Scottee25

19 minutes ago, smokeybandit said:

I'm not really sure the point of that article.  Icon is no different than any other ship in what's included and what's an extra charge. Just they have more options for things that have an upcharge.

I think you kind of answered your own question there. Is there still enough fun things to do without paying for those items that require a charge? The question is subjective based on what we all find fun.

3 minutes ago, smokeybandit said:

Even back when you had to fill out declaration forms, they wouldn't bat an eye at "honey" unless you were bringing back hundreds of dollars worth.

It's still considered food and must be declared. Failure to declare it can be met with fines and confiscation. I get that they won't bat an eye at it. But you are still required to declare any food you are bringing into the US.

Just make sure you declare it.

2 minutes ago, SUgwoz said:

If someone pays you $100 daily knowingly and legally, are you going to risk fraud to earn $150 daily? 

 

Casino are legally running a business where they win in the long run no matter what.  Only way they lose is if they get caught stealing. 

Not sure what your point is? Slot machines are hardly random. They are required to pay out a certain percentage and those calculations comes into play every time someone spins the wheel. The laws are more strict at US casinos than they are on cruise ships in international waters. Are you trying to imply that I am saying they are trying to defraud those using them?

57 minutes ago, smokeybandit said:

Even most of the ones today with levers are still digital

Came to say the same thing. If only people knew just how not random slot machines really are, they may stop playing them.

29 minutes ago, Engineroom Snipe said:

I have been doing computer algorithms for over twenty years.

Based on what you posted, you may want to go back and work on them a few more years.

29 minutes ago, Engineroom Snipe said:

Many programmers and developers tend to not create documentation in their programming. They leave the company and follow up teams try to add-on, modify, or delete code parts without knowing the intent of the programming that they modify.

As someone who has been a Software Engineer approaching 30 years I will agree with you on a few points. Yes, developers are rather poor at documenting their code. Yes, it's not always clear what developers were thinking when they wrote their code or why they wrote it a certain way. However, in the vast majority of cases, business logic is not determined by the developers. It is determined by the Business Analysts and the user community. I can look at code and tell you what it's doing. Any decent developer can do that. What I can't determine is if it meets the users needs unless I have those specifications.

37 minutes ago, Engineroom Snipe said:

Just some examples of how "their is no rhyme or reason to the how the winning bid is won." @Scottee25

 

RCI's Royal Up Contractor is used for trains, planes and automobiles before RCI hired them for cruises.

 

Variables:

...

Based on your list of variables, something tell me you also subscribe to conspiracy theories, believe in the Loch Ness monster, and have seen a Sasquatch. Your "examples" are you pulling at straws that really hold no weight in the process. You're ignore the number 1 rule of software development. KISS - Keep it simple stupid. At the highest level Royal is attempting to maximize their their profits per sailing. At a deeper level their contractor is using algorithms and data structures that allow them to calculate the various profit margins of all possible scenarios. It's really not that complicated. The contractor would be given a list of the available rooms (Your COVID examples are moot since the quarantine cabins would not be included in this list), the software would build its data structures and run its algorithms to find the most profitable paths. Are there some "unknowns" in the process? Of course. Is it magic? Not in the slightest.

On 12/21/2023 at 5:10 PM, Saoa0318 said:

I still do t think there is rhyme or reason. Its an algorithm I am not interested in cracking. 

That statement kind of contradicts itself, doesn't it? Just because you don't understand the algorithm would suggest there is indeed an algorithm behind how winning bids are determined, and therefore, would conclude there is a rhyme and reason.

36 minutes ago, time4u2go said:

Does this mean everyone else is a loser? 😉😁

 

If you're not first, you're last! Shake & Bake!

43 minutes ago, LACruiser5 said:

This was 40 years ago.  There were no surcharges for food of ANY kind. You could pretty much order anything you wanted in the main dining rooms and if they had it, they served it to you. This was on Holland America and NCL which is what we cruised on mostly. 

Then perhaps I misunderstood your original message. I interpreted it to mean you were getting surf & turf 17 years ago on Royal every night. 40 years ago? I believe it. I still remember the midnight buffets. Oh yeah, those are gone too.

14 minutes ago, LACruiser5 said:

Yes, we were definitely able to get surf & turf outside of Lobster nights back in the day.   We would just ask our regular waiter and he would bring it to us with a wink as long as they still had some (they usually did). I cruised a lot as a teen and young adult with my family. This was in the regular dining rooms when they still had formal nights. 

 

Then your waiter was giving you something free of charge that was not intended to be free of charge. Consider yourself lucky. We all got some indirect perk from a bartender or waitstaff but if we didn't, it wouldn't matter because it was not supposed to be included. Like I said, only time we ever got lobster free was on lobster night or our last cruise when we were Star Class.

2 hours ago, Merion_Mom said:

You are certainly remembering some things wrong!  LOL  17 years ago, there was no wifi.  And the dial up service wasn't free.  (and you don't NEED it for a 4 night cruise, but certainly should buy it if you want it). 

 

The included drinks 17 years ago are basically the same as they are now, except that actually there are a few more included drinks, like flavored waters.  So, the refreshment package isn't "necessary" by any means.  Definitely cancel your husband's package, from your description of his habits.  For you?  The peace of mind of not wondering how much those lovely virgin daiquiris are costing you is probably worth it.  😄

These were my thoughts exactly. Free drinks seem the same today as they did 17 years ago. I also remember back to when you had to get a modem from Guest Services to get onto the Internet. Then they went to per minute packages on WiFi where you connected, checked your mail, and disconnected from the internet to save those minutes for use during the cruise.

Also, they can still order surf and turf every night. Don't believe that has ever been included except on lobster nights. Not sure if OP was implying you could get surf & turf for free? If so, that has never been a thing as long as I have been cruising over the last close to 25 years.

19 hours ago, Charles4515 said:

In my opinion  you should switch.

I am considering it but based on my research, LastPass has the most robust functionality of any of the password managers.

57 minutes ago, Charles4515 said:

Off topic to your problem but are you aware that LastPass has been breached? 

Please see post #14

4 hours ago, fizzywm said:

I expect they will kick it back to the developers at RC to follow web standards. But I do hope someone there listens to your complaint. It’d make it easier for all of us.

 

Bitwarden is great. It’s been a couple of years since I used LastPass but as I recall LastPass didn’t require any clicks to fill fields. On Bitwarden I have to click on my username inside the manager to fill them. (That is, on most sites, not RC’s where it doesn’t work). So it requires an extra click, but otherwise feels the same as LastPass. Small price to pay and worth it to me because it’s free for all devices.

I don't believe Royal will do anything to change how their website works. This really falls onto those who develop the password managers to find new ways to integrate with sites like Royal's.

34 minutes ago, jk04 said:

I don't know if this is apples to apples, but I use Dashlane as a password manager.  On Royal's site, I do have to select my login from the list of available logins (I created one for my son until he logged into the site for our cruise).  Once my login is selected, it does automatically populate the password field, I do not have to enter.  Not sure of the differences between the two.  Using Edge on a computer, have not tried mobile devices.

Dashlane is specifically mentioned in the link Smokey provided. The link did not provide any research on Edge though I did try using LastPass in Edge without success. Perhaps Dashlane has found a way to work around this limitation?

22 minutes ago, smokeybandit said:

For those technically inclined, I believe this is the issue: The Shadow DOM

 

https://github.com/supertokens/supertokens-auth-react/issues/22

Very interesting. Thank you for sharing this. I don't write customer facing web apps so I have never heard of Shadow DOM until now. I definitely will put this on my list of things to research and what the benefits are of implementing this in the first place. I will pass this onto LastPass support though I am actually quite surprised (no I am not) that their Level 1 support has never encountered this issue before.

3 minutes ago, fizzywm said:

I don't think it's LastPass's fault. It comes down to the way RC has their website coded. I use Bitwarden and it also doesn't fill for me like it does on 95% of other websites. I just copy the password now or use the password manager built into my browsers.

And it very well may be the way Royal's site is coded. But that is for LastPass and Bitwarden to work out with Royal. Don't ask your paying customers to do that legwork for you 🙂 

Out of curiosity, how do you like Bitwarden? I have considered switching since LastPass support has left much to be desired and their data breach last year is also a bit concerning.

29 minutes ago, smokeybandit said:

Even if you did get a response from IT, they'd just say that it's a limitation of your browser and/or LastPass, which it is.

 

Websites are under no obligation to make it easier for you to autopopulate login info.

Yep, fully understand and agree. I just want to come back to LastPass and say "I reached out to them. Now fix your own product."

3 minutes ago, GJustice said:

Autocomplete has been flakey for months on all my devices both the website and the app. 

 

Autocomplete works, just have to fiddle with it.

Autocomplete built into Chrome works for me. This would lead me to believe that autocomplete, as a whole, is not disallowed on the site. I am only trying to reach out to Royal's IT to satisfy the request from LastPass's support.

3 minutes ago, TheDawg79 said:

Your situation is not unique to you. It stopped auto filling for everyone about a month or so ago. You contacting their IT department is not going to do anything. 

I am only contacting their IT dept to show LastPass that I have done so. I still think this is an issue with LastPass's software and they should be the ones working with Royal's IT dept. I am just looking for the answer to the question, from Royal's IT; Is autocomplete disallowed on their login page. I personally do not expect Royal's IT to fix any of this for me.

Hard to search the forum for IT and support because so many false positive hits are made. So if this has been asked and answered, I apologize  but I was unable to find my answer.

I used a password manager called LastPass and about a few months ago, this application stopped working on Royal's website. Personally I believe it is an issue with LastPass but they have requested that I reach out to Royal's support and inquire as to whether or not Royal has configured their login page to disallow autocompletes. I did find a number for Technical Support (had to google for it) but I am hoping for an electronic form of contact. Does anyone know how I can reach their technical support electronically? I did reach out to them on Facebook and their response via messenger was that they could relay my question/concern but that IT did not communicate with users directly.

For the record, I have told LastPass that I believe the issue is on their end and that, as a software developer, I would never tell one of my paying customers to do the legwork and research to find out why the tool I wrote wasn't working correctly. However, I am trying to humor them so that once I have this escalated to management I have a track record of how they shouldn't be conducting support.

13 hours ago, Eddie Wilson said:

 

We love to hang at Solarium, and lounge, unwind as you say.....just not sure we can do it for a week.

So I have friends that have never been on a cruise and feel all the sea days of a TA would be boring. I am the type of person who always needs to be doing something on vacation. However, the sea days actually force me to slow down which is much appreciated. I can sleep in. I can do something or nothing. I still find things to do with all the sea days while also taking it easy. But as others have said, to each their own. You won't know how you feel about all the sea days until you actually try it.

On 7/29/2023 at 6:05 AM, silentbob007 said:

The standalone Starbucks is never included in any type of promo or package.

It is included with Star Class.

10 minutes ago, ajtaylor29 said:

are you sure about that? I thought that we had upgraded from a balcony to a suite before and got double points, maybe not....? 

You do NOT get double points if you are upgraded to a suite and your original cabin was not a Jr Suite or higher category.

One thing I have noticed is that people are always more likely to bid (more) on suites than on lower categories so you will more than likely need to bid more than the minimum to better your chances at getting a suite. I have used Royal Up twice and won bids both times. First was minimum bid ($150pp) to move from an Oceanview to an Balcony on Vision and the second was maximum bid ($3500pp) to move from a Jr Suite to Grand Loft Suite on Odyssey.

Thing to keep in mind is the algorithms used will calculate how much did you pay for your cabin (category), how much your bid is in relation to what you paid & how many bids and how much those bids + what they paid of anyone who may get upgraded to your current cabin (and this is recursive of who may move into their cabin and so on). The desired outcome is to maximize the amount of money Royal earns for the sailing. Since you don't know who you are bidding against and how much they have paid and are bidding or who is bidding to move into your cabin and how much they bid and paid for their cabin, some of it is simply luck as to whether or not you win the Royal Up bid. You could still bid the maximum and yet never win a Royal Up bid.