publicpersona

A practical on-topic question for the thread: When making a booking, adding pre-paid gratuities is an option before reaching the payment page. It also says "You can always add this later" or something to that affect. But how? Yes, I want to go ahead and add the pre-paid gratuities but only partially so I will get the rates that were in effect when I booked. Actually, we ended up with much more OBC than expected and I want to go ahead and pay for things now because I can. I don't see any option in Cruise Planner for adding pre-paid gratuities, even in Gifts and more .. or whatever.

Wine drinkers don't fare very well with drink packages. The bar staff generally don't know the first thing about wine, and you are lucky if you get the same varietal of wine, much less the same winery. The standard seems to be whatever is open at the moment. Ask for a premium level champagne and you probably get that prosecco in the refrigerator, the same as a Classic package guest would get. The MDR can be a little better in this regard, but not always. I've ordered a Mer Soleil when it was on the Premium list and been poured La Terre. One time when I inquired about the discrepancy, I was told at the Sky Lounge bar that the wine list was just "examples", not something you actually ordered from. So if that New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc that you ordered has all the characteristics of one from South Africa instead, you're probably not wrong.

She may have already done this, but being Diamond on Royal by itself will get you nothing for you onboard Celebrity. She needs to status match Diamond to Elite prior to the cruise. Then by being Elite with a Captain's Club number on the reservation, she will get some perqs.

Understood, but I was more interested in all inclusive drink as well as the lunch. Reason .. not so much that I want to chain drink, but the drinks by the each are quite expensive $16-$20. Also, it isn't clear that the cruise shore excursion includes access to the resort's pools such as the infinity pool on the 5th floor. The resort day pass does, I think. The problem is that I've been searching the resort's website and no where can I find a place that describes the various day pass options. They just say "Check at front desk".

For those that have recently been to CocoCay and have formed your opinion, I respect that. But for those that have not recently been, don't rush to judgement. I first visited CocoCay back when it was an island with beaches, and that was it. In recent years, the marketing of CocoCay has focused on the amusement park aspect and I hated that. I've posted many a "not going there" response on CC. But then through a change of plans, I had the occasion to go in March of this year. I was very pleased. Yes, the central core with all the amusements can get crowded and noisy, but it serves as a nice kid magnet. There were so many beaches (with plenty of nice loungers and umbrellas) that we had no trouble finding several quiet spots. Now true, we were there when there was only one ship and it was a small one. But there could have been 3 or 4 times the people and I think it would still have been nice. And above all else .. it wasn't Nassau.

It absolutely is related to CocoCay. Perfect Day® is registered intellectual property of RCL. No one at RCL would keep their job if they misused that marketing term in any other way.

I'm hesitant about booking through an unaffiliated third party site, although I know that ValueTrips is mentioned by many in this forum and nobody has posted anything negative. How long was it between the time you requested a reservation through VT and you had a Hyatt reservation that shows on the Hyatt website?

Although the ship is offering a day pass to Resorts World, I understand there are day passes including all-inclusive food/drinks. Mention also of a VIP pass. Anyone have details?

About 15 minutes according to Google Maps, depending on which terminal and any port congestion maybe a few minutes more.

The quoted text isn't on their website. It's what they emailed me today. I note also that their app provides a way to tell it that you want to move your VTP from one vehicle to another.

I didn't have the same result. According to VTP ... Unfortunately, the Visitor Toll Pass program is intended for airline travelers who are picking up and returning their rental vehicle onsite at the Orlando International Airport. Per our FAQ section, Visitor Toll Pass will not be held liable for any additional costs that may arise from off-site car agencies. Their website (at least the part of it that hasn't been down for several days) says only that you must pick up and return the VTP at MCO. It doesn't say anything about being restricted to a vehicle you rent at MCO. Of course, the FAQ may say that but that's part of the website that has been down for days. Lesson learned: Don't use VTP if you are doing two one-way rentals between MCO and a port.

We've used them many times. No issues to report.

Yes, that was one option I mentioned in my original post. My concerns about that approach (which may or may not be valid) are difficulties in registering a rental car, and also not wanting to carry a full-sized transponder on the trip. VTP was an excellent solution as far as I'm concerned, except when it didn't work. 😞 By the way, their website is still down. But like they've been saying for 3-4 days, it will be back up in 30 minutes.

At this point, I don't think Avis was at fault. They were billed the tolls based on pay by plate because the transponder I was using wasn't valid. I want to find out why VTP didn't work. By the way, VTP's website is still down.

Following up. I tried VTP and have mixed reviews. For someone doing a one-way rental MCO => PC and then PC -> MCO a week later, I don't think it is worth the hassle. Picking up and returning the VTP at MCO was a breeze for me since I flew into Terminal A (where the lone pickup kiosk is), and return out of Terminal B where there is a return drop also. One issue is that there isn't an elegant way to do multiple "trips" with one transponder. I couldn't leave the outbound rental car's license plate engaged all week while others were driving the same car, but there's no way to temporarily deactivate it without ending the trip, which would invalidate the VTP for the return. As a workaround I "changed vehicles" to a fictitious license plate for during the week. I did not get charged with anyone else's tolls. They do prefund the account with $10, and say they do refund any unused portion, but they haven't yet. I did register the return's rental car plate, hung the VTP from the rear-view, and made sure the Avis toll box was closed. Yet, I subsequently received a bill from Avis for the tolls on the return trip. Since it was just one day, the $4.95 charge in addition to higher tolls wasn't outrageous. Still .. I don't know why VTP didn't work on the return. I had read someone else had that issue and VTP reimbursed the charge. Great. So I was going to their website to see what that process was, but their website has been down for at least a couple days. They are disingenuously saying that the outage was planned (no it wasn't) and that the site would be back up within 30 minutes. Then they post the same message saying it will be 30 more minutes. That's been going on for days.

Yes, there was always a nice list but what they actually were pouring varied tremendously. I had previously found the Mondavi chard quite serviceable, but was unable to get any in many attempts over three days at just about every bar. Mirassou was frequently poured instead, as was La Terre. I like the Ravenswood Zin and tried to get it in the MDR but they poured something call Zin de Zin or some such instead. Not even close.

Just like Seashore, there is a "wine cellar" near the specialty restaurants but it is mostly just decoration. It wasn't staffed and you couldn't buy wine or anything there. I imagine they might have the occasional wine tasting event there, but I've not seen that venue used on two Sea* sailings. MSC isn't wine-lover friendly. Any time I ordered a chard on Easy Plus, even though specifically asking for the "Robert Mondavi Special Reserve" that was on the menu, what they actually poured was whatever random white wine was open. This was sometimes Mirassou, sometimes La Terre(ible), and on several occasions a sauvignon blanc. White wine is white wine. Even Saturday night when the Robert Mondavi was the recommended white wine on MDR menu, what they poured was some generic table wine. To be fair, Royal Caribbean and Celebrity aren't much better, except that in the MDR there generally was better selection than at other bars.

I'm a little confused. Odd numbered cabins are on the port side. Even are on the starboard side. With the bow of the ship nearest the lighthouse, that would not be 10033 as labelled.

We sail Thursday on Seaside and because it's only a 3nt cruise, we figured we could tolerate any stateroom as long as it was a balcony, so we took Bella GTY for the first time. I've only done MSC five times, but have over 70 cruises total, so it is not stressing me out that we still have no stateroom assignment 3 days prior to sailing. Of course, cannot print boarding pass for reason shown below. I plan to print out my booking confirmation and show up at embarkation if for some reason it still hasn't been assigned. Or should I be freaking out? I will call if necessary, but I am familiar with the quality of MSC's shoreside services and IT systems, so I wasn't looking forward to it.

Compared with Celebrity, I think you may be disappointed in Seashore balconies. Looking straight down from the balcony it is likely you will see a deck and perhaps extended stateroom outdoor areas, not the sea.

Nor does Aurea, although at one time it did.

Probably right. Maybe if we hang around a YC suite someone will let us crash on their couch for a few nights.

Same here. It demands immediate action, but you really can't fill it out yet. Our next sailing next week is a guarantee and we haven't been assigned a stateroom yet.

OK. You would know. That must have been a very recent change. And a good one.

On MSC, you'd pay full price unfortunately. On Royal/Celebrity, you pay the difference.