bsblindab

I'm glad to hear that I wasn't the only one that this happened to. I also purchase CCL and loved them, I'll never order RCL Certificates again .

 

 

I've sent my information to sharedservicesgiftcertificateredemption@rccl.com .. lets see what happens

I just sent a email to them also..lets see.

I just (this week) used an AARP Royal Caribbean $500 gift certificate to pay down my previously booked cruise. I called RCCL and they told me to send my cruise and certificate info to this email address: SharedServicesGiftCertificateRedemption@rccl.com They told me to wait 10-12 days for certificate to be applied. On 12th day I received confirmation and the $500 was applied to my existing reservation. Hope this helps.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

Did you book through a TA or RCCL direct?

i have purchased Carnival gift cards from AARP and enjoy the 10% savings. I ordered some for Royal Caribbean thinking I was getting something that could be used just like the Carnival cards - to pay down the balance on our cruise; order a beverage package, apply to my sail and sign card, etc. Instead what I received was a gift “certificate” that can only be used to make a new reservation directly through Royal Caribbean and nothing else. I will admit it was my fault because I didn’t read through it. It was listed under “Travel” and “gift cards” and I incorrectly assumed it was like the Carnival cards. Now I’m stuck with $1,500 of gift certificates that I can’t use and now need to find another way to pay off our currently booked cruise. If you order anything from AARP be very careful, read the description and be sure that you’re truly getting what you think you are.

I have a Citibank Mastercard that I had accumulated points for..I only cashed in enough for 400.00 of RCCL gift certificates.. Same thing..can't use them unless you book through a RCCL agent on a new reservation :mad:

Originally I was looking at Carnival Gift Cards as my kids wanted to do a cruise there..but then decided against it..and friends of mine had booked RCCL and asked us to come along..My fault..didn't read the instructions..so I'm stuck with $400.00 of gift certificates..and this is my first RCCL cruise..I hope I like it enought to go on another one..THANKFULLY I didn't cash in all my points..so like you I have to come up with another $800.00 to pay off the cruise :(

Transfer your reservation to Royal, you'll feel better about the situation. There is NO reason that the TA should not be returning your calls.

Can you do that?

I did Safari Zip Line, solo, back in March. It was great!! I had never zip-lined either, but the staff was great-- they were so good with all the newbies and kids.

Was there a reason why you did it solo? When we were in Cozumel, I did the parasail solo..but the boat operators let my husband on the boat to "watch" for a reduced fee. He'd like to do that for me..but I think it would entail more than sit and watch me

We took the Safari Zip Line excursion though Royal Caribbean, and loved it! Neither my wife nor I had ever zip lined before, and we were extremely pleased. The lines were fun, the crew was great, and the sites were amazing. I am glad we booked through Royal because the trip up to the jungle is far from the cruise terminal, and the zip line course is located in a national park - so it was packed by the time we were done in the early afternoon.

 

Upon return to port, we hopped in a cab to Frigate Bay to Mr. X Shiggidy Shack! This is a GREAT beach bar, with umbrellas, chairs, and a wonderful grill. We had fresh grouper plates that were better than anything we ate on the cruise. Thanks to Gail and the crew for a great time!

 

Cheers.

that is one thing I want to do is zipline. However my husband won't be able to..One reason why I didn't in Hawaii. Any idea how long the zipline is? or are there various ones rather than one long one?

We did the same. This last time we just used Bernard's Tours to take us to Sunset Grill. He kind of gave us a "tour" and info about the island and stopped for a few pix on the way. We set a time for him to come back and get us and he was right on time! While at Sunset Grill my DD and I rented lounge chairs and an umbrella by the pool after we had lunch and watched the planes come in. Nice relaxing day!

We have done the full Island Tour with Bernard's before and we have rented a car and exployed on our own!

Do you know if they have a website?

I see them out and about with tour groups. The next time I see one I'll stop and see if I can get a better phone number for you.

Would you know if they have a website to see what they offer for tours?

Out of 8 cruises, only 1 was lower for the NRD than what I currently have them booked at refundable rates and that one was already an NRD booking that I converted last month to experiment with.

 

With the roll out today, the base rate went down another $91 p/p. It is supposed to default to the best rate automatically. Logged into my cruise and as you would expect, no price change. I had to call C&A to get the rate applied. C&A said they did not know why the price did not adjust automatically as it should have.

 

So if you have an NRD, I guess you still have to check the prices for now until their IT department straightens it out. :rolleyes:

If the rate goes down for NRD sailings..will the amount adjust automatically? or do you still need to request it?

Not a fan. Unless you know for sure you are going to travel you will eventually loose that deposit. I guess RCL's ploy was to get travelers to book a lot of cruises with the refundable deposit, assuming people would eventually cruise and the company would have a cash account with extra $$$$$ in it.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

sorta like Banks..they raise deposit interest rates hoping for more deposits so their bottom line looks good prior to a merger :(. this will probably be my first and last RCCL cruise that i do.. like NCL's minimum deposit much better...

Thank you. Not what I wanted to hear. I am Diamond and have never experienced not having one. Guess I need to speak to someone when I board on Thursday.

I wasnt to pleased to hear that either..Carnival didn't have them either when we first sailed,,,but NCL did..one reason why I kept with NCL..liked the fridge..and this is my first time sailing on RCCL.. Hopefully this is the only disappointment I have

Yes...RCI/RCCL is the parent company that has owned Celebrity for some time and they recently merged some servicing..I'm sure someone will know about your gift certificate but it may be doubtful you can.

Would you know if your points would merge also..or are your sailings separate also?

I called the RCCL phone # and they were advertising Celebrity Cruises...Are they within the same "network" now? Can I use a RCCL Gift Certificate for a Celebrity Cruise?

Nope, no charge to change one of the names.

awesome..thank you:D

Want to make a reservation for a future cruise for me and my hubby. Is there a charge if for some reason hubby doesn't want to go and I take someone else?

I've read where people have brought playstations on board for the kids to play..My hubby has a older laptop that he uses for his "Panzer general" etc war games. Is there anything we need to do to bring that on board? is it allowed? do we put it in check in baggage or carry on? He most probably will be entertaining himself with it when I entertain myself with a hot tub or massage :D

What cruise line for Hawaii? We also cruised Hawaii with NCL but 10 years ago and loved it. The Hawaii cruise was all about the itinerary and ports and not so much about the ship.

 

This 12 night on Grandeur is about the ship, itinerary and longer cruise. We mostly cruise longer cruises now, more than 7 days, and really feel relaxed afterwards. For this 12 night we splurged for a Junior Suite, although we mostly book balconies. For our 9 night on Grandeur we had an OV on deck 2 and found the size adequate and able to store our belongings.

 

For both cruises we drove down a day ahead, booked a hotel in the White Marsh area, and parked at the port. Easy peasy.

 

I’m sure you’ll have a great time!

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

Hawaii was for my 60th birthday..and it was NCL. Wanted a taste of all the islands in the event we ever went back and stayed at a particular island. But would do the cruise again in a heartbeat!!

For this next cruise,,HS classmates booked and we've been wanting to do a cruise together.so going to be a 45yr HS reunion of sorts, and the price was right and I've been wanting to do another cruise line..and it will be winter..so out of the cold. We plan on driving down the day before and staying in Best Western for a park and sail. The itinerary was one we had booked LAST January on NCL while we snowbirded in Fla..out of Port Canaveral..then Irma hit. So we cancelled.

Vision class ships & the Majesty = interior and oceanview cabins do NOT have one. (except the new Panoramic View OV cabins)

Reminds me of my first Carnival cruise..no fridge. Was quite happy with my first NCL cruise that we had one..nice to put Soda/Juice/Milk in it for night time

From our experience set sail pass is at 90 days, and cruise documents around 49 days

What is the difference? Arent they the same?

To close out this post, I want to say thank you all for taking the time to follow this post and all the positive feedback I received. I think I learned a lot and certainly had fun while doing it. I'm sure you can tell we love this 'grand old gal'!

 

Having said that, for all the Grandeur lovers and those that will be cruising on her for the first time, I plan on doing a live review again, but hopefully with improvements.

 

Since we loved the Grandeur so much we booked another cruise on her, 4 months from now, March 15, 2018! My plans are to post about the differences between the 2 cruises, 12 day vs 9 day, deck 8 JS vs deck 2 window cabin, Oct vs March, entertainment, menus, passenger mix....etc.

 

What do you think? Feel free to post your suggestions and comments.

 

Thanks again! This was the first time ever we became so engaged with wonderful crew and fellow cruisers: we enjoyed that most of all. Hope to 'meet' you all again, whether here on CC, at a M&M, or onboard a cruise.

 

TTYL... Dianne

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

Our first on this line will be the 12 day out of Baltimore..Our last was Hawaii..hope I wont be disappointed :)

it will be a bit over 3yrs since our last cruise. Our longest has been 7days and the best room we had was balcony. all on NCL. So this will be a longer cruise..but we are backpeddling to a 2nd deck window room. Our first cruise was on Carnival and that was a 3rd deck oceanview..and I think the ship may be the size of this one. Being a bit older and slower, the smaller ship will hopefully still give us a run for our money..

We went for it and just booked the 12 night Cape Liberty to S. Caribbean, on Anthem, March 2019. Yes it's 1.5 years away but looking forward to it. Our current group of 7 booked also and hoping others will join us.

 

It's our homeport only 1.25 hrs away...love it.

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

We would love to cruise from Bayonne..My parents/grandparents are originally from there as were some relatives..so I'd hope we would be able to maneuver the port...even though we live 3.5hrs north of there

Forgot to take a picture of my Creme Brûlée but it was delicious, as usual.

 

Didn't take any pix of sailaway not insulting anyone but nothing compares to sailing out of NYC/NJ area.

Day break returning home from one of our cruises...worth the price and aggravation. We live about 50 miles north of NYC so most of our cruises are out of that area.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

Do you drive into the city? or take the train? Sailed out of NYC 2x and loved it..but hate the drive in..we are in Binghamton NY area..

Trying to put on a happy face after returning home to snow and cold weather. It was in the 40s outside but 52 deg inside the house...ugh!

 

This is the first time we didn’t book a cruise while on board. We booked Anthem, 12 nt. Caribbean for March 2019 last cruise, so we have another to look forward to. We’ve been on Anthem twice before (our home port) and although the experience is very different from Grandeur, we love it too. I wrote a bit about the differences on my last live review of Grandeur, if you want to take a look.

 

In a few months we’ll cruise out of NYC on NCL Escape, 7 nt. Bermuda.....can I say that here? We like to cruise different cruise lines depending on the ship, itinerary and price. To be honest, we prefer Royal the most, but wanted to take a 7 nt. to Bermuda again, and Escape is new to us.

 

I will not write a live review of Escape (internet too expensive with NCL, even with free minutes from high level rewards) but will compare it to Breakaway (cruised 3 years ago) and didn’t like at all and to Anthem (love, love).

 

Hopefully we can squeeze in another last minute Royal cruise, if everything aligns right. But I really enjoyed writing another live review and certainly appreciate you all following along. Your kind words kept me going and I hope you all enjoy your cruises as much as we do.

 

I will follow along all your reviews too!

 

Thank you, TTYL....Dianne

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

Dianne, we will be sailing this ship in Jan 2019..12 days..We normally do NCL so this will be a first for us. We were in Fla last March out of the NY winter...so we may have to suffer this year :(

[ATTACH]416804[/ATTACH]

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

Love the color...Purple my favorite!!

As a first RCL cruiser..What time is boarding allowed?