USING POINTS FOR CRUISING

[charlesbrunton]

I would like to use my points to book a cruise with royal caribbean, can anyonetell me if I can use points for prepaying gratuites, excursions during the cruise and fuel supplement for the cruise itself and anything I am unaware off, would royal caribbean organise the transport side as RCI dont now do flights,any info would be much appreciated
Regards
charlesbrunton

[Gail]

I recently enquired about a Royal Caribbean cruise using my RCI Points.
As I recall, I was quoted a figure including flights and taxes as Royal Caribbean priced the whole thing in one go (i.e. they didn't quote separately for flights, taxes, transfers and cruise) but it worked out as an awful lot of Points for a cruise.
You can't use Points for one person and pay for the other which puts the system out of reach for many people.
As far as I am aware, you can't use Points for the excursions but I don't know about gratuities.
However, I have booked a cruise via Points - Monarch of the Seas 3 nights out of Fort Lauderdale in November 2008 - and that occasion I had to pay the taxes separately.
The other disadvantage is that with Royal Caribbean, if the price drops after you have booked, you can claim back the difference and pay the lower price. I don't think this works if you have booked with Points.

Hope this helps.

Gail

[Gail]

I phoned RCI today to enquire about doing a Dubai cruise with Royal Caribbean.

I was quoted 526300 points for a balcony cabin and would have to pay taxes £194 per person and gratuities (not mandatory) of £45.54 per person. On the Royal caribbean website the cruise only price is from £937 per person for a balcony cabin.

Flights were quoted separately as I didn't have enough points for those as well but I think if you book a Royal caribbean package then you can do it all on points but you have to pay the taxes.

Hope this helps.

Gail