karena1

12 hours ago, Jerseygirl1416 said:

They called it “Formal night” in the cruise compass on Liberty.

strange, they must of changed it for New York.  Been on her 4 times since Christmas and it was called "Dress your Best".

it is called dress your best.  I wear a sundress with dressy flip flops, husband wears slacks and a silk tommy bahama button down shirt.

1 hour ago, Snolan57 said:

we are on Adventure of the Seas out of FLL. the only dining option when I booked (yesterday) was MTD.  So I assume we make reservations for the 645pm MTD, eat quickly to see the 8pm shows?  Or do we have to have a reservation for Adventure of the Seas shows?

no show reservations required on Adventure, just eat around show times

2 hours ago, Snolan57 said:

A few questions:

1) we are cruising with RC in July and got the "my time dining".  Do we need to make a reservation each day or just show up and get seated (just 2 of us cruising) You can make reservations or show up when you want.  We never make reservations

2) how does MTD work with going to see the shows in the theatre? Look at the show times and plan your dinner around them, that is what we do.

3) when booking flight home, what's the earliest to book - flying out of FLL Depends what ship you are on, but the airport is only 10 minutes away. We are normally off the ship a little after 7, but I still would not book a flight to early

4) do the shows require reservations as well now? assigned seating? Again depends on the ship, but as a rule, not reservations needed and no assigned seating.  If on an Oasis Class, you will need to reserve some shows.

5) what nights are the formal nights on the eastern caribbean 7 day cruise? Again, depends on the ship and the itinerary.

Thanks for any guidance. Will be interesting to see how different cruising is pre/post COVID.

We have cruised multiple times since Covid and love everything about it.  See my answers above, would help to know what ship you are on, then my answers could have been more specific.  Really does not matter, you will have an amazing time.

On 5/5/2023 at 5:13 PM, texas charm said:

What is a President’s cruise ?  We don’t normally sail on RC but just learned that our cruise in May on Allure of the Seas is a President’s cruise.

We had a cruise booked a few years ago that turned into a President's Cruise.  We were D+ at the time.  We had a blast!  Got invited to a lot of VIP parties, Billy Ocean played at Labadee, tons of really good entertainment.  We got the cruise for the price we paid, the day it was announced it was a President's cruise, prices doubled.  Would not go on another one unless it was one I already had booked that changed into a President's cruise.  But we really did enjoy it with all the extra stuff that was going on.

1 hour ago, fredmdcruisers said:

This discussion was about a bottle for booking onboard. You can't include your C&A gift choices in that. You got 1 bottle for booking onboard. Period.

yes, I misunderstood, sorry. 

13 minutes ago, fredmdcruisers said:

Can not be a policy. You just got lucky. 

I am Pinnacle so get 3 choices for Crown and Anchor gifts.  I choose 3 bottles of champagne and I get them.  Luck has nothing to do with it.  Once over 525 points, you get 3 gifts for a 7 night cruise.

1 hour ago, cruisegirl1 said:

 3 bottles from Next cruise?  Or, the C&A gifts you pre selected? 

M

3 from my C&A choices, but if I book a cruise, I always get one from them also.

On 5/4/2023 at 7:56 PM, fredmdcruisers said:

Not anymore. 

we cruised first part of April and got my bottle of champagne as usual.  In fact, because it was a 7 night, I got 3 bottles.

On 4/20/2023 at 7:23 AM, Javert1969 said:

Hi - our cruise agent told us that we can prepay the gratuities if we want before the cruise on the Royal app.

 

However I can't find that option?

 

Also is there any reason to do this - e.g. do you get a discount for paying before the cruise?  Otherwise I don't see much point in prepay.

You can have your TA add them when you book or call Royal to add them.  We always do it, then don't have that bill at the end of the cruise.  Otherwise you get charged the tip amount daily on your shipboard account.  Totally worth it to us.

49 minutes ago, twangster said:

 

Pictures shall be coming!  (if Starlink internet lets me).

 

Last time I had some cell coverage in places along the canal, especially near the ends where there is population.  I think cell coverage was light in the middle, but at any rate I will be taking pictures!

Thanks!!

We are doing Panama Canal out of LA to Tampa Oct 2024 and cannot wait.  Pictures would be great if you can send them.

I always wait and buy on the ship - BUT that is because we are Pinnacle.  The "base" price is the same online or on the ship (for example - if you look in the planner and it says $110 but there is 30% off, it is still $110 base on the ship, but I get 40% off) - I know this is true as I have done this many times, - however, the discount can be more online that what you will get on the ship

But for us, the most it ever goes on sale for online is 30% or 35%.  If we wait until we board, we get 40%, so for us, always cheaper to wait and get it on the ship.  But not the case for most people.

when we were D+, I always booked online ahead of time when it went to 30% off.

I would take Playmakers over Portside.  Love the tenders and french fries at Playmakers.  Portside our food was okay but pretty much all cold or luke warm

14 minutes ago, tOSUSteve said:

I have not been on CC for a long while, is there still a FL resident rate link or pdf? 

every once in a while you get a FL rate, but been a while.  None on the 18 cruises I currently have booked, but I keep watching for price breaks.

2 hours ago, OCSC Mike said:

 

Looks good to me! I'll try everything anyway but did you have any of the pre-made burritos or quesadillas? Will be trying El Loco Fresh for the first time on Wonder in June.

Have had both they are good.  I open the burritos and scrape all the rice out and add the black beans to them instead.  I love the black beans.

3 hours ago, RFerrington said:

I read a lot of praises for ELF but frankly, I find it rather filthy.  Just like any buffet-style enterprise, things tend to get slung hither and yon.  I tried going there a few times but it just turns me completely off.  I am a Mexican food lover and it was completely unappetizing, to me.

We love El Loco Fresh.  Such a great place to grab a quick snack and not have to put a coverup on to go to WJ.

17 minutes ago, The sea calls my name said:

We are on the Oct Panama Canal cruise also. Back in the day, ( 1980's early 1990's) the cruise staff always did shows. With the smaller ships 18-35,000GT you got to know your fellow passengers and the crew very well. We actually sailed on The original RCCL The Song of Norway (which was 18,000 GT). in 1991. Ken Rush was our Cruise Director and he was fabulous.  

We have been on cruises with Ken.  He was great.

We will be on Radiance for our Panama Canal cruise next October and cannot wait.  Been on her before, but been a long time.  Will for sure make sure to go to the show with the crew, we love that stuff.

2 minutes ago, a.madruga said:

so then one can not find out till onboard?

No, go to your cruise planner.  You need to set up an account with Royal Caribbean on you tablet/computer/phone and then add your cruise. Once you do that, you can see packages, excursions, etc.

3 hours ago, winstoda said:

Not sure what else I can say here. Glad you were able to get a paper copy on Voyager. On Independence we asked both the cabin steward and guest services (on multiple days) and were told printed versions were unavailable and we should scan the QR code. 

guess it depends on the ship.  So far we have been able to get them on every ship.  On Indy next March, so guess we will find out.

2 hours ago, Wanna Be Retired said:

I have only been on Allure and Adventure so I can only speak to those two ships, but on our first day when we met the cabin steward we requested the hard copy of the cruise compass and we received it every day.  My next cruise is on Voyager so I have no clue if we will get it or not but we will request it.

We just got off Voyager and our cabin person left a hard copy of the compass every evening for us.

19 hours ago, winstoda said:

This isn’t a review, just some observations from someone who is on their first Royal cruise since Covid. We’ve noticed some changes… Most for negative but not dealbreakers. This was a 4 day cruise on Independence for the record. 
 

• No more printed Compass. This one affected us more than we expected. We missed the printed copy in the cabin each evening. They don’t make it easy to access the electronic version. It’s accessible via a website reached via a QR code. Can’t access directly from the app which seems really silly. 
   
• Once a day housekeeping. No evening service. Not a dealbreaker but again, no more printed compass or port information. No more fresh towels. And no turndown. Cabin service not available after 1 pm. 
   
• Fewer options in the dining room. They’ve done away with the favorites section of the menu. No more French Onion soup nightly or other old standbys. This one is a major negative in my book. 
   
• Hours around the ship have been reduced. This was a bummer. 

 

We had a nice time. And not saying any of these will keep us from booking RCCL again. But we’ll reevaluate before booking our next trip. Just some observations from a family that has sailed Royal Caribbean many times. 

 

I get compasses all the time.  Just ask our cabin person to leave them or I go to the Guest Service Desk and ask.  I have done the Qcode and that was fine also.

Our cabin person asked us if we wanted morning or evening service.  We opted for evening and even got towel animals

Food is subjective of course, but my husband really likes the new menus.  

We have not noticed any reduced hours on the ship, but then we are always in bed by 11 for the most part.

Glad you did not let it ruin your trip.  We have cruised multiple times on Royal - at least 15 since August 2021 - and have wonderful times.  Changes happen all over the place and we just go with the flow.

A number of year ago, we did the bus transfer $29 pp to go to Red Stripe beach.  Excursion said 3 hours, but the bus actually ran every 1/2 hour so you could go back to the port any time, so could stay way longer than 3 hours

Is the transfer to Blue Water Beach the same?  I thought I read somewhere that it was the same thing, that you could come back to port whenever you wanted as long as you made the last bus back

Thanks

I love them all, but if I have to pick, I pick Allure.  That ships just "spoke to my heart" the first time I was on it, and even after being on all the Oasis Class and almost all the Royal ships, it is still my favorite.