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Post by minnesotapaintlady on Oct 15, 2022 10:53:59 GMT -5
BTW NCL just recently started switching all their ships to coke so you're not missing anything going on royal. Though royal does let you bring up to 12 non alcoholic drinks on when you board. You can bring two bottles of wine on board per stateroom as well.
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chiver78
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Post by chiver78 on Oct 15, 2022 10:56:48 GMT -5
BTW NCL just recently started switching all their ships to coke so you're not missing anything going on royal. Though royal does let you bring up to 12 non alcoholic drinks on when you board. You can bring two bottles of wine on board per stateroom as well. no, NCL is a $15/bottle corkage fee on boarding. you can bring as much as you want, but you'll pay for it.
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Post by minnesotapaintlady on Oct 15, 2022 11:06:23 GMT -5
You can bring two bottles of wine on board per stateroom as well. no, NCL is a $15/bottle corkage fee on boarding. you can bring as much as you want, but you'll pay for it. I'm talking Royal. justme mentioned you could bring a 12 pack of non-alcoholic on Royal.
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chiver78
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Post by chiver78 on Oct 15, 2022 11:15:32 GMT -5
cheers, that's what I get for reading too fast. 🤦♀️ I do love the switch to Coke products though. if I need a caffeine kick in the ass for a late night of shows, I'll order Crown 'n diet coke....it's just not the same with diet Pepsi.
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justme
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Post by justme on Oct 16, 2022 13:06:01 GMT -5
BTW NCL just recently started switching all their ships to coke so you're not missing anything going on royal. Though royal does let you bring up to 12 non alcoholic drinks on when you board. You can bring two bottles of wine on board per stateroom as well. I don't bother if I have their drink package. My friend is high enough in their casino so he gets free drinks at that bar to go with a lot of free cruises. I'm going on a weekend with him and negotiated both bottles of wine for the room for me. That'll help with the 4 free drinks a day I get for being high enough on their loyalty program. Currently negotiating with him for the nye cruise he has I can join. If you call royal will let one person buy the refreshment package one one the deluxe. I drank a lot last year on the nye cruise.
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Post by minnesotapaintlady on Oct 16, 2022 13:24:58 GMT -5
You can bring two bottles of wine on board per stateroom as well. I don't bother if I have their drink package. My friend is high enough in their casino so he gets free drinks at that bar to go with a lot of free cruises. I'm going on a weekend with him and negotiated both bottles of wine for the room for me. That'll help with the 4 free drinks a day I get for being high enough on their loyalty program. Currently negotiating with him for the nye cruise he has I can join. If you call royal will let one person buy the refreshment package one one the deluxe. I drank a lot last year on the nye cruise. Oh, I wouldn't either, but I am leaning towards not getting the package at all...we'll see how Black Friday looks. I am a 2-3 drink/month person at home, so 2-3/day on a cruise would be a lot and it would be cheaper to just pay for them then pay $500 for a drink package for 7 days. I'll have $250 in onboard credit from the RC credit card, so that would buy me 2/day. Also, neither of my kids is old enough to drink, so the everyone in the stateroom having to have it wouldn't affect me.
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Post by finnime on Oct 16, 2022 14:25:05 GMT -5
Interesting idea, a NYE cruise. Have any others been on one? Do you recommend it?
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Post by The Walk of the Penguin Mich on Oct 16, 2022 16:21:34 GMT -5
Interesting idea, a NYE cruise. Have any others been on one? Do you recommend it? We have been on a Christmas/NYE cruise twice. One in 2018, which was a trans Atlantic and the next was a South American cruise we took right as covid hit. We get onto the WC on 12/22, so this one will be our third. We enjoyed them. They decorate the ship beautifully.
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Post by CCL on Oct 16, 2022 19:05:09 GMT -5
I don't bother if I have their drink package. My friend is high enough in their casino so he gets free drinks at that bar to go with a lot of free cruises. I'm going on a weekend with him and negotiated both bottles of wine for the room for me. That'll help with the 4 free drinks a day I get for being high enough on their loyalty program. Currently negotiating with him for the nye cruise he has I can join. If you call royal will let one person buy the refreshment package one one the deluxe. I drank a lot last year on the nye cruise. Oh, I wouldn't either, but I am leaning towards not getting the package at all...we'll see how Black Friday looks. I am a 2-3 drink/month person at home, so 2-3/day on a cruise would be a lot and it would be cheaper to just pay for them then pay $500 for a drink package for 7 days. I'll have $250 in onboard credit from the RC credit card, so that would buy me 2/day. Also, neither of my kids is old enough to drink, so the everyone in the stateroom having to have it wouldn't affect me. Tell me about this credit card.
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Post by minnesotapaintlady on Oct 16, 2022 19:43:10 GMT -5
Oh, I wouldn't either, but I am leaning towards not getting the package at all...we'll see how Black Friday looks. I am a 2-3 drink/month person at home, so 2-3/day on a cruise would be a lot and it would be cheaper to just pay for them then pay $500 for a drink package for 7 days. I'll have $250 in onboard credit from the RC credit card, so that would buy me 2/day. Also, neither of my kids is old enough to drink, so the everyone in the stateroom having to have it wouldn't affect me. Tell me about this credit card. I got this one. Spend $1000 in first 90 days and get 25,000 points which can be redeemed for $250 onboard credit. I don't think the card is all that exciting beyond that and has already been thrown in the pile of discarded now that I got the sign on bonus.
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Post by chiver78 on Oct 17, 2022 0:36:59 GMT -5
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Post by justme on Oct 17, 2022 11:27:15 GMT -5
I don't bother if I have their drink package. My friend is high enough in their casino so he gets free drinks at that bar to go with a lot of free cruises. I'm going on a weekend with him and negotiated both bottles of wine for the room for me. That'll help with the 4 free drinks a day I get for being high enough on their loyalty program. Currently negotiating with him for the nye cruise he has I can join. If you call royal will let one person buy the refreshment package one one the deluxe. I drank a lot last year on the nye cruise. Oh, I wouldn't either, but I am leaning towards not getting the package at all...we'll see how Black Friday looks. I am a 2-3 drink/month person at home, so 2-3/day on a cruise would be a lot and it would be cheaper to just pay for them then pay $500 for a drink package for 7 days. I'll have $250 in onboard credit from the RC credit card, so that would buy me 2/day. Also, neither of my kids is old enough to drink, so the everyone in the stateroom having to have it wouldn't affect me. If you didn't know, royal let's you use obc for purchases ahead of time. So if you apply for the credit card obc before black Friday you could use it towards a package. Just letting you know since NCL does not let you do this with obc. Though at only 2-3 drinks a day it's not worth it unless you're a big fancy coffee or soda drinker. Usually need 5-6 alcoholic drinks to break even and 2 non alcoholic drinks take the place of 1 alcoholic. It is nice that Royals includes bottled water, go through a lot when I have a package.
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justme
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Post by justme on Oct 17, 2022 11:35:38 GMT -5
Interesting idea, a NYE cruise. Have any others been on one? Do you recommend it? So the one I went on was out of Tampa. So it was a much older ship (since they have to be small enough to make it under the bridge). Also had an older crowd than I expected, but likely due to older ship. It wasn't wild and crazy (this year its a 3 night cruise so I expect crazier). They still had most of the Christmas decorations up. They decorated the ship for nye and had several venues across the ship having parties. They passed out free champagne just before the count down. I was at the bigger party so they set off confetti. The dinner that night was also a special holiday menu. It was fun, but I wouldn't pay the holiday prices a lot of nye cruises are. I bought mine Aug 2021 so still in the heavy days of covid so got a really good price (around 800 for a solo interior for 5 days).
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Post by justme on Oct 17, 2022 11:39:18 GMT -5
BTW for anyone that likes cruises right now is a pretty good time to buy their stock. The 3 publicly traded companies all give obc if you own 100 shares. For a 7 day cruise I think all of them give you $100.
I even bought carnival (though currently lost money since it dipped down to $7.xx that I wasn't expecting) even though I have no idea when I'll sail with one of their lines.
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Post by minnesotapaintlady on Oct 17, 2022 11:40:20 GMT -5
Oh, I wouldn't either, but I am leaning towards not getting the package at all...we'll see how Black Friday looks. I am a 2-3 drink/month person at home, so 2-3/day on a cruise would be a lot and it would be cheaper to just pay for them then pay $500 for a drink package for 7 days. I'll have $250 in onboard credit from the RC credit card, so that would buy me 2/day. Also, neither of my kids is old enough to drink, so the everyone in the stateroom having to have it wouldn't affect me. If you didn't know, royal let's you use obc for purchases ahead of time. So if you apply for the credit card obc before black Friday you could use it towards a package. Just letting you know since NCL does not let you do this with obc. Though at only 2-3 drinks a day it's not worth it unless you're a big fancy coffee or soda drinker. Usually need 5-6 alcoholic drinks to break even and 2 non alcoholic drinks take the place of 1 alcoholic. It is nice that Royals includes bottled water, go through a lot when I have a package. How does that work? Does it give you the option at check out or do you have to call them?
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Post by jerseygirl on Oct 17, 2022 16:16:54 GMT -5
BTW for anyone that likes cruises right now is a pretty good time to buy their stock. The 3 publicly traded companies all give obc if you own 100 shares. For a 7 day cruise I think all of them give you $100. I even bought carnival (though currently lost money since it dipped down to $7.xx that I wasn't expecting) even though I have no idea when I'll sail with one of their lines. Thanks never knew this about the stock. I bought 200 recently Royal Caribbean but haven’t been on a cruise since 2019 How do you get the benefit? I haven’t really read the yearly material, is it there?
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Post by Happy prose on Oct 17, 2022 19:56:39 GMT -5
If you didn't know, royal let's you use obc for purchases ahead of time. So if you apply for the credit card obc before black Friday you could use it towards a package. Just letting you know since NCL does not let you do this with obc. Though at only 2-3 drinks a day it's not worth it unless you're a big fancy coffee or soda drinker. Usually need 5-6 alcoholic drinks to break even and 2 non alcoholic drinks take the place of 1 alcoholic. It is nice that Royals includes bottled water, go through a lot when I have a package. How does that work? Does it give you the option at check out or do you have to call them? I ordered internet, and they automatically took my obc. Also, if you are a fancy coffee person, some ships (last on Liberty) have a Starbucks counter in the cafe, and you can buy a coffee card for $30, with 15 punches. The iced espresso drinks were 2 punches. If you don't finish the card, you can use on next cruise.
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justme
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Post by justme on Oct 18, 2022 0:06:12 GMT -5
BTW for anyone that likes cruises right now is a pretty good time to buy their stock. The 3 publicly traded companies all give obc if you own 100 shares. For a 7 day cruise I think all of them give you $100. I even bought carnival (though currently lost money since it dipped down to $7.xx that I wasn't expecting) even though I have no idea when I'll sail with one of their lines. Thanks never knew this about the stock. I bought 200 recently Royal Caribbean but haven’t been on a cruise since 2019 How do you get the benefit? I haven’t really read the yearly material, is it there? Here is where you apply rclshareholderbenefit.questionpro.com/This is the FAQs www.rclinvestor.com/contact-us/faqs/shareholder-benefit/You also get it with celebrity, not sure if it's a different website or not - only just got 100 a few months ago and haven't sailed since. And I think with their luxury line, but I'm forgetting the name of it.
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justme
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Post by justme on Oct 18, 2022 0:09:26 GMT -5
If you didn't know, royal let's you use obc for purchases ahead of time. So if you apply for the credit card obc before black Friday you could use it towards a package. Just letting you know since NCL does not let you do this with obc. Though at only 2-3 drinks a day it's not worth it unless you're a big fancy coffee or soda drinker. Usually need 5-6 alcoholic drinks to break even and 2 non alcoholic drinks take the place of 1 alcoholic. It is nice that Royals includes bottled water, go through a lot when I have a package. How does that work? Does it give you the option at check out or do you have to call them? So once you apply for it, from what I've read it just shows up in your cruise planner once they apply it to your cruise. And I believe you can put in to get it applied as soon as you book, but might want to wait until you 100% know you're going. I've only had obc they offer and myvegas (mobile games that can get you free stuff for cruises and Vegas) while my friend had the stock holders. I know I've seen questions about their credit card on cruise critic so that might be a better place to ask since I don't have it so can't personally say. I'm quite sure I saw threads about it showing up in the cruise planner.
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Post by justme on Oct 18, 2022 0:11:59 GMT -5
How does that work? Does it give you the option at check out or do you have to call them? I ordered internet, and they automatically took my obc. Also, if you are a fancy coffee person, some ships (last on Liberty) have a Starbucks counter in the cafe, and you can buy a coffee card for $30, with 15 punches. The iced espresso drinks were 2 punches. If you don't finish the card, you can use on next cruise. If they have a stand alone branded Starbucks (basically all Oasis and quantum class do I believe as well as a few others - if the sign says Starbucks vs something like Cafe promenade) the coffee card does not work for them. The non branded Starbucks places may or may not use Starbucks coffee. I'm not a coffee person so I don't know for sure, but I think I saw people say the card is only good for one sailing? Could be wrong, could be another line. Like I said I don't drink coffee so don't follow that close.
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Post by finnime on Oct 18, 2022 3:53:45 GMT -5
Have you used travel agents, independent or with the cruise line, when you've plotted a trip? Or have you navigated the lines, itineraries, percs and specials on your own?
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Post by Happy prose on Oct 18, 2022 7:35:42 GMT -5
I ordered internet, and they automatically took my obc. Also, if you are a fancy coffee person, some ships (last on Liberty) have a Starbucks counter in the cafe, and you can buy a coffee card for $30, with 15 punches. The iced espresso drinks were 2 punches. If you don't finish the card, you can use on next cruise. If they have a stand alone branded Starbucks (basically all Oasis and quantum class do I believe as well as a few others - if the sign says Starbucks vs something like Cafe promenade) the coffee card does not work for them. The non branded Starbucks places may or may not use Starbucks coffee. I'm not a coffee person so I don't know for sure, but I think I saw people say the card is only good for one sailing? Could be wrong, could be another line. Like I said I don't drink coffee so don't follow that close. Yes, if it's a stand alone, no coffee card. If it's a Starbucks attached to Cafe Promenade, it does. I did believe it was Starbucks coffee. On RC, you for sure can use on next sailing. I love coffee, so this was a big deal to me.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 18, 2022 8:11:56 GMT -5
Have you used travel agents, independent or with the cruise line, when you've plotted a trip? Or have you navigated the lines, itineraries, percs and specials on your own? I've used only UnCruise, and done it on my own. Some of the travel agencies seem to have more clout with the major cruise lines and do provide extra perks like on-board credits. They can also be a help when things go wrong if they're good. No idea how to get recommendations (except maybe this Board)- I think CruiseCritic forbids recommendations of specific travel agents because it go out of hand.
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Post by chiver78 on Oct 18, 2022 11:25:31 GMT -5
woo hoo! my cabinmate and I just paid off the January trip! now I just need to figure out flights.
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Post by The Walk of the Penguin Mich on Oct 18, 2022 11:35:44 GMT -5
Have you used travel agents, independent or with the cruise line, when you've plotted a trip? Or have you navigated the lines, itineraries, percs and specials on your own? I book with a Viking agent directly and he has always gone to bat for me. I can give you his name and extension, if you are interested. I normally book our own air and the time spent in cities before and after a cruise. A few times I have let Viking air book, and what I do is call them with a list of flights I want to be on. Normally I get my first or second choice. For instance, on the WC Viking is covering our air. There is a direct flight on Delta that I wanted to be on, and managed to score that flight. When we flew in for our river cruise in the spring, I could not get a seat on the direct flight from SEA to AMS, so Plan B was a stop in MSP. Like @athena53 said, a TA can provide perks like OBC but one of the advantages I have found is that my agent knows of in house specials that are not commercially released. Many times, these discounts are greater than an advertised special. For instance, I was looking at booking our first SA cruise that came with an advertised special. My agent knew that we were not hard on dates, we could be flexible. There was an earlier sailing that I was able to get 3x what the discount was. If I mention a cruise or an area, he can give me the head’s up before it becomes publicized.
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Post by CCL on Oct 18, 2022 12:05:50 GMT -5
When I looked it up, Carnival said the shareholder credits are not available to "anyone cruising on a reduced-rate."
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Post by jerseygirl on Oct 18, 2022 14:39:13 GMT -5
Thanks for the cruise stock info justme
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Post by justme on Oct 18, 2022 19:33:10 GMT -5
When I looked it up, Carnival said the shareholder credits are not available to "anyone cruising on a reduced-rate." My understanding is that's things like casino discounts or interline rates. My friend has gotten it on regular old normal carnival discounts. So it should work with whatever sales you see on their website. www.carnivalcorp.com/static-files/50351a91-4dc0-4f6b-bfec-684647e6129fI dunno if that link works, but the form more or less says that. Unless it's casino, interline, travel agent rates, or some other comp cruise it should count.
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Post by justme on Oct 18, 2022 19:42:13 GMT -5
Have you used travel agents, independent or with the cruise line, when you've plotted a trip? Or have you navigated the lines, itineraries, percs and specials on your own? I've used a mix. Some of my group cruises go through a travel agent just to corral the big group. I'm not the greatest fan of the agents. My friend that I cruise with often doesn't use TAs so I usually end up not if I'm cruising with him. I've used Costco travel a few times. I'd use them again. They might not be the best if you need hand holding as they don't give you a dedicated agent. But when things messed up they got it fixed quickly enough and gave me an extra Costco gift card for the trouble. They have Kirkland and buyer's choice cruises that are "group" cruises but it's only a group for purposes of getting a lot of free stuff and sometimes a great price - there's no meeting strangers aspect. I did one and the perks was around $300 worth of free stuff. I haven't used it, but I've heard cruisecompete.com is good if you're looking for the best deal. If the agent has "group" pricing you could get a good deal. Of course there's the risk of a crappy agent.
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Post by CCL on Oct 18, 2022 21:01:15 GMT -5
When I looked it up, Carnival said the shareholder credits are not available to "anyone cruising on a reduced-rate." My understanding is that's things like casino discounts or interline rates. My friend has gotten it on regular old normal carnival discounts. So it should work with whatever sales you see on their website. www.carnivalcorp.com/static-files/50351a91-4dc0-4f6b-bfec-684647e6129fI dunno if that link works, but the form more or less says that. Unless it's casino, interline, travel agent rates, or some other comp cruise it should count. That's good to hear. I didn't have time to do a lot of research, but will probably book one of the discounted cruises Holland America frequently sends. I'll take a look at Costco, too.
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