Why is getting a Royal Caribbean Cruise Shareholder Benefit so difficult compared to Carnival cruise lines.

 I only go on Royal Caribbean once a year. Every year the process to get an onboard shareholder benefit changes and gets more difficult.  I own the required 100 shares of RCL stock and know I must provide a copy of a statement showing ownership that is no older than 3 months.  I learned this year that  it is many steps and

1.  you can only request the onboard credit no earlier than 3 months prior to your cruise and no later than 3 weeks prior to your cruise departure.  That's new from last year when I could submit the request any time after paying in full.

2. A picture of your statement is no longer valid - it must be a PDF (and a small size). My first PDF was rejected as the size was too large.  Note you must convert the picture (jpeg to a PDF).  Or if you have an apple IPAD you can scan the document as a PDF. Note the latter size is too large for the online submission. You will get an error message.

3. They want you to black out any personal information such as account number on the statement and any non RCL info. However the page you submit MUST have the date, Your investment firm and YOUR NAME on the page. Guess what -my monthly statement only includes my name and firm on the first page and the US stock holdings is on page 7.  It got rejected as my name is not on page 7.  So I had to write to them (in response to the rejection) and I  have submitted a 1 page copy from my quarterly statement that includes my name via the online portal.  Note upon submission I got another error message (9 times) stating my submission is rejected, please refresh the page. I cleared the history and refreshed the page but no luck.  I then just responded to their rejection email with a PDF copy of the quarterly statement page and am waiting on their response.  I now have the OBC 2 days later - they send you an email (which you must print out in case they dispute the OBC on board and you can show it to customer service). 

4. I am also going on a CUNARD cruise and submitted the same exact monthly statement info (a picture not PDF) and it was accepted by StockPerks the app that Carnival owned cruise lines use.  At least it says verified and I have to check my Cunard account in a few days to see if it's been added. Whoops this is a three step process. Once Stockperks send the "VERIFIED" email, you. then must redeem your credit on their app and they say it will take up to 5 business days for Cunard to respond.  It took 6 business days to get a confirmation email from Stockperks.  The email states I now must contact my travel agent to get an updated booking confirmation that shows the OBC being applied to my booking. I sent an email to my agent requesting it and was sent an updated invoice within hours. 

4. The other annoyance is RCL and the other cruise lines give $100 for a 13 night cruise and I noticed many of their transatlantic are now 13 days vs. 14. They really should give more for 10 to 13 days. But with all the cutbacks I don’t think they will.

Hope this helps 

Marcia

Can you trust Cruise Critic, Cruiseline and TripAdvisor Reviews on Ships and Hotel Rooms?

 The quick answer to whether or not you can trust Cruise Critic, Cruiseline and TripAdvisor's reviews of 

Cruises - is Sometimes but your better options are RECENT Cruise Passenger Videos posted on u tube. 

Heres some suggestions if using the cruise passenger reviews on the three major Cruise Critic, Cruiseline and Tripadvisor sites

- Only a few passengers post their review on these sites. Most of the typical 2000 plus passengers on any cruise don't post about their experience.  So you are not  getting the full picture of what your might experience 

- You mostly get the extreme points of view on these sites - they loved it or hated it. The haters have usually had a bad experience with their cabin, their bill or the food. The lovers are often newbies or frequent guests for that cruise line.  

- Most cruisers review the food offered and I always think that is to personal taste so don't pay much attention to them .  I do listen  to whether or not the service or temperature of the food was good. I often find that reviewers are right about speed of service and food temperature.  They also give you forewarning on the buffets (crowds, variety of food). 

- Most cabin reviews are about the size, cleanliness, room steward service, showers and bed comfort.  I like the tips people provide on getting bed toppers (always as must on MSC and RCCL as they have very hard mattresses).  Whether or not showers leak and provide good hot water.  Very few passengers have issues with Room stewards, but when they say they never see their room steward or its poor I make sure I watch for this onboard.  I prefer the walk thru videos on cruise mapper or u-tube as these are usually in-depth. I find the Harr Travel videos on cabins particularly useful.

- Overall ship reviews often help you with how badly maintained a ship is including rust, old furniture, old mattresses and whether or not they have a decent promenade deck.  

I like the videos posted on line the best as you can visually see the cabins, shared spaces and often they show menus and the food. I find the commentary is sometimes helpful but not always.  Look for the most recently posted videos and avoid the ones posted by the cruise lines as these are professionally shot and often don't depict current  reality.

As for Hotel reviews I like the ones on Booking.com and Expedia as they are from guests that have stayed there. Again go for the most recent reviews and watch for tips on location, how to get to the hotel from the airport, restaurants nearby and of course any issues with cleanliness and or bed bugs.  I also like posted videos and pictures of the rooms and area around the hotels.  I always book hotels with average ratings of 8 and above out of 10.  I also always read the worst rated reviews as these give you insights on possible issues. 

I hope this helps

Marcia

 

How a solo can get a 2 week cruise for under $2000 Canadian - its about timing and research

 I have tried to keep my cruise cost to under $2000 CDN  including taxes for each cruise this year. Not an easy feat for a solo traveller who likes ocean view or balcony cabin.  This year cruise costs have risen dramatically especially on Princess HAL and RCCL.  These are the three cruise lines I have used the most.  I don't use NCL, Costa nor Carnival anymore as I have experienced serious cleanliness and mechanical breakdown issues on each of these cruise lines.  

Transatlantic, TransPacific and Hawaii (one way cruises) are always a cheaper option for Solos. This year my HAL ocean view transatlantic for 14 nights was the most expensive at $2000 CDN, The RCL interior promenade view for 13 nights transatlantic was $1700  (as its ocean view was sold out) and my 9 night solo ocean view on Cunard in western Caribbean is $1600 ($1188 USD).  Note all came with $50 to $75 USD OBCs.  So it is still possible for a solo traveller to get a decent price on a cabin.   

Below are some tips

Book at least 6 months before the cruise departs.

Watch for sales with OBCs as they will help pay for your Gratuities (note I always pay the gratuity unless the service has been truly awful).  Note as does the stock ownership benefit which I have. 

Sign up for the cruise line promo emails or texts to watch for deals

Use Expedia or Vacations to Go as they will often have OBCs (on board credits) and other offers.

Don't be loyal to just one cruise line as yes there are some on board loyalty perks but you will pay a higher overall price for the cruise

Compare Cruise line offered flights and doing it on your own.  I have used both with success when I compare and book  the cheapest or most convenient.  Note I have kept transatlantic flight costs to under a $1000CDN and US to about $600 CDN (including seat choice and baggage).

Be flexible on time and cabin type but AVOID guarantee cabins. Note now with the up bidding process the cruise lines give the guaranteed cabin reservers the absolute worst cabins in the category.

Hope this helps 

Marcia

 

Who am I - updated to 2025

Strangely I ca not update the "who am I"  section of this blog that I first completed in 2018.  So I am adding a new post.

I am a frequent solo traveller with over 40 years of travel, about 100 countries visited and over 50 cruises completed including a world cruise.  I am not a professional travel agent and therefore if you read my blog you are just learning something from a fellow traveller.  Please use professional travel agents for expert advice.

 I like to travel well but not expensively. I really enjoy cruises (particularly a yearly transatlantic), and in-depth city escapes.  I often combine them.  I use a combination of travel agencies and do it on your own techniques to get the best price as travelling solo comes with  marked up prices especially on cruises.  I find hotels are better for decent pricing for solos. 

I am always trying new airlines, cruise companies and hotels to get a better view of my travel options.  As for cruise lines that I have tried they include Costa (don't recommend), Carnival (don't recommend),  NCL (don't recommend), Princess (as an elite level member I recommend them and their loyalty program), Holland (not my favourite as I have experienced issues with my cabin on the last 3 cruises), Royal Caribbean (recommend but with cautions), P&O (recommend but  hard to book for North Americans).  I will be trying Cunard this year and will post about it.

As for airlines, Canadians have limited Canadian airline choices - Air Canada (expensive), West Jet (unreliable and not a lot of flights out of Ontario), Porter (not tried yet) and Air Transat which I have had good experiences but the flight times often don't work for me.  I have used American Airlines and Delta both which were good and United which I also seem to have problems on. I seldom take the US or Canadian cheap charter airlines as I have had the same delays and bad experiences that you read about. 

As for European Airlines I like British Airways, Iceland Air and KLM (but not their inter Europe flights  with this airline as they have very old and problematic planes).  I am trying TAP later this year.

I have only taken Singapore and Malaysian Airlines to the Far East. 

I like to use this blog to review my experiences of specific cruises, cities and hotels. I hope you find it helpful.

Marcia

Why are ship shuttles to and from the airport now more expensive than taxis

 I had a shock yesterday when I learned the Cunard airport transfer to and from the ship in Miami was 70usd each way per person. A cab or uber runs 40usd plus tip for the car. So it’s much cheaper especially if there is more than 1 passenger.  Recently I found that in Fort Lauderdale again it was 45 cdn and the taxi with a 5 usd tip was 25 usd for a taxi. There were 3 of us so we gave him 30usd.  Please do your homework as before ship shuttles were a better more convenient deal than taxis.  Ask your travel agent for the cost of the shuttle and then use a taxi fare calculator online and compare. I always add a 10% buffer in case of tolls/delays on taxis.  I don’t use uber in the USA in these ports as when ships are in there is always surge pricing. 

Hope this helps 

Marcia

An update on cabins for solos - worst to best

 I have done over 50 cruises and have tried many solo cabins. Cruise lines don’t like solos as we are not as profitable as couples. They tend to put solo cabins on lower floors, near the front or tiny inside cabins and lack any chairs to sit on. You save money most of the time but not always so check regular cabins because with sales sometimes a regular cabin even with single supplement are cheaper and always bigger. Below is my ranking worst to best of the solo cabins I have tried 

Worst - Costa’s solo ocean view cabin. It was tiny with a hard bench vs twin size bed . It was a porthole vs a window. The worst was where it was on the bottom of passenger cabins beside the crew door. So loud between the engine noise and crew traffic.  My cabin had no air conditioning for a few days and their solution was to leave my cabin door open.

Next worst was NCL’s solo inside cabin. It’s less than 100 feet, bad air circulation and the dirtiest of all cabins I have had. The shower is in the cabin. I took the cleaning supplies from the steward and cleaned the cabin myself. The solo lounge was a joke. Seldom had supplies and no concierge. It’s the reason I have not booked NCL again.

RCL inside cabin was on a high floor but attached to another cabin. The layout was good but again tiny. I liked the virtual sea view and the bathroom was regular size. You can hear your neighbours. Ventilation was poor especially after a shower. 

HAL ocean view is at the bottom of the ship at the front.  You hear the anchor, engine noise and the theatre above.  It was an ok size, but no chair. Bathroom was regular size. Mine had no air conditioning for 2 nights. 

The best so far was RCL balcony. The balcony was almost the size of the cabin. The bed double size and comfortable. It’s on deck 4 and there are life boats immediately below. But by far the most comfortable.

The only one I would recommend is the RCL balcony one. The rest had issues with noise, size or poor ventilation.

I never give up and am trying Cunard’s solo ocean view in December.

Again always check the price of regular cabins. Try not to book a solo cabin unless the price is amazing.

Hope this helps 

Marcia

Why I was pleasantly surprised by Icelandair

 I was surprised that I really liked my Icelandair flights. Below is why

- flight was $500 cheaper than the air Canada flight

- I was worried about the 1.5 hour stopover in Reykjavik that it wouldn’t be sufficient time, but it is a small airport and the pre email from the airline said to quickly go thru passport control and then you have an hour to shop and wait.

- I was worrying about the smaller transatlantic plane a 737 9 but i didn’t find it had any more bumpier than the larger planes

- they were on time for both flights

- my luggage arrived quicker than air Canada even though there was a transfer in Reykjavik 

- seat selection and baggage is cheaper than air Canada 

- there are no meals or food or drinks complimentary. But I bought a baguette in Cdg, and then pre ordered their open face sandwich for the longer flight. Water was served several times on each flight

Try ‘this airline. I think you will be impressed 

Hope this helps 

Marcia