Royal Caribbean Solo Cruisers Get Double Cruise Points Starting October 2013

I've been meaning to post a blog entry about this since I was able to confirm this. I first heard about this on the unofficial Royal Caribbean blog which mentioned a 9 October 2013 article by Franz Neumeier on http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http://www.cruisetricks.de/royal-caribbean-mehr-status-punkte-fuer-alleinreisende/&langpair=de|en&hl=de&ie=UTF8. The article states that solo cruisers who have to pay double to have their own cabin on Royal Caribbean will receive double cruise points starting October 3rd.

I tried to get Royal Caribbean to confirm this information on their Facebook page but, they never answered me. Later, I looked on Royal Caribbean's Crown & Anchor page which shows the benefits for each level in their frequent cruiser program and, I found the following:

¹⁴ One Cruise Point for each completed night of sailing and an extra Cruise Point per night when you purchase and sail in suite accommodations (categories RL, RS, PS, SL, TS, A1, A2, A3, CL, OS, FS, GS, JS) and/or sail in any category and pay a single pricing type for double occupancy staterooms. All other rates including Travel Agent rates, as well category SI and SB, are excluded from single price type extra point promotion. Cruisetours are included as an additional night per each day on the cruise tour. Points will be awarded by rate paid not rate berthed, for example, in the instance of an upgrade from an outside to a suite category.


This confirmed the German cruise article. Also, Royal Caribbean's Crown & Anchor Society did post a blurb in their news section saying the change would take effect October 4th.

For me, this is mixed news. As I always cruise solo, it's a nice little plus for having to pay double. However, I'm a little irked in that Royal Caribbean didn't as far as I know give any heads-up that this change was coming. I would've changed my September cruises to October if I could have so I could have gotten the extra 7 cruise points and made Diamond with their frequent cruiser program. As it is, I'll have to wait until I do my April 2014 Panama Canal cruise with them before I can make enough points to finally make Diamond. Stay tuned for posts on that. Happy cruising all!

Update April 26th, 2014: I am finally able to personally confirm the awesome rule change for solo cruisers. I completed the April Panama Canal cruise I mentioned above on April 16th. It was very nice and, I'll be posting some blog entries about it later. Concerning the double cruise points, I did run into one unexpected problem. Initially, I received half my promised points. Finally, I contacted Royal Caribbean's Crown & Anchor Society about the missing cruise points. They're the ones who handle such issues and have the authority to issue missing points. It turned out my reservation had been coded wrong. Because of that, their system didn't know to give me the double cruise points. The lady I chatted with expertly fixed the problem and, I had my missing points before we closed our chat. So, 1) watch for your cruise points, if you don't get all of them, this could be why in which case 2) contact Royal Caribbean's Crown & Anchor Society who can fix the problem like they did in my case. It is worth the hassle. Remember, the rewards get nicer as you go higher with Royal Caribbean's frequent cruiser program. Happy cruising all!

Coco Cay Bahamas

Here's the first of my travel pictures I took while on my back-to-back cruises to the Bahamas and Key West. This first one shows one of the beaches on Royal Caribbean's private island resort Coco Cay. Interestingly, the island belongs to a marine biologist who has a home on the island he and his family visit occasionally. Supposedly, the biologist signed a 99 year lease with Royal Caribbean. I bet he got some serious bucks!

Another interesting feature of the island is its iguanas. You can see one in this picture. There's a small cove they like to frequent. When I visited, I saw 5 of them laying around on the ground and in the trees. My travel friend Harvey thought they were so neat, he bought a t-shirt that featured the iguanas. Supposedly, people can feed them pieces of banana though I didn't try it.

Last Day of 2013 Maryland Renaissance Festival

I was determined to make it to this year's Maryland Renaissance Festival. It's the only place I know that I can buy leather gauntlets. What would a person need leather gauntlets for you ask. For riding my Yamaha TMAX motorbike I reply. The gauntlets give good hand protection while riding and thanks to their length, they go over the cuffs of various coats I wear during the winter time preventing cold wind from going up my sleeves thereby helping me keep warmer while riding. They're actually quite practical in that way though they don't come cheap. My new leather gauntlets cost me $63 this time. Any way, back to my tale of my visit to the festival.

I decided to depart around 11 a.m. this morning for the festival which was a BIG mistake. Traffic to get to the festival was backed up all the way to Maryland 97. It would take me over an hour to go 5 miles approximately to the parking fields of the festival. Traffic was still backed up when I left at 2:30 though not as bad. It was backed up to the Generals Parkway then.

 The festival got a great turn out its last day. I had to park in the far back fields and walk about a block or more to the ticket booths and gate. Cost was $22 for 1 adult. I don't remember what the prices were for kids or seniors.

Once I got in, I made a straight line for where I thought the Potomac Leather shop would be. Thankfully, things don't change much shop wise at the festival. It was where I thought it would be. I told a saleslady there what I wanted and, she directed to the lady behind the register who helped me find a pair of gauntlets that would fit. I might've been able to buy the gauntlets over the web but, with my long fingers, I wanted to make sure they would fit right i.e. try a couple different sizes to see the difference. I did find a pair to my delight that fit well and subsequently bought them.

Then, I went in search of a belt and strap for my wooden Samurai sword. There's a shop that sells them at the festival. It's really nice. For years, you could bring your wooden sword into the festival and wear it. Sadly, a new security guy took over this year and, he banned anyone from carrying such swords. So, I decided to pass on the belt. I hope this rule gets changed next year.

Turkey legs were calling me. They are a tradition for me at the festival. They're very good though the price seems to keep going up on the dang things. This year, my delicious turkey leg cost me $6. Ouch!

While munching on my scrumptious turkey leg, I walked around the festival eventually finding my way to the jousting field where the Fight School folks were doing a show called Big Toys for Big Boys. It should various siege and missile weapons for the Medieval period to Civil War times. One of the neat things about the Fight School folks is they put on a good show while teaching you something too. In that show, I learned why we aren't using bows and arrows in warfare vice guns. You would think the answer would be obvious but, it wasn't in the Middle Ages. During the show, their professional archer competed against a man firing a crossbow and match arquebus, a gun of that period. During a 1 minute period, the archer was able to fire 14 arrows to the 5 crossbow bolts and 4 lead bullets. You would think based on that, that the longbow would've won the contest war wise. It didn't due to as Hamish from the show pointed out - economics. It takes a lifetime to produce a really good archer. You can fire an arquebus some what proficiently in a DAY. It's only gotten worse as guns have improved since. That's why guns ultimately won out over the longbow.

After the Fight School show, I made my way to the Art of Fire booth. The Art of Fire booth is a shop that produces beautiful hand blown glassware. The man who made the piece as I watched is a master glassblower. It was something to watch him produce a stunning piece of glassware that any one would've been proud to have in their home. I don't own one of their pieces YET. BUT, I will in time. Due to an April Panama Canal cruise, today was not the day to be buying a piece of expensive glassware.

Lastly, I decided to treat myself to an ear of sweet corn ($3) and a raspberry smoothie ($3.50). The corn was good and, the smoothie sucked. It was too icy. I had to wait till it melted a good bit so, I could drink the whole thing.

Overall, the festival was very nice. One particularly nice thing about going at this time of year was it was cooler. I don't like going to the festival when it opens in late August because it is still so hot then. It can be 80 degrees plus then. I don't envy the knights with all their heavy armor trying to joust then. I would definitely recommend the festival though you'll have to wait till late August 2014 for the next one. Cheers all!

Columbia Maryland Wegmans Wi-Fi

I found another reason to like the Columbia, Maryland Wegmans supermarket. They offer fine free Wi-Fi there. I checked their website before going there with my Nook e-reader and, it says they offer it. I hooked up in their dining area. I don't know if the Wi-Fi signal is available throughout the entire store. Their dining area was a pleasant area to enjoy a little meal, snack or drink while checking your emails or posting something on Facebook. It's another reason (like I need them) to visit this Wegmans which has good prices and service. Happy surfing all!

Tyson's Corner Center Wi-Fi

For a long time, I could've cared less about Wi-Fi hotspots but now that I have a Nook e-reader where I can surf the web via Wi-Fi, I am trying to find out if various places offer free Wi-Fi. One such place is the Tyson's Corner Center in McLean, Virginia. The mall is BIG with a huge selection of shops. The mall offers free Wi-Fi at it's food court on the 3rd level close to the AMC movie theater. You click on ShopTysons, a waiver comes up saying we offer the service as is and accept no responsibility for anything bad happening if you use it and, you connect. I found the Wi-Fi worked fine there.

Also, the Barnes & Noble store in the mall offers free Wi-Fi though I didn't try to connect there so, I don't have any idea how well it works.

If you're at the mall/center, you might want to take advantage of the free Wi-Fi. I saw the food court had a playground and train kids would enjoy. You could surf the web there while they have fun riding the train or playing in the playground. Happy surfing all!

Delta Airlines Wi-Fi

I remembered seeing that Delta Airlines had begun offering Wi-Fi on their aircraft. I decided to try it on my 2 flights going to Miami, Florida for my recent back-to-back cruises on Royal Caribbean's Majesty of the Seas and, my 2 flight coming back.

I found out I could pay for the service on Delta's website when I checked in or even before that. They offer services you can add such as priority boarding and Wi-Fi. If you buy the service on the website, you only have 1 option you can sign up for. That's the 24 hour pass for $14. When you fly on the aircraft they give you 4 options. You can buy a 30 minute pass for $4.95 (I think), a flight segment pass i.e. for your particular flight for $7.95, a 24 hour pass like the one you can buy on their website for $16 and an unlimited 1 month pass. I don't remember what the price was for that pass. It was something like $40 or $50. (Note: When I fly again in April, I will make sure I get the in-flight prices and post them here.) After my trip, I found out you can purchase the Internet packages from Gogo who run the service on their webpage (http://www.gogoair.com). Their prices are: 24 hour pass - $14, monthly unlimited on 1 airline - $39.95 and monthly unlimited on all airlines that carry their service - $49.95.

The Wi-Fi service is available on 3,000 of Delta's flights every day. Only the following aircraft don't offer it at this time though Delta plans to offer it on them as - Boeing 747, 757, 767-300ER and 400ER, 777 and the Airbus 300. The service is available on select aircraft of these types - DC9-50 and Boeing 757-800. (Note: I know there is a discrepancy here concerning the Boeing 757 aircraft. I'm taking this information from the Gogo website.)

In regards to the service itself, I found it worked great. Once the aircraft reaches an altitude of 10,000 feet, it can connect to the Gogo Wi-Fi network. According to the Gogo website, it can deliver 5 Mbps of connection speed. I was able to use both my laptop and my Nook e-reader (considered an Android 4 device) on the service though not at the same time. There are some limitations on the service. You can't use Skype, live video or audio streaming.

Overall, I was very pleased with the Wi-Fi service. I definitely plan to use it again when I fly. I would definitely recommend it. It was awesome being able to email, post stuff on Facebook and check stuff on the web while flying. It definitely helped make the time go by. Happy travels all!