taglovestocruise

From 3 months ago, not me but what I found. Royal Caribbean Discounted Gift Cards **Long Post** I had a hard time finding useful information about the AARP discounted gift certificates (GC) for Royal Caribbean (RCL) so I’m sharing here. This post is specifically in reference to the gift certificates available from AARP for a 10%. There are also GCs available directly from RCL with totally different terms. The AARP gift certificates are VERY difficult to use but several hundred dollars in savings is worth it to me! Timing is EXTREMELY important if you’d like to use a travel agent. So make sure you know what cruise you’d like to book, total cost of the cruise (minus your deposit!!) and, if you’d like to use a travel agent, know which agent you’re using BEFORE you purchase the discounted gift certificates. You ONLY have 30 days to transfer your booking to your TA after making your new RCL booking. In order to use the AARP gift certificates, you have to first book the cruise direct with RCL (online or on the phone). The GC cannot be used for the initial deposit! You make the deposit with your credit card, just like always. After the deposit, you can use the gift certificates to pay on your cruise. There are no partial redemptions so use the whole certificate or lose the leftover value!! I added gratuities to my cruise invoice so the discounted GC would apply to the gratuity as well. GCs cannot be redeemed online. You must email a copy of the GC to RCL at SharedservicesGiftCertificateRedemption@rccl.com. To redeem my GCs, I took a screenshot of the gift certificate (which included the GC balance, GC ID number and PIN). Because I was using multiple GCs, I sent a separate email for each gift certificate I applied to my balance. I gave each GC a number and made a note in the subject line of the email to correspond with my GC numbering system (just to keep track of each GC applied). I also put the booking number in the subject line of the email. In the body of the email, I included the GC number, PIN, booking reservation number, sailing date, ship, passenger names and a screenshot of the GC. You will receive an email once the GC have been applied to your booking. AFTER the gift certificate has been applied to your NEW RCL reservation, the reservation can be transferred to your travel agent. You have only 30 TOTAL from the time your reservation is made to transfer your booking to a travel agent so make your you watch your timeline closely! I transferred my reservation to Costco as they give back 7-8% back in Costco Cash PLUS 2% cash back with the executive membership! But of course, you can always use the TA of your choice. Your final balance must be paid for with your credit card before the final payment date. The cards can NOT be used on ship. TIMELINE: My AARP E-Gift Certificates were emailed to me almost instantly. I emailed my GCs to RCL the same day and received a generic email response to each email within a few hours (numbering the GCs helped me confirm that they were all received by RCL. It took 8 days for RCL to reply that the GCs had been submitted for processing. It took 7 additional days to reflect GC payment on my RCL account. I transferred my booking to my TA that same day on the RCL site (here: https://rccl.secure.force.com/directtransfers/DTTRoyal ) and received an email within a few hours from RCL confirming my booking was transferred. I immediately followed up with my TA who confirmed the transfer as well. Here’s the direct link to the terms regarding the AARP discounted gift verifications linked above. I hope this helps!!

November 2012, we were on the Mariner TA Rome to Galveston. Most cruisers were from Texas. There was a absolutely gigantic Texas flag hung in the MDR. It hung from the balcony to the floor at the rear stairs. If I remember right it was just on the last night. I don't have a picture but someone does...

We were in 12150. If we were not in a hurry we took the forward elevators and walked through the Esplanade. If we were running late we would walk down the hallway to the aft elevators and then down to deck three, could not be more than 5 minutes tops.

There have been a few reports that there is someone in the waiting area before boarding that is taking reservations. We have always found ships with Wonderland have almost no one in line. The host can make all your reservations even if you do not want Wonderland as a choice. Rarely if ever is a pre reservation made for you. Cruise planner is just a placeholder reservation.

Royal Group has ben in early talks with Space X to build and install a deck 7 transporter to quill guest complaints about the roadblocks from port to starboard. Coming soon to a Oasis Class ship near you.

I don't believe there is access on any Oasis class ship on deck 7 to cross from one side to the other. The huge Boardwalk sign blocks crossing from one side to the other, only deck 7 is blocked.

Windjammer has dinner at 5:30 and Solarium Bistro opens at 6. Both have very good dinner offerings. WJ just walk in any time and the Bistro sometimes needs reservations. We always miss at least one MDR dinner and hit the Windjammer or Bistro. Or do a early specialty.

My statement was about how to not stand in line to book, paying full price and getting it taken care of before boarding. However if you are looking for a hack to the system then do this. Go into the cruise planner pick your three restaurants , pick your days and times and pay full price. Go back into the cruise planner and purchase the three night package and pay the discount price. Once onboard go to guest services and let them know you purchased the three night package and would like to use that for your reservation keeping the same time and days. They will issue you a fully refundable OBC for the full price you paid. Many on cruise critic have done this in the past and we also have done it several times. We usually just pick one for a full price if there is a specific time and day we want. You can book cruise planner dinner reservations a year or more in advance.

Magic 8 Ball agrees, happy cruising

Two weeks ago Early fixed was 5:15, Late fixed was 7:45, MTD was set at 6:45 - 9pm deck 3

That person wil be refunded port fees and taxes plus any purchases through cruise planner. .

Magic 8 Ball says.... without a doubt...

FYI, the waiters only get a couple of dollars per meal. Most of the 18% goes into the overall ship pool. We always leave $10 extra for the two of us.

If you don't want to waste your time just book full price and make your reservations.