S.A.M.J.R.

That's interesting. Great loophole too, apparently.

 

I guess my next piece of advice would be to book your own travel and have them pay you back.

 

I do that when I travel for work anyway to get the credit card points.

I would, but unfortunately, that's not an option for the employer. :(

Times listed in the itinerary tab for a specific sailing on the RCI website AND in the Cruise Documents delivered to you 7 weeks prior to sailing are the local time that the ship is expected to dock at the port.

THAT's what needs to be pointed out. Other posters did.

The ship is always on ships time and it us up to the captain as to whether he adjusts the ship time to match the local time. Some do and some don't.

Of course, this doesn't matter when planning 3rd party excursions. RCI's website says Oasis will dock in Cozumel for an upcoming cruise at 10am. So can you book a 3rd party excursion for 10am? In the planning stages, it doesn't matter WHAT the captain will do.

Going against the "times on the website are local time for the island"...

1) On our June 2013 Oasis cruise, we were scheduled for arrival at 8am SHIP time. However, Cozumel was an hour behind. That's what's listed in Compass.

2) I've been in contact with a 3rd party operator for our upcoming Freedom cruise. I told them when Freedom is supposed to be in port (according to the RCI website) and the operator said that will be an hour prior island time. I'm assuming the tour operators know what time the ships are in.

Your employer just didn't put your loyalty numbers on the reservations. You could have added them at the hotel anytime during your stay, or even requested the points after your stay by calling customer service.

I *DID* have them added at the hotel when I checked in.

Why wouldn't it qualify? Those hotel brands you mention give points based on dollars spent, not nights.

I'm telling you the answers I got back from the hotels.

Here's the email from Hampton...

We are unable to process this request as the room rate paid is ineligible for HHonors points, miles, stay/night credit as well as promotional bonuses. For a complete list of all ineligible rates for the HHonors program please visit our website at http://www.hiltonhhonors.com for more information. For your convenience I have listed out the rate types that have been deemed ineligible for stay, night, point and or mileage credit below:

 

Wholesale/tour operator packages

Contracted airline crew rates

Travel industry rates (including but not limited to travel agent discount rates)

Complimentary or barter rooms

NET Group rates

Series Group or IT Group rates

Contracted Entertainment or Encore rates

Master Bill bookings (irrespective of incidentals)

Third party websites bookings (for example. Expedia.com, Priceline.com, etc) this rate is also ineligible to receive credit for any incidentals that are paid at the time of your stay.

"Opaque" channel bookings where the brand is unknown at the time of purchase

"No Show" or cancelled bookings

From Sheraton...

I have located your reservations and found they were both booked and paid for on a third-party website, Expedia.com, and are not eligible to receive Starpoints and/or stay credit. As a Starwood Preferred Guest member, you will always receive Starpoints for eligible stays at participating properties booked online at SPG.com or any of our branded websites.

ETA: I mentioned hotels.com because that's the email I get from my employer.

Then they messed up. I book with priceline, hotels, hotel tonight, and pretty much any discount booking site weekly and have never not received points for stays.

But WHO messed up? The employer tells me "you're staying here", I check in AND give my loyalty number at checkin, wait a week, and the points don't show up in my account. I file "missing stay" forms and am told (by all three of the chains) that my stays don't qualify.

ETA: My mistake. Apparently Courtyard wasn't one of my stays, I got confused.

No, Gina, it's not all of them fortunately. I show cats and stay at different hotels 2-3 times a month under a group rate. It's rare that one doesn't give loyalty points for a group rate. This was a Hampton Inn and I did enjoy my stay - nice to arrive at 8 pm in the snow and having free coffee, tea and hot chocolate in the lobby.

I've had to travel recently. Hotel rooms were booked by my employer. I stayed at Hampton twice, Sheraton twice, and a Courtyard once. I belong to all three of their loyalty programs. Since my employer used hotels.com to book the rooms, I got NO credit for any of them.

I'm pretty sure the package starts as soon as you purchase it (or when you get on the ship, whichever comes last).

O.K., then how is it different from someone that goes on the cruise, vs. someone that does not- both paying 100% in full?

 

RCI has an expense per passenger when they sail- food, gas, maintenance, insurance, cleaning, salaries, etc. Much of that is saved when someone cannot travel. I understand the "policy" but I think it makes the "Crown & Anchor loyalty program" sound like an oxymoron.

Gas, maintenance, insurance, and salaries aren't going to change if a handful of people don't cruise. Food MIGHT slightly change, but I doubt it. It's not like the food they had budgeted for on that trip can be used on a later trip.

As far as how it's different... one person went on the cruise, one person didn't. You can't get much simpler.

The agent had a free cruise from Royal Caribbean- perhaps from booking so many clients. She used those two free cruises and put my parents name on the cabin. My parents paid in full to the agency. After many phone calls to C & A, RCI finally said you did not receive credit because you did not pay for your cruise- but they did "sail."

And RCI followed their rules. If I had gotten a free cruise (either from winning the cruise, or earning it by getting points, or whatever), I wouldn't be entitled to the C&A points. Delta has the same rule for FF miles. If I use (earned) FF miles to pay for a flight, I don't collect more miles for that flight. Do I like it? No. But I still think it's "fair".

Personally, I think your (your parents) gripe should be with the agent. Unless she notified your parents what she was going to do, along with the ramifications, I think what she did was unethical.

As far as having to pay for the cruise, as I understand it, if I paid for my parents to go on a cruise, they would still get the C&A points. The issue with your parents is because the cruise was FREE.

False, you have to pay and cruise to get the points. My parents booked and PAID for a cruise via travel agent once and the agent used her free cruise credit to book. My parents cruised and did not receive credit.

I'm still confused by this. What do you mean the agent used her free cruise credit?

The question was "should" they do this! Not "rules are "rules." I know what the rule is. Apparently you too never heard of the Mensa society.

There are people that agree with me too, but go on being a fanboy.

To answer your question, YES, they "should" continue with the current rules. YES, I feel it is "fair" to say you have to complete the cruise before you get your points. How is it "unfair"? :confused:

All regarding Freedom of the seas...

1) Anyone know (even roughly) what the height is of the balcony railings?

2) I don't want to assume... is under the railing is glass (or plexiglass or something see through)?

3) Does the balcony door need to be latched for the AC to work in the room?

Thank you!

....you can't just relax and decide what you want to do "on the fly" anymore. Jeez...what's this with having to pre-plan every second of your vacation?!?! It's no longer a relaxing time away from daily regimentation........

When DW & I were on Oasis last year, we planned:

What time we wanted to eat (MTD)

What show/time we wanted to see in the evening.

That's a FAR cry from "every second". The "problem" (if you want to call it that) is the amount of people on the ship vs. how many seats for a show.

Honestly, it was probably the most relaxing vacation we've had (not bringing the kids REALLY cut down on the stress level).

I think they open the booking in "blocks". For example, they open the bookings for cruises in August, September, and October all at the same time.

Great job on the review, and your pictures are fantastic!

Thank you for the AO Compasses. DW & I are taking our kids on their first cruise on Freedom in June (Western). We'll compare to our first cruise on Oasis last year (sound familiar?).

Out of curiosity, how do you pronounce your DD's name? It's very unique.

The only way to get an alcoholic drink from your Replenish package would be to pay the full price of the alcoholic drink.

Probably. :D Thought it was a good idea to ask at least.

From reading here, I understand if you order a drink that is more expensive than what your package, you just pay the difference. Is that correct?

If so, if I get the Replenish package (which covers non-alcoholic frozen drinks) and ask for them with alcohol, would I just pay the up charge for the alcohol? How easy is that to explain to the bartenders/waiters?

If you go over to the quick links menu on the top right, you can look at "subscribed threads". Normally, when you start a thread, it autosubscribes you.

I wonder if that's a setting. I'm not subscribed to the threads I start.

For example whats the difference between a D8 and a D1?

I know on the Oasis, the D1's were on the "hump" so the balconies are a little bigger.

Other than that, "location, location, location". I notice lower number (D8) are (generally) on a lower deck and more forward/aft than a higher number.

Thank you!

Has anyone done the Xplor while coming from Carnival ship? Ours gets in at 9 and leaves at 4. That's the entire 7 hrs. of this excursion. Will we be able to do it? Can anyone who has done it, tell me where you met? And if they wait awhile if ship isn't on time? Did they bring you back to the port? Or did you have to get a taxi? Sorry...so many questions but really would love to do this. Thanks....

The only way I would do this is with a ship's excursion. IIRC, Xplor is actually in Mexico (not the island of Cozumel). If you're on the ship's excursion, they're responsible for getting you back to the ship on time.

Just my .02.

I'm interested in booking the Dolphin Swim Adventure for my family. I am wondering if the snorkel that they provide is new or do they reuse them?

Also is the buffet lunch always included with this tour?

 

I know they sell an expensive picture package. My husband will be watching us. How close can he get in order to take pictures with his camera?

The swim adventure we did did not use snorkels. I think there is a dolphin snorkel swim, but it's not the swim adventure.

The lunch wasn't included with our tour last June, but it is this June.

As far as how close, it's going to depend on where you're doing the swim. He won't be allowed on the dock itself, so he may get some good pictures if you're in one of the close spots, but I don't know there's any way to request that.

The picture package isn't expensive (relatively speaking). It's based on how many people in your party... 1: $99, 2: $119, 4: $179 (all prices from June 2013... they may have changed). When DW and I did the tour last year, we got 54 pictures on CD for our $119 ($2.20/pic). While not exactly "cheap", it was cheaper than what the ship was charging and MUCH cheaper than what an AI charged us a year before that (they wanted $15 for each picture on a single CD).

ETA: Here's a picture of where the "public" is allowed and you can see people lined up for their dolphin encounters:

bump.

I swear this will be my one & only bump for bump sake. :)

Sorry, I didn't mean to offend anyone. I could drink at least 3 or 4 bottles of water per day, two or three sodas, a glass of wine with dinner, because we're on vacation maybe one with lunch, a baileys after dinner, maybe one drink by the pool, and one for the nightly show. Normally I have a nightly glass of wine but heck, we're on vacation. No one ever said this is for everyone. Just a nice perk for those who want it.

Sorry, I didn't mean to imply I was offended, I wasn't. I just wanted to point out that "light" drinkers may not benefit. They might on Sea days (or full days spent on the ship), but port days make things rough (IMO).

Going on the examples posted above... I had no problem drinking the tap water. If I had the package, would I get bottled water? Maybe pool side, but not at meals. I also wouldn't do multiple drinks every meal (maybe at dinner).

IMO, anyone thinking about the package needs to think about how they'd drink. I looked at prices before our Oasis trip and tried to price everything out. I elected not to get it, and that decision paid off. I'm not faulting people for getting it, I just don't think it's good for everyone.

I DID enjoy Mango Lava Flows though. :D

We plan on getting the package on our upcoming cruise. If you are trying to do the math to see if it is worth it you are actually only spending 47$ a day and the other 8 is gratuity. If you bought each drink the 15% is added on. Here the 15% in factored into the 55 $ price. Even lite drinkers will find it worth it. :)

 

Joni

Sorry, I call BS to the bolded. Assuming each drink would cost $9 ($7-8 for the drink + tip), you would need to average 7 drinks a day. I don't know many "light drinkers" who would put away 7 drinks a day for an entire cruise... ESPECIALLY if you're doing any port excursions. If you're staying on the ship, maybe.

DW & I are "light" drinkers. I think even on sea days, we might have had 7 drinks combined.

IMO, you need to look at how much you normally drink & how long you'll be on the ship (or private island). Just because it makes sense for one person doesn't mean it works for everyone. And just because someone wouldn't get their money's worth doesn't mean no one would.