SRF

When they stopped allowing you to request, the reason was given that most want the beds together so it was easier to just put them together and separate for those who wanted it.

BT, DT. Was NOT happy. No credit or fare drops after final payment.

They COURTESY book you in one of the restaurants the first or second night. You can change that.

There is a clock at the exit from the ship showing ships time. And a sign that has the all aboard time. As has been mentioned, phones and smart watches may switch times automatically, and local time may not match ship's time. BE CAREFUL. If you stop for a drink at the port just before getting back on, pay attention to the time. Although many of us to enjoy to watch pier runners. Yes, those are people running to catch the ship. You can see some on You Tube. Don't end up on You Tube.

Yes, the cruise fare can also be higher for refundable. It is confusing. You have to check all the options and see what makes sense to you. I normally book GS, so they are all non-refundable.

Really Consistently Inconsistent. They used to ask. Then the tried to guess based on genders and last names. Then they just make them together and had the stewards separate if requested. Now it seems they are back to asking. If they ask, tell them. But either way, don't be surprised if they are together. If you want them separated, tell your cabin steward to separate and it will be done in a short time.

True, not an issue for me. 😄

Have you eaten out recently? I have paid more than that for a meal for one without getting a good steak.

I am getting a whopping 3.2% on SS and 2.2% on my retirement.

Yes. Non-refundable deposit is $900, you lose it if you can cancel or pay a fee to switch to another cruise. Refundable deposit is $1800, but you get it all back if you cancel before final payment. Due to dynamic pricing, there are times when the refundable deposit is less than the non-refundable.

Dishes in the hall is a common signal in hotels to pick them up. On some lines, it seems they tell people to do that also.

If DH goes, booking can be changed to Solo. But if name switch to DH and Joe Doe, you cannot drop DH for JD to be solo. And if changed DH to solo, might be subject to reprice and a higher fare.

This is why I use a TA. I let them know the deal, do a snip and sent it, and SHE gets to deal with them on the phone. 😄

You pay a higher deposit, but it is ALL refundable versus a lower deposit but you lose it if you cancel. A bit of history, this came about as people were booking 3, 4, 5 or more cruises and just before final payment would cancel all but one. So RCI started the non-refundalbe deposit to stop this. So instead of tying up a few hundred that you got refunded, you either lost the deposits or tied up thousands for several months. It was especially bad with suites as there are limited numbers of them.

Yes, we should have only one class. Those who pay 3 - 5 times as much or more, should get the same size cabin and no extra perks. Hmmm, this has been tried and did not work so well.

It is RCI incompetence with anything IT. Everyone else gets it right, the holds are removed when the card is actually charged.

Chops. I have had the bacon app have no meat, so I sent it back and they did another one with meat. My steak has always been cooked properly, however, you cannot under cook a steak for me. One meal in Giovannis, we had some issues with the food and told the waiter. They chef came out to ta talk to us. The grilled shrimp had no grill marks. He explained that is how RCI told him to cook them. He offered to fix this. I had the cabonara, and they premade the carbonara sauce. SO WRONG. Carbonars is not Alfredo, it is cooked by the heat of the pasta and some residual heat in the pan. I do prefer the dessert cart in Giovanni's. Overall I find Giovanni's more hit and miss than Chop's.

And one thing I found out was that if you buy the package, you cannot use your free day. We normally get one internet package and share it. One cruise we both needed internet for a period of time one day. So we used my GFs one day, great. Next day, I tried to use my one day, but there is no way to access it if you have the package.

With the old systems, the ping would be as much as 500 ms. And some call heavy sites (like Amazon) would take a LONG time to load.

In some cases it is a big diffference, but in other cases I have found the company and priced directly and the ship booking cost was less. So you have to shop around. The one advantage to booking a ship tour is, they will hold the ship longer if your excursion is late returning and if you miss the ship, the cruise line is responsible for getting you hooked back up with the ship. Not a huge risk, but some people want the piece of mind.

For table games, if you want credit, you give them your card. That is separate from playing. If you want to put the play on your account, the pit boss does a paper receipt that you sign and put into the cash box. They charge 5% for charging play to your account.

The app is too flakey to use for excursions. 🙂 I just booked some excursions. In my app, I have NONE shown. My companion shows the ones I booked. MDR menus are also on the screens near the elevators all day.

Because for a more budget line you are competing more on price. Higher end lines can include those things in the fare. I always pay my grats, but would rather they just charge a higher cruise fee and pay the staff a set wage, and allow grats to be for a higher level of service, like they are supposed to be. My way of dealing with grats or service fees is that unless the service is AMAZING, I do not add any extra,

I wish I had seen this before. I would have changed to solo. Thanks. My purpose in posting this thread was to give a heads up to those that did not know these things. I did not. The changing to solo was NOT the common advice here on CC. And the split OBC was something I had not seen on previous cruises.

Every previous cruise I booked on board, the OBC was in my account. The two accounts were linked to on credit card, but I would check my account on the 2nd or 3rd day to make sure the TA OBC got properly credited and the full RCI OBC was always there.