KansasK

21 hours ago, njsmom said:

I keep trying to figure this out. Who is it paying $15,000 and $20,000 for suites on cruise ships and going multiple times a year? Are they putting it on credit or are they paying cash? 

 

Since this is an anonymous board, I can say that my spouse and I are very successful without sounding like I am bragging. No one knows me here. 🙂 

 

We each make well over six figures and our income easily places us in the top 3-4% of all households in our state. I am a vice president at my company, and my husband is quite successful as well. And it's not just our annual income. We have over $2 million already saved for retirement and we're still many years away from that time in our lives.Yet, I can't fathom spending $20,000 on a suite.  It's not that we're against spending. We love fancy things. We live in a lovely home, we drive luxury cars and we have taken our three kids to Europe and we go regularly to Napa and drop $600 a night for a 4-5 night stay, and do $300 dinners. But again, $20,000 on a suite? That is another realm of spending. 

 

Who is it spending this much on a suite? If my husband and I can't afford to do it, who can? There's not that many people who make more than us, to be frank. I just don't get it. 

I enjoyed reading this.  We don't live like this and it was fun to read about what it like! People are not usually this honest about what they have and spend their money on. 

We stay in balconies and on our next cruise, we will reach Diamond Plus on the fifth day of our cruise in April.  It won't count on this cruise, though.  We kept my last car for 19 years and my "new" car is now 7 years old. We are now retired and happy with as much as we have - I can still go on cruises - : ).

26 minutes ago, OACAggie said:

We made it to diamond last year before my eldest son turned 18. He was matched with our status and points (90) until he turned 18 last Sept. After he turned 18, his status stayed diamond and his points reverted to his own accumulated of 54. He would then only move up to D+ once he accumulated the required points on his own. This was the way I understood it to work and how it shows on his profile. We took a short 4 nt cruise in Dec. and his points went to 58 and status is still diamond. He also received a diamond pin from the LA and enjoyed the 4 drinks/day no problem. One thing that I was told/read somewhere was that he had to be the cruise when we hit diamond or on a cruise with us as diamond before we  whe turned 18 for him to keep diamond after he reached 18. Based on that we made sure he was on the cruise when we hit diamond. Not sure if that is true or not or if it makes a difference?

 

 

What you said "he had to be the cruise when we hit diamond or on a cruise with us as diamond before he turned 18 for him to keep diamond after he reached 18." is how my daughter got diamond status, I think.  She was 17 when she cruised with us the first time and we got diamond status that year.  She seemed to move up through the levels until the one before Diamond -  Emerald, I think. She had gotten married and called to get her name changed.  The next cruise she was Diamond.  She did not have the points yet. We think now it was the fact that she cruised with us before she 18 and was supposed to have gotten Diamond then.  If they take it away, then she will have the level she should be at.  

50 minutes ago, Biker19 said:

I just don't see going as far as finding C&A customers due to be demoted and then try to claw back the somewhat minor amounts of balcony discount on an existing booking - that seems so petty/desperate.

I agree. It does look kind of petty.  I guess they save money on free drinks, too.  Notifying someone they lost their diamond status on board a ship seems like starting the cruise off on a bad note. My daughter is over 40 and is diamond from a while back. I don't think she has enough points to be diamond, though.  I hope this new way to antagonize cruisers doesn't last. 

I love champagne!  I wish I would find a free one in my cabin!  

5 hours ago, alfaeric said:

It's pretty amusing to consistently see that "honest" almost always means negative.  Which means that the handful of people who think the food hasn't changed, and it's ok are lying.  

 

You wonder why people don't post reviews very often.

 

If you are looking for a crappy time, you will certainly find it.  Good luck with that.  

 

Or better yet, if you are far enough out, please just cancel your cruise.  Prices are high enough for those of who are not "honest" already.

I don't think the people who are enjoying the food are lying.  I think maybe they got better food, maybe it was served hot/warm instead of cold, and maybe the kitchen was not inept for them. 

I don't think all negative reviews are honest. I thought that PCUR's post was honest, though.

I'm 30 days out, so I am not far enough out to cancel my cruise, and do not want to, anyway. 

Hey, let's just all overeact and take offense at everything - not.

48 minutes ago, sumrgurl99 said:

Yes, I’m asking about EXTRA 😀 I didn’t know if people had any guidance—like flat extra or extra % based on the daily gratuity amount. Hopefully that makes sense.

If I were going to pay extra, I would say $20.00 for the two kids.  The cabin attendant will only be coming once, so that partly determined what I thought. 

PCUR, thank you for your honest review of the food.  I hope that it will do some good.  I will be on the Harmony on April 15, and we have one dinner at Chops, and the rest in the main dining room. If the unacceptable food is to push us to the specialty restaurants, they would need a huge number of them. I think people will stop cruising who don't want to pay for specialty restaurants.  

The basic tipping amount for each of your two children will be the same as for you and your wife. It will be added to your onboard account every day, unless you prepaid the gratuities. If your cabin attendant did all the extra things well, it is up to you if you want to tip more. 

I got an email today for an April 15 cruise date on the Harmony saying the e-docs were available. They were on the e-mail as a .pdf file.  I printed them. There was a boarding pass at the end. 

I got up at 6:00 a.m. on check-in day, and the arrival time I got was 11:00.  On my last cruise, I think the arrival time was first. This time it was almost the last thing to do. 

3 hours ago, Cruise5life said:

Maybe this should be a post for Cunard.    
 

this Royal Caribbean.   and the was a question for RC cruisers.   
Your post is useless here.   But nice get up for Cunard.   You’d be out of place on Royal.   Lol. 

They probably wouldn't feel out of place dressed up on formal night on Royal Carribean and that is what matters. Live and let live. 

On 3/4/2023 at 4:00 PM, topnole said:

Thanks for the thorough description.  We are in a suite if that matters.  
 

The issue is the car seats.  Those will be rented with the car.  I think I’ll just have them check in if they will allow it.  I can’t imagine they will kick them outside as suite guests?   What do you think?   I’m so used to Canaveral and Ft Lauderdale which are very easy.  I figured Miami is a cluster.  To make matters worse, it will be a Thursday.   But trying to do this around noon time.  

My daugher had carseats on our last cruise and she had them each in a big canvas bag for car seats because we flew and she did not want them beat up.  She put a luggage tag on them and they arrived at their cabin with their luggage. 

20 hours ago, h20skibum said:

No.  You get the first at 140, then every 70 after.  Your next one would be at 210. 

Thanks to you, h20skibum, and to littlebritain, who also replied with the above.  I was confused by the Crown and Anchor Member Benefits page and it has a dot under Diamond Plus for "Milestone Recognition (Crystal Block)" but I failed to see the tiny 3 by it, which takes you to an explanation, like the one you both gave. I got the one for 140.  

When do you get the block?  We will pass 175 points on our next cruise on day 5 of the cruise.  I know we don't get the additional perks for Diamond Plus until the cruise after that one, but do we get the block when we pass the number? 

The test package has instructions on how to do the test. It tells you how long to wait for results.  It might not look exactly like the one there was a picture of, but it will be similar.  

My husband and I decided on evening for cabin attendant to come so we will get rid of the excursion clean up towels and the room will be put in order as well, although it won't be too bad to clean up.  We think Royal made a mistake by increasing tips and reducing cabin attendant visits to one, but we hope to make the best of it. If I am sent a review to do after the cruise, I will let them know what I think. We have looked forward to this cruise for a long time and once on board I don't plan to let something that I cannot change impact my cruise too much. 

We always left the prepaid gratuities in place and tipped extra with cash if the service we received warranted the extra tip, and it usually did. With our cabin being cleaned once a day instead of twice, and with the gratuity we pay still being based on the twice a day amount, I doubt we will tip extra for the cabin attendant this time. In this case, it is fair to give the set amount. 

3 minutes ago, fredmdcruisers said:

Has anyone said that you can pick a time for service? The way the new system was explained to us was that they get to your cabin when they get there. No more use of magnets to ask to have cabin made up.

I may be wrong about this, but I thought we got to pick either morning or evening for the length of the cruise.   I never intended to imply that I thought I could pick it by day, although I would like the magnet idea, if I lived in a different world. 

We will decide on a time for the cabin attendent to come and ask for as many towels as we want until the next time he/she comes. I like to have ice and I wonder if I can take the ice bucket to a bar to get it filled since it will only be filled once. 

The cruise line just increased the time amounts, and in the case of the cabin attendent, cut the work in half for our cabin. I don't think we will tip more at the end of the cruise. I don't like less service, but other than state this on the review, there is nothing we can do. 

My brother kindly is treating my husband and I to a dinner at Chops when we are on the Harmony in  April.   He paid for this and sent me the reservation information and it showed the cost and the tip he added.  If we decide to tip additional, it would not be as much as the original tip, probably.  Does the waiter know he/she has already been tipped?

I remember the robes were there when we arrived in our cabin for a long time, but now we always have to ask for them.  I always ask and the cabin attendant delivers them the next time he or she comes. 

I used to sometimes order a shrimp cocktail and a caesar salad for an appetizer.  They would bring one and then bring the other after I finished the first.  I don't think I can do this now without paying for the second one.  I enjoyed it, but will be content with one. I think that waiters have to deny people if they order off the menu takes away from the dining experience.  

Our first cruise was in July, 1999, on the Enchantment of the Seas before she was stretched.  On the side of the ship, it was painted "like no vacation on earth."  They had a different approach then, I think. 

We have a reservation at Chops on the second evening of our cruise, which I think is the formal night, or whatever they call it now.  We will be a little dressier that night and since it is our cruise, I don't see why we can't. 

Yesterday I found our check-in date after I logged into our cruise.  It was in small print on the first screen. This was not on the app, but online.  The date was 45 days before we sail. 

22 hours ago, Giantfan13 said:

I was just curious if people are still wearing their masks anytime while onboard? We just came off the Anthem on Friday and read here that there were about 250 reported Covid cases and those are the ones reported. We are 'extra' seniors and we have adopted the policy to always wear masks while indoors on the ship. There were several times (maybe even more than that) when we seemed to be the only ones wearing masks in entire venues.

 

Is anyone still masking up.

 

Cheers

Len

We wore masks when inside the ship when we were on the Allure last July.  We wore them inside except when eating.  I saw someone every day with a mask on, but not many masks at all. We have a cruise in April this year and we plan to do the same thing.  If you missed getting Covid, good for you!