Yti82

Hey Jenn :D I didn't think of it earlier when we were chatting but I might take the advice I read somewhere in the forums here (I wish I knew before... perhaps?) and buy a few clothes when we stop in Cozumel. But you know fashion is not one of my strong suits.

I am preparing for my first cruise, but I already have some experience with this. I booked in January at the brochure rate for a single inside cabin category N (sailing as a single and paying the double rate) for my Nov 7 day cruise. Thanks to Cruise Critic, I knew I could get a price drop (this doesn't count for Tuesday sales or if the advertisement declares the price for new bookings only if you book with RCI, btw) before final payment if I kept an eye on it. Checked every day for the first month. Then every week. By April it still hadn't budged and I was only checking once every couple weeks, but someone in my roll call mentioned the price for their cabin going up and I checked RCI's website out of curiosity. My category cabin had gone from $549 to $399. I took a screenshot of the page making sure I had my computer's date and timestamp on it and emailed it to my travel agent. By the end of the day I had a confirmation from my travel agent that I had gotten the price reduction, which was reflected on RCI already and I would be receiving an adjusted invoice for what I still owe, saving myself a nice $300 and it was easy. I've decided to wait until just before final payment is due to pay any more on it so I can take advantage of anymore price drops I can get.

If you are going through a travel agent, they might charge a fee for the change. Mine didn't. I had been debating whether I wanted to work with a travel agent when I cruise again because I'm one of those people who are very hands on and investigates every angle of the trip from the time I walk out my front door to the time I walk back in - not so I can schedule myself to death, but so I know all options available to me and can be flexible and enjoy myself regardless of what hiccups might occur. I went with a travel agent this time since it's my first cruise and I'm extremely hard of hearing and no TTY yet, so if there were problems theoretically it would be easier to text/email my travel agent than dealing directly with the company. It's been hard relinquishing some of the control, but my agent (and her assistants) have been great about taking care of my needs promptly whether it was the price drop or submitting the forms for my assistive devices and I'll probably book with them again for my next cruise.

If you buy a block of minutes and don't use all of it, do the unused minutes get credited to your account at the end of the cruise?

Just got done reading all 42 pages :) Many thanks to everyone who gave their input!

Besides noise, is there anything that makes a bad cabin? Once I take my hearing aid out, I won't hear a thing regardless of where I am. :)