krev

Yeah, I was rather surprised to see the content of this thread. We wouldn't have ever thought of snorkeling in Victoria - cold, dark waters have less appeal to me than warm, clear waters of the Caribbean. I'm not saying it is wrong... I just never considered it. :o

I completely agree. Now if they were talking scuba diving that's different, I personally wouldn't snorkel.

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I live in Brentwood Bay, no chance I'd snorkel here without a wetsuit, our water never gets very warm. We don't have very good beaches here in the bay.

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Theres a new offer for Canadian Residence on RCCL's web site. Its 35% off your cruise. Doesn't really say how long the offer is good for. I just called in and saved $90 on each of my sailings. :)

Lucky you, ours went up $500

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Someone posted the other day that they've asked the room attendant for an iron and they were given one. I just hang the wrinkled items in the shower so the iron is not my experience.

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I've never given an extra gift but on one cruise my daughter sent beautiful orchids for my birthday. They still looked as fresh as the first day when we were leaving, I asked our room attendant if she would like to "look after" my flowers, she was very happy to.

We are doing the Harmony inaugural TA and we have pins stating the same, I've ordered one for our attendant.

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Another hint but too late now, always buy a "next cruise credit" while on board. These apparently have changed as we haven't cruised in over a year so hopefully someone can correct me. The way it has worked in the past is you buy the credit for $100 and that's the deposit for your next cruise, you can also transfer it to your own TA if you want. So instead of booking a cruise and paying the deposit you're only out of pocket for the credit

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Pan American Pier, Isla Grande

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Sorry, I am going to take the opposing answer here. No you cannot use any other discount when using an interline rate. We work for a US carrier and their airline website does NOT give us an interline rate. The airline website is not helpful with any discounts and is just an airline thing in name only. To get a true interline rate you need to go thru an agency. At least that is the way it works with our major US carrier. And, this is not with Royal, but I believe it is Holland (sorry, my memory is poor), but the interline rate might only be a stand-by fare. You could get to the pier and be turned away. Make sure you know what you are doing with these fares. Good luck.

Clearly it depends on who you work for, as I've stated through the company my husband is with we do get special pricing and it is not standby.

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Just called and if we book on board we just need to call Air Canada Vacations when we get home and they'll apply our discount. We also get any promotions the cruise line offers. Not sure if this is of any help as it will depend on your airline.

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Yes I think I will. I know that you don't get balcony discount when you use Interline agencies. Thanks

We have but again it's the next cruise credit. They have to call the C&A but we've always gotten the discount.

I sort of misread the OP question (it was late) about booking the actual cruise. Good point, I'll call our Airline today and ask.

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Would you still be able to get the interline rate doing it that way?

Absolutely. Now saying this we've only used this on Air Canada's vacation site (hope I don't get in trouble for using the name!). I've not tried it on true interline sites like Dargal. We get a % off cruises, I've even called back and got the price drop.

When we first purchased the next cruise credit it seemed too good to be true but it was. We've not booked an actual cruise on board just the next cruise credits, I'm going to check and see if we still get the discount if we book on board.

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We've stayed in Condado, Marriott Stellaris, very nice, lots of great restaurants near by

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This is what we do, RCI doesn't mind a bit. My husband flies for a major Canadian airline that also has a travel site that gives their employees a discount on cruises.

After the first time we purchased the next cruise credits we transferred them to the travel company. I can't remember if it was the airline or cruise line that sent us the form, we just filled it in a faxed it to the airline. Now when we purchase the next cruise credit they already have our "interline carrier"

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Actually they can and should provide you with the reference number so you can link it to "my cruises" on Royal website but you will not be able to book dining reservations etc until after final payment I believe-- we have 2 reservations booked -- Nov 2016 and March 2017 but cannot reserve MTD times nor others except drink package and paid for items (on my CC) until after final payment in August (for the first cruise).

I don't think this is correct. We have a b2b booked for October and have made MTD reservations and specialty restaurant reservations already.

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I agree, we bought some wine there last year. There are also two shops with wine on the right (looking from the entrance) side of the Boqueria.

Good to know, we are staying just up the street from the Boqueria

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El mejor lugar donde comprar vino

 

The best place to buy wine

 

 

 

http://www.vilaviniteca.es/en/home

Thank you, this looks amazing!

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Thanks so much for the info! I'll check out The Laurel Point too :-)

[emoji106][emoji106]

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I stayed at The Empress 20 years ago or so, and it was lovely.....But that was a long time ago! Anyone have any recent info about The Empress??

If you stayed at the Empress 20 years ago nothing has changed, as a previous poster said its under renovation just now. I would personally stay at the Grand Pacific, we live in Victoria (Brentwood Bay, very close to Butcharts) and stay at the GP for a night every December. It's very nice, you won't go wrong. It too is under renovation but only part of it. Phone the hotel and ask. If you look on google maps there's several hotels along that stretch. The Laurel Point is also good, just down the street a bit.

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I was thinking the same, a giant Lego ship!

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Thank you for the info from the port into Rome. We did a Rome in Limo tour last time but this time we just want to do our own thing.

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Adventure has pervasive wifi and it was very good in the rooms, couldn't quite FaceTime but could still upload pictures

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We spent two weeks on Adventure in the southern Caribbean then 16 days on her in the Med, we had the same cabin both times, 8632 I believe. We loved the balcony even on a port intensive cruise, mind you we didn't have two little ones with us. I like having the balcony so I can escape from the rest of the passengers! We have our morning coffee out there then a nice glass of wine after our port adventures.

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Thank-you, this info will be very useful to us when we are in Barcelona later this year.

Clarea, I noticed you asking questions about the train earlier, what cruise are you going on?

Thank you, that's perfect.

Can anyone recommend a place to purchase our wine for the cruise? We'll be staying at the Hotel Continental the night before.

Thank you.