MaritimeR&R

Don't the Diamond lounges also have the coffee machines?

Most of the ships do I think.

Yes, they do, but some of them are not located near the CL and all of my currently booked cabins were booked with coffee in the CL as a consideration. I don't move around as well as I used to, so being near an elevator that has easy access to the coffee machine was a real plus for me.

Alas, if D+ are no longer allowed in the CL, I am going to miss seeing many people who I have met and really only connect with in the CL. At the rate I cruise I won't reach Pinnacle until 2019.

I am also going to have to rethink my staterooms on some ships as I am a 4am riser and book my cabin relative to the location of the CL so I can get my coffee fix.

Between now getting 1099G's and those limited, time-constrained certificates, it is becoming less and less attractive to play onboard.

Now, I am nowhere near a whale, averaging 6-7K points on a 7 ni cruise and frequently received comped balcony cabins, but having just booked my Serenade cruises for 2018 through the casino, I was surprised to see that the casino discount was only 18.0933194% of the published (sale) rate for each of those sailings. All of my 2017 cruises both past and future for this year received a much better discount and my play average has not changed.

Unless I see something more worthwhile coming down the pike from them, I see myself doing my gambling on the islands rather than onboard.

I've gone sport fishing in St. Lucia and a few of the other Caribbean islands on RC sponsored excursions and caught fish. Whether you are doing an independent booking or via RC, you can not bring anything you catch back to the ship. On some islands you can pay to have your catch, stuffed, mounted and shipped home, otherwise the crew keeps it.

I can't speak to whether all D1 balconies are the same (they were for my family members) , but I know from having been in cabin SB7648 on both the Quantum and Anthem that it's balcony was much bigger balcony than the D1's that other members of my family were staying in.

No email received here either, but I happened to be up very early yesterday and out of curiosity logged in to check if sailings for winter 2018 sailings were up. They were and so I booked mine. Am waiting for the fall TP on Explorer and the Radiance Vancouver to Hawaii and Hawaii to Sydney to come out next week to see ultimately which is the better deal and book it or them as well.

I have learned not to wait for any emails -- a day late and a dollar short if I do.

You can go through $100. quicker than you might imagine while playing slots. As far as "possible" - you might get lucky- but remember, there are far more losers than winners in the casino, so set your daily limit and have fun.

I won the cabin giveaway in the casino which is usually a GS, but that night it was a JS and since I was already in one, they allowed me to pulled another name after asking me if I wanted to switch from my JS to the JS I won...lol

A very nice older couple who happened to work at the terminal in Bayonne and were taking there first cruise in an inside cabin and got to upgrade to the JS. Happy Ending!

The current sale expires on the 13th, so they may wait for that to be over.

I reserved it beforehand for my granddaughter on Liberty this past August. There were 6 of us and we had a blast. If I remember correctly it didn't become available to purchase until a few months before our sailing.

Departed ship at 10:30 and noticed there were 8 bags in a section marked "no luggage tags" - may have been lost in handling or some other reason.

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Happened to me once in Bayonne -luggage tag came off and I found it in another section. Another time, despite the right tag being on, my Briggs & Riley carryon was in a different section and someone actually stole my umbrella out of the built in pocket on the back. As it wasn't raining, I didn't discover it was missing until I got home.

Some mistakes are honest ones; others are not. I hope nothing too valuable was in your luggage and that it is returned to you intact.

Yes, they typically are open at some point on embarkation day. If they are closed, there will be a sign out with their operating hours, and probably a notebook in which you can make an appointment.

I often go the next cruise desk early on embarkation day and pencil myself in for an appointment in the binder(as Bob said) that is usually out on a table in the area. I have never seen a Rep. in that area while the ship is still in port.

Also, overall, the grammar errors in the text are also inconsistent and not of the type likely to be made by a Korean-as-a-first-language speaker/writer.

Nope. A lot of us were "inconvenienced" when they revamped the point system a few years ago. Our next cruise after they changed the points, would have made us D, but with the new system, we had to make one more cruise after that to hit it. We only missed by a few points, but we certainly didn't expect them to make an exception for us.

There were also solo's, like myself that got to D+ getting single points for balcony cabins until Oct 1, 2014 and would have been Pinnacle by now had we gotten the double points. Sometimes you have just got to go with the flow.

You could always switch to the Portuguese version.;):D

:D did that already....lol.

Sounds great - and reasonably uncomplicated! Thanks for your expertise!

I actually have a few Samsung TV's at home, but use thB2Be TWC remote on them, but will try bringing one of the remotes that came with the TVs as well as a universal. At this point when I am on board ship for a month or so there's just so much Big Bang Theory I can watch dubbed in German...lol.

I've noticed that the Samsung flat screen TVs have a HDMI port and was wondering if anyone has tried using an MHL adapter and HDMI cable to connect their phone to the TV in order to watch a movie or TV show in the evening before bed.

I stayed in 7648 on the Quantum as a solo on the Bahamas inaugural voyage and another 2 other 12 night sailings. The cabin is small, with limited storage if you don't pack light. The balcony is quite nice: large, half in the sun and half in the shade because of its shape. Two people would be very cramped.

Nothing in my emails as well. Has anyone called Casino Royale directly and asked what's going on?

Logged in to C&A and then went to plan a cruise- was hoping to see new itineraries for Caribbean - site keeps telling me :

oops... looks like royalcaribbean.com is on vacation

have been trying for hours. anyone else having this problem?

Quick ??, do you get double points for a family Jr. suite on the anthem. also does anyone have pictures of the cabin?

 

Thanks

To my knowledge, as long as it is a JS, double points are awarded.

I have been a Casino VIP for a long time but now, playing for fun is really the only draw for me on RCI ships. Now (since Sept. 2015) that RCI is issuing 1099G's for hand pays it really isn't advantageous to play machines that don't have a guaranteed payout as I am a US citizen and have to pay taxes on my win. Currently you need to put $22,500. and $30,000. through the slots to "win" an inside cabin or balcony cabin, respectively. With no more cash rebates after March 15th and casino cabin rates for many sailings that are often coming in just a couple of hundred dollars lower than sale rates coupled with Crown and Anchor discounts, it just isn't worth it anymore - free drinks in the casino and the chocolate covered strawberries in my cabin aren't much of an allure. The "new" program will be revealed shortly, but it is going to have to be a real winner for me to part with my dollars.

That is the norm...I know some who reached DP and called to get the additional discount applied...but they informed him it would be on that dates rate...which was more so not worth it.

They are likely only allowing it for the 340 loyalty point milestone for D+ as I was told the same thing about repricing when I originally became D+ and called about getting the additional balcony discount.

I just called C&A and asked about the reduced single supplement for my cruise in September. She put me on hold and came back a few minutes later and said that it was taken care of, and sent me a new confirmation. I saved $590!

 

Glad I read this thread because I had originally been told that the fare would have to be repriced and obviously that is not the case. The price of the cruise has gone up a lot since I booked eight months ago (several months before I hit that milestone)!

 

Susan

That's great!:D I was able to get a confirmation of their promise in writing. For once, we all win!