vettecruiser1

Thanks this is good to know.  Bankroll will need to be adjusted up a little.  One last question are craps table open on sea days or just evenings.  

Thanks were you on one of the first few sailings or a more recent one.  I heard the casino was slammed the first few sailings.  I'm assuming the crap table was too unless the $15 min kept some of the low rolling degens away.

Anyone know specifically what the min pass bet is on this ship.  I know other ships its $10 but i heard reports that i might be higher.  Need to prepare my bankroll.

Thanks

Let the consumers decide if they want to take the risk, because at this rate this sector of the travel industry will go bankrupt.  They are not even letting them set a new standard everyone just assumes it will be like it was but it won't, reduced sailing capacity, short routes, no more then at the most 1 sea day in row, new protocols for eating, mustering, embarkation and disembarkation.  It will have a new normal until there is a vaccine or this thing is killed off. Like I said in my first sentence this industry will not survive if they don't at least give the consumer a choice.  Of course the new normal will come with its issues, very limited ports or maybe the end of close loop cruising until they can adjust to more sea days, more expensive travel insurance.

Cruise lines do seem to be bearing a major brunt of this as compared to other travel industry markets.  Because now you can go to Hotels, amusement parks and casinos, plus fly as long as you take precautions, but cruise lines are not allowed to operate.  Seems the risk is the same as long as you take precautions, why is one travel industry being unfairly treated as compared to all the rest. 

How was the noise in the Deck 5 cabins on Vista and Horizons after say 9:00pm.  Could you hear the noise from the band playing in the Havana Bar area.  I hear they play Cuban music until 1:00 am and I don't think I want to hear bongos playing while i'm trying to get some sleep.

I look forward to RC going to freeport, which I don't think they currently do.  I will not be going to this resort but to another part of the island called Banana Bay.  It is heaven on earth, every time we have gone there is maybe 10 people on the whole beach, plus the restaurant and bar.  This place is awesome it has a 300 yard long sand bar that feels like you are in the middle of the ocean

Yes I learned this lesson also.  My cruise went down $1600 for my Liberty cruise and but the fees stayed the same.  Now i'm inside final payment so now I'm watching if the price continues to plummet I will call for the upgrade. 

Just got off the phone with my TA, he works at one of the big sites that can not be mentioned.  Anyway he said in 2 weeks he has personally lost 85 bookings.  He said a majority where the Asian market, but also because of the scare the Asian travelers are not wanting to book even in the Caribbean.  He confirmed that this is the worst it has been since 9/11 and it took about 6 months for that work itself out. 

It sounds like a stressful time for his industry, since his pay is based on commissions and even though people are still booking the prices are lower which of course makes his commission lower.

Oh and by they way since my TA was out yesterday I was not able to make my final payment.  So it was repriced again today and it dropped another $200.  So now the cruise is only $2590.  It makes me wonder how low these things will go, I have never seen this kind of dropping in the 20 years I have been cruising.  The only time I remember something similar was right after 9/11.

12 hours ago, John&LaLa said:

 

What cabin type is $4200 for 3 people.

 

Pricing is all over the board. We sail LOS in early May and our balcony is $1400 for the two of us. Booked over a year ago

It was for a balcony the May 31 sailing.  First week of school letting out since I have a student and teacher wife, so I have to sail during peak pricing season.  But the price i'm paying now is about as cheap as I have ever paid for 3 in a balcony during summer season.  I can't wait until the day my wife is retired and we can cruise for the rates you got for you cruise.  We take 2 or 3 cruises a year and for those same prices we can take about 6-8 cruises a year once we can get out of peak seasons rates. 

Something is causing it.  My end of May LOS sailing went down a week ago $600 for a oceanview balcony with an extra $100 obc.  Then this week since it was final payment time I checked again and it went down another $1000 but I lost the $100 obc.  Oh well orginally booked at $4200 now it is $2650 for 3 people. 

So I decided to check my Thanksgiving 2020 trip on LOS and we had a oceanview window room and the price of the balcony has dropped to the same price that I was paying for the window so I had it upgraded.  I call that a pretty good score.  So far i'm not seeing any changes in prices for my booking in 2021.

Does anyone know if you book a dealer choice casino rate and later a better dealers choice casino rate is offered.  Lets say with more OBC and DOU included are you allowed to switch to the new rate?  By the way the current rate is also a nonrefundable deposit if that makes a difference.  And all of this would happen before final payment.

Thanks just making sure, I seen them advertised in the Compass and I reviewed one from December and it did not show on their compass so I just wanted to get confirmation of them still being sold.  We have two sea days on the backend of our cruise so these are a no brainer if they are still $79 which is what they were before on Liberty.

Has anyone seed these in past few months.  I'm specifically looking for info on Liberty of the seas.  Last I sailed her in 2017 she had them on day 4, I did not see them on the Allure last year, but I was not looking.  Or have these gone the way of the FNDR promo, gone and forgotten?

oh this is not good, my wife was wanting to do this excursion again.  We loved having the freedom to do what we wanted to do in an open air jeep and not being part of a pack like the other jeep excursions.  I guess I think we might try the trike excursion as that one looks like a lot of fun and different.

I wish I would have taken a picture of the island and pier, it has some major constructing to go before the island looks anything like coco cay but the pier already had 4 of those concrete platforms extending out and the crane boat was working on putting out more.  I guess you have to build the pier first that was it is easier to move in the construction machinery.

Just returned from a cruise and I believe Belize will be an option for docking.  When we were there we could see an island that was being built up with a large pier for cruise ships and the island being built is fairly close to were the ship currently anchor for tendering.  When I asked about it the local on the tender said they are building this island for cruise ships to have a Beach island and waterpark sort of what they did in Harvest Cay.  Then if you want you can still tender to Belize City for Mainland excursions from this new island.   He said they are still about 2 years away from the island being complete but it got me thinking.  I believe I saw somewhere that Royal was wanting to build more Coco Cay type islands with one down close to Belize or Roatan, I think this was in the article about the Freeport expansion.   Anyway I bet this Belize island will be what Royal will use for the Allure when it comes since based on the construction it fits into that time table.

On ‎12‎/‎6‎/‎2019 at 4:33 PM, mitsugirly said:

 

Hmm, well if that's the case, the excursion company has not mentioned it to us. I do know that sometimes they give you the option to drive them yourself while following a tour guide in another jeep ahead of you or them riding with you and you driving or just them driving. But, I think it depends on if you request to drive it yourself and probably it depends on how many people you have with you.

We did this same trip with .net last year.  It is fantastic, we had to meet over by the Hard Rock and the jeep was in a parking lot down the street.  I did not know I had to drive either but it was no big deal as I only had to drive to the 1st stop, in our case it was the Tequila factory.  Also the jeeps are stick shift but easy to shift and they pack a cooler with beer and water.   After that our driver went where ever we told her until it was time to go eat then she took us to a restaurant over by the Money Bar.  My wife says it was the best excursion we have ever done in Coz because of the east side of the island is very relaxing.  One of the beach stop did have nice sand and easy entry the only issue was you had to walk down some stairs to get to the beach. 

Just returned from my Carnival vacation and it was noticed even on the islands the plastic straws are going away.  Paper strays at Nachi Cocum and Little French Key.  Also I have noticed here Texas around Dallas lots of places we eat at are doing away with not only the straws but the plastic grocery bags.  I believe the issue is much bigger then straws on Carnival.  People on the ship we tucking their straws behind their ear like people used to do with pens and pencils, when they were able to find a bar that had some left over plastic straws.  Times they are a changing and it appears plastic is on its way out.

About what time was it when you went ashore in GC?  I don't want to fight the tender crowds.

Sorry we ended up getting upgraded on that ship and ended up in a Junior Suite, so I still do not know the answer.

We have family in Freeport and it is destroyed.  Yes most of the island is underwater the southside did stay above the water technically, but the rain was blowing at 150mph for over 24 hours tearing away every roof on the island.  The island was still recovering from the hurricane that hit 2 years ago and this is 1000 times worse.  They described it like being in a tornado that would not stop.  The only saving grace is most structures are made out of concrete block which hold up to hurricanes just not ones that sit there for over a day.  As soon as we can get our family out of there we are expecting it will be at least a year to rebuild just their house.  Remember there will be no power for months, the last hurricane had them sitting in the dark for 6 weeks, this will be much longer just to get the power grid put back in place.  The poles are all gone.

On the Carnival page it showing Red Frog pub included and not for a fee for the Vista.  Does that mean that the bar food is free?  I know it was not free on Breeze or Magic

Freeport is an unspoiled port in my opinion.  We got away from the port and went to Banana Bay and it was a dream having a beach with only 12 people and the best seafood I have had at a beach in a long time.  Reminds me of how cruising was years ago when you the corporations did have their hands on the islands.  Expand your horizons and Freeport is wonderful, the port is just not that pretty, but neither is most of the ports in Europe where you dock in the industrial areas.