a TA listed. This does not in any way cancel and rebook your cruise, just updates the reservation.

I ran into a problem yesterday that I didn't expect. We are flying to our cruise this summer. DH's ashes are in a biodegradable salt urn (RCL requires that the container be biodegradable). I have made arrangements with RCL for a burial at sea during our cruise, per DH's wishes. The salt urn is HEAVY in addition to being large. It definitely wouldn't fit under the seat in front of me on the plane, or in the overhead compartment. By the time it's packed up safely, the box is going to be about 3 sq. feet.

 

I thought that I might be able to arrange to have the urn packed by a professional packing service and then shipped to the hotel for the night before the cruise. Our kids could then help me to carry it to the ship and through check-in. I was told, however, that since the urn contains human remains it can't be shipped by the shipping company.

 

I'm about to cancel my flight and plan on spending 4 days on the road driving. Our kids can't take more time off for various reasons (fitting this trip in-between clinical rotations at school, etc.) They would fly by themselves.

 

Has anyone transported an urn with ashes? Is driving my only option?

 

And if you did a burial at sea, were you able to keep the ashes in your cabin until they gave you notice of the burial time/place, or did you have to give the urn to the Pursar's Desk with the paperwork when boarding? I sent RCL an email asking this question, but they haven't answered yet.

Sorry about your loss :(

Have you called FedEx? They will ship anything, even Biohazard samples like the plague.

Also, have you called the airline customer service number? Airlines frequently transport human remains. The customer service department should be able to help with that.

Wow, I just noticed that the Serenade will be sailing out of NOLA in 2014. However... what sucky runs. The usual Jamaica run alternated with Key West, Bahama, Coco Kay.... ewwwww.

 

Looks more and more like RCL is truly moving to utilize it own ports stops, minimize distance and oh by the way ramp up your ship time.

 

As pretty much of a port person, I keep going to other lines to get the ports I want. Could care less about the ship. Oh well, to each their own.

 

How come schedules already posted at NOLA and not Galveston? Does look like they are up to something. I am guessing, trying to decide which ship to bring in next.

I am doing the Serenade from NOLA in Feb 2014 to Key West, Coco Cay, Nassau just because I have never been to NOLA or any of the ports and wanted something different than the same ol' Galveston itineraries; but they don't seem all that exciting.

Unfortunately I am limited to cruises nearby to where I live due to financial reasons. Though I am planning a TransAtlantic or European cruise for maybe 2015; I much prefer to leave from Galveston (or Houston) to reduce my travel expenses.

I am sailing out of New Orleans for my next cruise though.

My grandfather lives in the Galveston area and keeps up with this stuff. He tells me that Royal Caribbean is pulling out of Galveston completely when their contract ends and will be sailing from either Houston or from the Baytown/Pasadena terminal.

Has anyone heard about or know anything about this?

Coolio!

I hope they still have private bathrooms.

So which is it? lol

I missed the reveal today because I could not get the page to load.

What exactly are the studio cabins? Cabins for 1 person?

I am of the school that a good piano bar entertainer can make or ruin a cruise.

I loved going down to the piano bar for a drink and listening to music every night, so relaxing!

There was this Australian guy on Voyager back in 2008. I do not remember his name, but he was GREAT!

I did get a picture though!

I have seen a few posts here about booking private shore excursions. I think that is a great idea. My only suggestion is to book one close to arrival in the port so that it will end with plenty of time remaining to get back to the ship before it departs.

My cousin and I were on a cruise in 2008 with a stop in Montego Bay, Jamaica. We booked a Dunns River Falls tour through RCI. They had 2 tour guides; one for the bus ride to the river (well over an hour each way) and one to actually guide us to the foot of the river and all of the way up the waterfall.

Our river guide decided to take us to the foot of the river and leave us! He disappeared and left the whole group at the bottom of the river. It took us about 1.5 hours longer to make it up the waterfall than it should have.

When we finally got to the top of the waterfall and found our bus guide I thought she was going to have a stroke! They had no idea what happened to us, they couldn't get ahold of the river guide. It was a mess. Needless to say it took us a while to get back to the ship. We made it back to the ship about 1.5 hours AFTER the ship was due to leave port.

We were fortunate enough to have the "running of the drunks" cheer squad (our table mates in the MDR included) rooting, screaming and cheering us as we made it back on the ship.

So from then on I will only ever book "official" excursions if they are scheduled to end close to departure time.

Also, you may be very happy to know that RCI passed notes under all of our doors that night asking us to come to Guest Services to fill out an "incident" form about what happened on the excursion. We all received full refunds for the excursion and I think like $25 on board credit or a drink or something.