Engineroom Snipe

Biker19 had advised me when I became a bit frustrated with some of the posts that it takes a thick skin to try and contribute to these threads. Especially when so many of them are repeats. I am thoroughly convinced we could create a sit-com with multiple cruisers in the restaurants discussing mundane cruise idiosyncrasies like a "Seinfeld TV episode". Dining room attire would be one of my first suggestions. This could be discussed as they were waiting in-line for buffet service. They could opine about the attire or lack of attire as someone jumps in-line ahead of them, "Did they just do that?"😄

Well stated. I enjoy RCI and I like that they are trying to bring in families as well as keeping their established clientele (euphemistic phrase for older fossils and dinosaurs like myself who have escaped the tar pits by dancing all the time). Spot on about the Celebrity adult-oriented cruising. My wife and I are considering a summer cruise and we are well aware that it is the high season for family vacations. Someday we might want to bring our children and their families onboard with us. Icon will be a great option. As for now, I would gravitate towards Celebrity for the summer season. Many options available before I start complaining. One person's hell ship is another person's swell ship. Isn't great that we have options.

Okay Mate, Looks like we are going to have to take this cutlass duel 🤺 out to the quarterdeck (after I have my lunch in the Windjammer. That might take a while. Then I have to lay in the sun after lunch and there is not much reason to do it after sunset). On second thought, I AGREE WITH YOU!!!!!!! 😠.

I rest my case. Do you know I created the Internet? 😉

I completely disagree with your statement 🤣!!!!!!! Maybe I should put it in ALL CAPS. It has to an unarguable truth when you get an all-cap response, ESPECIALLY WHEN I BOLD IT AND UNDERLINE IT! Now, you have read it on the Internet in a Blog, it has to be true!! Got to use as many exclamation marks as possible for effect. YOU ARE WRONG, WATER IS NOT WET! 😁 There, I feel better about my existence now.

Nordic Prince, 1988, Song of Norway, 1989, and Sun Viking (it was a private yacht at under 1,000 passengers), 1990, the experiences were completely different but I do like the newer cabins and bathrooms of today's ships. The walls were extremely thin. You could tell who the newlyweds were on the first night 🤣.

One could look at your supposition as being logical. RCI would have to really dig into historical data and try to predict the difference in profit. . UDP is different because it is competing with food services that are included with the basic cruise fare at no additional cost I tend to err on the opposite possibility that RCI wants passengers to buy UDP. The transaction is purchased months in advance. RCI is getting a free no-interest loan until the passenger steps on board and uses the package. They calculate that some passengers will eat two or three meals in the main dining room. There might be a few customers who eat two UDP meals in one day but RCI controls the reservation system. RCI does not guarantee that the purchaser will get reservations every night or to the restaurants of their choice. Airlines can overbook their flights and RCI can overbook their UDPs. They can guide those passengers to under utilized restaurants. If demand is high, RCI will slowly test the price premium and raise it. Until advance purchases fail to meet expectations, the prices will go up. The viscous supply-and-demand capitalism rears its ugly head. RCI has stockholders and RCI has a fiduciary responsibility to make a profit for them. My wife and I tend to be minimalist on cruises. I do not want my fare to automatically include unlimited drinks because I do not drink. The current system does not penalize me for that decision. I find the food served at venues included in my base fare to be adequate. I do not need a cabana on Coco Cay. The base fare included umbrellas and lounges which are fine with me. RCI does need me to fill a cabin, help their staff gets basic gratuities, and pay for fuel. My cabin helps to pay for the basic costs of keeping the ship afloat. They are willing to break-even on my cabin so others can purchase the drink, special food, spa, casino, excursion, internet, ship tours, and suit packages, etc., etc................ THOSE packages represent the profits in today's environment. They will go up until the consumer does not purchase them. That is the bottom line. If you feel the price is unreasonable, do not purchase the item. No one is forcing you to purchase anything but your base fare when you step onboard. Someone is cooking and cleaning for me everyday so I have more time to spend with my wife on vacation. I get to use a Jacuzzi after a few hours of walking with her knowing I have no responsibilities but to exist. Life is good on a cruise.

The form was given to all passengers in January of 2014 on my Celebrity Cruise out of Miami. We had a routine of placing all of all receipts into an envelope and keep a running tab. This made filling out the form easy at the end of the last night as we packed. We were some of the first people off of the ship as we drove and had our suitcases. We had our passports inspected and the Customs agent asked us if we had purchased anything. We said yes and my wife proceeded to hand him the declaration and pull the envelope with the tally and receipts. We did not exceed any limits. At that point, he waves his hand for us to proceed and comments that he wishes everyone was a prepared as we are. "Many people say they did not buy anything on board or on their shore excursions. When you presented the list, we know you are aware of what you need to report," he said as we passed. That was the last cruise I filled out a declaration. I wonder if they changed things when they went to contactless passports just using the facial recognition. No one asked if we had anything to declare at any time during our recent disembarkations. We have never even stopped walking coming off of the boat since then except to stop for facial recognition. Then it is on to the parking lot.

And this is exactly why I think it is a personal decision. Your vacation, your money, your body, be safe, make good decisions and enjoy. In general, it is a much safer situation than drinking at a club in a big city and going home. The worse thing that happens is that you do not immediately find your room 😁. My biggest concern would be those who feel they need to drink more than normal because they bought the drink package and need to get "their money's worth." This is similar to going to an "all you can eat" buffet and eating far more than you would want just because it is an "all you can eat" price already paid.

One thing to consider is your time in port. When you leave the ship, to not include Coco Bay, you are now adding additional costs for food and beverages above the standard cruise. I am not able to drink much due to medical conditions but I think that everyone who would like a package should get one because there are no DUIs and I hope you can have someone assist you to your room should you have one or two more than you can easily handle. The magic number seems to be around seven drinks per day for each member in your cabin. I think that the cumulative drinking over two days straight at this level leads to fatigue. Trying to get your "money's worth" could lead to more drinks that you would normally have. I wish for everyone to enjoy themselves but do not drink in excess because you feel like you have to get "your money's worth." This is your vacation, your money.I think Biker19 said it well that the price could be comparable to an inside cabin base fare. This is something to think about.

That could also qualify as a "Sun Jacket" on the upper decks in the afternoon. You will be getting all of the attention as you strut by to the music of "Night Fever." 🤩

Make sure you accompany that leisure suit with a nice big wide tie 😉.

I can imagine the user falling asleep for 61 minutes and waking up in a panic, clutching his badge, furiously trying to get to the reader before they are swallowed by a terminator chair. A slow and painful digestive process for the hydralics. 😵 I do not want to be part of the washdown crew after one of those accidents. 😁 That will serve as an example to others. Be afraid, very afraid.......😱.

I enter a guilty plea, your honor 🤑. Your logic and accounting skills make sense. The only caveat is that I do not travel alone for I am still married to my first wife 😁. Extrapolating your vision might cost a bit more in my case for two people. On average, after adding gratuities and parking (or airfare), I arrive at about $200 per night for two people on some of my thrifty cruises. Each of us gets one point per night. Getting 96 C&A points each would be more like $19,000. I do like your math and creativity. Going single on a cruise without my fabulous wife might be bad for my health 😵 and cost me much more than C&A points 😱. I choose life 😉.

OK, now you have thrown the gauntlet down 😲. I may have to think much further out-of-the-box, VERY out-side-of-box. I love the most famous quote of all time, "Not easy, but doable." I cannot argue that one. Time to put my creative cap on top of my receding hair line. Not easy, but doable. Oh, you have really gone there 😉. Now I have to make the doable easy. What a conundrum. You made this into another post conundrum post. We are talking advanced linguistics, you started it, not my fault 😇. I need my blanky, time to get some rest 😴.

Thank you.

This was really a great question. I have used Next Cruise, but they always used my existing TA as a default with the new purchase (as they were listed under my current cruise document onboard). With a bit more research, I found another official document which does not contradict anything the first document stated. I do not doubt the more experienced cruisers time limit of thirty-days but I cannot find anything in writing or official policy. Next Cruise Booking Website Terms and Conditions | Royal Caribbean Cruises This document does state (under SECTION III, third paragraph) your existing TA would be automatically included as the TA unless you sign some paper authorizing otherwise. I cannot find anything to say how much time you have in this document to change your designation. The document does say it would be provided for you at the time of deposit onboard when the Next Cruise was created. I try to find RCI's webpages and documents whenever possible. I know they can be wrong and changed so I do not treat them as infallible 🤣. Rather, I like to be able to reference them to RCI call centers or employees at the dock on embarkation day. This does not always mean I get what I want but it does show them that I tried as hard as possible to comply with whatever policy they published at the time. If they say "No, we cannot transfer the Next Cruise to your TA after xxxx days", I ask to see where this policy is provided. I would appreciate you getting back to me if it is published somewhere. Again, nothing lost by asking to transfer it. All they can say is "No", but they should also have something somewhere in writing. Arbitrarily changing customer contracts could be considered fraud. If the contract is vague, they should err on the side of good customer relations and correct the verbiage to make it clear.

I forgot to quote you so you get a notification.

This is the official link from RCI concerning 'The Next Cruise Book Later" reservation. 19067112_NextCruise_BookNowBookLater_FAQs.indd (royalonboardsales.com) There are two pages of FAQs sandwiched by sections of fine print. I have not found anything that defines a time limit from booking to transfer to an agent. The two main time limits agree with your understanding. The customer has two months from time of purchase onboard to declare a cruise in order to receive the onboard booking bonus. The customer has one year to use the onboard booking as a deposit on a cruise without receiving an onboard booking bonus. The customer does NOT have to complete the actual cruise within one year of onboard booking. I hope this helps. There is much to read. I use the Next Cruise offer on almost every cruise I go on. If for no other reason, I can lock in a specific cruise and room up to one year in advance for only $200. This would be the same as spending $100 per person for a booking change. Worst case, I can just lose the $200 up to ninety days before the cruise.

"Something is rotten in the state of Denmark." (Hamlet) Now we know what was causing all of the stink around the king.🤣 He was waiving it around as he made his royal decrees.

I want the number of the TA involved who can help transform from a D to D+ for $5,000 😁!!! So many things have changed in life. My parents used to reward me only if I went from D to a B in school. I do not think they would be toasting my D to D+. I would keep this under the radar for now 🙃.

It will take the last nine days of a ten day cruise to sleep it off. You better get the IV ready for re-hydration.

I do not doubt your experience. Imagine how much alcohol would have to be consumed for RCI to not make a profit on their drink package 😱. That is one hard drinking bunch of cruisers. Maybe I booked the wrong week if they do not offer the drink package 😲. Very interesting as I have never experienced a cruise in recent years without a drink package being offered. I do not purchase the drink package for medical reasons but I like that others can enjoy it. No one has to be worried about a DUI or getting a ride home onboard 😁. The hardest part might be trying to find the room that your Sea Pass works on (I remember more than a few people in my youth who would be trying multiple door locks with their key trying to remember their room number 🤣).

Better get my alligator skin on.

Understood. I have seen you patiently answering the same question multiple times. 😉