DiWilliams

I also reached Prime for the first time last casino year so this month's annual tier cruise is my first. I am also UK based - not US - so you may find this useful. 

There are Australian Club Royal contact details;

Australia

Toll Free Number: 1 800 965 878

Email: clubroyale@rccl.com

M-F 8:00am – 8:00pm / Sat-Sun 9:00am – 6:00 pm

I called the UK equivalent number and the representative was very helpful. The booking was made under the local (UK) T&Cs and pricing - so pounds rather than US dollars for me. This may or may not be advantageous but for me it meant no port fees and taxes. I believe Australia has the gratuities included in the cruise price so I don't know if you will be given an option to pay them upfront (as I was), will be required to pay them or as they are part of the cruise fare it will be covered by the 'free' offer. If you are interested in an upgrade just ask and they will give you the price which will be the difference between the casino cost of an interior cabin and that of the upgraded cabin category. You can try doing a mock booking to get a rough idea. Some sailings you can upgrade for very little or no extra cost.

Good luck and enjoy!

If you booked via the UK (or an EU?) RCI website there is often a promotion sometime Nov/Dec/Jan that has the drinks package at 45-55£/Euros (can't remember exact prices from the last time). I don't think you can book it through the Cruise Planner but have to call. Obviously there is no guarantee this will happen again but I have seen it for the last couple of years including this past holiday season. From memory the promotion lasted at least a month. 

If you want to find out "your" C&A point total you can manually add up the points listed in the 'Past cruises' section of your C&A profile. As with any RCI IT it is not guaranteed to be error free and I have no idea how pre-2011 cruises are handled but this is how I check "my" points. My partner has always had a higher level and point count than I do as he sailed with his family way before we met. My C&A profile - once we got around to linking accounts - only shows my partner's level and points but I like to keep track of my personal status and point level.

Just be aware that for Quantum class ships such as Anthem an OV Bal GTY can include obstructed view ocean view balcony cabins. The 'obstructed view' may be major (blocked by a life boat) or minor (a bit of an overhang). As with any GTY booking have a look at the worst possible cabin available in the category - if you are OK with that then go for it. 

2 minutes ago, jaygatsby27 said:

Yep, I was booked on one of those.  Huge balcony, really looking forward to it but not any more!  It looks like I was swapped over  to adventure in the same room number and we will see if that sticks. 

Us too. We had 1106 booked for March 2024. We haven't been received our cabin allocation on Adventure yet - we'll see what we end up with.

14 hours ago, Starry Eyes said:

Same here.  I also wanted to try one of those balconies.  Wait and see how it shakes out.

Ditto for us. We will probably still keep the booking if the itinerary remains the same. We got a good deal and like the ports etc. But I am a little disappointed we won't get to try one of those balconies. I know - first world problems!

8 hours ago, joan&jen said:

Yay. Got my Royal Up from balcony on the bump out to grand suite. Thanks everyone for sharing your experiences. 

Congrats! Enjoy 🙂

35 minutes ago, GreenIdScorpio said:

We are wondering if we get The Key, does each person in the cabin receives a single-device Voom package or if it is only 1 device per cabin?  

Each person in the cabin with the Key (so everyone over 6yrs old) will receive a Voom package

On 6/20/2022 at 12:10 PM, joan&jen said:

Hi everyone. I am now 27 days away from my cruise on Voyager  of the Seas and anxiously looking to see if we have been upgraded.  The ship does not look very full and there are a large number of suites in all categories available. I bid on 4 categories. 

Good luck! We are also sailing on Voyager the first week in July (only 11 days now!) and had one of our Royal Up bids accepted 12 days ago. Went from JS to OS. Like with your sailing there were a large number of suites available before the Royal Up upgrades were allocated. Keeping my fingers crossed for you!

10 hours ago, RFerrington said:

Congratulations.  You will definitely be spoiled by the OS.  My favorite cabin class for non-Suite Class ships.  Very nice.  Enjoy it.

Thanks! I'm sure we will. Probably a bit too much 🙂

The sailing looks as though it has had low bookings and/or high cancelations as there was a lot of suite availability prior to the Royal Up allocations. There still is a decent amount of availability for JS and below. I don't think we will be quite so lucky with our relatively low bids in the future.

On Friday June 10 we had our offer accepted for an OS on the 3rd July Voyager sailing. We originally booked a JS GTY and bid a notch above the minimum amounts for the RS, OS and GS2BR.

I had checked all bids on the Friday morning and all were still 'pending' - no expired bids etc. Email confirmation of the upgrade came mid-afternoon.

Very excited - this will be our first time in an OS.

15 hours ago, gumshoe958 said:

YMMV but I always find it easier to buy a proctored lateral flow test in the UK, take it with me and book a video call from my hotel the morning before the cruise.

 

Qured, DocHQ and others offer proctored tests for under £20 which are happily accepted by Royal just as they are for entering the USA.

This is what we have done a number of times. Much less stressful than trying to find and get to a testing centre in a foreign country. Just be aware that the video test availability times are UK times so factor in the time difference. Even if you do decide on a local testing center you could bring a couple of test kits with you as back up. They are not that expensive and are quick and easy to order in the UK. We have used Testing For All but there are a number of providers.

11 hours ago, MightyMike said:

I'm looking for something that will hold my phone, Sea Pass card and driver's license together. Activity schedules, menus, deck plans, dining options and purchase history are all on the app now. I pretty much take my phone with me at all times outside the room since the app is almost a requirement at this point. The app alone can even unlock your stateroom door on Symphony of the Seas.

I use a phone case with a slide compartment for credit cards. I can fit a sea pass card, credit card and a couple of dollars in the back of the phone case. There are lots of designs available on Amazon etc with card holders integrated into the phone case. There are also various stick on pocket type designs that work as well. Just search for your phone model + case card holder and you will find lots of options.

We have used Testing For All on a number of occasions - their supervised lateral flow tests were accepted for entry into the US and for RC pre-boarding testing requirements. They are a non-profit and have been very reliable and easy to use. Delivery of the kit is usually next day and you book your test video time slot. 

13 minutes ago, gumshoe958 said:

That would be my recommendation too. Finding tests once you’re in the US may be difficult as many of the places recommended by Americans here (CVS, Walgreen etc) only make them available to Americans with proof of US health insurance. There are walk-in test centres at most airports but they’re not cheap.

 

Many UK providers are available but I use Qured who charge £29 for a proctored test (less if you can find a discount code).

Adding my endorsement for this approach. Order the supervised test before you leave for the US and take it with you. The times you can take the test via the video link will, of course, be based on UK time.  The slight inconvenience of taking the test at an odd time - either early morning or very late at night depending on time zones - is far less stressful and less expensive than trying to find a test locally. We used Testing For All, a reliable non-profit, but there are a number of good providers in the UK you can order the test from.

59 minutes ago, GEORGIEGIRL said:

We just came off an 14 night (B2B) on the Allure in January. We did a 6 night and an 8 night. We had the UDP for both weeks and found it to be a little too much for that many night's. A couple of night's I actually went to the Windjammer Cafe just to try something different. You have several options to chose from. Chops (steakhouse), Giovanni's, Johnny Rockets (milk shakes are extra), 150 Central Park, Sabor (mexican), Samba Grill (sometimes open at night in the Solarium).

 

It really just depends on what your food tastes are like. If you get a great price for it I would say try it.

I would agree with this. We had the UDP for our 8 night Allure sailing last month and lack of variety was not an issue for us. Allure also has Izumi's in addition to those listed above.  I'm glad we tried the UDP (my waistline - not so much!) but for future sailings we agreed a 2 or 3 night dining package would be sufficient. We enjoy the specialty restaurants but don't feel the need to go every for every meal. But if it's a good price - give it a try 🙂

2 minutes ago, Flamingo33 said:

Just got confirmation! RoyalUp was accepted! Woo Hoo! 

Yay! Enjoy 🙂

We had our RoyalUp bid accepted yesterday for the Allure 22nd Jan sailing. We had a JS booked and bid just over the minimum on a Crown Loft Suite and Aqua Theater 2BR. The bid for the A2 expired on Tuesday 11th with the CLS bid remaining 'pending' but unable to modify. The acceptance email came through Wednesday morning and the cabin number was updated in the cruise documents, Set Sail Pass and luggage tags.

Very, very excited! It will be our first cruise in a full suite. 🙂

I have seen one UK test provider (Testing For All) that has a supervised lateral flow test available. The test is delivered to your UK home and is supposed to be good for entry to the US. You are given instructions on how to join a videocall and take the test. There are specific hours you can do this (Mon-Thur 9-6 and Fri-Sun 9-5 UK time) but location-wise it can be done anywhere you have an internet connection. They are not that expensive in the grand scheme of things so could be a useful back-up to have. 

You could try ordering a postal test to arrive at your home in the UK prior to departure and take the test in the US. You would need to ensure it was from a provider that did not require returning the sample via post - obviously! - but confirmed the result from uploading pictures of results and ID to their portal.

Full disclosure - I haven't done this as my travel timings were such that it was unnecessary but this was my back up plan. I have taken such a test (UK day 2 testing - but similar available for international travel) and received confirmation of negative result via email a day later. Not sure I would have this as my only option but possibly a back up, just in case all else fails.

We reused our WOW bands from a previous cruise when we sailed on Anthem this summer. They weren't advertising new ones but if you had them already they could be reactivated by Guest Services. I imagine it could vary by ship though.

15 hours ago, Ms Jo UK said:

We will need to  to book time off work to get tested.  Anyone know if Eurofins is in the Cambridge area.

I believe there is one at Stansed airport. We went to one in Stamford.

1 hour ago, little britain said:

Solarium bistro is open for Breakfast and Lunch though isn’t it? 

We just returned from a 5 night Anthem sailing and the Solarium Bistro was closed for all food service - breakfast, lunch and dinner. Our sailing had very low passenger numbers (more crew than passengers!) so I could see why it wasn't opened. 

1 hour ago, smedley_odwin said:

Got confirmation yesterday that our bid was accepted for Anthem of the Seas on 1st Aug.

 

Upgraded from a spacious OV to a JS, placed the minimum bid, I'm assuming we were lucky because the ship is only running 50% capacity.

We were also lucky. We have just returned from a 5 night Anthem sailing where we upgraded via Royal Up from a Balcony GTY to a JS with a ridiculously low bid. Enjoy!

We just returned from our Anthem UK cruise - all entertainment reservations could only be made once onboard, either in person or via the RC App (once connected to the ship's wifi).