firefly333

9 minutes ago, caymancouple said:

OMG yes.  History is my thing.  I do not like Mexico, but, I want to see why this is considered one of the 7 wonders of the modern world.  I have seen 5 of them.  I have comparisions.  I actually feel I am going to be disappointed based on the pictures.  But BY DAMN, I AM GOING TO SEE IT.

Bring your bathing suit. It's the only ruins on a ocean. You can walk down and swim. They stopped at a shopping area for us to pee. The restrooms here dont have running water. 

25 minutes ago, caymancouple said:

It should not.  and that is why I asked it the way I did.  but, you never know, and you cannot get a positive answer unless you ask and are prepared for  "NO".

So are you going to book it? I've been, wasnt my thing, I was sooo hot. I guess I'm not into history enough. I spent most of the time in the restaurant having a frozen margarita and chips and dips.

But I'm sure some are more into history than me. Did you husband win and you booked it?

1 hour ago, caymancouple said:

I just checked my cruise, and you are right.  It is offered out of Cozumel.  Guess we will do it there.  Odd, Progreso is closer.  Thanks.

Well if you book thru royal they wouldnt leave you behind. ..I was confused when you said they didnt offer it since I can book it.

No it's for any 2 devices. Even a 3rd can take turns. Or someone in another cabin.

Just use online to check in. Once onboard I switch to the app. If you cruise in a couple of days it's not uncommon for it to close stuff. And not work. At least for me. Once onboard I click to use it with onboard wifi.

3 hours ago, caymancouple said:

Last April I booked a cruise out of Galveston for this coming January.  I have visited 5 of the 7 wonders of the modern world.  Number 6 would be Chichen Itza.  I looked things up and Royal website showed under excursions that they offer 2 going there from Progreso.  Well, I am now looking at a final payment date and they are still not offering any excursions to Chichen Itza.  My husband is refusing to take a non ship excursion.  What do I do?  I am Diamond Plus for what if anything that is worth.  Anyone have a phone number I can call to ask why it is not being offered?  Thanks

I just checked and out of cozumel I have it offered. I'm on harmony. 9 hours. Very long. 

@Ourusualbeachsince you are in canada do you know? 

11 minutes ago, BirdTravels said:

So,,, anyone can ask for an exception. The vast majority of the time it is denied. That's good business. Let's not set the expectation that everyone should go up to the ShoreEx desk and demand a refund a few hours before their excursion. 

 

The policy is what can reasonably be expected. Nothing more. 

I arrived onboard and tried 2 days before we hit roatan to cancel. They combined groups and I got put in a earlier group I didnt sign up for. I didnt have wifi to prove I signed up for a hour later and was told I couldn't cancel. Was within the 48 hour window, I was more like 42 hours before and denied. Also 100% rain forecast. 

Friends on same excursion unknown to me also tried to cancel same night and also denied. .. and sure enough it poured rain. I let it go but I was put at a different time than I signed up for. Onboard said well they didnt change my time. 

Someone else tried the they were sick to cancel. They were told they needed a note from the onboard medical facility which you couldnt get for free. They were sick for real. So even someone sick was unable to cancel. Needed a note.

Book another cruise to progresso?

Doesn't carnival go there. Idk why it has to be done in January as there are other options.

2 cruises are better than 1. 

2 minutes ago, CruisingWalter said:

 

I believe they had at least 3 documented in 2023 and one or 2 in 2024 both in the U.S. and elsewhere. In at least one instance folks were literally left at the pier as the ship sailed away.

 

Princess also had the issue recently and Celebrity has overbooked multiple cruises this year, at least two in the same month. Fortunately for Celebrity they had enough people agree to transfer to another cruise so it didn't make headlines. Overbookings happen much more than you might think because when there are enough people who agree to move to another sailing, nothing is reported.

 

It only takes one time to ruin a vacation. That's why we never book GTY on Royal or any other cruise line. We want an actual stateroom assigned to our booking from day one. The only way we don't go is if the cruise itself get cancelled.  

So 1 maybe 2 this year. And you have to go back to last year for maybe more.

And the situation in australia is stretching things. I'm sure theres more to that story.

I'm with ourusualbeach above, who as a travel agent as anyone knows from his posts knows what he is talking about. It's a losing battle, sorry, 1 instance this year out of all the departures isnt a lot. And as you say that's all you think you remember too this year. Scare tactics. But book a selected cabin  if you want. I dont have a choice. Almost never allowed to book a gty as a solo. Not a choice for me. I'd be kind happy for most of my run of the mill cruises if offered a bunch to stay home. Bring on the gtys....oh wait I cant. Ok. 

5 minutes ago, CruisingWalter said:

 

Most often the difference between GTY and selected stateroom is $300 or less. That's in our experience. With so many 'undesirable locations' on a ship due to potential noise, movement and other things, we always book a stateroom.  I honestly wish cruise lines would do away with GTY so everyone has an assigned stateroom from the start. 

Twice in one year,... 3 times? How many ships has this happened to out of how many that they were oversold this year, in 2024. I remember once this year. In 2024. 

Nothing I can think of just dont wait too close to ship sailing date and get blocked out. Says 48 hours before but mine has closed sooner.

2 hours ago, ONECRUISER said:

Also on 2 of my last 4 Check ins for this Fall it was running 7-10 min late so be patient. 

We were 4 minutes late. People were acting all mad as if thos was forever. 

4 minutes ago, khakiberrie said:

I’m also looking for RCCL shore excursion reviews.  I’m sailing on a TA in April 2025. Why aren’t there any mention of ship’s tours?

I have a TA in may 2025 and a 10 day leg afterwards and I've booked all my excursions thru rcl. Have you looked in the planner? I wouldnt wait as many of mine are already sold out. 

Ben and Jerry's has been removed by royal, so idk but I doubt you get free ice cream elsewhere. 

I'm not sure all machines are stocked the same. A ship out of texas has 3 kinds of dr pepper whereas a ship out of florida might not. Idk. 

Try emailing mbayley@rccl.com 

Too bad you didnt use a good TA who could take care of this. 

26 minutes ago, FloroidaCruise said:

I am flexible on dates and would like to find a sailing that is 5 to 60 days out where the Ultimate Family Suite is still available on Icon of the Seas and book a lesser room with the plan of bidding on the Ultimate Family Suite through the Royal Up program.

 

-What room or category should I book so I have best chance on bidding for Ultimate Family Suite?

-What upgrade prices might I be looking at in order to win?  We will be sailing with 2 adults 2 Children

-Any other advice on how to achieve this based on your experience with Royal Up and how the process might go?

 

The chances of winning a royal up are so slim it's not a good plan. You could bid so much it would have been cheaper to have booked this suite in the first place. 

1 minute ago, staceyglow said:

Personally, I would wait until I received the notice that my table is ready before I actually came to the MDR. The elevator area in front of the MDR is typically packed with people who didn't wait, which makes it harder on both the hostesses and the people whose already have an assigned table. 

My cabin was on a different deck and far forward. Sometimes it took 10 minutes to get a elevator. I never beat the assignment to the Mdr if I pushed it as I was leaving. I think this might depend where you are and how fast you walk?

Yes when you are ready to eat you just push the button that you are ready and it matches you to a table pretty fast. Often within minutes. There is a button near the bottom right to share a table but it doesnt work very well for dinner but does for breakfast or lunch. Seems like few want to share a table for dinner so expect to est alone.  

I never waited more than a few minutes so had to wait until I was close to the Mdr to push the button last time as my cabin was far forward and I couldnt get to the Mdr before it was assigned if I pushed the button from my cabin and then set off walking.

You might post here and see if anyone else posts they are having issues. 

3 minutes ago, PhillyFan33579 said:

Assuming your information is accurate, and I have no reason to believe it isn’t, one can conclude that people cruising out of Texas are willing to pay higher prices than people cruising out of Florida when it comes to Hideaway Beach (at least in the past). 

Out of texas people were so excited when this year royal added this new 8/6 option where the 8 day went to coco cay they booked up this itinerary like it was so exciting. Omg we can get to coco cay without driving. At one point I saw my cabin over 1700 pp before taxes and fees. This route was just added this year. Some of the excitement has died down, but it was a lot of excitement when this route first dropped. Takes 8 days to get to the bahamas. 

I did feel taken advantage of when I saw threads of people getting super cheap rates to hideaway. For texas these 6 dates were a super exciting add to the usual only western. There is a reason harmony is cheaper, the ports are so boring. Texans have done western to death. It was part of why I moved to PC this hear to get access to more ports. 

55 minutes ago, ceilidh1 said:

And just like that, it was all over! Not sure if there’s a problem with the Carnival ship, but lots of flashing red lights over that way!

I checked over on the carnival boards and no mention of trouble or flashingnred lights. St greg was off jubilee by 7:40 am so maybe was off before your picture.

On 8/19/2024 at 5:47 PM, colesc15 said:

I noticed today that the "base price" for Hideaway on Coco cay shot up today on every upcoming cruise we have booked. Looks like the days of $19.99-$39.99 are gone and seems to be an average price of $69 pp now. It felt worth it at the lower price, but doesn't seem like it at $70. Stinks they took the dj away from oasis lagoon to try to get people to pay for Hideaway. 

I think it depends where your ship is coming from as from Galveston it's always been full price is 79. I have never seen it at 69, it's been as low as 71.99. I booked harmony from Galveston when it was released and watched hideaway bay since it was released. Now it's more only 5% off, but it's never been as low as 69. So saying it's been updated and changed when it's been 79 since day 1 is a generalization from Florida ports. 

I saw a blogger who inaccurately to me said its changed. Nope not out of Galveston. We always had this higner full price of 79. 6 cruises out of texas this year and I'm on the oct to coco cay booked immediately. Never seen the low prices like out of florida. Dynamic pricing at it's best and then a certain blogger making assumptions based only on Florida prices. They take advantage of those out of texas for the same excursions. .. just saying read that inaccurate blogger and here saying it's gone up .. nope stayed the same. 

15 minutes ago, Reijo said:

We're on the 9/13 sailing, which one are you on?

I'm on the 9/13 and booked 2 days after everyone else checked in and have 12:30. My first time out of PC since I moved to the area. I plan to try uber. I'm sure I'll be early too. I hate having a later time but that's the best I could get. 

Hoping bad weather stays away and we see Bermuda. My first time there.